Naruto: An Informant from the Uchiha

'Is the gap really this wide?'

Just one exchange, and he had lost all ability to fight back. Itachi didn't even have time to activate his crow substitution.

Right now, Itachi's mental state was beginning to unravel.

He had always been hailed as a genius, graduating from the academy in just one year, and yet he couldn't even take a single blow from Yun.

"No… even Shisui's Body Flicker Technique reaches that level! My eyes saw it clearly, what you just did wasn't speed. You predicted my movement in advance."

Itachi turned and stared at Yun.

Yun smiled and replied,

"Which is why you've still not reached the level of me or Shisui. Just focus on being a genin for now. Either way, Shisui and I will guide the Uchiha onto the right path. After all… I do quite like this village."

Itachi frowned slightly, then nodded.

"I understand. But I'll do my best to reach your level. I'll walk the path Father gave his life for."

Swish!

A faint sound rustled through the forest. Yun smirked.

"A chūnin instructor from the school? Isn't that underestimating Tokuma a little too much?"

Itachi thought for a moment.

"Even if they're instructors, they're not the kind of regular students who can handle them. Still, they probably made their move now, thinking I wouldn't be around."

Yun glanced over.

"By the way, how come you've been a genin for two years? Didn't take the chūnin exams?"

Itachi shook his head.

"On one mission, both Shinko and Tenma got injured. That's when my Sharingan evolved to three tomoe."

He looked toward the tents.

"You're not worried about them?"

Yun replied calmly:

"Tokuma may be from the Hyūga branch family, but he uses the Byakugan pretty well. And Izumi isn't weak either, even without her Sharingan."

"So… tell me about the mission that awakened your three-tomoe Sharingan."

Itachi was stunned for a moment.

"You think there's something off about it?"

He nodded after thinking.

"It was weird. It was just a C-rank escort mission, but suddenly we got swarmed by enemy ninja. Back then, I only had two tomoe, and our instructor Minazuki was tied up."

"The mission rank got bumped mid-operation, so we aborted. But looking back… it felt like the enemy was waiting for us."

"And when I counterattacked at the end, it felt almost too easy, like they let me win."

Yun asked, "Did it start going 'too smoothly' right after your eyes evolved?"

Itachi nodded. "While the power boost from the three tomoe was real, it shouldn't have been enough to turn the tide that easily."

'So that's how it is…'

Yun exhaled.

'Looks like Danzo's got his eyes on Itachi now… Makes sense. A child prodigy of the Uchiha… awakened two tomoe at five.'

From Danzo's perspective, Yun, who didn't even have a Sharingan, probably didn't register as anything worth noting.

To him, a Uchiha without Sharingan is just a nobody.

"Didn't I tell you before… Why didn't you use the crow Shisui gave you?"

Itachi looked embarrassed.

"At first, I wanted to handle it on my own. But then…"

Yun didn't need him to finish.

Typical Uchiha arrogance. The red-eye disease kicked in, and boom, three tomoe awakened.

'The usual genius syndrome, huh?'

By now, the two had returned to their tent area. Itachi already had his kunai drawn and ready.

Outside the tents, two masked figures held Tokuma and Izumi at knifepoint and shoved them forward.

"What? You expect us to just surrender?" Yun said with a smirk.

"If you don't want your teammates hurt, surrender now!" barked one of the captors.

Yun glanced at Itachi.

'Should we play along a bit?'

Thud.

Itachi dropped his kunai. Both raised their hands in surrender.

The enemy ninja laughed arrogantly.

"So much for being Uchiha geniuses, surrendering this easily?"

One of them stepped forward to bind them. But the next second, he froze.

Yun, who had just surrendered, now stood behind them, a kunai at both their throats.

The two kidnappers tried to shout, only to see that Tokuma and Izumi were now behind them, with Itachi holding two kunai to their stomachs.

"I don't see you much, but your Transformation Jutsu doesn't match Tokuma's chakra signature," Itachi said, withdrawing his blades.

Yun let go of the two and sighed awkwardly.

"Whose idea was that cheesy dialogue during this exercise? 'Surrender or your teammates get hurt? ' Raising your hands counts as giving up now?"

The four attackers took off their masks, yep, they were ninja school instructors.

One of them smiled awkwardly.

"We weren't familiar with you two and didn't dare say much. Still got exposed immediately though…"

Yun scratched his head.

'I tagged Izumi with a Flying Thunder God seal, guys. Doesn't matter how well you copy her, your chakra won't match.'

At that moment, the real Tokuma and Izumi returned from the woods, dragging two captured "enemies", also instructors.

Seeing the situation, Izumi giggled and ran up.

"So the teachers tried using Transformation Jutsu against big bro? Didn't expect it to backfire, huh?"

One of the homeroom teachers gave a bitter laugh.

"Everyone knows how tough you guys are, so no one else wanted to do it. We had no choice but to come up with this trick."

Tokuma glanced at Yun and Itachi.

'You send just a few chūnin to handle these two? And they're just instructors, too. Might as well send themselves straight to the ER.'

The third morning. Itachi's team was casually placed somewhere in the rankings and returned to the academy.

Looking at Itachi up ahead, Izumi asked Yun,

"Big bro, I wanna awaken the Sharingan too! Itachi's eyes are so pretty!"

Yun glanced at his little sister. Compared to his memories, her personality had changed quite a bit because of him.

In the timeline he remembered, she awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan by age thirteen on the night of the massacre, but what she had gone through to reach that point, he didn't know.

But now…

The best protection for her is to never awaken those eyes.

"That kind of eye only appears after you've been through pain," he said, ruffling her hair."If I can help it, I hope you never awaken them. If there's danger, I'll protect you. Trust me."

After the training exercise, the school gave them a break. Yun and Izumi were heading home.

But before they could reach Uchiha territory, Yun's eyes flicked toward a distant corner.

Swish!

Two figures appeared in front of them, masked, but not in ANBU style. Their swords and clothing were… familiar.

"Uchiha Yun. Come with us."