What Izumi didn't know was that all of his actions yesterday had been watched by an old man with a rather unhealthy peeping hobby.
Through the crystal ball, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had been observing. Originally, he was only checking up on Hyūga Hinata, who had slipped out of her home. After all, Hinata had once been kidnapped—an incident that cost Hyūga Hizashi his life. If it happened again, the Hyūga clan would be at his throat. But what Hiruzen hadn't expected was to see Uchiha Izumi appear in the scene.
The next morning, Izumi headed to Training Ground Seven as usual for practice. He could now release the Great Fireball, but its power still fell short of standard, so he could only keep grinding away. By the time he stopped, it was already midday.
"Izumi, where are Itachi and Shisui?"
Uchiha Izumi's cousin, Izumi Me, appeared once again, carrying lunch.
"Big Sister Izumi Me, Itachi's gone on a mission, and I think Shisui's busy too. They probably won't be back until the day after tomorrow." Izumi looked at her in mild confusion—this was something even he knew. By logic, Izumi Me shouldn't be asking if she didn't know already.
"Oh." She looked a little disappointed.
"You like Itachi, don't you, Sister Izumi Me?"
"Eh—you…"
"If you didn't, why would you come here every day? You must've met him at the Academy, right? If you like him, why not just say it? Itachi and Shisui are both pretty dense—if you don't say something, he'll never notice."
Being caught out by a kid made Izumi Me blush instantly. She glanced around to make sure no one else was there before relaxing a little.
"Who else have you told this to?"
"No one. Well… except Shisui. Otherwise, every time you came to see Itachi, he'd probably hang around as a third wheel. Oh—and actually, Itachi doesn't really like barbecue. What he likes is sanshoku dango and natto." As a diehard Naruto fan, Izumi knew quite a lot about Itachi.
Izumi Me stared at the small, sharp-tongued boy, not sure how to respond. She simply sat down nearby and took out the food.
"Well, since Itachi's not here, I guess you benefit instead. So, what are you doing out here?"
"Practicing ninjutsu. Shisui taught me the Great Fireball Technique, and he's going to test me in three days. But even though I can make a fireball, it's too small. Here—look."
With that, Izumi performed the Great Fireball Technique. It was better than before, but still only about the size of his head.
"Uh…" Izumi Me was a little stunned. Even at the Ninja Academy, they only taught the Three Basic Techniques. The Great Fireball—a C-rank ninjutsu—was something even genin might not master. While his version was only a rough prototype, it was still impressive. At four years old, being able to perform a C-rank technique at all was outright monstrous talent.
"Izumi, in your case, it's probably that you don't have enough chakra, or you're using too little when performing the jutsu. You—" She was about to say, At your age, this is already amazing; your low chakra is the only reason the fireball isn't full-sized.
But before she could finish, Izumi, hearing that the problem was chakra, immediately increased his output.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
With the extra chakra, a full-sized Great Fireball finally roared into existence.