Crows x Souls

“Your way is inefficient and unnecessarily risky. Don’t lose sight of our goal.” — Itachi Uchiha. 

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Itachi blinked, not quite understanding the reason behind Yamamoto’s decision but knew he had no other choice than to go with it. 

At first glance, Yamamoto looked like the kind of elder that let children get into whatever type of mischief they feel obliged to so that they can learn on their own, but that perception of him was instantly shattered after the first two times Itachi appeared in his presence. Knowing Yamamoto, or even a glimpse of the deceptive old man’s true nature, made sense why all the Captains were well-behaved in his presence. 

Yamamoto rarely asked. He commanded. 

And as he commanded, Itachi found himself crossing the gates of the Shin’ō Academy and heading towards the Head Instructor’s office. Thankfully he didn’t have to spend much time with the man before he left his office for his class. 

As far as his knowledge went, 3rd Seats and Lieutenants were rarely instructors at the Academy and most times just acted as assistants. Luckily for him, his assignment was teaching the better applications of Hoho and Hakuda to the end-year students, fourth and fifth year to be precise, rather than anything theoretical. 

He had found out from the Head Instructor that they were lacking competent instructors to help the others from being too overwhelmed by the students due to their low numbers. 

Itachi stepped into the demarcated field that was used for practice and could already see the problems. 

Teaching martial arts forms in groups was hardly efficient if they couldn’t apply even a tenth of what they learnt against a superior opponent, i.e their lacking instructors. 

Upon his arrival, Itachi was greeted by one of the assistant instructors. “3rd Seat Itachi, we heard another instructor was joining us today but I didn’t think it was you.”

“Neither did I. I was only told yesterday.” Itachi said, his face set in a neutral mask, making the poor instructor not know how to respond to him. “Hakuda and Hoho, right? Let’s not dawdle any longer then.”

The instructor internally sighed in relief and led Itachi to where some of the students' posture and application were being tested, while the others were doing poses. 

Seeing it like this almost brought a sense of nostalgia to Itachi, almost. He hardly remembered his times as an Academy student given how young and how fast he completed it. But now he was an instructor, not a student. 

“Itachi Uchiha. I’ll be one of your instructors till further notice.” He gave a brief introduction after hanging his black robe, leaving him with only his white undershirt and hakama(pants). “Let’s begin.”

He had a lot of misgivings about his current position as it further removed him from the investigation, which he was sure was done on purpose. His only saving grace being that the Head Captain probably didn’t believe the farcical theory that he was behind this, otherwise his situation might have been a lot worse. 

He could only go with it for now while at the same time put in extra effort to make up for lost time. 

The first student that came up to him was a girl who fidgeted as she got into a stance. 

“Don’t worry, this is not the yearly assessment. Try and fail, fail and try again; that’s how you learn. You’ll find that knowledge gained through effort is rarely forgotten.” 

The girl was stunned, not expecting Itachi whose face was set in a perpetual stern look to give her genuine advice. She watched the assessment so she knew who it was standing opposite her. For her, the rank of 3rd Seat was one of high prestige – one rank below the Lieutenants and just two below the Captain. 

She took a calming breath and got into a pose, only to get more emboldened when she saw him giving her an acknowledging nod. 

“4th year student, Hana. Please advise.” She slowed her breath and rushed towards Itachi, her Shunpo nowhere near the level to blur her movements, only just increasing her speed. 

Itachi didn’t know how impressive her display was according to the standards of the Academy so he kept his criticism to himself for now and focused on the areas she could improve at her level. 

“Slow down. If you realize you’re not faster than your opponent, slow down and conserve your stamina.” Itachi said as he deflected a kick and parried another one, pushing her off balance. 

She nodded and attacked again, this time slower than her initial pace. 

Even without his Sharingan, he could copy her movements rather easily and since he had also mastered Hakuda, it was easy for him to attack her with her form and style although with a bit more skillful proficiency. 

Seeing her growing increasingly frustrated, he ended their exercise with a parting word. “I’ll save the criticisms for another time but as food for thought, it would have been better to ‘learn’ my movements instead of trying to beat me. Your instructors hold back for a reason.”

Not only Hana, the few students and instructors nearby, but even Itachi was surprised at how accommodating he was. The only person he could ever remember teaching was Sasuke and that was a very long time ago, yet here he was doing it so freely as if he had experience in it. 

As for the young man he met in the forest years ago, he would hardly classify it as teaching as he didn’t help with the intention to correct his flaws but instead to raise him to a level where he could pass the entrance exam. He left Junpei’s combat flaws to the Academy since that was the whole essence of the institution. 

Another person came up, a girl again – who shoved her way in front of the boy who was supposed to be next – and introduced herself before getting into a basic stance and beginning her attack with Itachi’s go-ahead. 

‘She is better than the first girl, Hana. Both in Shunpo and Hakuda.’ Itachi realized after her first two strikes failed and the way she recomposed herself. She wasn’t forcefully exerting herself for a show either. 

‘A mini-Yoruichi maybe?’ He thought. She used fast and pinpoint punches and kicks, which were all heavily complimented by her speed. With the ease she was connecting her rather amateurish movements, it would not take a genius to realize that this was the style she was going for. 

He repeated what he did to the first girl to the second one and after a few seconds of accessing her style and a few minutes of thoroughly accessing her capabilities, he ended the practice and got to the next student, repeating and repeating, until he got to the tenth student where a surprise was waiting for him. 

“I half-expected you to say something at this point but I think I’ve forgotten what you were always like.” A wryly smiling young man stood in front of him in a very basic stance. “Junpei, 4th

He said so with an expecting smile that took Itachi a moment to understand why. He had told him that he would tell him his name the next time they met, and while Junpei probably knew it by now, he still wanted to hear Itachi say it. 

Itachi freely let the small smirk that played across his lips visible which only made Junpei’s smile widen. “I had thought you were in your fifth year when I saw you at the assessment almost two years ago.”

“What? No. I snuck in.” Junpei said, sounding flattered that the man in front of him thought he could pull that off but that just made his next sentence that much bitter in his mouth. 

“I tried graduating early from my third year but, haha, yeah, didn’t work out so well. But knowing myself, I shouldn’t have been that much surprised.”

“Uh? Do they know each other?” The students began murmuring between themselves as they saw the two having a casual conversation. 

“Probably from the Rukongai.” Another student said, “Maybe it’s because of this guy that made Junpei want to join the 2nd Division?”

“Oh, you might be right! He probably wanted to join 3rd Seat Itachi in the 2nd Division so badly that he tried taking an advance exam only to bomb it too badly.” 

There were a few mockeries but neither of the two people concerned paid it any attention. 

Itachi had nothing to say in regards to Junpei’s failure; both of them knew he wasn’t that talented right from the beginning. Instead Itachi raised his hands and beckoned Junpei to proceed. 

“Itachi Uchiha.”

That was all Junpei needed to press on his attack. 

An instant – that was all it took to see through Junpei’s movements. Officially Junpei was the worst one so far from all the students he’d tested but that meant so little to nothing. 

Hard work might rarely ever beat talent, but no one said you always had to be the best? You just had to be strong enough to not be irrelevant. 

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