After Yami left Zabuza was still thinking about what happened in the past 5 minutes. He still wasn't ready to accept the fact that he became the henchmen of a 9 year old kid. He put all that in the back of his mind as he saw that Haku had started regaining consciousness.
"W-What happened?" Haku asked while looking around.
"Nothing much. You just fell asleep." Zabuza replied. He didn't know whether Haku remembers being knocked out or not but he doesn't want Haku to be worried.
"Oh...I am sorry. Do we have to go to Gato now? I think you should wait to heal all your injuries." Haku said hesitantly.
Zabuza nodded and said "I don't plan on fighting those leaf Shinobis again. We'll let Gato handle it." Haku was ecstatic when he heard this and quickly said "That's great. Let's go to our usual hideout deep in the forest. We already have enough food for a day or two there."
"Yes, but I will need to come back to the city only to see what Gato will do now that we won't be doing his dirty work." Zabuza said and along with Haku walked deep into the forest.
Yami was running to a place a little farther than where the others were. He wanted to practice the scroll Asuma gave him but he didn't want others to see him doing it. He knew that all those present in the beatdown will eventually tell Sasuke and others about the fight but Yami planned to do something extra with this technique Asuma gave.
When he thought he was far enough he stopped and sat under a tree. Due to the chakra core inside his body, he doesn't even remember the last time he got tired. He opened the scroll given by Asuma and started reading it. The only thing he knew about it was that Asuma had told Naruto to grind wind chakra against each other. This let Yami apply a sharp edge to the kunai but when thrown, the chakra on the kunai would dissipate. Now after reading the scroll he understood the next steps as well.
He continued to practice it. At first, he was facing the same problem but slowly the dissipation of chakra reduced. The kunai would penetrate the thick tree but wouldn't go through. Yami remembered that in the canon, Asuma was not only able to pierce the tree but also damage the boulder behind it.
'Looks like I need to keep practicing for a few more hours' Yami sighed.
Back at the open area near the lake, Kakashi was training with Sasuke, Sakura was practicing her chakra control and also talking with Inari and Tsunami and Neji was training his gentle fist. He had the techniques of his clan so he didn't need anyone other than Hiashi or his grandfather. It has been more than half an hour since Yami left.
While Sakura was talking with Tsunami, Inari suddenly shouted "Look, Naruto is waking up."
Everyone looked at Inari first and then in the direction he was pointing in.They saw Naruto slowly gaining consciousness. They all stopped their training and went near him.
"Oww, what happened to me?" Naruto asked massaging his shoulder. He was feeling a little pain where Yami hit him. He then looked up and saw everyone was staring at him.
"Hey guys, why are you looking at me like that?" Naruto asked everyone including Inari.
Kakashi walked ahead and asked "Naruto what's the last thing you remember?"
Naruto started thinking as he said "Umm... the last thing...OH YES...I challenged Yami to a fight."
"And then what happened?" Tsunami asked. She herself couldn't follow Yami's speed so she was curious.
Naruto tried to remember for a few more seconds when he suddenly said "I remember that I created some clones and got mixed up among them to confuse Yami but then he suddenly disappeared and then I felt everything go blur and my eyes closed."
Kakashi didn't want Naruto and the others to think about this more than they already do so he told Naruto to go back home with Inari and Tsunami. The others continued to practice as usual.
After a few hours Kakashi looked at Neji and Sasuke and asked "We should get going now. Should we wait for Yami?"
Sasuke didn't know much about Yami outside the house so he looked at Neji. Neji shook his head and said
"No need, as far as I know Yami he must have left one of his summons to keep an eye on the surroundings so if we leave he will know it. We can just go home and he will come when he finishes his training."
'Is he alert for some specific reason or is it only to guard Tazuna and his family?' Kakashi wondered after listening to Neji. The group decided to leave and go home. It was almost time for Guy, Lee, and Tazuna to come back from the bridge. They also had to decide who will go to collect information about Gato and his men.
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It was almost evening and in the middle of the forest 10-20 trees were on the ground in a destroyed state. The boulders had numerous cracks and holes in them and some even had a hole straight through it. In the middle of all this destruction one kid could be seen sitting in a lotus position.
This kid was none other than Yami. He was sweating profusely and even his clothes had stuck to his body being soaked in his sweat.
"This has been the first time that I had to utilize my chakra core. But using it felt like moving a machine which hadn't been used for a long time. I need to keep circulating my chakra through the core and the only technique that I can learn which expends so much chakra is probably a scorch style. My genjutsu sure is strong but I can't put people like Madara, Nagato and people of the Otutsuki clan in a genjutsu. I need something like scorch style to become unrivaled. No one would have been afraid of wood style until Hashirama himself explored it to the fullest extent. I can't even imagine the amount of damage that can be done when wood style jutsu like the thousand buddha hands aren't of wood but scorching heat that instantly evaporating the water content from anything it touches."
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