Revised 6/8/2022

Chapter 3 – First Day

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. Konoha's streets winded around like a maze, just when he thought Sasuke was near, he'd turn the corner only to find the flame-covered buildings once again. Itachi had been taking Sasuke to the park when it had happened. The Kyubi returned. Just like the first time, it had been summoned into the center of the village, the place where it could cause the most damage. Seeing the giant beast in the village, he turned to grab Sasuke, but his little brother was gone. That's when the screaming started. It was a 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 Sasuke.

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, but 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 most of its money came from shinobi completing missions.

Itachi spent the three years improving his katas while remaining familiar with the feel of his chakra through meditation. A couple weeks after the attack his mother had decided that he was mature enough to begin regularly practicing with kunai and shuriken. Itachi was grateful for her help; he knew that she was one of the best kunoichis in the village when it came to shurikenjutsu but seeing her in action was entirely different. He seemed to pick up on throwing easily, being able to hit the bullseyes of all his targets, so long as they weren't moving. He still had a long way to go before he was anywhere near as proficient in it as his mother, but he was apparently a natural.

His father also decided to begin teaching him how to perform their clan's signature jutsu, the Great Fireball Technique. He could still remember when his father first showed him the six seals required to perform it, snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse, and finally tiger. The first time he tried, the fire didn't take shape but instead shot out of his mouth as a puff of flames. This wouldn't have been a problem if it didn't cause the jutsu to dissipate before reaching its target. Nonetheless, his father seemed impressed that he managed to form fire on his first attempt. Itachi assumed that it was just due to the fact that, like most Uchihas, he had a natural affinity toward fire, but his father still acted as if it was an impressive feat.

Getting out of bed he decided to take a shower. It's not like he would be able to go back to sleep after that nightmare. Besides, 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 hot water felt nice against his bare skin. 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 begun 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 to dry 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 hear 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 wrinkles were forming under her eyes and around her mouth. He sat down at the table, as their morning routine always went.

"Morning mother." Her older, stoic boy greeted her.

Looking down at her son, "Good morning" she could tell something was wrong with him, he seemed a bit off. This wasn't the first morning she noticed it, but he hadn't brought up anything, so she never pushed it. She felt bad as a mother because she couldn't help him with whatever he was going through. "You were up early." She stated 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 and ate his breakfast in silence. Standing up he put his plate in the sink, grabbed his bag walked towards the door, with a farewell to his mother, and recently awoken brother, and he left.

It was a bit longer of a walk to get to the academy. After the Nine-Tails attack, the Uchiha compound was moved to the outskirts of town. However, 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 the 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 saw a lot of new faces, and a few familiar ones. One face stood out more than any other, his father. Even though the Uchihas 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 interested 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 father's 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. After their brief tour, they were directed back to their homeroom. there were a few students who were already sitting and talking with their friends. Itachi took a seat near the front, but away from the others, ready to start the class.

After the rest of the class slowly filed in, the teacher stood up, introduced himself, and the class began with their dreaded introductions. There weren't any noteworthy students, a few of them were from prominent clans, but most were just civilians. The rest of the day was pretty much just orientation, with their sensei explaining where and how to obtain resources that you may need 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 day mostly wasted, he was still able to get a bit of reading in at the end, so that was a plus.

In the coming weeks, their sensei taught what it means to be shinobi, and how shinobi are necessary for the village's ecosystem. He 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 one 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, the boy didn't think that far ahead.

Walking up to Itachi he grabbed the book out of his 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. "It's a dōjutsu."

"I know what it is," The slightly older boy blushed, "I just misspoke."

"Hn," Itachi didn't seem to believe him, "Why don't you give it back?"

The boy grinned, "Not until you agree to compete with me."

"Alright," The surprised the unnamed boy, "What type of competition do you have in mind?"

The boy smiled smugly and pretended to think about it for a moment, "How about throwing shuriken. Whoever can land more hits on their target wins."

"After school?" Itachi asked since they didn't have enough time before lunch ends. Receiving a nod from the other boy, "Sounds fair."

Handing back the book, "I'm Saisu by the way."

Stuffing the book away in his bag, "Itachi."

Just then the bell rang signaling that it was time for them to return to their respective classes.

Saisu ran off appearing to do just that before turning around and yelling at him, "Don't forget to meet with me after class so I can show you how to throw a shuriken. Before returning to his seat Saisu thought to himself, 'This is going to be too easy, I bet that he's never even held a shuriken before.'

As planned Itachi and Saisu met after class in one of the training fields behind the school. What wasn't planned was the small crowd they attracted. Apparently, news of their competition had spread throughout the school and a few of their classmates wanted to see who was going to be victorious. Before they began their competition, they set the ground rules. They were going to play a game where they'd each take turns trying to hit a target established by the other boy. If you missed the target but your opponent hit the target, then you'd gain a strike. The first boy to four strikes lost. It was a simple game Saisu had seen some of the older students playing.

"Since I picked the challenge, you can start us out with the first target," Saisu said, handing the boy a shuriken.

Itachi looked over the weapon for a moment before choosing a target. Deciding to start out easy so that he could gauge the other boy's skills he chose a wooden post nearby. Getting into the familiar stance his mother taught him, he pulled his arm back before throwing the silver weapon. It hit the post dead center with a thud.

"Pft, that'll be easy," Saisu said before throwing his shuriken hitting the side of the wooden post. "My turn now." He looked around the field trying to find a target that he could impress his fellow classmates by hitting. Settling on a taijutsu dummy in the distance, he pulled back his arm and threw the metal star. It came within inches of the dummy but skidded to a stop in the grass.

Itachi walked over to where his opponent was standing, and once more got into his stance. The weapon he threw hit dead-center into the dummy's head.

Saisu was shocked, "Beginner's luck, I bet you can't do that again."

His insults didn't really bother Itachi, but just so that he could finish the 'competition' sooner he threw his metal star into the dummy a second time, causing it to land right next to the other one.

Saisu tried, but once again missed the far-away target. "That's not fair, we already used that target." He yelled growing red in the face.

"How about you chose the target from now on?" Itachi suggested.

"That eager to get beat?" Saisu smugly said, "Alright, I'll show you how it's done."

The two boys went back and forth throwing shuriken at targets of Saisu's choosing until eventually, Saisu got four strikes, declaring him the looser. Saisu couldn't believe that Itachi had only missed one target, even when Saisu had the advantage of choosing the targets.

By the time they finished it was beginning to get dark and most of their crowd had gone home. When Itachi turned to leave Izumi decided it was the right moment to run up to him.

"That was so cool!" The girl said excitedly, "Where did you learn to throw shuriken like that?"

Itachi turned to his friend. 'Were they friends? He had only talked to her a handful of times, and they never hung out on anything. But still, she was the closest thing he could call a friend.' "My mother taught me. She knows all sorts of cool tricks with shuriken." Failing to hide his excitement.

Izumi bit her lip thinking, "D-do you think she'd be willing to teach me?"

Itachi went to answer but was interrupted by Saisu, "Don't think you've won quite yet." He yelled, "I'll come back with another challenge that you won't be able to beat me."

Itachi grinned at the prospect of being able to improve his skills, "I'll be waiting."

Turning back to his friend, "I don't know, she's very busy with raising Sasuke, and…" Izumi appeared disappointed by what he was saying, "I guess she'll probably be able to give you a few tips, but you'll have to ask her."

This cheered the girl up, "Really?!" she wrapped her arms around him, "Thank you Itachi."

The two walked back to the compound together talking, or rather Izumi talked while Itachi listened. When they got to the gates they went their separate ways, allowing the night to settle upon the village.

Chapter Words: 3,038

Story Words: 8,690

ORIGINAL 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 for 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 teammates the same as canon, not much is told about his teammates so I would basically be keeping just their names. For the 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?

6/8/2022 A/N: Disregard the whole thing about a sixth elemental transformation. I decided that it would be best not to include anything like that.