Arriving at the Hokage Office, Itachi saw that the door to the office was open, which meant that Sandaime himself was having a guest at the point. He leaned behind the wall and listened carefully to the voices. Judging by the tone of the voices other than Sandaime's, he knew that it was Anko who was talking to the Hokage, hence he quickly left the area to hide somewhere else until she left the office.
"Alright, for this Chunin Exam, I will leave things for you and the other proctors to handle."
"Hai, Sandaime-sama."
"I'll be counting on you for this, Anko. Now, you are hereby dismissed."
"Thank you, Sandaime-sama," Anko bowed down in respect and left the office with documents on hands. The Sandaime stood up to open one of the windows to signal Itachi who was standing outside near the windows.
"You can come inside now."
Entering the office, Itachi took off his hat and mask to place them on the other smaller table. Itachi took out a Bingo Book and turned to Goba's page as he showed it to Sandaime.
"Kakashi-san said that you're assigning him to assassinate this criminal?"
Sandaime nodded and replied, "Yes, and Kakashi had told me that you'll be taking his place for the mission."
"Hai."
"Good, and these are the Anbus that will accompany you for the job."
Three masked Anbus entered from the door to make themselves known.
"Tenzo-senpai," Itachi called as he saw the masked Anbu in the middle of the three.
"Oh, Itachi. It's been a while, and look how you've grown! You are almost taller than me though," Tenzo greeted as he took off his mask to reveal his face.
"Oh yeah, it's been like four years?"
"Yeah, four years," Tenzo said as he shook hands with the Uchiha.
Sandaime cleared his throat to continue his briefing, "Alright, so tomorrow morning at six, you all will depart and look for the target. Around that time, he will start moving from the town that he had been staying at now. The main target is of S-rank, and he has five subordinates that always follow him, who are likely skilled rogue ninjas. Hence, use of deadly force are necessary as this is a assassination mission. Leave no one alive as they are too dangerous to live."
"Hai!"
"You guys have time to prepare until tomorrow, so now you all are hereby dismissed, except for both Itachi and Tenzo, I need you both to stay here for a bit more."
The other two Anbus left while both Itachi and Tenzo remained.
"Itachi, this will be your first ever mission in four years, so I hope you can still get used to it. And Tenzo, I hope that you can guide and cooperate with Itachi. His Sharingan and your Wood Release can make a very strong combination against the powerful enemy."
"Hai, Hokage-sama," Tenzo responded in agreement.
"That's all I have to say for you both an-"
"Fight me, you old man, kore!!!"
Turning back, both saw a young boy wearing a funny helmet and a long blue scarf charging at their direction from the door holding a shuriken.
What the? He was holding a freaking real shuriken! This is dangerous! Tenzo thought in panic as he looked with eyes wide opened.
The kid threw the shuriken at Sandaime. Sandaime remained unflinched as he sat still on his table while Itachi skillfully caught the flying kunai with only his left index finger into its hole without moving from his current spot, astonishing the kid with his incredible move. Itachi approached the boy and handed the shuriken back to him as he warned, "Little kid shouldn't be toying around with authentic and dangerous weapon, or you might get hurt."
The boy looked at him with his jaw dropped, and kept staring at his face. Itachi, however, proceeded to ignore his gaze and walked away after returning the shuriken. A short while later, the boy pointed at Sandaime and yelled, "I will come back with greater force than this time, remember that kore!"
As he ran off, Tenzo facepalmed and laughed, Itachi shook his head and Sandaime merely sighed at the boy's antic, "That was my grandson, Konohamaru. I hope that the both of you wouldn't mind him. He's still a child after all. Ahem... Alright, you both are dismissed."
As they left the office, Tenzo turned to ask Itachi, "While there's still time, wanna go and grab something to eat?"
"I would like to go and look around the village, so I'm sorry. But next time when you asked me, I'll gladly treat you with sushi."
"Sounds good, Itachi. That's a promise, alright?"
"A promise, Tenzo-senpai," Itachi said as he fist bumped with Tenzo. After bidding farewell with him, Itachi went on a separate way as he wanted to stroll around Konoha. He had made sure of himself to stay away from any area that were full of Konoha ninjas' activity as he was targeted in the Bingo Book and the fact that he would like to avoid both Anko and his brother, Sasuke. Hence he chose to walk around the park and the residential areas as there were little to no people at night.
Strolling around, he could find some peace and relax his mind from stress. Along with the quiet and windy atmosphere of the night, it was quite a walk that he very much enjoyed. He could hear the owls hooting, the sound of the night breezes, and as given the privilege to view the full moon as he walked, damn, he liked it so much that he thought he could do this all the night. It was such a pity that the Hokage didn't have much chance to do so as he always stayed to work in the office 24/7 for the entire village.
But then his peaceful walk had to come to an end when he sensed someone following him. Without turning back, he asked, "I know you are following me, so come out now. There's no use of hiding."
With no response from his stalker whatsoever, Itachi decided to turn back to see a person camouflaging himself behind a wall. He sweatdropped in awkwardness as he saw the disguise was just too obvious, with the physical humanoid outline being clearly visible behind the disguise.
"Tha... that camouflage was a disappointment..."
The same boy from before revealed himself as he praised Itachi, "Nice job for detecting me, kore!"
"What do you want from me, kid?"
"You! You seem like a very cool and strong person, so can you tell me what's your name?!"
Itachi turned away and walked off, ignoring the kid, much to Konohamaru's frustration and he yelled, "Stop ignoring me like I'm a bug, kore!"
Konohamaru threw five shurikens at Itachi, but before they could hit him, he disappeared in a flash. Konohamaru rushed to the spot where he stood, and looked around to search for Itachi.
"Where did he go, kore?"
Turning to look behind, Konohamaru found Itachi crouching right behind him, with his Sharingan activated as he stared into his eyes directly.
Th-those... Those eyes...
Falling under his Sharingan genjutsu, Konohamaru was knocked out to sleep. Itachi then lifted up his body and placed him on his left shoulder, carrying Konohamaru away as he left the area.
Arriving at someone else's house, Itachi carefully placed Konohamaru near the front door and knocked on it.
"Who's there?"
A man who wore a sunglasses opened the door to find Konohamaru sleeping on the doorstep, much to his surprise.
"O-o-Omago-sama?!"
He looked around in panic to find no one else other than Konohamaru. As he tried waking up Konohamaru, he found a letter that read, "I'm leaving him here for you."
I-it must be a genjutsu! But he's sound asleep. Maybe I can wake him up without releasing the genjutsu. "Omago-sama, omago-sama!"
As he was shaken by the man, Konohamaru woke up to find himself at his house, "Eh, Ebisu-sensei? W-why am I in your house?!"
"Omago-sama, it seemed that you were caught in a genjutsu and so you ended up sleeping near my house."
"I was? Oh, wait..."
Konohamaru tried to recollect his memory before he was attacked by Itachi's genjutsu. Other than remembering him following Itachi before he used the camouflage to hide from him, he could not think of anything else and explained, "I remembered myself following a man... But after that, it seems that everything went blank and I could not remember what happened afterwards..."
"S-so, do you remember what that man looked like?!"
"Hmm... he has a black hair, an eye bag under his eyes, and was wearing a long, black jacket... That's what I remembered him looking like, kore."
"And was he the one who put you into genjutsu?"
"Hm? I have no idea... And I doubt that he even attacked me.."
Ebisu grabbed Konohamaru's hand to get him up and said in relief, "Alright, Omago-sama. It's a good thing that you are not hurt everywhere. You shouldn't be going outside at night. Please come inside, Omago-sama."
Ebisu led Konohamaru into his house, but then Konohamaru paused for a moment as he felt a weird sensation in his eyes and proceeded to rubbed them.
"What's wrong, Omago-sama?"
"N-nothing, kore. It's just that I felt something weird..." Konohamaru assured his sensei.
xxx
"Welcome!"
Sasuke entered Ichiraku to find Neji sitting on the table waiting for his ramen. Both greeted to each other as Sasuke took his seat next to Neji.
"You just came here?"
Neji nodded, and answered, "And I've just ordered my misu char shiu ramen not long ago."
The female waitress proceeded to take the Uchiha's order, "What do you want to eat?"
"Same as the guy here," Sasuke ordered as he pointed at Neji with his thumb.
"Right, father! One bowl of Misu Char Shiu Ramen, please!"
Sasuke stood up to pour himself a herbal tea then sat back down to drink it. Wanting to avoid silence between the two of them, Neji asked, "Did Hiashi-sama know your relationship with Hinata-sama?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and tightened his lips, before he sounded 'uhm' as a confirmation that the Hyuga leader knew.
"And so, how did it turned out?"
"He didn't disapprove, and he was willing to let me marry her."
"Wha- really? Wow, never thought that you're allowed to marry Hinata-sama considering that we Hyugas are only allowed to marry our brethren."
"But that's when I grow old enough to be able to do so," Sasuke clarified as he took another sip of tea.
"Exactly, and like I said before, dating at your age are invalid, and so he had expected you both to wait."
"Agree, and for now me and Hinata should remain as best friends until we reached the right age to fall in love."
The cook reached and placed a ramen bowl for Neji, "Your ramen's ready, boy!"
"Thanks. Itadakimsu," Neji murmured and proceeded to eat with his chopsticks.
"Well, Hinata-sama is his own daughter after all. But at least he's allowing you to marry her, unlike the elders who objected to her marrying a non-Hyuga."
"Elders? You mean, like the advisors to the clan head?"
"Yeah. They were group of elderly Hyugas belonging to the main branch that served as an advisor to the clan leader. They are absurdly conservative, and that's what makes them a dislikeable bunch of assholes. Just few days earlier when Hiashi-sama proposed to a change of marriage policy that extended the Hyuga marriage to a few clans like the Uchiha, Sarutobi, and the Yamanaka Clan, the elders straight out objected, but fortunately Hiashi-sama didn't buy into their bullshit and overruled them anyway."
Sasuke smirked, and nodded his head, "That's good to hear. Seems that the Hyuga Clan are gradually reforming. Just hope those conservative elders don't get in the way."
"Hn, they won't. They are powerless in actuality as the rule of the clan head are absolute, and Hiashi-sama's new policies have always been a good news for the whole clan."
"So, are they going to end the practice of putting the Cursed Mark on the branch members?"
As he questioned, Neji subconsciously touched his forehead protector that covered his 'X' mark, then explained, "Hiashi-sama had thought about ending the practice altogether, but he had said that he needed to plan out about how exactly he is going to end it, as he'll need to face the consequences of doing so. So he needed more time and he had also said that the process will be gradual, not immediate."
"Aren't there anything that can undo the mark?"
"No known jutsu are able to erase the mark, so we have no idea how to get rid of it just yet. But for the next-gen branch family of Hyuga, they most likely won't be bearing the Curse Mark again."
"Hn, that'll do."
xxx
After sorting out all of the documents regarding the Chunin Exam, Anko leaned backward on her chair to catch a breath. She stood up to stretch her arms up and down, left and right.
"Yippy, time to sle-" Just as she was going to her bed, Anko's eyes passed by the photos of Itachi and her together. Remembering the experience they had together back in Itachi's former home, Anko clenched her fists tightly, biting her lips and giving off a angry blush, "Kuso..."
Later, Anko was punching a dummy that had the photo frame of Itachi attached to its head, throwing all of her anger at it as she yelled in rage, "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!!"
She kept punching the dummy that she thought of as Itachi, one after one, each blow seemingly getting harder and harder. Ten straight minutes later of continuous punches, she collapsed to the floor after throwing her last punch that was rather very weak right to the head. Panting in exhaustion, she leaned against the dummy while sitting on the floor.
"Baka..."
Anko teared, and her voice trembled.
"I love you... I've loved you... But why?"
Anko tried standing up as she grabbed on the dummy as a support. When she stood up, she hugged the dummy in embrace as she cried.
"Itachi... Please, if you're here... please come and be by my side... I miss you... I really want you now..."
xxx
"Target detected, and it appears that he is leaving the inn," a Anbu reported, and Tenzo took point, "Let's follow him."
Itachi and the Anbus followed Goba and his men into the forest as they travelled. As they were now in a area away from any civilization, Tenzo signalled, "Alright, Jin and Sougo, you both attack the four underlings. I will take the right hand man. Itachi, you go for the boss."
Jin and Sougo emerged from their hiding spots as they charged to attack four of Goba's subordinates. Soon later, Tenzo came out to intercept Goba's right hand man, Goyruu. Before coming into close contact, he weaved signs and yelled, "Moukton: Uddosaberu!" A wooden sword was formed on his right hand and it clashed with Goryuu's machete.
"Wait, it's wood but it won't break!"
"And it's no ordinary wooden sword," Tenzo mockingly reminded as he fluidly blocked off Goryu's next attacks with the machete several times with his sword. As Goryu swung the machete at him from his left, Tenzo bent backward and purposely made himself fall to trip Goryuu with his foot. He stood back up much faster than him and attempted to stab with his sword but Goryuu quickly rolled away out of range.
When his subrodinates were attacked, Goba attempted to reach to help but a murder of crows suddenly flew toward him, emitting a powerful force of chakra which launched him to a distance many meters away from the others. The crows grouped closely together and Itachi himself materialized out of the crows.
"W-who the hell are you?!" Goba asked the masked man in black cloak as he drew out his saber. Itachi didn't respond and immediately activated his Sharingan out of his mask, to which Goba saw and was shocked.
The Sharingan? No way...
A blade emerged out of Itachi's right oversized sleeve along with the sound of metallic clang. Goba pointed at Itachi as he moved around and studying him while Itachi remained still, his Sharingan looking dead straight without paying attention to Goba. Once he went behind him, Goba charged to attack him from the back but Itachi managed to block with his sword as he quickly turned around to face him.
Itachi remained defensive as Goba kept swinging and spearheading his sword and he dodged and blocked as he retreated backward. Goba threw upward and caught the sword by his mouth as he weaved out signs while he swung his head to attack Itachi with the sword as he advanced.
"Raiton: Jimen Shogeki!" Goba stopped and crouched down to slam his right fist to the ground, emitting a series of electromagnetic pulse around the area. Before the EMP could hit and electrocute Itachi, Itachi jumped over to the unaffected area and weaved out signs and shot out the great fireball at Goba. Goba managed to react and dodge. As he landed on the ground, he charged ahead and continued swinging and fencing his sword the Uchiha, who kept blocking them effortlessly with his own blade.
Goba charged his sword with electricity and purposefully collided it with Itachi's blade in hope of sending electricity through his sword to electrocute Itachi. Itachi, however, noticed and before their swords clashed, he let go of it and Goba ended up merely launching his blade away after hitting it. Itachi crouched down and forcefully pushed his left palm right against his abdomen, murmuring, "Futon: Reppusho!"
Itachi launched Goba away with the wind style jutsu, crashing him into a tree and making him coughed up blood. Itachi picked up his sword from the ground as soon as it no longer emitted the electricity, and carefully approached the weakened criminal who was laying against the tree.
Goba glared and quickly weaved out one-handed hand signs on his right hand, uttering, "Douton: Datotprappu!"
Dirts emerged from the soil underneath Itachi in the shape of snake as they quickly wrapped around him, rendering him immobilized in the process. Goba stood up as he wiped off the bloods from his mouth and approached the Uchiha.
"You fell right into my trap, you Anbu brat. Now you can't move as you want to."
Goba pulled out a kunai, and drew it close to Itachi's throat as he grinned sadistically and murmured, "Any last word?". Itachi calmly reminded Goba, "Before you do anything, please take a good look at yourself first."
"Huh?!" Goba narrowed his eyes in confusion and took a step back to find himself being the one bounded by the same jutsu instead of Itachi, and the fact that he himself was now standing on the same spot where he saw Itachi stood as he was trapped, realizing that he had been tricked by Itachi's genjutsu.
"Genjutsu, since when?!"
"Since when you were weaving out the hand signs for the jutsu, I immediately put you into my genjutsu and quickly swapped place with you when the trap was just formed, and you then ended up being bounded by the jutsu on the exact same spot where you saw me standing at earlier in the genjutsu," Itachi explained in details.
Goba tried to cancel his jutsu, but found that both his hands were tied up by the wire strings attached to the two kunai kunives that were stuck on the ground on each of his side, preventing him from weaving out the necessary hand signs to do so. He then tried to break free but struggled to.
"Kuso!!!"
Itachi grinned and gave a word of praise, "I really like the way you designed this jutsu... Because..." Itachi slowly raised his blade as he weaved out the hand signs with only one hand that was holding the blade, "It reminds me of someone special..."
Powerful chakra of Chidori charged up the blade, and Itachi slashed Goba in his abdomen, then electrocuting him for a length of time as he screamed in pain until he died.
Goryuu and Yamato continued their melee combat. When Goryuu was swinging his machete from his left to right to deliver a slash, Tenzo flickered instead and reappeared behind him and hit him with a spinning kick, sending him to fall into the river.
"Mokuton: Mokusatu Shibari no Jutsu!" Tenzo's right arm turned into a tree that split into several branches as they hurled toward Goryuu. He noticed and quickly escaped but then Tenzo's left arm also formed the same branches and detached them into the ground. While he was using the branches of his left arm to chase Goryuu, the detached branches suddenly emerged from the ground and successfully captured Goryuu, restraining him as the branches rapidly grew around him.
Tenzo quickly advanced forward with the Chidori on his right hand and when he was close enough to the restrained criminal, he cancelled out the wooden jutsu, allowing him to directly pierce through Goryuu's chest without hindrance, killing him instantly.
I'll have to borrow your Raikiri, Kakashi-senpai.
When the fight was over, all of the targets were killed while Itachi along with the Anbus survived, just as the mission had intended. Itachi and the Anbus examined their targets' bodies to prove if they were the authentic individuals instead of mere clones or doppelgangers. In the end, they were be able to confirm that they had successfully killed their targets on spot.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah, and no one was hurt," Tenzo assured the Uchiha as he took photos of their targets' corpses as evidence for the Hokage.
"Mission accomplished, let's go back."
xxx
After checking the photos of evidence, the Sandaime nodded in acknowledgement and praised the group, "You all did a very good job in getting rid of them. Now peace has been reassured up north."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Tenzo as he kneeled down in respect while Itachi and the others stood.
"Alright, now you all are dismissed."
As they left the office, Sandaime asked Itachi abruptly. Itachi paused for a moment to listen.
"I highly recommend you to stay in the village today. Anko has been looking quite distressed recently and I'm sure that she would like your company."
Itachi merely blinked and didn't respond to Sandaime. Without any further reply, he walked out of the office. Sandaime chuckled as he grabbed his E-pipe to smoke.
"Love these days are complicated, huh?"
As he walked passed a training ground, he saw Team 7 training with their jonin, Kakashi. He stopped to watch the team.
Both Sasuke and Hinata were resting near a wooden pole while Naruto was sparring with Kakashi. They all apparently displayed bruises on their faces and injuries on their arms. Even Kakashi was having looking a bit tired from fighting them head on individually. Few minutes later, the sparring ended with the whole team taking a break.
"Let's rest for a while, and we'll continue your individual sparring against me."
"N-nani?!"
"Hm?!"
"Eeeehhhh??"
The genins responded in disbelief, much to Itachi's amusement at their reactions. Kakashi sheepishly rubbed his head as he emphasized, "Yaaahh, that's what we will be doing, folks. We ARE going to train for the whole day."
"This is so tiring..."
"Naruto, do you want me to treat you ramen tonight?"
For all of sudden, the blonde genin regained his energetic attitude and leaped forward close to Kakashi in excitement, "Really?! Alright, I will train to my hardest today-ttebayo, father!"
"Dang... this ushiratonkachi..." Sasuke facepalmed and shook his head as he complained while Hinata giggled.
"Hn," Itachi smirked and proceeded to walk away. Sasuke abruptly sensed something and looked up to the direction where his brother once stood to find no one. It felt like something familiar, but he had no idea what it was and he was very confused.
"S-Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?" Hinata asked in concern, and Sasuke scratched his head as he stated, "N-nothing... Just felt something really weird." He decided to shrug it off as it never happened.
xxx
Anko was wiping her kunai clean as she arranged her ninja tools. For the whole breakfast and lunch, she had just eaten dango and it was enough to satisfy her hunger and refill her energy for the day. After cleaning and arranging all of her shurikens and kunai knives, she went to sit on her bed, unsure of what to do since she had already finished all of the paperwork for the Chunin Exam and her jonin tasks for now.
She had many thoughts on what she should be doing to spend the rest of the day. Hanging out with friends? Most of them were out for missions and training their disciples. Taking a walk around the village? That would be boring. Requesting a new mission from the Hokage? That would be unnecessary. Go and train by herself? That will be her best bet.
Just as she had decided to go training, a knock was heard from the door. She headed downstairs and approached the front door. As she opened it, she was left flabbergasted to see it was Uchiha Itachi visiting her.
"I... Itachi?"