"It is very nice to meet both of you. I couldn't help but notice just how adorable your son is. I hope that he and my Kakashi can be the best of friends someday." Golden eyes would lift from the ground to meet the black of the older man that stood before him, a curious look being present in the child's eyes before his gaze would move to meet the gaze of this Kakashi, eyes widening and cheeks darkening in a blush as he noticed the boy staring at him a bit too intensely for his liking and immediately he would duck to hide behind his mother, something that greatly amused the sadistic woman along with his father.

"Oh? I would love that but you see our cute little boy is just so shy. If people want to be his friend they have to be very patient with him and they can't be afraid to push him into being their friends." Her words were enough to win her a betrayed look from her son which caused her to laugh before she would step away from him, taking away his hiding place in the process and in that moment the one called Kakashi would confidently step towards him before speaking to him.

"You are so timid I don't know how you expect to be a good ninja with a personality like that. You should stay by my side just in case so I can protect you in case anyone tries to target you and hurt you." Kakashi's words were more than enough to cause any traces of shyness to leave the boy as he would gape at him for a moment, clearly stunned by his words before his shyness would vanish almost instantly as that gaze would narrow slightly as an almost annoyed smile would cross the boy's lips, those features becoming tinged with a false sort of politeness even as those golden eyes darkened.

"You are not very nice Kakashi. I heard what you said about that boy not making it into the academy earlier and I don't want to be friends with someone who picks on other people! I want to become a strong ninja so I can protect the village! Maybe one day I will even become an Anbu and protect the Hokage just like Akira-sama does! I can't do any of that if I'm friends with such a mean person. So thank you but no thank you!" With that said the young boy would turn on his heels in order to start heading away from the boy, ignoring the adults that looked at him in complete surprise after having turned down the boy's offer of friendship and as the Yotsuki adults would hurry after their child, Kakashi could only watch after them with a stunned expression on his face before Sakumo would sigh.

"Kakashi, the next time you want to to make friends with someone maybe you should not let them know how you feel about their personality impacting their ninja career. While I think it is adorable how honest you are, other people do not find it as endearing as I do." The man would give his son a sheepish smile as the boy would turn to fix his father with a very unamused look on his face.

Now he told him.

Their time together in the academy was not much better despite the various attempts Kakashi made to befriend the young Ryosuke. It seemed as though he was simply doomed to make a bad impression on the young Yotsuki male every single time they interacted with one another. On this particular day, he had mentioned how Ryosuke's choice to grow out his hair and his new choice in outfit made him look even prettier than some of the kunoichi in their class, though the way he had worded his attempted compliment made it sound as though he was poking fun at the boy for being girly.

Needless to say, he was not very pleased with him after that.

Ryosuke sat on the other side of the classroom, seething with flushed cheeks as he would mutter soft curses under his breath while sending a very dark look towards Kakashi, something that greatly amused Genma who was sitting dutifully next to his best friend with a smirk tugging at his lips. "You do know that he likes you right? He's just trying to be your friend and he's just so innately bad at trying to socialize that he doesn't know what to say to you. It's kind of refreshing to see the genius actually be bad at something for once." His words were enough to make Ryosuke pout softly, an action that looked so cute on the golden-eyed male that he was seriously confused about why the boy wasn't more popular amongst their classmates.

He was adorable.

It was then that someone would approach the two of them and Ryosuke would look up with a confused expression only for his face to fall when he saw it was none other than Kakashi and with a sigh, he would turn around to face forward that pout magnifying as he tried his best to ignore the boy that had been antagonizing him unintentionally since the day they had met. "Go away Kakashi. I don't want to talk to you. You're a bully and I will have nothing to do with you."

"Ryosuke I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I know I haven't been nice to you but I'm not trying to be mean. I just- I can't come up with the right words around you for some reason. I only want to be your friend. Nothing more. Can we start over?" Ryosuke would glance at him out of the corner of his eye with a suspicious look as he tried to see if this was some sort of trick or trap that Kakashi was using in an attempt to get him to lower his guard around him, eyes narrowing slightly before he would release a sigh as he saw the hopeful look in that eye.

"If this is some kind of trap or prank I swear that I will never talk to you again Kakashi." His eyes would narrow darkly in warning before watching as he would immediately nod in agreement with that visible eye widening in agreement. "Then I guess we can be friends. Though Genma here is my best friend so you'll just have to settle for being a normal friend, okay?" It was obvious that the white-haired boy did not like having to settle for second place if the way his eye narrowed as he looked over at Genma was anything to go by but he would simply sigh before nodding in agreement.

Good.

It would be a few days after Kakashi had come to him that it was announced that there was going to be some sort of ninjutsu contest for the youth and while he had no intentions of participating himself due to the destructive nature of his lava release and his lack of complete control over his budding magma armor he wanted to see just how far his fellow shinobi had come along with their talents. After a lot of pleading on his part and a promise of treating the grumpy boy to dumplings, he had even managed to convince Genma to come along and watch with him.

"I don't know why you wanted to come so badly. It's nothing different than the things we see every day at the academy Ryo." Genma would mutter softly before fixing his best friend with an annoyed look as he would ignore his protesting to gasp in awe when Obito would go up to reveal his fire jutsu, somehow managing to compress it enough so it was safe for the audience to watch.

"I wish I was able to control my Lava release like that. More often than not I end up destroying things because of how hard it is to properly control. My father says that it's normal because of how difficult it is to control lava but I still feel like I'm getting nowhere." Ryosuke would murmur softly with a downcast expression up until he felt a hand running through his hair, ruffling it and as he would look up in shock, his eyes would widen to see a smirking Genma.

"Don't look so sad. It doesn't suit you Ryo. You're one of the smartest people I know so you'll get the hang of it soon. I know you will." That was enough to make Ryosuke smile brightly up at Genma before they would immediately gasp as the ground beneath them began moving in a series of waves, Ryosuke nearly falling flat on his butt before managing to catch himself just before he actually could.

Genma however, was not that lucky.

He would scowl as he would stand up, eyes narrowed at a smug looking Kakashi as he would rub his butt before shooting an exasperated look at Ryosuke. "Your friend is too smug for his own good. I know I'm the one who kind of pushed you to be friends with him to begin with, but that kid does not know how to relax. He takes everything way too seriously." It turned out that because of that trait he was named the winner of the contest, being gifted a special kunai as a result and as the contest would end the two friends would make their way away from the crowd with the intention of going to get the promised dumplings when a call of their names would cause them to stop as they turned around to find Rin Nohara running towards the both of them.

That was strange.

"Hey, you two! We're going to meet at the training grounds to play kick the can! I saw you both at the contest and I thought I would see if you wanted to play with us today?" The girl was far too sweet and cute, something that made Ryosuke's gaze soften before he would gift her a soft smile, golden-eyes sparkling with mirth at being invited to play with them.

"It's very kind of you to invite us, Nohara-san but we were just on our way to-"

"Why don't you go ahead and go with her Ryo? I'm kind of worn out from today. We can always go and get dumplings together another time. You still owe me for coming with you." He would look up at Genma's smile before gifting his friend a smile in return watching as he would walk off before gasping as his arm was immediately taken into Rin's hand before she would tug him over to where a group of children were already waiting for them.

"I didn't manage to get Genma to agree but I did manage to get Ryosuke to come along everyone!" He would smile shyly at the other children who returned his smile as they would all surround him, seemingly eager to get to know the shy boy who was always seen around Genma before the children would clear the way as Kakashi made his way over to them as well.

"I never thought she would get you to agree to come and play as well, especially since I knew Genma would never agree to come. You two are always together so I didn't think you would be willing to come without him. I am glad that I was wrong though." He would give him what he assumed was a smile, something that Ryosuke would return before Obito would come running to the grounds saying something about helping an old man before he would trail off as he would see both Kakashi and Ryosuke standing there among the other children.

"What are those two doing here?" He would ask in disbelief before Rin would explain that they had come here to play with them. It turned out that they were going to play a game called Kick The Can and Obito was going to be it. Obito had made short work of capturing all of them and had been ready to start looking for Kakashi when Kakashi would appear behind him, stating that saving his friends no matter what was his ninja way before he would send the can flying in the air much to Obito's horror as he was forced to capture everyone again only for Kakashi to manage to kick the can once again.

Needless to say, Obito had been it the entire time.

Obito would sit on the ground sulking as everyone praised Kakashi before teasing him for having forced to be the chaser the entire time, something that made Ryosuke smile down at the sulking boy before he would speak up. "Still it was pretty impressive I think. He chased and caught us all every single time without complaining or giving up. Even if he wasn't able to capture Kakashi that was still pretty impressive, right?" He would smile at the surprised look on Obito's face before watching as the other children's parents started arriving to pick up their children and as Kakashi's father would arrive, Kakashi would run towards him, speaking with him for a moment before running back over towards Ryosuke and Obito.

"Ryosuke come on. We're going to walk you home!" He would blink in confusion before looking down at the wistful look on Obito's face, brow furrowing slightly before he would turn back to Kakashi with a smile.

"Thank you, Kakashi but I think I'm going to walk with Obito today if that is okay? I promise I will walk home with you next time." He would ignore the surprised look on both of the boys' faces before smiling at Obito. "Are you ready?" When the boy would nod he would help him up before bidding the stunned Kakashi and Sakumo farewell as he would walk the boy back to the Uchiha compound, smiling at the scowl that was on his face.

"You didn't need to do that you know. I could have come home by myself and you could have walked with Kakashi. He is your friend after all." That was enough to make Ryosuke hum in agreement before that golden gaze would turn to Obito in something akin to amusement as he contemplated his words for the longest of moments before finally speaking.

"I know that I did not need to, but Kakashi has his father and you didn't have anyone so I thought it would be nice if we kept each other company on the way home. Besides, Kakashi lives on the other side of town and I don't live too far away from the Uchiha compound so I thought it would be fine. I'm not bothering you am I?" The scowl on Obito's face would lessen before he would simply sigh as he would simply stare ahead. "Besides. I wanted to tell you that I thought that you deserved to win that competition." Obito's gaze would snap at him in disbelief that he would say such a thing before Ryosuke would smile.

"I know how difficult it is to control fire because of my Kekkei Genkai. While Kakashi did something incredible and I understand why they gave him the win, I know how much control it takes to morph fire into something small and safe like that. It was really impressive as was the fact that you chased after all of us all afternoon without complaining once. You're going to be a great ninja someday, Obito. I can already tell and I hope that one day we can really become friends. I would love to have such a great ninja as a friend." He would grin at the surprised expression on the Uchiha's face before chuckling softly as they reached the gate to the Uchiha compound. "It seems as though this is where we part ways. Good night Obito!"

With that said he would run to his own home, a feeling of excitement building up in his stomach as he couldn't wait to tell his parents of how his day had turned out. They would both be so proud to hear about the fact that he had stepped out of his comfort zone and had even tried to make friends other than Kakashi and Genma. It had honestly been one of the best days he had had in a long time.

He just hoped that things would always stay this way.