Little Apple

"What do you want?"

When Zabuza came over to stand beside him without saying a word, Araki could not help but ask.

After all, having someone stand stiffly behind him like that felt awkward, even if he was not afraid.

"How did you master water-walking so quickly? Can you teach me?"

Young Zabuza's voice still carried a trace of childishness. Perhaps because he was embarrassed, he spoke very softly.

"You're asking me for help?"

Araki's eyes widened, disbelief written across his face.

This isn't the Zabuza I know!

"Yeah!"

Zabuza nodded, his little face turning slightly red.

What the hell are you blushing for?

Araki was speechless.

You're the Demon, damn it. Show some spirit! Who are you putting on this timid act for?

Although Araki was deeply dissatisfied with this version of Zabuza, he did not refuse. To him, teaching or not teaching made little difference.

"Fine. I can tell you the trick, but whether you can learn it is up to you."

Araki nodded, then added, "After all, your swordsmanship is really pretty bad."

Hearing that, Zabuza raised his head and asked in confusion, "Water-walking has something to do with swordsmanship?"

"Of course it does! You tried practicing it yourself just now, didn't you?"

Looking at Zabuza's soaked clothes, Araki said, "Then you should have realized what water-walking depends on. Chakra control, right?"

Zabuza nodded.

"Good. Then do you know what swordsmanship depends on?"

"Control too?"

Zabuza was not that stupid, and he immediately made the connection.

"That's right. Swordsmanship depends on control over your body. Your muscles, bones, even your skin and hair must all be under your control. Naturally, chakra is no exception."

Araki praised him in the tone one might use for a teachable child.

"Got it? All right, hurry up and practice!"

After saying that, Araki immediately started shooing Zabuza away. For the time being, he did not want close contact with any of his classmates. He was afraid of being put through something unpleasant during the graduation exam.

He had heard that the killing in the graduation exam was not random. It was not enough to kill just anyone; you had to kill the partner assigned to your group.

And how was that partner chosen? It depended on who you usually got along with best. That person would most likely become your opponent.

What could one say about that method? It was a bit like "severing worldly ties," or perhaps it was teaching newly graduated genin this:

Ninjas could not have feelings!

That idea was downright strange. Did the person who came up with it not have any family?

In Araki's eyes, there was no one among his peers whom he could not bring himself to kill. It made no difference who he was grouped with, but there was no need to let himself be disgusted for nothing. Better to avoid trouble when possible.

If he wanted to make friends, he could wait until after graduation, when genin squads were assigned. Those teammates were the ones he could barely trust.

After hearing Araki's words, Zabuza quietly said thank you and left. He had already learned a great deal from Araki today, and he had never expected Araki to teach him hand in hand.

"So this is what swordsmanship technique is like?"

After Zabuza walked some distance away, he took a kunai from his ninja tool pouch and tried swinging it twice.

"Control the body's muscles and bones."

"Control chakra."

"Big Brother Araki!"

The setting sun cast a long shadow across the beach. Exhausted, Araki was preparing to return to the ninja academy dormitory. Yet the moment he stepped through the academy gates, he heard a crisp call.

Turning around, he saw a little girl who looked somewhat younger than him running happily toward him.

She had long red hair, with two upward-pointing braids tied beside her ears. From afar, they looked like two long rabbit ears. As she called out, the small sharp teeth in her mouth were faintly visible.

"It's little Ringo~"

Araki stopped and waited for the little girl to run breathlessly up to him. He raised a hand to help steady her breathing, then asked, "What did you need me for?"

His attitude toward Ringo Ameyuri was completely different from his attitude toward Zabuza. His perfect, gentle smile was worlds apart from the cold, faintly impatient tone he had used while teaching Zabuza.

Of course, that was not because Ringo was a cute little girl while Zabuza was a terrifying, eyebrowless freak.

Araki was not that shallow!

The reasons were simple. There were two of them:

First, Zabuza was in the same class as him. Their implicit competitive relationship was not important, but to avoid getting assigned together and disgusted during the graduation exam, Araki was deliberately keeping his distance from everyone in his class. He had no such concern with Ringo Ameyuri, who was in the class below.

They wouldn't make Ringo graduate early just to target me, would they?

Araki considered himself an utterly ordinary student. At most, he was the top student of his class, but so what? Every class had a top student. It was not some especially eye-catching title.

Besides, most of Kirigakure's bloodshed and darkness were directed at bloodline clans. What did that have to do with a commoner like him?

Danzo was not in Kirigakure!

The second reason was that, in his view, Ringo Ameyuri had even greater potential than Zabuza in the future.

Although both would become members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, just like the Seven Warlords of the Sea, organizations named after the number seven tended to have enormous gaps in strength between their members.

Don't ask why. The answer was simply the will of "7"!

What was Zabuza's most glorious moment?

It was when he utterly crushed Konoha's new Sannin, plus the Sixth Hokage Kakashi, in the Land of Waves.

He looked absurdly overpowered!

That group had cleared Kaguya in one attempt, yet it took them two attempts to defeat Zabuza!

Of course, that was just a joke. The real situation was this:

The new Sannin at the time, Naruto Sasuke Sakura, were practically negligible when they first encountered Zabuza.

Yet after trapping Kakashi, Zabuza failed to immediately deal with them. Instead, they found an opportunity to rescue Kakashi.

What followed was a Sharingan copying spectacle so painful that even Kisame would have cried.

A B-rank Water Release: Water Dragon Technique somehow required Zabuza and Kakashi to form forty-four hand seals before it could be cast!

Even Kisame, who had always specialized in hand seals, would not play like that!

In the end, Zabuza was scared silly by the Sharingan and forgot the final few seals of Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique, allowing Kakashi to take him down.

Since Kakashi was also bedridden for a while afterward, one could reluctantly say that Zabuza and the Three-Tomoe Kakashi of that time were evenly matched.

Or, to put it more precisely, Zabuza crushed Kakashi tactically. After all, he had crippled Kakashi right from the start with a Water Prison Technique. But once Kakashi escaped, Zabuza fell behind in terms of raw power.

That was his limit.

But what about Ringo Ameyuri?

Her early record was unclear, but after appearing in the Fourth Shinobi World War, she fought many opponents alone, unleashing Lightning Style Ninjutsu as if it cost nothing. She directly slaughtered hundreds of Allied Shinobi Forces, including the future Fifth Raikage's guards.

She was practically an anti-army weapon!

Most importantly, she had not been very old at the time, which meant she had died early. Her strength might not even have reached its limit.