Kindergarten 101

Chapter Two

Tuesday September 6th, 2014

He almost forgot what it felt like to get beaten away with a pillow.

The soft, silky pillow that usually rested on the unused side of his bed was being pummeled against the dark haired man's head and shoulders. Every time it hit against his skin the pillow would make a soft sound.

Itachi used to think his pillows felt like clouds under his head.

With a throaty croak, he nabbed the offending pillow from his niece and covered his face with it. The fabric felt cool against his warm cheek and he nuzzled against the smoothness of the pillow case. Koemi let out a small, amused laugh before she did the worst thing imaginable.

She ripped away Itachi's blanket.

The proud Uchiha did not whine once the cool air his legs and arms. He did not curl into a human ball and he definitely did not let out a little pathetic moan. Itachi was an Uchiha and Uchiha were not known for whimpering because of a cold room.

"Uncle 'Tachi, it's time to get up," Koemi told her uncle, flopping down on top of his curled up legs.

She waited patiently for a full five seconds. The man below her showed no signs of movement. Koemi huffed, her lips turned down into a pout and her eyebrows pulled down towards each other. She pushed herself up from Itachi's body, wobbled slightly on the squishy material under her feet but righted herself. Itachi still hadn't moved. Koemi let out a loud sigh before planting her little hands on her hips and stared down coolly at the older Uchiha.

Itachi didn't know when it happened, or who had taught her, but Koemi had become very accomplished at using the Uchiha Glare. Maybe she learned it after watching Sasuke and himself use it so many times, or maybe from her grandfather. Well, whoever she learnt it from had done an amazing job teaching her. Itachi could feel the back of his neck prickling from her cool green stare. It was unnerving and made his stomach twist.

Was this how everyone else felt when confronted with the Uchiha Glare?

"Fine," Itachi grumbled and pulled the pillow away from his face. "I'm up, I'm up."

The green glare immediately melted into the usual carefree smile of his niece. Yes, Itachi thought, she spends way too much time around other Uchihas. She easily jumped down from the bed and ran back into the hall, making her way into the kitchen.

Itachi rolled so that his feet were lying flat on the cold hardwood floor of his bedroom. A shiver ran up his spine but he ignored it, forcing himself to stand and stretch out his stiff limbs. He ran a hand through his slightly messy hair and sighed. Itachi thought back on what he'd bought for breakfast foods the week before, only coming up with one thing – Lucky Charms. Probably not the healthiest thing for a five year old to be eating before school.

Itachi blamed Sasuke for his lack of kid friendly food. As it usually was, Sasuke gave no warning to Itachi beforehand that he'd be having a sleep over with his niece. Really, Itachi should have just known by now to stock up of things like eggs, bread, fruits but he really didn't have the storage space in his head most of the time.

"Koemi, there's some cereal in the cupboard under the sink," Itachi said offhandedly as he walked into the kitchen.

After a quick inspection of the box she'd retrieved, Koemi looked up at her uncle and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think Dad would approve of me eating sugar for breakfast."

Itachi snorted. "It's not sugar. There are cereal things and marshmallows." He paused, before looking down at her. "And what your father doesn't know won't hurt him."

Koemi giggled and nodded. She set the cereal box on the counter and waited while Itachi pulled down a bowl and spoon for her. He found the jug of milk in the fridge and put that out for her as well.

"Aren't you going to have any?"

Itachi shook his head.

The girl frowned as she set her full bowl down on the table, in front of her usual spot. "Mom says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

He bit his tongue, keeping any nasty words locked up in his head. There were quite a few things Itachi could say about Haruno Sakura, but none of which were appropriate for little ears.

"Eating after I wake up makes my stomach sick," Itachi explained, opting to just ignore the comment about Koemi's mother.

She nodded and dug into the sugary cereal.

Itachi sat down across from the little raven, watching her eat with a raised eyebrow. For someone who hadn't wanted to eat sugar so early, the girl loved it. Sasuke would try to kill him if his sweet tooth wore off on the little Uchiha. The thought made Itachi smirk.

"So, did you end up finishing the worksheet your teacher gave you?"

Koemi nodded again, her mouth full of mushed up food. Once she swallowed she grinned at her uncle. "Yeah, it was really easy cause Miss Kojima showed us how to do it. She even wrote out the alphabet for use on the top of the page."

"Oh? What was it you had to do?"

"We had to write our names and five words we picked out."

"What did you pick?"

Koemi smiled and leaned back in her chair. "I picked 'cat', 'dad', 'blue', 'orange' and 'flower'," she replied with a proud look on her little face.

Itachi chuckled and leaned forward. "Wow, those are some pretty good words. You should show your Dad when he picks you up today."

Koemi nodded eagerly. "I will!"

Itachi looked around the yard, hoping to catch sight of a certain red head who'd peeked his interest the day before. Maybe it was because of her red hair? Itachi had only seen hair that red on one other person, Naruto's cousin, Karin. But the red head his niece called 'Miss Kojima' looked nothing like the Uzumaki woman. Karin's hair was a touch more pink than red while the teacher's hair was like blood.

Itachi walked his niece up to the main doors, meeting the familiar face of Uzumaki Hinata along the way.

"Uzumaki, I forgot that you teach the kindergarten class," he greeted with a nod of his head.

The pale woman lowered her head and nodded. "Y-Yes, Minata p-picked and M-miss Kojima to – to teach this y-years children."

Itachi smiled politely before looking around again. "Yes, Koemi seems to have taken a shining to Miss. Kojima. Yesterday I saw her and your boy talking to her."

Hinata smiled, a little shakily given her company. "H-Hiroki already k-knew her before t-today. She's o-our neighbor and o-occasionally babysits h-him."

Itachi tilted his head a little. So the mysterious red head was friends with the Uzumaki family.

"Ah! I found Miss. Kojima! Uncle 'Tachi, can I go say hi?"

The dark haired man blinked, looked down at Koemi and then over in the direction the girl was pointed at. Itachi could easily pick out the redhead who was weaving her way through chattering children and their parents and siblings. Today she'd dressed in an oversized sweater that covered her hands, another long, billowy skirt and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail again.

It was odd. This woman wasn't overly attractive; he'd probably describe her as 'cute' rather than beautiful or even sexy. But something about her kept pulling his attention to her.

Itachi looked down at Koemi and nodded. He watched her practically barrel her way through the other children to get to the redhead and snickered to himself. Some of those kids would have elbow shaped bruises tomorrow.

"O-Oh, Mei isn't late t-today," he head Hinata murmur to herself. "Odd."

So, her name was Kojima Mei, hm? Itachi stored the information away for later.

The large classroom was buzzing. There were children sitting at the carpet, blocks in hand or large books in their laps. Other kids were at the small circular tables around the room, some working on their work sheets while others had glue and sparkles on their hands.

The classroom itself was alive with colours. Each table was large and circular, fitting at least five kids comfortably. The chairs were all multi-colored with handmade name tags on the backs. The walls were covered with posters of animals, numbers and letters, each one brighter and more colourful than the last. Even the chalkboard had cute little drawings of rabbits and frogs drawn in chalk.

Mei hadn't exactly been expecting this kind of setting when she first decided to start teaching, but it was a stepping stone to where she actually wanted to go.

"Miss Kojima, I gotta go!"

The red haired woman spun around on the heel of her boot. Standing there was a little boy named Yuto, his legs pressed together and his bottom lip sucked into his mouth. Mei sighed and quickly scurried the boy into the side bathroom.

No, this was definitely not how she imagined her teaching career.

Once Yuto finished with his business, Mei led him back out into the classroom. It was exactly as she left it, except for the two girls fighting over a jar of glitter. The lit popped off and Mei wince, instantly regretting bringing out the small jars in the first place. She could see Hinata across the room, also cringing at the mess the two girls made.

"Off you go," Mei murmured to Yuto before she swept over to the cupboard where they usually stashed the broom and dustpan.

Hinata gave her a weak smile of appreciation before continuing to help one of the children with their work sheet. Mei made her way over to the mess of sparking dots, careful not to smack any of the kids with the broom. Sometimes she felt more like a maid to a herd of children rather than a teacher in a prestigious school.

"Miss Kojima, do you want any help?"

Mei's head tilted as she blinked down at the little black haired girl watching her. Uchiha Koemi was a friendly girl with a slightly evil streak – something Mei had found out about the day before when Koemi 'accidently' tripped one of the older kids bullying another girl.

"You know what? That would be great, Koemi," Mei handed over the dustpan to the girl.

"So, just put it on the ground when you sweep?"

The redhead nodded, "That's it! It helps if you tip the back up a little."

"Like this?" Koemi took the suggestion and found the glitter swept easier into the dustpan.

"Exactly like that. Good job," Mei smiled. "Do you help your mom do chores at home?"

Koemi lowered head, crouching down on the floor as Mei swept the glitter into the pan. "Mom is living with Kiba now. She doesn't come visit anymore."

Mei's smile softened a bit, her eyes lowering. "You know, just because she doesn't come see you doesn't mean she's not thinking of you."

"You think so?" Koemi asked, her voice small.

Mei nodded. "When I was your age both my parents were always out. But when I did see them again it was always lots of fun."

"Yeah… Dad always takes me for ice cream after he spends nights working."

"See? Your dad probably thinks about you all the time when he's not home."

They finished cleaning up in silence, just listening to the other kids around them talk. Mei observed the girl as she wondered back over to Hiroki and her nephew, Kojima Kazuya at their table near the play carpet. Koemi was definitely a cute girl; her black hair is pigtails and dressed in a little pink bunny skirt. Kazuya had gone on for almost an hour the day before about Koemi, saying how smart she was and how friendly and nice. Of course, Mei couldn't disagree with him, so she let the boy ramble on and on about the girl.

Mei smiled slightly to herself. It was good that Kazuya was making friends. He was away from his parents, and Mei knew exactly what that was like. Back then, she had spent all her time with her own friends and her brother to force back the confusion of her parent's leaving.

As soon as the boy had moved in, he'd made friends with Hiroki, which was good for Mei. She didn't have to rush back and forth after school to make sure both boys had what they needed when she was on babysitting duty. Instead, she just brought Hiroki to her house across the street. By the end of the night, they'd wait for Hinata or Naruto to get home, and Mei would give the blond boy a piggy back ride.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The redhead's shoulder sagged as she put the broom back into the closet.

Thank God the school day was over.

Hello again, my lovelies!

So, I'm glad a few of you liked it enough to favourite or follow it. Seriously, it's a big help for when I'm struggling to write and I look back and see how many of you are waiting already for the next chapter (even if it's only two).

I would have gotten this chapter out sooner, but holy crap! the last big of this chapter, Mei's bit, was a pain in the ass to write out! I started it in Sasuke's perspective and didn't like it, then in Koemi's perspective... Didn't like that either! So, when I decided to try out Mei's it somehow worked. So, I'm really sorry if you guys hate how much the story is jumping around. I promise that it'll only be those three point of views.

(Again, I didn't really read it over, other than to add or take away a few paragraphs.)

Now, I got an awesome review from one gunslayer12, which, by the way, made me extremely happy. It was actually the first thing I saw yesterday morning and it got me going on this chapter. I'll be doing all my replies to reviews here, in the authors' notes, unless you have a question that you want to send me in a PM. I promise that I'll get to those ASAP.

gunslayer12 - Again, thanks for being the first person to review! You're right about Sakura leaving, as you must have figured out by now. The history between her and Sasuke will be explained in later chapters. The redhead - Mei - isn't related to Naruto. She's actually a cousin of Gaara, who will be coming out in later chapters as well. I really hope that I keep the characters true to themselves... I hate reading fanfiction that have OOC personalities so I think I'd feel pretty terrible if I can't keep them in character myself. Hope to hear your view on this chapter as well!

Okay guys, lots of love from me, I'll be seeing you soon.

Raven in the Ash Tree