What horrors do his crimson eyes behold? These are the unfathomable depths of Uchiha Itachi.
I don't own Naruto nor do I profit from these writings in any way.
"Speaking"
"Thinking"
"Demon"
Nakama
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Uchiha Fugaku sat apart from the rest of his clan in a secret meeting room under the Nakano temple. To outsiders he was a silent, grim faced man who sat in the position allotted to the clan head. He rested in a posture that spoke of deep meditation. His arms were crossed and his legs were folded under him. His eyes were closed as he mulled over this latest report. What they were doing was a risky gamble but a vital one. So many futures, the destiny of the village, the ninja world and most importantly, in his mind, the destiny of the entire Uchiha Clan hinged on this feeble hope for success. To use Go terminology, they were plotting a double Atari. If one gambit failed then the other move would still be available to them.
"But the cost…"
He held his tears within him, the cold disgust and sickening hatred that he felt for himself and his actions. He remembered when he had first been told of Mikoto's pregnancy he had been overjoyed. He recalled the elation that he had felt knowing about the life that he had helped to bring into this world. Fugaku had felt for the first time in all the years since he had been inaugurated as leader, the determination to change the lot of the Uchiha Clan. The desire to shed the veil of mistrust that dishonored the sacrifices for Konoha, that had been made by his family, stirred him to appeal to his brethren for ideas.
He had not been alone in his desire to reconnect to Konoha. There were many angry dissenters who wished to break from the hidden village completely, but that was no longer a viable option. Try as the administration of Konoha might, there was no guarantee that the Uchiha Clan could not have obtained potentially crippling secrets about the village, as a founding clan it was a certainty. Breaking from konoha would mean war and the Uchiha clan had lost much of their financial and military capital since the old days. Even if the Uchiha Clan did have the same capability as they did in the time before the founding of Konoha, such a war between a single family and an established and organized military power would be suicide.
Most members were earnest in their desire to remain a part of the village. They simply wished to find a way to put an end to the hushed whispers and subtle discrimination. They were hailed as heroes even as seasoned members of their ninja clan endured forced loyalty tests. They displayed valor in the field of conflict on multiple occasions and had saved their comrades lives time and time again, yet they could not trust beyond the clan for every word spoken in confidence was reported. Every questionable act was pounced upon and examined by the Anbu. The Uchiha were subject to a cold war waged in the highest levels of power where no Uchiha was allowed to step foot in the halls of power, or attend to the Hokage as his personal guard, or join the Black Ops division of the Anbu.
Villagers and lower ninja clans called them Uchiha-sama in tones of respect and awe but those who were in the know referred to them by a different tone of voice. One tinged in fear and suspicion, seeing only the evils that could come from even the most innocent suggestion. A cynical, pessimistic view that mocked all they tried to accomplish, that challenged their faith, patience and most dangerously of all, their pride.
If the current state of affairs continued as they stood it was only a matter of time before those in command decided that they could no longer tolerate the existence of such danger so close to the heart of the great tree that is Konoha. Their only options were to strike first and be known as traitors or to somehow create a bridge between the Uchiha Clan and the rest of Konoha, a vital connection.
A bridge formed from members of the younger generation. A bridgehead named Uchiha Itachi.
Thus was Itachi's fate was sealed. As leader of the Uchiha clan this sacrifice was his to give. A child that would bear the hopes of the entire Uchiha Clan, Itachi was Uchiha Fugaku's sacrifice for the future that he had envisioned. Thirty Uchiha elders had given up their lives, their chakra, and their memories for this goal, their power was directed by another elder to craft a unique kinjutsu.
It was a hijutsu that was created shortly after the alliance of the Uchiha and Senjuu Clans. While the technique had gone unused since the clan members at the time of the founding of Konoha had felt that such a costly and dangerous technique was unnecessary. Subsequent generations of clansmen had modified the technique many times since then and the kinjutsu was now far different from the one recorded in the scroll of forbidden seals.
Not even the commander of Anbu Black Ops knew the true extent of what they had done to fortify the technique . There was an increase in the rate of survivability from one percent to a measly ten percent using Tsunade's recorded notes. The stability of the technique had been further increased by the inclusion of certain tissue and blood samples that had been stolen and preserved from the days before the creation of Konoha when the Uchiha Clan had been desperate to find some edge over their enemies.
The stabilization of the technique allowed for something more ephemeral than mere memory to be transferred, everything that had composed the spirits of Uchiha elders that willingly sacrificed themselves had gone to Itachi. Their stoicism, their will, their loyalty and most amazingly of all; their chakra natures had all been given to Itachi..
It was a technique that would give to the bearer the power to destroy either the Uchiha clan or Konoha. Fugaku would never forgive himself if Itachi turned against his clan but then there were a number of things that he could not forgive himself. Fugaku had looked up to some of those deceased men and women as his uncles and aunts, a few of them were his uncles and aunts. It was their selfless act that moved Fugaku to train his son to the fullest extent possible, to harden his heart to Mikoto's pleas and surrender his son to the village. Even the Third Hokage who had always tried to be fair and balanced when dealing with Fugaku's clan had seen his actions as that of a cold man grasping for power at any cost, even at the expense of his son.
To a certain extent they were all correct. Correct that he desired power, the power to protect his family. Correct that he was as cold as ice, cold enough to cut all ties with his firstborn son and lay his trust in the hope that the spirit of the Uchiha Clan would eventually return his child to him. Correct in that the cost to Itachi was terrible, the daily police reports indicated that the Anbu had foiled multiple assassination attempts on his son and rumors existed of a bounty being placed on the sharingan eye of any unattached clan member.
Fugaku had not touched Mikoto since that day. He had observed how she became still at the remotest mention of her son. He had noticed the way her face went blank at even the slightest inference of Itachi's presence. Fugaku had known of the way that she never seemed to pay attention to any of the updates that he chose to reread at home yet it was one of the few times that she actively chose to bring the baby into his company. After Itachi, Fugaku had resolved to keep his distance from Sasuke.
His eyes followed every movement of the boy, every gurgle and kick was lovingly taken in and his wife had noticed. She had noticed his agony all along during the sealing of the Shinrabanshou within Itachi and had stood by his side. The sealing of the Kyuubi would always stand between them in Fugaku's mind but Mikoto was the wife of a ninja who was born into the prestigious Uchiha ninja clan. She understood sacrifice and pitied her husband almost as much as she loved him and her sons, she couldn't hate Fugaku any more than she hated herself and did the only thing that she could do, hold to the same lesson that she had once taught Itachi, nfinja endure.
Fugaku finished mulling over his thoughts on the recent report and again asked the reporting clansman.
"Are we certain that it is active? The activation of the hijutsu at this time was not within our projections of Itachi's development."
The military police officer nodded as he seriously replied.
"There is no doubt about it we have observed him practicing Oguno-sama's Tanami-niten-ryu."
"That could just be some leakage." An elder observed as he scratched his jaw, "An entire sword style is a bit much to be coherently absorbed in this way but it could still be explained as mental contamination."
Another elder spoke, the man was frowning slightly as he thought over his words.
"Mental contamination to that degree would result in obvious mental instability, psychosis or schizophrenia. Those people lived hard lives it would be obvious in his actions."
The spokesman for the group of officers assigned to watch over Itachi spoke up at this point.
"With all due respect, we have not seen any evidence of mental instability. Our investigation of Itachi's posture, habits, training, handwriting; and reactions to certain situations that we set up lead to the conclusion that the kinjutsu has somehow been activated within the boy."
A brief look of frustration crossed the man's features before clearing away.
"Due to the Hokage's injunction against direct contact, there is little opportunity for us to observe him at close range so we have no way of telling whether or not it was accidentally activated by Itachi-kun or by some outside stimulus. It seems that the Anbu have regarded this event as a natural result of our hijutsu."
"There's that at least." Murmured one of the clansmen in a soft voice, another person volunteered information. "It seems that Itachi is to be assigned his first C-rank mission tomorrow."
Fugaku sighed as he rubbed his chin, "Until Itachi unlocks his Sharingan there is little that we can do but watch and wait. Knowing Itachi we won't be made to wait long. At that time we will have the opportunity to investigate the effects of the Shinrabansho hijutsu."
"What of these rumors that someone is placing bounties on the Sharingan?" One of the clansmen at the back of the room asked.
Fugaku opened his eyes and looked upon the stoic faces arrayed before him. "I will bring my concerns to the Hokage, for now simply continue as you always have. The Hidden Cloud has had its eyes on gaining the Byakugan doujutsu for years. We are no stranger to the dangers presented by covetous outsiders. As for Itachi we will have to trust that the Anbu attachment assigned to him will be enough protection during this mission of his. Agreed?"
"Agreed!"
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A lone ninja was completing a morning ritual to the amusement and amazement of a few joggers and shop keepers in the early morning. Amusement on the part of those who were familiar with his antics, amazement on the part of those who realized just how difficult and dangerous young teen's current self-imposed punishment was. To be a ninja one must endure hardship. Failing twice to graduate and being sent back once. Chasing the back of a genius who seldom acted as if he even knew he had an eternal rival, and if said genius did acknowledge that there existed a threat to the honor of being number one; that irritatingly hip dude promptly forgot again. Maito Gai was a genius of hard work who knew what it meant to fail.
"Cheh! Your coolness just burns me up!".
"5990"
"5991"
"5992"
"5993"
"5994"
"59995"
"5996"
"5997"
"5998"
"5999"
"Yo! Gai! "
"Aaaand."
"6000"
"Seishun!"
At the top of an intra village electricity pole Maito Gai balanced on one thumb. His other hand had gone to stabilize a three hundred pound barrel of rocks gathered from around the village. Sweat poured from the fourteen-year olds face, staining his red headband with super absorbent qualities and making his aerodynamically stable green spandex fighting suit soggy and wet. His fingers were bleeding and the wooden pole was looking decidedly decrepit but Maito Gai never felt more self-satisfied. Anytime he did training that didn't kill him, instead of bringing him closer to his self-proclaimed goal of defeating his eternal rival, generally had a good effect on Maito Gai's temperament.
Recently he had called on a favor owed to him by his eternal rival also known as Hatake Kakashi, Copy-nin Kakashi, Sharingan Kakashi, You Monkey Bastard and That Hip Dude. By drawing lots it was decided that Kakashi would chose a challenge that would help determine which of them was the better ninja. It was also decided, by Gai, that if Gai lost then he would climb to the top of an electrical pole carrying a 300 pound barrel of rocks and perform six thousand vertical push-ups before dawn.
If he couldn't do that then he would run around the village three times, backward, blindfolded at top speed. If he couldn't do that then he would scale up and down the Hokage Mountain thrice with one hand tied behind his back, naked. And if he couldn't do that then the children of Konoha would probably end up traumatized from seeing his hairy butt Kakashi had dryly quipped.
"Wahhhh! So hip! So cool! My rival is jealous of the power of my Gluteous Maximus!"
In the end Kakashi had proposed a three day long match of hide and go seek. A game of exciting, for Gai, janken had determined that Gai would count to one hundred while Kakashi hid. It was only nearing the end of the third day and after several run-ins with the military police force over some Peeping Tom incidents that the young jounin had realized that Kakashi was nowhere to be found in Konoha.
A passing chunin gate guard had commented that Kakashi had been deployed on a long term mission in Snow Country and seemed to be eager to leave. Gai had contemplated trying to catch up to his rival before sunset but had been heartbreakingly forced to admit to not being strong or fast enough to wear down that three day lead in the space to four hours. On the upside of things, his current method of training would be a step in the direction of removing that weakness.
"Lost another bet to Kakashi, huh?"
Sarutobi Asuma, a fifteen year old special jounin stood lazily in the street below smoking a cigarette. Gai frowned and with a forceful shove tumbled down to the ground, landing on his feet, bracing the barrel in his arms. Asuma whistled in appreciation.
"Damn. That looks heavy." The youmg jounin gestured with a hand as he exhaled a puff of smoke.
Maito Gai's expression became smug at the words of praise but quickly soured as the haze of exhaled smoke engulfed his head. Flapping his hand before his face, the jounin admonished his colleague in a serious tone.
"My good comrade, it is most un-youthful to smoke at fifteen. I too know the pressures of wanting to be hip and cool but becoming addicted to cigarettes is a most unhealthy habit that will only smother the banked fires of your youth. If you are impressed by my feats of strength and fortitude know that it would not be possible for me without a set of tar free lungs. You cripple yourself unnecessarily my friend!"
Asuma blinked as he tried to come to terms with being scolded, advised and compared to Maito Gai in the same sentence. The freak had even struck a ridiculous pose, sticking his butt out and pointing at the sky. In the end it was settled when the pretty red eyed chunin that he had spotted going into a breakfast shop down the street began to leave.
"Babes, my primary motivation in life. Thinking of motivations…"
Putting out the cigarette in order to mollify the other jounin Asuma hurriedly explained to Gai his reasons for calling out to him.
"The Old Man wanted to see you, it seems a client requested you specifically and that you were to come to the meeting hall dressed to impress."
His task done Asuma hurried after his newest person of interest as Gai erupted in a sting of proclamations of glory and wonder at the awesome budding flower at the springtime of youth.
"Seishun!"
Dumping the barrel in an alleyway Maito Gai went about preparing himself for the assignment of an important mission. Without using the merest amount of chakra he leapt to the top of a building, racing toward the public bathhouses looking for an open one nearby. Already he was rehearsing the things that he would say, and trying to decide on how best to make an impressive entrance.
"Am I going to guard a daimyo's daughter, or help to liberate a country? Perhaps I'll be called upon to fight an evil overlord. Hah Kakashi you can't beat this!"
"Seishun!"
Minutes later a girlish scream rent the morning air.
In hindsight Gai really should have toned down his enthusiasm a little, but such youthful mistakes like the one that happed at the bathhouse on the way to the Hokage's office were simply a byproduct of living one's life in the springtime of youth.
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Yokohana Natsue and her sister Nase would later report that they had only gotten a good look at the lower body of the streaking pervert that had landed in the middle of their outdoor bath. Unfortunately, as the heavily blushing female military police officer had informed them, this long and that thick were not viable descriptions for a subject but she did agree to pass along their apartment address if the Uchiha ever caught up with the culprit. It seemed that the perpetrator had hurriedly left the bathhouse with a bleeding nose but the owner had been perturbed by the sight of blood and had washed away the precious samples that could have been used for tracking the pervert down.
Taking a surreptitious look at where her partner who was interrogating the bathhouse manager Uchiha Chinatsu leaned in closer to the victims. Placing her finger on her lower arm as a terminating line she asked again.
"Really, it was that big?"
"Seishun!"
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If mortification was a medicine to be bottled and sold Maito Gai would be a billionaire. Leaping like a crazy tree frog from roof to roof, Gai tried to put the incident out of his mind as he landed before the Public Administration building and sprinted full tilt toward the Mission Assignment Hall. He had been in such a hurry to clean up for the meeting with the Hokage that when he had arrived at the 24-hour bathhouse, Gai had simply chucked the entry fee at the manager like a hail of shuriken and for the sake of expedience had leapt over the wall to get to the water all the while ignoring the manager's indignant squawks.
He had quickly dived into the deep end of the pool, scrubbing his muscular body with the grainy sand that covered the bottom of the bathing pool as he swam toward the shallow end. His body had surfaced under a fresh spring at the shallow end vigorously scrubbing the sweat and dirt from his scalp before finally opening his eyes. What he saw froze him to the bone in shock.
Gai had came groin to face with a couple of sixteen year old twins. Little Gai came groin to face with a couple of naked sixteen year old twins. Not even the cold water pouring down Maito Gai's back could dampen the somewhat inappropriately stoked fires of youth. In unison the two girls took in his stone hard pectorals, chiseled abdominals and after wandering a bit lower they unconsciously licked their lips as twin trickles of blood dribbled down their chins.
"Seishun!"
Now Gai was a healthy fourteen year old boy. Abnormally healthy once you considered that even his muscles had muscles. Still this was for now unexplored territory for the young jounin. Had someone else say, Asuma, Kakashi or the Gallant Jiraiya been in command of Gai's faculties and stamina in this particular scenario then Maito Gai the Sexy Ninja Doll would have become one of the fastest selling commodities in the Hidden Ninja Nations, once a paper bag was put over his head. Unfortunately, while he would in the future correct this oversight with a lesser degree of success, with these self-same twins and a rather kinky police officer with a shibari fetish, Maito Gai the Sex Object simply wasn't ready yet.
So he screamed, not a manly scream, but the awkward, high pitched, feminine scream that only some girls, boys in the awkward phase of puberty and recently castrated men are capable of. Really, with the kind of tight clothes that Gai favored it could actually have been either one of the latter two possibilities, but for the benefit of doubt Gai's youth could be charitably blamed for the way that he scrambled back across the pool, and dressed with impressive speed even as he fled the female section of the bathhouse screaming all the way.
Fortunately, Maito Gai was used to recovering quickly from such awkward situations; unfortunately it meant that he encountered such embarrassing situations with great frequency. The only thing that one could do was suck it up, tuck it in and get going. Gai made a note to remember that last nugget of wisdom when he got a genin team of his own.
Skidding around a corner, Gai entered the atrium out side of the mission assignment office. The Chunin in charge of guarding the doors realized that Gai wasn't slowing down and with panicked eyes quickly swung open the doors to the room just as Maito Gai initiated Fashionably Hip Tactical Combat Entry Number Three.
"Now is the time, Explode My Springtime of Youth!"
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!"
Assistant Director Honda Mizuno hadn't had the same level of experience using ninja in film like Director Mikuno did. He knew that there were people who did some simply incredible things of course but he doubted whether any ninja village had someone that was ready and willing to perform the role that they had in mind. The Old Man had shrugged off Mizuno's doubts and demanded that they head on to Konoha after being laughed out of Suna.
He had gone slack jawed when the Hokage simply nodded at Mikuno's outrageous request and stared in shock as the man had sent off another ninja on an errand to find someone. The Director had then turned to haggling with a chunin over the price of a light escort mission for a genin team to accompany and protect the movie personnel and equipment. Apparently two C-rank missions were cheaper than a single B-rank which the two of Director Mikuno's requests, if combined would have been.
They had brought in a genin team and while their jounin instructor seemed capable to Honda's admittedly inexperienced eye there was no way in hell that the smallest of the three kids could have been older than his grandchildren. The tallest boy seemed to understand his dubious look and had leveled a most unnerving glare at Honda with pale lavender eyes. The nervous looking girl wearing face-paint seemed to be about to say something when she stopped and turned her head sharply toward the entrance behind them.
Honda's eyes were directed to the doorway at precisely the correct moment to see a figure sail through. He was dresses in a forest green spandex bodysuit covered partially by a dull green flack jacket, and orange legwarmers. He wore his hitai-ite as a belt and the sole of blue shoes could be seen as the young man glided through the air in a ballistic arc until sliding to a rest before the assignation table. It was just what Mikuno had asked for and Honda did a double take as the Hokage gave him a look that seemed to say, 'See, I told you so'.
Director Mikuno just clapped his hands together and said, "Perfect!"
Thus began the career of Maito Gai, Movie Star.
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He wanted to scrub out his eyes. Hideo hadn't expected much when his team had first met up that morning. Granted, the Uchiha seemed to be more dexterous than usual but that was countered by the fact that he seemed to be more annoying to Hideo. Itachi also seemed to have developed a penchant for giving up just when it seemed that he was turning out to be more than just a bratty kid. After supervising Neji's morning training exercise Hideo had arrived early at team nine's now customary meeting place at the sweet tea shop behind training field number eight.
The dog-girl Suzume had arrived next, followed by their jounin instructor Murasaki Moriko with Itachi in tow. "She probably had to fetch him first before coming here." Thought Hideo derisively. In his opinion the ninja life was not for those without the discipline to rise with the coming of dawn. The truth of the matter, if Hideo had known it, was that Itachi had been doing some warm up exercises nearby when Moriko had encountered him on her way to meet with the rest of team nine.
Hideo had grown weary of the constant stream of D-rank missions even though he would never admit it out loud like Suzume had. The look that Murasaki-sensei had given the girl had cowed them enough to temporarily stop even Hideo's snarky comments and Itachi's baiting words. They had gone on missions approximately four times a week, most of which lasted until midday and on the days that they performed two tasks, they would be working well into the afternoon. Barring other engagements Murasaki-sensei usually gave them Saturday off and they spent all of Tuesday and half of Thursday doing training exercises.
Murasaki sensei seemed to be a genjutsu specialist with a particular talent for casting powerful tactile and optical illusions with her field scroll and a paint brush hidden in the handle of a tanto. Their training usually involved dispelling or reversing powerful illusions cast on themselves or on each other. At times during courier missions within the village and shopping trips, she would create an illusion that a certain street existed where none did or erase vital markers that would lead them to the places that they were looking for.
As a result of this training they were quickly developing a resistance to all but the most powerful illusionary techniques and even then Itachi seemed to always be able to recognize when they were trapped in an illusion much faster than even the keen senses of Nadeshiko who was learning to use her other senses to counter Murasaki-sensei's scent nullifying poison. Their training was shaping them into an excellent scouting and espionage team and Itachi most of all was thriving.
This seemed to please Moriko-sensei greatly and on the days when she had Suzume and Hideo spar she taught Itachi several advanced techniques that the others had had difficulty learning. In the area of physical training Hideo seemed to be a superior hand to hand combatant to Itachi and Suzume using his jyuken to great advantage. He had also developed the ability pierce most of Moriko-sensei's medium level genjutsu, including the Kori Shinchuu no jutsu, the technique that disrupted a persons sense of direction causing them to walk in circles.
Moriko-sensei struck Hideo as a serious, no-nonsense individual who demanded excellence from her students and trained them relentlessly in the areas of information gathering, dispelling illusions, and to a lesser degree strength and endurance training with a grueling schedule of two missions a day one of which always seemed to leave them in a state of exhaustion before forcing them to use their minds to escape some illusionary conundrum that drew upon their combined talents in order to escape.
All in all Hideo approved of his teacher's training methods and felt his new strength pass through into his morning training sessions against his father. As a result when Moriko- sensei had informed them that they would be assigned a C-rank mission today Hideo had been pleased if somewhat worried about Itachi's ability to keep up in a more demanding mission.
Ignoring Suzume's joyful whooping in tandem with Nadeshiko's barks, Hideo had tried to read Itachi's expression. As always when dealing with the enigmatic boy Itachi's face was closed to Hideos talents, he neither expressed happiness nor apprehension. If one were to examine Itachi's posture It would seem as if he was somewhat bored. Not for the first time, Hideo privately wondered at Itachi's ever present equanimity and just how the younger boy managed to maintain it.
"Itachi," He thought, "Do you, even care?"
Hideo had followed their sensei to the mission assignment hall where they had met their client, a grey haired man in his mid-fifties, named Fujisaki Mikuno. The man was a movie director and needed a team of genin to guard his equipment and workers from attacks from bandits while on location in Tatami Country, a mountainous region adjacent to Grass Country. Apparently Hideo's team was being thrown in as part of a discount since Director Mikuno, as his assistant called him, had paid extra for a specific jounin to serve as a body guard and body double for martial arts film mega star Xiao Wulong. The man was a famous martial artist originally trained in Earth Country and was known for two things. His outrageous stunts and the high body count of his stunt doubles. Whichever Jounin that they picked would have to be a taijutsu fanatic and capable of taking a ridiculous amount of punishment as well as demeaning treatment from the famously temperamental star.
Just as Hideo was glaring at the irritatingly condescending Assistant Director, he noticed that something had caught Suzume's attention. Activating his byakugan Hideo looked through the back of his skull and from that unique perspective witnessed the most disgusting display that he had ever seen in his life.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!"
"This is a jounin?"
Flying through the doorway in a textbook leaping kick that must have been chakra enhanced, came Maito Gai, sailing through the air and passing over Itachi's head to land before them in a most ridiculous pose. One hand was held out to his side in a 'thumbs up' gesture. The other hand rested on a hip above an obscenely jutting butt. The wind of his passage had tousled the teen's bowl cut hairdo as he closed his eyes and unleashed a sparkling, toothy smile that could be seen in the reflection of Director Mikuno's glasses.
"Ugh!"
Beside him, Hideo felt Suzume stiffen.
"Oh no…"
He could see her eyes go wide as she took in the shiny hair, sparkling teeth, and shiny green spandex.
"Oh f#!#! No."
Hideo cringed at the gentle sigh that came from the girl.
"Kawai."
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On the morning of her first C rank mission Suzume had completed her new morning ritual of meditating and filtering out the various sounds and scents that the fresh morning air brought to her hyperactive senses. After her conversation with Moriko-sensei, Suzume had asked her mother for help and had undergone a series of exercises aimed at training her sensitivity to external stimuli and the amount of chakra that she fed to her sensory organs.
She had made significant progress in controlling her ability to keep track of and catalogue the different scent, sights and sounds that at one time had been a mere distraction on the edges of her consciousness that occasionally surged and broke her focus with small idiotic things like the light reflecting off of a fly's wings.
She still had some ways to go and probably would never ever completely surrender her love of vibrant, passionate colors. "And the Sparkles." Suzume, however was no longer deeply enthralled by Murasaki-sensei's eyes especially once she had learned to counter and dispel several of Moriko's mid-level genjutsu. Suzume greatly enjoyed her days doing D-ranks because most of the ones that they were assigned involved outdoor work which Nadeshiko loved. While she would have liked to go traveling across Fire Country with her family as she did during her days as an infant, Suzume knew that at the rate that they were going it was only a matter of time until her team was assigned a C-rank mission.
The path that Suzume had taken to team nine's training ground was a seldom used forest trail. Devoid of people it was a location that provided ample practice for Suzume to try to pick out the various animal tracks and the scents of all the creatures that frequented the area. Lately she had been seeing signs that someone was using a spot in the nearby training area number eight. The wind carried faint sounds of fists hitting flesh and the clashing of wood.
The scent carried on the wind was the slightly musky aroma that uniquely belonged to Itachi. Suzume paused in her trek briefly as she also picked up another fainter smell, almost as if someone had covered one scent with something bland. She mused upon the problem in confusion before suddenly realizing just what it was. Channeling some more chakra into her nose she focused intensely on the suppressed scent until she placed it, the aroma of clean human skin and crushed violets. Murasaki-sensei was with Itachi. Satisfied at having solved the problem Suzume journeyed on toward her team's meeting place.
Predictably the first one to arrive there had been Hideo. Suzume had even managed to come a full fifteen minutes early. As she put Nadeshiko on the ground She idly and truth be told, enviously wondered just how long it took for Hideo to fix his hair, train, and take a thorough bath from the scent of things. Factoring in the time it took to arrive early at the out of the way meeting area at seven. Hideo must be rising before dawn.
Suzume risked another look at Hyuuga Hideo's flowing shoulder-length hair one final time before turning her eyes elsewhere before the grouchy Hyuuga could make some snide comment. She despairingly tugged at one of her shaggy locks before pulling at the edges of her green wool cap. Channeling chakra into her nostrils she confirmed for herself what Nadeshiko had been barking to her. Itachi's scent was growing stronger as he approached from upwind. She would make note to tell him to be mindful of his approaches but how could she phrase her advice without sounding like a pervert? She could just see it now.
"Um, Itachi, you smell…nice, not nice, nice but as much as I like the way you smell… if you're trying to avoid being sniffed out you've got to factor in the direction of the wind. Or ask Moriko-sensei to lend you her brand of scent erasing soap…She smells nice too."
Suzume cringed.
"Yeah, smooth."
Her worries were forgotten though when Moriko-sensei began to approach with Itachi calmly walking beside her. While outwardly calm, Itachi's scent had gained a slightly, expectant and excited nuance to it. Suzume fretted inwardly and fidgeted until Hideo leveled an irritated glare at her. Nadeshiko whined noticing her partner's anxiety and Suzume picked up the puppy and tucked her in her sweater's stomach pouch.
It seemed that all her worries were over nothing as Moriko-sensei informed them that she had handed in a request for a C-rank mission the day before. Nadeshiko and Suzume's mode brightened considerably as she whooped for joy with Nadeshiko in her hands while walking back to the village center.
"Yay!"
"Arf!"
"Yippee!"
"Yip! Arf!"
Once she had calmed down a little Suzume blushed. Her actions certainly weren't as lady-like as she would have wished but these days as her strength grew she had actually been feeling more and more energized. Hideo was glaring at her again but as long as Murasaki-sensei didn't mind it was alright to get a little hyperactive from time to time and she quietly said that as Hideo continued to glare.
The Hyuuga only snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Bipolar."
Further arguments were curtailed as team nine entered the Public Administration building and were informed by a chunin on duty that the Hokage had assigned them a mission. Upon entering the Mission Assignment Hall Suzume's senses roamed the room for any threats or suspicious individuals just as Murasaki-sensei and her mother had been teaching her. To their far left was another team consisting of an Aburame, an Uchiha and a genin whose clan she did not recognize, probably a Yagyu or Yokohana. There were other genin teams there but Suzume took special note of this one as she remembered two of the boys from her graduation class.
Another thing that also drew Suzume's attention was the aura of hostility and the smell of pheromones that indicated antagonism like a chained dog snarling at a stranger. It wasn't quite like Killing Intent that Moriko-sensei had shown them but it was enough to make her figurative hackles rise and cause Nadeshiko to growl softly. The source of the antagonistic scent was the eleven year-old Uchiha that was staring at Itachi. The hostility confused Suzume.
"Um, aren't they like, family?"
It was a strange concept for someone like Suzume who had grown up in the close knit clan structure of the Inuzuka clan. Mothers and fathers were shared as need be and her relatives all look out for their young ones. Rivalries and exploding tempers were common at such close proximity but what she was seeing here was different from competitive fury or momentary irritation. This was, this was…Hatred.
"Couldn't be."
Suzume dismissed the thought as her needing more training in understanding the nuances of people's scents. Maybe the kid just had gas. Why would anyone hate Itachi? Although Suzume had indeed begun to notice the average villagers seeming abhorrence of Itachi, the presence of the military police and their Sensei had dampened their enthusiasm for shunning the boy. All in all Suzume never truly understood the true depth of hatefulness that was daily leveled against Itachi.
"Maybe he heard about our C-rank, looks like someone is on diaper duty."
And they were, if the smell of baby powder and formula was anything to judge by. An elderly woman stood next to the team and was handing their Sensei, a man with a jagged scar on one cheek, what looked like a shopping list. Held in the woman's arms was a small gurgling bundle with a small patch of blond hair. Her hearing identified the infant as a one year old Namikaze Naruto.
She turned her attention to her teammates one of whom was attempting to glare a hole in forehead of their client. Suzume was a about to speak up when the sound of thudding footfalls and a strong earthy scent reached her ears and nose. Her head whipped to the side as she focused her eyes on the door.
"Somebody's approaching…fast!"
She vaguely sensed Hideo's veins throb as he activated his Byakugan when the newcomer arrived in a seriously flashy way.
Shooting through the opened doorway in an awesome display of strength, balance, speed and technique had come a fourteen year old boy clad in a skintight, green spandex bodysuit. A blue sandal foot, connected to a leg covered by an orange leg-warmer, passed over Itachi's head. The passage of the figure ruffled the young boy's hair with enough force to cause a few strands to separate from his scalp and fall to the floor.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!"
It was certainly a vision. That manly form, a frame stacked with rippling muscles. The wind of his passage tousles the boy's hair in an almost dashing manner. In size and stature the new arrival could have passed for someone two to three years older. As Suzume watched the boy land in front of her she took in the shiny hair, teeth and the play of light over his muscular contours. She never loved green spandex more than in that moment.
While Hideo audibly gagged Suzume stiffened as her eyes raptly took in Maito Gai the Bun's of Steel. With a soft sight that unnerved both her teammate and Sensei, Suzume muttered.
"Kawai."
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It was called Tanami-Shuuha niten-ryu which literally meant the Eternal Wave twin sword style. The memory's original possessor had originally learned the style from multiple battles with a mysterious swordsman from the Land of Water. To an outsider it seemed that Itachi's makeshift bokken was blurring in some complicated pattern. The truth was that there were only nine basic points of attack. Cuts to either side of the neck, underarms, and stomach, in addition to stabs to the eyes, heart, below the sternum and groin were meticulously trained.
What had set the technique apart was that each movement was designed to flow together in literally hundreds of thousands of permutations. The style could be performed with one sword or two, it didn't matter. The simple flowing and sometimes whip like movements could sometimes lull the sharingan into complacency and was deceptively difficult to counter.
Itachi commanded his clones to come at him again. They fell from the canopy, dashed out of the low-lying foliage, erupted from underground and dashed at him above ground. If a snapshot of the moment could be taken one would see a crowd of shadow clones frozen in the act of leaping at their original in a single crushing wave.
Itachi's body seemed to remain motionless but on closer inspection one would find that in that moment His hands and arms seemed to have disappeared. Itachi was obscured in a cloud of smoke and when he appeared again his eyes were closed as his mind took in the memories of his clones and he analysed them trying to find a flaw in his technique or a was to make his movements more efficient. The bokken held in his fist had been worn smooth from repeated collisions with cloned bodies and warm from the friction caused by being swung through the air at high speeds.
Itachi opened his eyes and was about to summon more clones when he felt something. Maintaining an outward air of calm he searched his mind and senses for a clue when he realized what had put him on alert. The wind was blowing and shifting the branches of the leaves, nut there was a patch of shadow and light that didn't move with the swaying of the branches three meters to his right. Bringing his bokken into a ready stance he joined his hands together.
"Kai!"
Already in motion Itachi slashed at movement on his right, smashing his bokken against a log. Twirling the weapon in his hands as he leapt to one side and spun, Itachi brought the tip of his practice sword to point at Moriko-sensei. The woman smiled at Itachi proudly as she held her hands in a calming gesture of surrender.
"You did well to sense me Itachi-kun, you certainly seem to have a talent for genjutsu. Now come, we have a special day ahead of us. Yesterday I requested that Hokage-sama reserve a C-rank mission for us."
With that said Itachi followed after Moriko-sensei. Outwardly calm his mind contemplated the prospect of finally being allowed to leave the village, the first occasion since the sealing of the Kyuubi. As he followed behind his teacher Itachi allowed himself to feel the thrill of excitement at something new and unexpected.
He listened quietly as Moriko-sensei repeated to his teammates what she had told him. Even Hideo seemed pleased and Suzume spent a few minutes jumping up and down with Nadeshiko in her arms. Turning away from the group Itachi gave a light smile at his teammate's antics.
Suzume had surprised him greatly with her skills and abilities, it was a first for Itachi to meet someone who could hear and smell as well as he did although he usually did his best not to let on to this fact. The acuity of his senses and the razor-sharp intelligence that Evil Itachi often wielded to such devastating effect, granted Itachi an enourmous advantage in the field of genjutsu.
Sometimes Itachi even had to wait until Suzume realized that an illusion had been cast before canceling it rather than be forced to explain how he had smelt the difference before her. All in all Itachi got along well with Suzume, annoyed the hell out of Hideo and obeyed Murasaki-sensei to the last letter of her word and no further. In a nutshell He did his work as excellently as possible with minimal effort and few unnecessary actions.
According to Itachi's count, Team Nine had completed thirty-one D-rank missions with a ninety-seven percent success rate if one counted the first mission that Moriko-sensei had placed them under her upgraded illusion, Magen Banten Kori Shinchuu no jutsu. They had been walking in to walls and doors, each other and even several bystanders until well into the evening. Oh yes, Evil Itachi was certainly keeping score.
The boys of Team Nine didn't speak much. Not much else could have been expected from a stoic Hyuuga and an aloof Uchiha placed on the same team. When they did speak their conversations usually included some taunt or clever verbal barb directed at the other. Aside from those times the most loquacious person in the group was Suzume who was constantly asking Murasaki-sensei questions or babbling to Nadeshiko or to herself about one subject or another. It made her look like a ditz or as one of their clients affectionately called her, 'that silly girl'.
The truth of the matter was that all members of Suzume's team paid at least some heed to the tone of her voice if not the content of her words. With her advanced senses Suzume acted as an early warning system for her teammates who took their cue to act from the tall girl's body language as to whether or not to activate the Byakugan and prepare for battle.
And so it was that when Suzume suddenly jerked to one side Itachi would have known that someone was headed toward them quickly even if he couldn't have sensed it for himself. Itachi had been listening with interest to the conversation between the man named Directo Mikuno and the Hokage.
Apparently Mikuno was skeptical that there was really a person available who could drag a train cart up a hill with his bare teeth while fighting off six evil ronin while trying to protect a princess. The man seemed skeptical yet strangely hopeful especially when he asked if the ninja in question had any issues with jumping over chasms and potentially falling to his death.
"I want a Hero. A strong and courageous champion, a yuusha, I need someone who can leap fourteen feet through the airin a single bound and strike a heroic pose!"
At those words the doors to the Mission Assignment Hall burst open and a figure flashed over Itachi's head. The young Uchiha estimated that the distance from the doorway to where he stood at the other end of the hall to be a little less than fourteen feet.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!"
"Got your wish." Itachi idly thought as dark eyes studied the shining form before him. Dark eyebrows frowned as a few strands of hair wafted toward the ground. It would take a while but a few helpful comments from Evil Itachi to the Yokohana twins when he later learned that they were looking for a man in green spandex would provide more than enough entertainment to make up for being forced to stand in the presence of that disgusting pose.
In the background he faintly heard Suzume sigh and the sound of a gurgling baby voice say, "Da'n'mi En'eee!!"
"No young master, please ignore that strange young man."
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AN: It took a while to write this chapter since it was more than double the length of what I usually do. The Shinrabansho is described as a kinjutsu and a hijutsu because that's what it is. A kinjutsu is a forbidden technique and a Hijutsu is a techniques whose junction is a secret.
About Suzume and Hideo, Suzume's name means sparrow and she's a very flighty person. I imagined her to be a cross of inner Sakura's humor and outer Sakura's insecurity. She's actually a pretty girl but falls short in her own estimation of just what pretty is. No long flowing locks or curls or perms, her hair is a lot like Inuzuka Tsume, all spiky and shaggy, her face is softer though and she could be quite beautiful in the future in a very feral sort of way. She likes to dress down since the last time she dressed up she wore a frilly pink dress that. Just. Didn't. Look. Right.
Hideo's name means excellent man and he knows it. I think I took the name from one of the producer's name and stuck with it. Hideo is a cross between the best and worst parts of Neji and Hinata. He's extremely capable but because he judges himself so harshly he often falls short of his self-imposed standard of perfection. His skills are good enough for his family but he feels that he's doing something wrong because no-one is complaining.
Gai is just Gai, Gai does as Gai is and that's that. TTFN.