Chapter Five — Fortune Favors the Saved
"I want to help."
Obito jumped in surprise, fumbling to catch the bowl he'd knocked over. Kyoko winced when the vegetables spilled out over the countertop. "Sorry," she murmured, dragging the stepstool over to the sink and climbing up so she could wash her hands. "I thought you'd heard me wake up."
"Sorry, Kyo-chan," he said, yawning. "Pretty sore after that mission, so I didn't sleep well. I'm more tired than I thought I'd be."
She looked at him and frowned. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"What? Me? No way! I'm way too strong for that."
She smiled and hopped down from the stool, hands folded in front of her. "Can I help?"
"Oh, yeah! Um, can you get the tsukemono out?"
"Of course." She moved to do so. "Niichan?" she asked, returning with the jar.
"Yeah?" He opened the vegetables and then went about filling up dishes and moving them to the table. "What's up?"
"Could I come watch you train today?"
"Huh? You wanna watch me train?" Obito grinned. "Of course! I'll show you just how strong your favorite brother is, okay?" Then he shuffled forward and shushed her. "Don't tell Shisui I said that," he whispered. "He thinks he's your favorite."
"Can I hold Itachi before we go?" Kyoko asked, not budging when Obito moved to leave.
Obito faltered. "Huh? Uh, yeah. Obasan?"
Mikoto looked at him and then towards Kyoko. Kyoko felt for a second like the woman was staring through her. She dropped her gaze to Itachi instead and sat down on the ground, arms out. Mikoto smiled. "Alright, just for a second. I wouldn't want you to make your brother late."
Kyoko felt like she could breathe again as Itachi settled into her arms. He made a noise of surprise as he was handed over and opened his eyes. She smiled and pressed a finger into his hand for him to hold on to. "Hi, Itachi-chan," she whispered. She took a breath and looked up at Mikoto. "Thank you."
Mikoto frowned at her and gave one nod. "Of course," she murmured, taking Itachi back.
Kyoko took Obito's hand and pulled herself back up to her feet. "Where are we going?"
"This way!" he announced, taking off at a run that her four-year-old legs definitely couldn't keep up with.
"Wait, Niichan!" she said, stumbling over her feet. "Slow down!"
Obito lurched to a stop. "Oh, wait, here." He hauled her onto his back and hooked his hands under her knees. "How's that?"
Kyoko leaned forward and slung her arms over his shoulders. "Better."
"Good. Onward!" He took off at a full run.
She recognized where they were going shortly after that and wondered how she could have thought they'd be going anywhere else. Training Ground 3 had been Kakashi's main retreat into himself for a reason, after all. As they approached, she could see the three people already there. Oh, kami, Kakashi. He was so small, so vulnerable, so—
He didn't know her.
Kyoko yanked her gaze to Minato instead, but that was only somewhat better. It was still hard to look at Kakashi's sensei, the Hokage that had died too young, Kushina's husband—
Rin. Rin was safe to look at, right? Except she'd sat with Kakashi and heard about his teammate's final moments countless times, and she could practically see the hole forming in the girl's chest right before her eyes.
Not this time. Not this time.
Kyoko steeled herself as Obito came to a stop and lifted one hand to wave. "Hi, Minato-sensei!" he yelled. "Oops!" He rushed to grab Kyoko's leg again as she started to slip. "Gotcha."
"Obito-kun," Minato greeted, expression bright. "Just in time."
"Sorry, Kyo-chan wanted to hold Itachi and— Wait, what?"
"You're on time, Obito-kun," Rin said, looking at Kyoko. "Who's this?"
"Oh! This is Kyoko!" Obito set her down and then dragged her forward. "She's my sister, and she wanted to watch us train today."
"It's nice to meet you, Kyoko-chan!" Rin chirped. "I haven't gotten to meet any of Obito-kun's family yet."
"Nice to meet you too," Kyoko greeted, bowing. It gave her a half-second of reprieve from having to imagine Rin in a coffin.
"You don't have Academy, Kyoko-chan?"
Kyoko looked towards Minato as she straightened. "I'm four." She clasped her hands behind herself, staring up at him. Now that she thought about it, the Hokage Mountain had never really done justice to his sharp features. "I don't have Academy yet," she explained. "I thought I would watch and learn from your team. Just for today, if I could."
A scoff caught her attention. "We don't have time to babysit."
Kyoko had to keep herself from looking. She didn't want to start crying again, and she definitely would if she had to see him looking at her without recognition in his eyes. So instead, she just lifted her chin and held Minato's gaze.
Minato glanced briefly at Kakashi and then back to her. "No, Kakashi, hold on. You'll have to stay off to the side for safety, Kyoko-chan. Can you do that?"
"Of course. I just want to observe."
"Kyo-chan's real well behaved," Obito cut in. "It's not like I brought Shisui! C'mon, this way." He took up Kyoko's hand and pulled her off to the side. He stopped in front of a tree. "You can stay here. If you watch close, you'll learn a lot from me, okay?"
Kyoko smiled, lowering herself to sit lotus-style. "Okay."
"Great!"
"Obito!" Minato called. "Let's warm up with some light sparring."
"Okay!" Obito called over his shoulder. He looked down at Kyoko. "Alright, I've gotta go kick Bakashi's ass. You gonna be good?"
"Of course."
He grinned. When Minato called his name again, Obito ducked to peck a quick kiss to Kyoko's forehead before he turned and jogged back over to his team.
Kyoko didn't even remember being banned from accessing the Uchiha Archives at this age, but she supposed she hadn't tried to get in to research the sharingan and bijuu and Madara at the age of four the last time around. So when the Uchiha guarding the desk had turned her away before she'd even had time to ask a single question, Kyoko had huffed and decided that wouldn't do at all. All the more reason to try to convince her father, she supposed.
In the meantime, she focused on what she could do.
Her mangekyo seemed too large for her childish features. The black was too deep, too dark, too— She forced herself to pause and focus. Eight points, in a pattern of long-short-long-short that followed all around the star to form some kind of rudimentary compass rose. She didn't want points. She wanted tomoe. One tomoe. She needed one tomoe.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she looked in the mirror again, it was spinning tomoe looking back at her. Three tomoe in each eye. Kyoko frowned. One. She need just one in each eye. One, one, one, one—
It was when she had to choke back the first cry of pain that she realized something was wrong. Kyoko blinked, and that hurt. She stared at herself in the mirror, no longer focusing just on her sharingan. She reached up with a shaking hand and touched the blood seeping out from her right eye.
One tomoe was going to be harder than she'd thought.