"Happy birthday! Blow out the candles and make a wish, baby!" Sora's mother, Mikoto Uchiha, exclaimed presenting the child with a large platter cake. IT was the cake for the guest, made of icing and vanilla cake with six candles on top. Her name was beautifully written on the top and she took in a deep breath, trying to blow it out but ended up needing help from her brothers, Itachi and Sasuke.

"Yay!" The crowd of many whistled and all made their rounds, kissing and hugging Sora before take a piece of the cake. She sat on her Itachi's lap devouring the attention while her parents got her individual cake ready for her. It was made of vanilla with the same pretty name on the top but strawberries were on top of hers.

"Happy sixth birthday, Sora!" Sasuke exclaimed putting a party hat on her head and played with her, making her laugh. Itachi watched everything and processed it, trying to remember to keep smiling. Tonight was the night.

"Sora, come over here. It's your favorite." Sora's father, Fugaku Uchiha, beckoned and Itachi set her down on the ground, watching her hop like a bunny over to her cake. She sat on her toy chair and table, stuffing her face with frosting and strawberries. People flocked around to take pictures and try to talk to her while she ate.

"Here, Itachi." Mikoto offered, passing Itachi some cake and he tried to enjoy it but he couldn't. He had to kill them all tonight, even his baby sister. This whole "Cake time" only lasted for a half an hour and then Sora had to open all her gifts. Most were cards with money in them but their were a few with dolls, games and clothes in them.

"Thank you all for your presents! I love them!" Sora yelled, smiling widely, missing a couple teeth on the sides of her mouth. Everyone cheered and dispersed one by one. She came to sit on Itachi as they her parents cleaned everything up. "I'm tired now, Itachi."

"Sora, I have something for you." Itachi told her and pulled out a whistle putting it around her neck.

"Oh wow! I like it! What is it?" She asked and Itachi smiled at the wonder in her eyes.

"This is a whistle. It makes a loud noise when you blow into it. It's so that if you get in trouble, all you have to do is blow that whissle and I'll come find you." She blinked and looked at the whistle.

"But it's safe, Itachi. Nobody's going to hurt me. Everybody loves me here." She said and Itachi's heart broke and fell. He made the choice then as he looked down into her onyx eyes. Itachi covered her hand in his and nodded.

"Nobody's going to hurt you while I'm around." She nodded and relaxed against him, tired from all the excitement. He picked her up and brought her into the house, up the stairs and into her room and laid her in her bed and made sure she was asleep before packing like a crazy man for all three siblings. He only took the necessities and enough money to get them by for a long while and hid it in her closet before he left.

"Where's Sasuke?"

"He went to go do something up town. He'll be back soon." Mikoto told Itachi and he tried not to look anxious as he left for the Hokage tower. The street were filled with laughing people and happy families, people who never had to plead for their siblings life with the very person whose job was to protect them.

"I need to see the 3rd." Itachi told the assistant and she nodded, letting him go in. It was not the third but Danzou.

"Itachi, I would've thought you'd be getting ready."

"I don't want to kill my siblings, Hokage. I won't kill my siblings."

"Won't kill your siblings or your family, Itachi? If you and your assistant can't do the job...we can always-"

"No, you don't understand. It's not that I can't kill but I won't let someone else kill my siblings. It's not within me to see them get hurt like that. My job as an older brother is to protect them and I take it very seriously. You can kill my clan, my parents but my brother and sister are contraband...or I don't do this and you will have to find someone else."

"Your sure you want to give that ultimatum. Should you choose to run with your sister and brother, my anbu with have no choice but to kill all you."

"I understand." Itachi knew the answer before it came out and he stood, bowed and left the chamber with no other goal in life then to find his brother. There was luck with him as he found Sasuke a block from the Hokage building.

"There you are." He said and took Sasuke by the hand, leading him back to the compound. They had to leave before Madara showed up.

"What's going on?"

"We're leaving after we get Sora. Something terrible is going to happen and I can't explain until later." He told Sasuke and Sasuke said nothing, sensing that Itachi wasn't steering him wrong but they were too late...The killing had begun.

***

Sora opened her eyes, glad for her little cat nap to find Itachi had left her. She got up and rubbed her eyes, getting out of bed and stumbled to the door, her sky blue dress swaying with the motions. She managed to grab and twist the door knob, walking into the dark hallway.

"-here soon. He's the one who's suppose to kill you two." An unfamiliar voice said down the hall and Sora walked down towards it, peeking in the door. It was dark and hard to see.

"Itachi would never work with both us and them at the same time." Sora's father spat and Sora's eyes adjusted seeing her parents tied together in the center of the room and another by the window, checking the time on his watch.

"What a day to hold a massacre! Isn't it your daughter's birthday today?" Sora blinked, knowing not to answer. She had to keep quiet. Sora's mother nodded, silver tears falling from her eyes. "Poor girl. To die on your own birthday. Maybe I'll leave her til' the end-" He turned and Sora didn't move quick enough out of the way.

Sora followed her first instinct and ran for her life down the hall but she was grabbed quickly and dragged back to the room, held by only one arm around her waist like she was a brief case. Sora's whistle fell off just outside the door.

"Let me down please! Please let me down." He did set Sora down on her parent's bed and knelt in front of her. He was wearing a mask and it only had one eye hole. She didn't particularly know what was going on.

"Your a little cutie. You must be Sora." He started and Sora nodded and looked at her parents, who were freaking out. The masked man grabbed her cheeks and made her look at him and only him. "Is it your birthday today?"

"I'm six. How old are you?" Sora asked and it was hard to tell what he was doing under his mask.

"I'm a lot older then you are. Let's put it that way. Where did you come from before I saw you?" He asked and I blinked pointing towards the hall.

"I was sleeping in my room but I woke up and I didn't know where Itachi went, so I went into the hall and heard talking down here."Sora said. "I should've stayed in my room, shouldn't I?"

"Yes, Sora. You should've." Sora reached up and noticed her whistle was gone. "What are you looking for?"

"My whistle! Itachi gave it to me." She said heavily, starting to hyperventilate. "He told me it made a loud noise when I blew into it! He told me when I needed help or was scared to blow into it and he'd come and find me!" The man's mask showed no emotion towards her but somehow she knew he was not happy.

"Stay where you are, Sora or I'll hurt you when I come back." He said and let Sora's face go and grabbed the whistle out of the hallway. Sora's parent's were struggling with the rope that held them and he dangled the whistle in front of her. "This whistle?"

"Yes!"

"And he gave it to you today?" He questioned dropped it. Sora stayed where she was and that made him unhappier and he broke the whistle under his shoe. "It seems that this is all me today. Itachi's gotten cold feet." Sora didn't make a sound as he turned to Sora's parents. She watched her own reflection as he pulled out a sword, swiftly cutting her parent's heads off and Sora now watched the blood run across the floor.

"Sora?" He asked and she looked up his mask, to the eye hole. Under the mask, he burst out in laughter and I watched him come over to me, grab me by the arm and pull me out with him into the street. He grabbed my cheeks again with his blood stained hands and set me on a high post I couldn't get off of to watch "the fun".

One by one, he'd drag them into the streets and kill them with various different fashions. He'd decapitate them, or he's slit their throats and make them color the sand red or he'd fight them to the death. I watched him take out the young and the old, the shinobi and not and the innocent.

I wished I had a whistle.

***

Itachi watched it all from the gates, keep Sasuke away from the sight. He spotted Sora on a high pole that she couldn't get off of without killing herself and he couldn't get to without being seen. He didn't...Two lives was better then none. He had to leave her behind.

"Sasuke, go hide and don't you dare even look inside the compound." Sasuke nodded and backed himself under a dark porch as Itachi slinked his away into his home and into his sister's room. He grabbed the bag and went for Sasuke very carefully.

"Sasuke, come on." He whispered and Sasuke crawled out and Itachi took him into his arms.

"Wait! What about Sora?" He asked and Itachi knelt down in the shadows.

"Sasuke, I know it's hard but I couldn't find Sora and if we don't leave now, we never will." Sasuke's eyes filled with tears and he nodded, letting Itachi take off with him. It was the hardest thing they would ever have to do.

***

It was dark out and the killing had mostly stopped. The masked man was no where to be seen and all she saw was piles of dead bodies laying around. She couldn't help but wish...she'd been the first. It hurt a lot to watch everyone she ever knew die like that.

Sora kept quiet and still, looking out in front of her. She could see the world had turned bleek and dark. Scary almost. No whistle call would save her from that. Itachi wasn't coming for her because she didn't have a whistle anymore. If she had a whistle everything would be different.

Everything was silent and still but fear hung in the air like the stench of death. It was alot for a four year old to take in. Happy birthday! Blow out your candles and make a wish, baby!

"I wish..." I whispered and looked down at my dead family. "I was with them." It wasn't a very practical thing to wish for but it was the only practical thing to wish for. She could wish that her parents would come for her because they were dead, she couldn't wish this had never happened because it did and she could wish for Itachi to come help because she had no whistle to summon him with she was utterly alone.

"Hello?" A man's voice asked and she went still looking towards the compound gates. "Oh my...hello? Is some still... alive?" Sora didn't know if she should speak so she just sat and watched the group come in with flashlights. She watched the first man walk below her and he leaned on the pole making it wobble.

"Don't do that." She exclaimed and grabbed onto the pole with her fingers as looked up, shining his flashlight in my face. I covered my face. "That hurts. Get it out of my face." I told him and people came over, unable to get me off the pole without making me fall.

"It's alright. We'll catch you."

"If I fall, I don't wanna be caught." I told them and I did fall anyways. They caught me and told me it was OK now and no one was going to hurt me. I told them what happened down to the last detail and she was taken to the Hokage's office and they told Danzou everything that I told them.

"This will not be taken lightly. Itachi and his friend have-"

"Itachi didn't do anything." I interrupted and everyone looked at me. "I was talking with the masked man and he said that he was going to have to do it alone because Itachi had gotten cold feet."

"Still your brother was plotting to do this-"

"That's enough Danzou. I'm back and in charge." The 3rd said walking to into the room. "I've heard about everything. There are people removing the bodies from your home, Sora. I'm sorry this had to happen...on your birthday." I looked down at my feet and nodded. I think I was finished being strong. I think I wanted to cry now. Danzou's mouth pressed into a hard line and he watched me with hard eyes as he walked out.

Sora got up and followed him outside, feeling something weird about him. His eye and arm were wrapped up and he took a left down the hall and I turned down the hall. She followed him down two more hallways and came to a short dead end.

"Why are you following me?" He asked behind her and she gasped, turning around.

"What happened to your arm? And your eye? Were you in a battle?" Sora asked and he bent down to her height, searching her eyes for something hidden beneath the surface. "I was following you because you gave me a death glare on the way out and I want to know why." I demanded.

"You want to know why I gave you a glare? Because your an annoying little girl," He whispered the rest and my smile and wonder dropped off my face. "and you should be dead like the rest of your clan."

***

Itachi walked into the cavern, his strength drained from running. Sasuke was still awake and starting to break down. He sat him down and looked for kindling for a fire in the cave. Sasuke opened the bag, his sister's favorite doll being the first thing he saw.

"She's dead, isn't she?" Sasuke asked and pulled out her doll, hugging it to himself. Itachi turned to Sasuke and threw the kindling down and separated some rocks making a pit. "I miss her already." Sasuke said and Itachi started the fire, sitting beside his brother.

"I know how you feel." Itachi told him and the wind blew sharply, the flames flickering.

"Now, Itachi, I thought we had a date? I had to do the whole thing myself." Madara told Itachi, who was sitting across from him at the fire. "It was quite enjoyable but I had to figure you weren't coming by myself." Madara paused. "Well actually, your sister helped me with that one."

Madara was trying to rile up Itachi or maybe even Sasuke, so he'd have a reason to attack. It wasn't working, he had control of his emotions. Madara sighed and leaned back.

"Oh well, she got to see her sixth birthday anyways." That set Sasuke off and he stood up, snapping at Madara. "Hey, calm down, little boy. It's the way everything works out in this world. People live, People die. I did the job no one else wanted to do." He tried to justify and Itachi held Sasuke back.

"Why are you here?"

"I want to know why you got cold feet at the last second." Madara asked and Itachi looked at the fire.

"It was my sister's birthday, Madara. I couldn't go through with it." Itachi took his brother's hand. "I gave her the whissle and she asked me why she needed it if everything was safe. I couldn't be the one to shatter reality for her."

"I did it for you and you'd better keep going as far as you can. ANBU have been dispatched to kill you and your brother." Madara warned and disappeared out of the cavern. Itachi sighed and looked at Sasuke.

"Well, shall we?"