Chapter 2 - A Turn For The Worst

The next month the baby finally came, though a month premature. Her very short was a very uneven color, far lighter in the front then back. As she held her sleeping daughter with a smile, the nurse came in, filling out some paperwork.

"Any thought on a name for her, miss?"

She thought for a moment and smiled.

"Pretz"

The nurse nodded and continued on her way. No one talked about the baby's eyes. Only in the privacy of the break room was it ever brought up. Her left eye was a brilliant blue, nothing out of the ordinary. The right eye however was green, and with a very unusual pupil shape; a spiral. A well known trait of the Ozate clan: Pride of the hidden village of stone. Medical ethics prohibited the nurses from gossiping, so naturally the whole village knew about it.

When it was time for their release, Katsuya grew nervous. She didn't know what kind of reaction others would have. As she walked she could plainly see the eyes of many a villager, along with several crude remarks along the lines of 'slut' or 'traitor'. Many people even went so far as to say the baby should be destroyed once they were out of earshot. The issue was even brought before the hokage. Rightfully, he immediately decided against it, as it would not be right because the infant had no idea of anything wrong.

Growing up Pretz had it rough. Many people would not allow their children to play with her. In fact most of the parents would simply turn the other cheek when their children would spurt out insults such as 'monster'. Mostly because they feared the Narichi. So Pretz would either play alone or stand to the side and watch others play. Watch them wrestle, or tell each other secrets. Or chase a select few boys who would run away in terror of cooties.

One fateful day after watching an entire game of hide and seek undetected (She was getting quite good at it) she sat on a wall and sighed. She still didn't understand why everyone hated her. Had she barfed on the hokage when she was a baby or something? How could an eight year old have no friends? It was getting dark, nay, already dark. Everyone had gone home for dinner with their families. She didn't bother. Her mother was away on a mission, as she often was, so a sandwich wasn't going to get cold or anything. She looked up at the sky, simply relaxing and looking at the stars, until she heard footsteps behind her. There stood a boy about her age. He had long black hair, tied in the back and parted in the front. His shirt was black with a very high collar. He stood beside her and smiled.

"Shouldn't you be at home? It's kinda late" He said.

She smiled. "Nah. My mom's away on a mission again"

"Heh, nice. I'm Itachi"

She looked nervous. Anytime someone had talked to her they were always shushed away by their mothers. She smiled awkwardly.

"My name's Pretz..... You don't think I'm weird?"

"Naw. I see nothing too out of the ordinary"

She chuckled grimly. "I was gonna say my eyes..."

"That's not so weird. Here, watch this"

He sat beside her, closing his eyes and concentrating. When he opened his eyes they were a bright crimson color; the sharingan. Pretz's eyes widened as she found herself on her hands and knees, leaning towards his bright eyes.

"Woooaaahhhhh.... That's awesome..."

The sharingan disappeared slowly.

"Yeah, it's something only my clan can do"

Pretz smiled. She had never thought about clans or bloodlines much before. For as long as she could remember it had just been her and her mother, who had no real extraordinary powers to speak of. She just had high taijutsu and ninjutsu. She simply smiled.

"Well, I've just got this one eye here, but I don't think it does anything special like yours. To tell the truth, I wish I didn't have it. It's the reason everyone makes fun of me, it seems"

"That's a shame"

He reached out towards her face. She flinched for a moment. He messed with the white part of her hair carefully and smiled.

"I like your hair"

After a while, Itachi's mother came looking for him and he had to leave. They agreed to meet tomorrow around the same time. Pretz went home and ate her sandwich happily. As she crawled into bed she couldn't help but feel happy. Maybe, just maybe, she had made a friend.

The next few weeks were like a dream. They would sit and talk, or play tag, wrestle, play ninja, though Itachi usually won that one, or just share sandwiches. One day in particular they were racing around the streets of Konoha, Pretz ran straight into someone, causing him to drop his new book he was so wrapped up in. She apologized and handed the orange covered book back to him.

The next day Pretz brought some sandwiches, but Itachi had other plans. So they went back to Pretz's house and put the sandwiches in the fridge. They walked through the streets calmly talking.

"Itachi-kun, where are we going?"

"My mother gave me some spending money yesterday. I wanted to do something special. Oh, here it is!"

They stood before a small ramen stand. They walked in and climbed up on the stools. Pretz looked around curiously. She had never been to one of these before.

"Heh, Uh, Itachi-kun... I have no idea what's good or not, nor do I have any sort of money"

"Don't worry about it. Two spicy shrimp ramens, please"

After several glasses of water and pieces of bread, they finally finished the ramen, completely stuffed. They walked through the park playing catch with some old baby toy. Inevitably, Pretz missed and was pegged in the head. She fell over backwards and laughed, a small bump coming in on her head.

"Sorry, Pretz"

"Heh, it's alright' People say I have a big forehead anyways" She said as she poked at the bump.

Itachi carefully took the forehead protector off of her neck. Her mother had given it to her last year for her birthday. She said it belonged to her dad. Itachi tied it around her forehead and smiled.

"There. No one will notice the bump now" He smiled "Hey you wanna meet my baby brother?"

She blinked and nodded. She followed him back to where the Uchiha houses were. The forehead protector slipped from her head back onto her neck. As they entered the house Itachi's mother politely said hello, and his father just stayed silent. As they went into the other room to see the baby, Itachi's father finally spoke up.

"That's the child with the Narichi......." It was never said in a nice tone.

Itachi's mother just sighed. "Well, I think it's sweet. He has a friend. Don't muck it up"

Meanwhile, the two children walked over to the mat on the floor where the baby played with his toys.

"This is my brother, Sasuke"

Pretz smiled "He kinda looks like you"

"Yeah but he's not as cool as I am"

The two of them played with baby Sasuke for some time, until it got dark and Pretz had to leave. Itachi wanted to at least walk her home, but his father protested with a stern 'no'.

"It's alright Itachi-kun. I'll see you tomorrow" She waved and took the walk home alone.

The next day they met in the park. They had only been playing ninja for an hour before getting tired. They sat in the grass and laughed.

"Thank you, Itachi-sama......"

"Huh? For what?" He looked quite taken back.

"For being my friend" She leaned over and kissed his cheek softly.

He turned bright red and smiled. They played in the park the rest of the day. Once it got dark he had to leave for dinner and Pretz stayed behind. As he left she smiled and yelled. "Run, Run!" She lay in the grass looking at the stars like she normally did. They were as shiny as ever. Everything was great, until she heard a voice behind her.

"HEY!"

She quickly turned around, but was not met by a smile, or even a face. Only a rock to her forehead. It was obviously not thrown by any kind of expert, just some angry soul. After looking up again, blood dripping into her hand from her head, she saw a small crowd. Some of them had sticks, swords, or knives. On first instinct she took off running, but being small, they quickly caught up with her by throwing a miniature shuriken at her back. In a flash of blood, dirt, tears, and such, they beat her senseless. Slash marks covering her back, and there were several small shuriken embedded in it. Her right eye felt as if it were on fire. She felt a pulse of rage run though her suddenly. No one really knows what happened that night, but the next morning the bodies of ten people were found in the park.

She had no idea how far away from Konoha she had run by the time it started to rain. She finally tripped and fell into the mud by a small stream. She looked at her face in the water, looked at her eye. The eye that had caused people to hate her, caused all of this. She took off her father's forehead protector and tied it around her head so that it covered up that eye.

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