Teacher Itachi

There was no threat or intimidation in Madara Uchiha's words. He had simply asked a question, yet the instant his eyes settled on Arashi Yakō, Arashi felt his blood run cold. It was as though he was being scrutinized not by an eight-year-old child, but by nature's most lethal predator.

As Madara spoke, Kazuhiko Sarutobi and Arakawa Kiba also prepared for battle. If Arashi Yakō made a move, both would strike together with every intention of killing him.

"That's enough. The preliminaries are over, and the finals will take place in a month. The daimyo of the great nations will come to watch, as will Konoha's Hokage. Kumogakure has other shinobi who advanced. Settle a grudge from a Genin match in another Genin match. A Jōnin throwing a tantrum here is utterly unbecoming."

Golden sand floated around Arashi Yakō. Fourth Kazekage Rasa had also reached the limit of his patience with the Kumogakure shinobi's overbearing behavior. If Arashi did anything reckless again, Rasa would not mind burying him here. After all, by any reasonable measure, the Kumogakure shinobi were the ones at fault.

"I acted rashly. I apologize to you, Lord Kazekage."

Arashi Yakō realized that attacking now would be inappropriate no matter how he tried to justify it. Seeing the Kazekage grow angry, he immediately backed down. After all, as the Jōnin leading the team, he still had dozens of Kumogakure Genin whose lives he needed to protect.

The farce was over. With another month until the finals, Madara Uchiha and the others would have to remain in Sunagakure for that long. The Konoha shinobi who had already failed would also have to wait for Hayato and the others to finish the exam before returning together.

If I had to take Itachi's Majestic Destroyer Flame head-on, could I withstand it?

On the way back to their temporary lodgings in Sunagakure, Hayato Hyuga watched Madara Uchiha walking ahead and asked himself that question.

Without a doubt, he could not.

Hayato Hyuga gave a bitter smile as he watched Madara Uchiha's back. When they had first met, he had worried that Madara would hold him back. Instead, Madara's performance had shown him again and again just how inept he was by comparison.

"Itachi, please, help me train!"

There was still a month until the next exam, and Kazuhiko would naturally give Hayato some guidance from time to time. But Hayato believed that to truly grow stronger, he needed a powerful sparring partner. Compared with Sōsuke Aburame, whose methods of attack were unusual, Madara Uchiha was clearly the better choice. For the sake of getting stronger, Hayato Hyuga no longer cared about his pride. As soon as they finished eating, he clung to Madara Uchiha's leg, looking determined not to let go until Madara agreed.

"Itachi, help this guy out. As the shinobi leading the team, I have plenty of patrol duties every day, so I really don't have time to teach him. You can see it yourself: in terms of raw strength, Hayato Hyuga isn't even as good as Tetsuya Raikō. If he hasn't gotten stronger by the finals next month, there's a very good chance someone will kill him. If you don't teach him and he fails to become a Chunin, he'll pester you to death once we're back in Konoha."

"Let go."

Madara Uchiha looked at Hayato Hyuga shamelessly clinging to him and sighed inwardly.

I don't have anything else to do in Sunagakure anyway. I might as well teach the brat for now. Consider it an investment toward controlling the Hyuga Clan in the future.

"What? You're going to teach me taijutsu?!"

The next day, at a training ground in Sunagakure, Madara Uchiha formally began teaching Hayato Hyuga. But when Hayato heard that Madara intended to teach him taijutsu, he was clearly bewildered. He had originally hoped Madara would teach him powerful ninjutsu like Majestic Destroyer Flame. When it came to taijutsu, Hayato did not believe an eight-year-old child could surpass him, a taijutsu specialist.

"Leaving aside whether you can even learn Fire Release, with that little chakra of yours, you couldn't produce anything like my results even if you did. Since you're from the Hyuga Clan, just do as you're told and start with taijutsu."

Madara Uchiha shot down Hayato Hyuga's complaints without mercy. Agreeing to teach this brat was already a considerable concession, and now he was getting picky?

"If you want to know whether I'm qualified to teach you, why don't we fight and find out? I won't use shuriken or ninjutsu. One fight will settle it."

"Then let's fight! You think I'm scared of you?"

Hearing Madara Uchiha say that stirred Hayato Hyuga's competitive spirit. His overall strength might fall short of Madara's, but he still had some confidence in his taijutsu.

Activating his Byakugan, Hayato Hyuga lunged at Madara Uchiha. Madara did not even budge. He simply caught Hayato's right hand as it reached for his chakra points and gave it a light tug, throwing Hayato off balance. At the same time, Madara extended his right leg to trip him, sending Hayato sprawling face-first into the dirt.

"That doesn't count! I wasn't serious. Let's go again!"

He had been defeated far too quickly. Refusing to believe he was really that bad, Hayato Hyuga demanded another fight. Madara Uchiha naturally paid no mind to his refusal to admit defeat. Over the next hour, Madara threw Hayato countless times using all sorts of techniques. Only when his head was spinning from being tossed around did Hayato finally accept that he was not even qualified to compete with Madara in taijutsu.

"Are you even human?! No, I mean, how are you this strong?! Are you really only eight?!"

After being thrown countless times and finally understanding the tip of the iceberg that was Madara Uchiha's strength, Hayato Hyuga was utterly convinced. He no longer dreamed of surpassing Madara. Simply learning something from him would be enough to satisfy him.

"Enough chatter. Start learning."

Once he was sure Hayato Hyuga had accepted his superiority, Madara Uchiha taught him several common movements for generating force and corrected a few minor flaws in his footwork. After that, Hayato had to practice on his own to reinforce what he had learned, giving Madara time to train his own chakra.

Several days passed, and Hayato Hyuga had more or less mastered the fundamentals. Madara Uchiha then began teaching him chakra control. For members of the Hyuga Clan, the key to rapidly increasing their strength lay in understanding their clan's techniques. Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm was one of the advanced techniques Madara intended to have Hayato learn.

"You're going to teach me Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm? Teacher Itachi, the Uchiha Clan knows that technique too?"