ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

The wave at its hight!

(Long chapter)

Naruto narrowed his cerulean eyes as he sidestepped the blow that was aimed at carving him in half, letting Zabuza's sword crash beside him before bringing his katana up to slash at Zabuza's neck, making the man jump back, pulling his sword along with him. Hefting the massive blade, Zabuza charged forward with a roar as he swung again, Naruto parrying the assault by deflecting it to the side as he knew his katana couldn't withstand the weight of Kubikiribōchō, no matter how well forged it was.

The two shinobi continued their dance of blades — dodging, weaving, slashing, cutting, stabbing — it was like a sick parody of a ballet where one small error could mean the difference between losing an arm and losing your life, and Zabuza was clearly having an advantage due to his larger size and longer reach as compared to Naruto, who had to rely on his speed and reflexes to counter the Kiri shinobi's strikes.

The rest of Team Seven looked on in shock and awe at the dangerous display of swordplay between the two fighters, and the tension in the air was palpable. Those who hadn't witnessed Naruto's swordplay skills and were now seeing them first hand were stunned at how well versed he was in the art as he could stand his ground against one of the great Swordsman of the Mist.

Naruko was the most worried of them all and she gasped in fear when one of Zabuza's slashes almost took Naruto's head off, but the blonde boy easily ducked under it before holding his own blade in a reverse grip and came onto the man again, blade a blur of gray lightning as he brought it down against Zabuza's blade.

In the shocked silence, Kakashi was the one who broke it, "Naruko . . . when did your brother pick up on kenjutsu?"

Naruko merely kept her gaze on the battle, eyes never leaving the form of her precious person. "He told me he picked it up after the bell test, and he has been training for the past few weeks to master it."

Kakashi just nodded at her explanation and continued to watch the battle, the only thing he could think of was, 'Remarkable . . .'

Naruko remembered how surprised she had been when Naruto had approached her one night for her opinion whether he should learn kenjutsu since he had a lot of free time on his hands. He had reasoned that a shinobi must have an ace up their sleeves and must adapt to any given situation, and that was why Naruko gave him her consent and her unwavering support.

The katana Naruto was using was no ordinary katana either — it was forged with the strongest chakra conducting steel that Konoha could provide and was forged by master smiths from Tetsu no Kuni (Land of Iron), the Land of Samurai, courtesy of the Sandaime. The style of kenjutsu that Naruto was currently utilizing was his own, taking advantage of his superior speed and strength to incorporate it into his new style, which was simple as it was deadly.

Naruto hadn't given a name to it yet, and was content with calling it Naruto's Kenjutsu Style.

Naruko grinned in amusement at that particular memory.

At some point during the duel, Kakashi had pulled down his headband over his left eye to conserve his chakra as using the Sharingan was taxing on his body and mind. Sasuke was gripping his kunai tightly in his hands, knuckles white as he gritted his teeth in frustration at the thought of the blonde boy outshining him yet again by facing down an A-rank missing-nin single handedly. It pissed off the Last Uchiha to no end and he vowed to surpass Naruto in every way he can, even if it means killing him to do so . . .

Sakura just stared dumbfounded at the scene, mouth open in shock. "I-Is he always this strong?" she asked shakily, and Naruko couldn't blame her. It was not every day a thirteen year old Genin could stand up to an A-rank missing-nin, but then again, Naruto was no ordinary Genin, Naruko reminded herself.