Hi. I. Got. Bored. With. The. Other. Stories. I'M SORRY! I HAVE NO MOTIVATION AND YOU NON-REVIEWERS AREN'T HELPING! So… also, I totally changed my OC Sauru, even down to her name! So I had to discontinue her stories! I don't want to continue them! But if you kick my butt enough, maybe. I CHAnged this to make it less so like Itachi was scared. He's not, just startled by her creepiness.

Disclaimer: I do not look Asian, nor am I male OR old. So stop bothering me if I own Naruto. *sob* ITACHI WOULDN'T BE DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!! *wails after screeching*

The New Kid

Age 7

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Young Itachi Uchiha gazed at the relatively large building before him. The Kohona Ninja Academy. He sighed, and walked up to the cloud of parents and noisy children blocking the entrance. His own parents apparently decided that yelling at each other was more important than coming with him to the Academy on his first day of a new year. As he slowly walked past the old swing set, out of the corner of his eye he saw a young girl sitting on the swing sideways (A/N: Why is it that all of the rejected children sit at a swing set?! Gaara, Naruto…). Her eye slid to the corner of her half-lidded eye, watching him.

Her gaze was almost chilling, as if she had seen even more carnage than he had when he was younger. Time seemed to stop, and he was falling into an abyss of light aqua blue.

And then he was past her.

Itachi dashed silently inside the building, and even when a short run like that couldn't even get his pulse up usually, his heart was racing. He checked that no one was looking, and sunk down against the wall in the deserted hallway. That girl had invoked a strange feeling in him that nothing else he knew of could. He straightened up, and brushed himself off absently. The buzzer rang, and the other children dashed into their respective classrooms. Itachi waited until they were gone, and then as he started of to Room 12, his homeroom, he realized his mistake.

He didn't hear her footsteps on the linoleum floor, and she was walking behind him.

"Excuse me, but where is Homeroom-"

Please don't say 12, not 12, not 12, not 12, not 12…

"-12?" her voice was quiet and had a lilting, sorrowful cadence to it, but commanded answers in a polite yet assertive tone. Itachi turned to face her.

"That's where I'm going. Follow me." He said, in his version of childish monotone. She nodded curtly. Itachi just kept walking. It still bothered him that he couldn't hear her footsteps, but he dismissed the fact.

They walked into Classroom 12 a minute before the bell rang. The other children were chatting, until the teacher told them to line up at the front.

"Alright, kids. The seating chart has been arranged so that you are next to your partner. The person you sit next to will do projects, train, and study with you. It is arranged by skill level. Oh, and I forgot, we have a new student. Her name is- oh, how about I let you introduce yourself?"

The girl stepped forward. She stared at the ground, and looked up finally.

"My name is Shiro." Her voice was the same, but since she was not asking a question, it lost its assertiveness, leaving her sounding as if her consciousness floated above the clouds with the gods. Yes, her voice was like that.

Itachi thought about her name. Shiro meant white, didn't it? It somehow fit her. Her skin was pale, and her face was perfectly symmetrical. Her hair was a very light blue, almost white, and her eyes were a light aqua framed with long lashes. Her nails were painted electric blue. Her outfit was not flamboyant at all. A simple white ninja shirt with long, black tight pants and black ninja boots with a slight heel. Her hair was pulled up into an elaborate mass of looped braids, two at the side and a bun at the back, held up by hairsticks of clear bluish crystal. The braids were tied with orange ribbon.

"I'll name partners now. Go to your seats when I tell you with your partner. Each person has someone of the same skill level this year, so it should work." Itachi remembered all the years that he had been more powerful than his classmates. Had someone caught up? Will Father be angry?

As Itachi contemplated, the teacher reached the near end of his list, and announced the second- to- last pair.

"Itachi Uchiha and…" Itachi looked at the four remaining students. Hana Inuzuka, a diligent worker and excellent kunoichi. The new girl, Shiro. And Juigi Hyuuga, a good ninja with the personality of a doormat. Not that Itachi could talk, he kept his emotions hidden even better that the young Hyuuga.

"Shiro… huh?!" The teacher's eyebrows shot up suddenly, and he threw a sidelong glance at Shiro. She remained emotionless.

"Ahem… Shiro Shinigami. And then Hana Inuzuka and Juigi Hyuuga. Go get seats, please."

Shiro just closed her eyes, sighed, and walked to her assigned seat… right next to Itachi. Itachi wondered on her last name. Shinigami? He had heard it before, and it had obviously startled the teacher. Perhaps he could ask Shisui. His cousin was slightly older than himself, he might know.

"Okay… Shiro, since you are new, I can have Itachi help you catch up. Unless you have some knowledge of chakra?"

"I'll be okay without." There was the assertive undertone again, but her eyes had lit up, as if the prospect of learning excited her.

"Okay. So, who can tell me what chakra is?"

Only a few hands went up. Hana, Shiro, and of course, Itachi.

"Uhh… well, let's test your knowledge, Shiro. Go ahead." All the children actually paying attention turned to her. Apparently embarrassed, she blushed slightly and sunk down in her seat slightly.

"Chakra is the spiritual energy that ninjas use to perform tasks such as jutsu, walking on the water, and climbing trees without hands. It is wired within the body, and can be trained to become more effective." She answered correctly, still with a cloud of pink spreading across her face. The class turned away, and she slowly forced the blush down and stood up straight as the teacher elaborated.

Itachi checked her facts in his head. Yes, it was the right answer. He knew she wasn't looking at notes, so she obviously knew what she was talking about. The young Uchiha respected her for this. Time flew past as the two young geniuses sat in the back corner of the classroom. Shiro took out a sketchbook, and, to Itachi's wonderment, flipped to a drawing of a dragon. It was seated on a lotus flower, showing its jagged teeth for the world to see. Its slimy tongue whipped out of its mouth. The scales were half- drawn, and the young artist's hand filled them in delicately. The picture was above any other he had ever seen from his age group. Their teacher could have drawn it, and only achieved half the effect.

The time to go outside came quickly. Shiro closed her sketchbook and stretched her arms, yawning wide. Itachi just got up and dejectedly followed the rest of the screaming class outside. Shiro was not far behind, silent footsteps matching that of a jounin-level ninja.

"Alright, now we are going to practice the henge technique. I'll see how many of you can do it now. Line up."

They lined up, almost every student chatting. Almost, with the exception of Itachi and Shiro. the teacher just called them up one by one to perform the justu.

The line dwindled quickly. Finally, it was Itachi's turn, and he did a near-flawless henge of the teacher with no excess chakra spillage. The hair was slightly off, but not noticeably.

Shiro stepped up as Itachi went over to a tree, escaping the cries of, 'Wow, that is amazing!' and, 'Uchiha did it again!'

She did the handsign. No excess chakra swirled off her at all, like most of the beginners.

There, standing in front of the teacher, was a perfect copy of himself. It was flawless, as if the image of a mirror had been projected into the real world. The teacher gaped, wrote down her grade, and watched her walk away. The girl practically ran to the swing, faced away from the class, and dangled her slim legs beneath her, disrupting the grass slightly. Itachi could have sworn he saw her shoulders shake slightly, as if she was laughing.

"Ok, now you all can practice your taijutsu with your partner. Dismissed!"

Only two children could jump away with the inhuman speed of a ninja.

Itachi and Shiro.

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CHANGED TO BE LESS MARY-SUE! I AM SORRY! REALLY! SHIRO'S NOT PERFECT. Like, at all. She's just good at jutsus and creepy.

This is longer than usual… APPRECIATE IT! Oh, and please review. Don't make me cancel this one too, dammit! Shold I describe the teacher? He's not important… but it bothers me for some reason. Feedback and constructive critiscism very welcome. I'm trying to get Itachi right… what the hell did I act like at 7?! And it has to be slightly childish as well as serious… is that even possible…?