Chapter 1: first meeting
Uchiha Sasuke giggled as he held his big brother's hand. He was so happy that Itachi got the day off. Especially because today was his birthday, he was three years old and he couldn't be happier.
Itachi smiled and shook his head at his little brother's antics. He was glad that Sasuke was enjoying himself, he would never tell anyone but it wasn't easy getting the day off for his otouto's special day. He had to do extra training for his father and all but beg the Hokage to suspend his escort mission for a day, but it was worth it to make Sasuke happy.
Sasuke shrieked with joy as they rounded the corner of the fence to enter into the Sakura Niwa, the local park. He quickly let go of his brother's hand and took off towards the big slide in the middle of the playground. "Onii-chan, onii-chan! Watsh me!" Sasuke exclaimed as he slid down headfirst and gently tumbled into the sand at the bottom.
Itachi chuckled as he clapped at Sasuke's "stunt". "Very good, otouto."
Sasuke beamed. "Arigato, Onii-chan!"
Itachi was about to respond when suddenly a girl around his age with long white hair and deep emerald eyes ran up and grasped his hands. "Itachi-kun!" she cried frantically. "Have you seen Sakura-chan? I can't find her!" her breathing came in short shallow gasps as she fought her rising panic.
Itachi placed his hands on his teammates shoulders gently, trying to calm her. "Deep breaths Hikari, that's right. Just breath."
He was so occupied with soothing his hyperventilating friend that Itachi didn't even notice when Sasuke wandered off into the woods chasing a small blue butterfly.
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"Oi! Naruto-chan! Matte!" Kairi Hirozaki, the Uzumaki's nanny, shouted as she tried to catch up to the blond toddler. "Ne! Naruto-chan? Where are you!" Kairi spun around frantically hoping to catch sight of the Hokage's only child. "Waiiiii! I am so dead!"
Kairi took off running in the direction of the playground hoping that the little troublemaker would be there. No such luck. Instead she found two hyperventilating eight year olds as they ran around in search of their own missing charges. It wasn't to long after Kairi arrived that half the Hyuuga compound ended up on the scene as well, a worried four year old Neji in tow.
"Where did they goooooo!" Hikari shouted before the lack of oxygen finally caught up to her and she collapsed into Itachi's arms.
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"Onee-chan?" A little girl called out shakily. "Onee-chan, whewe awe yu?" she quickly took a step forwards as her head swerved around frantically, her petal pink pigtails bobbing around as she did so. A stick snapped somewhere behind her and she shrieked in fear. The sound of feet grew nearer and the pink haired girl couldn't help but run away in fright. She hadn't gotten very far though before her foot snagged on a tree root and she fell forwards, right on top of someone else. Both toddlers let out a loud yell as they tried to detangle their short limbs. As soon as they could move they leaped away from each other and covered their eyes.
The girls both jumped as the sound of someone growing closer. The blue haired girl whimpered as another stick snapped. Suddenly the sound stopped and in its place came a small concerned voice. "Awe yu otay?"
Before they could respond another voice joined in. "I heawed a scweam."
The first boy turned to look at the second, his longish black hair falling into his equally black eyes. "I fink dey fawwed."
The pink haired girl removed her hands from her eyes and looked up. "I'm sowwy. I didn meaned to caused twoble."
The black haired boy smiled. "Dat's otay! Was yur nabe? I'm Sasuke." He said proudly.
The girl ducked her head shyly but replied anyway. "S-Sakura."
"Hi!" the other boy put in as he kneeled next to the blue haired girl. "I'm Narudo!"
At long last the final toddler raised her head, frightened tears lacing her pure white eyes. "My nabe I-is Hin-na-d-da, an, an, I'm LOST!" she wailed as fresh tears fell down her pale cheeks.
Sakura sniffed, her own eyes beginning to burn with tears as she remembered her own predicament. "M-me t-t-too."
"Done wowwy!" Naruto exclaimed. "We'ww tage yu home!"
The girls immediately stopped crying. "Weawy?" Sakura asked in disbelief.
"Uh-huh."
The girls squealed, their fear forgotten. "Fank-yu!"
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Konoha village was in a frenzy. Ninja could be seen running in every direction frantically shouting comments to each other, but to their dismay the situation had yet to change. The youngest members of the four corner families were still missing.
"Do you think someone might have kidnapped them!" Hikari shrieked. "What if they were killed or tortured or-" she was abruptly cut off when Itachi grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a firm shake.
"Hikari!" he shouted. "Get a hold of yourself! You would know if they were dead, remember! Your blood-line limit!"
"Oh-oh yeah…" Hikari trailed off. "I forgot."
Itachi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you would. Come on, let's go find them."
Hikari nodded firmly. "Right."
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Laughter echoed through the woods, originating from a clearing where four toddlers ran around, happily engaged in a game of freeze-tag. Apparently they had all forgotten that they were lost and, in the short time that they had known each other, they had become the best of friends.
"I winned!" Sasuke exclaimed as he looked at his frozen friends in triumph. "I'm da bestest!"
Naruto pouted. "No yur nod! Yu cheaded!"
Sasuke stuck out his tongue. "Yur jus a sored wooser."
"THERE YOU ARE!"
All four toddlers squealed and fell over in fright.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL HOW WORRIED WE WERE!"
Sakura whimpered, Sasuke stared wide-eyed, Naruto shook, and Hinata hid her face.
"Hikari," Itachi said dully. "You're scaring them."
"GOOD!" Hikari huffed as she and Itachi jumped from the trees to land in the clearing next to the younger kids. "You all are in sooo much trouble."
"Onii-chan!" Sasuke exclaimed happily. "Guess wad! I made new fwiends!"
Itachi chuckled. "Glad to hear it gaki."
Sasuke pouted. "Nod a gaki."
Itachi reached down and poked him gently in the forehead. "Whatever you say, gaki."
"Oh. Konitiwas onee-chan," Sakura said her emerald eyes wide. "Whad awe yu doin hewe?"
Hikari's eye twitched heavily. "Let's. Just. Go home."
Sakura beamed. "Otay!"
"Come on," Itachi said as he took Naruto's hand. "I'll get you home."
Hikari sighed. "Come on Hina-chan. Your father is very worried about you."
Naruto looked over at Hikari who was now holding Hinata's small hand in her own larger one. 'Hina-chan,' he thought with a smile. 'I wike dat.'
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Once the other three children had been taken home, Hikari took Sakura by the hand and led her down the paved path to their mansion. "Ne onee-chan?" Sakura asked. "Tan I pay wiff my fwiends adain?"
Hikari shrugged. "I dunno. Probably."
"Huwway!" Sakura giggled. "I det to see Sasuke-kun and Hinada-chan and Narudo-kun again!"
"Yeah," Hikari said with a light smile. "Hurray."
End chapter 1
Kaliea: I know that it's kinda vague but it will develop more as it goes along. Also I'm really sorry if you have a hard time reading their "baby talk". If you do let me know and I'll revise it.
Review Answers:
Xoni Newcomer: thanks and yes it is almost an exact copy. I wrote this one first though. I just hadn't posted it yet.
iluvanime493: Thank-you. I wasn't really sure if people would like it all that much.
Susan: I'm planning on making the chapters longer but I wont promise anything.
Angelgurl079: wow. Right on the nose. Your good.
Dragon Man 180: They're not six when they come back they're sixteen. Sorry I guess I wasn't clear enough.
Danny-171984: Your right, she does. I just wasn't paying much attention. No he doesn't but I'll go into that more later. Thanks, I never did like him being a bad guy so in most of the fics I'm planning on writing (as well as this one odviously) he's a good-guy. As far as I know she's a character that I made up, but with ongoing anime's like Naruto you never know. Thanks for the review!
Blackjewel6666: Why thank-you. I get that from my mom.
TimeShifter: Yep, gotta love that Naru-Hina fluff!