A thin sheen of sweat formed on Uchiha Itachi's forehead, but he listened with rapt attention.
As intelligent as he was, he naturally understood what Jin meant. Yet precisely because he understood, those words weighed all the more heavily on his heart.
The children at the Ninja Academy might have been immature, but they were at the age when people found it easiest to open their hearts. Once they graduated and became shinobi, they would step fully into the adult world.
And over the past few days, Itachi had heard more than enough about that world from Yan and Fugaku's conversations.
People schemed against one another, tested each other, and spun one plot after another. Everyone had their own goals, as well as plans they did not want others to know about.
He might have found those kids boring, but once he left the Ninja Academy, he would no longer be dealing with innocent little brats. He would be facing adults who truly knew how to hide their thoughts.
As for friends... Itachi was not an emotionless monster, after all. Of course he wanted friends.
Those children were indeed naive, but just as Jin had said, at least they were willing to approach him and treat him as a friend. Once he left the Ninja Academy, with a personality like his, finding someone willing to open their heart to him would probably be incredibly difficult.
Once he understood all this, the irritation in Itachi's heart slowly faded.
"Teacher, I understand."
He said quietly, "From now on, I'll do my best to get along with everyone and try to make a few friends."
"I won't bring up graduating early again."
At those words, the smile on Yan Uchiha's face grew noticeably brighter. Convincing a child as excessively intelligent as Itachi really