His First Encounter with Itachi Uchiha

In his previous life, he'd had all sorts of ideas over the years, more than he could count.

He'd even stuck with knife-throwing practice for ten years, but most of his ideas had never come to fruition.

That was only because he lacked some miraculous method for cultivating internal energy.

But coming to this world had given him the perfect opportunity. Ye Yuexin had discovered that chakra could apparently be used just like ordinary internal energy.

And it seemed highly adaptable, especially once it was infused with a change in nature.

Ye Yuexin had never met his mother. By the time he'd crossed over, he was already two years old, and all he had was a deadbeat father. He called him that because his father claimed to be a traveler.

The day after Ye Yuexin's fourth birthday, his father disappeared. There was no way to describe a man who so casually abandoned his four-year-old son as anything but a deadbeat.

Fortunately, his deadbeat old man had left him a few things: thirty million in banknotes and a chakra-training scroll.

It was thanks to that scroll that Ye Yuexin had been able to enter the Ninja Academy at four and end up in the same class as Itachi.

In a village like this, in a world dominated by ninja clans, plenty of people could develop chakra by the age of four. But they were usually children from the great clans.

And after developing chakra, they were generally kept out of sight.

The reason was simple: the initial stages were crucial for a ninja, and each clan trusted its own education more.

If the Second Hokage hadn't decreed that children who reached the proper age and possessed chakra had to attend school, the great clans would have looked down on the Ninja Academy's level of education.

Ye Yuexin met Itachi when he was five. Their encounter was as clichéd as they came.

Ye Yuexin was training in the forest on the right side of the village when he happened upon Itachi Uchiha. Itachi had come out to practice shuriken because he didn't want to show off at the clan training grounds.

To be honest, Konoha was surrounded by forest, and it was enormous. Most of the trees were as thick as a person. Running into each other there felt a little too coincidental to Ye Yuexin.

At the time, Ye Yuexin was practicing a movement technique like the light-footed skills of ancient times. He darted through the dense branches and leaves, trying to reach the state of "passing through a field of flowers without a single leaf touching him."

Of course, that was something Ye Yuexin had come up with himself. To be honest, in his previous life, what he'd thought about most when it came to Li Xunhuan—aside from his unfailing flying dagger—was his astonishingly wonderful lightness skill.

After developing chakra, Ye Yuexin had gone out of his way to buy a chakra-testing card. It showed that he had only a wind nature.

That made Ye Yuexin happy for a long time. Wind chakra was exactly the nature he'd dreamed of; it couldn't have suited his ideas any better.

Whether it was the sharpness of wind that could enhance a flying dagger or the elusive, intangible quality his movement technique needed, wind nature suited them perfectly.

After that, no matter how busy he was, Ye Yuexin went to the cliff every day to feel the wind change. He sat cross-legged, his hands forming a circle, keeping his mind in a state of emptiness, just like the cultivators in novels.

At first, it really had no effect. Ye Yuexin fell asleep almost every time. But persistence was what mattered. He kept telling himself that, though even he didn't know whether it was doing any good.

After all, he'd made the whole thing up. In this world, in terms of technology, ability, knowledge, talent, and everything else, Ye Yuexin might have been only above average.

But as a transmigrator, he'd dare call himself number one when it came to wild ideas and imagination.

Maybe, just maybe, the biggest reason he managed to keep at it was that it was the height of summer.

In a village like Konoha, where strong winds were rare, sitting on a cliff and enjoying the breeze was a pleasure in itself.

That was how he maintained that half-asleep, half-awake state of emptiness for two months.

The surprise came suddenly. It was as if he'd abruptly noticed something had changed.

His blade seemed to have taken on a touch of the wind's sharpness, and his movement had grown more nimble.

The changes had blended into him so gradually that he hadn't noticed them until they reached a tipping point.

From then on, whenever Ye Yuexin meditated, he never fell asleep again.

Perhaps because of that transformation, he felt as though the wind had come alive whenever he meditated.

Around that time, he and Itachi had a rather muddled spar.

Naturally, Ye Yuexin hadn't used his flying dagger. From the moment he'd started practicing with it, he'd decided to bring the legend of Little Li's unfailing flying dagger into the world of Naruto.

Once he drew his blade, blood had to be shed. Ye Yuexin would never use his flying dagger in a spar.

Even so, his speed and movement made him a difficult opponent.

Itachi Uchiha used both Fire Release and shuriken, but he couldn't land a hit on Ye Yuexin.

Of course, Ye Yuexin didn't dare approach Itachi recklessly either. At the time, aside from his flying dagger, he didn't really have any other way to attack.

In the end, neither of them could get the better of the other.

What Ye Yuexin hadn't expected was that after their spar, Itachi started approaching him on his own.

Ye Yuexin wasn't the aloof type, and with his memories of Itachi from his previous life, the two soon became good friends.

"When's your little brother due?" Ye Yuexin asked Itachi Uchiha as they walked along Konoha's bustling streets.

Looking at the six-year-old Itachi in front of him, Ye Yuexin had only found out a few days ago that the guy who would take the worst beatings and still manage to look the coolest was about to be born.

Itachi Uchiha paused at the sudden question, then replied, "We went to the hospital for a checkup. They said it'll be another couple of months. It's a boy."

From what Ye Yuexin had observed, Itachi's lips had clearly curled up when he mentioned Sasuke. It seemed the brother-obsessed gene had already taken root.

But what did that have to do with him? "Come on, the dumpling shop is up ahead. I hear they've got something new." With that, he hurried on.

The shop, called Wanfu Dumpling Shop, was doing remarkably well. It was only around three in the afternoon, yet it was already packed.

It wasn't very big, with only seven or eight tables, but nearly every one of them was occupied.

Ye Yuexin glanced around and suddenly spotted a familiar figure, so he went straight over.

The girl in front of him was busy tackling the assorted dumplings on her plate. He reached over and snatched one off her skewer.

"Mm..." When she saw someone take a dumpling, the girl immediately tried to say something, but her mouth was too full to get the words out.

Recognizing the familiar face, she broke into a smile. With her mouth so full, though, it looked a little awkward.

"Little Anko, what are you doing back here?" Ye Yuexin asked, puzzled. Shouldn't Anko be on the battlefield right now?

Ye Yuexin called her Little Anko, but Anko was actually a year ahead of them. She'd graduated the year before.

It was just that Anko had always been tiny, practically a little runt, ever since he'd known her. That was why Ye Yuexin called her Little Anko.

She stared at Ye Yuexin and chewed quickly. At last, she swallowed. "Little Yuexin, you're here too! Come sit down. It's on me. I just finished a mission." It really was rather awkward: Ye Yuexin called her Little Anko, and Anko, refusing to be outdone, called him Little Yuexin.