123Itachi didn't know what to expect when Shisui asked him to check-up on his five year old sister when he left for his mission. He knew Shisui was an orphan as of a year ago. Had he really left his little sister alone for a month? He wondered if he would ever become this negligent with Sasuke. He hoped not.
He knocked on the door of Shisui's house twice. Receiving no answer he ventured into the backyard. There he saw a tiny girl practicing katas against a wooden post. Itachi had seen many people practice katas before, but never like her. Her movements were sharp and precise, and there was force and determination in each strike that did nothing to diminish the fluidity and grace. But it was her expression that struck him the most. The stubborn set of jaw and the fire in the eyes were not something he'd expect from a five year old.
"Who're you?" She finally noticed him. She looked quite a bit like Shisui, only with half the height, longer hair and a scowl on the face.
He bowed to her and introduced himself. "I am Uchiha Itachi, Naomi-san. Shisui asked me to take care of you while he was away."
Her scowl deepened. "You're a kid yourself. How are you supposed to take care of me?"
He wasn't considered a kid anymore. He was the heir of Uchiha clan. The prodigy who is supposed to bring glory to the clan and fulfil the impossible expectations of the elders and his father. He did not have a heart to tell her that though.
"I am going to graduate from the academy soon." That would make him a Ninja, a legal adult, at seven years of age.
"They teach you how to take care of kids at the academy?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I have experience taking care of my younger brother."
"Do I look like a one year old child to you, Itachi-Chan?"
He closed his mouth before he could dig himself further into the hole. Changing the subject would be best. "Would you like to spar with me, Naomi-san?"
She narrowed her eyes, indicating she had seen through his ploy, but nodded jerkily. They briefly put up the seal of friendly spar and launched at each other. What followed was exhilarating. Each of his strike was met meet equal speed and force. It seemed they could almost read each other's minds as they sparred in way that would almost seem like dancing to an outsider. She was able to match him perfectly. For the first time in his life, Itachi was having fun while sparring, with a grin on his face as big as Naomi's. But all good things come to an end. Both of them leapt back, taking note of the fatigue in their muscles. They stared at each other looking into matching newly awakened Sharingan.
"So, what did you do with Naomi these last weeks?" Shisui asked popping down next to him.
"We sparred. She's good." Itachi decided to tell him about their Sharingan awakenings only when they were away from prying ears of the clan. He didn't want Naomi to be treated like another prodigy to be sent for early graduation.
"Yeah. She is too hard on herself while training, though." her brother said.
"What goal is she working towards?"
Shisui held a long suffering sigh. " She wants to conquer Kumo."
Itachi tried to digest that. "Why?" He asked after a minute of silence.
"Well, you know tou-chan died of heart block, right? And Kamiwari now kuni is known for medicines to treat that. We couldn't get those because of the war. Now she's angry that tou-chan could be alive and he isn't. She's trying to lash out." He sighed. "She used to be such a happy kid before that, you know."
The next day Itachi sought out Naomi while she was training.
"Shisui told me you wish to conquer Kumo." He said.
She turned sharply towards him, halting her kata. "You think I can't do it?"
"You could, but why do you want to? There would be long war and lots of deaths because of it."
"There's always war."
"There doesn't have to be." he said softly.
"What do you mean?" She looked confused.
Itachi had never revealed his dream to anyone, but felt it was the right thing to do at the moment. "I wish to stop all wars. That is my dream, to become Hokage and bring peace to the Elemental Nations."
He waited for her to scoff and ridicule his dream. She studied him for a long time as if this was the first time she was truly seeing him.
"You have to be good at diplomacy and making friends to do that. I can easily say that you are crap at it." she proclaimed.
This was not the reaction Itachi had expected. He frowned at her.
"From what I've seen, you are not very good at it either." he shot back childishly.
"Oh! I'm plenty good at making friends. I just find you annoying."
Itachi took a deep breath and refrained from sticking his tongue out at her. "Why do you find me annoying."
"Because you look down on me."
"I don't.."
"You do. You're only a year older than me and you just pop up claiming to take care of me, even when nii-san just told you to check up on me. It's like you think everyone else is inferior to you or something. It's not your fault really, you've been told all your life how brilliant you you are, that you are a prodigy. Well, guess what, no matter how brilliant you are there would always be someone who is better than you at something. You're not some kami-chosen messiah who has come to give salvation to us lesser beings. You're just a kid."
Itachi stood stunned followed her tirade. He mentally recalled his behavior with his classmates and Naomi, and winced.
"You're right. I've been acting condenscendingly towards you. I don't have any excuse. Please forgive me." He bowed at ninety degrees, showing his shame.
"I don't really like these formalities, so... Just stand up, allright?" Naomi replied, sounding flustered. "And don't worry about learning diplomacy for after you make Hokage. You can make me your chief diplomat, I'll take care of everything."
Itachi straightened up. "I don't know. I wouldn't want to start the fourth shinobi war."
Naomi snorted. " So, you do have a sense of humor, somewhere deep, deep, deep down. Good to know. As your friend, I have the responsibility of preventing it from dieing a premature death."
Itachi didn't know when during their conversation he had made friends with Naomi. He didn't mind though.
Itachi heard Naomi's voice as he went down the stairs from his room.
"... saw him sneaking away from the Hyuuga compound with a sack over his shoulder. He looked like a thief and the Uchiha are police, right? So, I tried to stop him, I didn't know he was a Ninja. He dropped the sack and defended against me. He was really fast, and then my sharingan activated. I could see him clearly and the muscles around his nose were twitching. I gathered he must have a sensitive nose so I blew up the chilly powder pack I had bought just before. He was twitching on the ground till the ANBU arrived to take him." She giggled.
Itachi entered the room to find father and mother listening intently to Naomi and Sasuke on mother's lap.
"Then I opened up the bag, and there was a cute little girl inside. She was terrified but she was like really really cute with that hime cut hairstyle... "
Father cleared his throat.
"Right. So, I was comforting her, when Hiashi-sama arrived, byakugan blazing. I explained to him what happened. He then thanked me and said that the Hyuuga clan owed me a favor. He looked really pained though saying that, as though the stick up his arse was actually hurting him."
"Arse." Sasuke chimed up. "Arse."
Naomi gained a pained expression. " I swear Fugaku-sama, he does this on purpose to get me in trouble."
Father held a long suffering sigh. "Naomi, just... Just go." He swallowed. "Good work."
Itachi tried not to think about how the hypothetical stick in his father's ass must be hurting him right now, as he complimented Naomi. Something must have shown on his expression, as Naomi winked at him and grinned as she passed. "Bye, Itachi-chan."
He schooled his expression and asked his father, "Someone tried to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress?"
"Hn. The Kumo diplomat."
Itachi couldn't contain his snort at Naomi beating down a Kumo Ninja, her self proclaimed enemy since she was four.
His parents looked at him with scandalized expressions. "You're spending way too much time with her." His father declared.
