Author's Note: There's an inconsistency here, in the anime, Itachi meets Shisui after entering Academy, but in the Novel he meets him before entering Academy. I went with the latter so enjoy!

Citations: Naruto Shippuden Episode #451, Itachi's Story: [Daylight] pg. 20-23

Chapter's Song: "The Adventure" by Angels & Airwaves

Chapter 5
New Baby, New Friend

July

Wah-wah! Itachi lifted his head at the sound of the baby's cry; he sat on the bench outside his mother's hospital room door in the hallway. His father standing above him.

"You can come in now," A nurse poked her head out into the hallway for Itachi to see, she then proceeded to leave to the nurse's desk. Itachi led the way into his mother's sunny room, Fugaku following behind, entering to see Mikoto in her hospital bed in a white robe, holding their new baby wearing a blue kimono, swaddled in a tan blanket.

"It's a boy! He's your little brother." Mikoto announced to Itachi at her bedside.

Itachi approached and with his one index finger squished the baby's cheek. The baby stopped crying. Mikoto lovingly watched, as Itachi was amazed and breathless. "A new life…"

Mikoto looked up as Fugaku leaned passed Itachi to pick up his baby. Fugaku lovingly rocked his new son up and down in his arms.

"Have you decided on a name?" Mikoto grinned.

Itachi eyes fixated on the baby, his expression still puzzled.

"Yes." Fugaku replied, looking happily at the baby's face. "Sasuke…" He then looked at his wife, and smiled. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Oh…" Mikoto exclaimed. "It's a fine name, but that's…" She meekly tried to explain.

"Yes, it's Lord Third's father's name. I've already asked Lord Third." Fugaku happily informed.

"I see." Mikoto breathed.

"Sasuke…" Fugaku proudly raised Sasuke up higher. "We shall raise him to never dishonor his name."

Itachi stared puzzled still, recalling when he was merely a baby, that his parents celebrated his birth just as they did Sasuke's now. "I'm like that, too."

Something truly significant had changed and shaken his heart. That something was before his eyes at that moment.

"So?" Mikoto asked, lying back on the floor.

But he didn't respond and instead sat, legs tucked underneath him, staring at the creature lying before his knees.

The tiny newborn baby seemed to be intently focused on understanding his situation, while his still unseeing eyes wandered around empty space. Itachi gently touched the baby's cheek.

At the sudden stimulus, the infant twitched with surprise. Shocked by this reaction, Itachi pulled his hand away, while his mother giggled as she watched.

Itachi gently touched the baby's cheek one more time. "Sasuke…"

The moment he gave voice to his brother's name, something warm exploded in his heart. Different from the love he felt for his mother and father, a special, indescribable emotion.

In the end, five-year-old Itachi couldn't really put into words just what it was. But faced with this ephemeral life, a creature that seemed like he would shatter if Itachi even touched him, something like a masculine sense of responsibility did indeed come to life inside him, the feeling that he had to protect this tiny life.

"Take care of your baby brother, hm?" His mother said, and Itachi nodded fiercely, hand still on Sasuke's cheek.

"Haah!" Akina exclaimed as she threw her kunai to barely miss the bull's-eye. She was out of breath, and frustrated, but she picked up another kunai, she held her battle cry in the center of her gut, and threw it— It missed more than the previous kunai. She picked up another kunai.

"She's really determined." Shisui observed as he sat causally with his elbow resting on his knee.

"Itachi beat her at kunai throwing the other day." Benjiro replied, sitting next to him cross-legged in the shade of the porch they sat under.

"Oh, so that's how it is." Shisui's brows gently rose. "I thought they were friends?"

"They are, but becoming friendly rivals more and more each day." Benjiro nodded. "She's got a big ego."

Akina spun around in her annoyance to face the boys behind her at a distance on the porch, her fists stiff and shaking at her sides. "I can hear you two!"

They froze embarrassed and a little afraid of her sudden outburst that was rare with her being so expressionless most of the time.

The five-year-old girl regained her dignified demeanor with a calming breath, and turned back around to face her target, she took another deep breath, picked up a knife, and threw it— It hit bull's-eye. A breathless smile stretched across her face.

"Wow," Shisui blankly acknowledged. "She's good with double-bladed knives."

"I've noticed that. She's also good with bo-shuriken and senbon."

"Needles, huh… That takes a lot of precision." Shisui then pushed up off the ground, standing. "I'll catch you later."

"Where you going?" Benjiro remained sitting, glancing over the Uchiha crest on his best friend's back.

"Check out how Itachi's doing." Shisui looked back, giving a mischievous wink. "I'm not going to let an Uchiha get outdone by a Mochizuki."

"Hmph," Benjiro smirk.

Itachi had trained nonstop since the day his father had taken him to the battlefield. Just one more year until his long awaited start at the academy. His sole objective was to hone his skills so that he could be a ninja among ninja.

Why a ninja among ninja? To rid the world of fighting, of course. Itachi simply refused to accept his father's conception of a ninja as someone who lived in the midst of killing. Were the ninja arts and chakra really only for fighting? Itachi was sure they were not.

If you had the greater strength, you could step in between people fighting to stop them. If you were a ninja more powerful than the ninja at war, if no ninja—however skilled—stood a chance against you, then everyone would listen to and obey your commands.

Itachi wanted to be that kind of ninja. He believed that if he were more powerful, more capable than anyone else, he would be able to stop even enormous fights like the last Great War. He had a goal, so his devotions were not difficult.

A grove near his house was his training ground. Wooden targets were hung on the cedar trees in the cluster surrounding him. Each was about the size of a human head, with two black circles drawn on it.

Itachi stood alone in the deserted woods, kunai tucked between his fingers. Four in each hand, the eight kunai were his weapons of choice.

"Haah…" He closed his eyes and slowly pushed the air out of his lungs from the bottom of his stomach.

As he crouched down, he kicked at the ground as hard as he could. His body danced into the air and flipped upside down. He held his arms to his chest, and then shot them out to both sides, and eight flashes of light scattered in eight directions.

Thk! Thk! Thk! The sound echoed all around Itachi as he landed. The sharp blades had pierced the centers of the targets on the cedar trees.

"Nice work." A voice came suddenly from behind him.

Itachi swallowed his breath and looked back to see a boy with black hair standing there. He was clearly older than Itachi. As proof of that, the silver of a Konoha forehead protector shone on the boy's forehead.

"How old're you?" The boy asked.

Itachi didn't know his name, but he had seen this boy before, another ninja from the Uchiha Clan. "Five."

"That kind of mastery of kunai at your age. You're really something, huh?" The boy stretched out a hand. "Uchiha Shisui."

Itachi turned around, relaxing only slightly. "I'm—"

"I know. Itachi. Military Police Chief Fugaku's kid." Shisui smirked.

"Why is he being so friendly?" Itachi asked himself in his own confusion.

It probably showed on his face, since Shisui shrugged and opened his eyes wide. "I heard you were a strange kid and you don't really talk to anyone. You really are stubborn, huh?"

"If you don't need anything…" Itachi began to turn away.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." The smiling Shisui disappeared.

Itachi's eyes chased after his aura. The sky. As he danced up into the air like Itachi had moments earlier, both of Shisui's arms flew out, and eight flashes of light shot through the air.

"Whoa!" Itachi opened his eyes wide in amazement.

"How was that?" Shisui grinned as he landed. "I'm not too shabby with the kunai either, right?"

New kunai then stabbed into the surface of the targets on the cedar trees, immediately to one side of the kunai Itachi had plunged into them earlier. Naturally, these were the ones Shisui had thrown.

"I've been watching you training here every day for a while now." He slowly approached Itachi, holding out his hand once more. "Let's be friends."

Shisui's voice was warm; his demeanor naturally pulled Itachi in. Accepting the invitation, Itachi extended his right hand. Warmth wrapped itself around his palm. "Nice meeting you, Itachi."

As he stared at the beaming older boy, Itachi was perplexed by his own behavior as he welcomed this strangely familiar ninja.

"Why have you been watching me? You know me because of Akina?" Itachi assessed.

"That's right. I'm on the same team as Mochizuki Benjiro, Akina's cousin." Shisui smiled, seeing how sharp Itachi was.

"I see," Itachi acknowledged. "Then we'll be friends. Nice meeting you… Shisui-san."

"Just Shisui. Nice meeting you, Itachi." Shisui waved, as he watched Itachi walk away.

"Arm like this, support the head…" Mikoto guided, as Ayame held baby Sasuke who began to whimper. Akina knelt in the Uchiha main house, next to Ayame, watching in awe.

Ayame handed Sasuke back to Mikoto, afraid he would cry. "Akina, do you want to hold him?"

"Um…" Akina was uncertain, she really wanted to hold him, but she was afraid Sasuke would cry. Mikoto could see past her blank expression, and handed Sasuke to her.

Akina looked at the baby's red face, black hair, and big black eyes to match. She began gently and barely bouncing the baby to comfort him. He cooed at Akina, which made her eyes green eyes glitter with pride.

"You're a natural," Mikoto grinned. "You two will be like big sisters."

Ayame smiled, but Akina, Akina took what Mikoto just said very seriously. She would never have a sibling with her mother gone, so she knew that she would regard Sasuke as her own little brother.

Ayame's mother was a civilian that Teuchi met after he quit being a ninja in order to pursue becoming a ramen chef. That's how he met Ayame's mother, and she died from illness when Ayame was just a baby, so all Ayame knew was her and her dad.

Akina contemplated this in her mind, of why she could sense Ayame's feelings for Sasuke were not as strong as her own. The Mochizuki princess had a strong sense of responsibility and maternal concern awoken in her as she still held Sasuke.

Her green eyes rose to the sliding door opening, Itachi standing in the open doorway, Ayame, and Mikoto looking at Itachi, staring at Akina.

"Itachi, you're home. The girls came to meet Sasuke why you were out training." Mikoto grinned.

And Itachi's blank expression was unreadable, until he smiled at Akina, sensing her love for Sasuke in the way she held him closer the moment she sensed someone's aura at the door. "I'm not alone in protecting him…"