Chapter 92: The Fastest Uchiha in the Yard

Nearly seven weeks had passed since the Nine-Tails attack.

Three days after Tsunade officially ended his medical restriction, Ren sat on the shaded veranda overlooking the Uchiha estate’s training yard.

Shisui stood near the center of the lawn with a formal scroll tucked beneath one arm. The document carried the Hokage’s seal and authorized him to assess Itachi for advanced intelligence assignments.

The assessment had started more than an hour earlier. Shisui had shown Itachi a patrol map for less than a minute before taking it away and asking him to reproduce every marked route from memory. He had hidden small changes around the training yard, mixed false details into a mission report, and tested whether Itachi could identify a disguised observer without alerting the target.

Itachi had passed each exercise without difficulty.

The spar was the final part.

Fugaku had approved the assessment before leaving for a Police Force command meeting. At Ren’s insistence, he had required Shisui to conduct it inside the estate rather than taking Itachi to an ANBU facility.

Shisui and Itachi had trained together on and off since Itachi was small, so seeing them face each other in the yard was nothing unusual. The official scroll was different. For the first time, the village was placing Itachi’s name beside real future assignments.

Itachi wanted the opportunity, however. Ren had no intention of keeping his brother weak merely because he distrusted the people interested in recruiting him.

He settled back against the veranda post and watched Shisui signal the beginning of the assessment.

Itachi’s eyes turned red as the tomoe settled around his pupils. Then he reached for the shuriken pouch at his hip.

Itachi opened with six wire-guided shuriken. The first three drove Shisui away from the veranda, while the others curved in from the sides after Itachi pulled the wires tight.

Shisui avoided the closing blades with an easy backward step. He was still smiling when Itachi formed a hand seal.

A shadow clone rushed him from the front, forcing Shisui to block a wooden kunai aimed at his chest. The clone burst apart under the counterstrike, revealing the wires it had wrapped loosely around Shisui’s wrist during the exchange.

Itachi pulled.

The sudden tension dragged Shisui’s arm aside just as the real Itachi came through the smoke from his blind spot. His Sharingan followed Shisui’s shifting balance, and the tip of his wooden kunai reached within a handspan of Shisui’s ribs.

Shisui’s smile disappeared.

His body blurred.

Itachi’s kunai passed through the space Shisui had occupied. Before Itachi could turn, Shisui reappeared beside him, swept his supporting leg, and caught him before his shoulder struck the ground. A wooden blade stopped just beneath Itachi’s jaw.

"Dead," Shisui said.

Shisui lowered the wooden blade and offered Itachi his free hand. The easy smile returned, but the polite indulgence from the beginning of the assessment was gone. Itachi had come close enough that Shisui was now treating him like a genuine opponent.

"You nearly had me with the wire."

Itachi accepted the hand and stood. He showed no frustration over the loss. His attention had already returned to the empty patch of grass where Shisui had vanished.

"I predicted your landing point," Itachi said. "You changed direction during the Body Flicker."

"That is why predicting the first movement isn’t enough."

Itachi nodded once, storing the correction away for their next spar.

The side gate opened while Shisui was explaining the final assessment.

Uchiha Izumi stepped into the yard carrying a large bento box wrapped carefully in a red cloth. Her dark hair had been tied back for the morning, though several loose strands had escaped around her face during the walk.

She slowed when she noticed Ren and Shisui watching her, but she continued toward Itachi instead of retreating.

"Your assessment finished on time," Izumi said, offering him the box.

Itachi looked from the bento to her face. "How did you know when it would finish?"

Izumi hesitated for only a moment before explaining that she had been passing the estate after an errand and had decided to check whether he was still training.

The food was still warm. The cloth had been tied with far too much care for an accidental visit.

Shisui lowered his eyes to hide his smile. Ren looked toward the training yard and generously pretended he had not heard anything.

Itachi thanked Izumi and opened the unusually large box. After inspecting the rice balls, grilled fish, vegetables, and sliced fruit arranged inside, he divided everything into four equal portions and handed one each to Ren, Shisui, and Izumi.

Shisui lowered his face toward his food to hide his smile.

Izumi looked at the portion Itachi had returned to her. She had prepared the entire lunch for him, and he had somehow transformed the gesture into balanced group catering.

Itachi began eating without noticing anything wrong.

Ren decided his brother could predict a hidden blade from twenty paces away but remained completely helpless against a girl carrying rice balls.

Later that afternoon, Ren returned to Konoha General for the last daily examination Tsunade had scheduled after the stabilizer treatment.

She checked the restored eye, tested his pupil response, and pushed medical chakra through the repaired pathways. Three days of ordinary use had caused no inflammation or renewed damage.

"No strain," Tsunade confirmed, lowering the examination light.

Ren stepped down from the chair and began fastening his cuff. "Does that mean you are finally removing me from your daily schedule?"

"Medically."

Tsunade caught the front of his shirt before he could move away. She pulled him between her knees and kissed him firmly, apparently satisfied that he was no longer fragile enough to require careful handling.

Ren’s hand settled around her waist. Tsunade let the kiss continue for several seconds before placing one palm against his chest and pushing him back just far enough to look at him.

"Come back tomorrow evening," she said, smoothing the section of his shirt she had wrinkled. "After my shift."

Ren looked at the hand still resting against his chest. "Another examination?"

"No."

Tsunade released him and returned to her desk, leaving no uncertainty about what she intended.

That night, the estate was quiet. Ren sat in his study with the heavy curtains drawn.

Among the hospital-supply invoices delivered to the estate that evening, Ren found one sheet containing an extra blank page.

The invoice itself was legitimate. It listed antiseptic, gauze, gloves, and several replacement trays purchased for Tsunade’s laboratory. The blank sheet beneath it carried no signature or identifying mark.

Ren placed it flat on the desk and applied a drop of water mixed with chakra to the lower corner. The liquid spread through the paper, and hidden ink slowly rearranged itself across the page.

Biwako had identified two records clerks who accessed Ren’s visit log after Danzo’s formal request was denied. One of them had met with a courier attached to an administrative office known to pass information to Root.

Danzo’s questions remained focused on the nature of Ren’s ocular treatment, how long Tsunade had been treating him, and whether she had used medicine acquired outside the hospital.

The final line contained a scheduling request.

Attend the forty-ninth-day memorial for the victims of the Nine-Tails attack on Thursday. We can speak while arranging the offerings.

Ren burned the message over a candle and dropped the ashes into a metal tray.

The clash of wooden weapons drifted through the open window.

After submitting his assessment report and completing his afternoon duties, Shisui had returned to the estate after dinner. Itachi immediately demanded another attempt at the movement that had defeated him that morning.

The two figures crossed the darkening training yard in brief bursts of speed, stopping only when Shisui corrected Itachi’s footing.

Ren remained beside the window.

Danzo had started by watching hospital visits and searching for the source of Ren’s treatment. Sooner or later, his attention would move toward the two prodigies training below.

The old man had always been fond of turning talented Uchiha into village property.

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