So far, everything was going well.
Itachi was doing fantastic in the academy, pleasing some of the more proud and stuck up members of the clan. She and Sasuke were walking and taking and would be training soon.
They had worked nonstop visiting various members of the clan, and now, even non-crippled members and those without the Sharingan were getting onto the art ride. Something that had surprised her but probably shouldn't have was the huge amount of paintings and pottery with cats on them. One of her cousins had gotten the bright idea to make a clay cat then through it up in the air as target practice for his great fireball jutsu.
And what do you know, he baked it. Bisque fired it. Baffled that it had actually worked, he started a trend of roasting pottery with fireballs. It was hilarious honestly. A clan of cat lovers, that's what they were.
Suffice to say though, she and Sasuke had been working hard recently.
Work-hard play-hard. Mikoto had arranged a play-date for them. It was time to catch up on those promises made at the meeting.
Currently, they were puffing behind an amused Mikoto, as they made their way across Konoha.
Through huffs of breath she murmured to Sasuke in English.
"Play nice, make friends."
"Okay." He puffed back.
The were going to the Nara clan compound for a play-date with Shikmaru. Apparently, he kept asking for "curly", or her it was assumed. Which was good. She had been trying to make an impression and had apparently succeeded, that glance over his shoulder and the fact he had actually opened his eyes to look at her was a pretty big deal. Ino and Choji wouldn't be there, but the most surprising person would; Hinata.
And again now that she thought about that, it wasn't surprising.
The Uchiha and the Hyuga were infamous for their rivalry. While the Uchiha were still considered the more powerful of the two, it made sense that if Fugaku was sending his daughter, Hiashi would send his. Hinata.
Their mothers had left them in Shikamaru's room. Her and Hinata, Sasuke and Shikamaru. Hinata nervously sat by herself, eyes darting to Miko as if to hide behind her. And Shikamaru had yet to take his eyes off Miko.
When they had first arrived, Shikamaru was out cold. His mother had to shake him to wake him. He had rubbed his eyes lazily, like it wasn't worth the effort then looked around the room through a hooded gaze.
When it landed on her, his eyes popped open. And stayed like that.
Then he slowly crawled forward, hauling himself off the carpet. She stayed still-wanting to see what he would do. Sasuke had stopped chewing his toy and was now glaring (cutely) at Shikamaru, daring him to try anything, but also remembering what she said.
Well Shika didn't care and with one chubby hand, took a lock of her curly hair.
"Curly." He murmured.
"Shika!" She said back. Hearing his name startled him, a smile curling up on his face.
The rest of the meeting consisted of Shika staying near her, and her coaxing Hinata out of her shell. Because Mikoto and Hinata's mom were talking right now, it made sense for them to do the same.
It was very successful, with the mothers coming in to watch them about halfway through, even taking a couple pictures with their polaroids. At the end, she got Hinata, normally shy and passive, to giggle and play with her and Sasuke.
Her end goal; to get close enough to Hinata to prevent the Hyuga affair.
And with the friendly chatter between their two mothers, it was looking more and more likely.