Let's start this from the beginning
Genin Days
II
The smoke had almost entirely faded away when the situation became apparent:
Itachi was lying on his stomach with Anko sitting on his back, pointing a kunai at his head. But instead of having a victorious smile on her face, her eyes were wide in shock.
The reason for that was the other Itachi standing behind her, holding a kunai of his own at her throat.
"The match is over. Uchiha-san has won."
That had been a surprisingly interesting fight, Itachi thought. He had been pretty sure he would win but didn't expect his opponent to resist as much as she did. No wonder she had become a Chūnin as young as she did, she certainly had the abilities. Until now, he had only sparred with his father who obviously held back during their fights and pushed him only hard enough to make him struggle without beating him in the ground, and against Izumi where he was the one that held back. This had been his first fight in this timeline during which he fought against someone who fought back with everything they got and wasn't so much weaker in Taijutsu that he would easily win if he wanted to.
Of course, things would have been different if he used Genjutsu or even some more Ninjutsu. That would have prevented him from getting a better grasp of the limits of his body, though, not to forget that his reserves were still rather limited and thus making wasting chakra unnecessarily a foolish move.
A user of the Sharingan was able to copy every technique that didn't require a bloodline to use regardless of its elemental affinity. Unfortunately, an elemental jutsu that was not based on the affinity of one's chakra consumed more energy than the ones that were. This meant that Itachi was currently unable to use Ninjutsu that wasn't a Fire or a Water Release without wasting much more chakra than he was comfortable with.
"You can release her now, Uchiha-San," his new sensei said.
Itachi nodded and removed his kunai from Anko's throat. He also released his Kage Bunshin, having no use for it any longer.
"That was amazing!" Anko suddenly exclaimed, her face morphing in an expression of awe. "That was a real clone, wasn't it? It was definitively not a fake one like the clones of the Bunshin no Jutsu we learn at the Academy. I thought this was one of these 'super-secret techniques' that they only teach Jōnin and the occasional lucky Chūnin. How did you get your hands on that?"
He looked contemplative at her for a second before activating his Sharingan. "I saw a member of my clan use it a few weeks ago and it seemed useful, so I copied it."
Her mouth fell open. "Wait a second," she said. "Why do you have these eyes? I thought you Uchiha guys didn't awaken it until your teens or something? And why the hell didn't you use them in our fight? Do you think I'm too weak to handle them?!"
Considering you already lost against me when I didn't use it, this assumption isn't too far off, he thought. But I probably shouldn't say that out loud.
"Many shinobi who possess a Kekkei Genkai become dependent on it, and the Uchiha are no exception. I didn't use my Sharingan against you because it's important to me to improve myself without being reliant on my bloodline."
She narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, before she finally nodded. "Fine, I will give you the benefit of the doubt- for now. But you're gonna fight me with these fancy eyes of yours soon or I will get really angry, you hear me?"
"Of course."
"Well then," their sensei interrupted their conversation. "Now that everything is settled, and nobody can argue Uchiha-san's worth for this team, why don't we proceed by introducing ourselves? After all, we have a new teammate."
Neither Yukio nor Anko seemed impressed by that idea, probably because it was Tanaka-sensei who proposed it, but they didn't argue with it.
When nobody said something, he began to speak once again:
"I guess I will start. As I said before your little match, my name is Akihito Tanaka and I'm 36 years old. I like long walks through the park as well as cooking. What I don't like are people who ignore other people's privacy. I hope to retire from active duty one day in the near future and maybe open a restaurant or something like that. Ability wise, well, I'm obviously a Jōnin, which means I'm pretty well-versed in most shinobi arts, but I specialize in Ninjutsu. My elemental affinities are fire and earth, but I also possess a fair share of lightning techniques."
He was silent for a second, most likely pondering if there was something he wanted to add, before deciding against it. "Yeah, that's it. Your turn."
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds during which everyone waited for someone else to speak first before Anko decided to introduce herself next.
"Alright, I guess I will go next. My name is Anko Mitarashi and I'm 13 years old. I like everything fun, but there is nothing better than fighting! My own fighting style focuses on Taijutsu, and I like to use poison too. I also use Ninjutsu, but mainly as support only. My elemental affinity is fire. I don't like vegetables, the stuff is gross. My dream is to one day become the strongest kunoichi of this village, even surpassing Tsunade of the Sannin!"
She stopped talking for a moment and her smile fell from her lips. Somehow, it felt oddly wrong for her not to smile.
Itachi could recognize the emotions that danced across her face, no matter how hard she tried to hide it; anger, sorrow, sadness, determination. It somehow reminded him of Sasuke. Not the one of this timeline, but the one from the last.
He knew what she would speak about before she actually said it:
Revenge.
"And then I'm gonna kill Orochimaru and hang his corpse above the entrance of the village for everyone to see!"
Itachi nodded to himself. Just as he had thought.
His last teammate spoke up next, stopping him from dwelling too long on this thought.
"My name is Yukio Kenshin. I'm 13 years old. I like spending time with my siblings and I dislike doing chores at home. My dream is the same as Anko's; I want to bring Orochimaru to justice. I mainly use Taijutsu, but I want to specialize in Ninjutsu in the future. My elemental affinity is earth."
He sounded pretty annoyed, although not as much as before. Itachi wondered if he was the reason for his teammates' bad mood or if it was the argument he had with Tanaka-sensei before he had arrived.
"My name is Itachi Uchiha and I'm six years old. I like spending time with my brother as well as the rest of my family. I also like to spend my free time reading, especially about history and philosophy. I dislike unnecessary fighting. My dream for the future is to be the best older brother I can possibly be."
He hesitated a second, remembering what his dream had been when he had been six year old before he continued. "I also want to become as strong as I can to protect the village"- and end all fighting- "and I prefer using Genjutsu in fights, but I'm also capable at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. My elemental affinities are fire and water."
Anko snorted. "Are you kidding me? 'Capable at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu'? You kick ass, boy!"
"Be that as is may," Tanaka-sensei chimed in. "I'm more surprised about you having a water affinity. I heard that's rather rare for an Uchiha."
"If my clan's records are correct, which is most likely the case, I'm the first Uchiha with a water affinity in several generations. My father was surprised as well when we tested my affinities with a Chakra Induction Paper."
"I see."
Another awkward silence. They seemed to be somewhat of a regular occurrence.
"Well, how about I explain to you guys how we will proceed from here?" Tanaka-sensei asked.
"Normally," he continued after everyone had nodded their agreement, "the first day is meant for introductions. That, we already finished. The usual procedure would include me telling you that you can only become part of my team if you pass my own, second test, which would happen tomorrow. Not passing would mean that you were forced to return to the Academy. Now, our situation is a bit different. While Uchiha-san indeed just finished the Academy, the other two of you did so a few years ago already. I think it would be unfair to proceed in the usual way, which means I will not hold some test of my own. Instead, we will start training the first thing tomorrow."
Itachi blinked. There would be no test? As far as he knew, Jōnin had to test their new Genin. There wasn't anything voluntary about that.
Then, he blinked again. Ah, he thought. I understand.
Tanaka-sensei would probably watch how well they could work together and decide if the team could continue to exist or not depending on the results. By not telling them about the test, he also wanted to guarantee that all of them acted as real as possible instead of just faking getting along.
"You said we will start training tomorrow," Yukio said. "Why not start now?"
"Haha, you see, I thought we could use the time for some team bonding, or something like that?" Tanaka-sensei said while laughing nervously and scratching the back of his head. "Especially with Uchiha-san just join-" he wanted to continue but was again interrupted by Anko.
"Damn, get the stick out of your ass. He's a member of this team now, just call him Itachi."
"It's impolite to just call someone by his name without consent, Anko. You should know that."
Itachi decided to interfere before things could escalate in another fight, even if only a verbal one this time. "I don't mind if all of you just call me Itachi as long as you don't mind me calling you by your names either. But I will naturally still call you sensei, Tanaka-sensei."
"Hah! You see? He has no problem with it!" Anko exclaimed victoriously.
The Jōnin sighed. "As I was saying, especially with Itachi just joining the team, it might be a good idea to get to know each other a bit better. Any suggestions for what we could do?"
Surprisingly, it was Yukio who answered first. "There is this tea house I know. It's not very well-known, but the tea is great. You could invite us there?"
"Well, going out together seems like a good enough idea, but I don't see why I should-"
"But Sensei! You're the adult, act like one and pay for us," Anko said. "Come on, Yukio, show us the way."
So that's why they so readily agreed for a get-together with Sensei, he thought. They want to get something for free.
With that, Anko grabbed the other boy's arm and pulled him in the direction of the village, leaving Itachi and their sensei with no other choice than to follow them.
"Oh, and before I forget it," Anko exclaimed and turned her head around without stopping to walk. "Itachi, call me Nee-chan from now, alright?"
Itachi only gave her a deadpan look.
That's not going to happen.
All things considered, Mikoto was happy with her lot in life. Her carrier as a kunoichi had been a very successful if short one, allowing her to rise to the rank of Jōnin before she even turned sixteen. While still in active duty, she fell in love with the man she would eventually marry and then went on to give birth to not only one but two beautiful children. She was even fortunate enough to have her family -not including her extended family, of course, as that would include her entire clan- survive both the last war and the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox! As if that wasn't already enough, the gods also decided to bless her oldest son with abilities far above the norm, making him a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. What else could she ask for?
Unfortunately, what should be one of the brightest lights in her life was also the thing that brought her enough dismay to make her unable to sleep at night.
Her oldest son, Itachi, was a genius. There was no doubt about that. Sadly, this made it hard for him to connect with other children his age, even back then when he was barely more than a toddler. But at least back then, he had still somewhat acted as a child should. Maybe not quite as childish as others, but still more carefree and happy than he did now.
His behaviour had changed shortly after he had turned four.
This may be the only thing she would never forgive Fugaku for. Back then, her husband had taken Itachi with him to the Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami Shrine at the border to the Land of Earth as it was usual to do for fathers with their sons in their clan. It was a tradition the rest of the clan had decided to postpone until after the war was over, but Fugaku had decided that he, being the Clan Head, couldn't show fear and so he went anyway.
When they came back three weeks later, Itachi hadn't just witnessed war and the destruction and death it brought with it, but had his first kill under his belt as well. The day they returned, Mikoto had given up on him ever having a normal life, whatever 'normal' actually meant for a shinobi, and that was her greatest shame. She hadn't tried to talk to him, didn't try to help him overcome the trauma he so obviously suffered from, and only watched as he became more and more distant.
And then the Nine-Tails attacked the village and everything changed again. This time because the attack resulted in the awakening of Itachi's Sharingan.
She remembered the day she got these eyes herself -the day her sister had been killed in front of her eyes- very well and it gave her nightmares to this day. Whatever Itachi had seen must have disturbed him even more than everything he had witnessed on the battlefield, though she could hardly imagine what that might have been.
He was more silent since then, which was a hard thing to do considering he never talked much in the first place, and when he spoke, it was with an air of maturity he didn't possess before. That had been the moment she promised herself that she would make the rest of his childhood, even if it was more physical than everything else at this point, as carefree as she could. This had been the reason she had been against his earlier enrollment into the Academy; the moment he entered there, another part of his childhood would end and that wasn't something she was quite ready for yet. She had been ready to fight Fugaku on that, and she did.
Until Itachi had gotten involved in the conversation and asked to enter the Academy earlier.
She still didn't want him to do so, but then, how could she say no to him? He never asked for much, only ever wishing to be taught something new. She didn't have it in her to refuse him, so she ultimately gave her consent. She had told herself that it might be for the best, that maybe he would finally find some friends, no matter how little she believed in it.
And then he had befriended Hazuki's daughter, Izumi.
She wasn't sure how this had happened, but she was glad for it anyway. It might not be the kind of friendship she wished for Itachi, where he went out to play silly games with children his age, but she knew how unrealistic this hope was and would take whatever she could get. No, all the two of them seemed to do was either meet at the dango shop at the border of their new district to talk, or training and studying together. For all that this already exceeded her expectations, she couldn't help to think that Itachi acted similarly with Izumi as he did with Sasuke. She couldn't point her finger on what exactly it was as there were still a number of differences, but it seemed as if he somehow felt responsible for her.
She wondered if it might be because of what happened when he saved her life during the attack of the Nine-Tails.
Still, he seemed content if not happy in her presence, so she would be happy too.
This didn't last long, however, as Itachi seemed to tear through the material presented to him in class at an unbelievable speed, finishing the Academy in less than a year.
She had been proud of him, of course. She had known Minato quite well even if they hadn't been as close as she and Kushina, which meant she understood better than most others how much of a genius their Yondaime truly had been. That Itachi matched his score when he graduated from the Academy was amazing, even more so if you considered that Minato had been four years older than Itachi was now when he graduated.
The main reason she wasn't completely fine with him finishing so early was that this would make the distance between him and Izumi, who was his only real friend, grow even further. Still, this time, she didn't say anything, knowing that there was no way Itachi wouldn't want to take the chance to rise in the ranks. Not when he was so obviously bored in class.
All she could do now was to support him.
Mikoto had put the groceries in her bag and was already halfway on her way home when she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her stop. She didn't need long to see what had caught her attention; to her left, she saw Itachi with three people who couldn't be anyone but his new teammates and sensei, sitting in a tea house. The only girl in the group was leaning halfway over the table and gestured with her hands in front of her son's face, all the while having a wide, somehow feral-looking smile on her face.
Itachi didn't seem annoyed by it, though, and didn't even have his usual neutral expression on his face but actually smiled. And while it wasn't as wide as the girl's, which would have looked quite funny on his face now that she thought about it, he still looked genuine amused.
Mikoto smiled to herself. Maybe the reason Itachi was never able to connect with others was that he only interacted with children who were around his age. Maybe he got along better with older kids who were more mature than young Academy students.
Maybe him graduating early wasn't so bad at all.
And now that she thought about it, wasn't there this boy in her clan who was a prodigy in his own right? If she remembered correctly, he was only a few years older than her Itachi. Maybe she could arrange a meeting between these two?
She hummed thoughtfully before turning around and making her way home.
Itachi sat on a bank close to the playground while he watched Sasuke play with some other kids his age. He wasn't completely sure what they were playing -it seemed like some strange mixture of Tag, Capture the Flag, Hopscotch, and Simon Says- but Sasuke had obviously fun, so the details didn't really matter.
The time he spent with his new team at the tea house had been oddly entertaining. Even Anko's attempts at making him call her Nee-chan, as irritating as they might be, had been somewhat amusing. After spending a bit more time with her, he could confidently say that she would have gotten along with Kisame like a house on fire. They had nearly the same sense of humour. Even Yukio had started to warm up to him and come out of his shell, even if he didn't talk too much. In fact, Itachi suspected that he was a rather introverted person and didn't talk much in general.
That suited him just fine. After all, he was exactly the same.
They had spent a bit more than two hours there before paying and departing home. At that point it had just been noon, so his mother asked him to take Sasuke to the playground and he had been only too happy to concur with that wish.
His mother also seemed unusual chipper, which hadn't been the case when he left the house in the morning. He wondered what had caused it but ultimately decided not to ask.
Itachi was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw Sasuke hurrying in his direction. One moment he was running as fast as his small legs could carry him, and the next moment he was stumbling. Itachi reacted without thinking and appeared in front of his little brother half a second later, just in time to catch him before he could fall and hurt himself. Sasuke wasn't put off by this in the slightest and wiggled in his arms until he could look at his face.
"Nii-san!" he exclaimed happily.
Itachi could hear the parents and grandparents around them swoon at the sight and even catch some words like 'adorable', 'cute', and 'admirable older brother'.
He ignored them in favour of focusing on Sasuke. "Yes, Otouto?"
"Come playing?"
There were enough six-year-olds playing around all over the park, and even if he would look as old as he actually was, it wouldn't have been weird if he played with Sasuke in the sandbox. He was his little brother, after all. The reason he did choose not to do so till now was that he felt weird doing it. He couldn't remember ever playing like this even when he was a child himself -which doesn't mean it hadn't happened, just that he couldn't remember it- so how could he do it now when he was a grown man?
But could he really say no to Sasuke?
"Of course," he said, making sure to keep his doubts off his face. "Show me what you want to do?"
Sasuke squealed and started pulling him to a spot a bit more apart from the other kids where they were as alone as they could be on a public playground.
Sitting on a pile of sand, building a sandcastle with his brother, and generally just enjoying himself; he couldn't count how often he had wished for moments like this in his last life, first when he had been too busy with missions and then later after he had left the village. And while it still felt weird doing something so normal, he couldn't deny that it also felt quite nice.
He was stopped from thinking further about this when he felt a familiar chakra signature closing on on him from behind.
"You're Itachi, correct? And this little man must be Sasuke. Nice to meet you!"
Itachi calmly turned around, hiding his inner tumult behind a neutral mask. "That's correct. And you are 'Shunshin no Shisui', aren't you? How can we help you?"
Shisui gave a surprised laugh and scratched the back of his head in an abashed manner. "Come on, don't call me by that silly name. Barely anybody does! But yeah, that would be me."
"People aren't calling you that yet. I'm sure they will with time."
"Well, I guess it's nice being recognized for one's skills. But couldn't they call me something else? You know, something more flashy?"
He had his usual silly smile on his face which made Itachi fight down all the memories and emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. Shisui had not only been his best friend but also an older brother figure for him, a person he always wanted to surpass no matter how impossible it seemed.
(Shisui had disagreed, always claiming that he only had the advantage of age and experience and that Itachi would be stronger than him in a few short years.)
In a way, he had been for Itachi what he was to Sasuke.
"Nii-san, who's that?" Sasuke asked, giving him a welcome excuse to stop looking at his former best friend.
"This is Shisui Uchiha, a member of our clan. He came to say hello."
Sasuke frowned for a second, but then apparently decided that the new person was boring and continued building a 'sandcastle'.
Itachi briefly smiled to himself before turning back to Shisui. "In that case, you probably should start creating a nickname for yourself and spread it to the public. Anyway, I ask again, how can we help you?"
Shisui sighed. "Did anyone ever tell you that you're terrible at small talk? Honestly, it actually went quite well, but you just needed to get to the point didn't you?" He then continued by looking at him with a long-suffering expression.
Shisui sighed again when it became obvious that Itachi didn't plan on answering him any time soon before continuing the conversation himself. "Fine, be a killjoy, then. I heard you became a Genin even though you're only six. I thought that we could train together, you know, teach each other some stuff. From one prodigy to another, you see."
Itachi looked at him for several seconds, making him obvious uncomfortable and shifting on his feet, before asking dryly:
"My mother sent you, didn't she?"
Shisui's eyes widened a bit before he started to laugh. "Wow, you looked right through me. Amazing! What gave me away?"
He shrugged. "You didn't give anything away. It was just a hunch, nothing else."
"A very lucky hunch," Shisui readily went with his answer. "But, you know, being sent by your mother doesn't change the fact that we really could help each other. So, what do you say? Interested in training with me?"
He thought about it for a moment but didn't see why he should say no. He had wanted to approach his friend sometime soon anyway, so this was as good of an opportunity as any.
"I would be happy to. Do you-"
"Nii-san! Let's go swing!" Sasuke interrupted him and started to pull at his sleeves.
Itachi had already halfway turned around to reprimand him gently when he heard Shisui's quiet chuckle. "No need to be jealous, Sasuke. I'm not going to keep your brother from you any longer." Turning back to Itachi, he continued: "Do you have time today? I plan to train at the private Uchiha training ground for the next five hours."
He nodded. "I'm not sure how long I will be here, but I should be able to come for an hour or two at least."
"Great! See you then!"
With that he disappeared without a trace, making Itachi smile. That's why people call you 'Shunshin no Shisui', idiot.
"Nii-san!" he heard Sasuke exclaim again, already halfway to the swing, pointing at him to follow him.
His smile widened a bit. "I'm on my way, Sasuke. Wait for me, would you?"
Just like that, the time flew by.
Itachi spent six days a week training with Team 3, first focusing on teamwork as to not stand in each other's way in battle before going on and actually developing a few combos of their own which could give even more experienced enemies a run for their money. All in all, they were more of a team of Chūnin with an additional Jonin supervisor than a usual team of Genin.
Itachi spent most of his free time training, wishing to advance to his old strength as fast as possible. Sometimes Izumi would join him, too. At this point, he was pretty sure that she was the top student of the Academy, at least in Taijutsu.
He also made it a point to train with Shisui at least once a week. And while they would probably never have quite the same relationship as they had before, he could confidently say that they were friends.
The rest of his time, he spent with Sasuke. His probably greatest regret when he thought back to this time of his life was that he hadn't paid more attention to his little brother and he didn't plan on doing that mistake again.
So, after nearly two months of training and the occasional D-Rank mission, it was time for Team 3 to go on their first real mission together.