Chapter 10 – One year later
Training was always going to take a long time. After all I was learning two new chakra nature changes and two Kekkai Genkai.
Though, when I started, I didn't think it was going to take a whole year…
My mother was there to help whenever I needed it, but she also had a rebellion to lead, so I had to train by myself quite a lot.
It was difficult.
Changing to fire natured chakra was easy at first, but the thing about leaving everything to hand signs, is that you become incredibly inefficient. You end up using way too much chakra for each technique.
Once I realized this, I had to start learning how to do everything the hand signs were doing manually. I got the great fireball technique down to one seal, the Tiger seal.
The Tiger seal really helps the nature change to fire, without it, the technique fails.
I'd learnt to use the water clone so well originally because it only involved the one hand seal. I had to figure out how to do everything manually from the start, otherwise the technique wouldn't activate at all. I also had the help of the basic clone technique, which allowed me to see the steps I needed to go through to create a clone.
The fire jutsu I've learnt are the great fireball technique and the phoenix flame technique, which shoots multiple small fireballs instead of the one big one. I didn't proceed to learn any more than this, as I had sufficient control and skill over the fire release.
Next was the earth release, which I actually found a lot harder to grasp that the fire and water release. The chakra felt strangely stagnant and lifeless, so I had a hard time moving and controlling it. Water and fire chakra had life to it and I commanded it to move as if was a being obeying my orders. Earth chakra was different, I had to will it to move, rather than tell it to move.
Once I got over that hurdle, the jutsu I was taught was the earth wall technique. Seemingly very simple, but it was anything but, it was a B-rank technique, the highest rank technique I had tried to learn.
I had thought it was as simple as spitting out earth into a wall shape, which took me a few weeks to do, but it was nothing particularly hard. However, it was supposed to have a layer of chakra covering the earth that was crucial to its defensive powers. Without the chakra covering, it was incredibly flimsy.
That part took me a lot longer, but I eventually grasped the chakra control necessary to use the jutsu correctly. Once I'd figured that out, the applications were unlimited. I could theoretically spit out the earth into any shape and cover it in chakra coating. A spike, a fist, a boulder; it was very versatile.
That finally brought me to the stage where I could begin to grasp the Kekkai Genkai.
My mother spent a month tutoring me on it every single day before I could start sort of mixing the chakra natures. It just…it makes no sense!
Earth chakra is stagnant and lifeless, fire chakra is erratic and full of life. Mixing the two into one singular chakra makes no sense…if I didn't have the assistance of a bloodline, I have no doubt that I would have never completed this. I could feel something filling the gaps as I worked, it made absolutely no sense, yet somehow when I just stopped thinking and let the earth and fire chakra weave together, it made perfect sense.
Hooray for bloodlines!
Zabuza Sensei said before that theoretically you could learn a Kekkai Genkai that mixed chakra natures if you trained hard enough, but I can tell why that was just theoretically now and why every ninja doesn't try and learn one.
I'm still very inefficient though. It's probably due to my low understanding, but using just one lava release technique uses about two thirds of my chakra. Boil release is about the same. I've only learnt the one technique for both, the ones that my mother showed me before. She says there would be no point in learning more than that since I've only just barely grasped the two she's already taught me.
I'm still far from being able to use a bunch of awesome Kekkai Genkai jutsu in a row like Haku can…
Speaking of which, according to Zabuza Sensei, she's now officially a genin level ninja! She's improved a lot in her taijutsu and speed and she is much more adept with her ice release! Zabuza Sensei was complaining he was becoming jaded from teaching students more talented than him, but I can tell he was happy.
Which leads us to now:
"Team Zabuza, for your first mission, we've located the Missing-Nin Raiga Kurosuki, holder of the Kiba blades. Your mission will be to find him and claim his swords back for the rebellion by any means necessary"
Yes! A mission! A really cool one too! We get to fight a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen!
My mother continues her explanation.
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen hold great power in Kirigakure, not just because of their physical power, but because of their namesake. Their influence, bar the Mizukage themselves is the greatest in the village and throughout the elemental nations. We've just received news that Fuguki of the Samehada blade has been killed by Kisame Hoshigaki and his blade also claimed by him"
Zabuza Sensei raises his eyebrows.
"Kisame stole it?!"
My mother nods seriously in response.
"Our spies have confirmed it"
"Do you know him?" I ask.
Zabuza Sensei nods.
"He's…unstable and strong. A dangerous combination"
My mother cuts in.
"He's fled Kirigakure and become a Missing-Nin" She says with a Smile.
"WHAT?! That makes no sense, Kisame is unstable and dangerous, but he's a loyal dog of the Mizukage"
My mother shakes her head.
"We don't know, but we do know that this is confirmed intel. As of now, the Kirigakure village has zero members of the seven swords in their ranks. We have two and your mission is to make that three. If you can accomplish this mission, public opinion may turn in our favour and the tide of the war may turn"
The three of us nod seriously.
"Good luck, the intel on Raiga is in these documents"
And with that we leave the meeting room…
But not before my mother sneaks up from behind me and hugs me from behind.
The back of my head is pressed into her…
…
…
"Be careful" She says quietly.
I smile and nod, which just serves to rub the back of my head against her…
…
…
She turns me around and smothers me into her chest.
She releases me as soon as I think I might run out of air and kisses me on the forehead, sending me off with a wave and a smile.
My face feels hot…
Two Weeks Later
Haku is looking at a map, eyes frowning in deep concentration.
"I think we're almost there" She nods as if to agree with herself.
"You think? Are you sure you don't want me to check for you?" I tease.
"No. I am more than capable of fulfilling this role" She nods to herself again.
"Are you sure? We won't end up somewhere weird like last time?" I grin at her and her face scrunches up.
Haku was smart and serious to a fault sometimes. She also had a deep desire to be helpful, but she sometimes refused to admit when she wasn't good at something.
For whatever reason, map reading was one of those things. We'd gotten hopelessly lost once when Haku insisted on leaving the map reading to her. Since then Zabuza Sensei has always had a back-up map and stealthily led us in the right direction.
"Should be just past these trees and left at the canyon, right Haku?" Zabuza Sensei asks.
Haku's eyes widen and she examines the map with intense seriousness.
"…Yes, as I said, we are almost there" Haku nods to herself.
I smile. She really is cute.
On the journey, I had the time to go over the profile the rebellion had on Raiga Kurosuki. It was…less than pleasant. He had a habit of burying people alive because he enjoyed funerals so much and also murdering lots of people without any particular reason.
An insane, sadistic murderer…though from the old generation of Kirigakure, that's incredibly common. It's much rarer to find kind and well-adjusted ninja from Kirigakure.
We finally find our way to the small town that Raiga was spotted in by the rebellion informant. He apparently has tanned skin and long dark green hair, though Zabuza Sensei can recognize him on site, so we shouldn't have a problem spotting him.
The weather was very cloudy and it looked as if it could rain any second. We need to find him before visibility becomes an issue, hopefully he's still here.
"Hold it" Zabuza Sensei says as we turn a corner, his eyesight looking towards a man in a dark hooded cloak walking out of the town.
That must be him.
We follow him from a distance as he leads us further and further outside the town. Then he suddenly stops.
"Here's fine" He says turning to face us.
Ah, so he knew we were there the entire time. He is one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen after all…
Zabuza grunts.
"Raiga, you look as ugly as ever"
"Hah! You dog of the rebellion, you insult me?!"
Zabuza Sensei stiffens as his official status is still technically a Missing-Nin.
"How on earth can you claim to be a member of the seven swords, when you're this weak kneed? Who's the new master that you bow to, you dog?"
I feel the pressure rise as Zabuza Sensei activates his killing intent and it manifests into the familiar purple demon. Which is scary, yet strangely comforting after all this time.
"Why was it that you brought us so far out of the village Raiga? You were never one to care who got caught up in the crossfire before. Is there someone there that you actually care about?" I see Raiga stiffen as Zabuza Sensei clearly gets it right.
"Perhaps we'll pay them a visit after this…with your head separated from your body" Zabuza Sensei says harshly and readies his sword in his hands.
…Are all ninja fights normally this chatty?
It suddenly begins to rain as I finish that thought, I can also hear rumbling from the clouds, a sign of impending lightning.
We all frown as we remember the intel on the Kiba blades. They can absorb lightning and become much stronger.
"You haven't changed at all Zabuza" Raiga spits, holding his blades to the sky.
Haku and I prepare to launch ninjutsu. We're waiting on Zabuza Sensei's signal.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you" Raiga grins as lightning strikes the Kiba blades.