A/N: I'm sorry I took this long, I was figuring out what to do after the chunnin exams to replace the search for the 5th Hokage and the Sasuke retrieval arc. It will be a surprise and totally unexpected, but I hope it will a pleasant one and that you will enjoy it. Anyways, this chapter is the conclusion of Team 5's training. Hope you enjoy!

XXX

"This time, you will have a harder time defeating me!" Fury commented.

"Already admitting defeat? And who said I was having a hard time last match?" Strife asked confidently

"Oh come on, don't bullshit me, you were having trouble figuring how to defeat me! And you having a harder time means better chance of me winning!" Fury retorted grinning

"I wasn't having a hard time, I was studying you. I now know how you will fight. Didn't you notice that I wasn't even scratched when you were in control of the battle?" Strife asked.

'He's right! I didn't even see a bruise on him! Damn it! He was playing with me from the beginning. He is going to pay!' Fury thought growling and prepared for the battle, entering in new stance, making Strife smirk.

'Just like I thought. She is going to enter in a more aggressive style. Everything is going accord to plan' Strife thought.

"Ready? Begin!"

Fury immediately rushed to Strife as she drew two whips into each hand and Strife his silver and dark revolvers. Strife aimed his dark 4-barreled revolver to Fury and started shooting Fury in different spots non-stop. Fury countered by spinning both whips in a circular shape, making a large pink shield, deflecting and rebounding the bullets back to Strife. Strife quickly aimed his silver powered revolver and shot the bullets that would hit him.

'We are not going anywhere with this! I need to reach him fast and force him to attack me!' thought Fury as she quickly picked up the pace by channeling chakra into her legs.

'Here we go! Finally, I can have some fun!' thought Strife as he placed a tag in the ground and hid it with his dust, while shooting Fury so she wouldn't notice it.

As Fury got close enough to Strife, Fury said "Multiple Whips Grab" and her hair grabbed Strife as she deflected the last few bullets. "You lose!" Fury said smirking, until he noticed the smirk on Strife.

"You're so naïve" Strife said laughing, making Fury growl and channeled her chakra to her hair, electrocuting Strife and making him explode in a cloud of dark dust, which quickly engulfed Fury, leaving only her face exposed. Fury struggled to move but the dust was too heavy.

A few seconds later, dark dust was coming out of the hidden tag in the floor and quickly took a shape of a person and then transformed into Strife. Strife channeled chakra into his right hand and the silver revolver appeared, aiming it to Fury's brains. "What… How?!" Fury asked.

"I knew that you would try to do a little revenge on me for explaining you how I played with you the whole spar this morning so, when I saved War from Anko, I quickly made a dust clone, explained my clone what should he do and sealed me into this tag. The question is, do you have any tricks that might save from me pulling this trigger?" Strife asked, making Fury close her eyes.

"Are you going to kill me?" Fury asked calmly, still with her eyes closed.

"No, but if you do have any tricks, yes" Strife said blankly.

"You wouldn't" Fury retorted.

*click*

Fury knew that sound very well and did not need to open her eyes to see what Strife had done. She knew the Strife had prepared the trigger. The sound that stopped Fury's brawls with War instantly and quickly shut War up when he was being annoying. "No? Test me then" Strife said.

Fury sighed. She knew from his tone of voice that he was being dead serious.

"How is it going to be? Will you give up? Or will you risk your life?"

Fury quickly opened her eyes and said "Snake". A giant snake came from inside the dust cloud, freeing Fury and making Strife back off. The snake quickly picked up Fury and put her in its head.

"I will not give up! Not now! Not ever!" Fury said confidently, making Strife grin.

"Smart! You were stalling for time so you could activate your eyes" Strife said as he made a single hand sign and said "Multi Dark Dust Clones Jutsu" Hundreds of clones appeared from the giant black dust cloud that covered Strife

"Seriously? Clones? Pathetic!" Fury thought shaking her head in disappointment. She ordered the snake to destroy the clones, which quickly spun, making its tail a giant whip. As the snake was spinning to gain momentum, Strife ordered his clones to activate their Dark Fists and to rush to the snake.

As the snake was starting to whip the first wave of clones, the second one jumped and met the snake upper body and every single two hundred clones gave a cooked punch, which made the snake fell backwards and Fury lose balance and fall to the ground.

Fury, who was trying to get up, looked up to see a horde of Strifes shooting her. The snake quickly got up and protected Fury by whipping the rest of the clones, making a huge dark dust cloud, leaving only Strife on the other side.

"Dark Dust Manipulation!" Strife said as he raised his arms. As Strife was starting to wave hands, the dust cloud obeyed. (Think how Gaara controls the sand). He ordered the cloud to lift him up till he was on the same level as Fury

(With Anko, War and Death)

"Holy shit! He's one scary dude!" War commented as he saw Strife controlling in awe.

"Indeed! I must admit, I'm proud of Fury to be able to keep up with him!" Death said smirking

"Well that's because he is going easy on her. Those two have some special relationship, maybe that's why" Anko replied, earning a face of curiosity Death.

"What do you mean Strife is going easy on her?" War asked shocked, making Anko smirk.

"A couple weeks ago, I visited Strife and one thing led to the other and in the end he agreed that I could supervision his training and I helped him in many ways. Trust me when I say this, he could have ended the spar a long time ago!" Anko explained grinning.

War was in complete shock. He couldn't believe Strife was going easy on her! And Anko had requested Strife to go hard on him! He was starting to sweat and sat down as he was starting to feel dizzy just by thinking about it.

(with Strife and Fury)

"New jutsu, ah?" Fury asked smirking as she looked at the giant black dust cloud below him.

"Kettei's idea. She told me that I could do so much more with my dark dust. Turns out she was right! It is still incomplete but I'll get there" Strife explained smiling.

"Well, shall we go?" Fury asked confidently. Strife nodded smirking and Fury made the first move, making the snake rush forward. Strife just raised both hands, making a huge dust wave.

'What is he thinking? It is just dust! I can pass right through!' Fury thought and continued moving. As the snake made contact the wave, instead of the snake passing through easily, the snake crashed its head hard in the wave and was being dragged by the black wave.

Eventually, the wave completely engulfed the snake and stopped moving. Strife lowered the cloud and gestured the wave to give a breathing space to Fury. "Forgot that I can make the dust rougher?"

"Shut up…just get me out of here…" Fury said frustrated. Strife nodded and made few hand signs "Dark Dust Manipulation: Release" the dust started fazing away from Fury and was being sucked into Strife. After a few minutes of sucking all of the dust, he helped her getting up and placed her arm around his neck for better mobility and started moving towards the rest of Team 5.

"You know, I'm actually surprised by your performance today and I'm proud of you for starting to carry your own weight in this team so please, stop beating over yourself for being able to win against me" Strife said smiling making Fury look up to Strife widening her pink eyes. Part of her was angry and embarrassed for being a push-over a couple months ago and the other part of her was in bliss for her crush complimenting her.

"Nice try Fury" "You didn't win but you have made that far!" "Are you okay?" Death, Anko and War said as they got closer to the pair.

"Thanks guys… and yes, War, I'm fine" Fury replied, making War sigh in relief.

"Thank god he was going easy on you! I'd be mad if he didn't!" War commented, making Strife, Anko and Death sweat-drop and Fury twitch her right eye.

"Could you repeat that again War, please" Fury said, still twitching her eyes.

"That Strife went easy on yo- ah shit…" War obeyed and realized his mistake, making Strife sigh heavily. 'He is such a moron' Strife thought to himself

"Strife… what War said… is that true?" Fury asked fake smiling and twitching her right eye, making Strife look back to her and sweat-drop.

'Come on, Strife, I know she's scary when she's mad but you faced worse! Get it together!' thought and let out a slow but heavy breath. "Yes, Fury, War's right" Strife with the blankest expression known to this world.

Fury, hearing his response, punched his shoulder "AND WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

'Thank God that I won her cute bear in the festival!' Strife thought to himself, scratching his left ear. "Listen, Fury, if I did went hard on you, you would be in hospital for at least a month and I don't want any trouble with War or your parents. If you don't believe me, ask my big sister, she helped me training" Fury looked at a smirking Anko and sighed.

"Fine… Thanks, I guess… But I'm still mad because you lied to me!"

"What do you mean I lied to you? I just didn't tell you" Strife replied, making Fury growl. Meanwhile, Anko was laughing hard in the background.

"Aw, you guys are so cute together!" Anko commented laughing, until she heard and felt a bullet pass graze of her left earlobe.

"Well, what do you know, I missed" Strife said sarcastically as he stared to Anko's eyes with his eyes activated "I thought I told you already to stop teasing me. Do you want another spar, Big Sis Anko?" Strife said as he kept staring into Anko's eyes, making her growl and shook her head in response.

'Wow, she's afraid of Strife! Their spar must have been roughly intense!' Death thought. "Anyway, War, your rest is over. You're turn to spar"

"Do I really need to? I mean, we already saw what Strife can do!" War excused himself.

"YES, you do! Your sensei still doesn't know how Strife fights when he is not holding back!" Anko said, making War gulp.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Anko, the chunnins are in two days and we need be ready, I don't want a teammate in hospital for a month and lose the exams" Strife helped War, making him sigh in relief.

"Damn, I hate when you're right. Fine, just go hard enough to make him know that NO ONE messes with my dango and still be able to participate in the chunnins!" Anko suggested.

"You got yourself a deal, big sis" Strife said smirking.

"Hey, Strife, come on, let's talk this through okay? I already apologized!"

"Sorry, gotta respect the elders' wishes"

"Oh NOW you respect them. Damn you… Fine, I won't hold back" War replied, making Strife laugh hard.

"It's about time you told me a good joke" Strife commented grinning.

"Go to hell!"

"Ready? Begin!" Death started the match.

Both Strife and War activated their eyes' prowess, Strife drew his guns and started shooting in various places while War drew his thick sword and said "Wind Flow!" making the sword move faster and deflect every bullet that Strife had thrown him.

"Smart! I must admit, you're getting smarter" Strife commented making War grin. Strife then started teleporting in different locations and shooting War as quickly as he could.

War struggled to deflect every bullet, eventually letting pass a couple bullets that hit him in the chest or back. Strife didn't seem to stop and he needed to do something. "Fire Wav-" He wanted to unleash a wave of flames that would melt the bullets and push Strife away, but Strife was faster and quickly teleported in front of War and used the left hand to shut him up and the right leg to stop a swinging sword as he activated the Dark Fists in his right hand and gave a strong palm on War's chest, making him fly a couple meters through the ground.

"Though you're not smart enough to defeat me" Strife finished his sentence.

War, on the other side, coughed some blood and cursed him. He got up and looked back at Strife, more precisely, to his yellow eyes. As he continued to stare him to death, his eyes were blazing red and red chakra was coming out of him.

"So that's how it's going to be?" Strife said smirking.

"That's right, I won't hold back at some over-confident jerk who stares people to death in order to cause fear. You know what I think you? A bastard who can't even hurt a freaking fly because he is a very good actor who is just pretending to be a bad guy!" War retorted, with excitement and adrenaline running through his blood. He had enough of Strife's insults and he was ready to put some sense into his head.

(With Anko, Death and Fury)

"Oh he just had to say it out loud… he's a dead man…" Anko commented sighing.

"What do you mean?" Fury asked.

"It was when I was doing a spar with Strife, a couple days ago. He was losing pretty badly and I wanted to have a good match, not a boring one, so I teased his infamous reputation. In the end, instead of being Strife with broken bones, it was me. It still hurts me and he is still angry at me" Anko explained.

"That explains why he almost killed you twice this day for teasing him" Death said, making Anko nod.

(With War and Strife)

Strife had closed his eyes and opened again. War could see that he had opened the eyes' second phase but something seemed off. He looked at him more attentively and noticed Strife wasn't showing any emotions. Nothing at all. He had the blankest expression he has ever seen in his entire life. It creeped the hell out of him. The combination of his blank expression with the intense gaze of his eyes. It felt like that time on top of the Hokage monument, when his eyes changed. It felt like he was piercing through his soul.

"Do you really want to know why am I known for Cold-Hearted Strife Karat?" Strife said blankly and slowly, still staring at him.

"Show it to me! Prove me wrong!" War said smirking as he clenched his sword tightly.

Strife closed his eyes and opened them once more. When he opened them, a large explosion of dust came out of him, engulfing his entire body. Though it wasn't his normal Dark Dust, it was white, like silver. As the white dust covered his body, the ground itself started shaking, making War lose a bit of balance, and only stopped when the silver dust completely covered him. He was now a shadow, with only his blazing yellow eyes exposed.

(With Anko, Death and Fury)

"Ahm, Death, would you mind call some medic ninjas? If you want your team to participate the exams, you should do that" Anko suggested concerned.

"I thought you wanted Strife to go hard on War" Death said smirking

"I wanted to hurt him, not kill him" Anko answered him, making the other two spectators widen their eyes.

"Is he that serious?" Fury asked. Anko only nodded as she looked at the red and white auras.

"Shit…" Death cursed and prepared himself by drawing his scythes.

(With War and Strife)

After a couple minutes of staring each other to death, Strife finally made the first move by rushing at amazing speed towards War. War could still see him but barely, and as Strife was quickly shorting their distance, War struck his sword to the ground and said "Fire Pillars!"

Giant fire columns came down from the ground, trying to slow down, only to get outsped by Strife. Strife just changed direction every time a fire pillar came down, making it hard to predict where he would go.

(With Anko, Death and Fury)

"Wow, I never saw anyone effectively dodging the Zartag's Fire Pillar Jutsu!" Death said in awe.

"Well, that's because Strife's reaction time is 25 ms or 0.025 seconds" Anko said as a matter-of-fact, making the duo open their mouths. "Why are so shocked? You know Strife's forte is speed, he needs to have an astonishing reaction time to be successful!" Anko explained, making them less shocked.

(With War and Strife)

Strife was quickly getting closer to War and War was getting nervous. No one has ever dodged that technique so easily. As Strife got close enough, War then took out the sword from the ground and lifted it up and pointed it to Strife, who was two meters away from War, and said "Fire Explosion".

A big fire explosion came from the tip of the sword and quickly turns to ash everything in the way. As the smoke cleared, War noticed Strife in the ground, completely burned out and with bits of white dust and smoke coming out of him.

"Humph, looks like it was all talk. That idi-*gasp*" War didn't finish the sentence because Strife had captured him by his neck with his left hand and lifted him up.

"H...Ho…How?" War asked, struggling to talk.

"I created a dust clone the moment you launched your explosion so you wouldn't see me doing it and quickly teleported to your back"

"B…But…H-How d…did you m…manage it in…a space…of…"

"…space of precisely a second and twenty-two hundred milliseconds?" Strife finished the sentence for him "Simple. It takes to me a second to make a dust clone and since my reaction time is 0.025 seconds, I still had approximately 0.195 seconds left" Strife said as a matter-of-fact.

Strife then punched War in the back with his free hand, making War fly through the training grounds with a big bruise in his back. Strife then teleported a few meters ahead of War and extended his arm, which was engulfed by his silver chakra, which made it rough. Eventually, War's head hit Strife's arm hard, making a large bruise in his face. War ragdolled a couple meters and stopped when he hit a tree.

"I told you that you weren't smart enough to defeat me. Nor powerful enough" Strife said as he stared War in the same spot. He then drew his silver powered revolver and pointed to War's head.

(With Anko, Death and Fury)

"Shit, he is going to kill him! Fury, wait!" Anko urged and followed Fury

"Not like this!" Death said as he proceeded to make some hand signs.

(With Strife and War)

Strife kept pointing his revolver to War without even flinching. He truly was ice-cold. Strife then prepared the trigger, making the infamous sound echo through the training grounds.

"STRIFE, NO!" Fury shouted as she ran full-speed ahead. But it was too late. Strife had already pulled the trigger and the bullet was currently halfway to War's head.

However, in a blink of an eye, Death appeared in a gulf of purple flames and held both scythes crossed, with one of his scythes deflecting the bullet, well, not deflecting, the bullet went right through the first scythe's blade and stopped in the second scythe's blade. Death's scythes now had a hole and a light crack.

Meanwhile, Strife was currently being hugged by Fury, still pointing the revolver at War.

"Strife, please, don't let your old personality come back! I don't want your cold and empty version! I want the caring and happy one!" Fury said crying in Strife's chest. She looked up and met Strife's blank face, still staring at War, and pushed his arm down with her right hand "Remember back in the festival? The way you acted? Please be like that!" Fury said, still crying.

As Fury cried in Strife's chest, the silver dust slowly fazed away from him and his eyes stopped glowing. When the dust left, he met Fury's pink eyes and hugged her back tightly as he rubbed her smooth pink hair softly with his right hand. "I'm sorry. I need to go" he said blankly as he turned around with his back facing the group.

"Wait, Strife, I need to talk to you" Death said

"I can't right now. Visit me tonight if you want to" Strife said as he teleported away in a puff of his normal dark dust.

"Where is he going?" War asked. He was still leaning against the tree in pain. Strife's hit really did leave a mark on him.

"He is going to stabilize himself" Anko answered growling "If it weren't for your trash talk, neither you nor Strifey wouldn't be in this position!"

"How is he going to stabilize himself?" Death asked curiously.

"Tell me what did he tell you on the first meeting?" Anko asked, making them look confused.

"He said that he liked to relax, listen to nature and music, do some personal things that I don't feel comfortable speaking of, and practice my family jutsus and that he hated lots of things such as people who judge others by mere rumors or by its look and people who underestimate each other. He also said that he didn't have plans for the future. Why?" Fury replied, making Anko sigh.

"That's what I thought… answering your question, there is many ways he stabilizes himself down but the most effective one is a bit embarrassing and he refers to it as 'personal things that he doesn't feel comfortable speaking of."

"What does he do?" Fury and War asked, fueled by curiosity.

"Sorry, I can't tell you. He would kill me and go on a rampage over the village at best. Not going to risk it" Anko said smirking, making Fury and War gulp and shocked by how she said the consequences on the best case scenario!

Death was laughing in the inside and decided to interrupt "Anyway, I'm still glad no one died, but War needs to be alone with extreme medical attention if you want to be part of the chunnin's exam so you have tomorrow free. Make sure you're with Strife, Fury, to make sure he is okay" Fury nodded and the trio quickly left to their homes.

XXX

(In the Karat estate; 22:00)

Strife had just finished eating his meal and was currently meditating in the sofa and was going to talk to Kettei.

When he entered the mindscape, he noticed some trees were destroyed and had no life whatsoever.

"What the hell happened here?" Strife asked as he raised his right eyebrow at the change of his mindscape.

"This is the result of your little overreaction. When you got angry at War, the trees were slowly dying and when you tried to execute him, that's when the entire forest was destroyed! THANKFULLY, Fury saved this forest once again! You're so lucky to have her! Many like you usually don't have the same luck!" Kettei answered furiously concerned.

"Okay, okay, calm down. *sigh* I'll make sure to thank Fury when I see her if that makes you feel any better. Wait, many like me? What do you mean?"

"You don't think you're the only one who has a demon inside of you, do you?" Strife scratched the back of his head and said yes shyly. "Kukuku, you're so silly. For example, your sensei has the Demon Wolf Gekido, who symbolizes rage. Fun fact, Gekido and I are rivals!"

"We Demons are reborn inside the humans' souls during their childhood, but only if the human's childhood is sad or dark, and Demons symbolize a strong characteristic of the user. You could have been paired with my brother Boido, who is a Demon Jaguar and symbolizes the void or the feeling of emptiness. Another fun fact, you do have some of his traits"

"Some of your brother's traits? Please clarify me. By the way, you're a Demon Cat right?"

"Kukuku, yes Strifey, I am a Demon Cat. My brother is a very cold, callous, and dispassionate demon, and he is rather aloof, brooding and indifferent. When I said you have some of his traits, I meant that your personality is a lot similar to his than mine"

"Then, how come he is not my demon and you are? Aren't you supposed to be a demon-like representation of my personality?"

"You have a point, but the reason you got paired with me and not Boito, it's because the feeling of determination was stronger than the feeling of emptiness" Strife now looked confused. "You didn't get it? Okay, let me explain in other words. After witnessing your family's demise in the most rough and uncomfortable way, feelings like despair, loneliness and emptiness immediately popped up in your head, but you felt determined to get over it and finally knowing the dangers of this world, you felt determined to train everyday so you could defend yourself. And now, you feel determined to protect those precious to you. That's why I got paired with you. Even though you kept showing more the feeling of emptiness than determination, deep inside you still felt determined to not die a horrible death." Kettei explained with the most genuine smile he has ever seen. Almost like his mother used to when he got hurt practicing with his revolvers. He thought for a second that it was his mother who was talking to him and not Kettei. Maybe it is just a coincidence.

"Well, I don't want to admit but I am sort of thankful for being paired with you and not your brother." Strife said, making Kettei grin. "But is it possible to be paired with two demons?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because earlier, when I was fighting War, I felt another source of power inside of me that felt so familiar and normal to me, like I've used it before but I don't remember why!"

"Maybe that explains why you have some of his traits…" Kettei thought to herself.

"Excuse me? Would you mind say it out loud?"

"The reason why you have some bits of his personality… Boido is alive inside your body! Somewhere…"

"But, I thought it was only possible to be paired with only one demon!"

"Then how do you explain the source of power you felt in your battle?!" Strife grunted, acknowledging her point. "Boido is alive, locked and hidden deep inside of you, somewhere…"

"If he truly is locked up inside of me, how did I use his power?"

"You might have let some of his chakra slip by and infect you. It is the only explanation…" After that, they heard a knocking sound. "Did you hear that?"

"It must have been Death-sensei. See you later" Strife said as he proceeded to get out of his mindscape.

"Alright, go on then. I'll just search for Boito's location while you're out. Say hello for me to Gekido please!" Kettei requested and Strife nodded and got back to the real world. As he got control of his senses back again, he then went to the door and opened it

"Good evening, Death-sensei. Please come in" Strife greeted him and Death nodded.

"Hello to you too, Strife." Death said as he sat down in the chair

"Oh, Kettei says hello to Gekido by the way" Strife said as he also sat down on the other chair.

"She told you, ah? Well, I guess it was only a matter of time." 'You wanna reply or what?' Death asked to a smirking Gekido.

'Always so cheerful and optimistic... Humph, I almost missed her attitude'

"He says he almost missed her attitude"

Kettei was now grinning 'Always so grumpy and pessimistic… Good to meet him again'

"She says it's good to meet him again. Anyway, did you come here to talk about Anko?" Strife asked smirking

"Wha-No! What makes you think that?"

"Well, it's clear that both of you have a fetish for torturing people and since you're the same age and both of you keep looking at each other discreetly, I just assumed" Death now paled. He was so certain that no one saw him looking at Anko.

"*clears throat* It's not because of Anko, it is because of Aizen Sasoto"

Strife now was looking confused "What about him?"

"Ever since that mission in the Badlands, I have been investigating with Lord Third the reason of why there are people trying to get your hands off you" Death explained, Strife just let a small oh in response "We got nothing from the Mortal Duo of the Stone but we got something from Aizen" Seeing that Strife was looking more interested, he continued.

"Aizen is part of a secret organization called 'Messatsu'. We still don't know why their leader is or what their goals are. We only know that the Messatsu is an organization whose members are A and S class missing ninjas from around the world"

"How come you don't know who their leader is? Aizen must have gotten the orders through him"

"Oh he did…just not what the way you're expecting. He got the orders through a piece of paper sent by a black messenger hawk. His first initial orders were to plant explosives on the Karat estate in the Leaf so he could eliminate the Karats that lived here, most importantly: to eliminate the clan head and its wife. Thus he succeeded in eliminating half of the Karat clan, those who lived in the village, but failed in eliminating the clan head and its wife, so he got severely punished and as his last mission to finish his job"

"Wait, half of my clan lived here? What about the other half?"

"You're other half were living in their own homeland, in the Land of Volcanos, more precisely, in the Hidden Volcano Village" Death said smirking, who was already expecting some kind of reaction from him

"I-I didn't know my clan had their own village! I must research about it, when I have time!" Strife said, almost crying out of happiness and excitement.

"Focus, Strife, I am not done yet" Death calmed him down.

"Yeah, yeah, I am sorry…*clears throat*…but, if he wanted to kill me, why would the others like the Mortal Duo tried to capture me?"

"We haven't discovered yet" Death said, leaving out a heavy sigh. "We did find something interesting in his mind; it is a seal that prevents other people from discovering precious information. Inside of it might hold the answers we are looking for, such as their goals"

"Can Aizen tell us without the seal destroying his mind or something of that sort?"

"The Seals Department analyzed it and yes, he could tell us, but he refuses to break down, no matter how painful his torture is" Death said, making Strife frown. "Anyway, that's all I came here to tell you. It would be better if you let this information sink in before sleeping. Just a tip. May I go?"

"Do you know if the library holds any information about the Land of Volcanos? And how do we know if someone is part of the Messatsu?"

"Ah, yes, I almost forgot. We've noticed that the messenger hawk from Aizen's memories, Aizen and the Mortal Duo of the Stone have the same tattoo in their bodies. The tattoo is a skull with a cross above it. And as if the library holds any information about the Land of Volcanos, most likely. If the library doesn't hold it, ask the Hokage for it. He would help you" Death replied smiling.

"Alright, thanks! Good night, Death-sensei!" Strife waved grinning. Death waved as well and left.

'Does he get more emotional in the night or something? It certainly feels that way! Well, at least he's different. That version of him earlier was scary!' thought Death as he walked towards the Zartag estate.

'Man, what a night! Note to self: search for the Land of Volcanos after the chunnin exams!' Strife thought as he went to the Karat's rooftops and laid down, watching the stars and the moon.