Ito decides that she hates Konoha's winter. The sky and the earth fade into shades of gray and death, like they are decomposing along with Kushina and Minato's bodies in the cold ground.
(Jiraiya-san does not return for the funeral, nor anytime after that)
The chill in the wind blows straight through her, and she pictures that she is a ghost drifting mindlessly along. She no longer counts the months, because they seem to blur together. She left the Nara compound that day with a shiny new hitai-ate, they thanked her for her service. A dark-haired man with inquisitive eyes and sharp features tied it around her forehead, but she took it off the second she was on her own. Since the orphanage is over-capacity, the competent children get to move into subsidized housing. Her hastily-awarded status as Genin means that she qualifies.
(She also believes it is a method of keeping her obedient, and frankly, silent)
Her days do not mean much to her anymore. The Sandaime-sama (he informs her it is the most correct way to address him) takes her under his wing. She is, after all, very good at paper pushing.
"Yondaime-sama was a great hero, and many different peoples know of his name," the old man says; she is neatly sorting stacks of paperwork into priority and non-priority affairs.
"The Yellow Flash of the Leaf," she provides blandly, this information is not new to her.
"Very good, yes, and that means that he has many enemies across the Five Nations that may seek to hurt his family,"
"Please, Sandaime-sama," she says, hints of a sarcastic simper in her voice. "Get to your point,"
(She noticed that he tolerates disrespect from his peers, and he will receive the same treatment from her)
"I have made the decision to give the baby his mother's name instead," he tells her slowly.
"He has a name already,"
"And after seeing the bitterness and resentment that festers in Konoha towards the Nine Tails, I have decreed that no one may speak of the baby's heritage or of the demon resting inside of him,"
"How can you make decisions about his life, if you cannot even call Naruto by his name?" She questions incredulously, unable to bite her tongue.
"I also think that perhaps, it is best you do not see the baby until he is older,"
At this, Ito can only laugh, and they do not speak again for days. Sarutobi Hiruzen thinks she is a very odd child, though it is clear to him why Kushina had been fond of her. That girl's heart had always bled for broken things.
Ito pays more attention than Sarutobi realizes to the papers she shuffles through. Slowly, from the ground up, she learns the inner workings of the Hidden Leaf village. Under their noses, she begins collecting a profile on each of Konhagakure's elders, their specialties and interests and habits. She skims through correspondence with the Daimyo, and wonders if the old man believes she is too stupid to understand, or if he simply does not care that she does. Nevertheless, she files the information away for later in her own mind and tosses it into a stack of papers that needs to be addressed immediately.
He lets Ito leave early one day, and she takes the long road to her crumbling apartment. It weaves through the part of the Hidden Leaf that had been almost entirely destroyed, and her chest tightens as her feet carry her to where Minato-san's house once stood. The dust and rubble has been cleared away, leaving only a hole (matching the one in her heart). She swallows tightly, and moves down to the Uchiha compound, which is strangely vacant. No dark-haired, sharp-nosed boys and girls were fixing fences or cleaning up glass. Her eyebrows come to an unsatisfied point in the middle of her forehead, and so she lurks until a passerby gives her the gossip she is looking for.
The Uchiha Compound? Moved to the village's outskirts?
She blinks, pondering whose idea it could have been, but resumes her pace and sets out to find them. In fact, by the time she reaches their gates, she is closer to her own 'home' than she is the Hokage's estate. The guards that have seen her many times surely recognize her, but they do not allow Ito entry.
"I seek an audience with Lady Uchiha-sama," she declares, making sure to address Mikoto-san with the correct title (though she had never called her that before).
"The honorable Uchiha family does not have time for the likes of you," one of the guards sneers, and something in her heart breaks.
"I have a message from the Sandaime-sama," she lies easily, arching an eyebrow at the man. They begrudgingly allow her to pass, and she allows herself a moment to appreciate the beauty of the new Uchiha compound. Though they surely feel the disrespect that had been aimed at them, they seemed to be taking full advantage of the opportunity to expand. She is led to the main house in silence, where they nervously knock on the door for her. It opens, and her heart stops.
"Itachi-kun," Ito greets, her eyes wide with surprise. She had assumed that he would be out.
"Ito-san," he returns politely, face impassive although she knows him well enough to gather that he is pleased to see her. They go inside.
After a moment, he faces her, his small eyebrows knitted into a serious expression. "I honestly thought you had died," he tells her quietly.
"I am far too stubborn to die," Ito shakes her head. "I was taken to the orphanage,"
He hums, a rare look of confusion on his face, "I did not think to check there,"
For the first time since the Kyuubi attack, Ito laughs.
"Is your family well?" She asks him anxiously, but he smiles slightly (practically a grin by Uchiha standards), and her fear melts away.
"The Uchiha suffered minimal casualties. Izumi-san lost her father,"
"I am sorry to hear that, please extend my condolences. Is your mother available?"
"I guess,"
"May I speak with her? Will you ask?" She questions, hope shining in her eyes. He wonders what has happened to bring her here, and decides to get the full story later. Itachi retrieves his mother, who is holding an animated, chubby-cheeked Sasuke.
"Ito-chan," the woman gasps, completely caught off guard by the child's visit, using the affectionate honorific because Kushina always had. The baby babbles happily and reaches grubby baby fingers towards her, she tries to ignore the pain in her chest.
"I do not mean to intrude, Lady Uchiha-sama, I must beg your forgiveness,"
Though Ito had always been able to feign good manners, the newfound strictness in her speech is not unnoticed by those who had known her before.
"I have a problem," Ito continues. "And you must know, if it were something I could solve on my own, then I would have done it by now,"
"Ito-chan, you may address me as you always have," Mikoto assures, her eyes darkening as she listens to the girl.
"Mikoto-san, the Sandaime-sama," she spits out his title as if it is acid in her mouth. "Has forbade me from taking care of or even seeing Kushina-san's child. As you know, my entire purpose within this village is to watch over Naruto,"
Mikoto says nothing. She should have known that the Uchiha would not be the only ones scorned by the new administration in the wake of the Nine Tails Disaster. In fact, she finds that this does not surprise her at all. Minato and Kushina were on the cusp of bringing a better future to Konaha's children when they died before their goal was met, the same twisted and dark traditionalists resuming the mantle of power in the village.
"They won't allow him to know of either his parents, nor of what happened that night,"
"Ito-chan," Mikoto interrupts. "I am inviting you to dine with us tonight,"
"That is very kind, Mikoto-san," Ito bows.
"You look thin," the woman comments, eyes narrowing on Ito's slight figure. Kushina had just gotten the girl to a healthy weight, and she seemed to be wasting away yet again.
"Life on my own is more difficult than I had conceived previously," she answers, wondering how the conversation's focus shifted to her.
"You're on your own?" Itachi asks incredulously, Ito unties the hitai-ate from her belt and hands it to him. He turns it over, expression unreadable.
"A man from the Yamanaka read my mind like a book to the Sandaime-sama and his advisors, and then they told me that I burn with the Will of Fire and gave me this headband,"
No one says anything. They come to the same conclusion that Ito had on their own.
"I will start dinner now," Mikoto mutters, handing her child to Ito with hardly another thought and shoving herself into the kitchen to deal with this new information. Something was beginning to rot in Konoha.
Ito stares at Sasuke down in her arms, flashes of Naruto's blood-covered face flickering through her mind. She gives the baby to Itachi, who takes his brother into his arms without complaint. The two (technically, three) children sit in a contemplative silence (Sasuke is never quiet for long, though).
"So you are working for the Third Hokage now?" Itachi questions, noting how often she had brought the man up.
"He has made me into his personal secretary," she responds wryly, her nose scrunching up.
"Unfortunate," the boy sighs, shooting her a teasing glance. She returns it, a small smirk on her face.
"So have you reached your coveted Chūnin status yet?"
"I leave next month,"
She brushes her hair out of her eyes. It falls past her chin.
Before she knows it, she has been in Konoha a year. The weather is (typically) sweet and charming again, but in it, Ito finds only misery. Today, she is reminded overwhelmingly of Amegakure, like the sky had woken up today with her in mind. It is raining; the drops pattering softly down to earth like the tears of an angel. It is neither warm nor cold, but Ito shivers standing in front of the memorial stone. She has taken to wearing the Leaf hitai-ate when she is out of the privacy of her home, finding that civilians treat her much better whenever their village's sigil is emblazoned proudly on her face. It keeps the water out of her eyes, also, but she's crying so it doesn't matter.
A sense of longing for elsewhere plagues the girl. She feels it in her lungs when she breathes in this air, and she knows that she cannot stay in Konoha another year. She wonders when Jiraiya will return, and if he will let her accompany him on his journeys. She has, after all, turned twelve and holds Genin status, so he has no reason to say no. She believes the only person in the village that would miss her is Itachi, but the Leaf takes full advantage of his Chūnin status, and he is rarely home. In fact, it becomes so hard for the two of them to see each other, that he's gotten into the habit of visiting her directly before he leaves for his missions.
(This is usually at some point very late in the night, or very early in the morning)
The first time he taps at her window, she hasn't yet fallen asleep for the night. She pulls herself out of bed and lets him in, though they both know he could have done it himself. She can tell he is worried about his task from the lines etched into his young forehead, and for a long time, they reminisce over the past year. She is nodding off to sleep by the time he has to leave, and he carefully prods her back into bed and tucks her in before disappearing into the night. She wishes that he was in town today, but he is off ruining his innocence and kind heart elsewhere.
(Today, Ito realizes, she needs a friend)
Hatake Kakashi goes to his usual thinking spot, alarmed to see it is already occupied. He stops dead in his stride, recognizing the girl immediately. Her normally bright sky blue hair was plastered down to her head in the rain, reminding him of how she had looked the first time he had seen her with Lady Kushina. (Small, very small) He winces, noticing the slight shake of her shoulders, her fingertips tracing their names. He thinks he ought to go somewhere else, but his feet stubbornly continue their beeline for Obito and Rin's small corner of the stone. She hiccups into silence at his approach, openly staring at him until he situates himself a respectful distance away. He urges his mind to focus on the conversation he had just left with Lord Danzou, but his eyes keep flitting anxiously over to the girl. She pays him no mind, respecting his right to mourn. However, he can't help but notice the headband she's wearing, and she isn't exactly hiding her clenched fists.
(That implies she's angry, not grieving. He has half a mind to ask why)
At some point, they share enough time there that the rain stops. Sunlight begins to drape itself around the gravesite, leaving long shadows in the late afternoon. He can tell her shoulders are heavy by the one that she casts. She begins to push herself into a standing position, her knees bruised from the ground. She glances at her silent companion, who is already looking at her with one piercing eye (the normal one, she notices that he hides the red one under shame and his hitai-ate).
"Care for ramen?"
Kakashi blinks owlishly. It has been a long time since he's eaten a meal with a friend, and she definitely doesn't qualify for that title. Something tugs at his heart, and he is aghast to recognize it as a sense of responsibility. There was nothing left of his sensei (no one had publicly seen the child yet, if he had indeed lived through that night), and truth be told, Kakashi had idolized Minato. His Genin team was listed in near-entirety on the memorial stone, everyone but him had officially bit the dust. It was horribly depressing, and he felt horribly guilty. Part of him resonated with what Danzou had said, he was an exceptional shinobi and he could have faced the Nine-Tailed Demon with Minato-sensei. This girl had. For a moment, he envies the conviction she had during the attack. She is years younger than him with no battle experience, and yet, that day she had been braver than him. A darker voice in his head tells him that his father would be disappointed with his decision to turn around and look for other survivors to retreat with.
"Yeah,"
They depart together awkwardly. Kakashi's hands are shoved in his pockets, his shoulders hunched forward. Ito's posture is perfect, of course, but her hands must stay busy. She fidgets with a balisong, Sandaime-sama had believed it important for her to complete a few courses in weapon training. She loathed it the entire time, but learning to twirl the flashing blades of the butterfly knife at least intrigued her. Kakashi watches with thinly-veiled interest.
What he finds most interesting about her is her complete lack of interest in seeing what he looked like without his mask. Unlike most, she doesn't keep her eyes trained on his mouth the entire time he eats. She doesn't question the genjutsu, or ask him why he casts it. He's thinking about it later, long after he's retired for the night. He doesn't think he's met anyone like Wakumi Ito before, and he understands why Minato-sensei had trusted her.
