Prologue

Onyx and Ivory.

"Remember to listen to your Sensei."

"I know." A young girl, with long dark hair pulled up into a ponytail replied to her ever worrisome mother. Her tone was flat and bored, as if she had heard the same line again and again, which she had, seven times.

"And pay attention to everything, you don't want to miss out on learning the techniques." Her father, strikingly similar in looks to his daughter, commented as he pointed his finger at her.

"Yes, Otou-san." She nodded swiftly. Her shining silver eyes darted from her father and mother and then to the other children who stood eagerly in line, waiting to be brought into the Shinobi Academy for their first day. Her eyes drifted to other parents around her, who she noticed were staring at her family with hate filled gazes. She lowered her gaze as she felt her mother crouch down in front of her.

"Don't mind them, Hoshiko-chan." Her mother tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear as she kissed her on the forehead. Her mothers kind brown eyes met hers for a moment before Hoshiko blinked away unshed tears.

"I know." She muttered quietly. There was a commotion behind Hoshiko as she turned and saw the Sandaime Hokage approach the children. Hoshiko knew that it was now her time to leave the safety of her parents embrace. She felt the tears sting her eyes but she held them back. Her mother quickly hugged her tightly.

"Be good, and have fun." She said to her. Hoshiko looked up at her father, with the same matching silver eyes as her as he grinned and ruffled her hair. Hoshiko returned his smile as she hurriedly made her way into the line with the other children. Hoshiko tried to ignore the whispers that she heard behind her back;

"Why did the Sandaime let her into the academy?"

"They have no right to be Shinobi of Konoha."

"Their clan was a good for nothing nuisance, pity they didn't get wiped out with the rest."

Hoshiko continued to feel the sting of tears behind her eyes but she hastily sucked in a deep breath and paid attention to the Hokage before her. Something drew her eyesight as she glanced to her left. To her surprise a young boy was staring at her curiously. He was small, with raven locks hanging over his face and equally dark eyes. Hoshiko felt her face flush with embarrassment, knowing that the boy had heard the people talking before as she turned her face away and stared at the ground intensely.

X

"Welcome to your first year as Academy students!" The pudgy man exclaimed to his wide-eyed class with his arms extended out. "I am Inoue-sensei and will be your sensei for the remainder of the year." Inoue's dark eyes scanned the room, seeing all the young faces, some familiar as he had close ties with most of the families in Konoha, but a few escaped him.

"Firstly, we will go through some introductions. When I point to you, please stand up and introduce yourself to the class." Inoue pointed to the first few children who stood up excitedly. They happily shouted their names to the other students as Inoue pointed to a boy with dark hair and eyes.

"My name is Uchiha Itachi." He said quietly. There was a silence in the room before a few of the girls starting whispering together and gushing over him. Itachi sat back down in his chair and turned his head to face the window as he gazed at the trees and birds outside.

"And you?" Inoue pointed to the lone girl sitting at the back of the class with her head slightly lowered. Her dark hair was drawn around her face as she lifted her silver eyes and scanned the group of children who were now staring at her with weary and curious gazes.

Hoshiko rose slowly as she cleared her throat. "Ginyoru Hoshiko."

Inoue tried to hide his surprise as he studied the small child as she sat back down and folded her arms in front of herself. Hoshiko hated when people stared at her, she knew that she looked different. Her eyes were weird and she was impeccably small. The adults of the village always looked at her family in scorn and when she played at the park parents would always make a point to have their children stay away from her. She knew that it was something to do with her family, her parents had told her that they had come from another village when their clan had been wiped out during the Third Shinobi War. They had been deemed too dangerous but Hoshiko had never been able to figure out why. It must've been something terrible for the Konoha villagers to avoid her family like the plague. Hoshiko sighed as she tried to concentrate on her teacher but she didn't have the energy, all she wanted to do was go back home and spend time with her parents.

During their lunch break Hoshiko wondered around the academy, she was petrified to go up to anyone and ask to join them so she settled for observing the other children. She could already see that clicks were being made with her classmates as they all eyed her wearily as she passed them by. She lowered her gaze and shuffled her feet to the edge of the field where she leaned against the wire fence and sighed heavily.

A few children ran past her as she glanced up, watching them hover around the boy who had introduced himself as Uchiha Itachi. Hoshiko saw the girls her age start squealing around him and asking him questions as Itachi gave them all a blank stare and walked off; the herd of girls not too far behind.

X

When the Academy day had finished Hoshiko was the last one to leave the classroom, she waited until all of the children had rushed out of the room before she even decided to move from her chair. Inoue had given her a long look before leaving the room. Hoshiko sighed as she rose from her chair and walked down the stairs and exited the room. She wondered what was so special about Uchiha Itachi? He was quiet like her, he had only spoken once during the day, which had been stating his name…and yet everyone wanted to be his friend. Well, the girls did anyway. Hoshiko had noticed that the boys grumbled whenever he came close to them. Hoshiko thought about the Uchiha's. She hadn't had any dealings with them since she could remember, but she had heard about them. They were supposed to be one of the, if not the most strongest clan in the village.

Hoshiko exited the Academy and gazed up at the setting sun, the sky had turned into a burning orange as she headed in the direction of her home. It was a short walk, her small home was in the market district of Konoha, above a dango store. Hoshiko pulled the door open and ascended the stairs sluggishly as she could hear her mother preparing dinner in the kitchen. Her father was seated in the family room reading a book. The both of them glanced up with excited faces.

"How was your first day, darling?" Hiroka asked her daughter.

Hoshiko didn't meet her gaze and kept her head hung down. "Fine," she replied monotonously.

"Did you make any friends?" Her mother pressed as Hoshiko walked straight passed the both of them and in the direction of her small room.

"No." She admitted. Hiroka and Kisho exchanged worried glances as they heard her bedroom door shut.

"I don't want to fight that freak!"

The finger that was pointed in Hoshiko's face annoyed her. She glared at the boy who had been the bane of her existence for the past three months at the academy. His name was Kamano and he always whined and complained and bullied Hoshiko on a daily basis. He was a year older than her and because of low numbers the Taijutsu classes were mixed together with young and older students.

"Kamano-kun, you don't get to make the rules." Inoue scolded the boy as he folded his arms and turned his chin up at her.

"She could kill me with her freaky Kekkei Genkai!" Kamano hollered as Hoshiko seethed internally. She balled her fists up at her sides and tried not to lash out in anger at the boy. Hoshiko made a point to never give in to Kamano; she didn't want to give him the satisfaction that he irked her.

"I guess you're just scared then, huh?" Hoshiko teased him as Kamano narrowed his eyes at her.

"Baka! I'm not afraid of a little squirt like you! I'll show you!" Kamano charged for Hoshiko as she took a defensive stance. Kamano veered to the left as Hoshiko blocked his punch as he turned and kicked her in the stomach. Hoshiko didn't have a chance to block as she fell back onto the ground, the wind speeding out of her lungs as she clutched her stomach in pain. She sensed Kamano walk up to her as she cracked an eye open and saw Kamano smirking down at her. "Heh, told you I could beat you, squirt!" He yelled triumphantly as he held his fist up. Hoshiko frowned in annoyance.

"The winner is Kamano!" Inoue-sensei bellowed as the rest of the class erupted into applause and cheers. Kamano was blowing kisses to his friends and mocking Hoshiko on the ground as she lashed out at him. She kicked his legs out from underneath him as Kamano yelped and hit the floor on his shoulder. She lunged for the bully but an arm held her back.

"Hoshiko!" Inoue-sensei scolded her as she froze and looked up at his stern glare. "Kamano won fair and square, you are acting inappropriately." Inoue-sensei said to her as Hoshiko pressed her lips into a fine line. She had just about had enough of people picking on her.

Hoshiko spun on her heel and moved to the back of the class as Inoue-sensei helped Kamano up from the ground as he complained about his shoulder hurting. Inoue-sensei sent him off to the academy nurse. As Kamano made it to the door he paused and looked over his shoulder, his dark gaze sought out Hoshiko as he smirked and scoffed at her, obviously faking his injury to get her in more trouble. The girl crossed her arms and faced back to the class and watched the next spar.

Hoshiko was immediately intrigued when she saw Uchiha Itachi step up with another one of the bullies who picked on her also. Itachi looked bored as Inoue-sensei instructed them to begin. The bully, Michi, raised his hands and rushed at Itachi. Itachi didn't even bat an eyelid as he twisted around Michi, kicked his legs out as he fell to the ground and bent his arms behind his back. Everything had happened in less then three seconds as the crowd of children were completely silent.

"Uchiha Itachi is the winner…" Inoue-sensei said in awe as Itachi removed himself from Michi and walked back into his spot in the crowd. Hoshiko followed him with her eyes as she clenched her fists.

I will be strong like him one day, she thought to herself.

A few days later, after the Academy day had finished Hoshiko was exiting the building. She was once again the last to leave as she headed into the forest, taking the short cut to the market district where her home was. As she walked into the forest she heard a branch snap behind her as she turned quickly. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Kamano, Michi and the other bully Ren standing with evil smirks and crossed arms.

"Well well, look who it is boys." Kamano scoffed as he nudged Michi, "think you could get away with hitting me, eh, squirt?" Kamano growled at her as Hoshiko tensed up and glared at the three boys.

"Yeah, it ain't nice to hit your superiors!" Ren called out. Suddenly Hoshiko felt a rough hand push her forwards as she fell to the ground. She looked over her shoulder and saw one more boy, Shinji chuckling at her predicament.

"You deserved it!" Hoshiko shouted at Kamano. Kamano looked to his friends and advanced towards Hoshiko. The small dark haired girl backed up and knelt on her knees, meeting his glare. Kamano reached out and tangled his fingers into her hair painfully and tugged.

"Yeah, well we don't like freaks like you! You don't have any friends and you always think you're better then everyone else!" Kamano yelled at her. Hoshiko wanted to scream that she didn't think that, but the pain on her head caused her to hiss and tears to spring at the corners of her eyes.

"Teach her a lesson, Kamano!" Shinji howled from behind. Ren and Michi encouraged him, yelling and whooping as Kamano tugged at her dark tresses painfully. Hoshiko refused to let them see her cry as she tried to kick and punch Kamano but he was easily able to dodge out of the way.

"Freaks like you don't belong here." Kamano spat at her. Kamano went to hit her as Hoshiko closed her eyes shut tightly, preparing herself for the pain. She was surprised when she didn't feel anything but heard the boys suddenly cry out in pain, and heard the sounds of a fist meeting flesh.

"What the hell, Uchiha?" Ren screamed at the dark eyed boy as he stared at his fallen friends with wide eyes. Kamano, Shinji and Michi were all incapacitated on the ground as Ren crawled backwards in fear, his navy eyes wide as saucers. With a swift hit to the back of the neck, Ren was out cold and Itachi turned around to examine Hoshiko's condition. She was surveying the area, her silver eyes trying to process what had just happened as Itachi calmly walked up to her. He knelt down and met her gaze.

"Are you ok?" He asked. His onyx eyes met her silver as he could see the remnants of unshed tears. Hoshiko was stunned but managed to nod slowly. Hoshiko pushed herself onto her legs as Itachi followed. Itachi was small for his age, but Hoshiko was tinier than him. He studied her shoulder length dark hair, seeing the knots and dirt mingled in with her locks. Her face had splotches of dirt on her cheek and her dark plum kimono dress was marred with soil. Her black shorts that she wore had a tear above her knee and the skin was bleeding.

"Why did you do that?" Hoshiko whispered, her voice quiet but strong. She was not used to being shown this much kindness from strangers, everyone always avoided her and her family. She never expected someone, much less Uchiha Itachi to come to her defense. Itachi tilted his head to the side and smiled gently.

"I don't like to see people get hurt." He replied as Hoshiko felt her cheeks flush.

"I—I could have handled it myself!" She burst out and then immediately turned away, her face burning from embarrassment. She heard the musical chuckle of the boy standing next to her as she peeked at him from in between the strands of her hair. Hoshiko became irritated as she spun around on her heel and marched away from the scene, heading to her home.

As she walked, she could distinctly hear footsteps behind her. Hoshiko glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Itachi who was still indeed following her. She halted in her steps and spun around pointing an accusing finger at him. "What the hell do you want?" Itachi stopped in his advance as he stared curiously at the girl before him; he had never been criticized for helping someone before, normally everyone always thanked him and then proceeded to gush over him like all the other children did. He found it strange that Hoshiko wanted nothing to do with him.

"My mother reminds me to always help those who are weaker than I am." Itachi replied smoothly. It was only later that Itachi had realized his mistake. In a split second Itachi felt a fist connect with his cheek as he went sprawling to the ground. Hoshiko was towering over him with her fist clenched and a murderous glint in her amber eyes.

"I'm not weaker than you! I'll become strong, just you wait!" She screeched as Itachi rubbed the side of his face and stared up in confusion at the girl. She shook her fist at him and then sped off down the path, disappearing from sight. Itachi clambered to his feet and brushed down his clothes, his cheek wasn't hurting that much, Hoshiko's punch hadn't been all that strong. There was a musical chuckle from the trees as Itachi recognized the chakra signature as a figure leapt down from the trees.

"You have a way with words, cousin."

"Shisui." Itachi stated in surprise as he looked over at his older cousin. Shisui was grinning as he shoved Itachi lightly and laughed.

"Making lots of friends at the Academy I see!" He teased as Itachi frowned at him in annoyance.

"Let's go train." Itachi grumbled as he leapt up into the trees. Shisui, still laughing, followed closely behind.

In the months that followed the bully incident, Hoshiko took it upon herself to practice as much as she possibly could every day. After her classes at the Academy she would retreat to the training grounds and practice until she couldn't move anymore. She would punch until her knuckles were red raw and expend nearly all of her chakra on trying to accomplish hard techniques.

Hoshiko leapt up into the air and threw her kunai, impaling the post with three out of four kunai; she landed on the ground with a thud and scrunched up her face at her apparent failure to land all four kunai. She retrieved her weapons and then began again.

From up in the treetops, a curious Itachi perched on a thick branch as he watched Hoshiko try again with her kunai throwing. His onyx eyes watched the way she tensed her body up before throwing and knew that if she kept her body relaxed, she'd be able to hit all four of them; but he didn't dare go down and tell her that, lest he be hit by her again. Itachi was surprised at her dedication to her training, he had only stumbled across her practicing a week ago, and found that she came here every day after their classes at the academy. He didn't mean to pry, but he was curious as to why Hoshiko was training so hard. Ever since that day with the bullies, Hoshiko had been more withdrawn than ever. She refused to speak to anyone in the class and made a pointed habit of ignoring the young Uchiha to point of it being comical.

Itachi couldn't understand why Hoshiko hated him so, and that's why he took it upon himself to try and figure her out. Itachi knew that he was mature for his age, preferring to train with his otou-san and Shisui then hang around with his peers. He could understand complex techniques that the others his age could only dream about, and yet he couldn't understand why Hoshiko loathed him so much. Itachi felt a chakra signature appear next to him as he inclined his head to Shisui.

"Spying on her again, are we?" Shisui said as Itachi felt his cheeks flush lightly.

"I'm not spying." He retorted back as Shisui sat down on the branch and leaned his back against the trunk of the tree.

"Yeah I know. You're just trying to…what was it…?" Shisui mused, tapping his chin as Itachi bristled at his cousin's annoying habits of teasing him. "Oh yeah, figure her out?"

"Did you find out about what I asked?" Itachi said hastily, wanting to change the subject. Ever since Shisui had found his cousin three days ago studying Hoshiko he always made a point to tease him.

"Hai, hai…" Shisui sighed. "From what my Otou-san said, her clan comes from somewhere near Iwa. They have a very powerful Kekkei Genkai that allows them to absorb chakra from their enemies with a single touch. They can also extract memories from their victims and use that chakra to heal wounds and give them a pretty powerful energy boost." Shisui explained as Itachi continued to trail his eyes on Hoshiko as she failed to perform the clone jutsu. "Apparently during the Third Shinobi war the clan was recruited by Iwa to be hired mercenaries, they used them to annihilate hundreds of Shinobi. Seeing how powerful they were Konoha wiped them out, but three remained and pledged their loyalty to Konoha and the Hokage."

Itachi felt a deep sadness in his gut. He now understood why the adults hated Hoshiko's family so much. They were part of a powerful clan that had killed Konoha Shinobi and in return they had been slaughtered. "Her father works in the Intel division, apparently he's been put to good use at getting information." Shisui said. Itachi pondered his friend's words. It would make sense; if their Kekkei Genkai allowed them to retrieve memories from chakra then they would make formidable interrogators. It was a scary bloodline indeed. "I can see why no one likes them. Hell, I wouldn't want to piss off her again," Shisui said with a smirk as Itachi faced his cousin. Itachi opened his mouth to reply when his senses tingled. A kunai suddenly flew by his and Shisui's face as the two boys gaped and looked down at the ground.

Hoshiko was glaring at them with her fierce silver eyes as she remained in her throwing position. The two boys had been caught out. Shisui gave Itachi a glance and made a hand sign. "Ja ne, cousin." Shisui disappeared in a puff of smoke with a sly smirk, leaving Itachi alone. Itachi cursed his cousin for putting him in this situation as he met Hoshiko's icy glare. Itachi sighed as he quickly left the scene, fleeing through the trees.

Hoshiko's eyes widened slightly, she hadn't known that Itachi was that fast. One second he had been staring at her, and then next he was gone. She seethed and started mumbling under her breath curses and accusations about the Uchiha boy that she had inwardly declared her rival.

I am going to be better then him, one day!

When Hoshiko arrived at the training ground the next day, she was relieved to see that Itachi was nowhere to be found. He had clearly gotten the message loud and clear.

When the first year at the academy was coming to an end. The news of Itachi's impeding graduation had just been revealed to his parents but not the rest of the village. Mikoto took her two sons out shopping for a present for her eldest son. Sasuke was held in his mothers arms as Itachi walked silently beside his mother. They were walking though the market district, peering into shops as Itachi held some bags for his mother, complaining mentally about how much of hassle it was to go shopping with his mother. She always exclaimed that they either needed new shoes, or new shirts, or new throwing kunai. Itachi never needed new things as he always kept everything clean and in good condition.

"Nonsense, darling! You're going to be a Genin, you need new clothes and weapons." Mikoto had exclaimed as she bought him another pair of shoes.

The family had stopped at the dumpling store as Mikoto bought Itachi his favorite treat. Sasuke was cooing happily in the chair and chirping as he sucked on a dumpling. Mikoto was grinning from ear to ear as she watched her youngest son as Itachi ate his dumplings in silence. His mother broke the silence. "Itachi-kun, isn't that girl in your class?"

Itachi felt his stomach drop as he looked to where his mother was pointing; and sure enough, he spotted Hoshiko with her mother presumably as they peered through a window-shop across the street. Hoshiko, over the year had changed her outfit from the ridiculous yukata that she wore. She now donned a simple navy vest with a white sash around her middle and paired it with black shorts and high-legged boots. Her hair had grown longer and she had recently come to tie it up with a red ribbon in a high ponytail. Itachi had never seen her mother before now, and came to realize that she had inherited nearly all of her features from her mother, except her eyes.

Itachi had found out that one of the reasons why Hoshiko's family had been spared was because her father was ostracized from the clan for marrying outside of the clan. Hoshiko's mother wasn't from the Ginyoru clan and the family had been living separate from their family for a long time. The way you could tell if someone was in the clan was by their eyes. The extraordinary silver eyes belonged to the clan and were passed down through each generation. Hoshiko's mother was very small like her, with straight brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was a simple civilian and wore an ankle length dress of moss green; she worked in the pharmacy most days.

"What's the girls name, Itachi-kun?" Mikoto asked her son as Itachi stuffed his face with another dumpling.

"Ginyoru Hoshiko." He replied. Mikoto gave her son a scolding look for replying with a full mouth, but it was replaced with sympathy as she recognized the clan name. All Konoha villagers knew about the three Ginyoru. There had been uproar when the Sandaime had granted them amnesty four years ago. Mikoto was no stranger to being shunned, her Uchiha family was blamed for the Kyuubi attack, and she could sympathize with them. Mikoto watched as Hoshiko and her mother turned away from the shop and passed by the entrance of the dumpling shop.

"Ohayo! Ginyoru-san!" Mikoto called as Itachi froze to his seat. He couldn't believe that his mother was welcoming them over; he knew that Hoshiko still despised him.

Hoshiko and her mother were quite stunned to say the least when they heard their name being called. Hiroka turned her head and saw a beautiful dark haired woman waving her over. Hoshiko recognized Itachi immediately as her expression turned sour. Hiroka wondered over, pulling her reluctant daughter with her as they came to a stop at the table.

"Ohayo, Uchiha-san," Hiroka greeted with a bow as Hoshiko did the same out of respect. Mikoto smiled and waved her hand.

"Please, it's Mikoto." Mikoto said to Hiroka as she nodded with a smile; Hiroka's attention was drawn by baby Sasuke who giggled and laughed.

"And who is this may I ask?" Hiroka asked as she bent down to Sasuke's level and played with his dainty fingers. Mikoto looked at her son lovingly.

"This is Sasuke. My other son is Itachi." Mikoto said, pointing to Itachi who was looking anywhere but Hoshiko at the moment. Hiroka looked over at Itachi and smiled.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Itachi-kun. Do you know my daughter Hoshiko-chan?" Hiroka nudged Hoshiko to greet the family as the girl crossed her arms angrily and frowned at Itachi.

"We're in the same class." Itachi replied to Hiroka, as the older woman looked a little surprised.

"Oh, you've never mentioned that." Hiroka turned to look at her daughter as Hoshiko turned her face away from him.

"We aren't friends." She stated. Instead of scolding her daughter for her rude attitude Hiroka and Mikoto shared a knowing look. "I'm going to go train. It was nice to meet you, Mikoto-san." Hoshiko said with a wave as she turned away.

"Why don't you and Itachi-kun train together?" Hiroka asked Hoshiko as the young girl froze and tensed up. She looked over her shoulder to see her mother smiling at her sweetly and then looking over at Itachi to see him staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"What a wonderful idea!" Mikoto gushed. "Itachi, go ahead with Hoshiko-chan." Mikoto urged on her son as Itachi looked between the two mothers. His mature brain was putting two and two together as Hoshiko looked like she was about to murder him on the spot.

"Okaa-san, I need to help you with all these bags." Itachi said.

Hiroka butted in. "I'll help your mother, Itachi-kun. Now you two run along!" Hiroka pulled Itachi up by his arm and shoved him into Hoshiko who took a large step to the side and glared at him. Before the two children had a chance to protest, Mikoto and Hiroka took all the bags and Sasuke and left the shop, leaving the two almost seven year olds bristling with each other.

After a minute of glaring at each other Hoshiko turned away and leapt up onto the nearest rooftop and ran off, leaving Itachi in the dust. The young Uchiha sighed and followed after her, he had half a mind to just turn around and go home, but he knew he'd never hear the end of it from his mother, and he wanted to make her happy; so he leapt up onto the roof after Hoshiko and followed her.

X

Hoshiko landed in the training area and sighed in relief when she didn't spot the Uchiha around her. He had taken the hint and left her alone. She pulled out her kunai and looked over to the log that protruded out of the ground and ground her teeth in irritation. Itachi was perched on the log looking at her lazily, twirling a kunai between his fingers. Hoshiko's face turned bright red as she pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" She screeched at him. Itachi hopped down off the log and walked over to her. His onyx gaze intimidated Hoshiko but she didn't back down, least of all to Uchiha Itachi.

"Why do you hate me, Ginyoru-san?" Itachi asked her. Hoshiko reeled back; she was frozen for a second before she ground her teeth.

"Because you're so perfect!" She exclaimed. "Because you're so good at everything and you don't even try to be. Everyone likes you at the academy and…" She trailed off as Itachi continued to stare at her. His young mind figuring out what she was trying to say. Hoshiko balled her fists up at her side. "Everybody hates me!" she screeched. Itachi conveyed no emotion.

Girls are so emotional, he thought to himself.

Hoshiko threw the kunai and watched it imbed into the wooden post. "I'm going to be strong! I'm going to surpass everyone and have them all acknowledge me." Hoshiko stated as she smirked at the kunai.

"So you hate me because everyone likes me?" Itachi questioned causing Hoshiko's grin to drop and glance over at him. Her face flushed a deep red; embarrassed at the fact that Itachi was trying to understand her.

"Forget it!" She snapped, she retrieved her kunai and ran away from the training ground. Itachi tilted his head up to the sky as he watched a cloud float across the blue sky.

When news spread that Itachi would be graduating at the end of the first year, Hoshiko had been in class with everyone else. Her eyes were fixated on Inoue-sensei as he congratulated Itachi on the accomplishment. Hoshiko watched as all of her classmates went up to Itachi and congratulated him also. Itachi thanked them all quietly and politely.

He could feel eyes on the back on his head as he turned slowly and met a pair of narrowed silver eyes. Hoshiko sighed and turned her head away. She wasn't going to congratulate him, even if the building had been on fire…

X

At age nine Hoshiko graduated from the Academy. She stood proudly in front of the Hokage and her teachers, she was brimming with pride and joy as Inoue-sensei handed her the Konoha forehead protector. She fastened it tightly to her head.

"Congratulations, Hoshiko." Hiruzen said with a smile as Hoshiko bowed deeply.

"Thank you." she replied sincerely. The grin on her face never wavered.

"You'll be placed on Team 5 with Nara Aki as your Sensei. Daisuke and Ichiro are your teammates, they're waiting for you outside." Inoue-sensei said to the grinning child as she nodded and bounded out of the room.

X

After a year of blissful missions with her teammates and sensei, Hoshiko heard the news that Uchiha Itachi had been promoted to Chuunin. Hoshiko had been eating lunch with her team when she had heard the news.

"Hoshiko-chan? Are you ok?" Daisuke had asked her. His light blue eyes searching over her face.

The ten year old Hoshiko clenched her fist and smacked it down on the table. "Damn that Uchiha!"

X

It was the next year, on Hoshiko's eleventh birthday that she and her team signed up for the Chuunin exams...

Edited 27/2/2020