Into the City of Crows

III. Aspirations

Itachi and I weren't friends at first sight.

Don't get me wrong; I didn't really dislike him or anything. Itachi was a good kid, but there was always that wall between us, the burden of my foreknowledge.

The thought had briefly come to mind when I saw Shisui, young and smiling without care. Seeing Itachi as a child drove the fact home- that I'd been born in the same generation as him. In not even a decade the Uchiha clan would fall; and Itachi would slaughter them down to near every man and child.

We knew each other in passing like all Uchiha children tended to do, but I never bothered to take that extra step to try and really get to know him. Many of my cousins, both old and young went out of their way to be friendly with Itachi- and perhaps most of their reasonings were even genuine. He was the clan head's son, but Itachi was a kind child. He was like that one kid in your class, who's good at both sports and studies, and easily becomes friends with everyone.

Barring me. I never failed to be polite to Itachi, but I didn't prefer to prolong our conversations when we occasionally talked. His eyes were always curious and far-seeing whenever I saw them, and I feared that he would find me out, know that I knew the future.

Perhaps I was merely being a paranoid little shit.

Itachi was still a child, genius or not. But I took no chances, and remained a passing acquaintance. I was Shin, that one aloof cousin and nothing more.

Or so I'd thought.

"First day on the job," Shisui said with his ever present grin. "I expected him to ask me of my glorious achievements and to teach him the secrets of the world, but he didn't."

Shisui had been assigned as Itachi's guardian of sorts, following his exceptional results at the academy. It is a position of the highest honor, a mark of the clan head's favour.

It was sometime around afternoon. Shisui and I were skipping rocks accross the bank of the Naka river in the waning yellow light. I threw with as much force I could, yet my throws didn't even pass halfway through the bend. Shisui's ones smoothly parted the river surface, skimming accross the top to reach the other side.

"Well, what did you two talk about, then?" I asked to keep the conversation going, while observing Shisui's wrist movement.

"You."

"I see- wait, what?"

"Itachi asked me about you, my boring, grumpy yet undeniably cute little cousin."

"Huh."

"He says you're different from the others."

"Different as in, not as much of a suck up?" I grumbled. Was that the reverse psychology thing my sister used to harp on about? Playing hard to get?

Shisui laughed, and ruffled my hair.

"I knew I was a good influence on you!"

He was. Without his exemplary academic records, most people would take one look at Shisui and declare him a delinquent. Never one for the rules, be it drawing graffiti on the walls of the military police headquarters, or using the ornamental cherry blossom trees in kunai and shuriken-throwing practice.

Shisui often got away with his misdeeds though. I think Lord Fugaku was rather fond of him, in an exasperated sort of way. I remember seeing him reprimanding Shisui for leaving muddy footprints on some random civillian's walls as a result of his wall-walking escapades, but there was never any heat in his words. I could've sworn his lips curled up once or twice, supressing a smile.

Shisui streched lightly, and then got up.

"Hm, I've got some stuff to do; training, homework and all that. I'll catch up with you some other day, okay cuz?"

"Sure. See ya later, Shisui-nii."

He turned around, towards the housing areas of the Uchiha. Much like myself, Shisui wore one of those high collared shirts, his being a deep blue where mine was more on the grey side. But that was not the only difference.

There was a massive red and white fan proudly stretched out across his back.

With a jaunty wave, Shisui disappeared into thin air, the only signs of his prior presence being a cluster of leaves slowly floating down.

I sat for a while more at the riverbank, listening to the strangely calming sounds of the river rushing through to the east.

Shisui was only seven years old, I thought. Yet here he was, already flitting around in the wind with his shunshin even before graduating from the academy. That fan on his back? That's a statement, the mark of an Uchiha ninja who had come of age in the eyes of the clan.

Shisui can do the Katon: Goukayu no Jutsu.

Me? I still haven't trained a single day in my life. I'm due to begin the academy next year, when I turn five. My dad also didn't seem to have any inclination to teach his four year old son how to kill either. I was mostly left to my own devices, as dad was busy running missions and generally relaxing when he was home. The sheer amount of freedom I'd been allowed was one of the reasons I loved him even more.

I watched one of the leaves from Shisui's shunshin make their way down to the river, getting swept away in the current.

Would I be swept away too? Would my presence really change anything, in the grand scheme of things?

Did I even need to change anything?

The answer to the final question at least, was clear.

Yes.

I didn't want to die. Not again. Life in Konoha wasn't that bad, even though war ran rampant beyond its great walls. Events were already shaping up behind the curtains; there were lies being told and games being played while I sat and idly breathed in the mid-autumn air.

I needed to get stronger. The clock was ticking, and I did not wish to end up as another corpse rotting on the streets of the Uchiha district when time ran out.

Slowly, I picked up one of the many pebbles littering the riverbank. It was white and smooth, worn down by the rushing stream. I weighed it in my palm and then shifted back my shoulders. I thought back to how Shisui had twisted his wrists, and then I did the same.

I breathed. I threw.

.

The rock skipped over to the other side.

.

.

AN: Busy college life equals shitty writing scedules. . .