"You're getting pretty good at that."

Itsuki sets himself in a one-armed handstand in the middle of the room. Breathing in strong, breathing out slow. A bead of sweat curls down his cheek, and his teeth grinds tight.

"Not good enough if," he swings his legs back, and hops himself back upright with a sharp vault. Then he straightens, "not good enough if I didn't notice you until you talked."

He catches his breath, and lets his chakra expand again. It's much easier now that he's not upside down, but he's still surprised by how close Kakashi felt.

"Here, a towel," Kakashi shoves something soft at his chest, "you need help getting dressed or something?"

"Thanks," Itsuki takes the towel gratefully, pressing it at the base of his neck, comforted by the warmth of the cloth against the cold sweat. "Just help me pick out my clothes?"

"Don't ever say that to Obito," Kakashi says immediately, though his voice is further-- so he's walking toward the wardrobe-- "he'll make you wear something atrocious and you wouldn't even notice."

Itsuki scoffs. "I trust you."

"I wouldn't trust myself, if I were you."

A pause.

Wisely, Itsuki decides, "I think I'll ask Minato-sensei instead."

"I'm joking, geez," there's a clatter, and the sound of a door shutting. Then a fold of clothing are pushed into his hands. "You've only got like three sets of identical clothing, anyways, take it already."

Itsuki sneers at the clothes he couldn't see, "well thank the lord for that." Kakashi walks out in dry laughter, and Itsuki spits fondly, "you asshole."

-

"Itsuki!" that was Anko's voice, but she was probably too far away to be sensed, cause Itsuki had no idea where in the training ground was she--

"Kakashi-niisan, where-- Oomph!"

A weight crashes in from behind and he stumbles, landing facefirst on wet grass.

"You're so weak!" Anko's voice comes from behind-- on top of him-- are you sitting on my back you miniature gremlin-- and she laughs. "Orochimaru-sensei, did you see that?"

"Yes, I saw," Orochimaru responds from a little further away. Itsuki's fist tightens, but he manages to hold back the flinch this time. The shivers are still there, but less. Orochimaru adds a warning, "you should get off of him soon, Anko."

"Okay!"

Training Ground Twenty-one was usually empty, cause it's the training ground with the least amount of sunlight, and the ground was always damp. There were swamps and most of the trail was mud. Not muddy, just mud.

It was not ideal for Genin training, but this ground was necessary for landscape training and adapting to rainier countries... or something like that.

Orochimaru just liked this training ground because snakes loved dim and damp places. If he was going to train an army of little snake charmers, where else?

"Thanks for bringing him, Kakashi-kun," Orochimaru addresses Kakashi, who hums in response.

Itsuki felt a shiver crawl up his spine for a slightly different reason. Like, who the heck is that nice-sounding man? Why is he speaking with Orochimaru's voice? Why does he sound nice? Did he just use an honorific??

This situation is beyond freaky.

"Then I'm going," Kakashi says, setting a hand on Itsuki's head and ruffling the hair twice.

"Ah-- say hi to Totobi and Rin-nee for me."

"Totowho?" Kakashi retorts, "you're getting infected by Anko."

"Not anymore than I'm getting infected by you, so it should be okay."

"Are you getting cheekier?"

"I'm always like this."

"Right. See ya at home."

"Don't come over."

Itsuki waves in his general direction, and Kakashi's presence vanishes in a shunshin. There goes his main source of comfort. Time to face the termites, he thought, and he turned back toward Orochimaru and Anko.

To begin with, what was Anko doing here?

She was always here to watch. Being an Academy student, she wasn't allowed to be fully trained by Orochimaru yet, but that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to watch from a distance away and absorb what she could.

But now, there's nothing worth watching.

(Oh well.)

"Since you're having a hard time, let's work on basic chakra control today, shall we?" Orochimaru said, "since you're using your chakra to discern now, let's see what that does to your tree walking and water treading."

Itsuki pauses.

(Why would that be relevant?)

-

"I never thought I'd say this, but tree walking is a bitch."

Anko bursts into laughter, and Orochimaru actually snorts.

"Well," said teacher stopped to cough into his hand, but the laughing was still prominent in his voice, "well, you've always been exceptional in chakra control... but now that half of your chakra is preoccupied, and the other half is afflicted-- I suppose even you would begin to have trouble."

In his past life, tree-walking and water treading were as easy as breathing. He inherited chakra handling from his mother and learned how to knead it from young. Perhaps, if things had gone differently, Tsunade would've picked her up. She probably tried, actually, but Itsuki's interests lay in a different direction.

Now that half his chakra is focused on expanding for sight, it's like he's always on a sensory mission. There's very little chakra left for defense-- even then, he'd usually have a partner with him for that-- and even less for anything related to mobility.

Much more, his current chakra control is shit in comparison to himself in the future.

He can't even walk a tree.

He groans. "I've got a looong way to go," he mutters.

He feels someone sit down beside him. He doesn't sense it-- he feels it-- a warmth, and he hears the gentle fluttering of clothes as they sit down. Ah, this was normal, wasn't it? People didn't need their eyes to see everything.

Sight was an important sense, but it was not everything.

A hand rests across his forehead, and even without looking, he knows Orochimaru is smiling.

Not the warped, insane sneer from the future, not the maddening, crazed grin that would forever be burned into his mind and haunt him in his dreams.

It's a kind smile, gentle as the rain.

It's Orochimaru-sensei's smile, the one that always leads him forward with a light push on his back. It's the light that led him through his darkest days, a dream he wished would happen again.

(And it is happening.)

He laughs a little. With mud under him and the very subtle breeze of petrichor through his nose, Itsuki thinks he can keep trying.

He can keep living in this dream, until the world takes it from him again.

(Ah,)

His eyes open, but nothing reflects. That's too be expected, but something else takes him-- a very surprising train of thought.

He sits up, startled with the sudden, very dumb, very obvious realization.

(What if I change the future?)