Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve

[IllegibleScream]

I had fully expected him to fail the third time and for you to take this story in a completely unexpected direction. It's a credit to your writing that you actually had me anticipating something that would completely break the convention of the setting.

it just looks like all the ones without extra family training and libraries would have to go fight with the Academy Three and maybe a couple extra techniques, possibly dying and losing years of investment.

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It really seems like a filtering issue. Most genin go on to become non-combat roles, and don't need Ninjutsu to compete.

Of the ones that remain, they will form their own informal teams and share jutsu among each other, while paying for training from more experienced jounin-sensei looking for side hustles.

Buying Jutsu directly from the archive is almost certainly the worst and most formal way to get ahead, and is reserved for the most desperate and least connected shinobi. You'd have a better return going to a clanner and paying them out of pocket Ryo for copies of non-secret scrolls.

I also can't see why soldier pills and other magic supplements would be legal and weed wouldn't be? That's clearly an AU thing to make it more like our world.

Click to shrink...

This really feels like one of those 'cop shows with a twist' and the twist is him being an underground pit fighter, with side episodes where he dreams of being in Naruto, to the point where he slowly has a full disconnection from reality and thinks he's a Ninja in an anime.

It's all very I'm Thinking Of Ending Things.

 

[CHOSEDEATH]

I support the change in posting schedule

 

[The Radiance]

Thanks for the chapter.

Running an experiment this week. Going to post chapters one at a time.​

Click to shrink...

I did notice that. I couldn't decide If I wanted to wait until I had 3 chapters or read them as they come along. Not only that, but I found that am too ambivalent to decide on either, so It could be either. I still would be satisfied.

 

[Artemis]

I am actually enjoying the more frequent pace of chapters, just wanted to give that feedback if it has impact on your posting schedule. This was a surprisingly introspective chapter for Takuma, who generally seems like the sort of guy who just does things and keeps moving forward. I hope he takes advantage of his team, and that he begins to learn teamwork alongside his leadership skills.

 

[soulreaper22]

Now I'm excited to see how Masumoto will change and affect Takuma in the future. Maybe Masumoto will be the one who sponser/vote for Takuma to gain chunin status

 

[IllegibleScream]

valuable metals like gold and silver.

Click to shrink...

Lmao. The gold and silver hype is very overdone. They really only go up with inflation, and generally not to a level where they meet inflation, while lagging behind pretty much any other investment vehicle.

The way you make money with precious metals is by owning the mine that produces it, or buying it to make higher value items. Holding metals is a great way to destroy any growth your portfolio could make. It's a less exciting or volatile crypto, and you get into crypto for that volatility.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but stop buying gold to sit on unless you're actually going to use it as a high value physical asset when you're on the run. And that is financial advice.

 

[Fiction]

AUTHOR'S NOTE

UPDATE SCHEDULE:

The past week (CH 216 - CH 218) I ran experiment to give you a taste of uploading the story 1 chapter at a time instead of the usual 3 chapter/week (all at once). Now it's time for you, my dear readers, to decide which way you want me to upload the story.

CHOICES:

1)
The usual, no change. [3 chapter/week, all together]

2)
Upload chapters 1 at a time throughout the week. There are two things to note: A) I'll revert to [3 chapters /week together] during combat chapters, and will notify about it beforehand. B) IMPORTANT! I CAN NOT commit on specific day schedule (Like [Mon, Wed, Fri] or [Tue, Thurs, Sat]) because that's not how I write—so if we go option (2), the chapters will be uploaded when they're completed, which will be entirely depend on how productive I'm that week.

HOW TO VOTE:
There's a Poll at the top of the thread. Go to the first page and you'll find it right at the top​

---

"Arisu!"

Fuma Arisu, an officer of the Police Force, and the second-in-command of the Narcotics Taskforce, looked up from the intelligence file on her desk. At the end of the bullpen, Chunin Yakumi, the head of the Narcotics Taskforce, stood at the threshold of his office, motioning her to his office.

She shut the file and walked across the bullpen used by the Narcotics Taskforce. As she entered the office and closed the door behind her, Arisu noticed two men sitting there. When they looked at her, she didn't recognize their faces, and neither of them had the Police Force insignia on their sleeve, which meant they weren't from the Police Force.

"Arisu, these people are from the Hot Waters war commission," said Yakumi, pointing to the two men, "they would like to talk to you about a few things."

"What things?" she asked.

"About Genin Takuma," said the bald of the two men.

"Oh, what about him?" Arisu asked, crossing her arms.

Seeing the change in Arisu's body language, the two men looked at Yakumi, who shrugged. He wasn't going to help them with Arisu. Takuma might not be working in the Police Force, but he was still a part of it, and Arisu and Yakumi wouldn't talk if it would be used against him.

The second man got up and cleared his throat. "He's not in trouble, Genin Arisu. Genin Takuma is being considered as a potential candidate for an important mission, and we need some information about his work here. You're close to him, and we're wondering if you could give us some clarity about it all."

"What kind of mission?" asked Arisu.

"We can't reveal many details, but it's dangerous, and thus, we need to verify if he's up for the job. We want to know his history with snitches, informants, and moles, those sorts of people. We know he was experienced in cultivating people into assets and having them feed information to your team. How did he get their trust—"

Arisu scoffed as though she had just heard a joke.

"First, Takuma is very good at cultivating assets, so if he wants the mission, give it to him, he won't disappoint. Now, trust really isn't a factor for Takuma. There are people who get attached to their assets, treat them as friends, which is fine and all—but Takuma's philosophy was the exact opposite. He sees his assets as nothing but what they are."

"Then how does he make them do what he wants?"

"Leverage," she said, "he liked saying that word a lot. It's quite straightforward for Takuma. When he finds a target that would make a beneficial asset, he would research them intensively. A lot of hours in fieldwork. He would find everything there was to find about them, and then he would find something that would motivate them to help, and then use that."

"So blackmail?" said the bald one.

Arisu shrugged. "Persuasion. Most people don't want to spend their next few years working in a lumber or mining operation, so they open their mouths quick and easy. Takuma made it worth their while—letting them go back to their lives to continue their jobs or choose new careers, and he would guarantee them anonymity so nothing came back to bite them… It's surprising what people would say when a few little conditions are met.

"He was straightforward and kept his word. Eventually, even with all anonymity, we developed a reputation. Open up, and we will give you a fair deal," she said.

They had done it so many times that they had perfected the routine. Pick up(kidnap) the people from the streets and dump them in an off-site interrogation room so that no one saw them bought in. They would let the perp stew in the small room, letting their mind make up stories about what was about to happen to them. A lot of them would've scared themselves by the time the interrogation started.

"But those are low-level guys; even if they fess up, there's often no evidence to back it up," said the man with hair. It looked like the guy had some experience in policing and interrogation. "Takuma might not deal in trust, but there's loyalty or fear in many guys that stops them from parroting."

"Sure, there are people like that, but for most, you just have to find the correct leverage," said Arisu. "One time, there was this higher-up guy we really wanted, but he had a reputation of being tight-lipped, and he was rich and connected enough, which got him out of all sorts of troubles even if he was brought in… We had no idea what to do, but this guy was really important, his cooperation would've made our case…"

"So, what did you do?"

"Nothing, we didn't do anything—but Takuma did a lot," said Arisu, sighing. "The guy had a sister who ran an illegal whore house, real nasty stuff." She spat with disgust. "Takuma found out that the sister was the guy's only family, and they were really close, so he helped another officer in the Police Force who was trying to get the sister. Takuma built a case for that officer against the sister, and promised complete credit. Unlike the brother, the sister wasn't as careful or good at keeping herself clean…"

The man with hair nodded in understanding. He said, "The sister became the leverage?"

"Indeed. The guy tried to get his sister out, but the case against her was so solid that she was looking at a decade of hard labor. And to make it worse, Takuma pulled some strings so that if she was found guilty, they were planning to send her to the other side of the nation so that the guy would never get the chance to see her…"

"Did it work?"

"Yes, it did. The guy found out that Takuma was behind it and tried to negotiate just as Takuma expected. The guy first threatened him, then offered him money, but in the end, Takuma got what he wanted."

Arisu smiled. In fact, that guy was giving the Narcotics Taskforce information from the inside. The case was going very well. They were supposed to close it in a month or two.

"I have a question," said the bald man. "What happened to the officer who was promised the credit? Didn't he get screwed in the end?"

Instead of Arisu, Yakumi answered that question.

"The officer was furious that the case he had been working on for so long became a dead-end because Takuma used it as leverage in a negotiation with scum. That officer even went to his higher-up, but they supported Takuma as well… The officer was pissed for weeks, but then Takuma gave a guy a case just as juicy, with all the work done perfectly. That helped in making it up to him," said Yakumi.

The bald guy laughed. "Let me guess, you were the officer?"

Yakumi nodded.

"And now you have his job," said the bald guy.

"That also helped," Yakumi laughed.

Arisu sighed to herself. She liked it better when Takuma was the Head of the Narcotics Taskforce. They were new and operated with frightening freedom because they didn't have an established culture like most of the Police Force. Everyone could do their work in their own way without getting bogged down by some convoluted process—it was chaotic, but the team was small enough to correct and sort out everything by the end. Since Yakumi had taken over, he had established operating procedures and due process, which had its advantages because the team had grown—but Arisu could see the Narcotics Taskforce slowly heading towards operating like any other department.

"Takuma is not above lying, harassing, blackmailing, entrapment, or anything," said Arisu, getting the conversation back on track. "Once he wants something, there's not much Takuma won't do to make it happen. If he gets the information, he will use it to his advantage. So, if you want someone who'll hold people's hand and persuade them through charm, and inspire confidence with his personality, that's not him. But if you want someone who gets the job done, he's your guy."

Arisu clicked her tongue and looked at the two men.

"This mission… is he going in alone?" she asked.

The two men looked at each other for a moment before saying that Takuma would be part of a team.

"Why do you ask?"

Arisu took in a deep breath. "Nothing, I was just worried if he was going in alone. You said the mission is dangerous," she said with pursed lips

They seemed to be satisfied with her answer.

Arisu was relieved that Takuma would have a team with him. She chose not to tell them about Takuma's excessive aggressiveness. When Takuma was running the Narcotics Taskforce, one of the most important parts of Arisu's job was to reel him in. Takuma's way of doing things matched his combat philosophy—to be aggressive. He was always in a rush, pushing forward without ever taking a moment to catch his breath. There were times he'd be so laser-focused that he got tunnel vision. At times like that, he needed someone to pull him out and make him aware of his surroundings.

They talked for another ten minutes before the two men from the war commission declared they had heard enough and left.

"You didn't tell them about the other way Takuma cultivated assets," Yakumi said.

Arisu looked at him. "You never know how people will react… They could've thought he was colluding with criminals," she said.

Threatening criminals with leverage against them wasn't the only way Takuma cultivated assets. There was another way he was known to do business—something that wasn't popular among the Narcotics Taskforce, but Takuma did it anyway because he was the boss. Since Yakumi took over, they abandoned the method.

"Maybe he was," said Yakumi.

"Then why didn't you say anything?" Arisu asked with narrowed eyes.

One of the first things Yakumi did after taking over was an internal audit to see how Takuma managed the Narcotics Taskforce because Takuma had refused to provide any help to Yakumi on how things worked.

Officially speaking, every asset for the Police Force had a file in the system. The Narcotics Taskforce followed the same process and maintained files for their assets. They were highly protected, "eyes-only" documents that couldn't be removed from the office space assigned to the Narcotics Taskforce. Takuma was serious about the anonymity he promised.

But Takuma also maintained unofficial assets that weren't filed into the system. They were high-level assets because of their identity and influence in the drug trade in the Hidden Leaf. Takuma had somehow gotten access to these people and had managed to rope them into helping the Narcotics Taskforce put away other big players.

These people were high up in the drug trade, and Takuma didn't have any leverage on them. It couldn't be more abundantly clear that they were cooperating with Takuma because he was going after their competition. And he didn't log any of them into the system, keeping it entirely off-the-books, which looked extremely shady. It was a practice heavily frowned upon in the Police Force, and Takuma was using it aggressively.

From one perspective, it looked like Takuma was helping them, which brought up an allegation against him: Was Takuma being paid by the people he was cooperating with? When he called it a true collaboration of the police and the criminals to put away other criminals, a good number of people in the team suspected him of colluding with criminals.

Takuma was blind to his team's thoughts as he was so focused on targeting criminals. Arisu had to shove the problem in his face for him to look at his team, properly explain the situation to the team, and truly bring everyone on the same page. Some of them remained doubtful until the results started coming in, and the team could see what Takuma envisioned.

Yakumi found out about Takuma's practice, and he could've passed on his findings to the higher ups but didn't because a lot of ongoing cases, many of them close to crossing the finish line, were built on the foundation of Takuma's collaboration with his unregistered assets. If he had brought it to the higher-ups, they would've ordered Yakumi to dump all of them, and he would've been forced to start all over again.

But Yakumi didn't want that because the performance of the Narcotics Taskforce would suffer, and all the blame would fall on the new and current head, who had failed to keep up the Narcotics Taskforce's bullish moment established by Takuma. So, while Yakumi ended all relationships with Takuma's shady assets, he never reported them to the higher-ups.

Under Arisu's glare, Yakumi stayed silent.

She walked out and looked at the bullpen with all her co-workers.

If the people who worked closely with Takuma suspected him of being a mole and a corrupt sell-out, then two strangers who knew nothing about Takuma could think of him as much worse.

As she walked back to what she was doing, Arisu wondered what he was doing now. Things had ended on an awkward note, and the one letter he had sent had avoided any mention of the kiss. Arisu was disappointed he didn't write anything but relieved at the same time because she was scared of what Takuma would say and preferred for things to remain ambiguous.

Arisu ruffled her hair in frustration.

"He better appreciate it… that idiot."






Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.

 

[MrRobot]

Takuma will have so much trouble when he get back from the war. It will be comical.

 

[ninjakirito6]

I don't really mind much either way, but I voted 1 at a time because it generated much more discussion and feedback.

 

[Captain Usoland]

Thanks for the chapter.
Looks like the Narcotics force will be very different when Takuma gets back.

Also, I wonder how the village will turn out with all the Uchiha still alive? Things are coming up closer and closer to Canon, who knows what will change

 

[Syroc]

oooh, that's an intriguing development. Wonder what that's gonna build up to.

As for the update schedule, I really appreciated the staggered rate of updates. Reading three chapters in rapid succession just leaves me disappointed that there isn't more (I know you got a patreon, and if I had the money to for it you'd have hooked me long ago) when I get through them, but three chapters spread out over a week just leaves me pleasantly eager for more.

BUT! If doing it that way is too taxing on your schedule I'm perfectly fine with your original pace.

 

[CHOSEDEATH]

I do prefer I'm single uploads over the week, but I do think you should stick to whatever comes naturally

 

[The Radiance]

Arisu is a bro, no two-way about it. I am shipping them. Let's hope she doesn't die.

 

[Fiction]

"There's a common misconception among shinobi that chakra control makes them stronger… that by improving their control over their ability to mold and manipulate raw chakra, their jutsu will become more destructive or effective—this, however is a misunderstanding that has propagated far and wide," Anko said as she slowly paced between the walls of a large room.

"What do you think?" she asked Takuma.

Takuma stood in the center of an empty room with nothing but his underwear on. There was a desk in front of him propped up tall on bricks till it was the height of a standing desk. There was a large tray on the desk with coarse sand of two colors in it—blue and red. There was a mound of the two colors mixed in the middle and two small piles of single-colored sand on either side of the tray.

"Chakra control helps in the efficient use of chakra; we waste a significant amount of chakra each time we use a jutsu. By improving control, the wastage goes down, and you're able to do the same with less—thus the perception of increased strength," his eyes were stuck to the tray as he answered, "but in truth they always had that strength, they just weren't able to use it properly…"

Takuma pressed eight fingers into the mixed coarse sand mound, and pulled away the grains of sand with the entire length of his fingers. He stared intensely at his left hand as the red dyed sand grains fell one by one back into the mound; he winced each time a blue dyed grain fell. He did it until only the blue grains were left and then turned to his right-hand and did it again, this time with the colors reversed. When he was done, he dumped the separated sand into their respective piles.

Anko said, "Correct. Chakra control doesn't make people stronger; it only makes them more efficient, and while it does increase their combat ability, we should be clear about the distinction." She then yelled: "Thirty seconds!"

Takuma, halfway through separating the sand through targeted chakra adhesion, dropped the sand back into the mixed mound, wasting his progress, and thus increasing his irritation.

He moved to a fortified heavy punching bag hanging from the ceiling and threw an augmented jab. His arms, from the back of his fist to the top of his shoulders; his collar, shoulder blades, and his chest were covered in spaced-out smooth marbles through chakra adhesion. The moment he threw the augmented jab at the heavy bag, several of the marbles shuddered from the force and fell to the ground.

The marbles were polished smooth, making them slippery. Even a slight disturbance in chakra flow would make the adhesion come off—and augmented strikes were all about creating large disturbances. The chakra for the augmentation flowed from his lower abdomen, going up to his chest, then to his shoulder, before going down his arm and out of his fist. More than two dozen marbles were on that route, and if Takuma allowed the chakra flow for the augmentation to disturb the chakra flow for adhesion, the marbles would fall.

"Ugh!"

Takuma cursed. Every thirty seconds, he had to throw an augmented punch while ensuring that no marble came unstuck. The marbles coming free meant that he didn't have sufficient control over his chakra flow. The purpose of the exercise was to perfect the chakra flow for augmented strikes— to use the least amount of chakra for the most damage possible, to mobilize the chakra as fast as possible, and to increase the ease with which Takuma could use augmentations.

He had gotten a nasty recoil from the augmented shoulder charge against Masumoto. It had opened a whole new dimension for Takuma in regard to augmentations, but it didn't change that he hurt himself, and thus needed training. Anko had set the short-term goal of using augmentations from anywhere in his body without getting hurt—and the long-term goal of backing every taijutsu attack with augmentations no matter the situation.

"Pick 'em up," Anko ordered.

Takuma huffed as he pointed his open palm toward the floor. Chakra strings shot out of his fingertips and attached themselves to the fallen marbles. His face twisted in strain as the chakra strings pulled the marbles up. One of the strings snapped mid-way, making Takuma sigh deeply. He re-cast the line and snagged the last remaining marble on the second try.

When Anko had initially started training Takuma, they had devoted all of his time and effort up Takuma's physical energies to correct his energy imbalance. But she had also promised to help him improve his chakra control, and after interviewing him on how he had been training his chakra control until then, she had devised a regimen to improve his chakra control.

Separating minuscule sand grains according to color and using chakra strings to pick up objects were two exercises Anko had him training for one hour every day… He did another hour at night in his own time.

But that was not all in Anko's regiment.

"Focus!" she shouted at him. "The waves are becoming messy."

Four water tentacles stuck out from the water mass on his lower back. The tentacles wriggled in a sine-wave pattern, with each tentacles moving at a different speed, creating waves of varying frequency and amplitudes. It was an exercise much similar to tracing a square with an index finger of one hand while the other index finger traced a circle simultaneously—but with more complexity and difficulty. It required Takuma's constant attention to move the individual tentacles according to their own pattern and any slip up caused them to move at the same pattern and speed—which was a fail state.

Sweat dripped from Takuma's chin as he focused on moving his tentacles. He had to become skilled enough with four tentacles before he moved up to eight, adding one tentacle at a time. It reminded him of his early days with Water Style: Eight Tentacles, he had to learn how to control the jutsu by increasing them one at a time.

"There's another misconception, a much more important one," Anko resumed her slow walk around the room. "Many shinobi believe that chakra control exercises increase their skill with their jutsu—they do not—chakra control exercises only make one chakra control efficient. If they actually want to improve their skill with their jutsu, there's one sure-fire way to do it, and that is the repeated use of the jutsu."

"Yes… I know." Takuma continued to separate the sand. The grains were too small, and when he tried to unstick one of them, three around it would fall as well. The intention behind the exercise was to improve minute chakra movements until he could unstick one color in a single go rather than slowly unsticking them. "You have already told me this… which is why I have a clone doing my guard duties for me."

Every morning, Takuma made two clones, using half of his substantially large pool of chakra. One of the clones would do his duties for the day, clean the room, and wash his gear and clothes, while the other clone would read complicated jutsu text, study up on topics, make reports and notes, and in the evening, the clone would sit down with Takuma and teach him what he had learned that day like his own personal tutor. Takuma still had to do self-study, spend time reading and comprehending the concepts, but the clone made it easier to digest the topics.

It wasn't the cheat-like Shadow Clone Jutsu, but Takuma was getting his worth out of the Water Clone Jutsu.

The Eight Tentacle exercise and the thirty-second loop of chakra augmentation had the same concept of improvement through repetition.

The tentacles held his chopsticks and bowls for him, they bathed him, and half of his kunai and shuriken throwing practice was done with the tentacles. He threw out 120 augmented punches during his hour with Anko and another 120 at the evening training with his duty clone barking at him like a training instructor.

"Because you don't listen to me, I have to keep repeating myself," said Anko.

Takuma pursed his lips. Anko was still upset that he had sprung the Masumoto/Bishop plan at her at the last moment, leaving her no choice but to accept. She didn't look like she was angry at him, but he knew that he was running on thin ice with her.

"Thirty seconds!"

Takuma jumped to the heavy bag and threw an uppercut this time.

"You're sweating too much; keep hydrated," Anko threw a water canteen at Takuma, caught by one of the tentacles.

"Taste a bit off, but thanks," said Takuma after he emptied the water canteen in one go.

"Because it's Daiki's sweat," said Anko, "all natural."

Takuma and his tentacles froze for a moment but then calmed down the next second. It wasn't salty, therefore not sweat. He shot the teasing Anko a look before going back to his training.

"So, what are you doing after this?" asked Anko.

"Rest," said Takuma, shortly, moving over to the sand tray.

There were only five more minutes until the training session ended. He was going to rest and recuperate some of his chakra to train Earth Style: Earthen Dome a few times before his third physical workout of the day.

"So, you're free, that's good."

As Takuma was separating the sand, most grains of both colors suddenly fell from his fingers. Thinking that he had made a mistake, he opened and clenched his hand before dipping his fingers back into the mound—which was when the marbles on the right side of his back hit the ground and rolled down the wooden floor.

"What the hell?" Takuma frowned as he raised his hand to shoot out chakra strings, only to find that his entire arm had gone numb. He shook it off, but the numbness climbed to his shoulder, and he found himself unable to lift it.

Within a few seconds, Takuma's entire right side was numb, and he fell to his knees, unable to stand. The immobility rapidly spread to his left side, and with great difficulty, he turned his body toward Anko as all the marbles on his body fell and bounced off noisily before rolling away.

"Anko, h-help!" Takuma said with great difficulty as his mouth and tongue were also going out of function.

Anko stood there looking down at him with a closed-mouth smile. The smile struck Takuma with a revelation: Anko's water canteen and the off-tasting water that she dismissed with a joke.

She had poisoned him!

"Y-You!"

Takuma could no longer stand and fell to the ground like a marionette-less puppet. The water tentacles failed before his fall, and he found himself drenched and lying in a small puddle on the floor. He could only stare at Anko while fear gripped his heart. He didn't see it coming. Why would she do that? Yes, she was unsatisfied with his behavior, but not enough grounds for poisoning.

"Oh, shut up. You're thinking too much," Anko squatted near and lightly slapped his face. "I'm not trying to kill you, you stupid brat… This is a training exercise, which is why I asked if you had free time. I like you kid, why would I want to kill you? It'd be a different matter if we didn't get along, though."

A thin, yellow and black snake slithered out of Anko's wide sleeves and climbed up to her shoulders. The snake's slit eyes rolled this way and that as it stared at him with a low hiss. Then, to his surprise, the snake spoke,

"Don't worry, kid," the snake sounded peppy as if this was all hilarious. "It's a mild paralyzing agent made from my venom. It's a tested recipe, so don't worry; you'll be fine in three to four hours, depending on your constitution."

Takuma could only make pathetic noises, losing his ability to speak.

"Do you remember when I was teaching Iori how to sober herself after drinking using chakra, and you wanted to learn it as well?" said Anko with a smile. "I hope you remember to do that because that's how you escape this situation faster. It's much more difficult than getting rid of the effects of booze, but you can get rid of this poison with that method—no antidote required."

Takuma glared at Anko as she got up, doing his best to express the anger he was feeling. He fought against the paralysis and weakly flapped on the ground.

Anko sighed and squatted back down. She gently stroked his chin, looking into his rage-filled eyes.

"You wanted this," she said.

Takuma wanted to yell and shout that he, by no means, wanted this—whatever this was.

Anko chuckled. "You were so excited when I told you I'd teach you my teacher's methods. Remember?"

Takuma stopped struggling and went still on the ground, staring at Anko. He did, in fact, react that way. Until now, Anko's regiment made sense in every way, and Takuma liked them very much because he could see the potential gains he would get in the future, but there was nothing uniquely "Orochimaru" about them except that they were all very smart and well thought out.

"This is how Orochimaru taught me chakra control," she said. "You're lucky, Takuma, that the effects will fade in three to four hours. The snake he used bit me directly, and that venom was much stronger—it lasted twenty-four hours, an entire day… I had no way to stop it and ended up shitting and pissing myself while trying to burn the poison away with chakra. You probably might do that as well, but the chances are lower than mine. I don't want to embarrass you, after all."

The snake laughed at Takuma from Anko's shoulder as she stood up.

"I will be back in three hours to check on you, but I expect you to free yourself before that and come find me." Anko turned and walked away. She was out of Takuma's sight and at the door when she spoke again. "Get used to this; we'll be doing this every day from today onwards. A different venom every day—some more annoying than others.

"As long as you don't give up, I'll see to it that you compete with the likes of iryo-nin and fuin-nin."

The next thing Takuma heard was the door closing, and he was left all alone.

For a few minutes, Takuma did nothing but lay limp on the wet floor. Eventually, however, he started to run chakra through his body to burn the venom's effect from his body.

If Anko could deliver on her promise just now, he would do anything she asked of him.





Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.

 

[Fiction]

Three days after Anko had poisoned Takuma, forcing him to flush out the paralytic agent from his body with chakra, Takuma was bent over the toilet, puking his stomach out. He heaved noisily before hurling again into the toilet bowl.

The venom Anko had given him today had him crawl on the floor and lay just outside the washroom in case he needed to hug the toilet again. The only thing not negative about the experience was that his water clones were resilient— while he was suffering venomous hell, his two clones were doing their thing —as long as he didn't suffer a mortal injury or got knocked out completely, the clones would stand stable.

Takuma closed his eyes and rotated chakra through his body. His head was churning, and his body was on fire, making focusing on molding his chakra a miserable experience. But he had ample motivation to get the chakra moving. He could either burn the venom early or suffer through the combination of a hellish hangover and burning fever.

A worried Daiki peered from the end of the hallway. "Are you okay?"

Takuma whimpered as he flopped to the side, but managed to shoot a weak thumbs-up to Daiki. He appreciated the guy, but there wasn't much Daiki could do to help. Takuma needed to see it through by himself.

A few moments after Daiki left, Takuma's tutor clone walked past on his way to the room with his hands full of books, scrolls, and writing material. It was sunny outside, and the clone had been studying under the warm sunshine.

"Lay to the side; you're inconveniencing the others by blocking the bathroom."

Daiki and Takuma had two other roommates living with them.

When Takuma didn't respond, laying absolutely still in his spot, running chakra through his body, the study clone pushed Takuma's body to the side with his foot. Takuma wanted to yell angrily but could only grumble from the heavy fatigue.

"You better not try to skip the study session," said the clone before walking to Takuma's room.

"Fuck you," said Takuma, flopping onto his side.

"Not really into selfcest," the clone spoke from inside the room.

Takuma regretted giving Anko permission to feed him venoms because, for three hours, his day turned to shit, with his body betraying him constantly. He couldn't even blame it because he was the one voluntarily swallowing venom that put him in misery. He envied and cursed the duty and tutor clones for their normal days, while the original suffered through what he began to think was Anko's way to exact revenge on him.

Takuma was about to grouch some words for his chunin lead, when his face turned green with disgust, and jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on, darting to the toilet bowl, looking like he would fall over any step.

Daiki walked into the washroom looking impatient and hurriedly unzipped his pants, only to see Takuma hurling vomit into the toilet. His eye twitched before he ran to the end of the hallway and jumped straight out of the window into the overgrown garden outside.

"It's okay, I'll do it outside," he said, but Takuma was too busy to hear his teammate's rushed words.

Three hours later, Takuma was forced by his roommates to clean up his handiwork in the washroom before they allowed him a bath.


———
.


The next day, Team-9 was called into the war room to meet with Toridasu and Shirakumo. It was Takuma's first time in the war room, which was usually only reserved for chunin and jonin.

A large circular table covered a quarter of the room, which Toridasu seemed to have delivered from home. The walls were covered in pages of reports, maps, and memos that were regularly updated to give the most current and correct view of the war. Toridasu and Shirakumo held daily meetings with the chunin to communicate the latest happenings and changes at the war front.

"Ah, our most problematic team," Toridasu smiled in greeting.

"Thank you, that means a lot," Anko said, putting a hand on her chest and smiling back.

The two Hidden Leaf jonin weren't the only ones waiting in the war room. Hidden Steam's Tokubetsu Jonin Benzou and another man Takuma hadn't seen before were sitting close to each other around the table. He had long hair tied in a loose ponytail, a tired and long face with a scruffy beard, and a lit cigarette between his lips. He was slumped in his chair as if the war room was his living room and the two jonin were his pals. Toridasu didn't seem to mind, but Shirakumo's unapproving gaze made his opinion clear.

Like everyone at Camp Banana, he didn't wear a uniform, nor did he have a forehead protector. But from his seat beside Benzou, Takuma guessed this was a Hidden Steam shinobi.

The man looked at Takuma and flashed a lazy smile, leaving him surprised and confused. Takuma tried to search for the man in his memories, but failed. Perhaps the man was wordlessly greeting him, but Takuma definitely felt like the man knew him.

His gaze then met Benzou's, but the two didn't go beyond small nods to acknowledge and greet each other. Takuma had gotten into trouble because of his association with Benzou, and it was better for them not to appear all chummy in the presence of the leadership, especially Toridasu.

"So, what is this about, boss?" asked Anko with her feet on the table and balancing her chair on its hind legs, seemingly competing with the unknown man in terms of casualness. "It's not another resupply run? Give us something more interesting to do, would you?"

Team-9 only did resupply missions, while other teams got other missions. The defensive captain in-charge of the base's safety was on a rotation among the chunin leaders, but Anko had never been put in-charge. There was a clear divide between the responsibilities that made Team-9 isolated.

"Alright, let's do something interesting then," said Shirakumo, sliding a folder across the table that hit the sole of Anko's feet.

Anko glanced at Daiki, who hurriedly got up to hand her the folder.

She opened the folder, and upon reading the first few lines, her legs immediately went off the table. Her eyes widened at the file's content, and she looked at Takuma, who tilted his head in confusion before realization struck him.

Anko turned to Toridasu and held up the file. It was the mission file for the precursor mission that Anko had been trying to get for Team-9.

"You're giving this to me?" she asked.

"Don't get a big head; you weren't my first choice."

Shirakumo interrupted the conversation before it devolved into a back-and-forth between Anko and Toridasu. He looked at Takuma as he said that, "Among all the teams, we found that Team-9 is the best suited for the mission."

It seemed that Takuma's fight against Masumoto had done its job by elevating the team's value in the eyes of the leadership.

"And what is this mission?" Anko asked and glanced at Benzou and the other man. She passed the file onto Iori, and Kameko leaned into reading the contents as well.

Shirakumo stood up and walked to a large map plastered over a wall. The map depicted the large border region, some of which fell under Camp Banana's coverage; it was marked with mini-notes, pins, and threads marking the trade routes and roads. Shirakumo took a pointer stick and tapped on three marker points on the map.

"Hidden Frost has captured three major border cities and has established a choke hold on the region. The cities are the strongholds, and the small villages all feed into them. The villages and their farms sell their produce to the cities, which keeps them running. The villages can't stop feeding them for the fear of retaliation—they made an example of a small village, and instilled fear by ruthlessly punishing the rebel elements in all the villages."

"Oh, my god." Iori turned her face away in repulsion and pushed the file to Kameko.

"What?" asked Rikku.

Kameko held up the file, and there was a particularly gruesome photo of what looked like a mass grave with the bodies of a dozen or more men. The entire Team-9 turned their faces away from the photographs.

Shirakumo continued, "Other than the fact they're captured, the cities function as normal with the exception of a strict martial law… In over a month and a half, Camp Banana will mount a recapture on the Spring City of Yu, the first phase of breaking the chokehold."

"So, you want us to target the villages that feed into the city?" asked Anko.

That was the precursor mission Anko had been aiming for. There were small shinobi teams that traveled from village to village to ensure that the food and ration were delivered on time, and the fear remained strong. The plan was to hunt down that roaming team and cause some chaos to draw out more shinobi.

"No, that mission will be assigned to another team," said Shiruakumo.

"Then what?"

Shirakumo looked to Kameko, who was engrossed in the file with wide eyes. Sensing everyone looking at her, she looked up.

"You want us to infiltrate Yu?" she uttered, her tone doubting what she had just read.

"Correct," Shirakumo nodded. "The mission's objective is to infiltrate the city and weaken it from the inside for the advantage of the main forces when we mount a recapture…."

Takuma leaned back in his chair and stared at the map, and the Spring City of Yu marked on it.

"Turn the enemy against themselves," said Toridasu, "spread fear, doubt, confusion in the minds of the enemy occupying the city. Chip away at them slowly in a way that they don't know who's attacking them and how—so they have no choice but to doubt everyone, even themselves. Your objective is not to defeat the enemy but to wear them just enough that when the strong wind arrives, they blow over like a house of cards."

"Urban Guerrilla Warfare," said Takuma.

Shirakumo nodded.

"Why us?" asked Anko.

"Your team is suited," said Toridasu. "Mitarashi specializes in information extraction, which is an important skill for the mission. Muscles here is a ranger and experienced in stealth. You have a fuin-nin, which makes her infinitely resourceful in most situations. The tiny girl and Taketori are good muscle." He then looked at Takuma. "You, of course, proved your worth as muscle—but you have relevant experience, which is important…"

"…How so?" asked Takuma.

"Torture and interrogation like your team lead, you have experience with field intel gathering, and you have done a lot of informant cultivation," said Shirakumo.

"You ordered my case files?" asked Takuma, not pleased that someone outside the Police Force was poking around in his work. "And they gave you the files?"

He had done all of that. He was in no way as good as Anko when it came to information extraction, but he had some experience. He had done some fieldwork for the Maiko Triad case, which he had then converted into a raid with the help of Arisu, which then got him the Narcotics Taskforce, where he had done a lot more fieldwork. And finally, he had cultivated so many informants in an attempt to reduce his dependence on Enomoto.

"You had to work in the Police Force; they treat everything like a state secret," Toridasu sighed.

"Okay… I don't want to undermine myself, but I had power and leverage back at home. I won't be able to cultivate informants and curry favor with locals—they would never trust me because I'm not from that city. They will look me up, and the moment they don't find me, they will protect themselves, which means turning on me," said Takuma.

Takuma wanted to curb the expectations before they decided to send his team into the enemy's den. If he promised something he couldn't do, he was actively putting the lives of his team members at risk.

"We're not stupid, kid," Toridasu scoffed. He pointed at the man beside Benzou.

The man sat up in his chair and put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table. "My name is Gaku. I'm a retired Hidden Steam shinobi and a resident of Yu," said Gaku.

"Gaku will be joining your team," Benzou spoke for the first time in the meeting. "He will be your local contact, the one they will trust, which you can use…. As power and leverage, I fear you will have to build that yourself."

Toridasu leaned forward with a smile,

"You wanted something interesting; you got it..."





Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.

 

[ptbptb]

But that was not all in Anko's regiment.

Click to shrink...

You don't need the final 't' in 'regimen' there.

chakra control exercises only make one chakra control efficient.

Click to shrink...

Missing 's from "one's chakra"

Three days after Anko had poisoned Takuma, forcing him to flush out the paralytic agent from his body with chakra, Takuma was bent over the toilet, puking his stomach out.

Click to shrink...

It's not a mistake, but for clarity I suggest adding 'first' to "after Anko had first poisoned".

 

[Fiction]

The meeting in the war room continued, and Anko accepted the mission on behalf of Team-9. It wasn't like she had a choice; Team-9 was ordered to take the mission.

After Shirakumo was done explaining, Anko took him and Benzou to the side to discuss more details about the mission. Rikku and Daiki gathered around Kameko to read more of what was in the mission file. Iori pulled Toridasu into a conversation about needing new fuinjutsu formulas and supplies that she would need, and Toridasu looked serious about her points about the fuinjutsu budget for the mission.

Takuma, on the other hand, approached Gaku, who sat slumped in his chair, smoking without a care in the world.

"So, a retired shinobi, huh?" said Takuma, "What do you even do after it?"

Gaku stared at Takuma as he took a long puff of his cigarette. Takuma waited for the reply, but Gaku continued staring and took another long drag without answering.

"Is something wrong?" Takuma asked, not appreciating Gaku's rude behavior.

Gaku snorted. "Oh, nothing. I've been doing nothing… I just retired."

"Really?" Takuma sat down. "You made enough money to retire? That's impressive." He didn't believe that Gaku hadn't done anything after retiring. Gaku's current physical condition wasn't that of a retired shinobi who had hanged his boots up. The man looked lazy, but Takuma could tell he hadn't let himself go.

"Money ain't that important to me," Gaku smiled sluggishly. "If I need some, there's plenty of work for someone like me. I might no longer be a shinobi, but that doesn't mean I forgot all my craft if you know what I mean."

It seemed that Gaku had been doing some freelance work on his own.

'No wonder he was still in shape,' thought Takuma.

"What about you? You're young. How long must you be a shinobi at the Leaf before they let you go?" asked Gaku.

"Ten years," said Takuma.

A genin fresh out of the shinobi academy had to sign a ten-year contract of employment as a registered shinobi with the Hidden Leaf. A genin could only retire after completing the time on their agreement or sign five-year extensions each time their contracts ran out. As for chunin, a fifteen-year extension was a requirement for the promotion. Every jonin had to agree to another twenty-five years of work for the village.

This meant any Hidden Leaf jonin was obligated to work for the village for fifty years. Which meant that if they graduated from the academy at eleven years old, they could only look for alternate employment when they turned sixty. Of course, most jonin were already fully retired years before that age with the condition that they would have to return if the village needed them. Those still working had long since transferred to managerial or diplomatic positions.

"And? Do you want to keep being one after that?" asked Gaku.

Takuma opened his mouth to answer but suddenly found that he didn't have an answer to the question. He hadn't ever thought about it before. Did he want to be a shinobi for the rest of his life?

But he wanted to be a jonin, which meant being a shinobi until he was an old man.

Forget thinking that far; he hadn't thought about what he wanted to do after the Fourth Shinobi World War that he knew was coming in the future. He had been so consumed with the present, taking it one day at a time and preparing for the calamity, that he hadn't ever sat down to consider what his life would be after that.

Gaku chuckled, seeing Takuma fall into silence.

"It's alright, you're still young," he said. "You and I are going to be working together. Let's get along. I'll take the lead; I'm sure you'll learn a lot, kid."

A laugh escaped from Takuma. He smiled at Gaku, fully understanding what had just been said. "You're real funny, old man. Leave the work to the professional and do your job as a local tour guide," he nodded and smiled.

The lazy smile on Gaku's face turned flat.

"I'm the native of that city. I know the people better than you ever will. Why do you think they called me out of retirement?" said Gaku.

"And I don't deny it, but if you're so good, then why are they sending us in?" Takuma leaned forward, staring Gaku in the eyes. "A team who isn't even from the Hidden Steam... What does that tell you?"

Gaku deliberately took another drag of his dwindling cigarette.

"I don't know what your problem is with me, but neither you nor I are the leader." Takuma pointed to Anko talking to Shirakumo and Benzou. "That lady there is the boss. Whatever she says goes—we're only there to advise and follow orders."

"My problem? I don't think I'm the one who's the problem," said Gaku, scoffing.

He got up and walked out of the war room without saying anything.

Takuma muttered, "What a weirdo…"


———
.


After the meeting, Team-9 sat under the shade of a tall tree. Anko leaned against the trunk while the others sat and laid around her. There was a certain somberness hanging over the group. They had just been ordered to complete a dangerous mission behind enemy lines without backup.

One mistake could spell their deaths.

"I didn't catch much, but I guess first impressions weren't great with that Gaku fellow," Anko said to Takuma.

"I don't know what his problem is," said Takuma. "He acted like I had wronged him somehow. I don't even know the guy."

"Is it going to be a problem?"

"Not really." Takuma didn't need to be buddy-buddy with Gaku. Managing relationships and working with incompatible personalities was part of the job description. People would look down on him if he threw a tantrum whenever he had to work with someone he didn't get along with.

"Kameko, you read the file. What did you see?" Iori asked from her head resting on Rikku's lap.

Takuma turned to Kameko, interested in what she had to say. He hadn't had the chance to read the mission file in the war room. Intelligence and knowledge were going to be his best friend on the mission. The more he knew, the better he could do his job.

"The intelligence we have is lousy at best. We have identified two jonin, and have a rough tally of the enemy forces occupying the city, but nothing really passes the standard for good intel. Yu is a three square-kilometer sprawl and, according to the last census, has a population of thirty-five thousand (35,000). According to the estimates, there's one enemy shinobi per hundred natives—but as I said, nothing's verified. We don't know the enemy's total combat competency, how many iryo-nin they have, the health of their arsenal, or what their supply chain capabilities are."

Kameko shook her head.

"Nothing, really—it's not looking good."

Obviously, her words didn't inspire any confidence in the team, but Takuma was glad she was being straightforward about it.

"Information gathering is part of the mission," said Anko, clicking her tongue. "Camp Banana won't be operating alone on this operation. We don't have the numbers. Another camp will probably join the main re-capture mission, but to prepare an effective assault, we need to know the enemy—and there's no better place to do so than inside the city."

Anko turned to Takuma. "Gaku is going to be a goldmine of unrecorded information. Make sure to get the most you can out of him about the city and the ruling class."

Takuma nodded, that's exactly what he planned on doing but he didn't trust Gaku. The man was hiding something. Takuma didn't know what, and he didn't have anything tangible to support his claim, but he couldn't shrug off the wriggling suspicion that there was something off about the guy.

"When do we leave?" asked Daiki.

"Seven days from tomorrow," Anko answered.

"That's not long," Iori groaned. "I need to start preparing today."

"I need to make arrangements as well," said Daiki.

"Get me a list of what you need. I will sit with the jonin and the quartermaster and make sure you get whatever provisions you need," said Anko. She turned to Rikku. "What about you?"

Rikku shrugged. "I'm ready to leave tonight."

Team-9 smiled at Rikku's nonchalant attitude. Whatever might be going on, there wasn't much that could derail Rikku from her usual taciturn and collected self. It was a constant that they had come to appreciate.

"Okay then, let's start preparation. We have a long week ahead of us and a longer couple months after that."


———
.


Takuma returned to his room after a long and tiring day to find both his water clones present. The tutor clone was preparing for the lesson while the duty clone was lying on his back, stuck to the ceiling.

"Thanks for leaving the bed," Takuma said as he plopped himself on the stiff bed.

"You look tired. New training?" asked the guard clone.

Takuma responded as he removed his socks. "We are going on a mission. Just Team-9 behind enemy lines. Information gathering and urban guerilla warfare. We leave in a week from tomorrow…"

"Sounds dangerous," the study clone commented.

"I don't feel it right now," said Takuma. "It'll probably hit me when we get smuggled into the city. I feel tense, though. They're attaching this retired Hidden Steam shinobi to the team—mid to late thirties—as our local connect. I don't like him."

One would think that talking to his own clones would feel strange, but it wasn't bad. He didn't have a mental connection with the clones, so he didn't know what they were thinking—but because they were literally him, he knew how their heads worked. He didn't need to hide any of his feelings or thoughts because he was talking to himself, and they would understand where he was coming from.

The conversations were comfortable because he could guess what they would say.

There were no surprises.

"Retired?" said the tutor clone. "Which means he's not from the Hidden Steam people on the base?"

"Oh, I know that guy," said the duty clone. "I know that guy."

"Pardon me, what?" Takuma looked up at the ceiling in surprise.

"Yeah, he just came in today, early morning. We chatted for a bit. Nice guy," said the duty clone.

"Nice guy!?" Takuma exclaimed, feeling betrayed by his own clone. "Fuck you!"

"You mean, fuck me? Thanks, but I'm not really into selfcest."

"I already used that joke," the tutor clone laughed.

"No, you didn't; you aren't even the same clone," said the duty clone.

"Shut up, both of you," Takuma grabbed his head.

It suddenly became so clear why Gaku looked like he knew him. It was because Gaku had chatted with the duty clone in the morning. And to Gaku, it would've seemed like Takuma was being rude by pretending not to know him. Gaku wasn't at fault. The blame completely fell on Takuma's head.

"Why didn't he just say so?"

Takuma groaned with the urge to throw himself off the Hokage Mountain. He had needlessly created the wrong impression on an instrumental ally who would be attached to the team for the duration of a very dangerous mission. He had done a disservice to his team and the camp by his actions.

"Ah, so that's what happened," the duty clone laughed on the ceiling after listening to Takuma's story.

"Just apologize to him later," said the tutor clone, finishing his lesson preparation. "Come now, it's time to study. There's much to cover today; don't you dare slack off!"

Takuma sighed deeply.


———
.


A couple days later, Anko gathered Team-9 in a room and dumped a thick stack of black paper and envelopes on the table.

There was a long silence as Anko looked at the team with a difficult expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Iori, worried.

The others seemed worried as well. Anko's behavior was different from her usual bright self. The current her was even different from her rare serious self during important situations. She looked glum as she faced them.

"I haven't done this before, so I don't know the right way to do it… but here we go." Anko took a deep breath. "We are going on a dangerous mission where the chances of death are high. Because we'll be going behind enemy line—there's a chance that if we're found, our bodies might not be found after our death. They won't find any mementos, nothing at all, so it's probably wise to leave something of you behind…

"I want every one of you to write letters to as many people as you'd like," she said.

The team realized what Anko was asking them to do it. The mood of the room changed in an instant. An awkwardness settled in as they looked at each other with uncomfortable looks.

"… I'll suggest that you guys also draw wills for your possessions—"

"I'm not doing any of that," Daiki interrupted her, looking both deeply uncomfortable and somewhat angry.

"Daiki, I understand this is not something easy—"

Daiki stopped her again. "I'm not going to die, so there's no need for… this." The usually gentle giant exuded a feeling of sharp prickliness that if he was forced, he would blow up. "You all are free to do so, but please leave me out of it," said Daiki, leaving the room and leaving the team in an even more awkward situation.

Kameko walked to the table from the wall she was leaning against and silently picked up a bunch of paper and envelopes before wordlessly leaving the room.

Takuma stared at the papers. He understood where Daiki was coming from. Writing those letters and drafting the will was, in one way, accepting the prospect of death. That was a difficult thing to accept, even in their occupation. Takuma didn't want to die, but he knew he could die on missions—but even he found the prospect of writing a memento letter to his friends daunting and unpleasant.

But as Anko said, it was probably wise to do it.

So with a deep breath, Takuma took the step forward towards the papers and envelopes.

AN:
Here are the results of the poll.
The votes across all the sites I post the story on have been added.
USUAL - 375 votes
NEW - 411 votes
(Only SufficientVelocity | 28 - 19 )​

Click to shrink...

Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.

 

[CHOSEDEATH]

FURST TFTC

 

[Silver719]

"You wanted something interesting; you got it..."

Click to shrink...

He's not wrong. And look, this seems something Takuma is especially suited for, given his track record.

This is either gonna be great or painful to watch.

 

[Captain Usoland]

Building Power and Leverage over the citizens of Yu?
Why do I see Takuma becoming the Kingpin Drug Dealer of the city in short order?

Thanks for the chapters!

 

[ptbptb]

it would've seemed like Takuma was being rude by pretending not to know him. Gaku wasn't at fault. The blame completely fell on Takuma's head.

Click to shrink...

I mean, Gaku didn't spot it was a water clone. I'm not sure how easy that would actually be without a) being a sensor-nin or b) punching him. If I was a ninja I think I'd punch every friendly nin I met just to make sure they're not clones.

It might not make me very popular.

 

[aomeng]

ah kahona vice returns!! *hits hexagonal drum pad solo*

 

[Khettien]

It might not make me very popular.

Click to shrink...

Highly entertaining to the onlookers when you punch the wrong superior, tho.

 

[The Radiance]

TFTC. Takuma getting a light weight Orochimaru training. 24 hours paralyzed would be a nightmare for me.

USUAL - 375 votes
NEW - 411 votes​

Click to shrink...

So there was growth from changing the post schedule (36 growth). But will that translate to long term reader retention? The story right now is long with 200+ threadmarks and 500k words. So changing the posting will not do much for likes in the new chapters. The main benefits for changing your posting schedule is to increase visibility so it can bring in new readers.

I don't know how did the likes increase by 36 aka meaning 36 new readers in just a week due to how long the story is ( fast readers maybe? ) so I can't comment on it but I can advice that if you wanted to analyze if changing the posting schedule has increased the reading population you should have compared the 1 - 20 chapter ranges likes to see how many new readers you got then 21 - 50 and 51 - 100 to seen how much of those early chapter readers stayed or not.

 

[Ziel]

Oof. He biffed that social roll. Nothing he could have done about Clonekuma already talking to him, but maybe if he was less prickly he could have salvaged it. Nothing to do now but apologize.

This feels like a fun arc coming up. A real return to form for Takuma, doing urban hijinks.

Also, Takuma getting trained by Anko makes me laugh. He finally met someone who's just as much of a training freak as he is.