Little Apple

"Do you need something?"

Seeing Zabuza standing beside him without saying a word, Araki couldn't help but ask.

After all, having someone standing stiffly behind him like that—while not exactly frightening—was still incredibly awkward!

"How did you manage to master water walking so quickly? Could you teach me?"

Young Zabuza's voice still carried a hint of childishness, and perhaps out of embarrassment, he spoke very quietly.

"Are you asking me for help?"

Araki's eyes widened, his face showing disbelief.

This is not the Zabuza I know!

"Yeah!"

Zabuza nodded, his small face turning slightly red.

Good grief, what are you blushing for!

Araki was speechless.

You're supposed to be the Demon! Show some backbone! Who are you putting on this weak act for?

Although he was dissatisfied with this version of Zabuza, Araki didn't refuse; to him, teaching or not teaching made little difference.

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

Araki nodded, then added, "After all, your swordsmanship skills are honestly a bit poor."

Hearing this, Zabuza looked up, puzzled. "Does water walking have anything to do with swordsmanship?"

"Of course it does! You've practiced it yourself, haven't you?"

Araki looked at Zabuza's soaked clothes and said, "Then you should have realized by now, what does water walking require? It's about chakra control, right?"

Zabuza nodded.

"Good. Now, do you know what swordsmanship requires?"

"Is it also control?"

Zabuza wasn't stupid; he immediately made the connection.

"Exactly. Swordsmanship is about controlling your body—your muscles, bones, even your skin and hair must be under your command. Chakra is no exception."

Araki praised him with the tone of a teacher satisfied with a promising student.

"Understand now? Alright, go practice!"

Having said that, Araki immediately began shooing Zabuza away. He didn't want to have close ties with any of his classmates for the time being, fearing he might be disgusted during the graduation exam.

He had heard that the graduation exam's slaughter wasn't random. It wasn't just about killing anyone to pass; you had to kill the partner assigned to your group.

And how were these partners chosen? It was based on who you were closest to, so there was a high probability that your friend would be your opponent.

How should one describe this method? It was like "severing worldly ties," or perhaps a lesson for newly graduated genin:

Ninjas cannot have emotions!

This line of thinking was bizarre. Did the person who came up with this have no family of their own?

Although, in Araki's view, there was no one in his year he couldn't bring himself to kill—it didn't matter who he was paired with—he didn't want to be disgusted for no reason. Better to avoid unnecessary trouble!

If he wanted to make friends, he could wait until after graduation when they were assigned to genin squads; those teammates would be the only ones worth trusting.

After hearing Araki's words, Zabuza whispered a thank you and left. He had already learned a lot from Araki today and hadn't expected him to hold his hand through the process anyway.

So, that's how swordsmanship techniques work?

Once Zabuza was far away, he pulled a kunai from his ninja pouch and practiced swinging it a few times.

"Control the muscles and bones of the body."

"Control the chakra."

"Araki-nii!"

The setting sun cast a long shadow across the beach. Just as a weary Araki was about to return to the ninja academy dormitory, he heard a crisp call the moment he stepped through the gates.

Turning his head, he saw a young girl who looked slightly younger than him running toward him happily.

She had long red hair, with two pigtails tied up on either side of her head like rabbit ears. As she called out, her sharp, pointed teeth were faintly visible.

"Oh, it's Ringo."

Araki stopped and waited for the little girl to run up to him, panting. He reached out to help her catch her breath and asked, "What do you need?"

His attitude toward Ringo Ameyuri was completely different from his treatment of Zabuza. His perfect, gentle smile was a world away from the cold, impatient tone he had used earlier.

This, of course, wasn't because Ringo was a cute little girl while Zabuza was a terrifying, browless freak.

Araki wasn't that shallow!

The reason was simple and boiled down to two points:

First, Zabuza was a student in his year. The underlying competitive relationship wasn't the main issue, but to avoid the disgust of being paired up during the graduation exam, Araki was consciously keeping his distance from everyone in his year. However, he didn't have that concern regarding Ringo Ameyuri, who was in the year below him.

[They couldn't possibly have let Ringo graduate early just to target me, right?]

Araki considered himself a perfectly ordinary student. At most, he was the top of his class, but so what? There was a top student every year; it wasn't exactly a title that drew much attention.

Besides, the blood and darkness of Kirigakure were mostly directed at the bloodline clans. What did that have to do with a guy from a commoner background like him?

Danzo wasn't even in Kirigakure!

The second point was that, in his view, Ringo Ameyuri's future potential was even greater than Zabuza's.

Although both would eventually become members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, much like the Shichibukai, the strength gap between members of organizations named after the number "seven" could be massive.

Don't ask why; the answer is the "Will of 7"!

What was Zabuza's most glorious moment?

It was when he completely dominated the new Konoha trio plus the Sixth Hokage, Kakashi, in the Land of Waves.

He looked absolutely overpowered!

These people cleared Kaguya in one go, yet they somehow needed two attempts to clear Zabuza!

Of course, the above is just a joke. The reality was:

At the time, the new trio—Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura—had strength that was practically negligible when they first encountered Zabuza.

However, after trapping Kakashi, Zabuza failed to finish them off immediately, and instead, they found an opening to rescue Kakashi.

The scene that followed was a Sharingan copy-show that would make even Kisame shed tears.

A B-rank Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique was forced into a 44-hand-seal sequence by both Zabuza and Kakashi before it was finally released!

Even Kisame, who was obsessed with hand seals, wouldn't play like that!

In the end, Zabuza was so stunned by the Sharingan that he forgot the final few seals for the Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique, allowing Kakashi to successfully take him down.

Judging by the fact that Kakashi was bedridden for a while afterward, we could barely say that Zabuza and the three-tomoe Kakashi of that time were evenly matched.

Or, to be more precise, Zabuza crushed Kakashi tactically; after all, he neutralized Kakashi right at the start with the Water Prison Technique. But once Kakashi broke free, Zabuza fell behind in a contest of raw strength.

That was his limit.

But what about Ringo Ameyuri?

Her early combat record was unclear, but after appearing in the Fourth Great Ninja War, she fought against a multitude of enemies, unleashing Lightning Style ninjutsu as if it were free, single-handedly crushing hundreds of Allied Shinobi Forces, including the future guards of the Fifth Raikage.

She was practically an anti-army weapon!

Most importantly, she wasn't very old at the time, which meant she died early; her strength perhaps hadn't even reached its limit yet.