Training and loss!

AN: Here, WE, GOOO!

WC: 1,262

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[KA: 63]

September 29th

Four months later,

Akuma's progress had dramatically skyrocketed he had mastered the leaf concentration exercise and the tree walking exercise, he had decided to save the water walking for a different time as there was just no need for him to use it. Akuma had decided to add a few basic jutsu to his repertoire, his mum specifically told him to not take high-rank jutsu from the study as he wouldn't be able to understand them.

Akuma understood his mother's worries so only took a few D and E rank ninjutsu.

He had mastered the substitution technique so he no longer requires hand seals for the technique, and the transformation was pretty much the same although he still needed one hand seal. The one that he struggled with the most was the clone jutsu it was so hard in that this was the reason he started the tree walking exercise. This was because the clone jutsu required more precise chakra control, something the young Namikaze just didn't have.

One day in the study, he found his father's notes on his self-created Taijutsu style, it was a mix of the Hyuuga's gentle fist and the Uchiha's interceptor fist. The style was based on predicting and avoiding enemy attacks with fast, precise counterattacks to the enemy's pressure points. One strike was all that was needed to disable arms, and legs in some cases completely paralyze or even kill your enemy.

Akuma's training program was suicidal for the average gennin even some chunnin.

From the moment he woke up at five he would have breakfast and do some light stretching then, he would run around the village multiple times after that, it would lead him to the Hokage mountain which he would first climb one-handed and he would use cliff walking to further progress his chakra control as there cliffs where uneven it was perfect for the four-year-old.

This would approximately take him to lunchtime. He would return home to his mum and spend an hour with her, every now and then his oji-san, the Sandaime Hokage would come round and monitor his progress in the sealing arts.

His training would continue at three o clock in the afternoon. He would spend an hour practising shurikenjutsu. This was one of his strongest subjects he could confidently hit a bullseye whilst stationary nine times out of ten, when moving though he could only hit a bullseye occasionally, it was a work in progress.

Then from four to six, the young Namikaze would practise his fuinjutsu and sometimes when his mother wasn't busy she would help him which was very beneficial to his training. Akuma has already completed the first two levels which surprised his mother to no extent, she knew he would be talented but she didn't think her son would be this prodigious to get to this level in four months when it took her a year and a half and his father a year. She shuddered to think how adept Akuma would be in a few years' time.

The two volumes he completed were extremely basic and easy, Akuma could have completed them much sooner if he really wanted to instead he decided to split his time among all the subjects instead of just focusing on one singular one. The first two levels were the basics of the basics, seal recognition, the foundational language of seals for the first part, culminating in storage seals. The second was synced and localized reactions such as explosive tags and building multifaceted arrays.

Finally, for the rest of the day, Akuma would practise his father's taijutsu stance and all the kata's he needed. Akuma eventually found out that without a sparring partner his development was limited however he only knew of one person his age and that was Uchiha Itachi, the son of his mother's best friend Mikoto Uchiha and his father's friend Fugaku Uchiha. The crimson-haired boy had met him before but only when they were still in nappies. Akuma wouldn't search him out though as he would be patient and he would eventually run into him.

This routine would be completed every day bar Sunday as it was his day of rest, normally he would spend this time exploring the village or with his mother going to Ichirakus.

Today was different though, today was there day the front line would return from Iwa while the war was on a hiatus. The Namikaze wasn't naive he knew this was but the calm before the storm.

He was with his mother and hundreds of families mostly women and young children as all the men were participating in the war. They were all crowded around the gates of Konoha all eagerly awaiting the return of the beloved.

A few minutes later,

The army of shinobi trudged through the gates, a gloomy atmosphere was spread throughout the crowd many shinobi had limbs torn off or had severe injuries, some were being carried on stretchers and some were just rotten carcases. Some started crying due to the loss of their family while others were excited that their family returned.

Towards the back of the crowd was a tall man standing at six foot two, he had long golden blonde hair with two bangs framing the front of his head. He had azure blue eyes and he wore a long sleeve blue tracksuit with a jonin vest of Konoha. His normal fixed smile was no longer present on his face, he walked slowly.

Next to him stood a much smaller boy he had silver gravity-defying hair, he had his Konoha headband concealing his left eye and a blue mask covering his facial features his single black eye was lifeless. He wore a short sleeve blue shirt with silver lines coming from the shoulder. He had metal armguards strapped on his forearms and he had blue shinobi pants wrapped at the ankles with blue shinobi sandals.

"Tou-san, Nii-san, over here!"

The two aforementioned people made their way over to the red-haired couple.

"Otouto," Kakashi said with the slightest smile, that was painfully faked, obvious to anyone.

Minato wrapped his arms around his wife's waist and engaged in a passionate kiss.

"Ughh, please I'm right here ya know!" The smaller child shouted, "Any way where's Rin-nee chan and Obito-nii,"

At the mention of the two names both Kakashi and Minato's expressions changed and a painful look appeared in their eyes.

Kakashi looked much worse than his sensei, tears were forming in his eyes and his voice was cracking, "I'm sorry outoto, I couldn't protect them, they have passed on, it was all my fault please forgive me, I should have tried harder to protect them,"

Akuma had never experienced a loss of a family member before and whilst they weren't blood-related they were close enough. The young Namikaze's mind was doing loops. 'N-n-nooo it's impossible his brother and sister couldn't be dead, impossible,' Akuma went silent as his mind had to process the information. His long shaggy red hair covered his eyes as a few tears splashed onto the ground. He jumped onto his last remaining Nii-san and tightly wrapped his small arms around the much bigger boy. "It's okay Nii-san you don't need to blame yourself I'm sure they died defending the village.

"That they did otouto," Kakashi said, his mind much clearer than before, it felt as if a right had been lifted from his mind.

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AN: Well that's a wrap for this chapter next chapter is him meeting Uchiha Itachi.