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The next day, Kiara woke up from her sleep and quickly got changed for the day. She took out her ninja tools and placed them in a small grey pouch that she'd always carry. Walking out of her room, Kiara started making her way through the long corridors.
As she did so, her brothers came out from their respective rooms as well. They all greeted each other good morning and walked into the dining room together. Upon entering, they watched as their mother and father had breakfast together.
Mikoto was the first to acknowledge the trio. "Good morning." Her smile radiated.
"Good morning, Okaasan, Otousan."
"Welcome back, Kiara-chan." Fugaku turned his attention towards the said girl and gave her a small smile, while Kiara returned the favor.
"Thank you, Otō-san."
"It's refreshing to see the three of you together once more." The elder male commented as he sipped his coffee and looked back at the newspaper he read. "I suppose you've prepared yourselves already?"
The siblings nodded their heads, silently looking at one another with faint smirks etched on their lips. Mikoto, on the other hand, was confused. She placed her chopsticks down and tilted her head to the side.
"Prepared for what?"
"Training, Kāa-san," Sasuke said, a tint of enthusiast in his tone.
"Oh, how could I forget?" Mikoto giggled, turning towards her only daughter with a smile. "You know, Kiara, ever since you went to that boarding school, these two were upset that you weren't with them during their training. Now that you're back, you can actually see how excited they are to train with you again."
Kiara smirked at her brothers with crossed arms. "Missed me that much, huh?"
Both brothers looked down shyly, resulting in Fugaku and Mikoto to laugh. Just the sight of Kiara's family smiling and sharing such pleasant memories caused her to smile widely as well. Her eyes softened and her heart warmed up.
'I missed those smiles...' She thought to herself.
"Well, what are you three waiting for? If you don't eat your breakfast now, you may never get to the training grounds on time." Mikoto said as she gestured her three children to join her and their father.
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Once the three Uchihas have finished breakfast, they bid their parents goodbye and went on the path to the training grounds together. The siblings have been doing this ever since they were very young. They would always study together and train their hardest, helping one another to cope up and do better.
And ever since they've been together, they started to share similar goals - which was to become one of the strongest ninjas in the village and to be able to protect their homeland.
When the trio had arrived at their destination, Kiara looked around and absorbed in her surroundings. She saw that not much has changed and she smiled at the thought.
"Right, let's start our training. Kiara, Sasuke, in positions!"
The two instantly obeyed their elder brother's instructions and ran towards their usual spots on the field. Itachi took a few steps forward until he positioned himself in the middle.
"Remember the drill. The first rule about ninjas: Never let your guard down." Itachi slowly pulled out eight kunai knives, four for each, and he smirked to himself.
"Let's begin."
At first, there was a moment of silence between the three, except for the wind that blew calmly at the tensed ambiance. The grasses swayed back and forth to the wind's commands, bending in a certain direction they were given.
As the tension started to increase between them, Itachi suddenly made his first move. He ran at lightning speed before leaping high into the air and sent his eight kunai knives towards Kiara and Sasuke.
Kiara and Sasuke's eyes both widened as they quickly deflected the attacks. Before they could even look up to Itachi, he had already gotten behind both of them.
"There are two of you?" Sasuke was baffled.
Kiara, on the other hand, already knew what jutsu Itachi had used on them and she chuckled lightly at their little brother's reaction. Well, let's just say she actually learned a thing or two from her previous schooling.
"Sasuke-kun. You're not familiar with this jutsu, are you?" When she didn't receive a reply she continued on. "This technique is called the Shadow Clone jutsu. You use your chakra to distribute yourself into a number of clones using particular hand signs. As you can see, this technique is quite useful when you're up against numbers."
Itachi let a small smirk show, "So you did learn something new after all. You said you didn't."
Kiara merely shrugged her shoulders with a small cheeky smile, but nevertheless, still stood her ground.
"Not bad, Onii-san..." Sasuke commented as straightened his stance and looked up at Itachi's clone.
"Both of you failed the first and one of the most important rules." Itachi frowned.
However, as if both siblings had just telepathically communicated with each other in a blink of an eye, they silently nodded with a sneaky smirk.
"Oh, have we really?"
Kiara suddenly made the first move by instantly crouching to the ground to swipe Itachi's legs. Unfortunately, Itachi dodged her attack and started advancing towards her with a series of attacks. Kiara leaped and continued to dodge them, trying to find any sort of chance of an opening.
Meanwhile, Itachi's clone that held Sasuke back seemed a 'bit' distracted for the moment, amused at the scene he was watching. Sasuke immediately took this opportunity.
He grabbed Itachi's arm firmly and flipped him down to the ground, wrestling with him. "I have you pinned now, Nii-san."
Itachi smirked at the cockiness his brother portrayed. "Don't be so full of yourself, otōto-kun." With that, his clone instantly vanished into thin air, leaving the younger teen to stand up and stay on guard.
With Kiara, she had been handling the real Itachi pretty well. In fact, Itachi was impressed by how much she had gotten stronger and more clever in her tactics since the last time they practiced together.
"You're getting better, imouto-chan. I'm quite flattered."
"It's not just me though. Sasuke's grown so much and he's improving." Kiara said as she flipped herself backward and threw shurikens at Itachi - in which of course he deflected effortlessly.
"It's not enough..."
"What do you mean?" The female frowned.
"Sasuke hasn't activated his Sharingan yet. Yes, he has improved but Tou-san has started to question and doubt on when Sasuke would actually activate it." Itachi let out a small sigh.
"Don't get me wrong but I do see Sasuke making a lot of improvements. I've trained with him, most of the time. In fact, I can say that I am proud of him. It's just... Father tends to compare him to me, and that's been bothering Sasuke for awhile now.
Sasuke wants to be stronger than me. I can see that... No matter how much he looks up to me, I've still noticed how foul his mood would be every time Tou-san will compare him to me. So, I made it my goal to help Sasuke achieve his goal of getting stronger, and possibly more powerful than I am."
"I understand your reasoning, Nii-san. However, it should've been made clear with Tou-san from the very start that you and Sasuke are different. You both lived at different times. You activated your Sharingan at a young age due to war, and Sasuke hasn't even experienced that! We now live at a time of peace, and hopefully, it stays that way..."
Kiara sighed as she turned towards where Sasuke and Itachi's clone fought. Her gaze narrowed down a bit as she continued to observe, and it took a moment for her to make her final resolve on this matter.
"Though, I'll help you on that goal, Nii-san." She turned back towards Itachi and gave him a determined smile. "Obviously, I can't teach him how to activate the Sharingan, since you taught me that it is something that one must experience on their own. But, I'll look after him and make sure that he'll achieve his goal. I'll see to it that it happens. However, I also require that you will make some time with me as well, and not always with Sasuke-kun.
You can teach him and train with him all you want, but promise that you'd make some time for me too. Or else, I'll have to replace you with Shisui-san." Kiara teased with a smirk before she felt Itachi poke on her forehead with his two fingers.
"Of course, imouto-chan. I will always make time for you." Itachi smiled as he tilted his head slightly to the side. "Besides, I can't lose you to Shisui either."
He and Kiara laughed before they looked back at Sasuke practicing.
"Well, what are we doing just standing around here then? I said that I'd help you train Sasuke, but obviously I can't lose to him either. So, come on! Let's train already." Kiara smirked as she readied her stance and prepared herself for another heated battle.
She wasn't planning on losing either way since she also had dreams of her own of becoming a renowned kunoichi. However, since she and Itachi had touched on the subject of having a kekkei genkai activated, Kiara began to wonder herself...
'I wonder when I'll be able to activate my Sharingan like Onii-san...'
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After their intense training, Itachi and a slightly exhausted Kiara walked towards Sasuke who was lying down on the lush grass. He was panting heavily as he stared up at the blue skies and fluffy clouds.
That was until Itachi and Kiara blocked Sasuke's view as they looked down at him, laughing lightly. "Tired already?" Kiara teased her little brother, grinning.
The said teen chuckled a bit. "Just relaxing for a moment. Join me, Nii-san, Nee-chan." He said as he didn't hesitate to take ahold of both of their wrists and pulled them down with such strength.
Kiara giggled as she laid next to Sasuke and Itachi on his other side, all looking up at the blue sky.
"It is fascinating," Itachi commented.
"A vast and endless place to journey to." Kiara added and Sasuke agreed, nodding.
The Uchihas spent the rest of the time together, bonding, relaxing and just enjoying each other's company. Either they were discussing or they were being silent. Kiara had never felt this happy.
Everyone knew that as an Uchiha, a person's character would be cold and distant, but many didn't know that their hearts were as warm and loving as others. And that's what Kiara felt like right now.
She sighed contently as she closed her eyes, feeling the cool breeze blow against her soft, fair skin. Her dark brown hair danced gracefully with the wind, caressing her face, yet she didn't mind.
After a long while, Sasuke spoke up and turned towards Itachi. "Teach me that jutsu, Nii-san."
"Later, Sasuke." Itachi chuckled lightly, obviously teasing the younger one and Kiara smiled at this.
"Come on, 'Tachi. Let's teach him." She pushed herself to sit back up and stretched her arms. "Besides, we probably have an hour or more until lunchtime. Might as well use it productively."
Itachi sighed inaudibly but nodded, agreeing with her. He too sat up and began stretching and flexing his arms a little.
"Well, hurry up then." Sasuke's lips slowly turned into a small smile as he got up rather quickly, eager to get back to work.
While Kiara stood in her place, watching as Itachi suddenly poked Sasuke on the forehead, she began smiling at their small exchange and giggled at the sight.
'You guys are adorable...'
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