Chapter 6: Chapter 6-Bad Examples!
Chapter 6
ITACHI UCHIHA
War was ugly. Itachi had always known that, even as a young child, he had seen its effects on the faces of his father and his brother. The weariness and the tiredness that came from it. The weight of the Uchiha clan's history and prowess, etched on their faces.
And yet, to this day, he had never truly understood it, the concept of it. Now, after witnessing devastation and destruction to such a degree, Itachi Uchiha found himself thinking about the very concept of life. Back then, on the battlefield, thousands of people lay dead, thousands.
They had all killed each other, and for what?
And he could not fathom the answer as he stood there on teh edge of the cliff near the Naka River. Why had they killed so many? Why had they fought so fervently?
Was it to stay alive? Was fighting and killing a manifestation of their life itself?
And as Itachi's mind rambled on, he found himself more and more mesmerized by the ground deep down and the fall. Even now, as he stood on the edge, his heartbeat was slow, and his muscles relaxed.
Was he truly alive? Or was this just living?
And in that moment of confusion and deliberation, he decided to test himself, as he took a step forward and let his body fall. The ground vanished from underneath his feet as his body began to descend down the cliff, the air hitting him in the face, and yet he did not close his eyes as he stared straight at the ground approaching at breakneck speed.
THUMP!
And then it happened. He felt it happen, his heartbeat quicken, as his muscles became taut, reflexes gained through hours and hours of training kicked in as he reached into his back pocket and took out the kunai and struck it on the cliff.
THWACK!
The steel cracked against the stone as he tried to slow himself down, and yet he could not. He was too fast. The ground came nearer and nearer as his body reacted to the emergency.
THUMP!
In that moment, Itachi Uchiha had never felt more alive as he reached for another kunai and struck it into the slope of the cliff with all his might.
THWACK!
And this time, it worked as the kunai was stuck in the stone and dragged down as stones and bushes scraped his arms, tearing open the skin, and yet he did not let go. His small and frail arms held on. The very arms that had swung that kunai at that Iwa nin's neck held strong through all the pain and blisters, and yet his descent slowed down as the ground came near and near until his feet finally touched it, cushioning the impact.
And he huffed, his heart racing as he looked at his hands, which were now shaking and bleeding, and yet in that moment, Itachi knew just why he had swung that kunai. What it meant to be alive.
And as he was lost in thought, he missed how the crows gathered up behind him as a very familiar person appeared right behind him, and whispered coolly into his ear.
"You better have done that knowing that I was here," and his body shivered at that voice as he jumped and turned around to see his own brother standing there behind him smiling at him, and yet that was not a good smile.
Not at all.
"Because otherwise, we are going to have a very extensive talk," his brother thundered as Itachi gulped nervously.
"Of course I knew," he lied, as he smiled at his brother, who was eyeing him suspiciously, and yet he could not admit the truth to him. As he saw his brother bring up his hand, he reflexively moved his head to the side to avoid what was coming.
TAP!
"You should be more careful, idiot. This could have ended badly," Izuna admonished him, as Itachi sighed as he rubbed his forehead and made a face at his brother. Somehow, despite him moving, Itachi had been hit by his brother, and to this day, this was their little game.
Itachi would try to avoid the hit, and yet to this day, he had not succeeded even once.
"Look at your arms. You have made a mess of them," he added as he began to examine his arms, and his brother seemed to be in a much better spirit than yesterday, though he knew that it was mostly because of their father and the clan and how they all seemingly shunned him.
Izuna Uchiha, his elder brother, had once been the hero of the clan. Both him and his friend were touted as the geniuses who would go on to change teh destiny of their clan, and yet all that had changed the second after their first mission. Itachi did not know the details, but apparently, his own brother's reputation had made it so that their team was targeted specifically by enemy nin,
In the end, all of them had been killed except his brother, who had managed to kill the enemy in, but at a great cost to himself. He had been recovering back in the village while expanding his skill set.
Before that incident, his brother was a very jolly person, quiet but with a very sharp and quick humor. He was quick to laugh and smile, often playing with him. And though they still played, Itachi was not blind to the lack of smiles and laughs that now plagued his brother, who had become even quieter than him.
"Come let me treat these. If mother sees you like this, she will be very wroth with you," his brother said as he sat him down, before he made a tiger hand seal. And then his hands began to glow with that characteristic greenish hue he had seen so many times in the hospital, and as he placed it over his wounds Itachi watched them close in seconds as the cuts and scrapes vanished, the torn skin began to regrow.
This was the skill his brother had spent the last six months mastering, iryo-ninjutsu. The clan was very unhappy because of that, wishing for him to focus more on teh traditional Uchiha arts such as ninjutsu and genjutsu.
Most Uchiha considered Iryo-ninjutsu beneath them, hailing it as a woman's technique used by cowards. One could not make a greater insult against a Uchiha than calling him a coward.
"You do know that you can talk to me about anything," his elder brother added, his eyes still focused on the wounds he was healing.
"You are my brother, and if there is anything that is troubling, you can ask me about it," he offered. Itachi was surprised that his brother had read through him so quickly. Still, then he remembered how he had spoken out against their father for trying to take him to the battlefield and realized that he must have gone through something similar, that he must have witnessed the same horrors he had witnessed today.
And for a second there, the questions that had plagued his mind nearly came to his tongue, and yet, for some reason, Itachi felt that he did not need to know the answer, that for such questions, every one of them had to reach their own conclusion.
And so, rather than asking the questions, he nodded.
"I know," he agreed as his brother looked up and nodded before his eyes narrowed, and the smile vanished in an instant.
"And if I ever see you training so recklessly, I will personally make sure to pass on each and every detail to Mother. Then we shall see what becomes of your training," and Itachi knew better than to tempt their mother, and took the warning seriously as he answered quickly.
"I will be careful from now," and with that, he stood up as both of them began to walk towards their home.
"Why did you decide to learn iryo-ninjutsu?" Itachi found himself asking another question, one that he had often thought of.
His brother was quiet for some time before he looked to the skies.
"A very good answer would be to say that I did to heal, to mend wounds of my comrades. To be more than just a killer," his brother scoffed, and there was a hint of regret in that tone, regret that these words were not true.
"But the truth is that I learned it for all that and one more reason. One reason that dwarfs everything," and at that, his tone sharpened as his hand glowed green once more.
"Because it is one of the most underutilized and underappreciated tools available to us, especially as Uchiha, because it makes me a better shinobi," and Itachi was shaken by the words that followed this declaration.
"Because it makes me a better killer..." he spoke as he finished his treatment and continued, without looking up.
"As shinobi, chakra control is the bread and butter of our lives, and iryo-ninjutsu is that pinnacle. If you excel at it and truly learn it, you add several tools to your arsenal, tools that, because of their uniqueness, make it so that your enemies will not be able to react to you appropriately at all. It is, in ways, the perfect hidden blade," and Itachi was surprised at that.
"So, you think the Uchiha fighting style is too mundane," he asked, and his brother nodded.
"You must understand that our clan has been fighting for hundreds of years. By now, the other villages have a certain grasp of our abilities, and while our Kekkei Genkai indeed gives us an advantage, I believe it would be better to add diversity to one's technique to be unpredictable for that could be the factor that might decide the fate of your team, and mission," and it was a very well thought out argument.
And now he could see why Izuna-nii was not liked by the elders, who must have felt disrespected by his argument, calling the accumulation of their lives faulty.
And as Itachi thought more and more about the argument, it made more and more sense.
"Will you teach it to me as well?" for he was set to start the academy soon, and he wished to keep up with his brother, who had broken several records there.
"Hmmm, I will see about that. But first, you need to promise me that you will not pull any stunts like today again," and Itachi nodded, taking up the warning as they stopped at the door of their home.
"Then good," and with that, they entered their home, as they slid open the doors, and slid off their shoes.
"We are home," his brother added as their mother's voice came in from the kitchen.
"Izuna-kun, Itachi-kun, you are both home," she greeted them, and Izuna-nii nodded as he gave him a wink.
"Yes, we met up, and I decided to train with Itachi for a bit..."
And so, they busied themselves as he helped their mother set the table while Izuna-kun went to his room to change.
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