Test Of Will

In the training grounds of Kirigakure, the three genins looked around them, searching for the perfect location to launch an assault on their sensei.

Choosing a place of their liking, all three dispersed away from Yagura. Seeing them disperse, Yagura stood in the middle of the ground, waiting in anticipation for an attack to come...

...."..." But nothing came even after waiting for a few minutes.

"Guess I have to move myself." Giving up on waiting, he headed toward the treeline and bushes, which are common hiding spots for genins. As he stood beneath a wide banyan tree, swish! A kunai flew toward him. Stepping aside, he dodged it.

Locating the direction from which the kunai came, he jumped up the trees, landing on a branch. Just then, a short sword came swinging at him. Blocking the attack with his kunai, he stepped onto another branch.

In a flash, the sword followed its target. Clang! Yagura parried the sword again. The assault seemingly failed, the attacker stepped back on a nearby branch, his appearance now clearly visible. "Heh!" Yagura snickered. "I thought you would keep hiding..."

Zabuza, holding a short sword, looked at Yagura in front of him. "Thought I would give you a surprise," he replied before darting up the tree trunk.

Yagura was not expecting this nine-year-old to be capable of running on trees. "Guess, he is not all brawn," he mused, following after his student.

On top of the banyan tree, a figure burst out of the dense covering of branches and leaves. Mid-air, he turned around and threw shuriken toward the hole he burst out of, delaying anyone who tries to come after him. Not a second passed as he started free-falling down the tree. Grabbing the vines of the tree, he decreased his drop speed, allowing him to avoid any injury.

"If only I could fly... Sigh! Even in this world, not everyone can fly!" Landing on some bushes, he was preparing to run away, just when sounds of bubbles bursting could be heard above him. Curious, he looks up.

"WTF! Someone is sprinting on-top of bubbles!" he exclaims, amazed by what he was seeing. "Wait a minute, that weird hairstyle... It's that Utakata fellow." Deciding to watch what he was up to, Zabuza stayed hidden among the bushes.

On top of the banyan tree, Yagura observes Utakata. "Soap bubble? I did hear he was a prodigy, capable of using this technique proficiently, but to be able to fly by using the bubbles as platforms... Did every prodigy from this year end up on my team?" Such thoughts were going in yagura's head, when...

Locating Yagura on the tree-top, Utakata immediately launched an attack using his bubble pipe. He blew air into the pipe in quick succession, creating a barrage of seemingly ordinary-looking bubbles which flew toward Yagura....

Yagura obviously didn't see these bubbles as ordinary. Although there are a very small number of soap bubble users, he knew very well that the bubbles bolting toward him would most likely explode!

And explode they did, Boom! Blast! In just a second, the treetop where Yagura stood turned into charcoal, while he himself is nowhere to be found.

Utakata, looking at the blast he caused, wondered if Yagura got caught up in the blast. "Probably not, he is a jonin after all," he muttered, shaking his head as he landed, hopping atop the bubbles.

Rustling through the bushes, Zabuza comes out of his hiding spot. "I had guessed you would be cowering while hiding somewhere, but I guess you are pretty good," Zabuza remarks.

Turning toward his annoying teammate "Can't you even complement properly? and look who's talking, the one hiding among some bushes." Utakata retorts. "Heh! A ninja is supposed to hide in ambush, you know!" saying so zabuza tries to change the topic.

He asks, "And where has that cry-baby gone?" Not getting a reply, Zabuza tries to sense Ruka's chakra, but fails to do so. "Well, I at least tried..., I really need to work on my sensing abilities," disappointed by his sensing ability or the lack thereof, he decides to train in this field of ninjutsu.

Yagura didn't make them wait for long. He appears... unharmed. "Both of you, come at me at the same time otherwise..., it's too easy," Yagura said. Both the students looked at each other... nodding their head they decide to work together.

The first one to act is Utakata, just like the last time he blows bubbles in quick succession..., the bubbles rapidly bolt toward Yagura, but unlike last time, they explode mid-air, just before reaching their target... creating a flash and releasing a large amount of smoke which hinders Yagura's sight,

"go!" Utakata says, turning toward Zabuza, but he..

"You don't have to say emo boy" he is already rushing toward Yagura, trying to get him while he is still recovering from the flash...

Grabbing his short sword by the hilt Zabuza does a horizontal slash from left to right... but who is Yagura?... although the flash had rendered his eyes unclear for some seconds, it isn't nearly enough to confuse an experienced fighter like him... he still has many other senses to rely upon. he blocks the slash with his double-hooked club

While all the fighting is going on, Ruka is just arriving on the scene, in search of a hiding spot she had gone further ahead. But upon hearing the explosions, she hurriedly made her way here.

"There they are..., thank god! no one is inju–" but before she could properly process the things she was seeing, the situation reversed drastically.

Zabuza is in a fierce struggle right now, facing a barrage of strike from Yagura's club. he isn't able counterattack or even, break free from this situation.... Yagura's movements are fluid and precise as he rotates his club, thrusting the club's lower end toward Zabuza's sword, the sword is stuck in the narrow hook, pulling the club snap! Break! he snaps the sword in half.

Looking at his young student, Yagura says "You seemed to think, I would merely be blocking while you attack me, never expect your enemies to show you any mercy, this my first lesson to you"

On the other side, while Zabuza was fighting... Utakata was preparing a huge attack, he has a huge bubble; the size of an average adult attached to his pipe, ready for launch.... as Zabuza falls to the ground being wrenched by Yagura's hooked club, a opportunity presents itself.

He launches the attack, as only Yagura is standing, "huge bubble explosion!" seeing the attack hurl toward himself, Yagura, rather than try to get out of the way, swiftly pulls out a shuriken and throws it toward the large bubble, which is slower then the normal ones, exploding it upon contact, before it can even come close.

Yagura, using flash steps rushes toward Utakata "you see the biggest option is not always the best one" saying this, he is about to strike Utakata's abdomen with his club, but just then three shurikens wrapped in exploding tags comes flying from the side, making his take a few steps back to avoid them

the attack came from Ruka, upon seeing Yagura move away from the injured Zabuza, she had jumped into the fray trying to heal him, right now she is besides him, desperately trying to heal him using the limited medical ninjutsu she knows. but seeing Utakata about to go down, she was compelled to take action, even though she was busy healing Zabuza.

right now, Zabuza finds himself in a pretty bad situation, his muscles are seething in pain, the joints in his right hand are dislocated..., this is because his hand was jerked violently, as a consequence of Yagura suddenly snapping his sword in half.

Seeing that the situation is looking pretty grim Zabuza decides to stand up either way, grabbing his knife-like broken sword in his left hand... and grinning like a maniac, he charges toward Yagura.

"Wait" both of his teammates exclaimed simultaneously, trying to warn him about something.

Zabuza either chose to ignore their caution or couldn't heed it in time, either way it is already too late... With swift precision, he executed a vertical slash aimed at Yagura's abdomen, then seamlessly transitioning into a diagonal strike when the initial attack was blocked.

The diagonal slash found its mark, though contrary to everyone's expectation blood didn't gush out of the wound, rather water started spilling out of it...

"That's not the real sensei, it's a water clone, he had replaced himself with it when he charged at me," Utakata reveals.