Hana sat on the engawa off the main household hallway, legs tucked into her chest. Her chin resting on her knees, she stared off into space, gazing intently at the grass. It was late at night, the rest of the family having gone to bed earlier. The moon was the only source of light, along with the few fireflies glowing a neon color in the dark backyard.

It was a year after Daichi's death. Yet it felt like just yesterday she was saying goodbye to her last living parent. Losing another family member.

While her younger cousins had survived on that mission, they fell too only a month or so later. The thought made Hana sick to her stomach when she thought back on it. They scraped by death when her father hadn't, only to be taken not too long after.

She missed her cousins dearly.

But Hana never thought... she never thought the day would come where she would have to part from her father. Never having known her mother in the first place, the longing for that figure in her life had never been more than a dull ache. The longing to know what it was like to be held by a mother. To have her brush her hair. To have her sing a song. She didn't know what it was like—so there really was nothing to miss.

But her father... there was plenty for her to miss.

She missed the big smiles he would flash at her whenever he made a cheesy joke. When she had a bad day or was feeling sad, he'd pull her into his lap and tell her a story about great big dragons that lived in the mountains. He'd describe them in such detail, she felt as though she was there in the moment, staring the scaled, whiskered creatures in the face.

Now that he was gone... she finally knew what it was like to experience a great gaping hole in her heart.

"Hana, what are you doing out here so late at night?"

The youngest Uchiha looked up, meeting the gaze of her older sister.

Asami had always been the more responsible one out of the two. Firm. Confident. Strong-willed. Hana was jealous of that at times. How strong she could be even when everything had the power to crush them without wasting a breath.

Asami settled on the engawa beside her, legs hanging off the side, toes barely grazing the grass as she swung her feet. She waited for a moment, allowing the silence to rest between them. Asami was patiently waiting for an answer. She didn't prod for her to continue. Hana always appreciated that about her sister. They may have been young, and she may have been a little more troublesome than other girls their age, but Asami was probably the best sister she could have ever asked for. No—without a doubt, she was the best sister she could have asked for.

"I can't sleep," Hana answered quietly. Placing her chin on her folded arms, she avoided meeting her older sister's gaze and watched the fireflies.

"I get what you mean."

The two sisters stayed out on the engawa until the early morning. No more words were passed between the two. Just the gentle breeze, and the comfort of one another's presence. Letting each other know while they may have been losing a lot, they hadn't lost everything. They at least still had each other.

Pretty soon the months rolled into years. Before Asami knew it, she and Hana were reaching their sixteenth birthday. Many more of their family members had fallen in battle. The tablets scrawled with names of those who'd died were piling up, and Asami had begun to wonder when, not if, her name was going to be added to the growing list. She'd participated in a couple of small missions, but never a full-blown battle. A war between two or more clans. But with growing tensions between the clans also bordering the land of fire, it seemed everyone knew a fight wasn't too far away.

"Have you practiced your fire Jutsu?" Asked Izanami, leaning against the tree as she watched Asami toss kunai at a target.

Standing up straight, eyes narrowed ahead at the target littered with Kunai, she brushed the hair from her face. She glanced at her sensei, before giving a slight shake of her head. "Not much. I've... I've been putting more effort into my kenjutsu lately. Though my fire jutsu hasn't fallen below top performance."

"Good." Said Izanami plainly. Crossing her arms, she let out a deep breath, before looking over to her student. "There's been words of a battle coming soon. Tensions between us and Sarutobi clan especially. They've been creeping too close to our borders. The Senju have been sticking their nose into our business as well, so it wouldn't be surprising if they were to intervene."

"The Senju..." She murmured in thought. Asami ran a hand through her dark hair, which had grown much longer. She styled it similarly to Izanami, part of it tied back, a small braid laid over her lose hair. Side bangs curved over her cheeks, though they weren't long and annoying to the point where she had to push them out of her face all the time.

"They wouldn't happen to bring an ally to something like that, would they? I know we've been having issues with our borders, but the Senju have a tendency to drag the Uzumaki into their business too."

Finishing her sentence, she turned to look at the woman who had remained as a strong sense of foundation for her, who was in her mid-twenties now.

Izanami shrugged, looking at her nails with a bored expression. "I wouldn't put it past those Senju dogs to want to do that. But the Senju running to the Sarutobi's side is more probable. They can never handle anything themselves either. Quite annoying.

"When do you think it'll happen?" Asami began gathering up all her Kunai and Shuriken.

"If I had to make a prediction? Sometime within the next month at the latest."

Asami stood up, having bent over to pick up the last stray shuriken. She flipped it over in her fingers, lower lip drawn between her teeth at the thought of something coming... already. "That soon?"

Izanami lowered her hand to her side, picking up on the tone in the girl's voice. She crossed her arms across her chest and stared at her for a moment, before cocking her head to the side with a quirked brow. Asami flinched a bit at her gaze, knowing she had been caught in her nervousness.

"I understand you're scared. Everyone is. No matter how many battles one goes into, they're always, always scared. Scared it'll be the last time they'll walk through the compound. However, it's important to not let those fears get the best of you. After all, you're lucky."

Asami looked at her in confusion. "Lucky?"

"Most children, much younger than you have already gone too, or been involved in some sort of battle. Yet... since you are so close to the main family... you were given special privileges." Izanami snorted, shaking her head. "You can thank Madara-sama, mostly for that. Tajima-sama was dead set on sending you into battle not even a month after your Sharingan was activated. But as his brothers had fallen not too long before... he wouldn't have it. Fought tooth and nail."

Asami looked away, a feeling of appreciation gathering in her stomach. Though, it was shouldered by guilt. Madara, so terrified of losing someone else he loved, went out of his way to keep her safe. Protested against his father to keep her from being sent into battle prematurely. Knowing how Tajima was a firm man, she could only imagine how such a conversation went down.

Deciding to keep her guilt to herself, Asami opted to crack a small smile, ghosting over the mention of her late cousins. She let out a breathy laugh. "While he does act like someone with no heart, he always looks out for Hana and I... hmph. No reason for him to put on such an act like that all the time."

Izanami hummed in agreement, tilting her chin back to look at the sky that was beginning to cover with dark, gloomy clouds. She frowned, the corners of her eyes creasing. "It was such a beautiful day. How unfortunate."

After that, Asami left the training grounds. Heading back to her home she shared with Hana, she smiled, seeing her younger sister sitting in the front yard. She was bent over, running her fingers over the soft pink petals of the Tsubaki flower. She wore a plum-colored yukata, the bottoms a bit smudged with dirt.

"How are they blooming?"

Hana looked up, a smile spreading across her face at the sight of her older sister. She glanced back to the flower, admiring it once more, before standing up straight again, her hand still cupping the bottom of the flower. "They're doing well. It's quite early for them to bloom, but I don't mind. I just hope they don't wilt too early."

"Just make sure to take good care of them. I'm sure there won't be a problem if you do."

Hana's hair was short with a blunt cut, the bottoms barely touching her shoulders. Typically the longer the hair, the higher social status you had. Or it represented the number of battles they had won. While that's usually what it represented, Hana didn't care about that. She thought short hair was beautiful. Who was anyone to tell her otherwise? Not that anyone in the clan would dare say something negative to her. They wouldn't want to anyway. She was too sweet.

Though Hana had a dainty appearance and had a soft spot for animals and nature alike, it didn't mean she only hung around the home. She was skilled in taijutsu and had a good aim with a kunai. She also could be handy with a Katana. Though funnily enough, she would never touch a shuriken. The number of times she had sliced up her fingers from using them... Asami might as well been a healer at this point from how often she had to bandage her up.

"Have you trained at all today?" Asked Asami, walking over to the front porch.

Hana paused for a moment, not answering. Asami quirked a brow, stopping on the stairs to look over at her sister. When Hana still refused to look at her, she let out a sigh, turning around fully to cross her arms.

"I will take that as a no. My question is why?"

Hana let out a deep sigh, before finally lifting her head to meet Asami's gaze. "I don't know... I suppose I..."

She trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

Asami sighed.

She didn't know what to do with her sister sometimes. She worried about her. Hana was a kind soul. She was gentle and didn't like violence. She wasn't cut out for the life of a shinobi. Asami knew it. Yet Hana insisted. She kept trying, no matter how many times she got hurt. No matter how many times she cried when she accidentally hurt someone in a spar. She felt emotions very deeply, and couldn't figure out how to control them.

Though that wasn't the real problem. She feared when the day would come when Hana would have to go into a real battle. Others wouldn't care if she was kind, or gentle. They wouldn't care if she didn't want to kill them. They would see her as weak. A meek mouse; easy prey. What if Asami wasn't there to protect her? What if she turned her back for one moment, and then... then...

Asami didn't want to think about it. She especially didn't want to think about how real the possibility of that was.

"You don't have to be a shinobi if you don't want to." Asami glanced to her sister, hoping the outcome of this conversation would be more of a positive one, rather than her sister taking is as an insult. "As I've told you once before, no one is forcing you to be a shinobi. Hana, you don't even have your Sharingan. There's no pressure for you to lead that kind of life. You could spend your time here, tending to your garden—"

"But I don't want to do that!"

Asami froze, blinking in surprise at the aggressiveness in her sister's tone. Quite the opposite to her usual soft-spoken voice.

Hana scrunched up her face, hands tightened into fists by her sides. She let out a breath, relaxing her fingers. Wiping her palms on the sides of her yukata, to get rid of what Asami presumed to be sweat, Hana met her older sister's gaze firmly.

"I know you want to protect me. But I can't spend my life sitting in the compound, tending to my flowers, knowing you're out there possibly getting hurt. How... how useless could I possibly be to reside in the safety of the compound when you're doing your duty for the clan? You think that I'm weak, but I'm not."

Asami was taken aback by this response.

For a while now, if she had to be honest, she felt as though the only reason Hana wanted to be a shinobi was to keep up with her family. So she wouldn't fall into the background or be forgotten about. She was practically a member of the main branch since their father's passing. Both of them were. Asami couldn't name one person in their family line who was not a lethal shinobi. But now, knowing this desire she had to become a ninja was to protect her, she felt an ache of guilt.

Asami sighed, placing a hand on the side of her face. Her sister could be the sweetest thing she and knew Hana was coming from a good place, but she worried her kind-hearted nature would be the end of her.

"I understand." That was all she could really think to say. She didn't want to tell Hana she didn't think she had it in her to be on the battlefield. How would that come across? It wouldn't end well, that was for certain. She knew she was already crossing into dangerous territory when mentioning Hana still didn't have her Sharingan. If she even would ever have it.

Truthfully, Asami hoped Hana would never have to endure the pain needed to obtain the dojutsu.

You didn't need to have the Sharingan to be a proficient shinobi. But in the Uchiha clan, it was almost an unspoken rule that if you were to activate it, you needed to become a shinobi.

So Asami didn't say anything more about her Sharingan.

"If you want to become a shinobi that can fare on the battlefield, you have to take your training more seriously. You won't be able to protect anyone if you can't even defend yourself. You're not completely defenseless… but you're not a well rounded shinobi either." Continued Asami. "Do you understand what I mean? When we're in a fight, there won't be someone by your side at all times to protect you. As much as I would want to, if I'm preoccupied with someone trying to cut my head off, I won't be able to notice you in trouble. That's what I fear the most. What would I do with myself if something like that were to happen? I... I don't even want to think about it."

The older twin Uchiha gave a shake of her head, rubbing the side of her face again. She was beginning to get a migraine just thinking about the hypothetical situation. While right now it was only a hypothetical, she knew it was a real possibility.

Hana took a step forward, resting her hand on Asami's shoulder. She gave it a reassuring squeeze, mouth lifting into a gentle smile. "I understand. But you don't need to worry so much about me. I know you're only coming from a place of worry, but you're going to have a heart attack from how anxious you are. When the time comes for us to go fight, I'll be fine."

Asami placed her opposite hand on top of her sister's, giving it a squeeze. She didn't say anything, but she hoped that Hana was right.

Izanami was right. The battle approached much faster than Asami expected. Faster than anyone could have predicted. Merely two weeks later, there was news of the Sarutobi clan on the outskirts of the Uchiha territory. Not too close to the Uchiha compound, but closer than anyone would have liked.

It was pouring that day, thunder rumbling in the sky, the occasional clap of lightning flashing across the clouds.

They were preparing for a fight.

She stood in her room, fastening her navy blue battle yukata. Shouting and clansmen running around outside echoed into the home of the clan head. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, deciding to wear it down as her elder cousin usually did. Izuna's hair was often tied back, Madara's hair had been loose and practically untamable since they were children. Not that she was looking to Madara for inspiration, but she did prefer to wear her hair loose and proud. Something many accomplished shinobi did in their clan.

Outside the main home, the clansmen prepared for the battle that was long anticipated. The tensions were felt for a while now. The lack of conflict between them and the nearby clans had gone on too long. To the point where people were wondering when a fight would occur, and not if.

This, however, was Asami's first real battle between clans. The anxious pit in her stomach about the possibility of the Senju showing up lingered. They were allies with the Sarutobi clan. Allies were a fickle thing, but as the saying goes, an enemy of the enemy is my friend. Obviously, the Uchiha and Senju were not best friends who lounged around braiding each other's hair.

The thought of fighting the Senju took her back to when she was younger. When she killed that Senju man. It was the trigger for where she stood now. There was a part of her that wondered if her life would be different had she not run off into the forest that day.

At the time, she didn't think there was any real danger. It wasn't all out of being a naive young child. She was barely on the outside of the Uchiha compound. Izuna was nearby as well, so there was not a thought in her mind at the time that there could have been something dangerous awaiting her.

The Senju she ran into were on Uchiha territory anyway. In a way, she figured they were lucky it was her they found and not some other innocent Uchiha child.

If they had slaughtered the child on their land and lingering Senju chakra was found with the body, there's no doubt an even bloodier war would have broken out. Besides that, an innocent child would have died.

Asami walked over to her dresser, retrieving the chokuto that sat on top. While most opted for the katana, the chokuto, with its straight, lengthy blade, was more favorable for her.

She held it vertical to herself, slowly unsheathing it with her opposite hand. The blade slid out, the metal audible as it slid against its own sheath. The clean, well cared for steel glimmered, her own reflection visible in the blade. She met her own gaze, narrowed black eyes, framed by long eyelashes, stared back at her.

Her face was pressed into a narrowed scowl. An expression she hadn't even realized she was making. Hana told her many times she walked around all the time looking like she ate something sour. Asami hasn't put much thought into it before now, actually getting a look at what her sister was going on about.

She relaxed her face, the creases in her forehead smoothing out, and her eyes opening a bit wider as she forced her muscles to release. Even with her face relaxed, the corners of her lips tilted downward into the ghost of a frown. Her expression still looked like a strange combination of irritability and focus, even when she was trying to relax her muscles.

The shoji door to her room slid open.

Asami slammed the chokuto closed as if she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.

She turned to look at who opened the door.

Izuna stood in her doorway, katana at his side along with his pouch full of other ninja tools. He wore a light blue battle yukata, no extra battle armor adorning him. Not that she was wearing any special armor either. The Uchiha were known for their lack of armor, preferring to bare the clan crest as close to themselves as possible.

"Are you ready?" He asked, deciding to not comment on her reaction when he opened the door. It wasn't as though he hadn't noticed anything, his eyes lingering on the blade in her hand enough of a sign he had picked up on her reaction.

"Yes." She strapped the chokuto to her side, her shinobi tools already equipped to the opposite side. She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated for a moment, already knowing the answer to what she was about to ask. She decided to ask anyway, even though it was a pointless question. "Is... is Hana ready?"

Izuna crossed his arms, giving her a knowing look. "Yes."

"Mm."

Asami moved to walk past him and into the long hallway, but Izuna shifted to the side, preventing her from doing so. He gave her a sideways glance. "I know you're concerned for her. But do not let your worry or protectiveness affect the way you perform on the battlefield. It could cost you your life. Don't be reckless, or hyper-focused on her. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Asami pressed her lips into a fine line. She didn't like what he had to say. She felt a slight tick of irritation at the back of her head. More so that she had been found out than his lecture in itself.

She knew exactly what he was talking about. Truthfully, her intentions were to hover over Hana like a hawk far before the announcement of the battle even occurred. Even if she did so subtly, her main priority was to secure her sister's safety the moment they faced the enemy.

It seemed Izuna saw right through this little plan of hers.

"Asami." He said firmly, demanding her attention.

"Fine." Asami snapped back, a sharp edge to her tone. She let out a quiet tsk as she turned her head to the side, away from her cousin. Her eyes were narrowed into a pointed scowl again.

Izuna sighed. "Please be understanding. If you go into battle with those intentions you're going to be distracted. What will Hana do if you die because you were too preoccupied with what she was doing?"

Asami resisted the urge to cringe. He was describing exactly what she told Hana weeks before. How she wouldn't be able to be at her beck and call and would have to protect herself. Hana was responsible for her own well-being on the battlefield. She was being hypocritical, Izuna reprimanding her for exactly what she had lectured her sister about.

"I understand." Said Asami, this time her response sounding more genuine. She did understand where her cousin was coming from. Even if she wanted to run to her sister's rescue at a moment's notice, she needed to make peace with the fact that was practically impossible to expect of herself.

The two made their way out to the front yard. Madara stood at the gateway to the home speaking to Tajima. They stood under a covered area to keep dry. Hana stood near them but wasn't participating in the conversation. She stood as stiff as a board, looking up at the sky, her eyes unfocused and gazing at the dark clouds and the water that poured from them.

As soon as Asami and Izuna reached them, Madara and Tajima's conversation came to a halt. Hana's gaze pulled away from the clouds and met her sister's eyes. The ghost of a smile pulled at her lips, but Asami could tell that she was really somewhere else. She could practically feel the detachment, as a result of nerves, radiating off her sister.

Once within arm's length, Asami placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. She gave it a reassuring squeeze, giving Hana a genuine smile. Something only she could offer at a time such as this to calm her.

"We must get going." Tajima looked to Asami, before his gaze moved to Hana, his gaze lingering warily on her.

Madara glanced at her as well, though Asami didn't know how to interpret the look her cousin gave her. It was an odd one, his eyes appearing cryptic with whatever emotion he was attempting to convey.

The shouts and calls of their clansmen preparing to depart became louder as the group neared them. Those they passed stepped back and inched into a slight bow as a sign of respect for those that were left of the main household. Asami still had trouble getting used to the added respect she was given the moment her father died and she moved into the main households home.

Kousuke, who was once a childhood pest, but was now a friend of hers, came into sight as they neared the gate of the compound. Tajima walked off to speak to another Shinobi, leaving the four of them to wait for the instruction to depart.

The once loud, cocky Uchiha, had grown much older. He was now nineteen and stood much taller than her. Which was saying something, as Asami already stood relatively tall for a woman of her age, and of her clan, at a whopping 5'8. She was almost as tall as Madara even, who stood at 5'10.

Kousuke on the other hand was 6 feet tall. His unruly curly hair made him appear even taller than he already was. Terrifying to see on the battlefield. That was, if you didn't know how much of a dummy he was. Though only those that interacted with him as often as Asami had that figured out.

"Are you prepared, Asami?" He gave her what was a combination of a smile and smirk, arms crossed and creasing his navy blue yukata, the same shade as her own. His eyes crinkled at the corners from the size of the sky look he gave her, the beauty mark scrunched by his cheeks.

"Yes." She rolled her eyes at his antics.

She wasn't really in the mood to indulge him. Though she would have been lying if she said it didn't subdue her nerves about her sister a bit.

Asami looked to Hana again, anxiety pooling in her chest.

Everything would be all right.