Author's Note: I'm sorry these chapters are freaking long, but I wanted to keep Itachi's exams contained within this chapter and conclude Chunin Exams Arc by Chapter 30. Enjoy!

Citations: Itachi's Story: [Daylight] pg. 104-120

Chapter's Song: "Something Just Like This" Coldplay and The Chainsmokers

Chapter 28
Catch-Up

9 Months Later

For Itachi, the written exam was easy. He had seen when it started that the point of the first exam was to make use of ninja techniques, and cheat without getting caught by the examiner.

He had confidence in the strength of his memory. Ever since he was little, he had read a lot of books in between bouts of training, to develop his ninja techniques. That habit didn't change when he started at The Academy, or after he became a Genin. So Itachi had all kinds of knowledge tucked away in his brain.

The history of the ninja continuing from the Sage of Six Paths, alliances, treaties, laws of uniformity among the different lands. Fundamentals, advanced techniques, practical strategies in fighting. Theory on physical ninja arts, Kekkei Genkai, introduction to chakra, tailed beasts, ninja beasts. Overview of sage barriers, natural energy fundamentals, many other documents, books, and thesis.

Thus, there was no need for him to cheat, a balance between brain and brawn. This was the most important element of Itachi's ideal ninja. When there was first a clear mind, superior physical abilities could be amply shown off. But no matter how skilled in the ninja arts the body was, if a ninja was unable to make appropriate decisions, failure was almost inevitable.

And in the world of the ninja, failure was directly linked to death. The face of Tenma, killed by the masked man, came to life in the back of Itachi's mind. He slid his pencil across the page as if to banish the terrifying vision.

His answer sheet was already ninety percent filled in. After finishing his own test, Itachi observed the other examinees as one after another was ordered to leave, suspected of cheating. "Who was cheating in what way?"

His face remaining expressionless, he sent his chakra out in all four directions.

Some were slipping into the minds of their targets, others, watching the movements of hands. Still others traced out the answers from the sound of pencil rubbing against paper.

They were all cheating with the technique they were best at. Itachi coolly picked out who was using what type of technique. Everyone there was his rival. If he could study their skills, he would be able to choose the most advantageous circumstances when they fought.

Everyone else was in three-person groups. Itachi was alone. He had no teammates. It was quite plausible that in one of the tests before him, he would end up in a three-against-one situation. Obtaining information now on his enemies was also an important fight for him, in order to turn the tables in an unfavorable situation.

"Time!" The examiner for the first test called out. "Put your pencils down. Everyone still here, go to the second exam. The results of the first exam will be announced once the second exam is complete."

"Question!" One of the test takers raised a hand. The supervisor nodded permission to speak. "Does that mean that even if we pass the second exam, we won't be able to proceed to the third exam, depending on our score on the first exam?"

"That is what it means, yes."

The examinees all started to talk at once.

"Quiet!" The examiner roared. "You are on the road to become Chunin. And once you are Chunin, you will be in the position of leading a team. Not all missions yield immediate results. There will sometimes be cases where you will turn all your mental energies toward the job at hand, while you are waiting on another result. During this exam, you should have expended every effort. In which case, trust in your own abilities, and fight in the second exam with all your might." The rousing cry of the jonin left the test takers speechless. "Now, off you go to the second exam."

Itachi stood up, the words of the examiner in his ears.

"Not like you can surround all three of us," the boy said with a grin.

Itachi dropped his eyes to the scroll in his hand. Those who would become Chunin were scattered about the area known as the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, nicknamed, "The Forest of Death."

The scroll in his hands had the character for "Heaven" written on it in bold, black calligraphy.

"Taking the Chunin Exams by yourself is suicide," a different boy shouted down to him from behind. And then the laughter of a girl came, ear-splittingly high-pitched.

The three ninja were spread out in a triangle formation around Itachi. On their foreheads, they wore the protectors of the village of Kirigakure.

Itachi looked at the boy standing in front of him, the most assertive of the group, maybe fifteen or sixteen. He seemed to be the leader. "If you hand over the scroll like a good boy, we won't kill you. But if you're gonna fight back, then I can't promise anything." The boy had the scroll that paired with the one in Itachi's hand, having "Earth" written on it.

The aim of the second exam was to reach the tower in the center of the training ground, with both Heaven and Earth scrolls in hand. In small squads of three-person cells, the examinees were given either a Heaven or an Earth scroll, and sent scattering throughout the training ground.

There, they were to take the complementary scroll from its owner, wherever they might be in the field. After getting both scrolls, they had to make it through the Forest of Death, with its man-eating beasts, poisonous insects, and all kinds of dangerous creatures, to reach the tower standing in the center.

The time limit was five days. In other words, the examination required exactly that much time. On the first day, Itachi was suddenly attacked by the enemy, the Kirigakure ninja before him.

Rather than making the foolish move of searching for the matching scroll, Itachi was heading straight for the tower. Just like he wanted the Earth scroll, his opponents wanted the Heaven scroll. If he moved toward the tower, his opponent would certainly come to him. It was just as he planned.

The Kirigakure ninja had already confirmed that Itachi held the Heaven scroll—

He had deliberately held the scroll open as he walked toward the tower for that purpose. These three were the ones who had fallen into Itachi's trap.

"So, three against one. Be good, and—"

"There's an item in the examinee qualifications for this test," Itachi cut off the boy in front of him, "That you have to participate in a three-person cell. So why am I here alone like this?

"Maybe your teammates ditched you," The girl called out from the left, like she was making fun of him. The boy in the back laughed.

Turning his head the slightest bit towards the girl, Itachi noted, "The other two are waiting in ambush. Can't you anticipate that much, at least?"

Careless smile still on her lips, the girl's face grew pale.

"Relax. I was alone right from the start," Itachi said, and turned his gaze back to the leader. "The only conclusion you can come to from this three-against-one situation is that it's to your advantage. As a leader and as a Chunin, you're a failure."

"Y-you watch your mou—"

"You're even using my childish appearance as fuel for your carelessness."

"Hey, Kiruru, let's just finish him already," The boy in the rear called, sounding uneasy.

The leader, Kiruru, swallowed with a gulp of saliva building up in his mouth, sweat running down his forehead.

"Why doesn't it make you uncomfortable that I'm here alone? Why don't you consider the possibility that I was allowed to take the test alone? Don't you think there's some meaning behind the fact that I'm taking the test alone, when the basis for the test is the three-person cell?"

"Kiruru!" This time, it was the girl.

The opposing team was starting to lose themselves in an unfathomable fear. "G-get him!" Kiruru half-shrieked, half-shouted, and shuriken were launched at Itachi from three different directions.

In the next instant, the leader before Itachi, and the boy to his rear, both started running. The girl leapt up, aiming for the top of his head. He was caught in an attack from both sides, and if he fled upward, the girl would catch him

"Physical Fundamentals for the Three-Person Cell, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3. Such a childish strategy." Itachi thought, and didn't move. The shuriken dug into Itachi. Countless shuriken stabbed every part of his body.

Without pausing, the two boys racing at him from in front and behind tried to catch him in a pincer attack, and drove kunai into his belly and his back. Blood jetted out of Itachi's mouth.

The two boys didn't have the luxury of watching this; as they yanked their kunai out, they took a half step back. Immediately, the girl landed on Itachi's shoulders, and plunged a dagger through the crown of his head. "Got him!" She cried out, happily.

Itachi burst open. Each and every one of the black fragments scattering in all directions transformed into crows. In a cacophony of caws, they started to peck at the heads of the three ninja.

Itachi watched for a while from the top of a remarkably tall tree nearby, observing the silly way his enemies were being taken down, all three frantically trying to beat the crows back, while covering their faces with their arms.

Eventually, he dropped down in front of them. "Release!" The crows disappeared at his cry. Not understanding what was happening, the three ninja stood dumbfounded, their eyes finding Itachi all at once.

"Be good and hand over the scroll." Itachi held out his hand toward the leader. "If you do, I'll let you go."

"D-don't underestimate us." Kiruru dropped his hips and began weaving signs. The boy and girl to his left and right also wove the same signs. "Got it?"

"Right," His teammates responded.

"Water Style!" Kiruru shouted, and that's as far as they got— The wall of flames that abruptly materialized before them scared the three senseless, to the point where they actually forgot to activate their own techniques.

At a speed three times that at which the three were weaving signs, Itachi had activated the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique. He used chakra that he had been building up the whole time, during the first exam, and from the start of the second exam.

The field of view of the opposing team should have been swallowed up by flames in an instant. He had released these flames with such control, that they were at a distance that was just barely not a direct attack on the three. The flames were meant only to be threatening.

This was a test. There was no need to kill or injure anyone. All he needed was for his opponents to lose heart. The flames danced up to the heavens, and disappeared.

Legs trembling, almost giving out from under them from fear, the three still managed to stay on their feet somehow. A thin veil of tears welled up in the eyes that stared at Itachi.

"If you still want to go, I don't mind." Itachi closed the distance between them. "But if you do, then this time, I'll be forced to pull out my trump card."

"What?" Kiruru asked, looking about ready to burst into tears.

Itachi stared at him and focused his chakra in his eyes. His field of view was colored red, and the waves of chakra flowing through the bodies of the three before him began to hazily come into view.

"Sh-sharingan," The boy next to Kiruru muttered.

The threatened tears began to spill from the eyes of the stouthearted Kiruru.

"I don't know if you've ever seen eyes like this before, but if you're ninja, you should know what they are," Itachi said.

The girl moved her pointed jaw up and down several times. All three of them were completely ruled by the fear of death.

"Your techniques don't work on me."

"H-have mercyyyyy!" Kiruru pressed his forehead to the ground, and then reached a trembling hand into his bag, and dug around for something.

Itachi stared at him for a moment, until the boy thrust the Earth scroll at him.

Itachi took the scroll. "As long as you all understand." He sent a little chakra down his legs. Flicker feet. He quickly went around behind Kiruru, and brought the edge of his flat hand down on his neck. "I can't have you attacking me from behind. Take a little nap here."

Kiruru collapsed on the ground as if prostrating himself, and Itachi moved swiftly around behind the girl and the boy, to deliver similar blows to each of them.

The two Heaven and Earth scrolls were together. Now he just had to head for the tower in the center of the training ground.

"Time elapsed in the second exam: five hours, thirty-seven minutes. This is a new record for the exam held in the Forty-Fourth Training Ground. Taking also into consideration the fact that the exam is based on three-person cells, this record is astounding."

As he listened to the weirdly hard voice of the Anbu in the white tiger mask, Danzo smiled faintly. "That's what happens when you graduate from The Academy in a single year. Nothing strange at all about that boy managing this." He stood up, the white tiger mask nodding in the corner of his vision. "It's about time for the third exam to start. We should be on our way."

"With regard to that, I have a single report." The man stopped Danzo as he was about to step forward.

"What?"

"The Genin of our village who were to be his opponents in the first round defaulted."

"Afraid of Itachi's power?"

"Naturally."

Danzo tossed his head back toward the ceiling and laughed loudly. The white tiger stayed silent, waiting for his master's words. "I've thought any number of times how much better it would be if he wasn't Uchiha. But I've never felt it so keenly as now."

"The Uchiha have their own utility."

"I don't need someone like you to tell me that," Danzo replied, and started walking. "Who is his opponent in the second round?"

"If the first battle is chosen properly, it will be a Kumogakure Genin who advances. Nemui."

"'Sleepy?' What a ridiculous name."

"The boy is known as Shunmino Nemui. Among the young ones of Kumogakure, he is a quite popular ninja."

"A ninja with a pseudonym is second rate." Danzo snorted with laughter. "A true ninja does not need a pseudonym."

The man walking alongside him nodded.

"How will the pseudonym-free Uchiha Itachi cook up this Genin with the foolish name of Sleepy Hibernation whoever? I am indeed looking forward to it." Surprised at himself for sounding more excited than he had in a number of years, Danzo composed himself as he walked toward the competition ground.

"To repeat, there are absolutely no rules. The contest continues until one side admits defeat. However, when I judge that continuation is impossible, the match will stop there. You both understand?"

The half-asleep face before him listened silently to the announcement of the high-handed supervising examiner. He had yawned any number of times now, to the point where Itachi wondered if he might actually fall asleep on the spot.

The boy's name was Nemui, which meant "sleepy." Apparently, he was a ninja from Kumogakure.

"Maybe we should have them push our turn back, so you can get a proper sleep?" Itachi asked, gently.

Nemui looked at Itachi, his eyelids hanging halfway over his perfectly round eyes, exhaustion playing at the corners of his mouth. "No need to worry," He said, smiling, but even his smile looked sleepy.

A curving wall swept in and around the circular grounds, while the ceiling was rounded and open. The ground was covered in dirt, and trees grew here and there.

Scaffolding stretched out horizontally, protruding from the top of the wall, where a large number of spectators watched the matches on which the futures of the Genin depended: Daimyo and people from the ruling classes in all lands, officials from the villages in the ninja world, Chunin, Jonin.

Among them were even the faces of black marketers who had disguised themselves, and snuck in.

"Itachi-kun…" Akina smiled, holding her own hand on her chest. Shisui smirked as he noticed her worry, and turned his eyes back onto Itachi.

"Impress everyone, Itachi." Shisui thought.

This place, where capable Genin from every village risked their lives in battle, was a microcosm of the battlefield. Not infrequently, the fights here were directly connected with the power structures among the villages several years later.

Which was exactly why Itachi had to show off his true power.

Konohagakure has Uchiha Itachi.

He had to demonstrate such overwhelming strength that the adults gathered there wouldn't so much as think of laying a hand on Konoha. That would be his first step toward a world without fighting.

He had absolutely no intention of going easy on anyone. He was going to give this everything he had.

"Second round, third exam. Konohagakure's, Uchiha Itachi against Kumogakure's, Shunmino Nemui. Start!" The supervisor shouted.

"Go, Itachi!" Shisui stood, cheering. Akina looking up at Shisui, and then to the battlefield, holding her breath at the bottom of nervous lungs.

"Haaaah." Nemui opened his mouth in a great yawn as the start signal was given. There was a smattering of whispered laughter in the venue.

Itachi got into position. He leaned forward slightly and braced his feet. He had no weapons in either hand. He relaxed his entire body and set his awareness adrift, not concentrating on any particular spot. He was ready to react immediately, no matter what his opponent did.

"I'm so sleepy." Nemui stood up straight, arms dangling loosely at his sides, looking as though he was not in any kind of ready position, and then started to wobble from side to side.

"Maybe you should just go to sleep." Before Itachi's response had even reached his ears, Nemui's eyes were closed. His stiff body pitched forward, like a stick falling to the earth.

Immediately before he slammed into the ground, the other boy disappeared from his field of view. Itachi took a sharp breath. He hadn't felt a hint of movement in Nemui. His action was too sudden. He hadn't seemed to be shifting his weight to either side.

"What the hell…?" Akina breathed, she then leaned forward on the rail. "Behind you!"

He had been slow to anticipate his opponent's movement. In that momentary opening, Nemui had gotten the jump on Itachi. He heard a snore from behind.

"Thunder…" Itachi immediately tumbled forward in a basic somersault, and the right arm brandished by the sleeping Nemui grazed the front of his face. The arm pushed past him with incredible force, white electricity turning into countless bolts of lightning, enveloping the arm.

"You're going to get us kicked out, Akina…" She heard, glancing back at Shisui. "Stop worrying. Put some trust in Itachi."

"So is that the true form of lightning," Itachi wondered absently as he landed, getting some distance from his opponent. As before, Nemui remained asleep, standing up. "Is it an act? Or is he really sleeping? The only way to find out is to just attack him head-on."

Itachi pulled a kunai from his breast pocket and threw it. The blade flew in a straight line toward the face of the sleeping Nemui. His body, rocking from side to side, shook violently, and just barely evaded the kunai. "Is he awake?"

At any rate, the other boy's eyes were closed, so Itachi couldn't use the Sharingan. Nemui stood upright, still sleeping, as though the attack of the previous moment hadn't happened.

Just when Itachi noticed him swaying violently once more, Nemui disappeared from his field of view again. Faster than the eye could follow, Itachi danced up into the sky. Nemui's lightning-covered arm swept through the spot where Itachi had been standing.

Itachi landed near the wall to put some space between them, and caught his enemy in his field of view. His thoughts were racing at a dizzying speed, trying somehow to analyze the phenomenon happening before his eyes.

He couldn't use the Sharingan, and all the chakra that consumed. In the formula for an overwhelming victory, the Sharingan was essential. He needed to keep it aside until that time came.

But he was confident he could unravel the phenomenon before him, using the decade of experience he had already. He didn't need to rely on the power of the Sharingan.

"Think..." Itachi gritted his teeth behind his tight lips.

He stared at Nemui, wobbling off in the distance.

He had to assume that his enemy was using a type of technique that brought out the full potential of his physical abilities through the selfless state of mind that was sleep. By sleeping, he kept the ego in check, and he could carry out specialized movement through pure instinct and animal intuition alone.

His opponent's somnolence had surprised him, so he had lost sight of the fact that this fight was basically about physical abilities. If he simply concentrated on his physical abilities, he could easily stand in the same arena as this boy. He focused all his attention on the enemy before his eyes.

Wobbly Nemui twitched. He was coming. Vision, hearing, scent, all his senses, he felt Nemui with everything he had. He caught his aura tracing the wall to his right.

Lightning.

He dodged.

"It's all right..." Itachi was physically superior, after all. Once he knew that, it was possible to deal with this. With flowing movements, he evaded the attacks launched from Nemui's selfless dream state. He had a flash of insight: "Why does he specialize in a technique that relies on sleeping?"

He imagined what his enemy thought about while he was asleep. "If he is sealing away his self to increase his physical abilities, then there is a real possibility that he lost his memory, as well. If that were true, then Nemui didn't remember the self who fought. If I can wake him up, I can win…"

Why did Nemui need a technique like that? Because he was a coward, he was totally terrified of hurting anyone, of being hurt. So he escaped into sleep. If Nemui was a coward, then he would be afraid of the endless sleep, the one no one woke from.

You had to have your eyes open in order to carefully examine a situation.

That moment would clinch his victory.

The back and forth of Nemui attacking and Itachi dodging gracefully lasted about ten minutes. Just when people in the arena were starting to fuss about the lack of any real developments, it happened.

Nemui stopped abruptly, shook faintly, and lifted his closed eyelids the tiniest bit. Their eyes met. This was the moment Itachi had been waiting for. He poured his chakra into his eyes.

Sharingan. It took less than a hundredth of a second to activate. Itachi was betting on that moment. He hammered into Nemui's pupils the detailed image he had drawn in his mind while dodging attacks.

"Eee!" Nemui shrieked. Awake for a mere instant, he fell asleep once more.

"I did it…" Itachi voiced in relief.

He slipped around from the rear, and slit Nemui's throat with his kunai. The image Itachi had imagined so faithfully, down to the very last detail, became reality, replaying in his enemy's mind. Nemui died, his throat slashed. But he was aware that he was still alive, and he opened his eyes again. But he couldn't sleep as soundly anymore.

Itachi dodged Nemui's attacks for a few minutes, but then his opponent's eyelids fluttered once more. In an instant, his field of view was dyed red.

This time, the image was of Itachi gouging into his stomach.

Repeat.

Each time he was killed, Nemui's sleep grew lighter. Stabbed, strangled, beaten, poisoned; Itachi killed the boy any and every way possible.

Finally, Nemui couldn't sleep at all. If he closed his eyes, Itachi would kill him. After being subjected to brutal deaths over and over and over, he was now completely ruled by his fear of the final sleep.

"Eee… Eee… Eee…" Chest heaving, almost hyperventilating, Nemui trembled and shook. The spectators had no idea what was happening. At best, only a few people there had realized Itachi was using the sharingan.

"T-The Sharigan?" Akina asked towards the side of Shisui's face, and she just got a nod as Shisui watched fixated.

Itachi continued to evade his attacks, while Nemui's movements gradually grew sluggish. Sweat streamed down Nemui's face; he started to cry. Itachi hadn't once used a physical attack on him.

"H-help me," Nemui groaned in supplication. He fell to his knees and began weeping loudly. "I-I don't want to die anymore! Please, help me… Please!"

"We have a winner!" The examiner stepped in between the two of them.

The arena fell silent. Everyone seemed to be confused by the incomprehensible situation.

Nemui wailed and wept, half-mad, right up until he disappeared, carried out in the examiner's arms. "I don't want to die," He cried over and over, the terror in his voice reaching into every nook and cranny of the arena, sending shivers up spines.

He would probably give up on being a ninja. That was the level of fear Itachi had put into him. Ninja were the main cause of fighting in this world. One fewer ninja meant that much less fighting. Itachi hadn't been wrong to break Nemui's spirit so utterly and horribly.

The venue felt the same. Itachi had, all by himself, produced the aura of death that wafted through the entire arena. He had demonstrated an incomprehensible power, and the ninja from all lands now knew his unfathomable strength.

"We mustn't make an enemy of this boy." The more people who thought that, the less likely that Konoha would get dragged into battle.

Using the Sharingan to cast Genjutsu was an effective means of making his opponent see visions. But if he used this trick the right way, he could turn it into the famed Genjutsu of suggestion on a large number of people like this. "It's all to rid this world of fighting…"

Itachi was grateful from the bottom of his heart to the Konoha officials who permitted him to take part in the chunin exams. He turned his back on the arena, now empty of Nemui and the examiner, and started walking.

In the silence, he could hear someone clapping. He lifted his head, and looked in the direction of the sound. A face, covered on the right side with bandages.

"Shimura Danzo," Itachi murmured, not attaching any of the honorifics he should have to the name. A dark, twisted smile stretched out on Danzo's lips as he looked down at Itachi.

Akina stood, her heart filled with relief. Shisui closing his eyes for her to hear, "Let's celebrate… Ichiraku… My treat."