A moment later, the blades of the Kunai clashed.
*Klang!!*
With a loud resounding sound and sparks flying up in the air, the two Kunati battled against each other.
Kakashi and Kazuo's shadow clone trying to come out on top, however, it was quickly decided that Kazuo was in no way near close to Kakashi's physical abilities, much less his shadow clone.
*Puff!*
With a cloud of smoke, the shadow clone dispersed, however, it had done its job.
Kazuo appeared under Kakashi and quickly dragged him under the ground, leaving only his head exposed and in the next moment, Kazuo rose above the ground and took out a kunai and directed it toward Kakashi.
It was at this moment that he felt another sensation, however.
A cold blade pointed touching the back of his neck.
'I lose?' Kazuo thought bewildered as he dropped his own kunai and watched the Kakashi in front of him that had been dragged into the ground explode in a puff of white smoke.
Turning his head around, Kazuo saw the real Kakashi, his face didn't have a single bead of sweat and he looked as calm as ever.
"Match over, Kakashi wins!" Minato said as he raised his hand up, officially ending the sparring match.
"You weren't bad," Kakashi said before turning around toward Minato.
Looking at the kid in front of him, Kazuo felt the urge to slap an explosion tag on Kakashi's face and be done with it.
"I think it's because you were holding back too much Kazuo," Minato said as he came closer to the two.
His words caused Rin's and Kakashi's eyes to widen slightly.
"Holding back?" Kakashi questioned as he turned to face Kazuo.
Kazuo merely nodded his head, a somber expression on his face.
"It's not that I was holding back but rather that I couldn't use most of my arsenal," Kazuo replied as he looked toward Minato.
"I learned how to fight on the battlefield, every single moment out there I thought of how I could cut a Cloud or Iwa ninja jugular out and make them bleed to death. When killing someone is off the table, it's quite hard." Kazuo said as he explained his reasoning to Minato.
This was as a way for him to camouflage the fact that he hadn't been using even 20 percent of his Jutsu arsenal. He couldn't explain how he knew them after all.
And it was clear that Minato would be able to learn that he wasn't using his all pretty quickly, even if he didn't know that Kazuo had other jutsu.
The reason for it was simple.
When you knew a jutsu or had a way to come out of a certain battle situation, the body of a ninja which was trained to be ready for battle at all times would make certain twitches and give out certain signs that it wanted and knew how to counterattack.
Even Kazuo couldn't control these signs that his body gave out completely and so he had decided to simply make a reason as to why his body was reacting in a certain way when Minato questioned him about it.
"I see, that makes sense," Kakashi replied, his voice stoic as well and his words clearly awkward however Kakashi didn't seem to care one bit about them.
"Alright, I have a decent grip on your strength even without the use of deadly force. There is a clear inefficiency in your fighting style right now Kazuo that we must quickly patch up before it becomes a much larger problem." Minato said as he hummed out loud.
"An inefficiency? Are you talking about my taijutsu?" Kazuo asked as he looked at the man seriously.
"That's right, so you already knew about it?" Minato questioned as he replied to Kazuo's question.
"Yeah, I simply had no other Taijutsu style to learn, and the battlefield didn't give me enough time to create an entirely new one from scratch either," Kazuo said as he shook his head, his body portraying a sense of sadness at his inability.
"It's all right, I'll teach you a suitable Taijutsu style," Minato said as his lips curled up and he gave a bright smile toward Kazuo.
Immediately the very next moment, Kazuo's attitude changed dramatically, his sadness was gone and replaced by his Minato fanboy persona that he used around the man.
Immediately, Minato felt like taking back his words however he simply kept his smile although it was awfully clear that it was becoming less true by the second.
'This much should simply allow me to get closer to him and not annoy or push him away.' Kazuo thought before he removed his act and instead simply kept an excited look as he gazed at Minato Namikaze.
"So what style will I be learning sensei?" Kazuo questioned, causing both Kakashi and Rin who had gotten up from the ground and come to stand next to the two boys to turn their heads toward Minato as well and await his answer.
"There are a lot of fighting styles that are good, however, they each have their benefits. Something like the Strong Fist Style is specialized in pure brute strength whilst the Agile Fist Style is centered around the ability to maneuver around the opponent and to reach speeds where the enemy won't be able to touch or stop you." Minato said as he raised up two fingers.
"Of course, there are also styles that are made of the combination of these two principals however they have a lower limit in terms of growth. And as the saying goes, it's better to be a master of one rather than being good in all but master in none." Minato said as he raised his third finger.
Finally, the man concluded his short lecture with a question for Kazuo.
"So which one do you want to learn Kazuo?"
For a moment Kazuo remained silent, his face clearly looking focused as he thought about the question.
Finally, almost a whole minute later, Kazuo raised his head and looked at Minato.
His lips curled upward and Minato felt an increasingly bad premotion.
"I want to learn Minato Senpais fighting style, please teach me sensei!!"
_____________________________________________________________________________
Here's the second chapter as promised. Thanks for reading.
If you want to read 10 chapters ahead and help support me further then check out my Patreon at:
Patreon.com/NarutoAuthor
With Love
Naruto Author