[A/N- There is no D rank fire style jutsu in the anime, manga or even games so I will be making the jutsus by myself or taking some fan made jutsus Cuz its a fanfic. I hope you enjoy this chapter.]

Months had passed, and many things had happened. Kazuki is now eight years old and in his third year at the ninja academy. Somewhere during this time, Orochimaru had defected from Konoha, and the Hyuga affair had also taken place.

Kazuki had completed the second step of the Rasengan six months ago and had already begun the third step—the most difficult of the three—where he had to contain the spinning, high-density chakra into a stable, spherical form inside an air balloon without letting it burst or lose shape.

Somewhere during that time, he had found a book in the library that suggested a ninja could decrease or remove the number of hand signs required for a jutsu, but it required practicing that jutsu thousands of times to truly understand how it worked.

Kazuki had started practicing the transformation jutsu every day, and he had to practice tens of thousands of times to reduce the number of hand signs required to one.

Now, to the most important part: Kazuki had decided to master all three stages of ember control before learning any fire style jutsu, but it was more difficult than he had expected. It took him four months to complete the first stage, five months to complete the second stage, and almost a year to complete the third stage.

The most difficult part for Kazuki was increasing the heat of the fire; it took him six months just to increase the heat by a bit and then another five months to melt a thin piece of metal.

Regarding Taijutsu, Kazuki's skills had increased at a rapid rate. Now he could defeat anyone in a spar except Yuki. It was just recently that he had defeated Hayato for the first time.

The academy mainly taught theory and some basic Taijutsu in the first year, but they had started teaching the leaf concentration exercise and chakra molding in the second year.

It was the first day of the third year at the academy, and Kazuki was sitting at his desk by the window and was staring outside when Hiroshi arrived.

Standing in front of the podium, Hiroshi announced, "Good morning, everyone. I hope your holidays were fun. Today we start the third year of the ninja academy, and this year is going to be exciting because we will be doing lots of survival training and camping, where I will be teaching you several things a ninja has to do during a mission other than fighting."

A civilian boy raised his hand and confidently asked, "What are those other things, sensei? I thought all a ninja had to do was fight."

Hearing his question, Kazuki thought, 'How can someone in the elite batch be so ignorant?'

Hiroshi was also a bit dumbfounded by the question, but he maintained his composure and replied, "There are several things a ninja might have to do during a mission, like setting up a camp, hunting for food, or gathering intelligence."

After the class, Kazuki went to the library and searched for every D-rank fire style jutsu there was, noting their hand signs and important details in a notebook before heading home.

He analyzed, "I am not surprised that there are no D-rank elemental jutsu, but there are still very few D-rank fire style jutsu."

All the D-rank fire style jutsu were:

Fireball Jutsu

Fire Clone Jutsu

Smoke Veil Jutsu

Heat Wave Jutsu

Ember Shower

Fire Lash

Flame Ring Jutsu

He continued thinking, 'There were some more, but they were pretty useless, so I didn't note them. Now let's review what every jutsu does.'

'Fireball Jutsu is basically a inferior version of the Great Fireball Jutsu we saw in the anime. It would be my main offensive jutsu and one of the simplest to master, so I'll learn this first,' Kazuki analyzed.'

He further analyzed, 'I was actually quite surprised when I saw that Fire Clone Jutsu in section D. It's basically a shadow clone made of fire that can attack and use jutsu just like a shadow clone, but they are weaker than shadow clones and don't transfer any chakra or memories back to the user upon dispelling. Speaking of which, they also become fire upon dispelling, which can hurt the opponent if he's really close.

Smoke Veil Jutsu, as its name suggests, works like a smoke bomb, but it will surround the opponent instead of the user. It can also cause the opponent to cough, distracting them. This one is pretty useful for escaping too.

The next is Heat Wave Jutsu, where the user releases a small wave of heat on the opponent, which is hot enough to burn skin a bit but not hot enough to cause any serious damage. This is a pretty good AOE jutsu that will work well if there are several opponents, but it can also backfire if the opponent has a wind style jutsu like Breakthrough.

Ember Shower is a degraded version of Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu, and Flame Ring is a trap jutsu where the user slams their hand on the ground after making some hand signs to surround their opponent in a circle of flames. Now it's time to learn the Fireball Jutsu.'

After heading to a small forest inside Konoha and ensuring no one was nearby, Kazuki made the hand signs and tried to perform the Fireball Jutsu, but only a small ember came out.

Kazuki thought, 'It's okay. I wasn't expecting to learn it on the first try. There's no need to get discouraged. I've faced way worse situations in the last two years; this is nothing compared to when I was practicing ember control, thinking every day about just quitting and leading a normal life. Besides, I can feel that this jutsu is not that difficult. I'll probably learn it in a few days or weeks.'

Much to his shock, Kazuki managed to learn the jutsu in just a few hours.

Still shocked by the situation, he thought, 'What the actual fuck? How did I do this? Am I a genius, a prodigy like Itachi or Minato?"

After coming back to his senses, Kazuki thought, "Why did I even get my hopes up? I am not a genius or something. This is just the fruit of my hard work. I guess the time spent learning Ember Control wasn't for nothing."

After a long time, Kazuki had a genuine smile on his face.