Arc One: Hitomi's childhood

Chapter Two

Summary: Hitomi wasn't a people pleaser. But at the same time she wanted them to be happy. Hard thing to balance. Never bothered her though.

I don't own Naruto.

A/N Sorry in advance for all the math later on. I was helping a friend with her own homework when I decided to throw it in for fun. SORRY!

There are already votes being placed! That's so exciting. I didn't mention anything about messaging me your private votes but some of you peeps did it anyways!

"Hey half pint!"

Hitomi raised an unimpressed brow, not moving from her position on the front counter of her mothers restaurant.

"I finally found you! Any ways I'm Obito Uchiha! Do you remember me?!" Obito exclaims, glancing around the place.

They were getting some interesting stares.

"Man, you sure are hard to find you know that?" Obito murmurs, and rubs the back of his head.

Hitomi turned back to the book in her hand. She had stolen this one and two more from Sakumo who has yet to find it. Three weeks after it had been in her care, he came asking about it. She had shrugged and ignored him, causing him to sigh and disappear looking for his book. Now another week later, she was reading it for the third time. It was a really interesting book, it had a mix of seal work for summons if she wasn't mistaken. It looked hand written, meaning Sakumo had either written it himself or got it from the author straight up.

Either way, she liked the seals.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Obito shouts, jumping up in anger. Hitomi casually lifts her gaze to his, causing him to tense. Then lightning quick she reached out and whacked the book over Obito's head. The five year old groans, clutching his head and falling to the floor.

Hitomi huffs, pushing off the counter, jumping over Obito's whining form and saunters to the door without a glance back.

Half way down the street she heard a shrill, "hey!".

Needless to say she kept walking.

When Obito caught up and reached out to grab the girls shoulder from behind, Hitomi bent her shoulder forward, and slid to the left, letting the moron fall from his momentum.

She raised the same unimpressed brow that she always seemed to gain around him.

"You're so cruel." He groans, moving on to his knees and dusting himself off. As he did so his face suddenly lit up, "hey! You wanna pull a prank with me?!"

Hitomi frowns, this kid just won't let up.. what does he really want?

"It will be fun!" He chuckles, standing and grabbing her shoulders, shaking her with force, as if that would convince her to help him get into trouble.

She ended up being dragged along by the boy and the whole time she couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom.

So the prank wasn't bad. And they didn't get caught.

However, she knew if they were caught dumping syrup all over the chunin in the chunin lounge (following up with feathers) then they would be toast.

She sat back on her favorite spot on the counter, facing the door. She had Sakumo's second book in hand and she started to finish the final pages when she saw a group come in that had never come in before. She recognized the white haired man from the ramen stand years ago, him and his team. At that time his students were probably chunin, now the older teenagers looked like jounin at least. It was nothing in their clothes, no, it was the air they held. And it wasn't even just the guys, the kunoichi looked so elegant, but at the same time those delicate little hands could easily snap necks, and break stones.

"Stop staring Hitomi-chan." Aiko chides from beside her, at the familiar words Hitomi rolls her eyes.

She wished she could run out the door and go explore some more. But it was pouring out. And she didn't want to deal with the rain. She eyed the dry shinobi, wondering why they weren't soaked. They had to have done something with their chakra. She frowns, going back to analyzing the seals before her.

"What'cha got kid?"

It took everything in her being not to jump out of her skin, also not to tense all her muscles. Calmly she replied, "book."

He snorts, "well I see that, what kind of book are you reading?"

Hitomi smirks down at the book, "an interesting book." She felt the man glare, pouting and mumbling about her being unfair under his breath. She sighs, holding up the book to show him the cover- the blank cover.

"Real funny kid." Jiraiya sulks, glaring. Hitomi just smiles brightly.

"Leave her alone sensei." One of his students chuckle, Minato Namikaze her mother had told her.

The brunette man beside the blonde laughed too, "honestly sensei. Grow up would you?"

"No respect." Jiraiya pouts, his shoulders drooping forward. None the less the man returns to his table.

Glancing over her shoulder at her mother, who gives her a pointed look. Hitomi sighs deeply, closing the book and sliding off the counter. She skips over to her book bag placed under a cabinet in the kitchen and drags it out.

Pulling out three scrolls, two books and a small blade, she stood awkwardly and walked out of the kitchen seeing her mother already at Jiraiya's table talking in an apologetic tone.

She slowly moved towards them, ignoring the looks the other shinobi were giving her and avoided the gaze of Hamatsu Sarutobi who watched her with a twinkle in his gold eyes. She stood on her tip toes to slide everything on the table, pushing aside the dishes there with a loud clatter.

She started dishing out the stuff like it was Christmas.

One scroll went to the pretty kunoichi, who raised a slender brow.

The blade and a book went to Hamatsu, who shook his head with a wide smirk.

Two scrolls and a book went to Minato who openly gaped at her.

And the last book went to Jiraiya, who stared at her impassively.

She took a step away from the table away bowed, "I'm sorry." She said in a monotonous voice, adding 'that I got caught' in her head. She swiveled and started stepping away when she heard Minato's chair scrape the ground.

"These have been missing for over a year!" He exclaims, Hitomi glances over her shoulder, "you... you took these?"

Hitomi nodded once, leaning back against the counter and crossing her arms.

"... how?" He asks dumbfounded. "These were under heavy lock and key... my most secured scrolls!" He waves his hand.

Hitomi raises a brow to match a smirk, a silent 'so?'.

"And you have nothing to say?" His female teammate shakes her head, tipping her head so her hair covered her smile.

It goes silent for a full five seconds before Jiraiya starts to laugh, a full belly laugh that echoes through the room.

"Wow Aiko." He says, containing his laughs, "your daughter is even more interesting then you said."

Hitomi sends a glare to her mother.

"When does she start training?" He adds.

Hitomi's glare deepens as she glances between them.

Aiko sighs, rubbing down the counters, and avoiding the question that Hitomi was sure, was really for her.

"You didn't tell her did you?" Jiraiya asks, sighing as well. "It's going to happen sooner or later."

Aiko glares over Hitomi's head at Jiraiya. Hitomi raises a brow.

"Stop scaring her Jiraiya." Aiko scolds. "It's alright Hitomi, why don't you go play for a bit. Obito should be out of academy now." She reassures with a smile.

Hitomi glances between her mother and Jiraiya (not missing the non-formal way her mother addressed the man), then to his team who were exchanging looks as well and she nodded, grabbing Sakumo's book and running out.

She didn't want to go to the academy. Was Jiraiya planning on making her? Was her mother going to make her?... does this mean the Hokage knows and wants me to be a ninja...

Hitomi ran as fast as she could, and when that didn't work she pushed the chakra into her legs and hit speeds she hadn't hit before.

"Hey half pint." Obito greets warmly, Hitomi nods, and gives a wave.

They sit in silence for a few moments before Obito brightens, "Want a tour of the academy?" He offers, slipping off the swing, having already decided he was going to show her anyways.

She shrugs, still dejected about earlier, and allowed him to drag her inside. He kept a step ahead of her as she slouched back behind him, half listening to him narrating everything and half absorbed in her own thoughts.

"-And this is my classroom." Obito continues, pushing open a door for her to look through. They kept walking, "and this is the next year ups hall, I haven't been in any of these classes. Come on, let's go back." Obito grabs her hand and starts to run.

Hitomi easily kept up, and upon reaching the bottom of the stairs she flew right over the two forms there, just as Obito crashed into one of them.

"Such youth!"

"Watch it, dobe!"

"Shut up teme!"

Hitomi raised an eyebrow at the trio. Kakashi and Obito scrambled to de-tangle and get off the floor. And Might Gai stared with hearts in his eyes... at.. her.

She struggled not to flinch.

Hitomi avoided eye contact with the spandex wearing boy, instead watching the two others push away from each other, finally on their feet.

"Hitomi." Kakashi regarded her rudely causing her to smile in a deceitfully sweet way, in return his eyes narrowed a bit more.

"Hitomi-chan... such a beautiful name for such a beautiful cherry blossom as yourself." Gai gushes, striking an eccentric pose.

"Hey creep..." Obito pouts, "that's my friend, stop freaking her out. Why are you so weird?"

Gai just continues to stare, smiling his wide smile.

Hitomi glances away, before deciding to just walk away before things got to weird.

Unfortunately for her, the trio followed her. All the way back to Hoshi R. She held in her dramatic sighs the whole time, also restraining the need to use force as they got louder and louder. And before she knew it they were all at Hoshi, and the trio sat at a table homework out, grumbling or arguing silently every now and again between writing.

Hitomi jumps onto her spot and pulls out Sakumo's book, ignoring the looks from the shinobi who seemed to only come here to watch her interact like it was a sitcom.

"Making new friends Hitomi-chan?" Nakuro smiles warmly.

Hitomi sighs, "Unfortunately." She glances at the three. Gai was writing at a very fast pace, flipping paper after paper. Kakashi was writing normally, occasionally pausing to flip his own paper. And Obito was moving the slowest, she assumed he was still on the same page.

"Why do you look like that?" Nakuro teases, "friends are a good thing."

"I guess." Hitomi shrugs, glancing back to her book. Then after another moment she shrugs, "they aren't to bad."

This caused Nakuro to laugh, he patted her on the head and moved back to the stoves.

Not fifteen minutes later, Obito groaned and slammed his papers and books into his bag and stood up, "alright, I'm outta here, Mi-chan!"

Hitomi raises her hand in a lazy wave, not looking up from her book, she really loved all the sealing information people kept in all these books she just so happened to grab. The information must be hard to be practical with, otherwise why would someone just leave their trusted works around.

The door flies open, "there you are Gai!" Hitomi glances at the new comers with an annoyed look.

"There you are kakashi." Sakumo says with a smile. Hitomi closed the book and reached behind the counter to grab the other two, stacking them neatly beside her.

Just like she thought, Sakumo came over to greet her.

He smiles warmly, "you've been training?"

Hitomi nods.

"Good," he nods thoughtfully, "I heard you talked with Jiraiya-san today."

"Yep." Hitomi says slowly.

"You tell him anything?" Sakumo questions, guarded.

Hitomi raises her head to look him in the eye, a smug smile on her face, "nope."

Sakumo laughes, ruffling her hair. "Interesting.. meh, I'm not worried about it, he'll find out sooner or later." Hitomi pushes his hand off with a smirk.

"And what are you two plotting over here, hm?" Aiko questions with a soft smile, she wiped her hands on a cloth and leaned against the counter behind Hitomi.

Hitomi makes her expression as innocent as possible, pulling her legs up into a criss cross to sit between her mother and Sakumo, who placed his hands on the edge of the counter, standing proud and tall.

Sakumo and Hitomi exchange looks.

"Nothing." They both said together, peels of laughter escaped Hitomi's lips right after.

Aiko smiles, looking to her daughter, who matched her height on the counter, then she looks back to Sakumo and raises a brow, "you're a bad influence on my daughter." She faux glares, pointing a finger.

"And you're a good influence on my son." Sakumo replies, lifting his hand and handing over a book bag, "so, here is his stuff. I shouldn't be longer than a few days, but if I am, Kakashi knows how to get into the house."

Hitomi glances over to Kakashi, catching the look of horror that started to descend over his masked face.

"D-dad?... what are you saying?" He asks, his eyes moving furiously from his father to Hitomi.

"Aiko agreed to keep you while I'm gone, you'll be good for her right?" Sakumo bends down to his sons level.

"Well, yeah," Kakashi glances up to Hitomi, "but..."

"Don't worry Kakashi," Sakumo smiles, "Hitomi-chan doesn't actually have cooties, that's just what she tells you boys so you'll leave her alone."

Hitomi rolls her eyes. She's never once told someone she has cooties.

"I'll come get you as soon as I get back okay?" Sakumo ruffles his sons hair and stands. Giving one last smile to the three, he Body Flickered away.

Aiko glanced between the two children who were staring each other down, one glaring, the other smiling widely. Aiko shook her head.

"It's getting late Hitomi-chan." Her mother says, "why don't you take Kakashi-kun to our home? Get him settled nicely okay."

Hitomi jumps from the counter, snatching the books she forgot to return and smiling up at her mother.

"Hai, ka-chan!" She nods enthusiastically, "I'll get him settled real nice." She swivels on her feet, grabbing Kakashi by the arm much to his dislike and dragging him after her.

"Hey! G-get off!" Kakashi trips after her.

"Do not bury Kakashi-kun, Hitomi!" Aiko exclaims after her daughter. Her daughters peels of laughter were her only response.

Nakuro stepped beside her, "poor boy. Hatake-san know what he's in for?"

"Sakumo said it would like endurance training." Aiko snorts softly. "So yes, he knows that he just threw his son to the wolves."

"Go away." Hitomi pushes Gai's face away.

She sat on her counter spot, and Kakashi was doing homework in a booth off to her right, and Gai... the idiot follows Kakashi everywhere.

In the last few days, Hitomi had learned that Kakashi didn't have friends. She had assumed that him and Gai were friends because she saw them together so often, around the village. At those times they had looked like they were playing or something. But now... she pitied Kakashi... Now she knew that Gai follows Kakashi around and demands him and Kakashi battle in some way. It was interesting because Gai would follow him everywhere.

Well Gai tried to follow Kakashi into her home and she promptly punched him in the face. He cried about unfairness, then got those weird hearts in his eyes and started singing her praises.

"Such strength!" Gai stumbles back, "your determination and power are astounding! Truly, aren't you the most beautiful thing I've ever beheld!"

Most of the time Hitomi liked to think she had good patience.

But there were some things Hitomi couldn't stand.

Might Gai was about to make it on to that slim list.

"It is no wonder that you belong to my eternal rival!" Gai exclaims loudly, gaining funny looks, "you two are brimming with such youth-"

Kakashi and Hitomi exchanged looks.

Hitomi kicked a foot out, catching Gai's chin and sending him flying. He lands on the ground in an unconscious heap, muttering in his sleep about youthful things.

Hitomi ignores the amused looks that rotated between her and Kakashi and went back to her book.

Her mother arrived fifteen minutes later, stepping through the front door and pausing seeing Gai in the middle of her path. She raises a brow to Hitomi, who shrugs.

Aiko steps over Gai, sighing deeply and moving to place a kiss on her daughters head before going into the kitchen.

Kakashi went back to his studying, and Hitomi her book until Kakashi sighs deeply.

Hitomi raises a brow, and he tosses her his notebook. She caught it easily and flipped it open to the loose paper, math.

Hitomi couldn't understand why Obito hated math so much, it was easy as long as you have the formula.

x-8*3.14=3.14 was written on the paper. And Kakashi needed to find out what x was.

"You simplified and multiplied?"

"Yes." Kakashi says in his impatient manner. "Then I reordered it and solved it."

Hitomi nods, glancing down and doing it step by step in her head. A slow smirk drawing up on her face, "well what did you do when you got there?"

"Then I started to solve for the stupid x."

Hitomi rolls her eyes, "once you seperated like terms did you-"

"Seperate what?" Kakashi mumbles, his eyes widening.

Hitomi raises a brow.

"You didn't move all the terms containing x to the left, all other terms to the right?"

Kakashi looks away, she took his silence as a no.

"Baka." Hitomi mumbles under her breath, hopping from the counter and sitting across from Kakashi at his booth.

Step by step she seperated the terms then added 25.12 to each side of the equation. Combined like terms again, -25.12 + 25.12 = 0.00 to get x = 3.14 + 25.12 then once again she combined like terms: 3.14 + 25.12 = 28.26
x = 28.26 then simplified to get x = 28.26.

"Why couldn't I get that?" Kakashi pouts.

Hitomi reaches over to flick his forehead with chakra, "because you are a dobe."

Kakashi glares and Hitomi smirks, sliding his stuff back to him and moving to sit back down.

"So what's a genin like you doing academy level math for?" Hitomi asks, Kakashi visibly deflates at this.

"When Minato-sensei is out on a mission, if there's no one around to train me, I go there instead." He grumbles.

"Minato-san is your sensei?" Hitomi questions lowly.

Kakashi nods.

"I'm so, so sorry." Hitomi sighs dramatically. "That must be horrible. I can't even imagine. Wait," Then she perks up, her eyes wide and calculating, "you say Minato-san is out on a mission right now?"

"Yes," Kakashi nods, "He should be back in a few days."

Hitomi giggled madly, jumping up from her seat, she runs to her mothers side, "Can I go find Obito-"

The door opens loudly, "Mi-chan!"

"Never mind." Hitomi smiles, skipping around the counter.

"Mi-chan! Mi-chan!" Obito shouts, dragging in a smaller body, "this is Shisui!"

"Come on Obito!" Hitomi exclaims, grabbing both the Uchiha out the door, "we've got somewhere to be."

Aiko watches with an amused expression, "what did you tell her Kakashi-kun?"

"That Minato-sensei was out of the village." He answers honestly.

"Oh goodness." Aiko shakes her head, feeling the looks from the Shinobi around. She had a feeling they would all be around a lot the next few days, wanting to see if Minato found out about the little mice that were sneaking into his home while he was gone. She shrugged, more business for her.

Hitomi takes another sip of her tea. Glancing at the red head in front of her.

Hitomi had snuck in easily, she deactivated every seal she came across with a little bit of work, earning a small cut across her cheek. Then she had invited Obito and Shisui in- Hitomi had to admit, the kid was adorable. He is a year younger than herself, making him two years young than Obito. Who was very proud he was the oldest. But anyways, they got in and Hitomi was leafing through the book shelf in Minato's office (the other two touching things they shouldn't) when the door swung open. Hitomi disappeared immediately but her Uchiha friends were stuck. The red head young woman was wearing a flak jacket and had a head band tied around her forehead. She glanced around at the two and sighed.

"What are you doing?" She said in exasperation.

Hitomi reappeared before the book shelf book in hand, " borrowing books." She shrugs, not glancing up to meet the wide blue eyes staring at her.

Then all of a sudden, the red head started laughing. Loudly. Like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. Then she had declared that she like the trio and asked if they wanted tea.

And Hitomi was not rude enough to decline.

So there they sat, Hitomi at the left seat, across from Kushina. Obito to Kushina's left and Shisui beside Hitomi, silently sipping his tea to avoid conversation. For the most part Obito and Kushina talked, the two really connecting through sheer obnoxiousness.

"So which of you disabled Minato's seals?" Kushina glances between Hitomi and Shisui before deciding to raise a brow at Hitomi.

"Me." She answers honestly.

Kushina smiled at the honesty, looking as if she already knew it was Hitomi and was just testing her.

"You must be Hitomi-chan." She says, "Minato speaks very fondly of you."

Hitomi raises a brow, speaks, she notes, not spoke.

Kushina chuckles, "you caught that huh?" She rubs the back of her head sheepishly, Hitomi doesn't look impressed. "He really does, ya know!"

Hitomi rolls her eyes. "Are you going to tell him we were here Kushina-san?" She questions bluntly.

Kushina laughes, "no, I don't think I will." She says, "I want to see how this plays out."

Hitomi nods, of course it would be appropriate for her to be curious. She stands, "well then, we will take our leave now. Thank you for the tea." She bows at the waist, and the two Uchiha follow.

Kushina nods, "see you soon. Feel free to drop by anytime, I live here now, ya know!"

Hitomi smiles at the genuineness radiating from the woman.

"We will for sure!" Obito exclaims loudly, grabbing his cousins hand and dragging him out the front door.

Hitomi pauses hearing Kushina stand.

"I'll be checking up on you Hitomi-chan. Don't disappoint." She orders with a serious tone mixed in with her weird sense of humor.

Hitomi smirks over her shoulder, sending a nod and following her best friend.

Walking back to Hoshi, Hitomi pulls out her book that she proudly got to keep. Not that she doubted Kushina knew she took it. No way. Hitomi had an feeling behind the fun, humorous exterior, the woman could be very serious- and very dangerous. Hitomi decided that she would try to be friends with the woman. If not just for the sake of wanting to survive. She smirks.

"You got the book you wanted?" Obito asks to her left, Shisui on his back. The kid had a mischievous glint in his dark Uchiha eyes that Hitomi didn't see at first. She had shrugged seeing it at the Namikaze household, at least she knew she wasn't the bad influence on him. Obito was. That was probably the reason Obito brought the little boy.

"Yes," Hitomi answers with a nod.

"You know," Obito says, "for some reason, I thought you couldn't talk."

Hitomi looks up from her book, a look of disbelief etching into her soft features.

Obito shrugs.

Hitomi shakes her head, turning back to her book. They gazed up at the darkening sky, pausing at a fork in the road.

"Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow," Obito sighs, "bye Mi-chan."

"Bye, Obito-kun." Hitomi waves, "bye Shisui-kun."

The younger boy waves enthusiastically and suddenly a feeling of impending doom makes its home in the pit of her stomach as she watches the Uchiha leave. Two trouble makers.. Hitomi rubs her nose, that was going to be interesting as she got older. Especially since she herself like mischief.

A few days later Sakumo returned. He was later than they had planned for but it was a difficult mission, that he thankfully was successful. He picked Kakashi up as soon as he could, which was Saturday about noon.

Kakashi was lazily tossing a kunai up in the air and catching it once it fell back to him. After doing that for so long, he kicked a foot to the edge of the table and pushed the chair back on two legs, continuing the process.

Well until Hitomi had enough she sat in her favorite spot reading Minato's book. But the kunai entering and leaving her side visage was aggravating. She couldn't focus because of it.

So strategy in mind she leapt from the counter, the book hit the spot she left with a thud and before Kakashi could react she kicked the back left leg of his seat, simultaneously snatching the kunai out of the air with one hand. With her free hand she caught the back of Kakashi's falling chair, halting his descent. The kunai was placed to his throat before he could blink. His black eyes stared wide at her.

"Stop ruining the peace with your restlessness." Hitomi says, "if you are that bored here, leave." She removed the kunai and let his chair fall forward, spinning the kunai in hand to hand it back, hilt first.

Kakashi grimaced, but accepted it and Hitomi went back to her seat, ignoring the lingering looks.

After that, they ate lunch and Kakashi seemingly fell asleep, head down on the table. Hitomi went back to reading.

Then Sakumo showed up.

"Tou-san!" Kakashi jumps up, racing to jump into his father's arms.

"Finally!" Hitomi groans, sending a glare to the older man who steps closer to ruffle her hair affectionately, "don't ever leave again." She orders.

Sakumo laughs, "not an option kiddo." She sobers a tad, "I'm afraid from here on out I will be getting even more long missions." He informs, the two kids deflate, "which is why I found you a permanent teacher, Hitomi. And Kakashi, I spoke to Minato about upping your training. You'll have to work a lot harder." He tells them both with pointed looks.

Hitomi gives Sakumo a dirty look.

"Really?" Kakashi questions, looking almost happy. But that emotion was beyond him, Hitomi noted dryly.

"Hitomi-chan, stop glaring." Sakumo says, "it will be okay. I promise. The teacher I found is a good friend of mine, I've known him all his life. I promise."

Hitomi grumbles under her breath.

"And what's this I hear about you being a book stealer?" He asks.

Hitomi's eyes widen, and she was glad she was looking down and that the man in front of her couldn't see her expression.

"Um..." she says, sneaking the book in her hands further under the table. "I don't know." She shrugs.

"I would believe you and your innocent looks," Sakumo sighs, "but I know you."

Hitomi smiles up warmly, giggling. This only causes Sakumo to sigh, and drop his head.

"Is that why you were so excited sensei was out of the village?" Kakashi questions with a sharp glare, "because you wanted to steal his stuff?!"

Sakumo's head snaps up, "you got passed Minato-kun's seals?"

Hitomi shrugs, neither confirming or denying those accusations.

"Good job." Sakumo laughs.

"Tou-san!" Kakashi exclaims.

"What? That's hard work. You ever try to break through an upcoming seal masters seals?" Sakumo smiles widely, "and he is an upcoming seals master. He just hasn't had the opportunity to show the world. But I promise he will be known for it one day." Sakumo nods thoughtfully.

Hitomi smirks, taunting Kakashi by sticking out her tongue before standing and sliding her chair in.

"See you Monday, Sakumo-sensei!" She shouted joyfully. Taking off towards the Uchiha clan compound. She was in the mood for a prank.

Sneak peak:

Minato swivels around, pointing a finger at a smirking Hitomi, "that's my book." He says in disbelief.

Hitomi nods, examining the book in her hands slowly, "yep."

Kushina laughs loudly.

Votes!

Kakashi - 8

Minato - 6

Obito - 5

Jiraiya - 3

Itachi - 3

Shisui - 2

Orochimaru - 1

Genma - 1