"Congratulations, Sakura-chan!" Iruka cheerfully announces to the whole class. "You earned your sixth perfect score." Sasuke watches as his teacher walks over to the desk right beside him, and hands his seatmate a test paper with a blaringly large red A on it, with a matching purple star.
The class breaks into a polite applause.
Sasuke frowns. He is second highest again, for more times than he could count. He only has one perfect score, but this girl. He looks to his left, wanting to peer at her test paper again. But she notices and quickly turns it over, hiding it from his disgruntled eyes.
So Sasuke stares down at his test score, demanding the number to change. 93, he thinks.You did well Sasuke, I'm proud of you! He could hear his mother say, just as she had said in his last exam, and the one before that, and the one before that…
He hears his teacher dismiss the class, but he couldn't care less. Maybe if his nii-san helped him study, he would have a purple star too.
He looks to his right, and sees the frail girl sling a bag over her shoulder. Her bangs covered her forehead, so long that it touched her eyes, and her expression… The young Uchiha doesn't know what to make of it, but it wasn't the face of someone who just got their sixth perfect score.
He scowls.
"How do you do it?" Sasuke demanded, a little harshly, though he had not intended to.
He heard the girl give a small squeak, trembling slightly, her eyes widened.
"I–I'm…" she looks at her feet, refusing to meet his eyes."I'm sorry!" Abruptly, she flees the suffocating room.
"H-Hey!" Sasuke blurts out in surprise, and he watches her retreating form. What's up with her? He sighs in his seat. His gaze travels back to the upper right corner of the paper he still holds in his hand, his grip forming mild creases at the edges. The sight mocks him.
Sasuke lets out a snort, and shoves his pathetic test paper inside his bag. Many of his classmates are still in the room, chatting with one another. He hears someone call out his name. Too displeased at the unfortunate turn of events of today's grading, he pretends not to notice and storms off.
Outside the academy, he spots a familiar figure leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, exuding an air of silent power.
Sasuke brightens in an instant, momentarily forgetting the test paper tucked in his bag.
"Nii-san!" He runs up to his older brother, and tackles him into a hug. "I didn't know you were picking me up today!"
Itachi catches him. "Hello, Sasuke." He ruffles his younger brother's hair, his lips tilting to an almost smile.
A flood of aspiring shinobi and kunoichi pour out the academy doors, greeting patient mothers, fathers, and siblings who have come to take them home. At the corner of the lot, near the road, a tiny girl with pink locks scattered across almost half of her face observes the scene before her, paying particular attention to the group of students laughing, immersed in an enthusiastic conversation underneath a tree. Then she takes a step home, disappearing from the academy, as invisible as a ghost.
Sasuke asks Itachi stories about his latest mission as they stroll towards the family compound. Things were going well until the older Uchiha touches on a forbidden topic, "How was school today?"
Sasuke freezes mid-step and grumbles, "I got 93 on my test."
Itachi ponders on his brother's reaction, lifting a curious brow. "That's higher than your last one, is it not?"
"Not high enough!" The younger Uchiha looks away bitterly. They arrive at the gates of the Uchiha compound. A relative acknowledges them with a nod, to which Itachi responds. Sasuke disregards him completely, and continues plodding, earning questioning glances from their relatives. They all spare him a biting look, wordlessly reprimanding him for his brother's rudeness.
"Sasuke," Itachi calls out to gain his attention, following him. As much as he likes seeing his dear little brother pout, it would do him no good to remain impolite just because he was dissatisfied about something in his life. He can't let his precious otouto grow up this way.
He offers, "You're getting good scores. You even had a perfect test once, remember?"
"It doesn't matter!" Sasuke spats at him. "There's this girl in my class, and she has six!"
Oh? Itachi briefly reminisces his time in the academy. That's impressive. Even he doesn't remember getting so many perfect scores in such a short time. It had only been a couple of months since his younger brother started attending the academy after all.
"I wanna be the smartest!" Finally, his little brother looks at him. His large, pleading, doe eyes stops the prodigy in his tracks. "Won't you help me study?"
Itachi stoops down to meet him. For a moment, Sasuke thought he succeeded, but two fingers press against his forehead in a flash. He winces, and the next thing he sees is his brother's impassive face which aggravates him further.
"Come now, Sasuke. Everybody has their own things they're very good at–"
He cuts him off. "Not you! You're great at everything!"
"Getting a 93 doesn't mean you're bad at tests."
"But I want to be the best at anything. Like you!" Itachi can't help but chuckle at his brother's hero-worship of him.
So he tells him, sincerely. "You have a natural talent, Sasuke."
He's beaming, and Itachi thinks he likes seeing his brother like this the most, even more than his sulky pouts. "You really think so?"
Itachi adds, "But this girl obviously has potential too."
Sasuke huffs, and speeds up his pace, intending to leave his no-good, unhelpful brother behind.
Itachi catches up to him right in front of their house. Sasuke slides the door open, goes inside and shuts it in his face. Itachi almost laughs.
He comes in and finds his brother in the living room, sitting on the tatami mat by the table, a hand resting upon his cheek. Itachi takes a seat across him.
"You will encounter geniuses." He states as a matter-of-factly. "You want to know your nii-san's secret?"
Sasuke perks up, and eyes his older brother, anticipating his next words.
"I worked harder, and I beat them." Itachi watches his brother blink once, twice, his back straight and his hand curled on the table. He lets his words to sink into the young boy before he continues,
"Effort will never betray you, Sasuke."
His little brother's eyes widens in the realization of an imparted wisdom.
Sasuke exclaims, loud enough to gain the attention of their mother who peers at them from the kitchen. "I won't fail you, nii-san! I will work hard and beat her! You'll see in my next exam!"
"Now what's this, Itachi-kun?" Mikoto watches her youngest child enthusiastically prop books on their living room table.
"Nothing, ka-san." her eldest chuckles. "Sasuke has found healthy competition."
–
Note: So this will be my take on SasuSaku in their academy days. I have the next scenes written out but I decided to end it here.
This chapter is a setting up of the things to come. As you may have guessed, this story will be an exploration of SasuSaku dynamics before things took a dark turn for the Uchihas. We never got to see this on panel so yeah, I'm excited!
Quote note: "Effort will never betray you." I read it somewhere on Tumblr. So credit goes to whoever said it. :)