"Uchiha Itachi—fight me one-on-one!"
The cringe-filled shout echoed across the training ground.
Itachi continued practicing his shuriken throws, completely ignoring it.
The one shouting—Kamanō—felt like a flock of crows had just flown over his head.
"Did you not hear me, Uchiha Itachi?!"
Looking at Kamanō and his two lackeys charging over, Itachi sighed and set down his shuriken.
"If this is about the sparring match earlier and you want payback, I don't see any need for it."
Kamanō pointed at him.
"Are you scared? Coward!"
Itachi sighed again and turned to leave.
"Fighting you has no meaning to me. In other words, I'm not interested."
Behind him, Kamanō burst into laughter, pointing at Itachi as he bragged loudly to his followers.
From a distance, Uchiha Yun—idly playing with a leaf—smiled.
"Itachi's still the same. That dead face all day long, like everyone owes him tens of thousands of ryō."
Hyūga Tokuma chuckled.
"There's actually something I've always wanted to know. Between you and Itachi, who's stronger?"
Yun glanced at Tokuma and Inuzuka Hana, who was also looking over, then yawned.
"What's the point of being stronger? It's just the Ninja Academy. Being number one only brings trouble."
No sooner had he finished speaking than he saw Kamanō and his group escorting Itachi back toward them.
"Make way—Itachi-sama has arrived!"
"Hurry up! Our Itachi-sama just defeated a senior student!"
"Move aside, move aside—Itachi-sama is here!"
...
Amid the shouting, Yun clearly saw Itachi at the center of the group, fists clenched tight.
Social death was imminent.
"See? Told you," Yun said.
Tokuma and Hana exchanged looks and nodded hard.
If this happened every day, Itachi really would socially die.
Watching the farce, Yun slipped the leaf he'd split earlier into his pocket and took out another.
Wind-nature chakra transformation wasn't as easy to train as the original story made it seem.
From personal experience, Naruto—and even Konohamaru—truly deserved to be called geniuses.
Irregular chakra rotation condensed into a sphere.
Add wind-nature transformation—Wind-Style Rasengan.
Add shape transformation—Rasenshuriken.
From basic to advanced, all were no-hand-seal techniques—perfectly suited for Flying Thunder God.
Before water and earth chakra could be fused into Wood Release, Kong would follow Minato's combat style.
Yun would focus on wind-nature transformation, while his clone Kong would use shadow clones to grind water and earth to the limit.
That would accelerate Wood Release as fast as possible.
One day—
Hands clap.
Deep Forest Emergence.
Hands clap.
True Several Thousand Hands.
At that point, Rasengan could be retired.
He hadn't returned often lately, and killing just Aburame Ryūma wasn't worth the trip.
...
At the Three-Color Dango shop, Yun frowned at the skewer in his hand.
"Shisui, you've been a jōnin for years now, and you're treating us to dango? Isn't that a bit cheap?"
He glanced at Itachi, who looked like he was savoring every bite.
This guy only smiled when eating sweets.
"So the famed Uchiha prodigy actually likes sweet things. If the girls at school found out, could your image survive?"
The moment Yun said that, Itachi froze mid-bite.
Shisui quickly stepped in.
"Itachi's only seven. Liking sweets is normal. But Yun—you've already eaten three skewers before saying that."
Yun shot back, "It's not like there's anything else here. Barbecue suits me better—I can eat more."
At that moment, Itachi set down his dango and spoke calmly.
"I want to apply for early graduation."
Early graduation?
Shisui froze.
Yun—who'd expected this—laughed.
"If I were him, I'd graduate early too. Stay any longer and he'll die socially hundreds of times."
Shisui frowned.
"Did something happen?"
Itachi stayed silent, so Yun explained everything in detail.
"Every day—followers clearing the way, 'Itachi-sama,' 'Itachi-kun.' Hahaha… If it were me, I'd use Earth Release and bury myself on the spot."
Itachi finally spoke.
"I don't think the Academy can teach me much anymore. Graduating early seems best."
Silence fell.
Shisui thought carefully.
Yun sighed, a certain image of his hopelessly smitten little sister flashing through his mind.
"The Academy teaches more than just techniques," Yun said.
"When you become a ninja, free time only decreases. These years will be the most peaceful of your life."
"The bonds you form with your peers—those come from the Academy."
"Uchiha's isolation is partly because you're too talented."
"You're always tense. Maybe the only time you relax is when you see your little brother."
"You're thinking about life and death, revenge, the village, the clan—at seven years old."
"You can't truly understand those things yet."
Then Yun's eyes sharpened.
"If you ever turn into a psychopath, Itachi—I'll be the first to kill you."
The air froze.
But both Shisui and Itachi saw it clearly—
Yun meant every word.
And he was confident he could do it.
Itachi didn't doubt him. Instead, he asked:
"You haven't even awakened your Sharingan, yet during every sparring match, you feel… relaxed. Why?"
Shisui also looked at Yun.
Yun didn't answer directly. He turned to Shisui instead.
"If you need overwhelming power… wait a little longer for me."
Shisui's gaze sharpened.
Overwhelming power—enough to stand with the Fourth Hokage, enough to merge clan and village.
He could wait.
Itachi also fell silent.
The cryptic exchange between Shisui and Yun put him on guard.
They were definitely hiding something.
...
Night fell.
When Yun returned home, he found Izumi standing at the door, cheeks puffed in anger.
"Waiting for me? Since when are you this well-behaved?"
Yun poked her puffed cheek, instantly breaking her composure.
"You ran off with Itachi after class and didn't wait for me! I wanted to go too!"
"Shisui called us for something," Yun replied casually. "We stopped by the dango shop. Here."
The moment Izumi saw the dango, her anger vanished.
"Save some for Mom," Yun added.
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