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White Elephant

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2. SEVEN

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"When will Itachi be back…?"

Just the sound of her voice annoyed me, but the question did even more.

Itachi left two months ago. The girl knew when he'd come back. Konoha Academy served all the clans in the Land of Fire—the Senju sent their shinobi there, and the Academy's academic calendar never changed. So she knew the spring quarter ran from March to May. Every child raised in a prominent clan knew it.

And if she truly didn't know already, then asking that question every single night for the past two months should've taught her by now.

"You're so annoying! Why do you keep—"

"Sasuke!"

My mouth snapped shut at Mother's sharp tone. I hadn't meant to say anything. I hadn't realized I was saying anything until Mother stopped me.

"He'll come back for summer break, Sakura. At the beginning of June," Father answered. For the gazillionth time. It annoyed me, too, that Father didn't seem irritated with the question, even though he would've been if I'd asked the same thing more than once.

"Apologize to her," Mother hissed under her breath.

I scowled. "But she—"

"Are you about to talk back to your mother?" snapped Father.

My eyes watered. They were my parents—not hers. Why were they constantly taking her side…?

"...Sorry."

Mother tsked. "Sasuke."

"Okay! Fine. I'm sorry, Sakura."

I glared at her, sitting across from me at the dinner table like she belonged there. She frowned back. That was how it usually went with her. Me glaring because she deserved it. Her frowning as if she didn't get it when she knew exactly what she was doing.

Well… Usually I avoided her as much as I could. No one here looked like this girl, so it was easy enough to dodge her in the hallways.

"Forgive him, little one," Mother interjected. "He's always grumpy when his brother leaves for the quarter."

Her frown lessened "Oh…"

"But next year, you two get to join Itachi at the Academy! Won't that be fun? The three of you together?"

I humphed at how the girl was suddenly smiling along with my mother and stabbed a carrot with my fork.

I'd been looking forward to attending the Academy for as long as I could remember…but now I'd have to go with her. And since we were the same age, we'd be in the same grade. I'd have to see her every day in all my classes, with her stupid pink hair and stupid green eyes being stupidly just there.

Wasn't it enough that she was in my home all the time?

"Yeah, it sounds fun!" the girl agreed.

"It won't be the three of us together," I grumbled. "He's thirteen… He'll be in a whole different building… So no, it won't be any fun going with—"

"Sasuke, go to your room," Father cut in.

I didn't argue. With one last glare at the girl ruining my life, I stood from the dinner table and stomped to my room.

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It wasn't that she was bad. That's the conclusion I'd come to after being forced to train with her for the past few months.

She wasn't bad—but she didn't seem suited to the Uchiha way of fighting. I watched our instructor try once more to show her the correct way to set her feet and the movement needed to summon fire once she made the handsigns.

She did everything right.

No fire came.

The girl looked on the verge of tears. I'd realized she often cried after our training ended. I might too if I were as useless at this as she was. Even so, she kept coming back and never gave up despite failing over and over.

I didn't like her. Not one bit. She was annoying and weird-looking and taking my place. But if I had to say one nice thing about her or die, then I'd admit she was a hard worker.

"We'll try again at your next training, Sakura. But I believe it's evident at this point that you don't have Fire Release," the instructor said. The girl's bottom lip trembled. Caught in the obvious trap, the instructor softly patted her head. I scowled. "That doesn't mean you can't train hard and achieve it, child. It will simply take more time for you than those in the Uchiha clan, who are born with a predisposition for Fire."

"Okay…" she whispered, wiping her nose.

"Senju are typically born with access to Yin or Yang Release. Do you have either?"

I made a note to find out what those were—I'd only heard of the nature releases. It was also news to me that certain clans were born with different affinities. Almost every Uchiha used Fire Release. I'd assumed everyone in the Land of Fire did.

But I had never left the Uchiha territory. I'd never even gone beyond the city outside the palace walls.

"I have both…but I only started training a few months after my sixth birthday…" She sniffled. "And then they made me come here…"

"Hmm. How about this? I'll find an instructor who can help you with your strengths, and you can learn how to master Fire Release in the Academy next year."

"Really?" The girl stared up at the instructor, wide-eyed. "You know someone who can help me?"

"I think so. And your betrothed learned both Yin and Yang Release at the Academy some years ago. Perhaps he'll also be able to help when he returns for summer break."

Her cheeks pinked. "You think he would…?"

"Of course. Itachi often helps with Sasuke's training. I'm sure your addition wouldn't be any bother at all."

The instructor was wrong. She most definitely would be a bother. Right now, she was the biggest bother of all. And now she was planning on taking my training time with brother away, too.

Was there nothing this girl didn't plan on stealing?

She peeked at me, hopeful and shy. We almost never spoke. My eyes narrowed back at her.

"Sasuke…" It was the first time she'd ever said my name; the first time I'd heard it spoken in such an annoying voice. "Would you mind…?"

Yes. I would mind. I would mind very much.

I glanced at the instructor, whose mouth had thinned into a warning line. Mother and Father would hear of this if I said the wrong thing. And because they liked her more than they liked me, their own son, I'd be the one in trouble if I spoke the truth. Even though I hadn't done anything wrong. Even though she was the one who'd come here and ruined everything.

"...No." It was a necessary lie. So Mother and Father wouldn't dislike me further.

The instructor nodded. The girl smiled, all bright and happy.

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"Be nicer to Sakura."

She'd even gotten Itachi. This was ridiculous. Brother hadn't been back half a day, and she'd already gotten him on her side. Just like Mother and Father.

I didn't know what to say, so I looked at the floor. What was so great about the girl that everyone chose her over me?

"Did you hear me, little brother?"

"Yes…"

"Mother said you barely speak to her and are rude when you do. That's not how you should treat a lady."

"She's not a lady! She's a stupid girl who—"

"Sasuke." Itachi frowned. "You're being mean and petulant. It made me sad to hear how you've been making her adjustment to our home more difficult. I expected better from you. You're usually a kind child. I thought you two would get along while I was away."

I fidgeted with my sleeves under his unexpected reprimand. "I just don't like her…"

"Why not? What has she done?"

Itachi wouldn't understand. Everyone in the clan loved him. He was perfect at everything, and no girl could move in from out of nowhere and take his place like this girl had come and taken mine. There was no girl in the world that I'd ever scold Itachi over like he was scolding me right now.

"Everyone likes her more than me. It's not fair. Even you, brother…" I answered quietly.

"Sometimes I forget how young you are. Come here." When I looked up, Itachi had sat on the steps behind him and was patting the space on his left. I moved toward him slowly and took the offered spot without meeting his gaze. "We all love you just as much as we always did. Nothing has changed. And I'll never like her as much as I like you."

My eyes shot up to his face. "You swear? But she'll be your wife one day…" Unless I found a way to stop that from happening, which was still the plan.

"Mmm…" Itachi seemed displeased for a moment—then he blinked, and the expression was gone. "Even if that's true, I still swear. But since it might cause problems if anyone else knew, let's keep it a secret between us. Okay?"

Grinning, I nodded. As long as Itachi was on my side, things would be fine. The girl could have Mother and Father and everyone else in the clan if Itachi stood with me.

"Okay!"

Itachi smiled. "Remember that she's a child who moved to a new territory very suddenly. She has no family or friends here and is unfamiliar with the Uchiha customs and way of life. Mother and Father treat her kindly because it must be tough for her. Besides our family, she's all alone. She's a kind girl. So be nice to her from now on. I don't want to hear about you behaving poorly again."

None of those things were my fault. I wasn't the one who'd brought her here or picked her to be brought. Why did I have to treat her differently than how I wanted when it was other people's fault?

But brother was staring at me expectantly, and he'd sworn that he liked me more than the girl, so…

"I'll try…"

"Good. Thank you. And you never know. You two might get along."

Scowling, I shook my head. "Never! We'll never get along. I'll try to be nicer, but that's it," I spat.

"First, you should try being her friend and see if it's as bad as you think."

Itachi wasn't listening. Or maybe he didn't understand.

"I don't want to be her friend!"

"But I'm asking you to try it out anyway." Brother tapped my forehead. "It'll be a big help to me if you two get close and build a good relationship."

"But I don't like her," I mumbled, rubbing my forehead.

"Do well for me anyway, little brother."

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"You really like tomatoes."

"What?"

"Tomatoes. You like them a lot, right?"

Since it was a nice fall day, we were taking our Academy entrance lesson outside by the pond behind the main house. The teacher had left us reading passages to speak with Father, which meant the two of us were alone.

We were left alone a lot. Being the only children in the main house, I supposed it made sense. And since others seemed to have noticed I'd stopped avoiding her, they often pushed us to do things together.

Most of my time was spent with her lately.

As Itachi had said: She wasn't that bad. Tolerable. I still didn't like her, though, and I didn't like how my family only treated me nicely again when I started behaving how Itachi wanted.

It still wasn't fair.

"So what?"

"I'm just asking. Gosh, you are grumpier when Itachi's at school!"

This had nothing to do with Itachi being back at the Academy. She'd asked a pointless question when they were supposed to be working. It was more ridiculous that she jumped to blame brother when it was her stupid behavior that annoyed me.

"Finish reading."

"I'll finish it tonight. Let's play a bit before the teacher comes back!"

"No," I replied, rolling my eyes. "We'll get in trouble."

She pouted. "You're no fun."

I didn't know why, but I didn't want her to think that. "I am fun. But we aren't supposed to have fun right now. We're supposed to read."

"That's what someone who's no fun would say."

"...If you finish reading, I might play with you later." I'd stolen that from brother. Itachi used that sort of line on me a lot.

Somehow, it always worked on me, too.

She lit up. "Really? Then can you ask your father if we can go into the city?" Apparently, it also worked on her. "When I went with Mikoto the other day, I saw a stand selling huge tomatoes. I also want to get some new clothes."

My mouth watered. I tried not to let the excitement in my chest show on my face. It wouldn't do any good to give the girl an edge.

"So you just want to go shopping. Why do I have to go?"

"I don't want to go alone, and Mikoto's busy today…"

"Not my problem."

Her small hand landed on mine. "Please, Sasuke?"

My cheeks warmed, and I snatched my arm away, glaring at her as hard as I could. My glaring used to make her cower. Now, it seemed to have no effect at all.

Shopping with a girl sounded awful.

But if Itachi were here, I was sure he'd be pleased with me for going with her. Maybe Father might even tell him in their next correspondence how well I was treating his fiancee in his absence. Just like he'd asked of me.

And…tomatoes.

"Fine. I'll ask when we're done."

"Yay! Thank you!" She jumped forward like she meant to hug me.

"Stop!" I fell back, arms out to stop her. "Don't touch me. I don't like it."

She froze. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know." Retreating, she lowered her head. "I won't do it again."

After a quick nod, I picked up my book and flipped to the page I'd been on. "It's fine. But don't bug me anymore, or I won't go with you. And I won't go unless you finish reading, too."

After a moment, Sakura picked up the book she'd abandoned behind her and opened it with a smile.

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