Chapter 2: Peace Time

"What are you doing there?"

It was Sunday morning. Academy students were free to do as they pleased, so Shisui didn't need to go down the Konoha streets. However, he was being grumpy, as being a ghost that had to follow someone, he had nothing better to do other than to entertain himself with watching Sakura the whole day (a rather creepy activity Shisui tried to avoid to the best of his ability) or actually make a conversation with her.

Eventually, he gave up on not talking, and so he started with a small talk when the sun was already up, and Sakura was on the floor with a piece of paper and a box of crayons on her side.

"I can't choose what color for this." Sakura waved a paper with a hand glove design. "I want to knit gloves for myself. Err, my birthday is coming soon, you see, so I have to hurry up but I can't choose between white, blue, red, or black."

Shisui sagged his shoulders down, disappointed by today's kids. When he was in the academy, he was training when there was no academy to attend to. However, he could be lenient with Sakura when he realized that these days, kids were enjoying peacetime (temporary it may be, but peace is peace).

"Red and white suits you, but hmm," Shisui glanced at the paper, "I think for gloves, black or blue is good."

"But that's common, right?" Sakura scowled and puffed her cheeks.

Shisui stared at the ceilings in exasperation and remarked, "Black and blue are common colors for shinobi to wear, yes."

"I want it to be a rare color!"

Shisui lamented on his ability to easily forget that Sakura was Sasuke's age. These days, seven-year-old kids were simply weird creatures, no matter how mature they sound like. In Sakura's case, she sounded mature... sometimes. A result from being an only kid like him, he supposed. But still, he and Sakura were so different.

He came to his now favorite conclusion.

Peacetime kids are ridiculous, he concluded, his face a picture of dismay.

"Then, why are you considering it?" he entertained Sakura for the sake of it.

"Black and blue are common colors but... um." Sakura scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "Never mind." She turned her back on Shisui and started to color the glove design.

"It's not for Sasuke, is it?"

Sakura's face flushed red and she quite vehemently said, "no!"

Shisui groaned, tired of dealing with this.

"It is for Sasuke," he huffed, ready to give the lecture for the fifth time. "Tell me, what did I tell you about having a crush, last time?"

"To not have one," Sakura mumbled out unwillingly. This time, unlike the last four times, she learned not to question him. That was a progress.

Shisui nodded and urge her to continue, "yes. And...?"

Sakura made a face and wrinkled her nose. "Be serious with the academy, not thinking and following Sasuke-kun around?"

It's a start, he guessed.

"Yes, please remember that. Oh, and make the gloves black. Whether it was for yourself or not, black is a good color."

It was nighttime and Shisui occupied Sakura's balcony to watch the night sky. Almost a week since Shisui had to follow Haruno Sakura around like a disgruntled puppy, often without saying anything for her favor.

In his unwilling quest to follow her around (he found out that the distance he could take from her was just 7 meters, to his utter horror), he had discovered that the girl had a puppy crush on his close cousin, Sasuke, for two years. Including a bunch of girls in the academy too, according to his observation.

He was depressed with the fact when he knew this. Crushes in the academy were now in the norm? He didn't know that.

Moreover, Sakura followed his cousin like... him following Sakura, but willingly. After he watched and almost wanted to puke a few times, he thought that it was... rather pathetic that Sasuke himself seemed to not even know of her existence, let alone her name.

Showed how gullible Sakura was to her books. He could put it together that whatever Sakura had for Sasuke was a shallow crush, at best. What made her believe that she 'loved' Sasuke (cue shudders) was the god-awful amount of romance books he thought was not healthy for her developing mental growth. It almost looked like she deluded herself into thinking that Sasuke is perfect in everything he does, when in fact Sasuke was just a human like she was; meaning not really perfect (the horrible genjutsu skill, for one).

Shisui wanted to know why he was in this situation. He didn't... do anything to deserve this, did he?

Ah, right. He was and still is a shinobi. One who had honor, unlike a good amount of shinobi who hadn't even thought of honor, but he was still a shinobi.

Screw it. He couldn't care less. He just had to accomplish something for this was his second chance. But it was hard to stay positive when all he wanted was to stay dead.

Yet, he still could remember all the good things in his life; like watching sunsets with Itachi and pledging their loyalties to the village together, without saying a thing to each other. Sasuke, a cute but oftentimes grumpy kid, who he still couldn't help but liked him because of his cuteness, not because he was Itachi's brother.

Of all people, he would want it to be Sasuke (for he was young) or Itachi (no matter how painful it would be, he still want to watch over him).

Not this... this unknown little girl he begrudgingly befriended because he was stuck with her on an undefined amount of time.

But Shisui was not one to blame someone like her just because the situation was not on his favor.

He could learn to tolerate or even like her. Time could do that to people, after all.

Although he had to make the effort to like her presence, he was sure once he found her good qualities, he would like her.

Shisui nodded to himself as he gaze up to the red moon above, quietly pledging to try his best.