"Hey. Isn't it the white hair kid from the class?" A boy said to his friend as he pointed at Shiro who was sitting under the shade of a tree.
"The one who is always getting one-upped by Sasuke." Another boy said.
"But he is still really amazing. Always get a high score on tests." The other kids praised him while still putting him down by comparing him with Sasuke.
"But he does not play or hang out with us. And I don't ever see him hanging out with others."
"Why don't we invite him to play with us? We need an extra player anyway."
The two boys walked towards Shiro to ask him if he wanted to play.
"I refuse," Shiro replied before they even spoke.
"I heard what you two were saying. And I don't want to hang around you losers."
"Losers?" one of the boys was enraged when Shiro insulted them.
"Someone that talks bad about someone behind his back." Shiro continued.
"Why you?" The boy who just invited him to play tried to punch him in the face.
Kids can be sometimes fickle. And that is especially true if they have some kind of underlying insecurities hidden within their hearts.
"Hey. Stop." the other boy who was with him stopped his friend from getting into a fight with Shiro.
"He is a scholarship student. If you get in a fight with him you will be the one who is going to be punished."
"Tch." The two boys walked away after finding out that they couldn't fight with him without facing the adults after that.
"You know you would be more liked if you weren't such an annoyance all the time."
Sasuke said as he appeared near Shiro.
"Get lost," Shiro said.
Shiro is not hated but he usually acts like a dick so he is not exactly popular.
"You know. I kind of get where you are coming from." Sasuke ignored Shiro and sat down near him.
"When you are always busy with studies I am sure you would like to have some alone time to yourself."
What is he talking about? Shiro thought in his mind.
He does not study much and mostly uses the knowledge obtained from his training with Hayate for school.
The only reason why he got such a good scores on tests is that most of the other kids are much more neglectful of their studies compared to him.
"Hey. Want to see something cool?" Sasuke asked Shiro.
"Huh?"
"I will show you something that I learned from my brother. Come on." Sasuke pulled Shiro's hand as he took him to his house.
"...."
Shiro was dragged along.
*****
"Sasuke. You are back already? Do you want to eat some watermelons?"
Sasuke's mother Uchiha Mikoto said to him as he entered his compound.
"Oh. You brought your friend too."
She said as she acknowledged Shiro.
"That face, that hair?" She was stunned when she saw Shiro's face for a bit.
"White hair and red eyes?" She was shocked.
The boy has features that remind her of a person who has heavily clashed a lot with Uchiha elders in the past.
"Lord Second?"
"Oh. I must be mistaken. Sasuke why don't you play with your friend for a bit? I will bring you some watermelons for you to eat." She said as she walked away.
"What was that about?" Shiro said.
"I don't know. But come. I will show you a powerful jutsu that I learned from my brother."
The two reached nearly a pound.
He then started to use hand signs.
"!" Shiro remembered those hand signs.
It was the hand signs for fire-style fireball jutsu.
"Fire style. Fireball Jutsu." Sasuke unleashed a big fireball from his mouth.
It lasted for around thirty seconds.
The fireball was big but Sasuke didn't launch the fireball from his mouth.
Showing his mastery over the technique.
It was so powerful that Shiro could feel the heat from it despite having some distance between him and Sasuke.
He could also use fire-style fireball jutsu but it was only enough to start a small campfire while Sasuke's fireball could burn down several trees at once.
"How's that?" Sasuke said as he acted smugly.
"Amazing," Shiro said.
At that moment he realized that the boy that was standing in front of him was more powerful than him.
This was not surprising since Sasuke was always working hard to impress his father and brother while Shiro was just content with what he had.
His heart was beating fast and his blood was pumping.
He was excited for the first time.
But he does not know why.
Shiro is still too young to understand the concept of rivalry.
But one thing that he is sure of is that he wants to be stronger than the boy who is standing in front of him.
And to accomplish that he knows that he has to start taking his training more seriously.
"Hey, kids. I dropped the fruits here." Mikoto said as she dropped a plate full of watermelon cubes and two toothpicks.
"Thanks, Mom," Sasuke said.
When someone gives you something be sure to thank them. By either bowing or just saying Thank you. He remembered what Hayate taught him in the past.
But he didn't thank Mikoto. He saw the process of showing appreciation as the move of a weakling.
He just simply acknowledged her with a small nod.
He even has the same manners as him. I have to tell Sasuke not to bring him here next time. Mikoto thought in her mind.
She does not mind Sasuke having friends over but the boy that she sees is too rude. She does not want his qualities rubbing off on Sasuke.
The way he walks, the way he talks, the way he acts. It was too crude, rude and straight-up disrespectful.
What kind of six-year-old nods his head to acknowledge an adult? She thought in her head.
Not only that she also saw that he did not eat any of the watermelon cubes that she dropped for the two boys. Which can be interrupted as straight-up disrespectful.
She stopped observing Shiro as she would only be more mad whenever she saw his faults.