Uchiha Training
Uhhh... don't lynch me, I promise I'm alive and working on these stories. Have a one shot. Enjoy.
A boy with dark blue colored hair was sitting up on his bed and looking very downcast while he did. "She ripped through us…" He flopped back with a wince on his face and pain running through his torso, the bandages were clean but the pain wasn't going to leave him for a long while. His leg was healed at least... which was good considering it was nearly shattered. All he really could do was just lament over what happened a few weeks ago to both him, his brother, and his dad. All the training he'd gone through to be a chunin and it didn't make any difference in that fight.
He sighed and pulled himself back up to look out the window at the sunny midday sky, but the outside beauty didn't help his gloomy mood. "Man this really sucks." He started to shift around to bring his feet over the side of the bed and slowly step onto the cold linoleum of the floor. "I just don't get it… I never even got a chance to meet her but-" None of that mission- No it couldn't be called a mission on account of how suddenly everything went wrong for them.
Now he was standing by the window and slowly opening it to let some fresh air into this stale hospital room. "Dad was really sure about it too, and dad's really smart when it comes to stuff like this."
"Are we talking about the same Obito here?"
The hospital patient turned around to look at that new voice that- The door was shut and there wasn't anyone else in the room? "Uh, who said that?" This was really confusing him and… he really wasn't liking how some random disembodied voice was- "Wait a second that voice sounded familiar."
"Of course I'd sound familiar." A pair of onyx eyes looked upwards and landed on a person wearing a blue kimono shirt with purple pants and black calf length sandals. "I'm your cousin after all, why wouldn't you know me?"
That was when another presence made himself known by opening the door and showing his own purple outfit. "Kiyoshi, they told me you were- Oh no! Zeko, why are you here?" Obito Uchiha focused his only eye on the person who was casually standing on the ceiling, his younger relative who'd gone through his own struggles.
"Well I heard about what happened to my cousins and I had to come see for myself." Kiyoshi didn't even see it. One second Zeko was there and the next he was right in front of his dad, slightly looking up from the height difference. "Now I'm seeing a weak cousin and a pretty sorry trainer."
Now the boy, Kiyoshi, was looking at the stare down between his father and his other family member. Both of them had a cool expression but it was obvious that those words were causing tension… His cousin just dropped in, talked bad about his dad, and now he was standing there with his hands in his pockets.
"Come into my village. Say you want to help your family. Talk bad about me in front of my son." A black eye started spiraling into a black pinwheel with three points touching the outer edge of a crimson iris. Obito was displaying his mangekyou sharingan for extra challenge towards his younger relative, but it was like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object since Zeko decided to display his own sharingan in the shape of a red seven pointed star against a pitch black iris… but that was just one eye.
Purple with black rings appeared on his right eye and stared right into the spot that had an eyepatch over an empty left eye socket. These were two titans staring one another down over something so crass… Uchiha family meetings always went like this nowadays, but Zeko dropped out of the staring contest with a smile on his face.
"Even knowing what my left eye does, you still stare me down… That's why I respect you, Obito. Well I'm here because I gotta help my cousin get trained up the right way." He rolled his neck a few times then walked over to his younger cousin, circling him with those discriminating eyes of varied patterns. Silently walking around Kiyoshi while the boy just watched his cousin eye him up and down… Wordlessly.
The genin just stared dumbly as his cousin sized him up in his teal patient's clothes. "Uh… Cousin Zeko? Is there a reason you're doing this? It's kinda-" Now he felt the cold air of the room since his shirt just got lifted right off his torso and exposed his skin to the bright lights and hospital air. "Bad touch!"
"I haven't even touched you." He did stop examining and walked back to Obito with a click of his tongue. "He's soft, like good toilet paper. You haven't done much training with him have you? That's annoying to think about."
Obito crossed his arms with a grunt, clearly displeased at his fatherly care being called into question. "I wanted him to enjoy his childhood. Unlike us, there aren't as many things around to cause trouble for his generation."
"But now that something big popped up… He wasn't ready." He looked back at the youngest Uchiha in the room and pointed at him lazily. "Tomorrow morning you'll meet me at training ground four, anyone else who needs it can go to hell for now. Don't be late and don't wear your best clothes."
Obito saw his relative look at the window with a squint in those eyes and- "Don't you even-"
"Real ninjas don't use doors!" And just liked that Zeko crashed through the window and was gone… In such an extra way despite Obito knowing how sneaky he could be when he tried.
The scarred Uchiha sighed and looked at his still flabbergasted son with a look that Kiyoshi really wasn't liking. "Good luck Kiyoshi. You're really going to need it." He ruffled his confused son's hair and started to pull away but the boy had some questions.
"Uh dad? Why didn't you stop him? And why am I gonna need luck?"
Those… they were some hard questions that Obito had to answer. "Both myself and Zeko had similar training in our lives as we grew up in this shinobi world. I didn't want that training for you because it's a living hell to go through. Even now I'm hesitant about letting you go through with it, but it'll make you stronger no doubt in my mind. So if you want to go to training ground four in the morning, I'm not going to stop you."
"Well I guess that makes sense but- Wait, you still didn't just tell him no." His dad wasn't a pushover to anyone. Not even the Hokage.
"Well you see, actually, Zeko will tell you that himself. Get some rest since they'll let you out in the morning, but if you're going to that training ground, do it after after you eat something alright? I love you Kiyoshi."
The boy smiled as his father left the room and fell onto his bed. "Love you too dad." Then his onyx eyes went to the- "Oh damn it! They're gonna bill us for that window!"
Kiyoshi ran out of the hospital cafeteria in a panic. 'Shit! Shit! Shit! It's ten minutes to noon! He said morning! You had one job, Kiyoshi!' He was running through the streets in a faded purple long sleeve and black pants, the rhythmic sound of his grey sandals hitting the ground was the only thing showing his pace. 'Okay I'm making good time! I might be able to get there before noon!' If it was still morning then maybe he'd get off easy. Just maybe it would be fine.
It was not fine.
He was wrong. He was so horribly wrong. Kiyoshi was blindfolded and currently holding his nose at some horrible and wretched odor. He managed to make it a minute before high noon but Zeko still looked disappointed. How was he supposed to know he was going the wrong way at first?!
"I hope you're ready Kiyoshi, this took me all night to do so make sure you give it your all."
That sounded really ambiguous and concerning. "Uh… what exactly do I have to do?"
"Oh. You just gotta climb out." Before the boy could get to ask another question he found himself falling downwards, and his landing? It was awful.
The first thing Kiyoshi noticed was the gut wrenching smell as he fell, but once he landed all he felt was… Slimy and disgusting textures all around his body. Then he made a mistake of inhaling through his nose. His throat burned as his small breakfast left him in a slew of stomach acid and bile, but the worst was just starting. He tried to wipe his face but that just made things worse. Vile, fetid, and repulsive were the only descriptions of the stuff he ended up streaking across his face.
Kiyoshi panicked and started trying to crawl his way out of the soft and squishy mixture of who knows what but that's when he started feeling the sensation of things crawling and exploring his skin. Something was alive in this stuff and he didn't want to know what. "Help! Cousin Zek-" He tripped and face planted right into a putrid pile… Mouth wide open at that. If his stomach wasn't empty before, it was now. It burned to have even more acid leave his mouth but it was probably better than soap to clean whatever left that horrid taste even for a second.
Whispers. He could hear whispers of something else down here with him. Echoes of something lurking around with him. Each movement he made trying to escape was only dragging him deeper into this pit of hell. Right into the deep where something was whispering about ripping him apart… he had to get out. He had to get out right now! Kiyoshi started fighting. He clawed his way through the soft and malleable mix around him to try and find a way out. There had to be a way out of this!
The whispering started getting louder and louder, it was like whips lashing at the boy's back telling him to find a way out before whatever was in this hell finally swallowed him whole. Things were wriggling along his skin trying to get him ready for whatever was the top dog in this pit, salting him so it could enjoy his taste even more. Then the feeling of dread got even worse. Somehow it felt like he was staring down a monster with serrated teeth ready to tear his flesh apart.
The whispering was turning into quiet screams and Kiyoshi was starting to feel phantom hands starting to run along his body, trying to prepare him to be the dinner of whatever devilish presence was in here with him. He had to get out. Kiyoshi threw his arms out to try and find something, anything, that would help him escape… then he touched a wall. A wall means it goes up! He could climb up!
Kiyoshi grabbed the wall and- His grip faltered from the slick gore on his hands and he started panicking, not being able to grab his one possible way out would do that. Again, he latched his hand onto the wall and started climbing his way to freedom. Inch by inch, foot by foot, all the way until he couldn't climb anymore… A ledge! Kiyoshi pulled himself up and over onto a flat ground… No squishy and disgusting odor other than what was on him.
"Kiyoshi."
The kid was shivering from fear, smeared in vile fluid and disgusting offal. That was terrible! The stupid blindfold was smeared and-
"Kiyoshi!" The young Uchiha snapped back into it and stopped shaking for a second. "Take the blindfold off and look downwards." Zeko gave clear instructions and his cousin wordlessly followed them, slowly removing the blindfolding and looking down at the pit.
"Huh? It's… A bunch of dead animals?"
The giant hole in the ground was full of animal corpses and rotting flesh. Just a huge pit of death and reeking of that grossly sweet smell. What was making the whispering sounds? Where was the monster that wanted to-
"Eat you? Yeah I felt it too when I did this." Kiyoshi looked at his cousin with the slowly drying remains of those animals smeared on his face. "This was hard to do on short notice. I had to use a lot of sugar to speed up the decomposition, anything for my cousin."
There was still the issue of why he had to do this. Kiyoshi wasn't quite following the point of being thrown into a hole full of dead animals. "W-Why'd I have to do this?"
Zeko folded his arms in his blue kimono top to start explaining. "Well this one gets you over the general fear of death. If you can overcome the pit, not much can stop you." That… didn't make any damn sense!
"You threw me in a hole with dead animals and that's some kind of a test? That doesn't make sense! That stuff got in my mouth!" He stopped to look at his hands and saw that they were smeared in gore. Kiyoshi could only assume that was a constant for his face too.
"You know I thought that too at one point, and then I saw what happens when you fail. I guess it only makes sense when you actually see someone get mentally ruined by the experience, but since you passed it doesn't matter." Zeko pulled out a pack and tossed it to his cousin with a smirk. "Now let's go ahead and get you cleaned up cause we've got training to do."
Kiyoshi didn't get to ask questions before Zeko grabbed onto his shirt collar and in a rapid blur dropped him right into cold water. "AH! COLD!"
"It's a waterfall of course it's cold."
Once Kiyoshi stopped panicking, he pulled himself out of the water and started taking his filthy clothes off. 'There's soap in this pack… and a toothbrush.' He took the time to start cleaning himself off. Sloughs of rotting flesh and decay fell off his body and started staining some of the water a dark brown. Then the boy started cleaning his mouth out with that toothbrush… last thing he needed was getting sick over some parasite. 'I guess cousin Zeko is sorta right about that pit but… he's still fucking insane for making me do that!'
Something landed right next to the boy and he turned his head to see a- "Bmb?!" He yelled around the toothbrush and toothpaste once a paper bomb kunai planted itself next to him… burning! Kiyoshi jumped away and hit the deck right before an explosion blasted dirt and water into the air. Mud landed on him and he- Well it was better than rotten flesh. "What just happened?!"
"Reflex training." Zeko was twirling another kunai with a bomb attached to it. "The best way to hone your reflexes is to genuinely surprise you so you start processing quicker. Having a sharingan doesn't mean anything if you can't think fast. So expect those randomly during our training."
"You're really doing this?! That's crazy!"
"It's good to be something. Your real training starts now."
And training it would be. The very first day is where Kiyoshi got trained into the ground, painfully so. He was running on a rocky pathway in the woods, his feet being completely bare was just a cherry on top. The last three days were teaching him a very important lesson about the type of training his cousin was putting him through… Including a very impactful lesson about- "I hate you so much, Zeko!"
"I heard that!" Then the sky rained water bullets and Kiyoshi's life got even harder.
"Woah!" He rolled to the side and watched a slug of liquid tear part of the earth away. 'Is he trying to skin me alive?!' There were still more water bullets falling down, and Kiyoshi's dark eyes turned bright red with three tomoe spinning and tracing the dozens of heavily falling water bullets. He started weaving and dodging each of the falling projectiles, but he could focus on a proper counter with his feet constantly landing right on top of the jagged gravel he was on.
He needed hand seals and he needed them right now. 'Just have to focus, I'll do my best with this training.' Kiyoshi inhaled with his hands in the tiger seal. 'Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu!' (Fire style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu). Six bursts of fire. Kiyoshi shot six bursts of fire from his mouth straight towards the most immediate water bullets. The blasts of steam- "Shit!" Chakra laced steam made it harder to notice the, still falling, slugs of water coming for him.
Last second evasions and weaves were his best bet, but even then he couldn't dodge every single one of the water bullets. But he did manage to dodge, shift, and evade to mitigate any damage. Badly placed scrapes hurt him and some of them even blasted into his forearms or even legs… But it was just pain!
"Not bad, Kiyoshi. Your reflexes are really getting better. At this rate you'll be able to react to things from higher level ninjas."
The boy pulled himself up and looked at the other Uchiha, he was already worn out but at least he was alive. "This… This is what you and dad had to deal with?"
Zeko looked off with a strange expression on his face. A look that really said 'oh boy' in every facet. "Well… You're just getting started with it, but it's only gonna get harder from now on." Kiyoshi's eyes went blank from the idea, and he curled up into a ball for safety. Zeko knelt down and patted his cousin's hair like an older brother would, even though he was going to be putting him through grueling training. "It's not all bad, you're gonna have fun."
It wasn't a total lie.
Even after long weeks turned into months, there were fun moments in his training. Sometimes he'd get a specific challenge to test him, other times he'd get an opportunity to return the sheer torture- enthusiastic training that his cousin was putting him through. But he also needed more than just conditioning, weeks of it made Kiyoshi tougher, stronger, more enduring, but that wasn't everything he needed.
Kiyoshi had his hands in the tiger seal and was feeling that sensation deep in himself, letting it mold and take form so he could draw it out. 'Let my chakra focus and maintain the shape.' He reached deep and felt it, his fire style chakra molding and shaping into a ball at his upper chest. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!" (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu).
A fireball the size of a small house came from his mouth and blew over the pond he was practicing on, his control didn't waver in the release of that large expulsion of his chakra but the heat from it caused a rolling steam over the pond.
"Again! Focus!"
Once again, Kiyoshi had to focus and mold fire style chakra into that same ball shape. He could feel his body mixing that chakra again to prepare another fireball, and once he blew it out it had the same effect. Scorching heat that created a rolling steam over the surface of the pond, this time he felt his fire being more concentrated and more powerful… but somehow he felt like it wasn't enough.
Something plopped into the water beside him and- "CRAP!" He dove away in time to avoid the explosion. Another paper bomb kunai splashed into the water and the explosion sent a spray of pond water into the air, dousing the boy's outfit with not-so-fresh water. Kiyoshi kept his focus hard enough to use his hands on the surface of the water, making sure he stayed out of it when the bomb went off.
The young Uchiha raised his head to look around and see a kunai twirling in a hand, a purple kimono top decorated with black snake-like patterns. "Not bad brat!" A tongue licked the kunai and the person took a step closer to the pond, fishnets swishing against her thigh high sandals. "No warning and you dodged that? My baby's teaching you good."
"Miss Mi- NO!" He had to jump back to avoid- Who threw a volley of kunai with paper bombs?! A burst of explosions, each one large enough to turn a normal person into mincemeat. A chain of six blasts that emptied the pond of all its water, and on the bank of it was a ball of black and white.
The large ball of black and white fur stood up and revealed a panda with sleepy eyes and a simple look on its face. "That could have hurt… Are you alright, Kiyoshi?" Even its voice was a bit… dull, but Kiyoshi unraveled himself from his summon's fur and fell to the ground with a distant look on his face. "Kiyoshi…?"
"I felt my life flashing before my eyes. Why were there six of them?" He'd gotten used to one or two, that was still a crazy part of his training too. Sometimes he had to deal with three or fucking four… but not once has he gotten five thrown at him, so six was enough to remind him that his cousin was not right in the head.
"Haha! Cause you're a lot better according to him, he talks about you a lot. I think you're doing good too." She was right beside him, but she wasn't kneeling to be closer since it wouldn't be very comfortable. "Keep it up." Her black hair went to her shoulders and her magenta eyes had kindness in them, at least enough to look out for this Uchiha boy.
Kiyoshi managed to snap out of the temporary fright he was in and sat back to look at the woman beside him. The Jashin necklace hanging from her neck really matched the top she was wearing… but he started wondering if she was wearing shorts under that long top since- Well he didn't think about this cause it was pervy but more so cause it was a-
"Kiyoshi! Today you've got a real test and I know you're gonna like it." Zeko dropped beside him and now he was wearing a dark blue version of his normal desert attire, complete with the same long gray overcoat with an open front. "It's gonna be hard, but I know you've got this."
"What's it going to be?" He stood up and leaned against his panda, a hand against his forehead and curiosity on his mind. "It's not like the hot springs again is it?" That trauma won't leave him anytime soon… Who would've thought that carnivorous sand worms were so big?
"If you two are gonna head out, I'll go back to training Kin. Don't be gone too long, baby!" She turned off and strutted away with all her sass and all that fine kunoichi ass.
Zeko smiled and waved a hand to see her off. "I'll miss you while we're gone, Mitsaki!" They watched Mitsaki turn around with a smirk on her face, obviously something funny brewed in her head.
"Gay!" Mitsaki had a fit of snickering but it ended quickly, an old fashioned comeback but it was damned hilarious. "I'll fucking miss you too baby!"
"Bye Miss Mitsaki! Tell Kin I said hi!" Kiyoshi wanted his teammate to at least know he cared about him, despite everything that was going on with- Shit now he was upset. Thinking about what happened with his family would always put a damper on his mood, even if there was a- "Wait, when did we get to my house?!"
Kiyoshi looked around and saw that they made it onto his home without any type of warning or sign, and Zeko casually walked to the door and opened it. "I took us here, obviously. You're still in training clothes, get your mission outfit on."
A quick glance and Kiyoshi nodded, his somewhat dinged long sleeve and dark pants needed to be changed if they were going on a mission. "Alright, be right back!"
He ran past his cousin and sprinted up the stairs, quickly running to the bathroom and turning the shower on… No reason to stay sweaty and dirty from that pond water so he grabbed a towel and change of clothes, then hopped right in the hot water.
"What could this mission be? Zeko said it would be fun but that doesn't tell me what it could be, maybe there's something we have to look for… Some type of relic that'll teach me more about chakra control?"
A good lather of soap against his shoulders to clean off and he could only think about what was going on for today, but that didn't really matter since he was fully ready!
Once he was cleaned up, Kiyoshi tossed on some clean clothes. Tossing on a black long-sleeve with a hole for his thumbs at the end, a pair of solid black shinobi pants, then he wrapped athletic tape around his shins and the sandals he put on. Making sure he'd be aerodynamic for whatever needed his speed.
"Should I wear it or not…" He held a jacket in his hand, the main body of it was a dark green color while the sleeves were orange. The elastic bands for adjusting the hood ended in two metal pieces in the shape of the Nara clan symbol, overall… A really cool jacket. "Yeah, I'll wear it."
He threw an arm through a sleeve in the coolest way he inadvertently could, then zipped the jacket up and grabbed a pair of goggles modeled like his father's from his time as a kid. Kiyoshi looked cool, able, and most of all-
"You're ready to go?" Zeko was leaning against the door frame of Kiyoshi's room, a gunbai on his back- Wait a second.
Kiyoshi couldn't help but investigate that one later, for now they did have to get going. "Where are we going? You didn't tell me before."
Zeko didn't answer that directly. All he did was put a hand onto Kiyoshi's shoulder, and then the entire world went monochrome for a split second. Then the younger Uchiha's vision revealed that they were in a piece of- A desert? His cousin just brought them to a part of the desert, and right in front of them was a building. "Wait… Is that- It's a-"
"It's a prison. And your test for today relates to it."
A massive building at least six stories tall and with a massive wall surrounding it, and barred windows on each floor above ground level. Cracked white walls with shocking plant growth scattered around, but there were also guards stationed in different spots around the facility. In all, this was a prison and now he had a mission related to it.
Zeko tapped his cousin on the shoulder again and showed him a picture. "This guy and I go way back. His name's Maruyama." A dark skinned man with light blue eyes, a tattoo underneath his left eye in the shape of some strange character that Kiyoshi couldn't recognize. "You have to sneak inside that prison. Find him. Then get him outside of the main building, and you have to do all of that without getting caught."
The boy dropped, both in spirit and physically, Kiyoshi should've known that he'd get some form of test involving stealth at some point… But sneaking into a prison without getting caught at all?! 'No doubt about it… Cousin Zeko's a sociopath.' He managed to stand back up and- 'HOLY SHIT!'
Zeko was way too close for comfort, directly in Kiyoshi's face and the calm look he had on his face didn't make the younger Uchiha feel any better about the sudden intrusion.
"Be glad this is all you have to do. I understand being a teenager, but if I catch you looking at Mitsaki's legs like that… Ever. Then I'll train you to death and back, understand?" That tone- It was calm, with an underlying sense of horrifyingly harmful intent.
All he could do was nod his head dumbly. Doing his best to illustrate that he understood very clearly and concisely. Even though he wasn't trying to leer and would've happily explained that… if not for the fear of God put into his heart.
"Good." Zeko pointed towards a specific window on the base floor of the facility, their high leverage on a dune being very convenient. "That's the warden's office, and the files on prisoners should be in there if not in another office nearby. Good luck!"
With that he sat down on a quickly made chair, made out of sand no surprise, and then Zeko rested his head on his right hand. Idly sending a text to someone while Kiyoshi had a chance to just think about a game plan.
"Alright…" The young Uchiha slid down the dune and started a run towards the walls of the prison, his onyx eyes turning red with three tomoe. His sharingan burned every detail into his mind while he approached the facility, analyzing and examining for any- 'The roof's got no guards, and there's no cameras between that wall and that set of windows.'
Kiyoshi scaled the wall and quickly dropped down into the scarce shadows. Two guards met and laughed about something they saw on a show last night, which sounded like a show with a bunch of people living in some really cold small town. But that wasn't important. His nimble movements brought him right up to the main building between a set of cameras, and he immediately ran up the wall before stopping to hold against it.
'Shit! Almost got seen.' A guard was patrolling that overlook and if Kiyoshi moved another foot- He'd have failed this by getting seen. Once the guard decided to keep moving then Kiyoshi was free to spring up the wall and get into the roof, lo and behold, a perfectly sized ventilation duct. It was nothing to grab and pull the grate away, then slide into the air duct.
It was a pretty clean slide down but Kiyoshi stopped himself before he could fall right out of the grate he was over, a guard walked right below him and looked around for a moment. At least he kept it moving. 'Okay, once I get out of here then it'll be down towards the left.' He pressed a foot against the steel and kicked it clean off, then a puff of smoke appeared and revealed his panda summon right on the floor.
"Kiyoshi? Did you summon me… just to catch a hunk of metal…?"
"I did." He dropped down and immediately hugged the wall. "You can go now." Kiyoshi peeked around the corner and-
*Clang*
"Tsutomu!" Kiyoshi had to scramble and make sure nobody was around the corner to hear that loud ass noise, a steel vent grate hitting the floor wouldn't be so unnoticed. "You. Can. Go!"
The panda summon was pressed against the wall and holding a claw up to his mouth in a hushing gesture. "Quiet, this looks like a big prison… What did your cousin say we had to do?"
The Uchiha slipped around the corner with his sharingan spinning and absorbing every detail. He saw a camera turning their way and quickly moved under it… Tsutomu was right beside him. "We?! Tsutomu, I'm here to break someone out without getting caught, and having a three hundred kilo panda behind me-"
"Hey! I went down to… about two seventy-five. And I'm your summon so we can work together." He accentuated that point by picking the vent grate up and- Oh god no. "Hyah!"
"Tsutomu no!"
Down the hall, a guard walking in front of an office hit the ground hard… And that man was probably not getting up ever again. Kiyoshi wanted to just sit down and think about how suddenly his summon decided to do that, but they had to hurry and check the office for any records.
"In here, go go!"
The duo slid into the office and started rummaging through everything. Tsutomu kicked a chair away to start ruffling through a folder. "Is this him?" The panda pulled out a dossier with a- Okay that was interesting but no it wasn't their target.
"That's not our guy… that's also a woman. She's also not the same skin color. Tsutomu, I didn't tell you what this- the Maruyama guy looks like, did I?"
The panda looked like he was pondering for a moment before crossing his arms- legs? "No… I don't think you did, what does he look-"
Kiyoshi pulled out a folder with a picture attached. Dark skin, light blue eyes, a tattoo under his left eye, and an overall vibe of a cool guy. "This is him, Maruyama, he's in block five and in cell one-thirteen." Tsutomu examined the documents and saw the layout of where their target was.
"That's the fifth floor isn't it? It makes sense to me, let's go!"
It didn't take long to hurry up a series of stairs while avoiding any guards on their path… or watching as either the young Uchiha or the panda summon used their skills to take down whatever guard was unlucky to nearly catch them. Kiyoshi was careful and precise in what he did, but Tsutomu… had the grace of a sledgehammer.
"Tsutomu! The cell is right here." The panda went too far ahead and had the eyes of three inmates directly on him. Apparently his navigation indoors was weak. "Maruyama?"
One of the inmates in the cell hopped off his bunk and walked up to the bars, where he stood a head and a half over Kiyoshi. "Yeah, that's me. Who are you?"
Tsutomu grabbed the bars and tore them right open, bending and ripping the steel so that he could enter the cell alongside a sighing Kiyoshi. "We're breaking you out!"
The other inmates, a man taller than Maruyama with an eyepatch over his right eye, and a woman about the same height as Maruyama with strange tattoos on her cheeks, stood up in shock and focused on the panda that just approached them and wrapped an arm around them so casually.
Maruyama opened the stomach of his blue jumpsuit and showed a strange seal on his abdomen, one that Kiyoshi eyed with a discerning look. "These blood seals locked our chakra, if you can break it then we can get out of here easier."
"I know how to break blood seals… My uncle taught me." That came from the panda summon, and he bit one of his digits to put his own blood on the seal. "Break!" The seal burned a bright green color and quickly faded away, then Maruyama took a deep breath in with a grin.
"Oh hell yeah! Hanzo, Tomoe! Let the bear help you too! I feel so much better!"
Tsutomu quickly broke their seals too and they got to experience the satisfaction of having access to their chakra again. Kiyoshi pulled out a sealing tag and slapped it on the wall below the barred window, and with a quick pulse of his chakra-
"Woah!"
"The hell?"
"?!"
The space of the wall was gone entirely, and so was the sealing tag. Kiyoshi's ability to use those special seals that his father made was only limited by how many he was allowed to bring… which was three at most. "Ohh… I see the plan, you're pretty smart, Kiyoshi. We haven't been caught so if we get Maru out this way, you still pass!"
The Uchiha nodded with a small smile on his face. "Tsutomu, give me and Maruyama a-"
"Ah ah! My group too. Tomoe's my girl so she has to go, and Hanzo's my friend. The both of them go with me."
Hanzo folded his arms with a tough expression. "I've got a sword to get and a score to settle. We're going too." Tomoe nodded without a word and that agreement only put some stress on Kiyoshi. His test was to get Maruyama out without getting caught, but getting an extra two people would probably-
"Hold on tight!"
'Wait what?' Tsutomu didn't wait for a decision, he grabbed everyone and leapt out the hole with enough power to crack the floor. The group of five sailed over the walls for the prison, and the panda balled up when they reached the expansive dunes. 'For some reason… this feels like mister Inokua's fault.'
Kiyoshi rolled free once his summon slammed against a dune of sand, the others all splayed out and landed in their own painful ways too. A large puff of smoke showed that the impact was enough to make Tsutomu reverse summon himself back to the bamboo forest, how lovely that he could do all of that but decided to leave Kiyoshi behind now.
'At least he waited until after he got us out.'
Kiyoshi sprung up and turned to see the trio of criminals cleaning themselves off, and the Hanzo guy was focused on him with that singular eye of his. For some reason, Kiyoshi could tell that there wasn't any good in whatever this guy would have to say.
"So- So uh, who are you? You dropped in but you didn't tell us anything about yourself, but to find our cell you had to look at our files. Who are you?"
Kiyoshi remembered one of the lessons he'd been taught over the near year that he'd been getting trained… and he decided to let his sharingan burn bright again. The crimson eyes immediately caught attention and each of the jailbirds went into a defensive position.
Maruyama looked the most irritated by that revealing moment. "An Uchiha? God fucking damn it!"
"You don't like the Uchiha? There's only a handful of us right now, why hate us?"
Hanzo lunged and dropped a heel where Kiyoshi was standing, and the sand thrown into the air only threw the group off for a moment before they noticed Kiyoshi again.
"We hate you because you're one of the shits that-" Hanzo didn't get to finish his sentence. Someone cut him off.
"I'm impressed, you only had to break Maruyama out. And you got the entire group… Or what I left of it."
Tomoe's eyes were fully widened, her face never showed excessive emotions but right now was an exception.
Hanzo stopped in place. The empty space underneath his eyepatch burned and the reason was right in front of him again.
Maruyama… his eyes turned a blazing blue and his body looked tense, like a spring ready to release.
"I didn't get caught, but I couldn't only bring back Maruyama. His cell mates insisted. Is this my second test? I think I can-"
Kiyoshi felt a hand on his shoulder and saw his cousin shake his head. "Your training was only to get Maruyama in and out without being caught, and you passed. So let me deal with these guys real quick, make sure you're watching. It'll take three seconds so don't miss anything."
Zeko took a step past Kiyoshi, a single step and then everything went downhill.
Hanzo Hisashi. Originally from the Hidden Mist Village, a man who was an expert swordsman and managed to work his way into earning the Executioner's Blade. His fire and lightning style jutsu were great in their own rights and they helped him achieve a high amount of success, even getting him a position in a kill squad put together to take down a certain ninja… the Ninja that just wound up right in front of him. With a hand on his chest.
'I didn't even see him move.'
A smirk on his face and a glint in his eyes, Zeko's overcoat fluttered lightly in the wind and his gunbai was firmly on his back. "One."
Kiyoshi saw it with his sharingan, Zeko's chakra shifted and rushed towards his hand… then it flared outwards and encompassed Hanzo's body. Then his chakra immediately shifted to a very strong fire release and seared the one eyed man so badly that he couldn't even get a scream out.
"Reiz-" Tomoe's first word that she didn't even finish. Kiyoshi saw her hands go up for what looked like a gale style attack… then Zeko was behind her, the same thing happened. Chakra shifting and rushing to his hand, then it flared out and immediately switched to water style. Tomoe's head swelled for an instant… Then it exploded in a burst of red.
"Two."
Blurs and motions that Kiyoshi struggled to perceive, even with his precognition of the sharingan. Maruyama's swift release allowed him to move at speeds that most people couldn't even imagine. That wasn't all, he had synthesized eyes that allowed him to perceive things at a heightened level, while it wasn't the sharingan, it was still better than normal vision. With his eyes and movement speed, he was able to speed blitz almost anyone he'd gone against.
Another burst of chakra and a quick release into an elemental nature. Maruyama was cut short during one of his bursts in speed. He was fast but he wasn't instant, and Kiyoshi figured out that against someone who kept up with instant movement… being just 'fast' wouldn't cut it. And speaking of cut it-
"Fu-"
Maruyama's body went from being a complete human… to being diced apart. Sliced and torn into pieces by a sudden influx of wind chakra, reducing him into a pile of gore in neatly severed cubes.
"Three."
Three seconds and these guys were done. "Damn. I'm still learning but- but damn. You're crazy but if I can turn out like this then it's almost worth it."
Zeko's dark eyes drifted to the side in an aloof manner. "I think you could've taken these guys, it just would've been a lot of work and taken a while. But like I said, you just had to be sneaky so… They were my problem again, but last time I dealt with them they had five members.
"A squad, you're out of your mind." Kiyoshi examined the decimated bodies with only a light sense of disgust for the odors of burning hair, offal, and overall death, it wasn't ever something one could ignore. "Five people with each one strong enough to take over a city… You think I could've beat three of them?"
Zeko nodded in response, a quick look at the corpses and then one spared towards his cousin. "They were a little stronger now but probably sloppy, but you're not sloppy and you're strong too. You could've done it. Let's go back for something to eat."
He put a hand on his younger cousin and once again, Kiyoshi experienced the world shifting to monochrome. 'Three Jonin level people and he thinks I could do it… maybe his training is paying off.'
It sucked to be right.
Even more months of grueling work, intense training, and an overall shitty time for Kiyoshi to deal with. Now he was walking alongside his father towards the training ground where he'd learned more in just under two years than all his time in the academy. Kiyoshi was taller, smarter, better.
"You're ready for this? There's no doubt in my mind that you're about to walk into a fight with him."
The concerns of his father definitely went through to him, but it was countered by having to wear a similar Uchiha outfit… even though the man knew good and well that neither of his sons liked wearing those.
"I'm as ready as I can be. Plus we're already here."
The training ground of suffering- Hard training that made Kiyoshi feel like he'd been turned into a tougher ninja. But now the field was empty… Kiyoshi walked straight into the middle of the open field and looked around, and yet there wasn't any sign of a- 'What?!' His instincts flared up and Kiyoshi dodged backwards, evading a flurry of snakes that pounded into the ground. "Zeko!"
"Nope!"
A young man in a sleeveless flak jacket, from the Hidden Sand funnily enough, was poised on a tree branch and a set of snakes were coming from his blue long sleeves. There was also the bearded dragon perched on his shoulder that added more detail.
Kiyoshi was going to ask questions but then he watched the man on the branch spring towards him, a sharp grin on his face and his dark gray hair moving in the wind. "I'm Goji, and I'm your last test!"
He landed on his hands and immediately moved like a spinning top, his legs twirling and nearly kicking the Uchiha in the face. His sharingan flaring into existence and analyzing every movement he saw.
"Last test?" Kiyoshi dropped to avoid another kick and responded by sweeping one of Goji's arms in his handstand, but Goji moved himself in a manner not befitting a human. "You mean I have to beat you?"
Kiyoshi stepped back to avoid another cluster of snakes, and then he jumped upwards to dodge a cloud of poison. "Nah, you can't just 'beat me' to pass." Goji laughed and with the formation of the tiger seal, his bearded dragon inhaled and its beard turned black. "You've gotta kill me!"
The bearded dragon spewed a fireball and Goji blew a stream of water from his mouth. The opposing natures collided and created a gout of steam that barreled straight for Kiyoshi! The young Uchiha slammed his hands onto the ground and with a massive puff of smoke came his black and white salvation.
"WOAH THAT BURNS!"
Tsutomu shielded his summoner from a blast of steam and quickly got the message into his head. "Fucking pandas…" Goji's arms elongated and rushed ahead, coiling around Tsutomu and lifting him into the air. "I hate pandas!"
"Wha? But we're all so cute… And you're feeling my fur, it's softer than silk because of how I moisturize." As much as Tsutomu seemed so relaxed while he was wrapped up, he was just biding time. Goji had to admit that the stupid bear did have some soft fur… but he liked scaly companions!
"Don't care." He turned and slammed the slow panda into the earth and looked for Kiyoshi to see- 'Oh shit a fireball.' One of the hottest fireballs he'd ever seen was coming straight towards him, and he quickly threw his bearded dragon away from the oncoming ball of flaming death. His arms crossed to take the brunt of flames and he immediately regretted that choice, at least once his upper body was horrifically burned by that painful heat!
Kiyoshi landed on the ground again with a kunai in his left hand, but he just met this guy that his cousin apparently picked… So actually killing him was a little off putting. "Good fight, I hope you have a way to… come back." He raised his kunai and-
"I do!"
The sharingan was something Kiyoshi learned to appreciate more and more. Its amazing precognition and ability to analyze minor details allowed users of it to excel on the battlefield, but a great asset that went under appreciated was the ability to assess and avoid danger once it was noticed. Kiyoshi used that ability to dodge Goji… coming from his own mouth with wriggling black marks all across his body, like snake tattoos on his skin.
'That fire was hot enough to melt rock, I know it.' He blocked a pair of fangs with his kunai and peered into Goji's fierce yellow eyes with a strong determination. 'Genjutsu: Sharingan!'
Everything went into slow motion for Goji, and he experienced three things that scared him. The first was that Kiyoshi turned into a blazing fireball… And then he knew he was under an illusion that he had to break as quickly as he could.
'Release!' He raised his left hand and- Wait, that wasn't right! 'It's the other hand!' He kept trying to use his right hand for the release seal… Only to raise his left and do nothing! He decided to dodge to the right so he could- 'MOTHERFUCKER!' He wanted to go right! The kid fucked with his motor skills but he could still just reflect what he wanted to do, so he willed his left hand to raise… and his right one went up. 'Release.'
The second thing that Goji experienced was the realization of the oncoming fireball that was still closing in on him. He was in the first stage so this wasn't anything now, but damn! Kiyoshi was doing better than he was ready for! But Goji's use of poison was more than just spewing out toxins…
Kiyoshi watched Goji use four hand seals, then saw his chakra move in a similar way. 'Wait.' He knew what jutsu that should have been, so he immediately prepared his entire body once he felt something was off. He was right to move. A flood of purple liquid doused his fireball and then came towards him in a rush, but he turned into a blur and bounced off a tree. Goji's eyes couldn't trace that movement but he felt it the second a kunai slammed into his shoulder.
"FUCK!"
'A good hit!' The Uchiha was proud of his progress and it showed with the efficacy of that attack, he bored Goji's shoulder and kicked off him in the nick of time.
Goji turned around with snakes coming from his arms, hissing and dripping venom from their fangs. "Good shot, but fuck you!" Each of the snakes fired off towards Kiyoshi with a single goal: Put venom into his blood.
"Tsutomu, you're up."
Goji had a very articulate response… "Huh?" And then he felt his mind catch up to his body being ragdolled, something slammed into him and threw him like garbage. A trail in the earth and he lifted his body to see- That fucking panda! The panda was bigger, buffer, and he looked pissed!
Tsutomu went berserk and powered himself up, he didn't look like his usual cute and cuddly self. Right now he was enraged! 'I can only go primal for a short period of time but there's no way Kiyoshi and me can't beat this guy right now!' A roar befitting a beast and he rushed towards Goji, stomping his paws down trying to crush the snakelike man.
'Holy shit! This is why I hate pandas!' He could only roll and roll to keep away from those ground cracking stomps, but the hit from before had him unready to stand up to fight… He was stuck rolling and keeping away. 'If I get hit by this panda bitch right now- I'd probably die!'
Tsutomu stomped one more time, hard enough to put Goji in the air, and then he reeled one of his giant paw-hands back for a devastating hit. 'Even if this doesn't get him, then Kiyoshi can-!'
"Oh I'm not concussed anymore."
Goji's upper body extended and warped in a serpentine fashion, twisting and thrusting right until he slammed into the- 'Oh shit.' It was like he slammed into a rock… A giant rock weathered by winds, the sea, time, everything. And the shock from the impact left him open to being grabbed and choke slammed back into the ground, but it wasn't done yet, the panda grabbed his leg and slammed him down again!
"FUCK!" Goji was not enjoying himself. 'He's a summon, one good attack and he'll go back… but he's tough as shit!'
Tsutomu didn't stop his barrage of slams. He grabbed Goji again and again, slamming him into the ground with prejudice and extreme power behind each of the brutal attacks!
"SHIT!" These were really hurting more and more and Goji would be done before he really got to taste what Kiyoshi could do. He had to find the perfect opening and capitalize on it.
"HAAAAH!"
Tsutomu grabbed Goji's face and took the both of them on a pain train through several trees, namely using Goji as a shield to take the brunt of the trees against his body. No matter what he tried, Goji couldn't break out of the super panda's grip. The only reprieve he found was when his bearded dragon, named after himself, slammed into Tsutomu after using an enlargement style jutsu.
Goji the beardie made headway into knocking Tsutomu back, but it was progress that only pushed him back a few feet. And the panda responded with a grab and leap into the air, holding both the Goji duo and crashing back to the earth! He lifted the both of them and tossed the bearded dragon away as it shrank back to a normal size, now his enmity was fully focused on the snake user.
"Hm!"
The raging panda slammed the snake summoner down one last time, Goji sank into the earth and was only visible from an arm sticking out of the ground… and then it disappeared too once Tsutomu stomped right onto his body with a satisfying crunch. 'I'm pushing the limit here but I think if we use the gigantic crash…' Tsutomu inhaled and exhaled, his fur sparked and crackled with power and lightning danced over his black and white fur. He opened his muzzle of razor sharp teeth and a ball of lightning appeared in his mouth.
His summon wasn't facing him, but Kiyoshi knew very well that this was their combination attack guaranteed to-
A flash of purple and deep orange. Goji blew out of his crater with gay scales covering his body. 'Wait what scales?' And his hair turned pitch black, but the real problem was the spew of pressurized poison he just used to slice Tsutomu, the training ground, and some low hanging clouds all in half. 'Byōki!'(Ill sever). Though the panda didn't actually get bisected, the damage was high enough to make him turn back into his cuddly self.
"Sorry Kiyoshi… I'm- I'm done here…"
A puff of smoke and Goji's neck just about broke to turn and see Kiyoshi falling towards him. Heavier scales decorated his face, his sclera turned black, and his entire body was covered in those gray colored scales that made him resemble a snake man. His bearded dragon latched onto his back again with a renewed vitality,
"Now we can get this shit going!"
Kiyoshi blurred again and reappeared behind the Goji duo, but he flung his kunai at the cursed man with a lethal intent. "Okay, let's get it on." He stepped out of his comfort zone and decided to go hand to hand, matching Goji's unnatural movements and strikes. The two were going blow for blow with neither pulling ahead of the other, but their clash stopped once the bearded dragon inhaled again.
Kiyoshi immediately responded with a basic flame bomb of his own, which matched Goji's and blew both adversaries away from each other. "Damn! You got firepower!" Goji put his hands in the tiger seal and blew another gout of water, and his companion sent a burst of flame. A redux of their move that created scorching steam and it went straight for Kiyoshi!
The boy started back flipping until he hit the tree line, using the forest as cover against the scalding steam that stripped bark off the flora. 'Shit he's making it hot.' Kiyoshi peered through the steam and saw Goji wipe his- 'Wait, he wiped his forehead? That means he's feeling the heat. Heat…' He looked to the clear sky and a plan came to mind in that heavy steam… and he was going to use his cousin's training. 'Katon!'(Fire Style).
Goji felt the change in the air pressure and squinted to see the- "AH SHIT!" A flurry of twelve massive fireballs, all shaped like dragon heads with painful heat to match!
'Ryūen Hōka no Jutsu!'(Dragon Flame Caterwaul). Kiyoshi was right behind the onslaught of flames and watched Goji dodge and duck to avoid being scorched from those flames. The ground started burning, grass immediately turned to ash, and everything started to get hotter and hotter. The young Uchiha landed and rushed Goji, leading with a punch to his stomach.
It wasn't the worst hit he ever took, "Oof-!" But he still felt it. Goji responded with a powerful kick that made Kiyoshi falter, and then a knee crashed into the boy's forehead, but Goji's barrage stopped before he could get another foot strike in. His target turned into a blur again, but he rebounded off a tree and flew through hand seals. "Wait a second. Uh oh."
'Fire Style.' Kiyoshi's hands landed on the horse seal and he took a deep breath in to prepare himself for this one, and Goji responded with his own jutsu that would hopefully give him a chance!
Goji opened his mouth and sent a rushing wave, as strong as a waterfall, directly at Kiyoshi. 'Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu.'(Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu). Would it match up?
'Majestic Destroyer Flame!'
Goji sent a waterfall… But Kiyoshi exhaled a fucking sea of fire. The flames clashed with the blast of water and swallowed it up, even with Goji pushing more and more of his chakra into his jutsu. Steam rose into the air all the way until Kiyoshi stopped his attack, leading Goji to stop his own. There was no doubt about it.
'Kid's a beast with his chakra!' A motion on his shoulder made Goji look at his reptile companion, once he saw the little guy bobbing his head up and down he got the message. "You're right, I think he's gonna exhaust himself."
"So you've been watching midget porn?"
"HUH?!"
A slash appeared on Goji's face, Kiyoshi was doing another flicker attack! But he didn't stop there. Goji's reflexes weren't quick enough to manage against the barrage of attacks he was taking. Kiyoshi was bounding off the burned trees, the ground, even some chunks of rock from his flames that slammed into the ground earlier. Everything was a launchpad that helped him use the body flicker to strike Goji from any angle he could.
'Kid threw me off with that!' More slashes on his torso, arms, and even another to the back of his leg. Goji managed to finally figure out the pattern. 'Now!' The snake user predicted the last hit and caught Kiyoshi's wrist with a grin, and planted his knee straight into the boy's stomach. "Fuck, kid you're pretty damn fast! But you're not all that strong in the muscles, at least nothing crazy. So that means I got you!"
The dark clouds overhead only added to Goji's threat, and when he punched Kiyoshi in the face it proved his point. He knew there was no way this kid could've been both a beast with jutsu AND a beast up close… he wasn't half bad though, especially since he countered the next hit that went for him and kicked Goji's thigh hard enough to rip muscles. 'Shit!'
The other hand Kiyoshi had extended right in front of Goji's face, and he knew something bad was about to happen. "One." A rush of his chakra, it channeled to his hand and left in a burst. Quickly, he turned his chakra into fire nature and gave his opponent a rough time. Igniting his head in a burst of fire and making him let go.
Kiyoshi jumped back a bit once Goji, the bearded dragon, lunged at him and took a wide bite towards him. Avoiding the bite and giving a roundhouse kick to knock the reptile away, Kiyoshi backflipped away once he saw steam covering Goji's head. He was done messing around.
His stance changed and another blast of high pressure poison was ready to come from his mouth, and then he saw his examinee sliding on the ground towards him. 'He got low to make it harder for me to hit him? Smart but not enough!' Goji blew another ill sever and watched it just cut some of the boy's hair away, but not hit him directly. Only to see the world shift once he got knocked off his feet.
'Four.'
Kiyoshi clipped his ankles and whirled to kick him away, but Goji didn't stop his ill sever and he was going to launch another! 'Well it's been fun, but it looks like- like- I… I can't move?!' Even though he was still traveling through the air, Goji couldn't actually move any of his body. Only his eyes could see the space under him, the messed up ground, his thick shadow, some of his pois- 'Wait, my shadow?' He saw that his shadow was thicker and a trail went from it to- 'He's part Nara!'
Kiyoshi was there with his hands in the rat seal. His shadow around him was bordered by some wisps of darkness and a solid line of shadow connected him and Goji.
'Six.'
"You have to practice hard to make your own jutsu, especially if it's based off a clan jutsu. As a Nara, shadow possession uses yin chakra and relies on your creativity. If you can improve on something enough to make it your own… then you're only taking another step towards being a lot better than you were. Don't just be a genius, be a creative person, maybe even an artist."
This was Kiyoshi's jutsu, one he spent painstaking time to develop and cultivate during the last year. Something that worked well with his arsenal and allowed him to exercise his own abilities in tandem with the Nara clan's knowledge. Goji saw the shadow beneath him bend and curl like a rat's tail, only to be struck by realization when it bent and sent him flying back towards Kiyoshi like a whip!
'Nine.'
'This keeps me paralyzed even with me moving through the air, so long as he isn't moving I'd guess! But the shadow possession jutsu take more chakra the more a target moves or tries to, unless it was darker an- The clouds!'
The rolling dark gray clouds that came in during their scuffles of Fire and Water. When Goji thought that the kid was going to exhaust himself with all those large scale fire jutsu… 'He wasn't exhausting himself, he changed the weather with all that hot air and steam! The clouds were there to help him use this move and make sure he could get me!'
Goji came flying back and Kiyoshi drew a kunai to end the fight, and he had to give it his all even in the end. "Kagehandō no Jutsu." (Shadow Rebound Jutsu). Wind passed his face and blew his hair… as he stabbed the kunai straight into Goji's heart, and followed through with slamming him onto the ground! 'Eleven… Eleven seconds.'
The man died on the spot and Kiyoshi's hands- Well they were trembling a bit from two things. The first being the surprise at his jutsu turning out so well on his first active threat, possibly, against his life. And the second was the fact that he just killed a man… which wasn't new since he'd been training with his cousin, but it wasn't something he'd gotten used to despite having done it some odd times already.
"Kiyoshi! That was pretty good!" Speak of the devil and he shall arrive. His cousin was beside Goji with his arms folded in approval, his father was also present with a warm smile on his face. "You really did your best and it was impressive. Goji's not a weak person." The black lipstick mark on his cheek… and neck, didn't go unnoticed.
Obito immediately brought his son into a semi-embarrassing hug and laughed. "That destroyer flame was really something, I'm proud of you. For everything, I always am. But this was something really special."
"I'm… Just still in the zone, who was that Goji guy anyway?"
Zeko looked at the aforementioned corpse and waved it off. "He's a friend of mine. I'll take him back home, he'll be fine in a week."
Kiyoshi deadpanned at that. "He's- Cousin I know you aren't the most stable in the head but your friend is dead."
"I know, he'll come back. This isn't his first time dying. Your test was just to kill him, he's an unrelenting enemy and you had to use everything I've taught you to make sure he'd go down. You did exactly that and I'm sure of it, you're way stronger than the wimpy kid I threw in the pit." Zeko took off his dark green overcoat, which was over a black variant of his desert outfit, and used it to wrap up Goji… and it held the bearded dragon that scuttled onto it. "You're a tough guy, be proud of it. As a Nara and an Uchiha, you're strong."
His cousin was crazy. His cousin was strong. His cousin was interesting in his pranks. And most importantly, his cousin was intense in his training regiment to build him up this far… But hearing those words made something in Kiyoshi… feel like it all meant something more.
He couldn't help but smile at that. "Thanks. I'm glad you helped me, cousin."
"No problem." Zeko vanished without any trace, the Goji duo going with him.
Obito looked at his son and saw that he'd really grown up a lot in this last two years. He was taller, had the look of a man, even wore that Uchiha cloak better than he did. "Good job, I knew you'd pass that test."
"You knew what it was? Why didn't you tell me?! I was really nervous when Goji popped up at first!"
"I didn't know! I thought Zeko was going to test you himself, if he didn't stop me then I'd have been in the fight with you."
A good old father-son misunderstanding. Neither of them knew but they both dealt with it. But one question started going into Kiyoshi's mind, actually two questions since he was worried about Tsutomu getting hit by that poison. Hopefully he'd be fine after that. But the more invasive question he had in mind was plaguing him deeply.
'Will I find Naoko?'
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, have this to tide you over. Next time will be Demon Slayer. Till next time!