Shisui arrived just in time, toting his younger cousin along for the jutsu. With a happy pat on the back for himself, Shisui once more felt gratitude for Shunshin. His trademark ninjutsu had brought him to the Academy mere moments before his younger cousin's younger brother's spar against what looked like a dirty, pink-haired fairy (technically Itachi and Sasuke were something more like a third-removed aunt's brother's nephews…? but who cared for schematics?).
With a nod to one of the Chuunin Academy teachers standing at the edge of the field, Shisui took a seat on the tree branch he had landed on. He didn't bother suppressing his chakra, more for the Academy instructors' sakes than anyone else's. Not a good idea to scare the already on edge teachers. They had an especially large class this year with mostly main clan heirs to boot.
"Aww, lookie that 'Tachi-chan, little Sasu-chan's going to fight a girl. How Mikoto-baa-chan's youngest son has fallen," Shisui mimed fainting dramatically from his perch in the tree as Itachi ignored him. Shisui was quickly brought back to serious when he felt Itachi subtly tense beside him.
"Tachi?" He questioned softly, eyes already beginning to check the surroundings for what may have put his cousin on edge.
"The girl… Sasuke explained the tournament to me yesterday. Elimination style, taijutsu only with no style restrictions, dividing the genders, and a final match between the best from each," Itachi compulsively leaned forwards to get a better look. The spar was starting.
"And Naruto-kun's on the sidelines with a fading bruise mark…" Shisui commented, suddenly understanding why Itachi was wary. He rarely saw Sasuke's Academy class, but he was certain there were at least two female clan heirs in there.
So who was this strange girl with pink hair and no discernible clan relations that made it into the finals with his cousin?
"Maybe she got lucky and took out a tired semi-finalist?" Shisui shrugged, daring to look away from the two tiny figures circling one another below to watch Itachi's micro expressions.
"Hn," Itachi merely continued his hawkeyed assessment of the match.
A second later and the girl's body tensed, springing her forwards into battle.
"Her name is Sakura Haruno. And when I first told her no style restrictions for the spars, and this must have been two years ago, the first thing she did was grin like a maniac," A spiky haired Chuunin spoke up to them from below their tree. Shisui vaguely connected the scar across the bridge of his nose to the name 'Iruka'.
"Is her fighting style dangerous?" Itachi asked, nodding in approval when the girl- Sakura- had turned out to be feinting her frontal assault, causing his brother to jump back as was appropriate in a situation as such.
"In… a way. So far today, she's sent three girls to the bathroom, two because she ruined their hair and clothes, and the last one because Sakura somehow incorporated psychological abuse into her tactics, passing it off as simply passive aggressive taunts, and eventually leading to her opponent having a tantrum and sobbing uncontrollably," Here Iruka shuddered a bit. He hadn't signed up for placating crying girls and was eternally grateful that the young girl's friends had taken hold of the situation. "Her preferred… 'taijutsu' style can only be described as 'brawling'. She may fight dirty, but she is above average in all her classes and grades, minus teamwork and sportsmanship."
"I like her already, but wow, her genin team's going to have tough time with her," Shisui remarked with a smirk and eyes slowly brightening with another of his plans.
"Do not stalk the pre-genin girl Shisui," Itachi calmly warned his cousin with his eyes still locked to the spar. They were still circling each other, but Itachi was able to see the girl's muscles loosen as if in relief, and knowing that if he from his perch in a tree could see that, Sasuke could as well. No doubt his brother would try to take advantage of the relaxing girl. Itachi wasn't wrong when seconds later his brother darted forwards, fist cocked back to attack-
Only to get a painful knee in the stomach as the girl swept to Sasuke's side, just barely dodging his punch. Itachi realized it must have been her strategy to push the younger Uchiha into an action he wouldn't be able to recover from quickly, taunting him to make the first move with her supposedly let down guard. He settled back to continue watching the fight intently.
This led to his quiet acknowledgement of the girl falling apart when she proceeded to fist his brother's hair and tug him backwards. Itachi admitted it was a good tactic, humans have less balance when pulled back rather than pushed forwards, but it was an underhanded tactic nonetheless. At least the Academy instructor Iruka saw it for what it was.
"Wow," Shisui could only manage a single word as the little girl he had compared to a fairy only minutes prior, completely wrecked his younger cousin.
Once Sasuke had been thrown off balance, his hands scrambling to loosen Sakura's hold on his hair, Sakura kicked at the back of his knees, effectively ensuring his downfall. In less than three seconds, she had released one hand to pummel Sasuke with a haymaker in his stomach.
"Another girl Sakura was matched against earlier nearly threw up from a similar move," Iruka noted with a bit of unease.
"Ouch," Shisui winced in sympathy. Itachi didn't comment, the only sign he was still watching the match with them being his slightly more narrowed eyes.
As Sasuke fell, his hand snagged onto Sakura's ankle, tugging her foot out from underneath her just as he landed roughly on the ground. Sakura took advantage of his figure on the ground and went with the tug, stepping onto Sasuke's stomach with her other foot. Without any fanfare, she proceeded to drop to one knee, hitting him hard in his gut to expel whatever air he may have had left in his lungs from his crash and wrenching his hand off her ankle in the process.
"Now I wish I had brought a camera," Shisui remarked offhandedly as Sakura grabbed both of Sasuke's hands and pulled them above his head in a position that indicated the spar was over.
Itachi kept silent, eyes still cast suspiciously over the girl with pink-hair who had defeated his brother with such ease. With the teacher's assessment of her, along with Shisui's and his own, he was in agreement with them.
Her genin team would have a hard time with this girl.
"Team Seven will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha-" Here Iruka had to pause as the sunshine blonde climbed onto his desk and whooped long and loud about being on his 'blood brother's team'. Similarly, beside him, Sasuke sighed a long sigh of deep suffering and slowly covered his eyes with a hand.
Iruka nearly flinched when predatory eyes from the majority of the females in the class suddenly turned their attention to him. He supposed it was only to be expected when the son of the Yondaime and the second Uchiha heir were placed together on the same team. It was no secret that these two boys had become a beacon for classroom oglings and crushes, disrupting many lessons and distracting many of the future kunoichi.
So it was with a bit of schadenfreude that Iruka announced the girl to be on their team.
"And Sakura Haruno!" He had to yell over the joyous cries from Naruto and the intense whispers and prayers from the girls.
Instantly, the room froze. It became silent enough to hear the slight buzzing from Shino's jacket and the tiny 'yip!' from Kiba's hood. In unison, Naruto and Sasuke slowly turned their heads to the very back of the class where Sakura sat, now with a slightly irritated expression on her face. They both shivered as a shadow was cast ominously over her eyes.
"Well fuck," She said, just before everything blew up in her face.
Sasuke wondered if there was a way to disown his cousin. Just kick him out of his life forever because no Shisui, laughing at his predicament wasn't helping in the slightest.
"Y-You got the pink fairy who beat you up in the spars as your third teammate, that is hilarious!" Shisui fell over backwards from how hard he was laughing. Itachi grunted from next to him, nudging his face away with an elbow.
"It would be wise to establish closer bonds with her in the interest of your team as a whole," Itachi advised, trying to ignore the flames of schadenfreude Shisui was currently feeding into a forest fire as he derived in intense amusement from Sasuke's life.
He could admit to a bit of ironic humour himself. It seemed that 'Sakura' was one of the few girls without a crush on Sasuke or Naruto, but was also infamous in her class for not cooperating correctly in teams. Itachi thought it would at the very least teach his younger brother tolerance for future missions with even worse teammates.
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least she's not a fangirl Sasu-chan," Shisui sat back up, making sure to ruffle up Sasuke's already spiky hair.
"Thank goodness for small mercies," Sasuke groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Naruto's bad enough as he is. He's been trying to make friends with her, asking questions about her and if they could go get lunch together as teammates but she just… brushes him off. It's kind of weird now that I look at it. Who wouldn't want to be in good standings with the son of the Yondaime?"
"That does sound suspicious but not enough to warrant real concern. Maybe she's fatally shy or just plain out not interested in politics," Shisui threw his head onto Itachi's lap, curving an arm around Itachi's bent knee. "What do you think about her 'Tachi?"
"She will be your teammate little brother. I stand by my previous assessment and advise you to be courteous towards her. Shisui, please remove yourself from my legs." Itachi stared down at his older cousin, resisting the urge to just shove him off as Shisui turned over to look up at Itachi.
"Nope. Also, bring the little fairy over sometime Sasuke, I wonder if she'll be immune to my Uchiha charms." With a saucy wink and finger guns, Shisui began to plot the downfall of Sasuke's genin days, starting with getting the new girl in on his pranks.
Sasuke wouldn't know what hit him.