Just a little note before I begin. First of all, it's meant to be the third Hokage in this, not the Fourth – He's already done his thing with the Nine-tailed Fox and Naruto and is dead. It's the old Third Hokage in my story – sorry for the confusion!! I'll go back over my chapters and edit them accordingly. Also, I'm sure you've all figured this out, there will be some Itachi/Dana coming up. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed – they're what keep me going so please continue!!

Chapter 6 – A Gift for Itachi

The Third was right, the moment the news spread that Dana was being trained as a ninja; the whole village was in a silent uproar.

As a result, for the first six months of her training, Kakashi would often take Dana out of the village – even for simple missions – and a lot of the time, they would spend weeks at a time outside, even once the mission was finished.

Dana, young as she was, was astute enough to notice the obvious glares and cruel whispers that carried throughout the village, despite Kakashi's best attempts to shield her from them: She was used to it by now.

However, Kakashi was very protective of her, and whenever the villagers did glare or whisper as they passed, Kakashi would glare back, sometimes he would even rebuke them for their maliciousness, and he would always be in a foul mood for hours afterwards.

Since the day of the bell test, Dana and Kakashi were hardly ever seen apart, and Kakashi grew fond of his first and only student. She was compliant, a hard worker, loyal, and an outstanding pupil, always wanting to learn, and determined to perfect everything he taught her. Perhaps it was because Kakashi was still a young boy himself, but their relationship could hardly have been classed as a teacher-student one. Though Kakashi taught her ninjutsu and gave her instructions and orders on missions, Dana never referred to him as sensei, except when around other ninja. They joked, bantered, hung out after training and shared their thoughts with each other. Hardly a month had gone by, before Kakashi considered Dana a close friend: a true comrade.

Their personalities seemed to naturally fit each other, and Dana was quick to interpret his actions and even his thoughts, while Kakashi found that he shared a lot in common with her.

Dana, of course, adored Kakashi, and it seemed the more time she spent with him, the more she adored him. Never once did she tire of his company, and she cherished the time they'd spend together, though she strived to keep her feelings for him completely hidden.

For the first time in her life, Dana was happy and content.

A year flew by, and before Dana knew it, it was winter and celebrations were being prepared for Christmas.

Usually, during this time, Dana would celebrate with Suki, who always managed to rise to the occasion. A large and hearty meal was always guaranteed that could fill a dozen starving ninjas, and decorations hung in every possible place.

This year, however, Christmas was going to be special, for Kakashi had agreed to join them. Dana had danced with joy when she'd returned and it took Suki an hour before she could get Dana to do anything.

On this particular evening, a few weeks before the event, Dana was returning home from her Christmas shopping.

Despite her poverty, Dana had always managed to scrape up enough money and save it for this particular time of the year – not for herself – but so she could buy gifts for those she loved. Usually this only meant buying a present for Suki, but this year, Dana had three parcels in her hands. One, contained perfume for Suki, and another contained a box of expensive dumplings – these were for Kakashi. They were made at a small restaurant on the outskirts of the village, where Kakashi had once taken Dana for lunch. The dumplings, Kakashi had told her, were a particular favourite of his, but he hardly ever had them because of how expensive they were – they were sought after throughout the entire Fire Country.

So Dana had scrimped and saved in order to buy them for him, doing chores for Suki and doing odd jobs for villagers who were willing to pay her, and was pleased with her success.

She was even able to pay for the expensive paper the lady offered to wrap them in, and an expensive bow for good measure.

Dana couldn't wait to see Kakashi's face when he saw it.

The third parcel, was for Itachi. Despite how happy she was, Dana never stopped thinking about Itachi; he had been a good friend to her, had helped her to become a ninja, and protected her from the kids that bullied her. Despite her initial wariness of his quiet and sullen presence, she had learnt as time went on that he was a very kind and pleasant boy, once he'd relaxed from his rigid demeanour.

On that day, she had waved and left him with a smile on her face, because by that time she had known him well enough to know that he would be greatly troubled – even angered – by his father's orders. She hoped that by leaving him thus, he would adopt the same attitude and thus lessen the pain somewhat.

Yet, by the time she had returned home, she had been in tears, and had spent the rest of the night sobbing quietly for the loss of her one and only friend.

Though they were out of touch, she always heard news of him in the village, for his abilities as a ninja, and growing prestige as the heir of the Uchiha clan meant he was always praised and admired.

'But still alone,' Dana would think to herself as she listened.

So Dana decided to buy him a gift for Christmas, to remind him that he still had a friend who cared for him, not as a ninja, but as Itachi Uchiha.

It had been difficult, for Itachi was so mysterious Dana couldn't think of anything that he would really like, but finally, she had found something, she hoped he would at least appreciate. It was a simple chain with three silver hoops, made from a rare metal that the dealer said was meant to have magical qualities.

"If you give this to someone you care for," he said to her, "legend says that person will be blessed with good fortune and health."

Dana didn't really believe in legends, but she liked the idea, so she'd bought it, and now, walking down the quiet streets in the dark, with snow lightly falling and tickling her nose, Dana wondered how she was going to give her present to Itachi. He was hardly ever around because of his missions and whenever he was in the village, he would disappear to some unknown place to train.

'I could drop it off at his house,' she thought, 'before anyone could see me…'

She stood in the middle of the street thoughtfully. At this time in the evening, most people would be sitting down for their dinner, ignorant of anything going on outside.

'If nothing else,' Dana thought, 'I'll be able to practice my stealth skills.'

With this in mind, Dana ran off towards the Uchiha complex.

Itachi ate silently while his father talked of the points for discussion at the next clan meeting. Occasionally he nodded his head to show that he was listening, but not once did he speak.

His mother eyed him warily. All his life, Itachi had been aloof and cold, so that her relationship with him was distant compared to her bond with Sasuke. Yet, she was still able to notice the subtle change in her eldest son. He spent as little time at home as he could, and when he was home, he would spend the majority of his time with Sasuke, but what worried her most, was the small frowns she would see appear on his face, whenever his father would talk to him.

Of course, it was not difficult to guess the reason for these changes, since they began the day Itachi was told not to see that girl again.

Sometimes she wondered if her husband knew that his son was only eleven years old.

After he'd finished eating, Itachi excused himself and walked quickly to his room. Switching on the light, his sharp eyes immediately fell on a small package lying on his bed that had not been there previously.

Sitting on the bed beside the package, he opened the little slip of paper beside it:

"To Itachi

Merry Christmas

Love Dana xxx"

Calmly, Itachi moved to the package and opened it slowly, his face remaining in its normal neutral expression and it was only when he lifted up the chain and read the inscription of the legend that accompanied it, that a small smile beamed on his face and jumping up onto the open window ledge, he clutched the chain tightly as he watched the solitary little ninja jump of a nearby rooftop and out of sight.

Sorry about the long delay, I tend to do that quite a lot! But I hope this chapter will make up for it and I'll try to be quick with the next chapter. Please let me know what you think!