5 5.

The only logical explanation for Kakashi's immediate beginning of training would be that he was constantly spying on the trio of genin. Or maybe he noticed the new, weird cohesion Team 7 had. No matter what, Sasuke and Naruto would always argue, although now there was an underlayer of reluctant fondness instead of mostly spite and jealousy. The dynamic had shifted and it felt a little easier for Sasuke to breathe.

Now that their teamwork was somewhat bearable, Kakashi had surprised them the next morning. It was well over a month since their graduation from the academy and he deemed them ready for their own type of training. 

"Sakura!" he called out. 

"Yes, sensei?" 

"Hm, you're a genjutsu type. How do you feel about learning some genjutsu? I am not a genjutsu specialist but I could pass you a few D and C-rank techniques if you want?"

"Please train me in genjutsu as much as you can!"

"Well, your reserves at the moment are too small for any elemental ninjutsu. That's fine. It's a mostly chuunin skill and if your chakra control is as good as I think it is, genjutsu would be the perfect fit for you," he mused. He then snapped his fingers. "Actually, Sakura, could you please try walking up that tree in front of you?" Seeing her dumbfounded expression, he demonstrated what he had initially asked of her.

"Okay," and she walked up on her first try. 

Kakashi shivered at her savage smirk. Oh, she would grow up to be very terrifying indeed. 

"Once you fix your nutritional diet fit for a kunoichi we can begin finding a taijutsu style that fits you. For now however, I want you to next work on water-walking once you're sure you're perfectly fine with tree-walking." 

"Yes, sensei," she chirped, although her face did twist in disgust at the word 'diet'. 

"You must also build up endurance to increase your stamina. If I make you a physical training regimen would you stick to it, Sakura?" he asked, curiously. 

She nodded her head furiously, seemingly shocked that he would even ask that of her. "Of course, sensei!" 

Then she ran off in a frenzy to work on what he ordered her to. 

"Now, Naruto," Kakashi began, catching the attention of the boy who was watching Sakura with awe etched on his face, "you are definitely a ninjutsu type. You have larger chakra reserves than most shinobi I have ever fought." 

This seemed to surprise the blond who gasped in excitement. "Really?" 

"Mhm, I think your affinity is wind, but just to be sure, take this paper and channel chakra through it," he ordered and when Naruto looked at him in confusion, he gave a basic explanation of its application. 

Just as he predicted, the paper split in two. "Wind is untameable and very, very destructive, similar to fire. I'll teach you a few low-ranked Wind style techniques but what I want to mostly do with you is work on your chakra control as much as possible and refine your messy taijutsu. Your advantage will be your persistence and stamina. So you've gotta also think quickly while fighting and be creative. Do you think you can do that?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Good," he said, smiling fondly and ruffling his hair. Again, it felt like he was seeing someone else, and now knowing who Kakashi's own sensei was, it was probably the Fourth Hokage. "Finally, Sasuke." Kakashi handed him the same paper he lent Naruto and as he channeled chakra, the paper crinkled and later burnt into flames. 

"Interesting, lightning affinity with a minor fire affinity." 

If Sasuke didn't have a minor fire affinity he might have lost his temper. Why lightning? To Uchihas fire represented their strong spirit. Fire gifted to them from Amaterasu whom they worshipped heavily was what made them such fearsome warriors. The blazing hot fire and their glinting Sharingan that pierced through darkness gave them a constant warm undertone. It was their pride and although to some they seemed like budding pyromaniacs, the beauty of flames was something Uchihas would never stop appreciating until the end of time. Uchihas were birthed with fire and would die in fire, their remains cremated so they could move on and have their souls eternally blessed by the Gods. 

What made him different? Now that he thought about it, that must have been the reason why mastering the Grand Fireball Jutsu was harder than it should have been, compared to the rest of the clan children his age at the time. Was he an outlier then? Was everything about him going to be so different from what it should be? If all of this happened at the age where he was desperately working to gain his father's approval, he might have enjoyed the feeling of standing out but now all he could imagine was failure of living up to the entirety of the Uchiha name he wanted to represent with pride so badly. 

"Don't look at me like that, Sasuke," his sensei chided upon seeing his unimpressed expression. "Two affinities is quite rare. I can easily teach you some fire techniques I've picked up. My affinity is actually also lightning so I'll be teaching you a lot of it and how to make your main affinity stronger. That and your Sharingan training will help you improve as a shinobi. I wonder though, do you want to learn genjutsu? I understand it was Itachi Uchiha's speciality… but it was also what made the Uchiha clan so feared." 

Exemplified by his flinch at the name, it seemed as though Kakashi noticed his avoidance of anything that reminded him that of night, in particular his genjutsu torture. 

"He made a genjutsu where I saw my family die over and over again," he confessed defiantly at the sympathetic expression. Oh, how he hated that look. "It felt like forever. It felt like time didn't even exist. If there's any way I can counter that, any way I can make sure that never happens again, I'll take it." 

If Sasuke felt helpless upon discovering his parent's corpse, it didn't compare to the endless scene etched so detailed in his mind as a grim reminder for the rest of his short life. At one point he stopped screaming for someone to make it all stop, just stared with growing apathy as he memorised each slash, each glint that reflected off the blade. His younger cousin, only four years old, murdered in cold blood without a single spared glance, babies he remembered visiting when they were born with his mother slaughtered like cattle, elderly men and women who used to coo at him and feed him sweets they knew he hated just to watch his expression twist into a grimace, beheaded gruesomely, aunts who gossiped but still hugged him whenever they saw him ruthlessly stabbed.

 He stared. 

And waited for the next scene. 

Mother. Father. 

Each time he was too weak to save them, and each time he moved closer and closer to their bodies, only for them to be mercilessly taken away from him at the last second. Perhaps the largest betrayal was after the few hundred times he tried to save his parents, he gave up and simply watched. 

"As I said to Sakura, I'm not a genjutsu expert. The Uchihas used to be the ones most proficient with the help of their Sharingan. Now, the only jounin I know of that specialises in genjutsu is Kurenai Yuhi but she has a genin team of her own to train." 

"Scrolls," Sasuke murmured. At Kakashi's raised eyebrow he grunted, "I have scrolls on genjutsu at the private clan library." 

"You'd share them with me?" Kakashi asked incredulously. Everyone knew how much the Uchiha hoarded their information, especially on genjutsu close to their chest. Past attempts at sharing such a vault of knowledge was vehemently denied. 

"Anything to fight him," Sasuke said as if that explained everything, and in a way it did. 

"I see. Well, now that I've explained the overview of your training, for now I also want you to join Naruto and Sakura to tree-walk. This will improve your chakra control and in general is very essential to a shinobi's career." 

"Fine." 

Dirt-covered and groaning, Naruto, who had just fallen off a low branch, looked up and yelled, "Bet you can't climb higher than me, bastard!" 

Oh, it was so on. Nobody challenges Sasuke Uchiha and wins. 

"I'm better than both of you losers!" Sakura bellowed from above in the highest branch of her tree. 

Both of the boys' competitive streak ignited once again, taking determined stances and running up for hours on end until they perfected the task. 

With his book in his hand, Kakashi wondered if Sasuke would be anywhere near as cooperative as he currently was if he wasn't directly useful in aiding his goals of revenge. 

Sasuke on the other hand wondered how long his training would take for him to be prepared to finally fight his brother to the death and lay down his burdens. 

And when he meant to lay down his burdens he meant to join his mother and father right after Itachi died. Perhaps there was no need for the Uchiha clan to repopulate. Nobody deserves them, certainly not the village that turned their backs on them over time. He would end the legacy but allow it to live on in memory. He would give the rest of his clansmen the peace they truly needed in order to rest eternally. Hopefully the gods were merciful enough to understand the reasoning behind his suicide. 

(Truthfully, he couldn't imagine starting a family, couldn't imagine falling in love and marrying a woman. Why force himself to do so when it wouldn't matter in the end? It wouldn't bring him contentment, only more misery once he realised how incapable he is of functioning normally. He was too jaded, too broken for a domestic life of peace and retirement. Nonetheless, there was no need for more Uchiha to exist, only for true justice to be served.) 

Kakashi watched Sasuke's grip on his shirt tighten and his face darken with the destructive, fatal thoughts poisoning his mind steadily and with feigned indifference turned to the other side, no matter how uncannily similar it looked to when he was on the verge of insanity himself.