( A/N: Just went back and looked at last chapter and naming chapter 21 was stupid as it also automatically named it 'chapter 21' )
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Deep under the village, in a place so dark that no one not even the Hokage himself knew housed some of the agents of the shadow. These shinobi were program to kill and feel no emotions. Honestly these were the actual shinobi of the Hidden leaf village.
The ones who stays in the dark, that hide in the shadow and have perfected the motion of killing without being seen.
In a vast room underground where no light shines and only darkness reigns supreme there was a clearing in which sat a man with dark black hair, his right eye was bandaged being believed to have suffered a fatal attack which cost him his eye.
He had a 'X' scar on his chin and donned a dark robe over a much lighter gray one. His face emotionless and impassive as it was and his ambitions were insatiable for he lusted after power and the seat of the Hokage.
His name was Danzo Shimura, leader of "Ne" Anbu and former rival of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Student of the Nidaime Hokage Senju Tobirama, a prodigy in his own right and inventor of multiple forbidden Jutsu.
At this moment one of his subordinates was kneeling in front of this man, who sat upon a throne within this deep, dark and depressing room.
"Report", came the voice of one Danzo Shimura.
"Hai, Danzo-sama, it was reported that the Yuki brat has returned and also brought back another brat. Zabuza Momochi was also with them and Kakashi with his team of genin." spoke the Anbu wearing shinobi.
This Anbu who donned the gear similar to official Anbu was the subordinate of Danzo and was an exact replica of the Hokage's Anbu.
The only difference being that the Anbu mask that were depicted with animal signs and markings were not to be seen on his mask. Instead it was blank and signified that he belonged to the "NE" or Root department of Anbu.
"Good, get the others ready we will proceed as planned." ordered Danzo.
"Hah", vocalized the Ne Anbu.
Then with a whirl of wind the Anbu disappeared from sight to get the others ready for the operation they were to be assigned to.
Sato and his family spent the night in the comfort of each other and now the morning had arrived.
The new day was to begin and Sato awoke to start his morning routine.
He would first take care of his hygiene, something his mother and aunt drilled into his bone from small.
It was also why he was able to maintain his feminine features. After making sure he did enough to not make his mother and aunt angry, a shiver ran down his spine at the thought of both females ganging up on him with death glares and sadistic smiles promising pain if he neglected his hygiene, he proceeded to the clan's training grounds.
There he found a bored Zabuza Momochi who at the time was sitting by a tree trunk in a lotus position with his eyes closed. He still wore the bandages on his face like a mask but he did not have his shinobi hitai-ate strapped on his head.
He also had his torso bare without any garments to cover his well toned and shinobi honed muscles.
He wore his grayish blue pants that had stripes of purple going down vertically in a pattern but as he was in the lotus position the pattern was dissuaded.
His most noticeable feature was his sword or lack of, the Kubikiribōchō. Renown as one of the blade possessed by the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū ( Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist ), this blade was said to be able to repair itself from the iron found in the blood from it's victims.
The Kubikiribōchō was now in the possession of Konoha's Anbu and place under a strict watch. The sword was to be returned to Zabuza once his probation period is over and if the sword were to be missing, who knows what will happen.
Sato decided it was best not to disturb him as he was trying to maintain his peaceful calm although bored expression.
He proceeded further away into another clearing within the training field and began his morning practise. This was something he had made a habit of after being guided by his sensei.
Sato was already at Foundation Establishment Stage and his sensei had went to gather the necessary materials he needed to advance to the Aurous Core Stage. Once he was able to advance past the barrier he would be able to form his core.
Another benefit from advancing was that he would be able to travel through the air, meaning that he would attain flight. This is something only one other has attained in the Elemental Nations. That was Ōnoki the Third Tsuchikage.
Ōnoki has achieved this because of his mastery with Doton ( Earth Release ). His mastery over Doton was so incredible that he was able to manipulate gravity, with it allowing him to reduce the gravity over himself allowing him to levitate.
Sato admired the man for being able to accomplish as much with his skill and that was only part of it. His other abilities were as powerful and if not as fearsome.
Sato was brought out of his musings when he heard someone walking towards him. When he looked at who it was he saw that it was Haku.
Haku walked to the training grounds and the first thing he notices is Zabuza-sama sitting at the tree. He knew that under probation Zabuza would not be able to train him and probably very irritated right now.
Haku knew that even though he was a powerful shinobi, probably Chunin level at that, he was not powerful enough.
This just made him feel insecure, especially now that his family was one and he needed to protect them.
Not wanting to irritate Zabuza-sama further he proceeded to the rest of the training grounds. Haku heard someone further training within the grounds and made his way towards them.
When he got there he saw that it was Sato.
His otouto was training from the morning as he woke up. This brought the question he had from before back into his mind 'How powerful is he?'. He wanted to know.
Haku now standing before Sato spoke, " I would like to have a spar with you."
Sato did not answer for a moment and blinked at his nii-san.
( A/N: ehh I had used "ni-san" before but didn't like how it looked so from here on out, it will be "nii-san" Thank you for your understanding. )
"Why?" was all Sato could respond with.
"I want to determine just how strong I am. I want to see just how strong or what weaknesses I have.
I also want to fight against you!" stated Haku.
Once again Sato was stunned and could only blink owlishly. He stood there for one minute without replying. Then it became two minutes, three, four... after almost one hour Sato regained his composure.
Even though Sato knew his brother would request a spar against him to determine his strength, he did not think that his reasoning was to increase his own.
This caught Sato off guard and stopped his thought process. After regaining his composure he smiled at his brother in understanding. Haku wanted to improve his strength to protect his precious people and that was something that he admired greatly.
"Sure let's spar" came Sato's satisfied response.
Just then their mother came to the front of them. She was as beautiful as they remembered and was looking at them with all the love a mother had towards her own child.
"Mother" spoke both boys.
Akane smiled at her two sons. She wanted nothing more than a family and for her children to be without qualms. She wanted them to be raised as normal children and not to experience what she had as a shinobi.
Unfortunately they had experienced something much worse. That brought a pain in her heart. She watched her sons and settled that pain, now was not the time for being depressed.
Zabuza came at this moment. He walked towards the boys. His ferocious aura emitted around him signifying that he still possess the Bloodthirst for battle. He had overheard what they were planning to do and came to witness it.
"Well well, if the two of you are going to spar then you will need someone to be your judge." spoke Zabuza.
In all honesty he was probably just too bored out of his mind. The former self-proclaimed demon was a man of action and loved a good fight. Now that he was sentenced to go without, his boredom would probably give way to insanity.
This spar was something he needed to take his mind out of his thinking and would make for a great spectacle for him to watch.
Akane watched her boys with love and knew that if they were going to spar she would be right there to make sure they didn't get hurt. But that was just the thing, she is the mother of both and would probably be too overprotective of them that their spar would become meaningless.
Thus Zabuza would be a better fit for the role of officiatator.
Just to the side of the training grounds, one of the clan's member who was patrolling the grounds for intruders overheard the commotion between the clan heirs and became excited.
It was no secret that Sato was a powerful person and he brought his nii-san back. Now they were going to spar. This was a extremely rare chance to see him in action. Not only Sato but even young master Haku was going to show his skills.
With excitement written on his face, he went to inform the head of the clan and other members along the way. Soon most of the clan came to the grounds in hope of seeing both young masters spar.
Midori and Iwata was also intrigued and was standing next to Akane. Their father was also present to witness the match.
Sato and Haku first bowed to their elders then to each other. Sato did so first because it was what his sensei Xu, told him which was proper battle etiquette.
Haku looked at Sato and took quite a liking towards the action and proceeded to do the same. This took some by surprise because it was not how shinobi would act first before a spar.
This action, although unexpected was warmly received by the others and Fukushima, the clan head struck a thinking pose. He was pondering on making this action the new way of the clan.
Having it's members proceed with the action before every spar would make the clansmen more friendly and increase the brotherhood of the clan.
Midori who was there at the time of the training with Sato and his sensei Fu already knew of the teachings his master had passed onto him and was not surprised, although she was happy.
Iwata and Akane however did not know as they weren't with them at the time. Both wore different expressions on the sentiment.
Iwata was stunned and had a thoughtful expression on his face. He was thinking along the same lines as his father and head of the clan. He accepted the gesture and was in favour of making it the new tradition for the clan.
Akane wore a smile on her face different from everyone else. She was glad her sons who had went through some of the most heinous of actions would still express such etiquette and tried to be noble in front of their elders.
Zabuza however had an impassive face on. He did not care for such sentiments before a battle, it was foolish to do so when it came to a matter of life and death. He was raised during a time of war and hardship. He was birthed from the Bloody Mist and it was only because of him that such act was removed.
He could care less for such things but they were in a place that did not bring such turmoil and had semblance of peace even if minor so this was acceptable for just a simple 'spar'.
With that done, Sato turned to his nii-san. Before any other actions he proceed to stomp his foot on the ground making everyone question his actions.
With his action completed, a burst of clear energy spread and encompassed the area of the training grounds.
Everyone felt the energy and had a shocked look on their faces. 'What was that?' 'Why did he do that?' was the collective thought from all members gathered there.
Their answer came not a second later when Sato answered them.
"That everyone is my unique barrier. It is my own way of making sure that no hidden spies of any kind will be able to witness our sacred techniques nor will they know just what our clan is capable of." Told Sato.
"I will make this technique available to you after this so that we can keep our secrets our own. This will be the new procedure to be carried out before any training is to be done here in this village." Stated Sato towards Fukushima.
Fukushima nodded his head, this would be an incredible counter to the prying ways of the village to obtain any information that the clan held from the village. Although he was now an ally to the village he did not want to reveal everything his clan had.
His trust towards the village was only minor at the time. Maybe in the future with more trust he will be more open towards trading information but not at the moment.
The Hokage who was in his room and had Anbu members keeping watch over Zabuza at the moment, looked at his crystal orb that he used to spy on interesting members of his village. He was at the moment trying to observe the ongoings in the Yuki clan grounds.
He was excited to find out that the two young heirs were to spar and show their skills. He was about to witness the power of Hyoton and gather information of this unique bloodline. Just as the spar was to start an invisible energy exploded out from the center of the field and enveloped the training ground hiding the members and anything inside.
The energy formed some sort of barrier that he could not see through and was now blind towards them. He quickly waved his hand and had an Anbu member relay a command to the ones keeping watch on the clan grounds.
Within minutes another Anbu member appeared before him.
"Report" spoke the Hokage.
"Hai!. We kept watch on Zabuza as ordered but when the clan heirs were to begin their spar, he volunteered to officiate. Then Yuki Sato proceed with some kind of technique and blocked off any sensing abilities we had to spy on them." stated the Anbu member.
The Anbu member was visibly depressed and annoyed at the fact that Sato had made them unable to view the spar. Not only did he obstruct them from enjoying a good match, he also impeded them from their duties of tracking Zabuza's activities.
"Hmm this is troublesome" stated the Hokage.
Somewhere in the Nara compound two Naras both sneezed at the same time. One was an older man with his hair done up in a ponytail and the ends of his hair spiked up resembling a pineapple. After sneezing he muttered "troublesome" and continued on with playing shogi with his son.
At the same time as his father, one Nara Shikamaru also sneezed and then at the same time as his father muttered "troublesome". His appearance resembled his father and was a carbon copy if only younger. The only difference being their clothes. While Shikaku had green jonin clothing worn by most, Shikamaru had a gray jacket that covered a mesh shirt underneath.
Back at the Yuki clan training grounds, Zabuza raised his hand to signal the beginning of the spar. Then after receiving nods from both members quickly brought his hands down and stepped back to observe the action.
Both Haku and Sato brought out Kunai and ran to the middle of the grounds and met each other in a clash of knives. Both boys had an impassive look before the match started but when they clashed you could see that both had adorned a smile on their lips.
They clashed with knives and measured their strength with Bukijutsu mastery, speed and power. While still locked in a clash of knives Sato spoke towards his nii-san.
"This will be fun nii-san. But it's only the beginning" Said Sato.
"Let's see how far we can go, Sato." said Haku who adorned a smile on his face knowing that this was only the start of their match.
Everyone who came to witness the spectacle was impress with the opening act of both brothers spar and had various expression on their face. They all kept their eyes on the battleground incase they missed what would come next.