Naruto: Of bone and ice

The rumor of a boy who had killed over a hundred students spread like wildfire. It was rare for just one person to kill that many on his own, what really shocked everyone was that the boy wasn't even a student at the Academy. The Mizukage himself was interrogating the boy. His name was Zabuza Momochi. It was all starting to fall into place now. The timeline was starting to make sense, if Zabuza was a little older than me, that meant I was only a year or two younger than Kakashi.

Shortly after my breakdown, the survivors and I were gathered and given our Hidden Mist Protectors. I counted fifty-one students in all. It was no secret that their numbers were low this year. All thanks to Zabuza's arrival, I had no doubt that they would soon put an end to the barbaric graduation exam and change their ways. The senior instructors and others were watching not only to make sure no one tried to escape. They were observing our strengths and weaknesses.

Each student was placed in an area where their strengths seemed strongest. The categories were listed as follows. Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Kenjutsu. Most of the students were placed in only one category, Kenjutsu, after all, Kirigakure was known for its famous swordsmen. Only ten students were placed in three or more categories, and I was one of them.

"Fuyun Yuki, Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu." The instructor called out. I was transferred to a small group of students who were divided into more than two categories. while the rest were organized into their own sections. It turned out that even though we had become Genin, we still had three weeks left at the Academy. They called them advanced classes, and they didn't call them that for nothing.

We were given no time to rest, no time to celebrate our promotion, and we were immediately back to training. The Hidden Mist had suffered heavy losses during the war, and the village needed more soldiers, and fast. Small conflicts and skirmishes around the land of water and its neighbors were also occurring, and the need for soldiers was growing. We quickly fell into a routine, just like our basic training, as it was called. First came kenjutsu practice, every student present, and the silence was painful as we waited for our instructor. We all gathered in the Great Hall, which was rather strange, as it had a large stone walkway a full square in diameter, the training area. The lower level was covered in water, and it was at least waist deep. The large doors swung open, slamming against the walls with a crash, as if they had been kicked open. The students parted as a large, slender man walked past them. He had a huge sword on his back that I recognized immediately, he had no eyebrows, no wrinkles under his eyes, and a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek. The most noticeable thing about him was the red mesh mark that covered his jaw. His gaze was heavy as he looked at us all from head to toe.

- Okay, you pathetic assholes, take your training sword and follow me.

The man jumped down and landed on the water, standing on it using his chakra. Everyone quickly grabbed one of the training swords and jumped into the water. I was right, the depth was about waist level. None of us could stand on the water using our chakra yet, and we were all forced to endure the cold of the water.

-My name is Juzo Biwa. One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Everyone dropped to whispers. It was well known that the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were extremely powerful ninja, in fact, their power and standing in the village was second only to the Mizukage himself. Juzo chuckled at the fact that none of us could walk on water yet, and his smile quickly faded.

- The Mizukage asked me not to kill any of you... But I don't make promises to rats about whether you'll live or die. Now I want you all to attack me. You can attack one by one or all at once, it doesn't matter. If you don't control yourself, you could die.

For a few seconds, no one moved. I was pretty sure that if he really wanted to, he could kill us all. My memory of him was fuzzy at best, but the fact that he had the executioner's blade before Zabuza said it all. Suddenly, one of the students flew into the air, sword raised to attack. It was Zabuza. Juzo blocked his attack like it was nothing, punching him so hard in the chest that he flew into five other students, knocking them into the water.

Everyone roared and charged at Juzo, he used the blunt edge of his giant blade to block and attack. Even though it wouldn't cut you with the weight of the blade, his own self could kill if he hit the right spot. Juzo blocked and dodged every attack that came his way. His speed, strength, and skill surpassed ours. It was the power of one of the seven. It was incredible.

I followed the other two around his left flank, moving in the water making it difficult but using our chakra control we could still move at a decent pace. The two boys charged, one jumping high and the other low. It was a perfect team attack even if it was unplanned. Juzo instantly spun around, blocking both attacks at once with his large blade. He struck the boy who was still falling through the air, sending him flying backwards, then using the blade he lifted himself off the ground, delivering a powerful blow to the boy's ribs, breaking them on impact and sending him crashing into the wall.

"This is my chance." I thought, preparing to attack Juzo while he was still down. Juzo crawled to the side, landing and turning to counterattack. I blocked the strike, but the force knocked me off my feet and sent me flying back. I quickly recovered to see Juzo holding his sword above my head, ready to attack again.

"Nice try, kid," he said, swinging the blade downwards.

I raised my sword to block the blow, but his blade was too heavy and broke mine in half, hitting my shoulder. Luckily for me, I was able to block the blow with a few bones that popped out of my shoulder, Juuzou looked shocked and I quickly went to counterattack. Pulling one of the bones completely out of my shoulder like a short sword, I swung it, aiming for his stomach. Juuzou quickly jumped to the side, throwing the blade up to his shoulder.

"So you are Kaguya..." He said without changing his expression. His thoughts were interrupted when Zabuza suddenly jumped out of the water like a shark. His sword flew so close to Juuzou's head that I thought he had chopped it off. Juuzou saw a small tuft of hair fall from his head into the water. He looked at Zabuza, then back at me, and a smile appeared on his face.

"It looks like the Genins aren't just cannon fodder this year!" he said, pointing his sword at us.

I quickly looked around to see how many were left. Including me and Zabuza, there were 10 of us left who could still fight. The rest had been pulled out of the water by other instructors who must have been watching from the shadows.