The beginning of a great friendship

Itachi keeps looking around for a few seconds, seeing no one he shakes his head and sits back down.

As soon as he sits down another twig hits him, this time from another direction and on his shoulder.

"Huh?" Itachi surveys his surroundings through narrowed eyes.

He doesn't see anything, but this time his suspicions prevent him from sitting back down without further ado. He may not feel any presence around him but he has no doubt someone is watching, mocking him.

Itachi walks to the edge of the stream and grabs some pebbles. He returns to the shade of the tree and sits down, this time with a pebble in his right hand and several in his other hand.

`Do you think you can just make fun of me?` the boy thinks with a frown. `I won't let anyone bully me!` Itachi's eyes gleam with determination.

Bullying, that's what Itachi thinks it is. In his past life he had the misfortune to be the victim of more than one bully. Itachi believes that a ninja is making fun of him, and he doesn't plan to sit idly by!

After a few moments a twig hit him from another direction, and as soon as the twig touched him he threw the pebble with all his might in that direction. The pebble hits a branch.

"Tsk." Itachi clicks his tongue seeing that he missed his target.

The "game" continues for another half hour. Itachi threw all the pebbles he gathered and went for more. Throughout the game the frown faded from Itachi's face and was replaced by a faint smile. The boy didn't want to admit it but he was having a good time, he even started to doubt that this ninja is a bully.

"Nice one!" A voice yells from behind Itachi just after throwing another pebble. "This time you hit the right tree!"

Itachi nearly jumped off his own foot, quickly turning around and seeing someone completely unexpected. The heir didn't think much of the bully's appearance but he didn't expect him to be so young!

The boy in front of Itachi is only a few years older than him, he has short curly black hair and big onyx eyes. Around his eyes were black lines, which extended to the sides of his face, very similar to the ones Itachi himself has. Despite not being much older than Itachi, that boy is much more powerful, as proof of that, the silver of a forehead protector from Konoha shone on the boy's forehead.

`He is not even 10 years old and he is already a ninja. Meanwhile I don't even know how to use my chakra... I have to train harder!`

Oblivious to Itachi's thoughts, the ninja approached him and hit his forehead with his index and middle fingers.

"You think too much." He told him with a cheerful smile. "My name is Uchiha Shisui, chunin extraordinaire of Konoha! Nice to meet ya!"

Itachi was even more confused, the cheerful boy was picking on him (?) until a few minutes ago and now he is in front of him talking happily as if they were friends. However his parents had raised him correctly (the four of them) and he knew it was rude not to respond when someone introduces themself.

"Uchiha Itachi."

Itachi nodded his head slightly and a mischievous smile bloomed on the older boy's face.

"I heard you're a weird kid who doesn't talk to anyone." He says bluntly. "To tell you the truth I've been watching you train here for a while and I don't think you're that weird. Let's be friends!" Shisui extended his right hand.

Itachi was getting more and more confused. That kid shows up out of nowhere, picks on him, confesses that he's been stalking him for a while, and now he wants to be friends? But Shisui's voice is warm, his smile shines brighter than the sun and something in his demeanor draws Itachi like a moth to a light.

Itachi extended his own hand and touching Shisui's hand he felt heat wrap around his palm. Something about Shisui reminds him a lot of someone, someone familiar.

"We will be great friends!" Happily affirms the chunin.

As he gazes at the beaming older boy, Itachi is puzzled by his own behavior in welcoming this strange ninja into his life. But it's a good feeling, the heat spreads in Itachi's chest and the boy knows deep down that this bond will be extremely precious to him.

***

After introducing himself Shisui proceeds to show him the proper technique when throwing anything, from kunai to pebbles ("Wrist movement is essential!", "Power comes from the whole body! From your arm, hip and even feet! This is the easiest rookie position-")

Unfortunately, time passed very quickly and Itachi had to go back home to go shopping with his mother.

"I'm home." Itachi took off his sandals and placed them carefully in the shoe cabinet.

"Welcome Ita-chan!" His mother yelled from upstairs. "Go shower and change, we're leaving in 10 minutes."

"Hai!" Itachi ran to his room which is on the first floor. His parents, on the other hand, sleep on the second floor. Initially, Itachi's room was also on that floor, but a few months ago he changed it to one with beautiful views of the garden. It is also closer to the onsen.

Itachi quickly takes a shower and changes into blue shorts and a gray long-sleeved shirt. He also puts on a white jacket, it's already October and although the temperatures haven't dropped that much yet, the wind is more biting.

In Konoha it only starts to get really cold at the end of November and sometimes it doesn't snow until January. A very nice change, Sweden has a much colder climate and the winters are way longer. Although Iker will not experience that cold (in the hospital the heating is always on) he did experience the lack of light, less than half a day of sunlight was quite unpleasant. Here, even on the shortest days, dusk never comes before 4:30 p.m.

"What are we going to buy?" Asks Itachi again once they are at Konoha's main market. In this area there are several streets full of shops of all kinds, from clothes and accessories to ninja tools.

"In a few days it's someone's birthday, someone very important, we're going to buy presents!" Mikoto answers with a cheerful smile.

`Someone important? An elder of the clan? No, kaa-san wouldn't be so happy. It can't be a political figure either, it has to be some friend.`

"What kind of gifts?"

"I will choose some, and you one." Mikoto still doesn't give her son any clues.

Itachi tries to get more information out of her to no avail.

`How am I supposed to choose a good present if I don't even know if the recipient is male or female?`

Hours pass and Itachi still doesn't know which gift to choose. At first Itachi wanted to observe what his mother buys to find some clue about the birthday person, but Mikoto is too cunning for her son. They passed dozens of shops and the jonin always seemed to come out empty handed, and just as Itachi looked away for a second some shopping bags appeared out of nowhere in her hands. The worst of all is that the bags are generic and do not have the name or logo of the stores. Looking inside also turned out to be useless, the gifts are already wrapped and the wrapping paper says nothing. It's a purple wrapping paper with white patterns, it's pretty but it doesn't give Itachi any clues.

In the end, the boy resigned himself and began to look for options that are acceptable to men and women, regardless of age. Just as they're walking past an artisan candy store, his eyes light up.

`Everyone likes sweets!`

Pulling his mother's hand, he walks to the store.

The store is not very big, and it has several shelves with all kinds of traditional sweets. As Mikoto greets the shop assistant (they seem to know each other), Itachi looks around the store for a nice present. After several minutes of searching he finds a box with samples of various types of sweets, there are even some more bitter options for those who don't like sweet things!

The box costs 5,000 Ryo.

"An adequate price for a birthday present, not cheap but not too expensive either." The boy mutters to himself.

"A box of candy?" Asks Mikoto when he reaches the counter. "It is a good choice." The matriarch ruffles his hair.

The shop assistant cooed over his cuteness when he handed her the box with a serious expression. Mikoto takes out her wallet to pay but Itachi shakes his head.

"It's my gift, I'll pay for it." Itachi takes out his small cat-shaped wallet and takes out the money. This amount is a blow to his savings, but he does not mind. He gets paid 1000 Ryo every week and doesn't have many expenses (sweets, all his money is spent on sweets, especially dango).

The shop assistant and Mikoto coo at him and seem to be melting.

"So cute!" The shop assistant whispers to Mikoto.

"I have the cutest son!" Mikoto answers quietly.

`I can hear you!` Itachi wants to yell at them, but the boy just turns his head, hiding his blush. The women coo him even more.

***

NOTE: Is October, 1 year before Naruto was born. Do you know whose birthday is?