The Test:
"Now, if you will return to your seats, please?"

Kimiko rolled her eyes, but obeyed nonetheless. Shisui sat back down next to Itachi, who looked up at him worriedly.

"Are you all right, Shisui-san?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure, fine. Now shush," Shisui added, as Hizashi glared in their direction. Kimiko had been just as at fault as Shisui, so why couldn't Hizashi-sensei glare at her too? He hadn't even made eye contact with her once yet.

"As you have probably surmised already," Hizashi went on, "I have been appointed as your team's mentor…that is, if you pass the second test."

Shisui had already known about the second test, but he tried to look surprised anyway. Itachi didn't even bother. Kimiko had not known, apparently, and protested loudly, which only served to remind Shisui of how much he hadn't wanted her on his team in the first place. Hizashi ignored her.

"Please pay attention," Hizashi continued. "I have hidden something extremely valuable somewhere in the village. Your objective is to find it; and the last one to do so will be returned to the academy…as will anyone else who fails to find it. You could potentially all fail."

"But that's not fair!" Kimiko whined.

"For a shinobi, not being fair is the point, Kimiko-sama," Hizashi said calmly, although Shisui noticed that he still avoided looking at her eyes. "You have three hours. Go on now!" he said, making a shooing motion towards the door.

Shisui sighed and slumped down in his chair as Kimiko stormed out of the room. Itachi looked back and forth between Shisui and the door. "Shisui-san, aren't you going?"

"What? No!" Shisui replied. "This is a free pass out of this crazy mess and away from her."

"But—"

"And don't call me Shisui-san, okay? Go on, and wake me up when you get back." He gave Itachi a gentle nudge in the direction of the door, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

He quickly opened them when a fist-sized ball of water splattered across his face. Itachi was perched on the desk, forming the seals for another water jutsu. Shisui ducked, and the water splashed onto the floor behind him.

"Shisui-san, let's go."

"Okay, you win," Shisui conceded, following Itachi out the door. Sometimes he had been laughed at by the other kids because he let Itachi boss him around, but considering that the only thing Shisui had over Itachi right now was the fact that his chakra networks were fully developed while Itachi's weren't, he had figured that he had better get used to it. Itachi usually had pretty good plans, anyway.

Once they got outside, Kimiko was nowhere to be seen. However, her chakra trail lead away from the building, and by how thinly it was stretched, she must have been running. "She doesn't have any idea," Shisui remarked.

Itachi looked up at him curiously. "What makes you say that, Shisui-san?"

"She wouldn't be in such a rush if she knew where she was going. You have any ideas?"

"He would have put it somewhere where either there would be no witnesses to give any clues, or everyone would be in on it," Itachi began. "Also, by how confident he seemed that we would be unable to find it, it is something very familiar to him, possibly hidden in 'plain sight'."

"And people wonder why I keep you around…" Shisui teased. "Well, going by that, I'd say we should try the Hyuuga compound. That does give Kimiko a bit of an advantage, though."

"Hizashi-sensei would not have been apprised of the identity of his team members very far in advance," Itachi pointed out as they hurried in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. "He likely would have already set up the test before learning who would be taking it."

The gates of the compound were open, but Shisui and Itachi got a lot of funny looks as they entered. The Hyuuga and the Uchiha, being the only two doujutsu-possessing clans in the village, never got on very well. Their rivalry was mostly unspoken; children glaring at each other across a classroom, or their older counterparts pettily trying to undermine each other. All in all, it was unpleasant, but only rarely ended with violence.

"Okay," Shisui said, ignoring the fact that he and Itachi were in the middle of an intersection as he stopped to look around. "We're here. So, what would be important to Hizashi-sensei?"

"Does he have any children?" Itachi inquired.

Shisui started to reply, then stopped. "And that," he said, "is why everybody says you're a genius. Let's go!"

When the brother of the Hyuuga clan head had a child, that was the sort of thing that got an announcement in the newspaper. 'Hyuuga Neji, born July 3rd, 7.8 lb, 17 inches.'

Shisui wouldn't have remembered that, except that had happened to be in the morning paper the day after he first gained his Sharingan, two years ago. He had actually memorized the whole paper, and been the go-to person for sports statistics in the Academy for the next week.

The question was, where did the Hyuuga clan generally put its two-year-old children? And also, where was Kimiko, and had she thought of this yet?

The answer to his last question was apparently 'no', as there was no sign of the girl, to Shisui's great relief.

The answer to the first question was 'in a sandbox'. Shisui presumed that this was not a permanent storage area, however. In any case, Neji (he was very helpfully wearing a bib with his name on it) was currently sitting in a sandbox, pushing a bright blue toy cart over the lumpy surface.

"So…are we just supposed to grab him, or something?" Shisui wondered aloud. "Somehow I don't think the rest of the Hyuuga are going to take that very well."

"I don't think there is any other way," Itachi pointed out. "He is too young to follow instruction."

"Well, here goes then…cover me if the Hyuuga start freaking out, okay?"

Neji stiffened in surprise as Shisui scooped him up, brushing some of the sand off his outfit before gathering him into his arms. Shisui winced as Neji opened his mouth to wail, but just then Itachi handed Neji the toy he had been playing with and the toddler fell silent.

"Great, that's half the test right there. Come on, let's get back."

"What are you doing with my relative, Uchiha?" a familiar voice shouted behind Shisui, and he regretted having relaxed so soon.

[A/N: I just remembered this fic, realized it was adorable, and finished this partial chapter. I hope you like it!]