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The cave smelled faintly of damp stone and burnt fabric. Its silence was broken only by the occasional drip of water and the slow, careful rustle of bandages being replaced. A week had passed since Itachi carried Neji into this shelter. A week of tending wounds, and of both boys being confronted with their burdens and with Neji mostly showing he is in the same level Itachi to let him drop his guard.
Neji's hands were wrapped in thick bandages, the bleeding stopped, but the deeper damage remained stubborn. The micro-tears in his chakra network refused to heal. Any attempt to circulate chakra resulted in a painful leak of chakra into his internal organs, leaving behind a deep ache that would not relent. His body, once a finely tuned vessel of precise chakra control, now felt like a cracked porcelain jar, leaking power at every seam.
His eyes were also wrapped under strips of cloth. The Byakugan was no longer an option. The Shingan... that strange unawakened power within him... was also dangerous to touch. He barely used any of the Shingan powers and now he already about to lose it. If he forced them open again, he might lose them forever. So he chose blindness until he was cured of this backlash.
The rest of his body was better. The burns that marred his arms from the battle with the nameless Uchiha boss still stung, but he could move again. Yet every attempt at fast or forceful movement sent searing pain across his limbs, reminding him that strength came with patience, not haste.
Itachi had been his nurse and companion throughout. He changed dressings, prepared herbs from his Anbu kit, and quietly guided Neji through recovery. But when Neji slept, Itachi brooded. He replayed the words Neji had spoken about the Uchiha clan. They struck him more deeply than anything the Hokage, or even Shisui had ever said.
--
For the first time, Itachi began to imagine another future. Not one where he bathed his hands in his clan's blood, but one where he changed the system that had cornered them into rebellion.
Each night, as Neji struggled with the pain of his injuries, Itachi drafted a mental plan.
First, To find who was secretly purchasing weapons in the Uchiha through the GM Merchant Company. If he could sabotage or delay procurement, he could slow the coup.
Secondly, step away from Anbu. As long as he served under Hokage's direct orders, he was a weapon, not a person. Becoming a jōnin teacher would let him train the next generation, give public a new seeds of understanding, and begin changing perspectives.
Lastly, Reform the Police Force. For too long, the Uchiha were positioned as enforcers over the civilians, making them feared rather than respected. If he could find a way to shift their duties toward protection and community service, the hatred would ease.
He knew these goals were enormous. But as he watched Neji fight to walk blind in the cave, stumbling yet refusing to stop, he thought: "If he can start over with nothing, then so can I."
--
Neji could not sit idle. His pride would not let him rot in bandages. He began to train his body, starting from the basics. Walking. Simply walking.
But without sight, each step was a failure. His shoulder slammed against jagged rock. His shin scraped against stone. His fingertips grazed walls he didn't realize were there. Again and again, he faltered. But each failure taught him something small... a vibration in the ground, the subtle feel of air before a wall, the echo of his own breathing bouncing off stone.
At first, it seemed like he was just memorizing the cave. But gradually, he began to sense the depth of the space. The cave was no longer pure darkness. It had a rhythm, a pulse, as if the world around him whispered guidance he had never noticed before.
Itachi, observing quietly, decided to help.
"Even if you choose not to see with your eyes, you can still rely on other senses," he began, his voice calm and steady. "Smell. Touch. Sound. The air itself."
He stood ten feet away. "Can you tell where I am?"
Neji hesitated, whether to point at sound of itachi or weird shift in air behind him but he still pointed at itachi 10 feet away.
But Itachi's brow furrowed. "Now, don't rely only on your ears. When a person moves, the air around them shifts. Don't ignore that."
A shadow clone behind Neji emerged. The clone whispered, its voice brushing Neji's ear. Neji pointed behind him, but in truth the real Itachi remained ten feet ahead. The clone dispelled with a puff.
"You were right and wrong," Itachi said gently. "Your sense of hearing overruled your other senses. You felt the air move behind you but ignored it. You must learn not to let one sense dominate the others."
From then, the training began in earnest.
--
Itachi crafted exercises. He walked silently around the cave while Neji tracked him by changes in air. He tapped rocks, forcing Neji to separate real sound from echoes. He dropped small stones near Neji's feet, testing his reflexes.
For Itachi, this was not just helping Neji. It was practice for himself. He realized teaching was an art of patience. Not every student learned the same way, and not every method fit every mind. This was a lesson he could carry into his goal of becoming a jōnin instructor.
Neji, meanwhile, adapted quickly. By the end of one day, he could walk across the cave without bumping into the walls. By the second, he could predict where Itachi would step next. By the third, he could sense when the rain outside grew heavier, the sound and smell guiding him.
Yet the pain never left him. His chakra pathways throbbed constantly, and at night his head rang with echoes of his suppressed power. Sometimes he woke up biting his lip until it bled, just to keep from crying out. But he refused to let Itachi see his weakness.