A Day at the Academy

15 years ago...

"Itachi, Itachi!" The little girl giggled out, running around in the Uchiha Compound. Her long, wavy blonde hair flew in the wind as the clan looked over curiously at the loud child, all recognizing her by this point as the prodigy's friend. When she arrived, panting, at one of the largest house in the neighbourhood, Mikoto blinked and appraised the girl, smiling. "Hanako, you're here early." There was still two hours before Academy started. Hanako straightened up and grinned toothily at the older lady.

"Well, Itachi promised to help me a little bit before school started!" She said eagerly, peaking around for the dark haired boy. The girl looked so excited that Mikoto couldn't help but laugh.

"What's all this - oh." Fugaku stepped out, narrowing his eyes slightly at the tiny thing in front of him. So this is her, Hanako Hyuga. As a major clan player, he heard about the Hyuga's odd duckling and as a father, this must have been Itachi's little friend. "You must be Hanako Hyuga."

She blinked, her pupiless black eyes staring up at the stern looking man carefully...before a grin broke across her face. "Yup! That's me!" Then her attention was caught elsewhere and an even wider grin spread on her lips. "Hey, Itachi! Over here!"

"Are you always this loud in the morning?" He asked, but somehow, he said this without sounding offensive. She bit her lip, staring at him for a second too long before shrugging. Trust a five year old to have an attention span of less than a fly.

"Come on, let's go out to the clearing!" And to the parent's shock, this brave little child easily took a surprised Uchiha's hand in hers and darted to the fringes, waving back at the parents enthusiastically, leaving the two adults both mystified and horrified.

Horrified, why?

Because Itachi was smiling.

Who is this girl?

0-0

She was sitting cross-legged on the bench, whispering to Itachi in class about something and every once in awhile, a smile would perk up on her lip and that one dimple would appear and he would be momentarily distracted. "Hanako, pay attention! And stop corrupting the best student!" Sensei Ushiro shouted, a vein pulsing at his temple.

Her eyes slit as she turned to him and resisted the urge to stick out her tongue. She wanted to argue back that you can't have a one-sided conversation but she didn't want to get Itachi in trouble...not that he would, anyway. "Favouritism," she muttered. Meanwhile, Irahime was concealing her little giggle. Hanako slumped down onto the desk, her blonde hair spreading around her. She stirred in her seat, bored as the sensei explained the art of...eh, who cares. So instead Hanako played with the pencil in her hands...only for it to go flying across the room.

"Hanako!"

"Sorry!"

"This is the last straw, or else you're out!"

"Fine!"

"In fact, sit right in front of me and don't do anything." Sensei said and the class laughed at her, whispering about how Ushiro deserved it for allowing a five year old to enter the academy. With a melodramatic groan, Hanako grabbed all her stuff, wiggled her fingers at Itachi and moved to the seat next to Irahime. "Hi."

"Hmph." The other Hyuga girl said, turning away. "I will not let you distract me." It was as if Hanako was the Epitome of Troublemaking to her.

"Well." Hanako said rather bitterly and turned back to the sensei, who was informing the class of their practice spar. This, Hanako found interesting.

Now, despite the fact that they were pretty early into the year, Itachi Uchiha was already known as one of the best, and...well, people were already giggling over him. So when Ushiro said 'partner' and the distance from Hanako to Itachi gave others the confidence to move in on him like an animal.

"Itachi!"

"Be my partner, please!"

"Come on, I swear I won't drag you down!"

"Please, Itachi? My mom would be so proud!"

"Itachi!" "Itachi!" "Itachi!"

By the time Hanako could even turn around, there was already a crowd of girls that will grow up to become fangirls around her friend. Cue eye twitch.

In the end, Hanako couldn't be paired up with her only comrade so she gingerly turned to Irahime instead, who sat straight in her seat and hands on the table like an annoyingly perfect student. Slight twinge of envy, but Hanako sighed. Father would want me to be friends with her. And seeing that nobody wanted to partner up with the intimidating Hyuga, Hanako went up to her with an expectant smile. "Partners?"

"No thank you."

That eye twitch was going to get chronic by this rate.

"I don't see anybody else willing to be with you." Hanako stated. The other girl looked down, and quietly, she muttered, "Fine."

0-0

"When the spar is over, both participants make the symbol of 'combat' and lock their fingers together, to make the symbol of 'harmony' to acknowledge that they are still comrades. This is all part of the proper etiquette for a shinobi spar." Sensei Ushiro explained once they were outside. Hanako exchanged a glance all the way back at Itachi at the word 'comrade' as if it was a secret joke, and he smiled slightly.

"Well who wants to -"

"Me, me! Um...us!"

"Calm down, Hanako," Ushiro sighed, not surprised that the feisty blonde wanted to start fighting first. So the two opposite Hyugas stood in the middle, as everyone watched the two make the symbol of combat. Hanako's eyes were black as night but bright as ever. Irahime was mature and composed as always, a rare and admirable trait for someone so young.

"And...start!"

Hanako, the child whose father taught her shadow clone at such a young age, forgot about ninjutsu completely and decided to face the Hyuga girl with taijutsu.

This was an interesting battle. Two child near-prodigies of the same clan against each other. Jonin at the standby station had caught sight of this and appeared just as the two girls raised their hand up carefully. Already, they were able to perform the gentle fist.

"Well what do you expect from the Hyuga clan," Shikaku Nara said with a smirk on his face. The blonde man beside him nodded, waiting for the two girls to make a move. Their hands glowed a similar blue, and Irahime decided to wait for Hanako to wait for the first move so that she could deflect it and use the moment to -

Inoichi Yamanaka's eyes widen as the blonde girl moved at a speed more than impressive for her age. Before Irahime could even move to protect herself, Hanako moved in front of her, took a step, turned around and got behind her and used the Gentle Fist to strike her right behind the neck.

For a girl with no Byakugan, she was pretty damn close.

Irahime froze, her colourless eyes wide with shock as she fell to her knees. Hanako looked down, grinned but there was no way a Hyuga was going down without a fight. The dark-haired girl's eyes narrow and she grunted and kicked Hanako rather ungracefully on the knee, but successfully making her opponent stumble.

Screw skill or lineage or kekkei genkai. Too caught up in childish fight, they were simply rolling over each other, throwing punches - that were impressively not at all sloppy - until Ushiro stepped in. "Alright, alright! It's a draw."

Shikaku couldn't help but hide his grin.

"That's not fair!" Hanako cried out, finally managing to pin the other girl down. "I could've won!" But despite her claim, both girls were red and probably going to have bruises...but it was clear. Irahime had it worse. And the jonins and sensei knew that Hanako was right.

"Get off me!" Irahime shouted, throwing off the other girl and Hanako allowed herself to get pushed off. She blew the hair from her face, glowering as Irahime dusted off herself and gave her a glare over her shoulder.

"I hate your soul." Hanako whispered.

"What?" A hand was in front of her.

"Nothing." She said as she accepted the help from the blonde man.

It was an Inuzuka girl that volunteered to go next. All though she was composed as Itachi was, Hana Inuzuka generally got along well with Hanako - what with their similar name and Hanako's obsession with her ninken. As Hana and Hanako were friends, it only made sense for Itachi to chose her over the other fangirls. Hanako straightened up, eyes sparkling as she took in the three dogs.

Now this was also an interesting battle. A sole little boy, against a girl with three grey dogs. They weren't huge...yet but to the children, it was still a four against one battle. "Alright, begin!"

Itachi's eyes scanned through the three dogs and then he closed his eyes. He didn't hate dogs, but he knew he had to get them out of the way. As soon as they made the signs of combat, Hana unleashed her ninken on them - only for Itachi to disappear.

In the next moment, the three dogs were whimpering and kicked down a good ten feet away from their partner. Hana froze, her dark eyes wide. "No!" She cried out for her injured dogs, and ran towards them, only for Itachi to stand in front of her...and stop.

He sighed.

"I don't want to hit a girl."

He turned back to the dogs and winced.

"I'm sorry." He bowed down to a paralyzed Hana, who did not understand at all what Itachi was doing. Itachi Uchiha was just not the arrogant type that would hit both animals and a girl the same day. He could have clearly won but... "I suppose that's another draw."

The jonins exchanged a glance and they thought the same thing: These two draws were unnecessary. The winner was clear in both.

0-0

During the break, the little Hyuga girl was lying on her stomach in the playground, intently focused on a drawing in front of her. Sensei Ushiro couldn't help but smile at seeing the usual frisky blonde girl looking so young as she scribbled and coloured away like a child should be at her age. Colouring - normal. Jonin-level techniques: not normal. He bent down. "What are you drawing there, Hanako?"

She blinked and looked up at him, clearly contemplating whether or not to show it to him. Her eyes narrowed...and then she grinned and flipped up onto her knees and shoved the picture in his face. His eyebrows raised. "It's my future ANBU mask!" She explained proudly. It was a cat-shaped mask, not too badly drawn too. An idea popped into his head.

"Can I borrow this for a second?" He asked and she frowned at him, thinking.

"...ooookay," she agreed and gave him the picture. He went to his desk and began working away on it and in a few minutes, Hanako skipped to his desk and peaked over his shoulder but he was already done. "Close your eyes," he told her and she did obediently, to his surprise. He tied the string to the back of her head and she burst with giggles when she realized that her sensei made her a mask. "Thanks, sensei!" She exclaimed genuinely happy and hugged him, "I'm going to show Itachi!"

Show was a loose term, as instead she fly-tackled the boy down. Sure, he sensed her coming but he decided not to burst her bubble and allowed her to crash into him. She got lost in a fit of giggles as she pinned him down. "Itachi Uchiha! You are arrested for hurting those pups!" She declared, poorly disguising her voice.

"Hi, Hanako." He simply said, a small smile on his face.

Even behind a mask, it was so clear that her face fell along with her excitement. "How did you tell?" She pouted, taking off the mask. She was still on top of him so he raised his arms and played with a white blonde lock. "Your hair."

"Right," she said softly, slowly realizing her obvious trademark, and then snapped her fingers. "Maybe I should dye it -"

"No!" Itachi shot up, surprising himself and Hanako fell off of him. She wasn't hurt, but was just shocked that the usually controlled Uchiha had made an unplanned outburst. She laughed. Hanako was usually the one without a filter from her thoughts to words and actions, not him. But Itachi was still staring at her with his gentle black eyes, never breaking her gaze. "I like it."

A lot.

Hello! Here's a little extra! I wanted to write something during their younger happier days...so eh, why not? I was so tired of writing sad scenes, although I just finished The Story of Rei Yukimora (A SasukexOC fanfic, if y'all are interested!) and decided to write this up :)

I hope you enjoyed! Leave a review and tell me if you like things like this, maybe I'll write more?

Any good Itachi fanfics you want to reccomend? Even if it's your own? As long as its not ItachixSakura...I'm not a very huge fan of her, lol.

But this, officially, conclude my little story.

Thank you all for reading!