"So, why's a genin training with us?" Chouji asked just as Shikaku declared which training game we were playing today. The larger boy had caught up with us not long after we'd made it to the training grounds.
"Because you lot need a challenge." Shikaku's grin widened and his eyes glinted mischievously. "Every time we play this game, it gets easier for each of you. It's about time we make it a challenge again."
We had played this game before with Shikaku. It was a souped-up ninja kid version of hide-and-go-seek. Usually, each of us had a turn and we were measured based on how fast we found everyone. Running around looking under every bush in the huge training grounds never got anyone a good score. No, the goal of the exercise was to teach us the basics of tracking as well as using scent, logic, or any other skill we had at our disposal to find every hiding place.
"There will be no individual scores this time. You'll be working in teams. Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kiba - you're Team One. Sasuke and Nora - you're Team Two."
"Doesn't the other team need one more for a fair game?" Chouji asked with a frown.
"Nope. Today's lesson: Life isn't fair."
"Hahaha. Sucks to be you guys. Sasuke hasn't even played this game with us before." Kiba smirked at me, and I stuck my tongue out at my brother as I grabbed Sasuke's arm and pulled him away from the other boys.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at our exchange. "Shut up, Kiba."
"Heh," Shikaku smirked at us. "Itachi here - he's going to be for hire. He'll be hiding, and if your team finds him - you can bring him into that round of the game on your side. Think of it as being able to acquire an ultimate weapon. He'll be findable, but don't let looking for Itachi distract you from your main goal each round - or you might lose. Itachi, you can go ahead and hide."
With a small nod and a flicker of the tiger hand sign, the older boy suddenly and wordlessly disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Shikamaru sighed loudly and raised his hand.
"Yes, son?"
"I'd like to switch places with Sasuke."
Shikaku smirked at his child and shook his head slowly, "Denied. That would be unfair to Team One. Besides, you need to learn how to work with people who don't think the same way as you."
"Are you an idiot? Why would you want to go to the weaker team?" Kiba laughed loudly and slapped Shikamaru on the back, an action that made the younger Nara cringe. "Man, you're so weird."
"Also, today, we're going to add tagging. It's not enough to simply find every member of the opposite team. You need to touch them. I'll be the referee - and I have the final say if there are any arguments. Thirty minutes per round. Hiding team wins if they survive. Seeking team otherwise. Any questions?"
"Let's do this!" Chouji cheered with a wide grin.
With another sigh, Shikamaru pressed a hand against his face and muttered, "I'm so screwed…"
Shikaku smirked at his son briefly then nodded. "Good. Team Two - you're hiding first. You have a two-minute head start. Go!"
I normally enjoyed this game, but, today, we were training at one of my least favorite places. It was the training grounds not far from the memorial stone, and while I didn't personally know anyone who had died here in Konoha, that stone always messed with my concentration. You see, like the grocery store that was near the origination of the Kyuubi attack, the memorial stone always triggered my little double vision problem. If Shikaku was testing a theory related to investigating my raging headaches, there was no doubt that he had picked this location on purpose.
Thus, we weren't long into the first round before the weirdness began. I misjudged my footing, tripping instead of jumping over the root of a tree as the double vision played with my perception of reality. In theory, I was supposed to have improved at this whole running and jumping thing thanks to Tsume's work over the past year, and, when I wasn't seeing the world like a drunk man, I generally did okay.
Running back to me, Sasuke reached down to pull me back to my feet. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah. Sorry. Just misjudged that jump." Finding my footing, I pressed a hand against my pounding heart, calming my breathing as I glanced towards the memorial stone. There, if I squinted, I could see a trio of figures standing. One, even from a distance, looked a lot like Shikaku, but I knew that Shikaku was with the other team, counting down the seconds until he sent them after us.
I almost never saw the same thing twice here at the stone. Sometimes, the area before the stone was filled with mourners for a funeral, and other times it was just a single person. Frankly, if any of them had been real, it wouldn't have been worth even mentioning, but what I'm talking about seeing weren't physical people. This was something more like shadowy ghosts or a holographic image overlaying reality.
Shaking my head to clear it, I winced as the first side effect of my double vision crept in and settled against the front of my head in a dull aching throb that seemed to radiate out from my temples.
Sasuke's brows drew together as he frowned at me, "You sure?"
I nodded and pressed the heel of my hand against my forehead. Forcing myself past the threatening pangs of the initial headache, I gave the younger Uchiha a grin that wasn't at all forced. "Just a headache. I'm fine. I'm not going to let my older brother beat me."
His face bloomed into a fierce grin that matched my own. "Mm. I understand. You can count on me." He grabbed my hand this time and pulled me behind him, directing our path as we ran between the trees.
"We need to find your brother first. If the seekers get to him before us, we're done for."
"Agreed. I never win against him when we play this at home." Sasuke stuck out his lower lip in a pout. "One day - I'm going to catch up to him. Should we separate and look for him?"
"No. Not yet... Wait! There!" I tugged Sasuke backward as I slid to a stop, nearly causing the Uchiha to fall. Through the trees, I saw a flicker of dark blue, the same color as my teammate's shirt. As I stared, my double vision drew into focus, and I saw a shadowy image of Itachi walking away into the deeper forest.
"Is there something there?" The boy asked, looking at where I was staring with a curious tip of his head.
"I think I saw your brother for a moment."
"He does that sometimes. Let's you see something and then just disappears a moment later. If he played this game seriously we would never find him."
"Let's take a look."
Sasuke let me lead him into the denser woods. We ducked under branches and came out near to where I had seen that ghostly after image of his brother. Glancing around me, I jerked as again I saw Itachi for a brief few moments before he disappeared once more just to our right.
Not too far away, a whistle sounded and Sasuke and I crouched down in the foliage as whoops and hollers erupted from the clearing. The clock was ticking, and the hunt was on.
"There." I hissed in a whisper as I pointed towards the new spot.
"Come on," Sasuke replied just as softly, retaking the lead as we crept to the new location. We made several more moves like this, where I'd see something and the youngest Uchiha would race ahead, checking for our seekers before I crept forward quickly and quietly to join him.
Eventually, we came upon a big tree that dwarfed the others near this training ground. Its trunk alone would have taken six children my size standing finger to finger in order to wrap around it.
By now, I had begun to feel a little nauseous from seeing the world twice over, but as long as I kept breathing evenly I was fine. "This is it," I whispered to Sasuke, and I quickened my steps as I jogged over to the tree. There, I saw something! I rubbed at my right temple with my fingertips, squinting from the throbbing ache in my head as I followed the ghostly image of his brother around the tree. I blinked and looked up, following the double's movement to one branch, then a leap across to another, and just as I was about to turn around to follow that vision's next jump a stick cracked behind us.
Both Sasuke and I spun around, ready to run, only to find Itachi grinning down at us from that final branch I had been about to look at. Idly, he dropped the bits of a broken stick on the ground in front of him. "Ahh, interesting. It seems you have found me."
A/N: Oh, Itachi... we all know you did that on purpose. It's so good to have this chapter posted. (I spent so much time rewriting and tweaking this.) x_x I have the next chapter done, too, but I'm going to be evil and force you all to wait a couple days. :
