Roen was already on the path while the sky was still grey, the ground damp underfoot where the light hadn't reached yet. His steps stayed even as the trees thinned and the clearing opened ahead.
Genryu was already there.
Same spot as before. Sword at his side, weight set, not moving.
Roen stepped in and stopped at the edge of the clearing.
Genryu glanced at him once.
"You're late."
Roen's mouth shifted faintly. "No. I'm on time."
A second set of footsteps pressed through the path behind him, lighter. Itachi came into the clearing without greeting either of them, dark hair still carrying a little of the morning damp where it hadn't fully dried. His eyes moved over the field, then to Genryu, then to Roen, and stopped there for half a beat before he stepped into position and let the distance settle into a triangle.
Genryu moved first.
Roen and Itachi followed.
Roen stepped in low, shoulder behind it, testing the opening in front of him, then pulled out before it could turn into a clash. Itachi came right after, cutting in from the side to take the same space.
Genryu turned once.
His hand caught Roen's wrist and pushed it off line. Itachi's angle broke with it before he could reach.
Both of them stepped back.
Genryu didn't move again.
"Too early."
They went again. This time Genryu shifted half a step left before either of them entered. Roen read it and cut across. Itachi read Roen and followed the same idea from the opposite side. Both were wrong. Roen arrived on the line Genryu had already abandoned. Itachi crowded into the seam the first mistake created and had to check his own step to avoid colliding with Roen's shoulder. Genryu's hand touched Itachi's forearm once and the whole thing ended there.
"You read wrong."
The next few passes came quicker.
Step. Read. In. Out.
Roen stayed clean with it, moving where the opening was, but always off Genryu's lead. He didn't force anything.
Itachi kept changing his angle, not coming in the same way twice, but each move came off Roen instead of Genryu.
Genryu let it run for a few beats, then cut it.
"You're reacting to each other," he said. "Not me."
Roen's foot turned in the dirt. Itachi's shoulders lowered slightly. Neither of them answered. They didn't need to. Genryu had already stepped back out.
"Enough."
That stopped the drill faster than a shout would have. Roen eased out of the last motion and let his hands drop. Itachi did the same, breath still level, eyes on Genryu.
Genryu's chin moved once.
"You two."
They stepped in.
The distance closed this time. Not wide like before. No fixed spacing.
Roen moved first but he didn't go all the way in.
Half-step. Just enough.
Itachi reacted to it, stepping into the opening Roen should've taken.
Roen was already gone.
Itachi's hand came through empty air.
He stopped himself mid-step, foot catching before it carried too far.
Roen had already pulled back.
Itachi glanced at him once.
Then they moved again.
Roen went again.
Same start.
A step in. Shoulder turning. Hand lifting
then gone.
Itachi read it with the sharingan and moved where it should've connected.
He got there on time.
Roen wasn't.
Itachi's hand cut through empty space again.
His eyes narrowed.
Next time he pushed it.
His foot drove in deeper, angle tighter, hand snapping through with more weight behind it, forcing the exchange to happen.
Roen gave him just enough to bite.
Then slipped out.
Itachi followed, second step already coming in
and found nothing again.
Roen had already pulled back, stance set, like he'd never been there.
Roen kept entering halfway and leaving early.
Itachi kept reading it right and still coming up empty.
Genryu watched from just outside, not moving, letting it run.
Then it broke.
Itachi pushed half a step too far.
Just a fraction.
His front opened.
Roen saw it.
His body moved before the thought finished. The step went all the way in this time. His shoulder lined up, hand driving straight through the opening.
For the first time, it wasn't a probe.
It was clean.
Fast enough that if it carried through, Itachi wouldn't have had time to fix it.
Itachi saw it late.
His eyes caught the line as it came in too close, too direct.
Roen was already there.
Then
he stopped.
Right before it landed.
Roen's hand turned at the last moment, cutting off the line and pushing the force past Itachi's shoulder instead of through him. His foot hit and redirected. The opening vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Itachi didn't move for a second after that.
His sharingan stayed on Roen, but the read changed. The chase disappeared from it. The next time they engaged, he stopped trying to capitalise on every partial opening and started watching what Roen refused to take. His own timing shifted with that, less eager, more exact, and the spar lost even the illusion of resolution. Roen kept entering without finishing. Itachi kept reading without committing first. They circled the same unstable exchange again and again, each one ending before it became honest.
Genryu stepped in.
Neither of them heard the first footfall. He was simply there, inside the distance, cutting the line apart by entering it himself. Roen and Itachi both stopped at once, not from shock, from necessity. There was no room left.
"Enough."
Roen's chest rose once and settled. Itachi's gaze stayed on Genryu now.
Genryu looked at Roen first.
"If you're not going to finish it," he said, "don't start it."
Roen didn't deny it. His hand flexed once at his side and stilled.
Genryu's gaze moved from Itachi to Roen.
"We're taking a mission."
Roen didn't move, but his focus shifted. The drill dropped just like that.
Itachi nodded straight away.
Genryu had already turned.
"Move."
They left the clearing together.
No one spoke on the way out. Their steps stayed even, dirt giving underfoot, the trees closing in as they passed through.
Roen didn't look back.
Genryu walked ahead, steady as always.
Itachi stayed a little to the side, quiet, eyes forward.
The training ground fell behind them.