Another year of falling cherry blossoms. The cherry trees lining both banks of the Naka River were in full bloom, and the tense atmosphere seemed diluted by the gentle spring breeze. Minato's three young charges were walking with Hiatohi through the streets; they called it a spring outing, but it amounted to little more than a stroll along the Naka River.
Hiatohi sighed once again. *Mom and Dad, you two are impossibly carefree, just dumping me with three kids who are still children themselves. Weren't you worried the four of us would get rounded up together and dragged off to the western hills to dig coal?*
They always said cherry blossom rain was beautiful, and Hiatohi had to admit it looked pretty enough at least. But you couldn't eat it, and she really, really wanted to find somewhere to get some food. She readily admitted she had no artistic eye whatsoever for appreciating beauty.
She gently twirled the deep red peach blossom in her hand, a gift from the elderly woman downstairs when she left the house this morning who had promised it would bring her good luck. So far, however, there had been no sign of any good luck; if she happened to find a million ryo lying on the ground right now, she might actually believe it.
While Hiatohi was lost in thought, Kakashi and Obito had managed to start bickering about something or other. She was long used to it; anyway, it always ended the same way—Kakashi falling silent and Obito getting so furious he couldn't speak. Sometimes she really felt sorry for Rin. Such a fragile little girl having to shoulder the responsibility of keeping those two from tearing each other apart was just too much to ask.
Kakashi let out a cold snort. "Loser."
"Kakashi, I am *not* a loser! How can you say that? Damn it! That's it, I'm going to teach you a real lesson today!"
"Bring it on. Who's scared of you, loser?"
Before they had even finished exchanging a couple of lines, the two of them looked ready to throw punches. Rin stood helplessly to the side, trying to coax them down, though her efforts only seemed to make things escalate. "You two, calm down! Stop fighting!"
Hiatohi stared down at the peach blossom in her head. *So what on earth is actual good luck supposed to look like? Whatever, I'll just tell the three of them we're heading home.* She was genuinely starving. But when Hiatohi looked up, she found the three of them completely gone without a trace.
"Brother Obito? Sister Rin? Brother Obito? Sister Rin?" Hiatohi called out loudly, but nobody answered. A wave of shock hit her. *Did they really just leave me behind?! Old man, these are your precious students? I've actually been abandoned out here in the middle of the street!*
Hiatohi frowned as she watched the cherry blossoms drift through the air around her. What should she do now? Walk back by herself, or wait here for them to come back and find her? She gave the peach blossom in her hand an annoyed flick. This wasn't luck at all; it was sheer bad luck. Turning her head, she spotted a child standing over by the bridge.
Cherry blossoms danced past him. The boy slowly turned his head, his dark eyes locking directly onto Hiatohi. As their gazes met, Hiatohi flashed a huge, bright smile. For some reason, she found that bowl-cut kid rather cute, and since there were no other adults around, he was probably lost too. Having finally run into someone her own age after all this time, she wouldn't have to keep pretending to be a toddler anymore; she was going to go make friends with this bowl-cut kid right now.
Hiatohi stepped onto the small bridge and walked right up to the child, holding out the flower. "Here, this is for you."
"For me?" the child asked, looking puzzled. Why would she give it to him? They didn't even know each other. Yet, for some reason, he felt a strange sense of familiarity with this girl.
"Take it. Hey, I'm Namikaze Hiatohi. What's your name?"
"Hiatohi?" The little boy froze for a couple of seconds, then stared directly into Hiatohi's eyes. "Uchiha Itachi. My name is Uchiha Itachi."
"U-chi-ha-I-ta-chi?" Hiatohi stood there completely stunned. Could such a coincidence actually happen? She hadn't been thinking about Uchiha Itachi at all these past few days, and yet here he was. Come to think of it, hadn't it been about a year since they last saw each other?
*Namikaze Hiatohi?* Itachi frowned as the name clicked in his mind. He had often heard his mother mention the girl who shared a bed with him. He had spent his time following his father on the battlefield, knowing full well that, like the girl before him, he ought to be living safely in Konoha rather than out in the war zones. But why? Why did there have to be war?
"Are you little Momoko? I think I still remember a little bit." Itachi took the peach blossom and tried hard to recall her. He did seem to have some vague memory of her—he seemed to have been very attached to her, very fond of being around her. And she seemed... very delicious...
"Little Momoko?" Hiatohi rolled her eyes. How could he use the adults' pet name for her? "Look here, my little deity, my name is Namikaze Hiatohi. Just call me Hiatohi. Let's drop the 'Little Momoko' stuff; I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick here."
"Deity? Why did Hiatohi call me that?"
"Because..." *You probably won't believe me, but I just said it because it rolled off the tongue. Kid, please don't sweat the small stuff.*
"Ah, Deity, are you heading back too? Mind walking me part of the way?"
"Mn, sure."
Did walking her part of the way mean walking her all the way home? Why didn't he just say he was taking her home?
"Where have you been? I haven't seen you around at all. Don't tell me you've actually been out there directing battles and conquering the world."
"I went to the battlefield with my father."
Itachi spoke in a low voice, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. Mikoto had long since noticed that Itachi was much more profound than other children his age, and far more thorough in his thinking. In truth, she worried constantly. A child barely three years old ought to be enjoying the simple joys of childhood like anyone else, yet he was forced to pick up a kunai and head to the battlefield far too early.
"The battlefield?" Hiatohi found it hard to believe. They were born on the very same day, right? Sending someone so tiny off to war? What on earth was his father thinking? Though Hiatohi had never experienced a battlefield firsthand, she knew the kind of place it was. He was still just a child! What kind of father could be so ruthless?
To be exposed to such things at such a young age—no wonder he could eventually harden his heart enough to slaughter his entire clan. Yet she had no idea what could possibly drive a child who looked just like her to turn into a demon of the moonlight.
Hiatohi turned her head to keep staring at Itachi, and Itachi slowly turned to look back at her. Their eyes met, and Hiatohi whipped her head back around as quickly as someone caught doing something wrong. "Oh! How is Aunt Mikoto doing lately? I haven't seen her in a while either."
"Mother is doing well recently. Thank you for asking," Itachi said.
Hiatohi froze for two whole seconds. Was this something a mere three-year-old was supposed to say? What was with this detached, aloof tone? Was this really the same toddler who used to cling to her and get pinned to the ground by her? Not at all—he practically sounded like an adult.
"Hey, be honest with me. Are you a transmigrator too? Which world are you from? Let's drop the act—I'm Li Hiatohi, and I stand by my name." Hiatohi darted around to block Itachi's path, throwing her arms out. With that kind of maturity and those kinds of experiences, if he wasn't a transmigrator, was this some kind of rebirth story?
"What? I don't understand what you're saying, Hiatohi." Itachi's dark eyes were full of confusion. What was she talking about? Wasn't she Namikaze Hiatohi?
The corners of Hiatohi's mouth twitched. As expected, she was overthinking it. Where would there be so many transmigrators running around? It wasn't like spacetime was broken. She looked up at the sea of cherry blossoms overhead. She used to dream of crossing over into an anime just to see this kind of cherry blossom rain, but now that she was actually here, she felt it might have been better to stay away. Her focus always seemed to land on the strangest things—like wondering how the sanitation workers were going to clean up all these fallen petals.
"Seven days of cherry blossoms, blooming in full splendor until they fall." Itachi stopped in his tracks, reaching out to catch a falling petal as his brow furrowed slightly. What was life? Life was so fleeting; for all its length, a lifetime amounted to nothing more than a brief cherry blossom season.
Hiatohi snapped back to reality and watched the boy gaze down at the petal in his hand. *Seven days of cherry blossoms, blooming in full splendor?* For some reason, she felt an inescapable sorrow hanging over the boy, a sorrow no one could ever hope to untangle.
She sighed, reached out to take his hand, and let the fallen petal drift down onto the muddy earth. "That's exactly why we have to cherish it. Why waste time thinking about all that? You have to live in the present before you can look forward to the future. Come on, Deity, leave the heavy thinking for later. I'm going to take you to get some ramen—the kind my mom and I both love."
Before Itachi could react, Hiatohi gave his hand a firm tug and started running, pulling him along with her. In his momentary daze, the deep red peach blossom slipped from his fingers and dropped to the ground.
Hiatohi's hand was warm—so warm it was almost hot. Yet Itachi felt he would never find another person whose hand could compare. It was unlike his father's or his mother's hands; small, chubby, soft, and radiating heat. *Just like this, keep pulling me along and let's run forever.*
*Namikaze Hiatohi?*
*I think... I've grown to love this season.*