Three months had passed, and Kazuki kept training. During these three months, Kazuki trained in ninjutsu to reduce hand signs for many elemental ninjutsu, but he was only able to fully remove the hand signs for Earth Release: Earth Plate Jutsu.
He also kept practicing his other skills like sensing, kenjutsu, Body Flicker, and more.
But the skill he focused most on was fuinjutsu. He had finished practicing all the symbols a few days ago, and just now he had made his first ever seal.
Kazuki thought as he finished making the seal, 'Alright, my first ever seal is done. It's a low-quality storage seal that can seal only one small item, up to the size of a football. Let's test this.'
Kazuki took out a kunai from his bag and placed it on the sealing scroll, then he channeled his chakra through the seal.
With a puff of smoke, the kunai disappeared. Then he channeled his chakra into the scroll again to unseal it, and the kunai appeared again with a puff of smoke.
Kazuki thought, 'I can make money by selling these storage scrolls. I'll just have to increase the quality. I should also buy my own scrolls for making these and stop using the scrolls that I got from the Senju clan, or it won't look nice.'
Somewhere in the Land of Fire, Yuki and her team were on their first big mission outside Konoha. Until now, they had only been doing D-rank missions like finding lost cats, cleaning rivers, and stuff.
Their jonin sensei was a woman in her mid-twenties, Akari Sarutobi.
Akari had an elegant and captivating figure that any man would fall for. Her hair was long, raven-black in color.
Her face was beautiful, her expressions unreadable. She mostly had a teasing smile on her face. Her emerald-green eyes made her look even more captivating. She was like the village idol; every guy wanted to get close to her.
Yet she had a commanding aura around her, which came from her feats: becoming a jonin at the age of 14 or becoming an elite jonin at the age of 21. So, no guy below her standard would even try to approach her.
Team Akari was running through a forest; their mission was to find a bandit camp that had been looting nearby villages in that area and destroy it.
After some time, they reached the location.
Yuki said, "Sensei, I sense at least a hundred chakra signatures from there. Most of them are even below genin level, but seven of them are genin level, one chunin level, and surprisingly, one jonin level."
Akari said, "That's a big bandit camp. How are these filthy people still alive? Konoha has indeed gone soft. Okay, the plan's the same, but I'll fight the jonin, and Yuki will fight the chunin if they survive our initial attack. Yuki, is there any sensor in the camp?"
Yuki said, "No, I can't sense anyone's chakra field, not yet at least."
Akari said, "Alright, let's get moving."
The team moved closer. Once they were at the correct distance, Akari asked Keiko, "Check with your Byakugan if there are any captives in the camp."
After a few seconds of searching, Keiko said, "I don't see any alive captives, though there are some dead bodies."
Akari said, "Alright then, perform your respective jutsu."
All of them made some hand signs.
'Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu.'
'Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu.'
'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.'
'Wind Release: Breakthrough.'
All four of them used ninjutsu together. The wind intensified the flame as it set the whole camp on fire.
Screams could be heard from the camp. After a few seconds, the stench of burning blood was all over the place.
It was their first time killing people, but Yuki was taking it very well. Ryuma and especially Keiko weren't; it could be seen on their faces.
Ryuma asked in a concerned voice, "Are you okay, Keiko?"
Keiko said in a weak voice, "Y-yeah, it just feels wrong. I just killed someone."
Akari comforted Keiko, "It's okay, Keiko. These people don't deserve to live. Didn't you see those dead bodies? They killed innocent people."
Keiko replied, "You're right, Sensei, but couldn't there be a better future for them if there were no conflicts between nations? They wouldn't have become bandits."
Akari said, "You're right, but we can't do anything about that. We can just hope that these conflicts end and the shinobi world can finally see peace and happiness."
Some figures came out of the fire, some with burns on their bodies while others without a scratch.
Yuki said, "That big guy has jonin-level chakra, and that young woman has chunin-level."
Akari said with a smirk, "They're probably rogue ninjas from a minor village who started a bandit camp. How pitiful."
Akari started fighting the jonin, Yuki started fighting the chunin.
Ryuma and Keiko were together fighting the rest of the figures that were left, mainly genin.
After a few minutes, Ryuma and Keiko were nearly done with their fights while Yuki and Akari were still fighting.
Suddenly, Yuki sensed a huge amount of chakra. The chakra was even higher than her own; it was almost equal to Akari's.
Yuki looked behind and said, "Bear, tell Sensei that someone with elite jonin chakra level is heading toward the direction where Ryuma and Keiko are fighting."
A masked ninja moved in the direction of Akari.
Ryuma saw a hooded figure heading toward them.
He said, "Keiko, looks like one of the bandits was outside. You deal with the rest; I'll confront him."
As the hooded figure got closer, Ryuma said while pointing his sword toward him, "Are you one of the bandits?"
The hooded figure, who was also wearing a mask, smirked and said, "Oh, looks like Konoha has again started sending children on missions. Well, it wasn't my mission, but if you interfere with my task, then I'll just have to kill you."
The hooded figure grabbed something from his back, which was covered in bandages. It also had a handle on it.
Then he wielded it like a blade and charged forward.
They both clashed blades. After a few seconds, it was clear whose skills were superior; the hooded figure was easily overpowering Ryuma.
Ryuma thought, 'I can't believe it. He's overpowering me in kenjutsu, but who is he? And what kind of sword is this?'
The hooded figure smirked as he said, "You're just too weak. I shouldn't have used tricks against you. Well, I can't do anything now."
Yuki finally defeated her opponent. She sensed another two chakra signatures heading toward the same location from different directions. One of them was weak, while the other had so much chakra that she couldn't believe anyone could possess this much chakra. It was more than anyone she knew; even the Hokage had less than this much chakra.
Sweat was visible on her face as she rushed toward the location.
Keiko also defeated her opponents. She saw that Ryuma was struggling against an opponent.
She was heading toward them when she suddenly noticed that someone else was heading toward Ryuma from behind.
She shouted, "RYUMA, WATCH OUT!!"
But she knew it was too late, and he wouldn't be able to dodge that fast attack. Her body moved on its own, and she pushed Ryuma and took the blow herself.
An unusual sword with many spike-like sharp ends clashed with Keiko's body and shredded it. Blood was everywhere; even Ryuma's clothes were soaked in her blood.
Ryuma panicked, "K-Keiko, Keiko, wake up. H-How did this happen? He- He was right there."
Ryuma looked at the opponent he was fighting, and it suddenly turned to water.
Ryuma's eyes widened as he said, "N-No way, I was fighting a c-clone."
He then looked at the other person. He was the same; the only difference was that the bandages from the sword were removed, and it was enough to identify the person.
Ryuma said with a frightened expression, "It's Sa- Samehada, which means that you are Kisame Hoshigaki. But what are you doing here in the Land of Fire?"
Kisame said, "He told me to hide my identity. I guess I'll have to kill you after all."
Kisame raised his sword toward Ryuma and was about to attack when a kunai clashed with his sword.
He looked up, and there was a kunoichi standing before him.
Akari looked at Ryuma and said, "Ryuma, take her away. I'll handle this guy."
But Ryuma didn't move; he was too stunned to do anything.
A masked ninja appeared and took both of them away from the fight. It was one of Yuki's bodyguards.
Ryuma held Keiko's wounded body in his hands while one of the ninjas used medical ninjutsu on her.
Keiko's eyes slightly opened. Ryuma said, "I'm sorry, Keiko. I had to protect you, but you protected me instead. But it's going to be alright. We'll save you, then you can yell at me all you want."
Keiko smiled slightly and said while coughing in between, "Don't be sorry, Ryuma. It was my choice to save you, and I don't regret that. But one thing I won't be able to survive. I've lost too much blood."
Ryuma said, "D-Don't say stuff like that, Keiko, and don't talk now or more blood will be lost."
Keiko then said, "There is just one more thing I wanted to say to you, but I was always afraid. But I want to say that before I go. I love you, Ryuma. I've always loved you. I'm sad that I won't be able to live my life with you like I had imagined, but I'm happy that I was able to save you. I guess this is goodbye."
Keiko slowly closed her eyes.
Tears started flowing down Ryuma's eyes as he started crying loudly.
[A/N- Please tell me if this was too dramatic or any other problems if there was any]