"The strength of a seal-master"

Kazuya, along with Kyo and Karna, was led to a training ground behind the Mizukage's office.

"This training ground is assigned explicitly to the hunter-nins of our village. Only in some particular circumstances such as yours do other gets the chance to enter here." The attendant of the Mizukage, who was leading the Yagami family, introduced the large training ground in front of them.

This particular training ground was called training ground 9. It stood out from the other training grounds in the village because of the exquisite gallery surrounded it with high arched walls. Along with lush uncleared greenery at the edges of the field, it bore an excellent environment for training.

"So, who am I going to face, Attendant-san?" Kazuya asked with impatience drawing the attention of the Mizukage's attendant.

"You can call me Daiki, and as for your opponent, he'll be arriving here anytime soon," Daiki replied as he looked toward the entrance of the training ground.

He was correct, as five minutes later, a couple of shinobi wearing weird animal masks walked through the entrance. They weren't the only ones to appear; some other jounins and chunins of Kirigakure also rushed in to watch the spar.

A family taking refuge in Kirigakure wasn't something new for them, but a seal-master battling it out in Kirigakure was indeed a sight to behold. They sat in the gallery and intently stared at the Yagami family.

A man who walked in along with the other ninjas from Kirigakure didn't sit in the gallery; instead, he arrived at the centre of the arena where the Yagami family was standing along with Daiki.

He was a young man with blue hair, which was styled in a moused-up manner. His left eye was blue, and his right eye was covered with an eye patch. He wore a talisman in each ear with the kanji for a humble form of "to hear" written on them twice on each side. He also wore the standard striped, grey suit, with a green haori with white trimmings that stopped halfway down over them.

"This is my son, Ao; he's a war hero and a veteran jounin of Kirigakure, and today, your opponent." Daiki pointed to the man in front of him as he introduced him.

"Hello, my name is Ao, and I'm a Kirigakure jounin. I was ordered to have a spar with you." Ao introduced himself again to Kazuya with a poker face.

"And I'm Kazuya," Kazuya nodded to him and replied.

'Sheesh, what a terrifying lineup!' Karna thought as he saw the jounins sitting at the gallery radiating an imposing aura.

'Kisame Hoshigaki, the monster of the mist. Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the mist. I guess Zabuza didn't start a coupe as of yet, and Akatsuki still didn't recruit Kisame. If Zabuza is there, Haku would also be along with him. I wonder what would've happened to Kirigakure if they had never deserted the village. What a monstrous place!' Karna thought, ad he stared at two particular shinobi with distinct qualities.

Suddenly, one of the shinobi he was staring at noticed his gaze. The shinobi moved his eyes and looked at Karna while smiling with his shark-like teeth. Karna quickly retracted his eyes and kept them low to avoid conflict.

'What intuition! No wonder he could fight against the likes of Itachi Uchiha.' Karna mentally praised Kisame while sifting his gaze to someone else.

'So, I was right. Ao is indeed the son of Daiki. The similarities are a bit uncanny to ignore. Since Ao has a byakugan and valuable experience from the third shinobi war, mom is bound to lose, but she can still give him a tough fight.' Karna speculated as he intently looked at Ao.

For a few seconds, the entire training ground stayed in awkward silence, and everyone seemed to be waiting for someone. Soon, after a minute or two, a young man with purple eyes and a club attached to his back suddenly appeared at the top of the wall surrounding the training ground.

"Mizukage-sama!" All the shinobi stood up and bowed to show respect toward the young man.

"Hai, hai, enough salutations. Let the spar begin, Daiki," said Yagura with impatience.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama. Kazuya san, you can demonstrate your abilities by fighting with Ao, and you can also choose to hide some of your abilities to protect yourself. But, I will advise you not to hide too much, as our Mizukage same doesn't like unfaithful people and those who try to act deviously in front of him. You might lose your life for a moment's foolishness." Daiki reminded Kazuya as he retreated to the gallery along with the Yagami family, leaving the entire field to Kazuya and Ao.

"You can go all out, mom, but it'd be better not to showcase most of your arsenal in front of everyone; after all, we still don't know how the Kirigakure shinobi would react later," Karna whispered in Kazuya's ear, and Kazuya nodded to him in return.

"Do your best, honey." Kyo encouraged Kazuya with a soft smile.

The Yagami family moved out of the ground along with Daiki. Kazuya gently smiled at her family before concentrating on the fight before her.

"Begin!" Yagura shouted from the top of the wall, alerting everyone in the field.

Everyone observed the battle with apparent anticipation. The surrounding mist couldn't obscure their vision, and their impatience to start the fight was evident.

Ao and Kazuya seized each other and waited for the other party to start attacking. Thick droplets of sweat trailed down from Kazuya's forehead as she began to anticipate Ao's future movement.

"You can attack first," Ao suddenly spoke up, breaking the intense tension between them.

Ao believed himself to be a gentleman and a humble person. So, it was natural that he wouldn't attack a woman first who had come to seek refuge in their village.

Kazuya didn't speak much as she sprawled into action.

'Fuinjutsu: twin rising dragons.'

Kazuya placed two scrolls on either side of her in an upright position. After completing the necessary hand signs, the scrolls rose and span around each other, cloaked in smoke, shaped like a dragon. When the smoke dispersed, Kazuya jumped in between the scrolls and started to unseal the scrolls, unleashing a barrage of different weapons targeting Ao.

'Interesting', Ao thought as he stared at the rain of weapons approaching him. He raised both his hands and performed a Kai seal to release the restriction placed on his right eye temporarily.

'Byakugan,'

Thick veins bulged around his right eye as he intently focused on the weapons coming toward him from all directions. Suddenly, his vision changed into a black and white scheme and expanded to 270 degrees around him. Except for a few weapons in his left back, he could detect all the weapons, even behind, rushing toward him.

He took out a kunai and thwarted the weapons that attacked him from his blind spot one after another and dodged the others that he could detect.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

When Ao deflected and dodged most of the attack, the weapons were scattered around him. As he thought he was done with defence and began to attack, suddenly, the scattered weapons rose from the ground and rushed toward Ao.

Because the weapons were close to Ao, their speed was much faster than before. Ao looked ahead and noticed Kazuya with her hand stretched.

'Chakra wire,' Ao was so focused on receiving the tsunami of chakra information through his byakugan that he forgot to notice the chakra wires attached to the weapons.

Kazuya used the wire strings attached to the weapons to recover them for another attack.

Typically chakra wires are invisible to an average shinobi, but a sensor and a dojutsu user can easily detect them. He was both, but Kazuya could still fool him, significantly hurting his pride.

'Water release: colliding water wave.'

Ao, angered by his foolishness, hurriedly formed hand seals and unleashed a giant wave of water, which rose in front of him and blocked the barrage of weapons approaching him.

The collision of the two jutsus rendered the chakra wires useless, tearing them apart at the time of impact.

Kazuya seeing her Jutsu fail, acted in a hurry and concentrated chakra in her index finger.

'Fuinjutsu: finger carving seal.'

She started to draw a sealing pattern in the air with her index finger, which glowed in a blue haze because of the concentrated chakra.

'Fuinjutsu: seal of red lotus.'

A sealing pattern resembling the Uzumaki clan's crest was drawn in the air, and with a tiger seal, she initiated the jutsu.

Suddenly, vines made up of flames sprouted from the sealing pattern and rushed towards Ao in the distance.

'I guess I need to take it out if I want to deal with her.' Ao took out a tanto from his ninja pouch and glanced at the vines rapidly approaching him.

Suddenly, the tanto in his hands started to glow in a blue haze as he held it tightly.

"A chakra blade!" Karna recognised the blade in Ao's hands.

A chakra blade is a weapon specifically made to channel chakra through them. By channelling chakra through the blade, the weapon can inherit diverse abilities similar to the light sword of Hatake Sakumo.

"You have good eyes, kid. It is a chakra blade given to him by the Mizukage sama as a reward for his valiant efforts in the third shinobi war." Daiki, beside Karna, said with a hint of pride as he saw Ao take out the chakra blade.

On the other side, when fiery vines were about to entangle Ao, they were swiftly cut apart by the chakra blade in Ao's hand.

Ao's chakra blade allowed him to cut apart chakra, but it could only do so by slicing at the weakest point of a Jutsu.

Byakugan gave its user the ability to negate ninjutsu by hitting the ninjutsu's weakest point. Hyuga clan members usually achieved this with their gentle fist taijutsu, but this doesn't mean there aren't other ways to accomplish the same.

Ao didn't have access to the gentle fist; as a result, he used the ability of his chakra blade to take advantage of his Byakugan.

All the vines were severed upon contact with the chakra blade, and when the jutsu ended, Ao rushed toward Kazuya with his tanto. It was time to change tactics; it was time to go on offence.

'Fuinjutsu: Frog suppression.'

Kazuya hurriedly slammed her palm on the ground, and a sealing formula appeared beneath her. Immediately, four stone pillars rose where Ao was and surrounded him.

Mirrored ram > snake

Kazuya drew two hand seals, and suddenly, lightning started to spark around the stone pillars surrounding Ao. A storm of lightning was then released within the trap.

"How amusing!" Yagura gleefully laughed as he saw the unique fuinjutsu of Kazuya.

Ao looked to be in a dilemma, thinking about how to escape from the jutsu. But, he was a bit too late as his entire body was assaulted by the storm of lightning, burning him to a crisp.

When Kazuya saw Ao start to burn and couldn't defend himself, she hurriedly stopped the jutsu. She didn't want to make enemies in the new village she would take refuge in. He was also the son of Mizukage's attendant. His death could be highly detrimental to her family.

When the jutsu stopped and the smoke cleared, what everyone found there was a pool of water instead of the burned body Ao.

Karna looking at the situation wanted to say something but resisted the urge because it would draw too much attention to him. All he could do is to slam his forehead with his palm.

Yagura, at the top of the wall, flashed a knowing smile. Zabuza returned his gaze from the fight and left the training ground while Kisame laughed, exhibiting his sharp teeth.

"Haha, it was fun while it lasted," Kisame muttered as he left the training ground, but not before glancing at Karna, who held his forehead with his palm.

Kazuya was perplexed about the situation but quickly recovered as her intuition told her there was danger behind her.

She quickly looked behind but abruptly stopped when her movements drew her closer to a glowing blade placed at her neck.

"Well, you lose. Kazuya san." Ao looked at Kazuya with a cold expression as he held the glowing blade before her neck.

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Hi guys! It's LIT. Sorry for the delay in the chapter. Anyway, I'd really appreciate some reviews guys!!

Up next: "New Home."