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Sora didn't understand exactly what was going on. He knew Aunt Minami had been getting really fat lately, though Mother said he wasn't allowed to mention it and it was because of the baby. He didn't really understand how the baby, his new little cousin, was causing Aunt Minami to be fat unless she'd eaten his new cousin. He wrinkled his nose at the thought. He'd been waiting for ages for the baby to finally get her and couldn't understand why it took so long for Aunt Minami and Uncle Natsu to go pick the baby up. He did know that when Aunt Minami started screaming and grabbing her stomach while visiting had been some signal that it was time to get the baby though.

He just didn't know why they came to the hospital when the kids in his class had clearly told him that you grew babies in a cabbage patch. Maybe they had to help Aunt Minami with her stomach ache before the baby could be born? Sora huffed.

Adults were so confusing and bad at talking about things, the five year old decided settling back into the chair Mother had left him in before rushing off with Aunt Minami. Sora looked around curious and more than a little bored. He'd only been to the hospital once when he'd hurt his arm playing. He'd gotten to see a nice medic-nin who'd fixed him with a "jutsu".

Sora didn't quite understand it, but he knew that medic-nin were able to fix hurts and were clearly superheroes. He'd asked Mother if he could be one when he grew up and she'd gotten upset. She'd told him that they were civilians and they'd been that way since the beginning. Then she'd started talking about the family history and Sora had stopped listening too sad about the fact that this was yet another thing he wasn't allowed to do as a "Chigusa of the First Families of Konohagakure". Being a Chigusa wasn't very fun most of the time and Sora wished he could be a shinobi like some of his classmates said they were going to be.

If he was already at the hospital his Mother couldn't stop him from just seeing some jutsu while the medic-nin work like she stopped him from going to Young Shinobi Competitions. Happy with this plan Sora got up quickly, first making sure his Mother wasn't anywhere in sight, and ducked down the hallway after a nurse.

He wasn't very good at reading yet, so he couldn't really understand all of the signs, but he'd been watching people heading back this way the entire time. There had to be at least one medic-nin somewhere! Father said the hospital was crawling with them! Creeping along carefully, Sora noticed one of the doors said something he did recognize. Chigusa, that was his name and he did know the characters for that. Sora hesitated for a few minutes, but decided to go in.

It was empty. Or at least he thought so at first. Then he saw the tiny bed beside the big one and that the sheets were moving. His first thought was to run, but then her recognizes Aunt Minami's light blue hair and relaxed. He took a step forward and then another when he realized that Aunt Minami was tiny again! She was also asleep and really pale.

Sora didn't understand until the little bed started moving. He went passed Aunt Minami to peek inside and found a baby. One with dark blue hair kind of like Aunt Minami's. Definitely confused now Sora peered down at the baby and then back to Aunt Minami considering. Maybe the baby really had been making his aunt fat? Since she was small again does that mean that the baby was his little cousin?

Sora turned back and realized that the baby was awake and looking up at him big yellow eyes. Its face did something funny, scrunching up and its mouth opening. Sora thought it looked kind of sad, so he smiled at it reaching forward to pat the baby's cheek. The baby's eyes went really big at that and Sora at just looked at it smiling.

"Hello baby!" Sora greeted remembering his manners belatedly.

"I'm your big cousin Chigusa Sora. I hope you get big soon so we can play. You're too tiny right now to do anything fun with." He informed the baby, nodding to himself and remembering all his Mother's lectures about how he had to be careful with the baby when it was born.

The baby starred even harder at that its mouth opening like it was going to talk. Sora was a little disappointed by that, but figured he could talk enough to make up for the baby. Mother said he talked enough for three people.

"What are you doing?"

Sora jumped and almost fell off the little bed. In the bed the baby jerked too looking up at Sora and around him for the other voice. Sora was better at finding it and looked up to see a frowning woman wearing a headband. A medic-nin! Sora grinned. He found a medic-nin and his little cousin!

"I'm talkin' to my baby cousin." Sora informed her proudly and remembered what he wanted the next second. "Can you do a jutsu?"

The woman looked as big eyed as the baby, but eventually shook her head and stepped beside him. "Yes, I can. You must be Sora-kun. Chigusa-san said that you'd come with Minami-san and little Hime-chan."

Sora was about to ask who was "Hime", but then the medic-nin's hand went green and she smiled at him saying "watch". Sora went still and did, watching as she slowly moved her glowing hand around the baby's body making it squirm. Finally, the medic-nin stopped and turned to look back at Sora.

"What I just did is a Diagnostic Jutsu. It checks Hime-chan for any issues we may have missed and makes sure she's healthy." the medic-nin explained gently and Sora made the connection.

"The baby's Hime!" he said excitedly and turned back to his little cousin. His little girl cousin.

The medic-nin laughed. "Orihime." she corrected gently. "Minami-san named her Orihime Chigusa."

Sora nodded focusing on Orihime's scrunched up little face. "Nice to meet you Orihime-chan!"

Something strange went over Orihime's face making her clench it up and then relax it and then look towards the medic-nin. After looking up at her for a few more minutes the baby's lip started shaking and then without warning she started crying.

Orihime wiggled in vain towards the side of her crib hating her life and cursing whoever had the sick idea to let her remember her past life and stick her in fucking Naruto. When she reached the side she used her now chubby once more hands to grip the bars and pull again. It was difficult, but she slowly managed to haul herself to her fit. It gave her a satisfied sort of triumph before she remembered that she had already learned how to walk once and did not need this in her life.

Growling to herself she peered around the dark room. Apparently her sleeping schedule (i.e. no sleep) from college life had carried over to her infancy leaving her irritable and fussy. Which her second parents, whose names escaped her, to more than a few sleepless nights when she felt spiteful enough early on to take it out on them. Eventually though she'd gotten over herself enough to let the young couple sleep unless she really needed something and now spent sleepless nights working on acquiring the ability to walk and talk.

Which was not going well. She was about ten months now and was barely stumbling along on her legs with assistance. Mastering Japanese wasn't going much better. Her only experience with it in her last life was anime and manga and one intro class she'd taken her freshman year. Understanding it was going decently, emersion really did do wonders, but the speaking part was giving her trouble. She had never felt so awkward with her tongue and that included trying to learn to roll it during Spanish.

Consonants were a bitch.

Honestly, she was a little thankful for the distraction her frustrations allowed her, most of being an infant was endlessly boring hours and trying desperately not to think of what she'd lost. The lack of entertainment at her fingertips was something hard to get used to. She was used to being able to grab a book if she was bored. To being able to have the internet on her phone in an instant. To being able to watch shows or movie easily and instantly. The sudden cutoff with technology and entertainment was leaving her reeling. There was only so much day dreaming she could do before it got old and tended to reminiscing and regret. She also had no intention of spending countless hours planning and panicking over her new situation like she'd done when she'd first arrived. She didn't need the stress and had literal years to figure things out when she had new and relevant information present. The only other option she had was sleeping. Which she found herself doing more and more often.

Hibernation was becoming really appealing if only for how it would make time pass.

Occasionally she'd be able to entertain herself with watching the shinobi jump across roofs through her window, but tonight there wasn't any active. Things were quiet and looking to be pretty boring.

And then the sky exploded.

For a split second it was daylight and the house shook with it. Then houses she could always see in the distance started to disappear, destroyed in an instant. The roar of the explosion came a moment after the light making her lose my grip and fall in shock. She could hear the sleepy panic starting in the house, but she was too busy watching the destruction through her window.

The village was under attack.

The Kyuubi was huge, its tails writhing angrily around it as it began its infamous not of destruction. She knew the village would survive it and that somewhere far from her a child was about to be orphaned and become the scapegoat to all the lives lost that day. All she could focus on was how angry and scared she was.

Orihime focused on the anger to belay the fear somewhat though. She hadn't even been alive a year and she was probably going to die tonight. The house was too close. She couldn't see how they could escape with something like that before her. Orihime watched numbly as the bijuu ball began to expand in the mouth of the beast.

Then her mother grabbed her and they were running.

She couldn't see anything, her face was pressed too tightly to the woman's shaking chest. But everything was loud and real outside her bedroom. There were screams and the roaring of the Kyuubi close by and she was certain she would die. She felt numb to it and was reminded of the time the pipeline had exploded in her past life.

The sky had lit up and there had been a huge roar. She'd been able to see the plume of fire from miles away and saw the way the windows had rattled in the house. She remembered how cold it was and the fear and confusion about what was going on. She'd hurried to get dressed with the rest of her family ready to evacuate and then it had started snowing, ash and snowflakes. It had covered everything so quickly and it had felt like something out of an apocalypse movie.

This felt like the mirror of that. It was warm instead of cold, much too warm for October, and there was a certainty to what was going on this time. But the fear and the panic and the desire to curl up and hide was the same.

She could feel the hate rolling off the Kyuubi like needles dragging against her skin. The screams surrounding them and the shouting voices didn't help the sensation making it worse. She wished she could see. Everything would make a little more sense if she could at least see it coming.

Then she heard the sound of the bijuu ball being released and the thunder of the destruction in its path.

And she didn't die.

Moments later she heard a distant explosion that signalled Minato had teleported it away.

Orihime realized, startled, that she might actually live.

The long run and arrival at the evacuation center only reinforced it. It was smothering and she was surrounded by crying children and panicked villagers. The air was heavy and the sounds of fighting could be easily heard. But she knew it was safe. She felt dazed knowing the Kyuubi wouldn't get back into the center now that it had been taken away. Soon enough it would be sealed and the night would end. She wasn't going to die.

She wished she could say things got better from there.

It didn't.