Chapter 2: Winter Afternoons-

AN: Here's some more.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A couple months had passed since the meeting, since Minato and Kushina began to take care of Nanami. She had progressed faster than normal, already beginning to crawl and stumble around in December, at eight months old. Kushina had thought raising a baby would be easier, or at least more exciting. Motherhood was not what she thought it to be. It was not fun but she was happy.

Even after changing poopy diapers, and trying to put the child to sleep after her long sessions of crying or screaming, Kushina still went to bed happy. However, a sense of dread filled her stomach as the days wore on, knowing that the closer Nanami got to a year old, the closer the day would come when she had to return to the front lines. Nanami had become a daughter to her. Her little baby smile would light up the room and her giggle was infectious and she cheered Kushina up on more than one occasion. She loved holding the girl close to her at night and rocking her to sleep or reading her stories when Kushina felt lonely without Minato's presence.

Currently she was thinking about this as she bundled Nanami in layers of scarves and coats and gloves, then she took her outside into the cold winter morning to meet her friend Mikoto and her young boy Itachi. She was excited for Nanami to have her very first play date even though the boy was almost a year older than her. He had been born the 9th of June and the Nanami, April 12th of the next year. Makoto had become a confidant to her. Both experienced the stress of having overly mature children, kids that were already picking up on the contextual evidence surrounding them.

Nanami had been listening to her and Kushina could feel it. She would watch the child move in her crib and listen and react to her conversations with Minato at night. But, then when she went to the child, she would quickly revert to a baby like state and would pretend like she hadn't understood what was going on. When Mikoto said she had experienced something similar with her son, Kushina begin to worry less and embrace that her child was a genius too.

The two mothers were sitting on a park bench with their children bundled up in their laps and watched as the snow started falling.

Kushina cuddled Nanami closer to her chest and turned her head slightly to the left toward Mikoto. "Don't you just love the snow Mikoto? I think this is the best time of the whole year. What do you think Itachi-chan?"

The boy did not respond to her. Both women look down at Itachi. He was looking to his right at the small baby curled up in his godmother's lap. Nanami had a big smile on her face as she tried to catch the falling snowflakes. Itachi watched her with a new fascination and a small blush rose his cheeks.

The 18 month old boy stared at the girl. She was cute, small tufts of dark hair were pulled into small, fine pony tails under both of her ears, not that they were too visible with both the hat and ear muffs she wore. Her face was slightly pink in the cold weather. The look of pure joy on her face had Itachi mesmerized. At that moment, he knew that he had to protect that look, for he was sure that look could cure any disease.

When Nanami noticed his staring, she glanced at the boy before turning her head to look at him. She couldn't remember seeing a boy so cute before she was Nanami, in fact she couldn't remember too much at all. She has concrete memories, facts, learned knowledge, but memories were fuzzy. She could remember somethings here and there, and the more she developed the more memories would come back. They weren't Nanami's memories, somebody else's, but hers all the same. She continued to look at the small boy and smiled, she liked his presence, it was calming and relatable. He was like her.

"Itachi-chan? Do you like the snow? It seems like Nanami does." Kushina asked again. The boy looked at his godmother, then back at Nanami.

"Okaa-san, Nanami is like me, right?" the boy asked with impressive grammar.

"What makes you say that Itachi-chan?" his mother asked.

"Nana-chan's eyes, they're like mine." he said.

Kushina held Nanami closer to her and kissed the top of her head. "She is like you Itachi-chan. She's smart and she's an Uchiha. Because she's your junior you have to promise me you'll take care of her. You'll take care of each other, won't you Itachi-chan?"

Itachi looked back at Nanami. The baby reached toward him and Kushina allowed her to. The baby grabbed the sleeve of Itachi's jacket and cooed. Itachi looked at the pudgy baby hand on his jacket and took it in his own hand. He looked back up at Kushina with a gentle smile on his face.

"I promise."