On a Monday, Kudo stood opposite Sasuke, surrounded by other students of the elite class. The girls were hollering for Sasuke.
"You can do it, Kudo! Kick his ass." Naruto shouted, causing Iruka to frown. "Begin."Immediately, Sasuke opened the spar with fury of punches, Kudo got hit but returned fire. With a push kick, he sent Sasuke skidding back. Kudo closed in with an overhead kick but he back-flipped, avoiding Sasuke's sweeping leg.
'He is good.' Kudo thought, closing in again he threw jabs aiming for Sasuke's torso. His father had hired a combat tutor for him, so he and Sasuke had similar experience. 'He is not faster than Itachi but he is good at dodging. I need a feint.' Dodging inward, Sasuke made it seem like he was aiming for Kudo's stomach but a question mark kick landed flush on Kudo making him stagger backwards. Kudo shook his head disoriented; he rolled onto the ground dodging another kick.
Taking a stance, he went into combinations of kicks, knees, elbows and fists. Sasuke responded in kind and silence reigned on the academy grounds as everyone stood shocked at the battle between the two. 5 minutes later, Sasuke and Kudo stood breathing heavily but unwilling to give up. "That's enough." Iruka interrupted, as they were about to retort, "Both of you are tired. You will seriously injure yourselves if you continue." Giving Kudo a glance, Sasuke left the ground, "Don't worry Sasuke, you will next time." Ino encouraged. Over at the side 'Damn the Ino.' Sakura followed them.
"That was amazing, Kudo. You totally obliterated him." Naruto said excitedly. "I didn't win Naruto," Kudo said exasperated. "You beat him up, that's all that matters. Let's go to Ichiraku to celebrate." Naruto animatedly said. Nodding, he left the field to have his bruises tended to.
A few hours later; 'Water style; Water bullet' A seal-less water bullet soared and demolished ten rows of wooden planks but these planks were thicker than the ones he was using two months ago. 'I can consider this jutsu mastered. What jutsu to add next?' Even his puffing before doing the jutsu had notably decreased and in the future he could launch it without any give away. Mulling it over, 'A defensive or support jutsu. For a support Jutsu I need to master another nature as to which I can only choose between Lighting, Earth and Wind. Lighting and Wind are more ideal than Earth nature. Wind nature will help increase the force of my Jutsu but Lightning can shock and immobilize my enemies through the water.' He frowned as he thought deeply, 'I will just add a defensive water jutsu. Water will be my primary nature; I will focus on lighting and wind jutus in the 4th to 6th year of the academy. Now, I'm in my 2nd year, so for this year and next year I will focus on my water nature.' Standing up, "I don't want to be a jack of all trades but master of none."
As the hours went by, he practised his taijutsu. At night, dinner table, "Mom, can you buy me shuriken for practice?" Kudo asked; his father was again absent, but he no longer minded. "Shuriken? What are those?" Ina asked curiously, "Ninja throwing weapons Mom." Her face went dark at the word 'weapon', "So it's something dangerous. What is the academy doing, teaching you such dangerous things? I will go see your teacher first thing tomorrow!" "No!" Kudo abruptly stood up, "I just need the wooden ones. We only practice with wooden ones." Hearing his frantic words she relaxed a bit. "Okay, I will go to the market tomorrow." Breathing a sigh of relief, he sat down. In the village, tensions eventually calmed down between the Uchiha and Hokage faction but a dozen or so upcoming promising youths of the Shimura, Mitokado, Utatane, and Sarutobi clan had died. Hiruzen's son Asuma was alive but barely; he had suffered an attempt but the Anbu protecting had repelled the enemies. Sarutobi Ai had been giving Sasuke death glares all week but he responded as always, ignoring her and everything around him.
Kudo saw improvement in his shuriken training as he could now consistently hit all the targets in his backyard at most 10 meters."It's not enough to hit the target; you must either kill or deal a heavy injury with the attack." Asahi Hatake said as he oversaw Kudo's practice. He had been hired by the Tanehiko household to train Kudo in all shinobi aspects but of course, even Asahi did not specialize in everything. He was here to build a solid foundation for Kudo, one that could perhaps allow him to become an elite jonin. Asahi himself was a jonin of the Hatake clan; things had turned around as soon as Kakashi had become clan leader. Like the Uchiha, he worked on strengthening and increasing the number of shinobi to regain their seat at the council meeting.
In Amegakure; "Are you serious about this, Obito?" Zetsu asked, even though he found this plan to be a bit radical and it want something Madara would easily consent to, but given how they had shunned, perhaps he might. "There are too many unexpected variables in Konoha, and we need to start trimming them or else the plan will be at risk. The other villages are growing rapidly in strength in response to Konoha, so if we weaken them, then the balance can be maintained." Obito answered.
"Don't you think a fourth shinobi war might start?"
"No. The other great villages aren't so foolish as to start a war wantonly. Maybe the Sand but given their losses in the 3rd Shinobi war, they won't attack." Obito spoke, watching the candles flicker."The civil war has stalled in Kirigakure because the other villages pose a threat, so I will eliminate that possibility so they can kill each other to their heart's content."
Obito donned his cloak, gloves, and mask. In all black except the mask, he rushed towards Konoha.