Disclaimer: The characters are Masashi Kishimoto's property, I own the OCs.

Characters age:

Akane: 11 (44)

Itachi: 10 (27)

Shisui: 14

Naruto / Sasuke: 5

Kakashi: 19

"Wake up…" Kushina-san said quietly as she opened my door. I groaned and hugged Naru tighter, burying my face in his hair. She walked to us and ran her hands in both my hair and her son's. "Come on you two, it's eleven already, we're brunching 'ttebane." Naruto sat up, rubbing his eyes, and yawning while I opened my eyes slowly.

We had come back almost a week ago. Minato-san had given all genins who had participated in the Chuunin Exams a week to recover from it and the trip back home. I had spent it at home mostly, spending time with Naru. He told me what he had done while I was away, with Sasuke or on his own and that he was ready to go to the Academy in three months.

He'd be five and a half in April for his first day of school. Five years and a half already, damn. This time had gone by fast but also slow at the same time. Having to be in a child body and going through steps I had thought were behind me was slow, but at the same time with the Academy, then genin and now chuunin stuff, he better be promoting me, then it had been quite fast as well. My Academy years seemed so far from the present now, especially when Itachi was also there. It had lasted two years for him yet…

"Nee-chan!" Naru whined, pulling on my hand to make me get up. Kushina-san chuckled. "Get up!"

"I'm coming," I mumbled back. I yawned once my feet were on the floor. I put the sling on my arm and went down.

I couldn't unfreeze my arm until we were back to Konoha. The medics at the hospital did it, but left chakra burns in it by doing so. They healed them but now I had to let time do its thing and not use my arm.

"Akane, would you pick up Itachi at his house this afternoon?" I glanced at Minato-san, my bowl of miso soup at my lips. "At three I am getting all genin who participated in my office to tell them who is promoted." I put my bowl down.

"Got it, we'll be there." We finished eating quietly, Kushina-san helping me. However, as I tried to clean my plates and all of it from the table, Kushina-san told me to stay sited. I said her name. Naruto frowned.

"Nee-chan, why do you call Mom and Dad like that?" I blinked at my cousin.

"By their name you mean?" He nodded.

"You should call them 'Mom' and 'Dad'!" I raised a brow, and the two adults exchanged a curious look before looking at their son. If these really were my parents, they would have gotten me at nineteen. Sure, people could have kids at that age, some did, but they were slightly busy at the time.

"Naruto…" his father tried, but Naruto's eyes wouldn't stop looking at me. I cleared my throat.

"Naru…I can't call them that."

"But why? You're their daughter!" Oh. Well, I mean, I guess no one ever told him I wasn't his actual sister.

"Honey, Akane isn't our blood daughter," Kushina-san told him. He gasped at her, which made her put the dishes she had in her hands in the sink. "Akane's mommy was my cousin, our fathers were brothers."

"But…but she's my sister!" Were we destroying the view he had of his family?

"Naru, we're getting ready and then I'll explain it to you," I stated, standing up. His parents glanced at me, but I smiled at him. "You're tough, aren't you?" He nodded fervently and jumped to his feet, running up the stairs to get ready.

"Akane, what are you planning?" Minato-san asked me.

"I'm taking him to the cemetery." I glanced at them. "I don't think he ever realized we were stopping on the same grave each year, but he's five, it's normal."

I held his hand as we went to the cemetery. He was confused when we stopped on Mom's grave.

"What's so important?"

"This is where my mom is." He froze. He knew what this place was, what the people in here were. I knelt on her grave. "See, the night you were born, the village was attacked."

"By the Kyuubi, Dad told me."

"Well, the Kyuubi almost killed your parents when you were just born. My Mom helped them deal with it, but…he killed her." He glanced sadly at the grave. I put my hand on his head. "Aunty Akiko made sure you would grow up surrounded by love, even if she knew you only for a few minutes."

"But…but you?" I sighed a little.

"She knew your parents wouldn't let me go anywhere, she trusted them to take care of me and they have been doing it for a long time now. I miss her, but she didn't run from danger to protect her family. It makes me proud to be her daughter." He hugged me, sobbing quietly. I hugged him gently. "It's okay Naruto."

"N…no it's not Nee…Nee-chan!" He looked up at me, his sky-blue eyes filled with tears. "Can I still call you Nee-chan?" I smiled at him.

"Of course, I'd hate it if you didn't." He nodded and cried for the following minutes. Once he was done, I pointed at the grave next to my mom's. "This is Fubuki, he was my onii-chan."

"You have a brother!?" I nodded, chuckling at his shock.

"He died a year before Mom. It's after his passing I moved to Konoha and my mother entrusted my care to your parents."

"How did he die?"

"He was sick but…well, it's a story for another time." Naru glanced around. "What is it?"

"Where's your dad then?" I sobered up.

"He's alive." Naru was confused. "Don't bother with him, having kids doesn't mean you're a good person." I stood up. "I need to go the Uchihas', are you okay going home alone?"

"I'll come with you!"

"Naru, you heard your dad, I'm supposed to get It…"

"I'll stay with Sasuke, I won't follow you Nee-chan," he replied with a pout, crossing his hands behind his head.

"…alright then."

They weren't at their place, so Mikoto-san told us to go check their usual training ground. When we got there, I ended up on my back on the ground to dodge a badly thrown kunai.

"Sorry!" Sasuke said as he ran to us with his brother. I glanced at Naru, who didn't move and just scratched his nose.

"You're not even fazed?" He shrugged.

"I know when Sasuke's kunai is going to hit me or not now," he replied with a shrug. I sat up.

"It doesn't make any sense," I muttered. Sasuke was rocking back and forth on his feet, looking down. "Come here you." He brightened up and ran to my arms, well arm. "Did you grow taller when we were away?" Itachi and Naru exchanged a few words, my cousin boasting his chest when he told him he could reach bull eyes.

"At least four centimeters!" I gaped.

"Wow, in a few years you're taller than your brother, I'm sure!" Said brother raised a brow at us and I nodded at him. He rolled his eyes, annoyed at the news.

"You think!?"

"I'm sure."

"Hey Sasuke!" We looked at Naru, now next to us. "Did you know Nee-chan didn't have the same parents!?"

"Yeah," Sasuke replied without batting an eye. Naruto gasped in shock. "Where would her hair color come from between red and blond?" Naru glanced at my hair.

"Oh, right."

"Were you looking for us?" Itachi asked.

"For you precisely. Hokage's office at three, Chuunin Exams results." He raised a brow.

"You fell and lost the use of verbs?"

"Haha, you're hilarious." He smirked and I accepted his hand to pull me back up. "He asked me to fetch you."

"With Naruto?" Both his brother and my cousin were talking to each other.

"No, I took him to the cemetery, and he followed me." Itachi glanced at me curiously. "I'll tell you on the way." A dozen of minutes later, we walked the kids back to the Uchihas' place. When we were out of the Compound, I cracked my neck. "I broke Naru's world, he thought we really were siblings. I took him to the cemetery to see my mom and brother."

"I see. I thought he knew."

"So did I, until brunch. He took it well though, so it's all good I guess."

"What did you tell him for how your mom died?"

"A very kid-friendly, rough summary of the Attack I guess? I mean, he's five and doesn't know about the fox buddy he has yet. I don't want to traumatize him before his time."

"You have such a hopeful message for the future Akane," he commented, teasing me. I stuck my tongue at him. "What have you been doing since we got back apart from resting your arm?"

"To be honest, nothing. I stayed inside, the further I went to was the backyard."

"You need fresh air at least once a day."

"Well, when you say it like that, I'm tempted to say I stuck my head out the window." His deadpan told me he didn't find this funny. "I'm on a break, I can spend it sleeping, eating and playing with Naru if I want to."

"Sure, as long you don't become pale as a ghost."

"Or what?"

"I'll keep you under the sun for hours this summer." I stopped in my steps.

"Dude, rude." He frowned.

"Don't call me that."

"What?"

"'Dude'. I don't like it."

"Okay bro." He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Oh, don't be like that buddy." He started walking faster. "Wait for me fair maiden!" He glanced at me, annoyed.

"You're the only one finding this funny." I was snickering.

"It's good enough for me."

"You're the worst."

We didn't spend much time in Minato-san's office. Four of us got promoted; Itachi and I got green flak jackets too big for our frames. We would grow into it apparently.

When we left the building, we stood in front of it, staring at nothing for a few seconds. Then we looked at each other.

"Do you know what's going to happen to our teams?" Itachi asked me. "Being replaced is the logical thing to do, it happened before but…" I shrugged.

"Your dad said I'd stay in the team 'til April to have a new genin replace me or someone else."

"It's unusual." I put my hand on his shoulder and put my mouth in front of his ear.

"It is called 'favoritism' 'tachi." He rolled his eyes. "Dud…" He put his hand on my mouth, his stern face on.

"Don't call me that." I licked his hand. It didn't faze him, and he wiped his hand on my coat. "Let's go drink something."

The hot cacaos were more than welcomed.

"Where do we get our chuunin outfit?" He leaned his cheek on his hand.

"The smallest size is for fifteen or sixteen years old. If you want one, well several, it needs to be tailor-made and it's expensive."

"Really?"

"People don't become chuunin at our age outside of wars, and even then, they rarely had the official chuunin attire." I didn't remember Team Minato wearing those after all…and in Kiri, the sleeves were way too long for me too.

"I'll go shopping to get a new outfit then."

"Green looks good on you."

"It does not," I refuted. "I need…burgundy, and black. Do you think I can trade forehead protector too?"

"You live with the Hokage, not me." I toasted my mug with his. "What for?" I grinned at him.

"We're chuunins! At the same time, even if I graduated a year after you!" Instead of saying anything, he poked me on the forehead. I rubbed it as he smiled, happy with himself, behind his mug. "I'm going to call you the 'd' word."

He wasn't blinking. Akane narrowed her eyes. He didn't budge. She ended up blinking and he smiled at his victory.

"Come on, how can you stay that long without blinking!?" she whined, rubbing his eyes.

"Doujutsu," he replied simply. They had been chuunins for a month and a half.

Shisui had treated them to ramen to celebrate their promotions. He had returned to his team like Akane until April when they would replace him. Shinko had made him a medic kit. Tenma had begrudgingly congratulated him before saying it was not fair. Shikaku had replied that him saying it was unfair meant he was not ready to be promoted yet.

Akane was still on a sick leave because of her arm, so she would be at team training to watch and give pointers. Basically, she was his father's assistant because he would make her deal with paperwork or easy tasks and missions for the Police Force. Apparently, Kou and Yasuo had made her a common gift, a game console she had been talking about a lot, and she was very happy about it.

His father had been the one saying it at dinner. He had no idea Akane wanted a game console. She never said a word to him about it. When he asked her, she merely shrugged and said it was never brought up and that their conversations were different compared to those she had with the boys. Yet, he was bitter about his own father knowing about it and now him. He had treated his team to yakiniku to celebrate Akane's promotion. Sure, Shikaku had done something similar at the Akimichi restaurant yet…there was something bothering him.

He liked to think he knew Akane very well, but he had no idea what to gift her when it came to it. It was easy with Sasuke, he would get more complicated with but so far it was easy. Shisui was easy too, he loved collecting weird things so Itachi just had to pick the weirdest thing he would see, and it was done. His parents would tell him what the other would like and it was done. Akane though? He couldn't remember her saying she wanted anything in particular. He had missed birthdays and never came with a present after. He'd come at the end of the year, for Christmas or New Year, or both the last time, but even then, he'd just pick chocolates on the way. She'd smile happily at him and would gift him good things. It was not big or expensive, but small seals to make traveling easier were her go-to. There had been a keychain, even if he had no key to put on it, just because it was a weasel and she found it funny. He had had presents for his birthday and Christmas for five years, from the moment she had started traveling with Kisame and him to the last Christmas they spent together.

He knew he was not the perfect boyfriend, but he could not have been that bad, right? He had not even admitted out loud there had been times where he'd remember her birthday had happened when he'd been with her for a day or about to get home.

"Earth to Itachi, I repeat, Earth to Itachi," Akane called him, her hands in front of her mouth to imitate someone making an announcement in a loud hailer. He deadpanned at her. "Oh, welcome back. I deeply apologize if my humble presence disturbs your thought pro…Aouch!" He had poked her.

"I was thinking."

"Yeah, I noticed. If it's about the console again, I really didn't think about telling you about it. I hardly picture you with video games anyway." He frowned.

"How am I supposed to take it?" She shrugged.

"I don't know, in your free time I see you more with books than games." He could play games too. He had with Shisui. He didn't find it that entertaining if it was not for the competition with his best friend. "What were you thinking about?"

"That I'm bad at gifts," he confessed. She tilted her head. "I have never really gifted you anything for birthdays or Christmases. Even here, I treat you to food or something."

"…is it bad?" He frowned. "I mean, you were coming to see me, I always thought it was special."

"Really?" he retorted, only half-convinced. She blinked.

"Is it weird or something?" She sounded embarrassed.

"No, of course not, I wouldn't call myself a gift, that's all." She averted her eyes. Right, she didn't have anyone close to her apart from him. "Thank you," he whispered, moving forward to get closer to her. He took her hands in his. "Really, thank you for thinking this." She gulped and nodded. "I wasn't mocking you Akane, I swear."

"I know, I know, I just don't like remembering my life when you were not around." Her eyes were back to his. "We've never really talked about it, our relationship, right?" He shook his head. "I know it's normal for me to say it seems like it was ages ago, but how is it for you?"

"A lifetime ago?" She chuckled. "I know it is, but…it's weird to think about it, a lot of things happened since then." He took the tip of her hair between two fingers. "It's weird to think you've been a constant in my life for ten years. It's more than Sasuke."

"Don't worry about it, I've been in his life for longer than you as well." Yeah, he didn't really want to hear that. "You're different though." He blinked. He didn't feel that different. "You're more affectionate with me and talk more."

"I've been working on the first one," he told her, which made her smile. "But the second one?"

"I think it's your surroundings, the lack of spying, stuff like that." He didn't say anything but twitched internally about the 'spying'. He never told her that, and even if she could paint a picture of why he had killed his clan in her mind, to know he had been a spy…

It had to be Naruto, Sasuke or Kakashi. He didn't…mind her knowing, but he felt awkward about her knowing. He didn't want Akane close to this aspect of his life, or of his personality.

"And we're kids, so obviously we can't exactly…" She made her finger go in and out of a circle she had made with her other hand.

"It sure did something." The one way he knew how to express his feelings was through making love. Now they couldn't, he had to, and had wanted to, find other ways to stay close to her.

"But I think in a way we're closer than we were before. Of course, the whole…rebirth thing helped." She chuckled. "Sometimes I think to myself we're joined to the hip sometimes. We do more stuff together than before too, it's nice. I didn't think you could get competitive with me out of all people though."

"You hid your talents very well," he replied in a whisper.

"You never asked. I learned the best way to be left alone was to hide them, that's a…Itachi, are you okay?" He had been staring at the ground between them. Akane now sounded concerned.

"Hn."

"What did I say?" He shook his head and put his forehead on her shoulder, hugging her around the waist. She hugged him back hesitantly. "What is it?"

"Nothing." He hated it.

She didn't mean it, she was not trying to criticize him, but all he could hear was that he was not a good boyfriend to her before. If she thought him coming was a present…in a way, didn't it mean she had low expectations for him in their relationship? Or worst, low self-esteem of herself, low enough for her to be thankful for him to come back?

Was she expecting him to stop coming without a word? Or to break up with her because he was bored or had more important things to do?

He looked at the naked tree behind her blankly. She wouldn't think that, would she? If he had left, it was because he could feel his end coming and he couldn't stop the path Sasuke was on, it…it had nothing to do with her. He loved her.

She knew that, didn't she? That him leaving had nothing to do with her?

It was silly, of course she knew. He had told her he loved her, of course she knew.

"Thank you," he whispered in her ear.

"About what?"

"…for giving me a home to come back to." He gulped as quietly as possible, knowing she had frozen at his words.

Her arms around him were tighter.

"Wanna play games in my room?" He nodded against her shoulder.

He could be a better boyfriend this time. He had everything at his disposal to be a better one, he couldn't possibly mess it up.

"Blow the candles Nee-chan!" I blew the eleven candles on my birthday cake.

Everybody was there, even Minato-san. Kakashi, Kushina-san, Naru, Sasuke, Itachi, their parents, Shisui, Yasuo, Kou, they were all here for my birthday. I had started chuunin mission and my last day as part of Team Four was last week. Yasuo cried a little.

I had good presents, the cake was good, Naru and Sasuke started wrestling in the living-room, it was great! During the party, Itachi gestured me to follow him, which I did. Once in a corner of the backyard, he handed me his present.

"You could have put it with the others," I teased him with a smirk. He shrugged and I opened the gift.

It was an analog camera. It was old, but instant cameras wouldn't be for at least another five years in Kikou, so give or take a decade before Konoha started selling them.

I looked at Itachi, who stood there awkwardly.

"You said you liked technology," he explained, red tinting his cheeks. "And I know you've known…way more modern but…" I hugged him tightly around the neck.

"Thank you, I love it!" I felt him relax in a second.

"I'm glad then," he replied, kissing my neck.

When his face was in front of mine, he raised a brow. Slowly, he pointed at my forehead.

"Pimple," he stated simply. I put a hand on it.

"Rude! Itachi, you don't say that!" He was confused for a second. "Come on, you should know that!"

"But it's normal to have them, it's nothing bad."

"I'm self-conscious now!"

"I didn't mean to offend you, I swea…" he tried, and I shook my head, enjoying him slowly panicking. "Are you playing with me?"

"I'd never dare to do such a thi…" He poked me, right on my pimple. "Alright, I was but aim better, it actually hurt."

"Oh sor…"

"Or maybe you have a popping pimple fetish, but get someone else th…" He poked me repeatedly next to it. "It's my birthday!"

"Which means I can't let you go unpunished any longer," he replied immediately.

"Dude!" He glared. "Dude, dude, dude, dude…" He kept poking me, I kept using the same word.

I didn't want to know what was happening in Shisui's mind when he saw us doing that.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have liked it, please do let me know in reviews!

Bye!