Itachi slept early that day because he did not want to meet his father.
Two family members in one day was the limit he set for himself.
The weight of all the new memories he had received from the original Itachi still sat heavy on his mind and he needed quiet hours to let them settle.
By the time he woke the next morning his father had already left the house to attend to clan duties.
As he sat at the table and ate his breakfast Sasuke looked at him with impatient eyes and spoke eagerly, “Hurry up brother.
We have to train a lot today.
I have been waiting since last night and I do not want to waste any of the morning light.” Julian swallowed a bite of food and answered in a calm tone.
“Patience Sasuke.
You will not become a good shinobi without patience.
Rushing through every task will only make your movements sloppy and your decisions weak.” Sasuke tilted his head and asked the question that any young child would ask.
“What is patience going to do for me when I am throwing shuriken or running through the trees?
I want to get stronger fast.” Julian set his chopsticks down and looked at his little brother.
“A shinobi has to be patient so that he can wait for the right moment to strike.
That is the true essence of being a shinobi.
If you attack too early the enemy will see you coming.
If you wait with a clear mind you can choose the perfect second and end the fight before it even starts.
I think you need to learn this lesson now so that it becomes part of the way you think.” Sasuke grew quiet and thought about the words.
The idea of waiting for the right moment seemed new to him yet he nodded as if he wanted to understand it better.
Across the table Mikoto watched the exchange and smiled.
She felt warm pride at the sight of her elder son giving advice to his little brother.
Itachi finished the last of his meal in a calm and unhurried way.
He stood up and bowed slightly toward his mother.
“Thank you for the breakfast mother.” Mikoto answered with a soft smile and a simple reply.
“You are welcome Itachi.” Itachi then turned to the small boy who was already bouncing on his feet.
“Let us go Sasuke.” He walked out of the house with Sasuke close beside him and headed toward the open training grounds of the Uchiha clan.
The plan was not only to guide Sasukes practice but also to test and train the body he now controlled.
Inside the shared mind the real Itachi spoke with quiet curiosity.
‘What are you going to train today?
The body already knows many techniques.
What do you hope to gain from more practice?’ Itachi answered while they walked under the morning sun.
‘I have to test how your jutsus work and how your skills feel when I am the one directing them.
While I have your memories and your muscle memory I still need to try them out.
Mostly I want to satisfy my curiosity about how chakra actually moves.
Reading about it in memories is not the same as feeling it flow under my own command.’ He continued after a short pause.
‘And from your memories I know that your chakra capacity is above average for your age and that it is still growing.
Even so it is not yet at the level that the coming years will demand.
So we are going to work on increasing that capacity as well.’ The original Itachi looked at him with clear surprise.
‘How are you going to increase chakra capacity in a single day?
Growth like that usually takes months or years of steady effort.
There are no known methods to increase chakra capacity naturally either.
It is simply impossible or everyone in the village would be doing it.’ Itachi glanced inward as if the question itself was too simple and the real Itachi was an idiot if he had not figured it out himself.
‘According to your memories chakra is formed by combining two core energies inside the body.
One is physical energy that comes from the cells of the body.
The other is spiritual energy that comes from the mind and the experiences a person gathers.
Your body is already well trained and I have to thank you for that.
Your restless training day after day has saved me the trouble of building basic strength from nothing.’ He kept explaining in a clear and patient voice.
‘The real problem is that your spiritual energy is not yet strong enough to match the physical energy you have gathered.
Awakening the Sharingan and reaching three tomoe did increase the spiritual side.
The Mangekyo will increase it even more as our body understands this new development.’ ‘Still the balance is not complete.
From your memories, most shinobi face the same limit.
They know many ways to train the body and raise physical energy but they have almost no clear method for training spiritual energy.
The usual path is simply to live and gather experiences over long years.
A bloodline limit like the Sharingan can speed the process but it is still slow.’ The real Itachi nodded at that.
Itachi smiled and spoke the next part with quiet confidence.
‘But lucky for us or maybe just for me we already have a way to raise spiritual energy far faster than normal.
The tool is sitting right behind these eyes.’ The original Itachi searched his own memories and found no technique that matched what Julian seemed to mean.
He stayed silent while he tried to solve the puzzle.
Julian noticed the silence and spoke again.
‘Do not think too hard about it.
I am talking about this overpowered ability of yours that you have just unlocked with your Mangekyo Sharingan.