Chapter 5. The fruit of rejection.

"You rejected the graduation proposal." I rubbed my tired eyes with the back of my hand as I stared at the figure perched on my windowsill.

Itachi should have been grateful I liked him enough not to stab him right there and then. It was Saturday, my only day off in my self-imposed training regime, and yet there he was; waking me at four thirty am to lecture me on my life choices.

"Are you angry? Because if you want to train the anger out of you, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. I rest on Saturdays." I said walking back to my futon and lying down once again. I would deal with my irate friend later.

"You are just as capable of becoming a genin as I am, why did you- Get up, Akane. I'm not done speaking!" He marched up to me and yanked the sheets off my body in annoyance.

I had rarely seen Itachi this bothered about anything, and it was such a small matter at that; I couldn't seem to understand what was it that I'd done wrong.

"Do you know how big this opportunity was for you?! You would have never been bothered about your coils anymore. You would have become a shinobi and that would have been it." He sighed dejectedly, tired of my awful decision making apparently.

I sat up and watched him a while. He was seriously worried about my future and was still trying to keep the promise he had made so long ago. I sighed, knowing that with his upcoming missions he wouldn't need yet another source of stress.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I know I could become a genin easily enough; I just wanted to be able to form a bond with my comrades before I get thrust into the world on my own. We all need someone to have our backs, Itachi. Besides, I think we could learn something from them still."

My friend didn't answer right away. He wasn't even looking at me and his neck and ears were slightly pink under his skin.

"I just thought we could stay together as we always have and guard each other's backs." Was he mad because we wouldn't be on the same team? Well, that was something I certainly hadn't expected.

"We wouldn't have been put in the same team anyway; you know that's not how team selection works."

It seemed odd to me that he, out of all people had believed we would have been assigned the same team; in fact, it seemed quite suspicious to me. If that wasn't the reason, the why the hell was he annoyed at me?

He nodded and sat cross legged next to me on the futon. The annoyance he had first had seemed to have faded. We sat in silence as the sun started to rise outside my window, making its way over the walls of the village and letting its light flood the morning scene.

Sleep seemed to have completely abandoned me and I started aching for my day to finally start. Shisui was leaving on a mission that same morning and the chores wouldn't do themselves. I realized too that I had to go grocery shopping and to pay taxes. The list of things to do seemed only to get longer as our silence stretched. I was only pulled out of my musings when a knock sounded on the door to my room.

"Hey, Akane, I'm off. There's breakfast for the two of you in the kitchen. Be good while I'm gone. I'll be back in a few days."

As soon as his words sunk in, I got to my feet and slammed the door open. I ran through the corridor and threw myself onto Shisui, who was putting his sandals on at the entrance. I hugged him as hard as I could and kissed his forehead.

"Be safe, Nii-chan." Shisui chuckled and ruffled my already messy morning hair.

"I'll be back soon, Akane."

And with that, he was off. And I was left alone with another week of uncertainty. When I turned around, I realized Itachi had followed me and had witnessed one of the few displays of affection I allowed myself. I felt blush creeping up my face and looked down in embarrassment.

"You two are much closer than I thought, that's very nice." He said with a distant expression.

"He's my brother and only family, what did you expect?" I answered defensively, not used to people seeing just how much of a weakness Shisui was to me.

We walked back to the kitchen and had breakfast in silence. It wasn't uncomfortable, not with him, and we both seemed to have something in our minds, so the quiet surrounding us wasn't much of an issue. Not like I could feel uncomfortable around Itachi anyway; we had known each other long enough to be over it.

Itachi left after breakfast to train with his father. He didn't talk about my graduation after that day, seemingly realizing that I had, surprisingly enough, given some thought to the matter before making my decision. As the front door closed behind him, I couldn't help but feel concerned for him; but I decided to shove the feeling towards the back of my mind and begin with the endless list of chores for the day.

The next week arrived, and by that time, Itachi's early graduation was already the latest gossip. Many were annoyed, others were disappointed not to have him around but excited for him; but to me it just felt lonely. Our little group seemed incomplete now and it was quite dampening my mood. Without Itachi's company my classmates' attitude towards me only seemed to get worse; and being top of the class (and a girl at that) didn't help the matter. Clan kids did not like being bested by a female, Itachi's fan girls didn't like that we were such close friends; so with the exception of Hana, it was safe to say that all of them had a reason to hate me. Not that I cared enough, but the isolation made it a bit hard to form any type of bonds.

Hana did her best to keep me company and try to keep everyone at bay, but there was only so much her snarling could do. I once told her that if she felt like she was being targeted because of me and wanted out, I would understand. That day I learnt to never question an Inuzuka's loyalty, and the matter was never brought up again.

"I don't care if those dimwits want to mess with me. You are my friend and I will not abandon you. If you ever say something like that I swear to Kami I'll make you eat dirt, Akane!"

After that, our days continued to go by slowly, and more often than not I found myself questioning my decision. With Itachi gone, and Shisui on missions, I started training with Hana more frequently. We would have sleepovers at either of our places and would wake up to train early the next morning. I found that I enjoyed our time at Hana's place the most. Her mother had the hardest, toughest most slave driving training routines ever, and I loved every second of it.

The Inuzuka's fighting style was wild and unpredictable, and it was a breath of fresh air if compared to the Uchiha's stiff, harsh style. Inuzukas relied on force and flexibility, much like their canine companions, and to be able to incorporate fragments of their style into my own was what made me proudest. So when finally my brother and Itachi got time to train with me, I decided to invite Hana over. Both males were incredibly shocked when I managed to beat Itachi using my new developing style. Hana though, laughed straight to his face, which made my friend turn redder than I'd ever seen him.

Our weeks went like that, slowly passing by and without our notice. I trained with Hana, tried out new moves on both Itachi and Shisui, made the necessary adjustments and started over. Sometimes, Kakashi dropped by the Academy to say hi when we were released for the day. He wouldn't say much, but he would come every other week like clockwork. He didn't look good, he was paler than I'd ever seen him, and his attitude became colder with every visit. But I wouldn't say anything, and he would continue to show up.

Another year ended, and this time, both Hana and I got an offer of early graduation. Unlike the first time, I agreed without a second thought, and s did my friend. There wasn't much to learn from people that hated you without a good reason, so we decided to take our chances. We knew we wouldn't be put on the same team, but we both knew that we wanted out of the Academy as soon as possible.

That day, I came home to what until then was the worst thing I had seen. Itachi was sat at our veranda, silently looking at the night sky with his clothes covered in blood. I panicked and ran to him to check for any wounds. But the blood didn't seem to be his.

"Itachi." He didn't answer and just turned his face away from me. "Itachi, what happened?" talk to me please." He didn't. He didn't have to.

When he turned to face me and I could see his face properly, I understood. His irises were no longer black, and on their scarlet surface spun lazily a single tomoe. A mission had gone wrong, someone had died; and now at the age of eight, the Uchiha heir had awakened his Sharingan. I shut my mouth then, and didn't open it again, it would have been wrong to.

I took my friend to the bathroom and started to clean, to the best of my abilities, the blood off him with a wet cloth. I lent him some of Shisui's old clothes and then sat him at the kitchen table before preparing tea and getting started on dinner. He ate out of habit only, and after we were done, he spoke for the first time. He didn't want to go home. Going back would mean being congratulated on awakening the Sharingan; being congratulated on watching someone precious die.

We shared my futon that night. I thought he wouldn't be able to sleep, but as I woke up the next morning with his head on my stomach sleeping peacefully; I realized the emotional toll that he must have taken. He left after that without a word, but before he set off, he made sure to kiss the top of my head. I had never seen him like that; it was my first encounter with this new person, sad, broken and craving for warmth. This wasn't Itachi, This was just another shinobi. And I would be seeing far more of him than I would have liked.

…..

As for my new genin team, I had been put under Inuzuka Akira's tutelage. He was a renowned tracker and taijutsu specialist, and if my eyes didn't somehow imagine the tattoo peeking from under his sleeve, and ex ANBU operative. He was nice, fun, and as much a slave driver as Hana's mom. He enjoyed making us suffer a bit more than he should have though.

My team mates were both older than me as I had anticipated, they were both twelve. First, I was introduced to Amori Takahiro. His attention spam wasn't long enough to listen to an entire briefing or mission report; but he was an exceptional saboteur. He tried really hard to outdo himself, but sometimes he couldn't help being a little bit of an airhead. He didn't come from any clan; in fact, he didn't even come from a shinobi family. Both his mothers were from outside Fire Country and according to him he had been adopted in Suna before they came here, which kind of explained his scarlet hair and dark skin.

Then there was Hyuuga Hotaka, a member of the branch family who had the biggest ego I'd seen since Fugaku-sama. He was impatient, impulsive and seemed to only care about outdoing Takahiro and me in absolutely everything. His father had married a clanswoman from Iwa, so he didn't look like an average Hyuuga. His hair was still the same beautiful brown as any Hyuuga, but his eyes were bright green and his skin a tiny bit tanner; which gave him a slightly sun-kissed complexion. For some reason, he had a grudge against the Uchiha, so the fact that I was not only on the team, but younger, female, and very much capable of keeping up, seemed to be making matters worse.

It was a while until we got our act together and were assigned a C-ranked mission, but when we did, the only thing I could think of, was how excited I was to leave Konoha for the first time. Shisui was glad for me as well, but he had to maintain his cool-older-brother façade, so he insisted on helping me pack for the mission. He also gave me a ten minute talk on the importance of teamwork when in unknown territory, which I didn't pay much attention to be completely honest. Granted we weren't leaving Fire Country but there was still some tension left from the war, and foreign shinobi could still sometimes be found inside our territory.

"I'll be careful, Nii-chan." I said with the biggest smile on my face, which thinking back, might have even worried him more.

And with good reason; post-war missions were dangerous no matter the rank, due to the possibility of there being shinobi opposed to peace treaties, causing trouble. And what easier target than a fresh-out-of-the-academy genin team?

The prospect of being ambushed during peacetime didn't even cross my mind, and I guess that was my own mistake. Apparently, the attempt to kidnap me hadn't been enough of a wakeup call. The mission could have gone far worse than it did, but all three of us genin learned a lesson that time. And we would become a much better team for it. But one has to make mistakes in order to learn from them, right?

Let's just thank Kami Sensei was there.

A/N

Hello everyone! As you can see things are starting to pick up from here, and because I'm a bitch to my OCs and I love drama, Akane is about to go through a lot. I still don't know how often I'll start updating but hopefully I get this story to turn out as well rounded and polished as im trying to. If you have any opinions, criticisms, or overall comments, please leave a review! I'd love to read what you've got to say.

Love

Bruce Rosie