Aurora's View:

Father and dad were pulled away from their normal jobs to prepare for an upcoming war. Neither one of them would tell me what it was about, saying I shouldn't worry about it. They were hardly home anymore, leaving me home alone most of the time.

Everyone had an important job to do now, even Naruto had been sent off on a special mission and would be gone for months. No one seemed to have anytime to talk to me about what was going on either, telling "Sorry, I'll explain next time." Even Shikamaru-nii kept quiet about the war and wouldn't let me go follow him around any more. He was the one who usually let me in on everything, but this time even he said I shouldn't be involved. "You're still just a kid after all." It hurt to hear him say that.

"Come on, pup, it's not that bad." Pakkun jumped up to sit by me in the window. I had been sitting here most of the day, waiting for someone to come home. "'Sides, you're papas' are getting ready for a big fight. It doesn't mean they don't love you." Father had decided Pakkun was a good enough babysitter for the day, leaving the grumpy pug with me. He wasn't the best company, but he was someone to talk to.

"I know…" All I wanted was to know if everyone was going off to fight. I wanted to say goodbye to everyone, just in case, since I didn't get the chance with Naruto-nii. I found out the day after he left, but no one would say where he went. Why was everyone keeping secrets?

"How 'bout this, since you can't go out on yer own, how 'bout I teach you something?" I was baffled by his offer, waiting to see what the pug was up to. He just scratched his ear and jumped off the windowsill. "Well, you coming?" I followed him outside, wondering what this was all about.

I watched him dig in the dirt for a second, summoning Bull with a scroll in his mouth.

"Alright…" the pug nosed the scroll open, revealing two names written out in blood. "In order to make a contract, you gotta sign our scroll. Since you're already a pack member, you'll be able to use us a lot easier than other summons."

"Contract? For what?"

"A summoning jutsu of course. It's easy. Your father had it down in a day." I was reading the names on the scroll while he spoke. One was Sakumo Hatake and the other was my father.

"Pakkun, are you guys a family summon?" It made sense, most were passed down from generation to generation, but I didn't have the Hatake bloodline in me.

"Eh, sort of." He waved it off. "We never met Sakumo, but our parents did. Kakashi was our first master." Bull bark in agreement. "Though, he was twelve when he finally found the scroll."

"I'm not…"

"You'll be six in two days, you'll be fine." Pakkun assured me, but I wasn't so sure. "Alright, lets get your name in." Both dogs stared at me, waiting for me to do something, but I wasn't sure what to do. "Kid...you gotta use yer blood." I figured that was the case...

"H-how?"

"Just prick yer finger. It'll be enough." The pug said it like it had been the most obvious thing in the world. I took one of my kunai out with a shaking hand, not really wanting to cut myself. I felt Bull's nose push my shoulder, trying to encourage me. I sighed, pricking the tip of my finger with the blade. The sting of it made me wince, but I guess I would have to get used to it. My signature wasn't perfect like fathers or Sakumo's, but it was legible at least.

"Good, now for the hard part." Pakkun stepped away from the scroll. "You gotta try it out." Bull gave me a big, sloppy kiss, happy I could summon him now.

"How do I do that?" I asked while wiping my face, getting the drool out of my eyes.

"First, you gotta control yer chakra. Have you been practicing that?" I bit my lower lip, hoping he didn't catch it from behind my mask. "Ya haven't have ya?" The pug sighed. "Can ya walk on water?"

"Walk on water?"

"Maybe we jumped the gun…" Bull whined at Pakkun's words. "Let's start from the beginning then..."

After a long lecture from Pakkun about chakra, he showed me what to do to climb trees without my hands. He did it with ease, sitting on a high branch and waiting for me.

"Come on, pup!" He called. How am I supposed to do this?! I don't have four legs!

"Pakkun...I'm not so sure…" It wasn't fear, but I knew my chakra could go haywire at anytime. I had little control over it, the seal had slowed down my progress over the two years I had it.

"You can do it." I watched him lay down, bored with my lack of skill. I hesitated, but decided to give it a whirl. I felt the air cool a bit around me as I tried to concentrate chakra to my feet. I ran straight at the tree, making sure with each step that the chakra was still balanced. However, once my foot made contact with the bark, it broke, giving way. I crashed hard on the ground, the chakra I build up discharging in a small burst of frost.

"Too much. Try again." The pug said lazily, nearly asleep.

"Hey! Don't fall asleep while training me!" I scolded him, but all I got was a scoff and a yawn. "Whatever…" having a dog as a teacher was the worst.

After a few hours, I almost gave up. The tree was now covered in frost, making it even more tricky to climb. Pakkun came down, complaining it was too cold, but didn't give me any more tips.

"I can't…" I said defeated, falling back onto the grass as he sat by me.

"Eh, you're getting there. Yer also still young. I'm impressed with the progress you made." He looked at the highest frost mark, which was close to the first branch, but not close enough to jump up to. It was so close...I've got to try one more time. I stood back up and ran at the tree one more time.

The ice was making my chakra harder to attach to the tree, making me slip a little on the way up. No, I can't fall now! With a huge burst, I was able to launch myself high enough to get to the branch. It took a second to realize I finally did it.

"Pakkun! I did it!" I cheered down at him.

"Nice, now come back down." I hadn't thought of that…I looked down, realizing how high up I was and grabbing the trunk of the tree.

"Um…" I was terrified of heights, so this was a bad situation. "I can't…" Bull whined, circling the tree to find an easy way down. By that time I was too scared to move.

"What is going on?" I heard a calm voice behind me and felt a hand on the top of my head. "Ma, the tree is no place for you to be." I turned and buried my face into father's flak jacket.

"I'm scared!" I sobbed. "I can't get down…"

"Hm, well you got up here right? You're able to get down the same way. However, I don't think the frost helps." He picked me up and effortlessly jumped down. "Maybe we should go with a smaller tree next time, eh?" He scolded Pakkun and Bull.

"I'm sorry…" but father just looked confused.

"Sorry? What for?" He put me down and knelt beside me.

"Getting stuck in the tree. I…"

"Climbed a tree with only your chakra. That's not an easy thing to do at your age. I'm proud of you." He gave me an eye smile. "Good job." I beamed, happy I made him proud. "Now, why were you doing this?"

"Pakkun said I have to control my chakra to summon them." Father's face went back to its usual stoic look.

"Oh? And why would you need that? You're still pretty young…" he was looking at the pug.

"Better now than never. At least she'll learn it from us and not from a dusty old scroll in the back of a closet…" father glared, but I didn't understand.

"Hm...well unlike my old man, I don't hide things in the back of a closet...I'm also here to show the way." Father shot back, making the pug frown.

Father taught me a better way to climb trees with my chakra for the rest of the day. He showed me how to focus it a little better, lessening the frost on the tree. I wasn't a master at it like him, but I could get to the second branch of a smaller tree in the yard. This one wasn't as scary high as the other one. Still, I had trouble getting down and had to be rescued a few times.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today." He said as he helped guide me back down for the third time today. "Let's go out for dinner. I think Iruka should be off by now."

"Ok!" I didn't know why he suddenly changed what we were doing, but I was excited to spend time with both of them.

Dad was already at Ichiraku, waiting for us with ramen ready at the counter.

"There you are. What took you?"

"Ma, well someone is learning to climb trees." Father said as he sat down on the other side of me. "I'm not sure dogs are the best for teaching that." Dad gave him a look.

"You left her with Pakkun again, didn't you?"

"Pakkun said I had to learn chakra control to summon them." Dad glared at father, clearly mad about it.

"Eh…" father scratched the back of his head. I knew he was in for it later.

"Anyway...I hope I got your order right." Dad smiled at me, ignoring father while he sulked. He was talking about how he remembered I didn't like beef ramen, but didn't remember chicken was my favorite. Right now I didn't really care about the pork ramen in front of me.

"Um...why are we out tonight?" It wasn't Wednesday, so it wasn't our weekly ramen outing night. Something was up, dad always took me out for ramen and ordered for me when something bad had happened, or someone was leaving.

"Maa, quick as ever." Father sighed. "Aurora, you're aware there is a war looming over us. I know you might not understand, but everyone that can fight must. Iruka and I have been called." The feeling that hit me, I couldn't describe it. Sadness? No...I couldn't figure it out. All I know is the rest of what father said sounded distant.

"You'll stay with Kuranai for the time." Was the last part I caught.

"Sweetheart, what is it?" Dad had caught onto my distress.

"Why do you have to go?" I knew why, but I couldn't lose both of them, not again.

"I told you why." I felt father's hand comb through my hair. "I know this is hard for you, but you must understand. Everyone has to help, even you." He gave me an eye smile. "Your mission is to help Kurenai with Mirai."

They didn't seem to understand why I was so upset, didn't they remember what tomorrow was? I wanted to say something, to tell them they couldn't go because tomorrow was a day they promised to always be with me, but I was a child...no one was going to listen to me.

Kakashi's View:

Aurora was angry with us. The moment we got home, she went to her room and shut herself in. Iruka said to leave her be for now, she was coping with the news. I knew how she felt, as much as we were needed, I wished Iruka could stay at least. If either of us should live, I wanted it to be him.

Iruka chose to go to bed, he had to leave at dawn for his mission. He was going off to the island Naruto was put on. He was to keep the blonde there, but wouldn't reach it for a month or so. I was going towards Suna to help with planning, but not until later in the day.

I stayed up to think about how to make this all up to Aurora. It click about an hour ago as to why she was so upset, it was her birthday today. I couldn't figure out how I had messed up so badly. Each year, both of us had made sure to get the whole day off to spend time with just her. She looked forward to it the most this year, but we would be gone; it must have been a devastating feeling. Maybe I could ask Kurenai to take her out for dango. It was asking a lot from the new mother.

"Kakashi?" I looked up to see Iruka was up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I know he hated how he looked when he woke up, but I loved it. His nightshirt was askew, showing off a part of his right shoulder and his hair was a mess. I'm gonna miss this…

"Morning, beautiful." It was still late in the night, nowhere near time for him to be up. "What are you doing?" He was blushing a bit from my comment.

"You weren't there…" He must have rolled over and found an empty spot. "What's up?"

"Well, I figured out why Aurora was upset. It's her birthday." I looked at the clock, seeing it was about two am. It had been for two hours now.

"Ah hell…" Iruka pushed his hair back out of his face, frustrated he'd forgotten too. "I've been so busy...I can't believe I forgot…" he flopped onto the couch next to me. "Guess we'll have to make it up to her."

"My thoughts exactly." I pulled him close, playing with his hair. "I was thinking of letting her get her ears pierced. What do you think?"

"That might earn her forgiveness." Iruka agreed. "It's gonna be a very late gift." At least he was trying to keep it light. It was unspoken, but there was a chance we wouldn't come home. In only a few hours we'd be called away from home, maybe for the last time.

"I'll be fine." Iruka turned in my arms to look at me. "Don't worry about me. Just focus on what…" I cut him off with a kiss. I felt him melt in my arms, needing confronted as much as I did.

"You'll still be on my mind." Didn't matter if he told me not to, I would worry anyway. "I will miss you too much." My tone let him know what I would miss the most about him. That earned a harmless slap on my chest for being lude.

"'Kashi…" the way he said it let me know he was already worried. "You're on the front lines, you'll be in more danger than me…" He put his forehead against mine.

"Maa...I'll be fine."

Aurora ignored me on the way to Kurenai's, visibly upset with me. I had asked what she wanted for breakfast, but she just shrugged. I even got us both up early for that, but I guess that was now my choice. Mochi for breakfast cheered her up a little, but she was still mad at me.

"I know why you're upset. It's not fair that we have to go, especially on your birthday." She gasped a little, she must have though we forgot. "I would never forget that. So, how about this; when we come back, I'll take you to get your ears pierced." Finally, a smile.

"Really?" Now she'd have something to look forward to instead of worrying the whole time.

"Promise." I held my hand out for her to take. "But first, I need you to help around here. You and other kids your age are now in charge of taking care of the younger ones. Can I trust you to be in charge of Mirai? She'll need someone to watch her."

"Ok…" she wasn't thrilled about being a babysitter. Younger kids just were not on her radar right now. This would be a good lesson for her to learn as well, I knew she would bond with her if she gave Mirai a chance.

Aurora's View:

Kurenai and I waved father off from her porch. I wanted to see him off at the gate, but Mirai was napping. Apparently babies did that a lot and parents didn't like waking them up.

"Well, Miss Aurora, I hear it's your birthday." The red eyed lady smiled at me. "How about we go for some dango later?" I really didn't care that it was my birthday, I just wanted them to stay home, where it was safe.

While Kurenai was cleaning, she asked me to check on Mirai. I went to where she said her room was, seeing the crib through the crack in the doorway. When I pushed the door open, the smell of baby powder nearly gagged me. Kurenai must have used too much.

I peered in between the bars of the crib to look at the baby. The tiny form dressed in a yellow onesie was sleeping peacefully. Mirai's cheeks were pink and squishy looking. I couldn't resist and was able to put my hand through to poke her tiny cheek, making her stir.

Her tiny eyes opened a little, but she didn't seem to really see me. Her little hands made fists as she kicked out, whining a little.

"Oops…" I think I made her upset. Right then she let out a loud cry, alerting Kurenai. "Shhh, I'm sorry…" I tried but it was too late.

"Oh goodness, I'm coming." Kurenai was quick to attend to the baby, calming her down. "There we are. Someone's just a little cranky is all." She assured it was not my doing, but it kind of was.

I quickly learned babies were unpredictable. While Kurenai was folding laundry and telling me a story about how she and father were once classmates, Mirai started crying again, pulling the woman away again. I didn't mind, knowing babies couldn't take care of themselves, but it was annoying. The story was just getting really good.

The third time it happened was when I was helping put soap in the laundry machine. It scared me, making me spill everywhere. I felt awful for it, and tried to clean it up while she tended to Mirai. Every time I tried to wipe it up it only created more bubbles.

"No…" I tried to use towels but it was too much. I felt the tears of frustration forming.

"It's ok, sweetie." Kurenai appeared by me, Mirai tucked in her arm as she grabbed a mop. "Accidents happen. Don't fret over it." How was she so calm?

Kurenai's calmness continued to surprise me throughout the day. She never once raised her voice or got mad, even when Mirai started crying uncontrollably. This forced the plans for going out to change, so she offered to make a cake with me. Mirai kept pulling Kurenai away, so it didn't go as well as it should have.

The cake we made burned, but she just shrugged, cut the burnt parts off and continued on. She made it into a perfect dome, creating a strawberry top made of cake. I was impressed that she could improvise without having to really think about it.

"Happy birthday!" She smiled, lighting the six candles she placed on it. My wish was to be as calm as her.

Kurenai let me hold Mirai while she cleaned up. She was a lot heavier than she looked and way squimier. I had to hold her with her head was on my shoulder, otherwise she'd squirm away. I don't think she likes me…

"I think she likes you." Kurenai told me when she came to take her back.

"Really?" The way she tried to get away said otherwise. She nodded, holding Mirai so she could see me.

"You did really well with her today, thank you. I know it's different, having to stay here with me and Mirai, but you've been a big help." She brushed my hair back a little. I have no idea how I helped out, but I was happy to have done it.

Kurenai and the other mom's in the village took it upon themselves to make sure there was some sort of normal in the village. Shikamaru's mom decided that the academy students had been on break long enough. She and some of the other mom's agreed to start teaching classes again, outside of the academy class rooms. Our class was unlucky and got the most strict of the mom's, Shikamaru's mother. Yoshino-sensei was very strict, scaring the heck out of us most of the time. She even scared Sora, who never seemed to fear anything. She drilled us in kunai training, making sure none of us went home without being sore. Other classes were taught by the older kids, who weren't anything like her. She was the worst of the teachers.

Yuri, Sora and I just laid in the field nearby after class, too tired to move. The other kids were dragged home already by their mom's, leaving us alone.

"I can't feel my toes…" Yuri complained, spreading out in the grass. "Ow…" stretching hurt too.

"My fingers are numb…" I agreed, trying to get feeling back in them.

"My everything hurts." Sora rolled onto his stomach, burying his face in the grass. "Why does Yoshino-sensei have to be so hard on us?" It was muffled by the grass.

"She's mean…" Yuri had been yelled at today from missing the targets. She cried, which only made sensei even more mad and forced her to run laps. Iruka-sensei would never have done that.

"Yeah…" But we couldn't really stop her.

"Hey...isn't that Midori?" Sora sat up, gaining all of our attention. I sat up too, seeing Midori was heading into the forest. She seemed a little off, but then again we hadn't seen her much since the haircutting incident. We thought she left after class with the others.

"What's she doing?" Yuri leaned on me, looking over my shoulder.

"Come on…" Sora got up to follow her. I sighed, pulling Yuri behind to keep up. She was scared of the forest, claiming there were monsters in there.

We caught up to Sora, but he looked lost. He turned back to us and shrugged.

"It's like...she just disappeared!" Sora waved his arms around, I think trying to indicate Midori was just there. "I ducked behind a tree to not be seen and then...poof!"

"No one just disappears…" I told him, looking around.

"I told you! The forest witch took her and is going to eat her!" Yuri shreaked. Sora had to cover her mouth to keep her from scaring off whoever was around.

"Come on...there's no witches…" But this was part of the Nara clan's forest. The deer here had a weird connection to the clan, so maybe there was magic here.

"Maybe the ground finally swallowed her up." Sora joked.

"If only…" Yuri huffed at me for that, but I wasn't the one who started it.

"Come on, she's mean but she doesn't deserve to go missing…" Yuri scolded us.

"Maybe she went home a different way. Come on, we can report it to someone at least." I waved her off, trying to let her know we were only joking.

The next day went pretty much the same, only this time some of the class was acting off. Midori was in a daze along with her two friends. Another boy in class had the same look, but sensei didn't seem to notice. She was focused on the fact that they were not misbehaving. Sora and I exchanged looks, knowing something was off.

We tried to follow Midori after class, but we lost her again. This time, she even had others following her and we still lost her.

"Ok...where did they all go?" Sora was frustrated, but there wasn't anything to do.

"We should tell sensei…" Yuri hadn't stepped away from the tree were were hiding behind. "Maybe she'll know."

"Or she'll get mad we went off into the forest." Sora had a point, sensei didn't really listen to us.

"We should tell someone…" I agreed that this was something bad.

"Come on, I know who will listen!" I took off, hoping they would both follow me.

Kurenai was quiet while we told her what was going on. She was the only one who didn't scoff at children when they told them stories. This time though, it wasn't a made up story about the forest witch.

"So, Midori and the others went into the forest and disappeared?" She asked, trying to understand what we saw. "There's not a secret clubhouse there?"

"I checked…" Sora told us he went back to check yesterday but didn't find anything.

"Hm...let me talk to the others and see if they've seen anything strange. I'm sure Midori's mother has a clue to this mystery." Kurenai smiled at us.

Sora, Yuri and I decided to watch the edge of the forest the next day, to see what was going on. Since class wasn't on weekends, there shouldn't be anyone but us here. So far, only a deer had come out to investigate us. He didn't stay long, just stared at us with it's big, black eyes for a while before running off.

"Ugh...nothing…" Sora was bored, lying under a tree and plucking grass. "Maybe they were messing with us."

"Maybe." It wasn't beneath Midori to do something like that. "But why would the other boy from class go too? I thought she didn't like Kino…"

"Who knows." Sora got up. "Well, guess it's time to call it…"

"Wait...there!" Yuri pointed. "There they are." We looked to see what she was pointing at. There in the distance was a group of seven of our classmates, all led by Midori, going into the forest.

"What the…"

"Come on!" Sora took off, leaving us behind again.

Sora kicked the dirt, angry we lost them again. There was no explanation for where they went, this time they disappeared in a clearing, no trees to go hide in or bushes, just grass and wildflowers.

"This is really weird…" I didn't like what was going on, something felt very off. "We should leave…" a feeling of dread was taking over me.

"Aurora, we can't just…"

"Hey guys…" Midori appeared behind us, making Yuri scream. "What are you doing here?" Her voice was void of its usual snobbish tone.

"Um...we came out to pick flowers." I tried to cover, but she moved closer to us, walking in a weird jerky way. "Sora...are you doing that?" She moved like his puppets.

"N-no…" He was just as freaked out.

"Run." I told them, taking off with Sora in the opposite way and back the way we came. Yuri followed behind, but she was too far behind us.

Once back out of the forest, we quickly realised Yuri wasn't with us. We tried to circle back, but we couldn't find her.

"Yuri!" I called while Sora climbed up a tree to look around. "See her anywhere?" I asked as he pulled himself onto a branch.

"Nope…" Sora sighed, just as distraught as I was. "She was right behind us, what happened?" He wondered out loud.

"I should have grabbed her hand…" She always got lost, why didn't I help her? "We have to…"

"What are you two doing out here!?" We froze, knowing that voice all too well. Yoshino-sensei had been alerted we were here. Must have been the deer…

"Sensei, somethings wrong with our classmates!" Sora jumped down from the tree, landing funny, but getting up quickly. "They keep wandering off into the woods and…"

"If anyone was out there, I would know...get going, now!" She was not going to listen.

Sora and I went to Kurenai, telling her everything. However, we weren't met with the same care as before. This time, she scolded us.

"You two need to leave it alone. Let us take care of it." She meant the adults.

"But…"

"Aurora, Sora, I know you two want to help, but I can't let you two walk into danger like that. Stay out of that forest and stay out of the investigation." This left Sora and I distraught. No one was going to help us right now. So far, no one had gone missing so it wasn't a huge concern, but now…

"Why won't you listen!?" I had had enough of no one listening. "Our classmates are being brainwashed or something and no one seems to care! Why won't you care?!" Mirai started to cry, making Kurenai glare at me.

"That's enough. Sora, it's time for you to go home. Aurora, inside." She sent me to my temporary room for the rest of the night.

I glared at the wall, angry no one was concerned about my friend. Yuri went missing right before Sora and my eyes, and no one cared. I decided that if no one was going to do anything that I would.