Itachi found Naruko all alone curled up on a bench in the park. There was the regular ANBU guard, of course, but they may as well have been statues for all the companionship they provided.
Itachi shook his head and made his way to the bench before sitting down next to the girl.
She didn't even bother to look up, mumbling, "Go away. I was here first."
Itachi smiled softly as he looked at the wind playing with the swings. "Come now, Naruko. You've never minded my company, have you?"
She looked up cautiously, a single eye peeking out of her mess of blonde hair. "Itachi-nii?"
Itachi's smile only grew softer as he reached over and hugged her tiny frame close to his side, allowing her to latch onto him and bury her face into his shirt.
"Would you like to talk about it?" he asked.
"No..." she muttered. "Not really. It's just, I—" She pulled her head free and he saw confusion swirling in her gaze as she struggled to make sense of her own emotions.
Itachi said nothing, merely tilting his head, and she buried her face in his shirt again, saying in a muffled voice, "I don't even know, Itachi-nii. I don't know what's wrong."
He hummed thoughtfully before venturing, "I think I do."
Naruko instantaneously sat up ramrod-straight. "You do?!" she exclaimed, her face suddenly bright with hope. "Tell me!"
"I think I do," he repeated.
Naruko only wilted for a few seconds before bouncing up to his face. "Tell me anyway!"
Itachi let his face assume the seriousness he thought that a nine-year-old would need to see to keep from getting embarrassed. "You've got a crush on Sasuke, don't you?"
Naruko's mouth dropped open, and she slowly turned beet-red. Well, so much for sparing her from embarrassment.
"That's why you keep avoiding him," he continued, not giving her a chance to protest. "You have these feelings for him and you have no idea what to do with them, so you just avoid him altogether."
"Bu-But I—"
"Naruko," Itachi interrupted. She stilled as he looked down at her with a critical eye. "Running away from your feelings is the worst way to deal with them. They won't go away, and every day it gets worse until it eventually explodes." He'd seen it happen bad enough to Shisui that he swore he'd never make the same mistake.
The young girl blinked back tears before staring at the ground. "Then... what am I supposed to do? I can't tell him! He'd look at me all weird, and it'd never be the same again!"
Itachi shrugged. "Naruko?" The girl looked up. "Tell me, is Sasuke at all different?" Hesitantly, she shook her head. "That's right, he's still the same Sasuke. The only thing that's changed over the past few days is how you've been treating him."
Naruko winced. "He hates me, doesn't he?" she mumbled dejectedly.
Itachi sighed. "No, he doesn't hate you. He's just confused. He doesn't know why his best friend doesn't want him around anymore."
She looked up with pained confusion. "But how am I supposed to be around him and act all... normal?"
Itachi scoffed. "Naruko, when I say you don't have to worry about these things, I mean it. Sasuke's as dense as they come. He won't notice anything's different until you're both well into your teenage years."
The little girl glared suspiciously at the older boy. "You promise?" she asked in a small voice.
"I promise," Itachi reassured her, his dark eyes glimmering with amusement. "Now come on, I'll get you some ramen."