《Deity of the Mist: a Naruto fanfic》


 PROLOGUE

    Something was wrong... something had been changed, something critical.


    The being opened its eyes and starred long and hard at the void around itself searching for the source of the growing discomfort it felt, it didn¡¯t take it long, only a few years, before it found the change and it became enraged, those damn parasites had interfered in the natural order once again.


    The planet wasn¡¯t really important, a primitive place which didn¡¯t even have a name for itself only for the main continent with no ability to reach space but it had intelligent life and leaving it to the parasites would be annoying to say the least so the being studied the planet from far away, it read it¡¯s fate and watched its story both past and future but, no matter how hard it looked it couldn¡¯t find the change.


    Interfering personally wasn¡¯t an option, even if the being turned out to be stronger than whatever had interfered their battle would still destroy the world the being wanted to save¡­ plus the being may be benevolent but it wasn¡¯t completely selfless it wouldn¡¯t put that much effort for no reward.


    But wait, the parasites had interfered, they had changed something in that planet that set it on a different course than what fate dictated so what was stopping him from doing the same? they could hardly complain could they?


    With new vigor the being started to think about it, what would it change? Kill someone? No that could backfire all too easily no matter who it chooses, create a weapon and gift it? No weapons could be lost or taken away and they were dead things, they couldn¡¯t adapt.


    No, what it needed was a chosen, a champion, an agent if you will, someone it could guide where it was needed, but where can he find one?


    Turning his mind away from the offending plane the being willed itself away and towards a new one, one that had proved itself useful many times before.


    It was a relatively small planet but still the biggest it owned, mostly because nobody else wanted it, some would call it a wasteland, It called it a goldmine, with only a single sentient race and no natural energy to speak of it was rare for its denizens to even live past 100 years and even then they provided very little boost for the being¡¯s power but it was just this lack of resources that made the planet so valuable in its eyes.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The Humans that lived there were never exposed to Qi, Chackra, mana or any kind of system and as such were blank slates capable of adapting to any and all of them, plus the lack of monsters had allowed them to breed like rabbits reaching over 7 billion people in such small place.


    The lack of magic of any form may have been crippling at first, with even the smallest wounds capable of festering and turning fatal, the simplest diseases capable of becoming plagues and infant mortality incredibly high but in only the short 3000 years the being had been watching them they had managed to overcome all of that by studying and using the laws of nature, to the point they now could achieve things most powerful worlds were still incapable of.


    The being was rather found of them.


    When it arrived it paused floating in the void while looking at the planed, how would it choose its agent? Thankfully it already had some experience with the process, having received payment to supply heroes and the like for members of its clan so it did what it does best, send enlightenment down on one of his followers.


    Soon the entire story of the offending world had been written and spread to the entire planed reaching both the young and old all over the planet they called Earth, a rather stupid name if the being was asked, both redundant and inaccurate at the same time, like naming the Sun ¡®Gas¡¯ or one¡¯s son as ¡®boy¡¯, it wasn¡¯t exactly wrong but¡­


    Well nobody asked.


    It barely took any time to find the right human, only a few decades and the being had it, the creature was a young male with no parents, friends or real attachments to its planet while having the right mixture of ambition and compassion to grow strong but not become a monster and enough knowledge about the world to put things back in the right track if they deviated too much.


    The being though about just sending the human to deal with the problem immediately but that could generate some anger and it was not like the human would live much past 70, such small amount of time would pass in the blink of an eye it was sure, also perhaps a little more life experience would do wonders for its objectives.


    Satisfied with its choice the being drew its attention away from the planet once again and closed its eyes, waiting for its chosen¡¯s death.

 Chapter 1

    I Just killed somebody¡­


    The body of the man laid before me as his blood slowly spread in a circle on the floor, it had been a clean cut opening his throat from ear to ear, the man had begged me, he had cried and screamed but, as if I was action on autopilot I had grabbed my kunai and cut the life out of him without hesitation.


    The realization of what I had done hit me like the runaway truck which had ended my previous life and I was left frozen in place starring at the bloodied kunai in my hand, truth be told I wanted nothing more than to drop the curved kunai and flee this place but I was far too afraid to act on it, those bastards would certainly take this as a sign of weakness and weakness was not to be tolerated.


    So I stood there, trembling and sweating, I had no illusions that my poor acting could fool any of those present they were trained to read people after all but the fact that I tried to resist my fear should earn me some points at least, finally sensei nodded his head ¡°Well done Nagami¡± He said and laid a hand on my right shoulder causing me to flinch which he ignored.


    Before I was reborn in this accursed village I often dreamed of transmigration or reincarnation, being taken away from my boring life to a world of magic and adventure where I could make friends, grow strong and make a difference in the world but, then again, which high school student doesn¡¯t wish for a different life, we never really stop to think about what that really means.


    When I first reincarnated I was a baby, confused and with very little memory of what had happened I muddled through my first years in this place and, slowly, my memories came back to me and I became exited, it didn¡¯t take me long to find out I had been reborn into the Naruto world, in my mind I would soon be throwing around jutsus and fighting evil Nukenin, saving the world and, dare I say, seducing a few hot kunoichi from konoha?


    What I had forgotten as a naruto fan is that the elemental nations are not such happy place to be born in, they¡¯re a land of child soldiers where 6 years old boys are trained as shinobi to assassinate and spy on people, where wars break out every ten years or so and where normal citizens are as powerless as insects.


    It wouldn¡¯t be so bad had I been born in Konohagakure but no, whatever power sent me here just had to send me into kirigakure four years before the end of the third shinobi war, I didn¡¯t know shit about kirigakure damn it!


    No that¡¯s a lie, I knew it was a very shitty place to be born into I could even say it was the worst place to be born into since its Mizukage was a puppet of Akatsu and they liked to make children kill each other in their graduation exam, then the loneliness started to settle in, I missed my family, I missed my friends, I missed my world and it was painful.


    My parents had been outsiders in the village, our family was annexed to kirigakure in one of the previous wars so we were distrusted to say the least and sent in the worst kind of missions, we were spendable so it was no surprise that they died a year before I fully recovered my memories, perhaps it had been for the best as I don¡¯t know if I could have ever loved them instead of my previous family.


    Entering the shinobi academy was easy, it was wartime and they were desperate for more manpower no matter how young, at 4 years old I entered the academy and thought my life would start to get better, I was wrong.


    Contrary to konoha kiri had two different academies for shinobi, the first one was made for the scions of the founding clans of kirigakure, it had the best teachers and was very close to what I had seen in the anime, the second one was the one I entered, a place where taijutsu and ninjutsu are brutally beaten into our bodies until we spew blood, a place where there are no medical ninjas and we are constantly driven to the point of insanity before being indoctrinated into becoming loyal to kirigakure above all else, there are no friends in the academy only competitors.


    I don¡¯t think I would have survived the academy to this day had I not been able to remember my previous life, or at least I would not have retained my sanity.


    Wiping the cold sweat from my forehead I cleaned the blood off my kunai and went to stand before the wall as sensei called another student to the front, two shinobi then dragged a new convict to the front, his hands and feet were tied and his mouth was gagged so he couldn¡¯t scream, they took off his gag and kicked his leg so he was left kneeling before the boy who would end his life.


    ¡°Please, I am innocent, this must be a mistake!¡± the man cried and my classmate paused, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to do it, seen his chance the criminal continued, tears running down his face ¡°Please I have family, I just want to see my wife and son again, please don¡¯t do this¡±


    ¡°Mizuki Hasegawa do it¡± Said sensei Hanzo with a harsh voice, with no option Mizuki grabbed his kunai and, with trembling hands tried to slit the throat of the criminal, unfortunately the cut was too shallow and the criminal was left gurgling in his own blood but still alive.


    ¡°Pathetic, do it again¡± now crying Misuki had to grab the criminal¡¯s head and lift it so he could cut finish the job, his arms seemed to have lost strength and his kunai seemed to be unable to dig deeper into the man¡¯s flesh, he tried it once, twice but, as the man¡¯s blood soaked into his clothes he finally lost his courage and crumbled to the ground crying.


    Closing my eyes briefly I ignored him, the academy conditioning told me that, even if he was two years older than me he was weak and I should be glad as he would be easier to defeat in the graduation exam but my consciousness screamed at me.


    ¡®That¡¯s how I should have reacted, that¡¯s how a normal person should have reacted in such impossible situation¡¯ it screamed at me, I ignored it.


    I wanted to live even if becoming a murderer was what it took.


    Before anyone could do anything else Hanzo sensei pulled out his sword and slashed the boy¡¯s back making him scream and fall face first into the blood soaked floor, then he turned his sword and pierced the boy¡¯s hearth in a single move


    ¡°A pity one of my own students turned out to be so weak, I expect the rest of you won¡¯t commit the same mistake?¡± he asked and everyone swallowed hard, too afraid to even answer, pulling the sword from Mizuki¡¯s back he decapitated the bleeding prisoner and asked for another one from the shinobi in the room.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Another 8 criminals were dragged forwards and another 8 of my classmates killed them, despite the brutality of our training until now this was the first time one of us had died in this academy, most of us had thrown up on the spot, others were left crying and some were more composed but not one of them failed the assignment again, we all knew better than to fail.


    ¡°Good, it seems like there are no useless people in this class¡± said Hanzo sensei with a satisfied smile ¡°today you have taken your first life, today you have proven you have what it takes to serve your country and be useful for your village, you did great, better than many before you.


    Taking a life isn¡¯t easy but it is necessary in the life of a ninja, remember this feeling, this is the day you all become strong, this is the day you took your first step into becoming a shinobi, I am proud of you!¡±


    As he finished his speech the other shinobi around the room started clapping, their faces were no longer the grim masks, their eyes no longer looked at us with disdain, they were smiling, around me I felt the children relax, slowly the horror of taking a life was forgotten and they were left with pride, here in this dark place they were no longer poor civilians but were truly accepted by those shinobi and it felt good.


    I wanted to throw up.


    I left the celebration as soon as I could saying I had to wash my bloodstained shirt before class tomorrow, I don¡¯t think anyone suspected me of wanting to run away since I only had two sets of clothes and wanting one of them to be ready for class tomorrow was pretty normal but inside my mind I was horrified, for a second there even I had been proud, proud of killing a man.


    Leaving the academy building I looked around myself and sighed, the village was absolutely beautiful, the buildings were circular and covered with green vines giving them a sense of integration with nature that the modern world lacked, the sky was clean and free of pollution and I could even see a few stars already starting to appear despite it not being so late, it was difficult to think that such sight could hide so much horror.


    For a year after my parents death I had lived in the streets but now, after entering the academy I was thankfully given a place in the academy dorm, it wasn¡¯t really the best place as it had a small room with four bunk beds, neither was it the safest place as the students are known to poison or beat each other when close to the exams but it had a bed and a blanket for the cold nights so it was enough.


    My bed was the top one closer to the door and all my things were kept inside a large bag I kept inside it, some of my companions had tried to steal from me a few times but I managed to dissuade them from the notion, broken noses make for very compelling arguments.


    Picking up some soap in the bag I left the dorm and went towards one of the small rivers that passed through the village and helped produce the mist that hid it from view, although I used cleaning my clothes as an excuse I really did have to wash my clothes everyday.


    Briefly closing my eyes I concentrated on the chakra gathered in my center and slowly rotated it through my body to warm up before sending it flowing through my legs increasing my speed and strength, then I jumped, I was nowhere as strong as most shinobi and my control was lacking but I was still able to use the vines covering the buildings to climb them and take a more direct path towards the river saving me half an hour of walking.


    Reaching the river I took off my clothes and starred at them, the blood had already dried and it would be a pain to try and wash them as they were so I dropped to my knee and made the snake seal, using earth release I made the ground in a small circle rise up forming a basin, then I filled it with water and let my dirty clothes soak, while waiting I decided to train my chakra control a little.


    Chakra, and I can¡¯t say this enough, a huge pain in the ass, in the anime they make it look so easy, climb a tree for a day or two and you get instant power up, yeah not so easy in real life, or perhaps I am just not MC material who knows the fact is I have been trying to climb this damn tree for the last month and I barely reached ? or its height.


    Concentrating on the chakra on my feet I ran towards the tree and stepped in its trunk, using every bit of concentration I could muster I ran making my chakra stick to its surface, three meters, four meters, five meters, I saw the furthest mark from my kunai and smiled as I was almost setting a new record, the brief distraction cost me and my feet lost traction making me fall back, I still managed to twist midair and fall on my feet but it sent a painful jolt through my knees ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Then I tried again, and again and again until my legs were hurting like hell and I was no longer able to land on them and even further, I will admit that my memories gave me an edge over the rest of my classmates but the only reason I was able to remain first place in my class even when there were older students was because I worked harder than anyone else at it.


    By the end of the day I was left with two dozen bruises in my back and had advanced my mark by 1.5m, nor ideal but not bad for a single day of training, having managed to forget a little about what I had done earlier I was left feeling sore but content as I scrubbed my shirt inside the earth basin until it was completely clean.


    I swear there has to be a cloth cleaning jutsu somewhere in this village or else, with the amount of blood they make us spill, they¡¯d need an entire squad of cloth washers everyday, unfortunately thinking of blood immediately ruined my good mood and froze me in the spot.


    ¡°My name is Asuno!¡± Screamed the criminal before me as soon as his gag had come off ¡°my wife died in the war and I have two daughters and a son!¡± I knew what he was doing, he was trying to seem more human, to connect with me so I wouldn¡¯t be able to kill him and it was working, looking into his eyes I saw not a criminal or a monster but a man, a human being which had family and friends, someone who though and felt just like me.


    Then I remembered what happened with those who failed the academy, it wasn¡¯t reason enough for execution but it may as well have been as the failures were thrown away, given the most dangerous and degrading jobs, there was no dignity for failures, there was no freedom for those who took kirigakure kindness and were unable to pay it off, most of those who failed either died from overwork, were killed by enemy shinobi or killed themselves from despair, it was not something I could take.


    So I hardned my hearth and covered his mouth with my hand before he could say anything else, them I pulled his head back and slashed his throat as hard as I could going so far as to infuse chakra into my arms and nearly decapitating the man, he died almost instantly.


    Coming out of my memory I had to hurry and turn my head aside so I could throw up inside the river, spewing my entire lunch until there was nothing left, at that moment I wanted nothing but to go back home, fuck this place, fuck this damn village, fuck chakra and jutsus and adventure I just wanted to see my mom again, to be normal.


    Gathering my clothes I walked out of the river and rinsed my mouth in its water before hanging them in a nearby branch, then I looked at my climbing tree and narrowed my eyes, what was the use of living in this world if I was gonna be a useless shinobi, just another one of the countless cannon fodder in the endless wars of the elemental nations? No I had to excel, I had to be the best.


    When I started running up the tree once again there was something different inside of me, no longer was I just concentrating on chakra control, no there was something more now, there was determination.


    Before long I shot pass my previous mark and continued climbing, one feet after the other, my chakra fully under my control as I finally stood on top of the 12 meters tall tree and looked over the village, my chakra was nearly empty and I was breathing hard but damn it felt good, it felt much better than any praise coming from the academy¡¯s shinobi, this time I had not meet their expectations but my own and it felt great.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you had it in you kid congratulations!¡± I heard someone say while clapping from my right ¡°How old are you anyway 6?¡±


    My head whipped around on reflex and I was left starring open mouthed at the familiar shark featured man sitting on top of another tree, what the hell is he doing here?

 Chapter 2

    Kisame Hoshigaki sat there on a tree only a few meters away from me, the famous Akatsuki member looked younger than in the anime sitting there with his legs crossed, his characteristic shark like features were unmistakable but he was missing samehada from his side having only a normal sword.


    The Monster of The Mist looked hurt, he was shirtless but his belly was wrapped up in bandages and he still wore an intact Kirigakure forehead protector ¡°So, how old are you kid?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re Kisame Hoshigaki¡± I said, demonstrating my matchless wit as I stared at him, in my defense I though the tailless tailed beast would be with akatsuki already not here watching me climb a tree with an amused smile in his face.


    ¡°Yes I know, but that¡¯s not what I asked¡± he said while his hand caressed the hilt of his blade.


    ¡°I¡¯m five¡± I answered, finally snapping out of my daze and sitting on one of the branches so I wouldn¡¯t fall as my chakra ran out.


    ¡°Damn they get younger and younger nowadays¡± he mumbled to himself ¡°So, where did you learn to train like that kid? I know it¡¯s not taught in the academy¡±


    I started sweating after hearing his words, fuck tree climbing is supposed to be training method from Konoha not Kiri ¡°Ahh¡­ nobody, I just started doing it to become better¡± I don¡¯t think he believed my mad lying skills but he also didn¡¯t think I was some kind of spy because he didn¡¯t kill me right there, either that or he was already a traitor and didn¡¯t really care about it.


    Not to say I looked down at kirigakure traitors, just the contrary I absolutely looked down at loyal shinobis who continued to follow this fucked up village even when its Mizukage was such brutal bastard.


    ¡°Ha, seems like we have a prodigy here, are you even in the academy?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I have just finished the first year test¡± Kisame¡¯s eyes seemed to shine with interest and I felt the heavy pressure from his chakra slam on me almost making me fall from my branch, it lasted for a whole five seconds before he seemed to lose interest and sigh.


    ¡°A pity you¡¯re so young, it would have been fun to face you in the graduation exam¡± he laughed and simply left using body flicker to move too fast for my eyes to see.


    I waited a few seconds but, since I was unable to sense anyone else around me I released the breath I had been holding and finally climbed back down from my tree, gathering my clothes which were already dry made my way back to the dorm, the sun had already gone down and, if I waited more they wouldn¡¯t let me back inside until next morning.


    Laying down on my bed I couldn¡¯t help but think about Naruto, about the story I had both watched and read in my previous life, being born on kiri I knew very little about what happened here before the forth shinobi war, all I knew is that at some point Kisame would leave it, that it would give raise to Zabusa Momoshi and the jinchuriki Utakata, it would also be attacked by the Ototsuki clan and exterminate the Yuki clan for fear of its powers but I had no idea when it would happen or even in which order, damn I didn¡¯t even know if Naruto was already born or not at this point, probably not, the war had just ended a few months ago and he should be born after its end from what I remember.


    Thinking about the war, its end didn¡¯t really affect Kiri all that much, most of our shinobi were still fighting against some clan or another and we were in a constant state of battle amongst ourselves no matter what.


    As I laid there I felt my chakra recover completely so I looked around the room and, seeing as there was no one else here, I raised my hand in front of my face and circled my chakra driving it around in my core without using any element before sending it through my right arm, as the chakra left my hand I circled it as fast as I could before compressing it tighter and tighter.


    As I compressed it the chakra started to become visible, a bright spot of light in the center of my palm, it started the size of a ping-pong ball but slowly compressed until it became smaller than a nail, finally I felt it stop spinning and become solid in my hand.


    Stopping my efforts I was left huffing with exhaustion and nearly out of chakra again but there was a small seed laying in my hand, the result of my own exclusive ability.


    At first I thought I had been reborn as a Senju and this was my ability to use the mokuton manifesting itself, my very own cheat ability, visions of creating entire forests and subduing tailed beasts appeared before my eyes, no such luck.


    My Kekkei Genkai was different, not only did it not require any hand seals to manifest itself but it also took an enormous amount of chakra for very little result, in fact I could barely create something the size of a finger even by almost killing myself with chakra exhaustion.


    More than that my ability wasn¡¯t restricted to only creating plants, I had actually managed to create some living, breathing ants and other small insects capable of moving, though they only lived for a few seconds before dying.


    It¡¯s a pretty useless power if I think about it but I still trained it every chance I got, perhaps with enough training it will eventually have some use when my chakra grows to jonin level or even further.


    Scratching the wall besides my bed I made a small hole and planted the newly created seed inside, I don¡¯t know if it will be able to survive or grow but I have been planting my seeds everywhere in the village, after all a man can hope.


    Stretching my arms I crossed them behind my head and closed my eyes, there is no such thing as a rest day in the kirigakure shinobi academy and tomorrow the second years training would start without any rest.


    The Kirigakure shinobi academi has an accelerated graduation program thanks to the constant state of war the village faces, during the first year of the academy we were separated into classes with 20 students of varying age and taught by retired or crippled genin, they had terrible skills and were basically cannon fodder that had survived against all odds but they taught us the basics skills of a shinobi, the second year was different, in the second year they taught us how to be kill.


    The first thing I discovered as I arrived at the academy was that our new classes were in a giant classroom with more than 100 students of varying ages, then I noticed the heavy atmosphere of distrust and anger coming from every student.


    I had never really connected with any of my former companions, a combination of my older mental age and the knowledge that I may have to kill some of them latter had made me distance myself as such I didn¡¯t even try to look for them and just studied my new classmates but I didn¡¯t recognize anyone form the anime, no surprise there since there wasn¡¯t many people from the mist appearing on it


    Without paying much attention to it I sat in one of the chairs and waited until the classroom was full, a small girl with dark blue hair sat to my right while an older boy with straight white hair sat to my left.


    An awkward silence hung between us for a few seconds before I decided to introduce myself ¡°Hi, I am Nagami¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I am Rury¡± said the timid girl as she bowed my way making me wonder how did she gather the strength to pass the first year exam and kill someone.


    ¡°Hikuno!¡± almost screamed the boy and smiled revealing a set of sharp dagger like teeth in his mouth, I shuddered.


    Before we could say anything else a Kunoichi walked inside the classroom and everyone became quiet least we anger our new teacher.


    ¡°Good, it seems like everyone is here¡± said the middle aged brunet, she wore the basic shinobi costume from kirigakure with a grey jacked and her forehead protector keeping the hair out of her eyes ¡°My name is Enan and I am the chunin in charge of teaching you for the next year, hopefully you all won¡¯t disappoint me¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    I couldn¡¯t help but swallow at her harsh words before she continued ¡°In your first year of academy you should have learned all the basic abilities necessary for a shinobi, in your second year however you will start learning true ninjutsu and kenjutsu.


    As shinobis from kirigakure the first jutsu you will learn will be the water manipulation jutsu and, for those particularly gifted, I will even teach the water shuriken jutsu, I don¡¯t expect anyone to master water manipulation in this month as full mastery is a thing which even a kage cannot claim but know that in order to graduate the academy you must demonstrate a satisfactory ability with it by the end of this year¡±


    As Enan spoke most of the older boys hang by her every word while the girls gritted their teeth in anger, even I couldn¡¯t help being stunned by her beauty but I quickly shook my head and concentrated in her teaching


    ¡°The hand seal most affiliated with water release is the dog seal and it is the only one you will need for a simple water manipulation, to pass the academy evaluation you will have to be able to expel water from inside your body and manipulate it but, as you¡¯re just beginners I will be teaching you how manipulate already existing water¡±


    Making the snake seal Enan first produced a dozen buckets before changing to the dog seal and created water condensing it from the air itself, at least a dozen liters of water filled the buckets, an impressive feat for a chunin, I was already able to use earth manipulation as I remember its hand seal from the anime so it shouldn¡¯t be that tough a challenge to learn it for a different element.


    I wasn¡¯t able to do much more than splash the water around in my assigned bucket but it was far better than most of the class earning me some praise from my new sensei.


    The next month passed quickly as I learned to use water manipulation to a satisfactory degree, unfortunately I wasn¡¯t the best in class but I easily made it as one of the 16 that got to learn the water shuriken jutsu.


    Learning to use a new jutsu was hard, it wasn¡¯t just knowing the right seals and using them with perfection no it required knowing how to channel your chakra, the right amount to use, how to pull on the energy produced by your body and mix it with that which came from your soul in just the right amount, that¡¯s why, despite being here for 5 years, I had only been able to learn two simple jutsus by myself.


    Water shuriken jutsu wasn¡¯t a very powerful skill to have, a normal shuriken was both stronger and easier to use the only advantage is that there¡¯s no need to prepare the shurikens beforehand and they are endless as long as you have chakra, in resume it was a useful jutsu to have but wouldn¡¯t be winning me any battles, at least not against an opponent I couldn¡¯t overcome in some other way.


    At first I made some effort to interact with Ruri and Hikuno , but it soon became obvious that I was different from them, I was too mature to truly become friends with them but I did help them with their jutsus every once in a while, in the end they didn¡¯t begin to avoid me like everyone else but we also weren¡¯t close, I also couldn¡¯t connect with the instructor, I didn¡¯t worship her like most of the class and that seemed to annoy her to no end.


    Having been recalled to the front lines Enan sensei would stay with the class for the entire year so, when most of the class become able to manipulate water she started us in producing water chakra in our stomachs to expel from the mouth and even creating it outside the body, after a while she even started teaching us our second ninjutsu, the water mist jutsu.


    As for Kenjutsu it was a different story, most of the time we spend two hours training the sword each morning with Enan sensei but, at least once a week one of the shinobi from the front lines who had been hurt or was on leave would come and give us a demonstration.


    Although we started learning ninjutsu and kenjutsu we didn¡¯t stop being instructed in taijutsu and assassination techniques, being the leading student in my class I received the dubious reward of having to execute criminals another two times, one of which was even allowed to fight back nearly beating me senseless before I managed to stick a kunai in his eye and twist it until it reached the brain, the experience left me trembling me and, for the following two days, planning my escape from this village before I realized I had almost died at the hands of a civilian, what chance did I have of running away from a bunch of shinobi.


    As the months went by and the graduation exam started approaching I began to felt more and more desperate, I had no allies in the class and, while I was easily the best student it was far from enough to take on three or four of them at the same time so I spent every single moment awake training either my techniques or my chakra with very little to show for it, I started to before more aggressive and even started planning how to eliminate my strongest enemies before the exam began until I realized it had started to affect my performance in class so, when I meet Kisame for the second time I knew what I had to do.


    Training water walking on the river in which I washed my clothes before creating a new tree seed had become a habit of sorts for me so, when I noticed the sight of a tall blue man sitting on top of a tree by the river I acted, sending chakra to my feet I jumped on the tree and managed to climb it with only four big steps, my movements weren¡¯t silent but Kisame didn¡¯t even look my way.


    ¡°You¡¯re no longer hurt?¡± I noted in order to break the silence between us


    ¡°My clan heals fast, it¡¯s one of the reasons we are so good at war¡± he answered absentmindedly but continued to stare in the distance towards one of the mountains surrounding the village.


    Kisame didn¡¯t look well, after our meeting I had asked some questions and learned he had yet to slay his master but he must still be haunted by what he had done in the long years of protecting information for kirigakure.


    ¡°I want you to teach me¡± I said to the future Akatsuki member, despite being a brutal and ruthless killer Kisame was one of the few members of the sick organization that I wish had survived the forth ninja war, he could have been a really great shinobi had he not been born in kirigakure.


    Scratch that he was a great shinobi having remained true to himself to the very end.


    ¡°Ha, you¡¯re amusing kid but no, I don¡¯t want to train someone I would have to kill latter¡± He said looking at me for the first time since I noticed him, he looked slightly amused so at least I still had a chance so I decided to be a little more candid with him.


    ¡°We¡¯re in Kirigakure, almost everyone I know will have to try and kill me someday¡± I said making my disgust clear for him to see, Kisame just smiled and got up from his sitting position.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s true I guess¡± He said while lifting his sword over his right shoulder ¡°come, lets see what you¡¯ve got¡±


    I watched as he jumped down from the tree and landed with grace on the ground, despite his heavy frame the blue skinned shinobi didn¡¯t even make a sound when he touched the riverbed, narrowing my eyes I tried to do the same and jumped down.


    ¡®Fuck I got carried away!¡¯ I though mid jump and desperately circled my chakra to my feet, I didn¡¯t have the control necessary to imitate him and ended with a superhero landing cracking the ground around me and nearly breaking both of my legs ¡°Ouch!¡±


    Kisame starred at me and lifted an amused eyebrow before burying the tip of his sword on the earth and cracking his neck ¡°Come on kid show me what you¡¯ve got¡±


    I knew that I had absolutely no chance against Kisame but I wanted to at least touch him so I decided to start strong, as I had been simply washing my clothes and training control I didn¡¯t bring a lot of equipment but I never left home without at least two shuriken, a kunai and some smoke bombs for escape so I put my hand in my pocket and pulled four smoke bombs and both shuriken from it allowing him to see them.


    As fast as I could I threw the bombs at my feet creating a big cloud then picked up a stone from the ground, before the smoke could dissipate I threw one of my shuriken at him and formed the Tiger seal for the body flickering technique dashing towards him, still before my body left the cloud I also made the Ram seal and transformed myself into a second shuriken midflight.


    With a smirk Kisame pulled a kunai from his pocket and deflected both shuriken to his right with a dismissive attitude, I almost grunted as the kunai¡¯s edge hit me before unmaking the transformation and striking at his face with my own weapon.


    Kisame¡¯s small eyes opened wide when he saw me but he wasn¡¯t the disciple of one of the seven swordsman of the mist for nothing, reacting fast he leaned his head back allowing my kunai pass harmlessly in front of his eyes and then kicked me in the chest sending me flying and throwing his own kunai towards the middle of my chest.


    Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake!  I formed the four seals with my hands in a desperate hurry as his kunai approached me and substituted my body for the stone I had picked, appearing a few meters to the right in the middle of the river I threw my remaining shuriken at him and formed the Dog, Ox, Snake seals, water release: Water shuriken jutsu!


    My Chakra wasn¡¯t full but I still managed to create 12 shuriken and throw then at him while he was out of position, grabbing the handle of his sword he lifted his whole body out of the way with just the strength of one arm before kicking the handle and flying towards me, I panicked.


    I mean I know it was just a spar but when I saw one of the strongest members of Akatsuki flying towards me I couldn¡¯t help but release a little girls¡¯ scream inside my mind, plus I would have been dead had I not reacted fast enough to his kunai earlier, who knows if it wouldn¡¯t happen again.


    Bringign up my Kunai I slashed it at him but he parried the blow with his own kunai before punching my face sending me skipping through the surface of the river, I only stopped when my back hit a tree, painfully.


    With all the air driven out of my lungs it took me a while to get my bearings and try to push myself up, before I could a heavy hand grabbed me and lifted me up patting my back ¡°Impressive kid, not only were you able to form a viable attack strategy but you also managed to shorten the transformation jutsu to a single hand seal and the substitution jutsu to four, even our genin can¡¯t do that also, do you know any other jutsus besides the water shuriken?¡±


    ¡°Coff¡­ coff¡­ no¡± I wheezed between deep breaths.


    ¡°Bad Idea then, always keep something in reserve kid¡± he said shaking his head ¡°I knew you had another shuriken because I saw it so I was watching out for ranged weapons, had you thrown it I may have been tricked into thinking you were out of options and let my guard down¡±


    ¡°So¡­ ugh, so you¡¯ll¡­ coff, coff, teach me?¡± I panted as I tried to shake off his blow, it wasn¡¯t happening anytime soon.


    ¡°Why the hell not, it could be fun¡±