Dread filled his heart as he raced through the shadows, he was trying to locate the origins of the shrill screams he could hear. Although he had no evidence of who was screaming, he knew that it could only be one person, his little brother. Konohagakure streets winded around like a maze, just when he thought Saskue was near he'd turn the corner only to find the flame-covered building. Itachi had been taking Saskue to the park when it had happened, Kyubi returned. Just like the first time, he had been summoned into the village center. Seeing the giant beast in the village, he turned to grab Saskue, but he was gone, and that's when the screaming started. It was high-pitch scream, that only a child could make. He felt as if he had been running for hours, his lungs burned, and his legs ached, but he had to continue, he had to reach Saskue.
Sitting up in bed Itachi rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, looking around he realized that he must've been having another nightmare. They didn't happen often, but when they did Itachi always woke up in a cold sweat. He couldn't believe that it had already been three years since that dreadful day, it felt as if it had only occurred yesterday. Konohagakure was still in the process of repairing the destruction caused by that beast, but they had come a long way. Normally it wouldn't take this long to repair the village, but not only had the beast destroyed half the town, it had also killed nearly half of its shinobi. This meant that Konohagakure couldn't receive the funding they needed to repair their village, since much of its money came from shinobi completing missions.
Getting out of bed he decided to take a shower, he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep after that nightmare, and he needed to be ready for his first day at the academy. Walking into the bathroom he shut the door behind him, turning on the water he stripped himself of his clothes, and got in. The warm water felt nice against his bare skin, thinking back to the other day, he had progressed quite a bit with his training in the past three years, now he could go through most of his katas without stopping, or looking at his books. Although he had mostly mastered his katas, he was far from ready for a fight, after all katas were just the form, he lacked any experience, and hadn't even participated in a spar. Hopefully this was about to change though, since he'd be able to start sparring with his classmates. He had also began studying jutsus, and already was able to create a basic clone, it took months of practice for him to be able to feel the chakra run through his veins, let alone be able to control it.
Turning off the water, Itachi grabbed a towel drying off he put on his clothing, and stepped out of the bathroom. Walking down the stairs, he didn't cause nearly as much noise now as when he was younger, but he still made enough noise to where trained ears could here him. Mikoto was standing up at the counter mixing something in a large bowl, looking behind her she gave her older son a smile. Raising two sons while trying to help repair the village had really taken a toll on her, and Itachi could tell. She had a few strands of grey hair starting to show, and there were wrinkles forming under her eyes and around her mouth. Sitting down at the table, as there morning routine always went.
"Morning mother." Her older, stoic boy greeted.
Looking down at her son, "Good morning" she could tell something was wrong with him and she felt bad as a mother because she couldn't help him. "You were up early." She states while turning back to what she was making.
"I couldn't sleep" Reaching down next to him Itachi looked through a small bag that was on the floor, it was his bag for the academy, and contained a few practice kunai, and a couple books. Sitting back up, Mikoto placed a plate of food in front of him. With a nod he thanked his mother, he ate his breakfast in silence. Standing up he put his plate in the sink, grabbing his bag he walked towards the door, with a farewell to his mother and recently awoken brother he left.
It was a bit longer of a walk to get to the academy, since the Uchiha compound was moved to the outskirts of town, but Itachi didn't mind, he enjoyed the silence. Itachi could hear the academy before seeing it, there always was a big event on the first day of academy, parents saying goodbye to their children as if they aren't going to see them in a couple of hours. Searching the crowd, he seen a lot of new faces, and a few familiar ones. One face stood out more than any other, his father, even though the Uchihas had lost a lot of stature in the last three years, his father was still one of the most respected individuals in the village, and he had to attend events like this. Walking up to where the rest of the students were lining up, he stood next to one boy who was slightly shorter than him with short orange hair, and another boy who seemed more interest in lunch than learning. Shifting his eyes to the speaker, it was an older man who had many scars. Although he looked to be in his late sixties this man could single-handedly kill anyone who was there at the academy today, he was obviously referring to the God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage.
"A village's honor is built upon the strength and pride of its shinobi, each and every one of you came here today for a different reason, but no matter what your reason is, you're all here together, as one group, one family. As you go through the coming up weeks, you'll form rivalries with your fellow classmates, but throughout it you'll form bonds with each other, and it's upon these bonds that the village will prosper." The Hokage proclaimed
Itachi listened to his every word, this was a man who had lived through multiple wars, someone who had seen countless tragedies, a wise man. Although some of the students had drowned him out, Itachi was absorbing every word. After finishing his statement, the Hokage left for his office, he had meetings lined up all day, and he wanted to be done at least by 10 o'clock tonight. Taking one last glance at his fathers departing figure, Itachi followed one of the sensei into the academy.
The academy was bigger than it appeared outside, there were six modest sized classrooms and a huge library. Itachi had access to quite a few books being the son of the clan head, but their library didn't compare to this. Itachi was sure that any topic that he had a question about would be located in that room. Finally arriving at their home room, there were a few students already sitting and talking, Itachi took a seat, ready to start the class.
After the rest of the class slowly filed in, the teacher stood up and the class began with the dreaded introductions. There weren't any noteworthy students, a few of them were from prominent clans, but most were just civilians. The rest of day was pretty much just orientation, with the sensei explaining where and how to obtain resources that you may need in throughout the class. By the end of the day Itachi felt as if he had wasted the entire day, he knew that orientation days were a necessity, but that didn't fix the fact that he could have spent the day doing something more productive. Even with the mostly wasted day, he was still able to get a bit of reading in at the end, so that was a plus.
In the coming weeks, the academy teaches what it means to be shinobi, and how shinobi are necessary for the village's ecosystem. They explained how missions work, and the different classes of shinobi, genin, chunin, and jonin. Overall, they just taught the basics of being a shinobi, they might have mentioned chakra, but they haven't gone into detail about it yet. Now that nerves were beginning to die down, students were beginning to venture out, and talk with each other, but not Itachi, he would sit underneath a nearby tree during lunch reading one of his many books. That was exactly what he was doing now, except this time he was approached by one of the other kids. Even with his training Itachi wasn't the biggest kid at the academy, there are some things that can only be obtained through genetics, and height was on of those factors. The kid who approached Itachi was a few inches taller than him, although this height advantage didn't make up for his lack of skill, but he didn't think that far ahead.
Walking up to Itachi he grabbed the book out of Itachi's hand, "Whatcha got here Uchiha?" he spat.
"It's a book" as Itachi stood up "Now give it back"
"I know that, idiot" bringing the book up to his face, "What's it about? What's ket-sar-egan" the brutish boy questioned.
"Ketsuryugan" the stoic Uchiha corrected before being interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Come on Sugio, give him back his book." The voice came from a girl around the same age as the two, the girl had shoulder length brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a sleeveless, high-collared blue shirt, with fingerless purple gloves.
Looking over towards the girl, Itachi was surprised to see the semi familiar face of Izumi.
The newly named Sugio seemed to be a bit alarmed at the addition of another person, but that wasn't enough to overcome his pride. "What are you going to do about it, Uchiha bitch?"
"You know we didn't play a part in the nine-tails attack." The girl pleaded, "Just return his book so that we can head back to class."
'Is that why the kid was acting this way?' Itachi thought to himself, he must believe that the Uchiha orchestrated the attack on the village.
"Yeah, but his father is the leader of the Uchihas, he probably set up the whole thing!" By this point a few kids had gathered around to see what the commotion was, and there was one of their sensi a little distance away observing the interaction. Setting the book behind him, the proud boy got into what he believed to be a proper stance, "I'll give him back his book, if he fights me! He doesn't even have to win." The boy proclaimed.
Izumi appeared shocked by this, "What?! Why on earth would he…."
"Deal" Itachi interrupted, getting into a fighting stance of his own
A smirk formed on the taller boy's face, the two boys circled each other for a moment, Itachi waiting for Sugio to make the first move, and Sugio wanting it to look like the movies. Sugio lunged at Itachi looking to land a punch on his face. Ducking the attack, Itachi used the boy's momentum, and a slight push to the backside of his elbow to cause him to fall, causing the other students to chuckle. Instead of trying to further beat his downed opponent Itachi just turned around and grabbed his book. While he was walking away, the humiliated boy got up and decided to 'regain his glory'. Charging at Itachi, he was planning on pushing him down into the grass. He would've succeeded too, if their sensei wouldn't have intervened.
"Lunchtime is over" the teacher stated, "Everybody head back inside."
Putting his book back into his bag Itachi headed towards the school, on his way Izumi ran up to him.
"No thank you for stepping in and saving you?" The female Uchiha questioned with a huff.
Itachi looked over at her, "I had it handled, I didn't need you to step in."
"Well, if you would have listened to me you wouldn't have had to fight." Izumi said, with a bit of sass, "Instead you had to interrupt me, and get into a fight with the big brute over there." Motioning to Sugio when she said it.
Itachi shrugged his shoulders, "I wouldn't call that much of a fight."
This caused her to giggle, "Yeah I guess it wasn't, why didn't you go all kung-foo on him?" She had seen Itachi practice a few times, and knew that he could've done more damage than that.
"There was no need, he wasn't actually looking for a fight." The young boy reasoned, "He probably lost someone during attack on the village, and was looking for something to place the blame on, I was the most logical choice."
"I guess that makes sense, but even if he did loose someone during the tragedy that still doesn't give him the right to attack you."
"True, but it's only human instinct to want revenge, and if I would've fought back then it would only further his hatred."
This made sense to Izumi, the rest of the walk remained silent for the young shinobi. Little did anyone in the area know, there was another person viewing the interaction from a nearby budling, waiting to report it to their master.
A/N: Sorry for the hiatus, I was going through some stuff at work, but now I've got a new, better job, and I want to pick back up writing. I know I don't have many readers yet, but those of you who do read I've got two questions for you. First, how much should I keep like cannon? Obviously at some point I will have to venture away from anything like cannon, but as far as Itachi in the academy, should I keep it like cannon or change it? The academy itself will probably be spread over a couple of chapters, but once it is over should I make Itachi's team mates the same as cannon, not much is told about his teammates so I would basically be keeping just their names. Last question, I was kinda thinking about adding a sixth element, I don't have anything in mind, and it wouldn't affect Itachi at all it would be there strictly to add a bit of background details in a chapter or two, and it wouldn't even be important to the story, do you guys think I should or not?
