Nevermore

“That was absolutely,” he seemed to struggle with his words until a slight smirk graced his lips. “Terrible.” With a nod of his head he confirmed his feelings and again, mocked the frowning girl with his onyx eyes. “You can’t be serious, can you?”

With nimble fingers she let her hair down, watching it curl around her shoulders to distract herself from Itachi’s harsh words. Out of fifteen kunai, only three of them had actually grazed the target. Not one stuck to it. She blamed it on the pressure of being watched by both boys, scrutinizing her every move and ready to call out her failures. She was convinced if they hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t have been a problem hitting targets. Despite Itachi’s rude behavior, Shisui stood behind his shoulder with a smug grin plastered on his face. “For her first time, I don’t think it was really that bad.” Itachi replied with a grunt and narrowed his eyes at the still silent Hinamei. “Besides, we can’t all be an Uchiha prodigy now can we?”

“He has a point,” Hinamei replied, raising a single brow and delivering a now ego bruising smirk at the scowling boy in front of her. At first he considered telling her to shut up but upon realizing he was outnumbered he simply replied with a small ‘hn’ and walked away. “How do you deal with him?” She sighed at the older boy who watched after his partner with slight interest, Shisui averted his eyes back towards Hinamei and managed a playful smile.

“He means well, honestly. That’s just the way he is I suppose.” They both turned to look at Itachi who was currently hitting the target more accurately than she could ever dream of, a small smile found her lips. “Try to look at it as constructive criticism.”

“Well, he doesn’t talk to you like that.” He responded just the way she thought he would, like she should know better than to ask something so painfully obvious. Itachi respected him, and more in just a senior status type of way. He genuinely looked up to him, Itachi saw him as more than a comrade. It was something Hinamei almost envied.

“You’ve known him for what, a day? Don’t expect too much now.” Suddenly her face turned brighter and a sly smile crossed her mind. If Shisui could earn his respect, why couldn’t she? Of course, she never expected him to just jump to her feet, but she was willing to earn it. Shisui gave her a curious look and before he could ask she darted to his left and ran towards the sullen boy beyond her.

“Itachi-chan! Hey, answer me!” Slowly, he turned to look and frowned. He didn’t answer but instead crossed his arms in subtle defiance all the while Shisui watched on with mild interest. “If I’m such a terrible aim, why don’t you teach me?”

For a slight second she thought he might actually laugh in her face. “I don’t have the time,” he tossed her a belittling glare and huffed, “nor the patience. Why don’t you ask Shisui, he seems to be stupid enough to try to train the untrainable. “ Normally, she would have lost her mouth at his blatant rudeness but instead this time she shook her head and matched his stare with an equally daring gaze.

“Because, I want you to teach me.” After all, what better way to earn his respect than by surpassing his expectations of her? It wasn’t just Hinamei who caught his eyes widen in surprise, but he quickly recovered and returned to his neutral manner. She waited expectantly as he tapped a finger to his chin and thought about it.

Or, more or less pretended to think about it. “No-like I said, I haven’t the time.”

“But-” He shot her a look that sent her hands to her mouth. When he said no, he meant it. In an instant he whipped a kunai out from his belt pouch and threw it with full force past her head. From the corner of her eye she saw large wisps of chocolate colored hair whip up through the air, the force of the kunai cutting straight through her silken strands. She couldn’t move within an inch, paralyzed by his sudden display of recklessness. Her eyes widened in fear and with a slight tug at the corners of his mouth, the kunai hit the center of the target.

And once more, the sound of Shisui’s light laughter caught onto the breeze.

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She walked home with a bitter scowl plastered on her delicate features. Between her fingers she rubbed the now short strands of hair, all the while trying not to cry at Itachi’s disregard. “What a jerk, Kaa-san is going to be so mad at me.” Sniveling, she dropped her hair and balled her hands into tiny fists. The day had been uneventful, while she had spent more time with Itachi and Shisui, the whole time she kept quiet. Truth was, she was angry at his recklessness, angry at Shisui for encouraging Itachi’s behavior, and mad at herself for not saying anything to either of them. It was unlike her but at the same time she felt she had to obey her mother’s orders, regardless if they deserved it or not. Finally, she left. Without a word being said to either of them, she just couldn’t take it anymore. Beads of sweat came rolling down her cheeks and with a rough sigh she swerved off the road and sat herself under the shade of a tree, summer couldn’t end fast enough in her opinion.

The dirt crawled up her legs and with her tiny fingers she traced her name in the soft, cool ground. “It’s not even worth it,” she told herself angrily, why would she need Itachi’s respect in the first place? It’s not like he was anything worth impressing, he was just another stupid boy with an oversized ego. Something the Uchiha clan seemed to have in great numbers. With a sigh on her red face she stood up and made her way back into the blistering heat on the road towards her house. Upon walking into the front door she was met with her overly thrilled mother, happy to have heard from Mikoto how Hinamei had successfully dropped off the sweets.

“How was your day, you got along better with Itachi-kun today didn’t you?” Hinamei answered with a scowl. Her mother opened her mouth to respond until she noticed Hinamei’s crooked tresses. “You’re hair…what the hell happened to it?” Her face suddenly fell angrily and with a tight hand her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red. Before the day started her hair reached the length to well under her mid shoulder, and where as half of it still remained at that length the other half, well… “There’s at least seven inches gone from this side!”

“It’s not my fault Kaa-san,” the small girl replied haughtily, crossing her arms as if a point were to be proven. “It’s-” Of course. Right when she was about to call that little weasel out her mother had to act.

“Hinamei, I don’t want to hear any of your excuses, this is inexcusable.”

“But-” Her mother wouldn’t hear another ridiculous word if it however, instead she took her daughter by the shoulders and sat her in the center of the kitchen. To the younger’s horror her mother pulled out a pair of sharpened scissors and with an angry scowl on her face she took them to her daughters hair, “Don’t do it!” But it was too late, locks of hair fell to the floor.

Come later that evening, after dinner, Hinamei sat on her bed in nothing but an oversized shirt. Her face was red and puffy with tears and her fists were white at the knuckle with rage. When her mother first started cutting her hair she had it at the line where Itachi had cut. It reached her shoulders, that is until her mother cut at an odd angle and sliced it two inches higher than it had been. Her hair was now tucked behind her ears and really, she thought she looked like a boy. Not only that, but it irked her to even think about how now Itachi’s hair was longer than hers. “I swear, I’ll make that jerk pay for this!” She said between sobs, looking out her dark window with narrow eyes. She brought the blankets up to her chin and slid down, hiding underneath the covers shyly. She wanted to get her revenge but frankly, how she could face anyone looking like this was something she didn’t even want to imagine. A knock on her door brought her out of the sudden glum and she turned around just as the light flooded in.

“Hinamei, dear? I have good news.” Her mother stepped into the dark room and knelt by her daughters bed. Hinamei, still hiding under the covers, blinked in response. “You’re father… well, they’ve accepted his offer to be a part of a new squad for the leaf shinobi, today was his first day!” Even in the dark she could tell her mother was just glowing with pride. After a small incident with her father two years ago, he had been let go as a leaf shinobi and since only got by with working small jobs reconstructing houses. It was easy to imagine how happy her mother now was because of this. It finally meant they wouldn’t have to live small paycheck by small paycheck.

“Is he home then?” Slight dissapointment painted her features, but she no sooner replaced it with a reassuring smile.

“I’m afraid not, he won’t be back for three more days. His first mission was a rather big one, but he promised he would come back all in one piece.” Another fake smile, it grew wider. “But when he gets back he’s going to want to hear about how Itachi-kun is doing. I told Mikoto-san you would be back over tomorrow.” Hinamei couldn’t help but exclaim out.

“Kaa-san I can’t! He’s an awful boy, he really us.” Why couldn’t she just listen? But she never did. With a stern look she bent forward and instead she delivered a swift kiss on the girl’s forehead and muttered something along the lines of, ‘I’ll pretend I never heard that.’

“Go to bed now, we’ll walk down there tomorrow afternoon. You’ll need a good night’s rest.” And with one last forced smile, she left the poor child alone in the dark. She turned over and stared at the moon through the window and for once, smiled. It was always so peaceful at night, when she was finally alone and able to think of anything for no matter how long. Maybe, she thought, that’s what sets me apart from Itachi. He seemed so eager to prove himself, to move forward along than anyone else around him. As where Hinamei was completely content to watch the world just pass her by. She couldn’t stand the thought of missing a single moment. That was Itachi’s problem, he was too focused on his future he never stopped to just watch the sky fade or watch the moon float in the sky till the late hours of the morning. Suddenly, a new goal flashed behind her eyes and a sweet smile tinted her cheeks pink. She could show Itachi the light, she could push him to see the world in all it’s beauty.

She knew all he needed was a distraction.

A vessel.

And she would be just that one person who would give it to him.