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After my match, Iruka-sensei commended on my chakra control – being the finest he had ever seen. He said it might even be better than most jonin, other than maybe sensory ninja or medical ninja, in the village.

Well that sure, pumped me up.

I spent the next days seeing if my chakra enhancement could work as force fields. I tried chakra enhanced strength and it worked.

I tried walking on water, on trees – like other adults, and I could.

I tried seeing if there was an upper limit to the chakra I could expel at once, and there surely was.

After expelling strong enough chakra from a tenketsu, the body from that area would turn sore, and the subsequent areas would have difficulty in chakra flow. It caused pain.

But I wouldn't need that much strength, at least, not for now.

The following few months, I see Itachi, the Uchiha clan head's only son being enrolled into the Academy.

The sensei put his seat next to mine.

He was a cute kid, but uhm… how do I put it, he's unnaturally quiet. Shy, perhaps?

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Well our lessons for the day started.

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Iruka-sensei – "Alright today, we are going to focus one of the most basic yet one of the most commonly used jutsus – Clone Jutsu. Keep in mind this jutsu is an actual jutsu and not just chakra piling and molding that we have done till now….

Ok, let me see how you all are performing."

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It just feels so plain and boring to me. There is absolutely nothing worthy of mention here. The yin chakra element just flows out from the tenketsu of the palm and forms a cheap illusionary body mimicking your exterior form. In fact, it is so hollow inside and such a basic jutsu, I wonder why would one even require so many handsigns to perform it.

"Ohh, Itachi! Very good. You have already performed 3 so excellent clones on your first try."

He sure sounded triumphant.

"Wow, I had never seen someone create three clones on their first try.

I would like you to give the class a demonstration…", he said.

I rose from my seat crossing my arms and Sensei took notice of me.

I stared at him and, 5 identical clones of me appeared around me.

Iruka sensei broke into a applauding tone – "That's so excellent. To see you all making multiple clones on your first attempt…"

But then Itachi fumbled in something.

"Without hand signs?"

"Eh.." (Iruka Sensei)

He seemed to get it now. I didn't use any of the hand signs he taught to make clones.

I stood so still, motionless even, he didn't notice the subtle thing that I used no hand signs to perform the jutsu.

I proceed to answer Itachi directly, who was at an arm's length from me,

"Yea, the chakra control for this jutsu is so simple, I didn't feel like making any unnecessary hand movements.", I said with a smirk.

He simply nodded his head.

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I heard the back benches whispering something along the lines of "So, she really gets trained by Lord Fourth? Being the adopted daughter of The Yellow Flash makes someone this good…?"

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And THAT'S HOW I met Itachi Uchiha.

And our bonds just deepened over time.

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Filler Scene

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I with Lord Fourth met Fugaku-san with Itachi at the end of the day at Academy.

"Oh, nice to meet you Fugaku-san. I'm glad to see your son, Itachi being such a close friend to Izumi."

"Lord Fourth. It's indeed a pleasure to hear that from you. But instead of being just a friend to Izumi, I hope my son, Itachi would be a fitting rival to Izumi too."

"I can see their rivalry already.", Minato commented seeing us smiling at each other.

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