Born on the day of a great storm, Ichika and her twin brother Aito, whom was born two hours before; were said by the elders of the Uchiha clan to be destined for greatness. For much of her formative years much to her parents' dismay, Ichika followed around her twin brother as though she were his shadow, the young twins of the Uchiha spent their time chasing after their brother Rukito. Whom was six years their elder, and Ichika idolised. When Rukito entered the acadamy to become a shinobi, Aito though only four years old became determined to become the greatest shinobi that the leaf... No, the world had ever seen. Having never realised that her twin looked up to their older brother as much as she did, Ichika's mind became set on becoming a Shinobi.
On the day of their sixth birthday, Ichika and Aito were in the forests surrounding the Hidden Leaf near the Valley of the End, chasing after their brother as he attempted to train on his own, which had been their usual day to day activity for the past year. The twins played blissfully, and eventually lost track of their brother. Something that would happen often, as he would deliberately lose their tail in order to avoid putting them in danger with his lightning style training, where he would stand in between the statues of Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha and fire bolts of lightning at the cliffsides.
But this day was different, today, the usually high-witted twins managed to get lost in the depths of forest, and found themselves tumbling into the chasm of the final valley. Completely unaware of this at first, Rukito continued to fire off his jutsu. WAs the two children fell, many of the stray attacks which had been fired with little precision came very close to hitting both Ichika and Aito on numerous different occasions, one actually did hit the male twin, though for reasons then unknown, he was completely unharmed by the attack. Eventually, their elder brother activated his Sharingan in preparation for testing a jutsu he had been working in secret.
In this moment, Rukito was filled with dread, as he saw the chakra signatures of his younger siblings tumbling down the cliffside. His brother's ablaze with lightning chakra. Without a moment's pause, the eldest of the siblings sprung into action, dashing towards Ichika and Aito at his absolute maximum speed. It was as he drew closer, that Rukito came to the realisation that none of his attacks had hit Aito. Leaping upwards with a nin-jump, Rukito caught his siblings in mid air, holding them on his shoulders as they fell safely to the ground.
Due to his panic, the eldest of the three had failed to notice that his earlier training had caused many relatively large boulders to fall from atop the cliffside. At the last moment he looked up, hearing the whistle of one of the smaller ones headed directly for their position, Ichika raised her hands instinctively, this sight terrified Rukito, as he realised he would not have time to move any of them to safety. But unbeknownst to him, there was no need to fear. As he closed his eyes and accepted this fate of being crushed alongside his siblings... It never came. Instead came the laughter of his sister's soft and gentle voice. He looked up to discover that without realising it, he had moved out of the way at the last second.
Years passed, and on the day of the twins' induction into the academy, Rukito graduated ahead of the rest of his class. Becoming a chunin at age 16. Setting records as he went, but never forgetting that day in the valley. This inspired Ichika and Aito beyond reason, and they too enjoyed great success for four more years, before becoming Genin themselves. Ichika spent this entire time honing her skills in the earth style, which she had discovered she was born with an affinity for, unusual among the Uchiha; becoming formidable in its use. The twins had been assigned to Team twelve together, alongside another child named Saikio Hyuuga. Placed under the watchful eye of Kasumi Uzumaki, an earth style user. They were initially intended to become a sensory team, but due to the latent abilities of all three. They quickly rose to prominence among their class.
But on the day that their Chunin exams were supposed to begin, tragedy struck. The Third Great Ninja war erupted, plunging the shinobi world into chaos. Initially the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had elected only to send experienced Genin, Chunin, and Jounin to the front lines, but as the fighting grew thicker and casualties stacked up. Eventually, even the youngest Genin were forced into battle as well, with team twelve being no exception. On the day that they left for the front, Rukito appeared before Ichika, gifting her a kunai with peculiar markings on it's oak grip. Kasumi led her team into battle on numerous occasions, utilising her signature jutsu of her own creation, the Swamp of The Underworld earth release technique to slow their enemies to such an extent, that the prodigious team of child soldiers were able to make quick work of even chunin level opponents due to the sheer disadvantage the swamp would put them in.
Things seemed to be going well for the team, all things considered. When one fateful day during a misson into the land of earth, a company of soldiers from the Hidden Stone engaged team twelve in open combat. With no clear chance for survival, Kasumi released an enormous swamp, with the intention of delaying the Stone ninja for long enough to allow her pupils to escape. Aito however, misread the situation, firing up his lighting style chakra cloak and began to engage their enemy. Instead of ordering him to retreat, Kasumi joined the fray and though at first the two appeared to be winning, tragedy struck when Aito had his chakra drained by an enemy jutsu.
Ichika looked on in horror as the blood spray from her twin brother's throat being slit by ninja from the Stone filled the air. With no medical ninja in their team, Ichika knew that her brother was already dead. As tears streamed down her face and screams erupted from her lungs, she instantly felt different, somehow she saw differently. As her irises turned red and she saw the flow of chakra in her enemies bodies; Ichika Uchiha realised that she had awakened her Sharingan.
Kasumi instantly screamed at Ichika and Saikio to flee, and the Hyuuga instantly obeyed, but the Uchiha girl couldn't take her eyes off of her brother's corpse beside their teacher. Whom flew into a fit of rage, and seemed to dumped her entire chakra reserves into the greatest swamp that either of the remaining members of team twelve had ever seen her perform. It was in this moment that Ichika first discovered the copy wheel effect of the Sharingan. Somehow, almost like the instinctive learnings of wild beasts; Ichika just knew how to perform the Swamp of the Underworld Jutsu.
Without thinking, Ichika attempted to leap into the fray rather than retreat as she had been ordered. Saikio prevented this at first, but after seeing the famed Uchiha kekkei genkai burning in her right eye, already brandishing two tomoe, he knew that there would be no stopping her. So instead, with tears in his eyes he nodded to his friend, and followed her into battle. Hours passed, and eventually, the swamps created by Kasumi and Ichika cleared, leaving behind a trail of corpses as the remainder of their enemies fled the field of battle. Team twelve had somehow managed to defeat an entire company of Stone ninja. Though Kasumi soon after died of the wounds she received during the battle.
For the remainder of the war, instead of returning home, the two survivors of team twelve set about waging a guerrilla war against the Stone, and the two had grouped up with Rukito, when he seemingly appeared from thin air one day. Using the powers of their respective dojutsu to support one another, placing traps and ambushing squads of ninja whom if not for their kekkei genkai would have definitely beeen their superiors. It was during this time, that Ichika honed her skills with the Swamp of the Underworld, and developed The Black Swamp Genjutsu. Earning her the famous moniker that she is known by to this day.
After peace was made and the war was declared to have come to an end, Ichika, her brother by blood and her brother in arms returned home to the Leaf. It was shortly after this, that the now young woman of the Uchiha began to question how her eldest brother had managed to find them. Let alone appear with neither a user of the Sharingan nor a user of the Byakugan noticing his approach.
This was when Rukito explained how he had earned the title "The Black Lightning". A completely new jutsu, never seen before by the shinobi world and one he had been developing since he was a child. The Flying Thunder God. Ichika recalled scoffing at the name, before being informed of what it allowed it's user to perform, under the correct conditions. Instantaneous teleportation, from anywhere in the world to one of the user's uniquely crafted seals. The eldest brother had put this Jutsu to devastating effect during the war, leading many villages to outright fear his arrival on the battlefield.
The realisation hit Ichika as her brother explained the jutsu to her, of how he was able to approach her and Saikio that day without being seen by either of them. He didn't... With no warning, Ichika smacked her brother in the face, tears streaming down her face and screaming at him, asking why? Why didn't he show up sooner, Aito could still be alive were it not for his delay. It was Rukito's fault, almost as much as it was Kasumi Uzumaki's and the Hidden Stone's.
Despite this outburst, Rukito went on to teach the jutsu to his younger sister, whom he loved so dearly, little did she know, he actually loved Aito even more than her, and he too blamed himself for his death. Though she was never able to perform the Flying Thunder God with the same skill, or even at the same distances in combat scenarios it still became a jutsu that was a core part of her arsenal. As a last resort of sorts.
During this period of relative peace, for a brief time Ichika, having been promoted to Chunin became an instructor at the ninja acadamy. Selected personally by the third Hokage due to her exploits during the war. It was here that she developed her passion for the spectating of Taijutsu and Kenjutsu duels, and would often spur her students on to solve their problems in this manner before leaving the academy after only a short time. The ghost of her twin haunted the walls of the academy, and she could not bear to be within it's walls every day.
Things went well for Ichika for a while after this, she picked up the art of playing the panflute, and would spend most of her days in the Uchiha sector entertaining the clan's children. To see them dance and smiles cross their faces was the simplest bliss to her, after having only known fighting and suffering for most of her life. The woman found peace in performance. Becoming increasingly talented in the woodwind arts every day, with some speculating that she was practicing in order to learn sound-based Genjutsu.
One day, disaster struck the leaf. The Nine Tailed Fox began to rampage through the village. Many in the Uchiha sector refused to come to the aid of the rest of the leaf at large, which included her brother Rukito. Ichika however, had too much love in her heart for the village as a whole, and far too much respect for the Hyuuga to allow the rest of the Hidden Leaf to perish whilst the Uchiha survived. So once again, she leapt into action, at first doing her best to rescue and protect civilians from the flying debris of crushed homes and defenses. Eventually, she decided that despite knowing that she could not defeat it, and that she certainly lacked the knowledge in Fuinjutsu to seal it, she was going to attempt to defeat the Tailed Beast.
But as she arrived, she bore witness to the true terror of the Kyuubi. It was decimating the village defenders in droves. With but a single man holding his own, landing devastating blows whilst avoiding almost all damage from the fox's onslaught. Ichika leapt into action to assist him, literally. Throwing her newly fashioned kunai at the head of the enormous beast before instantlt teleporting in between its eyes, grabbing her kunai and stabbing into it's nose with both her wakazashi and kunai simultaneously. Holding on for dear life as the bijuu paid her no notice, seemingly entirely unaffected by the blades embedded within it's face; Ichika eventually fell, after being clawed off by the Nine Tails but was saved by the man who had been dealing the brunt of the damage to the it. Ichika looked him in the eyes as he lowered her wounded body to the ground, telling her she had done enough in this fight. Byuakugan! After becoming so close with Saikio during the war, she knew there were some powerful Hyuuga. But she had never imagined there to be a man of this calibre among them.
Rising to her feet, despite having been told she should stay down. Ichika readied her hands, Horse, Dog, Bird, Ox...Snake. Summoming forth the largest Earth and Stone Dragon she had ever conjured, but before she knew it, she awoke in a hospital bed. It turned out, that she had completely drained herself of chakra, almost dying in the process. In fact, her dragon jutsu was completely unable to do anything in the fight before instantly slumping back to ground, as Ichika herself was struck by one of the Nine-Tails' claws. To her surprise, it was not members of the Uchiha to which she awoke. But that of the Hyuuga. Saikio, and the man from the Nine-Tails' attack were waiting beside her bed when she awoke.
Ichika came to be introduced to the man by Saikio, after being informed that she had been unconscious for three days. His name was Seiji, and after Hiruzen Sarutobi had stepped down as Hokage he had been toted by many to become the fourth Hokage. One of the only other notable candidates was her own brother, Rukito. Concerned about the fact that her elder brother, and not her father was not being nominated; Ichika enquired with her long time friend and comrade Saikio as to the reason for this, to which a lull of sad silence filled the room before the young Hyuuga finally spoke up.
Your father and mother were both killed during the Nine-Tails' attack. Ichika...I'm so sorry. I tried to help them. I did my best. But it wasn't enough... Instead of crying, Ichika smiled. At least they had a good man like Saikio by their side as they passed. She took great comfort in that fact. Placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, kissing him on the cheek. Ichika thanked him, and informed Seiji that he would have her vote for the position of Hokage. She did not believe for a moment that her brother was ready, but this man. This was a man she could follow, until the day she died.
Not long after her recovery, Seiji Hyuuga was declared the fourth Hokage. Once he had taken the mantle of village leader, he personally promoted Ichika to Jounin. Which in turn, lead to her induction into the ANBU Black Ops.
