Three years had quickly passed since Ichigo had found himself stuck in this new world, and had begun to attend Kirigakure's shinobi academy. Ichigo was now 12 years old and had grown to be 152 cm tall and his hair had grown down to his shoulders. He was wearing the standard black sandals and black ninja pants, a white haori with a dark blue trim and sash, standard light blue kiri arm warmers and a black sleeveless shirt to hide the hole in his chest. And had the same katana that he had received three years ago strapped into the left side of his sash and a pouch for kunai and other items was tied on the right side of the sash. Today was a very special day for all the students, it was graduation day. A day which had made Kiri infamously known as the ' Village of the bloody mist' due to it's brutal graduation ritual which involved pitting the students into one on one duels to the death, in which the victor was given the rank of genin.
"Ichigo Kurosaki." the teacher said in a calm voice signalling that is it was now Ichigo's turn.
"And Kosei Horiuchi." the teacher said once Ichigo had made his way to the middle, Kosei was a slim boy standing at around 148 cm tall, he had brown eyes and black curly hair that fell over his eyes.
As the two boys stood in front of each other they bowed slightly before the teacher told them that they could begin. Ichigo quickly drew his katana and ran towards the boy hoping to catch him off guard, but the boy blocked the strike with his own katana and jumped back as Kosei was well aware that engaging in close combat with Kurosaki was the equivalent of committing suicide due to his pure brute strength. Kosei swiftly sheathed his katana and began to wave trough hand seals.
"Water style:Hidden mist jutsu" Kosei said as the mist began to form from his mouth and spreading around them.
"Shit." Ichigo growled out as he watched his opponent vanish from his field of vision.
"Water style: Liquid bullet." Ichigo quickly jumped to his right barely dodging the large ball of water that came surging past him. Ichigo swiftly got up on his feet and ran towards the the location where the jutsu had came from. Seeing the outline of a person trough the mist he slashed trough the boys midsection only to find that he turned into water.
"A water clone!" Ichigo though to himself as he felt the blade off Kosei's katana travel across his back leaving a gash.
"Ugh." Ichigo grunted out as he turned around to deflect the second incoming blow, only for Kosei to jump back into the mist again. Ichigo took this time to channel some of his chakra into the wound on his back to stop the bleeding and speed up the recovery, something he had found that he was capable of doing a year ago purely on accident. Deciding that trusting his eyes would be pointless in this battle Ichigo decided to close them and take a deep breath to calm his breathing. And began using his ears to listen for any kind of movements. After 20 seconds he could hear slight movement of clothes to his left so he quickly grabbed a hold on a kunai from his pouch and threw it.
"Gah!" Kosei screamed loudly as the kunai had been lounged into his right shoulder. Having confirmation about his location Ichigo dashed towards him with his katana ready to cut the boy in half. Kosei's eyes widened as he saw Ichigo only a meter away from him now and quickly drew his katana to attempt to parry the blow to the best of his ability as escaping back into the mist or dodging the slash it would surely be impossible at the speed Ichigo ran. As his sword clashed with Ichigo's he had to grit his teeth and he was quickly over powered and Ichigo's blade sank 3 centimetres into the boys left arm. Thinking quickly Kosei let go of the katana with his right arm and pulled out a kunai and stabbed it towards Ichigos face.
"Shit." Ichigo could not help but to think this as he saw the kunai approach his face as if he was watching it in slow motion, instinctively Ichigo began to channel his chakra into his skin right before the kunai impacted with his right cheek. Horror filled Kosei's eyes as he watched the kunai he had just stabbed into Ichigo's face bounce off his skin without leaving even the smallest of mark on the skin. Ichigo decided to capitalise on his and his opponents surprise channelled his chakra into his arm before throwing a punch towards Kosei's face.
A sickening cracking sound could be heard trough the mist as Ichigo's fist impacted with Kosei's nose, crushing it and most likely cracking a part of the boys skull as well. Kosei could not help but to scream at the top of his lungs due to the pain he felt while he fell over on his back. As the Hidden mist jutsu began to disperse Ichigo walked over to Kosei who was lying on the floor wriggling in pain, as his face was covered in blood and tears. Ichigo reversed his grip on his katana and pointed the blade against the boys heart. He didn't want to kill the boy, he had seemed like a nice kid who were usually joking around with his friends. But he knew that this had to be done, if he wanted to be stronger to protect everything and everyone he cared about he would not let his conscience stand in his way. He stabbed the blade down into Kosei's heart while staring into the eyes of the boy with a stoic expressing on his face as the life slowly left Kosei's eyes. Ichigo pulled the katana out of the boys body and swung it to remove the blood from the blade before inserting it back into the sheath.
"Winner, Ichigo Kurosaki. Congratulations." the teacher said as he pulled out a kiri forehead protector and handed it to the boy.
"From this day onwards you are now a official ninja or Kirigakure."
"Thank you Teacher." Ichigo said as he bowed before taking the forehead protector out of his teachers hand and tying it around his forehead.
"You may go join the other on the stand."
Ichigo glanced over toward Kosei's body which were currently being recovered and brought to a separate room where the bodies where put, before he walked over to the stands where the rest of his class mates had been standing to watch the fights. Ichigo could easily see tears in the eyes of those who had been close to the now deceased Kosei who were now glaring at him. No doubt wishing he had been the one to die rather then their friend.
It had taken a while before the fights were all over and most of the now newly appointed genins were now in tears or had been throwing up about killing their friends.
"Congratulations once again." the teacher said as he stood before his former students.
"You have all shown that you have what it takes to be a ninja of this village, and in four days you will be have your last gathering in your classroom to receive your appointed team mates and jonin teacher." He said before dismissing them.
As Ichigo was walking the streets on his way home to change his blood covered clothes. He could not stop thinking about how he got the kunai to bounce off his skin, because of this he spent the whole way home trying to cut into the palm of his hand with a kunai while channelling his chakra into the skin, it had taken him quite some tries but he was finally getting the hand of it.
"Hmm, what should I call this?" Ichigo asked himself once he finally arrived at his home.
The four days quickly passed and Ichigo had finally decided to call his technique for 'Hierro', he didn't know why he had decided on that name it just came to him and felt right. He was currently sitting at 'his' spot in the academy classroom with the rest of the newly graduated genin, waiting for their teacher to arrive. It had taken a while but the teacher finally came into the class room with the company of what he assumed was the Jonins. it didn't take long for all of them to be grouped together and led somewhere else by their new Jonin teacher, all with the exception of Ichigo.
"Uhm, teacher? why didn't I get paired with any of the genin?" Ichigo asked his old teacher with a look of confusion on his face.
"Five of the genins resigned right after the graduation, leaving you the only one without team members I'm afraid, but don't worry. Lord Mizukage himself has arranged a teacher for you." the teacher explained to the boy causing Ichigo's eyes to widen in realization of what his old teacher had just told him.
"Lord Mizukage himself?" Ichigo murmured, he could barely believe it. Why would the Mizukage care the slightest about a lowly genin like him?
"Yes, lord Mizukage himself." the teacher replied seeing the look of disbelief on the boys eyes.
"And he should be here any moment now." Just as the teacher finished talking the door slid open revealing a man with short spiky black hair and tied sideway against his forehead was a Kiri forehead protector and he had white bandages covering the lower half of his face and neck. He was donning the standard Kirigakure ANBU flak jacket over a long sleeved black shirt and pants. But what stood out the most about him was the massive sword that was tied onto his back. A sword that Ichigo instantly recognized as the Kubikiribocho, a sword that belonged to one of the seven ninja swordsmen. Ichigo's mouth could not help but to gape at the realisation that the man who was standing in front of him, were one of the legendary seven ninja swordsmen of the mist, and was going to be his Jonin teacher.
"Eh? so this is the brat huh?" the man said as he looked towards Ichigo.
And that's it for the third chapter.
This was my first actual fight scene to write so I do hope it won't be too disappointing. Also I had to twist and turn some events from canon, ex, the graduation exams didn't change after Zabuza killed 100 students. If you're cusious what Ichigo's haori looks like just look at Ao's but imagine the blue being white and white trim being black. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and stuff guys, I appreciate it.