"SASUKE-KUN!" Ashita yelled, trying to shield the seven-year-old from Itachi. She watched as her friend Mae charged at the older Uchiha, yelling, "You bastard!"

Mae was easily deflected and knocked to the ground by Itachi. She should have known she would need more than a simple punch to take down an ANBU. Especially one with Itachi's raw skill. She sat up and saw Ashita on the other side of the room with the 7-year-old Sasuke. "Ashita!" she yelled, "Get Sasuke out of here! Now!"

Ashita nodded, understand the need to get Sasuke the heck away from his asshole of a brother. She picked up the still crying 7-year-old and started running as fast as she could.

Mae saw Itachi begin to go after Ashita and preformed the hand signs for her signature 'Single Wave Jutsu'. She sent out the single sound wave just above the ground before Itachi's foot hit and by the time it got to him it was in just the right spot. Itachi tripped. "Don't you dare hurt him! You've already done enough here!" she spat the words at him like poison. He turned his head toward her, Sharingan eyes blazing. "...Fuck."

Ashita looked back only once to see that Mae had managed to stop Itachi from coming after her, and then spared a glance at the seven-year-old in her arms. Of course, he was crying and her heart went out to him. She knew what it was like to lose a family at a very young age, thought her family's death hadn't even come close to being as traumatic as the way Sasuke's family had died. 'I wish I could've done something to keep him from seeing that.' She thought. 'It's much worse when you actually see it.' She held Sasuke tighter and whispered, "It's okay, I won't let anything bad happen to you." The boy was in such a bad state, that she had no idea if he even understood her, but she thought she felt him grip her shirt tighter than he had been before.

Mae barely got a glimpse of the triangular shape in Itachi's eyes before she seemed to be transported. To a place where everything was inverted black and white. And red. Lots of red. It was splattered everywhere. Mae instantly knew that this was the Uchiha Compound only a few short minutes before they had arrived. The Uchiha fan was painted on every wall, flag and lantern. Kunai and shuriken were strewn everywhere, and before she knew it, the mass murderer himself stood before her. No emotion in his now stark, white eyes. "You wish to challenge me?" he said with only slight amusement in his voice, "Let me show you my accomplishments." And just like that, time moved backward at high speeds, Mae was barely able to take in what was happening around her it was so fast.

Ashita finally managed to get out of the Uchiha compound and stopped to catch her breath. What should she do now? Take Sasuke to the hospital? Take him someplace safe and go back to help Mae? The options seemed endless to her, but she knew one thing. She had to keep Sasuke safe. So, despite how much she really wanted to go back, she started running again. While she ran, she debated where the best place to hide was. Her house? The Hokage tower? One of her friends' houses, maybe? She had to make a decision soon; a fork in the road was coming up. Thinking fast, she swerved to take the left path, which led to her house. By now, her heart was thudding so hard, she thought it was going to burst, and her sides ached abominably. But she kept running, gasping for breath with every step.

Just as suddenly as it had started, time played again. Some outside force caused Mae to look up and there was Itachi, perched on top of a phone pole. And then he was gone. That was when she heard screams and cries of distress all around her. Mae's breathing grew stressed and labored as she looked around her to see all the Uchiha around her being slaughtered. When Mae tried to step forward, her body didn't respond, all she could do was stand there. 'I can't move my body,' she thought desperately. Then she tried to shut her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch, and she couldn't. That was when she realized she hadn't blinked once here, 'I can't close my eyes!' Mae was terrified now; there was nothing more mortifying than not being able to move her own body when she willed it.

Ashita threw open her front door, dashed inside, and bolted it shut, using every lock it had attached to it. She then raced upstairs to her room, shut and locked the door and windows, and sat down on her bed, still holding Sasuke in her arms, He was shaking now, and Ashita feared he was in shock. She rubbed his back and kept whispering, "Everything's going to be okay. I won't let anything happen to you, Sasuke. I promise."

Mae noticed her breathing was becoming more and more labored, and she was getting less and less air with each breath. Her body dropped to it knees from the lack of air, and she heard Itachi's voice echo around her. "I'm going to kill you now, slowly. While you watch everyone around you die so quickly..." Mae tried to hold her breath, keep as much air in her lungs for as long as possible, but failed. Her body wouldn't let her. Her vision grew hazy.

Ashita couldn't take it anymore. The inner turmoil was too much. She had to make a decision. She had to stay with Sasuke, but she needed to know what was happening to Mae. She needed to stay, she needed to go. Finally, she came up with an idea. She carried Sasuke downstairs, and into her kitchen and made some herbal tea that would calm him down and, hopefully, make him go to sleep. He needed to rest. "Drink this." She ordered when the tea was ready. "It'll calm you down and maybe make you go to sleep." Sasuke, who was sitting on the kitchen counter staring blankly at nothing, nodded and reached for the cup. Ashita waited until he had drained all its contents, then carried Sasuke back up to her room, and put him down on her bed. "Try to get some sleep." She advised in a motherly tone. Sasuke made no sign that he heard her, but closed his eyes regardless. Ashita brushed his bangs out of his face, glad that she and Mae had been able to save him. Tearing herself away from the boy, she made a clone of herself, and instructed it to take care of Sasuke no matter what happened. Then, she gathered up all of her weapons, and other ninja tools, equipping herself with everything she could carry. When she was satisfied that she hadn't forgotten anything, she gave Sasuke a kiss on the forehead, and left her house, knowing very well that she by going back to help Mae was akin to committing suicide.

Mae's vision grew ever-hazier as she worked harder and harder to get air in her lungs, no matter how small the amount. She vaguely felt Uchiha blood splatter on her face and skin, but she could no longer see them. She only saw fuzzy shapes falling to the ground, but she could hear their cries clear as a bell. That alone was torturing her. There was no getting out of this, that she knew, Ashita was, and should, be long gone with Sasuke. 'I'm just destined to die by an Uchiha, aren't I?' she thought weakly as she struggled for consciousness, 'Sasuke...'

Ashita gasped as a stitch appeared in her side, but refused to stop running. She and Mae had been sent back to this day for a reason, and though they had failed the first part of their mission (preventing Itachi from killing the Uchiha Clan) they could partially save it by getting Sasuke away from Itachi before he had a chance to mentally torture him, and by staying alive. Part one was complete and now Ashita was racing to finish part two. She hated how she'd had to leave Sasuke back at her house, but she had to save Mae. She could only hope that her clone would take care of the younger version of Sasuke until she and Mae got back. If they ever got back, that is. "Mae!" She yelled, entering the compound and dashing in the direction of the room she had left her friend in.

Mae could hear a faint voice echo through her mind, outside of the genjutsu. It was female, so it had to be Ashita. It took all she had to smile. 'Maybe,' she thought weakly, 'I won't die here after all...' She let herself fall, to finally relax somewhat, hopefully Ashita could bring her out of this waking nightmare and still be alive. She let consciousness slip away as she prayed she'd wake up alive.

Ashita put her hand on Mae's head, hoping that her guess about why her friend wasn't responding was right; Itachi had to have her under some kind of genjutsu. She let some of her chakra flow into her hand and then into Mae's head. 'I hope this works.' She thought. "Release."

Mae's eyes batted open as she woke up in a world in full color. She sighed with relief when she figured out her head was in Ashita's lap. Then she realized she had air to sigh with and sat up quickly, gasping for air. She could feel the strength returning to her body as she panted and looked back at Ashita. "What...happened to...I-" she froze mid-sentence when she saw Itachi standing behind Ashita, looking down on them blankly with (luckily) black eyes. And just like that, he was gone. Not a trace of him excluding all the bodies. Mae was just happy she wasn't one of them.

"Glad to see you're back." Ashita smiled at her friend, then looked back at where Itachi had been standing. "Is he really gone, or is he just playing with us? He could have killed us so easily just now. Why didn't he?" Fear struck her heart as she thought of something terrible. "Could he be going after Sasuke?"

"No," Mae reassured her friend, still panting, "He didn't the first time, why would he now?" Her hair fell into her face when she looked at Ashita again, but she didn't quite have the strength to push it back just yet. "Knowing you, you probably left Sasuke with a clone, right?" Mae smirked. She sighed and looked down at the blood splattered floor in front of her, "He'll be fine. And I don't think we messed up the future too much by getting him away from Itachi either."

"At least we saved him from being mentally tortured." Ashita agreed. "Yeah, before I came here, I made sure he fell asleep and was being watched over by a clone." She stuck out her hand to help her friend up. "Before we go back to our own time, I want to check on him." She said softly, but firmly. "Just to make sure he's alright."

"Of course. You forget you're not the only one who cares about him like you do," Mae took her friend's hand and pulled herself up. Her knees buckled beneath her but she caught herself on Ashita's shoulder. "Help?" she asked with an airy chuckle, seeing as she was still getting all the air she needed back from before in Itachi's near-fatal genjutsu.

Ashita put her friends arm around her shoulders so as to help her walk. "Then, let's get back to my house so we can get back to our own time after that." She was silent for a few minutes, then chuckled. "You know, we may have screwed up the future after all. What if Sasuke remembers that we came back to help him? He'll be so confused when we get back to our time. He might not even be the same Sasuke."

"Wouldn't that be crazy," Mae responded with a smile, supporting herself on her friend. Then the realization of what Ashita had said hit her with a powerful punch. She hung her head and her hair covered her eyes, shadowing them. "If he isn't the same Sasuke, he might not come to the Sound at all..." She trailed off, not wanting to think about how she could have just erased all of the time she had spent with Sasuke. And how she could end up being alone in a village with Orochimaru in it only to be spared by Ronnie's occasional visits.

"Hey." Ashita said. "I'm pretty sure it'll still happen. You know how Sasuke is. He'll still go to the Sound." Saying this cut her like a knife, because that meant that Sasuke would still leave her, but she had to force it out for her friend's sake. "And if he doesn't, then I'll make sure we come and get you. You can leave the Sound and come live with us in Konoha."

Mae wasn't convinced. She looked at Ashita with concerned eyes, "But, we're from the present, and we're going back to our own time. How are you going to know then what to do if Sasuke doesn't leave? We didn't even know each other then." It was clear Mae had done some thinking, and didn't like the outcome she came to.

Ashita rubbed her temples. "My god, I hate the way time confuses me. Tell you what, when we get back to my house, I'll write myself a letter all about this, and I won't leave a single detail out. The present me will believe it if it's in my hand writing. Then I'll know what to do if Sasuke doesn't leave. But something tells me he will. I don't think he'll have changed that much. He'll still want to kill Itachi; he just won't be as messed up in the head, because Itachi never got the chance to torture him."

"I guess," Mae still had more questions, more doubts, but instead gave her friend an encouraging smile, "Just remember, you're seven right now, you may not understand. And don't forget, I'm sorry for bringing it up but, your family either just died or are going to." Mae looked up at the sky, now approaching dawn. "I guess we're just really lucky we didn't see our whole family die."-She chuckled a little-"I mean, I don't even remember it happening, and I was there the whole time..." Mae scowled at how Orochimaru told her how her clan died with a smile on his face. '...one of my acomplishments.' The words haunted her, and she would forever loathe that Orochimaru bastard for it.

Ashita smiled ruefully. "Yeah, it'll be about a year before my family dies in this time. And I could have died with them, if I hadn't gone to pick those stupid flowers. But I guess it's better that I didn't die that day. If I had, I would never have met you, Naruto, Sakura, Deidara, Ino, TenTen, Hinata, Kiba, and...Sasuke. Hey, my house is right there." She added, pointing to her house, which was right in front of the training field. "Let's go check on Sasuke."

"Yeah," Mae sighed, that was when she realized she was back up to her norm strength wise, not 100, but enough to walk on her own and function for herself. "Ashita? I think I'm good now." Mae was lengthening the walk back to Ashita's house for as long as possible, since she knew very well that once they got back, they would go back to their own time. A time were Sasuke may not even remember her name.

While Mae was walking on her own now, Ashita was dealing with her own inner turmoil. What would Sasuke be like when she and Mae returned to their own time? Would he still be the Sasuke that she loved more than her own life, or would he be completely different? And would he really go to the Sound village like he was supposed to, or would he stay in Konoha? She decided that the only way to find out was to hurry up and get back. Of course she had to write a letter to herself before she went back, or she might not remember all of this. "Come one, Mae. The sooner we do this, the better. There's no use in putting it off. It'll still happen."

Mae sighed again. "I know..." she didn't quicken her pace, she didn't know if she was going to even remember certain things in her past now that might have changed, so she savored the memories now. While she still had them. They arrived at the house and Mae looked up at the second story, at one of the few windows. She was pretty sure that was Ashita's room, where a sleeping, 7-year-old Sasuke lay. "When we get inside, you go up and check on Sasuke," she said, "I'll find the paper."

Ashita nodded and unlocked her front door, letting Mae and herself inside. She hurried up to her room. When she entered, the clone she had made of herself disappeared. Sasuke was still asleep in her bed, and she gently brushed his bangs off his face. It was hard to think that this little boy, whom she'd spent all day protecting, would grow up into the Sasuke she knew, the one that was always protecting her. She sat down on her bed, careful not to wake Sasuke up in the process, and ran her hand tenderly along the side of his face while she waited for Mae to return with some paper and something for her to write with.

While Mae searched for paper she thought, not good. 'Maybe I could stay here with him; he needs someone to take care of him anyways, not to mention someone to help him get through this. Sure I can't love him love him, but I can love him like a mother, can't I?' she continued to find reasons in her head for her to stay with him as she found the paper and continued in searching for a pen of some sort, 'Would it really change the future that much? He'd be happier for one thing, he'd still meet Ashita, they'd still fall in love, Sasuke probably wouldn't lea-'' She stopped herself, when the date came that he left and didn't, would her memories fade as the time they were meant to be together passed? Mae didn't want to think about it, she was thinking irrationally anyways. What was she thinking anyways? She grabbed a pen that had been sitting right in front of her for the last two minutes from the counter and headed upstairs. She stood outside the only room with a dim light coming from underneath the door. "Ashita?" she called softly, not wanting to wake Sasuke up, but not willing to go inside either. She might just cry.

Ashita quietly got off the bed and opened her bedroom door to see that Mae had found her some paper and a pen to write her letter with. "Let's go downstairs." She whispered, closing the door behind her and leading the way down.

Mae was grateful she didn't have to go inside. In fact, she had never been happier to not see Sasuke since she met him. Now being back at 100, Mae found herself skipping steps on her way down and passing Ashita, having to wait for her at the bottom of the stairs. She walked into the kitchen and leaned on the counter, "When you're done writing," she began looking at the humming light in the kitchen ceiling, "How do we know we'll be sent back immediately? Or how we'll get back at all, will we just leave the way we came: Totally on accident? Or do we have to trigger something: Do it on our own." She covered her face with her hand, "Trying to make sense of it all gives me a headache."

"Same here." Ashita smirked. "But I don't think it works that way. We were sent back to the day the Uchiha clan died, and our time here is almost up." She motioned to a window where, outside, the sky was growing lighter and lighter. She sat down at the kitchen counter and wrote furiously, not stopping until she was finished. "That out to do it. But there's still something else I have to do." She went into the kitchen and prepared a plate of rice cakes with some tomato slices on the side. "Just in case he gets hungry." She put the plate down on the counter in plain view, and rolled her letter up, putting it in her pocket. "I think that should do it."

"Tomatoes and rice," Mae smirked when Ashita put the plate down on the opposite side of the counter that she was leaning on, "I see you know his favorites." Mae watched as Ashita put the letter in her pocket, then got a puzzled look on her face. "Why are you putting it in you're pocket? Isn't that for the you of this time?" she asked, headache growing worse with all the complex thinking.

Ashita sighed and took the letter back out. "What if I don't remember all this when we go back?" She asked, but still put the letter in the place where she always kept all of her special personal belongings. "The seven-year-old me is going to be really confused when she reads this, but I told her to just keep it until it finally makes sense to her. She's in for a rough time." Ashita smiled, reminiscing a bit on all of her memories. The time Sasuke gave her butterfly necklace, the time she was kidnapped by the Akatsuki and fell in love with Deidara, all the times she'd nearly died only to have Sasuke save her, and the time she had to watch Naruto and Sasuke, her best friend and the love of her life, try to kill each other. "I almost feel sorry for her. Or would that mean I'm feeling sorry for myself?" She sighed and shook her head. "Well, nothing to do now, except wait for dawn. It shouldn't be long now."

Mae walked over to the kitchen window and leaned forward onto the counter there. 'I should be on the track by now' she chuckled to herself before the wave of nostalgia washed over her as well. It was amazing how much she and Ashita had in common as far as life went. And dawn was steadily approaching.

Ashita looked out the window as well. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and she yawned. If she had been back in her own time, she would have been sleeping right now. And probably dreaming of Sasuke. "I think we'll just get sent back." She announced. "Kind of like how we got sent here, we'll probably just get jerked back into our own time. We might not even notice it until it happens." She turned to Mae, who was still looking out the window. "If I don't remember you went we get back, then, just to let you know, I'm glad we got to do this together. This is a mission I wouldn't even want to do with Naruto, and that's saying something."

Mae replied to Ashita with a warm smile. The two girls, who had been chosen for this mission because of a common interest, spent their last few seconds in that time smiling at each other. Then there was a flash of light to take them home.

ZOMG, FINALLY! You people have no idea how long this took. Because it just started out as a little roleplay. Nothing more. Then me and Jistin were like, "Omg, this should be a What If!" Thus, this was born. I loves it. It was great to have Jistin's character and my character united to the same cause. Protecting Sasuke from his evil bastard of an older brother. 'Cause they both love him. So, yeah. Enjoy. Oh, and if you want to know more about Mae…then you'll have to wait for Jistin to put her fanfic up. –glares- This has been Cami and Jistin. Byez!