AN: Hey people, I'm just writing for fun okay... so relax and enjoy. Updates are gonna be pretty sporadic, but I'm aiming for this story to be like 25-30k words, just about how Itachi and Naruto journey through the ninja world, learning new jutsu and building character.
The Training Enigma: A Naruto fan fiction story
Chapter One: Taking First Steps
Naruto was not a ninja even though he wanted to be with all his heart. He worked as a janitor in the public library, a job the Hokage himself had given him by pulling some strings for which he was eternally grateful for, but as he overheard a few of his ex-classmates talking about their first C-rank missions, and the fat load of cash they made, it got Naruto a bit down, a bit depressed.
He leaned over his ramen and tried not to look like he was listening in to Ino's conversation but he was sure the genius ninja Shikamaru noticed, although he would be too lazy to do anything about it. "And I was like pow, punched the guy right in the face!" Kiba exclaimed to his team mates while walking past the ramen stand.
Naruto turned toward them, and tried to listen in on their conversation as well. As Kiba talked about his mission with the bandits, and Ino practically shouted about her mission guarding transports aboard a ship, Naruto sighed.
They get all the fun, he decided, and just let the voices tune out. He hated how he was left out, how all his classmates - well not all exactly, but most - became ninja and he was stuck cleaning floors in the library.
He tried reading the books sometimes, but he could never understand the material very well. If only I were a genius or something, Naruto thought longingly, then I could be a great ninja, maybe even the hokage!
It used to be his dream to get people to acknowledge him by being the best ninja ever. In a way that was unnecessary. When he failed to be a ninja, people started to be kinder to him, charged him fairer prices overall and the cold looks and hateful glares seemed to abate.
To Naruto, that was the silver lining. But he still hated his job, hated his life, hated his weakness. He wished he could talk to the Hokage sometime soon. Jiraiya the legendary sannin - and the fifth Hokage, taking over after his student the great Yondaime himself, aka Yellow Flash - was quite busy with recent developments with his archnemesis Orochimarus or something like that. Naruto remembered Jiraiya talking about him a lot, but his mind was fuzzy. He felt... clouded, not energetic and happy like he used to be but apathetic.
So this is life, he said to himself as he ate his ramen on the ramen stand. He slurped the delicious hot noodles, letting the hunger that had gnawed his belly all day reduce, and finally the satisfaction of filling an empty stomach let loose a happy sigh from his lips.
"You look like you enjoy this kind of food," said a dark cloaked man beside him. He wore a leaf signia headband that all ninjas wore, an object Naruto once coveted himelf. "I like a bit of ramen myself from time to time."
Naruto turned to face the man, studied the older ninja's features. Black hair, black eyes, a thin angular face and a hoarse voice. But the eyes stood out, they shined with intelligence, charisma and a cunning that made Naruto feel a bit afraid of this man. "W-what's your name?" asked Naruto.
"Uchiha Itachi," said the man, and held out a hand to shake. Naruto took it gingerly afraid that the hand would somehow hurt him. Everything about Itachi screamed danger, and Naruto wanted to do nothing more than run home, but he was braver than that, better than a gutless coward. He would not run. He would face Itachi, and talk to him like any other person. "And your name?"
Naruto didn't answer at first. The hand felt cold, like ice, and as dead as a block of wood. "Um... Naruto," mumbled the orange cloaked boy. "Uzumaki Naruto."
"Well then, how about I get the bill. Let's go to a tea shop, I have something to tell you about your father," Itachi said, his gaze freezing Naruto's heart with some sort of strange fear welling up inside Naruto. Is this killing intent, he wondered from a small part of him that had paid attention to snippets of Iruka's lectures.
"Okay," Naruto said, and gathering himself up he continued, "Was my father a ninja? You knew him, didn't you?"
Itachi smiled but his eyes showed no joy, only a calculating look that Naruto feared, hated even. "Perhaps, but if you want to know more information, you will have to look it up in the library. I can give you a hint if you are truly curious, for a price."
"I don't have much money," Naruto said, "I guess I can give you a thousand yen." With a sigh he pulled out Gama-chan, his lovely frog wallet, and emptied it out on the counter. He pushed the bills and coins toward Itachi who took it without a word, putting it in his jounin vest.
"Come Naruto, follow me," Itachi said, and they started walking down the streets of Konoha. It was turning dark. Naruto grew wary of Itachi as he remembered another person who shared the Uchiha name. Uchiha Sasuke. When they were in class together, they were the worst of enemies, and truly hated each other, although Sasuke was more reserved about it. Naruto remembered a memory once, of when he was walking home. Sasuke had cornered him and after a fierce taijutsu rumble which Naruto decidedly lost, he slashed at Naruto's chest with a kunai, left him bleeding on the ground. Naruto never forgot, nor would he forgive.
He made up his mind to turn back, forget his money and just go home, but when he was about to do so, Itachi came to a stop. They were near a forest, and Naruto heard the sound of water rushing by, like in a river. They had the perfect view of the Hokage mountain, with all the five faces staring down at Konoha with protective, loving gleams in their eyes.
"Tell me, what face stands out the most to you," Itachi said, pointing toward them with his left hand.
Naruto shrugged beside him. "Um... Dunno, the fifth I guess."
"That's not quite what I mean," Itachi said. "What face is your hero, Naruto?"
Naruto frowned and gazed at each of them.A wide grin tugged at his face as he thought about his hero, "That's easy, the Yondaime!"
"Yes, he is your father."
Naruto turned with a whirl, exclaiming, "What?!" But it was to nobody, for Itachi was already gone. Naruto looked around in confusion before shrugging to himself and scowling at the face of the fourth as if to say this is all your fault you face of stone.
"Dammit, I got ripped off," Naruto muttered, fully confident that Itachi was lying to him. "My father, the fourth hokage? Yeah right," he said to himself as he walked back to his apartment, his hands in his pocket. "And that guy promised me some tea too."
But he made up his mind to find more information about him all the same from the library. He had heard great things, and he figured that it would make a good bed time story if nothing else.
"Argh, poor Gama-chan," he said mournfully as he stared at his empty frog wallet. He looked around for a bit, wondering if Itachi was still nearby and he also thought hard about why exactly Itachi would tell him this information. Ninja, Naruto knew from one of Mizuki's lectures, did not give anything for free. They always had a goal, therefore one must be sure to look underneath the underneath so Naruto squinted his eyes deep in thought and finally came across a suitable solution.
He grinned, and gazed toward the endless twinkling stars deep in the black velvety sky. "You want to help me be the Hokage then, don't you? So there's still hope for me after all!" He screamed in joy and ran home.
Nearby Itachi, sitting on a branch, face palmed in annoyance. "Training that idiot is going to be a torture. I should make Jiraiya-sensei pay me more," he said to himself as he jumped off the branch and landed gracefully on his feet.
Suddenly he sensed the presence of a powerful chakra house, a ninja was approaching him at high speed. He tensed and drew a kunai from his jounin vest, and turned to face he incoming threat.
It was Hatake Kakashi, his white hair messy and his face mask covering his expression. Itachi immediately noticed that the man was very alert and stressed, grim looking. "Uchiha," said the man, "We have a problem. The Earth ninja are attacking in three hours. It is an invasion."
"The Earth?" Itachi said tonelessly, "They will all die, why would they do something like it, I wonder? They probably have help with some other village, perhaps the Sound?"
Kakashi nodded, and sat down on the ground, where he began to drew seals in the mud with his kunai hurriedly. "You are a smart man, Itachi-san, and you will go far as a ninja. Yes, your deduction is correct in essence, the Earth is getting help but not just from the Sound."
"Hmm... Who else, then?" Itachi asked, bending over, peering at the seal. His eyes flashed to the infamous Mangekyou Sharingaan and he copied the seal patterns perfectly. Kakashi's sharingaan was also visible, though not evolved at the same level as Itachi's eyes.
"The Sand," Kakashi said, his gaze taking Itachi's own with an iron fury. "They have betrayed us, and what's more, they have a jinchuuriki in their army."
"Why hasn't the village been warned?" Itachi asked, "Does the Hokage have some sort of plan?"
"Indeed, it rests mainly on me and him," Kakashi said, still furiously drawing the seals in the mud. "We have been working on a trap of a sort, hence the seals, but the Hokage informed me to tell you to speed up Phase Kyuubi."
"I see," Itachi said, his voice seeming to be strangely detached. "What about Sasuke's safety? May I take him as well?"
Kakashi glared at Itachi, "No," he replied, and sped away, presumably to make another seal on the ground somewhere else.
Itachi took one last look at the seal Kakashi had created, his mind racing to figure out what the seal did, before leaping into the darkness to head toward Naruto's apartment, which he recalled was on the bad poverty stricken side of town.
Naruto whistled as he walked, because although he was a bit sad that he had lost his money to such a simple silly scam - as if the fourth hokage could be his father! he was a failure at the ninja arts for god's sakes - he resolved to find out more information about the fourth hokage right away. Luckily for him he knew the library was both closed and empty right now free of that nasty librarian who sort of hated him for some reason. And he knew a perfect way to get in the damp, musky library as well, through the cellar door.
He approached the library sort of cautiously, looking about to see if anyone was in sight. Luckily it was night fall and most of the stalls in the market place were closing, so he sneaked around the back of the library. It was a one story building, about a quarter the size of the academy, and had large rectangular windows on the sides of it, as well as a small staircase at the front leading to a doorway with a sign on top of the entrance that read, "All who enter, seek ye knowledge from wise ones' scrolls."
Naruto hated that because he barely knew how to read - well sure he knew a bit but he was just really slow at it. He hoped some of the books about the fourth hokage had pictures. As he pulled open the cellar door which led to the basement he felt the heaviness that accosted him from the piles of dust, from age, from the foreboding feeling of anxiety he always felt whenever he approached a book to read it, knowing he would have a tough time of it and thus giving himself further evidence he was in fact stupid.
I'm not stupid, he scowled at the darkness, I'm smart, just not at books and stuff. He scratched his forehead as he tried to recall what the Hokage had said to him once when he treated Naruto for some beef ramen on the evening of his third and final failure at become a ninja.
"It's not about what grades you get, Naruto," Jiraiya said, ruffling Naruto's hair with an affectionate smile, "But what you do that matters. Now, how about another bowl?" And they ate ramen all night long....
Naruto sighed in the dark gloomy cellar as he tried to make his way to the unlocked door which led up a set of plywood staircases to the back corner of the library. He stumbled, and hit his head. It hurt a lot, enough for him to yelp, but this was a mistake.
"Who's there?" said a hoarse voice, and then a match was struck, revealing a tattered homeless man with a fat belly sitting against the wall, a bottle of alcohol clutched tightly in his left hand, while in his right hand he held a match. Naruto noticed the hands were mud streaked, and sort of black-redish, and upon a closer look he saw that the man was injured.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked him.
"What's it to you?" said the man, sneering, "Get out of here kid, I need to sleep here tonight. I got nowhere else to go, okay?"
"I won't tell anyone," Naruto promised, "I'm just here to look for information, about the fourth hokage?"
"The fourth hokage, eh?" said the man, peering at Naruto through black sunglasses "I knew him personally, Minato was a fun loving sort of man, what do you want to know about him?" He took off his sunglasses and put them on the ground beside him.
"Itachi said he was my father," Naruto confided, "I know that's a load of crap but I still want to know more about him."
"No it is no falsehood," said the man, getting up, and placing a hand on Naruto's head. Naruto suddenly noticed the man was blind - his eyes were gray, opaque sort of, and watery.
"You are truly his son, Uzumaki Naruto."
"How did you know my name?" Naruto asked, suspicious and concerned. He backed away and suddenly the match lit out, and the cellar was shrouded in darkness. "Strike another match please," Naruto said, "And tell me everything."
"It's going to cost you," said the man, "My name is Hamiji, I was your father's subordinate once, a long time ago. He sent me on a mission and it cost me my eyes. It is your father's fault I am blinded, so it is only fair that you pay me for his mistakes."
"I don't have any money," Naruto said, "Hamiji, sir, just tell me or I'll go and find the books myself, I don't care either way okay." Naruto did care though, he didn't want to spend hours reading and he would have liked a personal account of his father - no it's not true, Naruto said to himself, the fourth hokage can't be my father - from someone who knew him.
"Very well then," Hamiji said, "I don't need the light though, only the heat. Find me a good book to burn, that should suffice, along with my drink." He giggled at his bottle. Naruto gave him a dirty look.
"Stupid alcoholic," Naruto muttered under his breath, but he lifted up a book and threw it in the direction of the voice.
Hamiji struck a match, and lit the book on fire. He placed it between them, and took in a deep gulp from his bottle, and with that he started his tale with a coarse and unused voice.
"Your father... he was a great man, perhaps the greatest ninja the world had ever seen. But his greatness did not stem from his personal power, or his intelligence, rather from his heart. Compassion, Naruto, that was his true power, that drew ninjas to him like moths to a fire, like bees to honey. He was kind, and that was his strength, but also his weakness. I think perhaps Orochimaru would have made a better fourth hokage than him. A hokage is not allowed to be kind, he must be as hard as a rock, as sharp as a blade, as intense as fire and as flexible as water. When he first came to Konoha, from whirlpool village, he was only a boy, perhaps seven years old. But he had chakra and so was admitted to Konoha's ninja academy. From there he quickly made a name for himself in creating numerous jutsu, most of them harmless but nonetheless he was the forerunner in the creative arts, and using his self made jutsu he acquired strength and respect from others."
"What makes you think he was my father?" Naruto asked, "How are you so sure?"
"Because," Hamiji said, taking a sip from his bottle, "You have the same tone, the same voice, but more so, the same light of compassion that your father had in his heart. I can hear it, I can even smell it despite how inebriated I am. It is obvious to me, as obvious as the sun is to the rooster. You can call it a bloodline limit perhaps, the ability to smell out a person's true character."
Naruto nodded his understanding, and said, "Can I try it? What you are drinking? I have never tried alcohol before."
Hamiji chuckled to himself, "You are a daredevil then, just like your father, but not as powerful or as intelligent, I can tell. Here, have as much as you desire."
Naruto grinned eagerly, and taking the bottle he took a huge gulp, and then groaned in slight pain, hissing at the burning sensation that rushed down his throat and into his stomach. He drank a bit more, feeling buzzed and happy already before handing the bottle back. "Tell me some more then, blind man."
Hamiji growled in anger, "What did you call me?" He said, clenching his fist. "How dare you!"
"Err sorry," Naruto said weakly, "Wasn't thinking right, you know?"
"Hmph, impudent as well," Hamiji said. "To continue the tale of Minato's legendary rise in Konoha's ninja corps, you need to understand how it was back then, back when we were at war - it was the great war, one of the greatest perhaps, with all the bloodshed between all the ninja villages. Many villages were completely exterminated save for a few survivors, like Whirlpool village, where you get your name Uzumaki."
Hamiji sighed, "To say Minato was determined would be an understatement. He was obsessed, in a frenzy to get revenge on those who had killed his friends, his parents, his family, the village of stone, Iwa. To this goal he invented the jutsu that gave him the name, Yellow Flash."
Hamiji belched and then yawned. "I'm tired," he mumbled, "A guy like me needs his sleep. Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you more but in return," he sighed again, and closed his eyes, putting his hands under his head like a pillow, "Don't tell anyone I've made my home here."
"The yellow flash," Naruto said to himself, wide eyed with amazement, "How do I do it?"
"Hmm... forbidden scroll..." mumbled Hamiji, "The instructions are there."
Naruto hatched an impossible plan right then and there, to acquire the forbidden scroll - which he knew would be under Jiraiya's personal protection - from the Hokage's personal library. He decided to set off then and there, and with the liquid courage gifted to him by Hamiji's bottle, he directed his footsteps to the Hokage tower.
Kakashi sighed to himself when he looked over at the seals he had made - fifty in all, surrounding Konoha's perimeter. He wondered if it would hold, and for how long, as well as the damage it would cause to Konoha's enemies, who were marching for an invasion right now. He decided to talk to the Hokage, and try to convince him of a back up plan just in case the seal master's trap did not work. Although Kakashi had a lot of faith in the Hokage's seal capabilities, fully knowing that Jiraiya was even better than Kakashi's sensei Minato.
"Alright, doggy," Kakashi said to one of his summons, "Keep an eye out on the approaching horde of enemy nin, okay?" Petting the dog he leapt out of the forest, and onto a roof top and started jumping from one roof to another at a very fast speed. Time was of utmost priority, because Konoha diid not have much time before the invasion began.
He entered Jiraiya's office through the window and was met with a kunai toward his throat by an ANBU guard that Kakashi remembered worked with him when he was an ANBU captain. "Err... you want the codeword right?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly, "Let's see... banana?"
The kunai lowered, and the ANBU holding the sharp weapon grunted, "Alright, you can come see the Hokage."
Kakashi rolled his eyes, fully aware the ANBU knew of him already, "Okay..."
Jiraiya was working on his seals, his head bent over a large scroll full of jiggly symbols that Kakashi could only vaguely comprehend. "What brings you here, Hatake," said Jiraiya in a formal voice, before looking up with a big fat grin, "I'm not going to give you the next Icha Icha before it is released, you know that."
Kakashi sighed, "You aren't? Darn. Anyways I was just hoping you had a back up plan, you know if this seal doesn't work out, maybe we should alert the ninjas just in case?"
"You don't have sufficient faith in my abilities," Jiraiya accused with a hurt expression, which melted away as he thought hard with his face expressing his deep thinking with a certain tightness that looked as if Jiraiya was born retarded. "Alright fine, warn the ninjas just in case but do it discreetly. The enemy thiinks its going to be a surprise attack but we can't have them being on guard for traps, at least, too much. Everyone knows Konoha is top of the line in terms of cunning though... Thanks to me..."
"Right," Kakashi said, and to avoid further babbling by the goofy Hokage, he turned out the window and ran into the humid night to warn the heads of the ninja clans who would in turn warn others in a chain reaction.
Itachi was a bit confused, to say the least when he came to Naruto's apartment and found it empty. He considered waiting for a bit but quickly shot that idea down the drain when in a second he considered eighteen possibilities of where Naruto had gone, and the one that seemed the most likely after his conversation was the library.
As he headed toward the Konoha public library, anger and distaste at the boy already forming in his heart, coated with a healthy amount of annoyance at having his time wasted at such a critical moment - there was a war on right now and Itachi had hoped to further his power by fighting enemy ninja and copying jutsu as it was his private goal to have more jutsu at his command than Kakashi of the thousand copied jutsu - but alas he was stuck babysitting a jinchuuriki who had no idea he was so special.
Itachi was stopped by a low level chuunin ninja who said to him that the village was under attack and he should discretely pass the message on to whoever he meets on the way. Itachi nodded once, and took out a kunai just in case he had to be ready and prepared if the seal work failed. He took a look at the sky, brimming with endless stars, and said a prayer once for the Uchiha family he had killed a long time ago under Sarutobi and Danzo's orders.
He was glad he was still a Konoha shinobi despite it all, the killing had been blamed on interclan fighting, and only Sasuke and himself were the sole survivors. Sasuke thought it was because the clan was divided and dissenting the rule of his father, and so he was obsessed with training, and with obedience to his brother who was the new head of the clan.
Itachi didn't have the heart to tell him the truth, to reveal the plan made by the council to cut away at the Uchiha rebellion by using their own progidy against them. But Itachi stayed silent and strong and through his silence and obedience he earned a place for the Uchiha clan despite their previous traitorous actions.
With the mangekyou sharingaan he was perhaps one of the strongest - but not the strongest as compared to the likes of Jiraiya - ninja in Konoha and thus was entrusted with the mission to take Naruto away from Konoha and train him in secret to prevent attempts of capture by the Akatsuki as well as to prevent Konoha from being attacked by S ranked missing nins like the legendary fish ninja Kisame and the explosive sculpture artist Deidara.
Itachi wondered how his life would have turned out if he chose to leave Konoha completely, if he hadn't created a fake situation that led people to believe the Uchiha clan - the strongest clan in Konoha - had a civil war amongst themselves.
He definitely knew he would have turned out to be a lot more powerful but at the same time he was aware of the fact that power was not everything. It was not as important as softer, more subtle things like the qualities the fourth hokage prided, one of which was compassion and the other - wisdom.
Itachi was almost at the library when he heard a scream ring out, and then his eyes widened as he activated his mangekyo sharingaan. The village was under attack. It was the full moon, and the seals had not worked despite the theory being right from what Itachi could tell, because leading the army was Orochimaaru himself, coming through the north, standing on the head of a gigantic black snake with yellow eyes and looming sharp fangs, followed by many sound and sand ninjas, and from the south Itachi saw the signs of earth jutsu being used so he surmised that the Iwa nin were attacking from that direction.
Konoha was woefully ill prepared to handle this wave of enemy ninja, and the Hokage had pinned his hopes on his seal work. Which had failed. Itachi groaned to himself but suddenly he perked up.
The screaming was not coming from Konoha ninja but rather from the enemy. The seals had worked! The village hidden in the leaves had lived true to its name as hundreds and thousands of leaves made of fire itself rose upward from the ground and sped to anyone not wearing a Konoha band, engulfing them within a cacoon of flaming leaf structures.
Itachi hurried to the library and broke down the door, and started to search for Naruto.
But the boy would not be there, which Itachi would only realize three minutes later, and in those three minutes Naruto found himself at the footstep of the Hokage tower, with ninja of all levels streaming out of the tower and toward the battle.
Naruto stared at the people of Konoha who were running around in panic. "Hey what the hell is going on?" He asked a ninja running past him. The ninja halted and turned to Naruto, wide eyed with fear and yet strangely determined by the woman's posture. She grasped Naruto's shoulder and said, "You shouldn't be here, young one, you should head toward safety. Find Iruka, okay? We're at war."
Naruto nodded, despite having no intention of doing so. When the woman was gone he went inside the tower, and took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor where he knew the Hokage library was located, right beside the office.
Grinning in self delight he wondered what sorts of cool techniques he could acquire through the scroll of forbidden jutsu as well as learning of his true heritage, which he concluded would be proven for sure if he could master the "flash" technique of his father, one he assumed not many ninja could master seeing as it was on the scroll anyways. He would have to take the scroll and run of course, lest somebody find him reading it in the library itself. It was just his good luck there was a war on, so he could get in and out undetected. And this thought proved to be true.
In and out, wow that's so easy, Naruto thought to himself as he clutched the scroll behind his shirt and hurried out. Nobody noticed him. He was like a true ninja, he decided, sneaky and as subtle as a shadow. I'm definitely kage level, he said to himself with a winsome bolt of happiness that made his whole body shiver.
As he ran down the street back to his apartment he found himself face to face with an irrate looking Uchiha Itachi. "What do you want?" Naruto said hastily hoping the older ninja wouldn't catch him with the forbidden scroll even though it was obvious he was holding a scroll under his shirt. "Get out of my way, idiot!"
Uchiha Itachi simply stood there, silent and waiting, before looking at the sky with wierd red eyes that scared Naruto. "Come with me, follow my lead and you won't get hurt."
"Who the hell do you think you are trying to tell me what to do?" Naruto said, his eyes flaming with anger and a bit of trepidation.
Itachi smiled softly, and said in a soft voice, "I'm your teacher of course. Don't you want to become a great ninja like your father, Naruto?"
"Hmm... I don't need your help," Naruto said and started to walk past Itachi but the older ninja grabbed him by the shoulders and stopped him in his tracks .
"What do you have?" Itachi asked, still smiling pleasantly. But that smile had iron behind it, Naruto decided.
"It's none of your business." Naruto took a step back and watched the ninja carefully with narrowed eyes. But suddenly Itachi appeared right in front of him and snatched the scroll to see what it was, and when he took in what Naruto had done - what the young wanna be ninja had acquired he smirked. "So the scroll of forbidden seals, huh?" Itachi said mockingly. "Come on then, perhaps you won't be so useless after all."
Inside Itachi could barely keep the elation within from growing. He had always wanted to get his hands on the scroll to study the seal that had captured the kyuubi and placed it in Naruto - the shiki fuujin, perhaps the most powerful ninja technique the world had ever seen, one which could defeat any demon, no matter how powerful for a little sacrifice.
"Well then let's go, there's a war on you know, the village of stone, sand and sound are invading," Itachi said in a monotone voice. Naruto chuckled and replied, "You're kidding right?"
"You think so? Okay, why don't we go see for ourselves," Itachi said, grinning suddenly in a bloodthirsty manner, "By now Orochimaaru and Jiraiya are probably duking it out like the good friends they are. It is a very special occasion when you have a chance to kill your best friend you know...."
Naruto followed Itachi wondering why the ninja was so wierd.
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The sky was lit up with fierce fireballs swung between Katon elemental ninjas, who used fire as a sword, as well as a shield, striking their enemies with ferocity. Some ninjas did not use any elementals, preferring instead the simplicity of the kunai, the way of the dagger striking a man's chest while the perpretator of the crime dissapeared into shadows. Assassin ninja were the most troublesome to block, one never knew where they were. And then there were wind elementals, using fans and wires to trap and kill their enemies, but none compared to the two sannin facing off in the middle of Konoha's streets.
Ninjas were sure to give wide berth to these two men, warriors with iron hearts and cunning minds sunk in the oceans of deviousness. Jiraiya the toad sannin and Orochimaaru, betrayer. They were the best that Konoha had ever produced, save for Naruto's father. Amid the chaos, which Itachi used to hide himself and his protege, they watched the two sannin fight dagger and wire, jutsu and genjutsu.
It was madness incarnated into physical form, as the ninja moved with a speed that Naruto could barely follow. Their eyes held nothing but detachment and dull concentration but there was a light of sadness in Jiraiya's eyes that Naruto could percieve.
Naruto did not want the fight to come his way. He was scared.
Itachi moved, his eyes a glaring red, taking hold of Naruto and telling him with a shake of his head that this bare glimpse of a fight of superior ninja was enough... for the both of them.
Itachi knew the level and the goal he had to reach, and Naruto knew what was possible in terms of ninja prowess and fighting skill. The time was at hand to leave, to give farewell to their village and go off into the vast unknown. Itachi knew he was being used as a babysitter, a carekeeper for his village just in order to prevent the Akatsuki from getting them, but it was okay because Itachi was a true ninja and he would follow orders for the good of his village.
As well as teach Naruto the ways of becoming hokage... and if Naruto turned out to be even half as great as his father then Itachi had succeeded.
And Itachi never failed.