Okay! So I'm having second... and third... thoughts on the pairing.

I know it's annoying, believe me when I say NO ONE is more frustrated by this than I am. Anyway I'm pretty much set on the idea of Itachi not being endgame. I hate stories that are purely angst and the 'happy ending' or any romance at all really only happens at the very end of the story. If this was an Itachi endgame that's exactly what'll happen and I can't abide that so... as much as I love him, and I really REALLY do, it must be avoided! I am now torn between pairing Hikari with Sasuke, Gaara, or Kakashi.

A poll will be set up, please help!


The Ground Work...

The first few years of Hikari's life, where not a fairy tale, but were far closer to one than Hope had ever experienced in her long life.

It didn't take very long after seeing Obito use magic, or chakra as she learned it was called, for her to realize something was.. off. And not off in a way that could be explained away because of being in a different country than Hope had grown up in. When she truly started paying attention, she discovered to many inconsistencies to be waved aside.

One look at the night sky, after crawling from the house and sending her parents into a panic, told her she was in a place that -by everything her alternateself had known about astronomy- shouldn't exist. The stars were all wrong, granted she was no expert, but she had memories of the subject for Hope's first five years in Hogwarts, so she wasn't completely ignorant when it came to mapping the cosmos.

She didn't recognize a single star, and the moon was far to close.

Denial set in once again, but this time it was much easier to hold onto. It was impossible to ignore the fact that you were reborn, when you felt like a new person, and were baby sized. But Hikari absolutely refused to consider the idea that she was born on some alien planet, or a different dimension.. or universe.. whatever. She was just reborn in some Asian country that happened to have a view of the sky not seen anywhere else on earth.

Yeah.. that was it.

That denial lasted an impressively long time, mostly because it was easy to ignore the small differences that basically screamed this world was not the one from the memories in her mind. And for once it seemed denial was the way to go, because by the time she was two years old it didn't really seem to matter. She was where she was, she didn't feel like some alien invader, or like she didn't belong. This was her world, even if it wasn't Hope's, and either way she wasn't going back to her first life, and didn't want too. So really, what difference did it make?

But it would keep her up many nights contemplating the universe throughout her life.

Instead of having another small breakdown, Hikari decided to pay even better attention. The first thing that became obvious was, her parents weren't martial arts experts.. Well they were, but what they really were, and what her father was teaching his students to be, were ninjas.

Ninjas.

Her parents were ninjas. Like superpowered magical ninjas, the headbands they all wore weren't 'ninja-like' they were forehead protectors the ninja of the Leaf wore. The Village Hidden in the Leaves, that was her home. She was in a ninja village. And even worse, her village was involved in a war. That's where her parents kept disappearing too, they were fighting on the front lines.

After that revelation her slight displeasure every time they left her at the Uchiha compound turned into fear, she was terrified of the prospect of losing her new little family. Even Kashi-nii, as she had affectionately dubbed her godfather, was fighting beside her father sometimes, though no where near the front line, and he was only seven years older than her..

Nine was far to young to fight in a war.

She was in a ninja village that employed the use of child soldiers, which in this world was seen as commonplace, and that finally convinced her she was no longer in Hope's old world. Child soldiers were something the entirety of the modern civilized world looked down upon with disgust and horror.. Most of the time anyway, she corrected, thinking of her own past as the broken war torn girl that turned into a bitter and lonely old woman.

It was incredibly frustrating, (not to mention horrifically embarrassing) being stuck as a toddler while her loved ones were off fighting battles, she wanted to go with them.. she needed to protect them..

At the very least they weren't helpless, far from it in fact. As her tiny body developed her parents started taking her out more when they were home, she had seen her father train with his team in the training grounds many times. And the things she had seen were.. amazing.

Chakra was like magic, but not like magic at all.

A wizard or witches magic was an energy that came from their soul, it was purely spiritual. With training a magical person could use that energy to bend the world around them to their whims. There was also a genetic factor involved, but Hope had never really studied the particulars, so Hikari didn't know much about that.

There was no such thing as a 'magical core'. Their bodies were infused with it, saturated in it even, from the soul. If magic came from some physical core Voldemort would have lost his when his body was destroyed, and the diary horcrux never would have been able to use a wand. Wands were used to help fine-tune the magic from the soul, and weave it in a way to execute the wielders desires.

Chakra was different. It wasn't only spiritual, but also physical.

Every living thing in her world had chakra, it was produced in organs called 'coils,' and if they ran out.. they died. Chakra exhaustion was a very real and dangerous thing. The force itself was made up of both physical and spiritual energies. The two could be molded together and released outside the body with the aid of hand seals, which worked much like wands, to perform a jutsu.

There were several different uses of chakra, personally Hikari found elemental chakra to be the most awe inspiring. Earth, wind, water, fire, and lightning all bent and molded into terrifying and deadly weapons. It seemed everyone has at least one element, but some people did have secondary elements, or just learned to use the others, though they would never come as easily as with their natural affinities.

But chakra wasn't all flashy jutsu. There were many 'mundane' uses for the force. Like walking on water or other surfaces, increasing speed and reflexes, and healing.

Another difference between magic and chakra was: No matter what a magical person did, they could not expand the amount of magic they possessed. They were born with what they got, and no amount of practice or determination would change that. Chakra levels can be heightened to a certain degree depending on genetics and other factors. A persons physical energy increased with physical activity. And spiritual energy can be strengthened through meditation or simply studying.

Though she was disgusted by the practice of using children as tools for war, Hikari couldn't wait to become a ninja herself. A shinobi, as they were referred to, or a kunoichi if she wanted to get technical. She hated feeling useless, weak, and vulnerable.

She still had her magic, she could feel it alongside the tingling she now associated with her chakra, but it would take years to learn to control it wandlessly. Thank everything holy that Hope had been a defense prodigy, and had taken the time to learn to cast magic without any conduit in case she was ever unarmed. A skill that had saved her life more than once in the auror corps. It would take many years to achieve any type of mastery in the subject though, and she would never be able to preform certain spells or apparate, but there were still several dozen she would be able to cast.

It wasn't something she could deal with at the moment anyway, she was too young. She hadn't even preformed accidental magic yet at that point. First she would learn all she could about the world around her, and try to find an excuse to give to explain her magic. Hikari had no intention of hiding it, that would be impossible with the ever observant ninja around, not to mention it sounded exhausting. She would need to learn to read quickly, luck didn't strike twice when it came to her language, she could not read the symbols shown in the children's books her parents bought her.

It was a work in progress, but she was getting it... slowly. Most of her time was spent being spoiled by her family, and the people around her. And she felt no shame in admitting that she loved having her parents attention directed towards her.

xXx

Kushina Uzumaki, she kept her last name after marrying Hikari's father just before her birth, was beautiful. She was tall and slender, but generously curved. Her hair was blood red and fell past her thighs, and her large doe eyes were a shimmering violet. Her face was slightly U shaped, and her lips were full, plump, and dark red.

In many ways she resembled Lily Potter, a strange coincidence, and she also shared many of the qualities everyone had always told Hope her mother possessed.

She was a kind woman, cheerful, and very maternal- always showering Hikari and Itachi, her godson, in kisses. She also had a playfully mischievous side, she seemed to take a sick sort of pleasure in tormenting her husband and his live in student. There were many pranks pulled when she felt in the mood, something Obito, her favorite of her husbands team, was always happy to join in on. And she didn't leave the girl only out, she adored Rin, always calling her adorable, and kissing her on the forehead.

Her mother was just a lovable person.

She was the one who sang her to sleep, and rubbed her hair until her eyes finally closed. She loved playing her own version of peek-a-boo with her, and pretending she was gonna eat Hikari's toes. And she didn't even mind much when the childish impulses got the best of her and she made a huge mess during bath time.

Despite all that, the woman with hair like blood could turn into a demon straight from the pits when properly angered. Her long locks would raise up and split into nine tails and thrash around her furiously. And her pretty rounded face would turn bright red as she shouted at whoever was foolish enough to provoke her.

Kushina Uzumaki was not a woman to be defied.

Hikari's father, Minato Namikaze, was equally as good looking as his wife. He was also tall, and well built, but not large or bulky. Bright yellow spikes crowned his head, and two long bangs hung down to his jaw framing his face. His eyes were an almost impossibly bright sky blue. And his features where.. well.. her mother often teased him and called him 'pretty boy' for a reason. His face was delicate, but still masculine.

He was soft spoken most times, when he wasn't flustered, but had a great sense of humor, and also had a sense of wisdom about him that most would expect from a man thrice his age. He seemed to always try to see a situation form all sides, and was unfailingly fair in his judgments from what Hikari had seen and heard. In general, he was just a good natured person.

Often times, late at night, he would come into her nursery and sit and talk to her for hours, especially if he just got back from a mission. He wouldn't tell her fairy tales, or silly fables, he would just cradle her in his arms and talk to her softly until the sun came up. Those times, were some of her favorites.

If there was an example of a perfect father, she was sure he would be it. And not only just to her, but also to Kashi, and the rest of his students. He was dependable, the rock that held the small family together, with a quiet strength that marked him as almost invincible in his daughters eyes.

Minato Namikaze quickly became Hikari's hero.

Regardless of the fact that she had a lifetime worth of memories before she ever met him jammed in her head, she still saw him like most little girls looked at their fathers, like he hung the stars by hand. She was pretty sure it was an instinctual thing, and it was one she had no desire to fight against.

She loved both her mother and father, tremendously, but he held a special piece of her heart that even the beautiful red haired woman couldn't touch.

Hikari was a mix of both her parents physically. Admittedly she took more after her father. She had his delicate features, his cheekbones, nose, full lips, jawline, golden skin tone, smile, and bright blue eyes. Though her own had a ring of familiar emerald green around her pupil, the only physical characteristic that carried over from Hope. But she inherited her mothers body type and the actual shape of her eyes. Her hair was also a bit from both her parents. A mix of golden yellow and red, turning her strands a shimmering golden pink color.

Thank Merlin.. as Hope would've said.. that it didn't turn out orange.

All in all, she looked nothing like Hope Potter, and she enjoyed having her own face. It would have been.. unsettling to have a constant reminder of her past life, as if the memories weren't enough. Like seeing a ghost every time she looked in the mirror.

The last member of her household was, of course, her godfather. Kakashi Hatake could be a very unpleasant individual. Many times he came off as arrogant, condescending, aloof, and cold. She wasn't sure why he lived with them, it wasn't something that was ever discussed in her house, but even though he could be a prick, Hikari was quite fond of him.

The masked silver haired youth was a very by-the-book person, far worse than Hope's friend Hermione had ever been. He even read the shinobi handbook to her once, in an awful attempt at a bedtime story, when he had to watch her one night. But the important part was.. he tried to read her a bedtime story.

When no one was around, or looking, he could be very sweet.

There were many nights when he had to watch her, and he always put on a show of being annoyed with the idea, but when they were alone he always gave her chocolate, and let her play with his ninken. He would insist it was undignified for ninja dogs to roll around begging for belly rubs from a small child with pink pigtails, but he never denied her when she asked him to summon the pack.

It was another of those small strange coincidences. That her godfather, like Hope's, also had a connection to dogs.

Very little time was spent with her fathers' other two students. She liked them, especially Obito. He was the only other person, beside her father, that called her 'little princess', he was also hilarious. Rin was very kind, and loved doting on her when she was around. But they didn't come by the house all that often, and the amount of times Hikari was allowed to go and watch their training lessened drastically since the war heated up.

Both her parents where quickly making names for themselves, and therefore making themselves targets for any infiltrators who happened to get into the village. And more importantly, as far as they were concerned anyway, she had become a rather attractive target as well, one to use against them. So her time outside of the house had become all but nonexistent, except for her trips to the Uchiha compound.

Mikoto, Hikari's godmother and her mothers best friend, and her husband Fugaku were the head's of the clan. Well Fugaku was the head, her godmother was just his wife. Maybe that was being a bit unfair, he seemed to truly love her, but it was very apparent that he was the one in charge.

Mikoto was a very pretty woman. Short, with the usual Uchiha coloring, (pale skin, black eyes and hair,) she had a sweet face, and an unassuming air about her. Honestly, Hikari thought being a geisha would have suited the woman better than becoming a ninja.

It just goes to show that looks could be deceiving, because it turns out her godmother was a badass. She had stared in wide eyed astonishment when she once saw her sleeve slip and spotted the tattoo that marked the members of ANBU on her upper arm, basically the black ops.

Her mother had the same mark on her shoulder.

Fugaku, was very handsome, but it was hard to see when he was constantly wearing a scowl. He seemed to be very harsh, his eyes were always hard, and it was so rare to actually see the man smile that Hikari had only witnessed such an event once in the almost three years she had been spending a huge portion of her time with the family.

Though that amount of time had lessened a bit as well, it had gotten to the point where all reserves were being called to fight in the war. And her godmother, apparently, was one of those reserves. Having retired from active duty when she married the clan head, and soon after had her first child, Itachi.

Itachi Uchiha.

He was Hikari's constant companion in this world, they may not have seen each other daily, but there were very few times in their young lives where they went more than a full week without the other.

He was a chubby, adorable little thing. With round cheeks, huge onyx eyes, and long curled lashes. Small spikes of black hair hung down over his forehead, and pronounced tear-troughs formed tiny little check marks in the inside corners of his eyes.

Most would assume she would be bothered by the near constant presence of an actual infant, since her mind was so far ahead of her body, thanks to her previous self's memories. But that wasn't really the case. Sure it was a bit annoying when he would chew on her hair, or when he stole her bottle, which was not an uncommon occurrence. He was always stealing her food, and the problem was only getting worse with age.

But, he was really cute and warm, and like to cuddle when they shared a cot so...

Besides, she needed some sort of measuring stick, for all her memories of Hope's life with the ever expanding Weasley family, she knew nothing about babies. Hope might have been a pro, but Hikari had (obviously) never even held one before. She had no idea how normal infants were supposed to behave. So she used Itachi as a sort of mile marker, she didn't want to come off as some sort of impossible genius child. That would just cause more problems later on.

It would be far to late to change her master plan by the time she realized how spectacularly it had backfired on her.

Because Itachi was not a normal baby.

He was a prodigy, a true born prodigy. And it was a fact that made itself known at a very early age. By the time they were almost four everyone around them was singing their praises. Him for his genius, and her because her accidental magic had finally made itself known.

She had accidentally turned the Uchiha head pink once when he was scolding her. After several similar instances she had been brought to the medic-nin and examined. An inordinate amount of poking and prodding later, it had been deemed that she had a new, and never before seen, blood-line limit. Which is exactly what she had been hoping for.

Maji, they started to call it after she told them, in her most childish voice, that it was magic.

And after they brought in a Hyuga to inspect her with their veiny eyes, which every Uchiha she ever met swore were sub par to their own. Even Itachi, who was normally so humble that Hope Potter would have been impressed. When it was confirmed she wasn't using any chakra they decided to humor the small girl and call her a maji user. Not like they had any other word for it anyway.

She had no need to be seen as a genius on top of all the attention that would/did bring. So Hikari, having realized her folly about her grand plan of copying Itachi a year before that, had slowed her progress just a bit. Not by all that much, by then her parents had already developed expectations of her intelligence, and she was loath to disappoint them. But she slowed enough to just be seen as a very advanced child, and not a genius like her dark eyed counterpart.

In those early years though, they didn't spend much time on academic pursuits, only reading, writing, basic stretches, and a few etiquette exercises. But much of their time was spent doing things normal children did, despite the fact that one of them was a reborn witch trying to tame her powers, and the other was a once in a generation superpowered ninja prodigy far to advanced for his age.

They learned to crawl and walk together, both clutching at the others' chubby hand as they took their first steps, and soon enough they were running. They spent hours exploring the Uchiha compound when they were allowed, and sometimes when they weren't allowed. But by far, one of their favorite pastimes was going down to the ponds on the grounds and feeding the turtle-ducks.

It was peaceful, being a child, and spending her days with her best friend exploring and showing him the small bits of magic she had learned to control. There was an innocence to their interactions that was untouched by the war waging outside the village walls. When she was with him, doing whatever they happened to be doing that day, she didn't worry so much. There was a feeling of serenity about him, and it never failed to put Hikari at ease.

The innocence in Itachi's eyes died when they were four.

The war had finally ended, though peace came at an incredibly heavy price, and Fugaku decided it would be a good idea to take his son, her best friend, too see the mountain of corpses and destruction left behind after the final battle, where her father had cemented his fame in the shinobi world. The four year old boy would never be the same after that.

The next time she saw him he lamented the loss of life, and cried as they clung to each other, him searching for comfort, and her trying desperately to give it to him.

In that moment her large blue green eyes hardened, she would never forgive the Uchiha clan head for hurting him, for making him cry, not ever. But she said nothing as the boy's tears seeped into her shoulder. She just hummed a lullaby her mother sung to her sometimes, and ran her fingers through his soft hair, assuring him they were alone and no one was looking.

Even at four years old, Itachi seemed to realize the pointlessness of war.

He saw how the greed and selfishness of a few, led to the deaths of thousands. It was then that he started down the road of becoming something of a pacifist. And when he pulled away from her, just enough to look her in the eye, and asked seriously if she had died in a war too, she could only stare at him slack jawed for an impossibly long moment before shaking her head.

Itachi Uchiha was, and would be, the only person in the world to ever hear the full story of Hope Potter.

Needless to say he was fascinated by the idea of other worlds, and his interest in her magic also increased drastically. They would sit and whisper back and forth for hours at a time. Talking about the big things, and the silly small things that marked the differences between that world and this one. She even taught him English, so they had their own language.

She didn't regret telling him, it helped her friend deal with the trauma his father had inflected on him in his reckless pursuit to turn his son into some perfect, emotionless tool, and it lightened a burden on her shoulders she hadn't realized she was carrying.

xXx

Itachi wasn't the only person close to her traumatized, everyone she loved had lost someone. Both her parents lost friends and comrades, her father lost two of his students in just a few weeks of each other, and Kashi lost his teammates. Her parents she wasn't too worried about, they seemed to be coping as well as could be expected.

Kashi on the other hand, had his goddaughter very worried indeed.

He seemed to drop into a depression no one could pull him from. The one good thing she could say about Fugaku was, at least he didn't demand the eye Obito had gifted to his teammate in his final moments.. she still didn't like the man. Kashi started spending countless hours sitting by the memorial stone, or so her father said, and many nights she heard him awake pacing back and forth in his room.

Not long after the war Hikari's father was named Hokage, very few people were surprised, he had pretty much ended the war single handedly with the use of the Flying Thunder God Technique. Such a stupid name, not that she'd ever tell him that. When he was sworn in he recommended his last remaining student join ANBU. And things seemed to get a bit better for her godfather, but also a little worse.

With the war at an end, the heavy restrictions she was under were somewhat lifted, though she did get a ANBU babysitter who followed her around every time she left the house. With her freedom granted she spent even more time with her best friend, continuing to teach him all about Hope's world, and keeping up with their English lessons.

The next year was even more idealistic than her first few. Both her parents were spending more time in the village, even if her father was busy most of the time with his duties as Hokage. Kashi was getting better and even calmed down from his stuck up rule following ways, though he remained very distant. And her and Itachi had become nearly inseparable.

She no longer had to deal with the frustration and embarrassment of being a baby. Hikari would never again think back on the first year of her life, just to spare herself the indignantly of it all. Some things just shouldn't be remembered... soiling your pants and breastfeeding were definitely on the top of that list.

Hikari and Itachi were both also getting new siblings and had even made a new friend in Shisui Uchiha.

Sasuke was born first, he looked a lot like Itachi had when they were babies. But as the date approached for her own little brother or sister to be born her mother had to be moved to a secret base when she started showing. Neither of her parents wanted the news to be made public that they were having a second child, and Kashi went with her to guard her.

That was when things really went wrong, days before Hikari's fifth birthday.

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