"Sensei."

"Yes, Chie-chan?"

Another cool night on the Naka, two hands drifting in the stream. There's a rare peace under the full moon in the late summer. (There are myths, too. Myths from worlds long dead—)

"It's my eleventh birthday tomorrow."

"Oh, is it?"

"Yes."

"And you have a reason for mentioning it, because you wouldn't normally want anyone to know."

A small, chagrined smile. "Sensei. It's been two years since the war. Teach me the way of the blade."

Silence.

"You said you wanted to change the world once, Chie-chan." Did you mean it?

"I'm small, Sensei, but all that means is that a smaller blade suits me. A dagger in the ribs does just as well as any other weapon, once you know how to make it strike true."

Sakumo chuckles, but it's sad. "Chie-chan, there's something I need to tell you."

"I know Mother used swords."

"Are you doing it for her?"

Chie shakes her head, firm. "I want to change the world."

"To think that I'd end up teaching an idealist." The hand Sakumo isn't bobbing idly in the stream lands on her head, ruffling her hair. "We'll make it official in the morning. Maybe this world could use peaceful ideals, someday."

"Again."

She grows older. She swings the blade a thousand times and more in the hazy afternoon light, trying to ignore Kakashi's intent study of her form as Sakumo instructs her in the Hatake Estate's backyard. She gains muscle. Sakumo insists on feeding her—"if you're going to be doing this kind of physical work, you're going to have to stop eating like a bird"—and she gains weight, losing the bony tautness to her cheekbones.

"Again. Move in with us."

Chie stumbles and trips in the process of narrowly avoiding cutting herself on her own sword. "What?"

"You're my ward," Sakumo says, chiding. "You should've moved in from the beginning, but you refused to."

"I'm your what?" Chie says from the ground, sweaty, dazed, twelve years old, and very confused.

Sakumo pauses. Is silent for a very long time. Has a completely blank face. "...You... you didn't know."

"I didn't know what?" Clarity, she thinks, would be fantastic right about now, because Sakumo's blankness has morphed into a look on his face that she couldn't even begin to decipher. He squats down beside her, offering her the canteen she got from Gai as an ambush of a birthday gift, and she takes it, watching him with furrowed brows.

He sighs, rubbing his forehead, and gestures vaguely with his hand. "Chie-chan. What did you think all of this was?"

"...An apprenticeship?" Her voice comes out smaller than she'd have liked it to.

A nod. "Yes. It is. It's also..." He fumbles for words for a moment. "...more. It means you're... a part of us. If a more traditional clan had taken you on as an apprentice, they would've had you change your last name to theirs, and you'd have a lot more expectations clanwise. As it happens, well, there's only Kakashi and me." A rueful smile. "Since you were a ward of the state, I assumed you knew."

"I've still been getting a stipend from the orphan fund," Chie says, slowly, and when Sakumo pauses, she scowls. "Sensei..."

Before she can really say anything, or get up the energy to process the massive shock that's slowly melting into deep irritation, Sakumo clasps her on the shoulder.

"Chie," he says, earnest, and what little fight there was goes out of her. "You saved me. Let me be your guardian." Let me protect you, now.

She turns her head away so he can't see the tears forming, but she thinks he sees them anyway.

"Okay," she says, softly, when her voice is steady enough. "I'll pack my things."

His steady hand squeezes her shoulder. For just that moment, it feels like something that could be acceptance.

Kakashi is burning eggplant on the stove the first morning she stays in the Estate.

Chie stares at Kakashi.

Kakashi stares at his eggplants. The tips of his ears are red. Sakumo watches with sharp eyes that have the look of someone assessing a combat situation, but for the life of her, she can't figure out why he's just sitting at the table and not doing anything to help his son.

"Why," she starts, stops, shakes her head, elbows him out of the way. "Look, just—go sit. I'll make breakfast."

"I..."

She's only half-paying attention, preoccupied with rescuing the stove and the pan and discarding the eggplant. "Yes?"

Kakashi will later count it as a blessing that she never hears him mumble that he was trying to cook her breakfast.

Uchiha Itachi is born on a cold morning in the early fall, as the leaves are beginning to turn colors and fall from the trees. Chie hears of it because T&I has been keeping track, and Inoichi bargained extensively with Mikoto's husband to give Mikoto a set of very traditional gifts (as thanks for her service in the war, and congratulations on the birth of her heir) that Chie can only assume are hoity-toity clan baubles, judging by the ornate carvings in the lacquer jewelry box and teething kunai she is requisitioned to bring to the Uchiha District.

"Why me?" she'd asked Inoichi, who flat-out smirked.

"A good ninja doesn't question orders, Chie-chan," he said, sweet as belladonna.

She gave him a rather impressive stink-eye, if she did say so herself.

"A better ninja," he told her with relish, "finds more subtle ways to get their information. Starting now, with Sakumo's express permission, you're going to learn the art of intel."

"Not interrogation?"

Something bittersweet flickered across his face, then, and she knew it was visible because he wanted her to see it. "No," he said ruefully. "I'll be frank with you just once, Chie-chan. You don't have the temperament."

And that was that.

Now, as Chie meanders through her favorite village paths in the direction of the Uchiha District, not meant to arrive too early or too late, she muses on that little exchange. They both know who does have the temperament, of course, but Ibiki's taciturn, careful, and ever-calculating personality will require some honing before he grows into the fearsome chief of interrogation she once read about.

She is no longer any stranger to the brutality of their lifestyle. There are procedures to be followed. A certain capacity has to be beaten into him. It's a pity, but the kindness in him won't stay for long once their training truly gets going.

When she arrives at the District, the signs of unrest are immediately apparent in the air. The guards, aware of her acquaintanceship with Obito, let her pass with looks that are too neutral. Chie strives to match them, but everywhere she looks, Mikoto's kin look... tense. Wary.

What in the actual hell, she thinks, brow furrowing as she watches Uchiha children play with subdued enthusiasm under the watchful gaze of an older woman with one arm and an eyepatch.

The reason becomes apparent when she reaches the house of the Head family. Inside, Mikoto's husband is yelling. She pauses outside to listen, then, and when she understands what she's hearing, she freezes.

"—my son," Fugaku says, furious, "has just been born, and you bring this to me while my wife is recovering from twelve hours of labor?"

"Fugaku-sama," an ancient voice attempts to begin.

This cannot be happening to me, she thinks, fending off the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose in cosmic frustration. When she looks about her to scope things out, she finds that the place is deserted so intentionally that there have to be people watching in the shadows.

Something faint tickles at the back of her mind, half-remembered danger pulling at her memories, but—

A snarl. Fugaku, angrier. "No. Not now. The boy hasn't even drawn breath for a week and you'd take him under your auspicious eaves already? Get out, honored elders."

"Mikoto's father would have seen the sense in this," another voice says, quieter, pointed.

That's about when movement sounds from inside. Alarm bells ring in Chie's mind. Looking around, she finds that much to her chagrin, the only viable place to hide is the roof. She is momentarily thankful for her stunted growth: at twelve she is still a tiny thing, even with the ninja life taking out her softness years and years ago. It makes cushioning her impact on the roof tiles with her chakra easier. Tucking herself away in one of the overhangs beside the corner of a window? Child's play.

Three of the elders have deigned to visit the Uchiha Head and her family on this auspicious day. Chie sees the tops of their heads as they leave, each of them streaked through with white, and holds her breath. Don't turn around, don't turn around—

Next to her, the window slides open.

"Chie-chan," Mikoto, tired and beautiful, says with amusement lurking in the set of her brows. "Come in here before they see you."

"These are from the boss," Chie says, laying out the lacquered jewelry box and the teething kunai. Mikoto takes the kunai with a smirk, turning it over in her hands and twirling it around with one finger. This small upper room is a hidden one. The only exit Chie can see is the trapdoor hidden beneath the tatami rush mat, and the fact that a room like this exists at all—however cutely decorated, however much the quiet Itachi resting in Mikoto's other arm eases the air—makes her wonder what could've necessitated it.

Mikoto seems content to examine her gifts in silence, handing Itachi over to Chie so easily and absently she nearly has a heart attack.

What the hell, woman? This is your heir! Chie sits, gobsmacked, with her arms full of baby. Soft, warm, and alarmingly adorable baby, blinking up at her with silent and too-knowing eyes, as if Itachi were born into the world already aware of it all. She holds him as gently as she can, her heart taking up residence primarily in her mouth at the unexpected. What in the world—why is this my life—

Mikoto brings the kunai teasingly to Itachi's mouth. Itachi only blinks, which Chie supposes makes sense, because he is, at best, twelve hours old. After a while, she puts the kunai on the small low table between her and Chie and takes Itachi back, cradling him in her arms with a private smile that suffuses her whole face with a rare, open-faced happiness. "Thank you, Chie-chan. Be sure to convey my thanks to Inoichi-san as well. The Yamanaka have given me and Itachi a fine gift. I'm quite pleased."

"Of course," Chie replies numbly.

"Are your glasses new?" Mikoto asks, sudden, tilting her head as if the question is an innocent curiosity that just happened to come to mind.

She pushes them up the bridge of her nose. "Yes, actually. They were a gift." A pause. "...Why do you ask?"

Mikoto smiles. A shiver goes down Chie's spine at the look in the older woman's eyes—assessing, sharp, and intensely calculating. "You're clever, Chie-chan, but you're not subtle. You wouldn't last a minute in this compound."

What do I even say to that? she wonders, and settles on a hesitant nod, hoping that whatever Mikoto is angling for will become clear soon.

"You heard the elders outside," Mikoto says. "Luckily for you, they were preoccupied. Even being Sakumo-san's apprentice wouldn't have saved you had they known of your presence."

Chie holds out a hand. "Hold up. What?"

"You could've died," is the serene answer.

"I knew things were tense between the village and the clan," Chie mumbles, growing preoccupied with the whirling maelstrom inside her head despite herself. "But within the clan—?"

Mikoto taps the table. Chie looks up. "There is a long history of conflict, Chie-chan, in nearly every major clan that has had a sustained presence since the Warring Clans Era. It may not be easy to see from the outside, especially not when a clan is at pains to keep it concealed. But that same history is why I'm keeping you longer than expected." She strokes Itachi's hair as she gathers her thoughts. "My son has been alive for less than a day, and already my father's generation would use him for their own ends. Fugaku and I can only do so much. But someone outside the clan could do more."

"Like Kushina-san," she tries, only to sit back when Mikoto shakes her head with a smile. "...Minato-san?"

"They're about to have a daughter of their own," is the sly response. Thoroughly ignorant of the way she's just absolutely shattered Chie's world on its axis, she carries on. "But no. Though Kushina is his godmother, I find myself in need of someone who has the patience to learn to last more than a minute in this compound. Someone who can offer Itachi skills he will inarguably need as a ninja... including the social graces."

Chie swallows. She knows exactly what Mikoto wants now and it is terrifying. "I, uh. Don't have much in the way of those."

"And yet you've won allies across Konoha, from the Hokage himself to little Obito," Mikoto points out.

She frowns. "I'm not sure about the Hokage, I think it's just that I'm an orphan."

Mikoto just keeps smiling. "I will not pretend that I am asking something small of you—but will you listen to my request?"

"Yes, Mikoto-sama." Chie's hands tighten into nervous fists on the tops of her thighs.

"Tutor my son," Mikoto says. "Show him the world outside the clan. Show him that there is always more than one choice."

Chie sucks in a breath. Her heart is racing. "I need to know something."

"Yes?"

"Did you choose me," she asks, "because I'm a nobody? I could very easily disappear if the wrong person finds fault with me."

Mikoto takes the question in, and then she laughs, soft and wondering. "I called you Sakumo's apprentice and you still don't understand. We'll have to work on that."

"Work on what?" Chie asks, a thread of desperation weaving its way into her voice. What is it with these goddamn ninja and the way they dance around the bullet instead of ever just biting it?

"Izumi Chie, the moment you formalized your training agreement with your sensei and took up one of his blades, you ensured that you would never be nobody again," Mikoto says with amusement glinting behind her eyes. "You have an instinct for self-preservation. You build connections. You make yourself useful. That is why I am asking this of you."

Chie's eyes drift from Mikoto's steady gaze to Itachi. He drifted off to sleep sometime during their conversation. His hair is downy and fine, and the tear troughs he inherited from Fugaku are not yet severe.

He looks... peaceful.

In a matter of years, when he's hardly begun to grow into himself, it's terribly, terribly likely that he'll find himself stretched to the brink, caught in a cold tug-of-war where three sides all demand that which is equally impossible of him. All because ninja mistake genius for maturity and force children to fight on the front lines of their conflicts—and, for Itachi, because by virtue of his position alone he is a pawn in a game he never wanted to play.

Someone who always seemed alone. Someone with very few friends, surrounded by people who never stopped sharpening their knives.

Someone just like her.

"I'll do it," Chie says, aware that Mikoto has just plied her with some pretty words and a cute baby. "Tell me what I need to do to keep him safe."

Mikoto pulls a very sharp, very much live kunai from within her robes, and she smiles.

Then she slices her own thumb open.

"Hand me that scroll, won't you, Chie-chan?" she asks, very calmly.

Inoichi spots the cut on her finger by the time she returns in the late afternoon, because of course he does. But he doesn't say anything about it. Instead: "So, how did Mikoto-san find the gifts?"

"She was very appreciative," Chie says, curling the injured hand into a loose fist and tucking it away inside her vest pocket.

He nods slowly. "Mm-hmm. And did she say anything else?"

"She thanks the Yamanaka clan for their consideration."

"Good to know," is the dry response. Inoichi meanders over to his desk, pulls his chair out, and sits down. He waves her over to the chair opposite him. "Tell me what you saw at the compound. Don't leave out any details, okay? Consider this a mission report."

Brows raised—so he'll know what she thinks of the fact that this is absolutely going to be used for some kind of assessment of the clan—she complies.

Where Itachi was born in early fall, Uzumaki Akari is born peacefully in the dead of winter, with a wild shock of red hair and lungs powerful enough to wake the ancestor gods of this world. She looks just like her mother, a fact that is very fortunate for Kushina and Minato, because despite Kushina's pregnancy, they're still not exactly public about their relationship. Oh, it's an open secret in Konoha, and by extension their allied nations, but (and they don't know that Chie knows exactly why) there's simply too many safety concerns with the state of the world as it is.

And the state of the world as it is—well, to call it not great would be to put it lightly. Ibiki had a point when he'd told her that ninja tend to have short memories, but he hadn't been entirely right.

Uzushiogakure falls the day Akari is born.

Chie hears the news first only because she's delivering some paperwork to the Hokage from Inoichi when the messengers shunshin in.

"Hokage-sama," says a man in a fox mask, kneeling on the floor. "Uzushiogakure is under attack. The Mist has gathered allies and advanced on the archipelago."

Sarutobi takes the papers from Chie and sets them on the desk. His face could be carved out of stone. "And their motives?"

The fox mask looks up, the ninja behind it glancing at Chie. "Justice, Hokage-sama."

"I see." Sarutobi takes a long drag from his pipe and releases the smoke into the air, then sighs heavily. "Continue."

"...That is not all. Mount Kaigara has erupted, clouding the archipelago in a storm of ash. Our scouts could not see anything of the battles."

It's then that Chie sees a sight she thinks very few people in living memory have seen: wide-eyed surprise on Sarutobi's face, cracking his mask for a split second. It passes quickly, but still. He turns to her. "Chie-chan, thank you for your report. I have a request for you."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," she says, with a terrible feeling that she already knows.

"Please tell Uzumaki Kushina that Uzushiogakure has fallen, and to report to me by eighteen hundred hours," Sarutobi says. With nary so much as a twitch of the eye, another ANBU shadow appears behind him. "Turtle here will lead the way to her."

Feeling sick to her stomach, Chie bows. "I will do as you ask, Hokage-sama."

Kushina doesn't scream, or rage, or break into tears when she hears the news. Chie isn't sure what she expected—just that she didn't expect the thoughtful look in Kushina's eyes as her daughter breastfeeds, or the extended silence before she finally says "So it ends," in a quiet voice.

"We'll have to be careful." Minato, always by Kushina's side, looks equally as thoughtful.

Chie looks between the two with the distinct sense that she's missing something very, very important.

"Thank you for delivering the news, Chie-chan," Kushina says. "Do you know anything else? Any survivors?"

"I don't know." She frowns. "I... I'm sorry."

Blinking in surprise, Kushina smiles. "Oh, no, don't be. I've been a citizen of Konoha for many years now, and being the princess of Whirlpool wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Anyways, 'ttebane, can you tell Hokage-sama that I may need more time to recover? Childbirth is no joke."

"Of course. Please rest up." Chie pauses. Her eyes focus on the rough-hewn stone flooring. "Um... Akari... it's a beautiful name. Bye now."

She hurries out of the secret room with red ears, Turtle trailing after her, trying very hard to ignore the warm smiles being directed her way. When her footsteps fade away, Minato and Kushina look at each other with significantly less levity.

"Uzu gone," Kushina says, shaking her head. "Right after the war, too. Mist—and the Kami, I guess—chose their moment very carefully, 'ttebane. Konoha will need to vet any survivors. If my family made it out—they can't know about Akari."

"No, they can't," Minato agrees.

"There's something we need to do when I can walk again." She reaches over and grasps Minato's hand; he watches her, briefly and gently squeezing her fingers with affection. "Remember before we were respectable adults? When I dragged you into all kinds of messes?"

He understands immediately, brows raising. "Hime, you want me to commit arson? Again?"

"You love it," Kushina teases.

Minato scratches the back of his head and sighs. "Well... I guess it'll be for a good cause..."

"That's the spirit," she says with a wicked little grin, and for that, Minato leans over with a careful hand on Akari's back and kisses Kushina fully.

I know I said I wouldn't update until I was finished writing this thing. Well, it's still not complete, but this bridge is what I wanted and what was blocking me before-so here I am, cementing my triumph over the wall! Mwuahaha. Enjoy, thank Sage Thrasher for taking the time to beta for me, and tell me what your favorite kind of rock is. My favorite kind of rock is this one rock that was on the river I grew up by. It was a ruddy yellow ochre color, roughly the size of my head, and time had worn intersecting lines into it that made it look like bread. My brother and I called it-imaginatively-Bread Rock. :P

6/11/2020: Several of you pointed out a discrepancy in a previous chapter-thank you for catching that, since it definitely doesn't fit with the new outline and needed to be changed! Uzu has officially not fallen until this chapter in this timeline. ;)