6 A Drift 2

(Kaz)

With the poof of smoke and a spatter of blood, Anuki's body disappears, dragged into the sealing scroll.Kaz rose, glancing around at the toppled building and the mangled bodies littering the village.He rolled up the scroll and tucked it in his tool pouch, feeling happy despite the carnage. A warm morning wind washed over him, filling his nose with the tangy stench of blood and the scent of ash.

This was an opportunity that Kaz would not throw away.Despite the growing smell of death, he searched the bodies that were still mostly intact.Several of the hidden cloud ninja had dried food on their person, some with various cooking supplies.

There was a dinged up yet perfectly usable travel pot, chopsticks, several packets of spices and peppers.The scavenged food he collected was mostly sealed rice packets.Kaz, for fear of food poisoning, wasn't willing to take the dried beef and pork.Any food that wasn't in a sealed packet he left alone.

He was worried he would get food poisoning after they sat next to rotting corpses.One of the cloud ninja had a well-used backpack that, despite the man's death, was mostly unscathed.The bag was scuffed and covered in dust, but there were only a few drops of blood on the shoulder straps.Kaz put his new supplies in his brand new pack and slipped his arms into the straps.

Next, he restocked his tool pouch.That was easy, as the entire village was littered with shuriken and kunai.The most frustrating part was the fact that most of the bodies were already looted.Well, at least some people from the village must have survived the battle? Or some random passers-by saw the dead and took everything valuable.

Despite searching for an hour, he couldn't find any paper bombs or any Ryō, which was unfortunate.In his opinion, whoever robbed the place was definitely thorough.The sun rose slowly over the treeline engulfing the wrecked village in a stifling heat.

It wasn't boredom that made Kaz leave the village, but the steadily rising heat.The stench of the scattered corpses in the village was steadily growing, forcing Kaz to leave.Not to mention the swarms of large flies.

He headed to the west, towards the leaf village, following the path Teuchi was on.The journey would take about two weeks if Zosui could be believed.With a heavy pack stuffed with rice and several other travel rations that were in sealed packages, Kaz headed into the unknown.

Kaz never having done such a trip before was exited.This was not only his first time leaving the village to another but his first taste of freedom.What was he to do? Sure, Zosui was a monster, but that monster was the reason Kaz was getting strong.

And if there was one thing Kaz needed, it was more strength.But without Zosui to push him in training, he would need to do it all on his own.He had two weeks before he reached the leaf village, and that could be used for training.

Kaz could make it there quicker and join the chunin exams, but what if he took the journey to train instead? It was no small journey, and Kaz would have plenty of time to grow stronger.It would simply be a waste of time if he didn't train on the move.

The question was, what direction did he want to progress? That last battle he was heavily reliant on his speed and physical strength during combat.If he was being completely honest, the only reason he won was the fact that Zosui was severely weakened.

That was a something Kaz truly believed, as Zosui at full strength was a veritable monster.However, Kaz was a not naïve enough to think Zosui was the toughest opponent he would face.With that in mind, he needed a way to enhance his speed and strength further, as well as his chakra control.

Training his earth affinity was good for defence, but if he wanted speed, he would need to train his lightning.The real question now was how did he create a jutsu with lightning to enhance his speed? And what affects would the lightning technique have on his earth style?

He drew a kunai and coated it with white lightning.The effect was instant, not allowing Kaz the time he needed to see what his chakra was doing.Kaz stepped over a large pothole in the road and continued with his experiment.

Focusing intently this time, he coated his Kunai in lightning.He watched the chakra flow from his body and engulf the blade, the white lightning crackling.With his enhanced chakra sense, Kaz realized the lightning was not only around the blade but through it.

Kaz released the lightning and stare at the mat black Kunai.He held up his left hand and glanced from the blade to his hand.What would happen if he coated his body in white lightning? Kaz shudder, the thought was terrifying.Kaz wasn't a fool. Before doing something so rash, he was going to start small.

His boots patted softly on the path and the sun beat down on him mercilessly.Despite this, he walked down the dirt road, his attention focused on his chakra pool.The concept was simple, just like walking on water or up trees, he simply needed to coat his hand in chakra.

Kaz focused and his ever-growing pool of chakra flowed quickly to his right hand.His hand glowed a soft blue, the pure chakra wrapping his hand to the wrist.Now for the dangerous part.The next step was rather simple yet undoubtedly it would be painful.

Zosui, may the gods damn him, made it very clear that the more Kaz exposed himself to an affinity, the more resistant he became.That meant if he continually shocked himself for two weeks every single day, he would be much more resistant to lightning. He took a breath and then slowly let it out.Then he changed the chakra's nature to that of lightning.His hand crackled with white lighting sparking brightly.

In that moment, Kaz learned something new about lightning.One, it didn't matter where it touched your body, two; it hurt like hell.His body froze, locking up from the lightning.He frantically cut off the flow of chakra around his hand, but the damage was already done.

His muscles spasmed, and he collapsed to the dirt path like discarded trash.His face slammed into the dirt, his body still crackling with his own white lightning.Shocked and disorientated he lay there for several long seconds, berating himself for this stupid idea.After his body stopped twitching and he could stand again.Kaz started walking again, his body still twitching.That wasn't so bad! He told himself.

Once his nerves stopped screaming in pain from the shock, Kaz took in another deep breath of air.The burst of lightning hit again, but this time he was ready.He collapsed, but this time it was only to his knees.Kaz grinned in triumph, bracing himself on his hand and knees until he could force his body to rise again.

By the time noon came, Kaz couldn't feel his fingers and the rest of his body wasn't much better.On the bright side now he could remain standing despite the shocks of electricity.He took a seat on a rock that stuck halfway out into the road.From the deep furrows in the earth that ventured off the path, it was clear this rock was a menace to society.

Kaz lit a fire with flint and steel before boiling his rice with some spare drinking water.After eating Teuchi's incredible ramen, the spicy rice was bland, tasting like dirt.Kaz scowled, shoving it down with a grimace until every grain of rice was gone.He cleaned his bowl, kicking dirt over his small fire.

Kaz stretched, limbering up his body.His chest ached from where Zosui cut him and his nerves felt rung out despite only training the lighting affinity for half of the day.He clenched his fists, shaking off the numbness and glancing up to the sun.He shielded his eyes with his arm and rose back to his feet.

With a weary smile, Kaz headed down the path at a jog deciding to give his body a break from the chakra training.That was mostly because he had almost about quarter chakra remaining and Kaz still wanted some in case he was attacked.He pushed his numb body, noting the longer he jogged, the more the feeling in his body returned.

Sure, that meant his entire body was now screaming in pain like a thousand small needles were stabbing him, but it was a reassuring pain.He ran until the sun was fully set, only stopping when he heard the faint rustle of a babbling brook.Kaz refilled his drinking canteen and sat down with a relieved sigh.

Kaz usually had a large portion of wood on his shoulders and so the afternoon run felt more like a holiday than training.Despite it feeling easy, Kaz didn't want to press his body too hard after the morning training.Despite his muscles not being all that tired, his body still needed time to recover from him using most of his chakra.

Something reassuring was the fact he was even able to train until noon with the lightning affinity.Before he killed Zosui, his chakra pool would empty in about an hour of chakra training.Smiling at his growth from the day's training and memories of Zosui's death, Kaz moved into a thick copse of trees.

The copse of trees was about one hundred meters away from the road, more than far enough to light a fire and steam some more rice.He devoured the bland meal down, wishing there was something more palatable to pair with the rice.

Despite being able to hear the stream, Kaz decided to wait until he was more desperate for food before attempting to fish.Unfurling his thin silken bed roll, Kaz tucked under the covers after putting out his fire.He closed his eyes, letting out an exhausted sigh.

The next day he rose, the darkness slowly being chased away by the approaching sunrise.He boiled more rice, not bothering to spice it this time.Either way, it wasn't all that palatable and trying to make it taste like Teuchi's ramen just didn't work.

With a full stomach, Kaz proceeded with his chakra training similarly to the day before.He started by using his lighting affinity until lunch time.Only this time he managed to not fall on his face a single time.He smiled in victory.That was definitely progress.

The heat of the noonday sun forced him to unzip his green flak jacket.Only then did he glance down, remembering he needed to change the bandages.He took several swatches of fabric from his tool pouch and pulled off the bandages covering his chest.He tossed away the soiled bandages, noting Four flesh wounds on both his stomach and his ribs.

Each was smeared with something and the wounds appeared mostly closed after only two days.That shouldn't be possible, wounds didn't heal that quick.Kaz cocked his head pondering on that. Perhaps it was that brown ointment on his wounds? He nodded his head.That made sense, Teuchi was from the leaf village and they probably had some good medicine.

Kaz re-wrapped his chest with clean fabric from his own medical kit.Karin would have been amazing to have around right about then, with her these wounds would be healed in a matter of moments.He paused at that thought, how was she even doing? Were the chunin exams going well?

Noting that his wounds were healing nicely on their own, at this rate they would be fully healed in another day or so.That was simply crazy to think about.Whatever was in that salve Teuchi used, Kaz needed to stock up on more.

Kaz returned the rest of his bandages to his pouch and started jogging.He took in calming breaths, drinking lots of water in the stifling heat.Night approached much too slowly, the day dragging on to no end.

His shirt was drenched in sweat but he pushed on.By the time night fell, Kaz was bored out of his mind.Who would have thought simply running half of the day would be so boring.Kaz lay out his bedroll on a soft-looking patch of dirt and lay down.His stomach was full from bland rice but his taste buds were unsatisfied.

Kaz awoke the next morning having come up with an idea.He took a whif of himself and grimaced.Maybe he should find a stream or a lake to bathe in? He ate and then summoned a shadow clone, deciding a bath could wait for now.The clone puffed into existence and of all things, his clone yawned, stretching and glaring at him as though bored, with not a care in the world.

"What do you want? I'm tired?" the clone asked, belligerently."Well, I want you to practice this new lightning technique.If we can figure out how to cover our bodies in lightning, we will be a lot more powerful."Kaz said, feeling weird, like he was talking to himself.

His clone sniffed disdainfully, eying him up and down with a shake of his head."You really think that is a good idea? You do know I disappear when I take damage, right? And what is this we you keep talking about? You just want me to practice so you don't have to work as hard." The Clone asked, crossing his muscular arms and cocking his head as if to say, are you really that big of an idiot?

Kaz smacked his forehead in realization.His brilliant plan to use his shadow clone to double his training speed was brilliantly cut short."I'm not afraid of hard work."Kaz retorted lamely, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Don't look so down.Besides, isn't the point of covering yourself with lightning to avoid getting hurt?" the clone asked with a scowl.

"What do you mean?" Kaz asked, wondering what idea his clone, or himself had, clones were confusing like that."Well, I have been watching you shock yourself for about two days now, and despite it being incredibly amusing, I had a better idea."The clone said, running his hand through his sky blue hair.

"Well, tell me, what is this idea?" Kaz snapped, wishing his clone would stop the stalling tactics."Only if you promise to bring me out more."the Clone state with a grin. Kaz gaped. Wait, his clone was bargaining? Wasn't his clone just a copy of himself?

"Alright, I will bring you out more, when i have the spare chakra.Now stop stalling and tell me this idea!" Kaz growled, one second away from dismissing his clone.The clone grinned a devilish smile.

"Well, why not wrap your body in lightning? Simply have it like a cloak, wrapping your entire body.That way you don't get shocked, and you can use the lightning for both attack and defence."The clone said, a victorious grin on its, or Kaz's, face.It was no wonder Zosui wanted to punch him so often.

Kaz smiled and nodded, liking the idea."A lightning cloak? That name kind of rings a bell."Kaz said, cocking his head curiously."Well I got the idea from the stories about the riakage."The clone said, scratching his head sheepishly.

"Oh, that is why the name sounds familiar.You are a scam artist, you know that?" Kaz stated, glancing at his clone.The clone shrugged its shoulders."Well, I think it is something to practice along with shocking yourself every day until you run out of chakra."The clone state dismissively.

"Now you are just being smug." Kaz stated, walking down the road.The clone smiles a white-toothed smile, its emerald green eyes twinkling."Stop your complaining, you are wasting daylight.If you want to master this jutsu before getting to the leaf you need to put in the work."The clone said, grinning as it jogged ahead of him.

Kaz stare at his clone's back, mouth agape.Why was his clone being so difficult? It was probably because the last time he summoned it; he sent the clone to blow itself up.Maybe she should treat the clone better in the future. It would be bad if his clone revolted amid a battle.

Kaz caught up with his clone.The clone was staring at its hand and focusing intently.Being able to sense chakra, Kaz focused on what the clone was doing.He watched curiously as the clone focused its chakra around its hand and then pushed the chakra until it was like a glove.The shimmering blue chakra changed with a flash into bright white lightning.

The clone's face changed from deep focus to a grimace of pain as its body sparked with electricity and puffed into smoke, having taken damage from the lightning.Kaz pursed his lips, information filling his head.When the shadow clone died, he got all of its recent memories.Kaz grumbled at the waste of chakra but summoned the clone back with a poof of smoke

Despite his growing chakra pool, he was still restricting himself to one clone, well to be fair, he could probably only summon two clones and even then it would strain his chakra.

He raised an eyebrow at his belligerent clone."Well, don't just watch me, try it yourself.If we work together.This won't take too long to figure out."The clone said, glancing away, its cheeks a bright red with embarrassment.

With his chakra pool cut in half with his shadow clone, the training session with lighting didn't even extend until noon.His chakra pool ran to near fetal levels before the sun reached its zenith.Kaz collapsed to his knees from the loss of chakra.His body was drenched in sweat and he felt wrung out, despite having only been walking for half of the day.

Kaz sat down and took in deep breaths.His senses felt muted, numb from the repeated shocks to his senses.Initially the idea to surround his body in a cloak of lightning sounded easy, but after spending nearly half the day on it Kaz was realizing it was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

With an effort of will, Kaz pushed against the dirt path with his callused hands rising to his feet.He glance to the path ahead, and then over his shoulder behind.The dirt path was empty of travelers and the weirdest part was the fact that Kaz hadn't even run into Teuchi yet.Sure, Kaz was training while he traveled, but he was also running for half of the day.

Maybe he already passed the old man without noticing? The road wasn't completely empty after all. There were other travelers out here that he passed on occasion.His stomach rumbled, reminding him it was lunchtime.

Kaz lit a fire in the shade of a tall oak and watched the road, spotting two travelers in the distance.They walked down the road, their red and black cloaks an oddity in the summer heat.Kaz furrowed his brow, watching the water in his pot begin to bubble as the two figures drew close.

They each wore black robes with red clouds with a white circle around the clouds.Both of the figures were walking in the opposite direction as Kaz and were moving at a casual pace.Curiously, both of them wore headbands.Kaz pushed out his senses, and almost fell over.

The one with the massive sword on his back had a chakra pool that seemed endless, while the others chakra felt cold and lifeless.Kaz swallowed and took in a breath, calming himself.Whoever they were, he wanted nothing to do with them.The figures turned from the path, noting Kaz had a fire.They approached him slowly, pausing about ten meters away.

The figure on the left had open-toed boots, his toenails and even his fingernails painted a bright purple contrasting with his light skin.He was a fairly tall man of fair complexion.He had black eyes, under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs.He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with centre-parted bangs that extended to his chin.

The mans headband glinted in the sun, drawing Kaz's attention to the slashed hidden leaf headband covering his forehead.The second figure smiled a sharp-toothed smile at Kaz.He was a very tall, muscular shinobi.

He had a distinctive shark-like appearance, complete with pale, blue-grey skin and his hair styled to that of a shark fin.He has small, round, white eyes, 3 sets of curved facial markings under his eyes, and sharp triangular teeth.He wore a hidden mist headband with a slash across the face of the metal, pronouncing his rogue status.

"Do you mind if we join you for some lunch?" Asked the second man, showing his sharp teeth with a grin.The man positively radiated chakra, feeling like he had a vast ocean of power.Kaz nodded, deciding he absolutely didn't want to fight these two.

"Of course, take a seat.Its nothing special but I am making spiced rice."Kaz said, gesturing to his boiling pot.Deciding he needed to make more Kaz filled the boiling water with rice and added thyme and dried basil before closing the lid.

The man with the giant sword on his back smiled."That sounds good, I have been eating jerky for days and I'm sick of it."