Genin Days (V).

All in all, Mikoto was happy with her lot in life. Her carrier as a kunoichi had been very successful, allowing her to rise to the rank of Jōnin before she even turned 20. While still in active duty, she fell in love with the man she would eventually marry and then went on to give birth to not only one but two beautiful children. She was even fortunate enough to have her family -not including her extended family, of course, as that would include her entire clan- survive both the last war and the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox! As if that wasn't already enough, the gods also decided to bless her oldest son with abilities far above the norm, making him a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. What else could she ask for?

Sadly, what was one of the brightest stars in her life was also the thing that brought her enough dismay to make her unable to sleep at night.

Her oldest son, Itachi, was a genius. There was no doubt about that. Sadly, this made it hard for him to connect with other children his age, even back then when he was barely more than a toddler. But at least back then, he had still somewhat acted like a child should. Maybe not quite as childish as others, but still more carefree and happy than he did now.

His behaviour had changed shortly after he had turned four.

This may be the only thing she would never forgive Fugaku for. Back then, her husband had taken Itachi with him to the Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami Shrine at the border to the Land of Earth, as it was usual to do for fathers with their sons in their clan. It was a tradition the rest of the clan had decided to postpone until after the war was over, but Fugaku had decided that he, being the clan head, couldn't show fear and so he went anyway.

When they came back two weeks later, Itachi hadn't just witnessed war and the destruction and death it brought with it but had his first kill under his belt as well. The day they returned, Mikoto had given up on him ever having a normal life, whatever 'normal' actually meant for a shinobi, and that was her greatest shame. She hadn't tried to talk to him, didn't try to help him overcome the trauma he so obviously had, and only watched as he became more and more distant.

And then the Nine-Tails attacked the village and everything changed again. This time because the attack resulted in the awakening of Itachi's Sharingan.

She remembered the day she got these eyes herself, the day her sister had been killed in front of her eyes, very well and it gave her nightmares to this day. Whatever Itachi had seen must have disturbed him even more than everything he had witnessed on the battlefield, though she could hardly imagine what it might have been.

He was more silent since then, which was a hard thing to do considering he never talked much in the first place, and when he spoke, it was with an air of maturity he didn't possess before. That had been the moment she promised herself that she would make the rest of his childhood, even if it was more physical than everything else at this point, as carefree as she could. This had been the reason she had been against his earlier enrollment into the academy; the moment he entered there, another part of his childhood would end and that wasn't something she was quite ready for yet. She had been ready to fight Fugaku on that, and she did.

Until Itachi had gotten involved in the conversation and asked to enter the academy earlier.

She still didn't want him to do so, but then, how could she say no to him? He never asked for much, only ever wishing to be taught something new. She didn't have it in her to refuse him, so she gave her consent. She had told herself that it might be for the best, that maybe he would finally find some friends, no matter how little she believed in it.

And then he had befriended Hazuki's daughter, Izumi.

She wasn't sure how this had happened, but she was glad for it anyway. It might not be the kind of friendship she wished for Itachi, where he went out to play silly games with children his age, but she knew how unrealistic this hope was and would take whatever she could get. No, all the two of them seemed to do was either meet at the dango shop at the border of their new district to talk, or training and studying together. For all that this already exceeded her expectations, she couldn't help to think that Itachi acted similarly with Izumi as he did with Sasuke. She couldn't point her finger on what exactly it was as there were still a number of differences, but it seemed as if he somehow felt responsible for her.

She wondered if it might be because of what happened when he saved her life during the attack of the Nine-Tails.

Still, he seemed content, if not happy, in her presence, so she would be happy too.

This didn't last long, though, as Itachi seemed to tear through the material presented to him in class at an unbelievable speed, finishing the academy in less than a year.

She had been proud of him, of course. She had known Minato quite well even if they hadn't been as close as she and Kushina, which meant she understood better than most others how much of a genius their Yondaime truly had been. That Itachi matched his score when he graduated from the academy was amazing, even more so if you considered that Minato had been four years older than Itachi was now when he graduated.

The main reason she wasn't completely fine with him finishing so early was that this would make the distance between him and Izumi, who was his only real friend, grow even more. Still, this time she didn't say anything, knowing that there was no way Itachi wouldn't want to take the chance to rise in the ranks. Not when he was so obviously bored in class.

All she could do now was to support him.

Mikoto had put the groceries in her bag and was already halfway on her way home when she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her stop. She didn't need long to see what caught her attention; to her left, she saw Itachi with three people who couldn't be anyone else than his new teammates and sensei, sitting in a tea house. The only girl in the group was leaning halfway over the table and gestured with her hands in front of her son's face, all the while having a wide, somehow feral-looking smile on her face.

Itachi didn't seem annoyed by it, though, and didn't even have his usual neutral expression on his face, but actually smiled. And while it wasn't as wide as the girl's, which would have looked quite funny on his face now that she thought about it, he still looked genuine amused.

Mikoto smiled to herself. Maybe the reason Itachi was never able to connect with others was that he only interacted with children who were around his age. Maybe he got along better with older kids who were more mature than young academy students.

Maybe him graduating early wasn't so bad at all.

And now that she thought about it, wasn't there this boy in her clan who was a prodigy in his own right? If she remembered correctly, he was only a few years older than her Itachi. Maybe she could arrange a meeting between them?

She hummed thoughtfully before turning around and making her way home.

....

Itachi sat on a bank close to the playground while he watched Sasuke play with some other kids his age. He wasn't completely sure what they were playing, but it seemed like some strange mixture of Tag, Capture the Flag, Hopscotch, and Simon Says, but Sasuke had obviously fun, so it probably didn't matter.

The time he spent with his new team at the tea house had been oddly entertaining. Even Anko's attempts at making him call her Nee-chan, as irritating as they were, had been kind of fun. After spending a bit more time with her, he could confidently say that she would have gotten along with Kisame like a house on fire. They had nearly the same sense of humour. Even Yukio had started to warm up to him and come out of his shell, even if he didn't talk too much. In fact, Itachi suspected that he was a rather introverted person and didn't talk much in general.

That suited him just fine. After all, he was exactly the same.

They had spent a bit more than two hours there before paying and departing home. At that point it had just been noon, so his mother asked him to take Sasuke to the playground and he had been only too happy to concur with that wish.

His mother also seemed unusual chipper, which wasn't the case when he left the house in the morning. He wondered what had caused it but ultimately decided not to ask.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw Sasuke hurrying in his direction. One moment he was running as fast as his small legs could carry him, and the next moment he was stumbling. Itachi reacted without thinking and appeared in front of his little brother half a second later, just in time to catch him before he could fall and hurt himself. Sasuke wasn't put off by this in the slightest and wiggled in his arms until he could look at his face.

"Nii-san!" he exclaimed happily.

Itachi could hear the parents and grandparents around them swoon at the sight and even caught some words like 'adorable', 'cute', and 'admirable older brother'.

He ignored them in favour of concentrating on Sasuke. "Yes, Otouto?"

"Come playing?" he asked with a hopeful expression on his face.

There were enough six-year-olds playing around all over the park, and even if he would look as old as he actually was, it wouldn't be weird if he played with Sasuke in the sandbox. He was his little brother, after all. The reason he did choose not to do so till now was that he felt weird doing it. He couldn't remember ever playing like this even when he was a child himself (which doesn't mean it hadn't happened, just that he couldn't remember it), how could he do so now when he was a grown man? But could he really say no to Sasuke?

"Of course," he said. "Show me what you want to do?"

Sasuke squealed and started pulling him to a spot a bit more apart from the other kids where they were as alone as they could be on a public playground.

Sitting on a pile of sand, building a sandcastle with his brother and generally just enjoying himself; he couldn't count how often he had wished for moments like this in his last life, first when he had been too busy with missions and then later after he had left the village. And while it still felt weird doing something so normal, he couldn't deny that it felt quite nice.

He was stopped from thinking further about this when he felt a familiar chakra signature closing on on him from behind.

"You're Itachi, correct? And this little man must be Sasuke. Nice to meet you!"

Itachi calmly turned around, hiding his inner tumult behind a neutral mask. "That's correct. And you are 'Shunshin no Shisui', aren't you? How can we help you?"

Shisui gave a surprised laugh and scratched the back of his head in an abashed manner. "Come on, don't call me by that silly name. Barely anybody does! But yeah, that would be me."

"People aren't calling you that yet. I'm sure they will with time."

"Well, I guess it's nice being recognized for one's skills. But couldn't they call me something else? You know, something more flashy?"

He had his usual silly smile on his face which made Itachi fight down all the memories and emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. Shisui had not only been his best friend but also an older brother figure for him, a person he always wanted to surpass no matter how impossible it seemed.

(Shisui had disagreed, always claiming that he only had the advantage of age and experience and that Itachi would be stronger than him in a few short years)

In a way, he had been for Itachi what he was to Sasuke.

"Nii-san, who's that?" Sasuke asked, giving him a welcome excuse to stop looking at his former best friend.

"This is Shisui Uchiha, a member of our clan. He came to say hello."

Sasuke frowned for a second, but then seemingly decided that the new person was boring and continued building a 'sandcastle'.

Itachi briefly smiled to himself before turning back to Shisui. "In that case, you probably should start creating a nickname for yourself and spread it to the public. Anyway, I ask again, how can we help you?"

Shisui sighed. "Did anyone ever told you that you're terrible at small talk? Honestly, it actually went quite well, but you just needed to get to the point didn't you?" He then continued by looking at him with a long-suffering expression.

He then sighed again when it became obvious that Itachi didn't plan to answer him anytime soon before continuing the conversation himself. "Fine, be a killjoy, then. I heard you became a genin even though you're only six. I thought that we could train together, you know, teach each other some stuff. From one prodigy to another, you see."

Itachi looked at him for several seconds, making him obvious uncomfortable and shifting on his feet, before asking dryly:

"My mother sent you, didn't she?"

Shisui's eyes widened a bit before he started to laugh. "Wow, you looked right through me. Amazing! What gave me away?"

He shrugged. "You didn't give anything away. It was just a hunch, nothing else."

"A very lucky hunch," Shisui readily went with his answer. "But, you know, being sent by your mother doesn't change the fact that we really could help each other. So, what do you say? Interested in training with me?"

He thought about it for a moment but didn't see why he should say no. He had wanted to approach him sometime soon anyway, so this was as good of an opportunity as any.

"I would be happy to. Do you-"

"Nii-san! Let's go swing!" Sasuke interrupted him and started to pull at his sleeves.

Itachi already turned to reprimand him gently, when he heard Shisui laugh softly. "No need to be jealous, Sasuke. I'm not going to keep your brother from you any longer."

Turning back to Itachi, he continued: "Do you have time today? I plan to train at the private Uchiha training ground for the next five hours."

He nodded. "I'm not sure how long I will be here, but I should be able to come for an hour or two at least."

"Great! See you then!"

With that he disappeared without a trace, making Itachi smile. That's why people call you 'Shunshin no Shisui', idiot.

"Nii-san!" he heard Sasuke exclaim again, already halfway to the swing, pointing at him to come.

His smile widened a bit. "I'm on my way, Sasuke. Wait for me, would you?"

....

Just like that, the time flew by.

Itachi spent six days a week training with Team 3, first focusing on teamwork as to not stand in each other's way in battle before going on and actually developing a few combos of their own which could give even more experienced enemies a run for their money. All in all, they were more of a team of Chūnin with an additional Jonin supervisor than a usual team of Genin.

He spent most of his free time training, wishing to advance to his old strength as fast as possible. Sometimes Izumi would join him too. At this point, he was pretty sure that she was the top student of the academy, at least in Taijutsu.

He also made it a point to train with Shisui at least once a week. And while they would probably never have quite the same relationship as they had before, he could confidently say that they were friends.

The rest of his time, he spent with Sasuke. His probably greatest regret when he thought back to this time of his life was that he hadn't paid more attention to his little brother and he didn't plan on doing so again.

So, after nearly two months of training and the occasional D-rank mission, it was time for Team 3 to go on their first real mission together.