Nevermore

He slapped a hand to his forehead and gritted his teeth in agitation. She just was not getting it. “Hinamei, stop. You’re not even holding it right.” She looked at her hand and furrowed her brow, it was her first time using a tantō, and judging by her lack of skill, it would be her last time as well. He rearranged himself behind her and pulled her arm higher, wrapping his fingers around hers and pulling her digits lower. “Like this, and swing with concentration. You look like an idiot swinging it around like a stick.” She opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she realized how close Itachi was…his breath tickled her neck and she quickly jumped away with a shudder.

“Okay, okay, swing softer. I get it.” She focused her obsidian orbs on the target in front of her. It was an upright log, fastened to the ground with metal. Her fingers tightened and she closed her eyes, breathing in once and release. She swung around, swiping upwards and cutting down again on a smaller branch. The blade stuck in the wood and her hands slid off it, she stumbled backwards and frowned. “It didn’t work.” Itachi stepped forward and pried the weapon out of the wood with one foot on the log as support.

“That’s because you aren’t hitting hard enough. It got stuck because you’re slow.”

She had been training with Itachi for a total of nine months now, ever since he regrettably said he would. She made little progress but none-the-less, it was more than any teacher had ever accomplished. He handed the weapon back towards her and nodded, slowly taking it, she stepped back up towards the wood. Strike in the same place, she eyes the wood worriedly, cut it completely off. With a tight grip she swung the blade upwards and sliced back down. The wood fell to the ground pathetically and she grinned, still holding the blade in front of her. She dropped the tantō and turned on her heel, intending to tell Itachi that she wasn’t as slow as he thought. Her face dropped immediately when she realized he hadn’t even seen it. “Itachi, I can’t believe you di-” she shut her mouth immediately after she realized what he was staring at. Fugaku strutted over with his arms crossed and a very stern expression on his face. Itachi looked somewhat paler.

“Itachi, do you realize what time it is?” The boy shuffled and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking up at his father through his bangs.

“No.”

“You’re ceremony begins in fifteen minutes. Your mother asked for you to be back an hour ago. Explain yourself.” Hinamei slunk backwards, knowing full well she was too blame. Itachi knew he had to be back at a certain time, he only stayed because she whined at him and begged for him to stay just a little while longer. Itachi’s black eyes darted quickly back to her and she shut her mouth tighter. Fugaku had always resented her, she was unworthy in his eyes. Really, he couldn’t stand the thought of his son even standing next to her. It wasn’t any secret either.

“I-I forgot about it, I didn’t think that much time had gone by already.” Her breath clung in her throat as she watched Itachi bow to his father, Fugaku’s eyes boring holes into his son’s back. “Gomenasai Tou-san.” Itachi pulled himself upright and met his father’s cold stare. With a grunt his father turned and stepped away.

“Alright, come on. You’re mother won’t let you off so easily though.” Itachi moved to follow his father until he turned around suddenly and looked up at the stiff girl.

“I’ll see you there?” He asked her quietly.

“Of course.” She replied, clasping her arms behind her back. He gave her a quick nod and darted off, she waved as he ran towards his father. With a sigh she turned back around and picked up her borrowed tantō, she still needed to get ready herself. She slipped the weapon into it’s sheath and darted off back towards her own house. Kicking up dirt as she ran she realized she wouldn’t have time to bathe or anything. Sometimes it seemed so difficult being seven. She pushed the door in and hopped around the kitchen as she pulled her shoes off, skidding down the hall until she darted into her room. People usually dressed up for this kind of thing, didn’t they? “Kaa-san! Where is my blue dress?!” She cried out as she dig through the bottom drawer of her dresser. Soft footsteps came from behind and a small sigh drifted through.

“Hinamei, you’re making a mess. Look on your bed.” The small girl froze and turned her head towards her bed. Just as she said, a grin found Hinamei’s lips and she turned back towards her mother. “Hurry up, we’re going to be late. What took you so long anyway?” Her mother asked as she ran a hand through her jet black hair.

“Oh you know, stuff.” Hinamei answered as she pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor. Her mother watched pointedly before frowning.

“You’re picking that up later.” Hinamei waved her off as she struggled into the dark blue dress. It was flared at the bottom and came right above her knees. Her mother had even sown on the Uchiha emblem on the back under her neck, it was her favorite dress. Even Itachi had once said it was okay, which coming from him was quite the compliment. Once she was in it and it was buttoned, she ran into the bathroom and pulled her short hair into a ponytail, frowning as fringes fell out and framed her pale face. Her mother appeared back in the doorway and smiled.

“You look cute, is this all for Itachi?” The young girl met her mother’s eyes in the mirror and stuck her tongue out.

“Of course it’s not, that’s gross.” With a light laugh her mother walked away, calling as she went that they needed to get going. Hinamei sighed and walked out of the bathroom, slowly slipping her shoes on and fastening her hand in her mother’s before they went through the door. Part of her wanted nothing to do with the Academy. She didn’t want to see those other children, not to mention any of those wrecked teachers. But for Itachi, she would. If Shisui had been going maybe she would have felt different, at least she would have had someone to stand by other than her mother. She hardly saw Shisui anymore, now that he was a chuunin he hardly had any free time, but she understood. At least she had Itachi. They walked on in silence until the school came into view. Slowly, she snuck behind her mother, staring holes into the ground. Everyone was there, she didn’t realize it was this important. Finding Itachi was going to be nearly impossible. She followed her mother into the crowd and stood behind her leg, hoping it would be over quicker than Itachi had said.

The noise died down and an older man began calling out names, Hinamei sighed. Itachi was going to be dead last. She pushed past various people until she could see everyone, her eyes brushed over everyone till she found who she was looking for. Itachi stood at the end of the line with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Every now and then his eyes would dart to the crowd, looking for someone he couldn’t seem to find. She sat down and watched him until he got closer to the man with the headbands. At this point the young Uchiha was fidgeting with nervous hands. Hinamei struggled out from between the few remaining people despite their annoying complaints. Her hands flew up and she waved them around excitedly. Itachi glanced over and locked eyes with her, a smug smile finding it’s way to his face. He stopped fidgeting immediately.

“Uchiha, Itachi.” The man called down, letting his eyes fall on the proud Uchiha boy. His eyes lit up and he strutted up the man, taking the headband out of the man’s hands before happily wrapping it around his head. After a few more names were called, the ceremony ended. Itachi stood up from his seat and smiled as soon as his mother ran up to him, Sasuke in one arm. She bent down and cradled her oldest to her chest, ranting on and on about how proud of him she was. His father, on the other hand, stood behind with his arms by his side, looking on awkwardly. It was evident he wasn’t a fatherly love type of person. Hinamei wanted to go up to him but something scared her out of it. Until her mother’s hand fell on her shoulder.

“Hinamei, go tell him he did good.” Her mother bent down on one knee and wrapped an arm around the child’s waist. “And know, I’m proud of what you’ve done. Even if you aren’t a kunoichi, you’re stronger than half those kids there. In here.” She placed a hand over her daughter’s chest and the little girl snorted.

“Right, thanks Kaa-san.” She pried herself away and ignored her mother’s chiding words as she ran towards Itachi. She pushed past children until she reached a few feet from the family. Itachi met her eyes first and he smirked, closing his eyes and flicking his headband.

“I bet you wish you had one.” He said smartly, quirking an eyebrow at her sarcastically. She huffed and walked over to him with her arms crossed.

“Not at all, it makes you look even stupider than you did before.” A girl her age shot her a dirty look from over hearing and Hinamei snorted in laughter. Mikoto rested a hand on Hinamei’s head and the girl looked up, forgetting she was in their presence suddenly. “Oh, I didn’t mean that! He doesn’t look stupid at all!” Hinamei recoiled, raising her hands up in defense while Itachi let out a loud laugh. Mikoto just smiled and patted her lightly. “Please don’t tell my Kaa-san I said that,” Hinamei pleaded sadly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pretend I never heard.” She winked and let go, turning towards Fugaku with a smile. “What do you say, we’ll take Itachi out for dinner tonight.” Her husband responded with a quick nod, smiling back at his beautiful wife. Hinamei watched on awkwardly before Itachi cleared his throat in front of her. She looked backed and blinked at him, feeling stupid for eavesdropping.

“Still up for some training then, we won’t be leaving till tonight.” Itachi asked, a sweet smile on his face.

“I don’t know, I’m pretty sore from this past week.” She rubbed at her arm and looked down. “I was thinking about doing something else though.” Her eyes met his and he raised his eyebrow in question. “Well, we’ve been doing a lot of weapon work lately and I saw you do that fire thing with your mouth the other day…” she held her fingers up over her mouth in an ‘o’ shape. “I want to do that too.” As cutely as she could she clasped her hands in front of her and smiled. Itachi’s face flat lined and he stared at her dumbly.

“We’ve done very little chakra work. You can’t even make a proper clone, what makes you think you could do that?”

“Because you’d be teaching me, of course. It’s only because you taught me that I can even use a kunai.” Itachi snorted and mumbled something along the lines of, ‘hardly.’ Hinamei frowned and released her hands. “Can’t we at least try?” He stared at her for awhile before sighing and lowering his gaze. Even he knew there would be no winning with this one.

“Fine, but not for long.” He turned towards his mother and told her he was going to train some more. She said something about him overexerting himself before bending down and kissing him on the cheek. He rubbed it off before grumbling and turning back to Hinamei. The small girl squealed and latched onto Itachi’s arm, he tried desperately to shake her off but to no avail and he sighed again in defeat.

There was just no winning with girls, was there?