The road to Konoha stretched long and quiet beneath a sky painted with gray clouds. The Land of Fire lay just beyond the borders of the Rain Country, and Kaito and Soka traveled side by side, their steps steady, their eyes sharp. They had grown accustomed to silence on the road—silence broken only by the sound of rustling leaves, the crunch of dirt beneath their sandals, or the occasional hiss of a blade being drawn for practice. But today, Kaito broke that silence with a grin tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Let's spar," he said, golden eyes flashing with challenge.
Soka tilted her head at him, her black hair falling over one shoulder in her transformed appearance. "Now? We've been walking for hours."
"Exactly," Kaito replied, already stretching his shoulders. "Our blood is stiff. We need to loosen it. Come on. Don't tell me you're afraid."
Her eyes narrowed, a mix of amusement and defiance. "Afraid of you? Never."
The moment the words left her mouth, she blurred forward, water chakra forming around her hands in a spiral twist. Kaito sidestepped, the wind around him surging like an invisible cloak as his body flickered away.
Their spar began not with caution but with ferocity.
Soka struck first with a powerful Water Style: Water Cannon, the jet of pressurized liquid roaring from her mouth like a spear. Kaito drew Kibō to Shinkō in a smooth motion, slicing the torrent apart with a gleam of steel. The spray exploded into mist, cloaking the field around them.
The mist swirled, and Soka was already in motion. From within the veil, she unleashed Fire Style: Flame Dragon Bullet, three blazing torrents shaped like dragons cutting through the haze. The sudden clash of water and fire hissed violently, steam boiling outward in every direction.
Kaito smirked, chakra flooding into his legs. He surged upward, leaping above the flames, his body spinning. With a twist of his wrist, his blade hummed with cutting wind.
Wind Style: Great Penetration!
A piercing current of compressed air lanced downward, cutting through the fire dragon and splitting the ground. The earth cracked with a thunderous boom, debris flying. But Soka was already moving, her silhouette weaving through the chaos, and with a fluid handseal sequence, she struck again.
Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!
A flood burst forth from beneath her, the battlefield drowning in an ocean conjured from pure chakra. Waves roared, swallowing the shattered earth, rising high enough to crush Kaito beneath their weight.
But he didn't flee. He dropped into the sea of rushing water, golden eyes narrowing as markings began to glow faintly on his hands. The energy of nature flowed into him, amplifying everything.
Sage Mode: Whirlpool.
His strikes were no longer just sword swings—they were whirlwinds. He slashed horizontally, and the water around his blade spiraled into a vortex, splitting the incoming wave into two walls that crashed harmlessly to either side of him. The force of the rotation was so strong that chunks of rock hidden in the water shattered to dust.
Soka clicked her tongue, sweat already trickling down her brow. "You're too reckless!"
But she refused to yield. Forming another sequence of seals, she slammed her palm down into the water.
Water Prison Jutsu!
The flood condensed, twisting around Kaito until a sphere of liquid locked into place, an orb of water holding him still as if he were trapped in glass. Its pressure constricted his chest, cutting off his breath.
"Got you," Soka muttered, one hand pressed against the prison, chakra channeling to keep it stable.
But Kaito only smirked inside the swirling sphere. "Not quite."
Lightning sparked across his skin. In the next heartbeat, the sphere erupted with electricity. The water prison became a conductor, shocking outward. Soka cried out, the current blasting across her arm, forcing her to leap back. The prison burst apart in a shower of droplets, and Kaito emerged, golden eyes gleaming with challenge.
In a blur, he was on her. Their blades clashed—Kibō to Shinkō against Soka's kunai reinforced with chakra. Sparks burst between them as they exchanged furious strikes, each blow carrying the weight of their training.
Kaito twisted his body, channeling his technique.
Kenjutsu: Destruction of Hope!
His strikes became a storm of yellow arcs, each slash faster, heavier, wider than the last. The sheer pressure tore grooves into the ground, each cut creating shockwaves that forced Soka onto the defensive. Her arms trembled under the relentless barrage, every block threatening to shatter her guard.
But she refused to crumble.
With a fierce glare, she let fire erupt in her lungs.
Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!
A wall of roaring flame burst outward, colliding with the wind pressure of his slashes. The air ignited, the battlefield erupting into a maelstrom of wind, fire, and sparks. Their bodies blurred inside the chaos, exchanging kicks, punches, and counters with a ferocity that would have crushed most seasoned shinobi.
Soka ducked beneath a strike, chakra flaring in her palm as green light enveloped her hand. She struck upward.
Mystical Palm—Combat Application!
Her healing chakra wasn't only for mending—it could also destabilize. When her hand grazed Kaito's ribs, he felt the dissonance ripple through his body, a sudden ache shooting up his side.
He gritted his teeth and responded with a brutal knee, slamming into her midsection and sending her flying back across the battlefield.
The ground cracked where she landed, water splashing upward as she rolled to her feet, gasping but still standing.
Few hours later....
They stared at each other across the smoking, flooded field, their bodies trembling with exhaustion, their chests heaving from the relentless clash. Yet both smiled.
This was what they had forged themselves for—an unyielding crucible that forced them to sharpen, to grow, to rise higher than anyone their age had a right to.
Several more exchanges followed—Kaito summoning clones laced with lightning to hound her, Soka responding with whirlpools of water that trapped and drowned the doppelgangers in bursts of sizzling sparks. Back and forth, strike after strike, until finally, after hours of battle, they collapsed into the muddy ground side by side, staring up at the drifting clouds above.
"You've gotten stronger," Kaito murmured, voice hoarse but amused.
"So have you," Soka answered, smirking faintly. "But next time… I'll win."
"Dream on," Kaito muttered, chuckling softly.
Days later, the two black-haired children—Kaito and Soka beneath their transformation jutsu—walked steadily toward the massive gates of Konoha. From a distance, the village looked peaceful, its walls towering, its watchtowers vigilant.
Kaito's eyes narrowed. With a thought, he activated the Eye of Reality. The world shifted. He saw chakra networks of every guard, their emotions, their focus, their positions. Every illusion was stripped bare. For twenty minutes, he could sustain this vision now, the strain under his control.
He watched the patrols, noted the gaps, then deactivated it with a sigh. "There. We have our opening."
When the guards' attention faltered, Kaito and Soka blurred forward with terrifying speed. In a heartbeat, they slipped past the great gates unseen, shadows darting into the heart of the Leaf Village.
Kaito glanced at Soka, a mischievous grin tugging at his lips. "I've got an idea. What if we destroy half of Konoha, just for fun?"
Soka glared at him, exasperation clear in her eyes. "You're impossible."
He chuckled, but then his expression darkened, the smirk fading into something colder, sharper. "Tomorrow… they'll try to kidnap Kushina. She carries my blood. I won't let it happen."
His words hung heavy in the quiet night as the two vanished deeper into the village, shadows swallowed by the Leaf's unsuspecting streets.
End of Chapter.
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I saw that most of the votes were for Kaito to be a villain and to explore the world or form his organization, so I'll do that. I'll see if he will form his organization or not depending on your votes.
If you review or give a Power Stone, I'll give you an extra chapter.
A Power Stone: an extra chapter.
A positive review: an extra chapter.
This would help me a lot and would also attract more people, so I'd make more chapters per day.