Karin's battle had ended with the blood of the grass nins, all hers. Now it was Kiyomi's turn.
"This one's mine," she said calmly, yet the Sharingan flaring in her eyes was evident enough that she wasn't taking a no in this case.
Karin had nothing to say. She wasn't even worried about Kiyomi's safety, not just because the girl didn't like the other one, but because Sukuna was present there. And at least among the doctor's circle, it was known that Sukuna was arguably the best doctor in the village, only second to Tsunade Senju, and that too she believed they exaggerated her expertise in this area.
She had never seen anyone heal better than the pink-haired boy before, not even her own bloodline power could heal better than that.
Not that he will let it to come to that. She had completely believe in her strength. After all she and she alone know his real power.
That thought alone gave her some relief.
As for Sukuna himself, he instead wished to see what the girl was capable of now after training for this long. He hoped to see improvement.
The team they encountered was rather insignificant: three shinobi from Amegakure. Shigure at the front, calm and composed. Baiu lingered to the side, eyes sharp. Midare in the rear, already forming hand signs, rain-slick chakra clinging to his movements.
To anyone, they wouldn't know they weren't as significant as it seemed. They were from Amegakure. That was the Rain Village. The very same one which was currently controlled by Pain.
The current leader of Akatsuki. None knew this when they first watched Naruto, and later even in Shippuden they didn't recognize this.
Kiyomi exhaled slowly and rolled her shoulders. "Time to see how much I have gotten stronger."
And then she vanished.
Shigure barely managed to raise his guard before Kiyomi crashed into him like a battering ram out of nowhere, and that too only because Kiyomi let them know she was coming. She wasn't hiding the fact; she wished for a straight-on fight, not an assassination.
Her fist slammed into his ribs with a dull, sickening crack, lifting him off his feet and sending him skidding through wet earth. The sheer weight behind the blow was wrong—too heavy for someone her frame, too dense for a little girl's body.
"A Taijutsu specialist!" Baiu shouted, backing off seeing how Shigure was sent flying.
Kiyomi was already moving again by then though. Deciding to start with pure Taijutsu, she ducked under a sweeping kick from Midare, twisted, and drove her elbow into his spine.
Chakra surged through her muscles, curse energy reinforcing bone and tendon until her body moved like a weapon sharpened too far. Midare slammed into a tree trunk hard enough to splinter bark.
Rain needles screamed through the air.
Her Sharingan spun. She instantly calculated the incoming trajectory and moved her body with unreal flexibility to dodge the incoming attack. And then her eyes connected with the enemy.
The battlefield warped.
Shigure saw Kiyomi rush him again—only for her to split into three, then six, then dissolve into flickering shadows. Baiu, beside Shigure, shouted warnings that arrived half a second too late. Their formations broke as each reacted to a different illusion, and teamwork fell apart instantly.
Genjutsu wasn't about dominance. Izumi had drilled that into her. Izumi was about flexibility. It was about timing.
Kiyomi appeared behind Baiu and drove a knee into his back, then grabbed his collar and hurled him straight into Shigure. They crashed together in a heap of limbs and mud. She wasn't letting them use any bigger jutsu with her speed.
Midare roared and charged, chakra flooding his blade.
Kiyomi met him head-on.
Steel sang as she drew the blades Sukuna gave her.
---<>---
[Flash Back]
The training ground was quiet, broken only by the dull rhythm of steel cutting air.
Kiyomi halted mid-swing when Sukuna stepped closer and dropped two blades onto the ground between them. They were familiar—Kiba blades—but changed. The cruel side fangs that once jutted from their edges were gone, the profile cleaner, sharper, more honest.
However, they weren't just one of the legendary blades anymore. Though he never got to actually using them in a real fight, he trained with them excessively, enough to know that blades weren't his thing. His talent wasn't in them.
Shame, but during that time the blades were getting soaked with his sharp and dark curse energy, converting the blades into curse tools.
A curse tool which now had his technique imbued into them. The cutting power of these blades was beyond anything the ninja world has, at least in Sukuna's opinion.
She frowned. "Blades?"
"Not just any blades, they are one of the 7 legendary blades from Kiri," Sukuna corrected, hands in his pockets. "I altered them. Removed the excess to make them a bit sleeker and to prevent Kiri shinobi from recognizing them. The Kiba Blades, they call them."
Kiyomi nodded and then raised her brow. "And you're telling me this because?" she asked flatly.
He shrugged. "Now they are yours."
Kiyomi blinked. Did she hear him right? He's giving them to her? Why? She didn't look happy; if anything, she looked suspicious.
Kiyomi picked a blade up. The weight felt right. Balanced. Dangerous. She could feel it immediately—the residue of Sukuna's curse energy soaked deep into the metal, his technique etched into its existence like a scar that would never fade.
Her eyes widened when she saw the lingering curse energy in the blades. She wasn't a curse tool expert, Maki was, but she knew what a high quality, potentially A or S grade curse tool was.
And this had his curse technique imbued in it.
"You're giving them to me?" she gulped.
"I don't use them," Sukuna said simply. "Tried it, but could never get used to them. Not like how you do. I'm bad at kenjutsu unlike you. They are better in your hands than mine, at least they will be more useful."
She stared at him. "Is this some sort of trick?"
"Ah, you wound me, Kiyomi-chan..." he said with a mock hurt tone.
"You really think I'll try to trick you like this."
"Absolutely." The girl didn't even wait a second before replying.
"How rude." Sukuna snorted.
"There is no trick, I'm giving them because they are useless to me. And this way you don't have to rely much on your technique, saving it for when it really matters, since your technique is still highly inefficient." Sukuna shrugged.
Kiyomi was silent for a long moment, looking at the blades then at him.
'Why?... Why helping me like this...' she genuinely asked herself. Yes, he made it completely clear that he needed something from her, but was just getting inside her head worth this much...
Some might think it wasn't her head he wanted to get in but her pants at this rate...
She mused to that thought, her silly little head generating nonsense again...
"I... Hmm, thanks. I won't waste them," she said.
"I know," Sukuna replied, turning away. "Oh... by the way, did I tell you what happens when you pour your CE in them..."
[Flash Back Ends]
---<>---
The moment curse energy flowed into them, lightning screamed alive. Blue-white arcs crawled along the edges, Sukuna's lingering presence twisting the air around the swords into something sharp and hateful.
Midare's kunai met her blade and snapped cleanly in half.
His eyes widened.
Kiyomi didn't slow. One slash carved through the tree beside him, trunk splitting as if it were wet paper. Another cut forced him back, boots tearing trenches in the ground. Every movement was precise, efficient, drilled into her bones through endless punishment under Sukuna's watch.
Then it happened.
Midare lunged desperately.
Kiyomi stepped in—and struck. With her Sharingan out, she was in complete focus on the fight.
Curse energy aligned perfectly for an instant. Fist, intent, timing.
*Black Flash...
Black lightning cracked through the air.
The impact folded Midare around her punch and blasted him into the ground, leaving a spiderweb crater beneath his body. He didn't get up.
Kiyomi stared at her hand for half a heartbeat. Lips curling in satisfaction, this was her second Black Flash.
She was getting good.
Shigure staggered to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth. Baiu stood beside him, shaking but defiant. They attacked together, desperate now.
Kiyomi sighed.
"I don't need it, but I want to test this," she muttered.
Curse energy poured outward, heavy and precise. Her innate technique was activated.
Metal screamed into existence.
In her hand formed a handgun, the one she used to use. She felt the drain immediately, curse energy vanishing like water through torn cloth.
Thirty percent. Gone. Just like that. That was almost like using her Mangekyo. Though she only used one in testing, so she wasn't sure how much further Mangekyo could drain her.
She raised the weapon anyway and pulled the trigger. And the almost unknown weapon drew no caution from the genins.
It's not that firearms didn't exist in this world, they are just not that popular and very behind the times. The handgun Kiyomi was using was rather modern to recognize for a regular user, let alone an ignorant Rain genin.
The sound was thunder. And the attack was like lightning itself.
Baiu's head snapped back as the bullet tore through him. He fell without a sound, eyes empty before his body hit the ground.
Silence followed.
Shigure froze.
Kiyomi stored the gun for the future, chest rising and falling as fatigue finally crept in. She rolled her neck, electricity still crackling faintly along the Kiba blades.
"This technique," she said quietly, almost annoyed, "is still garbage." She grumbled. She still hadn't achieved the liquid metal Sukuna talked about; doing so in just a few months was impossible. However, she had improved.
She stepped forward.
Shigure dropped his weapon.
"Wait... wait. Let me go, I yield. You want the scroll, right? Take it, just don't kill me..." Shigure panicked.
When it was over, Kiyomi stood alone amid shattered earth and broken trees, blood on her sleeves, eyes steady.
She wasn't satisfied.
But she knew one thing now.
She had grown monstrously strong, and a smile appeared on her face.
xXx
A/N : If any one of you are wondering why I didn't show Karin's fight, is cause his fighting style is very similar, nothing has changed honestly. Not to mention her strength should be around the Chunin level as well.
Not to mention, knowing about her past seems more interesting to me than just another fight scene, right?
If not then what can I do, just asked for more stones... Shameless I know. But Stones Matters.
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