Coming across Akatsuki
"Well anyway, since your chunin exams will be in Kumogakure we will travel through Fire Nation incognito so make sure to be vigilant at all times. Consider this part of your training since we will be deep in enemy territory" Ao spoke was he leads the two of them as the three of them left the borders of Amegakure and entering the lands of Fire, following the pathway through Natsu province they stopped at several villages, towns and cities along the way till they reach Hijin Temple which was a day's trip from Reach Hojo City before they can finally reach the Valley of the End.
"Good morning Benefactors, could I know what you came to visit this Monk's temple for?" a Bald man wearing a blue Shaolin style robe was standing near the gate entrance, Ao took a step forward cupping his fist before bowing. "We would like to inquire about the men you paid just a moment ago" Hearing what Ao wanted to know the monk could not help but squint his eyes, "Why would you want to know that?"
"Those people are criminals so naturally, they will have people investigating them, we are one of them. Could it be you are part of them?" The monk was taken aback by Ao's fierce glare as he shook his head while laughing, "No way that could be true Benefactor, we paid them to deal with a traitor who betrayed our temple, nothing more and nothing less" The monk answered, "Where are they heading for?" The monk pointed in the direction Ao and the rest were originally planned to head for, "Hojo City"
Ao nodded before turning to wave his hands indicating it was time to move, Yuuma and Chojuro followed after Ao who was taking long strides to catch up with the assassins. 'Akatsuki is an old organisation but their activity bloomed too sudden, I feel it may have a connection with Yagura's death' Ao thought while leading the way, 'perhaps we can capture one of them and interrogate them'
To reach Hojo City, the three of them had to run along the borders of Hijin lake along the way Yuuma was practising his control over his chakra. The reason he focused mostly on his control right now, was the fact he started to realize that he had no longer the need to use hand seals on certain Jutsu's. 'If I can unleash jutsus without the need of hand seals I can attack faster' Yuuma thought, shortly after passing by the Hijin Lake they arrived at Hojo City, it was built near the end of Hijin lake with a small harbour built for fishermen.
"I will be heading inside, are you staying or coming?" Ao asked Chojuro and Yuuma, but only Chojuro agreed to go in with him since Yuuma decided to use this chance to continue his training instead. Yuuma booked a room for himself to stay in while he will wait for Ao to return, upon entering the room he sat cross leg on the bed as he restarts his shape transformation technique but this time he began to change the Spiraling sphere into a spinning disc.
Seeing his first attempt turned out to be a success, he started to add nature transformation in the process as well. Thankfully to his experience in using spacetime before he could more or less grasp the method of transforming chakra into a specific nature, a soft whistling noise could be heard as the spinning disc was transforming into a condensed wind circular blade spinning above his hand. 'I better get rid of this' Yuuma thought as he opened the window throwing the disc into the skies.
The disc flew fast into the skies as it lightly cut the but of a bird who shat itself out of fright, it was just plain bad luck there was someone beneath the destination of the dropping poop. The moment the poop crashed into the man's head with some splattered on his face and food in his hand, "Fucking bird!" He cursed as he threw his snack on the ground glaring in the skies but there was no birds, the bird who shat itself was already gone. The man snorted and left but the people laughed at him.
Meanwhile, Yuuma was closing his eyes as he restarts the spiral sphere but this time he tried to inject two natures at the same time. Seeing that it became unstable, Yuuma stopped as he decided to continue his training in the forest instead, he did not want to endanger people by accidentally setting off a bomb in the room. Returning to the Hijin Lake in an area devoid of presences, Yuuma continued his training as he starts to meld fire and water together while forming the spiral sphere.
If he was not focused on training his control for so long he would have had a harder time, but he could see the fire and water natures were slowly merging under his control causing the sphere to slowly transform into a boiling water ball. Before he would get himself burnt he threw it into the lake causing a massive explosion followed by mist covering a small area where the sphere landed in the lake.
'Time to up the training' He thought as he summoned out several shadow clones to aid him in cutting down the time needed for training, this gave him the time he could use to inscribe his own Formulae technique while covering the brush with a thick layer of space-time chakra as he starts to write down the kanji for "By Your Side" on each of his warp kunais. He did not dare to try the technique out yet with these kunais, but he could faintly sense the marks he left on them.
'Now let's try creating the formulae with my chakra' Yuuma placed his palm on a tree while concentrating his chakra while using nature transformation to tap into his space-time nature since he practised summoning jutsu it was easier as he could feel his kanji "By Your Side" was being inscribed onto the tree.
"The technique itself is not difficult to grasp as long as one has the talent to sense space as well as have proficient experience in nature transformation and using space-time jutsus like summoning Jutsus" Yuuma muttered although he did not need to say this but for some reason, he thought of mentioning this in hopes he might give himself some more insights.
It was late at night, Yuuma dispelled his shadow clones gaining their memories, experience as well as their fatigued causing him to feel incredibly tired but he still had enough chakra to keep him awake as he heads back into the city. "You back from your picnic? Looks like your idea of a picnic must be hard on you" The guard spoke with Yuuma for a while before allowing Yuuma to enter the city
"Evening Yuuma, some gentlemen and a young boy claimed to be your acquaintances have arrived and is currently eating in the dining hall," The owner of the inn said to Yuuma who just entered, "Thanks" Yuuma smiled as he head to the dining hall seeing his sensei eating silently and Chojuro waving at him as he arrived. "Welcome back Yuuma, where were you?" Chojuro asked while moving the chair back for Yuuma to take his seat.
"I went back to Hijin Lake to train a bit since I have been having some inspirations on my training" Yuuma spoke softly so only Chojuro and Ao could hear, Ao nodded feeling satisfied that Yuuma's attitude to training daily was still a habit instead of becoming too complacent in his current ability. "The two men we followed disappeared, although I would like to stay here and search for them. We don't have the leisure to do so right now, both you and Chojuro still have to train so tomorrow morning we will be buying a few months worth of supplies. Then we will head for the Valley of the end. That is where we will be staying for a while to train"
>\/<
After a few weeks has passed, it was 23rd June. Yuuma and Chojuro had undergone training unlike ever before under the supervision of One-eyed Oni Ao, who was ruthless as he did not give them an opportunity to rest but he was skilled enough to prevent the training from having adverse effects on the two boys. By using his byakugan he could help the two boys improve the control of their chakra as well as point out the weaknesses during their combat sparring, unlike Chojuro who practised mostly to specialize in his kenjutsu.
Yuuma had less sleep compared to him since Yuuma had to train his ninjutsu, Genjutsu as well as studying fuinjutsu. When Ao and Chojuro were going to train alone for a whole day, Yuuma would have Airi reverse summon him to the Tiger's village where he would continue his training in the environment rich in nature chakra as an additional supplement to help him train longer.
"We will soon be reaching the outpost of Kumogakure, make sure to keep your guards up" Ao reminded the boys who followed him since they have managed to pass-through Shimogakure yesterday in order to enter the borders of the Lightning Country, soon the sight of a large tower built from rocks could be seen from a distance. "Wait here" Ao Muttered as the three of them stopped while being surrounded by Kumo Shinobis.
"You dare trespass the lands of Lightning?" One of the ninjas came forward, his outfit consists of a long grey top which gathers just at the waist to give a sash-like appearance, with a matching coloured bottom. Over his top, he wore a white one-strapped flak jacket with bracers around his arms as well as shin-guards. "We are the Kiri Ninjas here for the Chunin exam" Ao answered, hearing this the guard nodded "Another three ninjas from the Kiri have already entered the Village, you can use that way but I will have to send you with guards"
None of Ao's group complained since they were foreigners it will only make sense that they would cautious of them while they are in their country even if they have a nonaggression pact. Yuuma looked in the surroundings feeling quite marvelled at the beauty of nature, it was different from the Mist Village that was covered with mist, here there were tall mountains with lightning rods installed at the top. 'It appears lightning storms in a norm here' Yuuma thought
'Considering the fact the Chunin Exam will take place here, I can expect a lightning storm during the test. I can't help but feel relieved that I trained my lightning nature transformation to help me train during the training' Yuuma caught up with Ao, "Sensei, you have not told me who my partners are for the Chunin exam" Hearing this Ao remembered that was indeed the case.
"Well it will only be a temporary team-up since their original third member got injured so you are a stand-in, the girl is a medical-nin and the boy is a proficient swordsman. We decided to push you in since you need to promote but because of your young age, we had to use this opportunity" 'Although it is mostly because you are our hidden trump card in the Anbu' Ao thought while answering Yuuma's question vaguely.
When Yuuma arrived near the entrance leading into Kumogakure, he noticed three people wearing the standard Kiri shinobi attires. a young boy with a broad sword attached to his back, with spiky dark brown hair. Next to him was a girl with long black hair braided together, she had two pouches attached to her hips with a pouch loaded with shurikens attached to her right thigh.
The one who was talking to them was older by probably about ten years according to Yuuma's perspective, her black hair was curly as quite unruly, wearing the standard mist Kiri outfit, her teeth was sharp like sharks which meant she was an apprentice of the seven swordsmen of the mist.