^*A/N: So, my beta did her job, and awesomely, I might add, oh and just so you know, she doesn't edit my authors notes, so yea. Thank you Eindra! :) Here is chapter 1.

I had gotten a question about the age thing. Remember I said I was changing the ages for things in this story. But heres the breakdown. Enters the Academy - 10, graduates - 15, allowed to take the chunin exams - 16. With my age thing, it doesn't matter if they are a prodigy or not. But if they are 'prodigy' classifyed, then they are allowed to go on higher level missions and what not. Read and Enjoy!

**MonsterlyFiction :)

Disclaimer: Nothing is owned, at all.

Chapter 1:

Once again, she managed to dodge his clones, seeing right through them to find the real him. His eyes widened slightly as she bypassed the replicas and went straight for him, suddenly disappearing from his line of sight and ending up behind him, holding her kunai to his neck. She leaned in close to his ear.

"What's with you today, Itachi? You're horrible." He elbowed her in the stomach, sending her flying back into a near tree, quickly following the path and had her by the neck, holding her against the rough bark.

"I could say the same about you, Kagome." She gripped his hand, desperately trying to regain the air that was knocked out of her on impact.

Kagome didn't fight at first, thinking that he would let her go, but he didn't. When she saw black start to enter her vision she kicked and scraped his hand, but it was like stone. Eventually he loosened his grip slightly and she landed a sound hit to his chest, forcing him to stumble back a couple of steps.

She fell to her knees gasping for air. "Damn Itachi… were you trying… to kill me?" He looked to her, rubbing his chest where her boot had landed.

"What about you? You nearly broke my rib cage."

"That's because I couldn't breathe!" Itachi snorted, closing his eyes.

"You know we spar like we're enemies. Those were the terms we set five years ago." Kagome got to her feet and quickly walked to him. He opened his eyes in time to watch her punch him in the gut, her chakra engulfing her hand.

Now it was Itachi's turn to fall to the ground. "Like enemies, see?" She stepped over him, brushing off her clothes. "I guess I'll see you when you get up." She said smoothly as the outside training ended for the day. The other groups of teammates had long ago stopped their training in favor of watching Itachi and Kagome spar; they never failed to be interesting when they brawled, the jounins using the excuse that their trios could benefit from seeing some good ninja fights.

The students couldn't help but snicker at the sight of Itachi clutching his stomach on the grass, even if it was only for a second before he stood up and stormed after Kagome.

Kagome and Itachi had been practically inseparable for the past five years, ever since their first real sparring matches. No one knew how or why, but they just started talk more after that and soon, they were best friends.

Itachi rarely ever talked to anyone else. Kagome, though, after the first year of practically clinging to Itachi, became a social butter fly. She was always polite and nice. Everyone loved her. But for some reason, she always chose to be with Itachi over anyone else. It was something that everyone stopped questioning a couple years ago and just silently accepted.

Of course, they had both grown up quite a bit. Kagome was now fifteen, coming up soon as sixteen and Itachi was closing in on his seventeenth year. Both had suitors going for them. Kagome was the 'Higurashi beauty' and Itachi was considered a 'handsome devil'. It also didn't help the fact that they were both incredibly talented ninjas. But they never seemed interested in the suitors, claiming that they 'were annoying' or 'not suitable for them'. Of course, their parents knew by now that Kagome and Itachi didn't go for any of the proposals because they secretly loved each other, even if they didn't know it themselves.

Everyone saw it but them, in fact. Whenever Itachi would catch a guy leering at Kagome, he would beat him senseless under the pretense of a sparring match. Kagome, though, rarely had spouts of jealously, Itachi never talked to other girls; he said that they were dull. But every once in a while a bimbo would get touchy feely with him and Kagome would simply turn on her Shénshèngan. And the girl would stop.

But no. These bouts of jealousy and constantly being together never meant that they were in love. They were just close, best friends, like brother and sister. Or at least, that's what they told themselves.

"As if." The new team member to one of the watching trios said. He had asked about that girl, asking if she was available. His teammates instantly told him no, following with a long explanation of why. "That Itachi guy really doesn't look that powerful. Just because he's an Uchiha doesn't mean anything."

"Hakino, you really can't. He means business. Let's just say Itachi Uchiha is very protective of what's his." The blue haired girl frantically tried to reason with her team mate. "Plus, they're a year behind us anyway."

"So, she's cute. And all that says is that they're still genin. We're chunin, remember? I'm sure he's not that tough."

She grabbed his arm. "That doesn't mean that he can't beat you up. They couldn't take the chunins until they're sixteen, remember? He wouldn't take it without her so he waited a year. And really, you barely made it through." He broke away from the female team member and approached the heavily squabbling couple. As he got closer he found that they were bickering about him 'trying to kill her'.

Kagome was facing away from him, waving her arms as she yelled at Itachi. Hakino couldn't help but look at the elaborate emerald dragon on the back of her shirt. He guessed it was her clan's symbol. He gulped as red eyes met his, slowly narrowing as Hakino closed in on them. Kagome stopped talking when she saw Itachi wasn't looking at her anymore.

She quickly turned around; smiling when she saw it was the new chunin kid, ignoring Itachi's tension as she greeted the boy.

"Hello, I'm Kagome Higurashi, and this jerk here is Itachi Uchiha. I hear you're new to Konoha. How do you like it here?" Kagome elbowed Itachi when he sharply poked her in the side, the smile staying in place.

"This place is… interesting. We don't have as many clan districts as you do here. It's kind of a big change from my small home town."

"Yeah, but most everyone around here is nice." She ignored the impatient tapping of Itachi's foot. "Most." Her eye twitched as she stomped on his foot. He grunted slightly. "Hey, Itachi, why don't you go find Sasuke and we'll go get some Ramen before mission assignments." She ordered him, gritting her teeth through the smile. Itachi stared at her for a second, and her eyebrows rose a bit. He sighed and walked away.

Kagome turned back to Hakino. "I'm sorry about him. He's… not very social."

Hakino smiled at her, relieved that Itachi had left. "It's no problem. I just wanted to talk to you. I haven't seen someone as beautiful as you in a while and it was killing me." Kagome's face flushed slightly; she wasn't used to guys' attention.

"Umm… thank you…" The guy's eyes softened a bit more. He reached for her hand, placing a gentleman kiss upon her knuckles, smiling up at her blushing face. She was so innocent.

"No, thank you." That was cheesy and he knew it, but he was sure she hadn't heard it before; she was red-faced just from him calling her pretty. He looked into her eyes. They were so captivating. "Maybe you could show me around the village sometime?" He asked as he straightened himself out.

"S-sure." He waved goodbye, secretly cheering that he had landed somewhat of a date with her.

"I'll see you later, Kagome." She nodded, saying her farewell as she made her way to the noodle shop where Itachi and Sasuke would be waiting.

Red eyes followed the new boy, narrowing when he went and high fived another guy. 'He will have to be dealt with.' Itachi jumped to the next tree, hurrying to the Uchiha district to get Sasuke and try to make it to the ramen shop before Kagome did.

(-: ^^

Just as she thought. When she arrived at the shop Itachi was rounding the corner with a giddy Sasuke on his back. She felt her heart warm slightly as Itachi smiled a bit. He really was a good brother to Sasuke. Sure, Itachi had a tendency to ignore the little tike, but when he did spend time with him, they always had fun. She had to contain her laughter as Sasuke pulled Itachi's low pony tail, bringing his head back, causing him to almost hit the wall as he turned into the store.

"Hey now, only I can hurt Itachi." She lifted Sasuke from Itachi's back and huffed as she put him on the ground. "Man, you're getting heavy! I won't be able to pick you up much longer." She really couldn't believe it, little Sasuke was nine, going to be ten in a few months, which meant he was going to enroll in the ninja academy. Kagome pinched his cheeks, cooing slightly. "You grew up so fast." He hit her hands away, a blush appearing.

"Don't do that, Kagome. People could see you." She chuckled at the boy's reasoning and just captured his cheeks again.

"But you're so cute, I can't help it." He smacked her hands away and she ruffled his hair before straightening back up. "He's embarrassed of me Itachi, my heart is breaking." She said, feigning heart ache. "I just don't know if I can get over it…" She sat on one of the stools and dramatically placed her head in her hands.

Itachi had to smile at how Sasuke ran to reassure her. He shook his head when Kagome 'perked up' again and quickly reestablished her hold on his cheeks, fussing at him. Itachi looked up to the counterman.

"Three bowls please."

^*A/N: Du, du, du, du, dadadadada, wub, wububububub. That is Dubstep for 'review please, it warms my heart.'

**MonsterlyFiction :)