"Izuna-san? How come you're always so quiet?"

We were ten, sitting on the cliff over the Nakano river like we did every evening. Said Izuna-san looked over at me, a quizzical expression on his face.

"What do you mean? We talk all the time!"

"I mean..." I tried to think of a good way to explain what I wanted to say. "You always say only exactly what's necessary! It's like everything you say has been carefully edited!"

Izuna smiled softly at me. Everything about him was soft. Harmonious, even. As opposed to me who was energetic, with my heart on my sleeve. At least in front of him where I felt at home. Humans had a way of being entirely themselves when they felt at home.

"You could have left one of those two sentences you just said out and it wouldn't change the meaning of what you wanted to convey."

I contemplated it, realised he was right.

I sighed, leaned back on my hands, looked out over the river. A soft wind filled with the orange glow of sunset brushed my hair. It brought with it the smell of pine needles and oranges.

"It just seems so energy-consuming", I said.

"How can saying less be more energy-consuming than saying more?" Izuna asked, amused. I could feel the smile in his voice.

"Is there a reason you do it? Other than making yourself more interesting?"

He didn't catch on to my light teasing of him. He rarely did. I liked that about him. Instead, he did something completely unexpected. He shuffled closer to me and put his head on my shoulder. I just gaped. Never before had we been this close. It surprised me, the soft feeling of his head against me, his harmonious presence beside me, how well his head fitted in the space between my shoulder and my neck.

The young Uchiha pointed down over the edge of the cliff.

"You see there?" he asked, head still on my shoulder. I looked, seeing two birds, a brown one and a blue one, down at the river. "That brown bird is fluttering around, hopping from one stone to the next. But the blue one is still. Now, if you were a bird of prey, which one would you go for?"

"The blue one", I said immediately.

"Why?" Izuna asked.

"Because it's more still. Easier to catch."

"What if I told you you would be wrong? That the brown one would be better?" I furrowed my brows, and Izuna took it as his cue to continue. "You should go for the brown one. Because it consumes more energy. It will be exhausted when you prey it."

I had never thought of it that way before, but it made a lot of sense.

"So..." I said.

"So I try to consume as little energy as possible. In battle. Both physically, and in my mind. And I practice it in my daily life as well."

We sat there for a while, his head still on my shoulder, looking out over the Nakano. The silences that occurred between us were never uncomfortable, never filled with the need to speak. But I wanted to tell him something.

"You know..." I said. "I know our clans are enemies. But I just can't bring myself to hate you."

"Why would you hate me?" Izuna asked. If he was hurt by my statement, he didn't let that hurt tint his voice.

"Because at some point, I believe we will meet in battle."

He snuggled in closer against my shoulder, grabbed my arm with his hands.

"Then I'm glad I told you about energy conservation so you stand a chance and don't die."

I leaned my head against his, too young to understand the true implications of what his words meant.

That he would rather he died than me.