Itachi was wandering about the streets of Konoha to familiarize himself with the village he no longer recognized. He turned his Sharingan on to commit everything to memory upon first glance, but this seemed to draw a lot of attention towards him. The people of the village were coming up to him and thanking him for his service. Some were introducing themselves and shaking his hand, and others invited him over for a meal. While Itachi appreciated the people's gratitude, he wasn't used to receiving any attention and this sudden influx of it was making him feel apprehensive. However, he was now Jonin Commander, and he had faced worse things than admirers to let the crowd get to him. Itachi thanked them all, shook more hands, politely declined the meal invitation, and soon he had managed to escape the crowd.

He decided it would be best to learn his way around the village at night, and preferably with Sasuke, whom he had noticed had a remarkable ability to deter people from approaching. Itachi never thought he'd find himself wishing he had his father's scowl. He had turned a corner and found himself bumping into two Jonin ranked shinobi he had been familiar with, those two, they used to be part of the Yondaime's and Sandaime's elite guards, he recalled. "Well, fancy running into you! We were just talking about you" said one of them who Itachi recalled was named Genma. "Yeah, maybe now you could help us settle this debate" the other mentioned… Raidou, he remembered. They both clasped their arms around Itachi and dragged him along with them, "Let's go grab a drink and you can tell Genma here how he's wrong" Raidou said, and Genma jested "You sure are confident for someone who wouldn't put his money where his mouth is" and Raidou responded smugly, "This isn't about money. The satisfaction I get from being right is more than enough" and Genma scoffed and retorted, "We'll see about that. My man Itachi here is going to set you straight"

Itachi did not have a chance to respond as he was now being dragged towards a pub nearby. He was surprised by the familiarity the two Jonin expressed towards him, which caused him to smile, glad that he had been easily accepted back into his village. He had supressed all his feelings about the mission he took on that forced him to become a rogue shinobi, but it now dawned on him that he had been craving this feeling of belonging. This was different from the admirers he encountered earlier; Genma and Raidou were treating him like a friend. How long has it been since he had been treated as one? He had been displaced in the world and hated by everyone, and now he was… acknowledged; he was a comrade once again. So, he let himself be dragged willingly, and his mind now wondered about what the subject of the debate had been.

They entered the pub and Raidou indicated to them the crowd they'll be joining, "There's Aoba, Iwashi, and Anko. Let's go join them", and Genma jeered, "You sure you want an audience to witness your humiliation?" and Raidou snickered and said, "Nope, I just thought they would enjoy watching you lose to me again". Itachi was beginning to get curious about this debate again, "Excuse me" he called out politely, "could one of you explain what you are talking about?" Genma put his arm around Itachi again and pulled him on towards the rest of their group as he explained, "Raidou here thinks that you would kick Sasuke's ass in a fight, but I think your little bro has the upper hand, no offense" Itachi's face went blank, this is what they have been arguing about? "What! No way, you heard what the Yamanaka said, the only reason Sasuke won their battle the last time was because Itachi made it so. This guy is still undefeated!" Aoba chimed in, and Raidou was now looking smug and said, "That's precisely my point, and according to Naruto, Itachi defeated Nagato even quicker than he had and even countered his Planetary Devastation jutsu and sealed him away. Itachi fights smarter, that guarantees that he'd win this fight"

Anko had just returned with shots for everyone and Genma firmly placed one in front of Itachi, who was now staring at it. He had never had a drink before and wondered if social protocol dictates that he should accept it. "What are you hounds barking about now?" Anko inquired, and Iwashi filled her in, "These idiots dragged Itachi in here to ask him who would win in a fight, him or his brother" and Anko jumps into the debate with her own opinion, "Oh that's easy, Sasuke for sure. That guy has the Rinnegan now, and that's more powerful than the Sharingan, right?" and Raidou retorted, "Sasuke has one Rinnegan eye, and Nagato had two but Itachi still defeated him" she looked to Itachi to prompt a response from him, and everyone was now paying close attention to what he was going to respond. He had a blank expression on and blinked several times before Aoba asked, "Well?" Itachi could feel their eyes burning into him with their anticipation, and so he said, "Everyone and every jutsu has a weakness, the victor in any fight is the one who is best able to analyse and exploit those weaknesses. This debate is futile as a confirmation can only be achieved through the application of your theories."

They all deadpanned at his response, blinking several times as they tried to think of a reply to what he had said, when a voice called out from the back suggesting, "Then let's put it to the test!" It appears several others in the pub have been listening in to their conversation and began to aid the idea of a friendly spar between Itachi and his brother. "I bet Naruto would defeat you both" chimed another in the back, and a man who was sitting on a table adjacent to theirs, who appeared to be from the Inuzuka clan, retorted, "Didn't you hear what he said? Sounds like you gotta fight smart, that idiot wouldn't win against those two… no way!" a response that prompted another to say, "I don't know, Kiba, Naruto can be unpredictable, and he already defeated Sasuke, remember?" and Genma added, "Sai has a point there, If Naruto is in this now that changes things. Who knows what would happen in this fight" and Raidou retorted, "The same thing I said would happen, Itachi would take them both out" the voices in the pub now grew louder as everyone was arguing who would win in a fight between the trio, and Anko was pushing a shot onto Itachi trying to get him to down the Sake as he held his hands up in defiance.

"Enough already. There's only one way to settle this now" a familiar voice called out from the crowd, "We're just going to have to arrange a showdown" Lady Tsunade appeared to be far too excited and aggressive at the mention of her suggestion. Shizune who had been with her knew this was just another betting opportunity for her, "Tsunade-hime you're the Godaime! You shouldn't be encouraging spars amongst shinobi" she called worriedly, "Shut up, Shizune. This is what the people want from the sound of it" and the crowd around cheered in affirmation, "Then I'll arrange for the time and place with the Rokudaime. This debate is going to be settled one way or another"

Itachi deadpanned as the crowd around him became more excited at the prospect of him fighting against Naruto and Sasuke. How had he gone from accepting a promotion to potentially fighting his brother and his best friend all in an hour?

(While Itachi had been stuck in a pub where a fight between him, Sasuke, and Naruto was being highly debated, the other two in question were meeting up with their old sensei and teammate for a long overdue training exercise)

"He's late!" Naruto barked, and Sasuke chimed in with, "Old habits die hard". Kakashi was supposed to have met up with them an hour ago but was yet to show up at the agreed location just outside of the village. Training grounds are no longer a safe zone for their level of training, and so it was decided to meet up at a remote location just outside of Konoha. "He is Hokage now, so it could be that something came up" Sakura tried to make an excuse for him, but she was met with unblinking blank stares from the other two, and so she sighed and said, "Yeah, you're right he's probably doing this on purpose".

"Sorry I'm late everyone, this lady insisted that I try her mochi in want of my opinion and I simply couldn't refuse a villager in need" Kakashi arrived with an excuse ready, which was met with three glowering stares, "He-he, Hokage duties and all there was just no way around it" he expressed, and Naruto barked "How the hell is it a Hokage's job to go around eating sweets! At least come up with a better excuse!"

"Enough, we wasted plenty of time already. Let's just get on with it" Sasuke said impatiently. "So how are we going to do this?" Sakura inquired, and Naruto responded, "Not another bell test, I hope? Sakura and I already defeated you the last time" he said smugly, "We're way stronger now, and we have Sasuke so that would be over in seconds". "There's no need to get cocky, Naruto. As a matter of fact, it is another bell test, except I won't be participating this time" Naruto and Sakura looked confused, but Naruto pressed the inquiry, "Huh? You won't?" and Kakashi reaffirmed, "Nope… as you so rightly pointed out, I'm no match for you three, even if I still had the Sharingan, I wouldn't be offering you a real challenge. So, I tweaked the bell test a bit." Sasuke smirked and said, "Hn. This should be interesting" and Kakashi smiled then said eerily, "I'm glad you think so. Alright, so here's what you must do, the same rules of the previous test all apply except this time Sasuke and Sakura you will have to get the bells from Naruto who will need to evade your attempts."

Sakura smugly asserted, "Hah! me and Sasuke against Naruto. This should be easy" and Sasuke joined her smugness with a smirk and a rhetorical jab, "I thought this was meant to be a challenge for all of us, not just Naruto…" but Naruto wasn't fazed having been uplifted by Kakashi singling him out to be the one that is difficult to defeat, "Well it's obvious here that Kakashi Sensei sees me as a challenge for you guys, right Sensei?" he chimed confidently. "Naruto your challenge is being able to keep the bells and in the same condition they are in at that. Whereas Sasuke and Sakura I teamed you together to maintain a team balance, because Naruto has Kurama, so technically it's a two-on-two challenge. If we don't count his shadow clones."

"It doesn't matter what the reason is, fact is you won't be able to take these bells away from me" Naruto asserted while bumping his fist into his palm. "We'll see about that!" Sakura retorted confidently and Sasuke joined in with a scoff and a smirk; always the articulate one. "Alright, settle down. Here Naruto…" Kakashi handed him the bells and said, "Since you are all so strong now as you rightfully pointed out, I decided to give you an additional challenge of securing the bells in ten minutes… think you can get that done?" he challenged them, and they all chimed together, "Absolutely!" and Naruto adding, "No problem!". Kakashi looked at all three of them and said, "Your time starts…now" and he flickered away.

Next Chapter:

Ino makes an appearance at last, and the bell test takes place.