Chūnin Exams (I).

Itachi caught himself in midair and managed to land on his feet. The very instant he touched the ground he kicked off again, rushing at his foe.

His father blocked the hit to his head and redirected his follow-up kick to his chest away from himself before attacking him with a kick of his own. Jumping into the air and using his father's leg as a springboard, Itachi tried to connect a roundhouse kick with his father's head. However, the man evaded this by simply taking a step back. Not giving up yet, he threw a handful of shuriken at him, hoping to distract him for a moment so he could rush in again and maybe even actually connect an attack this time, but instead of blocking or evading the missiles, his father let himself hit.

Itachi didn't wait for his body to disperse in a cloud of smoke before jumping into the air. Not even a second after his feet left the ground, two hands shot out from beneath it, grasping into thin air where his ankles had been just a second earlier.

Seeing his chance, he went through the necessary hand seals as fast as he could.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

The orb of fire connected with the ground, hopefully not only devastating the earth itself but also whatever was underneath it. This hope was squashed, though, when he suddenly felt a presence appear behind him.

Instead of kicking him in the back as his father had intentioned, all he managed was to destroy the block of wood that appeared in Itachi's stead in a puff of smoke.

"It seems you're finally fast enough to keep up with your Sharingan," his father commented, pride shining through his otherwise neutral voice.

"I have been fast enough for a while now," he said. "You've just been too busy to train with me ever since I returned from Kiri, which is why you haven't noticed this earlier."

His father chuckled. "I see. Well, I'm sorry but I'm afraid duty comes before pleasure."

As soon as he finished speaking, he started running in his direction, a kunai ready in each hand, but instead of preparing himself for this confrontation, Itachi turned around and slashed with a kunai of his own into the 'thin air' behind him while simultaneity releasing the Genjutsu his father had tried to capture him in. The form of his father that was running at him vanished while there, where before had been nothing but air, another one appeared.

He could not only see the momentary surprise in his father's eyes when he turned around to face him instead of the illusion but also the way he slightly slumped forward when the backlash of having his technique broken set in. This time, Itachi's attack actually managed to cut off some of his father's hair when the man backed away only at the last possible moment.

Continuing his offensive, Itachi jumped after him with a kick to his chest that he blocked by crossing his arms in front of him. Not to be deterred, he followed up with an elbow strike to his head, forcing his father to take another step back to evade this attack as well. As soon as he landed on the ground again, he crouched low and tried and failed to sweep his father's legs away before continuing by rushing into his guard once he noticed that the way he had avoided his attack brought him into an unstable posture.

The next thing he knew was that he was grabbed by his neck and thrown away with enough force to make it impossible for him to catch himself before he hit the ground. He slid for several meters before finally coming to a stop in a crotched posture, ready to jump away from a follow-up attack that never came.

His father stood approximately 20 meters away from him at the same position he had when they started their sparring match, his arms crossed in front of his chest and a small smile on his face. Itachi idly noted that his current position was also the same one he had started from, so his father must have wanted him to land here specifically. Probably to show him how much control he had over their fight and that he had still some catching up to do before he could hope to beat him.

'So, back to zero it is, hm?'

.....

Itachi was trying to get his breathing under control while crouching on the ground with one knee.

"You have indeed improved very well, Itachi," his father said. "I don't think you have any reason to worry about the exams with your current abilities. Even if you don't win them, you should at the very least be able to give a good enough demonstration to be promoted."

He only nodded, feeling still too much out of breath to answer. A glance at his father showed that the man didn't even seem winded by their fight, still standing there nonchalantly while ignoring the numerous craters in the ground that surrounded them.

Not that he was surprised. His father wasn't known as Wicked Eye Fugaku for nothing, after all. There wouldn't have been voices that wanted to install him as the fourth Hokage if he hadn't had the abilities to back it up.

"Did you come up with this trick on your own?" his father asked while also crossing the gap between them and helping him to his feet before handing him some water.

He took the time to drink, greedily swallowing the cool liquid after the exhausting spar, before he replied. "Shisui used the same thing against me in our last fight. All I did was just adding some more explosions."

His father's lips tugged upwards. "Well, if you use this trick during the exams, make sure not to overdo it. You might end killing your opponent by accident, and while death is a constant for a shinobi, I don't think it's a good idea to anger Iwa by unnecessarily killing one of theirs during an exam in their own village."

Itachi already knew this but nodded nonetheless. They had had this conversation several times already in regards to other techniques as well, just like his team had the same conversation with Tanaka-sensei.

"By the way," his father started speaking a while later during their walk home. "Did you master this Jutsu you have been talking about? It has been a while since you mentioned it."

He nodded. "I did. It was simple once I figured out what amount of chakra is optimal for what amount of water."

"And I guess the fact that you have a water affinity helped you with that. How much chakra do you need to use it?"

"A fair amount, but it's manageable. It's only a C-rank technique, after all, and having a water affinity reduces the chakra I need to use even more."

His father nodded, satisfied with that answer.

They walked the rest of the way home in silence, content with just enjoying each other company and watching the busy streets of Konoha. In fact, this scene remembered him of some memories of his youth. Just like back then, people waved at them, sent them smiles, and called greetings. With the Uchiha name not being associated with mistrust and his clan being much more in contact with the rest of the village than ever before, they were still held in high regard by almost everyone. Especially his father, the leader of the KMPF, was a person people looked up to, and he tried to live up to their expectations.

It was impressive what a difference some years or open mistrust and accusations can make.

Looking around, Itachi could see several other members of the police, which was unfortunately a sight he had already got used to over the last two months. Ever since Danzō's arrest and the elimination of his organization, the Hokage had most of the ANBU doing clean-up missions all over the country and in some cases even beyond its borders. With Konoha's shinobi force already reduced by the Nine-Tails a few short years earlier and the war shortly before that, there weren't many ANBU left to patrol the village. As a result, the members of the KMPF were forced to work overtime to make up for this shortage.

Of course, that wasn't the only consequence; it seemed that Danzō, in his quest of 'protecting' Konoha, had, amongst other things, blackmailed and eliminated a lot of people. And while he had at least made sure to not leave any direct proof behind that could point at Konoha when he got someone killed, there were more than just a few rumours in certain circles. The diplomatic damage was already done and there was nothing that could change that. There were a lot of influential people, inside and outside of the Land of Fire, who were currently not thinking all too well of Konoha, and while every single one of them wasn't a threat on their own, they could still be dangerous if they ever allied themselves or looked for aid from more powerful allies.

All the Hokage could do for the moment was to repair the relationship with as many of them as possible while also continuing the blackmailing to keep those that didn't cooperate in check. In fact, he was aware that the Hokage had been forced to order a handful of assassinations of his own because a number of Danzō's victims found out about his downfall and tried to use this opportunity to harm Konoha in whatever capacity they could.

Itachi really wanted to do something against that, be out there and help defend Konoha with all his power, but that was currently impossible. All he could do for now was to become stronger and prepare for the Chūnin Exams.

Maybe after he had done that he could take a more active role.