"Okay then, let's go inside," Jiraiya said as he opened the door to the training area.
As soon as the gate opened, the lights of the training area turned on automatically. An area three times the size of a football field came into view.
"This is much bigger than I expected," Kaida said, entering the training area.
"This is a training area for a Hokage. Of course, it's going to be big. Now, we're not here for sightseeing. Even though I've already read about your strengths and weaknesses in your file, that can't give me a true estimate of your capabilities. So let's do this the old-fashioned way. I won't attack you for the next 10 minutes. Your goal is to land a single attack on me. You HAVE to use your full power, like you're trying to kill me. If I feel you're holding back, you'll regret that decision quite a lot," Jiraiya said.
"Okay, Sensei," Kaida said and quickly made a Shadow Clone, then another, and then another.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Jiraiya asked.
"I'm making Shadow Clones, Sensei," Kaida replied simply.
"I can see that, but why are you making them one by one?" Jiraiya asked.
"I still don't know the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Sensei. I had a bet with Yukihiro-sensei that once I landed a single attack on him, he'd teach me, but I haven't seen him in quite a while..." Kaida explained.
"I don't need the full story. Also, why the hell hasn't anyone taught you that yet? You already know the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Sigh... Fine, I'll teach you after this. Now carry on," Jiraiya said.
Hearing that, Kaida continued his preparation. After making 11 Shadow Clones, he finally faced Jiraiya.
Then one of the clones came next to Kaida, used the Transformation Jutsu, and suddenly transformed into a sturdy, katana-like sword, completely black in color. Another clone threw two smoke bombs on the ground. Due to being inside the mountain, the smoke quickly filled the entire training area. Even though the place was fully ventilated, the smoke bombs were made in such a way that the smoke wouldn't disperse on its own.
...
Jiraiya allowed Kaida to use this trick. If he wanted, he could have easily used a C-rank Wind Gale Jutsu to blow away the smoke. But since he couldn't see in the smoke, he stealthily used Nature Energy to sense Kaida's location. A normal chakra scan couldn't differentiate between a Shadow Clone and the real person, but with Nature Energy, it was easy.
While he was sensing Kaida, the boy suddenly created a Shadow Clone and dispersed it. The remaining ten clones went in different directions and started forming a simple array. Within a minute, the training area was covered with 20+ arrays, designed to absorb and store chakra.
'Good, this will render 95% of sensors incapable of detecting his position,' Jiraiya thought, though even he had to concentrate a little more to find Kaida's location. As he was thinking, two kunai flew toward him at astonishing speed.
'This is just a feint,' Jiraiya thought, and as he expected, the two Shadow Clones that had thrown the kunai dispersed themselves.
Suddenly, the spot where Jiraiya stood was bombarded with dozens of Wind Blades, but he simply used the Body Flicker technique to evade them.
'He's blocking his vision too. This isn't good. If someone can predict his location, the situation could reverse,' Jiraiya thought. Just then, Kaida moved from his position, and for the first time, Jiraiya began forming hand seals.
Within milliseconds, he slammed his hand on the ground, and a 1-meter thick earth wall emerged from the ground.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!
The reason for the wall became clear in a second, as the meter-thick wall was sliced in half by Kaida's chakra sword, which was overflowing with fire chakra. The earth wall was like butter in front of that sword, sliced cleanly in two.
By then, Jiraiya had already moved, this time jumping instead of using Body Flicker. Kaida quickly seized the opportunity and shouted, "Fire, 30 degrees north in front of me!"
Within a second, before Jiraiya could land, the position was bombarded by six Fireball Jutsu, while the remaining two clones used Fire Breath Jutsu. The entire area near Jiraiya was engulfed in hot fire, and the smoke in the training area became even denser.
Contrary to expectation, Jiraiya stood in the middle of the fire, completely fine. But if someone looked closely, they'd notice his skin was slightly red, though not burned. Before landing, Jiraiya had quickly used the Iron Skin Jutsu and sent chakra to his clothes, which were covered in many protective seals.
'This boy could see me... Wait a minute,' Jiraiya thought, releasing a small wind gale—not a jutsu, just wind. With his chakra control and reserves, this was easy for him.
The smoke surrounding him and Kaida cleared for a second, and then Jiraiya saw two bright red eyes focused intently on him, reading his every movement. For a moment, even Jiraiya felt a bit nervous in front of those red eyes, with three tomoe rotating in them.
'Very nice. He's making full use of his advantage and creating an unfavorable environment for the enemy. His basics are solid, and with his strength level, even an elite Jonin could lose to him,' Jiraiya thought.
But Kaida wasn't done. He went for a direct kenjutsu match with Jiraiya, who simply used a kunai to deflect every strike. Both were using chakra to enhance their weapons: Jiraiya used earth chakra to make his kunai sturdier, while Kaida used fire chakra to make his sword deadlier.
Then, with direct eye contact, Kaida used a technique he had learned during his spar with Itachi. He cast a simple genjutsu on Jiraiya to make his sword strike appear as a vertical slash, while it was actually a simple waist-level strike, not deadly at all.
"You're 50 years too early to use genjutsu on me, boy," Jiraiya said, blocking the attack with ease.
But Kaida wasn't discouraged. While they were fighting, one of Kaida's clones sneaked behind Jiraiya and used the Chakra Scalpel to attack him from behind.
Before the attack could land, Jiraiya's hair suddenly became hard and spiky, penetrating the clone's hand, dispersing it.
'Landing a hit on someone who could go against a Rinnegan user... easy task,' Kaida thought sarcastically and continued attacking. This time, he used chakra to increase the strength behind his attacks. By using Shadow Clones, a chakra sword, the Sharingan, and chakra-enhanced strength, Kaida's chakra levels were dropping at an alarming rate. In just 8 minutes, he was already down to half his chakra, as he poured as much chakra into his sword as possible.
Kaida hoped to break Jiraiya's weapon and land a single hit, but no matter how much chakra he used, Jiraiya always increased his kunai's chakra just enough to counter Kaida's strikes.
'This is going nowhere,' Kaida thought, creating a Shadow Clone and dispersing it a second later.
The remaining 10 Shadow Clones got the memory and prepared. Five of them used the Transformation Jutsu to turn into swords. With swords in hand, five clones were ready to join Kaida, but before they could move, Jiraiya said:
"Time's up. Even though you were unable to land an attack on me, I still got a good idea of your offense. Now it's time to test your defense."