"You can change here," said the old farmer pushing open the door to the wooden shed. "Good job today. You really helped me out, boy."

Takuma thanked the farmer and entered the shed to change his clothes. Helping as a farm hand was a common D-rank mission. Strong shinobi were majorly effective in all kinds of jobs from tilling to repair work across a farm or livestock ranch, as such a significant portion of the genin population was involved in some part of farming throughout the year.

Today, he had dragged a farm tiller across the large field all day to help prepare it for the sowing for a new crop.

Takuma changed out of his dirty shinobi gear into the change of civilian clothes he had brought along with him. His day's work was over, and all he wanted was to go home and take a shower, but before that, he needed to go shopping for groceries.

He sighed as he pulled the shirt over his shoulders.

"—You can take your time before answering me—"

Shady Guy had left Takuma with those words and a way to contact him, and since then, the conversation had been the one thing occupying his mind. No matter what he was doing, a part of his mind was always thinking about how to approach the invitation.

It was clear that Shady Guy hadn't extended the invitation because he had good intentions for him, and thinking otherwise would've been the height of naivety and foolishness. With what Takuma knew, it was most probably that Shady Guy gained some incentive to get a new fighter into the underground fighting ring.

Who better to employ as a recruiter than someone who had been observing a group of people daily over a two-month fighting period. Shady Guy had two months to watch him fight— not just fighting, he had two months to observe everything about him. The Iryo-nin must've seen something in him that led to the invitation.

What was that something? Was it something positive, meaning he would flourish in the fighting ring? Or was it something negative, like he was an easy target to dupe with the promise of mission points?

It could be either.

The way he saw it, a crossroad of two choices stood before him. The safe option— reject Shady Guy's invitation and continue on with his life, or the risky option— take a chance with the opportunity in front of him to earn an additional source of money and mission points.

He was conflicted because the invitation was a one-time thing. Shady Guy had told him that he would wait for a couple days, and if Takuma didn't have an answer for him, he would consider the offer rejected. What if the offer was legitimate, and he could gain more mission points fighting? He felt declining the invitation would have him miss out on an opportunity that could prove to be beneficial for him.

The decision continued to plague him.

As it stood, if he couldn't resolve his confusion by Shady Guy's deadline, he would let the opportunity pass.

Takuma grabbed the local produce he bought directly from the farmers and departed from the farm on the village's outskirts dedicated to large farming fields and plantations and began running towards the urban city part of the village. He liked the rural part of the village with its openness and quiet, so much different from the crowded and noisy city. It was one of the reasons why he liked farming jobs, as it took him away from the city. He had lived his entire life in metropolitan cities, and even now, he lived in the Leaf village— but he knew if he ever bought a house for himself, it would be away from the city. It helped that he could literally run to the city if he needed something.

The open field turned into suburbia, which then turned into the densely built tall buildings of the center of the Leaf village.

Takuma was tired. He had left home before the sun-up to get to the farm for the work that started at sunrise, and the sun was setting by the time he had left. He wanted to get the remaining grocery and get home so he could relax.

With those thoughts, Takuma entered the shopping street he frequented for grocery needs.

"Takuma!"

A voice that sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put the finger on it, called him, and it made him look. Looking at the person did connect the dots in his brain.

"Izumi?"

Standing in front of him was Uchiha Izumi. It had been well over half a year since he had seen her (or any of his classmates who had been selected by a Jonin). She didn't look much different from what he remembered; the only difference was that she now wore a forehead protector.

"It's been such a long time! How are you?" Izumi stepped closer to him and looked him up and down. "Hmm, you have grown taller… you're as tall as me now," she pouted.

Izumi was right. He had grown taller in the half year, enough to force a change of wardrobe because his clothes no longer fit him properly. Izumi was tall for a girl, and it had taken Takuma a year and a half of proper nutrition to catch up.

"Coming from somewhere? You have mud on your face," she giggled.

"Had a farming mission," Takuma immediately wiped his face with his sleeve. "What about you, how is the genin life suiting you?"

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"Oh, an absolute delight. Last week we went out of the village to deliver a package to another city," Izumi crossed her arms, teeming with pride.

"Was that your first C-rank mission or something?" he asked.

"It was the first good C-rank mission. The other ones were boring work like doing background checks."

'So, the Jonin-team genin have already done multiple C-rank missions,' thought Takuma. He felt something churn inside him. If they were doing C-rank missions, it meant they were earning more mission points.

He knew there would always be a gap between the Genin Corp genin and Jonin-team genin… but it was the first time he could feel it.

"That's good for you," he said after swallowing down the bitterness. Izumi wouldn't need to participate in the underground fighting ring for mission points. The girl before him didn't even need to do missions for jutsu. Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu) was a C-rank jutsu, and it was supposed to be a coming-of-age rite for Uchiha— Izumi would be handed down something that had taken two months of grueling time culminating in a tournament of physical misery to just obtain.

He felt really bitter at the moment.

And the prospect of the fighting ring seemed more and more appealing.

He was about to ask for his leave when Takuma heard a voice from just behind him say,

"Izumi, I've completed my errand, shall we leave?"

Takuma was startled because he didn't know someone was standing behind him. He had developed a vague sense of people nearby his personal space— but he didn't have any inkling that a person was standing behind him.

He turned back to look, and the moment he laid eyes on the person, he was no longer just startled. His heart began to beat faster as he clenched his jaw to keep himself from gasping as he stared into the onyx eyes of the boy in front of him. Every hair on his body stood with a cold shiver as his skin tightened and goosebumps rose.

Memories he had set aside as he got busy with his life jumped back in, and he recalled that in a few years, only three of Izumi's clanmates would walk this land, and she wasn't one of them. And it scared the living fuck out of him that the boy in front of him was one of those three people… and was also the one who had wiped the great Uchiha clan from the face of this planet in a single evening.

In that moment the reason behind why the Uchiha clan had been eradicated didn't matter to Takuma. Any person who could commit parricide and mass murder could definitely snap his head without him knowing.

He hadn't been more terrified than now in his entire life as he faced the Clan Killer—

Uchiha Itachi.

Itachi gave Takuma a glance as he walked past him and stood beside Izumi.

Izumi, unaware of Takuma's thoughts, spoke with a smile. "Ah, let me do the introductions. This is Takuma, my classmate from the academy," she then pointed to Itachi, "and this is Itachi from my clan. Takuma, you must remember Itachi, he was in our class in the first year. It was such a big commotion when he graduated early from the academy," she sounded proud, but Takuma wasn't paying attention.

Itachi nodded in greeting but got nothing in return.

"Takuma?"

Takuma snapped out of his petrified stance and barely got his nerves back into control.

"Ah, my apologies. I was so starstruck for a moment"— he was not— "I mean, who doesn't know Uchiha Itachi. And yes, I vaguely remember that time"— he did not— "Graduated after five months in the academy at age six…. Promoted to Chunin at ten…. I mean, does anything more need to be said?"

It didn't take meta-knowledge to know about Itachi. It was a big deal when Itachi made Chunin. The entire shinobi circle was talking about the ten-year wonder kid, and the talks had reached the academy. It was in the early days of Takuma's arrival into the world— a miserable time for him, so he had mostly ignored the gossip and chatter.

From what Takuma remembered, there was a chance that Itachi was already in the ANBU. He was the youngest ANBU inductee in the Leaf's history, after all.

"You flatter me," Itachi said politely. "Which Jonin are you assigned under?"

The question could've been seen as a slight against Takuma, and if Takuma didn't know the person in front of him, he would've definitely thought that Itachi was trying to insult him— but he knew that the question was innocent enough.

Izumi caught the potential of a misunderstanding and immediately interjected,

"Itachi—"

"Genin Corp," said Takuma.

"Ah, is that so," Itachi's eyes widened a fraction before he nodded. He moved on swiftly, "If you're from the same batch as Izumi…. Did you participate in the Genin Corp's basic training tournament?"

"Huh, what's that?" It seemed Izumi hadn't heard of the final tournament.

"I was invited to spectate, but I don't enjoy those types of competitions," said Itachi before giving Izumi a brief explanation about the final tournament— his explanation was from the Chunin viewpoint.

Unlike her clanmate, Izumi looked genuinely interested and turned to Takuma, "Did you participate?" she asked.

"I did. In fact, I won the competition," Takuma said with a smile­— he wanted this interaction to end immediately.

"Oh, congratulations!" Izumi said, her face glowing up.

"Thank you," Takuma nodded. "Now, while I would like to catch up with you and get some tips from you," he glanced at Itachi, "I have an early day tomorrow. And I'm sure you guys are busy as well, so I unfortunately have to leave. Let's meet up sometime later, alright?"

Takuma made sure it didn't seem abrupt before parting with the pair. He walked and kept walking without looking back; not for a moment did he stop, not until he was inside his home with the door locked behind him and the curtains drawn.

He had forgotten…

The desperate training to catch up to his academy peers… the stress of passing the academy graduation test… the grueling basic training…. the hours devoted to learning jutsu in the efforts to win the final tournament… the day-in-and-day-out loop of D-rank missions.

He had gotten so busy and sucked into living his life day by day, doing the things required by him, that he had forgotten about what truly lay out there in the world and the future.

He was not ready. He knew that, of course— but the abrupt meeting with Itachi had made him come face-to-face with it. The Uchiha massacre was so close. He didn't know when exactly it was going to happen, but he knew that Itachi was really young when it happened. If he had to give his best estimate, he would say that it was two years away at best.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' his back was drenched entirely, and his heart was bursting in his chest.

It wasn't just the Uchiha massacre that was looming in the future.

Akatsuki had already been formed. Obito had started the 'new' Akatsuki with Pain. Orochimaru had already left the Leaf and had joined Akatsuki. After the Uchiha massacre, Itachi would join Akatsuki as a double agent, which meant they were already perceived as a significant threat before the massacre. Orochimaru would then break away from Akatsuki and form his own village— the Hidden Sand's attack along with Orochimaru at the Leaf village was so near.

He could be killed in that invasion.

Takuma didn't have the time he thought he had.

He was living as a genin, doing things that other genin would do, thinking that if he continued to do things he was doing, he would progress. But that was not enough.

He needed to do more.

That night, Takuma wasn't able to go to sleep— his mind kept him locked in with his own thoughts.