[THIRD PERSON POV:]

"Good form, and great positioning. However, I suggest holding it between your thumb and index finger instead." Aoki said, pointing at the shuriken held between Sasuke's index and middle fingers.

"But this is the way big brother does it! He can throw so many at a time, between any of his fingers!" Sasuke protested, whipping his arm forward and throwing the shuriken with the same technique as before.

*THUNK!*

The shuriken landed, missing the target's centre by a fraction of an inch.

"Sure, that's a great end goal to work towards, but it's best to isolate the movements first. Using the first grip, you can polish how your arm moves during the throw, once that's done, you can then focus on changing your form to how you'd like it." The older boy recommended, reaching into his own pouch and flicking a shuriken at the target, landing dead centre.

The Uchiha boy looked at the shuriken and mulled it over for a moment, he retrieved another shuriken, this time following Aoki's instructions and flung it, resulting in a more accurate throw.

The duo had been training for about half an hour now, they had begun with some light exercising to warm up and had moved on to Shurikenjutsu, something Sasuke was especially eager to learn properly. Ever since he learnt of how skilled Itachi was with it, Sasuke had spared no effort to emulate his older brother as best he could.

Although at the beginning both Aoki and Sasuke had been separated by a stream of unfamiliarity, the distance between the two closed quickly. Sasuke latched onto Aoki's teachings as he lacked a proper teacher for certain aspects of his development, Itachi never had any time for him, and his father hadn't accepted his requests to learn from him since after he had been taught the fireball Jutsu.

Time passed like this for a while, Sasuke polishing his Shurikenjutsu while Aoki helped out with a few pointers spliced in between the throws. The teaching was elevated by how quickly Sasuke understood Aoki's words and by the older boy's natural skill for teaching.

*THUNK!*

Sasuke landed the tenth shuriken in a row dead centre at the target, the last throw haven taken much longer due to how cautious he was.

Aoki raised an eyebrow at the boy's deadpan reaction to achieving his goal, although he could notice a small wriggling of Sasuke's mouth as a silly smile threatened to erupt. Sasuke held in any emotion, a smug aura emerged from the boy instead.

"Good job Sasuke! I'm sure your brother would be proud." Aoki said, a small smile on his face as he clapped for the boy lightly.

Sasuke looked at Aoki and nodded, his mood elevated with only hints of happiness seeping through. It was clear to anybody who watched on that the boy was doing his best to act nonchalant about his success, unfortunately, the boy was almost as bad as Aoki was years ago at hiding his emotions.

"Still unhappy eh? Let's shoot for 20 in a row then..." Aoki said, breaking Sasuke's internal monologue of joy.

Aoki felt that the boy was trying too hard to be mature, and decided to tease him a little.

Cracks of shock splintered through Sasuke's face, before he reluctantly walked up to the targets, intending to pick them up and go again. A small chortle from Aoki as Sasuke's disappointment became apparent was enough to make the young Uchiha realise he had been played.

"That was rude," Sasuke said, folding his arms over and puffing his cheeks out, quickly, he realised that he looked childish and dropped his arms to his side, switching over to an impassive face with his nose lightly in the air.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Nobody would've fallen for this act.

'He's too much,' Aoki thought, shaking his head lightly at the boy's antics, a small smile playing on his lips.

*****

Hiruzen's mind felt hazy as he stepped out onto the porch, as the most important members of the Uchiha joined him and filtered out of the house, an air of worry blanketed the group. The setting sun's orange glow intensified the sombre mood.

The Hokage had been questioned with ill-hidden suspicion that bordered on hostility by some members of the clan. Fugaku had reigned them in, keeping them in line, but there was only so much he could do. Hiruzen's mind raced with incentives and rewards he could give to the Uchiha clan members to soften the blow of this loss, perhaps one that could go on and assist in mending the clan's relationship with the village.

Unfortunately, most of what he could do seemed shallow at best, almost as if he was trying to patch up the broken hull of a boat with a piece of paper.

Fugaku struck up another conversation with him as he stepped outside the home, going over some of the agreements they had come to when regarding how Shisui's death would be investigated. The Leaf village police force would be receiving "donations" from the village, as well as the assistance of a few Yamanaka and Inuzuka clan members to aid their search.

Itachi hung back by the sidelines, waiting for the two to finish before interjecting with the offer of guiding Hiruzen to where Aoki was. Fugaku and a few elders huddled together and left for another home, presumably to have another meeting, Hiruzen couldn't help but respect Fugaku Uchiha's drive to lead his clan.

Hiruzen would've felt he'd done the same, had he been younger. Age had caught up with him and diminished his stamina quite a bit; the Hokage silently lamented his weary state as Itachi led him down the path to his home. When they arrived, they both were met with a sight none expected.

"Good Sasuke! Come at me again!"

Sasuke grabbed a kunai in his right hand and jumped forward at Aoki, his figure covered in a layer of sweat as he struck forward at his opponent with a ferocity not expected from someone his age.

Aoki dodged the attack easily, smacking Sasuke's arm with a stick he held in his hand, simulating a kunai. With Aoki's strength, if the kunai were real, it would've separated the Uchiha's limb with the counterattack he deployed. Sasuke paid no attention to this, ignoring his loss and kept on the attack.

"Your brother is quite skilled," Hiruzen complimented from a while away, noticing that Sasuke's skill was much higher than almost any child his age.

"Aoki also seems to be quite adept." Sounded out a voice from beside the Hokage. Hiruzen noticed a small, almost unnoticeable fluctuation of Chakra from Itachi, if he hadn't been as well versed in sensing the energy, he would've missed it entirely.

Itachi watched the two fight with his Sharingan, not hiding his curiosity regarding the training of the two. The boy was doing this for two reasons, one, to make sure that Aoki hadn't harmed Sasuke, he would need to confront the boy if this was the case.

Luckily for Aoki, other than some light damage expected from training, there was nothing noticeably wrong with his younger brother. The second reason was due to Aoki himself, Itachi couldn't help but want to know more about the strange young boy who accompanied the Hokage on a trip as serious as this one.

The two sparring seemed to have noticed their newfound spectators but kept going until Sasuke gave up, his movements had gotten slow and his legs were unstable, there would be nothing to gain from training more. Though most children would have complained at how hard they'd been pushed, Sasuke's face was a picture of satisfaction, today was the first time he felt that he'd been pushed to his limits.

Aoki waved at the Hokage and Itachi, who walked over and complimented Sasuke on his improvements. Itachi thanked Aoki for helping his brother train and smiled in response when Aoki said to think nothing of it.

"You wanted to meet your friends right? It's getting quite late, but I'm sure that they'd be glad to meet yo-"

"Actually, could I come back some other time? I'm pretty tired, and I'm sure they're tired too." Aoki said, interrupting Itachi's offer to take the boy to Yakumi and Byakko. Itachi nodded without hesitating but was internally surprised, Aoki had no wear or tear other than a light layer of sweat on his forehead, even without the Sharingan, he could tell that this was a flimsy excuse at best.

Itachi had a few theories as to why Aoki wanted to bow out so quickly, but he kept them to himself and smiled, apologising to Aoki for the meeting running on too long.

The three talked some more, later joined by Mikoto Uchiha who offered them all some water, Sasuke in particular gulped down the glass with fervor, causing the adults to smile between themselves.

The young Uchiha always restrained himself from showcasing his childishness when not amongst family, watching his mask slip was an amusing sight.

The sun had almost fully set by now, and Hiruzen felt that his foggy brain had been thoroughly freshened up with the presence of Aoki and the Uchiha family. Deciding that it was time to excuse themselves for the day, the duo of Hokage and Genin bid the family adieu.