3.

Everybody was dying, or already dead, or leaving other people to die, and Kanaya was simply distraught at the state of the world. It had first started with Fall; it had succumbed to death's grip first and quietly (under her nose) turned to Winter, a season that she had always particularly liked at this point in time.

One morning, when Kanaya had awaked, she saw the feathery frost on her windowpane, and her excitement did not crease to fade for hours. It was cold enough for her to have to bundle up, and toss away those tedious yukata and kimono thst she pretended to be comfortable in while secretly sure she felt as if she had been wrapped in a tight swaddle like a infant. The cold was such a relief to her, and Kanaya was not ashamed to admit that she had been outside playing in it for the first few days of winter. Her pleasures died after a raid by the Uchiha, and she had been forced to abandon Mitama when she rushed out to fight against them, leaving her beloved sister with Riku-sama.

Thankfully it hadn't been a large group, and they were easily fought off, allowing them to stay at their settlement without fear of having to move in the snow. There was always a dread about being outside when snow fell; a single snowflake could be the beginning of a blizzard. Kanaya however, pushed all of these negative memories and thoughts out of her mind because today was her little sister's first birthday. She would be damned if she let ANYONE ruin it, even if Mitama would not remember a moment of it, the emotions she feels will remain.

Mitama had grown quite a bit (though she was still as pink as she was when she was born), and she was very cute. Her hair was very long, resting in dark ringlets that left Kanaya envious of her hair, and her eyes had a childish innocence in them that made you loose yourself in her eyes. No one with a soul could resist Little Mitama (except for Haniyama, but she did not have a soul), and Mitama loved attention. It was an exciting time for Kanaya, she had been there through all of her sister's milestones. Her first word was (not surprisingly) Neechan, and Kanaya had proceeded to march around the compound with the little girl in her arms, and a proud smile on her lips. The Senju did not seem to mind the fact that Kanaya stopped every man and women in the entire settlement (even Butsuma) to allow Mitama to babble out the word, and the baby seemed equally as excited over it as her elder sister. When Mitama walked, that was a different story entirely.

Kanaya had cried when her little sister walked; her tears had lasted hour upon hour. She cried for two reasons (one of which she was ashamed about), and the first was because she was damn proud that HER sister had managed to walk at a simple ten months, and was a prodigy in the making. Kanaya was sure that Mitama would one day surpass her; leaving the elder girl in the shadows with all of her achievements. The second reason being, she mourned her sister's innocence.

Mitama was developing quickly, and that meant that she would be on a battlefield just as quickly. How could Kanaya bear to know that in a few short years, six year old Mitama would be in the very same position that Kanaya had been in. She would be crying herself to sleep; mourning her dead comrades (her friends); be consumed by a blackness in her soul that would eat away at her for all of her days.

It sent Kanaya into fits of tears at how she could do absolutely nothing to protect her sister, like she could do nothing to protect herself.

There was blackness was within her, but that was where it should be. It was like black ice was blooming in her veins; which was worse than burning-rage. There was a sharp feeling left in her chest, that burned her soul-the bitter taste of failure. Kanaya was weak, her wind's uselessness; her sister left to die alongside her clan. Childish icy venegance burrowed in her heart, as big as a glaicer and it would one day release; destroying anything in its path.

Of course, such emotions were pushed away into the back of her mind, and today's smile was geniuine as she watched Mitama with Hashirama, both looked quite frustrated with the other.

Hashirama was wiggling his finger in her face as he would a baby. "Say Hashi-rama!" He encouraged her, using cooes and "baby talk" which caused Mitama to glare at him with her dark grey eyes. Her mouth was clamped shut, her eyes were hard (the exact same stubborn face that Kanaya made), and she looked angry at her cousin. He wiggled his finger once more, before Mitama opened her mouth to 'say something', and she leaned in to clamp down her little, pearl-white baby teeth onto the tan boy's finger.

Hashirama flung himself backwards with as much force as he could while wailing, leaving Kanaya choking back laughter at the sight, and even Tobirama's face twitched into a smile. The kunoichi stood up, and approached the little girl with an amused look, and Mitama's arms raised to be picked up, however the girl simply crouched down in front of her. "Mitama, say Nee-chan." She demanded in the same voice that Hashirama had used, and Mitama took no notice of it.

The baby smiled, "Ee-tan." She cooed out, chubby hands flailing in delight at the word while Kanaya shot Hashirama a mocking smile.

"Maybe she just doesn't like you, Hashi-Itoko." She teased, and to her surprise Hashirama took the bait and began another episode of his chronic depression, taking to sitting in the corner of the room.

"Yeah." He muttered to himself. "I'm a really unlike-able person..." Hashirama seemed to fold over into himself more, while Kanaya began to laugh at the fact this 12 year old would one day leave lead the clan, and if she did not know him, she would be questioning his sanity.

Tobirama crossed his arms in a rather intimidating pose, red eyes narrowing in disapproval, not at Kanaya's jabs at his brother's child-rearing skills, but at his brother directly for his child-like behavior, and Kanaya made sure to take two steps back, because she would never cross him when he did that I'm-really-annoyed pose that he did so well. Mitama was squealing, Hashirama was pouting, and Tobirama was frowning; Kanaya was pretty happy at how everything turned out.

She did not mind that Haniyama had not bothered to show up; Kanaya didn't even want to invite her, but she did. Haniyama was cold towards her littlest sister, often calling her "the bastard", and Kanaya fears that if she had not taken Mitama when she was born, Haniyama would have left the poor infant to die. Butsuma did not attend the make-shift party either, he was busy tending to clan matters and a first birthday was not important.

Usually, a seventh birthday was most important and the only one celebrated, seeing as it meant the child had been strong enough to survive past infancy and childhood. Seven was the magic number for battlefields and clan wars, however Kanaya felt that Mitama deserved more.

Kanaya could not even remember if she had ever had a "party" of any kind. She had recieved one or two gifts (mostly from the Senju Brothers), but never had anyone truly celebrate her birth. With that thought on her mind, she wonders if Haniyama had ever had a birthday either; perhaps not because Haniyama's birth and childhood years had been during a terrible time for the clan. A plague had swept through, weakening the Senju Forces significantly, and causing Uchiha advantage. Kanaya doesn't even know when Haniyama's birthday is, but she does not care to, because Haniyama is not one of her main concerns.

Here, in this room, is her important people. They are laughing, eating sweet breads (there was not enough rations for cakes), and simply enjoying each other's presense. This is what Kanaya lives for; small moments of peace.

...

She brewed his tea in a chipped blue pot, one that she was given from one of the dead women in the clan, and was older than she was, before she poured it into a white cup with faded chrysanthemums on them, stems twisting onto the handles of the cup. She dropped in a dollop of sugar and cream to sweeten the bitter leaves, before handing it off to her uncle. He sat by the window, cup in hand, watching the first snow fall outside before he took a sip. "Kanayama, how old are you?" he sighed deeply.

"I'll be nine in a week." She replied slowly, taking a sip of her own tea, eyes narrowing at why this meeting was called at all, and she wanted to go see Mitama.

"A good age for this assignment. Your mission is simple." He said looking up into her eyes with his stern, caluclating expression. "Your target is Fuuma Amaya, the only daughter of a feudal lord in the Land of Rice Paddies. His army is starting to march towards the Land of Fire to try and gain land, and the daimyō had hired us to stop this at once." He paused to sip at his tea again, before he continued where he left off as she refilled his cup to brim. "The girl is being sent away in two days from their base camp, and I am told she will be sent into Uchiha territory for protection." His dark eyes bore into her own cold ones. "There may be Uchiha guards within her group, and it will be difficult. Your task is to assassinate her before she makes it to Uchiha protection. Questions?"

"Yes."

"Speak."

"Why would I be the best choice this-" The word got stuck in her throat, and it choked her. Why would she be chosen for an assassination? She had never been told to so before, and how could she kill an innocent? As far as Kanaya knew, the princess of Fuuma was a lady, not a kunoichi. How could a eight year old do such a thing to her?

Butsuma delivered a sharp look, "We have heard she has a soft spot for little children. Besides, it is time you begin to pull your weight around this clan. Shinobi do as they are told." His voice was one that clearly spoke no-nonsense. Kanaya nodded obediantly, and considered her words carefully this time.

"Would it not be easier to assassinate the princess's father instead?" She inquired. Her toes peeked out from under her kimono, and she tapped them erratically to take some of her tension away, before she looked up to meet her uncle's eyes. "Why would the murder of a gentlewoman effect an invasion?"

Butsuma paused for a few moments, before he stood, brushing his armor off. Kanaya noted how he did not thank her for her efforts in making this a formal occasion, or even brewing tea. His heavy toeless boots stomped as he made his way towards her door, and just as it slid open, and winter floated in, he spoke.

She could not see his expression, but there was a heaviness in his voice. "How could you bear to do anything if your sister was killed? Loved ones are the beginning and ending of wars."

The door slammed shut.

...

It takes a good while before Kanaya was on the correct path. There wasn't much of a path per se, once she had been navigating a route, instead she did her best with tracking them like a hunter to a bear, using smal signs of her target's presence as leverage for a bigger goal. The mountain she's on—Kanaya has never seen large mountains before—is too large, and too cold for her tastes. Her kimono is not thick enough to defend her body against the bitter cold that burns her fingers, and she shivers. The ground is frozen over, with ice so deep it covers her ankles, and there is a valley below her, with snow that is beginning to pile up, getting too close to the ledge she was traveling on, and she felt naked without her armor.

For a little girl, she was quite skilled at staying out of sight – though it should've been expected after all of those lessons with Kazou-sensei - this was not the first time she had to disappear from sight. Survival was often based on how fast you run or how well you can hide; both were skills that Kanaya had perfected. She followed the princess's caravan during the day; watching the way guards switched; when the princess took walks; even how the horses traveled in the snow. The Uchiha guards were impressive; they had been looking suspicious, causing Kanaya to expect they would soon discover her presence. She was careful; only eating and drinking during breaks which were on par with when the caravan took rests.

Kanaya never did enjoy her breaks; when her body ached look forward to them intensely, but as soon as they begin, she prays for them to end quickly as her mind attacks her. The thoughts of what she would do to an innocent swirled around inside of her, and she found it hard to concentrate on anything other than the guilt that gnawed away at her.

Meditation did not relieve her of her anxiety, instead it gave her more time to fear the duty assigned to her The cold burned her cheeks, and the snow whipped around at her face, and she felt her fingers slowly freeze. She curled into her kimono from her place on a tree branch, observing the tents that rested less than 100 feet away, and the sun was slowly setting, casting an orange-red glow across the pure white (and probably warm) tents that held Amaya-Hime, and her noble ladies. The largest belonged to the Fuuma Heiress, and it was embroidered with golden silk into an elegant design of a story of goddess and gods, and a sick smile plays at Kanaya's lips when one of the stories portrays the fierce Goddess Haniyama. Kanaya had learned this tent belonged to Amaya-hime around the time she learned there was a ten minute guard chage that left the Fuuma Clan Princess unguarded around midnight.

It had to be tonight. Tonight she had to kill an innocent princess. Her stomach tightened at the thought. Her mind raced with confusion and shame, and the kunai clutched in her hands felt too heavy for her to hold it. Kanaya wanted to vomit, her own body betraying her as she dry gagged.

Shinobi feel nothing. Shinobi do as they are told. Shinobi do not fail. She told herself, firmly.

Kanaya waits patiently until the sun has descended far too west for any type of light to pour in from the sky; and a breath of wind ruffles her hair, and she slowly jumps from her branch towards the cold ground, and she inhales a lungful of icy air that burns her chest. The silence of the camp caused her heartbeat to echo all around the area, and besides the guards, no one else has ventured into the night; the guards have not yet noticed her presence though, so no one is out. Her footsteps fall silent, and she is careful to cover her prints in the snow, though she doubts anyone can see them in the dark. She nears the largest tent, and she shakes with cold, the chill of the air slicing through her clothes. Kanaya feels small in the dark, chilled, and guilty.

She remains by the side of a third, smaller tent belonging to a young lady, and two Uchiha stand (both wrapped in warm furs) as they speak in hushed tone. It takes a few moments before the two leave, and Kanaya chokes down a whimper when she sees their demon eyes: the Sharingan. The elder one is the ome with those red demon eyes, and the second is a boy around Hashirama's age. He is, from what Kanaya can see, quite handsome like all Uchiha scum. He was slender, with slightly tanned skin, and a scruff of wild black hair that goes to his shoulders. The boy looks in her direction, and for a moment she fears she has been seen. However, he turns away and follows his clansmen. They do not see her, nor does she see them after they disappear into the darkness of their own cloth-homes.

She has limited time, so she quickly descends onto the the grand tent, and Kanaya glances back over her shoulder to check for an all-clear. Her hand wraps around the flap, and she stops, frozen and poised, wavering on her decision to finish this mission. How could she do this? It was different from other missions, where she killed to protect herself and her family. This was...murder.

She glance back at the empty, silent void of night, remembering the coldness of her family towards Gin Senju, who refused a mission, and was shunned and abused by the clan until he killed himself, using Seppuku. It had been a horrific burial; Gin was not allowed a coffin with the Senju Crest, instead he was throw in the dirt shamefully. Kanaya takes one last breath of bitter air, opening the flap, and silently slid inside.

It was easy to see the woman laying on the silk futon, and a paper latern flickers in the corner. Kanaya assumes it is for if Amaya-Hime is to wake during the night, and must move around.

The woman had fallen asleep on her back, with her face turned towards the scrolls to the left of her futon, and Kanaya is thankful she won't see her face during this. Amaya-Hime had a fist curled up by her face (they were uncalloused, and Kanaya assumed she'd never touched a kunai in her life), which was half covered in long, orange locks. Kanaya could hear her soft breathing just barely coming out of her slightly ajar mouth, and her heart beats madly in her chest as she thinks about what she needed to do, and...

Kanaya's hands trembled, as her knees hit the soft carpet that had been laid down for the elder girl, and she leaned towards Amaya-Hime, and she hesitated, the knife hovering over the girl's chest.

I can't do this...

Tears burned her eyes, and Kanaya wanted her mother right about now. Her hands remained frozen around the knife until two teal eyes opened blurrily, then focused on her. Amaya-Hime's mouth opened to shriek, but all that came out was a gurgled, choke as her eyes darted down to see Kanaya's knife embedded in her chest.

It takes all of two minutes to watch the light flicker, then fade out of the older woman's eyes, and Kanaya is sure that she pierced the heart directly. Blood splattered all over her; it sprayed across her cheeks; stained her kimono; with a metallic taste gagging her. Panic caused her to do it so quickly, and guilt stabbed her heart as painfully as what she did to the woman.

Kanaya heard noises, and within seconds, she used the basic body flicker to escape from the tent before anyone decided to check on the Fuuma Heiress, and she ran as quickly as she could away from the small night-settlement, fear lacing all of her being. She could feel someone touching the back of her neck, even if no one was there, and she could feel their breath against her body.

It only urged her to go faster.

...

As Kanaya returned to the Senju Base Camp, she then realized there was nowhere to go, nowhere left to run. The stinging of her cheeks and ache of her bones had distracted her for a good while, and now she is facing this terrible truth. She felt, as tears fell, just how tired she truly was, a tiredness that had nothing to do with the fact she had not slept all night; a tiredness stemming from her hatred of this world.

The weight of the memory of what she had done hours ago, rested on her like a boulder on her shoulders. She stood by the gates (still in her blood stained clothing), and slowly rose her eyes up to see the sun beginning to rise from the east. It was then that something donned on Kanaya.

"I turn nine years old today..."

...

Okay, thank you so much for the reviews. I highly doubted I would get any! So first, that Uchiha boy she saw guarding the tent was in fact Uchiha Madara (not that she knew that), and she will see him again when it is revealed Hashirama has been meeting him. So look forward to that. Second, I know Kanaya is depressing for nine years old, with all of her inner darkness and fears and such, and while Hashirama plays everything off as a joke, she is the one to keep everything straight forward. Kanaya has no coping skills, so she is kind of dark, but she gets better, I promise. It's just a terrible time in Naruto History, and I doubt anyone cared to see how a little girl felt about anything. The next chapter is being written as we speak.

Please drop me a review and enjoy!