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Sephiroth nodded, approving of the young boy's stance, and quickly moved his left arm to deflect Kaizen's thrusting right at the forearm, while catching the low blow with his right, pushing him away. He moved quite well for someone who had just put on the training weights. Maybe the boy had experience with them. Either way, Sephiroth enjoyed not having to fight a total amateur.

As Kaizen brought himself to the ground to sweep Sephiroth's legs out from under him, sephiroth flipped backwards, catching himself on his left hand before pushing back off to land nimbly on his feet, also avoiding the wrist strike. However, Sephiroth was just a second too late in what happened next, for as he attempted to duck Kaizen's spinning blow, he was hit on the shoulder quite hard. Any other opponent would have then died in a horrible, flaming, bloody way, but Sephiroth's look only showed approval to his lord, Houkou.

Suddenly there was a large poof, and a balck wolf, th same from before, appeared next to Sephiroth with a scroll on it's back. "Speak of the devil." He remarked as he read the message. After taking a moment to read it, he pulled a second scroll out of his own backpack and gave it to Kai, saying "I have buisness I must attend to. Forgive me, but that scroll will teach you all that I cannot. Fare thee well, Kaizen Minoru." And with that, he and the wolf disappeared. There was no swirl of leaves, no spray of mist, the two were just.........gone.

Kaizen arrived at the treehouses and quickly made his way up the tree, sending chakra into his feet to maintain his precarious position. As he reached the landing of the main house he quickly turned to his right and headed back to the room he had been training in earlier, he had of course hoped to complete his training at the waterfall, but that option quickly turned into a pipe dream. Looking around the room, Kai took in a deep breath, taking in the aroma of the training room, a strange aroma that smelled of sweat, steel, and blood. Taking out the scroll, Kai set it on the ground and began to read.

The next stage of the training focuses on utilizing the fluidity of motion and speed learned from the first two stages in combination. By learning to utilize both these aspects of the style in combat, the practitioner learns to fight in a more efficient way, Kai read quietly to himself. Looking up from the scroll, Kai thought for a moment before realizing that in his confrontation with Tanzu he had already begun to practice this without even realizing it. [.5/3]

When he had dodged Tanzu's charge, he had used both his speed and fluidity of motion to spin out of the way while still putting himself in an effective position to counter. Rising to his feet, Kai made several hand-seals before saying calmly, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu." As usual, Kai's eyes had turned a deep sapphire blue as he utilized suiton chakra, and his clone too possessed those deep blue eyes. [1/3]

The two Kai's then drew their swords and squared off with one another, then with a nod of Kai's head he signaled the clone to attack him. Rushing head-long, the clone came in with a double thrust low. Kai spun out to the left as he tilted the blade of his sword down to catch his clone's sword and parry it away from his body. Then as he came around Kai lashed out with a quick thrust of his wakizashi, aiming for the clone's mid-section. But just as Kai had done, his clone spun out to the side and positioned his wakizashi to catch Kai's own and parry it aside. [2/3]

As the clone came back around, it's sword coming in for a slash at Kai's now exposed neck, Kai quickly moved his katana in to parry the blade, positioning his blade so that the clone's would slide off to Kai's left. The sword caught and with a simple push of Kai's arm, the blade was sent aside. Seeing his opening, Kai performed a quick rotation to his left and slammed his elbow into the clones face, causing it to dissipate into a puddle of water. [3/3 Stage 3 of Butoukai Sono Raijin Learned]

Kai stood there for a moment, not moving from the position he held when he struck the clone. He replayed the short bout in his head several times, analyzing his own movements and those of the clone to make sure that he had truly learned what he needed to learn. Then a smile began to spread across Kai's face at having successfully learned what he needed to learn. Kai then lifted his blades into the air, the grin spreading to engulf his whole face.

"I live to fulfill the dreams of those that came before me"

Kaizen looked over his shoulder to see Kanzuki standing there, his clothes and hair drenched. Lowering his weapons, Kai turned to face his friend and smile as he said jokingly, "What happened to you, you decide to take a swim and forget your towel? Anyway, I was just getting in some last minute training, I don't think even Yama can keep up with me now!" To demonstrate, Kai did a few quick slashes in the air, his blades little more than a blur.

"I live to fulfill the dreams of those that came before me"

Kai brought his blades back to his sides and said with a grin, "Really? Well let's see it then." In truth, Kai knew that he was far from mastering the style, indeed he had barely even begun to learn, but even so, Kanzuki would be hard-pressed to match him in terms of pure speed.

"I live to fulfill the dreams of those that came before me"

Kaizen was a bit taken aback at his friend's prowess, his eyes opening wide in surprise and his grin fading into a a surprised gawk. His friend's blade was as a blur, moving almost to quick for Kai to see, in fact if it hadn't been for his training moving and fighting at high-speeds, Kai wouldn't have been able to keep up at all. Regaining his composure quickly as Kanzuki turned back to him, Kai grinned a bit less widely as he said truthfully, "Just barely, that's quite impressive Kanzo. I can't say I'd envy anyone that had to fight you..."

As the words left Kai's mouth, he stopped for a moment before his grin widened further, an excitement in his eyes. "Don't suppose you'd want to get in a quick little spar would you? All in good fun of course."

"I live to fulfill the dreams of those that came before me"

Yamatano arrived back at the treehouses, pushing Chakra into his feet to climb the tree back to his cozy bunk. But just as he was about to vault through the window, he saw just the man that he needed to see, The Mizukage. Leaping from the tree trunk to the bottom of thebranch the mizukage was standing on, Yamatano said, "Mizukage-dono, hello! I-im sorry I havent reported to you in the past few weeks, but I have quite a tale to tell. Can.......I show you a technique I learned?"