Rei sat on the lake in ‘their’ training ground. The Mizukage made sure to permanently book it for Konan and Rei. Rei knew it was yet another of his moves to show them that Kiri was cherishing them. Showing them they are deemed important to the village. And for that Rei would help Kiri in need. But he won’t do it until there will be a profit to be had for him. He was still a shinobi and as a shinobi acting for the good of others was just not in the guidebook.

Rei’s hands were on the surface of the water. He channeled katon chakra into the center of the lake, deep under the surface, and kept trying to keep it there despite it being inside of its polar opposite, water. It was not easy but he found out it was the best control exercise for katon chakra. He neglected it for years as he was busy but as Konan decided she would train Ringo, he finally found a peaceful time to practice it. ​​

He watched as Ringo swung her sword at Konan, only to be blocked by brown paper, signalizing it was hardened. Rei sighed. Konan was even showing Ringo which papers were hardened, which had water, and which were sharpened by coloring them brown, blue, and green! Yet, Ringo somewhat managed to always evade futon papers only to hit doton ones, unable to bypass the second layer of Konan’s protective paper barrier. He shook his head as he saw her charge again, her double swords coated in lightning…

Ringo charged at Konan. She knew her speed was solid jonin level after two years of training with Rei! He taught her how to raise it with her raiton chakra and put her through literal hell to raise her natural speed! With raiton chakra, she was finally able to reach the threshold to jonin speed!

She parried a futon paper and jumped to the right to evade another. As she landed, she spun, making two futon papers bypass her by an inch while her swords deflected two other paper slices. Ringo was sure that if her swords didn’t have concentrated raiton chakra, Konan’s papers would damage the expensive blade made out of chakra metal!

As her spin ended, Ringo could see then more futon papers fly at her and she crouched down, jumping over them, twisting her body mid-air while channeling her raiton chakra into a Jutsu.

“Raiton: Depth Charge!”

Her body was enveloped in very concentrated raiton chakra, sending bolts of energy from her body to avert the futon paper slices away from her. It worked and she landed on the ground, unharmed. Springing up, she again started running at Konan who motionlessly stood in the same place for over four hours now, as Ringo tried to reach her.

The game was simple.

Three areas. Frist futon, second doton, third suiton. So far, Ringo reached only doton area before she was pushed back to the futon one and then had to disengage completely as she was getting winded.

As she ran forward, Ringo was happy when she saw she crossed the edge of the futon area. From now on, she didn’t have to worry about sharpened slices of paper. Only the doton-hardened ones were in this area.

It really hammered down the difference between her and Konan when she realized she was happy to face only one type of Konan’s attack and even then had a hard time to reach her. For Konan as a ranged fighter, that was a real show of strength.

Ringo braced herself. She knew this area was designed to test her strength. Something she lacked. In the futon area, she could pass with speed alone. This one, however…

Lightning was supposed to be strong against Earth but…

Ringo’s blade coated in raiton chakra parried the first doton paper, making Ringo’s feet slid a foot on the grass until she managed to brace herself and put her weight behind her parry. She twisted her arm, sending the paper to the side.

She took a stance, one arm outstretched forward, holding her sword across her body while the other was behind her, holding her second sword in a reverse grip.

Tens of papers flew at her, and Ringo, spun on her heel, forcing her raiton chakra to quicken her spinning rate. The coating on her swords was pulsing as she was molding raiton chakra for a Jutsu. Something she herself developed with the help of Rei-sensei.

“Raiton: Heavenly Rotation.”

Her sensei told her the name was a slap to the Hyuuga’s face and she really liked it.

Her spinning created a dome that spun at very high-speed, vibrating and repulsed anything that came into contact with it. The papers were being flung backward as they impacted the dome but Ringo wanted to puke blood from the sheer force employed in them. She felt as if she was being crushed by just blocking them!

She deflected the last and her focus slipped, only for her eyes to widen. Another paper impacted her dissipating dome, flinging her body to the right side. She landed on her feet into a crouch, coughing slightly.

“That hurt.” She grumbled as she started running towards impassive Konan again.

Ringo breathed hard when she was forced to deflect multiple doton papers at high-speed while jumping from side to side as she tried to advance. Inch by inch. She was not about to give up!

Her panting intensified but she finally deflected everything close to her! She smirked right into Konan’s face.

“I-,haa, did it, huu.” Ringo was gulping air greedily. It was not over yet! She would reach the thir-

Her eyes only registered the minuscule upturn of the corner of Konan’s lips when she felt as if Truck-kun, as Rei-sensei tried to say, impacted her back.

“Achaa! That’s game over if I see one.” Rei chuckled as he saw Ringo’s body sail through the doton area, passing suiton area, and flying way past Konan’s figure only to impact the ground which sent Ringo’s body into a forceful roll for tens of meters until it finally stopped. It was only her raiton chakra still in her system that made it possible to leave only with a few nasty bruises after such a display of kinetic rollercoaster.

“Sigh. That baka-deshi. She once again managed to piss Konan off with her cheek. Then again…”

Rei turned to the right where the real Konan was sitting not far from him, reading a book.

“Did you really have to put enough force to break ten trees into that paper?”

Konan calmly raised her head and her amber eyes impassively stared at the sprawled form of twitching Ringo.

“Yes.”