After finding out where Itachi was training from Fugaku, Shisui left Uchiha's territory and went to the remote river.
Sure enough, Shisui saw the Itachi, who was practicing Great Fireball Technique.
The huge fireball landed in the water, evaporating the water.
"Itachi." Shisui greeted Itachi with a smile.
Hearing this familiar voice, Itachi quickly turned around and saw that the figure he had been missing was slowly walking towards him.
"Shisui." Itachi's usually calm expression also disappeared, and his little face was filled with joy.
He hadn't seen Shisui for a long time
Shisui patted Itachi's shoulder and smiled. "I was a little busy recently, so I couldn't see you. How is your training?"
When Shisui mentioned training, Itachi immediately thought of Kabuto as he progressed faster after he trained with him.
Itachi thought for a moment and said, "Not bad."
"That's good, that's good. Why don't we have a spar and show me how much you've improved?" Shisui challenged Itachi.
Although the current Itachi would instantly lose if Shisui got serious, Shisui held back in their spar as he played the role of a sparing partner.
Shisui felt that Itachi was very similar to him. Although he was young, he was a critical thinker and tend to think about problems that many adults would not think about.
"Okay." Itachi nodded and assumed an offensive stance.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The two Kunai flew towards Shisui.
Shisui had not even activated his Sharingan as he leaned slightly to the side and easily dodged the two Kunais.
Dong!
The Kunai were embedded into a tree.
However, Itachi knew that he couldn't defeat Shisui by throwing Kunai alone.
From the way Shisui dodged just now, Itachi already knew that Shisui wouldn't show any opening. If he wanted to defeat Shisui, he would have to make that opening himself.
Itachi quickly threw three more Shuriken, but it wasn't as straightforward as last time. The Shuriken hit each other, changing their trajectory on their way as they headed toward Shisui at a tricky angle.
Shisui smiled slightly. He was the one who taught Itachi this move. If Itachi thought he could defeat him with this technique, then he was a little naive.
Shisui quickly took out a Shuriken from his pouch. He observed where Itachi's Shuriken changed trajectory and then threw his Shuriken.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal colliding rang out three times in a row.
Shisui first repelled the Shuriken that was about to hit him.
The Shuriken that he repelled hit the other two Shuriken, deflecting one of them and sending the last one straight at Itachi.
Itachi used some Chakra on his feet to dodge the Shuriken.
Itachi had to admit that he made a wrong move by using Shisui's technique against him. Compared to Shisui, his Shuriken throwing still had ways to go.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" The Itachi quickly made a series of hand seals and soon spewed out a massive fireball toward Shisui.
Shisui smiled and made the exact same hand seals as Itachi.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Shisui also spewed a massive fireball to counter Itachi's Great Fireball Technique.
Although Shisui held back, he was a skilled Shinobi who made his name in the war. As the two fireballs collided, Itachi's fireball was pushed back.
Seeing that he still couldn't defeat Shisui in Ninjutsu, Itachi quickly retreated into the water.
Bsss!
The scorching hot fire evaporated the river's surface, and the vapor hindered their vision.
Siu!
The moment the white mist appeared, three different footsteps were heard. There were three Itachis that attacked Shisui from three different directions.
However, Shisui easily saw through the real Itachi easily. He grabbed Itachi with his right hand and swung him toward his Shadow Clones, dispersing them.
"Shisui, how did you find me?" Itachi curiously asked as he stood back up.
Shisui pointed at Itachi's wet clothes and said, "Itachi, you conjure shadow clones after you leave the water, right? Your shadow clones' clothes are all dry."
Itachi was stunned. It was not that he was not aware of this, but the vapor should have blocked Shisui's vision somewhat.
Seeing through Itachi's doubts, Shisui pointed at his blood-red eyes.
It turned out that Shisui had already activated his three-tomoe Sharingan at some point without Itachi realizing it.
"With Sharingan, such a mistake will be easily seen through. So you must avoid making any mistake when fighting me." Shisui gently reminded.
Itachi nodded, keeping the lesson he had learned this time in mind. When dealing with enemies with Sharingan, there was no point in blocking their vision with smoke.
Shisui took out his tanto to cut a bit of wood and brought it to Itachi. Then, he made a campfire.
The two sat in front of the campfire and began to chat.
"Shisui, what have you been busy with lately?" Itachi asked curiously.
Shisui being busy was nothing new, but he could still spare some time to give him some advice and have some talk.
Shisui thought for a moment, then said, "It's confidential. I can't tell you, but it's a very important job."
"Very important?" Itachi was even more curious, but since Shisui said that it was confidential, he did not pry further.
Shisui nodded and said, "Yes. If it succeeds, the relationship between the village and the Clan will get better."
"That is indeed very important." Itachi nodded.
Although he was very young, he could feel the rift between the Clan and the village. The atmosphere in Uchiha Clan was also somewhat strange.
Sometimes, he could hear his clansmen complaining about the village to his father, Fugaku Uchiha.
"Shisui, are you still going to be busy from now on?" Itachi asked.
"Not so much this week, but I will be busy again later." Shisui nodded.
Looking at the silent Itachi, Shisui smiled and stroked Itachi's hair. He smiled and said, "To borrow Commander Nagasawa's words, Shinobi do what they should do, not do what they want to do."
"Now, what I should do and what I want to do happens to be the same thing, so I want to do my best."
"Commander Nagasawa? Who is he?" Itachi asked curiously. If Shisui addressed the Nagasawa person as Commander, it meant that Shisui acknowledged that person.
"He is a senior of mine. He is the true inheritor of the Will of Fire. There are too many things worth learning from him." Shisui sincerely praised Nagasawa.
"..." Itachi did not say anything and silently memorized the name Nagasawa in his heart.
Shisui didn't just acknowledge this person, he respected him very much.
Itachi was very curious about what kind of person could receive such praise from Shisui.
"Actually, I recently met a pretty good person..." Itachi thought for a moment before mentioning his encounter with Kabuto.