Naruto: Chronicles of A Fire Ninja

"Time's up. Even though you were unable to land an attack on me, I still got a good idea of your offense. Now it's time to test your defense."

'This brat... Even handling him alone is getting hard, and now he wants to use shadow clones. No chance,' Jiraiya thought.

That's why he stopped the test before the full 10 minutes were up. It wasn't like he would lose to Kaida, but he had already said that he would only defend and not attack. Now, if Kaida used five shadow clones, there was a very high chance that either he would subconsciously attack them or that Kaida would land an attack on him. Both could be considered a loss for someone like him—a Sannin who had participated in two great ninja wars and done hundreds of S-rank missions. Being defeated by a 10-year-old boy would be quite ironic and shameful.

Kaida also felt that he should still have one minute remaining. Since he had practiced in the hospital for so long and even completed so many operations, he had developed a very keen sense of time. Even though there was no clock in the training area, Kaida could somehow 'feel' that he still had 1–2 minutes left.

But since this wasn't a spar and there was no way he could even think of defeating someone who had almost beaten one of the strongest existences in the world, Nagato, without knowing his full power at all—at least not yet—he let go of his thoughts and focused on the next test.

"For your defense, I will attack you now for a full five minutes. Use every means necessary to stay conscious until the end of the test," Jiraiya said.

"Sensei, how could I defend against you?" Kaida asked.

"You're underestimating yourself too much. Also, I'm not going to go all out anyway. I just want to check your level so we can work to improve it," Jiraiya replied.

"Okay, Sensei," Kaida said, dispersing his clones. His chakra, which was already down to 40% after all that attacking, replenished a little, returning to about 60%.

Kaida turned on his Sharingan, still active, and made two shadow clones once again.

"I'm ready, Sensei," Kaida said.

"Okay then, here I come," Jiraiya said, suddenly disappearing from his position. Only a ninja at the Jonin level or higher could react to an attack of that speed. And even this wasn't Jiraiya's full power—just 5%, barely enough to check Kaida's defense level and not accidentally kill him.

But since his attack was still at a level only a Jonin could detect and evade, Kaida, with his 3-tomoe Sharingan activated, could easily see through it.

Before Jiraiya could land a punch on Kaida's chest, Kaida evaded to the side and counterattacked with a punch aimed at Jiraiya's ribs.

Startled by the sudden attack, Jiraiya almost took the hit before his instincts kicked in, and he used the Body Flicker Jutsu to evade.

"The best defense is a good offense. Good choice," Jiraiya said. Seeing that a Jonin-level attack wasn't enough, he increased his offensive power to twice what it was before.

Kaida could sense the danger increasing. He was sure that if he took a single punch now, his bones would break. So, using all his strength, he began evading one attack after another while his clones stood on the sidelines, watching.

Seeing that even this wasn't enough, Jiraiya raised his strength output to the peak elite Jonin level, a threshold only an extraordinary ninja could achieve. With Jiraiya's battle IQ added, it became almost impossible for Kaida to defend against each of his attacks.

Just when one attack finally slipped past Kaida's defense, one of his shadow clones disappeared from its position and appeared between Jiraiya and Kaida. The punch, which was aimed at Kaida's belly, was intercepted by the clone. Though it dispersed, Kaida managed to evade the blow.

He quickly used the Body Flicker Jutsu to create some distance between them. Jiraiya wasn't going to give him time to rest, but Kaida knew that too, and so did his clones. One of them drew a sword hidden behind its back and charged at Jiraiya.

The clone knew there was no way it could defeat Jiraiya, but that wasn't its goal. Its objective was to defend and stall for time while Kaida regulated his breathing to recover from the fatigue he had built up in the past three minutes.

Normally, Kaida could run for 4–5 hours, but this was different. Evading attacks, especially ones of such power, required much more stamina than simple exercise.

After 30 seconds, the clone dispersed, and Jiraiya ran toward Kaida again.

'It held him off longer than I expected,' Kaida thought as he evaded another attack. But this time, Jiraiya wasn't limiting his strength to the elite Jonin level. It was already at low Kage level, using chakra to enhance his speed and power.

It became almost impossible for Kaida to stop Jiraiya's attacks now.

And then the inevitable happened. One attack, a feint aimed at his face, landed on his chest, sending him flying back several meters. Kaida felt his ribs breaking.

'Holding back, my ass! He's trying to kill me for sure,' Kaida thought as black markings started appearing on his body.

In a blink, his wounds began to heal. Before he hit the ground, most of the pain was gone. He flipped in mid-air and landed on his feet instead of his back.

Mitotic Regeneration Seal.

Now that it had come to this, there was no need to hold back. Since the seal was already activated, he no longer had to. He poured all his chakra into increasing his speed and strength, pushing himself beyond normal limits. At this level, the backlash from the attacks would hurt the user too. If the strike landed on the enemy, both Kaida's and the opponent's bones would break. Most people instinctively avoided this level of enhancement, but Kaida didn't care.

He disappeared from his position and reappeared in front of Jiraiya within milliseconds, almost as if he had used a jutsu. His legs screamed in pain from the strain, most likely sustaining a minor fracture, but the wound healed in seconds.

With all his strength, Kaida threw a punch at Jiraiya. But this time, Jiraiya stopped holding back and caught Kaida's fist with his hand.

Even though Kaida used his full power, Jiraiya was still pushed back slightly.

"Okay, that's enough. Also, why are you using such a crude version of this jutsu? It speeds up your cell division, shortening your lifespan," Jiraiya asked.