Hello and welcome! As you can see by the word count, this story is long. Extremely long. It's been a work in progress for literally a decade. So let me give a brief overview, which may hopefully help you decide whether or not you want to read this:

1. This is an ItaOC story. Sorta.

2. This story is a child's narrative. The vocabulary and sentence structures start off childish, becoming more mature towards the end.

3. The story is slice-of-life, episodic, and organized into arcs. There are five parts in total, approximately eight arcs each.

4. The story follows the protagonist from the ages of seven to thirteen.

5. Only after the protagonist ages does the romance begin to develop. It's a slow burn. So slow, in fact, it's like watching the ice caps melt!

6. Despite the grim summary that I never got around to changing, the general mood of this story is cute, playful, and lighthearted. There is an occasional slap of angst, but only through an intertextual reading with canon.

If all of these seem okay to you, please proceed. Enjoy!

Lily

Prologue

He was my friend.

I spent my time dancing; he spent his time training. I saw colors; he saw grey. I looked to tomorrow; he looked to death. We were both different from everyone else, and we attracted each other. That's opposites for you.

My name is Uchiha Ayae.

I was born in the capital of the Land of Fire. It was an extravagant city. My memories go back to when I was five, wandering the bustling streets by myself. I had lost sight of my parents, but I loved the rush and kept pushing forward.

Eventually, I stumbled across a street vendor, who found my parents for me. My dad lifted me and squeezed me until I was blue. My mom gave me the scolding face. When I returned the puppy eyes, she gave in and hugged me too. I laughed, shouting "Victory!" for escaping punishment yet again.

That was my family: my mom, my dad, and me.

It did not last long though. About a year from that incident, my mom got sick. The doctor said she was going to be fine, but she was not. She got worse, breaking into sweats and seeing things that were not there. Sometimes she would sleep the entire day.

And one day, she did not wake up.

Since I was so young when she passed away, I only had flashes of her images. It did not matter though because I knew she was the best mom ever.

But my dad was a different story. With my mom gone, he struggled at work. His boss told to him to do better, but he could not. He became more sad.

In that time, I was placed under the care of our neighbor, a nanny who sympathized with our situation. I would live with the nanny during the day, and at night, I would see my dad come home from work, all tired.

It was my responsibility to cheer him up. One time, I drew him a picture of him, my mom, and the nanny in yellow crayon. He smiled as soon as he saw that. Later, I showed it to the nanny, and she was so overwhelmed with joy, she cried. I went to bed that night pleased with myself.

Unfortunately, my dad was later fired.

Without his job, we were forced to move. I was unsure of where we were going, but we packed up. And with a wagon, we set off to be with our relatives.

Next thing I knew, I was in the military village of Konoha.