Sakura's karma must have been having a blast catching up with her because if she thought two Uchihas was enough, Kami had decided to surprise her with another one.

Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother decided to pay them a visit. From the way Sasuke had described him, he was supposedly a high rank ninja. So he must be quite strong. Though Sakura doubts he is stronger than Tobi or Mr Bear. No one is stronger than Tobi or Mr Bear.

When he finally showed himself, Sakura was surprised that the supposedly high rank ninja Shisui and Sasuke talked about was a scrawny thin boy. But he was polite to her and wasn't upset that she had punched his brother a couple weeks ago.

Although he does seem to hold a slight grudge on her every time Sasuke looks at her with stars in his eyes-but it's not as if Sakura wanted that!

Sasuke on the other hand couldn't be more delighted to have his favourite person hanging out with him while he makes sure the secret of Uchiha clan stays within the Uchiha clan. Not that he can trust Shisui to not let Sakura know about their clan's secret. Sakura would reassure him again and again that she's not interested in a clan with weaklings like him but Sasuke doesn't listen.

It happened during one of their training sessions with Shisui. Now that Sasuke was here too, Shisui wasted no time to also get Sasuke to train as well. Today, they both were asked to do a series of combat hand to hand taijutsu training. After a few rounds, Sasuke and Sakura were more than ready for a break, which was when the tree above them rustled and a shadow fell right by Sakura.

Sakura nearly screamed. But thankfully she didn't because it was another pretty boy-clearly an Uchiha-and she wouldn't have wanted to embarrass herself.

"Itachi!" Shisui greets him excitedly, with recognition in his eyes. As if Sasuke has heard his magic word, the younger boy's eyes lit up and he dashes towards his older brother. "Nii-san!" Sasuke eagerly tackles the older boy in a hug to which Itachi lets out a small smile and hugs the younger boy.

"Shisui," Itachi greets him back once Sasuke lets go. He turns towards Sakura and gives a small bow, "and I presume this is Sakura-san?"

"Hello, my name is Haruno Sakura and I'm 5 years old!" She bows prettily like she always has. The boy glanced at her and kneels so he was the same height as her eyes were. Oh, he's a gentleman, Sakura thinks, her cheeks lightly tinted pink at the action.

"My name is Uchiha Itachi, I am Sasuke's older brother." He introduces himself and Sakura is immediately stunned by the combination of his voice, politeness and beauty of an Uchiha. This pretty and polite boy is Sasuke's brother? No wonder Sasuke is a little jerk! It's because all the polite and pretty genes have gone to his older brother!

"Hello, Itachi-san. Sasuke here always talks about you." Sakura eagerly tells the older boy

"No I do not!" Sasuke immediately protested, his cheeks burning red with embarrassment. Everyone know that was a lie. Even Itachi's smile had grown wider.

Shisui pushes Sasuke away fondly, "Everyone knows you're obsessed with your brother, Sasu-chan."

Sakura giggles, and Shisui ruffles her hair affectionately. "So, what are you doing here, Tachi-chan?"

Tobirama raises an eyebrow at the nickname. Again, how very un-Uchiha like.

"A private talk with you, Shisui." Itachi says calmly, dusting his pants after standing up, his eyes never leaving Shisui's hand that was still on Sakura's head.

"Anything for you, Tachi-chan! Sakura, Sasuke take a 10 minute break while I speak to Itachi." He tells the kids and the kids immediately runs off with joy that they're finally getting a break from torture with Shisui.

Far enough from the kids, Itachi adds on a seal to prevent little spies who might overhear what he's going to say. Tobirama however, was very comfortable and very interested to stay and listen to what they have to say. After all, any time it involves the Uchihas, it would only be good or bad.

"What are your plans?" Itachi immediately cuts to the chase, and Shisui sputters,

"I'm sorry? For what?"

"Don't you think you are too free these days?" Itachi questioned the jounin to which Shisui merely shrugs.

"What can I say, there is no mission."

Itachi quirks an eyebrow. "You do not need to lie to me."

Shisui hums, "You know me the best, Itachi-chan,"

"Is this a mission?" Bingo. As one would expect from the genius.

Shisui nods, "He's curious about her capabilities and you know we're in recruiting season now,"

"And you're cultivating it? With my brother by her side?" Itachi hisses as his sharingan activates easily. Cousin or not, if Shisui were to put Sasuke at risk, Itachi doesn't know what he will do. He may be a genius, but Shisui has way more experience than he does.

Shisui raises both hands in his defense, "Relax, he doesn't know about Sasuke-kun. I wouldn't have let him. He doesn't even know I'm training her."

Itachi forces himself to calm down, but doesn't deactivate his sharingan, "Then, what are your plans? Are you going to hand her over on a platter to ROOT? Are you not attached to her?" Itachi crosses his hands together. He does not understand how Shisui could show so much affection and attachment to the young girl yet also possibly gave her away for grabs to ROOT.

"Itachi-chan, we're shinobis. If it's for Konoha, I'd do anything for it." Shisui replies easily.

And there it is. The shinobi Uchiha Shisui. The one who gained himself the title Shunshin no Shisui. It was not an easy moniker. That moniker happened when he had single handedly defeated a platoon of the land of Lightning shinobis just with shunshin and a kunai.

Itachi takes a long breath, and questions something he has been thinking about for the past month."Shisui, what if he is not the man he portrays himself as?"

Shisui's own red sharingan activates, his hands grab on Itachi's shoulder tightly. "Itachi, has Danzo-sama failed us so far? He has done so many things to help our clan. Without his help we wouldn't have gotten approval for the new military police building!"

"No, Shisui." Itachi disagrees, "Dont you don't think he has an ulterior motive? What kind of person would help us like this for nothing?"

"A man who wants the best for Konoha, Itachi!" Shisui snaps at him, but when he sees the younger boy doesn't even react to that, he sighs. This was Itachi after all. He doesn't take simply anyone's word. There was only very few who could say Itachi trusts them with their life. Shisui is one of them.

"If you can't trust him, trust me." Shisui pleads, and Itachi considers his cousin for a second.

After a minute of silence, of which Shisui was silently battling in his head worrying about what he would have to do if Itachi still insists otherwise, Itachi finally, speaks up. "Fine, I will trust you. But no matter what it is, leave my brother out of this."

"Fine by me." Shisui agrees and he easily dispels the seal, ending the conversation between them. Itachi says his goodbyes to the kids and leaves.

The kids does not suspect anything.

Shisui hopes his younger cousin would take his word. It was dangerous to go against Danzo-sama. Shisui himself has been given missions to eliminate threats to Danzo-sama. He couldn't imagine what Danzo-sama would do if Shisui were to report Itachi's traitorous thoughts.

As Sakura and Sasuke continues their hand to hand taijutsu combat, Shisui thinks about Itachi's input. Itachi was wrong. He had to be. There is no way Danzo-sama would use them, right? Not after what he's done for the Uchihas. Not after what he's done for Konoha. Not after what he has promised for Konoha's future.

There is no way.

::

Tobirama's frown deepens as everything finally makes sense. What the younger Uchiha had said makes sense. Why would someone go out of their way to help you only to get nothing in return? As it turns out, the older Uchiha had not provided his training to Sakura in good will. Someone-Shimura Danzo, a familiar name from Tobirama's past- had instructed Shisui to spy on Sakura. And they will expect a result. A result that may put Sakura in danger. Tobirama had underestimated the Uchiha, thinking he wasn't a threat with his personality but in fact, it was the opposite.

He was dangerous.

Thankfully, the week after, winter came and with it came the heavy snow, slippery roads and frozen temperatures. When Sakura's mother had forbidden Sakura from training during this period, Tobirama was very glad. Now that he knows what Uchiha Shisui's plan was, Tobirama was adamant he would protect Sakura. His protege however was not that happy with this decision.

"Why is it snowing so hard this year? It wasn't this bad last year!" Sakura angrily complains as she eyes the heavy blanket of snow that was covering her garden.

"You could catch up on your theories using this time, Sakura." Tobirama tells her, but the 5 year old girl pouts instead.

"I know, but this means it's going to be hard to see Naruto and I miss him! What if his jiji hokage-sama forgets to pay Naruto's heater bills and Naruto froze to death?" Sakura ponders out loud, "What if he lives off only from instant ramen and dies from food poisoning from too much ramen?"

Normally, that doesn't make sense but with Naruto, Sakura has got a point. The kid could and would just stuffed himself with instant ramen 24/7 and Tobirama wouldn't be surprised.
Tobirama sighs, he knows what he has to do to calm both of Sakura's and his own anxiety.

"I can check on him for you," The older shinobi offers and Sakura beams at him. "Tobi, you would? Oh thank you, thank you, you're the best Tobi!" Sakura tells him.

And so that's what Tobirama did. Never had he thought, he would be doing this, but it is what it is. Tobirama, the esteemed Nindaime did a wellness check on one Uzumaki Naruto who was found happily drooling, covered in blanket, in a warm house with cups of instant ramen and packets of opened onigiri around him. Well at least the boy did not relied on the ramen only. But perhaps Tobirama could suggest to Sakura to bring some food for him.

Tobirama ignores the opened packets of onigiri to look around for pictures, but there was none except pictures of Naruto and Tobirama's successor, Hiruzen. Considering Naruto's heritage, Tobirama was surprised that there was nothing related to the Uzumaki's around Naruto's house. Does the boy not know he's part of one of the oldest clans? Tobirama would have thought Hiruzen would at least introduce the boy to his clan. But perhaps he is too young now. Tobirama walks to the young Uzumaki's room again to take one last glance before leaving. He shakes his head in amusement as Naruto had managed to kick his blanket off-perhaps feeling the warmth was too much for him now, so much that even his pajamas were riled up.

Tobirama smiles fondly and turns away when something caught his eye.

Naruto has a seal on his abdomen.

A very familiar looking seal.

-To be continued-

Lol did yall think Shisui was a nice kid? Jounin Shisui is not naive. How did you think he got there? His personality is real, but his acting skills are good too. Which is real and which is fake? Only he knows. Yall better pray for his life.

Sorry, Shisui can't come to the phone right now? Why? Oh, cause he's in his delulu era right now.

Remember when this fic was just fluff about Sakura seeing Tobirama's ghost? Yea I miss that too 😂