“A Kagebunshin huh.” Kisame sneered as he saw two same opponents appearing simultaneously. He had to admit that he still feel some bit of anger over someone copying his jutsu.

Kakashi was busy however, on focusing on the most dangerous opponent in front of him.

Those eyes… they are…. Tsk. My sole left eye can never be an equal to those two eyes, especially under a true Uchiha member. This is the worst possible situation… but theres nothing I can do about it now. Uchiha Itachi was not considered a genius for show, as Kakashi had known.

“The infamous Copy Ninja, eh?”Kisame stretched his neck, side to side. “Kakashi of the Sharingan.”

“This is surprising as well, I never expected that the two suspicious people on the sweet shop are missing-nins of Leaf and Mist.” Kakashi answered back.

“Kisame.” Amidst all of this high tension skirmish. Only one of them was calm on the entire fight. “Remember why we are here in the first place. We are not here to get bogged down to fight waves of Konoha Shinobi. And most especially, getting injured is not the reason why we came here.”

Did I just got scolded? Kisame only shrugged at Itachi’s words.

“Then would you mind telling us why you’ve come here? Maybe we could just deliver it here for you peacefully.” Kakashi sarcastically asked.

In split second, Kakashi saw the shurikens on Itachi’s hand. And understood whats coming.

“Ninpou!” Kakashi made quick handsigns. “Suiton Suijinheki!”

And just like what he had thought, he was in time to block the deadly spikes of water coming towards him with his own water barrier jutsu.

What Itachi did was a quick cast of jutsu that could never be caught or seen by normal human eyes. It was so fast that Kakashi narrowly avoided receiving damage or possibly death. Thanks to his Sharingan on his left eye, he was able to quickly read how Itachi used the shurikens on his hand as bait to misdirect Kakashi.

“Your ‘borrowed’ sharingan is as remarkable as expected Kakashi-san.” Itachi said.

“Isn’t that right?” another Itachi appeared behind him and successfully stabbed Kakashi on his unguarded back.

“A shadow clone?!” Kurenai was stunned at another quick cast of jutsu.

Kakashi however melted into a stream of water.

“A water clone huh.”

“Nice Kakashi!” Kurenai unsheathe her extra kunai and prepared to strike at the back of her opponent. But suddenly, Kakashi appeared in under the water and grabbed her to make some distance.

“Get down Kurenai! These ones are just copies!”

“Huh?” Kurenai got confused.

Then a big explosion occurred on where the Kurenai had been.

“Kurenai! Kakashi!”

The clone exploded? Asuma immediately jumped to where his companions might have been.

Sudden rain of water splashed through their bodies. Kakashi and Kurenai was now at a safe distance from Itachi. Asuma then regrouped with them.

“Ugh…” Kakashi took some small damage over that explosion.

“Keep your guards up! This man, Uchiha Itachi was the Commander of the ANBU at age of 13!” Kakashi immediately took combat stance towards Itachi who was also rejoined by his companion.

So he wasn’t just a member? Asuma and Kurenai was once again impressed at their opponent’s past. This new revelation only fueled their hidden fear against their enemy. It’s truly a great waste that he became a Missing-nin.

“Asuma, Kurenai. Don’t ever think that this is the only thing he is capable of. He had not shown us his full strength yet.” Kakashi warned his two fellow jounins.

“Kakashi-san…” Itachi stared at his eyes. “It seems that you still haven’t discovered the full potential of that eye. Although your body is a suitable host for that power, it does not contain our bloodline.”

You don’t have to rub it in. Kakashi thought, as he focused on Itachi, trying to sense anything that he would do.

“Do you know why the Uchiha clan was the most powerful and feared clan of all?” Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. But Kakashi sensed a forboding danger.

It couldn’t be! This is not good!

“BOTH OF YOU! CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW!” Kakashi yelled to his two companions.

Asuma and Kurenai aren’t stupid to question that. They trust Kakashi’s sensitive senses to detect any possible attack that they couldn’t see. If he says something that they should do, they should do it and followed suit.

But contrary to Kakashi’s expectations, a massive wave of water exploded at the center. Knocking the three of them away.

“Shit! I focused too much on Itachi and forgot his companion!” Kakashi gritted his teeth when the water have finally calmed down.

“What happened?” Asuma shook his head from being washed by a strong current.

“They got away.” Kurenai slowly stood and found the two missing opponents. The river bank was now back to normal. But it didn’t make their situation better. “Anyone injured?”

The two shook their heads in response.

“Itachi used himself as a distraction while his companion used a jutsu.” Kakashi said. “They got me good.”

“We have to find out their true purpose on why they are here. Especially when we have the Iwa Delegations present in the village. I already warned and sent a message to ANBU command about the situation.” Kakashi added.

Then a green man in suit suddenly arrived, creating a massive splash of water.

“Where are those villains that you have mentioned Kakashi?!” Gai screamed with his lungs out while in combat pose.

“Gai you’re late.” Kakashi said.

“What?!” Gai said in frustration. The three jounins decided to ignore Gai for now and focus on the emergency.

“What do you have in mind?” Asuma asked the former member of ANBU.

“Jiraiya-sama told me a certain organization that was joined by Uchiha Itachi. And how he got an information that their target are the Jinchurikis.” Kakashi replied. “And we only have one here in the Konoha.”

Both Kurenai and Asuma immediately understood these words.

“Naruto!”

“Yes,” Kakashi confirmed their thoughts. And several ANBU operatives also appeared near them.

“Kakashi-san, we apologize for our tardiness.” The one in puppy mask said.

“Do you have information about the current location of Naruto?” Kakashi immediately asked.

“Yes, he is with the foreigner, his uncle Harissen-san and your student, Sasuke-kun was dining on a Ramen shop.” The ANBU captain answered.

Upon hearing that, Kakashi suddenly felt a sudden chill.

“Let’s move now Kakashi! We can still make it!” Kurenai said then somehow sensed Kakashi’s sudden discomfort of the news. “What is it?”

“This is bad.” Kakashi immediately sweats in nervousness. “Very very bad.”

He saw first hand the wake of the battlefield which Naruto’s uncle had walked when he singlehandedly defeated the main force of the invasion. Kakashi looked to all of them and told them a possible dire situation.

“It would be extremely bad if we allowed those two intruders meet with Harissen-san.”

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

Conrad barely registered that Naruto had invited a friend to eat ramen. Not because he didn’t care, but because his mind was a bit busy processing his latest discovery.

Even aggressive haggling for the few things he had bought alongside the books for the boy hadn’t helped distract him from the discovery of the black soul gem. More importantly, from wondering why his mother had a black soul gem on her.

None of the scenarios that kept forming in his mind were of his liking.

“Here you go, Harissen-san!” The serving girl placed a big bowl of ramen with some extra toppings and meat in front of him. She did the same with the two boys and Naruto started digging with gusto, his serving of noodles, vegetables, and pork, all simmering in steaming delicious-smelling broth. All while exchanging enthusiastic words with the old cook and his daughter. Conrad could understand why his nephew was so fond of this place.

“So, your name is… Sasaki, right?” he asked, trying to start a conversation with the other kid.

“Uchiha Sasuke. I’m in the same team as Naruto. This is the third time we’ve met,” Sasuke reminded him after swallowing his food. Clearly the kid had more table manners than Naruto, but for some reason the Nord could swear that he was being judged by the moody twelve-year-old.

“Don’t take it personally, Sasuke,” Naruto told his friend, his speech miraculously unimpaired while he inhaled his bowl of noodles. “Uncle’s just terrible with remembering names.”

Conrad frowned. It wasn’t like he had trouble remembering names. He just didn’t care. He avoided saying that out loud though, not wanting to spoil the meal’s oddly mixed mood.

His thoughts went back to the black gem currently hanging from his belt. Sure, he had found a large number of black soul gems back in the day. It came with the territory of exploring ancient places, ruins, killing necromancers or vampires that happened to be necromancers. And sure, he had kept those… under a floorboard back at home, to be sure that they would not be used to trap a person’s soul. Selling them was out of the question, they were too dangerous.

So why would a woman bring one when she was planning a long trip by ship with her baby?

He doubted that it was because it was a memento or a gift from a loved one. Who would pick a black soul gem as a gift?

Did she keep it on herself because she was willing to soul-trap a person?

Did she even know what happened to them, or the dangers of using a black soul gem?

Was she a cultist or something?!

“Uncle, are you not hungry?”

Conrad looked up, realizing that he had been staring at his bowl for some time. Even the cook was giving him an odd look. Picking up his chopsticks, he ate some of the toppings before trying to go for the noodles. He almost managed to put them in his mouth before they fell into the broth with a splash, sending drops of broth everywhere.

Well, at least he had given the proper way to eat this dish a try. He picked up the bowl and started drinking the broth, so that he could finish the rest of the damn thing without making a mess. He had to admit it, though, that it was pretty good.

He couldn't really enjoy the taste, though. The thoughts about his mother kept coming back, haunting him like a ghost. She was dead and gone, the black gem was just one of the things she had when she died. Did it really matter why she had it? After all, torturing himself like this wouldn’t get him any answers, especially from a dead woman.

Memories of the souls trapped in the Soul Cairn flashed through his mind.

It mattered to him, though.

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto yelled all of a sudden, startling Conrad. His nephew was waving eagerly at a Shinobi that had just entered through the ramen stand’s curtains. A man with a tan, a spiky ponytail and a large scar through his face who immediately gave the boy a warm smile.

“Hello Naruto, Sasuke,” the scarred Shinobi greeted before turning towards Conrad with a slight bow. “You must be Harissen-san, Hokage-sama told me about you.”

“Uncle, this is Iruka-sensei! He taught our class at the Academy!”

“Oh, I see,” Conrad said. So this was the man that taught children how to kill… why was Naruto so glad to see him?

“He taught us stuff like how to read, how to do taijutsu, math, how to use chakra and ninjutsu…”

“Not that you learned much,” Sasuke commented dryly from his stool.

"Screw you, jerk!” Naruto rounded on him in what was clearly an old argument. “I passed that test fair and square!"

Sasuke only scoffed before slurping up more noodles. Iruka smiled at their antics and sat besides them before ordering some ramen for himself.

“So… how old are children when they start at this Academy of yours?” Conrad asked carefully.

“Oh, it’s not mine, I’m just a teacher there,” Iruka explained, most likely mistaking his reasons for asking, smiled at the apparent interest. “But to answer your question, most of the students I had started when they were five years old.”

Five years old. Conrad wondered what he’d been doing when he’d been at that age. He thought of vague memories of throwing rocks at mudcrabs and then running away, or learning how to read. Or had he been six?

“It took forever to graduate,” Naruto grumbled grumpily. His friend gave a brief nod, seemingly agreeing with the sentiment.

“Doesn’t it only take seven years?” Conrad wondered.

“Yeah, that’s a lot.” It sure was from the point of view of the boy. It was more than half of his life, after all.

“It takes a long time to teach someone how to mold chakra properly,” Iruka said. “And that’s not considering that they also have to learn how to read and write, math, geography, basics of ninjutsu…”

“And how to fight,” Conrad added, giving a side eye to Iruka.

“Well, yes. Genin have to be able to fight once they’re assigned to their teams,” the teacher explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Your Hokage told me that such a thing is considered… necessary,” Conrad said, his distaste for such a practice dripping from the word. “Why’s that?”

Iruka seemed to think about the question for a few more seconds before answering, at least.

"Well, our genin need to be able to deal with possible threats, Harissen-san. Like people attacking their clients. So they need to know how to defend themselves. How to fight, survival skills, anything and everything they could possibly need as shinobi."

It was obvious from his tone that the man took genuine pride in his work, but worse still was the smile Naruto sent his way.

The shinobi kept talking, saying something about fire having a will that Conrad didn’t really get. Still, he had met enough zealots in his life to recognise how this Iruka character was using circular logic to justify himself, probably without even realising that.

Still, he bit his tongue for once. He knew that Naruto would speak in defense of his teacher, as much as the man didn't deserve it.

“Don’t worry, Harissen-san,” Iruka continued in a reassuring tone. “I realise that parents would worry about their children―”

Conrad almost swallowed on a noodle.

“What?” he managed to ask.

“Well, you’re Naruto’s legal guardian after all,” the teacher continued. “I realise you’d be worried about his safety. But genin are not supposed to fight against other shinobi. Simple bandits aren’t much of a threat for one of them, and a team will be protected by a jonin. You saw what a jonin can do, right? A team led by a jounin-sensei is not supposed to fight other shinobi either.”

Conrad simmered over the twisted logic. He had to very reluctantly admit, no matter how much he disliked it, that there was a little of truth in the man’s words. These shinobi were faster and more agile than most people, and able to use weird magic. Naruto was pretty much able to create a little army of himself. He had no idea if it was exceptional or not by Shinobi standards, but if such skills were normal… maybe fighting against bandits posed little danger, no matter how he disapproved of it.

“Except that on our first C-rank mission the client lied. We had to fight some shinobi,” Sasu-something said after observing the scene in silence.

“Hey, he had a good reason for it and you know it!” Naruto protested.

Conrad slowly turned towards his nephew, in a silent question so loud that the boy actually stopped eating his ramen.

“It turned out okay!” Naruto said defensively, ignoring the pointed look Sasuke was shooting at him. “Well… Haku and Zabuza died, but old man Tazuna and Inari and Tsunami made it out okay! And thanks to us Wave is doing great!”

"Wave?" Conrad asked distractedly. He didn’t know who any of those people were and he didn’t really want to know, he was mostly wondering how any of that could count as ‘okay’, especially now that he knew what 'okay' meant. But figured he was supposed to say something.

"A little island by the Land of Fire's coast," Sasuke took over. "A rogue businessman turned warlord took over, forcing the locals to comply thanks to armed thugs. Our client, Tazuna, had a plan to break their monopoly and hired Konoha shinobi for protection."

"And we kicked their butts!" Naruto loudly proclaimed.

Sasuke crossed his arms and grunted, a frown on his face.

"What? We did!"

"And almost died," Sasuke muttered.

"Well, yeah, but we also kicked their butts!"

While the kids started arguing about how an enemy had apparently not been that willing to kill them in the first place, Conrad decided he needed help to process the information that these two kids were trivializing the fact that they could've died in battle. How many times had his nephew been thrust into pointless danger, all for money?

"Do you serve anything to drink?" he asked the ramen girl.

"Sure thing, Harissen-san! We have some tea, or―"

"I'll have the strongest thing you have," he interrupted, not being interested in tea or any other not-alcoholic related things right now.

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly. "It's quite early."

"So?"

That gained him a slight frown from Iruka. After briefly glancing towards Naruto for some reason, the waitress produced a sake bottle and a cup. Conrad just drank from the bottle, finding comfort in the familiar warmth that followed. He immediately ordered another one.

"Anyway, they even named a bridge after me!" Naruto proclaimed, and Conrad realized the boy was still talking to him. "We should go visit one day!"

"A bridge?" Conrad wondered. Twelve years old and the boy had a landmark named after him? Talk about starting young. "I'd like to see it."

Especially if it meant meeting the guy that had lied and put Naruto―and, he guessed, Naruto’s teammates―in danger. Just to have a few choice of words when Naruto wasn't looking.

"Both of you handled yourselves well, succeeding in your mission despite the circumstances," Iruka smiled fondly. “Seeing his students succeed is the best thing a teacher can ask for.”

Sasuke nodded politely, but Naruto beamed. It was a bit odd seeing how utterly opposite the two were. Without saying a word, the Uchiha stood up and pushed his empty bowl towards the serving girl, fishing out some money to pay.

Conrad stopped him immediately.

"Don't worry about it. Naruto invited you, so you're our guest here." He took his new wallet out and paid before Sasuke could protest. Paper money was admittedly more convenient than coinage… even if it wasn’t as satisfying as shiny coins.

The kid seemed to wonder if he should accept or not, before settling for a small bow of gratitude.

"Thank you, Harissen-san. Naruto. Iruka-sensei."

"Hey, where are you going?" Naruto asked before Sasuke even turned around.

"I want to train a bit, since we didn't have a team meeting today."

"Do you want me to come? We could train together," Naruto offered casually, but Conrad could hear the careful hope in his voice.

Again, Sasuke seemed to think about how to answer for a bit longer than necessary.

"Sure, whatever," he shrugged, before leaving.

"Alright!” Naruto cheered, leaping from his stool. “See you later Uncle! Bye Iruka-sensei! Bye Ayame, Old Man Teuchi! Thanks for the ramen!"

Once the kids had left, Conrad found himself alone with Naruto's former teacher. And the two owners, he guessed, but mostly with Iruka.

"You know, it’s none of my business but drinking is not a good habit, especially in front of kids."

Oh, great. So not only did Iruka train children to fight, but he was also a teetotaller that drew the line at drinking in front of them.

“You’re right, it’s none of your business” he said, taking a swig out of spite.

“The Hokage warned me you weren’t easy to talk to,” Iruka sighed, shaking his head. Where was he trying to go with this?

“I would like to see how you people would talk to me after spending a couple months in a cell in Skyrim,” Conrad grumbled after savoring the taste of the sake. It wasn’t mead but it was growing on him. “We don’t have toilets, though.”

“You… what?” Iruka asked, visibly confused. In his defense, Conrad would’ve been too.

“Our plumbing is not as common or advanced as yours,” he explained. “We don’t have many of the things you take for granted. Our lands are full of monsters too, and even worse things lurking around. You people don’t know how lucky you are, and you ruin it by taking children, who still think they’re invincible and never going to die, and throw them at your enemies.”

There was a moment of silence in which the Nord could feel that both Iruka and the owners of the stand were trying to process what he had just said. Or maybe they were wondering how people could survive without running water. Or both.

Then Conrad heard a scream of pain.