Acquiring Sentence (discontinued)

Acquaintance

Blinking, Shiru set her cup of tea down, "well you have no games apart from an antique version of shogi that we're not even going to look at."

Shiru held out her hands, palms up, "We'll play the slap game."

"The slap game?" Itachi repeated, staring at Shiru dryly.

"Mhm, you start off soft at first but you gradually increase how hard you hit and the one who pulls away first is the loser," Shiru explained, motioning for Itachi to extend his arms.

The Uchiha heir sighed but did so, "so we just hit one another? How is that a fun game?"

"Because you get to see the other in pain," Shiru retorted in a sarcastic tone.

Itachi rolled his eyes and brought his hands down to lightly brush against Shiru's, Shiru did the same but with a bit more force and it continued from there as they casually chatted, wincing every once in a while.

"So you have absolutely no games apart from that ancient shogi board?" Shiru asked, slapping her hands down onto Itachi's.

"No, I read and train instead," Itachi replied, wincing at the force of Shiru's hands hitting his.

He brought his own hands down on hers harshly electing a squeak from her, "Okay but that's really boring and unhealthy."

Itachi shrugged, bracing himself for Shiru's hands to make contact with his, "I don't find it boring."

"You should," she responded dryly as she smacked Itachi's hand again and he winced.

Itachi rammed his hands down on Shiru's, frowning at the sound it elected, "What is the appeal to this game again?"

"Explaining isn't my duty, read it up- you know what, don't. Ask any Nara who isn't me, I don't need you sticking your nose in those books again," she snorted and jammed her hand into the Uchiha's yet again.

Itachi wrinkled his nose as Shiru gave a sigh, "Shiru are you getting bored?"

"Sort of, let's spice this game up," Shiru replied, grinning up at Itachi like he hadn't just slapped her hands silly, "You pull away from being slapped you have to answer one question, if you answer true you're safe, you answer false and you get a slap in the face, deal?"

Itachi blinked and stared at her oddly, "No, not a deal?"

"To bad!" Shiru cackled, throwing her hands onto the Uchiha's.

-

Shiru did not win, Shiru did not answer truthfully, Itachi wouldn't hit her no matter how many time she asked him to do so.

Itachi would never hit her.

-

When Shisui Uchiha bounded through the door Shiru felt disappointed when he bound over to Itachi. The boy ruffled Itachi's hair and then turned to Shiru with a smile, a protective smile.

"So you're Itachi's friend? I wasn't expecting a girl to be in the academy early, let alone a Nara!" Shisui said it with a laugh but Shiru was unimpressed.

"That's sexism and clan affairs wrapped by a very thin rope Uchiha-san, maybe you shouldn't greet someone like you just did?"

Shisui's eyebrows rose and he glanced at Itachi who smirked at him, "Shiru likes to speak her mind."

Shisui grinned back at Itachi but narrowed his eyes at Shiru, something wasn't right about this friendship, and he planned to din out exactly what it was.

Poor Shisui didn't realize that the friendship between Itachi and Shisui was near perfect, he was simply jealous.

-

Fugaku never made it home that night.

Shiru offered Itachi dinner the next night, he had agreed.

It became routine that they would eat dinner at Itachi's and then eat dinner at Shiru's.

Shisui always tried to wriggle into the two's plans whenever he could, though Itachi and Shiru would almost always stop him from doing so.

-

Six year old Shiru lazily watched Itachi receive his hitai and glanced up at the examiner that gave one to her.

They had passed at the age of six. They were both prodigies, or maybe Shiru had only passed because Itachi had threatened her to pass or else.

They weren't on the same teams but that didn't stop them from hanging around each other.

-

It was during the chunin exams did things start to change.

Shiru's team wasn't prepared for the exams, they had passed the first part perfectly but at the second part... you needed a full team to pass. Only two made it out of the exam alive and the second one collapsed a day later dead.

Shiru had lost her teammates on her first chunin exams, but she felt no remorse despite watching them die. She still let Itachi, newly promoted to chunin, hold her as though she needed to be reassured everything was fine.

The team that killed her teammates was never seen leaving Suna, the place the chunin exams were being held.

No one questioned why they were never found.

- - -

As Itachi progressed Shiru did not, she wallowed away at a desk job for ninja and glared at her sensei every time she saw him. She was at a damned desk job because he couldn't be bothered to teach her.

Itachi would always visit, always give her something to cheer up her day, always promise that once he made jounin he would take her on as his student and get her promoted to the same level he was at, the level she was supposed to be.

It was sweet on his part, and Shiru would always smile in a casual way to try and show she was fine, even if she wanted to be out on the fields.

-

Eleven year old Shiru got out on the fields.

A simple tracker mission with a group of two other genin she didn't know.

It turned from a C-rank to an A-rank within a second and the jounin shoved herself in front of the other two genin leaving Shiru exposed.

She was exposed and two chunin were rushing her and she hadn't been out on the field in months and yet-

She laughed as she killed them, none of the others on her team heard her laugh.

The returned to Konoha and Shiru was promoted to chunin, no one asked why she wasn't taking the exams.

Itachi had celebrated with her. Shisui was there as well, for some reason or another, maybe it was because of the course of the few years Shiru and Shisui had grown closer.

-

For a while Shiru was happy, she was a chunin allowed out on the field, for a bit she was fine.

Then it all came spiraling down around her.