Hey, it's been a while, I know. I changed my mind about something pretty central to the plot and spent a few weeks agonizing over how to proceed only to then change my mind back and then spend another few weeks agonizing over how to make the changes I wanted without making the change! Writing is hard, blegh. In other news, I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, so Shinobi ISekai: Round Three will be coming to FanFiction in November!

p.s. Kyou's theme song, if you're interested, is Born Without a Heart by Faouzia.

Izuna had a problem.

It wasn't his problem, necessarily, and it was so easily ignored in favor of much happier things, like the new tanto his father gave him and Madara's new summoning contract, but every time something invariably reminded him of it the stone in the pit of his stomach grew ten pounds heavier.

The signs were obvious, now that he knew what he was looking for. He couldn't ignore them no matter how hard he tried. The dark circles under his cousin's wary eyes, the barely perceptible flinches in the face of raised voices, the way he immediately raised his arms to protect his head.

It all painted a horrible picture he wished he could unsee. Then, it would be easier to ignore the way his cousin regarded him with extra caution, the way he tried to avoid Izuna's gaze and scowled when he couldn't. That wasn't the way cousins were supposed to look at each other, wasn't the way Izuna's other cousins looked at him.

Before… Before, he'd interpreted those glares as proof of the superior attitude his father always claimed that family had, as proof that the Clan genius had let his reputation go to his head. Now…

Now, after following his littlest cousin around like an enemy nin, seeing the way he smiled at his grandmother and the elders and his mother, Izuna had no choice but to acknowledge a horrible, soul wrenching truth.

Kyou hated him.

It wasn't like he didn't have a reason to. Looking back, Izuna could recognize the bully he'd become—and all the other bullies he'd encouraged by association.

At first, he'd been indignant. If Kyou hadn't been so weird, he would have never bothered with him in the first place! Of course, that idea quickly proved hollow, since he knew Kyou had been born like that and there wasn't anything he could really do about it. Still, he didn't have to be such a jerk about it, going out of his way to upstage Izuna and Madara every chance he got!

Ah, but that was…probably not true, either. If what he'd seen last winter was a regular thing, then he probably had no choice…

When he'd brought up what he'd seen to his father, Tajima had simply pat his head and told him not to concern himself with that family's business. But…

Wasn't Kyou's family Izuna's family?

They were both Uchihas, weren't they? Sure, Kyou looked different from everyone else, but his mother was a civilian his father had brought into the Clan, so that made sense. He had a sharingan—as much as it hurt Izuna to admit it—and he fought aside the Clan—once, he'd been holed up in the archives ever since—so, why was Kyou's family that family?

Izuna looked down at his cousin from his perch in the tree, watching as he left the confines of the village in the company of the strange dog/bear/thing he'd formed a contract with. Izuna's father had been pleased with that development, as it meant Kyou could never sign the falcon scroll, reserving that honor for Madara.

Izuna would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of his brother and cousin for their newfound animal companions, but he knew better than to get involved in Clan politics. Madara had a contract because he was father's son. Kyou had one because he was…Madara's rival?

Izuna wasn't too clear on that, to be honest, but he knew his parents hated it when Kyou did anything praiseworthy, always going off about how hard it was making Madara's life.

Izuna followed Kyou and his…companion silently, keeping to the trees as the duo headed to a shallow pond—in the summer heat, deep puddle was probably a better description. They settled on the bank, Kyou falling back to lay spread eagle on the grass while the large mammal beside him sat inelegantly, short back legs almost comical in their disproportion.

He knew the strange animal was supposed to be teaching Kyou how to use his suiton—another oddity—but they looked more likely to take a nap than train. Was it just an excuse to get away from the village? Izuna knew Madara had been sneaking away a lot since the start of summer, coming home looking much happier than when he'd left. Was Kyou doing the same thing?

"What are you doing?"

Izuna flailed his arms, desperately channeling chakra to his feet to keep from falling to the ground. He set incredulous eyes on his cousin, the smaller child's deadpan expression just as unsettling as ever. A quick glance down to the pond told him his cousin had likely used kawarimi, a small stick sitting in the Kyou shaped depression in the grass.

"Watch it," Izuna snapped. "I almost fell."

One dark brow rose in response and it was all Izuna could do not to rise to the bait—if Kyou was baiting him at all. He took a deep, steadying breath, struggling to keep his temper in check.

"You've been following me for a while," Kyou said, voice low and measured, like Izuna's mother's when she was getting ready to scold him. "So? What is it this time? Are you going to steal my kimono when I get in the water? Put pins in the seams? Run it through the tannery's urine supply? I don't wear sandals, so you can't do anything to those. Are you going to disrupt my training? Steal one of Warai-san's jutsu's with your sharinga—oh, wait, you don't have one."

Izuna's hackles rose of their own accord. That! That sharp tongue was why nobody liked him!

Or, he realized with a bodily deflation, his tongue was sharp because nobody liked him.

He might have actually done some of those things, now that he thought about it. If not him, others definitely had. Kyou, Izuna knew, had every reason to suspect the worst.

"I'm sorry," he said with a frown. It quickly turned into a scowl as Kyou's face contorted with wild disbelief. "I am! I mean it!"

Kyou scrunched his nose at him. "For what? Not having a sharingan? That's not exactly—."

"Not for that!" Again, Izuna could feel his anger taking over and this time he didn't feel like stopping it. "Why are you so mean?"

Kyou stared at him, open mouthed. Then, he laughed.

Izuna had heard his cousin laugh before, a low, dark chuckle at someone else's expense. This was nothing like that. High pitched and almost manic, it made Izuna uncomfortable in ways he couldn't explain. The look in Kyou's eyes was as wild as his laughter, and Izuna was suddenly, unwaveringly sure he'd made a mistake.

"Mean? Mean. Me, I'm mean. Ok, sure. Let's go with that." The smile on Kyou's face looked exactly like the one on Shuji's, no less scary for the lack of a scar. "I'm mean because I…what? Teased you about your sharingan? Oh, wow, so terrible. Truly, I'm a terror to behold. If that makes me mean, Zuzu-chan," he leaned in, looking up at Izuna while also seeming so much larger, somehow. "Then what would you call someone who sets babies on fire? Who uses excessive force against someone half his size in training? Who uses his position as Tajima's little boy to get away clean while his lackeys take the fall for his bullshit? Who—?"

"What are you talking about?" Izuna cut in with a snarl. "I never did any of that?"

The light in Kyou's eyes was unkind, the sneer twisting his face a perfect replica of the one Shuji always wore. "Oh, really?" He pulled his left arm out of his sleeve, revealing a pale burn scar on his clavicle. "Then what's this? And this," he twisted his bare arm, showing Izuna another scar, this one from a blade of some sort. "Are you saying I did this to myself?"

There was a pit opening in Izuna's gut, but his mouth moved before his mind could stop it. "I don't remember doing anything that could cause that!"

Kyou snorted, his eyes glowing red as he glared at Izuna. "Of course, you don't! No one ever does! I'm the only one who—." Suddenly, Kyou's anger was gone, the suffocating weight of it no longer filling Izuna's lungs. "The only one." He said, sharingan eyes unfocused as he stared at something both between them and far away. "I'm the only one who remembers. The only one."

"Kyou?" Izuna had seen that look on his father before, and mother always said not to bother him. 'Sharingan memories', she called them. Their dojutsu recorded memories in such perfect clarity, sometimes older shinobi got caught in them, reliving the events in a loop until they escaped the confines of their own mind. Kyou was even younger than him! But…he'd had a sharingan his whole life. What…what was he remembering?

"Kyou?" He reached out and put a hand on his cousin's shoulder, only to find himself struggling for air, his back against the grassy forest floor and Kyou's little hands around his neck. Thumbs pressed into the hollow of his throat and he grabbed hold of slender wrists, pulling at them desperately. Kyou's eyes were still red and unfocused, face twisted with rage. How was he so strong?

Suddenly, just as darkness began creeping into the edges of Izuna's vision, both of them were doused in water.

"That's enough, cub," Kyou's summons said sharply. "His death isn't worth the fallout."

Just like that, Izuna could breathe. He took a few, halting breaths before turning on his cousin. The yell he'd prepared died in his throat as he took in Kyou's face.

Drawn. Pale beneath the tan. Red eyes staring at trembling hands, horror filling the empty space left by his rage.

"What the fuck," he was saying, voice little more than a whisper. "What the fuck is wrong with me?"

Izuna swallowed painfully, rubbing at his throat in an attempt to soothe it. He'd…he'd really almost died, hadn't he? And it wasn't at the hands of the Senju or some other shinobi Clan. It wasn't in battle, where his death would bring honor to the Uchiha.

No. It was within his own Clan's territory, not even ten minutes from the village, at the hands of a kid three years younger than him.

"Nothing is wrong with you," the summons was saying, tone almost indulgent. "This whelp deserves it, if what I heard is true."

Izuna took a step back and the large carnivore laughed, the sound eerily similar to Kyou's manic giggles.

He was tempted to defend himself, to assure the big animal that he really hadn't done any of the things Kyou had accused him of, but…what if he had? Kyou had a sharingan, so it made sense that he would remember things no one else did.

And apparently one of those things was bad enough to send him into an 'episode', as his mother called them.

"I'm sorry," he said instead, clenching his fist as Kyou set sharp red eyes on him. "That's what I came to say, and I meant it. I-I don't remember hurting you like that, but I promise I won't ever do anything like that again. I don't—," he cut himself off, biting at his lip before continuing. "I don't want to hurt my family anymore."

The look in Kyou's eyes sharpened and his animal let out another creepy laugh. "Family?"

"Yeah," Izuna's voice was raspy as he raised it. "What…what does family mean to you, Kyou?"

For some reason, that made him smile. "Family means…no one gets left behind…or forgotten."

That…was a weird answer. "Do you think…we could be family, Kyou? For real?"

His little cousin looked up at him with dark eyes, the sun hitting them at just the right angle and revealing a hidden rainbow of browns. "Satan won't be happy about that. He doesn't like you or Mada-nii. He says you're a threat to my position."

Oh. So, seiten was Shuji? Izuna rubbed at the back of his neck. "My father says the same thing about you."

Kyou snorted. "Those two are so alike, you'd think they'd get along better."

Izuna resisted the urge to deny that statement, resigning himself to unintelligible grumbles. His cousin sighed, pulling the sleeve of his yukata—which was once Izuna's, he recognized the stain on the hem—back over his arm.

"Shuji-san," he swallowed thickly. "He's not very nice, is he?"

Kyou snorted again, harder this time, dark eyes bulging with the force of it. "Ha! No, he's not. No one in this Clan is."

"Anija is nice!" Madara was the best brother Izuna could ask for.

Kyou's smile was a little less bitter, reaching his eyes like a true smile should. "Yeah, but he's the only one. Who knows when this hellscape of a world will ruin that? God knows it ruined me."

Izuna…wasn't sure how to respond to that, but Kyou got to his feet before he could try, brushing mud off his clothing with a sniff.

"Apology accepted," he said haughtily, tilting his head so it looked like he was looking down at Izuna despite being a full head shorter. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm supposed to be training."

Warmth filled Izuna's chest, the horrid knot of guilt in his stomach loosening. "C-can I come?"

His cousin exchanged a glance with his summons before shrugging and walking out onto the surface of the pond. "Whatever. If Tajima disowns you, it's your own fault."

Something told him that was as close as Kyou would ever come to welcoming him.

"—the circulation of your chakra mimics the natural movements of running water, and by encouraging that movement you—."

Blah. BLAH. BLAH!

Kyou had never been so bored. She hated the lecture model the first time around and sucked even more now. Warai, bless his timid heart, was doing his best, showing her examples for her to copy with her sharingan while he explained. With a tired sigh, she ran her chakra through the water, agitating it until it began to flow in a hollow sphere.

Water Prison Jutsu!

Only, you know, small. Occupying only one palm, it was hardly the kind of thing that would bring down Kakashi, one day, a hundred years from now.

Yikes.

Quickly burying that thought, Kyou concentrated on keeping her chakra moving, like Warai told her to.

"You should try to do this as often as you can," he was saying, gravelly voice at odds with his gentle tone. "You want to get to a state where you can do it subconsciously. Like muscle memory, but with chakra."

Kyou nodded, cupping her other hand over the little ball of water. "I get it, but," how to say it without hurting his feelings? "Will I always need to be near a body of water? That might get…inconvenient."

He laughed, the sound small and quiet compared to Emi's. "Of course, not, cub. I'm sure you've noticed, but there is water everywhere. You need to train your chakra before you call on it, though."

Right. Ok. That made sense.

"How long do you think it will take?"

Warai cocked his head. "Well, it took me the better part of a year before I could even consider pulling water from the air, as I suspect you're hinting at, but your sharingan might cut that down for you."

Ugh~!

Kyou let her bubble pop, flopping back to lay spread eagled on the grass. "That's so long!"

The hyena laughed at her expense and she rolled over with a huff. Two sandaled feet stood in her field of vision and a scowl automatically formed on her face.

"What do you want, Zuzu-chan?"

Izuna didn't look all too put off by the nickname, but he was wearing armor and that was never a good sign. His face was set in a grimace, black eyes serious as he looked down at her.

"Kyou," he said lowly, looking a bit green around the gills. "I need help."

What.

She sat up, eyes impossibly wide as she looked up at her not-so-least favorite cousin. That was Tarou, now. Izuna had put in effort to better his standing in Kyou's eyes, which was more than anyone had ever done for her and automatically placed him above literally everyone else. Sure, he was a little shit, but so was she. It was apparently genetic. There were still lines he didn't cross, however, and asking her for help was one of them.

"What happened?"

He squat down with an explosive sigh, pressing his hands to his face in obvious distress.

"Anija," he said after a tense moment. "Anija is training with a Senju."

Oh. Oh. Oh no.

Was it that time already? She knew it was coming up, but so soon? The summer wasn't even close to over. How long had Madara spent with Hashirama at this point? A month? Two? Was that long enough to form life changing friendships?

It was long enough for her to get on friendly terms with Izuna.

Hrm.

"So?" She shrugged heavily. "I was, too, last summer."

God, it was only last summer. Barely a year since she made her first friends, almost a year since the battle and the blood and her uncles—.

"What? Kyou, that's dangerous! Why didn't you say anything?"

She shot a glare at her flabbergasted cousin. "Who would I tell? Besides, it's not like we talked about our Clans or anything. I'll bet Mada-nii's the same way."

Izuna didn't look particularly mollified. "Kyou, they're the enemy! They could have hurt you!"

She scoffed. "The first time I met Itama, he was crying because his brother died."

That set him off kilter, and she plowed ahead, tone bitter as it was soft. "He was hiding, because apparently emotions aren't manly, or whatever. He didn't want anyone to see him crying. His big brother found us, later, and he even helped me figure out the Iceball jutsu, you know. They're not all bad."

Izuna's armor creaked as he shifted his weight. "Why don't you play with them anymore?"

Her breath hitched and for a moment all she could see was the cold red of Tobirama's eyes as he pressed a blade to her throat.

"Like you said," the words felt like they were strangling her and probably sounded like it, too. "We're enemies."

A hand pressed onto her shoulder, jolting her back to the pond, with Izuna and Warai and green grass and no blood, no dead uncles only living cousins.

"Kyou, I—," he cut himself off, looking uncertain. "Anija looked—he was happy, Kyou. He's been happy. I…didn't realize he wasn't, before…"

Yeah, she'd been happy, too.

"It's…it was nice, to be able to exist without anyone expecting things from me, you know? Mada-nii's under as much pressure as I am, so," she shrugged, trying not to wallow.

"Yeah," Izuna, it seemed, was not trying. "That's what I was afraid of."

Warai chose that moment to sneeze, shattering their shared melancholy. Izuna's entire expression hardened, looking every inch the child soldier.

"I need to report to father."

No!

She reached out and grabbed ahold of his gauntleted wrist. "Wait!"

He totally could have brushed her off, but he stopped.

"What are you gonna tell him?"

Izuna met her gaze head on. "The truth, of course, what else?"

"And what will he do when you tell him? What will happen to Mada-nii?"

Her cousin paled, his mask crumbling as he scrambled to reply. "No! Don't worry, Kyou, he's not—he won't—he isn't like Shuji-san!"

Ah. That wasn't what she was going for, but hey, it worked.

Why was she trying to interfere, again? What had Madara ever done for her?

Apparently, not being a dick was a fucking accomplishment.

Fuck.

Already committed, she sighed. "Nobody's like Satan. Look, if you tell Tajima, he'll use it as an opportunity to hurt the Senju—it's what I would do, in his place. What will Mada-nii think?"

Izuna's face twisted as he followed the path she laid for him. Yes, exactly. Use that brain, for once, think of the consequences.

"What do I do, then?" His voice was soft and Kyou was hit over the head with the realization that this was a kid. A child. That she was manipulating.

Fuck.

"Tell him he's training," she suggested with a nonchalance she didn't feel. "That he wants it to be a surprise. It works on Satan. Then," she added, before he could protest. "We'll go and see Mada-nii tomorrow, to make sure he's safe. How does that sound?"

Izuna nodded, face pale with worry. "Right. That…that might work."

It had fucking better. She had no interest in being Clan heir, and if Madara died…

Actually, that would solve a lot of problems, wouldn't it?

Or would it make more?

Hrm.

Whatever. Better the devil you know, right?

That was the mantra she repeated to herself as she followed Izuna through the trees the next day, Warai on the forest floor, below them. The summons had insisted on accompanying them, providing 'adult supervision' or whatever. It suited her fine, since that meant they'd have help thwarting what she suspected would be the life altering ambush she vaguely remembered.

She really ought to write some of her memories down. The sharingan hadn't been a thing Before, so her memories of the Plot and stuff were fading, replaced by the permanently clear ones she'd made since being isekaid.

It wasn't even Truck-kun that did it. Ah, well, Motorcycle-chan was just as good.

She said nothing as she came to a stop beside Izuna, her cousin staring intently down at the river where, lo and behold, Madara stood on one bank and a taller boy with a bowl cut stood on the other. Somewhere behind him, his father and siblings were likely lying in wait.

Shit. Tobirama was a sensor, right? Fuck.

She tamped down on her chakra—suppression was a skill Satan had insisted she master during her time in the archives, and for once she'd offered no resistance. Activating her sharingan, she scanned the treeline behind the boy who could only be Hashirama. One large chakra signature stood out to her and she reached out to tug on Izuna's sleeve.

"There's someone else there," she whispered. The words were barely audible, even to her, but Izuna stiffened in response.

Maybe she should have let him tell Tajima. What were a couple of kids and a hyena supposed to do against the head of the Senju Clan? She had the only sharingan and she was the littlest!

Not good, not good, not good—

Madara and Hashirama skipped stones across the river to each other and Kyou's heart went out to the boys. Innocence was a precious thing, especially so in a world filled with constant warfare and subterfuge. Kyou was doomed from the start and Izuna was like most of their cousins in that he did as he was told with little qualm. Madara, somehow, had managed to stay happy and optimistic despite being born into a Clan known for its depressive tendencies at a time of intense strife. This thing, today, would be the beginning of the end for him, and it hurt Kyou to know it.

The big chakra signature moved and she reacted. Madara shouted in surprise as she landed on his back, pushing him face first into the river as something passed over their heads. He sputtered underneath her, striving to keep his face above water.

"Anija!" Izuna came to stand on the water beside them, sword raised as he eyed Senju Butsuma, the adult sneering down at the three Uchiha children, his own offspring gathering on the opposite bank, trapping them on the river. Izuna was the only one of them in armor since Kyou couldn't take hers without raising suspicion. She did have a few senbon hidden in the hem of her kimono, but she wasn't sure they'd be very useful against Tobirama, let alone his dad.

"How fortuitous," Butsuma drawled, twirling the blade in his wrist like he hadn't just tried to decapitate Madara with it. "All of Tajima's children in one place."

Kyou stayed sitting in the water as Madara leapt to his feet, standing on the river's surface with his back to Izuna's, each brother facing a different riverbank. The look of hurt and betrayal on her cousin's face as he stared down his friend sent a pang of secondhand umbrage through her. He was good. One of the only good people she'd met since being reborn in this weird Naruto world. Sure, she knew this would happen, but she'd convinced herself that she didn't care, that it was his problem and had nothing to do with her. Now, though, looking at the bare heartbreak on his face, she knew she was a goner.

Fuck. Shit. Son of a bitch.

How the fuck was she supposed to ditch the Clan when she cared?

She carefully got to her feet, keeping her gaze on Butsuma's feet. There was a chance, a slim one, that Itama and Tobirama hadn't told him about her sharingan—or that he hadn't recognized her as the one they had told him about—and she wanted to preserve the element of surprise for as long as possible. She could all but feel the tomoe swirling in her eyes as she tried to formulate a plan. Butsuma was clearly the biggest threat, but Tobirama was a formidable opponent and Itama was as much a wildcard as she was when it came to the original Plot. Maybe she should have let Izuna tell Tajima, because if he had they'd have an actual human adult in their side instead of a hyena with low self esteem who hadn't even shown himself yet and—

"Kyou-kun? Is that you?"

Well, fuckity fuck fuck.

She decidedly did not turn to look at Itama, but she could just picture the look of innocent confusion on his face. Keeping him and his brothers behind her was probably a bad idea, but she couldn't bear to look at him. Just hearing her name said in that plaintive tone was bringing back memories of blood and uncles and he's so proud of you—

Pain brought her back, the hilt of Izuna's sword leaving a stinging welt on the back of her head even as it loosened her ponytail and sent long black hair falling into her vision.

"Snap out if it," her cousin said harshly, his eyes trained on the only adult. "You can wallow later."

Rude. Valid, but rude.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing her attention back onto Butsuma just in time to see his chakra gathering.

"Izuna," she shouted, reaching out to pull him to one side by the sleeve. "Move!"

He rolled in tandem with her tugging and Madara dove in the opposite direction, both of them just narrowly avoiding Butsuma's chakra charged blade. The head of the Senju Clan came to stand between Kyou and her cousins, trapping her boys between him and his sons.

He turned to look at her, his dark eyes considering as he straightened to his full height.

"I see. A sharingan," shit. "Impressive, for a child your age. I can't imagine what Tajima is thinking, keeping you off the field."

Fuck.

She swallowed thickly, letting herself look at Butsuma's face. He, experienced Uchiha slayer that he was, was looking at the top of her head, dark brows furrowed over deep set eyes. He might have been attractive, with his deep tan and angular jaw, if it wasn't for the cold anger in his eyes. Being the center of his attention sent chills down her spine and images of her impending death flashed before her eyes.

Wait.

That was Killing Intent, right? That's what did that, right? Izuna had taken to complaining about it the moment he figured she shouldn't be using it on him, anymore, and he always mentioned that.

Well, she could do that, too.

Thinking of this man and the ease with which he had tried to kill three children with three if his own watching and how he'd likely encouraged such behavior from them and the rest of his Clan and the anguish on Madara's face when he used his son's pure friendship as a tool of war, it was easy to summon the anger necessary to hit him with the Killing Intent which gave her her name.

She watched with perverse satisfaction as his eyes widened, taken visibly aback by her use of a technique most adults never mastered. She looked at his eyes and he reflexively met her gaze, giving her the greatest gift an arch nemesis could give as he fell to the genjutsu Satan had made damned sure she could cast under any circumstances. She watched as his eyes bled sharingan red and his body ragdolled, collapsing beautifully into the river below him.

Holy shit.

"Holy shit," Izuna exhaled, clearly reading her mind. "Holy shit, Kyou!"

"What did you do?"

Kyou made the mistake of looking at the speaker, meeting angry red eyes and suddenly she was sure there was a blade at her neck, dripping with the blood of kin she'd helped kill. She stepped back, burying her eyes in the heels if her palms, shaking her head angrily as if to dislodge the memories.

"Stay away from him!" Izuna's voice was close and she could feel his body heat as he stepped between her and Tobirama. There was a metallic clang and she just knew their fated rivalry had been kindled. "Stinking Senju! How dare you try to ambush anija!"

"Shut up!" Tobirama actually sounded offended. "Like you weren't doing the same!"

"We weren't," Izuna was so smug, his voice dripped with it. "We came to make sure anika was safe with his Senju friend—which he clearly wasn't!"

A hand fell on Kyou's shoulder, grounding her as she struggled to stay in the present.

"Kyou," Madara said softly. "Are you alright?"

No. No she wasn't alright. She hadn't been since the day she'd lived through being born, a second time!

She opened her eyes, turning her glare on the sky and whatever sadistic deity might be looking down at her.

"I'm fine," she said woodenly. "Don't worry about it."

The sounds of combat were accompanied by splashing and grunts of exertion and she turned her head to see Hashirama pulling his father from the river. It was almost comical, since Hashirama had yet to grow into his six foot adult frame and his father dwarfed him by an incredible margin, but it was also scary, since he'd managed to pull him to shore all by himself. The future First Hokage looked at her, then, his dark eyes so reminiscent of his father's that she recoiled. He seemed saddened by that, drooping into an exaggerated slouch with a heavy pout on his face.

"Madara-kun, your baby brother doesn't like me!"

What.

She'd just put his father into a genjutsu after he tried to kill her and that's what he was focusing on?

"Anija." Tobirama was by his side in a flash, leaving Izuna to fall over without an opponent to press his sword against. "These are Uchiha!"

No shit, Sherlock. Wasn't he supposed to be smart?

"Eh, really? Madara-kun, you're an Uchiha?"

And Hashirama was Naruto's previous incarnation. Right.

She once again averted her gaze, looking at Izuna as he came to stand by her, expression thunderous.

Weren't they all taking things a little too well? Her memories were fuzzy, sure, but she was fairly certain things were supposed to go w as y worse than they had.

Maybe, without the adults, the kids weren't as murderous?

If only.

"Anija, let's go home," Izuna was saying, glaring at the Senju boys with a fierceness he'd previously reserved for her. "Father doesn't know about this, so we should make sure he doesn't find out."

"You didn't tell father?"

Izuna fidgeted under his brother's astonishment. "Well, no. Kyou said he'd probably try to ambush your friend, so..."

And, just like that, she was the center of attention. Shit.

She ducked behind Izuna, playing up the whole "baby brother" thing Hashirama had so generously laid the groundwork for. She really didn't want to stay there any longer than necessary and the manga hadn't had anywhere near as much talking. Were her memories even accurate enough to warrant writing down?

"Kyou-kun, it is you!"

Fuck.

"Say something," Tobirama demanded harshly. "What did you do to our father?"

"It's just a genjutsu," Izuna answered for her, standing firmly between them with his arms crossed over his armored chest. "He'll be fine—probably."

"What do you mean, probably?"

"Anyone who can hurt a child doesn't deserve to live." Everyone turned to regard Kyou and she grabbed a fistful of Izuna's sleeve to keep her mind from spiraling into a memory filled haze. "He's alive, so be grateful."

She met Tobirama's gaze with some difficulty and held it, willing her conviction to come across clearly. Given their last interaction, he had no reason to doubt her. She'd killed her own clansmen when they threatened his brother, after all. If her family wasn't exempt, his wasn't either.

He clicked his tongue and looked away, the very picture of an anime punk. It almost made her laugh. Almost.

"Kyou-kun," Itama's voice, though soft, grated on her nerves. "I never got to say thank you, before—."

"Don't!" The heterochromatic child looked at her with wide eyes, clearly not expecting her anger. "Don't you dare thank me for that."

He wilted and Hashirama scowled.

"Hey," he said crossly. "You don't have to be mean!"

She barked a harsh laugh. "Mean? Ok, sure, I'm mean. Let's go with that."

"Anija," Izuna said, pleading. "We should go. He might wake up, soon."

He was right, even if it hurt her pride to admit it. She'd never held an enemy in her genjutsu, so she had no idea how long they had before he could attack again. Madara looked torn, but he nodded.

"You're right, Izuna. Let's go."

Kyou wasted no time launching herself into the nearest tree, but Madara lingered.

"You'll come to play with me, again, right," Hashirama was asking, like the delusional optimist he was. Even his brothers were looking at him like he was crazy.

Madara's sigh was audible even from her perch. "No, Hashi. I won't."

When he and Izuna joined her in the tree, his eyes were still black. Was it wrong to be happy about that?

Below her, she caught sight of Warai moving through the underbrush.

"Where the fuck were you?"

He looked up at her and she swore he was smirking. "You had it under control. You let your chakra stop moving, though."

Asshole. Coward. Cowardly asshole. Fuck.

Fuck.