On the way home, Faith picked up a bag of sorry looking fish from the grocery store to correlate with her infamous incapacity for fishing and was in the middle of browsing for the perfect shiny object when firm hand rested on her shoulder. She turned to see Itachi, clad in anbu armor, holding a small brown paper bag. "Faith, I have an urgent mission. Can you tell Sasuke happy birthday for me?" he said in a cool voice.

Faith knew that he wasn't really asking, but she still had to try, "you already missed his last two birthdays. Can't someone cover the mission for you?"

"I'll make it up to him later. Besides, this is the last time he'll miss me on his birthday, tell him that."

She sighed, but only nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait, give this to him," Itachi said, holding the paper bag out.

She took it, dangled it in the air, and glared at him questionably. "First you tell me to disappoint Sasuke about your absence. Now you give me your lunch for his birthday present!"

"That's NOT my lunch, jeez Faith."

"Then how come it smells like your lunch?"

Then there was a beautifully tense silence while Itachi's cheeks turned a pale shade of peach. Faith glared at him some more, determined to get the real answer.

Itachi spat out, "So I was too lazy to wrap it and just reused my lunch bag, so what! Kids these days…" and stalked off.

"Itachi," Faith called out and he paused, "he really, really looks up to you. I hope you mean what you said." Itachi walked off without looking back and Faith sigh and trudged home.

"Mikoto! I'm hoooommeee," Faith yelled as soon as she got in the courtyard. She was extremely eager to tip her aunt off about Sasuke's date. Everyone explained to her that she came to live with the Uchihas because Mikoto and Hitomi, her mother, were sisters. The word "cousins" didn't feel quite right, but there was no proof either way. That didn't really stop the other girls in the village from being jealous of Faith's proximity with Sasuke, though. Nothing stops idiots.

"Any catches worth showing off?" Mikoto called from the kitchen.

"Come on. It's me. Do I ever catch fish?" Faith answered and held up the shrimp sized fish for Mikoto to examine before tossing the bad in the sink. "So," she began in a low voice, "I got Sasuke a date with Ino-chan at seven tonight." Faith stopped to look around for eavesdroppers and continued, "she's that blonde chick we go to school with."

Mikoto smiled and then laughed. Most of the other village kids have started dating and it was weird that Sasuke never went out with any girls except Faith. However, Faith didn't really count as one of the girls.

"Don't tell him, okay? It'll be our little secret. Is insert sasuke's dad's name here… going to be ok with it?"

Suddenly, Mikoto's giggle died down, "he won't be there tonight. He has a mission."

"Oh, that's too bad. Itachi said he'd be out, too. Wow it's six already, I'll go get Sasuke ready. When Ino gets here you're going to have to help get Sasuke out the door with her. That won't be easy," Faith said as she bounced off to find Sasuke. When she got to his door was she skid to a stop. "Uh oh…" Apparantly, Ino was a little bit early for her date and was now surgically attached to Sasuke's arm. Sasuke, being the weirdo that he is, was taking an afternoon nap and had on nothing but some boxers. As soon as he spotted Faith's face in the doorway, she took off running down the hall.

"FAITH! YOU DID THIS, DIDN'T YOU? GET BACK HERE! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Still running and half out of breath, she hollered, "well that's not very good incentive, is it!"

a.n. sorry for the slowdown of updates, I've been working on my original manga. Anyway, I'll have drawings of faith up on my deviantart soon so check it…

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