28 Sora-Ku

The next morning, Jin met up with Chen at the training grounds. He had to wait for about an hour before the guy arrived, pissing him off a little bit.

"You're late."

"Well, I'm young and lively. I can make mistakes, can't I?" Chen had a face that literally shouted 'what are you going to do about it?' Jin could not believe someone could be so shameless and be so okay about it.

"Whatever, Duy should be here any time now. Let's wait, I brought some snacks." Jin pulled out a bag and retrieved some food. Chen was pleased and ate happily while waiting.

Jin did not like sucking up to people, but because the chance of Duy getting a master was all on him, he had to do what he had to do. They ate and waited for Duy.

Around twenty minutes later, a kid entered the grounds, he was wearing a green body-suit and had massive eyebrows. His arms were covered in bandages.

Jin and Chen observed him as he started to perform one-handed push-ups. They had to wait for about an hour before he was done, reaching about two thousand reps in one go.

"Talk about dedication..." Jin was surprised, even he did not do that many push-ups

. Chen on the other hand, was serious as he watched the kid.

A whole day passed by as they approached sundown. Jin was bored out of his mind, he had watched Duy do so many repetitions that all he saw right now when he closed his eyes was a kid in a green suit doing push-ups.

"Have you finally finished watched, Chen-san?"

Chen was sitting next to Jin, he had not moved a muscle ever since he had arrived here. The level of dedication to one's body that he had just witnessed was unbelievable even to him for a kid.

Duy was currently trembling, not from fear, but because his muscles were barely holding him up. His eyes were close to shutting, but he powered through and threw one last kick to the wooden dummy.

"TEN THOUSAND!" with that shout, Duy's muscles finally gave out as he fell down.

He felt a slight breeze as a leaf flew by in front of his face as he fell. Before he reached the ground though, Chen appeared next to him and prevented him from actually falling.

Jin, who was still on the sidelines was looking back and forth at Chen's position and his previous one. He had not even heard it as the man disappeared.

"What speed!" It seemed he had much to improve.

Back to Chen, Duy was being held in his hands, as he fell asleep. Chen looked at the kid's sleeping face and smiled.

"You, are a genius, a genius of hard work. And for that, you deserve to be my only disciple!" both of them were hit by the breeze, as a new legend was about to be born.

When Jin heard those words, he finally sighed in relief. He had done his job, it was time to go home and relax. Without saying anything, he left silently.

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A couple of weeks later, it was the day of the trip to Sora-Ku was in motion.

During the past few weeks, Jin had been very productive. He had been practicing his chakra control most of the time, and sometimes he went to visit Duy. Duy was currently extremely happy, Chen had started training him, and he looked stronger than ever.

One other thing worth mentioning was that he had learned about what happened to Orochimaru's parents from Jiraiya. Orochimaru was currently secluding himself, they had tried to reach out to him but he didn't seem to care.

They had thus decided to leave him alone for some time. Jin knew that this was a sensitive part of this character's development. He would at least try to prevent him from turning into the freak he became in the future, as a friend it was the least he could do.

At Konoha's entrance, a group of dark-clothed ninjas with the same symbol on their backs were all converging around a single person. This group included Jin, Fugaku and Hideki.

The Uchiha were being led by Asahi, one of the older members of the clan who was one of their best fighters apart from Gorou. He had earned a name for himself in the first Shinobi world war, being a skilled three comma user. What really set him apart though, was his ability with fire style.

"Okay, it will take a week to reach our destination granted we don't go at maximum speed. There are no reported threats on the road apart from a couple troublemaker missing-nin guarding a bridge that we have to cross. They have been causing some trouble there for the past few days." Asahi had a serious face on as he continued. "They number at a low five ninja or so, I suggest we let the kids take care of them to gain experience. Any objections?" He looked at Jin and co. Confidence in his eyes.

"None, sir!" They all shouted at the same time, before departing towards the Uchiha weapon shop.

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Half-way through the trip, they arrived at the specified bridge. Hiding in the shadows of the nearby trees, the fifteen or so Uchiha team hid out of sight.

Jin looked towards the bridge with his Sharingan, it seemed there really was a team of missing-nin numbering at about five people. They were inside a little barricade in the middle of the bridge.

The Sharingan gave minor abilities to see through walls. Although it could not see through all the materials like the Byakugan, it was very useful.

"Jin, Fugaku, Hideki. Are you capable?" Asahi looked towards them once more, asking for their opinion.

"Yes, Asahi-san."

"Ok, we will surround the area, you guys go through."

Asahi made some hand signs, and split the remaining Uchiha into two teams, as one silently ran through the top of the bridge and placed themselves at the other end, preventing any escape from happening,

The group of ninja that was resting on the bridge were alerted and got out, it seemed more prey had appeared. As one of them opened the door of their little barricade, female moans could be heard from the other side. It seemed they were up to some trouble inside.

"Hahahahahah, So it's only a bunch of kids! oh, wait, Konoha protectors..." The bald ninja immediately took a battle stance after seeing that he was facing other ninjas, he whistled and the moans inside suddenly stopped. A scream followed soon after.

A man that was two times bigger than the previous one came out of the hideout along with another three lackeys. His hands were covered in blood.

"What are you calling me out for? You surprised me and I chocked her too hard..." He was visibly frustrated.

"It's Konoha ninja, help me out, boss."

"You chicken! they're just a bunch of kids! Why did you call boss out?"A lanky man was currently reprimanding the bald guy.

"Hey! We're here you know? Are we going to fight or not?" Hideki got impatient, and flickered behind the lanky man, after which stabbed him through the chest, killing him instantly.

Jin was surprised, Hideki seemed to have made up his mind on killing now.

The rest of the Uchiha watched that all happen, and they all opened their mouths wide. Hideki was too fast! Was this really a kid?

The one that was the most surprised was the rest of the enemy ninja. The 'boss' got serious and took out a massive axe, which he swung towards Hideki, who flickered on top of his arm and ran up to his face, stabbing a kunai in his eye before flickering back next to Jin.

"ARGH!"

"Boss!" The rest of the ninja were frightened out of their mind. Their boss was a Chuunin! How could this happen?

"Hey, you should worry about yourselves." Jin appeared on top of them, with his feet on the roof as his hair went downwards with gravity. The group of ninja looked like they just saw a ghost, as some fell to the ground from the fright.

Jin activated his Sharingan as he placed three of them in a genjutsu before burning them to the ground with a fireball.

"Leave the last for me!" Fugaku ran up to the boss, who was still removing the Kunai from his eye. He picked him up and slammed him to the ground as the whole bridge shook. He took out his sickle and swiftly cut off his head.

All resistance had been futile.

Asahi had a frown on his face, but it was quickly replaced by a smile. Their clan was on the road to glory with these three.

"Clean up and let's go!"

"Hai!"

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The trip went smoothly, and a few days later, they arrived at Sora-Ku, the abandoned city.

"The city is said to be inhabited by a group of black marketeers who sell any weapons that have been banned everywhere else." Asahi paused, waiting to get everyone's attention. "Like any community of sufficient size, other services are offered within the city in order to provide basic needs to these black marketeers, though even those businesses tend to deal in their own sorts of rare goods."

They had come for weapons, but what he meant was that they could maybe leave with something extra.

"Perfect, we just got some mad allowance, let's go shopping!" Hideki was all smiles, this was his first time out of the village without a mission.

"Okay, I have already planned for this. We will visit the most popular shops in the city before finally heading to Nekobaa's place." Asahi started to walk towards the city as all of them followed.