Rain and the Sun Chapter 4

Naruto had been enjoying his new life since Hariken had adopted him. The people in the village still gave him dirty looks but those were promptly returned by his older brother. On the other hand nobody attacked him anymore, that had happened once when Hariken had walked into a store without Naruto and a man had tried to hit him over the head with metal pipe. Fortunately he didn't get that far as his adoptive brother had appeared out of nowhere and blocked the strike with the metal plate on his headband.

"So you people haven't learned your lesson." The man's face paled when he recognized Hariken has the man who had recently been inducted into the village and been immediately made one of the very few elite jonin.

"Shit a ninja!" Like the fool he was he turned and ran only to fall to the ground with a few hand gestures made by Hariken.

Since then Naruto had been thinking on just how powerful Hariken was. The man had the ability to incapacitate a singular man in the crowd of people with absolutely no adverse affects on the people around him. Not to mention the way he did it was almost inconceivable. Not once had he used a jutsu or made physical contact with his opponent. The most he has ever done is make some strange movements with his hands before his target would drop to the ground only for him to be picked up by anbu within seconds.

Not looking where he was heading Naruto bumped into a person walking in his direction, giving into old habit's the blond child scrambled backwards and all but screamed, "Don't hurt me!"

When nothing happened to him Naruto looked up to see his older brother swinging a sword he had never seen before at a teenager with that fell around his face and was tied in a pony tail at the back. The obsidian eyed boy had other plans and side stepped the blade after his eyes flashed red. Continuing his assault swiped his free hand through the air causing the teen to fall to the ground. Seeing this as an end to the threat he saw in the unnamed citizen pointing the pure white blade at the man in front of him he said "Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you where you lay."

"Well for one I did nothing. The child simply bumped into me and before I could apologize and see if I was ok he screamed something about not hurting him and you appeared from nowhere and assaulted me."

"Yo little maelstrom is that true?" Looking a little sheepish Naruto said "Yeah, it's just an old instinct I have, I'm sorry I took you away from your training."

If Itachi had been surprised before hearing that statement, he was flabbergasted now. Even at the Hokage's top speed the closest training area was ten minutes away but this man had arrived here as soon as the boy screamed meaning he traveled at twice the speed of sound. That would mean he would have either unlocked the celestial gates or had some other method of near teleportation. Itachi was brought out of his thoughts by a bonk to his head looking up he can see the man who had attacked him before and the child looking down at him while the former held out his hand.

"What do you say kid no hard feelings?" Staring at the hand the 13 year old anbu commander wonders one last time who trained this man before he takes the hand speaking his thanks, "Thank you. Now if it's not to much trouble I have a favour to ask."

"Oh and it is?" Itachi gained a determined look in his eyes and said simply "Fight me!"

XxXxXxXxXxXx Training Field 99 XxXxXxXxXxXx

The training field they had entered looked like it had been through a war. There was claw marks all over the trees, kunai and shuriken spread out all over the area, a trench cuts through the area as if a large snake had ran through the arena. Itachi knew it was the elite jonin's private training grounds but he didn't think it would be this harsh.

Seeing Itachi's pondering look Hariken said "Sorry this was the area I was using before I left to see what happened to Naruto."

"No this is fine I'm just surprised at the damage the jonin have done to the arena over the years this is intense." Itachi's opponent took on a confused look before saying "Oh you mean all the damage. I did that today, I was, well let's just say I was settling an argument."

Itachi was awestruck completely awestruck. What had he been thinking when he had challenged this man, sure Itachi was part of the anbu but not only could he not come close to matching this man's speed but he had also seen the pure determination in his eyes that means he doesn't give up. The only reason Itachi had challenged him was to see how long the new jonin would stand against one of the anbu but now he was wondering how long he would be able to last.

"Well let's get this started, what are the rules of the fight." Looking up from his thoughts he sees his opponent stretching on the field.

"Let's say nothing above B-ranked jutsu and try to keep injuries minimal, that good?" Standing up Itachi had regained the fire in his eyes. The 13 year-old prodigy was raring to fight and see just how good this man was.

Both shinobi took up their positions on the field. The elder smiling at his younger counter part, the latter holding an even face. Naruto walks up to the edge of the arena saying, "Are you ready, set, HAJIME!"

Itachi sprung forward, drawing his blade mid air as he flew towards his opponent, unflinching, the purple haired ninja held unto his smile has he adjusted his head so instead of cutting into his shoulder Itachi's tanto was caught on his head band. Shocked at the odd style of defence Itachi stumbled, leaving a massive opening, which to the Uchiha's surprise, and somewhat his ire, was not taken. Looking up, the teen's face becomes annoyed that the man above him is simply looking at him as if he a source of entertainment. Jumping back the anbu screams, "Why aren't you taking me seriously!" Chuckling the jonin responds, "What makes you believe I'm not?"

"You haven't moved from the spot you started in for one and you haven't stopped smiling." Itachi was actually quite a bit confused with how he was reacting to the situation hat hands, while he did enjoy the occasional fight not once had he ever had such a reckless reaction to a person.

"You have been doing something out haven't you?"

The smile on Hariken's face shrunk into a smirk.

"Well you figured that out faster than I thought you would."

"Hardly, to know your opponent is going to do something or is doing something is completely useless unless of course you know what they're doing and how they're doing it." Rubbing the back of his head the mysterious ninja dropped his smirk saying, " Jeez, now you're acting all boring again, can't you just loosen up a bit, when you're fighting, you fight rigid, tensed for fast movements. The reason you fight like this is due to your use of sharingan regularly, you are used to being able to see movements coming so you don't have to worry to much about if you have a slower reaction time because those eyes of yours compensate for it. That's why you thought I was moving faster than normal. In all the recklessness caused by my pheromone jutsu you haven't even activated your eyes."

Taking in everything the elite had said, Itachi was astonished that he wasn't bluffing, he hadn't activated them and without them, the eyes he spent so long training, he was in fact lacking in the afore mentioned aspects. The anbu looked at his opponent again before saying, " You're right, I have come to rely on my sharingan a little to much, not so much as some of my clansmen but still, let us continue our fight, I wish to see how this goes."

Smiling the opposition returns, "So do I."

This time instead of charging in like a bull, Itachi slips into his interceptor fist style while holding his blade in a reverse grip. Code-name weasel studied his opponent, he was holding a stance that the clan heir didn't recognize, the man was standing with his left foot slid forward while his right foot stayed level with his shoulder. The left hand was extended in front of him, first two fingers pointed to the sky, the opposite hand rested near his hip, hand bent towards the ground in the shape of a claw. To Itachi's eyes it appeared rather basic with a few weaknesses but those may be intentional.

Deciding to test the unknown style Itachi started throwing shuriken all around the field before using the body flicker technique to attack, appearing above his foe the Uchiha swung down only to disappear a second later having used a substitution on one of the metal stars that now littered the ground. Repeating the feints Itachi guessed he would probably resemble Shisui except instead of shunshin he was using substitution. Seeing an opening Itachi closes in on his foe only for the attack to be stopped by the clawed hand having moving behind his back to stop the blade. After the elder jonin had gained his grip he threw Itachi around his front before jamming his two chakra encased fingers into Itachi's neck causing him to explode into smoke.

"Shadow clones, I can see why the leaf favours them so much a physical clone that returns any information gained by the clone to the original. The only flaw being that they split your chakra evenly between them when created causing your stamina to drop quickly."

Hiding within what was left of the tree line Itachi was getting more and more doubtful of his ability to win this fight. The memories his clone sent him proved that the openings had been traps. Another thing that had been proven was that his wind manipulation was as skilled as the rumours said. Rubbing the phantom wound on his throat from where the wind chakra that covered that man's fingers had pierced his shadow clone. The technique reminded him of the Hyuga's gentle fist except that it had nothing to do with the chakra pathways. Letting out the breath he had been holding Itachi decided to try and make a new plan.

"If you hide for to long I might think you ran away." Itachi went rigid. In all his years of being a shinobi had he ever been this outclassed. The man had yet to use a proper jutsu and had still managed to stop him at every turn. First he had used those hormones somehow to prevent coherent thought, next he had managed to get into his head making him doubt his abilities without the sharingan to cover his faults and finally he had outclassed him in taijutsu so easily that he would have been killed in one move had he been the clone. He had lost, in less than a minute of the fight starting he had lost, without landing a single blow.

"Well now that that's over I can go get some takoyaki. Seeyah Itachi."

Dumbstruck by the events past the anbu sat in the tree for almost an hour after Naruto and Hariken had left arguing over which food was better, ramen or takoyaki. Deciding he should go home and think about what he had learned and saw today.

XxXxXxXxXxXx Naruto's apartment XxXxXxXxXxXx

"Oh come on nii-san why not?"

"For the same reason I gave you when you started this argument an hour ago."

"That was a stupid reason and you know it."

"Oh so you're a mind reader now, you don't know what I know."

"What? Ah now I'm confused."

"Good."

"What's so good about it."

"Pineapples."

XxXxXxXxXxXx Hokage's office XxXxXxXxXxXx

It had been a rather peaceful week for the professor now that Naruto stopped feeling the need for constant attention his pranks at slowed down they hadn't disappeared but the weren't daily events any more. Hiruzen Sarutobi hated to admit but the village was almost boring without them.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH !"

"Mwhahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"Dear log it was so close , so close to peace."