Chapter 3 - Preparation (2/2)

Itachi approaches the foot of the woods and is momentarily reminded of the hollow he had just fought there yesterday. Paying close attention to his surroundings, Itachi enters the woods. After finding a suitable place to practice, he sits down in a meditative position. He brings his palms together and closes his eyes. Itachi concentrates on his reiryoku and lets it flow as reiatsu through the reishi in his body. He channels it throughout his body with his energy flowing from his core, moving along his meridians and veins, to every part of his body. As Itachi inhaled and exhaled in a harmonious rhythm, he gained greater insight towards his reiatsu control.

After a few hours, he finally opened his eyes and let out a breath. Itachi closed his eyes once again to continue his practice. After a few more hours, Itachi opened his eyes to see that the sun had set.

”I'll test it out now.” Itachi thought to himself before closing his eyes. He focused his reiatsu into his eyes.

*Giiiiiiin*

His eyes had changed as they were no longer their usual black color but radiated a piercing red color, with three tomoe in a circle pattern encompassing the pupil. The moment he opened them, everything brightened up as he was able to see the reishi in the surrounding environment.

”It seems that I can still access my Sharingan.” Itachi thought to himself before closing his eyes and deactivating his sharingan.

Itachi stared at the stars before standing up. ” I should rest for today and continue my practice tomorrow.”

He looks around and finds a large tree that towered over the rest of the trees and decides on using it for rest. Itachi channels his reiatsu into his feet and runs up the tree then stops halfway near a thick branch. He feels a bit wobbly but regains himself as his feet cling to the tree. Just like with chakra control, his body was starting to adjust to control reiatsu.

”My body hasn't completely adapted yet. It seems I need to practice some more.” He rests his back against the tree and sits on the branch. He closes his eyes and falls into a slumber.

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The next morning.

The sun glares once again over the horizon, bathing the forest and town in light. On a tree near the edge of the forest was a young man sleeping with his arms crossed and his back against the tree. The sunlight hits the side of his face as he slowly opens his eyes. He turns to the side and leans back over the air, his body turning and falling off the branch, however just before his feet fall off the branch, they cling to the bottom of the branch. He starts walking upside down across the branch and back to the trunk, walking vertically down the tree before reaching the ground.

”Still not adequate, but I have time.” Itachi thought to himself.

The next thing he wanted to try out were his previous ninjutsu. ”I should try making a shadow clone.” In the same way where one splits their chakra to summon a clone of oneself, Itachi forms his fingers into the clone seal and splits his reiatsu equally to summon a shadow clone.

”Shadow clone jutsu”

A puff of smoke and reiatsu appears next to him. As the smoke clears, a copy of Itachi can be seen standing. Itachi recalls how shadow clones retain information and experience and decides it would be good to use them for training purposes to progress his reiatsu control faster.

He looks at his clone and nods ”Let's begin.” Immediately the clone leaps backwards to distance itself and prepares for combat.

Itachi brings his palms together and forms a series of seals.

”Fire style: Fireball jutsu.”

Itachi kneads his reiatsu and focuses it through ċhėst and lungs. He takes in a breath and spits out a mass of flames. A giant fireball emerges from his mouth and heads towards his clone.

*GIIIINN*

The clone activates his sharingan and dodges the fireball before charging towards Itachi.

Itachi also activates his sharingan and two begin sparring. The two continued their spar for 30 minutes, strenuously using their reiatsu, after which the clone vanishes in a puff of smoke. The disappearance of clone sends a wave of lethargy washing over Itachi as he feels the clone's experiences and mental fatigue take over. He drops to his knees and begins panting in laborious breaths.

”So this is my limit right now…” Itachi says to himself as he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

”A shadow clone, Sharingan, one fireball jutsu, and 30 minutes of sparring. It's better than yesterday but nowhere near optimal.” Itachi once again sits in his meditative stance to recover his reiatsu. He meditates for an hour before catching his breath once again.

”I don't have my illness plaguing me, so I should focus on improving my body as well” Itachi thought to himself as he started running towards the town and fields. He continued his run for hours before stopping and resting. Once he rested he got back up to continue his run. Once he finished his run Itachi went back to the forest and started his tree climbing exercises. As soon as he finished, he sat back down in meditation to recover. Night fell once again, and Itachi climbed up the tree and marked it before laying it to rest.

Itachi continued his training for the next 28 days. He also used some of his time to get information about the first district. When Itachi had felt comfortable with using shadow clones, halfway into his training, he used a shadow clone to gather the information and relay it back it him and learned the directions to various districts and correct paths to reach them. Itachi looks at the calendar marks made on tree and realizes that the academy entrance exam was approaching.

”I should leave now. I only have 15 days to travel.” Itachi thought before jumping off and making his way to town.

He stopped by Itsuki's house to visit the kids to say his farewell. He was not very familiar kids so he kept his greetings short. After taking care of this he headed out of town towards the 77th district.

He continued his path through the districts, occasionally resting for a few hours before making his way again. He always kept his guard up through the forest to ensure he was ready if a hollow attacked. However, as he passed through the forests he noticed that that he encountered no hollows.

”Seems that hollows are a rare phenomenon. The one that I saw on my first day here seemed to have been an unlucky encounter.”

Itachi also noticed that the living conditions have gradually improved through each district with the districts going into the single digits having drastically improved conditions. The structures were much more organized and well built, there was an abundance of food available, and the affluent lifestyle created a generally gratified atmosphere. However Itachi still noticed hints of discrimination between the noble families and the commoners.

”These people in the higher districts are obsessed with organization, obsessed with their family name, and obsessed with themselves. They limit themselves to judgement based on their preconceptions and appearances and because of this, there is such a huge disparity in the lifestyle between districts. They focus on the trivial and have lost sight of what is most important…”