This story is only going to be five chapters long, then I will start another story with Arashi being older. I intended this project to mostly be snippets of her childhood. The next step in her life will highlight her experiences as a Genin and an event or two after she becomes a Chuunin. The third part of her life will include Team 7 and Kakashi and how she pushes her nose into the Naruto universe's affairs. Part 3 (pre-Shippuden) and part 4 (Shippuden) will be much longer and far more in detail. :) This will be a very long project that shows a girl with a relatively normal childhood growing up and coming to terms with being a shinobi, loss, and war.

Chapter 3: Time Passes

"Why do they keep assigning you so much work on genjutsu?"

Arashi looked up at Minato and shrugged. They were both sprawled on their stomachs looking over her homework on the floor. Ithad been roughly a month and a half since she first met Kushina. The woman's pregnancy was now showing more and Arashi could sense another spark of life burning inside her. It was surprisingly strong.

The girl sighed and rested her face on the pile of books and paper in front of her.

"I've been working on a new technique." Minato commented.

She lifted her head and gave him an inquiring look, "What is it?"

"It's called Fun Style Arashi Squealing Storm of Procrastination!"

He hoisted her up into the air and she spread her arms out like she was flying. Minato turned her from side to side and peals of laughter echoed through the living-room. Kushina peered at them from the kitchen and grinned at the sight.

She could not wait to be a mother.

There was a knock at the door. Minato put Arashi down, and went to answer it. The girl pouted at his back, but pouting did not work if the person it was aimed at was looking away.

"Hey, Kakashi. Glad you could join us this evening." Minato greeted.

Arashi blinked, "ANBU-san?"

Instead of wearing his uniform, he was dressed only in a black shirt and a black pair of pants. The bottom half of his face was covered by a mask – Arashi made a mental note to ask why – and he was not particularly tall for his age. One eye was covered by his hitai-ate, his skin was pale, and his hair was silver and shot away from his head in messy spikes.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, not ANBU-san." He deadpanned.

Arashi tilted her head to one side, "My name's Ran Arashi. Can I still call you ANBU-san?"

He snorted, "Only when I'm on duty and only if I address you first."

Minato and Kushina watched the two interact and gave each other a skeptical look.

Arashi hummed to herself, "Okay, so I call you Kakashi-san when you're not wearing the doggie mask?"

The boy sighed and walked by her.

"Hey!" Arashi spun around. "Why do you wear a mask if you're not on duty?"

"Because I want to."

"Ohhhh." Her mouth formed an O. "It's because you're ugly, isn't it?"

If looks could kill, the teenage boy would have burned a hole through her.

She took a step forward and placed her hand over his heart, "It's okay. Even if you're w-w-really ugly on the outside, you're still beautiful on the inside."

Minato was able to hide most of his amusement. Kushina did not fare as well, but her snickering was mostly ignored.

"Kakashi, why don't you help Arashi with some of her homework while I help Kushina with the food?"

"Yes, Sensei." His eye fell on the pile of books, "What do you need help with?"

She took his hand and pulled him over to her assignments. His hand was dry – painfully dry. Her mother's voice echoed in her mind, if you wash your hands too often the skin will dry out and hurt. She laid on her stomach and pointed at a section in a book. Kakashi sat down with his legs crossed and leaned forward to take a look.

"What do you not understand about this?"

She shrugged, "I think I understand it, but I'm still not good at it."

"What are you good at?"

She glared at him. His calm, but undeniably bored expression remained unchanged.

She looked away and threw her nose up, "I'm good at a lot of stuff. I just don't like genjutsu."

"Work on it to get better."

"I don't want to be good at it. I want to be a medical ninja." She picked up a book of human anatomy and physiology. "I like this stuff! I get it and it makes sense."

"So you want to be like your adoptive father?"

"Shh." She held a finger to her lips.

"Your father," he corrected.

"Mhm. I want to help people."

"That takes excellent chakra control."

She grinned, "I'll be fine."

"Alright, then." He shrugged. "Whatever you say."

"My daddy helps me. He's a really good medical ninja. Very w-respected." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Mhm."

She dug through her pack and pulled out a tube of lotion. The boy flipped through her work and arched an eyebrow when he found notes about fuinjutsu. The Academy covered sealing jutsu up to a point so that the students had a loose understanding of basic things, such as explosive tags, scrolls, and perhaps storage, but this was on another level. Scribbled along the pages in his hands was an understanding of fuinjutsu that most chuunin did not possess.

"You're nosy," Arashi scolded.

"I thought you needed help," he snorted and put the notes down.

The little girl grabbed his wrist and squeezed lotion onto his palm. Kakashi tried to tug his hand out of her grasp, but her grip was a vice. Instead of getting loose, he picked the girl off her feet and held her in the air. She gave him a stern glance. With a sigh he lowered her to the floor and his shoulders sagged in defeat.

She massaged the lotion into both of his hands. Kakashi looked everywhere except at her. Being man handled by a girl half his size was not what he envisioned for his evening.

When she was done she nodded in satisfaction, "There! You shouldn't wash your hands so much." She showed his hand to him, "See? It's really clean."

He shifted in discomfort, "Yeah, whatever."

She closed his hand around the tube of lotion and pushed it to him, "Keep it and use it after you wash your hands. Skin's an organ, so take care of it."

"Um, thank you."

"We're f-friends." She shrugged. "F-friends take care of each other."

"Yeah, friends do."

He ruffled her hair. The bow she always wore came undone and fell on the floor. The girl gasped as if she had been stabbed and her lower lip trembled.

Kakashi sighed, "Don't cry, I'll put it back."

"Okay," she sniffed.

He picked the bow up and the girl turned around. He ran his fingers through her hair and cleared his throat.

"What's taking so long?" Arashi shifted.

"Fine," he tied the bow into her hair.

She went over to her pack and pulled out a mirror. When she saw her reflection, she sneered in disgust. She tried to cover up her reaction with a hum.

"Well," she attempted to correct the bow's position, "I'm not good at some stuff, either."

Kakashi crossed his arms and looked away.

Kushina peeked out at them and went back to cooking. The two adults were eavesdropping on their entire exchange.

"I had no idea that Arashi met Kakashi before." Minato muttered.

"She sneaks out to say hello to him every day she's here." Kushina replied. "She fooled me the first time or two, you know, but now I just let it slip. It's kinda cute."

"Wait, what?" Minato blinked.

"You really thought I wouldn't notice Kakashi following me everywhere?" She sighed. "I'm a ninja, too, ya know."

"Ah. I just thought the added protection would be nice."

"It is." She beamed at her husband. "Thank you."

He placed a hand over their unborn son and smiled back at her.

"I miss her on the days Ookami-san and Naomi-san aren't busy." Kushina sighed. "I watch after her about three days a week, but if they let me I'd probably keep her forever, you know."

"Don't worry. We'll have our son before we know it."

At a later date..

"So, how are your studies, Arashi-chan?" Kushina questioned.

The girl shrugged, "The Academy's boring."

"Do you like studying fuinjutsu with me?"

Her eyes lit up, "Yes."

"Maybe someday you'll get a nickname, y'know? Maybe Arashi of the Fuinjutsu?" She smiled. "That would be pretty cool, y'know."

Arashi hid behind her hair, trying to mask her embarrassment, "I don't know. Maybe."

"Hmm, I could show you some tougher stuff, if you'd like?"

"Yes!"

"Well, alright." She laughed. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

She retreated to another room.

A familiar presence caught Arashi's attention, so with a smile she walked over to the window. She glanced up to make sure Kushina was still busy and then opened it. She stood on the tips of her toes and held it over her head. Kakashi was sitting in a crouch just out of sight.

"Hey!"

Kakashi did not reply, but a shift in his position allowed the two to look at each other.

Arashi huffed under the weight of the window. No matter what she did to it, the pane of glass would not latch, so she was forced to hold it. He watched her for a moment and grunted.

"Why do you sit under this window so much, ANBU-san?"

"Because Kushina-san is usually in this room and I can guard her."

"Why?"

"Because it's my mission."

"Why?"

That's none of your business. Now close the window and behave before you get hurt or something."

The little girl gasped and pulled herself up higher on the window sill with one arm in order to glare at the boy, "You're mean! You shouldn't be mean to your fwends!"

Just as the words left her mouth, so did the window slip from her grasp. The little girl jerked back, but her not fully developed reflexes were not fast enough. The boy's warning echoed in her mind like a prophecy as the window slammed down on her fingers. Her shrill scream rang through the home.

The boy jerked the window open and jumped inside just as Kushina rushed into the room with her arms filled with various scrolls. He gathered the girl against him in one arm and carefully examined her fingers while she sobbed into his chest.

"She's okay. No broken bones."

Kushina dropped everything on the small table and knelt next to the girl.

"I'm sorry for calling you mean!" Arashi wailed through her tears.

The woman regarded Kakashi, "What happened? I was gone for just a minute, y'know!"

"She opened the window, I told her to close it before she got hurt, but obviously she didn't listen."

The woman slapped her forehead, "I meant to fix that months ago, y'know! I still have so much baby proofing to do!"

"It's not your fault." He drawled out before addressing Arashi, "You should listen to your elders."

Arashi's response was to sniffle pathetically.

"Hey, don't keep crying. It's okay, y'know." Kushina wiped the tears off her face. "I have cookies in the kitchen."

The girl blinked and composed herself – mostly. Her lips still trembled, but she was no longer wailing. Kakashi released her, but she wrapped her uninjured pinky around his and pulled him with her into the other room. Kushina hid her grin and put a few cookies on a plate before transporting them to the table for Arashi and Kakashi. She doubted he would eat one, but it was not in her nature to leave him out.

The girl wiped stray tears away and snatched a cookie off the plate, "Thank you Kushina-san."

"Aww, you're welcome."

Kushina turned away and looked at her refrigerator. It was covered in drawings and colored pages that she and Minato had worked on with Arashi. She played with a lock of hair and smiled to herself. Naruto kicked and she ran a hand across her expanding womb. It would not be long until she had her baby.

She sighed.

There was a foreboding in the back of her mind that she could not dismiss. She blamed it on her inexperience as a mother and her fear of birthing pains, but she knew it was something else. Kushina squared her shoulders and looked over at the little girl and Kakashi.

Her life was full of people that she loved and that was more than enough.

"Hey, ANBU-san," Arashi stroked his hand, "Your skin feels better. Do you like the lotion? I'll give you some more soon."

"Just eat your cookies."

Kushina knew all too well how vice-like the girl's grip was. Kakashi was trapped until she chose to let him go.