The Crow` guardian

Itachi knew that his dream is something almost impossible to achieve, destroying a thousand years of hatred and ending all grudges between nations is something very difficult to achieve and to tell the truth the little Uchiha doesn't even know where to start, but what he does know it that in order to make his dream come true, he need to be strong.

Stronger than anyone.

Itachi needs to become the most powerful ninja in history to make his dream come true and eliminate all the senseless bloodshed.

`Step 1: Become the next Shinobi God! I'll think about the next steps later... Every legend had to start learning the basics, Hashirama and Madara didn't start their training learning S-rank techniques.`

The current goal of the heir to the Uchiha clan is to learn the basic skills of a ninja. Normally one learns them at the Academy or under someone's tutelage, but since Itachi is too young to attend the Academy and his mother forbade his father to start his training because she wants him to enjoy his childhood as much as possible , Itachi must train on his own.

The boy is smart enough to know that training alone without any supervision could result in injury or bad habits, so the first thing he did was visit his clan library and the village library and spend several days reading dozens of books on different types of basic ninja training methods.

Itachi learned different methods to strengthen his body, exercises to increase his flexibility and dexterity, and a lot of information about different things that a shinobi must learn.

Since chakra is an energy that, if misused, could even kill the user, Itachi decided not to risk it and put that issue aside until his mother finally decided to allow him to begin his formal training.

Currently Itachi is running through one of the parks in Konoha, more specifically he is running through the small forest that is on the side of the park. Konoha is full of plant life, the village is not only surrounded by small lakes, rivers and many forests, but also has a wide variety of trees and plants growing within the village forming small forests.

Since many of these trees are the result of the legendary ability of the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama, they are revered by the population and destroying them is frowned upon. As a result, Konoha has many small forests inside.

Itachi is running through the forest to increase his reflexes, stamina, and dexterity, as running through a forest where one has to constantly be aware of one's surroundings and be careful not to trip over a root or crash into a tree is very difficult. At first Itachi just jogged slowly as he got his body used to the exercise but over the weeks his body adapted and now he can run at his top speed.

But the child is still not satisfied, he wants to reach the level of being able to run through the forest without being consciously aware of his surroundings, he wants his body to learn to pay attention to his surroundings and react automatically to it without him having to think about it. That is one of the skills that all shinobi must master, the most talented are able to dodge attacks from blind spots as a reflex, without even having to think about it.

`I still have a long way to go to reach that level, but I will do it! Definitely!`

In the last days Itachi added another level of difficulty to his running routine, now he is also practicing the hand seals while he runs.

Hand seals are gestures that help ninjas correctly summon and shape the chakra needed to perform a technique. There are a total of 12 basic hand seals

(Saru/Monkey, Tatsu/Dragon, Ne/Rat, Tori/Bird, Mi/Snake, Ushi/Ox, Inu/Dog, Uma/Horse, Tora/Tiger, I/Boar, Hitsuji/Ram, U/Harre), and apart from those hand seals there are other unique ones that are used for different advanced techniques such as the Mental Arts of the Yamanaka clan or the Shadow Arts of the Nara clan.

A shinobi must learn to form these hand seals instinctively and at great speed in order to use the Ninja Arts effectively in battle.

"Ram, Harre-" Itachi murmurs as he forms the hand seals, when forming Harre he didn't manage to form the seal smoothly and while diverting his attention to his hands he tripped over a root.

He quickly focused his attention and extended a hand to the ground, used it to propel himself up and flipped forward landing in a crouch.

"Phew... I have to pay more attention." Itachi wipes the sweat from his forehead and continues with his training.

Unknown to him, a figure is watching him from the top of a nearby tree.

"That kid..." The figure sighs in relief seeing that his ward didn't get hurt. "I still don't understand why Mikoto-sama doesn't allow Itachi-sama to start his formal training... He is brilliant, very talented and eager to learn. Well, it's not my place to interfere in my bosses' decisions, I just have to take care of the young master."

The figure is none other than Uchiha Shisui, a chunin-ranked ninja and Itachi's babysitter. Mikoto assigned the mission of protecting her son to Shisui for two purposes, the most obvious being the protection of her child. The second purpose is more hidden and Shisui is ignorant of it, Mikoto wants to remove Shisui from active service and keep him within the village.

The reason is quite simple, Shisui is the son of Mikoto's sensei and she wants to protect him. Uchiha Shisui became a ninja in the middle of the war, at the tender age of five, without even having time to get used to his new life, the five-year-old boy had the misfortune of being deployed to the battlefront by order of the Commander of the battalion that his genin team was a part of.

As soon as she found out that her sensei's son was assigned to the battlefront with Kumo, Mikoto used all her contacts as Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan to get him out of there, but between the months it took her to find out about it and the time it took her to get him out of there the damage was already done.

Shisui performed exceptionally well in the war, displaying his immense talent and ingenuity as he emerged victorious in many battles in which the odds were completely against him. But his newfound fame as the genius of his generation did not come without a price, his teammates and his sensei perished on the battlefield causing Shisui to awaken the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan at the tender age of six.

The Mangekyo Sharingan is the evolution of the Sharingan of 3 tomoe that only a few Uchihas have the possibility to acquire. To wake it you need two things, a certain gene very rare among the Uchiha, and witnessing a traumatic moment after the Sharingan is completely mature (3 tomoe).

The power that Mangekyo grants to its user is immense, capable of taking an ordinary chunin to rank S power level. But this power comes at a price, several in fact. The most notable is that the more time the user uses the Mangekyo, the more his eyesight worsens, to the point of being completely blind. The less noticeable side effects, as they are not physically displayed, is the immense trauma it causes to the user.

The Sharingan grants a perfect memory to the user, better than even the memory of those who have photographic memory, as it is somewhat as if the images were recorded using a camera. This causes the Uchiha to unconsciously relive the traumatic experience over and over again. Something like being trapped reliving the same nightmare in an infinite loop, only you know that this nightmare is not a product of your imagination, it is something real, a memory from which you cannot escape.

This mental scar is almost impossible to overcome, what the Uchihas are taught to deal with that side effect of the Sharingan is "Conceal, don't feel", which causes many Uchihas to prefer to emotionally distance themselves from their peers to prevent more pain.

Mikoto's efforts to remove Shisui from the front lines of the war were opposed by none other than Shimura Danzo, who wanted to recruit Shisui. Mikoto did not allow the old war hawk to put his claws on the child she promised to protect and a war started between the two of them. Thanks to Mikoto's friendship with Uzumaki Kushina, wife of Namikaze Minato, who is the student of the Sannin Jiraiya, the Matriarch Uchiha won and Shisui was discharged half a year before the end of the war.

She did her best to help Shisui but he, not wanting to be a burden, insisted on returning to active duty.

Mikoto, seeing that Shisui's determination is unwavering and that he would not change his mind, agreed on the condition that his first mission would be of her choice. The mission Mikoto gave him was an A-rank mission: protect the heir to the Uchiha clan.

So Shisui got what he wanted and went back to active duty and she kept him inside the village.

'Is he done for today? He's only been training for three hours. I guess he's still a baby.` Shisui watches as his protégé stops running and starts his stretching routine, after which he returns home. `Once he gets home I can dispel, keeping a Shadow Clone for several hours is good training but the boss must be exhausted.`

***

NOTE: Shisui is now 7 and Itachi is still 4. Sasuke and his generations are still to be conceived.