Fuyōna found himself sitting around the kitchen table with his family. Mei had prepared a delicious meal for them all in celebration of Kimimaro's and Haku's return from their mission, putting on a large spread of expensive foods.
Fuyōna watched as Suiren and Mei both helped to feed Shōto and Asami, although Asami was proving to be hard work as she wanted to do it herself, once again showing even at an early age how determined she was to do everything herself.
However, Kimimaro and Haku both sat quietly as they ate their food, seeming a little down from their last mission, even with the nice food before them.
"Is something wrong boys, something on your mind?" Mei asked, also seeing that they were acting strange compared to usual.
Neither of them flinched, and both of them looked up from their food with Haku flashing Mei a smile.
"Nothing is wrong, Mei. Thank you for the food." Haku said, taking a small mouthful.
Kimimaro, however, said nothing.
"I know what you are both going through." Fuyōna suddenly said, getting both of their attention and seeing right through their little act.
"I too know what it feels like to feel weak, and unable to save a comrade," Fuyōna said, seeming to hit the nail on the head as the look in both boy's eyes changed.
Suiren looked at them both, feeling for them as she remembered the first time she had lost a comrade in battle.
"Is that right?" Mei asked, understanding why they had been acting so glum now.
"That is why I have decided to start the next phase of your training," Fuyōna said, getting a surprised look from both of them, including Mei and Suiren.
"Training! Daddy, I want to train!" Asami shouted as she jumped onto the table waving her arms in the air.
Everyone laughed as she did, causing Fuyōna to give her a big smile and pick her up off of the table before throwing her into the air.
"Sweet child, you will be doing some training of your own for sure," Fuyōna said as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Yay!" She said, popping a bone from the back of her hand as she pulled it out like a knife.
"I'm ready to get the bad guys!" She said, waving the sharp bone around like a toy.
"Don't worry Asami, one day when you are big enough," Fuyōna said, putting her back down before Suiren made her sit back down to finish her food.
Kimimaro couldn't help but notice that she had used the Shikotsumyaku ability and looked at Fuyōna in surprise.
"As you can see, a lot has happened while you were away." He said, smiling at him to put him at ease.
"What do you mean our next phase of training father?" Haku asked, wanting to know more.
"Don't worry about that, for now, let's eat, and tomorrow we will talk more. But only if you eat all of this food that Mei has worked so hard to make." Fuyōna said, getting a nod from both of them before they quickly dug into their food, seeming to be in a better mood now.
Meanwhile...
Fuyōna may have been sitting at home keeping an eye on his boys, but he had used clones to check on the others he had also sent out on the mission, knowing each of them would be taking the loss differently, and some harder than others.
"Kujira, Chika and Rokuro were still in the hospital, although not in critical condition, they were still asleep and expected to make a full recovery, all thanks to Kujira's act of bravery in protecting them.
"Their families had been notified and already been to visit them for the night, of course, those with shinobi families understood the risk to any mission and were simply happy that had made it back safely.
Koyuki also seemed alright and had returned home to her mother. Fuyōna had sworn to Yagura that he would look after the child and keep her safe. And he would honour that promise as best he could, having something planned for her training too.
Last was Hattori and Yuri... It had been their squad member who had been killed by Raiga, a man who had once trained Fuyōna when he served under him as his squad captain. He had tried to contact him after he had taken power, offering him to return to the village, however, every attempt had been tossed aside, and Fuyōna had been left with no choice other than to send trackers after him for the crimes he had committed.
Fuyōna felt a little bit of guilt towards the death of their friend, knowing if he had sent stronger shinobi, then perhaps she would have lived. However, the cost of the war was great on all sides, and he had not had the manpower for such a task.
Yuri seemed to be doing ok, having returned to her home, living alone as both of her parents had been killed on a mission five years ago. She was a quiet girl who had come close to death herself, only being saved by Hattori who she now swore her life to.
Fuyōna could see that she was alright, a little shaken, but ok as she poured some hot water into a bowl of noodles and sat to eat them.
"At least the girl is eating. She understands the loss that shinobi must carry and keeps her emotions in check well." Fuyōna said as he watched her from afar.
"Now, just one more round." He said, leaving her alone for now.
Fuyōna's clone was now heading to the last stop on his list, to see Hattori, who he knew was taking this death the hardest.
Hattori already had a tragic backstory, having had both his father and sister murdered on the orders of Yagura many years ago. The boy was from a family of nobles that stretched back to the founding of the village hidden in the mist, and once Fuyōna had learned of his survival, he had sworn to restore his family, also making the boy a shinobi at his own request.
His current home was a manner house that had once belonged to his family before Yagura had taken it from them. Of course, Fuyōna had given it back to the boy and provided it with housekeeping fit of a noble of the land of water. Yet Hattori spent very little time in it, feeling that the house was too big for his liking.
Fuyōna could see that he wasn't home and had an idea of where he might be, proceeding to go looking in the usual spots he had found the boy before.
Soon enough he stumbled upon his training as he punched a large stump on one of the training grounds that was located on the outskirts of the village. Hattori was really going at it, even using his steel release to strike the post, easily chipping away the wood from the force of his punches.
"It's my fault... I couldn't save her." Fuyōna heard him mutter as he continued to throw his punches.
"It's my fault!" Hattori yelled, striking the post with all of his might, snapping the wood in half as it flew into the ground with a large thud.
"I'm still not strong enough!" He shouted, as he dropped to his knees and slammed his fists into the ground.
"Still too weak..."
"Hattori," Fuyōna said softly as he stepped out of the shadows, surprising the boy.
Hattori spun around in surprise, already knowing whose voice the words belonged.
"L-Lord Mizukage!" He said in shock, quickly standing up.
"It's alright Hattori, you can relax." Fuyōna said, giving the boy a smile.
Hattori did so and slowly slumped his shoulders.
"What are you doing here, sir." He said, slowly turning his head away from Fuyōna.
"I came to check on you actually, you know, see what you were up to?" Fuyōna said, walking over to the boy.
"Well, I'm fine. You don't need to come and check on me." He said, trying to hide his emotions.
"Is that so?" Fuyōna said, placing his hands on his hips.
Fuyōna looked at the log and then back to Hattori, whistling before he walked over to it.
"Looks like you were doing some intense training?" Fuyōna said before looking back at Hattori.
"But it would seem that the log couldn't keep up with you. So to me, it looks like you are in need of a sparing partner." Fuyōna said, causing Hattori to look at him in surprise.
"Sir?" He asked, not understanding.
"What's wrong Hattori? Am I not good enough of a training partner for you or something?" Fuyōna said as he took a fight position.
Hattori was still surprised and shuck his head.
"No sir, it's not that, it's just..." He said, not knowing what to do.
"Well don't stand around all day, defend yourself!" Fuyōna said as he suddenly dashed forwards, throwing a downwards hammer fist towards Hattori's head, forcing him to react and block the strike with his forearm.
"Not bad, but let's see how you handle this!" Fuyōna said with a large smile before he used his foot to hook around one of Hattori's, pulling it from the ground so he was off balance.
Hattori stumbled as he was forced to support his weight with only one leg, trying to steady himself as he watched Fuyōna jump from the ground with his other leg, spinning around and driving a spinning back kick into his stomach.
"Nice block!" Fuyōna said, seeing that Hattori had used his steel release to reinforce his stomach and block the attack as he landed back onto the ground, getting ready to counterattack.
"Now he's getting into it." Fuyōna thought, watching as the boy disappeared using his swift release.
Fuyōna waited for only a moment before he slightly dropped his head backwards, avoiding a roundhouse kick from Hattori who had appeared in mid-air next to him.
"Not bad, but too predictable," Fuyōna said, teasing him before he vanished again.
Hattori was moving quickly, appearing as only a blur before he attacked each time. However, no matter how fast he moved he was unable to land one hit on Fuyōna who dodged each time, keeping pace with him even though he was moving almost too fast for the naked eye to even see.
"Come on Hattori, no need to hold back!" Fuyōna said as he grabbed the boy's arm, spinning him around before he tossed him high into the air.
"How are you going to deal with this one!" Fuyōna said, also getting into it now.
"Water blast jutsu!" Fuyōna said as he made the hand signs, suddenly letting out a large blast of water style from his mouth towards Hattori as he fell right towards it.
Hattori had nothing to push off in the air and couldn't use his swift style to avoid the attack, knowing he had to use his steel style to block it.
"No..." Hattori suddenly said, getting a bad feeling from the jutsu that Fuyōna had used.
Hattori quickly pulled out a kunai and tossed it into the air making a hand sign.
"Transformation jutsu." He said, turning the kunai into a solid body of his own appearance before he kicked off of it, pushing himself out of the way as the water style made contact with the clone, freezing around it.
"I knew it," Hattori said, as he flipped backwards and landed on his feet.
"He was able to sense that, that was no ordinary water style, and even used a transformation jutsu with a kunai to get out of the way... Impressive." Fuyōna said while watching to see what he would do next.
Hattori maintained a low stance as he watched Fuyōna carefully, seeming to have forgotten about all of his problems, having fun facing such a powerful opponent such as the Mizukage.
"Alright then, how about this!" Hattori said as he started to form hand signs.
Fuyōna noticed the horse and dragon sign, giving him the suspicion that he was about to use a fire jutsu.
"Not bad Hattori, I didn't realise you were so well versed in ninjutsu," Fuyōna said, preparing to defend against the fire style.
"Fire style, phoenix flower jutsu!" Hattori shouted before he released his scatter fire style.
"Not bad..." Fuyōna said, raising his hand.
Hattori wasn't done there though, and quickly disappeared, moving at incredible speed as he dashed between his fire style to blend into it and threw a barrage of shuriken, mixing them in with the fire style for cover.
Fuyōna used his hand to create a water wall, seeing the shuriken at the last second before he turned the water wall to ice, stopping the fire and ninja stars dead in their tracks.
"I've got you now!" Hattori said as he appeared behind Fuyōna with his hand raised in a knife hand, mixing it with his steel release to create a powerful spear.
"A great effort, Hattori. But you feel for my trap." Fuyōna said with a smile on his face.
Hattori was confused but felt his foot stick to the ground, looking down at it before the ice sprang to life and engulfed him in a large pillar, trapping him inside its hollow shell.
"Checkmate," Fuyōna said as he turned to face him, getting a nod from Hattori who acknowledged his defeat.
Fuyōna let the ice melt freeing Hattori before he placed his hands on his hips.
"That sure was a close call, Hattori. You should be proud of your strength, honestly, you are so strong I have fought jonin who would lose to you." Fuyōna said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Thank you, sir, but I know you were hardly trying..." Hattori said, flashing a small smile.
Fuyōna got serious all of a sudden and let his smile fade from his lips.
"Hattori... You cannot blame yourself for the death of Miyako. Your opponent was not a simple shinobi." Fuyōna said, watching the expression turn on the boy's face.
"I know..." Hattori said looking down at the floor.
"Look Hattori, if you don't ever want to feel like this again then you have to become stronger. I know what you are going through, and the only way you can protect the people you care about is to become stronger."
"And that is something I can offer you, Hattori," Fuyōna said, watching as a burning desire lit in the boy's eyes.
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Thats the end for this one!
Some big training coming up for the mist genin real soon.
As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you all for the support.
Have a great day!