4 GROWING UP

After that he exited the library in his mind and made a clone seal with his hands and said "Shadow Clone Jutsu."

A *poof* was heard and smoke was created. After the smoke cleared a copy of Itachi could be seen, he knew he only had enough soul force to create one clone for the time being, he made the clone cultivate the Heavenly Fire God Technique and went out of his room.

His mother and father were already out, so he decided to pay a visit to Ning'er as he would always spend most of his time with her. As he stepped out of the house, he saw Ye Ziyun and Ye Zong. Even though he didn't want anything to do with Ye Ziyun, he was still living in the City Lord's mansion so he couldn't completely ignore her and he was also very grateful for Ye Zong to let their family stay in the mansion and protect them.

So he decided to greet them "Hello, city lord. Good morning miss Ye"

Ye Zong and Ye Ziyun both turned towards him and Ye Zong greeted him back but Ye Ziyun pouted her lips and asked "Are you going to Ning'er's place?"

Itachi nodded his nodded and said "yes miss Ye."

Ye Ziyun then asked "how come you address me with formality while you address Ning'er casually?"

"I think I've fallen in love with Ning'er." Replied Itachi.

Ye Zong was a bit stunned seeing a 5 year old talking about love, he also saw his daughter being unhappy from his reply. So he decided to leave, he didn't want to indulge himself in the matters of the younger generation.

Seeing Ye Zong leave, Itachi also waved his hand and said "See you later Miss Ye." And walked away.

Seeing his back gradually fading, Ye Ziyun didn't know what to say. She was the one who introduced Ning'er to him, but whenever he was with Ning'er he would completely ignore her existence and when they were alone he would always keep his distance from her and would avoid her most of the time.

Itachi finally arrived at the Winged Dragon family, just as he was about to enter he was immediately taken down by a yellow haired loli. He made sure that the fall wont hurt her by embracing her with his arms. After they fell down, he looked at the loli and said "Ning'er what are doing? Don't you know you could hurt yourself by doing that?"

The little loli ignored his words and said "Itachi you said you would take me to your family's herb shop today, i was waiting for you and yet you come late. I'm angry with you."

He said "hmmm seems my Ning'er is growing up, come I'll take you to the herb shop."

Ning'er happily nodded her head and held his arm and the both made their way to the herb shop.

His father and mother already knew that their son had feelings for Ning'er, they could even see how well he treated her. They had also met her before and really liked the little girl, they even decided that she would be their future daughter in law.

After arriving at the herb shop, Itachi and Ning'er spent time with Fugaku and Mikoto. He even played along with Ning'er without hesitation for what she wanted to play. Later he dropped her back at her place and went back to his house.

He saw the clone still cultivating. He chuckled and sat down in meditative state, he decided he would master his Zanpakuto while his clone would cultivate soul force.

...

7 years later

Time passed by, as Itachi had become 12 and had his days planned. He would spend his morning time with Ning'er and would use the rest of his time to master his Zanpakuto. At the same time his clones would cultivate the Heavenly Fire God Technique.

Itachi was able to master the shikai stage of all 3 Zanpokutos, he had reached the peak of Silver rank. He could create more clones but decided against it, because he was already too powerful for his current age. Likely due to the Library of Heaven's Path, people couldn't sense his cultivation without him releasing it.

Itachi had also awakened his Sharingan, currently he was able to use two tomoe sharingan. His Sharingan awakened when he reached 1-star bronze rank and evolved when he reached 1-star silver rank. He was sure that his Sharingan will evolve with him when breaks through a new realm.

He also gave Ning'er a cultivation technique which was tailor made for her with the help of the Library. During this period both of their feelings had been gradually developed, Itachi knew it was time to get engaged with her. He had also talked about it with his parents to which they both agreed. They were waiting for a good time to visit the Winged Dragon family.

During these times Itachi had also visited the Alchemist Association and had become a member of the association. He also contributed a dozen of pill recipe to the association which helped the association to get back to it's former fame and power before it's decline.

The Association and Itachi's father were splitting the profit in the ratio of 6:4, the Glory City which was formerly in stance without moving forward, had started to change. As it's people had constant supply of pills which helped many break through and Glory City was getting stronger by each passing day.

Ye Zong, the city lord was the most happiest of all, he could see the future of Glory City being bright. He even had ideas of keeping this genius with in their family, by engaging his daughter to him. But it seemed as though he was not interested in his daughter so he dismissed the idea and at least wanted to be on his good side.