This Uchiha Itachi is very lonely

"This is Uncle Huomen and Uncle Yu, do you remember? We went to the front line together."

"This Aunt Xiuyun is... the wife of the temple."

"And this one, you can call her Aunt Yeyue. She owns a sweet shop in the clan area, and your mother often goes there to take care of her."

"The last one is Shisui. I told you about him, the pride of our clan."

…

When the New Year passed, the Ninja School ushered in the entrance ceremony.

Because the time for admission and the start of school are different, after a short report and successive speeches by the two generations of Hokages, Fugaku took Itachi and left the ninja school. In Chunyu Tower, he met the clan members who entered the ninja school with him in the same batch.

……elder.

"Good afternoon, my name is Itachi Uchiha."

After entering the door, there were already several adults and children waiting at the dinner table. As his father explained one by one, Itachi politely introduced himself to the adults.

In his heart, he already had an idea of ​​these people.

I have already seen the radical faction of Uchiha.

So right now, these tribesmen whose father can take the initiative to introduce him to are probably the conservatives in the tribe, right?

"...Compared to a year ago, there seems to be no change."

Uchiha Homon looked at Itachi seriously and looked at Fugaku solemnly, "Clan leader, I suggest that you train Itachi strictly so that he can take over your position earlier and better."

Huomen seems to be a relatively pragmatic person.

"But my temperament is different from a year ago."

Next to him, Uchiha Yu was relatively easy-going, "Not so silent anymore, and...more polite."

Itachi was impressed by both of them.

They were Uchiha jounin, and together with the deceased Uchiha Temple, they once served as the commander of the team and set foot on the battlefield.

After returning from the battlefield, the two of them followed Fugaku to the Hokage Building to report the battle.

Especially Uchiha Ha, who temporarily took over as captain of the Konoha Guards during Fugaku's vacation.

As for Uchiha Hazuki, Itachi once bought sweets from her store, and he had some impression that he was a retired chuunin.

Logically speaking, she, a retired ninja, would not have the opportunity to participate in such a gathering, but since her daughter was a student at the same time as herself, her father, as the clan leader, did not neglect to invite her to join him.

As for Uchiha Sodegumo, he had never seen it once.

"I have my own decision regarding Itachi's cultivation."

Regarding Uchiha Fire Gate's proposal, Uchiha Fugaku replied casually, but did not want to get involved in this topic too much, "Itachi, this is Han Yu's son."

With that said, he motioned Itachi to look at the other children beside him, "Uchiha Kotone, Uchiha Seomai, the daughter and son of Tera and Sodegumo."

"Nalu, the daughter of Huomen."

"Izumi, Hazuki's daughter."

"The next two of you are students of the same class, you have to take care of them."

Following his father's explanation, Itachi looked at the few people who were looking at him curiously and greeted them politely.

However, his attention was not too much on the children.

The impression is probably... three women and two men.

Itachi's attention was mainly focused on Uchiha Shisui, who his father said "has the same talent as you and the same strength as me."

Short hair, gentle... This was Itachi's first impression of Uchiha Shisui.

Although he never spoke, the smile on his face gave him a feeling similar to the one he felt when facing Namikaze Minato.

But compared to the strong sun like Namikaze Minato, Uchiha Shisui is more like warm spring water.

The next dinner party was divided into two tables.

Fugaku and the older people shared a table, Itachi, the children and Shisui shared a table.

At the round table, which was not very large, sat Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Han next to Itachi.

The meaning of the seating arrangement is very obvious.

“…a very novel way of dining.”

As the oldest boy at the table, Uchiha Shisui broke the silence of the table.

He looked curiously at Itachi holding a knife and fork, "Wouldn't this way of eating slow down the food and waste extra time?"

"My father said that speed and time are the most important things for a ninja."

Next to him, as Yu's son, Uchiha Han took advantage of the opportunity to talk, "Although eating like this looks... good-looking, it is too complicated for ninjas."

His untapped brain capacity cannot find many descriptive words.

As for Uchiha Qingcheng and others, they all ate their food obediently and did not speak to each other.

"Cumbersome techniques can also make up for the shortcomings in speed and time after the proficiency is improved."

Itachi didn't explain much and expressed his meaning with practical actions.

When a piece of tender meat steak was gradually dismembered into several small portions under the dexterity of the knife and fork, and disappeared into the weasel's mouth in less than a minute.

Originally planning to expand on the topic of "speed and time", Uchiha Han, who was enlivening the atmosphere at the table, silently closed his mouth.

"Compensating for deficiencies through proficiency...an interesting idea."

And Uchiha Shisui repeated Itachi's words just now.

From this short sentence, he understood part of Itachi's thoughts, "For Itachi, is sweat enough to make up for talent? Then your training should be very hard."

There was a hint of testing in his words.

As someone entrusted by the clan leader, he knew more or less the level of the child in front of him who had just reported to the ninja school.

Chakra properties, chakra shape changes, chakra control...

This child has already mastered many of the conditions that a Jonin should possess.

As a person with the same talent, Shisui wanted to know what Itachi's views were on the relationship between talent and hard work.

"I haven't thought about it."

Itachi calmly replied that his words did not affect the speed or manner of eating, "A person who has a purpose and truly wants to become stronger, regardless of whether he has talent or not, will work hard to improve himself in various ways."

"Similarly, if a talented person wants to become stronger, he will also work very hard."

"Rather than focusing on talent and hard work, we should focus more on the idea and purpose of becoming stronger."

oh?

Shisui's eyes were full of curiosity. He only knew that Itachi was talented in cultivation, but he didn't expect that he, a child, could be so mature in his ideas.

"The idea and purpose of becoming stronger?"

Turning his attention to the clan leader at the other table, he asked Itachi again, "Itachi, when you attended the entrance ceremony just now, you should have heard the speeches of the third and fourth generations of adults, what do you think of the Fire Lord?" Can will become a person’s idea and purpose of becoming stronger?”

Itachi replied without hesitation: "Yes."

The natural answer is that most people in the village are growing up with the "will of fire".

As for whether you can do it or not, that is up to you.

For someone he had just met to ask such a question, Itachi didn't want to explain too much even if his father was present.