Two years seemed to be a small amount of time, but it can be a lot depending on who you ask. And Daisuke is certainly one of the best examples of this.

“Pakura-sama!” One Suna shinobi kneeled in front of Pakura, who was currently sitting on a rock, reading a report. “We’ve witnessed several Iwagakure ninjas close to our border with the Land of Keys.”

“Huh?” Pakura turned to look at him. “Have they made themselves known?”

“We’re not sure, Pakura-sama. It seems they’re trying to enter silently, but we’re also not sure if they are faking being spotted by us.” The shinobi said, he was one of the ninjas that are posted on the border post of the Land of Winds and the Key Country.

“Mm… Are they moving right now?” Pakura asked.

“Yes.” The ninja nodded. “By the way, they’re moving, they seem to be trying to reach Shack City, but they have not passed the border yet.”

“Shack City, huh? Why not just enter through Bear Country?” Pakura muttered as she rubbed her chin. “How many are they?”

“We’ve counted 10 shinobi, there seems to be 2 jonin, 1 special jonin, and the rest are chunin, at least that’s what their gear seems to say.”

“Is that so?” Pakura nodded. “Stay in the border post. We don’t know if there are more Iwa-nin coming, I’ll need a chunin to accompany me and my student.”

“Huh? Are you going to intercept them, Pakura-sama?”

“Yes. They passing unannounced isn’t a good signal.”

“But what if their plan was to call our attention? Couldn’t it be a trap?”

“It certainly seems to be a trap. But if I let them do as they please in our borders, it won’t show the correct message, and they will think that Sunagakure is weak.”

The Suna shinobi frowned and nodded. “Understood, Pakura-sama. We’ll keep guard here.” The shinobi saluted. “Souzi!” He called and another shinobi appeared beside him. “You go with Pakura-sama and her student.” He said.

“Yes!” Souzi, who was a puppeteer nodded and saluted toward Pakura. “It’s a pleasure to work under you, Pakura-sama!”

“Mm.” Pakura nodded as she stood up. “Let’s go.” As soon as she said that she disappeared towards the direction of Shack city, with the objective of intercepting the enemy team. They were currently close to the border post with the Land of Keys, where one of the forests in the Land of Winds was found. As she jumped from tree to tree, someone else appeared beside her, following her closely.

“Is there something interesting happening?” Daisuke asked as he followed Pakura while jumping on trees.

“Some Iwagakure ninjas entering our land without announcing themselves.” Pakura said without turning to look at her student.

“Hm…” Daisuke nodded. “That certainly wouldn’t be good news.”

“Get ready, there’re at least 2 jonin, a special jonin, and 7 chunin moving together.”

“That much?” Daisuke frowned, as he turned to look at Souzi who was following behind and was also looking at him. “Hey! Are you a chunin?” Daisuke asked as he moved closer to Souzi as they moved through the forest.

“Yeah.” Souzi nodded. “So you’re the rumored student of Pakura-sama, huh?”

“Yes, that would be me.” Daisuke nodded with a grin. “Anyways, we’re going to be fighting other chunins, huh?”

“Seems so.” Souzi nodded, his face was a serious one, that barely showed any expression. He looked to be of the stern type.

“Oh well, glad to meet you, man. The name’s Daisuke.”

“Souzi.” Souzi replied shortly. “You don’t seem to be a genin?”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. I haven’t really graduated from the academy, that’s why.”

“Huh? And you’re already here?” Souzi asked, shocked at the revelation.

“His circumstances are special.” Pakura interrupted as she took the lead. “He might not be a genin, but you shouldn’t underestimate him, he’s strong. We’ve just been traveling through the borders, so he hasn’t had the chance to graduate yet.”

“Right…” Souzi nodded, although he still felt skeptical about it. After all, he looked just like a 10-year-old child; and actually, he was something over 9 years old, which would be worse in Souzi’s mind. But he still decided to ignore it, after all, one had to have something special to be a student of the Hero of Sunagakure.

The three-man team kept moving through the forest until they made it to a middle point between Shack city and the border of the Land of Keys.

“Be careful!” Daisuke shouted as he changed directions taking out his sword and deflecting the incoming kunais, Pakura and Souzi also evaded. “It’s an ambush, sensei.”

“No shit.” Pakura snorted as she landed beside Daisuke. “Join backs.” As she said that, the three of them stood in a triangular formation, with their back facing the other two.

“Well, well, look at this. Seems like the small bastard has quite the good senses.” A shinobi with the Iwagakure’s headband spoke as he walked outside of the bushes. “And color me surprised, to see the great Pakura of the Scorch Release here of all the people. I don’t know if it’s my bad luck or my good luck.” He grinned sadistically as more shinobi started to surround them. “Now, why don’t you quietly let yourselves be killed, huh? That way it won’t be painful, right guys?” He said and the other shinobi around them laughed. “We might even play just a little bit with the great Pakura of the Scorching Release instead of selling her like a slut.” The shinobi said as he ogled Pakura’s body.

{Damn bastard is dead, and he doesn’t know it yet.} Daisuke thought as he frowned, knowing pretty well that an enraged Pakura would be a disaster worse than the Ichibi. He looked around and could see 9 ninjas surrounding them. {It might be our luck that ninjas don’t move in really big groups normally.} From their chakra, which he had been learning how to perceive in others, he could determine that most of them had at most a medium-chunin level of chakra, while just three had a jonin-level chakra, and only one could be considered a full-fledged jonin, which was the dead-man ogling at Pakura.

“Oi, brat.” Pakura spoke in a tone that sent shivers down Daisuke’s back, they’re fucked, he thought. “I’ll take care of those three. I’ll leave the rest for you two.” Pakura said as she moved towards the first Jonin before anyone could say anything, and with a strong kick sent him flying out of the small clear. She immediately followed.

“Shit!” “Captain!” The other two jonins quickly followed behind them, none of them could see her move, which wasn’t something they truly expected. While Pakura was strong, most people dismissed her power, including those from Iwa, thanks to the fact that they didn’t hold Sunagakure as a strong village. And they might be right, as Suna wasn’t exactly strong, the only reason why it stood over Kiri, and with barely any difference, was because Kirigakure had been hunting their strongest clans while a lot of ninjas simply deserted.

“Fuck, should we help?” One of Iwa's ninjas asked as he turned to look where everyone went.

“Let’s kill the brat and the other one first.” Another one said as he turned to look at Daisuke and Souzi with a grin that promised a lot of pain. One of the remaining Iwa-nin, who was standing on a tree branch, was about to rush at Souzi with a tanto, but before he could move a blade went through his chest.

“Wha-?” Life left his eyes as his head flew off his body. Another blade had decapitated him.

“You’re too slow, blockheads.” Said Souzi as he appeared behind the now-dead Iwa-nin, pushing the body off the branch, two wooden arms seemingly floating at both sides with blades coming out of their palms.

With quick movements of his fingers and hand, a puppet started to form beside him, with the parts coming from behind the tree and bushes at his back. “Hey brat, don’t die. I don’t want to face Pakura if something happens to you.” He said to Daisuke without looking at him.

“Fuck, that was a clone! Kill them!” The now 5 ninjas rushed to attack at the same time, and at the same time, the Souzi standing beside Daisuke opened his mouth shooting dozens of small needles as it turned into a second puppet, hitting one of the ninjas that rushed toward Souzi.

Meanwhile, Daisuke locked his eyes on the chunin that was rushing toward him with a kunai, it was the weakest of them all, with barely the chakra level of a low chunin. {So underestimating me, huh?} Daisuke thought.

“Die, kid!” Thinking that Daisuke was frozen from fear, the Iwa-nin threw a kunai at him, piercing Daisuke’s chest. “He. Just a shitty brat- What!?” He thought, but his eyes widened when a cloud of smoke exploded from Daisuke’s body, leaving a tree trunk in place of the supposed corpse. “Shit! Substitution Jutsu!? So fast!?”

“Wind Release: Vacuum Blade!” Daisuke appeared a few meters behind him slashing his sword down as a gust of concentrated wind in the form of a slash flew toward the shocked Iwa-nin.

“Fucking kid! Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!” With quick hand seals, the Iwa-nin palmed the earth and an earth wall rose in front of him, stopping the vacuum blade. He then formed a new set of hand seals. “Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique!” As soon as he finished the hand seals, the Iwa-nin went underground and circled the Earth Wall and Daisuke, going for his back.

Daisuke, who had greatly developed senses thanks to the Dragon cheat he received, could feel and follow his chakra signature and could hear the slight movement of the earth below, as the ninja wasn’t that deep underground. And just as a hand was about to grab his ankle, Daisuke jumped far back as he shot a kunai towards the hand, “ARGH!” piercing it.

“Kai!” With a one-handed ram seal, he activated the exploding tag. Destroying the ground, and killing the Iwa-nin that couldn’t free himself of the kunai fast enough. He then turned to look at Souzi's fight and noticed that the puppeteer was panting hard, barely hanging with one puppet almost destroyed, and a limping arm.

Still, one of the Iwa-nin that had attacked him was also dead, which left only two, even if these weren’t that injured.

“Tch. That fucking brat is strong.” Muttered one of the Iwa-nin.

“Let’s finish this one first, he must be tired after fighting Aoki.” The other one said as he held his tanto, ready to attack Souzi. But as he turned to look at the puppeteer, this one jumped down the branch he was standing on. And before they could follow, a strong gust of wind came from behind, quickly turning into a torrential wind.

“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!” Daisuke shot as he blew a strong gust of wind that easily pushed both Iwa-nin, breaking branches and strongly hitting the trees around, damaging their bark.

One of the shinobi hit a tree with force, pushing the wind out of his lungs, before three kunais pierced him on the chest and neck, killing him. The other one was luckier, as he hit the ground, allowing him to stand up quickly, only for a rain of needles on its way to him.

“Earth Style: Earth Wall!” Quickly forming the hand seals, the last chunin hit the ground with both palms, and an earth wall rose, defending him from the senbons.

“Wind Style: Sickle Weasel!” Over the Iwa-nin, Daisuke appeared, swinging down his sword, which was covered by small gales that were shot in the form of a gust filled with small blades of winds towards the Iwa-nin.

“Damn kid!” The Iwa-nin covered himself and gritted his teeth as the blades of wind made many cuts on his arms and body. He thought of retreating but wasn’t able to do it, as a puppet arm pierced his neck from behind, killing him.

“Good job.” Said Souzi, as he moved towards the now-dead Iwa-nin, retrieving the puppet arm and storing it in a scroll. “It’s not a mere fluck that Pakura-sama took you as a student. Too strong for a mere 9-year-old kid.”

“Thanks.” Daisuke nodded as he scratched the back of his head. “But it’s mostly because of Pakura’s teaching. She has helped me a lot.” He said with a shrug.

“There’s so much teaching can do, kid.” Souzi said with a sigh. “Anyways, we should hurry and go help Pakura-sama.”

“She probably has it under control.” Daisuke said. {It’s the poor bastards who need help…}

“We better not take any chance-” Souzi tried to say, but a sudden eruption interrupted him. Turning to look at the source, they could see a huge smokescreen a couple of kilometers away.

“Told you she was okay.” Daisuke said with a shrug as he started to move toward Pakura. With a sigh, Souzi followed him. “Sensei is absurdly powerful, her Scorch Release is no joke, that thing is really dangerous.”

Souzi nodded. He has heard a lot about Pakura, after all, she wasn’t the Hero of Sunagakure for nothing, her power has been praised high by a lot of other shinobi that fought beside her on the battlefield, but even then, he hasn’t seen her fight himself, not being in the same battalion, so he still has doubts.

As they reached the spot from where the smoke appeared, they could see a whole field filled with dead trees and soil. Everything in a radius of at least 30 meters was completely scorched and without life, including three lifeless bodies that turned into dried corpses. In the middle of it, was Pakura reading a scroll with a frown.

{How the hell is that scroll intact while the rest of the forest is in this state? Could it be because of a lack of water inside the scroll? Damn anime logic.} Thought Daisuke as he looked at the whole place. It wasn’t only the scroll, though, the equipment of the three corpses, and even Pakura’s clothes were intact. {Anime logic it is.}

“Pakura-sama!” Souzi shout as he saluted.

Pakura nodded at Souzi, before turning to Daisuke with a raised eyebrow. “What took you so long to finish them?”

“They were chunin, Pakura-sensei.” Daisuke sighed, making Pakura snort.

“Brat, do you forget who the hell trained you? You could finish them faster if you wanted.” Pakura said while shaking her head. “We’ll talk about that later. Souzi!”

“Yes!” Souzi, who couldn’t understand what Pakura was talking about, stood straight.

“Take this and quickly go back to the border post. We need to deliver this scroll to the village. Those bastards from Iwa are at it again.” She said with a scowl. “Move fast. We don’t have time to lose.”

“Yes!” Souzi nodded as he grabbed the scroll. “What are you going to do, Pakura-sama?”

“The brat and I will go and stop the advancing shinobi. These were only on the lookout to ambush in case we sent someone to intercept the other group.” Pakura said. “Those bastards were really letting themselves be seen. Anyways, that’s not the problem for now. Now go! That scroll needs to reach Sunagakure as fast as possible!”

“Yes!” With a shout, Souzi disappeared, using the body flicker technique.

“Let’s go, we need to start moving now.” Pakura said as she turned around, running towards their original direction, with Daisuke following behind. It seems that things escalated into something else.