"This is your room. It's already been cleaned up, so just treat it like your own home and use it however you like. Oh, right, later today I'll take you to meet your classmates."
"All right."
Looking at the clean and spacious room, Itachi could not help but reveal a faint smile. After all, this was a place in this world that could truly be called his home.
"Let's go. They should be at the training grounds. We actually have quite a lot of students in our year this time. Including you, there are four in total!"
"Does four really count as a lot...?"
"Well, jujutsu sorcerers are pretty rare, you know~" Gojo said with a wave of his hand.
"Ah, right." Gojo pulled a student ID out of his pocket and handed it to Itachi. "Here's your student ID. Make sure you keep it safe."
Itachi took the card and slipped it into his pocket. Then, looking at Gojo, who had already stepped outside, he gave the tidy room one last glance before turning to leave.
A home always gave people a strange sense of peace, especially for someone like Itachi, who had lived as a rogue ninja for so long.
...
At an open training ground, Gojo brought Itachi to meet the other two classmates, one boy and one girl.
The boy had narrow eyes, black stud earrings, and his hair tied into a bun, with a strand of bangs hanging over the left side of his forehead. There was also a faint smile lingering at the corners of his lips.
"Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Geto Suguru. You can just call me Suguru."
Geto was the first to greet him. Then he pointed at the girl behind him and said, "Her name is Ieiri Shoko. She's in the same year as us."
The girl had short brown hair, and her eyes were the same color. There was a tear mole at the corner of one eye. The only thing that surprised Itachi slightly was that she seemed to have a cigarette in her mouth.
She's this young and already smoking?
"Hi~ Nice to meet you too. Just call me Shoko." Shoko waved.
"Hello. I'm Uchiha Itachi..." Itachi paused for a moment before continuing, "Just call me Itachi."
Once they had all introduced themselves, Gojo clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention.
"Okay, okay, okay~~ Since introductions are done, let's move on to getting to know each other on a deeper level."
"A deeper level?" Itachi asked.
"That's right. Unless something unexpected happens, we'll be going on missions together in the future. If we don't understand each other's abilities, it'll be a bit troublesome," Geto explained, picking up from Itachi's question.
"So, let's fight."
...
Inside the training grounds, Itachi stood in the middle of the field, his Sharingan already activated, three tomoe slowly spinning in his eyes as he looked calmly at Geto.
It was true enough, fighting really was one of the best ways to understand each other better.
"I heard from Gojo that you're pretty strong, so I'm going all out. Better be careful!"
Geto looked at Itachi standing ten meters away. Those eyes of his were unusual. Are they something like Gojo's special eyes?
"Understood. I'll be serious too."
Even after saying that, Itachi remained standing where he was without making a move.
"Heh."
Seeing that Itachi had no intention of moving first, Geto decided to take the initiative.
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz,
Geto spread out both hands, and countless fly-head curses swarmed toward Itachi.
Cursed spirits? So his technique is controlling cursed spirits?
Although Itachi was thinking, his hands had already finished forming seals.
[Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame]
The flames pouring from Itachi's mouth formed a blazing wall of fire in front of him. It surged forward, reducing the fly-heads to ashes as it advanced.
When the fly-heads proved useless, Geto immediately shifted his position, dodged Itachi's attack, and released more than a dozen snake-shaped cursed spirits charging toward him.
Itachi leaped into the air.
[Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson]
More than a dozen shuriken wrapped in flames shot out with perfect accuracy, pinning the snakes' heads to the ground. Then Itachi formed seals once again.
[Genjutsu: Ephemeral]
Several crows suddenly appeared and flew toward Geto.
"Crows?"
Geto was slightly puzzled and raised a hand to block them, but his pupils abruptly shrank. The crows had suddenly turned into shuriken and shot toward him.
There was no time to think. Geto hurriedly summoned a massive cursed spirit to block in front of him, but the exposed skin of his arm was still grazed by one of the shuriken.
Just as Itachi was looking at the large cursed spirit that had blocked the attack, Geto had somehow already moved behind him. Beside him stood a cursed spirit with one arm shaped like a blade, and it had raised that arm, laying the sword-like edge against Itachi's shoulder.
"Your technique is really interesting, but it looks like I won," Geto said from behind him with a smile.
"Did you?" Itachi closed his eyes.
Outside the field,
"Why did Geto stop moving right after releasing the fly-heads?" Shoko asked as she watched the two in the field.
"It's probably Itachi's technique. He did say he was a ninja, after all~" Gojo replied while observing Geto's condition.
Back in the field, the moment Itachi's words fell, Geto suddenly came to his senses.
Looking at the kunai pressed against his throat, Geto was full of confusion.
"What... is going on?"
Just a moment ago, he had clearly been behind Itachi. So why was he now still standing in the same place, with Itachi behind him holding a kunai to his neck?
"This is genjutsu. You were under my illusion from the very beginning," Itachi explained as he put away the kunai.
"Genjutsu?"
Geto touched the spot where the kunai had just been pressed, still shaken. Cold sweat had already formed on his forehead. If Itachi had been an enemy, then he would have died without even knowing how.
"I'm a ninja. Whether it's genjutsu or the Fire Style from earlier, they're all forms of ninjutsu," Itachi explained.
"That's incredible. Good thing you're an ally," Geto replied with a smile.
Clap clap clap.
Gojo came over applauding. "That was pretty amazing. It actually makes me want to spar with you too~" Gojo said, taking off his sunglasses and looking at Itachi with those glowing blue eyes.
"That's fine, but wait a moment first. I'm curious about Suguru's technique." Itachi turned a questioning gaze toward Geto.
"Uh... this?"
As he spoke, Geto opened his palm. A small black vortex formed above it, and from within the swirling darkness, a tiny cursed spirit hopped out, landing on his hand and bouncing around.
"This is my innate technique, [Cursed Spirit Manipulation]."
The holder of this technique could use a subjugation ritual to make cursed spirits their own. If the gap in strength was too great, then simply touching the cursed spirit with one's hand was enough to skip the ritual entirely and absorb it directly.
And the number of cursed spirits it could store... had no upper limit.
So it really is cursed spirit control. Just as I thought.
"But I only became a jujutsu sorcerer not too long ago, so I haven't subdued any especially strong cursed spirits yet." Geto scratched the back of his head, looking a little embarrassed.
"That's all right. You still have plenty of time ahead of you. You'll become very strong in the future." Itachi gave Geto a gentle smile.
"Definitely!"
Geto was clearly full of confidence in himself as well.
"Then let's begin, Gojo."
"Alright then. You'd better be careful, Itachi. I'm not going to fall for your genjutsu that easily."
Gojo smiled confidently and strolled into the field with his hands in his pockets and his back straight.
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