Let's start this from the beginning

Genin Days

I

Itachi watched a couple of crows fly by the window from where he sat in the last row of the classroom while still listening with one ear to what the instructor was explaining at the front. It wouldn't do for him to not know the answer if the teacher called him because he didn't know the question itself, after all. Not only would his parents undoubtedly hear about that, but his pride wouldn't allow something like that to happen, either.

It would be far too embarrassing to be unable to answer an Academy-level question, no matter how boring he thought the lessons to be.

It was hard to believe that he had already spent six months sitting in this classroom, 'learning' about subjects he had mastered decades ago. Of course, he knew that this was necessary as he couldn't become a shinobi if he didn't finish his schooling first, but it was still boring. He spent most of the time in class musing about the future, how he could train in private after school, or how he should spend his time with Sasuke on that day.

Or, he silently admitted, simply enjoying the peace that came with the knowledge that he didn't have to woke hard to live up to anyone's expectations.

Whenever he could forget about his boredom or the ramifications of his second life in general, he admittedly did enjoy the calm and peace of his situation.

Unfortunately, his thoughts often wandered off in much more unpleasant directions. One recent example of that was the memory of when the Sandaime informed him about his failure in apprehending Orochimaru.

The Hokage had decided to gather information about the Sannin's activities before he would act, to see if he was already too far gone or if he could still be saved. Itachi knew that the snake summoner was like a son to the old man and that he was consequently unable to act entirely unbiased regarding him, but he was still somewhat annoyed at this turn of events. It might be hypocritical of him considering he was exactly the same when Sasuke was concerned, but he couldn't help it.

It would have been a great boon for them to stop Orochimaru before he could leave the village, but now he was gone even earlier than in the original timeline and there wasn't anything they could do to about that.

Good things happened as well, of course. For one thing, the Uchiha Clan hadn't been relocated to the outskirts like the last time around. Instead, their new district was pretty much at the centre of the village, right beside the biggest marketplace. Because of the increased traffic there, the clan was forced to interact more with the non-Uchiha population, making them look less aloof and unapproachable as it was still the case with clans like the Hyūga.

Naturally, there were a lot of protests at first as many members of his family didn't want to interact too much with the rest of the village, but all resistance stopped as soon as they realized how the increased number of people from outside the clan travelling through their district multiplied their income.

Once that became clear, people were quick to note how beneficial the new arrangement was and that "they could just go to some of the less commercially focused areas if they wanted some peace from the outsiders."

The only persons who had been quite outspoken against this change had been Danzo, but when the Hokage argued that this placement would allow the KMPF—which was mainly manned by members of the Uchiha Clan—to be everywhere in the village fast enough to be actually able to do something in case of an emergency and no one else objected, it had been decided anyway.

Another positive change from the previous timeline was that Itachi still hadn't heard any rumours about Naruto, which meant that his status was still very much a secret. He actually heard his parents argue about adopting him once, his mother had been close friends with Kushina after all, but the idea was discarded in the end.

"Itachi-kun, can you tell me for which jutsu the hand seals I just demonstrated are?"

He looked at the expectant face of his instructor, slightly surprised that he had actually been called to answer the question. Most teachers had already accepted that they wouldn't catch him by surprise and that he always played attention even if he didn't look like it.

"The seal is for the Water Release: Water Formation Wall technique, Sensei," he answered without hesitation.

His teacher nodded with a smile, having obviously expected him to know the answer and now feeling smug about having been proven right.

In Itachi's opinion, he should have called upon someone else if he already knew that Itachi could answer the question, but in the end, it didn't really matter. At least he had been moved up the grades a few months ago, not too long after his enrollment, which meant none of his classmates were either overly offended or in awe of the constant ease with which he tore through the curriculum.

Interestingly enough, older students seemed, at least for the most part, either resigned or entirely uncaring about the presence of a child prodigy whereas his 'peers' always reacted quite strongly to him. Perhaps the age difference makes it easier for older students to dismiss me as something out of the ordinary out of hand instead of trying to match my pace and subsequently be dissapointed by the results as children my age would be?

There were naturally always exceptions to the rule, but at the end of the day, sharing classes with the upper grades was a much more omrasant experience than it would have been had he joined his age mates.

Having correctly answered the question, his teacher continued to explain various techniques and their strengths and weaknesses while Itachi continued to stare out of the window, counting down the hours until school was over so he could get some real training done.

The class had just finished and Itachi was on his way home when he heard a female voice call his name:

"Itachi! Not so fast!"

He knew who had called him even before he had fully turned around, having recognized the voice instantly, so it was no surprise when Izumi came to a stop in front of him.

"Meh, Itachi, I told you to wait for me after school. Do you know how annoying it is to have to run to catch up with you?"

He was pretty sure that she was glaring at him right now, but to Itachi, her expression more closely resembled a pout than anything else.

Since he had woken up in the past, he had tried his best to spend more time with the few people he had been close to, with that being a rather limited group of people consisting of Sasuke, Shisui, and Izumi. His parents as well, of course though his relationship with them had always been another kind of love, one marked by their expectations of him and his duties as their firstborn, than the one connecting him to the first group.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much reason to interact with Shisui yet, and his parents were too busy more often than not, so he spent most of his free time—or at least the time he didn't spend training—with either Izumi or Sasuke. Sometimes with both of them at the same time, too.

One of those days had been yesterday. He had been training with Izumi after school, and Sasuke had watched. Of course, when he said 'training with her', he actually meant 'training her' instead.
That had also been when she told him to wait for her after classes today.

"I apologise. However, caught up with me just fine, so everything turned out alright, didn't it?"

Her pouting—sorry, glaring—intensified at that. "That's no excuse Itachi! You can't just..."

Itachi just smiled as Izumi continued with her rant. He was used to it by now, having spent quite a few hours just listening to her talking. That was how they spent most of their time when they weren't training, actually; she talked, and he listened. He would chime in with some comment from time to time, but not much more. He never was the most talkative person in the first place, and the years after his banishment from Konoha hadn't given him much opportunity to change that habit.

Also, having serious conversations with children was not exactly easy.

The first time he had met her in this time line was when they had been accepted into the academy. He hadn't known how to react back then. It was rather fortunate that he didn't need to do anything but listen to the Sandaime, because he wasn't sure he would have been able to speak at all.

Izumi's death might be the only one he regretted having a direct hand in as much as his parents', so it was understandably hard to be in her presence.

It helped that they were in the same class, at least before he had been graded up two months into his stay, as this allowed him to get used to her the same way he got used to his parents' presence after living with them again for a while. Now that they were close again, possibly even closer than they had originally been at this age, seeing as he wasn't quite as emotionally stunned as he had been before, he was a bit saddened about the fact that they didn't share classes any longer.

He didn't regret taking the chance to move up in grades, though. After all, being around young children all day was exhausting, even more so than it had been the first time around.

They soon arrived at the dango shop they regularly visited. It was located at the border between the Uchiha district and the greatest shopping street of the market district, with many more streets leading to it. Similar to most clans with their own district, the Uchiha surrounded their lands with a wall. Now, a wall between themselves and the place where all the money was made was obviously not a great marketing strategy, so it was decided that one of the four entrances into their district would open directly into the marketplace. This entrance consisted of a large gate through which, if necessary, more than a dozen people could walk through simultaneously without bumping shoulders. This gate was opened almost all day, meaning the Uchiha restrict was included in the daily affairs of the village.

The two of them didn't need to order anything due to them visiting the place regularly enough to be recognized by the owner, so they only gave a simple greeting before looking for a free place to settle down.

Izumi had calmed down by then and was instead looking down at her lap sullenly.

After a few moments of uncharacteristic silence, with the sole exception of a silent "thank you" to the waitress when she brought their food, he decided to do something about it.

"Are you still angry about me not waiting for you? I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere. It will not happen again."

That sounded weak, even to him.

Instead of answering right away, she just uttered something incomprehensible under her breath. Itachi raised an eyebrow at that. Was this really bothering her that much?

Seemingly deciding that he deserved an actual answer instead of just muttering some gibberish, Izumi sighed before saying, "It's not that. It's just... you will graduate tomorrow, won't you?"

At the last part, she looked at him with these brown puppy-eyes of hers.

Now it was Itachi's turn to sigh. He now understood what the problem was. Izumi had tried her hardest to catch up to him ever since they started to spend more time with each other, and maybe even before that. Because of his help, her abilities had progressed in leaps and bounds compared to her classmates, even to the point where she had been able to skip one grade entirely herself, but it wasn't enough.

Of course it wasn't enough.

"I will participate in the exams tomorrow, yes."

Izumi scoffed. "We both know you will not just 'participate', Itachi. You're by far the best student in the entire academy, everyone knows that! If you take the exams, you will finish them at the top of your class, no question about it!"

All fire inside her seemed to die after she finished talking.

Now, Itachi knew that Izumi had a crush on him. It wasn't as if she was hiding it very well, even if she was much less obvious—or annoying—than his usual admirers. In his last life, he had had too many other things to worry about and not quite the capacity to properly develop a crush on someone in the first place as to reciprocate her feelings, at least to the same extent, and now...

Well, he was mentally over twenty years old while she wasn't even ten yet. No matter what he might have felt about her in his youth, he couldn't develop a romantic interest in a child.

Back to the situation at hand.

Izumi's greatest worry at the moment was that they would grow apart if he graduated and she didn't; that they would stop meeting each other more and more as time went on until they were little more than strangers.

He simply had to reassure her that that wasn't the case.

"Izumi," he said before waiting until she looked up at him again to continue. "Even when I leave the academy tomorrow, we will still be friends. We will still spend time with each other, even if I will need to go on missions and have less free time than I have now. We can manage that, can't we?"

Her eyes started to tear up, but she didn't start to cry. It once again reminded him of just how young she actually was, however.

"Really? You promise?"

He smiled at her, making her blush. "Of course. And besides, if I get a Jōnin instructor, I will learn a lot of new things. I can teach you whatever he teaches me, which then will help you graduate early yourself. How does that sound?"

"Yeah," she replied, finally smiling again. "That sounds great."

There was a moment of silence before she began speaking again, enthusiasm having returned in her voice. "So, did I tell you what Hana did today in class? She..."

With that their conversation returned to more light-hearted topics, and Itachi couldn't help but smile as he continued listening to whatever came to Izumi's mind.

It was already dark outside when Itachi's Kage Bunshin—the original being at home and finishing dinner with his family at the moment—noticed the person he was waiting for entering the restaurant.

The person was a young man of average height with a forgettable face and short, brown hair. He gave the waitress a joyful smile before he made his way over to where Itachi was sitting.

"Sōta", the Sandaime greeted him when he arrived. "It's good to see you. It has been far too long."

"Hiroto" he nodded back to his leader. "I'm glad you were able to make it."

Obviously, both the Hokage and Itachi were using a Henge at the moment. There was, after all, no need to confuse people as to why their Hokage was eating dinner with a six-year-old child.

Meeting like this was not an easy feat. With Itachi's current chakra reserves, he wasn't able to maintain more than two clones at any given time, and even that was only possible because of his excellent chakra control. He used the absolute minimum of chakra necessary to create a clone, which resulted in one that was much weaker than it would normally be but in return continued to exist for a longer period of time. Even this version only lasted one hour at most, though. Also, the transformation he was using lessened this time even more, so their time to talk was very limited.

The Sandaime, on the other hand, could easily maintain a clone for a much longer duration, making it theoretically possible to meet at another time with the real Itachi, but he decided not to do so. He probably thought it was a great way of getting him used to the limits of his younger body once more.

Or maybe he simply found it more amusing this way.

Well, one didn't argue with the Hokage about something trivial as this, so there was nothing Itachi could do about it.

Unfortunately, the only time of the day they could see each other like this was in the evening, because this was the only time either of them wasn't too busy with other things. This was, in fact, only the fifth meeting they had since he told the older man about his past life.

"Of course I made it. After all, it was me who asked for the meeting, wasn't it?"

"And what is it that you wanted to speak with me about?"

The Sandaime sighed with a downwards glance. "Direct to the point as always, I see. But I suppose our time is limited, so we should indeed get to it." The next time he looked up, all the easy-going mirth in his eyes was gone, leaving only seriousness behind. "What I wanted to talk with you about is your future."

Itachi blinked. While this was one possibility he had considered, that wasn't the first thing he had thought about when musing what this would be about.

He decided to play it safe for now.

"I will graduate from the academy tomorrow."

"Yes, you will. I'm sure of that. But that is exactly my point. You will graduate tomorrow, but the situation is already different from your last life, which means we need to make different decisions."

Itachi didn't quite see where the Hokage was going with this. Of course the situation was different from before, the current location of the Uchiha district was proof of that, but he wasn't sure how that would have any immediate consequences that they would need to discuss right now.

Unless he's talking about...

"In case you didn't notice yet," the Sandaime continued, "you're only six years old at the moment. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were seven when you finished the academy in your last life, weren't you?"

Itachi had made the connection himself just as the older man mentioned it.

"That is correct, yes"

After the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the village and killed a great number of shinobi, it had been decided that the current school year of the academy would end early. The graduation class would finish the academy sooner while the class below them, the new graduation class, would graduate on the originally scheduled date. This way, the village would be able to produce twice a many new Genin as they would have had otherwise, thus replacing the shinobi who had fallen in the attack as fast as possible.

With earlier graduation came an earlier, additional enrolment. Originally, he hadn't been part of that earlier class. His mother had put her foot down when his father proposed him join the academy a few months sooner than planned, making sure that this wasn't going to happen. Itachi hadn't been included in that argument back then, but this time, he had interfered and sided with his father. Together, they were able to wear his mother down, which resulted in him joining this earlier grade.

Now he would graduate with the class that would finish their schooling tomorrow instead of the one a few months later.

Naturally, if the Uchiha heir started schooling earlier, the rest of the clan followed suit. It would obviously look bad if their clan head enrolled his child in school and they didn't.

He had honestly not felt the younger age with which he finished the academy worth noting till now, especially with it not even being that impressive considering that Kakashi graduated when he was only five.

But he supposed the Sandaime had a point. It certainly would be impressive to others.

"Do you think I should postpone my graduation until next term, Hokage-sama?"

Itachi wouldn't like it very much, but he would do so if he was ordered to.

"No, that won't be necessary," he disagreed immediately, actually catching Itachi simehwta by surprise. "In fact, your earlier graduation will be very handy. You see, your graduation age isn't the only thing that changed. There is also my failure in apprehending Orochimaru, as I'm sure you remember." For a moment, the Hokage truly looked his age before he managed to pull himself together once more. "What you might not know, however, is the fact that Orochimaru had a Genin team. He told me that he would nominate them for the next Chūnin Exams, and that he would probably take one of them, Anko Mitarashi, as his apprentice afterwards should they succeed. Does this match with your knowledge?"

As it turned out, Itachi's line of thinking hadn't actually followed the Hokage's at all. But now, knowing that the conversation was all about, he thought he finally knew where this was leading to.

"I don't know anything about the other two members of the team, but I'm aware that Orochimaru took Mitarashi-san with him by manipulating her when he fled the village in the original timeline."

The Sandaime nodded. "The situation is different now. Orochimaru fled earlier, thus leaving his team behind before they were able to participate in the Chūnin Exams. One of his students vanished around the same time as he did, too, but with the knowledge that he manipulated Mitarashi-san in your timeline, it might be possible that this disappearance isn't as voluntary as we assumed till now. Be it as it is, there is now one empty spot in a team where there wasn't one before. I already found a replacement instructor, but I still need one more member to fill the remaining hole, and I want that member to be you."

Itachi didn't have a problem with that. He wasn't very surprised by it either, having been able to predict what was going to happen as soon as the Sandaime started to talk about Orochimaru's former team, but he still needed to gather his thoughts for a second.

He had known for quite some time now that he wouldn't be part of the same Genin team as before—not that he wanted to, he already interacted with way too many ghosts as it was by simply walking through his family's district—and was fine with it.

However, he had to admit that at least a small part of him found the idea of joining Orochimaru's old students irksome. It was entirely irrational, of course, and Itachi had no intention of letting that feeling affect his opinion of the children in question, but having any connection to the rogue Sannin whatsoever, indirect as it may be, was something he would generally prefer to avoid.

But not to the point where he would argue with the Hokage about his team placement.

"I understand."

"Furthermore, your team will participate in the next Chūnin Exams."

He frowned. "Isn't that a bit early? The next exams start in... five months? Wouldn't it be strange for me, the Uchiha heir, to participate after being a Genin for less than half a year? People might view this as favouritism."

"It probably will be viewed that way, yes. But if you proved your worth before the nomination—on a mission, for example—there would be much fewer protests than you might think. Most people would see this as a good way of showing off how talented Konoha's newest generation is, especially after the damage we have taken because of the Nine-Tails. Moreover, the people who have the last word in this would be your assigned sensei and I, so there's no need for you to worry about possible protests."

Itachi stopped himself from frowning even harder as the gears in his mind began to turn, thinking about why the Sandaime was so persisted in having him not only rise in rank, but also gain public recognition and, more important, approval.

Deciding to voice his thoughts, he asked, "Why exactly do you want me to become a Chūnin already, Hokage-sama? Why not let me take part in the exams after these, or at an even later date? You are aware that Konoha doesn't need me to show off in front of the other nations. I didn't participate in these exams the last time either, after all. In fact, I only became a Chūnin when I was ten, several years from now."

Itachi had a good idea, of course, but wanted the Hokage to say it to be sure.

Instead of answering, the Sandaime only smiled. It was obvious that he didn't plan on giving him a straight answer tonight. Not about this topic, at least.

Quite possibly because he knew Itachi knew and didn't saw a point in confirming it—even if not answering his question was an answer in and of itself.

"I have also received a message from Jiraiya," the Sandaime continued, changing the topic. "He has still some business left to finish before he can head back, and as we don't have any immediate need of him, I saw no reason to speed up his return. He will arrive in around two months. We will have another meeting then."

Itachi nodded. That was well within their tentatively agreed upon time frame, so there was indeed no need to hurry.

They spent the next ten minutes talking about some more details before Itachi stood up to take his leave. His chakra was nearly entirely depleted and this Kage Bunshin would not be able to go on for much longer.

Meanwhile, the Sandaime started to enjoy his food, which had just been delivered to him by the friendly waitress he had greeted earlier.

This conversation had been very constructive and evidently left him in a good mood, and as was widely known, there was nothing better to celebrate a constructive strategy meeting than good food.

The exams had been a joke.

Not that Itachi was surprised. It would have been strange if he had had any troubles with it, but it was still disheartening to see how low the standards at the Academy truly were. He hoped the Jōnin instructors would get all the kids into shape soon, because they seriously needed it.

He himself had fared just as well as he had the last time. Both times, he had finished the written and the practical exams with full points, becoming part of the small group of people who had achieved this before. Some examples were Orochimaru, Minato Namikaze, and Kakashi Hatake. The only part that gave him some problems was the one where he needed to work together with other students, a feat made harder by the fact that he wasn't close to anyone in his class, his status as a prodigy—or freak, depending on who you asked—alienating him from his classmates quite a bit.

Regardless of their feelings, however, they managed to work together well enough, so it didn't really matter in the end.

His parents had been overjoyed, of course. Who wouldn't be if their child's progress was comparable to the likes of the Yellow Flash himself?

Oddly enough, while his mother still appeared to be proud, she also looked somewhat saddened as well, which made him think...

Did she perhaps grief for his non-existent childhood? Did she hope for him to befriend other children while being at the Academy, just to get her hopes crushed by his early graduation? Did she want him to have as much of a 'normal' childhood as possible? After all, she did try to stop him from entering the academy early.

Honestly, Itachi wasn't sure what to think about all of this. Maybe he just thought too much into it. After all, he couldn't have overlooked this in his last life, could he? Which meant this was a recent development...

Anyway, that had been yesterday.

Right now, he was on his way to the Third Training Ground—and no, the irony wasn't lost on him—where the instructor at the academy had told him he would meet his new team.

Right in front of him was the clearing with its tree stumps lined side by side in the center and three people in front of them.

The first person he noticed was a violet-haired girl lying on the ground, wearing a brown-red shirt with bracelets, white shorts, and fishnet leggings. Logically, as there was only one girl on the team, this must be Anko Mitarashi, and if the way she played with a kunai in her hand was any indication, she was either bored or annoyed. Possibly both.

The next person was a boy with short, light brown hair and some round glasses on his nose. He wore blue and simple, but comfortable-looking robes, seemingly more interested in feeling at ease than worried about how others viewed him. Right now, he seemed busy glaring at his feet while the last person in the clearing reprimanded him for something. Although from the way the boy had his arms crossed in front of his chest, it was fairly obvious that he was more miffed than ashamed for whatever he had done that incurred the chiding he was getting at the moment.

The last person, the one that was chiding the aforementioned boy, was his instructor-to-be, and the fact that he didn't recognize him meant that he wasn't and would never be one of the more famous Jōnin of Konohagakure. He was taller than average, wore a standard Jōnin uniform, had long, brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail, and a posture that was basically screaming exhaustion by the way his body was slightly bent forwards. Itachi was actually confident he could see the dark bags under his eyes even from where he stood, which was almost thirty meters away.

The first one who seemed to notice him was Anko, the other two being too busy with each other.

"Sensei" she interrupted the one-sided conversation between her teammates. "I think a little squirt has gotten lost over there. Shouldn't you go and help him or something?"

'A little squirt', huh?

Not the most creative thing he had been called over the years, having being constantly the youngest and smallest member of pretty much every team he joined for missions for most of his life, but also not the worst.

"Ah, be nice, Anko. This will most likely be your new teammate."

Hearing the man's voice, his first impression about him being exhausted was reinforced even further. He sounded so tired that Itachi was surprised he was able to stand on his feet at all.

Turning to face him now, the man continued, "Well, you must be Itachi Uchiha, correct? My name is Akihito Tanaka. I am the leader of Team 3, and if all goes well, your future sensei."

"Nice to meet you, Tanaka-sensei. My teachers told me to meet you here just fifteen minutes ago, so I hope I'm not too late?"

"Ah, no need to worry, we just—"

Unfortunately, Tanaka was interrupted by Anko's indignant voice. "Wait a second, you want to tell me that this kid will be the replacement for Nakamura? But we are meant to enter the Chūnin Exams in a few months! He will just slow us down!"

Tanaka sighed but didn't reprimand her—if Itachi interpreted things correctly, he would say Tanaka was already used to being interrupted—before answering her:

"It's not my decision to make, Anko, but the Hokage's. But be assured, the Sandaime wouldn't put Uchiha-san into our team if he didn't think he would fit right—"

Once again, he was interrupted, this time by his other student's miffed voice. "Well, Hokage-sama isn't perfect, is he? From my perspective, this is obviously a mistake. How do you suppose we can accomplish any missions when we need to drag him along with us all the time?"

"Yukio, I know—"

"Sensei," this time it was Itachi who interrupted the older man. "If I may propose someth—"

...only to be interrupted himself:

"Nobody asked for your opinion, squirt!" Anko scoffed and promptly threw the kunai, the one Itachi had seen her play around with earlier, at him.

Akihito was tired.

In his defence, he was already thirty-six years old, which was a pretty decent age for a shinobi—especially one who fought at the frontlines of the last war and had been part of the ANBU for nearly a decade. The average shinobi died before they turned thirty-five, after all, which meant he already excelled where most others failed, and he planned to continue to do so.

Right now, all he wanted was to retire and maybe even start a family. To retire as an active shinobi of Konoha who had reached the rank of Jōnin, one had to fulfill two requirements: first, you must have served in active duty for at least twenty years, and second, you must have trained at least one team of Genin. Something about securing the next generation and what's not.

It was a bit easier for lower-ranked shinobi, but Akihito tried not to think about that too much. Getting jealous wouldn't help him, after all.

So, here he was, taking over Orochimaru's former team after the Sannin had betrayed the village.

It was much worse than he could have ever imagined.

He took over the team a little more than a month ago and both his students still hated him. Well, maybe not him personally, but what he represented; a mere replacement for their real Sensei. Not that they wanted to continue training under him either, mind you. If there was one person they hated more than him, it was their former teacher.

Needless to say, they didn't take his betrayal too well, and naturally, they took their displeasure out on him.

They always argued with him, didn't listen to him outside of missions—at least they had the good sense to behave themselves there—and generally had always the exact opposite opinion of him.

That was also the reason for why he was berating Yukio right now. As soon as he had told them that they would get a new teammate today, something he had waited for till now because he had anticipated their reaction, the boy had started to argue about how they didn't need another teammate and that he and Anko could win the Chūnin Exams without any additional help.

He stopped doing that, however, when Anko's voice interrupted him to draw his attention to the new person in the clearing. Akihito had already noticed the newcomer's presence closing in on them some time ago, of course. He was a Jōnin and former ANBU, after all, so he wasn't surprised.

Still, he stopped chiding Yukio—for now—and faced his prospective new student, not paying much attention to the conversation even when he took part in it.

The face that looked at him was the same he had seen in the file the Sandaime had given him beforehand, right down to the boy's expression.

Itachi Uchiha, possibly the greatest prodigy of his generation and probably some previous ones as well, and also one of the youngest members of his clan to ever awaken their inherited Kekkei Genkai. It would be a lie if he claimed he didn't look forward to seeing how good the boy really was.

There was no hint of him being either nervous, intimidated, or hurt by Anko's and Yukio's comments. He stood perfectly comfortable in front of Akihito, not even looking at his fellow students. And while he didn't show much of any emotion, he didn't look cold either. Only neutral.

He was also smaller than he had imagined, even considering his young age.

Everything came to a head when Anko decided it would be a great idea to throw her kunai at the Uchiha's head.

Akihito could have stopped the weapon easily, obviously, but he decided not to. It was common practice in the ANBU to test new recruits in a trial by fire, and while he knew these kids weren't ANBU, he didn't see why he couldn't do the same as long as it didn't go too out of hand. Not as long as he was close by and could interfere if necessary, at least.

The kunai flew a straight line before the boy caught it just a centimetre from his head. He had caught the weapon without any indication that he was surprised and was still looking at him, never even glancing at the weapon he had just caught.

He suppressed a smile. What a show-off, he thought, already starting to like the brat.

There was a moment of silence on the clearing before it was broken by a short laugh from Anko. "Well," she said with a wide smile, "it seems like the midget has some balls, I'll give him that."

He blinked. Didn't she still dislike him just a second ago? Also, language!

"As I was saying, Sensei," the Uchiha spoke up again, completely ignoring Anko's comment. "May I propose something?"

Sure, why not? Might be interesting. "Go ahead," he said.

The boy nodded. "I want to propose a sparring match. Obviously, and understandably, my abilities are being doubted because of my age. If the main problem of me joining this team is the fear of me slowing it down, the easiest way of reassuring this fear is showing you where I stand compared to my prospective teammates."

Before he even had the chance to answer Anko chimed in again. "Oh, hell yeah! I like the sound of that! Maybe you aren't too bad, kid."

"Wait Anko!" Yukio suddenly exclaimed. "You can't seriously want to fight him! Don't be stupid! You're just gonna kill him or something, and then there will be a lot of consequences. It's not worth it."

"Ah, shut up, Yukio. I will just have some fun. And maybe he isn't half bad! Besides, it's not as if Sensei here"—her voice dropped in disapproval at that title—"wouldn't interfere if I were to accidentality go too far."

"Alright, alright, calm down, everyone," he decided to take control of the conversation again before turning back towards Itachi. "That's a good idea. It will also be beneficial to witness your fighting style,to see how it will fit with the rest of the team, so there is that as well."

Next, he turned to Yukio. "And Anko is correct, too. I would interfere if things go out of hand, so there is no need for you to be worried."

Yukio scowled but thankfully stayed silent.

"Alright then," he continued when nobody else said something. "Let's get this started, shall we?"

"On my signal," he said, standing between Anko and the Uchiha in the middle of the clearing.

While the former was visibly excited, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet, the latter stood perfectly still, only the tension in his posture and the sharp glint in his eyes belying his apparent calmness.

Surprisingly, he hadn't activated his Sharingan yet.

"Three," he raised his right arm over his head;

"Two," Anko went still, her body slightly bent forward;

"One," he readied himself to back away, not keen to end between these two when the fight started;

"Go!" he yelled before vanishing in a shunshin and reappearing beside Yukio several dozen meters away.

It was obvious from the very start that the two of them had very different fighting styles. While Anko rushed in immediately to attack her opponent head-on, Itachi stayed still till the very last moment before backing away. It was also clear—to Akihito's eyes, at least—that the young Uchiha was unexpectedly a tad faster than Anko. It wasn't very much, but it definitively helped him evade and defend from her attacks. If she had used any other fighting style, it might even have been enough to slip through her guard, a feat even more feasible because of his smaller stature.

Unfortunately for the boy, she didn't.

Of all of Orochimaru's former students, it was Anko who copied the Sannin's fighting style the most. Her kicks and hits came from strange angles, and she proved time and time again that her agility and flexibility were top-notch. It was almost as if the usual limits of the human body didn't apply to her.

She moved as if there were no bones in her body to restrict her.

She moved like a snake.

A kick to Itachi's right side suddenly changed direction, coming down to his head instead and forcing him to jump to his left. He slipped right under her follow-up attack, only to back down again when Anko bend her body at some weird angle and tried to smash him into the ground with her other leg.

Next, Anko, who apparently had the time of her life, rushed forward once more, only to have her own leg being used as a springboard by Itachi who continued by connecting his knee with her face. The attack, which was also the first move that actually hit its mark in the fight so far, threw Anko a few metres backwards before she recovered in mid-air with a backflip and landed on her feet. She immediately jumped away again, however, just in time to dodge the number of kunai and shuriken that embedded themselves into the ground where she had stood just a moment earlier.

"Hah!" she laughed, ignoring her bloody nose. "You're really a freak, aren't ya?" There wasn't any heat in her words, only approval. "Let's play with weapons, then!"

Anko rushed in again, this time with a kunai in each of her hands. In the following clash, the sound of metal hitting metal joined the already existing sound of colliding limbs. They would meet each other head-on, more often than not initiated by Anko, meeting each other's attacks with their own for a few moments before parting from each other once again. Afterwards, the circle started anew.

After a few rounds of this, Itachi suddenly managed to disarm Anko by ramming the handle of his kunai against the back of her hand and then continued by throwing a kick to her guts that made her fly backwards again. He hurried after her this time, clearly not wanting to give her time to get her balance back, only to be forced to jump into the air to avoid her counter-attack:

"Sen'ei Tajashu!" (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)

Several snakes shot out from the sleeves of Anko's shirt and rushed towards Itachi, who was still mid-air.

Akihito already prepared himself to jump in and end the fight when he saw Itachi forming hand seals of his own with great speed.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

An average-sized orb of fire flew towards Anko, killing the snakes and filling the area with the smell of burned flesh.

The girl gave a surprised squeak before she jumped away to avoid the flames. She managed to get out of the affected area just in time, too, but didn't get a moment to rest because the next second, she was forced to defend herself from an onslaught of hits and kicks.

Itachi didn't give her a single moment to get her mind straight. Still surprised by the fact that the younger boy could use a wide-ranged Jutsu, as well as having not enough time to fall into the stance of her fighting style, there wasn't much she could do other than defend herself from the worst of the attacks.

Now the boy's greater speed came in handy for him as Anko wasn't able to block or evade all of his attacks any longer. Especially because she was unable to use any techniques of her own and was so far out of her depth, many of his hits connected.

A punch Anko wasn't able to block hit her left cheek. She blocked a kick, only to be thrown to the side when Itachi's other leg struck her waist. After dodging one of Itachi's roundhouse kicks, Anko tried to use this opportunity to start her own offensive, but was quickly taught better when he smashed his knee into her face again.

Clearly frustrated with the situation, Anko reached into her waist pouch in favour of blocking one hit to her side and threw a smoke bomb to the ground.

Akihito grimaced. He couldn't evaluate them if he couldn't see them, so this was rather unfavourable. At least he had a pretty good guess about Anko's skills, having trained with her for over a month now, but he wanted to watch the Uchiha boy a bit more.

The smoke bomb had been a small one, so the smoke was already starting to fade away. It was only a few more seconds before he started to see two silhouettes. One of them—the smaller one, he absently noted—was lying on the ground while the bigger one sat on top of it.

He knew what that meant and already prepared himself to declare Anko the winner when he noticed a third silhouette appearing behind the girl.

The smoke had almost entirely faded away when the situation became clear:

Itachi was lying on his stomach while Anko was sitting on his back with a kunai pointed at the back of his head. However, instead of having a victorious smile on her face, her eyes were wide in shock.

The reason for that was the other Itachi standing behind her with a kunai of his own on her throat.

The Art of Genjutsu: Illusionary Techniques

[…] Its chakra consumption is both the greatest advantage and disadvantage of Genjutsu. While most Genjutsu don't require too much chakra in the sense of using and therefore wasting it, they require the caster to use a certain amount of their chakra to constantly flow through their and their victim's bodies. The amount of chakra that is needed for this can't be used for anything else for as long as the technique is active, with this being the main reason for why only people with a certain amount of chakra are able to use the most powerful techniques.

If the caster releases their technique, the chakra used for this process becomes available once more and can be used as usual. Should the victim break the illusion, on the other hand, all the chakra used for the energy flow will be lost just as if it was used for another technique […]

[…] Genjutsu, just as Ninjutsu, are ranked depending on the difficulty and the skill necessary to perform the technique, as well as its strength. Both types of jutsu share the same ranking system, ranging from D-Rank at its lowest to S-Rank at its highest.

However, shinobi who specialise in Genjutsu more commonly use the terms low-level, mid-level, and high-level when they talk about their techniques.

Low-level techniques (which are generally jutsu who rank from D-Rank to C-Rank) describe a Genjutsu in which the quality of the illusion isn't good enough to be unnoticeable and who are easier to break than mid-level or high-level techniques. The person that fells victim to such an illusion can break free by simply disrupting their own chakra flow. Illusions of this level are generally used by shinobi who outnumber their enemies, because victims of such illusions stay motionless until they break free. This way, they're easy targets for attacks from one's comrades. Caster of low-level Genjutsu are in general unable to move around themselves for as long as they use the technique, which is why they also need to be defended by comrades while executing them.

This is the most common type of illusion used by shinobi, as most don't have the chakra control to learn the other types or simply never bother to learn more advanced techniques. Genjutsu of this level can be used by forming the hand seal for Ram [...]

[…] Mid-level techniques (which are generally Jutsu who rank from C-Rank to B-Rank) describe a Genjutsu that makes it hard for the victim to notice the technique and consequently often stay captured in the illusion until they get killed. Victims of such illusions move according to what they see inside the Genjutsu, which means the caster can, for example, make the victim attack their comrades without them even realizing it.

They either need someone else to disrupt their chakra flow for them or experience some sort of pain, for example by stabbing themselves with a kunai, to break free. Furthermore, most casters aren't able to move around themselves as they need to concentrate to keep the illusion going. E xperienced users may maintain some mobility.

Every large-scale Genjutsu, which affects an entire area instead of a single person, is at least a mid-level technique.

Only a small number of shinobi ever learn mid-level Genjutsu as they prefer Ninjutsu due to their more visible effects. Techniques of this level can be used without hand seals if the caster's chakra control is good enough. However, diverse hand seals can be used if this control is lacking [...]

[…] High-level techniques (which are generally Jutsu who rank from B-Rank to A-Rank) describe a Genjutsu during which it's nearly impossible for the victim to notice the illusion. To break free from it, the victim does not only need to realize their situation, but also needs to possess excellent chakra control. People with such good control are almost as rare as people who are able to use high-level illusions in the first place. The only other way to escape is being rescued by one's comrades.

One main difference compared to low-level and mid-level techniques is the additional benefit for the wielder of being able to move around freely once their victim is captured inside the illusion.

Whether the victim stays motionless or not while being caught in the Genjutsu depends on the will of the caster [...]

[…] While there is no S-Rank Genjutsu known to the wider public, such a technique may be in the possession of some clans [...]

[…] If you fight against certain Kekkei Genkai users like members of the Uchiha Clan and their famed Sharingan, remember that these rules don't apply to them in the same way as they do to you (for a complete list of all known bloodlines limits with ties to Genjutsu, turn to page 128) […]