"WHAT?" Kou yelled as Kakashi gave him an unconvincing eye smile, "Mizuki and Iruka are great teachers and they'll take turns teaching you after the academy." Kou's curse mark burned as it fed off his emotions but he pushed them down again. "So you're just abandoning me?" He asked in a resigned voice, "Did you see what Gaara did? I need to train Sasuke." Kakashi spoke with an air of finality before shunshining away.
Kou stalked away from the Hokage tower where he had been summoned the day after his fight. He was thankful that all he had gotten was a slap on the wrist and a lecture . Kou looked at all the civilians milling about before he left by shunshin. Kou stood at the training ground before grabbing a kunai and shunshining towards a dummy and trying to slice while in shunshin. He shunshined again before turning to face his observer.
"Why are you here you let me sense you so you must want something?" as Itachi appeared in a swirl of Ravens. "All I want is to offer you training." "Why?" Itachi kept his blank face while responding, "Why what?" Kou shunshined up to a branch to sit on as Itachi followed. "Tell me why do you want to train me?" Itachi didn't give him an answer, "I'll see you here at the crack of dawn." Itachi stated in a way that made him realize he couldn't refuse
He lay down on the branch, 'Maybe things aren't so bad." He laughed. He stretched out and let the whispers of the wind and chirping of the crickets lull him into sleep.
The dawn came too quickly as even though he found himself up early, Itachi was even earlier and staring at him with impassive eyes. "We're are training in the forest of death." He stated before flickering away and forcing Kou to do the same to not fall behind. When they were far enough into the forest of death Itachi turned towards Kou brandishing a tanto, "The first two weeks are survival training, from dawn to dusk I will hunt you and at night the forest will." He spoke slicing through Kou's bunshin as his shadow clone fired a fireball at the real one before popping itself.
Kou suppressed his chakra before flickering away again to avoid the fireball. He hid henged on the ground before feeling cold steel on his neck. "You've failed, every time you fail we spar for five minutes." He coldly stated. Before his clone disappeared and Kou felt the burn of a fireball on his back as he was hit point blank. He fell to the ground cradling his burnt body before being kicked in the back and launched into a tree. Kou miraculously managed to shunshin himself into the river and almost crying at the sweet relief of it.
Kou felt the current rise but it was too late, he was dragged into a massive whirlpool and pushed chakra into his feet to avoid being drowned. He neatly dodged the kunai but three shuriken caught Kou in the left arm he heard a slight sizzling and shunshined instantly to avoid the explosive tags. A massive swarm of crows surrounded him, kunai and shuriken sliced him from all directions. He fell to the ground gasping. He had enough chakra for a few more shunshins. Kou slapped three smoke bombs onto the ground and waited as smoke surrounded them before performing two rapid shunshins in a row and hiding himself in the muddy riverbank. The sunset came slowly Itachi sat waiting on a treetop next to where Kou was hiding, he had to admit he did well for a genin but his sharingan could pick out the smallest imperfection in a disguise.
The next two weeks went by much the same Kou picked up a little Katon and learnt to shunshin faster but besides that he had made no progress. Itachi had finally released him from the forest of death but the changes in his physche were irreversible every time he made a sound he shunshined instinctively, whenever he was moving he scanned the area around him and he had become so dependent on his tools he payed a tattoo artist to ink a storage seal on his left palm so he could keep his explosive tags and smoke bombs with him at all times.
He lounged around the training ground eating a squirrel he'd caught earlier. He'd been a good hunter gatherer before, but when that was you're only food source you became a master. He turned instinctively, "Hello Itachi, going to teach me anything useful or just beat me till I can't move." Itachi gave him a impassive look before handing him a scroll, as Kou unfurled it he began to read, "Raven Summoning Contract." He turned to Itachi in disbelief, "Are you sure? Summoning are rare and valuable." "Read it." Was Itachi's only reply, He unfurled the scroll further to see one crossed out name, "Who was Shisui Uchiha?" He asked shocked to see the first hint of emotion in Itachi's eyes.
"That contract belonged to one of my best friends who was killed in his last breath he told me to pass on his legacy to someone worthy, the ravens only have one master and I believe you're worthy." Itachi spoke with great conviction in his words. "Don't prove me wrong." He warned his dark eyes glowing red with three tomoes. He showed Kou the signs but before he could even summon Itachi grabbed his wrist, "Before you try to summon we're going to work on your summoning speed. I'm going to throw a kunai and you need to summon before it hits the tree.
Kou began to start but before he could form the handsigns Thunk! The kunai hit the tree. "Again." Itachi called before hurling another kunai, this time Kou was ready he had formed two hand signs before the kunai hit the tree. "Again." Itachi called as he hurled another kunai. The sun rose and the sun set as Kou and Itachi both lay on a tree branch after a long day of hand signs. Kou lay looking at the stars as he practiced the signs over and over again. He sniffed the air and groaned training in the heat of summer without a shower really took it's toll on his hygiene. He let the days events slip away before relaxing and trying to sleep.
"You may now summon." Itachi smiled towards him gracefully before Kou slammed his hand onto the ground and there was a large arm sized albino raven that began to speak to him, "My name's Luna and I a representative of the raven clan grant you permission to summon us." She spoke before giving him the birds version of a grin and turning to face Itachi, "Hey Itachi-Chan how's it going?" She giggled when Itachi's eyebrow began to twitch. "Hey Luna." Itachi responded regaining his composure with his crimson red eyes furiously spinning before she dispersed herself.
Kou turned to Itachi excitedly, "What's next?" "Crow Shunshin, Crow clones, and a special move, they all go hand in hand , in your case the crows will be ravens." Kou excitedly stood up and Itachi allowed himself a small smile as they began to train.