Chapter Text
Both mother and father are considerably confused when their first child is born with bright orange hair.
It’s not impossible for an Uchiha to have orange hair, but its not as common as the varying shades of black and brown their clan is known for. An outside marriage with strong genes might bring about some blondes and redheads. Uzumaki red can suddenly sneak in through different lines, but orange isn’t a color they often see. Both parents can’t even think of anyone they know personally with orange hair. They can think of white, pink, yellow, and purple, but not orange.
Pouring over their separate family trees and ancestral listings are more to appease their frazzled parents than anything. No one dares make accusations of infidelity. One simple denial from the mother is enough for the father and he expects even his own doubting mother to accept the answer as final. The mother can’t even wonder if the baby was switched since he was placed, orange fuss still wet on his head, right into her arms before the umbilical cord was even cut.
People can whisper and wonder, but both parents know the truth.
The child is their blood, and no one else’s. He is their baby, their firstborn child.
They have an Uchiha child with orange hair, and the only explanation seems to be an odd twist of fate. Maybe it’s the will of the gods that humans can never understand. It’s certainly odd, but odder things have happened. The heir to the Uchiha clan, son of the clan head, just has orange hair. It’s not a pig snout, or a new dojutsu, or a tailed beast sealed within him; other babies face harsher realities. Their child by all appearance is a normal baby boy. Hair aside, the baby is healthy. His eyes darken to a warm brown that makes his aunt smile. As he grows, he gains his mother’s chin. The shape of his eyes is more like his father’s.
Uchiha Mikoto rests her forehead against her baby’s and tells her husband what she wants to name the boy.
When Uchiha Fugaku asks why she decided on that name, she shrugs. It just came to her and she thinks it fits him. She has a feeling he’ll grow into it.
Uchiha Ichigo.