Unassuming

What had been a free study period ended with their teacher announcing for them to follow. Moderately annoyed his favorite 'class' was interrupted, Itachi had hesitantly closed his book to fall into line. He still debated taking the book back out.

They were escorted to a neighboring classroom where the kunoichi class had been held. There, they were joined by two other groups: an older class as well as Takuma-sensei's.

The girls from all three classes gathered at the front of the room, two tables before them. A variety of nervous and embarrassed looks on their faces, the smells made sense now. Plates of food sat on each table. Over the last hour, the boys in his class had concluded someone was cooking something. Something chosen over food because smoke and burning quickly overpowered anything appetizing.

The girls from Itachi's age group had… tried their best. They stood, presumably, behind their attempts with a preemptive look of dejection. Only one had escaped that table. Near-white hair hiding much of her face, Renri found more interest in the floor than the anticipatory whispering. That group stood away from the table, leaving it unclear who made what.

"Today," the kunoichi teacher began, overly sweetly, "my classes have prepared some food to share with you boys. The older boys will be sampling from this table." Gesture to the table further from, to dishes edible in appearance, the older boys sighed in relief. A few whispered about a lesson in a previous year making them sick for a week. The girls' obvious nerves still didn't bode well. "You younger boys will get to try your classmates' cooking!"

Her cheer drowned under resounding fear and complaints. Which caused the girls to insult them right back or deflate in defeat.

"Be considerate!" the teacher snapped, her eyes narrowed, tone silencing the class. "This is a learned skill like any other, and this is the first time many of the girls have ever cooked alone. We do want you to select a winner, but you will be gentlemanly about it. Got it?" A round of nods, a smile returned to her face as she happily clapped her hands together. "Eat up, then!"

His grade's table quickly fell into chaos. Itachi lingered at the back of the line, not keen to try anything or get hit by food being dramatically spat on the floor, but his teacher set a hand on his shoulder.

"Join the older students," he said, patting his shoulder before stepping away. "That lesson should be more interesting for you." He left to help Takuma control the shouting matches before they devolved into fist fights.

Itachi walked to the other group, peeking around an older boy. He had his nose scrunched, dog at his feet wearing the same expression. Inuzuka… something. That 'special training' week, he had taught Itachi's class tracking basics- or tried, at least, the Inuzuka girl in his class the only one able to follow his lesson reliant on scents. "Nope." Inuzuka shook his head, sniffing the air again only to pull another face. "There's something nasty in there. I'm not eating any of that junk." Arms crossed over his chest, he stepped back, resolute.

The evidence to this lesson's purpose was mounting.

Trying a little from every plate, the initial three looked completely normal. Two tasted like a cabinet of spices were used, one to the point of inedibility. One had a tellingly bitter flavor poorly masked. Another, the bitterness hid under strong spices, but was still detectable. The next, pleasant, not overpowering, but still more strongly flavored than usual. Then, the blandest dish, nothing memorable about it.

Renri failed to look up from the floor, fingers gripping her sleeves.

"Now," the kunoichi teacher said with a clap of her hands after they'd sampled each, "which is the winner?"

The Inuzuka, under his breath but with no intention of not being heard, "They all smell like garbage." Nearly every girl took immediate offence. "I'm surprised no one hurled," he added, making his point, his dog barking in agreement.

"Watch your words, Taiga-kun," the teacher warned. The overpowering scents that went with the spices, he would have been the one to hurl.

Already in a line, the boys listed off their winner with a reason why one by one. Except Taiga, who maintained no one won. The lesson… seemed to have been missed by them. Overtly, at least. Some, like Taiga, still pointed out relevant issues.

When his turn arrived, Itachi pointed, saying simply, "This one." Renri's gaze shot up with obvious panic. "It's near flavorless." Almost disappointingly so; any other competition, she would have received average at best. "You wouldn't expect a strong flavored poison to be hidden it."

Silent shock quickly became shouting.

"Calm down." The kunoichi teacher waited, lips pressed thin at the continued chatter. "I said calm down!" Mouths snapped shut. "We didn't use actual poison. It's just a pungent herb that tastes like it'd kill you." Her words only slightly reassured them. Taiga complained under his breath. Another clap of her hands, this time with a smile aimed at him. "Well, done, Itacki-kun! And you too, Renri-chan. To think two young students would grasp the lesson so well." Her glare made the older class flinch. "The rest of you are lucky it wasn't poisoned, considering how much you ate. As much as he lacked tact, an Inuzuka's nose is hard to fool. You should remember your lessons and classmates' strengths."

Renri sat on the ground outside of the academy. Face still felt like fire.

She thought this lesson would stay in kunoichi class! When teacher gave them instructions, she simply said that they had to use the base ingredients they were given to make a good tasting dish for the class. She even gave them a recipe! The herb they needed to use had been absolutely nasty, so she hesitated to fail by just dumping it in without thought, but…

She noticed a cipher hidden in the recipe text. A basic one exactly like the one Takuma-Sensei had on a test last week. Curious what would happen, under the false impression it would stay in that class, she followed the next layer of instructions the code listed. And stopped there. The older girls added spices for flavor. Her dish remained exceptionally bland. Sure to lose, she thought.

Maybe she would have, had Itachi not said anything. He derailed the goal from 'good tasting' to 'unassuming.'

Wanting to shake with nerves, she shot to her feet, almost swinging her bag into a classmate and his mother. Her apology was quickly lost as she marched forward. No going back!

She wanted to go back within a few steps.

She caught up with Itachi. To her surprise, he slowed his steps and looked at her. Then stopped. And that made her choke on her words. She only managed to force out, "Itachi-san." She had no idea her voice could get so squeaky. Itachi had no right to be so intimidating when she had scarier people waiting at home!

"Renri-san."

And he was, once again, completely unfazed by her awkward energy, which only made her feel more awkward. But she needed to say something now that she had his attention. Or else she would be wasting his time. More so than she already was in asking frivolous things but-

"How did you know?"

He stared. She really lost all ability to speak around classmates, didn't she? Much too vague to-

"We covered poison detection a few weeks ago." Oh. Her class had, too, hadn't it? Boring class covered nothing she hadn't already known. Snakes and poison- well, venom, but that wasn't the point- were synonymous; she read a lot of books on it before starting the academy. "You all looked nervous. Especially when we tasted the one that completely failed to disguise it."

She smiled slightly. "Teacher would have scolded us if we gave the lesson away before all the dishes were tasted." No wonder the other girls tensed when the Inuzuka boy had complained from the start; he almost gave them away. Maybe Itachi had concluded it then.

That's also when Renri realized she had messed up. She tended to try harder in kunoichi class- not that she did well, exploding fish and all. Being exceptional at something like sewing didn't instill the same dread as being able to throw a kunai with pinpoint accuracy. But, she also already had some idea how to cook and sew from helping her mother. There wasn't exactly a lot to do in a tiny village with so few her age. Never mind that she had found the cipher lesson interesting enough she read a library book about it after the test.

Teacher had had her join the older girls' harmless cooking lesson from the beginning. As a wild card, she had said. Probably because of the exploded fish. The older girls would have been livid if she made them fail the lesson. But what if-

"Did you cheat?"

She would have tripped had they been walking. Would have been less embarrassing than her stuttering a denial, waving her hands. How would one even cheat at cooking!?

"That was a joke," he clarified, twitch of a smile paired with brows drawn together.

She hung her head at missing that and overreacting. He had sounded serious to her, voice all deadpan. Raising her eyes back to his face, she couldn't read him. "Why choose mine, then?" Hers had been merely edible. Not appetizing. She met the requirements of the assignment, but she had not necessarily excelled at it.

"Because of its plainness," he repeated. "So unassuming that one would never guess the intention behind it."

No judgment in his tone or expression, but they were no longer discussing the lesson. Probably. How difficult it was to tell with him… She opened her mouth to lie, or, in the very least, deny. Shy smile as she closed it, no harm, right?

"Itachi-san…" She trailed off. Academy students and parents passing by, her nerves wanted silence. She really shouldn't. At the same time, he was oddly easy to talk to after suffering through an awkward greeting. Enough so that she had let the partial answer slip the last time they spoke alone. "May we speak somewhere quieter?"

A simple nod, and they both re-entered the school grounds. Walking around the back of the academy, noise dying down, she felt a bit more confident. Most students had left for the day, the few that lingered were inside using the training room or scattered about the halls. The teachers usually gathered in their breakroom to chat or remained in their classroom to grade papers. No one immediately nearby to overhear…

She still turned to the side, let her hair hide most of her face. "I didn't want to win, because then attention would be on me."

"Why?"

Why? That was why, wasn't it? He bothered to ask her why. Perhaps he had assumptions, suspicions, but he still asked, gave her the opportunity to explain instead of relying only on preconceptions. All with such an even tone and expression.

"You like attention," he added.

A small laugh, she turned to him. "No, I like the acknowledgement." She bowed her head, a silent thank you to him. Today, and with the kunai, he had acknowledged her ability. Yet, at the same time… Her smile faded. "But both attention and acknowledgement, they aren't always good. For someone like me, to be acknowledged as skilled… Can be the same as acknowledging a threat." She was an outsider. Here. Everywhere. The sudden lapses in conversation, the detached stares, the strained smiles, the words spoken behind their backs… All subtle distrust. It would only grow worse. Experience told her as much. Going from just some useless kid to a trained shinobi… "I don't want to be feared," she whispered.

Even if she would always be treated as an outsider, have to endure that isolation, she saw something worthwhile here.

She once envied her elder brother. Everyone had spoken so highly of his position in Anbu, but she understood that that had not gained him acceptance. More like circumstantial tolerance. It would be the same for her, but Konoha… At least Konoha had something worth protecting.

"Then why insist on becoming a shinobi?" A tool that could harm as much as protect. A shinobi was synonymous with fear. "You can't have both, and the distrust will exist no matter what you do."

So, why then deliberately fail at both? She always asked herself that as frustration set in at her goals being pushed away by her own hands. Behave, he had said, but behave simply meant to not cause him problems. Outside of that, he very much encouraged her to do whatever she wished without regard for anyone else. He would be disappointed with her decision.

Her stubborn desire to be liked got in the way of logic. Terrible trait for a shinobi.

Within a week of entering the academy, she understood her social skills were awful. She rarely spoke to anyone her own age before this. She didn't know how to act. How to speak. How to make friends. Then, she saw Itachi.

She saw how quickly admiration turned to resentment.

Maybe that was the lesson she was meant to learn. Maybe he thought that'd be enough for her to realize where she belonged.

"Itachi-san…" certainly deserved to graduate early, that rumor true. "You're really logical." He seemed to be the textbook perfect shinobi. Calm, analytical… "And nice." He came off as aloof, but their few interactions, despite his awareness of the connotation her clan name held…

Eyebrows raised, dark eyes slightly wide, the flicker of surprise was quickly tamed as he broke eye contact. Had she said something weird? She thought he was nice. Perhaps a little blunt, but nice. He was talking with her. She couldn't find the distain she saw hidden in so many others.

"You're surprisingly honest," he said, voice a bit softer than before.

So, he knew after all. Inada… Rather, Inari: Bewitchers. Seductresses. Shapeshifters. All liars in some form or another. The longer she spent in Konoha, the more she came to realize it. Age played a role, the elders the most suspicious, the younger following by example, but that was true everywhere. Here, she realized, one clan in particular took the most offence with her presence.

The Uchiha.

"I'm glad you asked why." He helped her realize something very important. Or, more than realize, he helped her decide. "Thank you."

For ignoring the preconceptions of her name long enough to ask her motives, not whatever it was the Inada supposedly were. The few snippets of information she found in the library on the Cult of Inari, not even the Inada alone, she wondered, then, what his clan knew.

The only connection between them, between the Uchiha and Inada, was the blame for the nine-tailed monster that had attacked the village. Blame everyone wanted to pass along to another.

A silence. A studying look. A hum acknowledged her words before he walked away.

A/N: Thank you for the favorites/follows! I was pleasantly surprised! I knew going in that starting the story here was a, um, choice, but I've had fun building things from this point instead of just using it as flashback material. Ao3 tags say friends to lovers for a reason, and that's because friends is a bit of a hurtle with Itachi in general.