Chapter Text
Hisui hastily slid the box onto her backpack and she put it on her back patting it for a measure before taking off to the wall
"Hisui-chan you should eat before leaving, you darn girl, how could you ignore such an important thing? An empty stomach would leave an empty mind for lessons on being Shinobi!"
Hisui falters from leaping to the next roof at the voice of her mama's closest friend. She turned her head to look at Akimichi Kaori as she stood under her looking at her menacingly with a ladle in hand, Hisui just grinned back at her sheepishly.
"I'll eat more later, oba-san! Tell Kuro-kun I said hello!" She shouted back and jumps for the nearby roof
Hisui watched, entranced by the slight movement of the chest, the small raven-haired boy made. Her hold on the tree she was perched on tightened, as the boy's lashes fluttered, making Hisui lean to take a closer look.
She was so sure he would wake up, with foreboding uncertainty, she held her breath, observing the smallest twitch, and when he moved. Hisui's foot slips, making her yelp in surprised panic, her hand took hold of the upper branch as she upright herself.
"Haruno-san?"
"That's my Mother!" She squeaked, Hisui's eyes widened comically, her face flushed with mortification at her present state.
Uchiha Itachi stood, hand in the state of opening the window, as he eyed Hisui that was clinging like a monkey on a branch.
Out of graciousness, she thinks. He helped her, pulling her hand as she inelegantly scrambled to the open window
"I-I apologise for yesterday!"
Hisui bowed repentantly, she didn't mean what she did really, she didn't mean to have the boy hospitalised. Oh, how her Mama would be so disappointed with Hisui, being such a bad example to her younger siblings-
"It's alright, if there would be anyone's fault it's mine" His voice was soft, delicate even. And Hisui peeked with one eye on him. He looked unsure, like what she was doing made him uncomfortable.
Oh
Oh
Hisui's making him uncomfortable
It was similar to a thunderstrike on her brain creating a devastating impact.
Hisui hurriedly straightens herself, to the bewilderment of Itachi
"Ah…Uhm…I'll be back" With a fluttering heartbeat, Hisui turned her heels and deftly jumped down the window with unexpected grace that startled Itachi
Few things confuse Itachi.
And when he goes on and reflected on the loss they were can be simply explained more than he can fathom the barest of the mystery Haruno Hisui exude.
She comes back with a simple box that she holds carefully as mismatched eyes never leave it; she slips again on the window. She walked until she was in front of him before gently pushing it in his direction. Itachi eyed her quizzically, perplexed by every action she did.
"Ah…I…ano my mama says about it on apologising" She stammered a bit more, looking like someone who was doing a thing she wasn't used to
Itachi gingerly took the box and she heaved a sigh as her eyes brightened when he carefully opened it revealing confectionaries and desserts neatly placed but what grabbed his attention was the several sticks of dango placed there.
"Thank you" He can only mutter and her whole face brightened.
"I think I need to leave now, sorry again um…for breaking your back?" Hisui winced at that "I didn't mean it!" her feet shuffled nervously as Itachi all but stared at her like she was something of a wonder that he never have seen before
"It's alright Haruno-san─I'm grateful for having you as my opponent. It might sound prudent but… will you spar with me in the future?"
Hisui gazed at him surprised "You wanna spar with me?"
Itachi couldn't blame her.
"Ah yes… otou-san says that it will beneficial for the both us to test each other's skills, as you are near my age" not adding the lease doubts of how a slip of a civilian girl with simple heritage and is visibly newly trained, beat him. Someone whom his clan held a huge expectation and hope for.
"But Itachi-san do you want to spar with me ?"
That question startled him and for a second it slipped behind the well-crafted that a six-year-old can make.
"I-"
Hisui continues "Your otou-san was the one that make the biggest decisions but, it isn't he that participates. So it leaves for you to decide if you really want to spar with me because you want to and not because your otou-san ordered you. It's not right" Her countenance became seriously mismatched eyes piercing him with every intensity. Gone was the bashful girl but was replaced by something he couldn't pinpoint. And then she smiled and he thought she had a beautiful smile.
"So Itachi-san do you want to spar with me?" she asked with her hand held out. Itachi looked at them, they were small with callouses forming.
The clan head's words were final inside the clan, and Itachi was its heir. He has duties and responsibilities he needs to make due. He needed to be the best, to settle at the top as he was watched with envy, awe and anticipation by those he left in the dust.
But then there was this girl who toppled him from the top he settled in with the barest of effort. Otou-san has been very disappointed with him. The Uchiha heir was injured in a spar with a civilian-raised opponent. It was disgraceful, but his kaa-san reasoned
"Never underestimate civilian-raised shinobis, the fourth Hokage hailed from them after all. And not that it stopped him from single-handedly ending the third shinobi world war"
He knew war, he experienced them in front of him as what made people into beasts to demand and to monsters. He wished for a world where no war exists, for a world where his Otouto will grow without the fear of being the easy target. Itachi wants a world where wars and strife fail to exist.
"So Itachi-san do you want to spar with me?"
Itachi's thoughts were the only ones he had a choice in how they flowed. His father was the clan head first and foremost, and the clan it was, before the family. The Hokage had the village behind his back but the village would stand and move on without them, they are after all replaceable in the world they live in.
Itachi feels small under the weight of those mismatched eyes of blue and green. She smiles and it was bright yet not like a trickle of light. It's not blinding nor he can feel the heat scorching on his skin, for that he was grateful.
He looked back again to those hands that were still held in front of him. He sighed, and leaped from fate.
Hisui watched as the clock that settled above the blackboard ticked as their sensei rolled aimlessly on genjutsu theory.
A crumpled paper rolled on her desk and Hisui opened it revealing a training ground number and a small barely noticeable coded map drawn.
Hisui smiles, it's a good thing she had over-made the number of truffles this morning.
"Haruno-chan will you please show your classmates the hand sign for release"
Hisui stood up and seamlessly did the sign, gaze not ceasing to stare at the hand of clocks
5
4
3
2
1
The bells rang loudly as her fellow shinobi-in-training rushes headfirst into the exit
A small presence settled himself noiselessly beside her, Hisui turns to him as she clutched her bag
"Why did you give me a map when we will go together there?" She asked, she trusted herself to remember the way after all
"There was a defensive mechanism on outsiders not remembering the way after they left," he said simply, and Hisui nodded. She could guess that it would be genjutsu, though she was curious about who would go as far as to make that just to hide a training ground.
They tested against shurikenjutsu first which he was superior, not that Hisui had a bad aim, it was rather because he knew far more techniques and ways than she did. She only smiled and congratulated him.
The second was taijutsu. Itachi lives up to his name of being a prodigy but not because he has mastered everything yet, well not at this age. He was cunning, calculative, and indigenous making use of everything and every weakness.
Hisui was from a no-name civilian family with a father who reached Jounin rank in his twenties. She was raised free of expectations and encouraged to do every bit of her whims. She was unshackled and free of the rules and pressure that came with being born out of an old and respectable clan. She was charismatic, and manipulative even though she didn't notice it herself, she is fast, flexible, and strategic in her approach, she had a nonsensical outlook in a battle and was infuriatingly kind which made the fight long and arduous. Uchiha Itachi was the best of his generation. Haruno Hisui was nothing .
And she won.
With a small smile playing on her lips as she held a hand for him to grab on. Her head was a mess and her clothes were with tears and scratches on them, dirt travels into every corner of her skin, Itachi was the same. Yet she smiles, it was like those made the corner of her cheek lift and the darkness of her eyes washed out. And then she frowns on why he took long on grabbing her hand.
"Are you alright Itachi-san?" she asked worriedly, Hisui is afraid she injured him again which will result in a visit to the Hospital. Itachi only shakes his head and finally grasped her hand.
"Are you sure? We could go to the Hospital right now if you can walk properly, or do I need to carry you I-"
"I'm truly fine Hisui-san" He whips but she hears it enough though her expression is still unbelieving.
"I know I made truffles in the morning you see, wanna taste them?" Itachi brushed the dirt clinging to his hair and frowned, not recognising the food she offered
"Truffles?"
Hisui mirrors his frown that morphed into horror as if he said something sacrilegious, but then it changed into a determined expression as she put her hand on his shoulder. Itachi nearly flinched when she started patting him consolingly
"You poor thing"