Ryu looked at him. "The usual?"
Itachi nodded. "Yes, I was bored. I had an unpleasant feeling. So I thought I would come and have some fun fighting you."
Akihiro stepped between them.
The blind boy reached for the device at his side and clicked it several times.
It spoke: "ME ... FIGHT."
Ryu looked at Itachi. "Looks like you are not the only one looking for a fight."
Kaia's expression tightened. She was not happy. Not because Akihiro was getting attention or because she had yet to have her first spar, but because she was concerned that Akihiro, a blind child, was fighting a real ninja and could get hurt by a minor mistake from either of them. The recent show of monstrous chakra also shook her to the core in fear of ninjas and their secrets.
Itachi was quiet for a moment. "Fine." He glanced at Ryu. "But be ready. You are next."
Itachi considered the request. There was no tactical benefit for an elite Uchiha to fight a blind child. But Ryu had gone out of his way for him more than once, far beyond what duty required. A light spar with one of his students was a small thing in return.
Ryu turned to Akihiro, his voice settling into the tone he used for training. "It's only a light spar. You're sensing without water waves, so don't force anything. Keep [Earth Sensing Ninjutsu] active the whole time—it is harder to maintain than water sensing, but it will gradually become easier because of the seal placed on you. But if you start having difficulty, you forfeit immediately."
Akihiro's jaw tightened slightly, but he gave a sharp nod.
The two of them moved to the middle of the yard.
Akihiro lowered into stance first, bare feet planted lightly on the packed ground, wooden sword angled in front of him. Itachi stood opposite him, calm and balanced, bokken resting by his side. After a moment, Itachi deliberately adjusted his posture and stamped his feet more firmly into the dirt than he normally would have.
He was making himself easier to track.
Akihiro caught it from the earth at once.
Itachi had known a few blind ninjas in the field. Not many. Every one of them had trained for years longer than their peers just to reach genin, and chuunin was usually the highest rank they ever managed.
He glanced at Akihiro's bare feet. A child, newly transitioned, relying entirely on the ground beneath him. It should not work.
Itachi thought, "If anyone could force the impossible into working order, it would be Ryu."
Before Itachi moved, Akihiro had already started building a mental image of him.
Hearing gave him a direction; the height of his opponent, along with what he already knew about the wooden sword, allowed him to imagine its reach.
Earth sensing filled in what hearing could not. It gave him the width of the stance, the angle of the hips, the weight in each foot, and the instant pressure shifted through the ground.
His newer chakra sense was still crude. It was not enough to map a full body cleanly, but it was enough to warn him when movement began and shape the edge of that image in his mindscape.
The rest was calculation.
Piece by piece, his mind visualised a workable image. Not sight. Not truly. But close enough. A moving shape built from vibration, sound, pressure, and prediction.
Itachi's left foot carried more of his mass. The heel was pressing deeper. The right foot was forward, lighter, ready to pivot and drive. The soil under both sandals told him the width of the stance and the angle of the hips.
Ryu watched without interrupting.
Itachi moved.
He did not lunge all at once. First came the small change. Weight flowed off the rear heel. Pressure increased through the ball of the front foot. The dirt compressed. Akihiro felt the timing and the acceleration. By reading the transfer through Itachi's feet, hearing the shift in breath, and catching the faint stir of chakra that came with the motion, he predicted the direction of the next swing before the movement had fully begun.
"Right side, high angle, and fast," Akihiro told himself, his wooden sword snapping upward after just a few moments of contemplation.
Clack.
The sound rang across the courtyard as the two bokken met cleanly.
Itachi's eyebrows lifted.
Akihiro did not smile. He adjusted his footing, sensing the recoil through the ground, readying for the next exchange.
A second change. Itachi twisted his body to change the angle, this time by letting one foot fly. Akihiro felt the altered distribution through the dirt, corrected the mental image in his head, and turned with it. His blade cut across just in time to guard the new line.
Another clack.
Shikaku and Hiruzen landed at the edge of the training ground on that sound.
Dan turned first. "You are a bit late for the party, Hiruzen."
Beside him, Hiruzen read the yard in a single sweep: Naruto asleep in the shade, children training, and Dan standing at ease in his own courtyard. The worst had already passed. If there had still been real danger, this scene would not exist.
Shikaku's lazy gaze snapped to the sparring pair first. It took him less than a heartbeat to understand what he was looking at, and that was enough to surprise him.
The boy was blind; that was evident to anyone who saw Akihiro.
"A blind boy sparring Itachi Uchiha," Shikaku thought. "That was not something you saw every day."
His gaze shifted briefly to the boy standing apart from the others—composed, unhurried, watching the spar, like a man watching something he already knew the outcome of.
"Hm." Hiruzen stepped closer, Shikaku following. "My ANBU informed me. The seal on Naruto reacted to training."
Dan nodded once. "It did. It has been handled."
Hiruzen nodded slowly, the last remnants of his tension fading. He glanced towards Naruto. The boy was sleeping peacefully, unaware that he unintentionally almost gave a few people a heart attack.
"Good."
Shikaku looked back at Dan and drew the simplest conclusion available. "Grandmaster Dan must have handled it before it escalated."
Ryu approached at an easy pace, giving Hiruzen no reason at all to look at him twice.
"Lord Hokage," he greeted respectfully.
Ryu was in pain from pushing his body to its limits, but he did not show it.
Shikaku tipped his head towards Akihiro and Itachi. "You train him exceptionally well."
Akihiro and Itachi separated for a breath. For a few calm breaths, the estate sounded like nothing more than wood striking wood.
Inside the seal, the black water reflected four red torii gates arranged like a square and a sun-like mass of chakra floating above the formation. It was a different plane from where Ryu and the nine-tailed fox fought.
Whether it was luck or fate, the formation and this chakra shared the same space inside Naruto's body, where the pieces of the souls of Minato and Kushina were sealed.
Kushina stared at the enormous golden chakra bubble.
"I still cannot believe it," she said, shaking her head. "A child built all of this."
Minato was kneeling besides one of the gates, fingers resting lightly against the seal structure. His attention was absolute.
"I know," Minato said quietly. He traced the barrier again. "And yet here it is. A seal to contain the fox's chakra. It is specially designed to prevent it from returning to the source.
He looked through the gate, towards the radiating chakra bubble and its mirror image below the black surface. The structure was elegant. It blocked the Fox's chakra stored within from passing outward.
Ryu had not merely stored the chakra. He had isolated it to keep it from leaking back to the nine-tailed fox.
Minato stood up slowly, turning back to look at his wife. "He cares deeply for Naruto. He trains him like a brother."
Kushina's expression softened slightly as she looked at the barrier. "He does. It is comforting to know Naruto is in such capable hands." She paused, her gaze shifting back to Minato. "I am looking forward to a very bright future for him."
"Me too," Minato agreed. "Far brighter than I had dared to hope for." His expression sharpened as a new thought suddenly took hold.
Kushina noticed the shift immediately. "What are you planning now?"
"I am testing a theory," Minato said.
Kushina's eyes went wide. "Minato… Wait—"
Minato took one more step, entered the Torii gate and stopped completely after reaching right below the giant chakra bubble.
He made no conscious effort to take anything in. High up above his head was an enormous reservoir of chakra, and he did nothing more than stand there and allow the warmth of it to wash over him. He could feel it comfort his body and soak into him.
Behind him, Kushina was already moving towards the gate but stopped before passing it.
Minato turned back to her and stepped through the gate again, moving back to her side. The resistance was there, but it let him pass.
He looked down at his hand. A thin trace of that chakra had entered him.
His smile widened.
"I think I understand the mechanics of it," Minato said.
Kushina raised her eyebrows and turned her head to the side.
Minato lowered his hand, the answer already clear in his mind.
Minato said, "I just absorbed a fraction of this chakra to replenish my own."
Kushina asked, "But you said 'fox's chakra' cannot pass through the seal."
Minato replied, "I am not just raw chakra, dear. I am a fragment of my soul combined with chakra, anchored by Uzumaki sealing methods. What little I absorbed changed as soon as it entered me and was assimilated into my own chakra … so I could pass through this seal."
Her disbelief gave way to a sudden, dawning understanding.
"So the gate let you through because what you were carrying had already stopped being the Fox's chakra."
"Exactly."
Kushina looked beyond him, towards the glowing chakra, and then back at her husband. The true implication of his theory struck her all at once.
"We can recharge ourselves."
Now things had changed. Until this moment, every appearance besides Naruto had felt like spending one of a tiny number of chances. Now the ticking clock finally had a rest button.
Minato's voice dropped. "Yes. We can."
Kushina took a slow, trembling breath, a sudden laugh breaking through her disbelief. Her eyes were wet before she even noticed. "We can watch him grow," she whispered.
Minato nodded. "Yes, we can... Our chances to see our son are not just two.. "
The chakra connections let the Fox hear and see what Naruto was hearing and seeing. Now Minato and Kushina could too. For the first time, watching over their son did not feel like borrowed seconds. It felt steady – like finally getting a permanent subscription to your favourite anime.
"We can spend more time watching our son, but can we leave this place for a higher plane to meet our son?" Kushina asked.
Minato closed his eyes and shook his head. "We might not be able to return to this place to replenish ourselves if we do that... This chance blessing has limits…"
Kushina understood but did not let this bad news get to her… This small piece of good news was enough. Even if she could not meet her son, watching him from afar was good enough for her.
Kushina stepped through the gate herself. She felt the heavy resistance, the enveloping warmth, and the ambient chakra immediately settling into her own chakra signature.
When she opened her eyes, Minato was waiting. She caught him with both arms. For the first time since the night they died, their embrace was not shadowed by a countdown.
A/N:
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