Chapter Eight
(partially edited)

Oops? Lmao I haven't updated any of my stories in a while sorry, I've just been busy with work and school and etc. anyways, here's a 2000 word update to make up for the long waiting period! hope yall's enjoy!

—

and he told me i was holy.

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After the party incident, Sakumo somehow became apart of Aoi's friend group, often meeting the young girl at the park. This led to Sakumo befriending Tsunade and Orochimaru as well, which was actually interesting. The friend dynamic between the three was terrible, they literally only got along when Aoi was around. 

This led to a lot of fights but it also led to the three slowly bonding with each other through Aoi. This was a major relief to the three clans as they were hoping their heirs would be able to get along. However, because of their friendship, Aoi received a lot of attention and criticism despite her young age. In the time they were in friendship between civilians and ninja's, children or not, was often frowned upon. Not that Aoi gave a damn about the villager's criticism but it was something that Sakumo, Tsunade and Orochimaru knew about and hated, hell they more than knew about it! It happened in front of them for god's sake!

Over the years Aoi became close with Orochimaru, Tsunade and Sakumo through normal childhood things; training, playing, all of those things. She became close with their clans and as she grew older she started to look more and more like Tobirama which had once led to Hashirama often shoving a photograph of his brother beside her face and examining it in return of him training her.

And as the days passed the threat of war grew ever stronger and Aoi found herself making plans and notes in her bedroom late at night, trying to find ways to save the people she had grown close to, trying to find anything to help them.

She had also landed herself a training position under Uchiha Madara himself, which she had boasted about for hours much to Tsunade's displeasure.

And thus Aoi's life went on for a while in a steady routine until her sixth birthday.

—

the thing is, i'm as holy as the devil.

—

Aoi never wanted to be a hero or ninja or anything like that, in fact, she had only bothered to try and become one to spite both her sister who had given up before she started and her parents who thought her incapable.

That and she knew that becoming a ninja would allow her more time with Tsunade and Orochimaru. Both children had grown on her, like a fungus.

Aoi stared up into the sky she was lying under, a Hashirama tree was her headrest as she lay atop the snow. The girl stared up at the sky, at the clouds that drifted across the grey-blue expanse and she closed her eyes, biting harshly on her lip.

She was in a world she knew of, in a time she had no knowledge on. What if she did something wrong and everything changed? What if Naruto was never born and it was her fault? The girl shivered, lip trembling. What if she ruined the entire world?

The sound of footsteps forced Aoi's eyes open, her hand immediately moved to wipe the tears from her eyes. Soon she found Tsunade standing in front of her, an overly large grin on her face; "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AOI!"

She stared up at Tsunade and grinned a bit, "Thank you, Tsunade-chan."

Tsunade smiled and took a hold of Aoi's arms, "C'mon, we have a party to go to! You're finally turning six! Even though you act like you're sixty."

Aoi snorted at Tsunade but didn't try to correct her, "Yes well, someone has to be mature."

Tsunade scoffed, "Maturity is for losers who don't know how to have fun."

"Maybe," Aoi said blandly, picking some dirt from her fingernails as she walked beside Tsunade. Where they were heading she had no idea but honestly, following Tsunade rather than asking proved to be the best option in most cases.

Parties, Aoi had learned in her six years of dealing with Tsunade, were meant to be extravagant and held as though each was their last. Which, in the world they lived in, did make sense. You never truly knew when someone would die. It was almost a scary thought to dwell on.

It was almost sad that Aoi didn't dwell on the thought, instead, she pushed it to the back of her mind and ignored it like it didn't exist. (It's too bad the little box in the back of her mind was starting to overflow)

As they walked, Orochimaru joined them; his straight hair currently reached just past his shoulders and his pale face held a content smile. A smile that Aoi was very pleased to see.

In the past four years, Aoi had been determined to change Orochimaru, to keep him from the dark side. She didn't know if she was succeeding but she knew damn well that Orochimaru had more friends this time around. She also found that he was a prodigy, not Uchiha Itachi six months in the academy prodigy, but a prodigy none the less.

She also found out that she was actually a year younger then Tsunade and Orochimaru. Which was problematic because Aoi needed to be in Tsunade and Orochimaru's class, even if it was just to boost their friendships with others for their personal gain. So, in the end, Aoi had to show she was a prodigy in order to keep her plans intact.

She had found that doing so had been... horribly easy, in fact, it had been too easy. Then again there was a war going on so expectations weren't exactly high, what with the war that needed soldiers. As long as you could manipulate chakra you were basically at genin level. Which meant that she was actually graduating soon; without Tsunade or Orochimaru.

A hand on her shoulder snapped Aoi out of her trance and she threw her elbow backwards only to be flipped over the shoulder of a tall man with unkempt black hair.

Aoi blinked at the man holding her; Uchiha Madara.

They had an odd relationship, Aoi and Madara that is because the latter treated Aoi like a daughter. Not that the pink haired girl could complain, being treated like his daughter led to being trained like his daughter and honestly? Who in their right mind would give up the chance to train with the Uchiha Madara?

Certainly not Aoi, who knew good opportunities when she saw them.

Perhaps she was strange because of how she acted so around Uchiha Madara; the main antagonist of the entire world she was currently in.

Maybe it was odd that she looked at the characters, at the people around her, and wanted to help. Wanted to give them a better future. Perhaps it was odd and entirely optimistic but Aoi had never been a pessimist, a realist yes but even she was allowed to dream from time to time.

Aoi shifted in Madara's grasp; "Hello Uchiha-Sama."

Madara snickered, "Hello midget-chan."

Aoi clicked her tongue in annoyance at the nickname Madara insisted on calling her, "Why are you holding me? I am not a child, I can walk just fine."

Madara didn't respond and instead shifted her in his grasp and spoke to Tsunade and Orochimaru, "Where's the Hatake brat?"

Orochimaru smiled politely; "As far as I know Sakumo is currently trying to escape his compound without any of the other Hatake finding out lest they end up flooding the Senju compound for Aoi's party."

Madara rolled his eyes; "Yeah, the last thing we need is a bunch of dog-loving party hard people coming in and taking over the party."

"I like dogs," Aoi said dryly, staring at the Uchiha carrying her. 

"That's a disease sweety, we can fix it." Madara assured. 

Orochimaru choked on a laugh while Tsunade giggled. Aoi, however, gave a strangled sound at the sound of the word 'sweety' coming from Uchiha Madara's lips.

"Please no, I have no disease" She managed out, wheezing slightly.

"Oh god she going into denial!" Orochimaru announced dramatically, grinning widely at Aoi.

Madara tsked, "It's all Hashirama's fault, the idiot has infected her."

"What's the disease called Uchiha-sama?" Orochimaru asked seriously.

Madara sighed deeply and looked at Orochimaru with a serious face; "Idiot syndrome, it's common in Senju but can be contagious if people are exposed to them at long periods of time."

"Hey!" Tsunade and Aoi protested the former was scowling at Madara.

Madara smirked and set Aoi onto the ground; "Alright birthday girl, we're at your party."

Aoi sighed and smoothed out her shirt with a grumble. The group of four entered the Senju clan compound and were immediately met with already partying Senju, Uchiha and Hatake members and a sheepish looking Sakumo.

Madara groaned and split away from the three children, probably off to stop that dumbass Kouta from making the Uchiha clan a disgrace. Seriously though, the guy was wearing bright pink crocs and dancing the Fortnite default dance to some Taylor Swift esque song. How he even knew how to default dance Aoi didn't know, Aoi never wanted to know. 

So she turned away from Uchiha Kouta and instead rose a brow at Sakumo; "I take it that sneaking out of your compound did not end the way you thought it would?"

Sakumo shook his head while Tsunade laughed, "The more the merrier right Aoi?"

Aoi sighed, "Personally I like small parties—"

"See! Aoi agrees!" Tsunade laughed.

Orochimaru and Sakumo shook their heads at Tsunade's antics. Sakumo opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a scream, the scream of Hatake Isamu to be exact. The quartet of children whipped their heads to where Isamu was and stared on in horror at the sight of an Iwagakure nin standing over his body. An Iwagakure nin standing over an eight-year-olds body. An eight-year-olds corpse. 

Tsunade gave a strangled sound while Hashirama rushed at the man only to be intercepted by five more Iwagakure shinobi. 

Aoi turned and shoved Tsunade, Orochimaru and Sakumo into action; "C'mon we need to get you three to safety!"

"B-but Isamu!" Sakumo choked out, staring at his dead cousin.

"Isamu is dead," Aoi hissed, shoving Sakumo forward.

Sakumo gulped before tearing his gaze away from Isamu's corpse, "R-right."

Tsunade gave a strangled shriek when an Iwa nin appeared before them. Aoi quickly shoved her three friends behind her and pulled a kunai from the pouch strapped to her thigh; "All of you, stay behind me!"

The Iwa shinobi laughed, "What do you hope to achieve little girl, your death?"

Aoi scowled, "Please if anyone is going to die here it will be you bastard!"

The man laughed, a cocky gleam in his eyes, "We'll see about that brat."

He moved forward at a speed that sent fear through Aoi's body, he was faster then what Madara was when they trained. He was so fast she couldn't see him at all and he—

The shinobi's fist dug into Aoi's gut and a grunt escaped her. She slashed at his arm and he pulled away only to reappear just as quick. This time his fist rammed against her head and Aoi flew to the side, the Iwa nin followed appearing behind her and kicking her to the ground. Aoi gave a choked breath and frantically tried to gather her chakra. Tried to do anything that could help her, that would keep her from dying.

The Iwa shinobi planted a foot on Aoi's back; "Huh, you were more pathetic than I thought kid."

Aoi scowled and forced her chakra to warp. She forced it to move from her body and up the shinobi's leg and she forced it to solidify. The man gave a strangled cry and stumbled away, Aoi spun onto her back and sneered at the shinobi. The shinobi who's leg was currently encased in wood. 

Without thinking it through Aoi forced her chakra to crush around his leg and she watched in a morbid fascination as the man's leg was crushed into nothing but a splatter of blood. It was like Gaara's sand coffin really, but with wood instead of sand. 

Aoi blinked herself into reality and cursed under her breath, standing she found that three enemy shinobi had been watching her little show. Aoi felt the blood drain from her face, she didn't have enough chakra to do that again, she didn't have the strength to win against them and they had just seen her use a Kekkei Genkai that only Senju Hashirama was known to have. 

Blind fear ran through Aoi and the three shinobi rushed her. A hand wrapped around her waist and she was hauled onto an enemies shoulder while the other two sliced at any and all people that got to close to them.

And Aoi did something she hadn't thought she'd ever do in this life; She screamed at the top of her lungs for someone to save her.

—

but maybe he already knew that.

—