Chapter 6: Ice Style! The Subzero Kekkei Genkai

The moment Ayako returned, Reizo led the two once again into the centre of the field and squared them off at forty yards away after strengthening the blocking seal on Kazuya's bladed weapon. Despite knowing he shouldn't take sides, Shoryu silently hoped for the girl's success, praying that she'd at least land a few blows before he took her down. The creeping suspicion that he'd experienced before took a hold of his mind as Reizo savoured the prolonged silence. Shoryu deduced that there was far more to Kazuya that met the eye; he was on a whole new level to either Shoryu or Ayako; the time slowing dojutsu was a far cry from the full extent of his powers.

"When you're ready. . ." Reizo began, noticing that already Ayako's hands were preparing to snap into the first hand sign. "Begin!"

Ayako quickly strung together the same sequence of hand signs Shoryu had seen her perform twice now, though in her nervous state she extended her ring finger for the tiger seal rather than laying it flat. She cursed under her breath and prepared to start again, but after sparing a glance to Kazuya she saw that he appeared uninterested as ever.

Faster than before, Ayako broke out the five basic hand signs and brought the jutsu to fruition with the final unorthodox hand sign.

"Ninja Art: Shading Jutsu!" She cried. The girl suddenly shaded blue into the palms of her hands and clapped to spark up the colour in her left. Still Kazuya never made a move; he stood off guard and aloof, as if he didn't care that a powerful ninja stood opposing him with a fistful of jagged blue.

Annoyed by his lack of focus, Ayako launched the colour with all her might, only to find that like Shoryu, Kazuya opted to drawing his weapon and batting the solid chakra away with a spinning flourish, albeit with far more flair than his predecessor. The weapon was characterised by a foot long handle in the centre sprouting an almost thirty inch blade from each side, both etched with mirroring characters carved upon the tempered steel as a symbol of his clan. He held the sword up vertically, showing that it came just past his chin when its first blade touched the ground.

"I'll tell you what." He said, finally speaking after being silent for so long. "I'll fight you without slowing time – that way it'll be a little more of a challenge."

Ayako curled her lip into a snarl; a display of anger Shoryu thought her incapable of. "Save it! Use it all you want! I don't need you taking pity on me!"

"I'm doing this for myself – it should make the match last a little longer." Kazuya said with a smirk.

"It's a bad idea to underestimate a shinobi you know!" Warned Ayako.

"It's quite the contrary actually; my clan's techniques are not to be taken lightly. You should consider yourself lucky you get to see them firsthand."

"I'm honoured!" Ayako cried, and with that she hurled another solid blue javelin straight across the gap towards him.

"Ice Style: Cryo Blast Jutsu!"

With a swift triad of hand signs Kazuya thrust forward his left hand, and from it fired a crushing beam of ice that engulfed the small blue spear, freezing it solid. The boy then closed his fist and shattered it into a vibrant display of scattering shards. It was a technique unlike anything Shoryu or Ayako had ever seen before; the boy had executed a powerful jutsu with properties not of the five basic elements.

"Sensei, what the hell was that?" Quizzed Shoryu, stricken in awe by the technique.

"That, Shoryu, is the Kekkei Genkai of the Takashi clan – the Ice style brand of jutsu. Their members can merge both the wind style and the water style to create a whole new jutsu. They use a cold chill from the wind to freeze the water they conjure up, and so with the right chakra control they have blasts of ice on command."

"Wind style? So he can use the same techniques I can?" Shoryu asked.

Reizo laughed and shook his head. "I doubt it – you're on a higher level in terms of wind style techniques. Kazuya can only perform the most basic jutsu, and he's got a water affinity anyway. But thanks having those two types of jutsu at his disposal he doesn't have to be a real adept; he only needs to master the fundamentals so that he can put them together and bring out the Ice style."

Shoryu couldn't help but smile upon learning that he was far more advanced with the wind style than Kazuya was, but the mere fact that he could actually combine two different elements on top of his superior physical strength put Kazuya on a whole new level above him. With every fact that was revealed about the boy, Shoryu understood more and more why Reizo had picked him for the team. Part of it was the irony of having one member with a denied Kekkei Genkai and one with a pair of them, though it became increasingly apparent to the boy that Reizo simply wanted to give Shoryu an obstacle; an unfairly powerful adversary that he'd strive to surpass despite it being almost impossible for him to do so. On top of that, he suspected he was Reizo's little experiment – a way for him to show the clan the error of their ways.

Reizo knew that Shoryu would probably never even come close to beating Kazuya, yet the knowledge of this only made Shoryu even more determined to put the boy in his place. That snobbish and superior attitude gave Shoryu an almost automatic hatred of him on a level topped only by his old sensei Zakari.

Kazuya rushed forwards, and after ducking under three of the consecutive blue spears he repeated the same blast of ice five times over, making sure that this time Ayako was immediately put on the rails rather than him risking the battle like Shoryu had. After her shield had shattered with the third frozen beam the girl turned and dived away from the following shot before only barely rolling away from the last one. By then the swift padding of Kazuya's feet across the grass told her that he was coming, so she rolled back onto her front and blasted another pair of red bolts to keep him at a distance.

Kazuya stopped with that smug expression once again as he allowed the girl to get back to her feet. She'd warned him once about underestimating or going easy on her, and now that he'd annoyed her a second time she felt an even greater resentment. With the honourable warrior waiting for her move, Ayako took the opportunity to briefly scan the battleground.

Whilst she'd repelled him for the time being, Kazuya was considerably closer than he was on the first move. Like Shoryu had predicted, he'd used his ninjutsu, the Ice style, for middle range combat. With the first move, where their attacks had collided, the two had been stood over forty yards apart, a width that just about qualifies as long range. However, the pillar of ice had only engulfed Ayako's technique at the point of impact; the field's centre. Unlike the chakra that Ayako wielded, the girl doubted that Kazuya's ice would even extend across forty yards - he'd used it as a shield and an opportunity to show off his power.

Now that Kazuya had moved forwards fifteen paces though, her luck was out. He was in perfect range to actually hit her as evidenced by her shield giving out, and any closer would result in his use of that deadly sword he carried. Ayako's gut told her that Kazuya was also far more deadly holding a blade than Shoryu was.

I have to beat him before he gets too close! She told herself, though all strategy was replaced by frantic anxiety when faced with an opponent so overwhelmingly powerful. His stance; his gaze; his every movement seemed to convey that he was better than her in every way, and everything she'd seen so far made sure that the idea was backed up tenfold.

Hesitantly the girl clapped off a blue that was casually sidestepped by the boy, serving as his cue to advance further after dodging. In her panic Ayako fired a stream of reds his way. She kept him at bay successfully as the downside to her overuse became clear: so many at once took a toll on her chakra. Despite the hour Ayako still hadn't fully recovered from the fight with Shoryu, being completely drained even upon her victory. After ten successive streams of crimson firecrackers bombarding Kazuya and forcing his agile retreat, the girl's supplies ran low, and his smug grin told her that he'd make another attack any minute now.

She checked her replenished supplies of colour when an idea came into her head. It wasn't much; it was barely a cheap trick by the standards of ninja. But Kazuya wasn't a ninja, and Ayako's skills with shading coupled with the boy's lack of knowledge could turn a simple decoy into a decisive attack.

Once her gaze was back on the battlefield again Kazuya set off again, sprinting with an incredible speed even without the use of his time slowing technique. From a small pouch by her leg Ayako retrieved six kunai; they were weapons Shoryu hadn't noticed previously and they puzzled him for a moment: Why would Ayako, a fighter who could conjure up long range projectiles with only the colours red and blue at her disposal, use conventional ninja tools like kunai?

She grabbed the handles of all six in one hand, and with the other she shaded a painted smear of red from the scroll to wash the knives into dripping blades of paint before steadying her aim with them.

"Clever." Reizo muttered. "Very clever."

"Reizo-sensei, you didn't cover those weapons with your jutsu, if she hits him then-"

"Just watch and learn Shoryu; I don't think she means to actually hit him with them."

Just as she'd suspected, Kazuya took no notice of the fact that she carried kunai, the fact that she'd coloured the blades in red, or even the fact that she never clapped her hands to ignite the colour before throwing the knives in his direction. Deception wasn't a part of bushido and never came into play during sparring at his village, so Kazuya suspected nothing as he nimbly darted away from the hastily thrown ninja tools. After all they were far easier to dodge than the girl's coloured chakra blasts thanks to their smaller size and her lack of physical strength behind her throw.

Eventually he came within twenty paces; the perfect distance for his ice style jutsu. However the girl was also proficient at this range as he'd seen before, and so Kazuya pushed on, drawing the double bladed sword and twirling past the final projectile. It was only as he realised the smile form upon Ayako's lips that he noticed something was amiss.

"Shading Jutsu!" She cried, clapping her hands and throwing them out in front of her, despite not wielding any colour. "Red Snare!"

Kazuya thought nothing of it and carried on running, though the following hiss and dramatic cackle of one of Ayako's red fireworks behind him sparked his attention as the boy instinctively turned his head. He panicked upon hearing the familiar sound of the burning attack behind him, and in the brief moment that he turned towards the sound of only half a dozen kunai sizzling as harmless roman candles, the boy's guard dropped.

"Blue!"

"What?"

Ayako's determined cry of her attack made Kazuya jerk back his head with barely enough time remaining to move out of the javelin's flight path. He veered his body to the side, ensuring that the spear missed his gut, though instead it surged past his leg with a light shower of blood. Reizo shot the boy a look of worry and a shaking head in reply told him that the fight would continue.

Damn it! The girl cursed to herself. He's just too fast, and there's no way he'd fall for that again! I really don't have much left.

"Not bad, not bad." Said Kazuya plainly, mocking her whether he intended to or not. "I never factored your cheap ninja tricks into my attack."

"Yeah well it's those same 'cheap tricks' that keep your village defended by Cloud ninja every day of the week." Ayako spat.

"My clan handles and protects itself just fine on its own. We don't receive or ask for aid from the Cloud ninja."

"Oh yeah? And who do you think protects the borders of the Land of Lightning you idiot? The capital does - the Village Hidden in the Clouds ."

Shoryu couldn't help but stifle a laugh as Ayako's valid and clearly well informed point silenced the young man, making his smug grin warp into a serious scowl. Where she couldn't defeat him in combat she defeated him in words.

Once the girl fell back into stance Kazuya rushed towards her again, this time determined to beat her quickly after she'd openly humiliated him. Ayako knew all too well that if he got into close quarters with her it'd be game over; with the way he brandished that strange weapon it was apparent that he knew how to use it at a high level, and since her speciality lay within range her defeat would be inevitable.

She cast a relentless stream of blues and reds in his direction to keep the boy at bay, though he closed in faster than ever, using moves beyond Shoryu's wildest dreams to slip between the projectiles and work his way forwards. She panicked in realising that despite shading as fast as she could, Kazuya still advanced.

If I don't do something quick I'm finished. She noted, seeing that the blue and red scrolls were quickly diminishing.

But Ayako still had a few tricks left up her sleeve; the dye in her hair was still intact, and thanks to Kazuya's nature as an honourable samurai there were moves that she could now initiate; moves that she knew most shinobi would never fall for. In a real ninja battle they'd be as practical as ever, but she was still a novice with these techniques, meaning that if she'd tried to execute them against Shoryu he'd see right through them in a heartbeat.

Ayako shaded a whole mass of blue, and without clapping her hands to spark up the colour's properties she quickly spun around, trailing her hand around the floor so that she drew a surrounding circle of blue in the grass. Once again Kazuya failed to notice her strategy as she proceeded to once again fire off a storm of red to keep him at bay.

Ayako's fingers worked like the intricate hands of a spinner as she weaved colours together faster than any hand sign to quickly form a blending mass in front of her. Kazuya saw the opportunity; she had stopped casting off those attacks and now drafted all three colours for some kind of technique, meaning that he could approach once again at full speed. Even within reaching five paces she made no move to attack and simply carried on shading colours, meaning that when Kazuya brought down the double ended sword for a powerful slash he made direct contact with a critical blow that should've ended the match.

Or so he thought.

To the samurai's horror he found that his supposedly 'protected' blade slashed right through the girl's body, and for one agonising second the look on his face told the others that he thought Reizo's jutsu had worn off and that he'd actually killed the girl. His expression turned to one of dismay as the girl's body twisted and convulsed into a washed together combination of colours that leaked into primary coloured dyes on the floor below him.

"A colour clone." Mused Reizo. "Very nice – I hear they're tricky. Not only did she pull it off in time, but she also mixed it with a substitution jutsu."

Shoryu blinked twice before suddenly noticing that behind the leaking dummy of colour, the real Ayako stood just a few yards away, preparing to clap her hands once more after entrapping Kazuya in her circle of blue.

"Shading Jutsu! Blue Execution!"

"Ice Style! Substitution!"

Once Ayako clapped her hands the tight perimeter of blue sprung to life, rising up from the ground as a surrounding circle of shard-like spikes in an attempt to contain the young samurai. For all her efforts though, Kazuya's intercepting chant struck her with panic, and her suspicions were confirmed as the azure daggers hit nothing but a block of exploding ice as Kazuya flipped out of the trap and back into safety, having swapped out his body with a substitution using the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai of his clan.

This time he didn't wait. Kazuya blasted the girl in the heat of battle, giving her barely enough time to throw up a glasslike shield that shattered along with the Cryo Blast jutsu he'd hurled her way. Ayako cursed at her failed plan and instantly went back on the offence, realising painfully that her red scroll was completely depleted. She shaded blue after blue to cast in his direction, but without the presence of the red to catch him off guard he reached her in only a few moves.

"Yellow!"

Thanks to her chakra running low, Ayako's shield shattered the instant Kazuya's weapon clashed against it. He darted past her defence and made for the killing blow yet again, though out of sheer impulse the girl quickly shaded one of the blue spears into her hand to block the attack. It cracked down the centre immediately and she flipped backwards to re-establish a range despite knowing the boy was hot on her tail.

"You can't fool me." He called after her. "That thing's not a sword."

He's right. Noted Ayako. Yellow was a more effective shield, but she could shade blue far faster, and with the boy's incredible speed it was the best she could do given the circumstances. Only one technique remained to keep her safe, but even then it would only prolong the battle rather than giving her a solid chance. It wasn't much, but at least it'd keep her safe for the time being. She acted quickly as the samurai closed in, shading a colossal amount of yellow into her hands mixed in with the entirety of red from her hair.

"Shading Jutsu! Eternal Dome!"

Ayako clapped her hands, and in the blink of an eye Kazuya's approaching attack was blocked by a solid, reinforced wall of the same yellow shield she always used; however this time it was different. Using up most of her scroll she'd encased herself in a solid half-sphere of the translucent yellow shield, rendering herself completely impervious to any attack as long as her chakra could hold up the dome. With the strain clearly showing on her face, Ayako clapped her hands again to release an explosive pulse of the red from her hair, emitting from the dome's edges and forcing Kazuya to back off another ten yards to completely avoid it.

The girl staggered to one knee and breathed through laborious pants as she peered with hazy eyes past the transparent shield. Kazuya was smiling as usual. With her hair now being exclusively blue he knew she'd used up the entirety of her red attacks, and both her blue and yellow scrolls were all but gone as well.

"I must say, I admire you getting this far. You've got some impressive moves – better than that weakling to say the least." Said Kazuya

Shoryu growled under his breath at hearing his name slandered.

"But this is as far as you go." Added the boy. "In return for a good fight however, I guess it wouldn't hurt to show you my dojutsu once more."

Ayako suddenly found her heart in her throat at the very mention of that terrifying Kekkei Genkai the boy possessed, and her fear rose even higher with every one of those obscure hand signs he proceeded to execute. All the while Kazuya kept his gaze fixed on the half-sphere encasing Ayako as he took his time to position the awkward signs. His eyes gleamed as for just a single moment he saw the wall flicker in her lack of chakra, using that as his cue to finish at fifteen signs with the final and most peculiar gesture of them all.

"Vortex Shift: Time Slow Jutsu!"

Kazuya's eyes blinked to reveal that haunting gaze she'd seen before of a typhoon-like pattern manifesting within and peering directly into her mind. Without a moment's notice he took off, and in less than a second he smashed straight through the Eternal Dome at inhuman speeds. She saw an opening and instinctively shaded the last of her blue into a spear, though by the time she took aim Ayako ended up using it once again as a shield with Kazuya attacking her again in a frighteningly fast twirl of his sword. He broke the coloured chakra with a single swipe, and before she could move to shade another he'd wheeled the sword over his wrist, so that its opposite edge was placed directly at her throat, pinning her for the win.

"Winner: Kazuya."

"Damn it!" Cursed Ayako out loud. She clapped her hands once more to diffuse the coloured chakra before sinking to one knee in exhaustion. Her eyes blurred in and out of clarity and her hands felt scorched from shading so many colours, but she pushed the pain aside and replaced it with frustration at her own incompetence.

"Not bad." Said Kazuya, immensely satisfied now that he'd defeated her. "But if you ever want to beat me. . . You'll have to do a lot better than that."

"That's enough!" Shoryu's voice interrupted his new rival's belittling as he approached the two and helped Ayako back to her feet. "You won alright? There's no need to rub it in her face. You know, you should show more respect to the ninja who's gonna be the eleventh Raikage."

"Uhh, can we call it twelfth? I want my shot at being Raikage too you know." Reizo joked, attempting to alleviate the growing tension between the three. Shoryu's aggressive scowl turned blank as the group went silent. Neither of the three said a word – Shoryu wanted the self-righteous son of a bitch to acknowledge his error, but in the end Kazuya only huffed and turned away.

"Whatever." He muttered. "Do we get another break?"

Reizo sighed in seeing that he wouldn't have to stop another fight. Ayako had exhausted herself again anyway, and another small exercise remained for them to overcome. If they were smart however, Reizo said they'd be able to completely see through the final session and complete it using next to no energy.

"Sure, take another hour." Said Reizo. "Meet back here at two thirty."

"Right." With that single word being his only farewell Kazuya suddenly turned and headed off for a walk all by himself, leaving Shoryu with nothing else to do except glare at the back of his head. He continued to do so until Ayako finally broke the silence.

"Umm, thanks." She said awkwardly.

"For what?" Quizzed Shoryu.

"Well you know, for sticking up for me – that guy's a jerk."

"He'll come around eventually." Reizo assured. "He's an odd case, but I'm sure he's got his reasons for being the way he is. It's not always easy being the best you know; his clan must put a lot of pressure on him."

Shoryu scoffed. "Oh yeah, poor Kazuya – yeah it must really suck to have two Kekkei Genkai and the respect of everyone around you. Man I feel so sorry for that guy."

"He might not have endured what you did Shoryu, but everyone suffers in their own way at one point or another, it's all relative."

Ayako cocked an eyebrow in suspicion; she had no idea about Shoryu's own clan shunning him, but the more she thought about it the more it fell into place. It was only then that she realised that despite being a part of the Zawa family tree like Reizo, Shoryu hadn't utilised the Raikyogan at all during their fight. Even when he approached her in close quarters his eyes had never changed, and with gloves covering his hands it was made impossible to see whether or not he possessed the faint markings that glowed upon its usage.

"Yeah I know. . ." Shoryu breathed reluctantly. "I'm sorry."

From the look on Ayako's face, Reizo sensed that she was about to ask a personal question about the boy's youth, and so he cut her off as quick as he could. "Ayako, don't you have to replenish your scrolls?"

Ayako nodded, and in remembering her lack of ammunition she got to her feet. Shoryu contemplated asking whether or not she wanted his company again, though something about her told him that she needed space to herself to reflect on her loss. He hoped Kazuya's words hadn't cut too deep.

As Ayako disappeared into the forest once again Shoryu was left sitting with the young sensei, who quickly got to his feet and stretched out to make himself more limber. Training Team Thirteen had interrupted his own usual schedule and gotten in the way of his routine exercises, so a little training for this hour's break would suffice. He directed chakra to his eyes, preparing to unleash his precious dojutsu until he stopped abruptly. It occurred to him that training himself now in front of Shoryu might be a little insensitive – he worried about whether it would come across as him showing off and taunting Shoryu with what he'd missed out on with the Raikyogan.

He took another look at Shoryu and weighed up the risk. Despite having more powerful ninja, of all the members of Team Thirteen Reizo honestly pitted Shoryu as the most mature. Ayako still lacked complete self-confidence and Kazuya was still passive-aggressively blocking people out all the time. Despite being occasionally impulsive, Shoryu was still probably the most logical thinker of the group and could be trusted to act responsibly and rationalise his every move. Someone like that surely wouldn't misinterpret his training as showing off, and he was still at an age of inexperience where new things were often fascinating.

"Wanna see something cool?" Asked Reizo at last.

Shoryu looked up. "Sure."

Reizo rolled up the forearm sleeves of his undershirt to reveal that the faint mark of the Raikyogan etched upon the back of his hand extended all the way up his forearm in a tribal-like pattern that ended at his elbows.

"What the-"

"Daimyo Raikyogan!" Along with the markings on his hands and arms, Reizo's eyes lit up light tiny, electric blue bulbs that surged with thunderous chaos far more volatile than the regular Raikyogan dojutsu.

"Whoa! What's that? I've never even heard of that before!" Exclaimed the amazed teen

"No, I don't suppose you would have. This is the 'Daimyo', or the 'Lord's' Raikyogan." Reizo explained. "It manifests by sheer chance in only one in fifteen members of the Zawa bloodline. It's a far more powerful variant, allowing the user to manipulate external bioelectric fields as well as the standard internal ones. The user's speed is also increased thanks to the rapidly vibrating cells within their body."

"Sweet! I didn't even know there were different forms of the Raikyogan. Are there any more?"

Reizo laughed to himself as he felt a difficult discussion incoming. "Technically there is a third."

Shoryu raised an eyebrow. "Technically? What do you mean by that?"

Reizo drew the spiked baton he constantly carried and Shoryu watched in amazement as it extended into a spear of a similar length to Kazuya's double bladed sword. He swung the pole three times at enemies he'd conjured up with his mind before using the power of his advanced dojutsu to blast a concentrated bolt of lightning from his left hand.

"There's a third level called the 'Kanzen', or the 'Perfect' Raikyogan." He then said. "It was wielded by the very first member and founder of our clan just after the fall of the fifth Raikage. His children inherited it, and the power lasted the reign of the sixth before disappearing completely – the bloodline became too diluted. It hasn't been seen in over a hundred years, and probably never will again."

"Awesome! They must've been really powerful!"

"Indeed they were, or so they say. There's no one in the world alive today who actually remembers it, we only have records of its existence. Some even claim it never actually existed at all, but most members of the clan would like to think otherwise, myself included."

"So right now you possess the most powerful form of the Raikyogan! You could easily become the Raikage!"

"Provided the tenth steps down and appoints a successor that is. He's been in power for almost fifty years now, I don't wanna be an old man by the time I become Raikage!" Reizo joked. "But with the Daimyo Raikyogan and all my experience I think I'm safely on the list of candidates."

"I'll bet – that thing is incredible!"

"Hey you never know, maybe you'll inherit it one of these days." Said Reizo.

Shoryu's face suddenly dropped into a glum, sombre expression, and Reizo cringed in realising that he'd hit a nerve.

"Don't be cruel sensei; you and I both know that I've been completely skipped for the Raikyogan. I'm three years too old for it to manifest now."

"Hey you never know, you might just be a late bloomer. Wouldn't that be something?" Reizo mused.

"Do you actually believe that sensei or are you just messing with me?" Shoryu asked.

Reizo let out a loud laugh and even disengaged the Daimyo Raikyogan at Shoryu's sudden bluntness. It was a touchy subject as expected, and as the electric blue glow faded from his eyes the Jonin formulated his answer, shrugging as he did so. "I honestly don't know Shoryu." He added. "It's possible. At the very least, the fact that you don't have the Raikyogan tells me that your father must've been one incredibly powerful ninja."

Shoryu blinked twice as he considered the implications. What did him not having the Raikyogan have to do with the strength of his father? He scratched his head and narrowed his eyebrows in confusion, prompting Reizo to explain.

"The Raikyogan has manifested in every child of the Zawa bloodline for over a century except you. To me that means that your father's genes must've been so strong that they made a complete override on your mother's Zawa genes and either nullified or suppressed the Raikyogan."

"Huh. . ." Shoryu put his hand to his chin. It made sense in its own little way, but regardless, it was something he'd never even considered before. "I never thought of it like that."

For the next forty minutes Shoryu simply watched Reizo conduct his regular training exercises, using the Daimyo Raikyogan to blast bolts of electricity and quickly zip around, showcasing at least two different kinds of elemental jutsu and displaying a complete mastery of the fundamentals of the shinobi way. With his exhaustion in the aftermath Shoryu calculated that the Daimyo Raikyogan used up far more chakra than the regular one that his mother and most other members of the clan possessed, yet the expenditure was more than worth it with the power Reizo commanded at his fingertips – he could end battles far quicker than normal and with the right control of electricity could keep his opponents alive for interrogation if need be.

Eventually Ayako returned two minutes after Reizo had sat back down in fatigue, followed soon after by Kazuya who looked as sour as ever. Wearily the sensei got to his feet and led the group off for their final challenge. He led them into the dense forest bordering the grassy plane, to an area Ayako and Shoryu had neglected to explore in their previous search for colour. Fifteen minutes through the forest led them to a strange opening, left dark and aged by the density of the woods and passage of time.

White markings on the ground outlined three squares, each side by side to one another. Each was around twenty metres wide and forty long, serving as small arenas where the group would no doubt have to fight once again, though this time they wouldn't be facing each other. Reizo led the three right up to them, careful not to cross the white lines as he turned back to them.

"Alright. Shoryu, you take the one on the left. Ayako take the middle, and Kazuya you get the one on the right. There's a jutsu set to activate the moment you step inside those squares, but before you go let me first give you one piece of advice. You'll need it to succeed in this mission."

Shoryu and Ayako leaned forwards in anticipation, making them equally disappointed when the only advice Reizo offered them was a generic saying they'd all heard before:

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

The three exchanged confused looks; even Kazuya looked troubled by the cryptic message Reizo had left them with, but before they could probe any further the sensei cut them off.

"Alright, go to your squares. You can begin whenever you're ready."

To the eager young teenagers, 'whenever' meant immediately; and so curiously they took their places and tentatively stepped over the bleached white borders into their own small arenas. Shoryu and Ayako exchanged nervous glances from afar as three sets of hissing noises could be heard the moment their feet touched the ground. Smoke billowed from behind a nearby tree, giving Shoryu his cue to peer around and see exactly what had formed there.

To his utmost confusion a shadowy figure stepped out from behind the oak, though it wasn't a new face or an enemy ninja that approached him as a challenger. Instead Shoryu could only react with a queer puzzlement as a sneering, evil silhouette of a familiar face drew weapons as a challenger.

It was himself.

A menacing, evil-looking version of Shoryu Aizawa stood before him, reaching for the windmill shuriken to initiate his first attack.

.

Author's Notes: Me again. Long time no see, like 20 minutes probably? Anyone notice that Shoryu seemed to be taking a swing at Sasuke with his little sarcastic speech? Honestly I didn't mean for it to come out like that, but seriously! Why doesn't the guy cheer up? He's the most powerful ninja his age and every girl fancies him - if I was in his position I'd be fucking bathing in my own awesomeness from the get-go.

Anyway for those that don't know, the Ice Style has been used twice in different versions in Naruto. The first is the one used by Haku and her-I MEAN HIS- clan - the one with the ice mirrors and the different forms of illusion. The second is the one you see in the first Naruto movie that involves freezing - this was before the elemental classifications were outlined in Shippuden, and as such the writers mistakenly figured that Ice was one of the five main elements, not taking into account the fact that it was a Kekkei Genkai (since Kakashi could copy it using the Sharingan). So in light of that I just decided to make my own, which could be easily explained as just being a different strain of the Ice Style, remember this is like 200 years after the events of Naruto.

So yeah, Ayako lost, Kazuya's a dick and Shoryu's annoyed - stay tuned for next time! . . . Whenever I can post it!