It was early morning, the sun had barely risen over the horizon when our trio awoke. Naruto noticed that Itachi and Mikoto were packing up their things, which confused Naruto. He knew that they needed to move around but he heard nothing about it.
"Where are we going" Naruto asked Itachi and Mikoto, hoping that they would inform him.
"Due to what happened last night we need to move, we are heading towards The Land of Tea." Mikoto responded to her surrogate son.
"We will also be starting your shinobi training Naruto-kun" Itachi stated looking towards his little brother. He wanted to gauge his reaction to see what he thought about it without words. He noticed when he mentioned shinobi training he seemed to depress a bit, but was immediately followed by a smirk. 'He must not have gotten over what happened last night' he thought to himself.
"Naruto, what happened last night happens all the time in the shinobi world, this is why it is my goal to achieve peace, and ultimately change the shinobi way." Itachi claimed with full confidence in himself, fully believing he would be capable of such a task.
"Then I will join you nii-chan, I will help you change the shinobi way" Naruto responded with determination. However our hero in the making did not know what that really meant, or what it would cost. All he knew was that he didn't want to see his friends hurt, nor did he want to see other people lose their loved ones. Itachi simply smiled at his response, he believed the two of them could do anything, however it would be much later.
"Well then, prepare yourself sochi, it is going to be extremely tiring" Mikoto stated in a motherly fashion. To this Naruto only gulped, if his mother was warning him in such a way he knew that it was going to be difficult, but very worth it.
The trio had finished packing up their gear and headed towards The Land of Tea. Naruto was wondering when he was going to start his shinobi training. However Itachi and Mikoto both wanted to create some distance from the town they were just in. They had no idea if those dead shinobi were apart of a larger group, and while they felt confident they could handle any threat from them, they would rather not endanger Naruto.
The sun was positioned high in the sky, roughly noon, when they decided to stop and train the youngest member of the group.
"Alright, let us begin your training Naruto-kun. We are going to start with your chakra control and physical conditioning." Itachi informed Naruto, he knew that with his large quantity of chakra, it would prove difficult learning difficult jutsu, especially wind and fire jutsu due to their destructive nature. For instance if he tried the fireball jutsu with to much chakra, he could easily burn his lungs, or for wind chakra he could explode arteries and organs with extreme pressure.
"Well that am I going to do then for chakra control" questioned Naruto with some excitement in his voice.
"I want you to watch me, without your sharingan, and tell me what you think im doing" Mikoto stated as she walked over to a tree and began climbing with chakra. She wanted to train her son without the sharingan. This is because if he learned without it, he would even further be grateful for the tool at his disposal, and ultimately become a better shinobi because of it.
"I think you're using chakra but I don't know how" responded our blond shinobi in training. He didn't like not having answers that he knew were correct but knew that he would be told anyways.
"That's correct, I am using chakra" she then paused a moment to let Naruto think over how she might be using her chakra before continuing "You move the chakra towards the bottom of your feet and allow it to connect with what's around you, when you climb a tree the amount of chakra you need stays the same. To much chakra and you will blow a chunk in the tree, however to little chakra and you will simply fall off as if nothing was holding you. This will take some practice but I believe you can do it." Mikoto detailed to her son, once he completed this exercise she wanted to move on to getting him in shape. She knew that she couldn't use any type of weights or his growth would be stunted, so she decided on three basic exercises to help for now. WIth her explanation Naruto set off to start and finish this task.
Once Naruto was set up to begin tree climbing, a menial task, Itachi needed to discuss some things with his mother about missions to get money. While he would do what he needed for his family, he would not like some things.
"Kaa-san" Itachi directed towards his mother, notioning he wanted to talk to her without Naruto hearing. Itachi and his mother created some distance from Naruto before Itachi decided to continue with his thoughts. "I need to take on missions to get money, it will make things easier for us in the long run. However I would like some advice. While I do not mind killing and such to those who deserve it, a lot of those with money want assassinations of people who threaten their wealth, even if they are innocent. Should I simply just kill the innocent for the money, or decline the mission." Itachi asked, he was greatly conflicted by this, how could he preach a path to peace if he slaughtered innocents for money. He accepted sacrifice but this was different. This was murder in cold blood for some ryo, and that was something that didn't sell well with him yet.
MIkoto noticed his conflicted state, and wanted to at least try to settle any doubts her eldest son may have. "I would recommend before accepting a mission looking into what the target is like. If he has some shady history It would be doing the world a favor to rid of those kinds of people, however if they are completely innocent you could either simply ignore the mission, or double cross the person who set you up for the mission. While it's not completely honorable, if the person ordering the assasination is a criminal with deep roots, it may not be a bad thing to get rid of them. That is at least what I would do" Mikoto voiced her thoughts to Itachi, she didn't want to entirely answer the question for him, as his decision would ultimately affect how he would view the world, but she could only hope he would make the right ones.
"Thank you" was the only thing Itachi said, he knew what he was going to do with missions now. "I am going to look for some missions, I plan to be back this evening, if I am not however continue traveling to The Land of Tea." was all Itachi said before taking off to the nearest town hoping to get some money.
Once Itachi had vanished from sensing range, Mikoto returned to Naruto to observe his progress. She noticed he was struggling and decided to give him some pointers. She had a feeling that he would either get this chakra control exercise tonight or early tomorrow morning. While Naruto was training she set up a camp to use her time wisely. She then decided that if she were to train a shinobi, she would need to keep up with her own training. While she was a jonin before she had Itachi, and a high A ranked ninja, she had only become rusty since then. With that she started her own regiment. She felt she needed to get her strength and endurance up, followed by touching up some chakra control and the basics. She knew that mastering the basics would prove more important than knowing all the powerful jutsu. She looked up into the sky and sighed, it was going to be a long day.
Itachi arrived it what appeared to be a large town in Wave Country, the people appeared to be happy and enjoying their lives, oblivious to the shinobi world. It was calming for Itachi to see this, knowing that this village knew peace. Noting his surroundings he made his way around town, looking for any signs that someone needed something done. He made his way in what appeared to be a darker part of town, the civilians were much quieter here. He made his way over to a lone woman walking heading in what appeared to be back to the busier parts of town when he made his way over to her.
"Excuse me miss" Itachi said, getting her attention. "Why is this part of town so quiet compared to everywhere else" Itachi asked the stranger in front of him.
"There are some bad people in this part of town, it is best to just avoid it" she advised the boy in front of her. She was simply another civilian who did not think that an eleven year old boy could be a trained killer.
"Why doesn't anybody do anything about them, surely they can't be more than thugs" Itachi responded, he was trying to figure out what stopped these people from just rooting out the thugs.
"We don't have anyone to do it, and even if we could, they would simply just retaliate. They hardly do anything aside from thefft" the woman cautiously said to Itachi.
"Well, thank you for your time miss, I have a feeling you won't have to worry about them for much longer" Itachi cryptically stated as he began to walk away.
Itachi knew that he was going to kill these men. He was thinking about how he was going to do it. He decided that he needed to scope the place out, and would make his move under the cover of darkness. Stealthily making his way around the block, he noted a building which had a different feel compared to the rest of the area. Itachi figured that this building was the one which housed the criminals. That being said he noted it was a two story building with one window on each side, with the front comprised of a large doorway. Taking note of all the possible exits and entrances, Itachi decided to summon a crow and have it scope the inside of the building. This would eliminate the risk to expose himself early, while also learning what is inside of the building. When the crow returned, Itachi used his sharingan to essentially see what the crow had seen. What he saw surprised him, he noticed that their was quite a stashing of money and drugs on the second floor, he noted that there were two beds that lie there, which left Itachi to draw the conclusion that two people slept on the second floor. On the first floor, what Itachi found was much more sickening. He was told that these men were nothing more than thieves. What he saw forced him to recognize they were much more than that, they were despicable beings who deserved what was coming. On the first floor was a young woman, around the age of sixteen tied up with ropes on the ground. She had bruises covering her arms and face. This of course led Itachi to only conclusion, she was raped repeatedly. Noting the other things on the first floor, he saw another bed, with a small stash of money. Taking in all these things, he decided that he would enter the second floor in the opposite room where the two criminals were sleeping and quickly eliminate them, moving downstairs and killing the last man. If figuired if the woman awoke from him or saw him she might be alarmed and thus wake the people up, making things more difficult for him. All he had to do now was wait until nightfall.
The sun was just setting when Mikoto decided to take a breather, she had tired herself out quite a bit from all the physical conditioning she was doing. During her break she went over to Naruto and noticed he was almost at the top of the tree. He was making remarkable progress, especially for a jinchuriki. It was only a matter of time before he would successfully make it to the top. Luckily she already had something she wanted him to expand on with tree climbing. Deep in thought, she barely noticed the yelp when she looked up and noticed Naruto falling to the ground. Instincts kicking in, she rushed over and was able to catch him from hitting the ground. She set Naruto down when he looked up at her.
"Whoops" was all said, face red of embarrassment. Mikoto was barely able to stifle a giggle at his expense.
"Why don't you take a break with me, you've been going all afternoon," she said to Naruto. She didn't want to tell him to take a break, but having a moment to clear your mind is extremely beneficial.
Naruto wanted to argue, but the look on her face made him think that there really wasn't any room for argument, so he nodded and began to walk to their makeshift camp. He sat down on the ground while Mikoto prepared a fire to cook some food they had. Once the fire was set and the food was cooking, Naruto wanted to ask some questions about what his mother did for the day. He knew she was training but he didn't know why or what she was doing.
"Kaa-san, what are you doing for your training" he curiously asked his mother.
"I am doing some physical exercises. It has been a long time since I really put a lot of effort into training."
"Why do you train so hard kaa-san" he thoughtfully asked. She was already strong so why did he she keep going, it was something he did not fully understand.
"If I want to protect and guide you and Itachi-kun, then I need to be strong. Especially when we are always moving. The threats are always around us and we are never TRULY safe" she answered. She knew that Itachi is more than strong enough to take care of himself, but she also wanted to be able to match him at least, so that he wouldn't face the entire burden of being a missing ninja on himself. She felt it was her job as a mother to make sure of that.
Naruto didn't truly understand why she needed to be strong enough to do that, as he did not know about Itachi's missing ninja status. However he simply nodded and took the answer at face value.
"What am I going to do after I finish the tree climbing exercise" he decided to ask changing the subject, he felt it would take a darker turn if he kept asking questions about the subject.
Mikoto pondered a moment before responding " After you finish the exercise I want you to run up and down the tree as long as you can without touching the ground, as well as jumping around the branches. This will help your control as well as your agility" She knew that this would take time to perfect, however it would not only help his chakra control, but also his speed and endurance. These would prove extremely useful later in life.
Naruto paled at the thought. He was already exhausted from just running up the tree, let alone jump around on the branches and such. As he was thinking about this new training he would do, Mikoto pulled the food from the fire and prepared the meal. Finishing the fish and rice up, she passed some food to herself and they both began to eat, enjoying the silence after a long day of training. After finishing the meal, Naruto thanked his mother and immediately went back to training. Mikoto only smiled at the scene, happy that he had the determination to continue. Her thoughts wandered to Itachi before she went back to her own training.
Darkness had finally covered the village, the civilians were no longer in their streets, but in their own homes with their families. It was only a matter of time before he would move under the cover of darkness. All he had to do now was wait for the majority of people to be asleep. However he did not make waste of this time, continued to observe the house to note anything he did not account. Early he watched as three men entered the house to never exit. After roughly an hour, there were no lights that were on in the house. Itachi quickly jumped over rooftops making his way on top of his targeted building. Reading his chokuto, Itachi descended down the side of the building before making his way inside. He activated his sharingan and quickly observed the state of the room he was in. Noting their were absolute silence in the house, he made his way to the room with two bedrooms. Opening the door as silently as he could. He moved over to his targets, quickly slitting their throats, he moved his way downstairs. He saw the bonded women from earlier disrobed and asleep. Inside he was feeling angry, however his facial expression portrayed nothing, he was a shinobi and would not display emotions when working. He walked over to where the final man was supposed to be asleep, however when he was about to slit his throat, the man quickly stopped Itachi's wrist and went to stab him with a hidden kunai. Itachi although not prepared was able to react in time due to his sharingan and deflected the blade. A short struggle followed, the man was to close for Itachi to effectively use his chokuto, so his free hand was merely for deflecting punches that were thrown to him. After dodging a punch aimed to his face, he quickly kicked the man far enough away for Itachi to plunge his chokuto through the man's chest. Itachi watched as the life drained from his eyes, blood pooling on the ground as he died. Throughout the commotion the tied women had awakened and was petrified, here she thought this man was here to kill her. Noticing she was awake Itachi finally decided to speak while walking towards her.
"I am not going to hurt you, you are free to go" Itachi spoke in a calm fashion, trying to appease the women. It worked slightly as she nodded. Itachi walked up to her, and using a kunai, cut all the ropes binding her down. "Get come clothes from the dresser and leave" ordered Itachi, he had business to finish after all. She quickly nodded and got dressed, running out of the house. One she left, Itachi quickly sealed up the bodies and cash, leaving the drugs for the villagers to do whatever they wish with. Looking back at the house, Itachi felt somewhat good, knowing that he saved someone and rid the world of people like that, before descending into the night to return to his family.
It was roughly midnight when Itachi reached camp, where he quickly went to sleep.
The next morning Itachi was awaken by the sound of his mother and Naruto training. He wondered how far his brother had come in his training and observed. What he saw was rather impressive. His brother was running around branches upside down and occasionally jumping between trees. He was happy to see how he was progressing, without a doubt he would be a capable shinobi. Noting this, he began to walk over to his mother.
"Good morning kaa-san" he directed towards his mother.
"Did you find any missions" she responded shakily, being out of breath from her training.
"Not exactly, I found some criminals who were stealing from a town and rid of them and took the money. It was about five hundred thousand ryo."
"That is a good amount of money and will prove valuable, it means we won't need to take missions for a few weeks" his mother responded, thinking about what they should get now that they have the money for it.
"Yes it is a good amount, anyways, we should continue to The Land of Tea, no doubt after the last two days people might be looking for us," Itachi advised his mother, in which she agreed.
"Let's begin to pack up, I will get Naruto from training" she ordered of her eldest. She then walked towards the tree Naruto was perched up on.
"Naruto let's go, we are leaving" Mikoto yelled to her youngest son.
"Ok" he responded with a yell
Once Naruto climbed down they packed up their materials and continued to the Land of Tea. Now that Naruto has advanced in tree climbing, they could move much faster on trees towards their destination. Naruto noted how much faster this was and wanted to get even faster, to feel the wind in his hair as he jumped from branch to branch. It was refreshing.
The group had finally arrived to the Land of Tea as the sun was setting. Moving to the nearest village, the got a hotel and slept for night.
As Naruto and Itachi slept, Mikoto tried to think of a plan, she wanted Naruto to get strong sooner rather than later. She thought that they could stay in the land of tea for a few months while Naruto trained. She wanted to introduce him to water walking and shuriken jutsu. They were relatively basic skills and would prove to go far if mastered properly. Finalizing those thoughts, she closed her eyes and fell into the darkness of sleep.
It was early morning when they awoke. Mikoto decided to not waste any time and went to explain their time.
"Good morning boys" Mikoto said with a smile, she could easily get used to seeing her sons every morning. "I have a plan for the next few months of training" she paused a moment to get their attention " I want to train Naruto in waterwalking, as well as start shuriken jutsu, Once he has a good grasp of those I want to move on to teaching him the traditional Uchiha jutsu. Once that is done I think we should move to a new location. I have a place in mind that will allow us to train for quite some time without interruption, but will require some money to get their" Mikoto listed off to her sons, to which they both nodded. It seemed like a good plan to them.
"Well then let's eat and get started on training" she said with a sense of excitement. She loved training her son, it proved refreshing. He could only groan, it was to early for training he felt, but voiced none of his complaints. It was going to be a long few months.
-END Chapter-
So minor time skips will be ahead. Itachi will talk to his mother about where they will be going, which will be revealed next chapter. So while Naruto's training will jump around, we will see the things Itachi does and his perspective on the world. Also, I think you will like how Itachi meets his love interest :P
As always, please leave feedback so I can improve my writing 3 :P