Genin Days (II).

They soon arrived at the dango shop they regularly visited. It was located at the border between the Uchiha district and the greatest shopping street of the market district, with many more streets leading to it. Similar to most clans with their own district, the Uchiha surrounded their given area with a wall. Now, a wall between themselves and the place where all the money was made was obviously not a great marketing strategy, so it was decided that one of the four entrances into their district would be connected to marketplace. This entrance consisted of a large gate through which more than a dozen people could walk simultaneously without bumping shoulders. This gate was opened almost all day, which meant that the Uchiha restrict was included in the daily affairs of the village.

They didn't need to order anything due to them visiting the place regularly enough to be recognized by the owner, so they only gave a simple greeting before looking for a free place to settle down.

Izumi had calmed down by now and looked at her lap sullenly.

After a few minutes of uncharacteristic silence, with the sole exception of a silent 'thank you' to the waitress when she brought their food, he decided to do something about it.

"Are you still angry that I didn't wait for you? I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere. It will not happen again." That sounded weak, even to his own ears.

Instead of answering, she just gave uttered an incomprehensible murmur. He raised an eyebrow. Was this really bothering her that much?

Seemingly deciding that he deserved an actual answer instead of just muttering some gibberish, Izumi started speaking: "It's not that. It's just... you will graduate tomorrow, won't you?"

At the last part, she looked at him with these brown puppy-eyes of hers.

Itachi sighed. He now understood what the problem was. Izumi had tried her hardest to catch up to him ever since they started to spend more time with each other, maybe even before that. Because of his help, her abilities had progressed in leaps and bounds and even allowed her to skip one grade entirely, but it wasn't enough.

"I will participate in the exams tomorrow, yes."

Izumi scoffed. "We both know you will not just 'participate', Itachi. You're by far the best student in the entire academy, everyone knows that! If you participate, you will finish the exams at the top of your class."

All fire inside her seemed to die after she finished talking.

Itachi knew that Izumi had a crush on him. It wasn't as if she was hiding it very well, even if she was much less obvious -or annoying- than his usual fangirls. In his last life, he had had too many other things to worry about, and not quite the capacity to develop a crush on someone as to reciprocate her feelings, at least to the same extent, and now... well, he was over twenty years old while she wasn't even ten yet. No matter what he might have felt about her in his youth, he couldn't develop a romantic interest in a child.

Back to the situation at hand.

Izumi's greatest worry at the moment was that they would grow apart if he graduated and she didn't. That they would stop meeting each other more and more as time went on until they were basically strangers.

He just had to reassure her that that wasn't the case.

"Izumi," he said before waiting to continue until she looked up at him again. "Even if I finish the academy tomorrow, we will still be friends. We will still spend time with each other, even if I will need to go on missions and have less free time than I have now. We can manage that, can't we?"

Her eyes started to tear up, but she didn't start to cry. Once again he was reminded of just how young she actually was.

"Really? Do you promise?"

He smiled at her, making her blush. "Of course. And besides, if I get a Jonin instructor, I will learn a lot of new stuff. I can teach you whatever he teaches me, which will help you graduate earlier. How does that sound?"

"Yeah," she replied, finally smiling again, "that sounds great."

There was a moment of silence before she began speaking again, enthusiasm having returned in her voice. "So, did I tell you what Hana did today in class? She..."

With that their conversation returned to more light-hearted topics, and Itachi couldn't help but smile as he continued listening to whatever came to Izumi's mind.

It was already dark outside when Itachi's Kage Bunshin -the original being at home and finishing dinner with his family right now- noticed the person he was waiting for entering the restaurant.

The person was a young man of average height with a forgettable face and short, brown hair. He gave the waitress a joyful smile before he made his way over to where Itachi was sitting.

"Sōta", the Sandaime greeted him when he arrived. "It's good to see you. It has been far too long."

"Hiroto" he nodded back to his leader. "I'm glad you were able to make it."

Obviously, both the Hokage and Itachi were using a Henge at the moment. There was, after all, no need to confuse people as to why their Hokage was eating dinner with a six years old child.

Meeting like this was not an easy feat. With Itachi's current chakra reserves, he wasn't able to maintain more than two clones at any given time, and even that was only possible because of his excellent chakra control. He used the absolute minimum of chakra necessary to create one clone, which resulted in a clone that was much weaker than it would normally be. Even this version only lasted one hour at most! Also, the Henge he was using lessened this time even more, so their time to talk was very limited.

The Sandaime, on the other hand, could easily maintain a clone for a much longer duration, making it possible to meet at another time with the real Itachi, but he decided not to do so. He probably thought it was a great way of getting him used to the limits of his younger body once again.

Or maybe he simply found it more amusing this way.

Well, you didn't argue with the Hokage about something trivial as this, so there was nothing he could do about it.

Sadly, the only time of the day they could see each other this way was the evening, because this was the only time either of them wasn't too busy with other things.

This was, in fact, only the fifth meeting they had since he told the older man about his past life.

"Of course I made it. After all, it was me who asked for the meeting, wasn't it?"

"And what is it that you wanted to speak with me about?"

The Sandaime sighed with a downwards glance. "Direct to the point as always, I see. But I guess our time is limited, so we should indeed get to it." The next time he looked up, all the easy-going mirth in his eyes was gone, leaving only seriousness behind. "What I wanted to talk with you about, Itachi, is your future."

Itachi blinked. That wasn't what he had thought this would be about and he wasn't sure what to think about this topic. He decided to play it safe for now.

"I will graduate from the academy tomorrow."

"Yes, you will. I'm sure of that. But that is exactly my point. You will graduate tomorrow, but the situation is already different from your last life, which means we need to make different decisions."

Itachi didn't quite see where the Hokage was going with this. Of course the situation was different from before, the current location of the Uchiha district was proof of that, but he didn't know how that would have any immediate consequences that they would need to discuss right now.

"In case you didn't notice yet," the Sandaime continued, "you're only six years old at the moment. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were seven when you finished the academy in your last life, weren't you?"

"That is correct, yes"

Indeed it was.