The changes that began with a kunai

A shuriken?

An ambush?

Uchiha Itachi sensed it before he even landed, without turning his head. Still in midair, he instinctively drew a shuriken from his waist and hurled it. Swift and precise, it shot toward the dark shape like an arrow.

Clink.

The shuriken struck the dark shape dead-on, but to Itachi's surprise, the incoming "shuriken" was unusually fragile. His counterattack shattered it into several pieces that fell to the ground, while his own shuriken continued flying without losing momentum.

"Watch out!"

Only then did the startled warning reach him. The other boy had not even noticed that he had already counterattacked and was still foolishly trying to warn him.

Was it an accident?

Only now did Uchiha Itachi see that what his shuriken had shattered was merely a small stone. He understood immediately. Almost as soon as he landed, he drew a kunai from his other side and sent it after the shuriken with an even more refined throw.

Thud!

Though thrown later, the kunai caught up first. With lightning speed, it struck the hole in the center of the first shuriken, forcibly redirecting it and carrying it into a tree off to the side.

This was why everyone had called Uchiha Itachi a genius since childhood: his almost supernatural Shurikenjutsu!

"Wow!"

Little Naruto, only just catching on, let out an amazed cry. Naturally, he had been the one to shout the warning. He had been playing by the river, tossing pebbles, when someone suddenly dropped out of the sky.

Seeing that the boy was about to collide with the pebble he had just thrown, Naruto had hurriedly called out a warning.

Yet the very next instant, the boy threw a shuriken and shattered his pebble dead-on. What stunned Naruto even more was that the shuriken could apparently turn on its own. It had been flying straight toward him, only to suddenly veer into a tree over there.

"That was amazing!"

Naturally, Naruto had not seen the kunai Uchiha Itachi threw afterward. Mistakenly believing the shuriken could turn on its own, he rushed up to Uchiha Itachi and praised him loudly.

It's him?

Only then did Uchiha Itachi straighten up. The sight of Naruto gave him a jolt.

The reason he had mistaken the pebble for a surprise shuriken attack was that its speed and trajectory closely resembled those of a properly thrown shuriken.

Even his younger brother Sasuke, whom both he and his father had begun teaching, could not achieve that effect with a real shuriken.

The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki should be about the same age as my little brother, shouldn't he?

Could it really have been an accident?

"Um, I was just playing by the water. I didn't mean to throw it at you!" Seeing Uchiha Itachi silently watching him, Naruto grew nervous and hurried to explain. "I didn't expect you to jump down from the sky, either."

Then, as though worried the boy might misunderstand, Naruto tossed the remaining stones in his hand in another direction, adding, "I was just playing like this!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Uchiha Itachi watched the pebbles Naruto casually tossed. Every one followed the precise arc of a properly thrown shuriken. That made him realize the earlier throw had not been a fluke. Naruto truly could execute the proper technique even with pebbles.

"...No, it's all right." After a brief silence, Uchiha Itachi gave him a practiced smile. "Sorry for disturbing you."

With that, Uchiha Itachi vanished before Naruto's eyes using the Body Flicker Technique, leaving Naruto standing there with shock still written across his face.

"So...so cool!" Naruto's eyes sparkled. Most of the village Ninja he knew were laid-back middle-aged men. He had never met a Ninja like this boy, who was only a little older than him. It had opened his eyes.

"Aw, I didn't ask his name...huh?" With his hands behind his head, Naruto was reliving the boy's cool little sequence of moves when a glint of light from the tree trunk suddenly caught his eye.

It was the shuriken Uchiha Itachi had thrown earlier.

"Whoa, a real shuriken!" Naruto's eyes lit up, and he raced over. Only when he was about to pull the shuriken out of the tree did he notice a slender kunai pinned through its central ring.

"Why is there a kunai here, too?" Puzzled, Naruto examined the two different ninja weapons in his hands. Their dark metal gleamed in the sunlight, giving him an involuntary chill.

After playing with them for a while, Naruto put them away. Then he glanced around guiltily. Once he was sure no one had noticed, an idea struck him, and he hurried home.

I'll give them back when I see him again. Playing with them until then shouldn't count as stealing, right? Naruto thought.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Itachi slipped into the Small Grove in the opposite direction and soon returned to the Uchiha Clan's Training Ground.

Sasuke Uchiha was practicing with shuriken, panting and drenched in sweat.

His expression was focused. He had not slacked off just because Uchiha Itachi had left him an exercise and gone away. Seeing this, Uchiha Itachi's expression softened, and he stood silently behind him.

"Hyah!"

Sasuke threw more shuriken, but most missed the target and fell to the ground. Even those that hit did not sink in very deeply.

"Damn it, why can't I do it like my brother? Am I not strong enough?" Frustrated, Sasuke irritably waved the shuriken in his hand a few times.

"Throwing shuriken isn't about strength. Technique is the key."

Uchiha Itachi spoke up.

"Oh, big brother!" Hearing his voice, Sasuke turned around in delight. Finding his brother standing right behind him, watching, he asked a little sheepishly, "Didn't you say you had something to do? How come you're back so soon?"

"I finished what I needed to do. Come on, I'll teach you," Uchiha Itachi said gently. Then he guided Sasuke's movements with his own hands, trying to help him memorize the proper form first.

With Uchiha Itachi's help, Sasuke spent the afternoon training and barely managed a few throws that struck the bull's-eye, though far more still missed the target.

That was not because Sasuke was slow. After all, this sort of practice depended on developing a feel for it. Members of the Uchiha Clan were born with the makings of a Ninja; all they needed to master it was diligent practice.

For Ninja, no matter how outstanding their natural talent, most of the geniuses everyone praised still had to hone their skills through relentless effort.

On the way home, bathed in the evening glow, Uchiha Itachi carried his younger brother Sasuke on his back and reflected on what had caught his attention that day.

Aside from Shisui's sudden departure, Naruto's ability to throw even pebbles with such effortless skill had also left him puzzled.

Could someone have been teaching him since he was little?

At that moment, Naruto was at home, rubbing his hands together in private excitement as he gazed at the ninja weapons on the table.

While playing with the kunai earlier, he had suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He seemed to recall a strange symbol he had seen several times in his dreams. It had apparently been engraved on a kunai.

"What was it called...I remember it had a name...something about flying?" Naruto racked his brains and recalled the rough outline. He picked up a brush he had brought home from who knew where and began drawing the pattern from memory.

"A Flying Thunder God Mark?" Watching from the Inner Space, the Nine-Tails was surprised. But after watching a little longer, he scoffed. "He remembered it all wrong. The beginning was slightly right, but everything after that is wrong."

"There's no rush." Hearing the Nine-Tails' words, Minato Namikaze, who was nearby preparing that evening's lesson, smiled. "One step at a time."