A shuriken?
Soone was attacking him?
Without even turning his head, Uchiha Itachi instantly sensed danger before he had fully landed. Acting purely on instinct, he pulled a shuriken from his waist and hurled it backward with incredible precision and speed, like an arrow piercing through the air toward the incoming black blur.
Clink!
The shuriken struck the target perfectly.
But to Itachi's surprise, the incoming "shuriken" was absurdly fragile. The instant his own shuriken hit it, the object shattered into several pieces before scattering across the ground, while his own weapon continued flying forward without slowing down.
"Watch out!"
Only then did the warning cry finally arrive.
The other person clearly hadn't even realized Itachi had already counterattacked and was still foolishly trying to warn him.
An accident?
Only now did Itachi realize that what he had shattered was rely a stone.
He imdiately understood the situation.
The instant he landed, he simultaneously pulled another kunai from his other side and threw it with an even more exquisite technique toward the first shuriken he had launched.
Thunk!
The kunai arrived later yet overtook the shuriken first, striking directly through the center ring of the spinning weapon at blinding speed.
The impact forcibly altered the shuriken's trajectory, sending it flying harmlessly into a nearby tree instead.
This…
Was why Uchiha Itachi had been praised as a genius since childhood.
A near-divine mastery of shurikenjutsu.
"Woooah!"
Little Naruto let out a delayed cry of amazent.
Naturally, he was the one who had shouted the warning earlier.
He had rely been skipping stones near the riverbank when soone suddenly dropped down from the sky.
Seeing the stranger nearly collide with the stone he had thrown, Naruto had instinctively shouted to warn him.
Yet in the next instant, the other party had effortlessly shattered Naruto's stone with a single shuriken.
But what truly stunned Naruto was what happened afterward—
The shuriken had actually changed direction in midair!
A second ago it had clearly been flying toward him, yet suddenly it curved away and embedded itself in the tree beside him.
"So cool!"
Unable to see the second kunai Itachi had thrown, Naruto completely misunderstood the situation and believed the shuriken itself had curved through the air.
He imdiately ran up to Itachi excitedly and loudly praised him.
It's him?
Only now did Itachi fully straighten up while staring at Naruto in surprise.
The reason he had mistaken the stone for a sneak attack earlier was because the speed and trajectory of Naruto's throw had been astonishingly similar to proper shuriken technique.
Even Sasuke—who was already being personally taught by both Itachi and their father—couldn't produce that kind of effect while using actual shuriken.
And Naruto should be around Sasuke's age, shouldn't he?
Could it really have just been coincidence?
"Um, I was only playing near the river earlier! I didn't an to throw it at you!"
Seeing Itachi silently staring at him, Naruto grew nervous and hurriedly explained himself.
"I didn't expect you to suddenly jump down from the sky!"
Then, worried the other party might misunderstand further, Naruto quickly tossed the remaining stones in his hand toward another direction while speaking.
"See? I was just playing like this!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Itachi watched the stones Naruto casually threw.
Every single one traced a standard shuriken arc.
At that point, Itachi finally understood—
That earlier throw absolutely hadn't been an accident.
Naruto truly could reproduce proper throwing technique even with ordinary stones.
"...No. It's fine."
After a mont of silence, Itachi revealed a polite smile.
"Sorry for interrupting you."
The instant he finished speaking, Itachi vanished from Naruto's sight with a Body Flicker Technique, leaving Naruto standing there utterly stunned.
"So… so cool!"
Stars practically sparkled in Naruto's eyes.
Most of the shinobi he encountered around the village were lazy middle-aged n. He had never t a ninja only slightly older than himself before.
It completely broadened his horizons.
"Ahh, I forgot to ask his na…"
Naruto rested both hands behind his head while replaying Itachi's cool sequence of actions in his mind.
Then suddenly, a glint of reflected sunlight from the tree trunk caught his eye.
It was the shuriken Itachi had thrown earlier.
"Whoa, it's a real shuriken!"
Naruto's eyes imdiately lit up.
He quickly ran over and reached out to pull the weapon from the tree before finally noticing another long kunai pinned through the shuriken's ring.
"Huh? Why's there another kunai?"
Completely unable to understand what had happened, Naruto curiously examined the two ninja tools in his hands.
Under the sunlight, the dark tal glead sharply, naturally giving off a faintly chilling aura.
After playing with them for a while, Naruto secretly tucked them away.
Then he nervously looked around to ensure nobody had noticed before hurriedly heading ho.
"I'll return them next ti I et him."
Naruto thought to himself.
"Before then, playing with them a little shouldn't count as stealing, right?"
anwhile, elsewhere—
After leaving Naruto behind, Itachi entered a nearby forest and quickly returned to the Uchiha clan's training grounds.
At the mont, Sasuke was panting heavily while practicing shuriken throws beneath the scorching sun.
Sweat covered the young boy's face.
Even though Itachi had temporarily left him behind with assigned training, Sasuke hadn't relaxed in the slightest.
Seeing that, a gentle look appeared in Itachi's eyes as he quietly stood behind his brother without speaking.
"Hah!"
Sasuke threw another shuriken.
Most of them missed the targets entirely, and even the few that struck lacked enough force to sink deeply into the wood.
"Damn it! Why can't I do it like big brother? Is my strength too weak?"
Sasuke complained irritably while randomly waving his shuriken around in frustration.
"Shuriken aren't thrown with strength. Technique is the key."
Itachi finally spoke.
"Ah, big brother!"
Hearing the voice, Sasuke imdiately turned around in delight.
Seeing Itachi quietly standing behind him, Sasuke asked sheepishly:
"Didn't you say you had sothing to do? Why are you back so soon?"
"It's finished."
Itachi smiled gently.
"Co. I'll teach you."
As he spoke, Itachi personally adjusted Sasuke's posture by hand, helping him morize the correct movents first.
Under Itachi's guidance, Sasuke managed to hit the bullseye a few tis after training all afternoon, though most of his throws still missed.
That wasn't because Sasuke lacked talent.
Training like this relied heavily on feel and repetition.
The Uchiha clan were natural-born shinobi talents. For them, diligent practice was enough to eventually master such skills.
No matter how gifted a ninja was, most so-called geniuses praised by others still fundantally relied on relentless effort to refine their abilities.
Under the glow of the evening sunset, Itachi carried Sasuke on his back while thinking about the things that had bothered him today.
Aside from Shisui suddenly leaving, Naruto's effortless ability to throw stones with such incredible precision also left Itachi deeply puzzled.
"Could soone already be secretly teaching him?"
anwhile—
Back at ho, Naruto stared excitedly at the ninja tools on his table while rubbing his hands together eagerly.
While playing with the kunai earlier, he suddenly experienced a flash of inspiration.
Sohow, he vaguely recalled seeing a strange symbol in his dreams many tis before…
And it felt like the symbol had been engraved on this very kunai.
"What was it called again…"
Naruto frowned in concentration.
"I rember it had sothing to do with flying…"
Trying hard to piece together his blurry mory, Naruto grabbed a brush he had picked up from sowhere long ago and began sketching the symbol according to what he rembered.
"The Flying Thunder God formula?"
Kurama sounded genuinely surprised while watching from inside the ntal world.
But after observing for a while longer, he imdiately scoffed.
"He rembered all of it wrong. The beginning's vaguely correct, but everything afterward is completely ssed up."
"No rush."
Hearing Kurama's comnt, Minato—who was currently preparing tonight's lesson plan nearby—simply smiled gently.
"We can take it slowly."
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/AiraTales7
(change @-> a)
User Comments
0 comments from readers