The academy isn't what I expected.

This was the most common thought for Itsu these last few months. Today was no different, as he sat in a basic geography class. It was quite odd to see so many people his age so confused about these sorts of topics. Geography seemed so simple with how many times he had been shown maps and had them explained by his father. It was the same with mathematics, with arithmetic being covered through explanations about finances and sales.

The major failing of his father's teaching had become apparent over time, though. He knew the basics of dealing with people, the right thing to say to lead someone to a conclusion, the right amount of silence to make someone uncomfortable with what they had said and hastily reconsider, the sort of things used to get someone to buy or do what you want rather well.

He did not know how to talk to people outside of that, though. Not being around people his own age for the majority of his life had impacted his social ability more than he cared to admit. Itsu had acquaintances, nothing more, who he spent time with during his class breaks.

Shino Aburame was probably the closest thing to a friend, though that may be because the living insect hive was similarly somewhat of a social recluse. He was somewhat unusual, dressing in dark spectacles and high collar outfits, but otherwise seemed pretty normal. They both stuck out as unusually quiet members of the class, and had often been put into the same groups as a result.

Shikamaru Nara, and by proxy Choji Akimichi, often sought Itsu and Shino out for group activities. It wasn't out of any sort of desire to know them personally, not that either took offense. rather, Shikamaru found their quiet demeanors to be much better background noise than the chittering that took place in other groups while he tried to nap or otherwise relax.

Choji was more polite than anything else. He simply hadn't gotten the time to know anything more than that about the somewhat rotund boy, but he'd seen him get quite irritated at others' comments about his weight, so made sure to avoid that topic when around him.

Overall, he really didn't know people personally, and that was an issue. "Always make sure to have a good relationship with locals, especially those in high positions or with the potential to have power in the future," his father once told him after they had passed through a town, seemingly having traded nothing despite talking to many people.

So, as Shino once again appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind him as he ate his lunch, he decided to change that.

"Hey, Shino?"

"Yes?"

"You're pretty good at stealth, aren't you?"

"I am. My clan often specializes in stealth, espionage, and infiltration. We are trained in stealth from an early age."

"Would you be willing to teach me?"

The corners of Shino's eyes crinkled and uncrinkled a few times, the eyes themselves hidden behind his dark spectacles. He was quiet for a moment, before he spoke again, his voice slightly off.

"Do you mean outside of academy hours?"

Itsu nodded, "Yep."

Another beat of silence. Shino eventually responded, his voice restored to his usual explanatory tone, "I would be willing. Is there a time that works best for you? Optimally, sessions would an hour or two long, because of the intensive nature of maintaining stealth for long periods."

Itsu shrugged, "I'm free whenever. Immediately after the academy gets out would probably work best, though, so we don't have to spend a bunch of time meeting up afterward."

"Excellent, I am looking forward to teaching you. I hope you enjoy the experience as well," Shino responded, a small smile tugging at his lips.

Itsu gave small smile back, "I think I will."

"Hmm... Not quite," Shino hummed. "You've certainly figured out how to muffle your steps, but they're not silent quite yet. Adjust how you place your foot down, like so," He gave an example of his foot coming down, slowed to the point where Itsu could see exactly how he placed his foot down. "You're not dispersing the weight quite right, though I do believe it may be an issue solved by a bit more practice. The real difficulty in silently moving is consistency, so you must get this down first."

"I see, I see," Itsu stepped again. "Like this?"

"Marginally better. This would suffice for academy stealth training, should you reach the point where you could walk with this level of silence."

There was something slightly off about the way he said that, Itsu noticed. "Is that good?"

"My father often used academy-level stealth as a term of mocking. He has been attempting to mandate the stealth training of genin-level infiltration training as the universal academy standard for some time now, but many others have been attempting to shift the focus more on taijutsu, ninjutsu, and other more directly threatening training, and the somewhat sizable amount of time that it would take to raise all academy ninja to that level of stealth is not something they believe is worthwhile."

Shino really did have a level of knowledge beyond him, spreading into the politics of the academy training, Itsu mused. He supposed it came with being around a clan head most of the time.

"But why is that?" Itsu asked. "We're supposed to be ninja, not samurai. A strike from stealth is much more effective than one you're prepared for." His parents were proof of that to some extent, he couldn't help but darkly muse.

Shino frowned, "You'd think so. That's what the Aburame family has been trying to convey. The main reasoning given in response is that the more impressive displays our ninja give, the more dangerous we will appear to enemy villages and reduce the chances of war. However, my father fears that this will compromise our capabilities in the future, but he is largely outnumbered in this opinion."

"Hmm..." Itsu thought it over, resuming his attempts to step silently. "I think they both make sense, but I think I prefer stealth. I've heard that Sasuke is pretty good at fighting in a spar, but you could take him out easily if you just crept up behind him, couldn't you?"

Shino chuckled, "Indeed, I could."

"So then, what's the goal of this? You said that it would take a bunch of time to get to genin-level stealth, is that what we are going for?"

"The Aburame standard is that you must be able to walk in complete silence on instinct. It is more difficult than genin stealth training, but if you practice at every moment of the day, it is less intensive compared to dedicating sessions. I was taught to walk silently when I was four and have done it ever since."

"Huh?" Itsu stopped. "That sounds... difficult."

"Well, then it's a good thing you have plenty of time, yes? 'Free whenever,' I believe is how you put it." Shino's quirked lips looked absolutely amused.

"Ahh, I supposed I did ask for this," Itsu grimaced.

"Don't worry, it's not just footwork. Once you get that moderately down, we'll behind working on situational awareness, other's field of view, when to move, and how fast to move along with some other things in conjunction with personal silence. Running silently requires slight use of chakra, so that will be delayed for a while."

Now, that seemed interesting. He had enjoyed the reactions that Shino's creeping invoked in others, and it would be quite a joy to be able to replicate that. He resumed his attempts at stepping once again.

"So this is going to be better than genin training, right? Does that mean we'll be able to sneak up on graduates?"

"I can, for the most part. My father expects me to be able to sneak past chunin by the time I graduate. Should you stick to my training, you should be able to as well. Sneaking is our specialty, after all."

"I can't wait."

Then the Uchiha Massacre happened. Itachi Uchiha had evidently gone rouge, slaughtering everyone in his compound, excluding his brother, who he used a genjutsu on to torture into a temporary coma. Everyone in the village was in an uproar, those who knew Itachi growing up unable to comprehend this sudden twist in personality.

Sasuke hadn't shown up at the academy in over a month, though apparently, he had woken from his coma after a week. He'd been back at the academy for a couple of days, not that that was much comfort. The normally upbeat boy had an abrupt shift in personality, adopting a dark, brooding demeanor.

He wasn't quiet in the way Itsu and Shino were, the two of them being somewhat normal people outside of a general difficulty to initiate conversation. Sasuke made every encounter as difficult as it could be, unwilling to interact in any meaningful way, even with the people a month ago that had been his good friends.

It was more than that, though, Itsu had noticed. Every once in a while, Sasuke would get an unusually haunted look in his eyes, and barely noticeable tremors would occur. Most likely, he was remembering the loss of his family.

Itsu knew what that was like.

"Do you mind waiting for me?" Itsu muttered to Shino just as the academy got out.

At Shino's nod, he followed along behind Sasuke, who had already started to leave the class. When they had made it outside, with Sasuke having not once looked behind him at the following boy, did Itsu realize that he was following along with Shino's training exercise. His steps had subconsciously been almost fully muffled, a result of the near-daily training he'd been going through for nearly a month now.

So, he called out, "Hey, Sasuke," to catch the boy's back. The boy jumped slightly at the sudden noise, and flicked his head around, catching Itsu's eye.

Still somewhat tense, Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he tersely asked, "What?"

"Have you tried meditating?"

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up. "What?" he said again, this time his words were tinged with confusion.

"Meditating. Like, clear your mind, focus on the body, that sort of thing."

"Why would I do that?" he sneered, irritation breaking past temporary confusion.

"It helped me. After when, uhh," Itsu swallowed, "When my parents were killed."

Sasuke was silent.

Itsu regained his momentum, "It helped get them out of my head, and kept me alright till my body warmed up and stopped shaking whenever I felt like it was all too much. It helped me, so I thought I'd share."

Sasuke seemed to think for a moment before letting out a dispassionate grunt, and then he turned around to walk away.

"Well, uhh, I'll see you around then," Itsu said to the retreating Uchiha. Sasuke grunted again, and so Itsu turned back and returned to Shino.

What an utterly difficult person to interact with.

Finally, it was time to begin chakra training. A whole year after he had started, Itsu, along with the rest of the civilian shinobi prospects, were considered to be at the point to begin basic chakra control training. The clan children had an advantage over them, seeing as they were often given at least basic training from an early age with the expectation of them becoming a shinobi sometime in the future.

Not that it was always an advantage, though. One truth drilled into their heads at this point was that chakra was dangerous. Once you got the basic training exercises down, it became a lot safer, until you started experimenting with jutsus. But as they were now? Even basic chakra exercises could have serious consequences.

It wasn't all that uncommon to hear some clan child, normally a branch family, got a little too cocky in their own attempts to train chakra and managed to mangle themselves somehow. Itsu shuddered every time he remembered the story of one Uchiha kid who managed to eviscerate himself.

Still, for the most part, the clan children had been safely experimenting with chakra for a few years at this point. He knew that Shino had gotten to the point where he was practicing silent running, which he was told was an intermediate chakra exercise, just slightly less difficult than the tree walking exercises Shino had told him they'd learn after their advancement to genin.

Itsu didn't let it show too much, but he was ecstatic. It was finally time for him to get some access to his chakra, and potentially a bit of insight into just how good this deal with the Outsider was. Finally, a bit of control beyond some basic stealth ability.

He couldn't wait.

Unter the careful instruction of an instructor, they all began the delicate process of sticking a leaf to your forehead. As expected, the clansmen had little difficulty, and were allowed to leave for the day.

Shino gave Itsu a nod as he left, causing the boy to sigh as he failed to attach his leaf, the bit of foliage abruptly launching off of his forehead.

"Too much chakra this time, keep on trying!" Itsu's instructor encouraged.

Itsu tried again, placing the leaf on his forehead and allowing the chakra to flow, only for it to fall to the floor. Itsu stared at the insubordinate leaf for a moment. Such an inconvenience. Not that it would stop him.

It took him a whole damn hour. That was actually better than the majority of his non-clan compatriots. Turns out his meditation was helpful in chakra control, in a roundabout way, as his familiarity with his regular bodily sensation allowed him to more effectively isolate how his chakra felt.

Imprinting the feeling of holding the leaf to his forehead in his mind, he repeated the process at the behest of his instructor. He failed a dozen more times and managed it again. Another dozen, and then another success. Ten times, and then another success.

Upon his fifth success, his instructor gave a smile. "Very good, Itsu! I think you're at the point where you can practice on your own." His instructor quickly shooed him out of the room, which was quite rude, in Itsu's opinion, so that he could continue teaching the rest of the struggling students.

Shino was waiting for him outside the academy, surprisingly.

"Ah, there you are."

Itsu peered quizzically at Shino, "Were you waiting this whole time?"

"I was. I figured you'd figure it out sooner than later. I'm glad to see I was right."

Itsu snorted at Shino's attempt to appear enigmatic, an image of a man far more mysterious than Shino couldn't help but flash in his mind. Itsu chuckled.

"Quit it with that 'all knowing' front," Itsu rolled his eyes, amused, "I know you'd poke fun at me if I wasn't able to do it."

"Ah, but that is not the case, is it? I was right, you came out fast enough that my boredom wouldn't turn into mockery," Shino smugly smiled back, before his face shifted to intrigue. "How far along the exercise are you, then?"

Itsu grimaced, "Only one in ten or so is successful. It's hard to get it to come out in just the right way."

The smug smile returned, "Ah, then I have an idea for that. How does adding chakra control training simultaneously with stealth training sound."

It was not a question, Itsu realized. Shino, having found a comfortable place as a slavedriver of an instructor, quite enjoyed coming up with creatively inconvenient training. A phrase, one he had ever so rarely heard from his father during times of poor deals, uncomfortable and inconvenient situations, and other such irritating circumstances, was unconsciously drawn from his tongue.

"Ah, shit."