Chapter 3

[Kazuhiro Kiyoshi]

With a simple body flicker backward, Kazuhiro dodged Yota's fireball jutsu. The fire's devastating power consumed his previous stop in an instant as his body was assaulted with an uncomfortable amount of heat. He didn't allow himself to remain still, however, knowing that it was just a distraction.

With another body flicker, he moved away from his new position instantly as his guess proved to be true. Yota landed just a few fractions of a second too late, breaking through the fire of his own technique that he had used as a smokescreen to approach him.

His fellow genin clicked his tongue from behind his mask and continued his chase. Kazuhiro couldn't allow the man to close distance. As admittedly annoying as it was, he had to recognize that Yota was his better when it came to close-quarter combat. The bruises that had accumulated across his chest after their brief clash were enough of a reminder for him to know it was not wise to stay close.

Instead, he opted for a more measured approach. Hit and run tactics sounded like the better option, allowing for the fire user to tire himself. The man's style was so aggressive for a reason. He just couldn't keep fighting for long. Even with that modified mask of his, he could only maintain himself in combat for a limited amount of time.

Kazuhiro waited patiently and bid for time until Yota tired himself out. That was the general idea of the plan at least. Regretfully, no plan survives contact with the enemy. While he would like to say that Yota was a non-issue to him as long as he maintained the edge on speed and maneuverability, that was far from the truth.

Kazuhiro narrowed his eyes as he saw Yota weave rapidly through hand signs. The golden haired teenager's hand went through his pouch and retrieved a simple kunai with a paper bomb as he prepared his timing to be just right. His aim was perfected over years of grueling training and dedication.

Just as he finished his preparations. The masked teenager finished his hand signs and pulled his arms back. Then he repeatedly flung the limbs forwards, each motion throwing a smaller fireball from the one before. There were a lot more, however. All of them deviated, slung in erratic patterns as Yota focused on covering the area around Kazuhiro, instead of hitting him outright.

'He is trapping me,' he thought inside his head as he watched the dark-haired boy rush in his direction in a straight line. A kunai in front of him in case Kazuhiro tried to retaliate. This way he had very little room for dodging. If he avoided what he assumed was a modified Phoenix Flower jutsu, then he would be too late to avoid his fellow genin himself. If he focused on avoiding the man, he would be hit by at least one of the projectiles. Either way, he would accumulate damage.

With a flick of his hand, he threw his kunai as fast as he could. His aim struck true against his target… on Karin, who even now waited on the sidelines for an opportunity to get into the fight. With a squeak, the girl deflected de kunai from her. The angle at which she did was calculated by him to bounce back towards Yota's back.

The masked teenager clicked his tongue as he was forced to dodge out of the way if he didn't want to be caught in the explosion. Which in turn, gave Kazuhiro himself time to get out of the trap set for him. All it did was to set them back to square one, but given the grimace in Yota's face, he knew the same plan wouldn't work again.

"S-Sorry!" Karin squeaked from the side, but both her current spar partner and Kazuhiro simply stared at one another ready to continue their fight. Just like he wouldn't fall for the same trick, Yota wouldn't allow him to take advantage of his teammate as easily now.

It was how most of their two versus one training spars had gone so far in the past three days. One of them would try to keep the girl safe, while the other would do everything in their power to abuse that setback and win the spar. A ninja took advantage of any and all opportunities presented to them after all. Naturally, this included your enemy having an ally dragging them down.

Karin herself didn't seem too appreciative of the treatment, but she should have trained before to not fall so far behind their peers if she didn't want to be a burden. At least the girl seemed to be doing her best to progress, which was at least a good mark in Kazuhiro's book.

Both Yota and him continued staring at each other measuring and weighing their next move.

Eventually, the black-haired boy was the one to break the standoff, but it wasn't with an attack.

Instead, he just brought his hand up and tapped the side of his mask, telling Kazuhiro that he was out of medicine and ending the spar. Kazuhiro didn't like not going all the way to the end, but such was the way they'd decided to do things. For one, it stopped the spar before his teammate could do serious damage to himself over exerting his weak body and especially his lungs. For another, it accounted for the limited supply of medicine cartridges the masked boy would have in a real fight scenario.

"Parry practice," Yota said, as he turned towards the redhead, his voice distorted by the filters in his mask while he took heavy, ragged breaths to stabilize himself. "Definitely," he added, all but growling.

"I'm sorry!"

[}-o-{]

Kazuhiro let out a content hum as he felt the warm touch of water touch his scalp from above. His hands were already massaging his wet hair with cleaning products to get rid of the disgusting grime and sweat that had accumulated from the spar. He might have gotten used to the disgusting feeling of dirt after combat or even missions, but that didn't mean that he had to like it.

What kind of message would a leader send to their subjects if they didn't put in the effort to take care of their image at all times? While he reluctantly accepted that personal care up to his standards was not possible in the middle of combat or out in the field, he wouldn't allow himself or his teammates to look anything less than their best. Especially when the possibility of cleaning oneself was always available inside his compound.

As such, he had demanded for both of them to get rid of their dirty clothes and provided them generously with clothes. His teammates' used-up ones were, meanwhile, taken care of by the servants. Admittedly, he felt that he should be giving them something far more luxurious than the plain silk clothes he had given them during the past few days. Alas, such attire required careful preparation that didn't match their time constraints.

In this case, it was better to forgo lavishness, for effectiveness. It was still a shame though. It was, after all, imperative to look your best at all times. A part of him wanted to apologize to them every time he saw them wearing the plain yukata. Their discomfort was a clear sign that they also found the clothes provided to them too low quality for the occasion, but neither had raised their voice about the issue. So, he assumed they also saw things the same way he did.

'Of course, I wouldn't actually apologize. That is below the likes of me… but perhaps I should prepare a gift for them to make due for the faux pass in etiquette? What would be acceptable in that case? Something to consider carefully,' Kazuhiro mused as he applied cleaning products to his long golden hair.

His mind drifted to both of his teammates who would accompany him during these Chunin Exams. It was an odd feeling if he had to admit it to himself. He had never had a team of his own that wasn't part of his own clan after all. Even in those cases, they could be considered more of a retinue than proper teammates given their difference in status.

Grass didn't follow the team formation most of the five villages did, they simply didn't have the number of experienced ninjas to dedicate to so many genins. As such, it was simply better to let those with talents take mentorship with a teacher that can bring the most of their potential. And gather the rest of the genins in large battalions in charge of a few chunin that oversaw their training.

This was the first time he had found himself having to treat people, who by all means were below him in status, as equals. It was an odd experience, he had to admit it. He could understand the appeal some saw in the concept of peers or friends, even if he himself had no need for such things.

His mind drifted to the two ninjas in question.

The black-haired boy, Yota. He was an interesting one to be sure. He had already heard the rumors of the supposed clanless prodigy that tailed behind the Dragon's Tongue mission after mission for the last few years.

His clan information network was vast, after all. A perk of being one of the founding clans of the Grass and the head of it being the current chief of the village, the Grass' equivalent to the Kages for the Great Five Nations. Such positions came with certain privileges he didn't hesitate to take advantage of. Information was a powerful tool after all.

Admittedly, there wasn't much about the boy's past other than his parents being civilians killed at the tail end of the Third War during an assassination attempt. However, over the years he had gained some impressive amount of notoriety through the village after managing to survive so many missions that by any means should have seen him killed.

Eleven C-Ranks, fourteen B-Ranks, two A-Ranks, and… an S-Rank. If nothing else, that track record was beyond impressive. The rumor mill claimed that he had only completed said missions given that his teacher was one of the elite Anbu of the village. This was mostly said by the usual file and rank of clan members threatened and jealous of getting outshined by a clanless kid with no apparent ninja ancestry, however.

Admittedly, Kazuhiro himself had been quite dismissive of the reports before their meeting at the training grounds a few days ago too. Although, he would also admit that he already held a certain amount of curiosity for the boy himself before their meeting because of this. After all, that was a mission record comparable to his.

Kazuhiro knew better now, having accessed the direct reports of the missions taken. Those painted a far different picture than a lucky Genin coasting on the success of his teacher. Some of the bruises on his body proved the power behind the hits of the deceptively sickly dark-haired teen. In a way, it would explain partly the reason for his mission record. But not all of it, after all, no one would be able to complete A-ranks, let alone S-Ranks, with a taijutsu specialty that only required to be avoided for a short while to circumvent.

No, as it turned out, Yota himself wasn't a taijutsu specialist.

Barely holding back a wince, Kazuhiro looked down at his left leg and applied some healing ointment to the mild burn on his lower sheen. It had been just a lick of the whole jutsu after all, C-ranked one at that. A wound born from a mere moment of carelessness and missed timing in his dodging. That had been more than enough to leave a mild burn on his person. That was not something many could claim to be able to do.

He was proficient with fire jutsu himself, after all. He would go as far as to consider himself quite adept in it. So, he could say without doubt that the intensity of the flames was by no means normal for a C-Rank jutsu. It was not only that, but the control and potency were all just beyond what should be possible with the level of chakra poured into it.

It hadn't taken him more than the first spar to realize that when it came to fire jutsu, Yota Hirano could be considered a true monster. Possibly the highest affinity ever recorded in the Grass at the very least. Kazuhiro would know; He made sure to double-check. It had come to the point where he suspected there was some kind of unknown bloodline involved.

'Speaking of bloodline,' Kazuhiro thought to himself as he turned off the running water and proceeded to dry himself with a nearby towel.

His thought went to his second teammate, the Uzumaki. And wasn't that a surprise in itself? It had taken him some time to find her records. If nothing else, because of how classified it was. He guessed in a way it made sense now that the truth had come to light. It wouldn't do for the truth about an Uzumaki existing in Kusa to come out, after all. If the world ever found out, Kazuhiro expected that sooner rather than later, the Leaf would find one of their self-righteous reasons to casually take missions all over Grass. That is until they eventually disappeared with the wind at the same time a certain redhead would be reported missing. It wasn't any secret how desperate the tree huggers were to reclaim any and all descendants of their old allies.

Kazuhiro had never heard of such a thing as healing by biting as part of the Uzumaki bloodline, though. It made him wonder if she also was some kind of mutation from the regular Uzumaki. It at least made hiding her ancestry far easier for his village though. A redhead that could heal through bites, would raise far less eyebrows than a redhead that can sprout golden chains from their back, after all.

It did explain the girl's suspicious amount of stamina. For as awful as she was at fighting – being more of a menace to her own teammates than to the enemy as the spars had consistently proved – he had to hand it to her that she had the most stamina out of them. Even when she rushed all over the field trying to catch up with Yota's and his spars, she tended to be by far the least winded out of all of them.

Kazuhiro had to admit that he wasn't fond of her at the moment. The girl was too far into her self-pity to even consider improving herself. She lowered her head at the slightest idea of a challenge and closed herself in her shell of low self-esteem, refusing to actually start working to achieve her goals.

She was, by any measure, the kind of person Kazuhiro hated the most. The ones that just gave up when things got hard and claimed that there was nothing they could do. Those who never pushed against their limits to become a better version of what they were.

Kazuhiro had sweated and bled every single day of his life to get to where he was now. Even when he hated the feeling of his muscles protesting, or his hair being matted with sweat, or when his mind demanded nothing of him but to collapse and rest, he persevered. He had pushed forward until he either succeeded or broke. Either option was far better than the bitter taste of giving up.

As someone born to lead the village, it was his duty to be as close to perfect as he could ever be. He had to strive for success in any and all situations. Because if he ever were to fail, then the consequences would not only fall on his shoulders, but those that stood below him. A leader who couldn't carry the weight of responsibility on his shoulders alone was no leader at all.

That is why he couldn't stand Karin. It wasn't because she was weak or talented when it came to the ninja arts. Those were things that could be fixed with time and a proper training schedule after all.

No, Kazuhiro disliked her because she took her weakness and lack of talent as excuses to not better herself and raise to her given station. It was a blanket that she could use to hide from the world and wallow in her negative emotions as the world passed her by without having to try. After all, why would she try if she knew she was weak? Why would she put in the effort if she wasn't talented enough to get anywhere? It pissed him off so much that Kazuhiro felt he was going to explode.

Did she think the world would just take pity on her? Did she think that it would just let her be because she suffered? The world wasn't so nice. If you couldn't fight then you died. It was as simple as that. Was all this a joke to her? Was the effort and blood ninjas put to push past their limits and protect their land mean nothing to her as she wasted herself away?!

Kazuhiro took a deep breath in and centered himself. The feeling of the silk material from his clothes against his skin helped him calm down. It wouldn't do for him to lose control here.

Besides…

"Fascinating…." His golden eyes moved from his healed arms to the girl in front of him. A useful ability to have, but not enough if he was being honest with himself. Even the strongest bloodline in the world was worth just as much as its wielder. He would know.

Yet, the girl in front of him left much to be desired with her meek posture. As much as the Singing Blade's attitude infuriated him, together with her lack of decorum for a noble of her station. At least she carried herself like a true warrior. The girl in front of him, however, looked like she would collapse into a panic attack at any second, that was not the kind of attitude a shinobi should have.

The thought lasted for a moment as a myriad of expressions crossed the girl's face. It went from disgust to cold anger. Blood-red eyes stared into his own golden ones directly for the first time since their first meeting had started. A certain fire of defiance in them made him smile slightly.

"Perhaps, you will be of worth on the team, then," he said to her.

Just before he opened the door, Kazuhiro directed his attention at the clock hanging at the side of the wall. He still had exactly three minutes before the start of the meeting. His two clan Jonin guards bowed to him with an "Heir Kazuhiro" intoned in a low respectful tone. The door closed softly behind him and he made his way toward the room his teammates were surely waiting for him, both guards trailing behind him with not a word exchanged.

His mind moved towards their team gathering from a few afternoons ago.

"NO!" the red-haired girl shrieked. Interrupting his critics of her showing. Such was the shock that it even managed to take him out of the red haze of his anger to truly look at the girl in front of him.

Tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Her teeth bared in anger, the red of her eyes shining with promised violence. For that one moment, the girl truly looked like she was about to attack him. He had to hastily give the order to his hidden guards to not behead the girl.

Just as fast as it came, the fire in her seemed to die out as her gaze casted down.

"I'm not- I'm not like that," she muttered with such bitterness. Kazuhiro felt that those words were not only directed at him. And for that moment alone, Kazuhiro believed her.

"I see…" he said simply. Because his suspicions were now confirmed and, for the second time that day, he could see a spark of will in what he thought was a hopeless case.

The talk had taken a more morose and introspective turn for him after that. He still didn't approve of the girl. She was a menace to not only herself but her teammates. It was better for someone to feel sad over some harsh words, than seeing their cooling corpse out there in unknown grounds far from home.

The world wouldn't take pity on someone just because their feelings were hurt, after all. The reality of their task as ninja was nowhere as nice as that. The girl was one of those cases that would suffer a cruel death. If she couldn't deal with the responsibility and perils her title as ninja conveyed, then it was simply better to just strip it away.

Still, the fire in his mind went back to the defiance in her expression. Perhaps it was nothing more than a fluke, a moment of high emotions. Perhaps the girl would go back to being nothing but a burden. By all means, he should send her back to wherever she came from.

But…

"...I expect you to prove me wrong," he muttered the same words as that night. It might be foolish of him, a whim born out of passing interest. However, a part of him could not help but hope she would do exactly that.

[}-o-{]

"My servants have acquired what you have asked for," Kazuhiro said, passing Yota a storage seal with the materials the other boy had asked for. Most of them were for crafting medicines, the lion's share of that being for the medicinal cartridges for his mask. There were, however, some other things in the list he'd been given, but that was the important part. "All of them top of the line, of course. Are you sure you don't need anything else?" he added, raising an eyebrow.

The other boy seemed to pause for a moment. Both of his teammates had taken him up on the offer to get supplies for them, and he'd only needed to give Karin a slightly stern look to deal with whatever issues she had on the matter. She was a pushover, which he hated, but at least that was useful at times.

Yota hadn't had such reservations, thankfully. Instead, he'd just provided a list of materials to use for his medicine crafting and some for supplies used for his… less than orthodox genjutsu. Other than that, there'd only been an addition of certain seals, mainly storage ones, but those had been noted as optional. The masked boy hadn't asked for anything else, which was why Kazuhiro was asking.

"I can get you a full set of ninja clothing and equipment. Anything else that could be improved on, we should do it if possible," Kazuhiro said, making the red-eyed boy blink and tilt his head. Then, he nodded slowly, took a piece of paper, and started to write things down. With that dealt with for the moment, Kazuhiro turned towards Karin, who seemed to deflate as soon as his eyes locked on her.

Why did she seem to make it a point to be annoying for him?

"I saw that most of what you asked for were sealing supplies," he commented, making the girl flinch.

"I know those are expensive, but I couldn't think of anything else," she mumbled, fidgeting with her fingers. Kazuhiro felt his face twitch and he did his best not to sneer at her. Yota always gave him this "look" when he was being "unnecessarily" harsh on their teammate. He'd say that it didn't help, so there was no point, unless he wanted to make Karin do worse…

But there was no point in antagonizing both of his teammates, he supposed.

"Money isn't a problem," he waved off with a scoff instead, in response to the girl's words. It was only natural for a leader to provide and care for the needs of their subjects after all. Something as insignificant as money was of no consequence when weighed against increasing the chance of success of a mission, after all. "What I want to know is why sealing supplies?"

"I… Fuinjutsu was my best subject at the academy," the girl said, making him stare more intently. Out of the corner of his eye, Kazuhiro noted that Yota had stopped writing and had turned his head to look at Karin too. "So, I… um, thought I could at least make some seals if we need them on the field. I only know what was taught at the academy, but that should… er, at least be worth something, right?"

"... How high would you rate your skills?" Kazuhiro asked, part of his mind going back to the notes he had gathered of her. Academy level fuinjutsu wasn't particularly hard as long as someone had a modicum of skills for the art. He had checked the curriculum himself. Someone stating that Fuinjutsu was her best subject didn't really say a whole lot. But…

'Uzumaki,' his mind reminded him of the lineage of the girl in front of him.

"There wasn't a single seal that I couldn't make. Some were a little tricky, but I never had a problem with them. The seals weren't that special anyway. Just some simple storage and explosion ones and little else," she said, before stopping and going back to her meek self. "I- uh, also modified some of the seals myself in my free time," she commented with some shyness trying to downplay her skill as simple with some misplaced humility.

One should always take pride in what they could do.

Still, what she seemed to miss was that they were that simple because few people could even manage that much. There was a big difference between learning a seal and modifying it successfully, after all. If she was as good as she seemed to be implying – and Kazuhiro was inclined to believe her, since she couldn't lie to save her life – then she might still have her uses. It wouldn't make up for her lack of skills but…

"I see," Kazuhiro said, passing her a storage seal of her own. "These are the supplies you asked for, I just increased the quantity and, again, they are the best quality available in the village," he explained. The girl took the tag gingerly, as if afraid that she'd tear it apart. Kazuhiro did his best not to be insulted by that. Did she think it was that bad quality?

Ultimately, that didn't matter.

Kazuhiro turned to share a look with Yota, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him.

Maybe their teammate was less hopeless than they'd initially thought.

[} Chapter End {]

Kazuhiro: 4513 words… You both missed the perfect 4k mark by almost 10 percent. It is honestly shameful of you to even call yourself writers… But then again, I guess this chapter was about me, so I can understand why the extra words were needed. Therefore, I shall allow you two to go unpunished.

Adrian: Isn't Kazuhiro just a ray of sunshine?

Kazuhiro: Be quiet, peasant! You should consider yourself lucky that you have gained a glimpse into the mind of someone such as I!

Adrian: Whatever you say Golden Boy. Anyway, the team is starting to actually look like a team. Surprising, right? Especially with Kazuhiro's wonderful personality.

Arc: Please don't antagonize him… It was already a pain to get him to be part of the A/N. I don't want to continue hearing him rant.

Kazuhiro: Humph I'll get you both for this. Anyway leaving these two troglodytes' opinions aside. I demand of you readers to leave your praises and adorations in the reviews. It's the least someone such as myself deserves.

Adrian: Sure it is, buddy. Sure it is. We won't say no to more comments though.

Arc: Please Follow and Favorite too!

Kazuhiro: Now let me give this man a piece of my mi-!

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ