The lake's waters were calm in the hot sun, the waves barely riffling the surface. Dipping his foot in, Itachi yanked it back immediately. "It's too cold," he said flatly.
Neji was climbing a tree by sticking to the trunk, the rope in his hand tied to a branch that overhung the water. In disuse, the knotted, stained end of the once-white rope dangled twenty feet out, in deeper water. Neji held it in his hand, looking like a schoolboy.
In a mix of utter horror and fascination, the Uchiha genius watched as Neji, usually so stoic, gripped the rope tightly in his hands, pushed off from the trunk and swung out. His hair flew behind him, his eyes were glittering, and there was a smile on his face that some part of Itachi would have committed terrible crimes to see as a result of some work of Itachi's own doing. For now he would content himself with the actions of others, and watched carefully as Neji released the rope and flew out into brilliant sunlight. He seemed hang in the air for a long heartbeat, looking as though wings could burst from his back and he could fly away any moment—but then that magic ended and Neji crashed unceremoniously and messily into the water.
When he didn't surface right away, Itachi activated the chakra in his feet and started off over the surface of the water, fully intent on finding the idiot and hauling him to shore and berating him with something—but just as he'd gotten both feet onto the surface, he saw a head pop up and shake wet hair out of bright white eyes.
"It's not that bad, Itachi-san."
"You're shivering. Come here and dry off."
"That's half the fun. Just do the rope swing and it'll get you used to the water much faster that way." Grabbing the tassel-y end, Neji hauled the swing back over to shore. The Uchiha's eyebrow twitched upward when Neji walked out into the shallows, water streaming down his body. Itachi followed that water with his eyes until it disappeared into the waist of Neji's swimming shorts—which were soaked, he noted, and—
"Itachi-san, is something wrong? You look a little flushed."
"I can't believe a jounin from the Hyuuga clan is—disporting himself so wantonly—in a lake—"
"You wanted me to pick where we went today, and it's hot, so I suggested the lake. You agreed," Neji pointed out. "You didn't have to go."
"I suggested it so we could do something together."
"And we will be." The Hyuuga held out the rope swing. "Try it once."
Sighing in resignation, Itachi pulled his hair out of the tie and started walking up the tree. Below he could see Neji swimming out into the open water again. Gripping the rope tightly, he pushed off as he had seen Neji do.
It was an exhilarating feeling, he discovered, swinging. Your stomach leapt into your lungs while you were falling, then dropped, and then—
"Let go!" he heard, and released the rope, flying through air into the bright like and, like his date, crashing down into the water. If his family had seen him then, they would have laughed. Itachi wouldn't have minded—in his mind, he was laughing with them.