2 years later...
The sun high above the trees shining radiantly down upon his face as he sits under a tree reading his book. He was told to be here an hour ago by his friend Taiki. But he has yet to see his face, it has been two years since they parted ways to train and hone their skills. Kazuma glances up from his book periodically to check the horizon, to see if Taiki has finally shown up. But there still is no sign of Taiki.
The book now on his lap he vividly remembers the day they parted, the day when they all decided to go their own way, Taiki went to train with Gai sensei, while he went with Kakashi. Takumi went by himself... It was like yesterday.
***
"Well I guess this means goodbye."
"I guess so," said Taiki "What is everyone going to do?"
"Well I'm off by myself, there is no one left in this village able to train me, the only person who could would have been the second Hokage. He can't do that anymore... Or can he?" said Takumi.
"What are you talking about Takumi?" asked Kazuma.
"Yeah, the second is already dead, he can't help you." added Taiki
"As that may be true I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, see ya later bro, bye Taiki!" and with that he vanished.
"I guess we part ways for now, " said Taiki " But when I get back I will be stronger!"
"I guess there is no point in arguing, " said Kazuma holding his hands up " I'll have to train more as well.."
"Goodbye, for now." Said Taiki before he vanished.
Kazuma looked into the fading sun remembering the days at the Chuunin exam, he couldn't help feeling that something awful would happen, when exactly is what would irk him for the next 2 years...
***
With the sun slowly rising at his back Kazuma stood on the branch of a great oak. It's roosts spreading over the ground, squeezing nutrients from the soil. The breeze was soft in the morning cooly kissing his cheek. Now two years later Kazuma was slightly taller, a little more muscular and much more mature. Over the two years he trained with Kakashi perfecting his use of jutsu and strategic skills. Kakashi was the closest thing to a Sharingan user as anyone so it couldn't be helped. Examining the forest as he waited proved boring, birds slowly rose from their nests to start the days hunt for food. Squirrels, rabbits and other small creatures were also looking for the morning meal. Takumi and Taiki were supposed to meet him here an hour ago.
" I wonder where they are, " said Kazuma under his breath, " They probably got into some trouble..."
With perfect timing, an explosion in the distance set a small shockwave through the forest, startling Kazuma. He runs up the side of the tree dodging branches, he reaches the top to see a cloud of dust in the distance, then in an instant it was engulfed by a wall of water higher than the trees!
"Takumi!" exclaimed Kazuma, "He must be fighting someone!"
He started jumping from tree to tree, making his way towards the battle. Another shockwave ran through the forest, it almost knocked him off balance. What power! Thought Kazuma, this is a strong battle. As he reached the cloud he could see where the battle was taking place, the trees have been almost completely wiped out, there were many craters and in the center of it all stood Takumi. He too was more muscular, and it also seemed his jutsu had improved as well. His hair was shortened and he wore a headband that also covered the back of his hair, and the front of his face up to his nose. He could recognize him because of the tattoo of the Uchia clan seal on his arm. He was staring at his opponent which wore Akatsuki robes. His face was covered but Kazuma was still able to see the grin under the hood. The robes almost touched the ground, only leaving view of the ankles, Kazuma couldn't tell who it was just by looking at him.
"Hello brother," Takumi said waving, but he still kept staring at his opponent, "I'm sorry I am late, but unfortunately I got a little pre-occupied."
"Don't worry about it," said Kazuma laughing. He was standing beside Takumi now, "Do you need any help?"
"Not sure, it seems he is only using a little bit of his power so I cant tell for sure." said Takumi calmly, "But one thing is for sure, I've seen this fighting style before."
"Really? That's interesting, from who?" asked Kazuma, a little intrigued.
"Taiki used to fight like this."
After he said that the Akatsuki member lunged forward throwing kunai at Takumi and Kazuma. Takumi blocked them while Kazuma drew his sword and jumped high into the air. The attacker looked up and was about to jump when Takumi kicked him in the chin sending him straight up at Kazuma. Drawing back Kazuma was ready to finish this fight, he cut right through the attacker only to find that it was a log. Shit! Thought Kazuma, should have seen that coming. He was then kicked in the back by the attacker. I should have seen that coming too...
He got up dusting off himself.
" This is so annoying..." he said.
" Well you better hurry up brother you don't want to be left out completely." said Takumi, performing the hand seals of a jutsu Kazuma hadn't seen before.
He ended on the seal representing the element water. But nothing happened. Kazuma stood there dumbfounded, even the attacker didn't know what was going on. Then the ground started to shake. The air became thick with moisture, not sure what to do Kazuma ran and put his back to Takumi's.
"What is going on Takumi?" asked Kazuma.
"Just watch," replied Takumi with a grin on his face. "Witness the fruits of my training!"
Suddenly water started to spurt from the ground, gathering into a huge orb in the air. Composed entirely of water the orb seemed to float, suspended by nothing. Takumi looked at the attacker. The orb rippled, and the water started to shoot out in multiple streams. The attacker started to perform his own jutsu. Suddenly a wall of earth formed in front of him. He's trying to shield himself! Thought Kazuma.
"Not so fast buddy, that's not gonna work too well." said Takumi.
The water swiftly moved towards the wall, but instead of going around it shot right through it. The attacker ducked just in time and jumped back to put some distance between him and the streams. Then he ran right at the water, dodging and weaving around them, he jumped to get out of the way a stream when one caught him in the side of the face. It took his hood off and cut him a little bit . With blood running down his face the attacker looked up, the grin still on his face.
"It's good to see you again Kazuma," he said " you too Takumi, it seems your training has produced some astonishing results."
"Taiki..." said Kazuma, keeping calm, fighting off the intense anger he now felt, "Why? Why have you joined them?"
"They offered me an easy way to improve my abilities, while gaining the aid of it's members, who wouldn't say yes?" asked Taiki, wiping the blood from his face. He drew his sword and took a step towards Takumi.
Sharingan activated Kazuma blocked the attack meant for Takumi. He then ducked while Takumi round-housed over Kazuma's head making full contact with Taiki's face. He was sent flying towards the forest, but before he could reach the trees Kazuma appeared behind him and grabbed his shirt collar and threw him into the air where Takumi awaited already performing the hand seals for his jutsu. "Water style, Water Dragon Jutsu!". The moisture in the air gathered in front of Takumi, it started to form a great dragon. Taiki seemed suspended in the air in front of the dragons now formed head. He tried to move out of the way before the attack came, but he was too late. The dragons mouth opened wide a swallowed Taiki whole. Engulfed in a torrent of water he was smashed into the forest, destruction lay in the wake of the attack.
" Takumi, you have gotten a lot more powerful." Said Kazuma astounded. Even from over one hundred feet away he could feel the spray of the water on his face.
Taiki slowly rose to his feet, soaking wet from the last attack. "It seems that I underestimated the both of you." He could feel the pain in his side now. Looking at Takumi, "Well you managed to crack a rib, that's quite impressive. But I'll have you know it will take more to defeat me than th-"
Before he could finish Kazuma kicked him in the back sending him towards Takumi. Who had started to form a spear made of ice in his hands. It grew to the height of Takumi. Taiki was hit in the stomach with the spear. Five feet away from Takumi, Taiki looked into his eyes, could see the Sharingan, he knew he was going to die...
***
"Well I suppose we should help him. We have to be careful though, Kazuma and Takumi are dangerous, we can't underestimate them." He looked at Kazuma with his Sharingan. "Lets go."
***
Kazuma sensed it first, it felt like his gaze was burning into his back, he turned in time to see Itachi appear on the ground twenty feet from Takumi. He looked at Takumi and then back at Itachi. Now Kisame was there as well. This isn't good. If they had to fight they would have to take out Kisame first, then focus on Itachi.
As if having the same idea as Kazuma, Takumi dropped Taiki to the ground and threw another ice spear at Kisame. Kisame swung his huge sword to block the attack but before he could Kazuma appeared in the air behind then. "Fire style, Grand fireball jutsu!". The air around them grew hot, the fireball consumed everything around them. Itachi was behind Kazuma now with a kunai in his hand. Kazuma swung around grabbing Itachi's wrist and throwing him towards the trees.
Takumi dashed around the fireball bringing Kisame into his sights. He slid to a stop summoning another water dragon, and watched as Kisame did the same. The dragons clashed with an explosion of water, Takumi and Kisame in the middle. Kisame swung his sword at Takumi, Takumi jumped and landed on the sword kicking Kisame in the face sending him into Itachi. In the air Kazuma had charged a chidori and was now coming down on Itachi and Kisame. He slammed the chidori into Kisame's sword sending them even faster into the trees.
Kazuma now standing by Takumi looked into the trees watching Itachi and Kisame slowly emerge from the forest. Itachi was brushing himself off and Kisame was staring at Takumi.
"We will have to finish this another time." said Itachi calmly, he nodded at Kisame who went and grabbed a hold of Taiki who was still unconscious on the ground.
Takumi grabbed Kisame by the collar but before he could do anymore Itachi kicked him at Kazuma. Kazuma caught Takumi and went to dash for Itachi but he was already too late, they had vanished.
"Dammit!" yelled Takumi clenching his fist.
"Don't worry Takumi, they wont make a move for a while now, lets head back to the village and inform the Hokage of Taiki's betrayal." said Kazuma
***
"Dammit!"
"Lady Hokage, please don't damage the desk anymore than needed."
"Shizune, inform all of the jounin in the village about Taiki's betrayal. As for you two," she looked at Takumi and Kazuma, "I have a mission for you, it's an S-class assassination, you are to complete the mission and head back as soon as possible. Oh and one other thing. Don't be seen by anyone."
"Understood!" They both said at the same time, Kazuma took the scroll and they both vanished.
"Tsunade-sama, are you sure you want them to take on that boy's master?" asked Shizune.
"Well the master isn't important, the boy is of interest. Since they don't have a third member anymore, he would make the perfect fit for their team. They will need all the help they can get if they are going to protect this village from the Akatsuki." Answered Tsunade.
"I hope everything goes ok with the mission." said Shizune.
"They'll be fine."
***
"Takumi, are you almost ready? It isn't a far run to the outskirts of the Hidden Mist village so we don't need to pack as much." said Kazuma.
"I know, I'm just not sure what weapon to bring." said Takumi walking out with his katana.
"That should be good enough. Grab a cloak with a hood, remember no witnesses, we travel at night where we cant be seen." said Kazuma, throwing his cloak over his head.
"Well lets get moving." Takumi opened the door to their house, and stepped outside. The air was cool, and the moon full. No breeze stirred the leaves or the trees, the perfect night to leave. It would take them about a day and a half to get there, but they were fine with that. It would give them time to rest up and plan their attack. They started out on foot and left the village behind them. The last two Uchiha that are with Konoha.
***
- 1 day later -
The fire crackled and shed its light onto his face. He caught some fish for dinner and was watching it slowly cook and brown. He was an exile from the hidden mist village, and so he lived on the outside of the village. His master also lived outside the village, but he was older now and recently threw him out. They got into a fight when he started to plan an assassination attempt on the Mizukage, and his master threw him out of his house. What his master doesn't know is that he has been watching over him ever since.
Earlier while scavenging for food, he noticed two hooded and heavily cloaked people walking down the path heading towards the village. At the time he didn't think too much of it, but recently his master has had people trying to kill him. He isn't aware of this due to the fact that they never made it to his house. Now thinking about those two hooded people, he decides to set up a close watch on his master, the sun was setting.
***
Takumi appeared behind Kazuma, "Well that is definitely his house, this so called master looks pretty old and harmless." He was now sitting on the branch looking at the house.
"Well apparently he has killed two other jounin from the mist village that have tried to kill him, so he isn't all that harmless." Kazuma was reading over the scroll still.
"Well it's dark now, I say we just knock on his door and kill him when he answers." Takumi was still, looking at the house, thinking how easy it would be to just destroy the entire place with his jutsu.
As if reading his mind Kazuma put away the scroll, "I know it would be easy to blow the place up, but no one is to know. Lets go, I want to get back and continue training."
***
The moon was out now and he was still watching the house, there hasn't been any sign of intruders since that afternoon. Maybe he was imagining it. He stood up, two figures just appeared in his masters lawn, one drew his katana and the other lowered his hood, he could just see his bandanna, the village hidden in the leaves! He started to form the hand seal of his jutsu.
***
"Kazuma, this is an eerie fog isn't it." said Takumi, the wind shifted slightly and a fog slowly rolled in, depriving them of their sight almost completely, Takumi's arms started to tingle where the skin was exposed to the mist.
Kazuma put his back to Takumi's and activated his Sharingan, Takumi did the same. "This isn't natural, listen for foot steps, we can still see but it isn't enough to make full use of Sharingan."
"I have an idea, but I will need a little time to concentrate, cover me for 2 minutes Kazuma." Takumi put his hands together and closed his eyes. Kazuma created three shadow clones to cover Takumi on four sides, they each drew their katana readying for the attack.
Kazuma was starting to become disoriented. The mist blinded them almost completely, their hearing was very limited and their other senses were no longer useful. Kazuma knew that this must be the masters work, what he didn't understand was how he had figured out their position. They had moved under the cover of night and were sure that no one had noticed them. Kazuma was no totally focused on his hearing. Waiting for any sound. But still none came. They only things he could hear were his breathing along with Takumi's. The air started to get heavier with moisture, Kazuma could feel the chakra gathering within Takumi. The mist started to get thicker. 'Takumi what are you doing?' thought Kazuma. Kazuma thought he felt another chakra growing, but he couldn't tell exactly where.
"30 seconds Kazuma. I'm almost there." said Takumi.
That is when he heard the footsteps. Coming straight at him. One of the clones burst into smoke, instantly the other two turned and Kazuma ducked just as a huge blade veered over his head. Slicing through the mist. One of the clones shot a fireball in the last known direction. Kazuma raised his katana and blocked the second attack coming straight for his head. The strength of the attack sent him to his knees. If he had tried to stand it would have broken his legs. He slashed at the legs of his opponent but didn't hit anything. Both of the clones burst simultaneously. The air suddenly got very heavy, Takumi was standing beside Kazuma now.
"What happened Takumi? What did you do?" asked Kazuma. Waiting for the next attack.
"Watch." replied Takumi.
It started to rain, but not from any cloud. Takumi increased the moisture level in the air cause the mist to thicken and turn into water droplets. The view in front of Kazuma started to slowly get better, he could see clearly now that the mist had been lifted. But the attacker was no where to be found.
The ground started to shake, then Kazuma spotted the attacker. He was a little taller than Takumi, wearing baggy black pants and a white shirt. He wore a sword that was as wide and tall as he was. He wore his hidden mist head band around his right arm. It had a slash mark through the center showing that he was a rouge. As far as Kazuma could tell, he was a master water jutsu user and very proficient taijutsu user. But his taijutsu was now useless against Kazuma and Takumi as they both had activated sharingan. And his water jutsu wasn't going to be too useful against Takumi who is also a master in the art. The ground continued to shake but the attacker wasn't doing anything. Takumi knew what it was.
"Kazuma! This is a master level water dragon jutsu, you focus on the attacker and ill eliminate the dragon!" Takumi said excitedly. He drew his katana and stuck it in the ground, and he hung his cloak off of it. With a big grin on his face he vanished.
"Well it looks like I have to deal with you. I may not be suited to using water jutsu, but I do know a few techniques to help protect me. I am giving you a chance to back down now."
The attacker drew his blade, he let the blunt end rest on his shoulder, "I'm giving you this chance to leave here and forget about this place. Just give up."
"Wrong thing to say to me, there is one thing I won't let happen, and that is me giving up." Kazuma drew his katana, and started to pour his lightning chakra into the blade giving it the ultimate offensive power. Sharingan activated he waited for the attackers next move.
***
The other had distracted the dragon, while leaving his partner to face him. He surveyed his surroundings. Water was everywhere. Puddles had formed from the others jutsu and his enemy was currently standing in one. He looked at him, he wasn't large, most of his physical features were hidden underneath clothing, but the most distinctive feature was his eyes. He had activated sharingan and was studying him intently. He drew his sword and pointed it at him the blade started to glow a light blue as the lightning natured chakra flowed through the blade.
"What is your name stranger?" he asked.
"Uchiha Kazuma, and what is yours?" he replied.
"Akinori Maiku, I am here to protect my master. Leave now and this won't end with your blood being shed." he answered. He had lowered his blade letting it rest on the ground.
"I am afraid that I have to complete my mission, Maiku you are a rouge ninja and I will not think twice about killing you. Leave now and you will live to see the next day. If you oppose me, I will show no mercy."
I will show no mercy, those words rang through Maiku's head, sending a torrent of emotions crashing through his body. His anger and will to protect his master flooded to the top. He wielded the blade with both hands and charged at Kazuma...
***
Takumi watched as the dragon rampaged through the forest. He had made multiple copies of himself to distract the beast while he tried to find a way to deal with him. This is an extremely powerful jutsu. Even though the user was pre-occupied with Kazuma, the dragon is still able to focus on destroying it's target. The clones were jumping from tree to tree just avoiding its attacks. The dragon used its gigantic head and tried to bite a few of them only getting a mouthful of trees. The current inside the dragon was tremendous, when the trees made it to the belly they quickly disintegrated into nothing.
Takumi decided that he needed to finish this soon, Kazuma would need some form of backup just in case. Takumi felt the chakra of that boy, he knew the power residing inside him.
Jumping from his perch in the tree he quickly ran underneath the dragon. Raising his hand he touched the belly of the dragon sending in wind natured chakra. Spreading outwards from the belly, the dragon started to freeze. Seconds later the dragon was completely frozen. Takumi jumped in the air and severed the dragons head with his katana. Causing the rest of the ragon to shatter.
Takumi started to run back towards the battle when the clouded sky burst open with a flash of blue lightning. The force of the blast sent a shockwave through his body. Kazuma! He needed to get there fast.
***
Kazuma stood there panting. He had a cut above his shoulder. And one on his cheek. Kazuma was panting due to the fact that he had to use one of his more powerful techniques. Lightning Style : Heavenly Light. It calls down a lightning bolt from the sky completely decimating everything it touches scorching a giant "X" into the ground as a result. It is mostly used as a finishing technique. But he had to use it to stop whatever Maiku was about to do...
***