Past

Chapter Two: Inevitable Friendship

At the tender age of five, the notion that he would one day become the clan heir was imprinted in his mind. It was from that point forward did Itachi's five year old mind come to terms with the fact that he simply was different from everyone else. Different in the way that he garnered respect from Uchihas that were around his parents' age even as a five year old child. Different in the way that warranted parents to pull their children aside and scold them for addressing him as Itachi, sans any suffix. Different in the way that he felt that there was always a barrier between him and the other party, put up by the other party.

Don't get too close, it seemed to warn.

At some point, Itachi's own walls went up.

Heartless, they would call him. Unapproachable. Apathetic.

The whispers, Itachi knew they were there. He didn't miss a single look of disdain thrown his way when they thought he wasn't looking, or the hushed whispers between his classmates at the Academy when they boldly assumed that he was out of earshot, or the way older siblings would place a hand on their younger siblings and pull them back if they moved to approach Itachi.

No, they were constantly there and Itachi wondered how he had missed them before, living blissfully for five years.

And they weren't only limited to him. His father had gotten the same treatment, Itachi noted, as he walked alongside his father on their way to the council meeting. His mother too, when she brought Itachi along for grocery shopping. Yet for every glare that was given, his mother returned a smile of her own.

"Kaa san, why do they look at us funny?" Five year old Itachi had tugged on his mother's sleeve to get her attention. Her dark eyes turned to face him, weary lines etched all around her eyes. A faint smile graced her lips, yet it didn't hold the same vibrancy that Itachi was used to seeing.

"You know your father is the leader of this village, right?"

Itachi nodded.

"Well as the leader of the village, your father has to make some unpopular decisions and not every villager is happy with that right now."

Itachi frowned. "But his decision would have been for the good of the village, right?"

His mother nodded. "In theory, yes; however, not all of the villagers agree with his decision. I'm sorry that you are affected too, if anyone is bullying you let me know and I can-"

Itachi cut his mother off. "Kaa san, you don't need to worry about me."

Mikoto's eyes softened as she stared down at her five year old son. Already so mature, so understanding at his age.

"I trust tou san's judgment," Itachi added. "Whatever he did must have been for the best of the village. But can we go get dango?"

Mikoto's laugh could be heard five shops away. All the villagers turned their heads to witness the mother and son duo, the son clutching onto his mother's hand, while her other hand carried a bag of groceries down the street, seemingly oblivious to all of the attention that they were receiving.

Six year old Itachi may have been young, but he was no fool. From the moment a raven haired boy laid eyes on him, Itachi felt him staring. Yet even when Itachi tried to discreetly observe the raven hair boy, the boy still had no shame. A slight turn of the head, Itachi made eye contact with the older boy, yet the boy continued to stare.

Itachi was the first to turn his head away.

As Itachi trudged forward on the path home, he was distinctly aware that the boy was following him, keeping a good distance between the two of them. Not close enough to alarm Itachi, yet not far enough that Itachi could throw him off of his trail.

He continued to put one foot in front of another as his mind whirled with all sorts of possibilities of what the boy could possibly want from him. Did he come to criticize him about his father's actions like many of the older kids did? Was he sent by someone to catch him unaware? Was he a spy? Was he sent to take him down?

Itachi was praised by many to be a genius and even acknowledged that his intelligence was above average. His shinobi skills were nothing to be trifled with, easily outshining his peers, but he could win against an older shinobi?

His perfect kunai and shuriken aim, his newly acquired fireball jutsu, and his wits, would that be enough to take on the raven haired boy behind him?

At that thought, Itachi tossed another glance over his shoulder, ready to size up his potential enemy, but their eyes met again. Except this time, Itachi watched as the boy's lips curled up into a friendly smile. There was nothing but genuineness twinking in the boy's dark eyes as far as Itachi could tell.

Itachi felt his cheeks heating up and he quickly broke eye contact and turned back to face the road in front of him. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest, feel the sweat on his palms.

What was this feeling? Was he embarrassed because someone extended a friendly gesture? How could one simple gesture from a stranger make him feel like this?

He had been so distracted that he hadn't realized the boy ran up to him until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Out of instinct, Itachi swatted the hand away, backing away a couple of steps, and positioned his limbs into a fighting stance.

The boy merely stared at him for a few seconds, blinking twice, before speaking. "Your stance is wrong, you know. You are extending your left foot too far out, if you try to strike with your hands, you won't be properly situated so you'll most likely topple over."

Oh, was the boy simply here to criticize him?

Itachi responded by reverting back to a normal standing position, crossing his tiny arms over his chest in an effort to seem more intimidating. Yet with his lack of height, Itachi highly doubted that he reached his desired outcome.

"What do you want?" Curt. Cold. Blunt. All traits his classmates had associated with him.

"I was simply curious why a kid your age was alone. Aren't kids your age always hanging out in big groups?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes. The boy seemed too condescending for his liking. "That's none of your business."

The boy placed both of his hands in the air, palms facing in Itachi's direction. "I mean no harm by that. I'm Shisui, by the way."

"I don't care." At this point, Itachi could practically hear his mother's voice scolding him in his head for his lack of manners. But Itachi didn't care; Shisui or whatever his name was, was seriously annoying him.

To Shisui's credit, he didn't seem to be offended in the slightest. Instead, Shisui let out a few light chuckles. "Oh, I'm sure that you'll come around one day."

No I won't, Itachi thought. With a casual two finger salute, Shisui disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The younger boy sighed in relief; finally, the annoying boy had left him alone. With Shisui gone, Itachi continued his walk back home.

At his front door, Itachi was removing his sandals when he heard his mother's voice, inquiring why he had come home later than usual.

"It was nothing, kaa san. Just ran into a minor annoyance on the way home."

Indeed, a minor annoyance he should remain.

For the next week, Itachi's senses were highly alert for the raven haired boy, yet there was no trace of him. By the end of the week, Itachi relaxed marginally, convinced that Shisui's appearance was a one time thing.

To all, he was known to be quite an obedient child, always showed up to the Academy on time, never spoke back to a teacher, always did what was asked of him. Yet Itachi's rebellious streak had gotten the better of him.

It started off with the small things. Itachi first pretended to have not done his homework, showing up empty handed when it came time to hand it in. While other students had gotten a stern lecture, all Itachi had gotten was a pat on the back and the assurance that it was fine if Itachi brought in the homework tomorrow.

His six year old mind struggled to wrap itself around the special treatment. Was it because he was the clan heir?

The next act of rebellion had come in the form of stealing the chalk and eraser from the front of the room, stashing them in the cubby underneath his desk. When his sensei arrived, he had simply been annoyed when he was unable to find the materials, before he turned around to face the class, demanding the culprit to hand over the materials. His sensei had merely chalked it up to a prank at first, but when no one fessed up, his anger began to intensify. His sensei began to call out names, those who were typical troublemakers, yet all of them had no idea what he was talking about. He even resorted to rummaging through their belongings, yet turned up empty handed.

Not once during the entire investigation did his sensei bother to search him, much less even glance in his direction. His sensei simply passed over Itachi, when Itachi thought he would have searched him next.

By the very end, his sensei had given up, mumbling that he would be back, presumably off to retrieve those supplies from his office. While he was gone, Itachi had taken the opportunity to slip the two items back to its rightful place.

When his sensei came back, he noted the returned items. When he inquired who had returned it, everyone remained silent. Not a single soul ratted Itachi out.

And he hated it.

From there, Itachi was convinced that no one would care what he did. Even if they did happen to see him doing it, no one would have the courage to rat him out. So Itachi began leaving a clone in his place in the classroom, while his real body discreetly slipped out to the woods, where he continued target practice.

His aim was impeccable, praised by many shinobis, yet it grated on his own nerves that he had been unable to achieve his self imposed goal: to hit the target behind the tree. At any angle, any location, Itachi could always hit dead center of the target, except for the one that was completely out of his line of sight.

But today, Itachi was frustrated. Frustrated because the Uchiha elders were expecting so much out of him, a six year old boy. Already expecting him to learn the entire Uchiha history and customs when other children his age could barely read a complete sentence, much less an entire history book. His mother had fought against them, citing that Itachi should have the opportunity to experience a normal childhood, yet the elders fought back, arguing that he was anything but normal.

How Itachi wished he was though.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

The sound of kunai hitting its mark had never sounded so satisfying to him. With each throw, his anger renewed with vigor as his mind imagined that the targets were the Uchiha elders.

You are the clan heir. Thunk.

You should be expected to know these things. Thunk.

You aren't taking your duty seriously. Thunk.

The moment that you were born into this position, you were anything but normal. Thunk.

You aren't like the other kids, we expect more from you. THUNK.

With so much anger boiling inside of him, Itachi rummaged through his weapons pouch, grabbing six kunais, lodging them between each finger. His eyes closed, his senses reaching out to feel for all six targets.

And he launched them with as much force as he could possibly muster. Itachi knew that he was going to miss the target that was hidden from sight, but that was alright with him. When the kunais left his hand, Itachi instantly felt a lot better.

The successive thunks of metal sinking into wood solidified that feeling. Yet what he hadn't expected was to hear the telltale sound of a clink, metal clashing against metal, followed by a resonant thunk. A kunai from his left side, hitting his sixth kunai, knocking it off of its stray course and into hitting its mark.

The target behind the tree.

Itachi moved to a fighting stance, but upon feeling the familiar chakra, he relaxed his stance. That didn't mean he still wasn't hyperaware and ready to fight off the annoying boy once more.

Itachi was hardly surprised when he saw the same annoying, raven haired boy that he had last seen a week and a half ago, step out from the trees, with the same friendly smile on his face.

"You'll never hit that target if you keep throwing it that way." By all rights, Itachi should have been annoyed that the boy was here to annoy him again, to patronize him again, but hearing those words made Itachi feel refreshed. For once, there was someone who wasn't focused on the fact that he had hit five targets dead in the center, but someone who was focused on the fact that he hadn't hit the sixth target. Someone who wasn't telling him he had done a good job, but someone who pointed out his flaws.

"I know that," Itachi stubbornly replied. Even if Itachi was glad to hear different words come out of Shisui's mouth from everyone else, that didn't mean the boy wasn't still annoying.

"You shouldn't be here; you're supposed to be in class."

Shisui raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I could say the same about you."

Itachi ignored his jab. "What are you doing here?"

"For the same reason that you are," came Shisui's cryptic response. At Itachi's blank expression, Shisui added, "Who do you think put up these targets anyways?"

Understanding dawned on him. For all of his intelligence, Itachi hadn't really given a thought why there were targets in the middle of the woods when he first stumbled upon them three days ago.

"I see. I'm sorry for intruding." Slightly disheartened that he would have to go back to class, but knowing not to overstep his boundaries, Itachi made the first move to leave.

It was Shisui's voice that stopped him. "I didn't ask you to leave. I don't mind sharing."

A strange, warm feeling appeared in Itachi's chest. Sharing...such a foreign concept to him because there wasn't anything that he couldn't get if he wanted it.

Slowly, Itachi turned back around to face Shisui.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," Itachi repeated.

Shisui merely shrugged his shoulders. "I've already mastered target practice. Now it's your turn." As a show of friendship, Shisui extended his hand outward, two kunais resting on his outstretched palm.

Itachi eyed it warily.

"You'll never be able to hit the last target if you keep staring." That prompted Itachi to step forward, grab the two kunais and mumbled his gratitude in the process.

Itachi threw the first kunai with the precision he was known for, yet when he threw the second, attempting to knock it off its original trajectory like he had seen Shisui do, it failed to achieve its intended goal. The second kunai knocked into the first, sending both of them falling to the ground. He felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment at having let a stranger witness his failure.

Shisui merely chuckled as he walked over to the targets, yanking the kunais from the wooden targets.

"It takes more than one try to succeed, you know," Shisui told him, as he continued to pluck off the kunais. "I know you are an intelligent person. Use your head to figure out how you're going to hit that target. Perhaps you will need more help to get to your target."

Itachi had been slow to figure out Shisui's underlying meaning and had taken his words literally. "No, I don't. I can do it with two kunais."

Shisui didn't bother to acknowledge his response. "You know, even the greatest, most infallible leaders need to have trustworthy people by his side."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because," Shisui drawled. "You keep pushing everyone away. You're the clan heir. One day, you will be the leader of this village and a leader cannot be successful without trustworthy people besides him. One man cannot do everything."

"Well I don't want to be the clan heir!" Itachi yelled. "I never asked for any of this. All of the elders are breathing down my neck because of my status, my father expects so much out of me, my senseis don't care what I do, I get treated differently by others, and I don't want any part in it!"

By the end of his rant, Itachi's face was completely red, his chest heaving as his lungs tried to recover some of the lost air. Shisui was smiling.

"I'm glad that you let it out," Shisui said. "Bottling up your emotions isn't good for you."

"Why do you care?"

"As a fellow Uchiha, I care about my clansmen. Besides, I'm not in the same position as you, but I know how it feels to have people hold me to such high expectations. It's not the same, but I understand a fraction of what you feel. I can tell you that alienating everyone is not a healthy coping method."

"They're the ones who don't want to approach me."

"And the ones that do?"

"Who-?" Itachi's eyes fell upon the raven haired boy in front of him, the realization hitting him.

"Well you were really annoying at first," Itachi murmured in his defense.

Shisui chuckled. "I'm glad that I'm less annoying now."

"No, you still are. I just have more tolerance now."

"Guess we'll have to work on that."

Itachi's heart didn't agree with his mind. At some point, Shisui had to leave, but Itachi stayed after, even long after classes had let out for the day, to stay behind to practice. He was determined to master the technique, so that he could show Shisui next time.

Was there even a next time? Why was Itachi already anticipating a next time?

When Itachi went home that day, three hours later than he was supposed to, donning scrapes and bruises all over, dried leaves and small branches stuck in his hair and clothes, he had gotten a scolding from his mother. A scolding, then fussing over all of his injuries, then stern orders to go clean himself up.

Itachi was wise enough to not say anything in response.

Despite all of that, it had been worth it, when Shisui had shown up at the same place the following week and Itachi was able to execute the move flawlessly. The thunk of the metal hitting against the wood had never sounded more satisfying than when Shisui smiled with pride.

"Not bad. Now try combining it with hitting the other targets at the same time."

And everyday after that, Shisui and Itachi had a wordless agreement that they would skip classes to meet at the spot. As the weeks passed, Shisui continued to teach Itachi all of his kunai tricks; Itachi had never learned more than he did under anyone else's tutelage.

Perhaps spending time with this annoying boy wasn't too bad after all.

A/N: Hi again!

As you can probably tell, this chapter was heavily inspired by Itachi's arc in the anime about his younger days, but with my own twist to fit this story. I always wondered how Shisui and Itachi became friends so here's my version of it! Hope you all like their friendship as much as I do; it's awesome to see them always having each other's backs. Too bad Shisui had to die so early for the sake of plot in canon :(

I thought writing young Kakashi was hard...young Itachi is even harder to grasp, so hopefully this turned out okay.

Next chapter(s) the plot is going to start moving, so hopefully it won't feel so slow anymore. Thank you all for reading and for the feedback and look forward to seeing you all next week!

-MM