Sakura Hatake

Age: 5

"Strangers and Dango"

Today, Sakura Hatake was feeling mischievous. Today, Sakura Hatake felt like playing Ninja.

And so, she donned, one of Kakashi's masks, wore black capri pants, and her favorite blue long sleeved shirt- the one with the diamond holes! She couldn't find any hitai-ates lying around, so she opted to use the black pirate eye-patch that her 'Kashi used for their Halloween costumes last month – he was Captain Hook and she was Wendy Darling; she wanted to be Peter Pan, damn it!—to complete her shinobi ensemble.

First step. Escape from captivity without letting the enemy nin know!

For Sakura this was easy, she only had to tell her nanny that she was gonna sleep in her room, while said nanny waived her off and continued to watch television.

Then from there she escaped through her room's window, walking down the side of the apartment's wall leisurely.

Easy as breathing.

Next step was to infiltrate her target's surroundings.

To accomplish this, Sakura had to blend in with the bustling market scene in the middle of Konoha. Sakura thinks this part is also easy.

She whipped out her current favorite book—it was a novel about the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, Naruto!—it's worn paperback cover proudly showing its title and it's author's name; Jiraiya the Sannin.

If her Aunt Kurenai were to see her, walking around, emulating Kakashi while reading a book written by Jiraiya of all people, she would most definitely faint. Luckily it's just her and the rest of the civilian population of Konoha. What a relief.

Despite Sakura's great belief that by emulating Kakashi's usual mannerisms, she is able to go by unnoticed by people around her; reality could not be any more different.

In reality, many turned to stare at the peculiar pink haired child, walking around alone in the huge market place, donning a mask and an eye patch while reading. Many did not know what to make of the site, others who looked closely at the book she was reading had bulging eyes after having glimpsed the author's name but for the most part no one tried to obscure her path. Yet.

As Sakura was nearing her target destination, she felt a brief flicker of something to the peripheral of her senses. She halts and sees a dark figure approaching from her left. Sakura thinks back to Kakashi's stern talking about not accepting dango from strangers-when she accepted dango from Genma-san before knowing he was friends with 'Kashi- that better yet if she saw anyone she didn't know approaching her, she should yell "Stranger Danger" very loudly. Sakura being the precocious child that she was, was clever enough to deduce that doing so will only draw attention to her, she needed to be discreet for the sake of her mission; just as a proper ninja would. So she did the next best thing, as the figure got closer, she ran.

She ran through throngs of people, across cramped alleyways and dived straight into the forest near the Hokage Mountain. The pink haired six year old started to enjoy the chase, treating it as some sort of hide and chase hunt. Soon the sun starts to set and at this point, the pinkette is feeling a little winded, having used some more chakra to scale some walls and trees. She caught glimpses of her pursuer, and from what she could discern, she was being followed by a boy, most likely around her age, with long sleek black hair in a low pony tail and the longest looking soot black lashes ever. But most striking of all were his red eyes, with the familiar spinning tomoes—this person had 'Kashi's eyes.

Contemplating this, Sakura abruptly stops on a tree branch near the end of the forest where it met the foot of the Hokage Mountain, and turned to face her incoming pursuer. Anybody that had 'Kashi's pretty red eye would not bring harm to her; she was confident of this.

As her playmate stops on the tree branch in front of the one she was occupying, Sakura gives him a toothy smile, which surprises her pursuer for a bit before turning placid once again.

"Ne, ne, Stranger-san, wanna race to the top of the Hokage Mountain? Last one there treats the winner to dango!" Asked a giddy Sakura, thinking of the "stranger" as a playmate instead, running ahead of the still stupefied nin.

Itachi didn't know what to make of the pink haired child. At first, he started approaching her to help her undoubtedly worried parents to locate her, but then the child started running away, as if sensing his approach, then proceeded to scale walls and trees in her escape. The child looked to be five years old, the same age as Sasuke, yet she already demonstrated shinobi skills beyond her age group. Itachi snorts. A genius of his caliber is born only once every hundred years, they said.

He continued to pursue the pinkette in order to further quench his curiosity, but now she surprised him by suddenly stopping and challenging him to a race of all things. Wasn't she just running away from him like he was a hostile nin?

The pinkette was certainly amusing.

So he decided to humor her and followed after her five second head start.

Sakura was not walking up, nor was she running up the Hokage Mountain. She was tumbling all over the place, manipulating chakra to her hands and feet, connecting whichever to the mountain as she tumbles around in the air. Itachi carefully looked out for her, staying behind a couple of meters in order to catch her in the event that she falls. There were a few close calls, her hand slipping from a crumbling rock, which resulted in her channeling chakra to her torso to force it to stick to the Mountain, halting her downward motion.

Sakura was only a couple more meters from the top, when her chakra gets depleted enough that it flickered and let loose her hold on the rock holding her weight. She starts falling down the mountain in an alarming speed. Halfway down, Itachi catches her in mid air, taking extra care in landing so as not to injure his passenger.

When Sakura opened her wide viridian eyes, they sparkled as she stared at her savior and joyously yelled for another jump.

"That was awesome! You caught me just like how Sukebe-kun caught Hana-chan in Icha Icha Paradise! Does this mean I have to hug you for a long, long time as thanks, Steanger-san? 'Kashi told me that I shouldn't hug anyone until I'm old enough but I hug him and Aunt Kurenai and Uncle Asuma and Uncle Gai and-"

Itachi shakes his head at her overenthusiastic response to her recent near death experience and tells her that he shall treat her to dango for winning the race. Would she rather jump again or have dango? And what business did a five year old have, reading porn?

As with anything dango related, Sakura quickly forgot the alternative and focused on the prospect of sinking her small teeth into the sugary and sticky sweet.

Itachi carried the pinkette back to the market place on his back, while the little girls dozed off in intervals against his back, her small puffs of breath tickling the back of his neck and raising goosebumps at the nape. Itachi chuckled at the energetic girl's inevitable crash; hearing her snore softly was oddly comforting.

Itachi was pondering on whose child might the pinkette be, judging from her advanced ninja skills, she must be an offspring of a fellow Konoha shinobi, but who…

His progress towards the tea shop was abruptly halted as a hand armed with standard Konohan fingerless gloves, stops him short. He followed the offending hand up to its owner's face, only to be faced with Kakashi Hatake and his infamous eye smile.

"I'll take it from here. Thank you for taking care of her, Itachi." Stated the Copy-nin as he gently pried the limp pinkette from his back. Itachi wanted to protest but logically thinking about the situation, it made sense that she was the Hatake's charge, she was after all , emulating him- the eye patch, the mask and the book- throughout the day.

He allows her to be taken from him, telling the Copy-nin that it was no trouble at all. Then he slowly walks away.

Later in the evening, the pinkette gets a stern talking-to from Kakashi. As she sulks away in her room, she notices a plate of dango on her desk, a small piece of paper tucked underneath it. "Itachi" was written in elegant cursive on it. She goes to bed fulfilled from the sweet; happy and content. She dreamed of a pair of red eyes, spinning and spinning like those carousels she adored.