As the smoke cleared Samehada was gone. Pulling back the sleeve on his right arm he reveals a bracelet that wasn't there before. The bracelet has the same scaley blue sharkskin as the blade. On the top of the bracelet is a white skull, the same as the pommel of the blade.

Seeing that it worked a small grin creeps on his face. If Samehada is going to take some of his chakra anyway, might as well use a little more to transform it. Besides requiring constant concentration, there is no drawback.

Ao's brows shoot up when he sees the transformation. "How did you know Samehada could transform? I've never heard of anyone doing that before."

"Samehada has a will of its own, why can't it transform?" Shrugging his shoulders he acts like he knew it would work the whole time.

"Done!" Mei rolls up the scroll before storing it into her bag.

"Let's go, we've already wasted so much time." Ao turns on his heels and immediately begins running towards the forest.

"See Wife? I told you" Zitsu looks Mei in the eyes with a smile.

Mei purses her lips as she looks at him "Technically I only have six swords."

Pretending that he didn't hear her, he chases after Ao.

"See how I deal with you one day." Mei smiles as she chases after.

Not only did he achieve his goal of acquiring Samehada, he also got to sneak attack Fuguki, bringing his Taijutsu to 24 and Ninjitsu to 23. It was a pleasant surprise to learn Enuma Elish will increase his Taijutsu as well if he stabs his opponent.

To avoid being found they decided to take a different route back to port. They had to move as fast as possible to avoid Konoha Anbu, so Mei carried Zitsu on her back.

This was another reason he wanted Ao on this trip, with him here they won't run into any traps as they moved quickly. If they don't hurry, their boat will be seized.

"This will cause a lot of trouble for Kiri." Mei shakes her head "What was Yagura thinking?"

"Right, I don't see how destroying villages in the Land of Fire will benefit us at all." Ao grumbles as he leads the way.

Zitsu sighs, knowing full well the reason. But now is not the time to tell them. He still has a few things he needs from Konoha.

"We need to keep this a secret guys"

Hearing Zitsu's voice they both nod. If anyone learns they were here it will cause plenty of issues.

Leaning forward Zitsu whispers into Mei's ear "Let me hold onto the swords, no one will ever guess a five-year-old holds all seven swords." As he finishes speaking he doesn't wait for her answer. His left-hand leaves her neck and slowly slides down the side of her body.

Feeling his touch Mei's eyes open wide and her mouth opens slightly. While she wants to say something, no words come out.

He has to remove his hand as he didn't want to rub his leg, so he directly reaches into her bag and grabs a scroll. He slides the scroll into his sleeve for now, because Ao has his Byakugan active and he doesn't want him to notice the scroll disappear into his inventory.

Thinks up to here Zitsu frowns, if Ao was a pervert, couldn't he look through Mei's clothes? If he didn't already know that Ao was a prideful person and had no feelings for Mei, wouldn't he come off insecure if he confronted him about it?

Once again being a fan has saved him from looking like a fool.

Luckily for them, but unluckily for him, they arrive at their ship without trouble. Setting out to sea Zitsu looks back at the Land of Fire with a smile.

Zitsu looks at the land getting smaller and smaller, before finally making his decision.

"Mei, I need you to take care of Mom." Looking at Mei he opens his mouth.

"What?! Where are you going?" Mei frowns, unsure of what he's trying to do.

Zitsu takes a deep breath "I want to go to the front lines, I want to go to Myama Island."

A smile creeps onto Ao's face as he nods his head. "This is how a man should be!"

Mei looks into Zitsu's eyes for a while. Seeing his unwavering gaze she slowly nods her head. "Ok. Ao, sail to Myama."

Knowing that Zitsu will just be a Genin in a large scale battle, he will be in great danger. To make his chance of survival higher Ao and Mei taught him all they could in the two weeks it took for them to reach the Kiri port on the island.

During the two weeks, Zitsu did everything he could to deepen his bond with Samehada. Periodically Zitsu would catch different types of ferocious fish from the sea for Samehada, knowing full well it likes fishy chakra. He practiced different ways of transforming Samehada, but using it a sword would be too recognizable. After trying a few different forms he settled on a bracer. The bracer extends from his right wrist to his elbow, the top side has the blue scaly sharkskin and the underside is the same yellow as the handle with a white skull in the center.

When it absorbs chakra the scales on top can be used as a weapon, just by rubbing it against the body of a fish will peel it down to the bones and absorb its chakra. Sometimes it becomes excited and the scales will stand up like spikes. With his sleeve hiding the bracer, he can use it as a hidden weapon.

After the two weeks they finally arrived, instead of being a port town, it looked more like a war camp. Large tents were everywhere with a large border wall surrounding the encampment. On the over twenty kilometers long wall of earth, a ninja was stationed every one hundred meters.

Before they could even get close to the dock a large ship came out to meet them. On the deck of the ship, Zitsu can sense ten Jonin level chakra signatures, but if he was judging someone based on their chakra, than he would be a Jonin too, so he trusted his scan less and less.

An older looking ninja with light brown hair with white streaks and a bushy mustache jumps onto their ship. He's wearing standard Kiri attire, a headband on his forehead, and a saber on his back.

"Mei, we sensed you as you entered the barrier, what brings you here?" The old man's eyes scan Zitsu and Ao, his face filling with respect as he recognizes the Byakugan Killer.

"Dunra, who is in charge of logistics?" Mei ignores his question and asks one of her own.

"Eishi is in charge of teams and missions." His brows furrow, not sure what she's up to.

Mei nods as she points at Zitsu "This is Zitsu, a Genin, he's here to join the war effort."

"Oh?" The man's eyebrows rise slightly "Is that all?" The man nods his head "Come aboard child, I will take you ashore."

Turning around, the old man jumps onto the ship.

Mei looks at zitsu, unsure how she feels. Looking at his calm face she struggles to find the words before finally opening her mouth.

"Will you be ok?"

Zitsu looks at Mei for a moment, feeling somewhat at a loss. He has had her protection almost his entire time in this world. He doesn't know anything specific that happens in Kiri for the next year, other than Zabuza killing the academy students. The uncertainty scares him, but he has no choice unless he wants to stop moving forward.

"Wife, take care of mom. Make sure you're careful, don't let yourself fall into someone's trap." Zitsu takes a deep breath, Mei survived fine without him, but he's not sure how his arrival affected things here. "Those guys at the training camp seem to have been abandoned by their Ninjutsu teachers, so don't forget about them."

Mei nods.

"Ao, it was nice meeting you. I don't know when we will meet next, but thank you for your help."

"Kid, the next time I see you, you better be strong enough to carry Mei on your back. I've been looking after her for her entire life, it would be nice to have some help." Ao's face is stiff as ever, but the corners of his lips slightly curl.

Looking back at Mei with a smile, he spreads out his arms.

Seeing this a sly grin appears on Mei's face. Bending down she hugs Zitsu tightly.

Closing his eyes Zitsu takes a breath, trying to burn her smell into his heart. Suddenly he feels her soft lips on his forehead. Opening his eyes he sees the most charming smile in the world.

No further words are needed, that told him all he needed to know. Turning his back to her, he jumps towards the other ship.

Zitsu stands on the rails of the ship as he watches Mei and Ao sail back to Kiri. As the ship gets further away he stores the scroll with the swords into his inventory, knowing he's out of Ao's range.

Dunra walks next to Zitsu as the ship gets closer to the docks.

"Kid I hope you don't mind me being noisy, but you weren't really in a private place. Is Mei your mother or something? You seem close."

Zitsu lightly shakes his head "No, nothing like that. She has known me almost my entire life."

Hearing his answer Dunra nods his head, expecting something like that.

As the ship docks, everyone disembarks. Zitsu follows Dunra as they head towards one of the larger tents.

Looking around Zitsu notices that everyone in this camp is a ninja, hundreds of ninjas. His face turns serious, this is war.