Not so imaginary

iii.

Little Haruno Sakura stares blankly at the offered hand of the new older boy. He introduces himself as Uchiha Shisui but Sakura has seen Uchihas, and Uchihas does not act like him. He's weird—He makes jokes, ruffles her hair fondly, and even offers a hand to shake hers. He's genuinely friendly and it's a scary thought because Sakura has seen how a typical Uchiha acts—snobbish and prideful—, she has heard the ongoing rumours around the market about Uchihas and their demonic eyes—but Shisui doesn't act like that and she already knows she will enjoy his company—even though she already dislikes his lectures.

Sakura grabs for his hand and shakes it. Her frown from before drops to a smile— her mother has taught her manners after all and when someone introduces themself, she should do the same. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I am 5-years-old." She bows prettily and he chuckles and ruffles her pink hair.  She pouts— the girls at the playground already tease her hair colour (said it was an ugly colour) but if they ever saw how messy her hair is now, there's no doubt that Sakura would be a victim to even more teasing.

"Gosh, you're cute," Shisui says and with these words, little Sakura blushes, and her anger towards him for ruffling her hair is short-lived. It doesn't matter anyway because this boy thinks she's cute! An Uchiha thinks she's cute! 

Beside her, Sakura could hear her imaginary friend scoffed. She ignores him. She knows if it is important he will eventually tell her. And if he doesn't, Sakura knows she can always ask him about it — he always answers all her questions honestly.

"Sakura-chan," Shisui calls, and Sakura snapped her gaze back to the boy who calls her cute. Yes, she is not going to live that down.  "5 years old girls shouldn't practice tree walking all alone. You could have hurt yourself. Where did you learn how to do that anyway?"

Sakura once again sneaks a peek at Tobirama— there was an unreadable look in his eyes before he blinks once more and they're gone— he shakes his head and Sakura understands. It will remain a secret between them

"I love reading and recently I've been interested in shinobi arts! Did you know Konoha's library holds approximately twelve thou-sand seven hun-dred and sixty-four books regarding shinobi arts? And that actually the library was built by Shodaime-sama with his mokuton and—"

"Sakura-chan, while I'm enlightened to learn more about the library," Sakura scowls at his interruption and Shisui puts his hands up in defence, " I really am," He assures her, "But you're telling me that you learn this from a book?" 

"Yes," Sakura nods her head and Shisui gawks.

"You are from a civilian clan?"

Sakura nods her head again and Shisui lets out a prolonged whistle of astonishment. His eyes then narrowed and he starts pacing back and forth mumbling something underneath his breath. Sakura sends Tobi a look. She wonders if she has wrongly judge Shisui's character and if she should actually avoid him. He seems weird enough. Tobi shakes his head. 

Fine, Sakura will stay with the weird boy who calls her cute.

The boy finally stops pacing, and his eyes meet hers. "Are you planning to enter the academy?"

Sakura shrugs her shoulder. She is interested to pursue shinobi arts eventually, but she has not discussed it with Tobi or her parents yet. "Maybe," She offers him and he nods. She does not miss Tobi's calculative gaze.

"Tell you what kid, if you decide to enter the academy, find me and I'll show you a trick or two." Shisui grins and ruffles her hair. She snorts but nods her head. She doubts she would need him when she has Tobi with her. But this time, it seems her judgement was wrong because in a flash, he was gone and there was no sign of him anywhere. He was as quick at leaving as he was when he arrived.