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Nazo- riddle (Last), Rikou- clever (First)
Uchiha- fan (Last), Itachi- weasel (First)

What are you waiting for,
The day is gone?
I said I'm waiting for dawn

I am nine and my name means clever riddle, Nazo Rikou. I am not a ninja, nor will I ever be one. I am content with that, especially seeing as I do not have an urge to do a thankless job where being famous will get you killed. Though I am not a ninja I do meditate. Every day I wake before the sun when the stars are still shining and climb the tallest tree in Konoha. Every day I meditate, every day since I learned to climb trees when I was seven.

This year something new happened. A boy my age had happened on my spot. The boy left just as suddenly as he had come, a ninja according to the headband resting across his forehead. The next day he came again but did not leave as before. The first words he spoke to me were, "What are you waiting for, the day is gone?". I told him that I was waiting for the dawn.

Each day from then on he would come again. Each day he would ask- the same question, each day I would reply- the same answer. Each day he would either meditate like myself or would write or sketch in a small book. I supposed this book to be a journal of sorts, not a frivolous one like girls our age would keep but more like an explorer's. That he would sketch something that no one had ever seen before with but a quick and detailed description. Perhaps an account of the day's happenings if he so chose.

What are you aiming for
Out here alone?
I said I'm aiming for home

I am now eleven. So is he. After two years he has changed the question. Now he asks, "What are you aiming for out here alone?". A different question merits a different answer I suppose. I tell him that I am aiming for home. I do not have somewhere to really call home as I share my dwelling place with many other orphans. It is said that home is where the heart is, I hold that my heart is firmly within my chest and beats there as normal. Though my heart beats slow enough and faint enough that occasionally people cannot find my pulse. Either which way, as my heart is always with me my home is wherever I am- mostly here in the tallest tree of Konoha though...

Holding on, Holding on

I am twelve now. The Uchiha, for that is the surname of the boy, has not come for a day or two because of a mission before. It has been a week now. We have exchanged surnames, the only conversation past the daily "greetings". I am holding on for his return. I had not realized how calming his presence until I had to go a week without it while trying to meditate. He will return soon and life will be normal again...

With red eyes
What are you looking for?
With red eyes
Red eyes

Recently we have been talking more, conversing outside our daily greeting. I have learned that he is ranked at jounin even at such a young age and that he has an odd liking for dango. Today he had been staring at me. Not with his normally onyx eyes but with the red of the Sharingan. I suppose it was to sketch me into his journal- which I was more or less right about being a mostly picture journal. He had sketched me before into it as I had learned from him earlier that week- the pictures I must say are very well done...

All of my days are spent
Within this skin
Within this cage that I'm in

I feel so frustrated! There is nothing I can do while my best friend is becoming more and more distant. The Uchiha boy, for I still do not know his first name nor does he know mine, does not talk much anymore, not even for our morning greetings every day.

I finally got him to talk! I think I understand why he is so distant now, why I am such a close friend though we know nothing about one another. He tells me "All of my days are spent within this skin. Within this cage that I'm in." He was downtrodden at that and only elaborated once I coerced him into it. He had told me that he was a prodigy, that the only people he interacted with (other than myself of course) were pushing him to even greater heights where he did not want to go (where he was sure to fall from), where fans of his and so completely falsely in love with him, or hated him for something he could not help.

Other than myself everyone knew who he was, every single person in the village saw the shell he put on for them. The perfect ninja, showing no emotion, and the perfect tool. Either to gain a higher rung on the social ladder or to exploit for other selfish purposes. He told me he feels confined by this and that he can't get away from it. Perhaps the only time he feels he doesn't have to be perfect is here this early in the morning "with a person who expects nothing from him and knows not who he is" and with his younger brother whom he loves dearly.

Nowhere feels safe to me
Nowhere feels home
Even in crowds I'm alone

He tells me that nowhere feels completely safe to him. He always in in danger because in the ninja world being a prodigy can only mean that he is destined to die sooner. He tells me nowhere feels like home. That because nowhere feels like home he doesn't feel rooted down to a certain spot, that though he does love this village of ours, as far as you can love a village, he really only feels a pull to protect his brother and perhaps certain places such as this. That even while he is surrounded by the many people crowding around him he feels so utterly alone. He explains that he feels like he is alone because no one else can relate, that he cannot speak to others because they do not feel the same. That no other feels that silence speaks louder than the voice.

That for that reason we are friends, that because I also seem to understand what he is saying. Though I am no prodigy that my experiences are somewhat of the same, for I am the only one on the orphanage that works to help support them, that I am also doing a thankless (albeit much less dangerous) job. That being the oldest I have responsibility thrust upon me that I never wanted nor was ready for and that I am not so readily accepted because those there do not understand how I think.

Holding on, Holding on

That we are simply holding on. Holding onto our sanity and humanity in our silence.

Every now and then I see you dreaming
Every now and then I see you cry
Every now and then I see you reaching,
Reaching for the other side
What are you waiting for?

We are now thirteen. Now more than ever Itachi, for that is the boy's name, has been meditating instead of sketching or writing. I think that he is sleeping mostly though.

While he sleeps occasionally I see him dreaming. Every now and then I see him crying in his sleep, sometimes he is reaching for something- grasping for something that is not there desperately.

This time when he had awoken I told him. "Every now and then I see you dreaming. Every now and then I see you cry. Every now and then I see you reaching. Reaching for the other side." Then I do what I have never done before, I turned the question on him. "What are you waiting for?"

This question of mine seemed to shock him as if he had been electrocuted. He slowly turned to face the sunrise. He was silent for a minute or two while I waited anxiously for his answer. He then rotated himself to face me and said, "I'm waiting for the dawn." I looked at him hard in the eyes and found no untruths, only a deep sorrow and anxiety; for what I know not. He then leaped to the next tree and made his way back to the village.

The next day I woke up long before the sun, when the stars were still twinkling and full of life. I went out to my, our, place in the tallest of trees of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I waited. I waited longer. I waited until the day was done with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I left trying to convince myself he didn't show up because of a mission and that he would come back tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and I waited again. He showed, I had worried all for not! Nothing happened to be anxious over! I silently celebrated this fact, then I realized that he didn't seem as carefree as before. In fact, he was still in his uniform, mask hanging from his waist, blood still staining his garb. This frightened me as it was the most blood-soaked I had ever seen someone, even him. He sat next to me, both of us on edge, wondering who would crack and break the silence first. I did.

"Itachi-kun" I whispered, almost to soft for even me to hear, "What happened?" He stayed quiet for a time like he had yesterday then turned to me once again. He replied with unshed tears in his eyes,"Let me show you." His eyes turned red with Sharingan, but not with the normal three tomoes. "Tsukiyomi."

I was suddenly in a world of black and white. I heard his calming voice, "Rikou-chan, I will not hurt you but you should know what has happened. This is what has become of my clan." I did not understand at first because the image that came up was of the Hokage's office (or what I suppose was his office as he was sitting at the desk).

The last thing I heard in the world of the Sharingan was Itachi pleading with me, very unlike him, "Please. Please watch over Sasuke. My brother, I Carnot protect him any longer. I am now a missing-nin and cannot come back unless I am brought back dead. Thank you, I owe you a life debt Nazo Rikou. Take care of him."

To this day, Sasuke-kun has been living with me. I am eighteen and have had my own house, living with Sasuke, for the last five years, ever since the massacre.

To this day, I know is that everything the villagers and Sasuke know about Itachi and the massacre is fundamentally wrong.

To this day, I am torn with grief knowing that I will never see my best friend again unless he is dragged through the gates dead and disgraced.

To this day, I fear for my ward's path. That the vengeance he thinks he needs will consume him wholy. That his path of the ninja will be forged completely with hatred.

To this day, I know that he will stop at nothing to get revenge, ultimately, on his protector.

To this day, I believe that Sasuke will leave and not come back.

On this day, I congratulate Sasuke for becoming a Genin ninja and graduating the Academy.

To this day, I know I am right. And for that, I weep.