24 The Chunin Exam is approaching.

Residence Kazeji

Everyone was still gathered at the table, lunching in harmony.

"How was your mission?" Hana asked, looking at them.

"It was fine, dear, they were easy missions," Haruki said, sweating nervously and looking at Kaito.

"Yes, the missions were quite straightforward, mother," Kaito agreed, making Haruki sigh.

"Right, that's good. At least no one got stabbed in the stomach with a blade, huh?" Hana said, putting another piece of meat into her mouth.

"Yeah, no one got stabbed in the stomach with a blade..." Haruki was agreeing as he brought another slice of meat to his mouth when his mind began to race, causing him to stop mid-motion and his blood to run cold. Haruki looked at Hana, who was smiling softly.

Kaito was observing and saw his father's reaction, and he was almost laughing inside.

"Darling, I don't mind if our son gets hurt on missions because I know he will. The life of a ninja is tough, but if he dies, you can dig the enemy's grave and yours next to his, alright?" Hana said softly and with a comforting voice, but Haruki knew there was nothing comforting about it, only a freezing cold that chilled the soul.

"Right, right," Haruki forced the two words, while Kaito, who was beside him, was laughing because his once arrogant father was now being intimidated.

"Well, all right then, let's talk to you, young man," Hana looked at Kaito with the same smile, and Kaito finally understood what his father was going through, his soul was frozen.

"As I said before, I don't mind if you fight or get hurt, but if you die, I will create a jutsu to bring you back to life just to beat you to death, understood?" When Hana finished speaking, Haruki and Kaito could see that it was starting to snow inside the room, the temperature dropping so low.

Kaito trembled at his mother's words and quickly nodded in agreement.

'Damn, I hope she doesn't find out about the Edo Tensei.'

A thought quickly surfaced in his mind and was just as quickly dismissed.

After finishing her words, the atmosphere quickly returned to normal, and she was as affectionate as before.

Haruki and Kaito sighed and finished their lunch, which was still warm because Hana had insulated the dishes from the cold.

After lunch, Kaito went straight to his room.

"What can I do to defend myself from surprise attacks or situations where I have little reaction time?" Kaito was thinking about how to develop a technique.

Kaito's head was exploring various techniques in his mind, from some novel or anime he had seen, and in the end, he came to a conclusion.

"I can make a part of my body turn into ice to avoid the damage from the attack," the idea came to his mind when he remembered Kuzan from One Piece.

"I'm not sure if it will be possible, but I can try, right?" After thinking that, he quickly tried to put his thoughts into practice, concentrating ice chakra in his left hand, and ice began to appear in his hand, enveloping his entire hand in seconds, resembling a glove.

"It's not like that," Kaito said in denial as he tried again, but without success this time, he had created a layer of ice under the skin.

"It's not this either, but it can be useful if I want to defend myself without caring about my skin. I can catch an enemy off guard while pretending to sacrifice my arm or something similar, quite feasible." Despite his failure, at least he achieved something useful.

"I guess it will only work if I can transform my flesh, blood, veins, and everything from that part into ice," the idea was quite crazy, but perhaps feasible, something he would have to experiment with trial and error.

Briefly putting that aside, he took a sealing scroll and took out papers and pens to train his fuinjutsu.

He was trying to do other experiments with fuinjutsu that could be useful later on.

He was trying other experiments with fuinjutsu that could be useful later on. The rest of the afternoon passed as Kaito studied fuinjutsu and sought ways to make his body partially elemental to avoid physical damage. It was a complicated matter, but sooner or later, he would succeed.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Kaito, can I come in?" Haruki's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Yes, Dad, the door is open," Kaito replied.

Haruki then entered the room and, upon seeing the pile of papers scattered on the table and throughout the room, he was happy because his son was studying fuinjutsu.

"Hahaha, so you were studying, I'm glad to know. Actually, I'll pass this fuinjutsu technique to you to practice," he said, picking up a scroll and handing it over.

"This scroll contains the seal that can absorb chakra. I started learning my first fuinjutsu with this. So study and improve it the way you want, if you can," Haruki smiled as he passed the technique to Kaito, recalling when he first started learning that seal.

"Thank you, Dad," Kaito was also very happy to see a new seal and was eager to start studying.

Haruki saw his son's enthusiasm and nodded.

"Well, I came here to talk about something else," Haruki quickly became serious as he began to speak, leaving Kaito surprised as he rarely saw his father like this.

"Did something happen, Dad?"

"No, it's about the Chunin Exam that's about to happen. I wanted to know, what do you think, if your team were to participate, would you pass?" Haruki asked, looking at Kaito.

"I think Ryuji is quite strong in taijutsu, and his ninjutsu lacks versatility. However, if he learns some ninjutsu, he would certainly be prepared for the exam. Hikari, she's undoubtedly good at support with her clan's ninjutsu. In battle alone, she could win with strategy, but she lacks in taijutsu. As for me, if I rely solely on my water and wind ninjutsu, I can handle some Chunin up to a certain point, and if I use my Kekkei Genkai, I would hardly lose to a Chunin," Kaito spoke up and waited for Haruki's response, but he remained silent.

"Of course, this may not be entirely true. I don't have much combat experience, and I was caught off guard, but generally, that's it," Kaito concluded.

"You're right about everything. Your team is somewhat ready for the Chunin Exam, but there would still be a very great risk. The question is, do you want to participate in the Chunin Exam?" Haruki asked directly.

"I think this should be decided by the whole team. I don't want Ryuji and Hikari to agree just because I did," Kaito spoke after pondering.

Haruki smiled. "Alright, they've already said they wanted to participate, and that the final answer would be yours."

"Then I want to participate," Kaito said firmly. After all, even his teammates wanted to, so he wouldn't be afraid. But in his mind, he was remembering everything that happened in this Chunin Exam.

"It's going to be a mess, but I'm excited," a smile formed on Kaito's lips.

Seeing that, Haruki understood that he was happy because he would be closer to becoming a Chunin.

"So train and study hard, the exams will start soon," Haruki said as he left the room, closing the door and leaving Kaito alone.

After some time in silence, Kaito turned to the seals on the table and his hand.

"Damn, I have to finish these quickly, I'll need all the strength I can get," after thinking that, Kaito fell face-first into the seals on the table and the new one he had acquired from his father.

Kaito started studying how the seal was made, every stroke and line, and flipping through the pages, he saw that the seal was a combination of several smaller seals, storage seals, absorption seals, and dissipation seals.

All the seals were joined by a line, forming a larger seal, each line was perfect without errors, just looking at it gave Kaito a headache, but he didn't mind.

The next moment, he began studying the smaller seals one by one, seeing and redoing each seal many times, failing most of the time, but always learning how they behaved and doing better afterward.

The night passed quickly while Kaito was engrossed in the smaller seals.

Finally, Kaito stopped, and now on his desk, the seal seemed to be complete. He then placed his hand on the seal, and indeed, the seal absorbed Kaito's chakra, but the speed was impractical.

"Haha, I did it. Now I can try to improve, but I think I'll need more fuinjutsu scrolls. I'll go buy some more tomorrow," Kaito said, lying down and going to sleep. He was very tired; his head felt like it would melt at any moment from so much thinking.