The Fire of a Not-Uchiha

Chapter 5 - Itachi

What's this?! An update that didn't take months to come out? The world must be ending!

Seriously though... thank you guys for sticking with my stories despite my update schedule!

Shouto approaches Itachi early in the morning when Sasuke is still asleep. Fugaku is outside training. It makes sense, Shouto thinks to himself. The man has to train at some point. Mikoto is reading a book that seems far beyond Shouto's current level of comprehension.

Itachi is sharpening his kunai.

Shouto knocks on the door.

"Itsuki-kun?" Itachi stares at him questioningly until his entire demeanor changes. "Ah, I see."

Shouto raises an eyebrow but it must look like he's raising both since his other one is covered.

"I assume you want me to teach you?" Itachi gently places his kunai on a table and stands up.

"Yes." Shouto doesn't bother asking how Itachi knows that. He assumes that as he gets better, he'll understand.

"Why ask me and not my father?" Itachi asks but Shouto knows that he already understands.

"You know as well as I do that the Academy won't teach me what I need to know. Your father is already burdened with clan affairs." Is what Shouto says. It roughly translates to, I don't want him to know how bad it is at the Academy yet. I need to succeed without his interference.

Itachi nods. "I can train you after you finish school if I'm not occupied with something else."

Shouto narrows his eyes. He's surprised with how easy it was. He wouldn't be surprised if Fugaku had asked Itachi to train him and report what he found. It didn't matter much to him though, either way, he was getting training.

"I'd like to see what skills you already have." Itachi tells him. "Shall we go to the training ground?"

Shouto nods and they leave the house together.

He already has his own fighting style. It was basically just what he'd learned Before but altered to fit his small limbs.

"I've heard you have two kekkei genkai." Itachi says. "Though the fire you use is slightly different than the custom Uchiha style, no?"

Shouto doesn't give him a verbal response, instead, he falls into a familiar stance and allows the fire to leave his palm.

Itachi doesn't say anything, but his eyes watch him carefully, assessingly.

The fire burns out and both Shouto and Itachi are left staring at where it was.

He knows how to control these flames. He's been taught, it's been burned into his skin.

(Skin that is no longer his, that will never be his again, but nothing has changed. He is still himself, he is.)

"You seem to be quite proficient with this already." Itachi notes. No accusation in his voice, a simple observation.

"Yes." There's no point in being humble here. It would just come off as him being insecure about his abilities or unable to accept compliments. "But it's going to take much more than that to attain my goals."

Itachi nods.

It's the truth, neither of them deny it.

Shouto wasn't expecting any placating words or roundabout compliments, so he doesn't mind. Not that he would anyway. Itachi doesn't mean anything to him, they're strangers.

"You use very little Chakra for that jutsu. Do you know of your limitations?"

"Yes."

He does not elaborate.

Itachi doesn't ask.

"Good." Itachi pauses. "I will teach you Chakra control, then."

Shouto nods.

They get started.

~~~

Days at the Academy drag on, test scores return with perfect grades, assignments are always done early. Shouto supposes he has always been a perfectionist in that regard. It suits this world just like it did his last.

Fugaku is gone most of the day, leaving Mikoto with Sasuke, who spends most of his time learning with the clan children. It's clan techniques, Shouto assumes when Sasuke comes home covered in soot babbling to Itachi about the fire jutsu they were shown in their training session.

Itachi always smiles at him and listens indulgently.

Shouto does not think of red hair, cool blue eyes, and a body that always ran too cold for a power so hot.

Shouto studies and studies. He learns of this world and finds that he would much prefer the atmosphere of his last. He learns of deaths far more gruesome than Shouto of his previous world could even dream of at the tender age of 6.

It's okay, though. The house he's in doesn't turn lifeless when the front door opens. The people around him do not need to tend to their injuries alone unless they want to.

Itachi teaches him what his teachers won't. He learns to throw a blade with more accuracy than he's ever known in either of his lives. His fires burn hotter and much longer.

It's different.

But it's good.

I think this is my favourite chapter so far lmao... it took me like 10 minutes but still