Chapter 96: Grey Complexion

"Kenjutsu isn't easy," Kannin said, sitting down with Miura after about 25 minutes of sparring, "but when you have it down, it's invaluable. To be honest, Water and Earth Release aren't well suited to combine with swords, but you have Fire Release too. There must be some jutsus which make use of one for the other. Ask your clan or use its library."

Miura, who was bruised and out of breath nonetheless nodded in agreement. Their spars with Kannin had both confirmed their inexperience with blades but also its potential. Kannin had effortlessly parried all of Miura's assaults either with a jutsu or his own sword, and followed up with a counterattack of the other kind.

"Do you really think I can use this thing?" Miura honestly asked, their spirit dampened a little, "I feel like I'm fine with my shuriken and elemental jutsu."

"You could augment your style a little," Kannin began suggesting after handing Miura a snack, "Fire is a great offensive element and could merge well with Kenjutsu, and Water is a good defensive element--not as good as earth though I guess. Plus, most people like using Wind element with their swords, myself included, so your Fire element will give you a distinct advantage." 

Miura nodded along, envisioning themself in battle using a flaming blade and erecting water shields against attacks. It wasn't a bad image.

"But again," they asked, "what is the sword actually offering to me besides the stuff I already have?"

"It's not a bad question," Kannin said, nodding at the genin's worries, "the benefit swords give you is that they acts as a powerful conduit for ninjutsu. Swords are more powerful than kunai or short-blades in close combat and have longer range. It also just adds another layer of complexity to your style. Right now you're a very talented Ninjutsu user--but that's about it. If you meet someone who's more knowledgeable in jutsu, or have chakra natures that counter yours, then its over. Proficiency with Kenjutsu offers either a first or last resort in battles. In short, the more options you have, the better."

Miura again understood what Kannin was saying and nodded, "So in case my Ninjutsu isn't enough, I can make up for it with Kenjutsu, and vice versa"

"Now you're getting it," Kannin said with a smile, "Araki has medical jutsu to give his style depth and help the team, Ozu has Genjutsu and some Taijutsu, but their actual Ninjutsu was a little lacking--for me, at least--so that's what they're working on. You, on the other hand, had the opportunity to round out the team by learning a new skill. Oh, I forgot, Kenjutsu is also helpful for you since it doesn't have to drain chakra to use it. Like I said, there's lots of benefits."

"I guess you're right," Miura sighed, finally having caught their breath, "Kenjutsu is a good option for me. I guess I'm just disappointed that it isn't coming easily."

"That's fair," Kannin said, "It's not super comfortable if all you know is Ninjutsu. I had the luck of having a Samurai as a teacher. He was a weird one, but razor sharp when it came to swords. You have me to teach you, and I was like you in a lot of ways, so hopefully it won't be too hard."

Kannin decided to create two more shadow clones during training so he could give each genin individual attention in their efforts. He had given Ozu and Araki new jutsu to learn on top of the ones he already gave them, teaching them Water Prison and Gale Palm respectively. They were making slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

After about 2 hours, Kannin dismissed his clones and gathered the three of them together before announcing that after another week of more constant training with him, they would be going on their first major mission--that is a C Rank mission.

"Finally!" Ozu shouted with exasperation, "We catch one lousy cat and then all we do is train. We're actually doing shinobi stuff!"

"Yeah it's about time," Miura said tersely, "We need the reward money."

"Don't worry about the reward money, kids," Kannin reassured them, "If you do well on this upcoming mission, I plan to take you on at least half a dozen more afterward."

Araki scratched his head and asked, "Won't that be a lot to do for genins?"

"Oh it will be," Kannin replied, "but the next batch of Chuunin Exams is coming up in a couple of months, and I'd like for y'all to be eligible in case you want to challenge them. The minimum number of completed missions for a genin to participate is 8."

The genin all scowled a little as they thought of the Chuunin Exam. It had a bit of a harsh reputation, with each year having at least 1 death, and usually a lot more.

"Is it as hard as they say, sensei?" Ozu asked a little sheepishly

"Well," Kannin thought, "they weren't too bad when I took them. It was three parts, but the third part was not super important. It was mostly a written exam and some sort of mission in the Forest of Death, and then a sparring tournament."

"That's not too bad," Miura commented with some relief in their voice

"I wouldn't be so certain, Miura," Kannin said, "It wasn't too bad for me because the competition wasn't very stiff, and I just happened to figure it out. It really depends depends on who they have running it, so you need to be prepared for anything."

-

Kannin let the kids go back home after that, and he went into a different part of the woods around Konoha where his clone was practicing Flying Raijin. His clone was very deliberately placing the Flying Raijin formula on a specific tree and then counting a number of paces back from it before marking the distance and teleporting. By now, his clone could teleport about a hundred yards reliably, and was slowly increasing each time.

30 minutes later, the clone switched to focusing on number instead of distance. He marked 12 trees with the formula, and after a brief preparation period, proceeded to teleport to each formula one after another with no break, appearing as a white-grey blur among the brown tree trunks. 

"Not enough," the clone said, panting, "I need to be able to bounce around these constantly for a whole minute."

Kannin's real body sighed and left the clone to it's training, headed towards the Sage Mode clones, who he found rather quickly nearby. One had a large scroll at his feet and another was standing directly on the scroll. The one put his palm on the scroll and the other vanished in a puff of smoke. The sealer then took out an hourglass set for 5 minutes, and watched the sand fall. When it ran out, he released the clone from the scroll, and the clone poofed into existence. 

The real body and sealer clone both closely observed the sealed clone as it emerged from the seal, and saw a brief flash of Sage Mode markings appear on his face; it was faint and for less than a second, but it was something. The scroll Kannin was using was a very good seal of his own design--which Kushina had helped with--but it still wasn't as good as the seal he was put in by the Root Anbu so its effect wasn't as pronounced; nonetheless he kept going since it was his only lead.

Kannin went back into town after viewing his Sage Mode training for a few more minutes. He went to the Mission Office and began browsing some of the C rank missions that were being offered. He scanned the bulletin, and muttered aloud, 

"No, that one's too far...Too boring...too weird..."

He went through about a minute of investigating before a voice Kannin which sounded vaguely familiar interrupted him,

"Surely you can handle C rank missions on your own now, Kannin, or has the shinobi I knew in the war dulled?"

Kannin looked to his left, where the voice had spoken from, and saw an old face come back to haunt him--the gaunt and ever-androgynous face of Maneshi, the member of Team 30 Kannin had worked with back in the Suna Division. Their once youthful and glossy skin had aged noticeably even though it hadn't been too long since they last saw each other. The deep red eyes which met his hadn't changed though, and neither had their style of dress--almost entirely black with now a deep maroon body armor beneath a black cloak.

"The missions aren't for me, Maneshi," Kannin eventually said in response, "their for my team. I could do these in a heartbeat. I mean who really does this kind of stuff anymore?" He said, pointing to a mission which asked for a large dam to be built in a town in the Land of Rivers.

"The world is on a short rope nowadays," Maneshi agreed, "the war is still fresh in their minds. No one wants to do anything that might spark hostilities any time soon."

"Yeah," Kannin sighed, "that figures. I just wished I could give my team some real combat experience outside of my clones or each other, you know?"

"Yeah I get that," Maneshi nodded with a grin, "my team's been a little antsy themselves."

"I didn't know you had a team!" Kannin said with excitement, "Congratulations! How are they?"

"Well," Maneshi started, "I have an Uchiha, a Hyuga, and a kid from a civilian family. Yomi and Mamori are always trying to outdo each other with their eyes, and Taruki tries to keep up as much as possible."

"Sounds about right," Kannin chuckled, "How long have you had them?"

"It's coming up on about a year now I guess," Maneshi said, scratching their head.

"Dang," Kannin sighed, "I don't know if I could do this for years."

"Is your team troublesome?" Maneshi asked, "Sometimes it happens. Team 30 wasn't exactly a perfect union."

"Oh no," Kannin said waving his hand, "They're fine kids. I just can't help but feel like I have other things to do sometimes."

"I get that."

The two sat down at a nearby table and continued catching up with each other for the next hour or so. Maneshi offered to have their team spar with Kannin's if he wanted, which Kannin accepted, though he wasn't sure his team was ready at the moment.

Kannin eventually got home that evening with a listing in his hands of a C rank mission.