13 Chapter 13: The next step

After what happened, Konoha became wary, their walls becoming more guarded. The fact that a pair of genin and a chuunin had slipped through their defensive system was a huge wake-up call.

The third Hokage was just happy that there had been no casualties. If a stronger ninja had managed to infiltrate, the consequences could have been more than he could handle.

Because of the villages being in a post-war recovery state, he thought that there was no chance of something like this happening. Quite clearly though, he was wrong.

Hiruzen was mulling over the facts when the head of the Nara clan, Shimpei Nara, made his way through the door. He was accompanied by the head of the Yamanaka clan.

"I have bad news lord third. There is a team of Kumogakure ninjas setting up camp not too far away from the village, here are the coordinates."

Hiruzen looked at the piece of paper and sighed, the worst-case scenario had happened. He did not want to go into war with Kumogakure at the moment, but if he just sat there without doing anything they would be seen as cowards by the other nations.

"Dispatch a group of Anbu to clean out the area, and send this scroll to the cloud."

He opened a scroll and wrote a single sentence. 'Once more, and there will be war'

As the two men left, Hiruzen started thinking about the Third Raikage. The man was honestly a monster. He did not think he would win in a one on one.

The only one that could go against him would be Ohnoki of the stone, but that old man would never form an alliance with them.

"Let's just hope that the threat of the nine-tales being unleashed upon them is enough to prevent a war. We are currently not in a position where we can start one..."

With that thought, he resumed his paperwork.

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Inside of a bar in Konoha, a cloaked figure was drinking a glass of wine. It wasn't easy to tell if they were a man or a woman, but one thing was for sure. They weren't pleased.

"I even set up a Genjutsu formation for them... what a bunch of useless pawns. Jin, you surprise me more every day..."

This person seemed to know Jin well and had set up the whole infiltration.

"The Raikage isn't going to be pleased... guess I'll have to delay my report."

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The next day there was no academy since it was the weekend.

Jin was training in the backyard when he felt a gaze. He looked around while pretending to train, and immediately threw shuriken at a nearby tree.

"AH!"

A scream was heard, and someone fell off the tree. When Jin arrived, he noticed a kid dressed in a green full-body suit with bushy eyebrows. This person looked like they had seen a ghost, as their eyes were fixated on the shuriken incrusted on the trunk.

"Gulp... That could have been me..."

"Who are you, and how did you get here?"

Duy recovered from his fear and composed himself.

Jin didn't sense any killing intent, so he approached and helped him up.

"My name is Duy, MIGHT DUY! Konoha's green beast! As for how I got here, I told the guards I was your friend from the Academy!"

Jin searched his memory and realized this was Guy's father and the man that killed four out of seven swordsmen of the Mist. Right now he just looked like Lee, and it also seemed he'd have to have a little chat with the guards.

"What are you doing here?"

Obviously relaxing, Jin went straight to the point.

"I am here to shamelessly spy on you, the guy that saved the academy from that evil ninja! I admire you and want to become your rival, so I thought I would maybe find your weakness by spying"

Jin felt a headache coming on. So this was what Kakashi dealt with every day.

But then, he had a bright idea. Why not train his lacking taijutsu with Duy? He was very good at this from what was described in the series.

"Let's spar. I won't use my Sharingan or my ninjutsu."

Duy's face lit up, as he started to burn up with excitement. A fight in taijutsu was right up his alley.

Both students placed themselves in one corner of the courtyard each and formed the seal of confrontation. They then approached each other.

As Jin was approaching, he was instantly surprised. Duy was even a little bit faster than Hideki when he used his constant flicker!

"You're good!"

As they clashed with their forearms, Jin was instantly overpowered, as he pushed the ground beneath him and front-flipped over Duy, landing behind him before throwing a kick to his face.

Duy was impressed at the ability of his peer. He had thought that he was strong only because of his lineage, but he could recognize hard work he saw it. Taking Jin seriously, he received the kick and threw one himself.

Both kicks landed in their faces, but Duy didn't move an inch while Jin was lying on the ground, defeated.

"That was one strong kick, how much did you train that core of yours to reach such a degree of stability?"

Jin wasn't mad he lost, he wanted to learn as much as could from this physical phenomenon.

"I plan my own training and stick to it every day! I am constantly wearing weights, here, look."

He took off the weights he was wearing, and they left a big dent in the ground. Feeling nostalgic about this scene, Jin asked if Duy could show him his speed in this form.

Duy agreed as they got into position once more, but as soon as it started, Duy disappeared and reappeared in front of Jin, who instinctively activated his eyes. Seeing clearly the punch that reached, but stopped right in front of his face. His long black hair fluttering from the power.

The match was over before he could move. Duy looked at him with a proud face, as he patted Jin on the shoulder.

"You teach me some moves, and I will help you train your body to build a healthy, youthful and glistening foundation!"

Jin didn't even think twice before agreeing.

"I will be under your care from now on, don't be gentle."

"Same goes for you!"

They both looked at each other and laughed. This would be the start of a strong rivalry between men.