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chapter nine

"Only those who care about you can hear you when you're quiet."

Unknown

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"DAMN YOU 'TACHI-NII-CHAN!" Naruto said, running up a tree and away.

Itachi chuckled from his position, hidden behind a bush. He still had a clear view of what was going on, but Naruto was It, and he ran in the other direction. Itachi was safe. He had tricked Naruto into thinking that a Shadow Clone was him. Sasuke and his two best friends, Sakura and Naruto were playing hide and seek with Itachi. The older boy was unsure how he was coerced into playing hide and seek with them, but here he was.

Naruto and Sakura were adorable, and Itachi liked them. Naruto was cute, and his personality was playful. He could lead Sakura and Sasuke on some grand adventure in the backyard any time. He was a bit stubborn, like Aunt Kushina.

Sakura was more agreeable, and respectfully did as Itachi asked. If they were being too loud, Sakura forced the boys to take it down a notch so Itachi could sleep. She was the boss of the group, and she liked Itachi, so now Itachi could get Sasuke to do anything. Itachi liked teasing Sasuke about Sakura-chan, mentioning her being his girlfriend and so on. But Sakura never showed any romantic attachment to Sasuke. Which was strange, but Itachi never said anything about it. He did know that his brother liked Sakura-chan. Sasuke was just too young to know what that meant.

Itachi often wondered where she came from. Naruto and Sasuke said they met her at the Academy, but Itachi knew that was a lie. Naruto and Sasuke had started talking about someone named Sakura-chan since they first started talking. Some days them and Kakashi would disappear for hours, and Itachi never knew where they went. And then they started bringing her over before the Academy even started.

Soon, Sasuke and Naruto started telling Itachi in detail stories about the time they first met. It was so precise, Itachi couldn't help but question himself. He could almost see the memories they were trying to feed him take hold in his mind. His mind was adopting their stories as reality. It was a marvelous trick, but Itachi was too clever. He weeded out all the false memories and recovered the other ones. He often checked his own memories to see if they matched up with the story, and found they were lying. Again, he never said anything about it.

Itachi wondered if they were trying to rewrite his memories by telling him lies.

Then he shook his head. They were eight, for Kami's sake.

While assessing the kids' skills, he was shocked to realize that all three of them were prodigy material. Itachi still couldn't figure out how all three eight year olds knew how to walk on trees and water. They said those were the only jutsu they knew, but he knew they also liked to use Shadow Clones. They could run like ninja, despite their height.

That was when Itachi started taking them more seriously. They were adorable, yes, but they were prodigies. And Sasuke was trying to rewrite his memories. They weren't innocent little children. Not only that, but there was one time that Sasuke disappeared for two days. Naruto convinced him that Sasuke was okay, but he never said anything regarding the location. Sasuke, also, never breathed a word about where he went.

Needless to say, Itachi kept a closer eye on his brother.

Itachi didn't think the kids were bad, they absolutely weren't. But they were prodigies. Until Itachi talked and got the truth from them, there would always be some suspicion. The most suspicion would be placed on Sasuke. He always seems to be lying to Itachi. The other two didn't, as if they felt ashamed of themselves for lying to him, but Sasuke lied through his teeth with no remorse.