Akashi was standing on the training ground in front of him was his adoptive father the Sky Daimyo.
They were both wearing training clothes with two swords hanging from their sides.
Since he learned that he couldn't learn ninjutsu until his special training ended, he decided to focus a little more seriously on the training given by Yanagi and resume his ninjutsu training later.
He changed his plan when he saw Yanagi his stepfather fight his uncle Ashino leader of the Uzumaki clan and one of the strongest ninjas of the clan to a standstill many times.
What marked him is that Yanagi contrary to his uncle didn't use hand seals to create sword slashes or tornadoes.
As someone familiar with the Naruto universe it reminded him those with the highest level of control on chakra didn't need a hand seal and he then boasted that he would master that art.
Akashi was sure that he would be able to do it after all he had the experience of two lives with him, how hard could it be?
Turned out it was very difficult, after starting his training however he realized why the samurai way became obsolete.
While ninjas have their hand seals to help in the manipulation of chakra, the samurais didn't have something like that so they had to simultaniously move their chakra inside them while attacking at the same time.
It was horrendous, and he regretted his previous claim, many times he thought of abandoning and refocusing all his attention on ninjutsu, but after three years he was now he was somewhat glad he didn't renounce.
Today he was here to fight his step-father the daimyo.
Standing to the side was his mother, standing in front of the audience, looking at them with a smile before lifting her hand in the air
"Ready, fight!!"
"Cracke,"
After activating his sharingan Akashi used the samurai version of the body flicker, he didn't have to hide his eyes as everyone here had a special seal on their bodies stopping them from revealing secrets of the country.
He launched himself toward Yanagi at breakneck speed Leaving a crack on the ground.
Contrary to the ninja's version which was more stealth-based, the one used by samurai is more direct allowing them to reach greater speed, he knew it as he practiced both.
"Clang," the two swords clashed violently under the eyes of the audience when Yanagi blocked to vertical slash of Akashi.
Using everything that he had learned Akashi started to elegantly and efficiently dance around Yanagi, striking at the trickiest angles, yet none of the moves could penetrate his de.
"Good, but not good enough," Yanagi said as he deflected every strike coming toward him by making it slide on his sword.
It was obvious that he was a master of his art, every move was beautiful, and calculated.
It was the level that Akashi was hoping to achieve, but seeing it from afar and facing it were two completely different things.
Akashi knew that he couldn't even hope to win even though Yanagi was only using a part of his strength, after all, it was a simple test, all he had to do was to make his father use both his hands and he would have won his test.
"You can use your jutsu you know, like during your last test,"
"No Jutsu today, I will wipe that smirk of your face, Dad," he said and that made him grin even more
The smirks on Yanagi's face and the fact that he hadn't moved since the begining of the fight infuriated him even more.
The condition for Akashi to win was to make Yanagi use both hands but as if to show the difference his father had decided to not move off his spot.
"Seems like you will be stuck fighting bandits for a long time,"
Hearing that made Akashi flinch in annoyance, taking his distance he took a thrusting stance
"Sword style: jet thrust,"
Saying that he trusted his chakra-covered sword forward
Woosh" A powerful jet of chakra rushed toward Yanagi at great speed, the power of that attack was strong enough to create a hole in a reinforced wall easily
But as if the attack was nothing Yanagi faced it with a smile and when it arrived at his level
"Bang," he simply slashed downward and destroyed it.
"Sword style: Multiple jet thrust"
Akashi sent a wave of attack toward his father who either deflected them or simply destroyed them.
Knowing that he didn't have any chance in a confrontation he decided to use others tricks.
"What about that,"
He then started to move all around Yanagi once more but this time while continuing his attack forcing Yanagi to turn with him to stop the attack.
"You know I am impressed, to be honest, I didn't think that you would reach that level of chakra manipulation at your age,"
At some point, Akashi managed to escape his father's eyes for a split second, and using that opportunity jumped above him.
"Sword style: waterfall"
With a massive amount of chakra focused on his sword, he plummeted toward Yanagi at great speed.
"Good tactic," he responded before putting the sword above his head
"Bang," creating a massive dust cloud
The power of the attack was great enough to push Yanagi's legs to the ground impeding his movement for a second.
"poof," to further hide his next Akashi let a few more smoke bombs fall on the ground creating a cloud of smoke that enveloped them.
"swoosh," Using that opportunity he jumped out and launched a few shurikens to block Yanagi's path of retreat.
Putting himself in a drawing position Akashi focused all his strength on one it.
"Cling, cling, cling,"
Using his sharingan and the sound of the deflected shuriken he determined the position of Yanagi with precision before moving.
"One sword style: Decapitation,"
"Swing"
Using his maximum speed Akashi reappeared in front of the cloud of smoke in a split second his swords slicing with a combination of precision speed and power.
Akashi's swords sliced through everything in his path
"Boom,"
A powerful explosion resounded in the field, and it was only a second later than the smoke and winds finally caught on to what was happening.
The wind then resumed its course blowing the smoke away to reveal Yanagi blocking with his two hands on the handle of his sword, and even with his feet on the ground the two lines in the ground showed that he was pushed back a little
A genuine smile appears on the face of the two fighters, Akashi is happy as it was the first time since they started to fight it was the first time since he started to train with him that Yanagi had to grab the handle of his katana with both hands.
Yanagi was proud of the progress of his son.
"Unfortunately, you had to use a ninjas' trick to put me in that situation, still it was good," he congratulated Akashi.
"What can I say, I am also a ninja after all," he responded
"Well, congratulations you made me use both hands. Now let's see how much you have grown," saying that Yanagi applied a little more strength and with one slash he pushed Akashi away.
"dodge," Yanagi said before he slashed downward creating a thin line on the ground created by the sword slash.
On the side, Kana and the other just observed and analyzed the fight with attention.
Ashina walked to his sister's level "It looks like he won sister, you can no longer stop him from taking harder tasks,"
"Well, I can think of a few things like, maybe letting him help the elders in their analysis of that creature they seem so in love with, what's the name again,"
"The zero tail,"
"Yes that strange leech, I can also give him a few more high-level jutsus, he would love to study them,
"There is also the research, I must say I never expected that our fuinjutsu would match so well with the technology of the sky, another thing that we have to be thankful to Akashi for,"
"Last time you gave him the clone jutsu he used it to follow all his classes, i kind of regret doing it now he has progressed too quickly."
"If you didn't he could've burned himself out," looking at Akashi who was now running away from Yanagi's relentless assault he smiled a lot.
"He is already at the chunin level, nearly a master in fuinjutsu, and his chakra control is absolutely impressive and so much more, he will soon be the strongest Uzumaki if I'm not careful,"
"Worst thing is I can't really fault him for his desire to become stronger thanks to those white creatures the world now knows where we are,"
"Hum spies and mercenaries are becoming more and more frequent, at least Kirigakure and Kumogakure have found trace of their tails beast and are now busy tracking them, do you think that they stayed together,
"I always wondered why they don't stay together, no country will be able to recapture them,"
"Maybe they don't get along, what matters is that with the war over they will have more strength to focus on us if things go badly and we are implicated in a war your son will without a doubt become one of our strongest assets,"