13.A Chance encounter.

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

(Authors Notes)

★★★★ ★★★★

As Ken was heading back to his home, He thought about his future progress.

'Its been two years and I've learned the eight Gates while being able to open upto the fifth'.

'I've gotten myself a nice repertoire of water and wind jutsu till B rank'.

'The next step is to learn A and S rank jutsu, more specifically the rasengan and the its other variants'.

'I'm stuck in a conundrum about my water release though,I don't have enough importance to request from hiruzen the notes left by tobirama'.

'The only thing I can get started on is fuinjutsu,That'll be a bitch to learn, Fanfic's make it seem like the MC's take one look at it, understand it as coding and bam Fuinjutsu grandmaster they become'.

Ken's sardonic musings come to an end when he sees a teen wearing the Uchiha crest walking towards the Uchiha clan compounds direction.

'Hmm,Isn't that shisui,Should I approach him?, Will he want to interact with me?, And If he does what should I do?'.

Ken stares into Shisui's direction intently while thinking.

A hand taps on his shoulder automating a flight or fight response from Ken as he jumps back in a defensive pose ready to strike and finds himself face to face with the object of his thoughts.

"Hey there, I felt someone looking at me and found you staring at me quite intently, Do I know you?".

Shisui asks curiously.

"No, But I have heard of you,Shisui of the Body flicker and was just surprised seeing you here".

Shisui good naturedly smiles back at ken.

"Haha,Is that so, You are quite the weird one aren't you".

Ken gazes into Shisui's eyes and slowly asks,

"Say would you spar with me?"

"Ehh, You want to spar with me, Why?"

"I want to experience your body ficker and find out how I'll fare against someone outclassing me in speed"

"Mhmm, I see, As you can see I'm quite tired right now so how about we spar next week in training ground seven"Shisui proposed.

"Alright, Thank you for agreeing, see you next week".

Ken readily agrees and departs.

'Heh, He's quite the character, Wait! I forgot to ask for his name,Well I'll just ask next week".

Thinking so Shisui flickers away towards his home.

A Week later...

Ken was waiting for Shisui at training ground seven at the appointed time.

A few minutes later Shisui flickered to a spot near him along with another person.

"Hey there, Sorry I was late, I met my friend on the way here and asked him to join us, You don't mind do you".

Ken internally surprised at encountering Itachi but externally just nods to Shisui.

"Sure, As long as he doesn't interfere in our spar he can stay".

"Great, So how do we begin our spar, Taijutsu only or a ninjutsu fight?"quipped shisui.

"How about we start with taijutsu and then move on to an all in fight."

"Fine by me, Oh wait, I haven't asked your name yet".

Ken deadpans and says;"Its Soichiro Ken"

"Aha!,Your might Gai's student aren't you"

"You know me?";Ken curiously asks.

"Yeah, Most of the jonins and some chunins may know about you since Might Gai's training regime is known to be notoriously difficult".Shisui says to which ken nods.

"Hmm, Oh well enough chit chat lets get started".

Shisui stops speaking and takes the Uchiha taijutsu stance,while gazing seriously at ken, Gone was the happy go lucky teen and instead the one standing there was one of the most feared shinobi in the field.

Ken too gets serious and takes a defensive stance while contemplating his next move.

'He's a fast hitter and quite skilled at taijutsu and kenjutsu along with fire release and Genjutsu If I remember right from what was shown in the anime'.

Thinking so Ken opens the first Gate of opening and stays alert of his surroundings.

The last two years after graduation were spent by ken to strengthen his body through inhumane levels of training.

The end result being Ken able to open and use the first gate for half an hour, while the opening of the fifth gate to be used by ken for five minutes.

Ken's hearing picks up the imperceptible sound of wind getting split by a fast moving object, He turns around and parries a kick aimed at his head and finds shisui flickering back.

Wasting no time Ken sprints forward while pushing himself off the ground, the impact cratering the ground he stood upon with the force exerted.

Shisui surprised by Ken's speed takes it up a notch and shunshins away so fast he starts creating after images.

Ken finding the tactic annoying opens the second gate of healing for a split second and sprints forward causing a boom to echo around the area while finding shisuis location.

Shisui deciding to end the cat and mouse chase starts to confront Ken with a series of kicks.

Ken responds with well timed blocks and starts to find himself being overwhelmed with a barrage of kicks and feints.

He decides to start punching chakra augmented punches at the last moment.

Shisui sensing danger evades while ken punches the ground where he stood upon a split second ago, Causing it crater inwards with a resounding boom.

Both opponents move back while assessing each other from the short bout they had.

"You really aren't going easy on me from the start Ken".

"Your reputation warrants atleast this much Shisui".

Shisui sheepishly rubs the back of his head;"You dont have to praise me too much,In a direct confrontation I may not be your match".

"Since when do we ninja's confront each other openly, I still have much to learn".Replies ken while shaking his head.

"Besides taijutsu is not your main forte, Its kenjutsu right, You mostly use chops and kicks alternatively, An excellent mode for incapacitating your opponents but not against someone like me".

"I noticed, Man aren't you way too sturdy for a kid,My kicks felt like it was impacting against steel".

"So shall we continue"Ken asks

"Hmm, How about you have a bout with my Friend Itachi over here". Shisui suggests.

"Itachi you up for it?", asks Shisui.

Itachi nods back confirming his acceptance.

"So how about it, You two are closer to each others age and can regularly spar with each other in my absence, So what say you?"

"I accept"

Ken nods towards to Itachi and motions him to come over.

To Be Continued...

ALTERNATE TITLE:FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH ITACHI.