With my wide eyes
I've seen worlds that don't belong
My mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalize
Tell me why we live like this

Broken – VI

"Let's break out the picnic basket when we get there!" Obito shouted over his shoulder as he jogged down the street ahead of the others.

"Obito-kun it's too early for lunch!" Rin called back to him. "It's still breakfast time for goodness sake!"

"We can call it brunch!" Obito said, folding his arms in a determined, defiant way. "Come on, I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry!" Minato, Rin, and Kakashi said at the same time. Anko, who was trailing a few feet behind them, laughed quietly.

It was Saturday morning. The day was clear and crisp, with a shining sun and a blue sky. Minato had decided to take the four on a field trip down to a nearby river. It was a good place to go to let the kids (namely Obito) unwind. And he'd decided to help Anko get her mind off all her troubles.

So…to the river they went.

"Wow." Rin sighed contently as they approached their favorite spot under a big oak tree. "I love this place when the leaves are changing, it looks so pretty. Oh, I meant to bring my camera…"

"Wahoo!" Obito jumped into the water, sending a small wave over the bank and soaking Rin's feet. "Oops, sorry Rin-san. Jump in!"

"Obito-kun I didn't bring a change of clothes."

"So? Neither did I." Obito smiled as he waded through the water, looking around for fish. Rin smiled softly and began picking flowers. She loved pressing flowers, and had been doing it for a long time. She had almost three books now.

Kakashi sat down under the shade of the oak tree. Leaves were falling around him. He reached up and plucked one out of the air, figuring he'd give it to Rin. She liked collecting leaves as well. She was a very nature-y person.

"Nice day." Minato said mildly. He was sitting on the other side of the tree, watching Obito and Rin. Kakashi nodded, and his eyes fell on a small figured huddled near the bank. Minato followed his gaze, smirking a little when he saw who the teen was looking at. "Why don't you go talk to her? She looks lonely."

Knowing exactly what Minato was implying, Kakashi glared at the older man, but stood up and walked over to Anko anyway. She did look lonely…

It had been three days since Anko had come to stay at Konoha. She had become a little more open and talkative, but still not enough to tell Kakashi the truth about what had happened to her in Orochimaru's care. But Kakashi knew she'd get to that point eventually.

"Hey." He sat down next to her. She jumped in surprise and looked around.

"Hi." She said, looking back at the water. "What's up?"

"Right back at you." He replied, following her gaze. "There must be something really interesting in the water."

"Not really. Just wishing I had a rock."

"A rock?" Kakashi repeated. "Why, you like throwing stuff in the water?"

Anko giggled. "No, silly. Haven't you ever skipped rocks before?"

"Uh…"

"Oh brother." Anko rolled her eyes and began looking on the ground. She picked a smooth rock and, after turning it over a few times, deemed it worthy, and threw it at the water. It skipped a few times, sending ripples through the glassy surface before sinking beneath the water. "See? That's how you skip a rock. Try it."

Kakashi found a rock similar to the one Anko had picked up, and threw it. It skipped once before sinking like a…well, like a rock. Anko rolled her eyes.

"That was…pathetic." She sighed. "You've seriously never skipped a rock before?" Kakashi shook his head. "Wow…you are one deprived child."

"You do it a lot then, I take it?"

Anko nodded. "I haven't come down here in a few years, but before that I was here all the time. Sometimes after Orochimaru-sama…when he'd finish hitting me, he didn't really care what I did. So I'd come down here, and I'd collect all kinds of rocks, just to skip them. I'd spend hours down here, just skipping them. Sometimes I was gone for so long, when I finally went home he'd hit me again."

She picked up another rock and threw it. This one made about eight or nine skips before falling into the water. Kakashi watched her, unsure of what made him angrier: the fact that she could talk that easily about being abused, or the fact that she could still only refer to Orochimaru as 'Orochimaru-sama.'

Both things kind of pissed him off. "Here." She picked up another rock and handed it to Kakashi. "Try again."

This seemed important to her, so he did. This time the rock made about three skips. Anko smiled softly.

"Good."

"There!" Obito dove into the water to grab a fish. The slippery little creature swam right through his fingers, and he ended up face down in the water. He came up again, coughing and sputtering. He caught sight of Rin sitting on the bank, but she wasn't watching him, unfortunately. She was watching the two teens that were sitting a few feet away from her. Obito followed her gaze, narrowing his eyes in annoyance. They were really close to each other. And Rin looked really hurt by that…

Obito growled under his breath and stood up, stomping his feet and making the water splash. Kakashi often called the Uchiha an idiot. But if Obito was the stupid one, why could he see what Kakashi couldn't?

Anko's smile faded as she watched the ripples in the water die away. "What's wrong?" Kakashi asked. She'd seemed so happy a minute before.

"Nothing…it's nothing."

"Hey, Kakashi, Anko, get over here so we can eat!" Minato called suddenly. The two in question looked around. Minato and Rin were sitting on the blanket they had brought along. Obito, still dripping wet, was pouting as he sat next to the blanket (Minato had refused to let him on).

"Come on!" The agitated Uchiha yelled. "I'm hungry!"

"That's nothing new." Kakashi said, standing up. He held out a hand for Anko. She stared at it for a minute, then took it and allowed him to pull her up.

"All right," Minato said, digging through the basket, "we've got rice balls, California rolls, dumplings, soda…well, I'm not going to serve you, dig in."

Everyone looked in the basket and grabbed something he or she liked. Kakashi and Rin took one rice ball each, Anko took a couple of dumplings, and Obito just took one of everything. "Cheers." He said with a grin before shoving a dumpling in his mouth. Rin nibbled gingerly on her rice ball, watching Obito stuff his face. Kakashi took a bite of his own rice ball and looked over at Anko. She was staring at the dumplings she had taken.

"They're not going to bite." Kakashi said, jolting her out of her trance. She glared at him. "What?"

"I know they don't bite. Stupid."

"Well aren't you hungry?" She shrugged and took a careful bite of the dumpling. She looked around as she did so, as if expecting someone to tell her to stop. When no one did, she wasted no time in shoving the whole dumpling in her mouth. Kakashi watched her with a raised eyebrow. She was definitely a weird one.

"I got one!"

Obito grinned as his feet touched the ground again, and he held out the leaf for Rin to see. The girl smiled.

"That's great Obito-kun, that means you're going to have good luck."

"Great, I have a test on Monday, I can use the luck."

The sun was just showing signs of setting. It didn't feel like they had been there all day. Time really did fly when one was having fun.

"This one is really pretty, I think I'll keep it for my book."

"All right, got another one!"

Kakashi watched his friends, feeling almost at peace. He was so content, he barely noticed that Anko was leaning against him. She'd fallen asleep while watching Rin and Obito.

"She seems happy." Minato said with a smile. "So do you, for that matter."

Kakashi looked over at the blonde man, surprised. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Minato stood up, stretching. "All right!" He called to Obito and Rin. "We're headin' out, let's go!"

Both looked rather disappointed by this, but jogged back to Kakashi and Minato anyway. "How're we supposed to get Mitarashi home?" Obito asked, looking down at the sleeping girl, his eyebrow raised. "You gonna wake her up?"

"I'll carry her." Kakashi's words surprised everyone. They looked at him, disbelief evident in their eyes. "What?"

"Never-mind."

"No, what?"

"It's nothing, Kakashi. You sure you can take her?"

Kakashi looked at the girl leaning against him. "How hard could it be?"

Obito ended up taking the picnic basket. Minato took the blanket. And Kakashi took Anko, carrying her on his back. She was actually heavier than she looked, though not heavy enough to really bother him.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Obito muttered as he trenched up the hill, looking back at Kakashi. Rin looked around as well. It was hard to read the expression on her face.

"Look alive you three, we're almost there!"

"Coming Sensei!" The three yelled at the same time, speeding up. Minato was already at the top of the hill.

It was surprisingly quiet when they got back. Everyone was, according to the monitor, up in their rooms. Minato made a face. It was a little early to be sending everyone to their rooms…

"Kakashi, why don't you drop Anko off in her room? Then you and Obito head up to your rooms too. Same with you Rin."

"Minato-Sensei, what's wrong?"

"Good question. Get going."

The three started upstairs, exchanging looks.

"Where's Sarutobi-sama?" Minato asked the monitor when the kids were out of earshot.

"He's talking to the police right now. There was a bit of trouble today concerning the girl…Mitarashi Anko."

Minato narrowed his eyes. He already knew what the trouble was. Apparently Orochimaru wasn't going to give it up.

"Oof!" Anko grunted as she was thrown against the wall and the wind was knocked out of her. She slumped to the floor, coughing, trying to catch her breath.

"Worthless child." Orochimaru kicked her in the side, sending her rolling over the floor. Tears were welling in her eyes. She didn't understand. What had she done? What had been so bad, that Orochimaru ― the man that had taken her in, the man she admired ― had to hurt her for it?

She was only five. She didn't understand anything.

"Orochimaru…sama…"

He picked her up by the collar of the shirt. "Is there something you want to say, Anko?"

She shook her head weakly. "That's what I thought."

He dropped her and she crumpled, letting the tears fall silently.

Anko's eyes slowly drifted open. "Wha…"

"Anko-san." She looked around. Rin was sitting on the bed across the room, leaning against the wall with legs curled up against her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. She was watching Anko carefully.

"Rin-san?" Anko sat up and looked around. She was in the room she shared with Rin at Konoha. "How did…?"

"Kakashi-kun carried you home." Rin answered Anko's unanswered question.

"He did?" Anko couldn't imagine Kakashi doing something like that. But Rin wouldn't lie, so why shouldn't Anko believe the girl?

"Yeah. Were you having a bad dream? You were muttering a lot." Anko made a face.

"Was I? Anything coherent?"

"'Orochimaru-sama.' That's all I really got."

"Oh." Anko looked away. Rin cocked her head.

"Do you want to talk about it, Anko-san?"

She shook her head. "No, Rin-san. I…just want to forget." Anko narrowed her light brown eyes at the blanket her fists were currently clenching. "I don't know if that's possible, but I want to try. I really just want to…forget."

Author's Note: So...review? Please? - Sam