Thud, thud, thud!
The sound of bodies colliding kept echoing through the air.
The scene shifted from the noisy streets to a forest where almost no one came. Deep in the woods was a training ground that had been abandoned for years. The wooden dummies were cracked and half rotted, weeds had taken over, and the place looked like it had not seen maintenance in ages.
On a patch of open ground they had cleared out themselves, a boy and a girl were locked in a taijutsu fight so intense it would have looked outrageous to anyone their age.
There was no hesitation, no holding back because of gender, no polite restraint. They fought with everything they had, using their physical ability and their brains. The moment either of them gained the slightest advantage, they immediately pressed it with a storm of follow up attacks, like they were determined to beat the other into a bruised mess.
The two kids were Yami and Kushina.
Naturally, Kushina was the one who looked worse. Her cute, round face was covered in bruises, and her hair and clothes were smeared with dust and marked with footprints.
Yami, on the other hand, only had some dirt on his clothes. There was not a single bruise on his face.
But if you looked closely, you would notice something strange.
Yami's expression was extremely serious.
His entire body was tight, tense, like he was facing a dangerous enemy.
Kushina had entered a berserk state. She was showing off the Uzumaki talent in the most direct way possible, ignoring pain, forcing herself through Yami's hits, trying to trade injuries for injuries.
Against Kushina's wild, chaotic punches and that bull like charging rush, Yami kept retreating, constantly dodging and slipping away.
He had to.
Last time, Yami got careless and took one of Kushina's angry punches head on. He almost threw up everything he had eaten, including last night's food.
If Yami used Body Flicker, he could toy with Kushina. He could keep her dangling, hit her whenever he wanted, and never let her touch him.
If he did not use Body Flicker, he could still suppress her with pure reaction speed and clean technique. His eyes could follow her and his body could respond fast enough to keep control.
But the moment Kushina stopped caring about pain, the situation flipped.
Then it was Yami who started getting pressured.
This was the gap in talent.
Senju, Uzumaki, Kaguya, Hyuga, Uchiha. These five clans tied to the Otsutsuki lineage had gifts that made everyone jealous.
Once their blood awakened, they could become prodigies in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, sealing, sensing, and medical techniques with ridiculous ease.
If they fully realized that potential, they would not just be good. They would become masters.
Kushina had not even awakened the unique Uzumaki abilities yet, and she was already showing the makings of a steel fist monster.
Even so, the future steel fist master had finally hit her limit.
"Aaah! Can you stop dodging?! If you've got guts, let me hit you just once!" Kushina snarled, so furious her hair looked like it was trying to stand up on its own.
Yami scoffed. "If you can't hit me, that means you're too weak. Go train more."
Kushina stared at him, teeth grinding. That mocking face was unbearable.
But then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she crossed her arms and smirked coldly.
"Fine. Keep acting tough while you can. Later you'll have plenty of chances to cry."
Yami's brow twitched. He beckoned her over with a concerned look.
"Come here. Let me check you. Sorry about that. I must've hit you too hard and smashed your brain."
"Yami, you bastard!"
Kushina charged at him, only for Yami to extend his long arm and press a palm against her forehead.
No matter how she swung her fists, she could not reach him.
After a round of scuffling and yelling, Yami treated her injuries again.
Kushina's cooperation and the way she moved like it was normal made it obvious that a lot of time had passed since their first fight.
On the way back, Kushina asked, "Tomorrow's the final exam. What are you doing during the break?"
Her eyes were full of expectation, like she was hinting at something on purpose.
Yami acted like he did not see it and replied with two words, flat as ever.
"Training."
"You training maniac. All you do is train," Kushina complained, then immediately added, "Take me with you."
Yami did not respond, still cool and silent.
Kushina knew him well enough now. That silence was permission.
Her anticipation for the break instantly doubled, and so did her motivation to get stronger.
Seeing the change in her, Yami laughed quietly to himself.
This way of getting along was exactly what he intended.
Part of it was to show the higher ups that he was changing. More importantly, it was to push Kushina to grow.
As someone who knew the future, no one understood better than Yami that after the Second Great Ninja War ended, the next era should have been named after the Uzumaki.
Because in this era, there were two seedlings with the potential to become beyond kage monsters, both carrying Uzumaki blood.
Those two were Nagato and Kushina.
One had the Rinnegan transplanted into him.
The other would become the complete Nine Tails jinchuriki.
If those two had not willingly become someone else's tools, and if they had not been heavily weakened, the stars of the Third Great Ninja War would not have been Minato or the A B duo at all.
A healthy Nagato would have at least six nature transformations. He would not need to split his power into six bodies. He could use the full Six Paths strength alone, summon the Outer Path Statue, and unleash that chakra dragon that killed anything it touched.
Other than sealing and space time abilities, there were very few ways to truly counter him.
As for Kushina, staying under the Senju roof gave her access to Senju secret techniques, and she also had the Uzumaki sealing legacy.
Her future was that of a steel fist master and a sealing master.
If she awakened healing through vitality, she could become an even greater medical powerhouse than Tsunade, the kind of medic who could pull someone back as long as there was still a breath left.
With Adamantine Sealing Chains, a technique that specialized against tailed beasts, entering Nine Tails Chakra Mode was practically guaranteed.
Naruto with only half of the Nine Tails, plus Sage Mode, already reached beyond kage territory.
A complete Nine Tails jinchuriki like Kushina would only be stronger.
And if she could also learn Sage Mode, her upper limit would be a strengthened version of Mito.
With potential like that, how could Yami let Kushina become nothing more than a decoration?
He was going to raise her into a super powerhouse.
His strongest right hand.
…
Konoha, Year 33, December 23.
For the Ninja Academy, this was another special day.
Because it was the last day of the second semester.
All grades from one through six were holding their semester finals.
In the morning, it was still written exams.
In the afternoon, it was combat assessment.
The Academy's combat assessment was divided into three stages.
Grades one and two were the first stage.
At this stage, combat class was only shuriken throwing and taijutsu sparring. As for real tools, the students only got actual shuriken during finals. Normally they trained by throwing stones instead.
Grades three and four were the second stage.
At this stage, there was an added survival drill, and both throwing and taijutsu were upgraded.
Shuriken throwing gained an additional kunai throwing segment.
Taijutsu sparring became a near third stage format, a pseudo no rules match.
What was a no rules match?
It meant anything went.
Substitution, Clone, Transformation, elemental techniques, genjutsu, Body Flicker, bloodline abilities, kunai and other tools. If you had it, you could use it.
This was the strictest and most unfair test in the Academy, because its purpose was to simulate the life and death reality of the battlefield.
For taijutsu sparring, there was only a standard medic nearby.
For a true no rules match, in addition to the teacher acting as referee, there had to be two medical ninja on site who could use advanced healing techniques.
However, that level of test was reserved for fifth and sixth years. For the third and fourth year pseudo no rules matches, weapons and elemental techniques were still not allowed.
(End of Chapter)
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