The hirarchy in class in regards to there strenghts looked almost the same as when classes started, the kids of shinobi families were the elite with them only rarely being beaten, after that some of the first generation shinobi were slowly beginning to catch up, Shiro felt like he was one of the best of them, with him often leaving Tenten and the others lying on the ground, tough he still lost most of the time.

The only position that seemed untouchable was the first place, Neiji Hyuga outclassed them all, oftentimes being called a genius, he was seen as arrogant, atleast by the boys, but Shiro didn´t see him like that.

No to Shiro every statement Neiji said seemed very cynical, "You are weak and the weak will never rise over there predestined position" was the gist of what he said, but if you thought about it Neiji wasn´t the strongest in the village so didn´t this philosophy of his also apply to himself?

Regardless he didn´t bother much with Neiji only trying his best when fighting with him, not taunting him like some of the other more rekless and now bruised boys.

Aniways all the boys were training there taijutsu to catch up to Neiji and even Lee was starting to make some progress, tough he still was far behind all the others with shinobi families.

Shiro himself was also making good progress over these months, his jutsu for changing form was beginning to get more advanced and his clone was beginning to get more lifelike, but it still was gelatinous and unable to move or talk.

One day however this peacefull live was disrupted, Seki, the Uchiha orphen he knew for years

didn´t show up to school.

Neither he nor anyone else thought much of this, to tell the truth Shiro didn´t even notice that she was missing at first, but after a while class was interrupted.

"Hello class, my name is Iruka"

A man with a long scar under his eyes and over his nose interrupted there class."Maybe you already noticed that Seki isn´t here today."

The man paused for a bit looking around in the class"She along with almost the entire Uchiha clan has been wiped out yesterday."

Everione went into an uproar, even Neiji looked shocked"The criminal responsible is Itachi Uchiha, this has been confirmed by his younger brother Sasuke Uchiha.

Stay away from this man at all cost and should you ever see him, report it to the officials in Konoha, do NOT ingage him."

Shiro was as shocked as the rest in the class, he knew that the village wasn´t entirely safe, but he thought that only trough war could that safety be threatened, he never thought that an entire clan would be purged by one of there own.

Iruka looked at them all again, then after making sure no one was braking down, he left them alone with there usuall teacher.

"Horrible news, even if you only knew one of them, class is closed for today, but should any of you want to talk to me, I will remain here for a while."

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Most of the students went home, the usuall groups being broken apart as everione just rushed home as fast as possible, only Shiro remained behind.

"Teacher I have a question."

The teacher looked at him"That´s only natural after one of your schoolmates was killed, ask away."

"How was she killed?"Shiro asked.

"She returned to her aunt and uncle on that day and didn´t get back to the orphenage, it seems that after that she was...she was cut down with a blade like the others."

Shiro nodded at this"Why did Itachi murder his clansman?"

The teacher hesitated".....I don´t know, but his brother said he just wanted to test his strenght against his clan, tough that could be achieved in other ways if you ask me."

Shiro asked his final question"If his brother was the witness, how did he survive?"

Mister Yuudai looked at him"According to the boy himself, Itachi want´s to create an enemy worthy of fighting against, so he spared his brother in hopes of him looking for revenge later in life."

Shiro finally heard everithing he wanted to know, excusing himself as he took his things and left.

The information given to him shocked him, not that someone might kill there clan, but that Itachi did all of this....all to test his strenght?

As his teacher said, there are other methods he could have used...was this the most convenient one?

Was becoming a criminal hunted by the entire nation truly so...so negligible?

This man put himself against an entire country and seemingly didn´t even flinch at it, was this true power or madness?

He went his route to his house, jumping from treetop to treetop and over houses, as he had for the last while to save on travelling time.

Coming to his house he wanted to eat and train, but he was interrupted at the door.

"Shiro I have come to make sure that your feeling good despite the tragic events that hapenned!"

Shiro was perplexed at the boy greeting him at the entrance to his home"Hello Lee, Im not feeling very good, but I could be worse so you don´t need to worry."

Lee shook his head at this"I know you knew her for a lot longer then me, so I refuse to leave before your feeling better you undestand me?"

Shiro forced his way past him opening the door for the both of them"You wanna come in then?"

Lee went inside"Shiro you know you can cry right?"

Shiro looked at him"What?"

Lee started to explain"This person that you lost has been important to you for many years, it is only natural for you to cry."He gripped his shoulder"I promise I won´t make fun of you!"

Shiro was perplexed, even for Lee this was a little to direct, but he smiled at his kind words nonetheless"Lee im sure you have only the bedt intentions, but I promise you I am mostly fine, I didn´t know this girl as much as you think I did."

Lee slowly came to terms with the fact that his friend was indeed not going to cry, so they changed the topic to something less horrible.

"So how much progress have you made aniway Lee, in taijutsu that is."

Lee looked a little proud"Im very bad at memorising the techniques and even worse at executing them, but I can get it done almost perfectly after a few hundred times."

Shiro looked at him in confusion"You just repeat this until you get it?"

Lee smiled at his face"Unless you got a better idea?"

Sometimes Lee made Shiro perplexed, repeating a technique hundreds of times will either take a long time, or your muscles will ache for days and he wasn´t even sure how Lee practiced alone.

"Lee we have a lot of time right? Let´s train, since school is over already."

Lee agreed without hesitation, but they soon realised that they couldn´t do any serious fighting in his room.

"Hey Shiro you´ve never been at my place right? We´ve got the space to train there."

Shiro agreed and they wandered over to Lee´s place.

"Alright let´s climb over the fence, that way my parents won´t see us."Lee said.

Shiro asked"Why shouldn´t your parents see us?

"Initially they really wanted me to take up the family profession and train, but as time passed and my talentless nature was exposed they wanted me to stop, they were woried about me."Lee said, then with a more devoted expression"I know there just trying to do it for me, but I know I can catch up to Neiji if I just try hard enough."

Shiro frowned at him"Neiji?"

"To whoever is the next "genius" then, maybe im not talented, but talentless like some people think?No im not just a burden!"Lee exclaimed.

They trained behind the house of the Lee´s parents and altough Lee wasn´t as strong as Shiro, he actually was the one that corrected the forms of him.

Lee had gotten only a part of the techniques down, but he executed them to perfection, oftentimes getting Shiro on the ground.

This went on for quite some time.