_________ POV Narration _________

'Hello, Father!

I hope this letter finds you well and healthy... Sorry for not being able to come and visit, I didn't want to interrupt my training just yet.

The months that followed my arrival at the Dark Brotherhood compound have been amazing! Sir Ken is undoubtedly a great teacher, and more than anything, a very creative person!

His training regime is both gruelling and compelling. It's nothing like the boring sword swinging that Grampa Mifune had me do! (PS: Please don't tell him I said that...)

I've learnt exactly what I wanted to! It's actually refreshing how much there is to learn! Apparently, Sir Ken's art is a lot more complex than I initially thought... There are a lot of weird techniques that I didn't even think about...

He's also been teaching me some basic ninjutsu, which I've mastered. Apparently, I have Wind and Fire Nature Chakra!

Teacher has Wind and Lightning, but he apparently also has mastered quite a few Fire Release Techniques! I was really excited to learn that, which is why I'm telling you as well! (So you can be excited with me!)

I've learnt a LOT about assassination already, I've even had some chances to experiment in combat! It's mostly sparring with some strange clone.

But it's really like a human! Shinobi techniques are really weird... It did take me a whole 6 months(AI, the entire time I've been training here), to take one down!

I've already gained some proficiency in controlling wires with my Chakra! I've gotten a lot better at throwing weapons as well.

Well, that's most of my progress. It's apparently pretty good though!

Sir Ken said that I am already comparable to a Chunin from the other lands, which is apparently decent enough to warrant a few head pats!

I've also made plenty of friends around these parts! There are a lot of children my age here, family status and other ranks don't matter to them at all, it's like we're one big family!

We're all learning essentially the same things too, apparently, I'm not even close to being the strongest here either...

There's some sort of ranking. There are around 80 of us(of varying ages), and I am apparently ranked number 26!

That's pretty good though, Teacher said that it's actually very good since they've all been training for longer than me.

The ones within the Top 20 are already going out on supervised missions! Well, they don't get to do much from what I heard, but they still get to watch and learn!

The ones in the top 5 are actually allowed to engage in fights too! They've already killed people from what I've heard!

That made me a bit jealous, but I'm sure I'll get the chance as well when I'm considered ready... All the children in the top 10 are actually older than me, by the way!

And number one(Named Tatsukio, apparently) is already strong enough to hold his own against a Special Jonin! So he's also pretty talented.

He's apparently already killed a lot of people! He even volunteered to go on missions first actually! The weirdest thing about him? He's missing a whole leg!

Apparently, Teacher worked together with him to develop some sort of movement technique, so he moves REALLY fast, I can barely react to him actually...

By the way, we hold some nice in-house tournaments to decide the ranking! It's all supervised though, and injuries are always handled by one of the older guys around here.

He's apparently part of the 'Blades'! I was so excited to meet him! He was relatively kind too, though he felt a bit off, certainly not as kind as my Teacher...

Anyway, I've already talked(written?) your ears(eyes?!) off, so I'll just get back to training now!

I promise I'll visit you this month! I also want to see you after all!

Miss you!

With Love,

Yue XOXOXOXOXO'

The Daimyō sighed a bit as he finished reading the letter his daughter had sent him.

Despite agreeing to regular visits, Yue had vehemently rejected going along with the delegation every time they appeared, she was too engrossed in her training.

The Delegation was also unable to force her to come, they were also too scared to do so since they were essentially surrounded by faceless masked assassins that watched their every step.

"..." Mifune wiped a tear from his cheek as he stood to the side.

'To think she'd grow so quickly...' The old general felt a bit strange.

Although he knew Yue was talented, he hadn't expected her to show that much progress under Ken...

'Just goes to show that she wasn't exactly all that passionate when I was training her...'

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Although the old man was disappointed, he still felt proud that the little girl he had watched grow up was following her dreams, and very successfully at that!

Being a regular chunin didn't mean a lot in the grand scope of things. But one had to take into account that she had only been training for around 6 months.

'Still... To think that competition is so fierce among the youth in the Dark Brotherhood... Really, a place brimming with talent, huh...'

The two leaders of the Land of Iron continued to mull over Yue's letter for a while after that...

To them, it sure seemed like the children there were talented.

But only the children knew the amount of hard work and dedication they put into getting to where they were... To them, rest was wasting time, and training was already in their blood.

They no longer even cared about free time, despite it being allocated to them during the day, they still continued to train.

Eating was the only time they took a break. That or when their muscles could no longer go on.

Discipline wasn't forced onto them, but they had disciplined themselves to go through all of the hardship necessary to become stronger, to never have to worry about losing anything dear to them ever again.

And their efforts were certainly rewarded...

The Father, their dear leader, the man that had given them the chance to turn their lives around... He started training them personally...

He started paying more and more attention to them, to the point where he took breaks from his own training to help Tatsukio, the one that was most 'disadvantaged' among them, to create a special technique!

And oh boy was it 'special'... It was extremely difficult to pull off, but it paid off greatly.

A technique that combined a basic Wind Release Jutsu, the Gale Palm and the 'Body Flicker Technique' which was mainly a movement technique used outside of combat for travel.

The technique created by these two was titled 'Air Flicker'(By Ken) or the 'Flash Step'(By Tatsukio).

The user essentially vitalized their body using the Body Flicker Technique, heightening their speed to sickening degrees.

Then the user would jump towards the sky, as high as they could.

Now, the important part of the technique was that the user needed to be able to mould Wind Nature Chakra with their feet in order to perform the Gale Palm Technique.

This was only possible for those with Wind Chakra affinity, as well as those that had already completely mastered the Gale Palm normally.

It was a very basic Wind Release Jutsu, normally it could only hold the power to knock an adult over from a few meters.

And that was more than enough for the user to perform the 'Flash Step'.

Gale Palm formed what was essentially a gale platform that allowed the user to body flicker in mid-air instantly.

It required a lot of concentration and mastery, but Tatsukio had put a lot of effort into it for over 5 months, and he was already able to use it in combat, to great effect at that...

To others, he looked like a blur, flashing around everywhere and hitting the enemy from impossible angles while quite literally flying.

Ken himself was pleased with the technique and decided to add it to his arsenal. It was, after all, a very good way of taking an enemy by surprise.

Seeing Tatsukio benefit so much from Ken's teachings made the children train even harder.

Thanks to Akira's hard work, they had a very large library of jutsu to learn now, and they all started doing their best to master new techniques as well.

Akira's spoils weren't just constrained by techniques though...

Unfortunately, money wasn't a lot, the shinobi looted were off to war after all, and they didn't bring much of their personal wealth with them.

But the food was definitely good for their resources. It was all sealed away safely, so they weren't going to go bad anytime soon...

The Third Blade had also found quite a bit of throwables and weapons, swords of varying qualities, and quite a few blades made from Chakra Metal.

Thanks to them, the Dark Brotherhood now had to invest in building an entire armoury, a big one at that... Thankfully, they weren't strapped for cash.

The Daimyō had held his promise, and his payment for Ken was certainly generous... To put it bluntly, it was enough to expand the Dark Brotherhood compound ten times over.

It allowed them to also invest in some stronger walls, sturdy stone walls and watchtowers. Though they weren't completed yet... It was a lengthy construction after all.

Regardless, life continued in the Compound, the construction crews weren't allowed to actually enter it(unless they were building something inside), they had set up tents outside of it instead.

Kazue's Fuinjutsu Lessons were also going well.

Akira was a bit disappointed that they had started without him, but he turned out to not be too interested in Fuinjutsu in the end...

Well, he still learned some of them, especially the ones that were crucial to the Dark Brotherhood's defence.

Ken had already prepared quite a few contingency systems. Only around 20 children had any knowledge of Fuinjutsu now, it was still basic, but it was enough for now.

Saburo was able to progress a lot, training alongside his clones certainly helped.

Tosho was surprisingly even better. He apparently was quite talented in Fuinjutsu, to the point where he was already mastering quite a few sealing techniques, though none of them was overly complex...

Ken, however, had shown the most progress...

His senses allowed him to feel exactly how chakra flowed into something, his honed control allowed him to form seals extremely easily.

It was a bit of a struggle to write them down at first, but practice always made perfect.

He was working hard, his goal was also very clear...

'Master the Crimson Seal and the Chakra Draining Seal.'

The Chakra Draining Seal was actually a requirement for all of the Blades. It was vital for Ken's plans actually.

Ken had already mastered the draining seal in fact. It was the easiest one of the two.

He had gained some proficiency in the Crimson Seal, but he was able to do it only around 60% of the time, which was certainly not optimal in combat, but at least he was getting there.

Unfortunately, while the Dark Brotherhood and Land of Iron were working hard to develop further, the other nations weren't quite so friendly...

The Third Shinobi War had started in force, with the powers that hadn't participated in the war immediately taking advantage of the ones that had suffered great losses in it.

The Rock and the Waterfall villages were the ones to start the war in fact, they had carried out a series of planned attacks on the villages that had been weakened the most.

It was certainly devious, former allies attacking each other for profit... But that was exactly the way that their world worked. The ones getting attacked were already expecting it anyway.

Many of the smaller lands had banded together already, preparing for the worst the second that the raid on the Uzumaki turned out to be a massive failure.

The situation was blown into an all-out war when the other Great Villages also got involved. The Cloud joined the Rock and the Waterfall, forming a makeshift alliance.

The Leaf also got involved, alongside the Mist and the Sand, which mostly worked individually, striving to reap the most benefits.

Surprisingly, the Uzumaki were now also involved. They joined the war immediately and went after the powers that had threatened them before, allying with the Leaf and striking at the Rock-Cloud-Waterfall alliance.

The situation was still ongoing, so there wasn't a lot of news on how successful they were...

Regardless, Ken could only scoff at the way things had escalated.

He had expected peace to last long after the previous failed attempt, but it seemed that humans could really never have enough land or resources to satisfy themselves...

It was a shame, but well, life goes on...

But the clock was ticking...

'6 more months... That's all they have left...' Ken sat in his office, his feet resting on his desk as he flicked another knife towards the photos of the 7 Swordsmen.