Author Note: Alright so this took...a bit longer than the first two, sorry about that I guess. Still big arse chapter!


Coming to a gap in the line of rooftops I gathered strength in my knees and jumped, sailing over the gap and touching down on the next buildings roof with the barest clatter of the tiles.

Down the street I spotted my target strolling towards me apparently unaware of my presence. Crouching low I silently prowled closer like a cat while wondering if my quarry really didn't know I was watching or was simply faking.

As I hastily got into position I accidentally dislodged a tile with my foot, it slid less than half a meter before I twisted and snatched it up but the damage was already done. I looked down expecting my target to be staring straight at me but he was still walking as if nothing had happened.

He was definitely faking.

But since I'm the optimistic type and refused to discount the infinitesimally small chance my target really hadn't noticed me I jumped him anyway, to be more precise I jumped on him.

"Oh woe is me! I have been ambushed by a vicious rogue ninja!" My 'victim' wailed theatrically and pretended to try and shake me off. "Can no one save me from this terrible fate?"

"Come on nii-chan I know you heard me coming." I scolded him but without any real venom while I got myself properly seated on his shoulders. Now four years into my new life I was still almost deliriously happy about being able to walk, talk and eat solid food again.

"Did you notice me at the start or was it just when I knocked this thing lose?" I dropped the offending tile into Shisui's hand, he flipped it over casually and turned to smirk at me.

"You really want to know? Wouldn't it be better if I let you work it ou-ow!" I interrupted his taunting by giving his hair a quick tug. "You're going have to do better than that 'Shio, I've been trained not to break."

I tugged his hair again petulantly while I composed a decent comeback. "Don't make me go for your ears 'Shui. You don't comprehend the depths of torment I can inflict upon you." Leaning forward I tried to push his headband down over his eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey I'm the older one therefore only I get to use nicknames." Shisui said batting my prying hands away.

"Nicknames are a sacred right among siblings no matter what order they're born in." Just because I was four didn't I couldn't sound superior, it's an English thing.

After a few more rounds of back and forth we lapsed into a companionable silence for a while. I at least was certain that I'd won the argument even if Shisui thought he still had a whelk's chance in a supernova of making me concede to him.

Eventually I spoke up again. "Ne, nii-chan? Why don't the other people in the village not like us?" The villagers not friendly with the Uchiha clan was an understatement, if they thought Naruto was a ticking time bomb then we had already detonated as far as they were concerned and there weren't any conveniently specific laws to slow the rumour mill.

It had quickly become common knowledge that an advanced Sharingan could manipulate a Bijuu leading to the technically correct conclusion that an Uchiha had been behind the attack though that also lead to the assumption that at least one of the clan in the village had done it since all of us were thought to be accounted for along with Kakashi who of course was the only non-Uchiha with a Sharingan, at least the only one everyone knew about.

Shisui twisted his neck to look at me for a moment and walked in silence for another minute before speaking up.

"They live in a hidden village 'Shio if they aren't a little paranoid they'd best move somewhere less interesting." He sighed. "The Kyuubi did so much damage and killed the Fourth Hokage, people can't believe the attack was just a coincidence."

"Hmm." I ruminated over his reasoning. "Do you think they-." Do you think they're right not to trust the others? I wanted to get a handle on the clan's attitude though I was worried about seeming smarter than a four year old should be even though it seemed like every third Uchiha was expected to be some kind of prodigy. Besides it wasn't hard to find someone complaining about our having being moved to the arse end of the village.

"Do you think you can use that as an excuse for not being a Jonin yet?" I said quickly and tried to laugh off the tension. Shisui looked back at me again but I was thankfully saved from any penetrating questions for the moment when another voice cut in.

"Hey Toshio, Shisui!"

"Sasuke!" I called down to the boy as he ran up to us. "Did you manage to surprise Itachi? I got caught."

Sasuke was, not counting my brother, my closest friend in this world. Admittedly he was the only other Uchiha anywhere near my age and the rest of the clan was telling everyone else "fine we don't really like you either" leaving Sasuke as the only person to muck about with as well as my regular training partner.

He was a good kid, not cracking under the weight of his hatred. Already both smart enough to keep up with me in a decent conversation and skilled enough to make the question of which of us was stronger a proper contest rather than a foregone conclusion.

"No I haven't even seen him yet." Sasuke replied with a pout. "I guess he's still working."

"Really? Well next time I'll come with you on the stakeout." I said. "You can show me how it's done." Smiling slyly I spoke in a lower tone. "Then again…do you actually want to win?"

"Eh?" Sasuke looked at me like I'd just tried to explain the plot of Metal Gear, even though I didn't have that mess straight in my head anymore. "Why wouldn't I want to beat you?"

"I'd sure like to know." Shisui muttered wryly. I do at least try not to behave oddly or sound smarter than I should be, well I try sometimes, on special occasions.

I shushed my brother and jumped down. As much as I liked pretending I was still a head taller than most of humanity I felt I my next statement would sound better at eye level.

"Now Sasuke my friend, you see if Itachi gets surprised by either of us jumping on him that would be a bit rubbish for a super prodigy like him. On the other hand nii-chan noticed me right away. Way I see it that would say more about their skill level rather than ours."

While I said he was bright for his age Sasuke was still four so he had to process that for a moment before replying.

"So...you think if I beat Itachi-nii then that means Shisui is the better ninja?"

"Indeed." I said flatly while clasping my hands behind my back and trying and failing to keep a straight face.

"Buuut." Sasuke began "If I catch Shisui then that means Itachi-nii is the better one right?"

"Umm, hmm somehow I hadn't thought about that." I mumbled mostly to myself.

"Itachi and I aren't going to get a moment's peace are we?" Shisui said. He didn't seem too aggrieved by the idea just resigned and more than a little amused.

"Indeed." Me and Sasuke dead-panned simultaneously. We held our blank faces together for a moment, then I snorted a little and set off all three of us. We stood there sniggering on the street without a care for the strange looks we got from the passers-by. The three of us moved along when a stony faced clan elder made a sharp comment about "proper decorum" accompanied by a few murmurs of approval.

As soon as we were out of sight on a quieter street I made a low sound of annoyance in the general direction of where the old man had been, if I hadn't developed my healthy cynicism before I'd ended up surrounded by people trying to drill Uchiha clan values into my head, well there's the whole concept of respecting your elders but I've found a lot of the elderly are grumpy sods with outdated ideals rather than sage advice.

Shisui frowned at my open belligerence. "'Shio..." He said warningly. "You can't go around badmouthing people like that."

"Come on, I don't say that stuff to their faces." I replied trying to be placating.

My brother sighed deeply. "You're missing the point."

Unexpectedly Sasuke stopped walking and piped up. "So is that what you think of my father?" He murmured. "You act like you respect him but insult him behind his back?"

Shite. This is what I get for having a cynical mother first time around. That and not hanging around anyone remotely important.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry." Saying those words was always like pulling teeth when it was someone I knew well. "Your dad-er Fugaku-sama is our badass leader, I mean he's the only clan leader I've dealt with obviously but from what I can tell he does a great job of it."

The other boy leaned in close to study my expression, he stared at me until even Shisui was shifting awkwardly just from watching. After a straight minute of staring Sasuke pulled away and folded his arms.

"Hmm." He grunted with a frown. "I guess that'll do for now. I can think of some other way for you to apologise later." His frown vanished as the rest of his face smirked evilly.

"Hah...hah….hah." I laughed nervously and glanced at Shisui in a silent appeal for help. While he did plant a hand on my head and ruffle my hair he also told Sasuke we had to get home for dinner. Since digital watches hadn't been invented four-year old boys weren't trusted with their own timepieces so thankfully Sasuke bought it.

Leaping back onto my brother's shoulders he shunshin'd us both back home faster than I could register any acceleration and before I got any warning. Jarred by the transition I instinctively gripped his hair with my hands.

"Warn me before you do that please!" I literally squeaked. "I need to psych up for getting shot about like a spitball." I like the idea of being too fast to even see but even Jonin using flash-step have to plan where they're going in advance without some sort of special eyeballs.

"Come on it's not that bad." Shisui said while he pried my fingers loose. "You'll need to get over this if you're going to learn to flash-step yourself."

"If I do it myself I'll know it's coming." I said matter-of-factly. "It's completely different."

As my brother took a breath to reply the door to the house slammed open revealing mum in her full Military Police uniform. While she was technically still an active ninja having a second child...well me had relegated her to administrative work.

"Boys, if you two are going to squabble you can do it inside not on the doorstep." Thankfully she sounded more amused than her irritated expression indicated.

Shisui simply chuckled nervously and walked inside. War veteran and bearer of a Mangekyo he may be but he was also still only 13 years old and it showed more often that I expected. Slipping out of his shoes he chirped "We're back!" while bending to let me jump down.

Stretching my legs I habitually glanced around the main room. The single storey house was large enough for me to have my own room that rated slightly above a shoe box. Our position in the clan wasn't all that high up so we didn't get anything too fancy even with Shisui as a claim to fame.

"Welcome home." Mum said wryly as she followed us in. "So what was the argument about?" She asked while untying the protector from around her neck. "Nothing too trivial I hope."

"No 'Shio-" Shisui began but I cut him off.

"Nii-chan shunshin'd me around without warning again." I complained loudly over him.

"Aww, you poor boy." She fluidly dropped to one knee and hugged me. "It's okay to be scared you know?" Looking over her shoulder I shared a confused and slightly worried glance with my brother. I thought she was playing around until she said that last part.

Mum worried about me, had done ever since I dashed across my first rooftop, reminding me that I didn't have to be a ninja like her or Shisui. "You can be whatever you want to be." She kept telling me. Father didn't agree at all.

They argued about it sometimes, about my future. Smeg if any of us got that far I'd take whatever I could get but I certainly preferred having options. From listening to them I had managed to get an idea of where they were both coming from.

Father saw that I was smarter than any four-year old had any right to be and could already outdo a good chunk of the current academy students. He was annoyed that the regulations of starting and graduating early had been tightened after the war ended and fully expected me to go be another Shisui.

That was the last thing mum wanted for me. My brother had gone off to war when he was younger than ten and came back having suffered a big enough emotional trauma to activate his Mangekyo. All mum wanted was for one of her sons to be a normal kid, at least by this society's standards.

Well if my plan to save Shisui and break the vicious chain of events worked perfectly I would have all the time in the world to decide what I wanted to be. If things went much the same way and I survived anyway through some idea I pulled out of my arse I'd have a target painted on my back my whole life. The last possible outcome could just piss off.

If I had a choice of which world I ended up in I would have gone with Pokémon, no one dies horribly in Pokémon. Except for Hunter J, that came out of nowhere.

I simply stood there for a few minutes feeling her arms tighten with mine hanging limply at my sides, eventually I reached up and wrapped them around her neck and hugged her back.

"Don't worry, I'll always be brave." I tried my best to fill my words with the kind of sincerity only an entirely innocent child could muster, or a very good barefaced liar.

I'll save you. I know I can do it, damn the other possibilities.

Mum finally let me go to pull back and stare at me with an unreadable expression. Staring back in confusion I went with what I thought was the safest option and pasted on a wide grin.

Did I say the right thing? Am I acting normally enough?

Shisui thankfully directed the subject away from weighty questions about the future by asking why dad wasn't home yet and I made good on the distraction, however fleeting and ducked into the bathroom.

Splashing water over my face I caught myself staring at my reflection. All in all apart from being a small child I couldn't complain. Having the black hair was darker than the plain brown I used to have though I rather liked that, while I hated being the centre of attention it was nice to be distinct. Seeing my solid black eyes staring back was spooky for a long time, I kept getting drawn into them looking for where the iris ended and the pupil began.

I wondered from time to time if there was supposed to be someone else looking through these eyes. Had my soul been shoehorned into this body in place of another? Morbidly I felt better about it when I reasoned that if there had been a Toshio Uchiha in the original events then he would have died with the rest of the clan, of course then I had to put aside my anxiety over trying not to die myself.

Leaving the bathroom I quickly noticed that father still hadn't got home yet. I looked questioningly at Shisui and got a shrug in return. Mum had gone to change out of her uniform.

Going to the sink I looked at the eye level counter with a familiar flash of irritation before dragging a footstool into place so I could reach.

"You know if you're just after a glass of water I can get it for you." Shisui offered from where he sat at the kitchen table, he sounded amused at the effort I was putting in to a simple task.

"You know you can just sit down and shut up." I retorted with an edge of anger in my voice. Few things make me angrier than being coddled. I'd spent my first life trying not to punch out everyone who suggested I needed special treatment, it wasn't a physical issue then but I still loathed having my independence questioned.

Grabbing my drink I sat at the table opposite Shisui and sipped quietly until he spoke up.

"'Shio…" He began. "I get that you're old enough to do some things by yourself but you don't have to grow up overnight." Pausing he looked down at the table, then back at me. "Like I had to." It was only the third or fourth time he had ever referenced his war experiences around me.

If I was grown up then we could save everyone together.

I didn't mind being reborn too late to stop Obtio being recruited by Madara, unless saving the most powerful ninja clan in Konoha somehow made things worse then events could play out pretty much as they would have without me for all I cared. But I felt that I should be able to do more than simply tip off Shisui and maybe Itachi closer to the time. I cared about these people, they had once been mere shades that existed as I perceived them through tiny windows into this world but now I saw them living and breathing, they had real lives beyond what I could see and that heightened the sense of injustice I had felt about the clan's fate.

"I...I want to be able to help you nii-chan." I said haltingly. Out of myself and the three siblings I had Before I liked to think I was the one most willing to do favours and the least combative.

Shisui stood up and changed seats to right next to me and grabbed me in a headlock.

"Now listen closely 'Shio." He said in a lecturing tone over my protests at being manhandled. "I am the big brother here and you are the little brother. That means it is my job to take care of you, all you have to do is be eternally thankful for me and be the best at whatever you want to do." As an afterthought he added. "Well you can also lend me money."

Squeezing out from under his arm I gave him my best shove. "Beg on my doorstep a few days and I might acknowledge you exist." I said bluntly while inwardly thankful that Shisui had lightened things up. Taking the opening I changed the subject and took to grilling him about events in the village at large. While I had almost free run of the Uchiha compound between studies and training I wasn't allowed out into Konoha proper without one of my parents in the lead and I could count on my hands the number of times they had taken me out there with them.

It took over an hour for dad to get home after that by which time I'd ended up on the sofa in mum's lap listening to an anecdote from the office about someone trying to use water from a cooler as fuel for a jutsu when the door opened and closed.

"I'm home!" Dad called out before adding tiredly. "Finally." He slipped off his shoes, vest and kunai pouch before kissing mum on the cheek and sitting down heavily next to us. I shuffled over so I could sit between them.

Coming to think of these two strangers as my parents had been easier than I ever would have expected. If I was in an extra cynical mood I'd call it a sort of Stockholm Syndrome, when you only see the same few faces most days for years on end it's difficult not to bond with them, being showered with love and attention didn't hurt things as much as they would have if I'd been mobile.

I'd bonded with Shisui of course he was a good guy and he straddled the line between patronising and throwing me in at the deep end but it was different with them, they had decided to have a second child for some reason, at this time when world-changing events were set to begin for some reason and for some reason or perhaps the sheer random stupidity the universe I had ended up being that child.

In their own way they had saved me from that terrifying darkness, it didn't matter to me if it was unintentional I loved them for it anyway.

"Hi dad, how was work?" He huffed noisily and dropped a hand heavily onto my head. "Exhausting." He replied shortly. I frowned a little at the uninformative answer and mum smiled down at me, I get the aggravating feeling that she found my grumpy expressions cute.

Shisui took it upon himself to address the elephant in the room with less subtlety. "Did something happen at work? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"You boys would make a good pair for interrogations." Dad said with dry humour. "Innocence and insidiousness is quite the combination."

"Thanks." Shisui's reply was almost undetectably brittle. My brother had objected to any veiled or open advice that he should join the Military Police, he claimed that he simply felt he worked better on active missions though I worried that the MPs were being used partly to push Uchiha further away from important roles in the village and partly to consolidate power by the clan leaders. "Anyway." He pressed lightly.

"Anyway." I piped up in an identical tone of voice, pressing on another flank.

"Right, right I know." Dad said exasperatedly while idly ruffling my hair. "If you must know a group of Genin defaced the headquarters, they were quick enough to give us the run around the village for over an hour before we caught them all."

I forced down a giggle at the idea of a pack of grim faced Uchiha chasing pranksters all over the place. "So what happened when you caught them?"

"Well." He said slyly. "They'll clean it up of course but we decided it was a bit too late in the day to get the job done before it got too dark, so they'll be our guests overnight and clear up in the morning. It'll give them extra time to think about what they've done."

That's pretty heavy-handed. I thought to myself and raised my brows but said nothing, social commentary seemed like it would be odd coming from a four-year old.

"Kind of harsh isn't it?" Shisui put in, he tried to keep his tone light but I could feel that he was prepared to argue the point. "Couldn't they have been "gently" escorted home instead? It would've been worth it to see the looks on their parents' faces."

Dad's expression soured and his hand lifted off of my head. "A mere scolding will not teach these vandals to respect the Uchiha. We cannot afford to be lax."

"So we alienate everyone instead? I can hear the rumours already. "MPs imprison children at play without charge." It wouldn't surprise if they aren't already beating down the door at the headquarters."

"That's absurd." Dad sounded like he doubted Shisui's intelligence right now. "The truth of the matter is easy to see." Suddenly he looked down at me. "Toshio, tell me what do you think?"

Oh cock. I'd been quite content to stay out of the conversation but now I felt like I was being called on to cast the deciding vote. "I-I guess...I." I stammered intelligently.

"Satoru." Mum spoke to dad admonishingly. "There's no need to put him on the spot like that." She put an arm around my shoulder protectively. "You don't have to answer right away, take some time to think about it okay?"

I fidgeted in between them before speaking haltingly.

"Well I haven't seen much of the village so all I really know about what happens out there is just hearsay and I think the same happens with what people outside the clan hear about us. The truth gets...twisted when all there is to go on are rumours."

Being under the stare of three sets of those dark eyes was pretty intimidating. Dad looked sceptical but didn't dismiss what I'd said out of hand, while my brother seemed thoughtful. Looking at mum I found it difficult to gauge her opinion, as best as I could tell she was confused at my not taking her way out and gotten involved voluntarily.

Dad managed to speak up before Shisui could.

"An...interesting statement but what can be done about it? The leaders of the village do not seem to care much when we do try to speak frankly with them. After the Kyuubi incident they not only ignored us when we denied our involvement but forced us into this compound, they built the walls that separate us not the Uchiha." He said sternly but not harshly. Tellingly Shisui only looked a little put out and didn't try to contradict him.

Taking advantage of the momentary silence mum declared that she had to get on with dinner and volunteered me to help, scooping me up off of the sofa we bustled out of the room without leaving any room for objections. I got the feeling that having parents with enhanced ninja strength would make the aggravating manhandling go on for even longer than usual. I actually did enjoy sitting on the shoulders of my parents and Shisui but getting hauled into the air sometimes without even a "come here" had annoyed me enough to loudly protest until everyone had learned to give me some warning most of the time.


The rest of the evening passed in relative peace though everyone especially Shisui threw me the occasional curious glance, I got the feeling that I'd definitely talked too much. Though the way I see it nothing would make me question whether this life was something my admittedly...not ordinary mind had come up with more than if we got along all the time.

Earlier on in the evening than I would have liked I had been packed off to bed, another of those things about being a child that made sense for a real four-year old but was a pain for one with an adult mind that pretty much needed to be utterly exhausted to actually rest. Thankfully the weirdly patchy technology of this world did include battery powered torches for sneaky late night reading.

It must have been well after midnight when the door opened, panicking I made a token effort to hastily flick the torch off and pretend to be asleep but it was likely an effort in futility when living with a family of ninjas.

"'Shio. I can tell you're awake." I relaxed at the sound of my brother's whispering voice and rolled over to face him. He'd caught me doing this a couple of times before but hadn't told our parents about it, he had just sat down and let me ask him questions about words I wasn't able to read or say yet, well after spending a while unbending my pride that is.

Flopping on my side I stayed silent until I could just about make out his face in the dark. He was sitting by my bed as usual but he had a strange look on his face.

"What is it nii-san?"

"What you said earlier about how we...get along with the rest of the village, I wanted to ask you what would you do to help if you could?"

"Me? But I..." I stopped myself from hiding behind my apparent age to avoid the question like I should have earlier. If I could try to be straight with anyone it would be Shisui, shaking off my hesitation I looked him in the eye and forged ahead.

"Well no one trusts us and I hear stuff about the MPs losing their authority to ANBU but someone needs to get in a fairly important position and prove we can be helpful, is that why you don't want to want to join the MPs?"

"I guess that's part of it...but I don't think I'm the one to bridge the gap, someone else will be the one to do that." He didn't seem surprised, more curious at my "insight". "Do you always think things over this much 'Shio? I didn't think you were the type to hold back."

I shifted nervously in place and broke eye contact for a moment.

"Maybe I don't want certain people to know that I'm this mature, if that's the right word. I don't think I want to get into all that prodigy stuff yet." Or catch the eye of a certain fake cylcops without a golden opportunity to stick a knife in the bastard.

I likely could get away with blaming this society for any violent tendencies I had but I would be lying, even Before I could have put together a list of people I think I would be okay with killing but none of those were personal, just certain individuals who could drop dead and in doing so make that world a better place in my opinion.

Shisui shuffled closer so that I could lean against his side if I wanted to but I didn't move.

"If you're that worried do you even want to be shinobi at all?"

"Huh? Sure I do, I know it's scary and I know I could get hurt." Or die...again. "But I want to get strong enough to be able to protect myself and-" I smirked up at him. "I don't care if that would deprive you of some brotherly duty." Unexpectedly I found myself yawning while my brother groaned in mock hurt.

While I tried to rub the impending sleep out of my eyes Shisui stopped his groaning and chuckled at me.

"You should probably get to sleep now, enough heavy talk for one night." He hugged me close to his side and I awkwardly put my arms as far as I could manage around his waist. After a few moments he let and stood up to leave.

"Just keep it up okay 'Shio? I'll see you in the morning." I assumed he was telling me to keep flying under the radar for now though I wasn't sure whether he was worried about me getting pushed out into a fight early or being noticed by forces outside the clan.

I flopped down with a casual wave in his general direction.

"Night nii-san." I mumbled as he shut the door behind him. "Enough heavy talk, right." I wasn't worried about nightmares, I don't dream much and they don't bother me when I do have them. Getting to sleep at all was the problem.

Reaching out I picked up a stuffed tanuki toy that I had gotten for my second birthday, I had promptly named it "Shuka" and refused to explain myself to anyone. Hugging it close I tried

getting back into character, a real child wouldn't have to deal with this, wouldn't know what I did about the future.

The serious conversations had brought my worries back to the forefront of my mind, to get any decent sleep and not be a nervous wreck in general I'd hide behind my physical state. A child isn't expected to save the world and I could try to trick myself into believing that that's what I was.

After nearly an hour it either worked or I managed to fall asleep anyway.


Author Notes: So after three months of procrastinating and some Pokemon I finally finished this.
I had that oh crap moment is this chapter when I realised that I had never written a scene with more than two characters in it, so I hope those turned out ok.

Followers and Favourites are now in double digits! Huzzah!

Now reviews, thanks to you two once again, to everyone else give me more feedback!
iiSiaielah: Predictability is of course something I am trying to avoid. Either way the current state of affairs doesn't make encounters with canon characters that haven't already appeared highly unlikely. Everything else you'll have to wait (maybe quite some time) and see.

DarkDust27: No more baby times, sorry but there isn't much to work with when writing from the perspective of someone who can't move or speak or even understand most of what's being said. As far as the timeline goes let me just say that I believe in the butterfly effect when it comes to time shenanigans.