As it turns out Minato was our godfather, and out godmother was Kushina, well, she was Mine. Mikoto Uchiha was Ren's godmother. Apparently they had made a deal when Itachi was born that my mother would be the godmother of Mikoto's first born, and Kushina would be the godmother of my mother's first born, and when they were born Mikoto would be the godmother of Kushina's. Twins were unexpected, and to make up for it Mikoto became his godmother as well.

I know, it's complicated.

Over the next three years I grew and progressed in leaps and bounds by their standards. Once I had the language down I started digging out dictionaries, desperate to replace my missing vocabulary and reading anything I could get my hands on while Ren played as much as he wanted. I joined him now and again, just to keep him happy, seeing as he is my brother now. Minato found the whole thing amusing, my father I think was rather scared of my lust of knowledge, and Kushina babied me to the point I may have screamed if she didn't terrify me as well.

I was clawing my way up, gaining knowledge as fast as I could using whatever means I had. Library workers who had once tried to direct me to the children's section found themselves being chewed out about age based discrimination, book store keepers found a three year old running around their shops whenever she could, grabbing books on history, language, and mythology, and discovered that they could be educated on philosophy and psychology by a girl who only came up to their thighs. Even my parents discovered that I had a vast amount of knowledge on children stored in my mind, from alternative punishments to facts about the dietary system and how it matured.

The only one I didn't scold was Ren, Ren who followed me even when he couldn't yet read himself, Ren who yelled at any child foolish enough to poke fun at me for my interest in books. I never scolded him, not in the way I yelled at my little sister back home anyway. I had made a vow to do better with this sibling. I did everything I could for him. I read him stories, told him fairy tales, and explained things when our parents didn't know how. I played with him more than I ever did Anna, my first younger sibling, if for no other reason than the fact that I needed to be as fit as possible to become a ninja, as Ren and I had decided to become.

I knew more than many people my parent's age seemed to. I had taken classes on sociology, psychology, anatomy, and had been around enough people in my life to know how they thought, how they moved, how they perceived things depending on the environment they were born in. Some people called me a protégé, though I was nothing of the sort, others told me parents to find a priest and make sure I wasn't possessed, and those I couldn't tell if they were joking or not.

The day Ren and I turned three was the day Kushina announced her pregnancy.

From there I had ten months. Ten month until Naruto was born, ten months until my god parents, and quite realistically one of my actual parents, died protecting the Leaf. I had to decide if I should change things, throw plot line to the wind and explain to Minato and Kushina what would happen, how I knew it, and how I could prove it to them.

But I didn't know what the results would be. There were so many things I had to try and predict, and by the six month mark I had given up. There were too many important things that happened in the future for Naruto not to be the jinchūriki.

So in the end I kept my mouth shut and hung around the two of them as much as was humanly possible, I even became a sort of underage messenger for Minato, running scrolls and sheets of paper around the Hokage's office and pretending he was too busy to see people when he actually snuck off to spend time with his wife.

My whole life became some kind of fan fiction as Kushina got further along in her pregnancy and Ren and I were told we have Kekkai Genkai called a 'steel release', but it had a habit of skipping a skipping a generation and we might not get it at all, seeing as our mother was most proficient in its use. It turned out that both our parents are ninja, our mother is a Jonin, and our father only made it to Chunin. I was labeled a genius, though I am not and never will be anything of the sort, by onlookers who saw only a girl who knew more than she should. I wasn't advanced in intelligence, if anything I was behind. I knew about universal concepts like behavior, cells, air pressure, and the basics that anyone with a high school graduation would know. I cannot even begin to express how frustrating it is having a mind that is twenty one years old and the body of someone one seventh of that age, and those ten months of waiting for my godparents to die were by far the longest yet.

Ten months flew by faster than I ever knew was possible and Sasuke was born just before the night everything spiraled to hell.

Ren and I had gone to play with Itachi, my best friend after my brother, as we usually did, when my mother volunteered to watch them while Mikoto and Fuagku were out I don't know where, doing I don't know what.

It had gotten dark quickly, and eventually my parents left the four of us to our own devises on the front porch, Ren and I having a competition to see who could catch the most fire flies and Itachi acting as the judge as he held onto his little brother. Normally we would have dragged the older boy along to play with us, but he declined, to in love with little Sasuke to join in the fun. The war had only just ended the year before, and while Ren remained mostly oblivious to the terror Itachi and my more perceptive self experienced when the troops came home, bandaged and broken, and when explosions sounded just beyond the village walls, it had deeply affected the Uchiha boy. He was a pacifist from then on, as I knew he would be, and he once told me that he would never let his friends be put in danger like that.

It only he knew.

But that was behind us, for the time being anyway. That night I was on guard, guilt, sadness, and fear twisting inside my small body as I knew what was going to happen, but I at least pretended that I was having fun with Ren for a while until I couldn't take it anymore and had to go sit down next to the Uchiha boys. Ren, used to my odd behavior by then, took no offense and ran off to try and con our parents into giving us after dinner snacks.

"What's wrong?" I looked over at the older boy beside me and had to smile. Ren was my best friend here, as cliché as it sounds, but Itachi was one of the people I had come to trust the most. I never told him anything about what I knew of course, but I got the feeling he would be one of the few people to believe me if I ever did.

"What? Nothing's wrong," I was a good liar, honestly I always had been, but the frown on his face and flick on the ear I received told me before his words that he didn't buy it.

"Then why are you crying Aya?" he asked, and I paused. I hadn't even realized that I was crying up until that point I was so lost in thoughts of my godparents dying, impaled on the Kyuubi's claw.

"It's Ava," I corrected him, just as I had insisted on doing my entire life. My parents weren't sure what to make of it, but Ren called me Ava, as did Mikoto, Kushina, and Minato. Itachi only ever called me Aya.

"That isn't what I asked," he said, and I sighed at the usage of my name. He never used the one I preferred, I don't know why. I scrubbed away the moisture leaking out of my eyes and looked at the stars, breathing unevenly.

"Something bad is about to happen," I admitted at last, leaning back on my hands to stare at the starry sky, noting that my twin had returned with a small bag in hand and taken a seat

"Bad?" my friend repeated, shifting his hold on his brother.

"Mhmm. Don't ask me how I know, but something's going to happen to the Hokage, and I'm worried about him and the fire lady," I admitted, watching Itachi smile slightly at my reference to my terrifying godmother before the quirk of his lips vanished and was replaced by a grim look.

"How do you know?" he sent a wary look to his precious little brother and I only vaguely realized Ren was leaning in closer, looking me in confusion and concern. I heard an owl hoot and looked up to see it take off out of a tree, wings spreading wide.

"I don't. It's just a feeling. Like something's breathing down my neck, something big…" and it did, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up, tingling with the energy that apparently the boys couldn't feel. Sasuke started crying then and my mother came out of the house, asking Itachi if he needed help but he shook his head and she left without saying anything else. If she noticed me crying she didn't react.

Then the alarm sounded. It spread through the village and out of nowhere there were people shouting that we could hear even inside the Uchiha compound, where we four sat safe.

"Aya, Ren!" our mother ran out, already yanking on a Jonin flat jacket and strapping weapons I assumed had been inside onto her person. Her brown hair, unremarkable in shade and length, was tightly pulled back for logical reasons, keeping it out of her face and I watched her come closer, scooping my brother and I off the ground.

"Okaa-san, what's going on?" Ren was squirming in her grip while I held on tightly, looking at Itachi while he stared back at us, worry creasing his brow when our father appeared then as well, gripping a sword tightly.

"Someone's attacking the village," my father muttered, frantically shoving a hand through his mess of dark curls, violet eyes darting rapidly to and away from the way the gates were.

"We need to go," my mother said slowly, starting to let my brother and I down onto the ground before I grabbed hold of her arm tightly.

"Don't go!" her head snapped around and she looked at me in surprise by my uncharacteristic outburst, looking just as worried as my father did and he came over as well, taking Ren from the older woman and bouncing him on his hip.

"Aya, we have to. It's our job as Shinobi," she tried to reason with me but I shook my head, terrified at the aspect that they might some of the lives lost to Kurama that night. I was three, physically at least, and there was no way I could live with my parents dying, let alone take care of Ren as well. I didn't even live on my own at home.

I almost tried to object, to tell them that they might die, before I realized how stupid that would be. They knew that, they had to, and it wasn't like I could actually confirm that they had died on that night, so for all I knew they would come back just fine.

I nodded instead and was set down next to Itachi, Ren dropping to my side as we looked up at our parent, both of whom smiled at us before bidding their farewell and vanishing into the night.

That was the last time I saw my father.