𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

04

"Look, I see their village up ahead."

As the sun rose behind the Uchiha, Sasuke spotted what he assumed to be the Kouhage stronghold appearing in the distance. Or at least, what he could see of it. The only thing in his view was the wall surrounding the Kouhage's living quarters and its patrol guards. There were four guards concentrated at the gate into the residence, and upon sensing the Uchiha's arrival, they all got into position.

"Quite impressive," murmured Madara as they drew closer to the wall. As soon as they had reached the front gate, they were apprehended by the four guards, all of whom bore striking resemblance with their [h/c] hair and [e/c] eyes. Their dress consisted mainly of light blue yukata with black armour over it and katana hanging at their waists, in addition to the standard shinobi weapons of shuriken and kunai by their sides.

"Are you the Uchiha delegation?" A tall guard in his mid-twenties approached the group first, hand on the hilt of his katana as he eyed them out suspiciously. Madara chuckled and did a small bow.

"The one and only."

Upon confirmation, the male dropped his arms to his sides and bowed deeply to the four, before turning back to face his comrades.

"Akiyuki, let's accompany our guests to father's meeting room."

Amongst the three remaining guards, the one who looked the most like the man who had just spoken stepped out, bowing in acknowledgement of the instructions.

"Yes, onii-san."

As the two supposed brothers walked in front of the Uchiha, the two other guards opened the gate for them, allowing them entry. As Sasuke walked in, he glanced around at his surroundings. There was nothing remotely interesting about the Kouhage clan's dwellings that really grabbed his attention- these houses on the outskirts were plain and created solely for the use of being functional.

However, the further they got into the homes, the more elaborate, spaced out, and larger they became. Although their village looked small on the outside, within its wall the homes were decently sized and well put together.

"Ah, I take it those are your training grounds?"

Madara spoke up as their entourage passed a group of sparring individuals, all of whom were wearing the same light blue yukata. They were practising in a vast area that had been separated from the homes and had its boundaries marked by a small fence made out of sticks.

"Yes. Our clan takes pride in kenjutsu in addition to ninjutsu and taijutsu."

Sasuke noticed an imbalance in the genders of those who were practising, seeing more males than females. They were all of a similar age- roughly mid-teens to early twenties- and there seemed to be no preference in who fought who. There were those who were sparring against opponents of their own age, as well as older shinobi fighting against the younger ones.

"KYAAAAAAA!"

The Uchiha's attention diverted at the sound of a loud shriek, and looked further into the fray to see one girl going full throttle at her opponent. With her [h/c] hair tied up in a long ponytail that whipped around with her every movement, her [e/c] eyes were full of rage as she dealt with her partner. Sasuke assumed that she was around his age, and that her partner was somewhere along the lines of fifteen.

However, the boy wasn't fazed one bit; rather than complaining about his partner's excessive force, he chose to bite his tongue and toughen it out, absorbing every one of her blows with his own katana.

Sasuke turned back to the girl, who was dead focused on her opponent. She moved gracefully with ease and fluidity, not only making it harder for the guy to land any hits on her, but making it easier for her to take him by surprise.