6 Chapter 6
"So, how old are you again?" Uchiha Shisui asked. He stood in front of his kid cousin and it wasn't Itachi. Said kid cousin had been standing quietly in front of him with a small smile.
"Six," came the reply.
"Right..." Shisui said before drifting in thought. "I remember Itachi saying you were a year younger than him."
No response. His cousin's smile did not waver.
Geez... this kid's creeping me out!
"So," Shisui started and clapped his hands loudly just to see what his cousin's reaction was going to be. Which happened to be nothing at all. "Haru. I hear you graduated the Academy two weeks after joining,"
He got nothing but the continued smile in return. So Shisui continued. "That's got to be a record. You're a genius Haru, you know that?"
"I was dropped when I was a baby," Haru stated in a matter-of-fact way.
Shisui was taken aback. "Was that a joke?"
No reply. Shisui sighed. Time to get a bit more serious, Shisui.
"Hokage-sama has placed you under me until a genin team is found for you," Shisui said and then pointed at his own chest with his thumb. "So, until then, you're stuck with me."
"I understand," Haru replied.
"So, I've got to know, what's it like living with Itachi?"
"What do you mean?" Haru asked.
"Well, what do you guys do?"
"We train a lot, read books, and..." Haru started to list things off.
"Stop!" Shisui put his hand in front of Haru's face.
And, so Haru stopped.
"I mean, what do you guys do for fun?" Shisui clarified.
"Well, Itachi has been busy with his team and mostly preoccupied with Sasuke when at home, but sometimes we eat sweets while watching the stars," Haru answered.
"Stargazing? Really?" Shisui asked incredulously. Then started mumbling to himself. "Well at least that's something I didn't learn about when I tried getting info out of Itachi,"
"Why are you so curious about Itachi?"
"Well," Shisui started. "I'm also curious about you, since I asked about you both,"
"That didn't really answer my question," Haru stated.
"I guess not," Shisui paused thoughtfully. "Itachi's my friend and while we both share a dream, I sometimes worry how his future will look like. That's why I want to find out how good his present is and how to make it even better,"
"You're a good friend then," Haru said.
"So are you from what I've gathered," Shisui said. "Itachi seems very fond of you,"
"Itachi is like a little brother to me," Haru stated. Face still bare of anything but that smile.
Shisui blinked and had to process the words for a moment. When it finally clicked, he doubled over in laughter. He wiped some tears from his eyes. "Man! This guy...!"
After he calmed down a few minutes later he spoke again. "So, Haru, for the next week, you and I are going to do some light sparring. Enough for me to get a handle on your skills. Then, I'll take you on a few missions outside the village. I know you'll get bored out of your mind with the D-ranks once you're assigned to a team. Any questions?"
Haru shook his head and that was that.
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"Hokage-sama," Shisui bowed.
Fugaku looked up from reading an intelligence report on Kumogakure.
"Report," he grunted.
"Hai," Shisui began. "Uchiha Haru is very skilled, which is to be expected seeing as you were the one who trained him."
Shisui went on to provide a detailed evaluation of Haru based on the week he spent with the kid. After a while, Shisui ended up just rambling about this and that.
"Honestly, I think he might be a bit less boring than Itachi," Shisui said uncertainly. "Maybe... I'm not quite sure yet—actually, yeah, I'm totally not sure. I think Haru has a very interesting sense of humour and—"
"Shisui," Fugaku cut the boy off. A bit annoyed at the time taken up by the boy's report. "I have never known my nephew to have a sense of humour. If he said something you thought was funny, he was probably being very serious."
A few seconds of silence fell between the two. Shisui's eyebrows scrunched together.
"So," Shisui began with a bit of uncertainty. "Haru wasn't joking when he said he'd been dropped when he was a baby?"
