And so, early the next morning, the devil training began. First, they engaged in basic exercises, throwing shuriken while running.
Then came ninjutsu training, dodging stones thrown by Kurenai while weaving hand seals and performing jutsu. They repeated this process hundreds of times.
After completing these exercises, they engaged in face-to-face combat with Kurenai for half an hour. And this was just the morning session for Team 8.
"Kurenai-sensei, this is so tiring!"
At noon, Hina said, gasping for breath. She had never undergone this kind of training before, and she was already feeling exhausted after just one morning.
However, this was nothing for Kaoru and Shin. The training in Root was harsh and brutal, and Kaoru had never slacked off in his own training.
"Alright, that's the end of this morning's training. You can all go and eat now," Kurenai said, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "After lunch, meet back here at two o'clock sharp!"
"Ah, there's more..." Hina said, her face falling.
"Come on, come on, the first step to becoming an excellent ninja is to learn to endure hardship. I'll see you all this afternoon!"
Kurenai said, smiling, before using the Body Flicker Technique to vanish.
After Kurenai left, the three members of Team 8 headed home together.
Shin was contemplating whether to reveal Danzō's plan to Kaoru, while Kaoru was wary of Shin.
They remained silent, and Hina, sensing the tension, didn't know what to say. The three walked in silence.
Meanwhile, in a fairly spacious alleyway...
The scenery in Konoha is much prettier than in Iwagakure. That damned village is always a dull, earthy brown.
But it would be even prettier here if I could blow this place to smithereens, yeah.
The speaker was a young boy, who appeared to be a little older than Kaoru, around nine years old.
The boy had shoulder-length blonde hair, his left eye obscured by the hair that fell over his forehead. He had a short braid at the end of his hair.
He was walking through the alleyway, looking around at the scenery with a nonchalant air.
"Thump!" As he was admiring the scenery, he failed to notice the path ahead and bumped into a child who was walking in the opposite direction.
The boy remained standing, but the child was knocked to the ground.
"Hey, brat, can't you see where you're going?" the boy said, glaring angrily at the child who had fallen.
The child was only five or six years old. Seeing the boy looking at him with such a fierce expression, he panicked.
"S-sorry, I-I didn't see you!" the child said, bowing repeatedly to the boy, his face filled with fear.
"You're pretty polite. In that case, you can go," the boy said, smiling slightly.
"Th-thank you, big brother!" the child said, nodding his head like a pecking chicken, and prepared to leave.
"Wait!" the boy said again. "Since you're so polite, I'll give you a little something, yeah."
With that, the boy held out his right hand. To the child's shock, a mouth was embedded in the palm of the boy's hand, and the mouth appeared to be chewing something.
"Big brother, why is there a mouth on your hand..." Seeing this bizarre sight, the child became even more frightened.
The boy smiled, but didn't answer. He gently shook his right hand and then flicked his wrist, sending a large number of small, white objects flying into the air.
The objects scattered around the child.
"What are those...?" The child squinted, and then realized that the objects were small, white spiders!
"How about that? A nice present, right?!" the boy said, laughing maniacally, his face twisted into a grotesque grin.
"Spiders..." Seeing the disgusting spiders all around him, the child burst into tears. He didn't dare to stay there any longer, and took a step to flee.
"Bang!" A sharp explosion rang out, and one of the small spiders in front of the child suddenly detonated!
"Aah!" the child screamed, knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion.
"Don't wander off, now..." the boy said, grinning.
"That was just a demonstration. If you accidentally step on one of these spiders, they'll explode, yeah..."
"E-explode?" The child stared in shock, as if the boy's words were a curse from hell.
"That's right!" the boy said, standing up straight.
"This is one of my little creations, a test of life and death as a reward for you. After all, only explosions can be considered art, yeah!"
The child stared at the boy's crazed face, completely paralyzed with fear.
"What's wrong? Don't just stand there like an idiot!" the boy shouted.
"If you just stand there, I'll make these spiders crawl all over you and blow you to smithereens!"
"N-no..." The child trembled and stood up again, carefully avoiding the spiders on the ground as he slowly walked away.
"Hmm, he's a pretty good kid, yeah..." The boy said, frowning as he saw the child successfully avoiding the spider bombs.
"Bang!" Just as the child was about to escape the range of the spider bombs, the boy let out a playful shout.
Caught off guard, the child was startled by the boy's shout and lost his balance, falling directly toward the spiders on the ground.
"Haha, as I thought, my explosions are the ultimate..."
Before the boy could finish his sentence, another figure appeared on the scene.
A blue-haired boy suddenly appeared next to the child, his feet landing precisely in a spot where there were no spiders.
He held a brush in his left hand, and his right arm was wrapped securely around the falling child!
The newcomer was Shin!
"Seriously, you bastard, you've ruined my art!" the blonde-haired boy shouted, making hand seals and sending the spiders swarming toward Shin.
Shin frowned. Holding the child, he pushed off the ground with his feet, preparing to dodge the spiders.
"Too slow!" the boy shouted. Shin's reaction was a split second too slow, and it looked like his feet were about to be caught by the spiders.
"Chirp!" Just then, a hawk's cry rang out, and an eagle suddenly swooped into the scene!
The eagle was as black as ink, a clear indication that it was one of Shin's Super Beast Imitating Drawings!
Shin's eyes narrowed. He stepped on the eagle's back with his left foot, using it as a springboard to propel himself higher into the air. The spiders bit onto the eagle's body!
"Bang, bang, bang!" Several explosions rang out, and the spider bombs and the eagle were reduced to ashes.
"You ruined my art! You'll pay for that with your life!" the boy shouted, flipping his left wrist before Shin could land.
A white clay bomb appeared in his hand.
"Die!" the boy shouted, throwing the clay bomb at Shin.
____________________
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