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Chapter Text

This takes place some time after chapter two but before chapter three.

I do not own Naruto.

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Satoru Mina was a relatively well-known figure around Konoha, especially amongst civilians. Having arrived with nothing but a measly backpack 30 years ago, the woman had built a name for herself, owning not one, but two stalls at the marketplace - something that was no easy feat. The Village Hidden in the Leaf was a good enough place to live and to sell her dry herbs, not to mention she quickly became respected by medics for her vast knowledge of phytotherapy. Aside from that, though, she thought of herself as a pretty average woman; she had a loving if a bit grumpy husband, a well-behaved son, and business that prospered without much prompting. She was quite satisfied with her life.

Of course, living in a ninja village had both its ups and downs. Mina, just like many other merchants, believed Konoha to be a safe place only if you stuck to the civilian parts, away from shinobi business. The ninja did their part and the merchants did theirs, and there was often no need for one to get involved with another.

Accidents were bound to happen occasionally, however.

It had been nothing, really. The middle-aged woman had been unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle of a group of rowdy academy students playing ninja, and aside from a sprained wrist and a few bruises, no harm had been done. She had gone to the hospital, they gave her first care, and that should have been it.

“Ah, Satoru-san.” The merchant turns around at the sound of her name being called, already knowing who it is and allowing a pleased smile to form on her lips as she gazes down gently at the child in front of her.

“Chiyuki-hime, what a pleasure to see you!” Mina sees the widening of brown eyes and the following narrowing, and she hurries to reassure the child. “Oh, please don’t make that face. This is nothing, I’ll be good as new in just a few days!”

The dark blonde child has a calculating expression that would have scared the woman had she not been used to it, but again, she has lived in a shinobi village for thirty years. Seeing such an expression in a toddler is far from unusual. However, she almost giggles at how cute the little princess looks. She refrains from it, certain it would not be welcome.

“Did you go to the hospital?” Satoru’s heart warms at the obvious concern the child is showing for her.

“I did, dear. The medic-nin was kind enough to stop the swelling, but the bruises need to heal by themselves.”

“Why didn’t the medic heal you properly?” The middle-aged woman is startled by the coldness in the normally content child’s eyes, something she had never seen before. Then, and only then, is Mina reminded of just whose daughter Chiyuki is.

“Because I’m not a ninja, hime. Medic-nins have to save their chakra to heal shinobi.”

A heartbeat passes, then a suffocating aura presses down on the woman, vanishing as quickly as it came. Confused and slightly scared, the merchant watches as Chiyuki’s face transforms into a scowl, one she had seen a few times on Biwako-sama. The child, for some reason, is more than pissed off.

“When I’m hokage, this will not be acceptable. Please wait just a little more, Satoru-san.”

Mina can do nothing but look on with baffled, wide eyes as the child stomps away, determination in every tiny step.

Chapter Text

state of grace

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It happened on an innocent looking day, when Tooru’s head had been full of clan training and clan meetings and the clan and the clan and-

“Tooru-niichan?” The nine year old was shaken out of scrambled thoughts by Chiyuki herself, who was looking up at him with bright, hopeful eyes. He knew he was already going to say yes to whatever she asked of him. The clan heir swallowed all his thoughts down and put on a cheerful grin for his younger siblings, feeling content when both their expressions lit up.

“Yes, Peanut?”

“Mother said we can go out to eat today. Where do you want to go?”

Tooru may not be as bright as his sister, but he wasn’t a fool. He could see the way Biwako favored her youngest child, and their father was too busy to really notice anything. Sometimes, he felt as if he should be angry at them and throw a tantrum, demanding all the siblings were treated equally regardless of their gender or potential. Usually, though, he knew better, and he knew Asuma knew too.

Their Chiyuki was a bright, bright child, and she would have been their mother’s favorite even if she weren’t a bit of a prodigy. He felt as if their mother couldn’t help but dote on the youngest, going so far as to compare the three children and telling the boys to follow their sister’s example, but any kind of protest he could have done died on his tongue as soon as he noticed the young girl flinch minutely every time that happened. She then would always look at them with wide, hopeful eyes, begging them to forgive her and to understand she wasn’t doing it on purpose.

And he knew it was taking its toll on her.

He could see it in the way she acted like a completely different person when it was just the three of them, how it was only then that she felt comfortable enough to truly act like the child she was, free of their mother’s watchful and demanding gaze. Tooru also knew that, as the woman’s main focus, his sister took the brunt of all the expectations and pressure of the clan.

So he would become clan head. He would become clan head and he would have a very interesting chat with his elders about limits and pressuring children during peace times. He would become a strong shinobi and protect his siblings from all the inside and outside dangers, no matter what he had to sit through.

For the two children walking side by side towards the center of their village, the silence that often existed between them was familiar and comfortable. For the youngest, especially, walking through the streets between her brothers had made her feel better instantly; Tooru’s grip on her hand as they walked through easily recognizable streets and greeted vaguely familiar faces made it that much more real.

In the hospital, she had felt like a stranger in her own skin, uncertain of her place and her goal. Now, however, with the solid and firm grip of her oldest brother’s hand in hers, Chiyuki felt whole again. She felt like she belonged here, with her beloved people, and that her goal was clear.

“What’s that look for, Peanut?” She turned to look at her brother, feeling his own gaze full of mischief and curiosity. She answered with a grin of her own and a skip in her step.

“Nothing.” Chiyuki answered innocently, adding when she felt Tooru’s suspicious gaze. “I was just thinking that I know what I want to be when I grow up.”

A sense of dread slowly filled his stomach and turned it into stone, but the boy made sure to not show any of it to his companion. Instead, he lifted one curious eyebrow. “Oh? And what would that be?”

“I’m going to be hokage, Tooru-niisan.”

In that moment, Tooru was sure she’d become the leader of their village. His Peanut was smart and strong enough to earn the title with ease if that’s what she truly wanted. Chiyuki would be one of their greatest kage so far, he knew. Yet, the boy also had an idea of the arduous path that his little sister would need to go through. He imagined little Peanut with the same tired eyes as their father, the weight of a nation on her shoulders, as well as the notion she’d always have to put their village first. Always.

“O-oh?” To his credit, Tooru barely stuttered in his step, mind already whirling. “And why’s that, Peanut?”

It was through her sharp gaze on him that he knew she’d noticed his hesitation, but thankfully didn’t mention it. Instead, she hummed lightly just as the Hokage Tower came into view, its height and color making it easily visible to all the villagers.

“For a number of reasons. Konoha is a good place to live, but it can be a great one. It just hasn’t reached its full potential yet.”

The nine year old felt like weeping.

His classmates once had whispered about geniuses; precocious children who thought like adults and gained strength faster than any of their peers. At the time, Tooru hadn’t given any mind to that, dismissing it as rumours the elders insisted on spreading. At three years old, however, Chiyuki - tiny, tiny Peanut, his precious little sister, the one he’d watched struggle through her first year of life and who looked at him with so much adoration it hurt - already thought like a kage, and that was terrifying .

“Niisan?” Her hesitant voice reached his ears, and he cursed the long pause in their conversation. “Do you… not approve?”

The clan heir took no time in stopping and kneeling down in front of the younger kid, putting his hands on her shoulders and willing his gaze to convey all the complicated feelings that were making a fool out of himself. His little Peanut fought so hard for their mother’s approval already; he would not make her fight for his, no matter how scared he was of the future. If Chiyuki wanted to be hokage, he’d just have to make sure he and Asuma were there with her every step of the way.

“It’s not about approval, Peanut.” He said gently, making sure she was paying attention to him and ignoring all the looks of the passersby. “It’s about fear, and how much I’m scared for you. I know you will be a great hokage, I just know it. I just… worry.” He finished lamely, still keeping his grip on her shoulders.

His sister, however, only smiled sweetly at him. She looked so much like their mother, yet so different. Their eyes, however the same they might look like, were increasingly different in their weight and kindness; whereas he mostly saw expectations and tiredness in Biwako’s eyes, in Chiyuki’s he saw love and a will to protect so strong it might just rival his.

“Don’t worry, Tooru-nii. I’m going to protect you.”

For the first time since he was four, Tooru felt like curling into a ball and crying.

Chapter Text

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if i lose myself

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Kakashi knows his idea of pack is a bit messed up, but in his defense, he doesn't have much to base himself on.

When it was just himself and his dad, the notion was easy. His father was the Alpha and he, as the son, was both the subordinate and the next Alpha. Their dynamic wasn't strict as of many packs out there - Sakumo still had the final say in everything, yes, but Kakashi did have the freedom to tease and play with the Alpha as many pups are wont to do. Since it was just the two of them, it had been easy to sniff the air and immediately be able to tell whether the other person was truly content or not.

Then Chiyuki came, and that simple dynamic turned into a hurricane.

And see, the thing is that she had been - and still is, to be honest - completely different from anything else. She had been a genius child just like him, although a different kind, but oddly enough she let herself act and be like the kid she was.

Chiyuki sometimes acted like a brat on purpose - as if she had fun doing it - and it baffled Kakashi to no end.

Yet, the same Chiyuki that acted like a brat also thought like an adult. She saw things and immediately caught up on it, as if she'd seen that before - as if she'd known. She'd blurted out dreams of being hokage, of turning their village into a better place, of politics and economics and social problems and many other things that had been beyond his understanding.

And when he'd told Sakumo, his dad's smell had done all sorts of complicated things he as a three year old pup had no idea what to make of. It had been fearful, hopeful, relieved, worried, all at once. The Alpha had, however, gotten himself together and then told Kakashi to take it in stride and do what felt right to him.

"Whether you choose to add her to your pack or not is entirely up to you."

It's difficult to say whether or not his dad knew just what Kakashi was getting into, but perhaps he had a pretty good idea. Sakumo always spoke fondly of the old soul inside Chiyuki's body, and if the Alpha was okay with letting an entirely new dynamic shift their pack into something new, then Kakashi was too.

And then Sakumo died, and Kakashi was lost once again.

Chiyuki's family was a complicated thing he didn't want to touch without some heavy protection gear, but the girl had been completely distraught when his father died. The whys are still foggy to him, but even Kakashi could see the two had had some sort of connection, a will that connected them and it rivaled blood.

(He hadn't know it for a long time, but that connection was Kakashi himself.)

Chiyuki's brothers were okay, but he had no idea how to deal with her parents, so he avoided interacting with them. Her mother was a particularly delicate subject, and the Sarutobi siblings had a silent understanding he had no desire to be a part of.

Regardless, if you hang around the Hokage's youngest child enough, her brothers will soon follow. They orbitate around her like gravity itself is pulling them to her, like it's the most natural thing. And that was okay. They weren't pack, but they weren't a threat either. They were acquaintances, allies - people whom he could depend on if push came to shove.

Sakumo died, and Chiyuki became his Alpha, even if neither she nor Kakashi were aware of it. He became finely tuned to all the complicated things her chakra and her smell did, and although he was supposed to be the subordinate one, years turned that mess of feelings into a fierce will to protect, to defend what was his.

(He had already lost his father. He refused to lose her too.)

"How long have you and Gai known each other?"

She asks him in the middle of winter, when the leaves have long since left their branches and the trees are shells of what they were in spring. She has met Gai the other day, and he can tell she's just genuinely curious.

On that day he had shrugged and told her they had kind of always known each other because of their fathers, and that had been the end of it. She hadn't pried and he hadn't told her anything else, but he felt it in the air - when she wanted to say something else but refrained, and he had mentally rolled his eyes at her ability to overthink everything.

The war had come, teams had been chosen, and a new fear had been born.

Kakashi needed to leave Chiyuki's life in other people's hands, and that-

-that had not been alright with him.

He knew Gai, and he knew the boy would do everything in his power to keep the girl safe. He knows the Akimichi clan and how powerful Choza is. He thinks he can trust him.

Genma has the hairs on the back of his neck stand up from the get go. Kakashi doesn't know him and has never heard of anyone who does. Genma is apparently someone with a lot of acquaintances but few friends and worse yet, Genma is someone who smells like a threat to Chiyuki - he resents her and doesn't care for her, and it's all a gamble Kakashi doesn't wanna bet any money on. He has to rely on these people to have her back, and it makes him all sorts of defensive.

They put him on a team with people he knows, but who are not his Alpha.

(Soon she's not gonna be just his. Soon she's gonna be Konoha's Alpha. Where will that lead him to?)

There's Rin and Obito and a small sense of relief because at least he knows them. At least they're not incompetent, no matter how much he bullies Obito.

They put him under a jounin who's a result of his time; a genius who grew up far too fast, a genius who is too young to be on the frontlines just yet but who is too valuable to stay hidden behind village walls.

They put him under a guy who is supposed to be the next hokage but doesn't have a third of what Chiyuki does, and he often bares his fangs behind his mask.

"You'll have to let them in eventually, Kashi. They're your team, they're supposed to have your back." She'd say to him, young and petulant and protective of what is his and no one else's.

Kakashi is Chiyuki's just like Chiyuki is Kakashi's, and that's fine with him.

She'd then shake her head, looking older than she has any right to.

"You're my best friend, Kashi. The brother that's not from blood. You know that. But we live in a dangerous world and I need to know other people can keep you safe when I can't."

He can protect himself. He won't make the same mistakes his father did.

"That's what your team is for. You trust them and you rely on them to have your back."

He has his back and Chiyuki's. That's enough.

"Promise me you'll try. Please?"

Kakashi promised because he doesn't know how to say no to her. Because what his Alpha says is Law.

And because deep, deep down, he knows she's right. He knows he'll have to trust other people eventually - he knows that, he does.

He's just delaying that day as much as he can.

Chapter Text

Tenzou knew who she was, of course he did. 

Everyone did. 

Sarutobi Chiyuki was a name that’d be eventually mentioned in a conversation if you spent enough time in the streets. As the Third Hokage’s youngest (and, admittedly) brightest child, she had caught the village’s attention in the way a deadly virus would spread: quietly, patiently, slowly, surely - by the time you realize what’s happening, it’s everywhere and there’s no possible way to stop it. 

He knew of her, because he’d been assigned to watch her, back when Konoha’s roots still ran deep and far inside the village’s maze of politics. He knew what she was capable of; had shivered whenever it felt like she was staring right at him even though he knew he’d concealed his chakra perfectly. 

Tenzou knew of her, but he never really got to know her until Kakashi-senpai introduced them.

The man had been reluctant, he’d been able to infer that much. It was a well-known fact within the village that the Last of the Hatake had supported their future Hokage since they were children - and, well. He was a little jealous, he could admit. Kakashi-senpai wasn’t an extrovert by any means, but spend enough time with him and you’ll be able to tell the difference in behavior and speech pattern whenever Chiyuki-hime is concerned. 

He’d heard many things about her and honestly didn’t know what to expect. Some said she was as graceful and knowledgeable as a princess. Others said she was kind and sensible. 

(There was, however, an increasing amount of people who’d swear her to be the human form of Mokumokuren, the thousand-eyed monster of ancient tales. He truly wishes he could say he doesn’t believe in those.)

“Get up, Tenzou!” She hollers down at him from her mountain of iron spikes and smiles, pride and excitement in her voice.

He does nothing but pant and do as she says, although he feels delight bloom in his chest - in the couple of weeks they’ve been at it, he’s never lasted this long against her. He lets her pride and excitement wash over him as well. 

Tenzou readies his Wood Release and sees Chiyuki-hime do the same, just as the sun appears from behind the clouds, shining down on the woman and on her throne of thorns. 

The brunette thinks she might be neither a princess nor a monster. She reminds him of a goddess, or a demon. He imagines she’s light and darkness so closely intertwined together it looks like shades of grey, sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. 

As iron and wood clash again and again, Tenzou thinks he’d like Chiyuki-hime to be his Hokage. 

Chapter Text

say so

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The first time he sees her, he decides he doesn't like her.

Uchiha Obito is six and it's his first year attending the Academy, and Kakashi pisses him off. He constantly hovers around the Sandaime's youngest child and sometimes he acts like one of the Inuzuka shinobi.

Obito keeps that information to himself.

Sarutobi Chiyuki is a girl with far too intelligent eyes and he doesn't like it. She looks at the world as if she understands it all and it doesn't sit right with him. People around him whisper she and Kakashi are geniuses, and he hides tears of frustration because life isn't fair.

Why does he have to try so hard only to get to half of where they are?

The Sarutobi Princess makes quick friends with Rin and he likes her even less. They smile and giggle together and he wishes he could take Rin away before she starts acting like Kakashi.

She never does, to his immense relief.

His teachers whisper about Chiyuki and Kakashi graduating earlier, because it's a waste to let them attend the rest of the Academy curriculum. He goes home that day-

-empty, empty-

-and punches all of his frustration out on a training dummy, not caring about form or accuracy.

One day Obito sees Chiyuki's mother for the first time. He watches as the previously bright child wilts under her mother's gaze, eyes downwards and shoulders hunched in.

He watches and he wonders.

The war comes and they're shuffled into teams. He and Kakashi get along as well as a house on fire. Everyday he goes back home-

-empty, why-

-and bitterly wonders what's so great about Kakashi.

Until one day the boy growls at him, and he remembers how he sometimes acts just like the Inuzuka shinobi do, and maybe he's a little more confused than he was before, but now his Uncle knows he got in trouble and Obito's sure he's gonna get a scolding from the elders again-

But he doesn't.

Uncle Fugaku calmly sits him down and asks exactly what happened. After the whole story is out of his mouth quicker than a Fire Ball jutsu, the man in front of him merely advises him.

"The Hatake boy will get better. More importantly, watch and learn from this experience. Don't make Chiyuki-hime your enemy."

Why, Obito'd asked.

"To serve the village is to serve the hokage, and the Uchiha clan does both with pride. She might wear the hat one day, and when that time comes you'll have to ask yourself if you're willing to give yourself."

His own Uncle had ignored Obito's wishes to be hokage himself, and it hurt more than he'd expected it to.

Nevertheless, he does learn from the experience and he observes.

The Uchiha boy sees her display a thousand emotions in one single day. He watches her sharp eyes as they take in everything and catalog things in her bright mind. He's there when she falls, and she falls many times. Chiyuki grows and Obito grows alongside her, and he realizes she's not nearly as perfect as he once thought she was.

She talks about things he doesn't initially understand. She discusses economy, politics, sociology, and his head is reeling. Obito doesn't know half the terms she mentions and it brings shame to him at the same time cold realization shakes him.

What does it mean, to be hokage?

He wants people to look at him with respect, to really look at him with pride in their eyes. For once, he wants to not be labeled as the black sheep of his family.

With his sharingan, he watches and watches.

Obito watches his Uncle, Chiyuki, Kakashi, Rin, Minato, Kushina, his clan. He watches it all and one day when he's nine years old he realizes he might've gone about it wrong this whole time.

One day she looks at him and says she's sorry he awakened his sharingan.

(One day, his house isn't empty.)

She looks him in the eye and states, with all the conviction in the world, that he'll be one of the strongest ninjas ever.

(His house is his heart.)

And he believes her. Chiyuki speaks as if she knows the entire truth of the universe, and he believes her.

(His house is his heart, and he's got plenty of room.)

Chapter Text

I do not own Naruto.

king

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She's a very peculiar child; is Nara Shikaku's first real impression of her.

He's met her once before, back when she was two years old and barely left her brothers' side. The Hokage's youngest child hadn't struck at him in any particular way, but he had taken note of the way Biwako-sama seemed to favour her, and kept that information to himself.

They meet properly right after the Third War blows out, and no matter how much he's heard from Choza, he'd rather meet his students himself and see if all the rumours around her are true.

(Most aren't, he knows how the gossip grapevine works. Then again, he's been taught to expect the unexpected from people.)

Sarutobi Chiyuki looks at him as if he'd hung the stars in the sky and he feels uncomfortable about it for a total of five seconds.

Shikaku goes home that day after the barbecue and talks to Yoshino. His wife's first reaction is to sass him ("why would anyone admire you so much?") but then she gets serious and her gaze chills him to the bone.

"The child who's most likely to be the Godaime Hokage looks up to you. What are you going to do with that piece of information?"

It's a heavy load on his shoulders, and for a while he's content to lie back and watch from the sidelines. He understands where Yoshino is coming from, Chiyuki being a young and impressionable child and all, but the Nara clan head has always been very adamant about not accepting the hat and all the troubles that come with it.

The last thing Shikaku wants is an excuse to be thrown into the Hokage candidacy list again.

Until one day Choza decides to dump her on his lap for a week, and he can't pretend to look the other way anymore.

The Sarutobi Princess is certainly intelligent, he's not afraid to admit it. She has the habit of analysing every single thing that comes her way and how she's going to deal with it, and that's a very Nara thing to do, if he says so himself. However, the girl wears her heart on her sleeve, and her chakra with it. It's not surprising the whole Kakashi incident happened.

Sarutobi Chiyuki arrives early on her first day and still looks at him like he's a direct descendant of Amaterasu herself, so Shikaku decides it's time to buckle up for the long journey ahead of him.

He teaches her to not show her emotions on her face too much at the same time he instructs her on how to file reports efficiently. He takes her along on inspections while quizzing her on important names and dates. He shows her war strategies and guides her along on how to plan her own.

In a week, she's soaked up everything like a sponge, and he's less weary about letting her out into the world.

And see, the thing is that Shikaku was prepared for her to become a permanent figure in his life. In the short time they've worked with each other, she's mostly figured him out - which not many people have done even after years of knowing him. Chiyuki still looks at him as if he has the answers to all the questions she'll ever have, but she also knows when she's teasing her, when he's pushing her to think outside the box, and when he just wants to take his naps in peace.

Shikaku thinks that might be the scariest thing about her so far.

He's met his fair share of prodigies, and even though they're not all alike, they do share some similarities. The nine year old, however, speaks eloquently and calmly, even about things she's not sure of. She knows how to read the atmosphere and go from there. She knows when to push forward and when to let things go. She has what the others don't: social awareness - and most of all, knows exactly when and how to use it.

Chiyuki thinks, acts, and speaks like an adult, and sometimes her all-knowing gaze makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

When she comes back from her mission with determination in every single step, he knows his afternoon naps will be cut short. His suspicions are proved correct when she leaves his mind reeling with conspiracy theories and revolutionary ideas, but then she asks if he'll help her-

-and how could Shikaku not?

Not only because this kind of information could be fatal if it fell in the wrong hands, but most importantly because he can't leave Chiyuki alone.

Nara Shikaku is many things, but he's not a fool. He's known something hasn't been right, but he's never had any solid clues to follow. Now, though? Now he's got the whole trail figured out and it's just a matter of time before he gets to the end of it. That was in no small part thanks to the Sarutobi Princess, and doesn't it say something about their village that a nine year old could do that much investigating without anyone noticing?

More importantly, what other things would she amaze him with as she grows?

Later that night, long after she's gone, he goes to the deer and tells them of his decision. They support him, as always, and he's thankful for it. He whispers to them about the Konoha they might live in, in a not so distant future. He murmurs to them about brilliant chocolate eyes that shine like stars every time their owner talks about crazy plans and even crazier theories. He speaks about love that burns bright in a tiny body, a will that protects those who are precious so fiercely it blazes like fire.

She offers him her hand and he shakes it firmly in his own.

He'll look for every single piece of dark, rotten root in the foundation of their village and he'll show it to her. He'll give the shears to her and show her how to cut it swiftly and efficiently, so that it never grows back. He'll pat her head for a job well done and leave the shears in her hands.

Chiyuki wants to become Hokage, and Shikaku will see that it happens.

Chapter Text

This is basically what all my drafts look like. I wrote this in a bout of inspiration around february of last year, but a few months after that I decided Chiyuki's summons would be something else. I did like the dialogue and the interactions between the two though, so I'm posting this as an AU. She's supposed to be around 13 here.

I do not own Naruto.

try me

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Marui is a coyote. He is very ancient and has large chakra reserves. Has a dark sense of humor and is very straightforward and blunt. Is also a shapeshifter (?)

So the whole thing goes like this: she does the reverse summoning and finds herself falling down an endless hole. She realizes soon enough it's a test. There's a single hole that is in a different place each time the scenery loops, that's the catch. When she passes, she lands on a beautiful clearing where it's always dusk. The grass is green and healthy and there are fireflies flying around plus the sounds of many other animals. There's a river nearby.

Whoosh the coyote appears next to her, with beautiful gray fur and intelligent golden eyes. Part of his left ear is missing and there's a golden piercing on his right one. He has a few other golden ornaments, but not too much y'know. Marui is an old and suspicious summons who is stubborn and has a dark sense of humor. He's kinda like that grumpy uncle with a heart of gold that everyone has.

"What will you ask of me, child?"

"..."

"..."

"I ask for your partnership. If I call, you will help me. Likewise, if you call, I'll help."

He scoffs.

"What can a human cub like you possibly have to offer me?"

"Whatever you want, honestly." He narrows his eyes.

"That's a dangerous bargain."

"I have a lot to lose, but the people have much, much more."

"Why would you go that far for people you've never even met?"

"We live in a military dictatorship and people have little to no say in who's going to wear that hat. If you've got that much power over arguably the strongest ninja village, the least you could do is assure everyone lives in decent conditions."

"I'm assuming that doesn't happen."

He languidly lies down, crossing his front legs and resting his head on them.

"It doesn't."

"You speak ill of your own father's rule."

It's not a question.

"I do."

"How certain are you that your rule will be different?"

"I'm not certain, which is why I'll have support. Individuals who'll open my eyes when I'm unable - or unwilling - to see."

"You said yourself the military dictator is a powerful figure. How will you not get blinded by the power the position offers and push away those individuals?"

I sag, the energy suddenly dragged out of me. Marui asks me all the questions I've been afraid to address in my head, all the fears I've pushed aside.

I don't have answers for him just like I don't have answers for myself.

"I don't know. I can't tell how the future is going to be. I just want to be worthy. To walk alongside the villagers and work together to see Konoha grow and prosper. To build alliances so we won't have to send anymore children to war. To build a safe place where people can't be forced to be what they don't want to. To provide a decent lifestyle for everyone."

"You want the impossible."

"What I want is not impossible. It's extremely difficult and frustrating and it'll take years, but it's very much possible."

"You'll die trying."

I shrug, having come to the conclusion long ago.

"So be it. I want to at least set the foundation and push people in that direction so they'll be able to do it without me."

He raises his head, something like amazement and shock and revulsion in those golden eyes.

"You honestly want this."

"I do."

"You realize you don't have to do this."

"I do."

"Is this your way of following your conscience? Is it to be at peace with the knowledge you have?"

"...maybe. Probably. But it's exactly because I know what I know that I'm certain I want to do this. I know things will be fine one way or another, but why wait? Why not do what I can now?"

"Why do it?"

"Because these people are precious to me!" I finally snap, tired of this game. "They're no longer just characters out of a story. They're real and they're precious to me and if they're happy I'm happy too and I'd do anything to keep it that way."

"At what cost?"

There's a glint in his eyes I don't like.

I shrug.

"I've made peace with the fact that there'll be casualties whether I like it or not. I'll just do whatever I can to make sure it's less than it was."

"And if that involves precious ones?"

I grit my teeth, not really caring whether I can sign his contract or not. These are questions and fears I'm facing too hard too fast and I shouldn't - I can't - pretend I'm fine with all this because I'm not. Because I'm not certain about anything and I doubt myself everyday and the last thing I need is a summons who'll doubt me too.

"Then I'll deal with it. Sometimes people die for greater or lesser goods, and if I have to be the bearer of bad news - even if people come to hate me - that's okay."

I'm startled when the coyote starts to laugh loudly, a high and mocking sound and I grit my teeth.

At this point, I just want to leave this place and ignore the summons that theoretically aligns the best with me.

"You're a fool, child. You are arrogant and a hypocrite with dreams too big for your own head, but I like you."

"What."

"I could sense the exact moment you stopped wanting to sign my contract."

"So?"

He barks out another laugh.

"You passed all three tests with flying colors, cub. It's rare to see such a personality in young ones but well, I suppose you aren't exactly young now."

I say nothing, confused and frustrated and angry and in serious need of food and meditation. And a nap.

"I know you could care less for my contract now, and that's why I'll give it to you."

"Why?"

"Humans who passed the first two tests were so focused on the power they might have that they lied. They pretended to be someone they were not, some blatantly contradicting themselves without shame. You may have hated every second of our conversation, but you were always honest and spoke your feelings. I enjoyed myself thoroughly."

"Oh, great. You're into S&M."

He laughs again, but this time the sound is lighter.

"I like you, cub. I like you a lot. I get the feeling we'll get along wonderfully."

"I'm not sure I want to sign the contract."

"You went through all this trouble to leave both of us empty handed?"

"It sounds like you're gonna be more trouble than it's worth."

"I'm usually nicer than this."

"Don't lie."

"Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"Your freaking summoner."

He laughs yet again, and I get the feeling this isn't gonna be so fun.

.

.

OMAKE:

"I'll be nice and let you know in advance: I can reverse summon myself whenever I want."

"What."

"I'll also always know whenever you're in distress and/or at risk, whether we're on the same plane of existence or not."

"What."

"In those cases, if you don't summon me for whatever reason, I will summon myself and we will have a talk after I've saved your hairless ass."

"What. Why."

"Coyotes are monogamic for a reason."

"Ew."

"Not like that, foolish cub. Our trust is hard earned and hard kept."

"Oh."

"You've become something precious to me the moment you stopped wanting to sign my contract, ironically enough. You're the first to do so in two centuries."

"Ah."

"Coyotes are also solitary beings for a reason."

"That's some responsibility right there."

"You can handle it."

"Can I summon you whenever? Like, just to chat?"

"Cub, I expect you to do that."

"How much chakra do you require to be summoned?"

"At your current state? About one fourth of your reserves, but I can use my own chakra to keep myself on your dimension."

"Cool. What else can you do?"

"I'm a millennial shapeshifter with more knowledge than you ever hope of having and you dare ask me what else I can do?"

"Yes. That's what I'm asking."

He gives me a grin.

"Knew I liked you, cub. Very well."

Chapter Text

youngblood

.

At first, he glances at her and catalogs her impression in his mind like all the other children of prominent village figures: someone to avoid, if possible, and to treat with detached respect.

Uchiha Fugaku is not a man who changes his mind easily.

The war breaks out and before he realizes it, Sarutobi Chiyuki is all over the village, all at once. She trains and she studies. She makes friends - connections - at a rapid speed with her charisma and honesty. She quickly learns everything she puts her eyes onto. She treads carefully on social situations.

Fugaku begrudgingly admits she may be brighter than he'd first thought.

A child who boldly claims to want the Hokage's hat, who may just have what it takes for it to become a reality. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Uchiha patriarch changes his opinion for the third time when the Sarutobi Princess comes to him with issues regarding the orphanage.

Fugaku is neither blind nor stupid. He knows Konoha is not perfect, but he's sworn allegiance to the Sandaime Hokage, and trusts the man enough to leave it in his hands-

-until his military leader's own child comes to him - him!- and the Uchiha wonders why it is that Chiyuki cannot go to her own father with this.

He wonders, and wonders.

The police chief then thinks she's a kid who's a little too smart for her own good; someone who was born in unfortunate circumstances and oddly happens to be at the center of every major event in the village.

When he goes home that day, Fugaku has dinner in silence and locks himself up in his study. He thinks, investigates, wonders, and arrives at conclusions of his own. Despite himself, he smirks.

The Sarutobi Princess - and the Nara lazyhead, by proxy - think they can test him, and he'd be offended if he didn't feel so-

-so alive.

His clan's situation has been precarious for years now, and it only seems like it's bound to get worse. His clansmen resent the village and the treatment they get after decades of sworn loyalty. The Council attempts to limit their movement every chance they get. Civilians don't like them, and only look for the Police Force when they really cannot help it. Other shinobi are hesitant to work with them, intimidated by their red eyes.

Despite it all, Uchiha Fugaku feels his soul roar, fire flowing in his veins. Sitting in his study alone, his red eyes glow in the dark, a rare smirk gracing his features.

The audacity of that child!

Like a predator circling his prey, he's having fun. He bumps into Chiyuki a few times after that, exchanges a few sparks with Shikaku, and all the while he uncovers more and more dirt under the village his clan so painstakingly helped build. Fugaku looks deeper than he's ever had, finding rat nests hidden all over Konoha's roots.

For a brief moment, on a rare day off, he wonders what it'd be like if all that information leaked out to the public. The police chief lets his imagination run wild for a little while, letting the power of knowledge go to his head.

He invites Sarutobi Chiyuki for dinner at his house on that same day.

It's a carefully thought out move, of course. Fugaku waits for the perfect time to invite her into the lion's den, wondering how she'll act in a place that's so clearly controlled by him. By this point, he doesn't dare stick her to old stereotypes and beliefs, no. He'd rather wait to see how she'll surprise him this time, and he's actually excited for it. The Uchiha patriarch wants her to change his mind over and over again, to challenge him and his authority-

-he wants her to challenge the very system they live in, to break the vicious hate cycle, to dismantle this village and break it apart bit by bit before she builds it back again with her own hands.

Sarutobi Chiyuki is smart. Extremely so. She quickly realizes what kind of situation he places her in and throws all her cards on the table - she makes a gamble, a fight or flight response when faced with a stressful situation. When the child shows her true colors, her emotions so vividly felt, her face an open book, he feels compelled to do the same.

Suddenly, they're not in a lion's den anymore. They're both buried deep underground, right next to the rotten roots of their village, and Fugaku wants to rip it all off. There are rats all over the place, dancing right under the cat's nose, but the feline seems awfully content in letting them do as they please.

In the end, Fugaku discards the thought that Chiyuki is anything like he's seen before. The child with far too intelligent and expressive eyes, a prodigy in a league all of her own. Not even Itachi, who learns at an amazing speed, might compare to her.

A diamond in the rough, with near unlimited potential. A jewel that polishes itself, shining so brightly at such a young age. He's sure she'll only keep on shining brighter and brighter in the future, if she works on controlling her emotions a bit better.

A god-sent, or a demon.

A monster.

A monster, although a young one, with sharp teeth and claws, with a heart that bleeds far too much and a brain that needs saving from overthinking itself.

Chiyuki, the little monster, might just find reprieve inside the Uchiha's den. They'll keep her safe until she grows to be the most fearsome being the ninja world has ever seen, a fully-grown monster with iron-like defense and an even deadlier attack. She'll wreak havoc wherever she goes, destroying and rebuilding as she pleases.

And as for the Uchiha?

They'll sit back and watch, praise themselves for a job well done, and get rid of any rats there might be in the monster's absence.

Chapter Text

sanguine

.

It takes Minato summoning the two of them to a secret meeting for Shikaku and Fugaku to realize they might be over in their heads.

"Someone's been messing with the mission records and the actual stats. We're losing a lot more shinobi than they let on - ANBU level shinobi." The blonde tells them with a grave face, the three men huddled deep within the edge of the Nara woods.

"ROOT?" The Uchiha asks, a frown on his face.

"Some are, some aren't." The youngest of the three shrugs. "There's also the fact that some of our animal carriers are getting intercepted too easily, almost as if the enemy knows exactly when and where we're going to release them."

"And the Hokage?" Minato has a helpless look on his face, and Shikaku is reminded suddenly that the young man is barely in his twenties.

"The incidents were never really investigated. Someone from the upper ranks simply labelled them as 'calculated losses'."

A somber silence falls upon them, the Nara's mind jumping from one possibility to another.

"There's one more thing." The blonde says almost hesitantly, accepting the incredulous look from the older men with a sarcastic smile. "I've yet to confirm it, but there are also rumours that someone from Konoha has been trading letters with Hanzo."

"Hanzo the Salamander?" The police chief asks with a deep frown, crossing his arms. "Why would the rats maintain a relationship with the leader of Ame?"

"Ame's been catching the attention of other villages as they grow stronger without getting too involved in the current war." The Nara clan head mutters, a dark look on his face. "There's a new rebel group that's said to be led by three young but outstanding individuals, but as of now they claim they don't pose a threat to the current leader."

"Manipulating political relationships in other nations? Really? Just how far deep have the rats gone?" Fugaku demands, angry beyond reason.

"I don't know how deep they've gone, but I have a feeling they want to go even deeper." Minato pipes up, looking much older than he actually is. "Which is why I think it'll be best to take Chiyuki out of the investigation now before things go south."

Shikaku had known it was an extremely dangerous and delicate investigation, but he'd thought he could protect the Sarutobi princess as long as she was inside the village. Since she'd gotten Fugaku on their side, it also meant he had another person to rely on and trust her with.

Now, though, with all this new info weighing on his brain, he's not so sure anymore.

"I agree." The Uchiha patriarch says after a while, nodding at Minato. "If the rat is powerful enough to mess with the politics of another ninja village, he's cunning enough to notice her movements and attempt to take her out of the picture before she becomes a bigger problem."

"I'm honestly surprised nothing's happened to her yet." The youngest mutters, dragging a hand down his face. "I heard she got herself in a mess at the slums?"

The jounin commander snorts, despite himself. The other two look at him as if he's grown a second head, but Shikaku can't say he's surprised by anything Chiyuki does anymore.

"She did. Don't know how she left the place unscathed, honestly." The Nara clan head mumbles, an odd grin on his face. "What a troublesome little rascal."

"The Uchiha have chosen to fully support that 'little rascal'." Fugaku immediately bristles, a challenge on his tone. Shikaku raises both eyebrows, but doesn't take the bait.

"I know, and I appreciate it. The more trust-worthy allies she has, the better. It doesn't mean she's not a trouble magnet."

It's Minato's turn to bark out a laugh, shaking his head.

"She's a trouble magnet alright. Has been one since I met her." He says, a ghost of a smile on his face despite these trying times, and for a little while all three men have a fond look in their eyes, thinking of fiery chocolate eyes and a bleeding heart.

"Alright, then. Chiyuki's officially out of the investigation." The Nara says, and turns suspicious when the police chief smirks at him.

"Good luck telling her that."

Shikaku groans as Minato laughs at his misery, and despite it all, the three men are filled with determination and hope, fueled by a will of fire and iron.

.

.

Shit hits the fan not too long after that, and the jounin commander wonders just when exactly things went so wrong.

On Chiyuki's tenth birthday, Choza decides to throw a big party for her. Normally he'd be against any sort of huge gathering in the middle of the war, but Shikaku understands morale is down and thinks there's no harm in celebrating the good things in life.

He doesn't think too much of the older Sarutobi siblings or Hatake Kakashi being out of the village, and settles down to finish some paperwork before going to sleep.

The clock barely strikes midnight before he feels a chill down his spine; a heavy, ominous feeling that nearly makes him nauseous. The seals on his own wrist tingle, and he doesn't think twice before teleporting as fast as he possibly can to the location where Chiyuki activated his seals.

It was supposed to have been a precaution.

She wasn't actually supposed to activate it.

There should've been no need for that.

The Nara clan head arrives at the scene and sees red. The trembling child is in his arms before he takes notice of what he's doing, but he'll worry about his actions later.

Shikaku leaves the Sarutobi princess with Yoshino and the deer, and he knows she'll be safe. He gathers his best shinobi and tells Fugaku to prepare for battle.

His little rascal almost got murdered, and he'll make sure there'll be hell to pay.

.

.

It was a difficult, drawn-out battle, but in the end they emerged victorious.

The jounin commander is no stranger to bloodshed, although it has been a while since he's been in a battlefield. He does have, however, a lot of pent up frustration and rage, and he decides to take it all out on Danzo and his brainwashed soldiers.

Some of them are so far gone that he doesn't even feel bad about it.

The Uchiha patriarch is the one to finish the old man off. It's the least the village owes him, after seeing a few sharingan eyes transplanted into his arms - and how utterly sick is that?

"She told me there was something odd about him." Shikaku mutters low enough so only Fugaku is able to hear him. The slightly older man glances at the jounin before continuing to burn the stolen sharingans.

"Did she know?"

The Nara shrugs, looking at the destruction and death all around them with detached eyes.

"It's hard to say."

Neither men say anything else after that.

Shikaku washes the blood off his hands as best as he can and pats down his clothes before he returns to his home. His favorite girls are there, waiting for him, and all he wants to do is take a long nap curled up around the two.

He keeps Chiyuki in his house for a month after that. She goes out very few times, but doesn't seem to mind. The three of them easily fall into a routine, and sometimes Shikaku almost gets fooled into thinking they're just a normal family.

Yoshino tells him about the traumatized child and the way she'd cried clinging to the deer that night. He calls Inoichi to try to help but knows it's a difficult, long process. Still, the Nara couple is there to get her out of bed when depression tells her not to, to hold her when anxiety gets the best of her, to stay with her until she falls asleep without any nightmares plaguing her sleep.

The Sarutobi princess tells him she doesn't have a home anymore and he nearly tells her this could be her new home - but he can't, and he's never cursed clan politics more.

Shikaku can't keep her in his house forever, but he tries his damned best to keep her there for as long as possible. He tries to give her space and a sense of security because ultimately, this is all she needs. Chiyuki is strong enough to overcome this without being sheltered by his misplaced sense of guilt, but just for a little while, he'll pretend like she isn't.

Even kings need a while to sort out their minds sometimes.

Chapter Text

prisoner

.

"Our princess has been quite the social butterfly these days, wouldn't you think so?"

If it were anyone else - if it'd been said in any other context - perhaps the words might have seemed innocent enough. Sarutobi Hiroko knows, however, that there is nothing innocent or naive about Shimura Danzo.

The middle-aged kunoichi keeps her mouth shut, partly because she doesn't want to answer, partly because it's not her place to. There are way too many eyes on the two of them, hidden in the safety of the shadows, and she knows better than to show insubordination.

Hiroko has made that mistake exactly once, back when she was first ordered to keep a close eye on Chiyuki, and the price she'd had to pay burns cold in her tongue.

"She's managed to escape her cage and each day stray further from home." Danzo continues to talk in a calm tone, as if they were simply talking about the chilly weather. "A pity, really."

The Sarutobi woman feels the familiar sting of regret in her chest; the ache of guilt and sorrow once again soak her up from the bones all the way through her muscles and her skin, until she doesn't have the strength to pick herself up.

"Today, our little butterfly comes back to her garden for the last time."

The old man says and vanishes, taking half of his entourage with him. The other half keeps narrowed eyes on the kunoichi's back, until she too disappears from sight.

Hiroko goes home and does her chores automatically, feeling stings from time to time. There are people constantly watching her and her clan, and there's nothing to do about it because she's failed once, and that's the price she has to pay.

Her niece comes back home after her birthday party and the older woman is swimming in a pool of helplessness and regret. She knows very well what she has to do, knows exactly why she was chosen to do it. She attempts to hold the weight of a village on her weakening shoulders, steals children from under her older brother's nose for the greater good, for Konoha, for her nephews and niece.

The middle-aged woman swallows her guilt like a dry, bitter herb every time she watches another kid become part of her village's roots. None of them look like the apple of her eye, the young child with ash blonde hair and chocolate eyes, and for that she is immensely grateful.

When she breaks out of her stupor of sorrow and remorse, she's making tea for three. A mild muscle-relaxing drug goes into the cups without much thought, and a kind expression schools itself on her face. Her brother and his wife take the tea without a second of hesitation, and the Sarutobi woman prays-

Chiyuki does not accept the tea, and she's only half-relieved.

She waits until the child falls into a deep slumber before attempting the unimaginable. Proving herself to be a true shinobi in training, her niece wakes up just as she's about to do it, and the hurt directed at her nearly makes her drop the kunai.

She can't fail.

"A-aunt… why?"

Hiroko stalls for time. Hesitates and covers it with mindless babbles. Gives her niece time for her brain to kick-start and find a way out.

Please.

She can't fail.

Her legs go numb and the rest of her body is soon to follow. Just as she's about to embrace unconsciousness like a dear old friend, a breath of relief enters her misery filled lungs.

Nara Shikaku shows up and she nearly drops her facade. There couldn't be a better person for Chiyuki to have by her side, especially now as the child watches her world crumble before her pained, young eyes.

If she were perhaps just a bit more aware of her surroundings, maybe her niece would have backed down before catching Danzo's eyes. The Sarutobi princess is most definitely a prodigy, but perhaps her inexperience and arrogance blinded her so deeply that she couldn't help but find herself entangled in a spider's web, helplessly flapping her beautiful, colorful wings.

Hiroko knows she's hurt the child deeply, although it is not beyond repair. The middle-aged woman looks at how fiercely the Nara clan head protects her-

"The jounin commander? That might be a bit annoying-"

-knows she's intelligent and strong -

"Some of my shinobi have reported locking eyes with the little princess, even though she's not supposed to know-"

-knows she's charismatic and bright -

"The reports say the Uchiha are also supporting her-"

Above all, the Sarutobi kunoichi knows it'll be tough, but her niece will learn from this. The deer and the cats may have rescued her from the dreadful spider's web and trampled on it, leaving a pool of crimson behind-

-but butterflies are able to feed on blood, and Hiroko wants Chiyuki to thrive from it.

Chapter Text

like i'm gonna lose you

.

Chiyuki calls him 'dad' one day.

It happens during one of the better days, on a sunny afternoon that seems to light up the entire clan compound. The girl had woken up in a good mood, and he'd been relieved to see her smile, no matter how small it was. It was a stark contrast against the worst days, when her demons become too much for the child to handle and she closes in on herself.

She's helping out Ensui polish his weapons, a comfortable silence between them, and Shikaku has the dangerous thought that she fits very well in the clan.

"Dear, can you tell Chiyuki-chan to come find me after she's done?" Yoshino pokes her head out of the sitting room, pausing at the look on her husband's face. "Shikaku?"

The man hums back, signaling that he's heard her, but that's not what she meant.

The Nara matriarch sighs, heart aching for both the child and her husband, but someone has to knock some sense into him before the situation gets even more complicated.

"Shikaku… don't get too attached, hm?" The clan head glances at his wife's tone of voice, knowing it's a serious issue - but not one he hasn't thought about a million times.

"...I know." Yoshino doesn't like the fond look he has in his dark eyes when he turns back to look at Chiyuki, and she doesn't like the blatant favoritism he shows her, simply because-

"It'll only make it harder to let her go." She says in an unusually soft voice, fearing the heartbreak both her husband and the girl will suffer. If she could, she'd adopt the blonde child in a second, love her unconditionally and watch her grow, but clan politics are more delicate than fine china, and the woman will not put the traumatized child through a custody trial.

No matter how much she thinks about it.

"I know." Shikaku repeats, a heavy sigh escaping out of his chest. He knows.

He does know, and it might as well kill him.

Yoshino leaves him be, letting himself be alone with his thoughts. The clan head watches as Chiyuki starts to walk in the direction of their house, apparently done with her task. As soon as she's within hearing range, he says;

"Yoshino said to look for her when you're done."

The reply is instant and thoughtless, something that comes as easily as breathing.

"I'll be there in a sec, dad."

The world stops for a single second.

Shikaku watches as the girl's face morphs into an expression of horror and embarrassment, red blush spreading to her neck. His own heart seems to skip a beat, and for this brief moment he allows himself to preen and pretend there's nothing wrong with being called 'dad' by the Sandaime's daughter.

The Nara patriarch forces a chuckle out, getting up from his position on the porch and ruffling the blonde's hair, trying to turn the atmosphere into something lighter.

There's a lot to unpack in that single sentence, but neither are ready for that conversation just yet. For now, they'll continue to do their best, one day at a time.

Chapter Text

the kids aren't alright

.

Jiraya has never been fond of children, but he has a special dislike for Chiyuki.

It's not the child's fault, per se, but he doesn't want to admit it's his pettiness roaring its ugly head. Hell might freeze over before he admits he's projecting his own insecurities in her.

The Toad Sage doesn't have a family of his own blood, as he has no last name and doesn't bother chasing after ghosts. He has his teammates and his toads, and he's completely fine with that - until he sees his teacher's youngest.

The white haired man can immediately tell she's the apple of his eye. A pretty girl who looks just like her mother, with big, curious eyes; what's there not to like about her?

'Everything', he thinks.

Chiyuki is put on a pedestal from the day she was born, first by her mother, then her father, her brothers, and the entire Sarutobi clan. Although she has some kind of problem with her chakra, they claim her to be a genius, a prodigy, and some even try to make her the clan heir.

It doesn't work, but at that point, the entirety of Konoha knows of the favoritism her parents show her.

And it's not fair.

The princess, as people start to call her, has her parents' love, her brothers' love, and the village's love. The Sandaime is far too lenient; Biwako-sama has made it very clear that Chiyuki's the apple of her eye; and since she's charismatic and overall a lovely kid, people soon start to flock to her like bees to honey.

The blonde girl has always had everything, from good grades to a rare chakra release, but perhaps the Toad Sage has never cared much about those. Grades don't mean much outside of the Academy, and an exotic chakra release will only mean more people out to kill you. No, the thing is that-

-Sarutobi Hiruzen looks at his only daughter like she's his entire world, and Jiraya hates it. More than that, he absolutely detests how she gains people's affection effortlessly while she grows up to be a spoiled and arrogant brat.

The man is completely fine with doing his own thing outside of the village and having as little contact with Chiyuki as possible, wanting to stay like this forever, but of course shit hits the fan.

Hard.

Jiraya comes back to Konoha for the first time since the war started and it's a mess. His teacher - immovable, strong, reliable - has given up the hat, yet another one of his teammates has fled the village, Uchiha Fugaku is interim Hokage with Nara Shikaku as his second in command, Danzo is dead-

-and at the center of it all is the child he dislikes the most.

The Toad Sage tries, he swears he does, but it's hard to not get affected by all of the rumours flying around, especially because Jiraya himself is a big part of the big spider's web that is the rumour mill. People whisper she was the mastermind behind all this, and he believes that.

They put him on a team with herto find Tsunade, and he'd be fine with anyone else, but it has to be her. Of course.

Whether it's something Chiyuki does unconsciously or if it's something she's aware of, he does not know, but the child treats him with the same detached respect he does, and it's a relief she isn't expecting to get in his good graces. A week passes in the same cold war fashion until the white haired man finally has a reliable lead on Orochimaru's whereabouts. He follows the trail long into the night, deeper and deeper into the forest, fully intent on confronting his teammate about what happened.

The Snake Sage is many things, but he is not a traitor.

He isn't.

Is he?

It's not until later that Jiraya realizes he's fallen into a trap, but by then it's too late. Orochimaru's attacks are vicious, full of rage and frustration, and he belatedly realizes his teammate is far gone. What remains is a man consumed by hate and envy, who's betrayed their teacher and their female teammate, but he pushes all the hurt and betrayal back to focus on a very important point.

"I thought you'd have a little more respect for me than to send a clone." The Toad Sage huffs, hiding his fear of an answer he already knows.

"I'm busy dealing with other bothersome things. Don't worry, it'll all be done soon."

His blood turns to ice, thinking about three genin alone with Orochimaru, and if it this has all been a plan set up by his former teammate, to lead him around the nose to go after the one responsible for the situation he's in right now-

A cruel laugh, sharp and dooming, makes a shiver run down his spine.

If Chiyuki, a ten year old genin who knows nothing of the world, is alone with the real Snake Sage, there's no possible way she'll come out of it alive. No matter how much of a prodigy she may be, no matter how good team Choza's teamwork might be, it's all still useless when facing an A class shinobi who has a personal vendetta against her.

An overwhelming feeling overcomes him, so much so that his memories blur one into the other after that realization, and by the time he's back in control of his body he wonders just how he's gonna explain what happened to Fugaku and Shikaku. Hell, Jiraya himself would be hard pressed to say exactly what happened. One moment, he's summoned Gamabunta; the next, he has three dying children in his arms, and he's never felt so utterly hopeless before.

Chapter Text

siren

.

She is a force to be reckoned with, not only because she wanted to, but also because she needed to.

Senju Tsunade is barely in her early twenties when they tell her to fight in a war that makes no sense. The war takes, the village takes, people take take take take-

The war takes her family members, their sister village Uzushio, and her heart breaks in two.

The war takes Dan, the love of her life, and her heart crumbles.

The war takes Nawaki, her sunshine of a little brother, and she buries the remains of her heart deep within herself, so that she'll never open it to anyone, ever again.

The renowned medic-nin Senju Tsunade, the last of a prestigious lineage, granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage, leaves Konoha after the Second Shinobi War ends. She runs away from a village that only ever took from her, and never gave anything good in return. The memories she has are bittersweet, painful, and she's tired.

Tsunade's heart, buried deep within herself, aches and aches - so she runs.

Her jounin sensei and her teammates do try to get her to come back, of course. They're precious in a different way than her family had been, in the way Dan and Nawaki had been, but ultimately, they're not enough to make her come back to Konoha.

She tries not to think of the hurt in Jiraya's face, or the exhausted resignation in Hiruzen-sensei's eyes.

(Orochimaru is… complicated.)

Gambling and drinking ease the ache in her heart, and that's how she spends the next few years, happily pretending the village means nothing to her. The blonde woman runs and runs, spending her family's hard earned money and dragging Shizune along as she goes. Sometimes she comes back to Fire country, sometimes she visits neighboring villages, but she never steps foot into Konoha ever again.

The memories hurt too much, and she's tired of hurting.

One day -

-because all things must come to an end, eventually-

- Jiraya finally finds her, but his request is definitely not what she'd been expecting. Her ex-teammate has his arms full of three dying children, their teacher's youngest kid amongst them, and something in her snaps.

She's moving towards them with glowing green hands, quickly analyzing the situation and deciding who's in worse shape - Hiruzen-sensei's daughter, of course - and her blood phobia is unable to rear its ugly head in the face of children dying right in front of her.

In the pale moonlight, Sarutobi Chiyuki's ash blonde hair almost looks white-blue, like Dan's had been, and Tsunade's heart aches and aches.

One of the girl's teammates looks to be around the age Nawaki was when he died, and the blonde grits her teeth, willing her hands to stop their trembling.

She barks out orders for both Shizune and Jiraya, and the three of them spend the rest of the night elbows deep in blood and guts, refusing to let even one of these kids die.

The war has taken enough children as it is.

The three of them miraculously survive to tell the tale of their encounter with Orochimaru, but Chiyuki's prognosis is guarded. There's something extremely complicated and delicate going on between her and Jiraya, though, and Tsunade wants nothing to do with the beef a grown man has with a brat who barely reaches his hips.

(If she tells Jiraya in no uncertain terms to get his shit together, well. It's no one's business but theirs.)

Hiruzen-sensei's daughter is all of ten years old and has already been through a near-death experience.

By the hands of her ex-teammate.

Is the Hokage's seat all that, Tsunade wonders. She decides she doesn't want to know.

She's a kid that should still be in the Academy, running around and playing with her friends, not being the team leader of a group of child soldiers, fighting in a war they have no place in. And yet, she's clearly a child of war, with a lithe body made for quick and efficient kills and the mental fortitude to put grown adults to shame.

The brat is a menace.

Chiyuki looks at Tsunade like the medic-nin didn't run away from Konoha, like the Slug Sage has done nothing wrong, with a twinkle in her chocolate brown eyes that makes her heart ache and ache-

Chiyuki tells her about a boy with the Wood Release. Admits it was one of the arguments they were supposed to use to bring her back, and looks appropriately ashamed when she does. The girl looks at Tsunade like the woman has all the answers in the world, as if her presence alone will make things instantly better.

The Sarutobi Princess tells her she's going to be Hokage, and for a split second, Tsunade sees Dan and Nawaki in that determined expression - in the quietly burning flame behind her gaze, in the iron-clad truth in the words she speaks - and Tsunade's heart aches and aches, but for a different reason now.

The Senju woman gives her grandfather's keepsake to Chiyuki. The child sputters, clearly thrown off by the entire situation, and at the same time Tsunade sees both Dan and Nawaki in her, she knows they're not the same.

A menace, all on her own.

Chiyuki holds entire galaxies in her eyes, and Tsunade's loved ones' legacy lives on. Her heart aches and aches, bittersweet in its healing as she goes back to the place where it all started.

.

.

Senju Tsunade meets Tenzou - who now goes by Yamato - the boy with the Wood Release, and curses Orochimaru in her head for the nth time that week.

Although the boy has straight, thick brown hair and dark eyes typical of a Senju, he looks nothing like her grandfather. His pale skin tells much about the time he spent underground, with the poor social skills to seal the deal. He's hesitant, skittish, clearly scared of her, and the medic-nin really wishes she'd had a drink before this meeting.

Still, with all the gentleness she possesses, the Slug Sage kneels in front of the small boy, and looks at him with kindness.

(He does not need pity. Her anger is not directed at him. She breathes, and he breathes with her.)

Yamato needs support and a healthy environment to heal and grow in. He needs a responsible adult, a guardian, a family-

-her heart aches and aches-

-and she offers him a home.

"Hi. My name is Tsunade. Though the circumstances are… less than ideal, you now possess the Wood Release, something only my grandfather had been able to wield."

The boy flinches back, as if the woman has slapped him, and Tsunade exhales lightly.

"I believe that makes us family, wouldn't you think so?"

She gets lost at the depth of dark eyes staring at her, hesitant but oh so hopeful, a hidden abyss of hurt and pain and loneliness, so similar to her own and yet so different.

"Family?" Yamato carefully asks, daring to hope, daring to think that he could have what he'd never been allowed to have.

"Yeah. Family." The medic-nin murmurs, offering her manicured hand to the lost child. "How does gaining an aunt sound?"

Neither a mom nor a sister. Tsunade cannot be anyone's mom or sister.

Not anymore.

The boy's lips tremble, and he exhales shakily, but resolutely does not cry. Danzo's conditioning, she reckons.

(She wants to punch something. The old man's face, preferably. Multiple times.)

"That- yes." Yamato says, in a tiny little voice, and stands very still as Tsunade - his aunt - ruffles his hair.

"Alright, then. Welcome home, Senju Yamato."

His tears come abruptly, unbidden, and his sobs are loud. Snot runs down his nose as he furiously tries to wipe it with the sleeve of his shirt, but he's relieved, so relieved, he has a family-

Tsunade slowly hugs him, and her heart aches.

.

.

She's sent to face a man she thought she'd never see again, but life has a funny way of throwing things at you when you least expect it.

Tsunade helps the leaders of the Akatsuki take Hanzo down, along with Jiraya and Uchiha Mamoru, who she's never personally met before, but works well enough with.

The man, however, seems to have a personal vendetta against the Ame trio, never trying particularly hard to make their life easier, and the medic-nin marvels - not for the first time - at how loyal the Uchiha are to Chiyuki.

She remembers the look on Mikoto's face as she tore Jiraya down with words alone, and decides she does not want to get involved in it.

'A menace, indeed.'

The redhead - Nagato - approaches her on the night before they're supposed to leave, a blank look on his face. The man asks that she give a scroll to the Sarutobi Princess, and Tsunade wastes absolutely no second opening it, in case it's a trap.

The doujutsu user has the balls to actually look a bit disgruntled, as if to say he'd never do something as stupid as that. She raises a blonde eyebrow, wondering just what happened in the two weeks Chiyuki was kept captive.

"A show of good faith." Nagato murmurs, voice low and smooth like the deep waters of a river.

Tsunade blatantly looks him up and down, about to refuse, until he opens his mouth again.

"I think she'd like it." The words die on her tongue because the woman can't argue with that. Insect summons are great for gathering information and other tasks that require finesse, making it the perfect summons for someone who needs all the info she can get.

And who knows? Maybe her little menace will finally learn to plan ahead and make people play according to her rules.

(Her heart aches with careful excitement, itching to break free.)

"Fine." The medic-nin scoffs, pocketing the scroll.

"Thank you." The redhead nods, and that's the end of their conversation.

She ignores Jiraya, who had been watching the exchange with careful eyes, and throws the scroll to Mamoru, whose impassive face had been stuck on the object for the entire time.

"You're free to check it out yourself." The man nods in appreciation and double-checks the scroll, putting the little note back in it after they both have decided it's a normal summoning scroll. Tsunade shoves the object in the depths of her clothes, glancing one last time at Nagato, who surprisingly meets her eyes head-on.

For a brief moment, it seems as if they're both measuring each other up, deciding on whether they're friends or foes. Mindful, watchful, careful.

If, for some reason, he's genuinely showing good faith towards Chiyuki and their village, whether on a calculated move or not, there's nothing wrong with that. Hell, Tsunade will even encourage it; the more allies her little menace has, the better.

Honey eyes narrow down on pools of swirling purple, a promise of pain deep and raw like he's never experienced before. If, however, they set their sights on her little menace again-

She'll tear them down - every single one of them. Show them pain in its most intimate form, drown them in their misery and weakness, make them hurt and ache until they're gasping and begging for the sweet reprieve of death. Tsunade knows how to make people slowly lose their sanity, knows how to kill someone so slowly that it takes days for them to finally feel the cold embrace of death, knows how to make people scream in agony without dropping any blood. Then, she'll heal them and start over, hurting them over and over, over and over, until they are capable of nothing but ache.

No one will take her future Hokage away from her - not again.

Not ever.

(Her heart still aches sometimes. It leaves a distinctly hollow feeling in her chest, bittersweet in its melancholy, because healing is not linear.)

Still, Tsunade heals. And for now, that's enough.

.

Chapter Text

smother

.

Kakashi is twelve years old when he finally tells his teammates he hasn't stepped foot inside the Hatake compound in years.

"But have you never needed stuff from there?" Obito asks, scratching his head.

The last Hatake shakes his head, his hands in his pockets. "No. I went back there once to get some stuff with Chiyuki, but I either bought the rest or-"

He cuts himself off, because Sarutobi Biwako had given him enough clothes and weaponry to last him a year, back when his old man… and somehow speaking of it feels weird. Maybe it's because Chiyuki's relationship with her parents had always been odd, or maybe because he felt uncomfortable being fussed over by a woman he didn't really know.

The silver haired boy settles for shrugging and letting the words hang in the air, and Obito thankfully doesn't press it.

Rin, on the other hand-

"Let's use the time we have off and go take the rest of your stuff, then." The girl says, hands on her hips. "No time like the present."

"I'll pass." He replies, breezily. Too many things happened there - things that he hasn't worked through yet, things he does not dare touch just yet - and he really would rather not go there without Chiyuki.

"Weren't you saying just the other day that raising your nin-dogs on the fly is a pain? I'll bet there's a bunch of stuff on how you can do it in your old house." Rin retorts, merciless in how she throws facts at him, and Kakashi curses her perceptiveness - not for the first time, by far.

They both watch him closely, his teammates. They've learned how to guide him along without much resistance, and how the best way to get him to do something is to either argue how useful it'll be in the future, or mention the Sandaime's youngest kid.

More often than not, they use both.

"Besides, by the time you and Chi see each other again, you'll be able to show her how far you've progressed. She beat you in your last spar, right?" The medic-nin in training adds, like an afterthought, and if the silver-haired boy didn't know her so well, he might've fallen for her (admittedly) great acting skills.

(Obito grumbles that he'd be able to defeat Kakashi if he had Gai as a teammate too, but both his teammates ignore him.)

Kakashi rolls his eyes all the way to the back of his head, making a show of appearing extremely bothered by the whole situation. "Fine." He finally grumbles, and once again curses his teammates.

Mostly Rin.

He ignores the shit-eating grin on her face the whole time they're there, and it actually serves as a distraction as he undoes the seals he'd put in place, preventing anyone from entering the Hatake compound. The house has a thick layer of dust all over it, mimicking the grief and melancholy that seem to hang in the air. Kakashi ignores the dull ache in his chest as the images of his dad smiling at him in the kitchen, making them both breakfast, haunt him like a persistent ghost.

He glances at the empty plant pots and remembers how Sakumo had killed every single one of them, even though he took such good care of them. In a way, it's very similar to how he went to such painstaking measures to protect his dear village, yet received nothing but scorn in return.

The silver haired-boy turns his head away from the sight, and focuses on his task.

Anxiety starts to creep up on him, slimy and sticky and uncomfortably hot, and he is physically unable to take another single step towards his dad's study. The walls start to close in, shadows creep up around the edges, and he wants to run run run run-

"Hey. Do you mind if we go in together?" Obito's voice suddenly chases away the creeping demons, and his firm hand on Kakashi's shoulder is a grounding, welcoming weight.

The past Kakashi would have shrugged him off and turned his back on them, unwilling to open up his heart to anyone else but his best friend. He'd have run and run and run far far away, would lock his emotions and himself up so tightly no one else would be able to breach his walls - not even himself.

The present Kakashi feels Rin's comforting presence on his other side, and with a sigh, nods at the Uchiha boy.

"Yeah, let's go."

Neither his teammates mention the break in his voice, the cold sweat building up in his face, the slight trembling of his hands. They stick to his side the whole time they're inside Sakumo's study, and somehow, that's enough to keep the awful, slimy hands of death and pain and grief away from him.

For now, it's enough.

.

.

Kakashi grips the scroll in his hands so hard blood actually starts to seep into the paper, and Pakkun puts a small paw on his arm, doggy eyebrows deeply furrowed in worry.

"Boss?"

The silver haired boy grits his teeth and throws the object at the opposing wall in a sudden movement, making the pug jump. The impact makes a dent in his wall, but he honestly can't bring himself to care about it right at this moment. His whole body is up and roaring like a furnace, his anger rolls off of him in thick waves, pupils blown wide and sharp fangs on show, a growl building deep in his throat-

Pakkun chomps down on his forearm - something that can barely be considered a graze, almost like a puppy's playful nibble - and the spell is broken. The boy sags down to the floor of his small apartment, where his demons dance around mockingly in the dim lights. It almost seems as if he's devoid of any energy, but there's an odd glint in his dark eyes that promises pain.

"What is it, boss?"

Inside a deadly body, the furnace roars.

So what if it's a supposedly clan thing?

So what if she isn't a Hatake, doesn't have the dog contract, doesn't have fangs like he does, and doesn't understand the intricacies of smells and emotions?

Chiyuki isn't part of a canine clan, but she had been his Alpha, and they had unjustly taken her away from him. Ripped her from what his instincts had been telling him, from how right it'd felt, from how safe and secure he'd finally felt after his dad-

"They took her from me!"

The furnace roars and spits and rumbles, wild flames that lick at his skin and make him snarl his words out. He's burning, burning, burning-

Kakashi is the Alpha of his own pack because an Inuzuka had told him it was the right choice, and he, as a young pup who had known nothing, had acquiesced. Had lowered his head and accepted it, had seen the resignation in his Alpha's eyes, and had swallowed down the most bitter, most disgusting pill he'd ever laid eyes upon, because it was what they told him to do.

An outsider of another canine clan, who thought his own clan worked like theirs, had pushed Chiyuki out of his pack, and he had accepted it.

Huge, thundering flames rumble inside the furnace, clamoring for due justice, wild and unhinged in its desire to take back what has always been his.

"Then do it." Pakkun, to his credit, doesn't even flinch when he becomes the target of Kakashi's vicious, dangerous eyes. The brown dog actually grins, a mean and savage thing that shows off all his sharp little teeth, feeling his Alpha's outrage and wanting to burn the world down alongside him. "It's your pack, and there's no one to tell you how to do things - not anymore. Just do what feels right."

Kakashi thinks back on the scroll belonging to his clan, then silently gets up and picks it up, ignoring the fresh blood stains. Now that he has an established pack and is acknowledged as their Alpha, it would be too complicated and emotionally exhausting to shift the position back to Chiyuki -

-even though the flames burn hotly against his skin, bellow for justice to be done-

-but it doesn't mean there aren't other possibilities.

They took her away from him once, and once only. There's something dark and unhinged in his eyes, something that should worry Pakkun but somehow doesn't. Something that promises to set the world on fire and watch, with no small amount of satisfaction, as it goes down in flames.

A promise to burn everything to the ground so that she can build it up from scratch.

The furnace burns throughout the night, fire cackling and roaring, as the last Hatake meticulously plans his next steps, written in ash and thundering flames.

(Kakashi actually feels pretty good about his plans, once dawn breaks. Then, someone tells him his best friend had been kidnapped, and all his careful planning is thrown out the window without another thought.)

Chapter Text

.

like the dawn

.

Uchiha Mikoto is a mother, a wife, a clan matriarch, and a Konoha kunoichi - in that order.

She was born and raised in the village, and has been taught to love it as much as the ninja next door. She has also, however, been born in a clan that is notorious all across the nations, and not necessarily in a good way. The Uchiha are symbols of deadly grace, of stoic, beautiful faces, and red, red eyes that hide their burning love.

"Mikoto," her grandmother would always tell her, gently but firmly in the way only Uchiha women know how to, "we, Uchiha, are creatures of love. Never forget that."

The Uchiha hide their burning red love behind a dark, thick curtain of stoicness, and she has been privy to that fact ever since she was a young girl. It's hard not to notice when everyone around you acts the same way for years on end.

Every Uchiha has someone they love as much as life itself. Someone who holds their hearts in the palm of their hands, someone who has the power to give them the world, and just as easily burn it down. Someone who breathes life into them, who makes the flowers hidden in the corners of their hearts bloom, who fuels the furnace in their red, burning heart.

For Fugaku, it's Mikoto.

For Mikoto, it's Itachi.

"Some may love too much, and when they lose that love, they may become dark, twisted." Her grandmother would then look around furtively, voice lowering to a barely audible whisper. "It's what happened to Uchiha Madara. It's what happened to your grandfather, and your uncle. It's not a rare thing."

For Uchiha Madara, it had been Uchiha Izuna.

For Mikoto's grandfather, it had been his sister.

For Mikoto's uncle, it had been his son.

"How do you stop it, grandmother?" Mikoto's young self had asked, big eyes full of careful curiosity.

"The secret to it, my dear, is that you must love yourself as much as you love them. If you love them more than you do yourself, you will not be able to handle losing them." Her grandmother tells her then, a twinkle in her dark eyes, a wisdom that spoke of years, but also pain and anguish. Something that spoke of a hard learned lesson.

For Mikoto's grandmother, it had been her husband.

.

.

When she meets Sarutobi Chiyuki for the first time, something in Mikoto's gut tells her they'll be seeing that child very often.

The little girl is extremely polite and respectful of clan dynamics, and although the Uchiha matriarch is appreciative of that, the girl is almost too polite. Something wiggles its way into Mikoto's brain and stays there, watchful, wondering.

The Sandaime's daughter stays for hours inside Fugaku's office, and when she leaves, she gives the black haired woman a hesitant, small smile. Almost like a tentative 'see you later'.

(The first outsider to ever enter the Uchiha compound in years.)

Fugaku does not go to bed that night. He stays holed up in his office, and when he finally does leave, nearly 24 hours later, there's a slightly crazed look in his dark eyes. He says he's going to be out for a while, and Mikoto lets him be.

She could corner him and he would end up telling her, because he always does, but something in her wants to see how far this will go. Her husband's gaze has never been so alive, a light shining in his eyes that she hasn't seen for the longest time, and it all started after Chiyuki talked to him.

Mikoto is endlessly curious, but just as patient.

A couple of weeks later, Fugaku calls her to his study and activates the sound-proofing seal. Wearing his most serious expression, her husband tells her everything - children being kidnapped, conspiracy theories, thoughts that border on blatant betrayal of their village, and the work of a young girl. How she had reached out to Nara Shikaku first, and how they both had had the guts to actually test him. Him! Uchiha Fugaku!

The Uchiha patriarch has never felt more alive, more free than in this moment, and Mikoto falls a little bit more in love with him. Although stern, Fugaku is a good man, she has never doubted that - but in that unhinged, slightly crazed moment of clarity, the Uchiha matriarch feels it was more than worth it to wait and watch things unfold.

She watches as the fire in his eyes light up once again, the furnace in his heart roaring high and loud for all to see and hear, how he carries himself that little bit taller. She watches - quiet, wondering, marveling - as it affects her family, the way they see themselves, and how they behave inside the village.

The next time Mikoto sees the blonde genin, she makes sure to invite the little girl to stay for dinner. She cooks up a feast and keeps the conversation going, mindful of the child's overly polite demeanor, and something settles in her mind.

Sarutobi Chiyuki had shown the Uchiha that the fight is far from over, and that they don't have to hide inside the village they helped build. She had seen and understood that they are extremely loyal and trustworthy, had reached out first because she believed them. Perhaps the girl sees their burning red love and doesn't quite understand it, but that's alright.

She'll come to, in time.

Mikoto's love for her son burns bright and scorching in her heart, but Chiyuki has managed to settle in a place all of her own. The Sarutobi Princess has re-ignited the flame in Fugaku's heart, has given hope to the Uchiha clan, and has made a promise to turn Konoha into a great place to live, even if she has to burn it to the ground first.

She has brought the much needed sunlight to their clan, and that, in the Uchiha matriarch's mind, is more than enough to earn her loyalty and protection.

Uchiha Mikoto's love burns a deep, burgundy red. It's that love that cooks for her husband and her son everyday, that speaks in clan meetings, that goes on missions-

-that lays cutting, hurtful words on a Legendary Sannin. Things she knows are a low blow, things he'll remember for the rest of his life, things that rub salt on his deepest, most hurtful wounds.

Things that might've given him more than enough reason to turn against their clan, but Mikoto knows he would dare not - for the village's future Hokage supports the Uchiha, and the Uchiha support the village's future Hokage.

If given the chance, she would do it all over again.

(The sun has finally dawned on the Uchiha again, and she will not let anyone conceal it.)

Chapter Text

TW: violence, death.

dance around the fire

.

Sarutobi Chiyuki is twelve years old when she kills a child during the Third Shinobi War.

She's no stranger to killing - no, far from that. Graduating the Academy at seven and being thrown at the frontlines a few months later had taught her how to kill swiftly and efficiently, how to burn or bury a body so there was no evidence, and how to exchange the corpse at the hunter-nin's office in case it had a bounty.

Most of the ones she'd killed had been ninja, but some had been civilians. Mercenaries. Bandits.

Victims.

Then she kills a girl no older than ten years old, and a part of her dies too.

Perhaps the infamous Sarutobi Princess wasn't as strong and powerful as she seemed to be, if killing a young girl was all it took for her to throw her plans out of the window and take the easy way out.

She could, of course, continue on her path to becoming Hokage. She already had enough support, she just had to wait until she was old enough to do so, training and gaining allies whenever the opportunity arose. She'd bid her time, honing her abilities and becoming as strong as possible, extending her influence far and wide, until there was no one who didn't respect (and fear) the Godaime Hokage, the Iron Demon.

'What, then?'

Would peace treaties be enough to stop human greed? Would alliances be enough to heal old grudges and bury distorted truths? Was it not human nature to yearn for more and more, until there was absolutely nothing left to take?

Chiyuki uses Chou to reach out to Madara.

The Uchiha, true to his wit and intelligence, carves up a beautifully laid plan, one that involves a surprise attack of the White Zetsu army a few weeks later. Her performance is Oscar-worthy, if she does say so herself, and for a grand total of three seconds, Sarutobi Chiyuki is really, truly dead.

She comes back to life gasping and clutching at her chest, ignoring the amused look Black Zetsu sends her. She's then taken to the small cave where the Ghost of the Uchiha is hidden, old body connected to the Demon Statue of the Outer Path. Both he and Black Zetsu grin at her wickedly, but she does not react.

The ash blonde child becomes Madara's longed for proxy.

She gives both him and Zetsu the pleasure of thinking they both have the upper hand, and sets out to do what she must do. She lets the Kyubi loose, killing Minato and Kushina. Madara kills Yahiko. She then recruits the members of the Akatsuki, one by one, except for Itachi. She gives Chou the most awful, most vile of tasks, and gives her memories of Konoha in exchange for a job well done.

She does not need them anymore, and ignores the pang in her chest everytime she thinks of the people she'd left behind.

'Chiyuki' dies, and in her place, 'Sen' is born - Sen, the mysterious leader of the Akatsuki, the Thousand-Eyed Demon, the one who is rumored to be as strong as a thousand shinobi.

Sen is twenty six years old when Madara completes the Eye of The Moon Plan, and shortly after, she kills him.

He'd been a fool when he'd given her the rinnegan, when he'd taught her to mold the iron in someone's blood vessels, and when he'd given her the means to break off of a sharingan-induced genjutsu.

The woman kills Madara, once and for all, and destroys the Demon Statue, because they've both served their purpose. She kills the White Zetsu army, because there may be many, but the Uchiha had been methodic and throughout in his training, and he'd made sure she knew just how strong iron could be against something as breakable as wood.

Sen kills Black Zetsu, because fuck Kaguya, goddess or not. He puts up a good fight, but in the end, she'd taken to the rinnegan like a fish to water, the doujutsu easy and right on her face, and only then does he see the mistake he and Madara committed in betting all their money on her, and the absolute monster they created.

Sen kills and kills and kills, and when the Infinite Tsukuyomi reflects off the moon, she doesn't even notice the people she'd once held dear looking at her in horror, because she doesn't remember them.

(The world drowns peacefully in a pool of all the spilled blood - red and warm.)

.

In case y’all are interested, I have a tumblr.

Chapter Text

gardener in a war

.

Maito Gai is eight years old when the Third Shinobi War breaks out.

He's in his third year of the academy, and much like his classmates, has seen a much more condensed version of the curriculum, thanks to the threat of the looming war. He graduates, because no one above the age of seven escapes being cannon fodder, and is put on a team with his rival's friend and a ten year old boy he doesn't really know.

The boy shrugs and figures his team could've been much worse, and is thankful he'll be on a team with someone he knows, at the very least. No one quite knows Genma - has never even heard of him - and it strikes Gai that, just like him, he must also have been in the middle of his class. Perfectly average, the both of them.

Their third team member, however, is Sarutobi Chiyuki, who is very hip and cool - but in a different way than his rival, Kakashi.

A seven year old genius and the Hokage's youngest child, she's everything Gai isn't, and he tries his hardest to not let himself be affected. Kakashi had shown him time and time again that the world was much less kind to prodigies than to normal people, and that no one wished to be born with such a heavy weight on their shoulders.

The eight year old figures out quickly enough that the label of a genius they put on her isn't necessarily because of her physical strength.

Chiyuki thinks all the time, so much so that both he and Genma can nearly see the gears working overtime inside that bright mind. She talks about economics and politics and confronts the adults about topics he'd never even thought about before - like how the hospital never seems to have enough staff, how long ago the sewers have undergone any sort of maintenance, and why kunoichi classes are only available to girls when they teach incredibly useful subjects like poisonous plants and the importance that your appearance has on certain missions.

The taijutsu user watches, mistifiedly, as she catches the eyes of powerful shinobi - because, really, how could she not? - and easily wins them over with her admittedly cute charisma and interest in Konoha's welfare.

They're thrown in the middle of a war and are forced to become stronger and better each day, at the risk of losing their very lives should they fail. She becomes their team leader, and as expected, the world is not kind to prodigies - the blonde child shoulders heavy decisions and comes up with a major part of the strategies that gets them to live another day, and sometimes her gaze looks so haunted and so tired that Gai doesn't know what to do with himself.

Orochimaru nearly kills them, and he sees a new side to someone he'd thought he knew like his own self.

Their team leader would rather end her own life than to face torture for years on end, and that absolutely terrifies him, drenching him in a cold sweat that chills him to the bones. It's not about taking the 'easy way out' or abandoning them, no; it's about knowing what's exactly in store for her, understanding just what it is that makes the Snake Sannin such a fearsome opponent.

It's about knowing that people will target you even as a genin, because you're a threat to them.

He lies awake that first night, the reality crashing down on him suddenly. They really could've died at the hands of a man - who fought in the Second Shinobi War, one of the famed Konoha Sannin, considered to be a prodigy himself - who thought a ten year old genin was a threat to him.

Gai is instantly relieved that there's no way such a person can become Hokage, because he most definitely would hate to work for someone as narcissistic and petty as that man, his love for his village aside.

Perhaps this is when the boy really starts to wonder just what the position entails, and how selfless one must be to wear the hat. He thinks it's not an easy job, by all means, and that no one can simply become a Kage, no matter how much they may wish for it, if they don't have the mental fortitude for it.

It's as if he sees Chiyuki for the first time on that dreary, dark night, and he thinks life definitely isn't fair for people who perform above average.

So he trains. And trains, and trains, and trains some more. He trains until he falls to the ground, exhausted and unable to move a single finger. On the next day, he does it all over again - because it's what he does best, and it's the only way he can protect his teammates.

He finally understands Kakashi's obsession with becoming stronger.

-until his team leader gets kidnapped, and he falls into another rabbit hole, full of panic and helplessness, because in the end, he'd been able to do nothing, all his training had meant nothing against jounin-level shinobi, and now he was in danger of losing her again, and what if she decides it's better to end her life-

The blonde child comes back, thin and dehydrated, but very much alive, and Konoha allies with Ame.

It is then that Gai realizes she might not need them, after all. She'd managed to get herself out of that particular situation - and like a 'buy one get one free' deal, had acted as an intermediary in the negotiations between the two villages.

Once again, it's like he's seeing his teammate for the first time.

Though she might not need them, she appreciates them. They are precious to her, and she is precious to them - both him and Genma, he knows -, and that makes something warm and good flutter around in his chest, makes a smile curl in his lips, makes him run around Konoha whooping like a madman.

Chiyuki might not need them, but she also needs them. She tends to close in on herself during crisis, and only after she'd dealt with them on her own, she lets them come to her. She lets them lick her wounds, lets them fuss over her, lets them stand next to her - never behind - whilst she deals with her emotions. She might be strong enough on her own, but the fact that she still seeks them out for validation and support makes him realize they stand next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and he very much likes the idea of standing next to his Hokage.

She lets them carry some of her burdens, and Gai hopes it'll continue to be this way even when she wears the hat.

In case y'all are interested in supporting me, I have a tumblr.

Chapter Text

how soon is now

.

Team Kakashi is a combat team, and for their dynamic to work, they need to stick closely together at all times.

It's only with a slightly bitter taste on his tongue that Obito admits Kakashi is their team leader for a reason - strong and smart enough to be considered jounin-level, there's no way either Obito or Rin would manage to get their team out of so many life-threatening situations with as little injuries as the Hatake does.

The Uchiha boy isn't weak, by any means; he understands he's well-earned his chunin promotion, and using the sharingan feels as natural as fire jutsu for him. He might not be a genius like his younger cousins or Kakashi, but he packs a mean punch, and under the guidance of his teammates and Minato-sensei, his chakra control has gotten good enough to the point he can throw C and B-ranked jutsu around with little problem.

Rin, as the medic-nin of their team and well on her way to becoming one of Konoha's best, isn't allowed to fight an opponent on her own unless it really can't be helped, but the kunoichi knows her fair share of long-ranged water jutsu and is, by no means, a pushover.

More often than not, Kakashi takes point of their team formation while Rin stays in the middle and Obito brings up the rear, and it's a very efficient way to bulldoze their way out of fights. After a mission gone particularly bad - a battle against a few Kumo ninja, where Obito awakened his sharingan - they've always stayed close together, so that one is constantly watching the others' six.

It's something their bodies are more than used to, at this point, and when they're nearly separated during the mission to destroy the Kannabi Bridge, grabbing onto each other is automatic. There's a fraction of a second in which the three children meet each other's eyes before they're being plunged into a cave system, the darkness suddenly all-enveloping and limiting their movements for a few, precious seconds.

Obito catches sight of a pair of sharingan eyes and instantly activates his own-

He's thrown face down in a world that's so similar to their own, yet so vastly different. Images he can't begin to comprehend flash rapidly before his sharingan eyes - Rin, dying a gruesome, horrible death; Obito himself, trying to do good through the worst ways; Kakashi, barely managing to keep himself afloat in the midst of his neverending sea of guilt; Minato-sensei and Kushina-sensei, dying on the very day their son was born, because of Obito unleashing the Nine Tailed Demon Fox.

(Uchiha Obito awakens his mangekyou sharingan at the age of twelve. He accidentally travels to another reality, one where Chiyuki doesn't exist, and decides he's having none of it.)

'Oh? What's this?'

A voice that's decidedly not his reverberates in his skull, breaking the impromptu dimension travel, and images of his interactions with Chiyuki pop up in his mind, unbidden. Something icy cold chills the Uchiha boy to the bone, slimy and constricting, and he knows absolutely nothing good is gonna come out of the way the intruder in his head focuses on the blonde child.

'Hokage? How absolutely precious.'

The voice sneers, sarcasm dripping from every word like deadly poison, and the scenery shifts again. This time, Obito isn't a mere bystander, but someone who-

-the hands that are gripping the kunai are his, but not. He feels himself trying to let go of the sharp weapon, trying to drop it to the ground and kick it far away, but his hands merely grip it tighter. His traitorous legs take him to the Sarutobi Princess, the one that's grown immensely on him, the first one to tell him he'd be a great shinobi - and just as his voice calls out to her, he stabs her with the kunai.

Blood immediately gushes out of the fatal wound, and the Uchiha can merely stand and watch as those brown eyes slowly lose focus and dim out, but not before they send a look of betrayal so deep and so raw that he wails.

"NO!"

This time, arms that are his own and obey to his will quickly grip the slowly falling girl, clutching desperately at his friend's body.

'You did this.'

The voice whispers sinisterly, maliciously, and Obito shakes his head so hard he starts to get dizzy.

"No, no! That wasn't me! That was you!"

'Who, me? Those weren't my hands, though.'

The voice gets increasingly annoying, mocking Obito and everything he's ever known, all his bonds, the people he holds close to his red, burning heart-

Chiyuki's body vanishes from his arms and reappears just a couple of meters in front of him, back turned. The Uchiha scrambles to his feet, desperate to get to his friend, trembling hands reaching out.

Red gushes out of the fatal wound and splashes on his face, dizzyingly warm, and it takes him a couple of seconds to look down and see his hands gripping the kunai, and Chiyuki looks back at him with tears in her eyes.

"Obito, how could you?"

Once again the blonde child falls to the ground, but this time he's unable to catch her in time. He kneels next to her and grips her shoulders, the fabric of her hoodie bunching up in his tight clutch.

"Chiyuki! It wasn't me!"

She closes her eyes and dies at his hand - again.

"Chiyuki!"

'Tsk, tsk, tsk.'

The scene repeats itself, again and again, again and again, breaking him a little bit more each time. He struggles against himself every time, snarling and growling at the voice in his head, and even if he considers giving up, even if he thinks about simply letting go-

"You're going to be one of the best shinobi in the world, Obito. I know so."

He wrestles against himself each and every time, because she promised him. The child with the too bright eyes, who spoke about things he didn't understand sometimes, who said she was sorry when he awakened his sharingan, she promised him.

'Give up, boy. No Kage could ever fix this rotten world.'

She promised him.

His exhausted, weary body grips her form for the millionth time, his dark eyes struggling to focus on her pale face.

She promised him.

"Obi? You're fine. I'm fine. We're both fine."

Her hand caresses his cheek, and his eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets. Her chocolate brown eyes look at him with trust and kindness, a small smile playing on her lips, and Obito finally lets go.

She kept her promise.

"It's okay, Obito. We're okay."

Chapter Text

house of the rising sun

.

Uchiha Itachi has just become an older brother, and he doesn't quite know what to do with himself just yet.

His mother kindly shows him how to hold Sasuke, and his small arms awkwardly - but gently - hold the tiny little baby that's gripping his fingers, and oh-

Itachi would burn the world down for this baby.

(In his heart, his love for his little brother burns a beautiful, scarlet red, and nothing has ever felt as right as this.)

Mikoto and Fugaku watch, with no small amount of love and pride, as their eldest child holds the newest acquisition to their family, and marvel at how quickly baby Sasuke has charmed his older brother. Itachi loves Sasuke as much as life itself, and something settles in his mind. His heart burns and warms his baby brother up, and he's eager to be the best big brother in the world.

He has a couple of great examples to learn from.

One of them is his cousin Shisui, who despite being much more extroverted than Uchiha are, does not show his affection for anyone so easily, and has taken Itachi as his own little brother. They train, they eat snacks, and they spend hours talking quietly to each other, understanding one another effortlessly.

No one understands him quite as well as Shisui does, and he's grateful for the older boy, even if he is loath to admit it sometimes.

The other example is Sarutobi Chiyuki, who despite being the youngest of three siblings, knows how to play the part of a big sister well. It makes Itachi grumble quietly to himself, because Sasuke absolutely adores her, and the Uchiha heir can't decide if he feels jealous of his brother, or the older girl.

He doesn't know how to be a younger brother, and is only now learning how to be an older one, but if he could, he thinks he'd like to have a sister like her: someone who quietly reassures him, who faces him directly (fearlessly), who looks at his - prodigal, extraordinary - six year old self and treats him just like she treats everyone else.

Not as Uchiha Itachi, a genius born once every hundred years, the heir to the prestigious Uchiha clan - but simply as Itachi.

(As someone who holds a similarly heavy weight on her shoulders, perhaps she understands better than everyone else what it feels like to have a crown put on your head, without any regard for your opinion on the matter.)

Sasuke was named after Chiyuki's grandfather, in the hopes that he'd be just as powerful and kind like the previous Sarutobi clan head. It's something that goes unnoticed by no one, and even if the move hadn't been a (mostly) kind gesture, the fact of the matter is that the Sarutobi Princess, the Iron Demon, and most likely future Hokage is now the godmother of the Uchiha clan heads' youngest son.

Itachi learned with Shisui what it means to look underneath the underneath, who'd claimed that it was an essential skill for people like them - people who inevitably stood out -, and the six year old wonders how that will turn out for his clan.

Despite it all, his parents trust the ash blonde girl enough to put their clan's fate in her hands, and the Uchiha heir is happy that Sasuke's godparent is someone reliable - young, yes, but trustworthy nonetheless. His own feelings aside, he feels as if he'd be able to leave his brother's life in her care, and the thought alone is enough to put his mind at ease.

He doesn't know what he'd do should anything ever happen to Sasuke.

(It's a thought he'd really rather not dwell on.)

The truth is that Itachi has always trusted Chiyuki, most likely a result of subconscious thinking - for as long as he can remember, his parents always had an unshakeable amount of faith in her, and he never saw any reason to question it.

His father sometimes murmurs to him about loyalty and respect, about how as a ninja, his allegiance should be, first and foremost, to Konoha - and, most importantly, to his Hokage. When the young academy student asks the Sarutobi Princess what it means to be the leader of a village, she braves through the fog of confusion in his mind and grabs his hand, dragging him out to glorious sunlight.

"I want to be Hokage so that everyone can freely choose how they want to live."

Did that mean he'd be able to choose his own allegiances? Would that give him the freedom to not have to choose between his village or his clan? Did that award him the possibility of not having to dogfight his way to the top, wary of all that tried to approach him?

"What about you?"

She'd looked at him with a curious tilt to her head, puzzled by his question.

'Does this person not think about herself at all?'

It was the pot calling the kettle black, but it had him worried for a total of two seconds. If this person was going to live for the sake of others, what about herself?

The girl had smiled at him, then, a wet hint to her chocolate brown eyes. It was a kind smile, similar to those his mother would give him, and the sudden, raw gentleness threw him off for a split second.

"The moment I decided to become Hokage is the moment I chose my freedom."

It occurs to him that this person already made the decision a long time ago, but the way she words it makes Itachi think this is the best way she's found to deal with the heavy crown she's found herself wearing. Instead of letting her back curl forward to accommodate the solid weight, Chiyuki has decided to become strong enough to wear the crown effortlessly, as if it'd always belonged in her head.

And that hits a bit too close to home, because Itachi has never asked to be a genius, or the Uchiha heir. He never asked to stand out so much, and he just kept on meeting people's expectations because he didn't know any better, because it'd be a huge dishonor for him to pretend to be weaker than he actually was.

The confusion clears from his mind, slow and sure like the sun breaks through the darkness of the night everyday, without fail.

Itachi puts his life and Sasuke's on her hands, because he believes her - believes her confidence, her quiet self-assurance, her kindness, and strength - and decides that his own freedom is following her.

Chapter Text

god sent me as karma

.

Torture and Interrogation is a dark, dreary place even to the toughest of ninja - not because there are people screaming in pain and agony all the time, but because it's the exact opposite.

Chiyuki leisurely walks the dimly lit halls of one of the lowest floors, not a sound to be heard except for the low, rhythmic click of her heels on the floor. She takes her time in heading towards the room at the very end of the corridor, as if she were on a stroll in the park on a sunny day, and not on her way to see one of the most dangerous shinobi to ever exist.

Following her lead at a suitable distance are Yamanaka Inoichi, head of T&I, and Morino Ibiki, his second in command. Neither men dare to get too close to the woman or even breathe loudly, because her silence and blank expression intimidate them more than they'd like to admit. She hasn't said a word since they entered the building, being too relaxed for them to believe this will be a pretty sight.

Konoha has flourished more than ever under the rule of the young Godaime Hokage, yes, but she did not get where she is by playing nice.

Waiting for them in front of the door is Uchiha Obito, who bows slightly in greeting. His somber expression reminds the newcomers of his clan head, lips turned downwards and a grim furrow to his eyebrows, a sight that'd be a source of light-hearted jokes in any other situation. The man undoes the numerous seals swiftly, opening the heavy metal door and letting the ash-blonde woman step in first.

In contrast to the low lighting of the hallway, the room they enter is brightly lit, almost overly so. There is a wall with a one-way glass separating the room in two areas just like an interrogation room, but the place is empty otherwise. The Uchiha closes the door behind them and stands next to his Hokage, not paying any mind to Ibiki and Inoichi who make no move to walk forward. Side by side, the childhood friends watch the sight on the other side of the wall.

Hatake Kakashi stands in one corner, hands on the pockets of his pants, looking perfectly bored and relaxed. The scene, whoever, makes one think of a jaguar - watchful and oddly relaxed as it prepares to tense suddenly and pounce on its prey. In the other corner is Uzumaki Kushina, fiery red hair unmistakable in the bright light of the room. She holds the famed Uzumaki chains firmly on her hands, a scowl on her face. Both of them are responsible for keeping the kneeling shinobi glued to his place, preventing him from moving even the slightest bit.

One might say it's a bit overkill to have both a seal master and an Uzumaki hold a man in place, but Chiyuki knows very well what he's capable of, and she'll do everything in her power to restrict his movements as much as possible.

Obito wordlessly opens the second door, and the two people already inside nod respectfully at their leader. She steps inside and nods back at them, then slowly tilts her head down at the dark-haired man in front of her.

Orochimaru meets her gaze with a sneer, managing to give her a mocking look even from his lower point of view. The seal on his mouth, courtesy of Kakashi, prevents him from saying anything at her arrival. She can only imagine what kind of things he'd like to say, giving their history.

The Godaime Hokage blinks slowly at the Snake Sage, letting the silence drag on. As the highest ranking person in the room - and the entire village -, social norms dictate that she be the one to say something first, but the quiet is a very powerful intimidation tactic, even against someone of Orochimaru's caliber.

Like a slowly acting poison, the silence starts to get to you bit by bit, the shrill ringing of nothingness yelling in your ear making you increasingly more tense and fidgety. Your mood is quick to sour, then, and you're prone to start talking just to hear something, even if it's the sound of your voice.

Of course, being a widely feared S-ranked ninja, the man kneeling on the cold, hard floor also knows intimidation (and torture) tactics like the back of his hand, but he also hasn't eaten or drank anything in days, and hasn't heard a single sound in weeks. For a while, he's known nothing but sensory deprivation and, forever staring at the same white wall in a too-bright room, a victim of a body that isn't nearly capable of healing from his festering wounds, and his own thoughts. For someone of his caliber, these things might be the same as child's play, but the woman's goal wasn't to break him at once.

No; she slowly but surely chips away at his defenses, letting the days drag on with no news or 'visitors', with only the minimal amount of water to survive. When Itachi's team came back from their mission a week late, dragging a barely-alive Orochimaru with them, Chiyuki had Rin heal the man enough so that he wouldn't bleed out or die from an infection, but no more than that. The snake summoner does heal at a faster rate due to his constant 'change' of bodies, but Itachi is a fearsome, vicious shinobi, and if he wanted to, he could've as well dragged Orochimaru's cold, dead body into his Hokage's office like an odd present instead.

"Otogakure, huh." Finally, after a long, dragged out silence, the butterfly summoner speaks, the honeyed tone of her voice sounding condescending and mocking. "Did you want to be a Kage so much that you went and founded a village? That's quite daring."

The Snake Sannin doesn't show an outward reaction, as she expected he wouldn't, but the agitated flow of blood inside his vessels tells her she hit a sore spot - and she plans on rubbing even more salt in the wound.

"That's the only way you could rule a ninja village, isn't it? You could never have become Hokage, after all." The Iron Demon speaks in a patronizing tone, furrowing her eyebrows in an ironic, false expression of pity. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Kakashi glare at the kneeling man, which means he must've been trying to struggle against the seals on his body.

She twists the metaphorical blade deeper into the wound.

"With you being the way you are, of course you weren't chosen." She pauses and tilts her head, wearing a mask of faked sympathy and mockery. "You thought you had a choice because you were my father's student? Oh, no."

Kushina tightens her hold on her chains, and for Orochimaru to still have enough strength to fight against the numerous restraints on his body just shows how he should not be underestimated.

Like all humans, however, he is prone to breaking.

"You were his favorite student, and yet one of his biggest mistakes."

Chiyuki gazes down at his yellow eyes full of rage and actual hurt, and knows she struck a nerve. With how complicated Hiruzen and Orochimaru's relationship was, she knows that at some point they had some kind of twisted, mutual respect for one another - her father, too sentimental to be able to deal with his deranged student, and the leader of Oto, who acknowledged the Sandaime's strength and wisdom, but abused the remains of love the older man had for him.

"Even though my father favored you, this is all you'll ever amount to."

Things happen in a blur inside a fraction of a second.

Kakashi reacts violently to Orochimaru's sudden surge of chakra and fury, and suddenly kicks the man's back, effectively throwing him to the ground with a deep growl. The silver haired man's foot keeps the prisoner's head connected to the ground, and blood slowly starts to seep out from the new wound. Kushina tightens the chains to the maximum level possible with a thundering look, squeezing the Snake Sannin's rib cage painfully and making him choke on his limited air supply. Obito is suddenly in front of her, mangekyo sharingan locked on the writhing man and spinning menacingly, ready to kill him at a moment's notice.

Orochimaru is unable to raise his head or even growl at her, but his chakra runs wildly in his body, even restrained. His blood cells shriek in outrage and pain, the iron in his blood cells wailing loudly in her mind in anguish and misery.

"You have always been a fraud."

With one last cold look to the fallen shinobi, she turns around and leaves the room, the Uchiha right behind her not a full second later. He closes the door behind them, instantly cutting off Orochimaru's tormented, muffled groans, and they both meet Inoichi and Ibiki, who had been waiting next to the door that leads to the hallway.

The Godaime Hokage glances at them, a perfectly blank expression on her face. "Deal with the rest."

The two men bow their heads, silent, and the woman makes her way to the metal door. The Snake Sannin would talk, eventually, because they need him to decipher his notes if they want any success in treating the poor victims of his horrible experiments, and she's made sure there's no point in him withholding information.

Chiyuki's broken him. In a different way than when he'd broken her, and Gai, and Genma, in a different way than when he'd broken her father, in a different way than when he'd broken Yamato, and Karin, and Suigetsu, and Jugo, and Kimimaro, and all the others that unfortunately did not make it.

But she did it, all the same.

The click of her heels is once again the only sound to be heard in the dimly-lit hallways of T&I, Obito's presence constant but silent like a ghost right behind her. Soon enough Orochimaru is but a thought pushed to the back of her mind, the feeling of a job well done pleasant but short-lived.

Konoha does not run itself.

Chapter Text

brave new world

.

Sarutobi Hiruzen is 56 years old with a 13 year old daughter that had been mostly an accident, albeit a happy one, and the man has no qualms in admitting that even he gets taken aback by her sheer oddity every once in a while.

The Sandaime Hokage is a man with many mistakes on his shoulders - and twice as many achievements - and although he is very much aware of every single one of his flaws, he somehow can't bring himself to think he was so wrong he was very nearly labeled a criminal.

However, nothing had hurt more than when his youngest, brightest child, the apple of his and Biwako's eye, sought out support from the Nara and the Uchiha instead of going to him.

Was he really that unreliable?

He'd done his very best in protecting Konoha for decades, and although Danzo's methods may have been questionable, his former teammate and the Council of Elders only had the village's best interests in mind.

(Right?)

Yes, Hiruzen had turned a blind eye to it all, even when Danzo started to kidnap children and keep his own sister on a tight leash - because in the end, that's what it means to be Hokage, isn't it? To put Konoha above all and protect it under all costs?

(Isn't it?)

When his child nearly gets murdered in his own house, however, things change a little bit.

(Why is it any different now, though? Shouldn't the village be put above everything else, with no exceptions?)

The day he finally hands the hat over to Minato, his daughter hides behind the towering figure that is the Nara clan head, avoiding everyone's eyes, and the guilt nearly swallows him whole.

The Sandaime watches with suffocating shame and regret as his Chiyuki - bright, charismatic, too smart for her own good - hides from him, and he thinks this is the price he has to pay for his sins.

Time slowly does its job of healing all wounds. Although things will never quite go back the way they were, by no means they're bad, except that-

His own daughter scares him, sometimes.

He might have been lenient with her and let her run around the Hokage Tower as she pleased, watching with fond eyes as she absorbed all that had been taught to her like a little sponge-

-felt pride puff his chest out when she demonstrated interest in his job, gave her full access to the library, let Biwako and his secretary quench her insatiable thirst for knowledge-

-but sometimes, he can't help but feel as if her mind is leagues ahead, as if a 13 year old shouldn't be thinking about the economical and political repercussions of a war, shouldn't be thinking about alliances and being an ambassador and how much her actions can affect the biggest, most powerful ninja village.

(Should she not? Isn't this what she was raised for? Isn't this what he let her do?)

(Didn't he, along with others, build her throne of iron on top of rotting roots, only to be surprised when the splinters broke her skin?)

The night before she's set to leave for Ame, she looks him dead in the eye and stands confidently in the middle of a rotting forest, with a torch in her hands.

"Fear isn't peace."

"What is peace, then, my child?"

She grins at him - a fearsome thing full of white, sharp teeth and a dangerous glint in her wide eyes - and sets fire to the dead trees.

"Favors."

All the hokages were children of war, and Chiyuki would be no exception to that, as regretful for that as he is.

Why is it, then, that she thinks so differently from them?

"No ninja - or samurai - would ever forget the debt they owe."

The forest burns to ashes around them, and Hiruzen is unable to lift a single finger to put the fire out.

Chapter Text

waiting game

.

One day, a strange woman falls from the sky.

Konoha is new - different, unfamiliar, awkward - and, for now, only the Uchiha, the Senju, and a few other smaller clans tentatively call it 'home'. Hashirama is, of course, the appointed leader of this newly built ninja village, and if Madara sometimes feels resentful, he buries it deep within himself.

There's finally a stable and somewhat peaceful environment for Uchiha children to grow in, and the clan leader fools himself into thinking this is what Izuna would've liked. He sees and hears the discontentment of his clansmen with the unfair treatment they receive, and convinces them it's all for the sake of peace.

Hashirama promises him it's only a matter of time, and Madara forces himself to believe his childhood friend/rival.

In the fragile tranquility of the aftermath of the fighting that's lasted decades, a young, peculiar woman falls from the sky on a bright spring day. She has average looks and is of average height, and would look rather harmless were it not for the strange clothes that show pale skin.

Madara, however, knows better than to underestimate someone by their looks, and remains on high alert.

Although she doesn't have as much chakra as him, everything about her screams danger, from the way she's not afraid to walk languidly towards him, to the way she stares into his eyes unflinchingly-

-to the disarming smile she sends his way.

"Hi," She stops at a reasonable distance from him, and the wind carries her silvery voice to his ears, "my name's Chiyuki. I seem to be a bit lost; would you be able to help me?"

The fact that she mentions no last name definitely doesn't go unnoticed by him, but the Uchiha clan head really can't blame her - fights between clans still happen everyday around Konoha, and she'd be a fool to give out her full name to an unknown ninja so easily.

"How did you get here?" He growls out in lieu of an answer, narrowing his dark eyes and inwardly getting frustrated when she shows no sign of being intimidated.

The woman is either a fool, or a great actress. There is no one who doesn't know the face of Uchiha Madara, and what an encounter with him entails.

She shrugs, and for some reason the casual action grates on his nerves. "I don't know."

"Who sent you here?"

"I don't know."

"Are you alone?"

"It seems so."

Much to his annoyance, the rest of the interrogation follows the same pattern. The woman truly seems to be lost, has no idea how she got here, and doesn't know how to go back to where she's supposed to be. What vexes him the most, however, isn't the fact that she holds little to no information; no, what gets under his skin is the fact that she hasn't lied to him - not even once.

Tobirama arrives to check the situation out, because of course he does, but the Senju merely gets the same patient, honest answers.

They decide to take her to Hashirama, who gets the same results. The leader of Konoha, however, notices she wears the same necklace he does, and in true Hashirama fashion, points bewilderedly at the mysterious woman.

"Ah, that necklace is mine!"

The three men zoom in on the necklace hanging innocently on her collarbone, identical to the one in Hashirama's possession. Madara expects her to fold, then; to cower and avert her eyes and lie her way out, but that is when the patient smile slips from her face as she stares at them with something that almost borders on petulant.

"No, this is mine."

She does not lie.

The brunette splutters at the clear answer given by the woman who clearly is not the least intimidated by the entire situation. Not everyone manages to stand tall and proud when faced with three famous - deadly - shinobi, and the Uchiha's respect for her can't help but rise the slightest bit.

"It was given to me by someone I love and admire. It's a treasured gift." The woman - Chiyuki - continues, and the room is stunned into silence by her straightforward honesty.

"Who?" Tobirama is the first to recover, narrowing his red eyes suspiciously.

Chiyuki grins.

A beautiful (dangerous) sight that showcases all of her white teeth, an ominous twinkle in her brown eyes-

-she's confident in herself and her abilities, deals with unknown situations with calm and wit, and something flutters in Madara's chest.

The blonde nods at Hashirama, and her grin widens.

"His granddaughter."

All Hell breaks loose.

.

.

They never catch her.

She always manages to slip by their hands like water, always just out of reach. Whenever Tobirama catches a hint of her, he sends the Senju on a wild hunt, only for the clansmen to come back defeated and frustrated, nursing their bruised ego.

Hashirama sends Madara and his clansmen after her, but admittedly, the Uchiha doesn't try all that hard to catch her.

During the next few days, Chiyuki lets him find her, and the two will spend some time in a complex, deadly dance, testing each other's abilities, taking turns in attacking and defending, until she smiles at him and vanishes in a swarm of colorful butterflies - always leaving him wanting more, yearning for more.

What 'more' entails, he does not yet know.

Hashirama himself sets out to find her and bring her back to Konoha, having decided she quite possibly comes from the future and is too dangerous to be left alone. The man, however, comes back at the end of the day, uncharacteristically quiet and full of non-threatening wounds, and instead of feeling resentful that she managed to beat his old-time rival, the Uchiha clan head feels himself grin in anticipation and excitement.

Chiyuki is beautiful and strong and quick-witted and a little shit, and Madara feels alive.

(Something burns in his chest, huge flames lighting up his heart on fire for the first time since Izuna's death, and he laughs in delight.)

tbc (?)

Chapter Text

lullabye

.

Madara won.

If he's completely honest with himself, there was a time when he didn't think he'd make it. All of his carefully laid plans ruined one after the other by a single woman, a thorn in his side ever since she was a kid.

No matter. He's won, the Infinite Tsukuyomi is in place, and all around him, people dream of their perfect lives.

The world is at peace.

.

.

Nara Shikaku is a simple man - as long as his family is safe and happy and he has a place to nap on, there's nothing else he'd want.

"Checkmate." Chiyuki's voice sounds quietly from the sitting room, a grin on her face.

Across from her, Shikamaru furrows his eyebrows, a pout on his lips. "One more."

"After dinner, kids." The Jounin Commander drawls, looking down at the shogi board on the floor. "There's plenty of time to try and beat your sister."

"She's always busy, though." The boy visibly sulks, and his father narrows his eyes playfully at him. Maybe Yoshino's right and Chiyuki's spoiling him too much-

"Maa, I'll try to come by more often, mhm? There's no need to pout, Shika." The blonde woman pats her brother's head, an obviously fond smile on her lips.

The Nara clan head is about to open his mouth to say something, but then she directs her smile at him. "Right, dad?"

Oh, who's Shikaku trying to fool? The current Hokage has both father and son wrapped around her pinky - and honestly, he can't say he'd rather have it any other way.

"I'd be good if you managed to come home more often." The man concedes with a mumble, ignoring the look his son sends him. "Now let's go eat dinner before your mom decides to come here."

The four of them sit down to eat, smiling and joking around, and Shikaku thinks life is honestly pretty good right now.

.

.

"Chiyuki-hime, thank you for coming. Please come in." Uchiha Fugaku and his family bow in greeting to their leader, who answers with an easy smile.

"Aa, thank you for having me. I brought dessert." Chiyuki raises the container full of strawberry daifuku as an offering, and a spell is broken. Sasuke runs up to his godmother and hugs her around the waist, talking a mile a minute.

"Oneechama, it's been so long since you came to my house! Did you know I learned the Great Fireball Technique yesterday? Father taught me! And niichan's been teaching me how to throw shuriken-"

"Sasuke, be a dear and take the dessert to the kitchen, will you? Itachi, show Chiyuki-chan to the dining room, yes? Dinner will be ready in a few." Mikoto says smoothly, easily taking control of the situation before the Hokage can indulge her godson - as she is prone to doing.

"Yes, mother." Both sons chorus in unison, and the Uchiha clan heir bows once again respectfully to his teacher.

"Chiyuki-shishou, thank you for accepting our invitation to dinner."

"Of course, Itachi."

Averting his eyes bashfully at the soft smile on her face, the Hokage's apprentice wordlessly guides the Godaime to the dining room.

Fugaku watches from the sidelines as Chiyuki makes herself at home, a fond expression on his face.

.

.

Senju Tsunade has never considered herself particularly motherly, even with her little brother. She's never considered having children of her own, for a myriad of reasons - but now, as she watches her husband hold her teacher's newborn daughter, something in her starts to wonder.

"She's so tiny." Dan whispers, awe on his voice and face. His deep green eyes sparkle with curiosity as he holds the Sandaime's youngest with the utmost care and gentleness, and Tsunade grins inwardly.

"She's a newborn." The medic-nin says matter-of-factly, but the sarcasm in her voice is softened by her low tone of voice.

"She kind of looks like you." Nawaki jokes, peering down at the sleeping baby. The woman scoffs at the same time her husband pauses, and she shoots him an incredulous look.

"You can't possibly agree with that." She crosses her arms defensively, glancing down at the sleeping child.

"Why not? She's got blond hair and brown eyes." The blue-haired shinobi says, a small grin on his face.

"Exactly. She looks exactly like her mother." The slug summoner counters, but it sounds weak even to her ears. She feels her ears warming up and scowls at her husband and little brother.

Both men look at each other with identical grins and shrug, Dan looking particularly smug.

"I'm just saying."

Tsunade rolls her eyes, but there's a smile on her lips as well.

.

.

Nagato opens his eyes in the middle of the night, lying still for a few moments and relishing in the quiet breathing of his lovers.

Konan and Yahiko continue to sleep soundly next to him, faces relaxed and worry-free. His gray eyes soften, and he has to resist the urge to run his fingers through their hair, lest he wakes them. It's not that they really need the rest, since Ame has become one of the richest and strongest ninja villages in a little under ten years, but he does like to let them sleep as much as they can.

The three of them aren't known to take things easily, after all.

His ears start to tingle lightly as his piercings receive a message in morse code, and a small smile plays on his lips. The redhead sits up slowly so as to not to wake his lovers, and flash steps from the bedroom they share to the balcony.

The rain falls lightly, almost softly, and the man breathes in the humid air. Ame sleeps soundly, its residents relishing in a good night's sleep after another great day at the ever-growing village. It's the end of summer, one of the busiest times of the year as everyone's busy preparing for the harvest season, but people wake up and go to sleep with a content smile on their faces, and honestly, that's all he's ever wanted.

"Sorry for waking you up."

A voice he knows very well speaks up behind him, and Nagato turns around with a smile already playing on his lips.

"To what do I owe a visit to at this time, esteemed Hokage?"

Chiyuki waves one hand in the air dismissively, a mischievous grin on her face. "Oh, you know. Today's the day someone extremely dear to me was born, and I simply could not miss it."

A red eyebrow goes up, although the smile does not fade. "It's four in the morning."

The young Hokage remains unashamed. "I wanted to be the first one to give you your present."

The rinnegan user huffs out a laugh, and shakes his head at his student's antics. He accepts the important looking scroll from her, and chooses to ignore the Uzumaki seal on it for now.

"Happy birthday, Nagato-sensei." The blonde woman smiles, and he can't help but reciprocate with his entire heart.

"Thank you, Chiyuki."

.

.

"Give us something more exciting than D-ranks, Auntie!" Naruto blurts out as soon as he steps inside her office, and gets a pinch from Sakura and an elbow in the ribs from Sasuke.

"Show some respect, Naruto!"

"Watch the way you talk."

Before the blonde boy can open his mouth to complain, Kakashi's hand grips his head and squeezes, and the student clicks his mouth shut at the narrowed eyes of his teacher.

"Pardon our intrusion, Hokage-sama. Now, Naruto; I'm sure we talked about treating your Hokage with due respect. It seems we'll have to go over it again, mhm?"

Chiyuki watches the scene with deeply amused eyes and laced fingers, legs crossed underneath the table. The hum of iron of her ANBU guard for the day, Genma feels just as entertained as hers, if not more.

'He really is his mother's son.' Chou comments dryly inside her head, and the woman's smile widens.

"Hello, Team 7. It's good to see you all in good health." The Godaime speaks, and the four ninja standing before her desk bow in respect.

"Team 7 reporting in, Hokage-sama. We've come for the monthly report." The silver-haired man's eyes soften as he looks at his childhood friend, although his hand remains on Naruto's head, much to the boy's chagrin.

"Ah, yes. I see that you've completed all your assigned missions, although with a small number of complaints." The Hokage lowers the report in her hands and grins at the genin in front of her, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Well, it's good that you're healthy and well, but remember to not be too naughty, mhm?"

The three children immediately stand with their back ramrod straight, nodding their heads frantically. As she turns to look down at another report, she sees Sasuke give Naruto a scathing look, and hides her fond smile behind her sleeve.

"Well, you're in capable hands, so I suppose it's fine." The blonde adds as an afterthought, and is thoroughly amused as Kakashi scratches his head almost sheepishly and the three genin give their teacher identical looks of disbelief.

"That being said," She continues, and the children perk up, "I do think you're ready for a C rank."

The blonde fiddles with some papers on her desk, watching as the children try to contain their excitement, and before their teacher can open his mouth to protest, she speaks up again.

"After another month of D-ranks, of course." The genin very nearly fall down in a typically comical way, and Genma almost gives away his hiding spot trying to hold in his laughter.

"Eeehh?! Auntie- ouch, I mean, Hokage-sama-!"

"Keep up the good work, Team 7. You're dismissed."

"Understood, Hokage-sama. We'll be taking our leave." The team leader swiftly grabs Naruto by the collar and drags the boy out, his two teammates following behind with disgruntled expressions. Just before they're out the door, Sasuke turns his head to look at his godmother with a pout on his lips. Chiyuki, however, winks at him and waves, and the black-haired boy quickly turns back around to follow his team, the tips of his ears red.

With half a mind on her work and another on the images Chou's all-seeing eyes bring to her brain, she sees Shisui crossing the border between Ame and Fire country, apparently done with his mission, and her gaze softens.

Chiyuki isn't left to her own devices for very long. A few minutes after Team 7 leaves, another knock sounds at the door, and she smiles at the four familiar chakras on the other side.

"Come in." The blonde woman calls out, and the members of Team 8 slowly fill her office. Ino looks at her with deep respect in her blue eyes, while Shikamaru meets her gaze with an embarrassed look and hands hanging awkwardly at his sides. Choji, bless his heart, actually looks happy to see her, and Asuma just looks done with this entire thing.

"Hello, Team 8." There's a grin on her face and affection in her eyes, and in some way or another, the four of them return her smile.

"Hokage-sama." Her brother greets her with a bow, and his students follow suit. "We've come for the monthly report."

"Aa. I have seen and heard great things from you this month. Well done in completing your assigned D-ranks, Team 8. You've come a long way since you graduated from the Academy six months ago, and I am proud of you." The Hokage watches with deep mirth in her gaze as the genin seem to preen under her praise, and shares an amused glance with their teacher.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. They've been trying hard." Her brother has the hint of a proud smile, although he does look quite tired, and the Sarutobi Princess wonders if the Nara heir is being too much for him to handle.

Who would've thought that his rivalry with Sasuke would result in him actually putting effort in his studies and training?

"I see that. In fact, I'd say they're ready for the next step, wouldn't you?" Although Ino looks quite excited and Choji furrows his eyebrows in worry, Shikamaru's eyes narrow in anticipation, a smug smirk on his face, and she knows he's gonna hold this over the Uchiha's head forever.

Oh, well. A healthy rivalry never hurt anyone.

"A C-rank, Hokage-sama?" Team 8's leader seems to wilt in exhaustion when faced with her grin, resigning himself to his fate.

"Why, yes. Please come in." The Godaime says loudly enough to be heard from the other side of the door, and the three children watch with varying degrees of anticipation as a middle-aged man enters the room.

"Hokage-sama." The man greets her hesitantly, eyes flying across the room.

"Ah, Tazuna-san, good to see you. These are your escorts." Tazuna sends over a dubious look to Team 8, and receives unimpressed glares in return.

"Team 8, this gentleman is Tazuna-san, and he's building an important bridge in Kiri. Your mission is to safely escort him back, and I'd like you to treat this C-rank with its due seriousness."

"Understood!"

"And do say hi to Mei for me, will you?"

Chapter Text

until it breaks

.

Uchiha Obito is afraid.

He's 14 years old, is a war-hardened jounin, has awakened his mangekyou sharingan in the midst of battle - and yet, he's terrified.

After Chiyuki comes back from the dead (almost literally), he makes sure to stay beside her at all times, as much as he can. At first, it was to offer support, since he knew best what she went through with Madara.

As the days go on, however, he gets more and more protective of her, and although it doesn't go unnoticed, neither of them say anything. See, the thing is that the blonde girl always seemed so sure of herself before, so confident, so strong- and then suddenly she isn't, and he's afraid she'll slip through his fingers like fine sand.

Before, she was strong and unrelenting like a mountain, rushing through land and water with stubbornness and charisma, but now? Now she's weak, thin, unmotivated, and that scares him more than a lot of things, perhaps even more than losing Rin and Kakashi.

Chiyuki promised him she'd become Hokage and fix the world, but how would she do that when she can barely get up from her bed in the mornings? How can she do that when all life seems to have been sapped from her, when she looks at him with such empty, gray eyes?

How can she do that when it looks like she's going to give up at any moment?

She can't do that.

She promised him.

She promised him.

She'd fix the world and he'd stay by her side and slay all those who dare to stand in her way because he'd rather have his loved ones unhappy but alive. Obito is going to do whatever it takes to put that hat on her head - whatever it takes to achieve peace - even if he has to fight the King of Hell himself.

(People say Chiyuki is a monster, but perhaps they should pay more attention to the beasts she keeps on a leash.)

Chapter Text

kintsugi

.

Uchiha Shisui is eight years old, and his opinion of Chiyuki is mostly neutral.

He cringes at the way everyone around him puts her on a pedestal - even his stoic little cousin! - and is extremely uncomfortable with the way the adults in charge of the village very obviously favor her. Of course, he’s a lot smarter than people give him credit for, and he’d be blind to not see just how much Konoha has grown and evolved because of the waves she’s caused-

(Not even those who are resistant to change can deny it.)

- but still.

Even Fugaku - way too serious, stoic, strict Fugaku - now openly admits his fondness for her (in a very Uchiha-esque way, of course), and Shisui is, more often than not, baffled at it all. Aunt Mikoto is quite obviously fond of the Sarutobi princess as well, going so far as to tell a member of the Sannin off for not taking his responsibilities seriously.

One day, after much prodding, Itachi tells him that she’d promised him freedom of choice, and the four year old talks about her like she’s hung the stars in the sky herself. To a genius pacifist like his little cousin, Chiyuki might as well have said she’d end the war herself. The older Uchiha’s opinion of her raises the slightest bit.

Shisui is nine, and the Sandaime’s daughter is kidnapped by Ame. Konoha’s temporary leaders are this close to storming the smaller village and getting her out themselves, his uncle Fugaku amongst them.

(What kind of spell does she have them under, he wonders.) 

The young Uchiha has been field promoted to chunin nearly a year ago, which means his clearance level - and his ability to use his charisma to get info out of people - certainly comes in handy. There’s talk of negotiations having taken place between Hanzo the Salamander and a Konoha elder for years, even before the war. 

Sarutobi Chiyuki is supposed to be the rebel group’s bargaining chip.

Shimura Danzo is dead, but how is it that they are still scrambling to deal with the consequences of a single man’s actions? 

(It pisses him off, and now he understands why Fugaku seems to be taking it personally.)

Shisui is ten, and the war finally comes to an end. 

Between Hanzo’s downfall, the rise of the Akatsuki as the official leaders of Ame, and Chiyuki being declared as Konoha’s official ambassador in Ame, the two villages flourish under their alliance. Namikaze Minato, the soon to be Yondaime Hokage, single-handedly destroys an Iwa platoon made up of a thousand ninjas, and the Tsuchikage now owes them millions of ryo because of war reparations.

A lot of shit went down before that happened, though, and although the Uchiha boy himself wasn’t in the thick of it for the most part, he doesn’t need to go looking for answers. 

(He looks at his cousin Obito’s team - the broken eyes, the tired gaunt, the fact that they seem to be attached to the hips now more than ever - and decides it’s not his place to know.)

Shisui is eleven, and seems to properly look at a fourteen year old Chiyuki for the first time in his life.

One day Tsunade is called to Ame in a hurry, and it’s all a need-to-know, hush-hush thing, and the medic-nin comes back to Konoha two weeks later with a thunderous look on her face that promises death.

No one tells him anything, but it’s obvious something huge went down. 

Chiyuki is thin, anemic, and with more broken bones than he can count in his two hands. Pale body a canvas of different sized bruises, covered from head to toe in bandages, nursing what seems to be a fatal wound on the torso.

She spends some time in the Uchiha compound with his uncle Fugaku and his cousin Obito, as silent as a grave. The girl only speaks when spoken to, and spends the majority of her time staring at nothing, a blank look in her normally lively chocolate brown eyes.

Shisui recognizes pain and grief when he sees it.

The kunoichi comes once in a while, usually accompanied by her teammates. When she’s not with them, Obito takes it upon themselves to escort her everywhere, even inside the compound. It’s almost as if they’re afraid she’ll simply disappear one day. 

(He doesn’t blame them.)

Sarutobi Chiyuki is, for a while, a shell of who she once was. She’s broken and tired, way too thin for someone her height, and the bags under her eyes seem to be permanently stuck to her face.

Aunt Mikoto ruffles his hair and tells him the girl is hurting both physically and mentally, the kind that drags you down and makes you want to stay in the darkness forever, and asks him a favor. 

“She’s in a lot of pain, Shisui. Please be kind to her.”

So Shisui enlists the help of his cousin and sets out to do just that.

Because he knows pain intimately, knows the way the metaphorical blades twist and turn in his skin unannounced, knows how easy it is to lose yourself, knows how tempting death sounds sometimes. 

(His mangekyou sharingan is proof of that.)

The two Uchiha seek her out after her whenever she’s free, and the eleven year old keeps the conversation going for the three of them. Sometimes, Itachi adds his input here and there, and it’s both heart-warming and heart-wrenching to see his stoic little cousin trying so hard to be the sociable one for once. 

Sometimes the three children - because they are children, aren’t they? - just keep each other company, comfortable in their silence, a plate of dango shared between them.

Sometimes you just need to show the other person that they’re not alone.

Little by little, as slowly as a toddler learning how to walk, Chiyuki starts to put her pieces back together. She stumbles, and some days are definitely better than others, but every week she regains a little bit more of the fire burning inside of her, the light shining in her eyes more and more.

And every once in a while, Shisui’s heart does strange things.

Before, the Sarutobi princess was this immovable mountain, impressive in her charisma and smarts, untouchable in the certain way she is going to be their leader in the future. 

Unreal. Unreachable and unobtainable in the throne made of iron others had built for her, and where she seemed to fit so well.

Now, however, he understands why Itachi’s eyes shine the way they do when it comes to her. She’s weak, she’s tired, and she has night terrors more often than not. She’s barely eating enough, even with an Akimichi for a mentor, and he can count every single bone in her hands. She has dark bags under her eyes, the kind that sleep might not be able to fix, pale face even paler from the lack of sunlight. She’s struggling to relearn to accept who she is and be comfortable in her own skin once again, and Shisui-

-Shisui thinks she’s never looked more beautiful. 

Perfect in her imperfectness, like the art of repairing broken pottery by gluing it with powdered gold. Chiyuki struggles, she’s exhausted and broken, but every day is a new attempt to glue herself back together - and that, that Shisui can understand.

Being real, being human , having flaws and making mistakes just like everyone else, feeling pain and grief and not knowing what to do with yourself when the darkness threatens to swallow you whole - he understands that very well, as young as he may be.

The war made sure of that. 

Chiyuki may have been crushed, but it serves to remind him - and everyone else, really - that she's just as human as the rest of them. She cries, she bleeds, she suffers and wrestles with the demons in her head every single day.

Recovery is not a smooth road.

Yet, the first time she cracks half a smile at his jokes, his heart skips a beat. He hesitates for half a second and stutters slightly, and he thinks-

- gods, is she beautiful.

Sometimes, that faraway look in her eyes changes to something sinister and dark as she plots inside her mind; something cold and calculating that promises pain so deep and so raw it makes a shiver run down his spine - and he unknowingly grins.

(She’s human and relatable, made of the same flesh and bones that he is, and he is glad that he’s been able to realize that.)

Uchiha Shisui is twelve years old, and he’s falling in love like the first snow of the year does; slowly, but surely.