Walking down an elevated stone path they get further and further from any buildings in the village. The mountains below begin transitioning into a forest as they approach the coast. Ahead of them is a harbor docked with ships of all sizes.

"Is there anyone else on this mission with us?" Zitsu looks at Mei's back.

"A lot of different ninjas have missions on the island we are going to, but we are the only ones going to this particular clan." She turns her head back and answers softly.

Zitsu thinks for a while before opening his mouth "How do you feel about all this?"

Mei stops in her tracks before continuing to walk forward. "I think the objective is right but the means are wrong, but I will accomplish the mission given to me."

Zitsu taps his finger on his cheek. The nine tails attack happens in around eight days, but he's not sure if Yagura is being controlled yet. Ao should have his byakugan by now, but he doesn't discover it for years.

Suddenly his eyes light up. Maybe he just never dared to use the byakugan on the Mizukage? Coming to this conclusion everything makes sense. What Yagura is doing right now can be seen as him strengthening the village, but a lot of ninjas and clans are dying. This will actually weaken the land of water in the long run because after a few years and make people dissatisfied, causing a lot of people to abandon the village.

Looking at Mei's back his brows wrinkle. Shaking his head he decides to keep quiet, it's not the right time. The time for him to make his move is in a little over two years.

As he is thinking they arrive at the harbor. Dozens of ninjas and civilians are moving about. The smallest ship he sees is a Brig and biggest is a Frigate.

"This is the ship we're taking" Mei points her finger.

Following where she's pointing he sees a blue painted Brig with black diagonal lines. The sails are pure white with black Kiri symbols painted on it. Some cargo is being loaded onto it, and six ninjas are standing onboard.

"Come on" waving her hand she begins walking up the boat ramp.

Following her up he sees the ninja's leaning on the rails, thinking for a minute he sends chakra towards his brain to activate his sensory technique. He only senses nine chakra signatures on the ship, not including Mei and himself.

"Mei?!?" Two men walk towards her.

"What are you doing here? You're going to the Yami Islands as well?" A man with short black hair tied back with a blue scarf and ninja headband looks surprised. He's wearing the standard Kiri black and blue with the flak jacket.

Mei smiles "Shigeaki, Keisuke didn't think I'd see you here. Nothing too big, I'm going to see the Kurata clan for talks."

"By yourself? I guess it wouldn't matter if it's you, safer actually." Shigeaki, the man with the scarf nods.

Keisuke is wearing almost the same thing, except his entire head is covered with a mask with tiny holes for eyes and his headband is tied to his arm. He points at Zitsu and looks at Shigeaki "She's not alone." A monotone voice comes from behind the mask.

Shigeaki eyes go wide as he looks between Mei and Zitsu. "Mei you finally settled down and had kids? I thought for sure you'd melt the guy first."

A vein bulges on Mei's forehead as she kicks out her foot.

"Hahaha, easy, easy" Shigeaki jumps backward as he dodges her foot. "So if he's not your kid, who is he?"

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Mei points at his neck, drawing both their attention. "He's my Genin student." She sticks out her chest a little as the words leave her mouth.

Shigeaki crouches down to look Zitsu in the eye "Your just really short right? How old are you ten? Twelve?"

"Four" Zitsu holds up four fingers, trying to sound as adorable as possible.

"Oh my." He stands up shaking his head "Mei you can't use your connections to acquire a spot for a kid you like.

Mei sticks her chest out further "He passed the Academy graduation exam today."

Shigeaki and Keisuke both take a step back in surprise.

"Setting sail!" Suddenly a man yells on the ship and it begins moving.

"Sho, sho, sho, go back to your teams, I need to train my student." She begins waving them away with her hands.

Shigeaki rolls his eyes and walks away while Keisuke leaves in silence.

"Who are they?" Zitsu looks at Mei.

"They're both Jonin like me, they both lead a team of two Chunin. Come, let's see your swordsmanship." She begins walking towards an empty spot of the ship.

Zitsu's brows wrinkle as he follows her. "You know how to use a sword?"

Mei looks at him with narrowed eyes and purses her lips "I'm an Elite Jonin of Kirigakure, of course I can use a sword to some extent." She sits down on the side of the ship "Come, show me."

He can feel the number of his clones increasing, and he's been getting information periodically from them. The distance is too far to receive the chakra back, but the spirituality part of his chakra is still increasing.

Pulling out his sword he performs the diagonal slash he's best at and peaks at Mei but sees no expression on her face. Returning to what he was doing he executes a series of vertical and horizontal slashes in rapid succession. Because of his clones, he has gotten a lot better at stringing attacks together.

"Stop, stop, this is too hard to look at" Mei holds up her hand.

Looking at Mei he raises his brows a little surprised.

"Perform a vertical cut." she looks at Zitsu.

He lifts his sword but is suddenly hit by a bullet of water on over forty points on his body. Turning towards Mei he looks bewildered.

"Every spot I hit you in were areas you made mistakes." She flicks her finger and sends a bullet of water into the air. "You use your body completely wrong." She shakes her head "This will be a long ride."

The boat begins to pick up speed as the wind hits the sails. Two Jonin and four Chunin watch a small auburn-haired child being pelted and yelled at by an auburn-haired demon, a really enjoyable site for them.

The more he trains the more distressed he becomes. Not because he isn't learning anything, but because the clones he left behind became almost useless! He is still gaining something from the twenty clones practicing sensory techniques and the eight practicing chakra control, but the twenty clones practicing the sword have become useless. His only hope is that they can figure something out on their own.

As night falls he's sitting down with his legs crossed, going over all he's learned in his head.

Mei lays down in front of him on her side, her hand propping up her head. "Your control over chakra is not bad for a Genin, but because you have the chakra capacity of a Chunin you seem to lack." She pauses for a moment "Judgment. Why create thirty water clones when twenty can do the job."

His head lowers as he thinks about what she said. Because he used all his chakra to launch six dragons at Mangetsu he couldn't make a follow-up attack. Looking her in the eyes he nods his head.

"I understand err" his brows wrinkle "Should I call you Teacher, Instructor, or something else?"

Her eyes light up "You can call me Big Sis."

He feels like someone just kicked him in the chest, calling a sixteen to seventeen-year-old girl Big Sis. "Can I just call you Mei?"

She squints her eyes and just looks at him.

Zitsu sighs "Big Sis."

A smile surfaces on her face and she stands up. "Ok, breaks over. Let's continue practicing."

Grabbing his sword he rises to his feet. The sword practice she has him doing is increasing his physical chakra a lot faster than the exercising he did. When you use your body the right way it tiers your body fast, and he can't even heal himself.

After the first day, he releases his clones because he was gaining more from using his sensory techniques while practicing. Thinking of a better idea, he went to the bathroom below deck on the second day and made twenty clones. Getting half to work on his new findings on sensory techniques and the other half to work on his chakra manipulation. After making the clones he got them to transform into shuriken and he put them in his pocket.

After practicing the sword for a few hours on the second day, they arrived at Yami island. After a day in a half of training, he was able to reproduce the same feeling of using his whole body while performing a vertical and horizontal slash, setting a solid base for him.

As long as he continues to practice from now on he will become better. Before when his clones were practicing they were just swinging their sword around as they had no base to build on.

The boat stops a bit offshore because the harbor has already been destroyed. As the boat drops its anchor, all eight ninjas jump into the water and run for the shore.