The rain started just after noon.
Not heavy — just enough to pull a grey veil over Konoha's rooftops and wash the heat out of the air. Most students groaned at the thought of soaked sandals and damp scrolls. Akio didn't mind. Rain muffled footsteps. Rain was quiet.
He pulled the hood of his jacket up as he walked the path toward the academy's indoor training hall. The sleeves of his dark custom shirt were rolled to the elbows, and the reinforced fabric of his cargo pants clung slightly from the humidity. No clan crest adorned his outfit. Just subtle embroidery stitched into the trim — curves and folds mimicking constellations if you looked close enough.
He had no intention of drawing attention.
Which was unfortunate.
Because attention kept finding him anyway.
Akio stepped into the hall just as two students skidded past the front entrance, splashing muddy water across the wooden floor. Naruto was laughing, Konohamaru was trying to dodge the puddles, and Iruka's voice was shouting somewhere behind them to wipe their feet before entering.
Akio moved past the chaos with practiced ease, slipping his sandals off near the wall and scanning the training mats. Most of the class was already warming up for the joint sparring session scheduled for the afternoon. Everyone had been assigned a partner.
Everyone… except him.
Iruka spotted him from across the room and waved him over.
"Akio — you'll be pairing with Sasuke today."
That drew a reaction.
A few whispers.
A glance from Sakura.
A snort from Kiba.
And a cold, unreadable stare from Sasuke himself.
The Uchiha nodded once.
That was all.
Akio gave the faintest nod in return.
This would be interesting.
They stood on opposite ends of the sparring circle as the class began to gather. The air in the hall buzzed with the tension that always came when Sasuke stepped onto the mat. Everyone wanted to see if someone could beat him. Or at least hold their own.
Iruka raised a hand.
"Begin."
Sasuke moved first. A quick dash in, low feint, pivot strike. Clean. Sharp.
Akio parried without stepping back, letting Sasuke's wrist slide across his own, redirecting the momentum.
No chakra. No flashy jutsu.
Just movement.
They exchanged blows in silence. Footwork tight. Timing sharper than most Genin-level students could manage. Sasuke pressed forward again — elbow strike, follow-through kick — but Akio dropped low, spinning out of range, his heel brushing the floor with barely a sound.
Iruka watched carefully, brows raised.
This wasn't normal academy sparring.
Not with these two.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He wasn't angry. He was intrigued. Akio wasn't matching his strength — he was negating it. Not overpowering, not defending. Redirecting.
Reading.
Like he already knew what Sasuke would do.
And Sasuke… didn't like that.
He came in harder, faster, a three-move combo that forced Akio to duck and give a little ground. But Akio didn't stumble. He let Sasuke press. Let him get confident.
And then, when Sasuke tried to feint left and pivot right—
Akio shifted his stance and met him head-on with an open palm to the chest, halting him in place.
The two stood frozen for a breath.
Sasuke broke it first, stepping back.
The match ended in a draw.
But the room was silent.
Iruka gave a small clap and called for the next pair.
As they stepped off the mat, Sasuke looked over at Akio.
"What clan are you from again?"
"Tengetsu."
Sasuke stared for another second. Then nodded.
"You're not bad."
Akio gave a small, unreadable smile behind his mask. "Neither are you."
They didn't speak again.
But a mutual understanding had been set.
Later, as the others moved into their next drills, Akio sat at the edge of the hall, untying the wraps on his wrists.
Shikamaru flopped down beside him with a grunt.
"Troublesome match," Shikamaru muttered, watching the ceiling. "You two looked like grown-ups out there."
Akio didn't respond immediately.
"He doesn't waste energy," he finally said. "Efficient."
"Yeah. So are you."
Akio gave him a sidelong glance. "You noticed?"
"I'm lazy, not blind."
They sat in silence for a while. The kind of quiet that didn't feel awkward. Just still.
Akio let his fingers trace the edge of his notebook. Not writing. Just thinking.
He didn't mind the silence when it came from someone who understood it.
Later that evening, the rain had stopped, but the sky stayed grey.
Akio walked through the village alone, a paper bag in one hand. He'd picked up a new brush set from the calligraphy store near the old market. The ink had started to fade in his last one. He didn't write often, but when he did, he preferred the tools to be exact.
As he passed the Hokage monument, he paused.
From up high, the whole village looked different. Smaller. More fragile.
He remembered something his grandfather once said.
"The world's always moving, boy. You don't have to chase it. But you better know which way it turns."
He wasn't sure what that meant yet.
But he was starting to understand.
The stars that night stayed hidden behind clouds.
But Akio dreamed anyway.
Of circles drawn in the dark.
Of shifting gravity.
Of a voice calling his name — not loud, but deep. Like it came from below the ground or beyond the sky.
When he woke, his hand had drawn something again without meaning to.
A shape like an eye.
And within it, five faint stars, evenly spaced.
They weren't glowing.
Not yet.
But they would.