~Soutarou POV, 1 and a half months later~
Soutarou and a green jumpsuited man blitzed around the village while both wore extreme resistance seals, before the two dashed into a forest and began a impromptu taijutsu match against one another.
'Senju Style: Flowing Fist'
'Leaf Hurricane!'
As fist and foot connected and the pair clashed over and over again, Soutarou sped up and tried to continuously edge around the green attired man, only to be calmly routed and blocked again and again. Just as Soutarou was about to engage again, the chunin vested young man put his palm out and said, "Congratulations Soutarou-san! Your youth has exploded! And you've finally reached the threshold to properly use the first inner gate. Would you like to give it a try?'
Soutarou scratched his chin, before vigorously nodding as he thought, 'There's no reason not to learn the gates under the 6th gate as long as I learn them without damaging my chakra pathways, or my actual body. Though I guess like Tsunade-nee was saying… Learning anything at the 6th or above will be worthless…'
Soutarou nodded and winked before flashing Guy a bright smile and sticking his thumb out and saying, "Of course!"
'Man I actually found out this guy's, or Guy isn't as clueless as he seems even that bright smile is actually a blinding technique he worked on since he can't use much traditional jutsu… As for his mannerisms… Nope, those are all just a package deal.'
'Anyways… It's finally time to open this damned first gate…'
Soutarou took a deep breath and he exhaled before turning off his resistance seal and jamming a forceful of chakra through the Gate of Opening within his brain, before he felt an opening of sorts and his field of vision widened slightly, his senses became more attuned and sensitive, not to mention how responsive his whole body was.
'20% overall improvement…? Chakra too…?'
'I forget how ridiculous the inner gate were…'
'But… There's a massive problem… my chakra control dropped… Significantly… It's not anything to do with the quantity… No its more so with the speed of the flow of chakra… Pity… BUT…'
'My senju chakra coating is more or less unaffected thanks to Guy working me to the bone to the point where my body automatically does it, not even via passive control, but via instinct… No wonder he warned me not to open the gates before that…'
'Turns out without it this mode becomes a whole lot less effective… Still I've got to do something for Guy one of these days… He just handed me his and his father's notes on chakra coating just like that. Even the Senju, as generous as we were, didn't hand that out so readily. Honestly my chakra coating is starting to become a mutated version of the Senju one…'
'Unlike Guy, I can still utilize the Senju portion of the chakra control instinctively. Meaning I can increase the amount of chakra in each limb beyond safe points for explosive results… Not that I will. But I can probably achieve the effects of the lower inner gates just via chakra control…'
'Well… In the future that is… The current me doesn't have the ability to even properly keep the first gate open beyond five minutes…'
'Still not bad… Maybe eventually if I figure out the chakra control portion of enhancement… I could try mental enhancement…? Like a mental overclock? Hm… A thought for my future, I suppose…'
'Well whatever… Once I wrap up here… I have to go to old man Kosuke… Not to mention… Itachi's graduation… It's now in 1 week. Naori is still not coming to class, but she sneaks out of the Uchiha compound all the time to come see me.'
'My best guess is the Uchiha are scared that the Konoha higher ups might just kill off Naori and as a result they aren't letting her return to classes until she has some ability to survive... Still whatever, if it comes to that… I'll just call Tsunade and have her take Naori… Tsunade-nee should've at least saved the Uzumakis by this point… As for the rest… It's ok if she doesn't finish immediately.'
'Ah screw it… Too much thinking, less thinking, more grinding! Only grind and monke brain allowed.'
Soutarou played around with the first gate under the watchful eye of Guy before he cycled through the few moves Guy had generously taught Soutarou along with Soutarou trying out some of his Senju Taijutsu. Before Guy stopped him and said, "Very good… I can feel your youth burning Soutarou-san! As a celebration let's run 500 laps around Konoha!"
Soutarou's brow twitched vigorously before he put his hands up in surrender and said, "Maybe next time Guy-senpai I have to actually attend class for once, that guy Itachi said he had something important to tell me."
Guy smiled and gave Soutarou a thumbs up before dashing off in a flash… Except on his hands upside down.
Soutarou sighed deeply before casting a glance at his shadow and thinking, 'Messing with Kakashi my ass… He's the one who gets a kick out of this the most… Getting to see me struggle to deal with Guy 24/7… I hate the silver haired prick.'
Soutarou shook his head and then whistled and pointed in a direction and began flickering as he felt three chakra signatures follow him in rapid speed with one additional signature leading in front of him.
Soutarou rolled his eyes at the over the top protection and protective formation.
'If I and Tetsuro fought again… I'd win especially if I have a sword… I may not have improved much elsewhere other than my body flicker and water manipulation… But when it comes to sword play I'm amongst the best of not only my generation, but the one above it too… I suspect only Kakashi or Kakashi back when he used to care about swordsmanship could rival it. Then again I can't really complain since my bounty has risen to an extreme… from forty million to a mind blowing sixty million. At this point will I even become a normal genin graduate? Or will that monkey fox just dump me straight into ANBU?'
Soutarou thought to himself in silence as he continued to speed around Konoha arriving quickly at the academy before he snuck around and slipped in through an open window silently sliding into his seat by the very same window with Itachi glancing over at him and Soutarou waving at him.
Before he turned around to see an exasperated Fujimoto-sensei, who just politely said, "Thank you for joining us Morita-san for once."
A few chuckles rang out before Soutarou smoothly said, "I have no clue what you're talking about sensei. I've always attended class, you can even ask Lord Hokage to pull my attendance."
Fujimoto gave him a raised brow before shaking his head knowing that this brat would just run to the Hokage before him and force the Hokage to say he has perfect attendance. Fujimoto just turned a blind eye to Soutarou who then just flicked a folded note at Itachi, who caught it in-between his fingers and in a flash tossed a response back, with Soutarou doing the same. And in an instant a flash flickered and it seemed like Itachi and Soutarou were still in their seats, while in reality the pair now stood in a training ground not too far away from the academy.
Itachi was staring off into the distance looking away from Soutarou before he picked up a leaf and asked Soutarou quietly, "Soutarou… I'll be graduating soon. Preferably I'd have waited until you graduated to graduate myself, but my father asked that I graduate immediately. Still… I want to see my limits, and I want to see the gap between us."
Soutarou raised a brow and responded, "Testing the gap now will be meaningless, we're both still maturing and growing. And more importantly still learning. So I refuse if you wish to have a duel or a spar."
Itachi sighed and shook his head and said, "I figured as much, still my graduation, or at least as far as my father understood, is being modified. Meaning we may fight even if we choose not to."
Soutarou's eyes glinted and he didn't make any comments before Itachi deeply stared off into space and asked, "Soutarou why do you think our Uchiha Clan isn't able to become apart of Konoha? Why are we… We looked down upon and why don't my clan members just peacefully coexist?"
Soutarou sighed and he grimly thought, 'Seems he's still on the same path as canon… That's… A pity… But I won't stop it, for my own gains, him going down this path is a necessary evil.'
Soutarou blandly replied, "You shouldn't speak out loud of these thoughts, Itachi, but… In all honesty the framing of your very question itself… Makes it seem as though Konoha and the Uchiha are coexisting factors, and not that the Uchiha are apart of Konoha. It's the very mentality itself, Itachi… I won't make any comments, but that combined with a bad track record from Madara Uchiha and now the Nine Tails Attack and the Nine Tails' eyes having sharingan in them…'"
"You should see the answer Itachi… A prideful group such as the Uchiha can't and shouldn't be blamed for things that aren't their fault… But at the same time viewing yourself above Konoha or equal to it… That's something even my ancestors the Senju didn't do. And it's blindly arrogant. Konoha is a family, albeit imperfect, it's our home… So no matter what it's our duty to protect it and its peace…"
"If you want to protect that peace and the Uchiha Clan, you must first ask yourself the question of identity and then figure out what the true hierarchy should be within yourself, and if possible try to change the clan as a whole. If you can't do that… Then I'm unsure of the fate of the Uchiha and Konoha. Still hopefully with talents like you, Naori, Shisui, and Izumi there won't be any issues."
'Forgive me Itachi, but I'll give the exact answer you're looking for, at the same time I'll leave the door open for that old fox and that man of darkness…'
Itachi opened his palm and let the leaf that he'd picked up drift away in the blowing wind, before saying, "I see… Well… Thank you Soutarou… You've helped me see through the fog that was clouding my mind. Let's go get some ramen, my treat as a real thank you."
Soutarou flashed him a grin and said, "No worries, we're friends right? Plus why are you worrying about these things at your age? How about you start worrying about the real things… Like what's up with you and Izumi?"
Soutarou made that smug smile while raising his eyebrows repeatedly only for Itachi to sigh in mock exasperation before Itachi jabbed back, "I'd imagine its about the same as you and Naori."
Itachi wore a victorious smile on his face before Soutarou made a questioning face and Soutarou said, "What do you mean? Naori's just a friend no? Wait, seriously? You and Izumi are only friends? Damn you're worthless at this rate uncle Fugaku's going to be left with no daughter-in-law by the time he's graying."
Itachi deadpanned and he said, "Please tell me you're joking-"
Soutarou winked at him and said, "I'm well aware of how Naori feels, Itachi. I'm just not reacting to it. She's a bit unstable right now, even you should've noticed it. Awakening her sharingan too earlier might've damaged her psyche. I'd suggest you try to get your clan to have her work on her physical body so her yin and yang chakra can balance out a bit more."
Itachi seriously glanced over and grimly nodded before muttering, "Then why ask about me and Izumi? You already know we're always together…"
Soutarou grinned and said, "So the great Itachi Uchiha finally admits the truth!"
Itachi rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, yes as expected only Soutarou-sama could find the truth…"
Soutarou chuckled and threw his arm around Itachi's shoulders and the two bickered away on their way to Ichiraku Ramen…