AN: I'm sorry about the slow updates recently, I was feeling a bit down, but I'll try to post more frequently from now on.
(June 26th, year 54 AK)
As Shisui was about to leave, Hikari asked suddenly, "Hey, Shisui-sensei, did you know that yesterday elder Danzo had tried to recruit me and Yuta into his ANBU division?"
Yuta noticed that Itachi's expression darkened just a bit when he heard the name 'Danzo'.
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"Yes, I was informed afterwards." Shisui replied after a brief pause, "And I'm glad that both of you chose to stay in my squad instead."
"That is all that you have to say?" Hikari asked with a blank expression.
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"There is nothing more for me to say. Elder Danzo is a high-ranking official and ANBU are elite ninjas, and I'm really glad that both of you chose to stay with my squad instead, that's all." Shisui replied calmly, "If that's all, then I'll have to go."
After that Shisui left and Hikari didn't stop him and didn't ask anything else.
As Shisui left, Hikari clicked her tongue in annoyance and scoffed.
"What's wrong?" Yuta asked.
'Oh I know what's wrong, but I'm not going to admit it. Hikari probably knows something about Danzo after all, and wanted to get more information from Shisui, but Shisui decided to keep her in the dark instead.'
"Nothing, never mind." Hikari replied absentmindedly and left as well.
"See you in three days." Itachi said as he left as well.
"Yea, see ya..." Yuta replied to Itachi as he was leaving.
'Hm? I think Itachi has changed, not only his chakra and strength, but his character as well, he feels more mature and focused. That was because of the Sharingan's awakening? Probably. I wonder what did Shisui do to him to help him awaken his Sharingan... In the original story that only happened after he lost a teammate in battle, but here both me and Hikari are still alive after all...' Yuta thought, as he left the place and walked towards his usual training grounds, while being deep in thoughts on the way.
'Did Shisui become desperate to the point that he wants to push Itachi to become stronger as fast as possible? It is likely. But what is the point? Just a Sharingan is not enough to push Itachi into the big leagues, sure his chakra grown to the level that even I couldn't measure, probably all the way to Jonin level, and his overall strength probably reached that level as well, but what is just a one Jonin in the grand scheme of things? Nothing.'
'That won't be nearly enough to fight Danzo, and that won't be nearly enough to stand against all the radical-inclined Uchiha clansmen and oppose the coup. It would grant Itachi a reputation as a true genius and the respect of many, but that's about it. For Itachi to play a big role in the coming events around the Uchiha clan, he has to reach another level, and with his talent it won't be a problem to reach an elite Jonin level or even to step with one foot into the Kage level, but is there enough time for that? That will take him years, maybe a decade.'
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'With how things had accelerated with my interference, I doubt we have even four years like it was suppose to be in the original story, from what Shisui said, we only have a year or two, maybe three if we were lucky, before those idiots from the Uchiha clan will push the entire clan into the coup. Maybe Shisui wanted to raise Itachi's strength and reputation so he would help him oppose the coup openly, through negotiation.'
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'Or maybe Shisui's plan doesn't stop at just that...' Yuta stopped on his way as realization hit him, 'Maybe Shisui plans to somehow push Itachi to awaken Mangekyo Sharingan too...'
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'No, this is ridiculous, that won't be even possible, right?' Yuta thought as he shook his head and started walking again, 'That costed him his own life in the original story for it to work, and it happened much later when both of them were best friends for a long time. Does he want to prepare Hikari for that role? No, neither me nor Hikari are qualified for that, we aren't that close, and it doesn't look like we will ever be... Then what? The same method that he already used for the Sharingan?'
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'I don't even know what exactly did he use to achieve that. Probably Mangekyo Sharingan genjutsu, specially and carefully prepared and hand-tailored for Itachi to push his emotions as much as possible. I could assume that something like that could work to awaken Sharingan in someone as talented as Itachi, but will something like that even work for Mangekyo? Somehow, I don't feel like it would. What else then?'
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'No, don't tell me that he intended to use his only shot of Kotoamatsukami for that? Somehow, I feel like, only something on that level could possibly bypass the regular requirement to actually witness your best friend dying to awoken MS... If I was able to get to this conclusion, that means Shisui was able to reach it as well, is this his actual plan?'
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'This is so like him, huh...' Yuta thought with reluctance as he kicked a pebble on the road in frustration, 'Even in the original story he had entrusted all his hopes onto Itachi and took his own life... This is stupid. Even if this time he only sacrifices his Kotoamatsukami, that would be unavailable for a decade until it recharges, and not his actual life, but still, this line of thinking is stupid.'
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'How do I convince Shisui to not do something like that and to use his Kotoamatsukami on Danzo instead? That would've solved a great number of problems at once. Make Danzo to publicly confess to everything, and then probably to suicide on the spot to drag all the blame and hatred into the grave. That would be the sight to see...'
'But Danzo probably knows too many of Hiruzen's dirty secrets that should never be brought to light. Hiruzen won't allow Danzo to confess to anything publicly, as soon as Hiruzen realizes what is happening, he would do everything to shut Danzo decisively and for good...'
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'Well, helping Itachi to awaken MS is not exactly a bad option either, now that I think about it. Two MS users are much better than one, and together they won't have any difficulty taking over the clan and suppressing all the radicals in it. Also, such a power would force the village to make concessions and to reconcile with the Uchiha, whether they like it or not. Or it will make the whole village fear the Uchiha and push them to turn outright hostile instead, especially with Danzo being still at play...'
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'Sigh, damn it all, I don't see a good way to solve it. And then there is Obito, lurking in the dark, plotting and scheming to push the village into chaos...'
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'Sigh, fine, let's take one step at a time. I'll let Shisui act the way he wants, and if it isn't working, then I time-travel and directly warn him about the consequences, so he could avoid it and act differently. With enough trial and error, eventually this will be resolved, one way or another.'
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'But still, this passive stance of "wait and see" is not exactly something I enjoy doing. But what else I could do, I still have a long way to go until I master enough strength to make the difference. Although I had defeated five Mist Chunins in battle, I was lucky back then, and almost all my moves had paid out, and the enemies didn't know about my genjutsu beforehand. There were a lot of factors at play during that fight that led to me defeating five out of six of them.'
'If I'm to be honest with myself, as things stood right now, I would rank myself at a Chunin level at best, and with my unusual genjutsu skills and all the extra training I did in the time-loops, I have good chances defeating one or two regular Chunins in a fight, considering that I won't be having the advantage of my enemies not knowing about my genjutsu that is, and without my enemies severely underestimating me too.'
'Although, with the next time-loop training my strength will surely rise significantly after I cover up my weaknesses according to yesterday's plan. Could my strength reach the Jonin level after my next time-loop training? No, that is unlikely, I'll have to grow my chakra to the Jonin level for that as the bare minimum, and that will take who knows how long, right now I have about 1C, and I assume I have to grow it ten times over to barely reach the Jonin level of chakra, with my current speed of chakra growth it would take... Ten years? Twenty?'
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'Probably somewhere along those lines...'
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'Then how long it would take to reach Kage level of chakra?'
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'If such a thing even possible on just the passive chakra growth from my growing spiritual energy alone, it would probably take a hundredth years, or even hundredths...'
'No, this chakra growth alone is not sustainable if I ever want to reach the Kage level and above. Eventually I'll have to resort to some other means, like forbidden techniques and stuff, but it is too early to think about that right now. It would be better to squeeze first all the possible potential I naturally have as a ninja, then, after I'll train and master all that I possibly could and reach my natural peak, only then it would be the time to resort to the forbidden techniques to go beyond that, resorting to body-altering experiments and things like that...'
...
Yuta reached his training grounds and resumed his training, and although he didn't know that yet, but the next three days would be the longest three days in his entire life...