Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve

[Fiction]

The target's name was Sune Jakusho, a low-level samurai who was connected to a local yakuza-style gang involved in extorting "protection fees" from businesses, duping elderly people with no relatives into signing over their wealth, and running a predatory loan shark business with absurd interests and a violent collection process.

Jakusho was a mid-level member involved with the "protection fees" side of the business and went around his allocated region to extort money from businesses and shop owners. It allowed him to act like a tyrant, and the behaviour was bolstered by the fact that the local gang had connections to some samurai higher-ups, which allowed the gang to operate without the fear of law obstructing their activities.

The other person of interest in the mission was a geisha named Yuri. Like many geisha, her parents had sold her to a geisha house at a young age, where she was trained in the standard geisha arts—flower arrangement, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, music, dance, and historical and contemporary knowledge for conversational acumen.

Then, she was introduced into society under a new name, Yuri.

Yuri, being a beautiful young woman, was a sought-after geisha and commanded large sums of money from her wealthy patrons. She had long since repaid her parents' debts and past upkeep and had even paid the sum for her freedom from the geisha house, but she continued to work as a geisha because it was all she knew.

That, and being a geisha paid well. She, however, didn't maintain a sexual relationship with her clients and patrons, and her services solely revolved around keeping them company. So, when Jakusho began to push her in that direction, Yuki inevitably felt cornered enough by his behaviour to request an assassination.

"Didn't you hear the informant? The target will meet the geisha tomorrow; we should eliminate him before he causes a problem," said Takuma with a furrow between his brows.

"You see a problem, I see an opportunity," said Three, relaxed and confident.

The duo was arguing about how they would execute the mission based on the scrolls the informant had given them.

"I see a problem because there is a problem. We should keep the target far away from the geisha. If we kill him today, he won't reach her tomorrow," said Takuma. "And if we deal with him when he's visiting her, it will cast suspicion on her, which will get her into trouble—and yes, our mission is assassination and not caring about her well-being, but I'm sure it's perfectly understandable why we should keep the geisha at a safe distance."

"I don't deny any of that," said Three, raising her hands, "and I'm not saying that we strike when he's in her company."

Yuri's geisha house served nobles and samurai. Attacking Jakusho there would mean having at least a couple of samurai in the vicinity who could either serve as obstacles to killing him or, the more likely option, obstacles to them escaping after killing him. They hadn't scouted the geisha house, it was sure to have several people present inside, which would make killing Jakusho in stealth infeasible without extensive planning or help from an insider.

They had neither, which was why Takuma asked, "Then when do we do it?"

"We hit him en route to the geisha house," Three replied.

"How's that any different from killing him today?"

"Listen, I'm just taking your advice," she said, surprising him.

"Pardon; my advice?"

"Yeah, your advice from back at the teashop. You said stealing from the samurai's house was straightforward because it only involved one location. I'm just applying the same concept here; the informant gave us the target's frequent locations and rough timings, but we haven't followed him day-in-and-day-out to know his schedule or where he will be exactly one hour from now, and even if we did, it's not enough time to know what kind of secondary obstacles might be present at those locations—but we do know where he's going to be tomorrow evening."

To meet Yuri, her clients had to reserve time slots, and Jakusho had kept the same day and time slot for the past two months. His meeting with her was one part of the routine that was proven to be set in stone.

Three continued, "Hitting the target en route to his appointment simplifies the problem by removing the moving parts. His appointment in the evening gives us the whole day to plan. Let's say we choose a road or intersection close to the geisha house—scout every corner of the place, create a plan—and hit him with precision and surety. One target, one location, straightforward—and thus reliable... What do you think?" she asked.

Takuma was silent momentarily as he thought about a logical fallacy in her words, but after considering her words from a couple of different angles, he didn't see any apparent problems. The more he considered it, the more it made sense to follow Three's plan.

"My advice makes sense, doesn't it?" he said.

She took the clue and smiled, "It absolutely does."

"It's decided then. We kill the target tomorrow."

———
.

With the informant task locked in for the second day, the duo decided to handle the heist task on the first day. Unlike Jakusho, the samurai who owned the historical twin daggers was a high-ranking samurai. His house was in an affluent part of the city where the roads were broad; the properties were bigger because of large yards and gardens, and each residence had ample space between them—making the entire residential area emptier as opposed to a denser part of the city where adjacent buildings touched with only narrow alleyways between them if any.

It was easier to blend in with busy crowds, which the affluent residential area lacked, thus making wandering around a property, at the very least, suspicious.

Most houses in the area were single-storey structures with an attic level serving as additional storage, but each property had high walls that made viewing from the surface level impossible. Nearly all properties had trees near the property line or walls, which partially blocked the view from both sides, but the foliage wasn't thick enough for the duo to hide inside and spy.

"Any ideas?" asked Three as they stood under a tree's shade three houses away from the samurai's house.

"We go in from the back, ask politely, pick up the daggers, and leave," Takuma said with a shrug.

"Should we also have tea if they offer it?"

"I don't think the samurai is at home."

"I didn't see him, but that doesn't mean he isn't in there."

She had peeked into the house he stood as a lookout, but they hadn't enough time to ensure the samurai wasn't home.

"There weren't any horses in the stable," he said, thinking back to a brief look he had gotten himself. "You are a shinobi, so it's not a part of your culture, but you must've noticed samurai on horseback today. Unlike us, samurai use horses; seeing that the house had a stable and it was empty, there's a high chance that the samurai is out."

"You're also a shinobi."

"I'm a cultured individual."

She rolled her eyes. "What about the other samurai in the house?"

The information scroll for the heist task was brief at best. They were given a description of the historical twin daggers, their addresses, and some information about the samurai. They didn't want to face the samurai because he was classified as a jonin-level combatant in shinobi terms.

Neither of them could survive against that, even if they fought with perfect teamwork.

"He's much weaker, I think we can deal with him," said Takuma.

That included a few guardsmen they had seen stationed around the house.

They could stake out the house and wait for someone to come out, abduct them, and get some information, but they had no idea when someone would step out or when the samurai might return home. Time was of the essence, and they currently had a window of opportunity before them.

They could abduct someone, keep them overnight and then go in the next day—but what if the person they abducted was expected back within the hour, and their missing presence created uncontrollable complications?

"So, I say we pop in, get the daggers, and then disappear," he said.

Thieves got caught for various reasons. They could get caught during the act, get implicated from some evidence they left behind, get the authorities alerted when they try to sell their stolen goods, even simply blabbing or bragging to someone about the job could come back to bite them.

However, they weren't trying to sell the daggers; they hadn't talked about the heist with anyone—so as long as they didn't get caught during the act, they could get away without a hitch. Even if they left some evidence behind, they weren't from the city, making it difficult and time-consuming for the authorities to tie it back to two complete ghosts with no local presence.

"Alright, let's go see how special these daggers are," said Three.

———
.

The people in the samurai's house were having a calm day. Regardless of whether they were staff or family, it was a privilege and boon to be connected to a high-ranking samurai, especially one who had a position in the Ember Imperial City.

Aifumi was an elegant woman in her mid-forties. She was the wife of a samurai, making her the mistress of the house. While her husband performed his duties to the Daimyo as a samurai, upholding their family name, she was responsible and trusted to maintain the household and social affairs of being a samurai with influence in the Daimyo's court.

She was having a slow day, having just finished hosting a gathering at their house for a handful of her husband's peers last weekend. Of course, starting tomorrow, she was going to review the household budgeting, which would take her a few days to get all sorted as their estate employed quite a handful of people and provided a few services to manage their home.

When she was done with that, she was planning to guide her daughter-in-law so she could take over the responsibilities in a few years when her elder son was expected to follow his father and officially enter the Daimyo's court.

It was all part of her responsibilities as the mistress of the house and her duty to support her husband, but today, she was going to take it easy.

Her attendant served her tea, and she gazed out the room and into the garden outside. She closed her eyes as she listened to the water dribbling from the pond fountain and the tunes from the wind chime and found the hectic pace of her life slowing down.

As she had her eyes closed, Aifumi heard some footsteps. They were uniform, light yet stable, and yet had a heavy feel to them. She thought herself familiar with everyone in the estate to recognise them by their footsteps, or at least recognise if they were a guard or attendant. But the sound of these footsteps were different than anything she heard.

She opened her eyes just in time to see a masked man enter her view outside the door.

As the wife of a high-ranking samurai, she had both seen and hosted shinobi a handful of times at their house, so she recognised the man as a shinobi from his gear. The style differed from what she had seen on the Hidden Leaf shinobi, and the green-and-grey colour scheme was foreign to her—but the man was undoubtedly a shinobi.

A couple of seconds passed as the man looked at her and the attendant in the room. The light from outside cast a shadow over the man, making him seem darker.

Her sense of danger flared. She knew this man could not have come with good intentions and went to shout to alert the guards, but her body suddenly seized. She could no longer speak or even move her pinky. It felt like she had turned into a statue and could only stare at the man because that's where her gaze was when she lost control of her body.

She couldn't see her attendant, but hearing no words from her meant she was also similarly frozen. Her heart thumped, and fear crept in when she couldn't move or scream, no matter how much she tried. She had never felt anything like this before but knew it could only be shinobi's ninjutsu.

The man stepped aside, and a similarly dressed woman stepped out from behind the door. Unlike the man, who wore a green mask with a leaf design, the woman wore a teal mask with a blue splash design.

"Breath through your nose," said the woman in a soothing voice.

Aifumi was confused, and the panic in her heart only rose when she realised the man wasn't alone. How many people had invaded their homes?

"Listen to my voice, " the woman continued to speak. "Focus on your breathing. In and out. In and out. Follow my words. Breathe in and breathe out. Just like that. Repeat with me."

The woman asked them to breathe, and Aifumi followed the calm voice. Even though her heart was still hammering away, her breathing was in control.

"Excellent," said the masked woman. "We do not wish you harm in any way. I understand it might be hard to believe, but it's the truth. As long as you follow our requests, we will be out of your sight, out of your home, never to return." She turned to look at Aifumi. "I'm assuming you're the lady of the house, madam. Please respond through a simple nod or shake of your head."

Aifumi wanted to complain that she couldn't move her body, and this was just a ploy for them to harm them when she suddenly felt that she could move her neck. In fact, everything above her shoulders except her voice was free. She could open her mouth, move her tongue, but couldn't produce any sound.

She glanced at her attendant, who sat a few steps away from her near the wall and looked uncomfortable as her body was frozen into a statue-like state. She then looked back at the pair of invaders and nodded.

"Thank you for cooperating. Our goal is simple. We require a set of old twin daggers that we know to be in this house."

Aifumi didn't have to think; she knew what they were talking about. There was a set of old shinobi daggers framed and hanging in her husband's office. He had acquired them three years ago, beating a shinobi in an auction.

"...I see you recognise what I'm talking about."

Aifumi scolded herself for showing her recognition on her face. It had been frozen just a moment ago..

"Lead us to the daggers. We will leave afterwards. Please nod if you understand."

She nodded.

"Nod if you agree to cooperate."

She nodded again. If the cost of getting these intruders out of her house were a set of old daggers, then she would gladly pay it.

"Very good. Thank you for cooperating. Please stand up."

Just as the words ended, Aifumi realised she could move her entire body again. Her voice was still not in her control. She stood up and glanced at her attendant before looking at the woman, who understood her intention and said,

"She will be freed as soon as we leave. No one will be harmed."

Aifumi hesitated for a moment before nodding. As she led them through the house, the woman spoke in a whisper, which sent shivers down her back. "We know there are guards in the house. Understand that if you are leading us to them, I will not keep my promise of not harming anyone. The easier you make it for us, the easier it will get for you. Do you understand?"

Aifumi hurriedly nodded repeatedly. She thought of her granddaughter, who had just started walking; her daughter-in-law, who was supposed to succeed her; the people who worked at their house—while her husband was out, it was her duty to protect them all.

"Very good. Thank you for your cooperation."

She did her best to follow a route that wouldn't be visible to the guards and prayed no one would come across them. Unfortunately, her prayers weren't answered. They heard footsteps from across the corner, and Aifumi recognised them as a guard from their heaviness.

The man walking ahead of them raised his hand in a fist. The woman grabbed Aifumi's shoulder and pulled her to a stop. The man stepped ahead to the edge of the corner before rushing across. Aifumi squinted her eyes closed when she heard the guard struggle, muffling out half a syllable before silence punctuated the sound of a body sliding against a wall down to the ground.

The woman gently pushed her, and Aifumi walked around the corner in fear to see the guard slumped against the wall. She couldn't see any blood, but it didn't relieve her fears.

"He's unconscious, please keep moving," said the woman while pushing her.

Aifumi bowed her head as she moved along. She had not led them to a guard, but now it could only seem like she had done so. The fear for her family's safety spiked in her heart, and she silently prayed for her husband to return home and save them.

They finally arrived at her husband's office, and the woman asked her to go inside and retrieve the daggers.

She came out with the daggers encased in a frame, and the man took it off her hands.

"I know that you didn't lead us to the guard. Rest assured, we will keep the promise and leave without harming anyone. Head inside the office and sit there for ten minutes before coming out. Your voice will return soon," said the woman.

Aifumi nodded, and the next moment, the masked duo disappeared with a gust of wind that blew the loose strands of her hair back.

She followed the instructions and sat inside her husband's office. Her voice returned in three minutes, but she remained in her office. She heard a commotion, and within a minute, another guard entered the office with an attendant and began checking on her injuries.

When the ten minutes ended, she immediately went to her granddaughter and daughter-in-law's side to ensure their safety and didn't leave them until her husband and sons returned home.




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[Golden Eyed King]

This is the cool heist mission in an RPG where I slaughter my way through the entire manor and my quest giver gets shitty at me for painting the house red when he gave me the quest full well knowing my only skill is kill.

 

[The Radiance]

TFTC. All the quests look too easy, I wonder if the other contestants got overlapping quests and the first to complete some of them will qualify and disqualify the others.

This is the cool heist mission in an RPG where I slaughter my way through the entire manor and my quest giver gets shitty at me for painting the house red when he gave me the quest full well knowing my only skill is kill.

Click to shrink...

Relatable murder hobo story. I too do this occasionally. Well, only to go full stealth after reloading the save file.

 

[Fiction]

The Zakahira estate was abuzz with commotion. The house of a high-ranking samurai was robbed in broad daylight. For that to happen in the Ember Imperial City was astounding, and the news was bound to spread throughout the city by the following day.

A man with long salt-and-pepper hair dressed in a black montsuki stood in the study and stared at the empty spot where the framed daggers hung before they were robbed. He was Zakahira Mahachi, the family's patriarch and a high-ranking samurai whose wife had been held hostage in his own home. He held his sheathed sword in his left hand and flicked the hilt guard with his thumb—with each flick, the sword would jump an inch out of the scabbard before sliding back down.

A pair of nervous and fearful guards with their clothes drenched in sweat walked behind him. The robbery had happened under their nose. They recognised the flicking habit. It only appeared when he was displeased enough to want to use his sword on something or someone.

He left the office where the guard who had been knocked out during the robbery was waiting. The guard immediately knelt and pressed his head to the floor.

"What did you see?" Mahachi asked. He didn't ask the guard to raise his head.

"I... Not much, my liege. The masked man knocked me out before I could do anything." The guard pursed his lips. "I didn't... I didn't even see the mistress or the other woman. If I hadn't been taken by surprise, I would've—!"

"There are no ifs or buts, only your failure. Reflect on it until I declare your punishment," said Mahachi.

After tracing the robber's path, he returned to the room where his family was gathered. His wife was sitting on a floor chair in the corner with a blanket over his legs as she talked with the inspector about the robbers.

"Is there anything else you can remember about them?" the inspector asked.

"Unfortunately, that's all I can remember at the moment," said Aifumi apologetically.

The inspector pursed his lips. It was only for a moment, but he had a look of dissatisfaction and disappointment, which he hid quickly—but not fast enough for it to slip past the eyes of the young man standing beside her.

"She told you everything she knows; it's your damn job to make do with it!"

The young man had the same strong jaw and square face as Mahachi and resembled him during his youth, only with softer features, which he had inherited from his mother. He was Zakahira Nozan, Mahachi's eldest son, a samurai. He was fully dressed in his red samurai armour with his sword prominently hanging by his side.

The inspector looked uncomfortable. Even Aifumi sighed as her hand went to her temple.

"There's no need to raise your voice, Nozan. You are scaring your child," said Mahachi without hiding his disapproval.

Nozan looked guilty when he saw his daughter's face on the verge of tears and his wife's disapproving look while she soothed the little infant.

Mahachi went to his wife and knelt by her side. "Does your head hurt, my dear?" he asked.

Aifumi shook her head. "Nothing to be concerned about."

Mahachi knew she had the tendency to reduce her suffering, especially when she was in the presence of their family. He gently held her wrist and injected a minute sliver of chakra into her system to regulate the natural flow of chakra that an external force had disrupted.

A shinobi's genjutsu, he thought with a bitter taste in his mouth.

She was a civilian without an ounce of chakra training, and being faced with a foreign chakra in her system had some effect on her. When they married, he tried to convince her to train her chakra to gain a tool of protection no matter how small, but she refused, saying that she didn't need it because she had him to protect her.

It was flattering—but he was regretting not pushing more. If there was any silver lining, it was that he had drilled basic chakra training into their daughter so she could protect herself when she left home.

"From the looks of it all, I believe it's safe to say it was a shinobi," said the inspector as he flipped through his notes.

"Or someone trained in shinobi's jutsu." Mahachi stood up. "Do not limit your search radius to known shinobi in the city. You must look into everyone who might be trained in shinobi arts."

"Yes, sir," the inspector nodded.

Mahachi didn't expect much from the inspector. He was planning to have the case transferred under the samurai's authority so they could be handled by someone better equipped to handle those trained in chakra. It was clear that the duo who had invaded his house were trained. They had come into his house for one thing and took only that; if it was an amateur's work, he expected them to get greedy for other valuables in his study. His wife's hairpin itself would have earned the thieves a small fortune.

"Use your informants to look into fences in the city and see whether they have requests for shinobi artefacts. The stolen daggers are bound to appear on the market."

Even though Mahachi had no authority, the inspector took his words as orders. It was foolish to defy a samurai of Mahachi's calibre and influence.

"Green and grey gear with painted masks. Do you recognise any group or individual who wears that specific configuration?" Mahachi turned to his son.

"...Not anyone I can pinpoint off the top of my head," said Nozan with a sour look.

"Maybe they're from outside the city," Mahachi commented as he pulled his sword halfway through and stared at his eyes in the blade's reflection. "Whoever it is, they will die by my blade for thinking about soiling a thread on my wife's clothes."

———
.

Seven and Fourteen stood on the roof of a doll assembly workshop, looking across the street at a large carpet factory holding one of their targets. They had to retrieve a ledger keeping record of transactions tied to the illegal trade of chakra metal stolen from official sources.

According to the information in the scroll, the ledger was inside the factor's owner's office. It was a nondescript black leather hardback..

Fourteen, Azugimoto Etomi, observed the view before her, mapping the entry and exits points along with possible chokepoints and obstacles in case of a hot exit. Seven knelt beside her on one knee, watching something she couldn't imagine. The flared veins around his temple were the only evidence that he was using his Byakugan.

The Hyuuga's Byukugan made Etomi just as fascinated as it did uncomfortable. They had scouted the place for two hours. Not nearly enough time, in Etomi's opinion, but it was made possible through the Byakugan. Seven's findings had allowed Etomi to create a terrifyingly accurate map of the entire building.

"Eight of them are not civilians," said Seven.

The carpet factory was an authentic front with real workers that worked on real carpets, but there were others there who did no work and just sat around.

"Mark them with numbers," said Etomi, handing the factory's three-level map. "Hey, how sure are you that they're not civilians?"

"One hundred per cent," said Seven as he marked the map with the combatants. "No civilian carries as many weapons on their body as these people."

"...Makes sense." Etomi was thankful that she was a Leaf shinobi and that Seven was on her team.

"Are you ready?" Seven asked as he got up, his eyes still trained on the factory.

Etomi gave the map one last look. "Yeah, I think I've got it."

The duo shared specialities; they both had prior experience with infiltration, but Etomi was formulating the optimal route based on Seven's information. He was going to lead because of his vision, but she was the one who set the overall route.

"Do you understand everything?" she asked after explaining the route and the contingencies in case they were spotted.

"Yes, I'm ready. Let's go," Seven said, the veins around his eyes becoming more pronounced.

She nodded, and both of them put on their masks. A minute later, they were standing before the doll assembly workshop and started walking towards the factory with Seven in the lead and Etomi following his exact steps. They were walking right towards the factory's front entrance, something she would never have done, but Seven had said the entrance gave them the most access—and that they could enter without getting seen.

He gestured as they neared the welded chain link gate.. Etomi overtook him and opened the smaller gate within the larger gate soundlessly, using a niche D-rank jutsu that covered the door's hinges, bolts, knobs, locks—any moving part, really—in chakra, acting as a temporary lubricant.

Etomi entered first and immediately walked up the wall on the left. There was an office window above them on the wall, but it was locked from the inside. She weaved a quick sequence of hand seals, and a needle of wind chakra appeared from her fingertip. The wind needle cut through a section of glass, removing a uniform square using chakra adhesion to access the window latch.

The office was covered in shadow, giving them cover from the people in the building. Seven looked through the building with his Byakugan and updated the location of the people on the first floor for Etomi's benefit.

"Six has moved to the other end of the hallway. Two and Three left the room and are now on the ground floor," he said.

"Noted," she replied as she updated her mental map. "Proceed without change."

Seven retook the lead. He opened the door to the office but didn't exit. The corridor before them was open and visible from the ground floor to all workers. Their location was a door across the corridor, leading to the back section of the factory.There was also another office on the other side with a huge window and a wide view of the factory floor used by the factory manager, who was currently down on the factory floor.

Seven took a large bolt he had picked out from outside and chucked it down at a set of iron pipes leaning against the wall on the factory floor. As intended, the iron pipes fell to the ground, catching absolutely everyone's attention.

While everyone was looking at the pipes, two shinobi walked through the corridor and entered the back section.

"One is currently at the water cooler; he has two large bottles."

"Got it."

They proceed through the floor silently. Etomi had done her fair share of infiltrations, and they usually involved a lot of hiding, waiting around, slow movement, and looking around each corner—but what they were doing was unlike anything she had ever experienced. They were all but strolling through a building she usually would only break into at night when no one was around because of the sheer number of people in a comparatively small space.

But the ledger would mov to an inaccessible location past the evening time, so they had to do it during work hours. But because of Seven, they could just walk because he knew where everyone was and where they were looking.

The water cooler was around the corner, where one of the guards was filling water bottles. With Seven in the lead, they casually entered the janitor's closet in the hallway and closed the door. Five seconds later, the guard walked past the closet; five seconds after that, the duo exited and continued their walk through the building. Etomi was almost terrified because her experience told her they needed to slow down and be more careful, but her partner's all-seeing eyes guaranteed they wouldn't be seen—it was a fresh experience.

They reached the owner's locked office, but Etomi's lock-picking skills made short work of the door.

"Switch the lights on," said Etomi as she bee-lined to the vault-safe behind a painting. They didn't know if the correct ledger was in there because there were at least a dozen leather registers all over the office, but they assumed that with the owner away, they would lock it up.

Seven drew the blinds and turned on the lights.

Etomi laid down her picking tools and went to work on the lock mechanism.

"Six to seven minutes," she said. Seven couldn't describe the type of vault in the office, so she wasn't able to give him a specific time.

"Noted."

A minute and a half into her attempt to pick the vault, Seven said, "I'm turning the lights off."

Etomi stopped and held still as the room went dark, and someone walked past the hallway outside the office. Ten seconds later, the lights were back on, and Etomi returned to work. It happened once more at the four-minute mark.

"Are you done?" asked Seven as he checked the registers around the office.

Etomi frowned, "I told you not to ask me that."

"... I think the owner is back," he said as he looked through the building, "and he has three more non-civilians with him. We must leave now, or we must fight our way out." Neither of them wanted that; it would cause too much commotion and have people on their tail.

"I'm done!" Etomi said as the vault opened with a click.

There were three identical black registers in the safe. Etomi hastily flipped to the specified page and checked the last three entries.

"Found it! Let's go!" said Etomi as she quickly put things back where they were and closed the vault.

The moment they left the office, Seven stopped outside,

"Exit routes A and B are now both blocked... We either hide until they're open or fight our way out."

After she had opened the vault, Etomi's mind was racing at full speed. She recalled the map she had drawn and the people in the building.

"Tell me where the eight guards are right now," she said.

———
.

Hyuuga Kojuro was doubtful if he should waste time telling Fourteen where everyone was when they could choose a hiding spot, especially when the owner had just finished addressing the workers and was heading up to his office.

"There's no time," he said.

"Has Three moved from his spot?" she asked.

"No, he has not. Let's go hide."

Fourteen ignored him and asked, "Is Eight still near the staircase?"

"No, he's now on the corridor above the factory floor," he grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

"What about Two? Is he still sitting with the view of the corner? Can we take the window out in the room next to his?"

Kojuro wasn't going to answer, but his vision instinctively went to the route she described and was surprised to find that it was a viable exit route if not for Two, who would see them. That route was previously closed because Eight directly blocked it, but it had become open when he moved.

"No, he will see us." He still pulled her to a hiding spot but gave her a reply.

"Where's Six?" asked Fourteen.

"He's back to his original position."

"Check this. We take the back staircase, sprint past Six—he won't be able to see us from his position—and then take the back emergency exit on the factory floor. It's not visible, right?"

Kojuro mapped the right and stopped from the hiding spot because he found Fourteen's route open. They could leave the building without anyone seeing them.

"It's open. We must hurry," he said while pushing her in the opposite direction.

The two hastily followed the route, barely slipped the guard numbered 'Six', and reached the emergency exit at the back. Only half a wall separated them from a group of workers, who could move toward them at any time, as the back was also used as storage.

The emergency exit was locked from the inside with a heavy-duty lock. He stepped aside, thinking Fourteen would pick it up with her tools, but she hit the lock with the back of a kunai, and it unlocked. It was loud, but the machinery was louder.

He looked at her in surprise,

"Not a very good lock, this specific model," she whispered as she slipped out of the partially opened door.

They sprinted and used the Body Flicker Jutsu to cover distance until the factory was no longer in sight.

On a rooftop, Kojuro gazed at his partner sitting on the floor, reading the ledger without a hint of emotion on her face, as though all that had happened was a normal day. Because of his eyes, he knew the building and people's location better than her, but having more information was not the same as being able to use it. He was sure if he had looked, he would've been able to find the escape route, but he didn't think he would've been as fast as her.

Not only that, but she continued to look, even though he didn't think it was worth the risk. When they found that they had an asset retrieval task, he thought he would do all the work because that would be the best use of their resources. He had allowed Fourteen to do the planning to foster teamwork but was ready to reject her ideas if they were terrible.

But he had to admit... Fourteen had made equal contributions on an infiltration task with a Hyuuga teammate, something that almost never happened.

"Absolutely splendid work, Fourteen," he said, a rare impressed smile on his face.

"Huh? Thank you," she said, closing the ledger and standing up. "Let's see if we can complete another task before sunset."




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[Fiction]

Sune Jakusho had been looking forward to the evening for the entire week. He had been making progress with the geisha, Yuri, and thought it would be another week before her futile resistance would crumble. He didn't mind her reluctance and defiance—in fact, he appreciated it—the prize was so much more enjoyable when the hunt was a real challenge.

He had visited her every week without fail, showered her with gifts, and done everything a geisha would expect from a patron. The more she refused to sleep with him, the more he wanted her. It wouldn't have been different if she had simply been playing hard to get more benefits from him, but she did not go beyond keeping company and making conversation with the men she saw, and that's what made her so enticing.

Her allure only got stronger when she remained unbudging in the face of increasingly lavish gifts. When wealth and riches didn't sway her, he tried something else. He made two of her patrons stop seeing her through simple 'persuasion' and let the news reach her ears that he was behind it. He had been quite charitable to the geisha house itself, granting him some influence, which he used to put pressure on Yuri through her own people.

He put pressure on her from all sides, slowly isolating her.

Jakusho chuckled. He couldn't wait to see what kind of face she would make today.

"Hey, go faster," he said, kicking the driver's seat back.

"Y-Yes, sire," said the Jakusho's civilian driver of two years.

"Bloody useless," Jakusho said to his two lackeys from the gang coming along with him. They would spend some time with some cheap girls because they had no money to spare for finer entertainment, and they enjoyed themselves every week on his dime.

"Are you going to bed the geisha today, big brother?" asked one of his lackeys.

"The longer you cook a stew, the more flavourful it becomes. This one is going to be ready any day now. If not today, next week might be the day I feast," Jakusho said with a haughty smile when he saw the envy in his other lackey's eyes.

Jakusho craned his neck back and looked up at the sky. His smile went away. He enjoyed playing with his prey as part of the hunt, but there was a limit to his patience. He preferred to be a strategic hunter, but if intricate finesse wasn't enough, he didn't mind becoming a butcher and going in for a straightforward kill.

If the woman didn't understand her role as the whore she was supposed to be, then he didn't mind showing her the light of reality.

The horse pulling the carriage suddenly neighed loudly, immediately following the carriage screeching to a violent halt and drifting to the side, almost sending the three men flying out of their seats.

"You imbecile! What are you doing!?" Jakusho screamed at the driver and slapped him in the back.

"S-Sire, it's not my fault," the driver winced in pain, "the carriage in front of us suddenly lost its wheel."

Jakusho didn't need to be told, as he saw the carriage collapse in the middle of the street.

The back right wheel shattered on the ground when he got up to punish the driver. The people on the street were agitated because of the sudden accident and had moved away from the collapsed carriage while also gathering around the accident because of curiosity.

"Drive around it and be quick. I will cut your pay if I'm late," Jakusho said, shooting a nasty glare at the driver. He clicked his tongue as he returned to his seat. "Fuckers, why do they own carriages when they can't take care of them."

As the driver tried to get them out of the mess, Jakusho gazed around and saw a beautiful young woman with striking amber eyes. She was looking at him and smiled when their eyes met. He smiled back while giving her a look over. She was wearing a grey cloak covering her entire body, but something in her expression caught her attention.

It was confidence.

The woman was beautiful, and she knew it. More importantly, she didn't mind using it to her advantage. Jakusho desired to see that kind of confidence shattered and gaze at its broken remains—just the thought of it brought him pleasure. So when her arm slipped out of her cloak, and she beckoned him with a finger, he went to her while the driver got them out around the accident.

He decided that if the young woman was interesting, she would be his next hunt after he was done with the geisha.

"Brother?"

"Keep still, I'll be back," he said as he stepped down from the carriage.

As he walked toward the woman, who stepped out of the crowd of onlookers, a fog-like mist came rolling in on the road, very quickly reaching above the ankle. It was a little too early and warm for the fog season, surprising the people gathered around the intersection as it filled the area. Jakusho, who was pleased with the woman's straightforwardness and eagerness, paused when she disappeared from his vision, obscured by the fog.

His hand immediately went to his sword as his sense of danger rang.

He had a faint, almost imperceptible sound and looked up just in time to see a figure descending from the sky. The thick mist that reduced visibility gave him no time to react, and thus, he could only swing his sword at his assailant.

The sword hit metal, and the lights from the sparks illuminated a kunai.

A shinobi! Jakusho thought as he also caught a glimpse of the masked figure.

The clash knocked the kunai out of the shinobi's hand. Jakusho took that as an opportunity and opening to attack, but before he could move, four kunai were thrust toward him. Once again, the mist made it so that he could only see them at the last second.

He held his breath as he parried them all before they could draw blood. The sparks created a second of light, and he made out his assailant's leaf-patterned mask. He also noticed that he didn't hear the deflected kunai hit the ground. But before he could decide if he wanted to fall back or attack to reverse the momentum, a kunai flew for his heart at a lightning-fast speed, which he barely avoided by shifting his body so that it would hit his arm.

Jakusho groaned in pain, but it only served to sharpen his sense of danger. By now, he was fully cognisant that someone was trying to kill him. He suspected that the broken carriage before them was part of the plan to trap him in the place.

He ignored the kunai stuck in his arm. His breathing turned deeper as he assumed the correct stance.

In the face of a barrage of kunai, his sword moved with the principle of water's fluidity, every subsequent strike seamlessly flowing from its predecessor. What he initially thought were kunai thrown at him, he now recognised as being held by something obscured from his vision by the mist.

"You made a mistake coming after me, shinobi!"

A glowing translucent layer of chakra flooded around his sword, assuming the shape of a longer and broader blade. The samurai's kenjutsu allowed them to flow chakra through their blades to grant them increased cutting and destructive potential, along with the ability to mould chakra around the sword into any shape they desired.

As Jakusho swung his sword around, any mist that came into contact with the sword's chakra.

It was one of the samurai kenjutsu's core properties. The ability to cut through anything it touched, treating wood and steel as though they were the same. It could even cut through shinobi's ninjutsu. Anything that came in contact with it was destroyed.

A crescent of chakra shot out of the sword as he swung, spreading as it moved out, destroying any and all mist it touched. It was the second core property. The ability to blast out the special kenjutsu chakra into the distance, granting them range.

The mist redistributed itself into the empty spaces, but it was lighter than before, allowing him to see slightly better. He could vaguely make out the wriggling appendages around his assailant.

"Big brother!"

"Stay away if you don't want to be killed by ac—"

The shinobi struck while Jakusho spoke, catching him on the back foot. He parried and blocked the floating kunai held up by appendages. Two more appendages suddenly grabbed his arm and yanked hard, forcing him to shuffle to maintain his balance.

"You fucker!" he cursed as he swung his sword to cut through the appendages, and when they hit the ground, he realised it was water because it splashed him.

He flowed into his next attack and raised his sword up to swing it down as the shinobi threw a punch which was never going to reach him because of the distance, but a force hit Jakusho on his face, startling him and throwing him off before he could swing his sword.

He didn't know what hit him. Another shinobi ninjutsu? But he recovered quickly and raised his guard as the shinobi moved in close. His eyes tracked the water appendages and the kunai—but the shinobi punched him. Jakusho raised his arm to block it as he readied the sword in his other hand for the counterattack—he was going to cut his head off.

The plan to counterattack didn't come to fruition when he felt his arm crack as a ruinous force assaulted his arm.

"Argh!" he screamed as he felt his arm grow heavy as it failed due to his broken arm.

He gritted his teeth and haphazardly struck out a kick that somehow connected, pushing the shinobi one step away, which wasn't enough. He slashed with his sword to launch a chakra crescent, which the shinobi couldn't ignore easily and ducked while rolling sideways.

I need to escape. He no longer wanted to confront the shinobi with a broken arm. He knew that if he engaged the shinobi for another minute, other samurai would arrive at the scene, and he would have a backup, but he didn't like the risk that came with the plan. It was better to escape and cause as much commotion as possible in hopes that it would scare the shinobi away.

Jakusho turned in the opposite direction as the shinobi rolled away and dug into his pocket for a smoke bomb when he felt cold metal dig through his back before the sharp pain made him stop. He turned back to see the cloaked woman he had met at the roadside step away from him with his blood on her hands.

"Y-You—"

Anger overrode pain as he raised his sword to strike her down. Four more kunai hit him in his side— one slipped between his ribs, two tore into his thighs, one ripped his oblique apart, but the one that did him in went through his neck. The woman had stepped away but charged him the moment he was hit, stabbed him in the heart with a kunai, and pushed him to the ground.

He had already lost strength in his body and collapsed like a sack. As his body went cold and his blood pooled on the road, the last thing Jakusho heard was a conversation between his assassins.

"Let's leave before trouble arrives," said the woman to the masked man who walked closer.

"Yeah, just one moment," said the man before he knelt beside him and took out the first kunai that had hit him in the arm.

Jakusho mustered all of his strength to grab the man's arm while he cried, which only came out as blood gurgles because of the kunai in his neck. The man didn't even need to put any strength to shrug off his hand.

"Rest. Everything's over now," said the man softly.

Those were Jakusho's last words before the man ended his life with one last stab.





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[Fiction]

When the local newspaper hit the streets in the early morning, the article about the robbery at the high-ranking samurai's house became the topic of discussion and chatter among the city populace. It wasn't something they hadn't seen before, but it was rare enough to be a once-a-year sighting.

It was expected to be talked about for a couple more days as more details about the case and comments from the investigators came up—but by the time evening rolled around, another incident had captured the city's attention.

One of the local radio stations had been broadcasting a developing news story throughout the day,

"Those who are just tuning in for the first time today, let me recap the situation we at 101FM have been following from its first sighting... Around eight in the morning today, a bathhouse in the Middle Candle district suddenly went up in flames. The fire spread fast and hot, and the firefighters couldn't stop it before it had already completely covered the beloved community relaxation spot... Fortunately, the bathhouse hadn't opened for business, and the staff had escaped before the fire consumed the building.

"According to our sources, the fire started in the boiler room, and the cause seemed to be a fault in the machinery... While tragic for the owners and a loss for the community, the story would've ended there"— the jockey paused and let the silence linger to build just the right amount of silence —"but we wouldn't be talking about if it did— because roughly half an hour later, a fire exploded in a restaurant across the district, decimating the popular eatery; once again, no lives were lost as the staff managed to escape... The cause was seemingly identified as a leak in the gas line. An unfortunate coincidence? It sure seemed like that way. But at that time, we didn't know that there was so much brewing in the shadows and that the Ember Imperial City had a huge problem on its hands...

"Three hours later, once again, in the Middle Candle district, a small worker's dorm went down in yet another bizarre fire... Now, you don't need me to tell you that something is wrong when three separate buildings around the district burn down in the span of three hours... These fires were set deliberately. There's a shady arsonist who's going around setting buildings around the Middle Candle district on fire. You don't need to take my word for it because samurai began investigating the incidents after the third fire—but as though the arsonist was saying that he was not scared of them, he claimed a warehouse in the district as his fourth target around noon.

"After four fires in a single day, the Middle Court district is now under a lockdown, and samurai roam the streets to deter the arsonist from continuing his spree while they try to catch him—and it seems to work as three hours have passed with no activity." The jockey paused and sighed as the soft music behind him filled the silence. "Unfortunately, half an hour ago, we received news about a fifth fire in the Middle Candle district. It took us time to gather and confirm the facts from our sources, which was difficult because the samurai were turning everyone away...

"The fires till now have been at places of business; however, this fire was at a residential neighbourhood where a house was burned. It was the home of one Mister Higurashi, who actually owned the worker's dorm targeted by the arsonist... It seems these fires are not random, and the arsonist has a reason to target the ones he did. We don't know what those reasons are right now, but we do have a new piece of information—

"Until now, the arsonist had gone unseen, but this time, one of the neighbours caught a glance of the criminal, and they described him to be a man wearing green and grey shinobi-styled combat gear and a mask—and he saw them skipping roofs... It seems our arsonist is not a normal bloke but someone who might be versed in the shinobi arts. So, now the question is..."

The voice of the jockey faded as the volume of the radio was turned down by Zakahira Nozan, the son of Zakahira Mahachi, whose house had been robbed the day before.

"Did you catch that, father?" Nozan asked as he turned the volume knob. "The arsonist wore green-and-grey clothes with a mask... Do you think he's the same man?"

"Perhaps he is," said Mahachi from behind the desk in his study. He glanced at the empty spot on the wall where the twin daggers sat.

"But what about the woman?" Nozan wondered aloud.

"The man getting spotted doesn't mean he's alone—it can also mean that the woman went undetected. Five fires in a day is a lot; the risk of mistake, capture, or getting spotted increases with each subsequent fire—especially with the lockdown. It's a reasonable assumption that he didn't do it alone," said Mahachi before going silent

Nozan gazed at his, who looked deep in thought.

"What is it? Did you notice something?" he asked.

"It's uncommon for a team to take on tasks so different, and that too, in such a short period of time off. They stole from our home yesterday and then set fires to buildings today? No, something feels wrong here... I think these might be two different teams tackling their own jobs. However, I think they're related to each other," said Mahachi as he stood up from his chair, "and if we catch the arsonists, we might be able to get the thieves..."

Nozan stood up, "Let's go help them catch these bastards."

———
.

A cautious Sixteen stood inside a tiny bar run by a single man as a hobby, who only opened it on days when his friends wanted to drink and catch up, which, with different friend groups, came up to three times a week. It was such a hobby that he only opened it for friends, associates, and acquaintances and took no actual customers.

The bar made no money because the price of drinks was kept at a level that allowed it to stay afloat without making a loss. The owner had a different source of income. And because he owned the land on which the bar stood, he didn't even have to pay rent.

That unfortunate owner, who had only opened the bar for a few hours, was sprawled on the floor, knocked out by Sixteen, who was currently pouring down kerosene and liquor bottles all over the building. Some liquors were far too valuable to waste, so he stored away a few very expensive bottles he planned to gift to the ANBU-nin conducting the recruitment. Anything to increase his chances of getting the job.

He had already set a bathhouse and warehouse on fire, and they were very difficult to burn without attracting attention, which was why he had left the tiny bar with a single man as an obstacle as his last target.

"Alright, up you go," he grunted as he stowed the bar owner over his shoulder and left out from the back exit, where he settled the man against the wall over the adjacent building.

He weaved hand seals for a D-rank Fire Release jutsu and three spinners of fire into the bar to set the kerosene and alcohol on fire. The accelerants started burning immediately, and the fire spread almost too fast—but he had done it twice already and wasn't surprised by the speed.

Sixteen closed the door and picked up the owner before dumping him at a safe distance.

Setting the bar on fire was easy; the hard part was leaving the Middle Candle district unseen, which had only gotten more difficult as the samurai's presence had grown stronger. If it were just samurai, he wouldn't have worried as much because there weren't enough numbers to lock the area down—but when you added civilian patrolmen, moving around became a real challenge.

With his work finally done, he decided to take zero risk as he exited the district and spent an entire hour covering the distance, which would've only taken him fifteen to twenty minutes.

"Why are you so late? I've been worrying that they got you," said Five, his partner for the missions in the Ember Imperial City.

"I had to change targets," sighed Sixteen as he stepped on the roof of an apartment building.

His initial target was a teashop, but he had to abandon it because there was a heavy samurai and patrolman presence in the area, so he switched to his backup, the bar, which he found doable.

"You let them see you," Sixteen said pointedly to Five, who looked sheepish for a moment before shrugging.

"It doesn't matter. Three and Thirteen already leaked our 'appearance' yesterday," he said with air quotes. They had read the news about the robbery at the samurai's house in the newspaper, which accurately described the candidate's gear. The reason they knew it was Three and Thirteen was because the robbers were a man and a woman—and between the two teams with a woman, they weren't going to think the Seven-Fourteen team with a Hyuga would let anyone see them.

Sixteen couldn't argue against that. He stepped next to a rusty table they found on the roof, which had a city map sitting flat on it. An area of the map was outlined, and multiple locations were marked in pen inside it. The marked locations ranged from restaurants, workshops, and warehouses to residential houses, worker dorms, and bathhouses.

All those properties were owned by people associated with a territory-based group who controlled the outlined area by owning and operating properties and businesses, allowing them to impose their own local rules and influence how things were done in the area.

Their informant task involved arson. The group that controlled the outlined area had grown too strong an influence over it to the point where they had begun to sway how the government funding allocated for the area's development and maintenance was used—and had begun using it not for the overall area's improvement but for their personal gain.

Their objective was to destroy key locations and bring scrutiny to them to weaken the group's influence and stop their illegal practices.

"You could have just returned without doing the third location," said Five as he also gazed at the map.

The mission only asked them to target any four locations, but the two decided to split up, and target three locations each to be safe in case one of them couldn't fulfil all the targets, the other would make up for the deficit.

"I didn't feel good about not pulling my weight," said Sixteen.

"Get changed quickly. I'm hungry, and you lost the bet," said Five.

They had made a bet about who could complete their three targets first; the loser would pay for dinner.

"First, we go alert the informant," said Sixteen as he began undressing to change into his civilian clothes.

"Of course... Just one more task remaining," Five said with a long sigh.

They had been away from their houses for over a week. It wasn't a particularly long time for a mission, but other missions had highs and lows. The test had been a constant high gear because they didn't know when the ANBU would throw something at them. Even during their free time at the camp, they had been occupied by evaluating and being cautious of their competition being in such close proximity.

Fatigue was natural in the circumstances, and they had no idea if things would end in the Ember Imperial City.

———
.

"Oh, you're done?" said the informant when Takuma and Three sat in front of him while he was drinking at a roadside bar. He munched on a plate of fried chicken and other drinking food spread on the table. "Do you want to drink? I'm not paying though."

"We just came to inform you because you asked us," said Three.

"Can you make it quick? We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow," said Takuma as he rotated his tired shoulder. He was hungry because he hadn't eaten since early morning, and they still had to discuss the bounty hunt they were going to tackle tomorrow before they could sleep and rest for the day. He wanted to wrap things quickly so he could sleep even a minute more.

"Right, you do have a busy day tomorrow," said the informant with a chuckle before breaking into laughter while slapping his thighs. "Man, those guys can be so amusing sometimes!"

"I don't feel very good about this," Three leaned in to whisper, furrowing her brows in worry.

"Neither do I," said Takuma before speaking to the drunk man. "What do you mean?"

The informant rested his chubby chin on his thick palm and stared at them with half-lidded eyes, his face red from drinking. There was a few seconds of silence on the table before the informant pulled out a set of four scrolls strapped together.

"Here's your second, surprise task... I hope you weren't thinking about sleeping tonight."





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[Jaron]

I feel a sympathetic bone dead ache from the sleep deprivation Takuma is going through.

 

[Khettien]

He stepped aside, thinking Fourteen would pick it up with her tools, but she hit the lock with the back of a kunai, and it unlocked.

Click to shrink...

This is the DonoLock model 6. It can be opened with a DonoLock model 6.

LockPickingLawyer does some hysterical videos on Youtube, if you don't recognize what I just said.

As Jakusho swung his sword around, any mist that came into contact with the sword's chakra.

Click to shrink...

Seems like this sentence cuts off abruptly.

 

[Fiction]

A silence hung between Takuma and Three as they sat in their shared inn suite. It was their second inn due to their decision to switch places daily. They sat in comfortable chairs opposite each other around a circular table, but the set of four open scrolls given to them by the informant, along with the separate third task scroll, distracted them away from relaxing after a busy day of planning an assassination.

"Want to split up?" asked Takuma.

"No," Three gave the same reply as before.

"We don't have any time."

"Then we make do with what we got."

"It's not going to be easy."

"I'm not the one complaining."

Takuma sighed as he massaged his temples from the headache that threatened to break out any second. They had kept the sustainable pace of one task per day to complete three tasks before the deadline. Following the pace allowed them to plan their actions to reduce the risk of failure, and it worked as they managed to complete their missions without major complications.

But now they had two tasks to complete in one day.

The third task was a bounty hunt; they had information about the target's whereabouts inside the city, but getting to her was challenging as samurai guarded the location. It was the most difficult task yet, and they had left it to the last because in case something went wrong, it wouldn't have interfered with the other two tasks.

However, the informant's new task revolved around a shipment of explosive tags, which was being delivered at a meeting between the supplier and the buyer, where the tags would be exchanged for payment. The motive behind the task was to disrupt the two parties who had ties to illegal and terror elements in the Land of Fire.

They needed to destroy the explosive tags and impede the payment—which would prevent the tags from reaching the wrong hands and harming both parties as they would be out of money.

"The meeting is at three in the morning," said Three.

"Which means we will need to get there earlier to scout the location before either of the parties get there," said Takuma.

The problem with the informant's new task was that the only information they had was the location and timing of the meeting. They didn't know the two party's identities, where they were based, or anything else that would give them any flexibility in completing the task.

"We'll have to complete the bounty before eleven, or noon at the latest, if we want to make it to the location," Three groaned in irritation.

The bounty target's location and the meeting location were forty minutes apart if nothing went wrong. In reality, they had to mark an hour for travel. It would've been shorter if they could jump over roofs without fear, but they couldn't do that in the Ember Capital City, and they had to be more careful after the arsons by another team, which had samurai turning over the entire city for anything suspicious.

"We need to start early. As that fucking fatso said, no sleep tonight," said Takuma.

"If I had something on me, I would've spiked his drink to just... absolutely ruin his night," Three clicked her tongue. "The fucking bastard."

Takuma nodded in agreement. He had some choice words of his own, but he was too fed up to talk shit. He sat up straighter and picked up the bounty scroll.

The target's name was Kinohei Ukuri, a former Leaf shinobi who had retired from service after completing her ten-year contract as a genin. Like many others who retired, she went to do independent work that required her shinobi skills. However, unlike most of those who were in her position, who only got work as security and thugs for the rich and unsavoury people, Ukuri not only managed to find success but was able to grow her capabilities—which was extremely challenging for those who had left the shinobi service.

Access to resources was fairly limited for those not affiliated with a hidden village. Perhaps she was a late bloomer, but she grew to a point where she and her work caught the Hidden Leaf's attention; they invited her back into service with a possible chunin rank promotion in the near future.

Ukuri refused the offer, preferring to stay independent—which didn't please the Hidden Leaf. To pressure her, they began to offer discounted services to her clients on the condition they dropped her. It worked in the sense that she lost most of her clients, but she didn't buckle like they expected and refused to accept the offer.

Soon after, Ukuri disappeared from the market. For a while, it seemed like she had decided to stop taking shinobi work. Her absence wasn't permanent as she returned—only this time, she started taking jobs against the Hidden Leaf.

Most former shinobi weren't willing to take jobs that involved going against Leaf shinobi for fear of retaliation, but those willing were paid handsomely—and Ukuri quickly became a very popular option due to her willingness to accept jobs and her sky-high success rate.

By the time Leaf decided to brand her as a hostile, she had already become a problem but also had gained some powerful connections in the Daimyo's court and among the samurai by doing some work for them.

Her presence as a competition made the Leaf look bad, so they decided to eliminate her. They forged a job that would be very attractive to Ukuri, and as expected, she accepted it. They planned to assassinate her during the job, but they underestimated her, and she escaped after killing most of the team that had gone after her.

Since then, she had been hiding in the Ember Capital City and used her connections to get protection from the samurai—which blocked the Leaf from going after her openly as she was considered a guest of one of the nobles close to the Daimyo.

Three months ago, a bounty was raised on Kinohei Ukuri's head. The sponsor who posted the bounty kept their identity anonymous, but it was clear that the Hidden Leaf was the sponsor as they had just tried to kill her. The Hidden Leaf denied their involvement with the bounty and refuted ever sending their shinobi to assassinate Ukuri.

"I think we should strike somewhere around dawn so we don't have a time conflict with the informant's task," said Takuma with a sigh, "but it will be tough to scout the place in darkness."

"But it will be easier to attack during dawn when people are still sleeping," Three said as she fully rested in her chair. "And well, the graveyard squad tends to be B-teams—they'll be easier to handle than whatever they have during the day."

"On the other hand, the response team will be faster," said Takuma.

Ukuri's current location was one of the noble's properties. It was a mansion and two secondary buildings built on a sizable fenced property with around-the-clock samurai protection. In case something went wrong, anyone inside the property could send a call out for help, and because there's less overall activity during the dawn when roads are empty, external help would arrive faster.

"The benefits outweigh the limitations and disadvantages," said Three.

"Agreed then?" he asked.

"Agreed. What about the meeting?"

"We rush across the city, scout the place, and well... rain down on them during the meeting."

"Wow, that's crude," Three scoffed.

Takuma shrugged. "There's no use to think about complicated details when we don't know the composition of the two groups or the meeting location. It's better to leave it all to the future you and I—it's their problem, not ours," he said as he got up with a yawn. "Let's check our gear and head out."

He was getting anxious from only thinking about plans and wanted to get out in the field where he wouldn't have time for that.

———
.

"Now that I think about it, we never discussed the bounty office," said Three as they took a break from scouting the target property.

It was pitch dark; the city sky, layered with pollution, was overcast as well, which meant it was particularly dark. The low visibility slowed down their scouting process as they had to observe locations which weren't near light sources closely.

Takuma lowered a water canteen from his mouth and wiped his lips on his sleeve. "To be honest, I don't know what's the best time to go." The bounty task didn't end with killing the target. They would have to go to the bounty office in the city and confirm the kill. "The moment we kill the target, the samurai will realise that it's us because of her bounty and will head straight for the bounty offices in the city."

All bounty offices across the Elemental Nations were run by the same organisation and were independent of shinobi, samurai, and any other military organisation. They were treated as neutral territory and were allowed to exist even in places like hidden villages and nation capitals as shinobi, samurai, and others in the mercenary business used them as they were a great bridge between them and civilians.

Bounty offices were known to be fair and reliable to the point that it was a great shock when one of them made a mistake. Moreover, the bounty offices were too big of an entity for any one shinobi nation to take control of it. They also realised that an independent entity managing the bounty office was to their benefit as there was too much friction between the nations for them to take over their territory's offices and maintain communication.

"They won't interfere with business while we're in the office, but the moment we leave the premises, we will be arrested," Takuma sighed. "Our best bet is to head to the bounty office right after we are done here—but even then, I think there'll be too much risk. I wonder how the others will handle the problem—any ideas?"

If it was any other time, they could've just skipped town and gone to another bounty office, but they didn't have time to do that.

"Maybe," said Three with a flat look, "it's too vague now. I'll need time to think about it before we can discuss it."

Takuma gazed at her; he could tell that she was hiding something. Three gazed back; she knew he wanted to know what she was hiding. However, there was no way for him to force her into revealing her secrets.

"Be quick about it," said Takuma. It wasn't also the right time to get information out of her.

She smiled. "Sure will."

Even though he didn't like it, as long as she worked toward their mutual benefit, he didn't mind letting her keep her secrets.

After all, he had a few of those himself.





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[Fiction]

Yamanaka Amami scouted the estate in the cover of the night. The main building and one of the secondary buildings, which seemed to be the guard quarters, were well-lit—but the rest of the grounds were covered in darkness. As long as she stayed clear of a couple of lamp posts around the property, she could observe the main building for as long as she liked.

Ukuri was inside the main building—the one with three samurai stationed around it. Two lazed on chairs, leaving one vigilant samurai to patrol the longest section of the building. She glanced at the other secondary building used as the staff quarters. It was dark, which made it a preferable entry and exit route.

It would be best if they entered through the wall behind the staff quarters, using the darkness to their advantage and took out the vigilant samurai first. He'd be the biggest problem if they failed to kill Ukuri stealthily. Taking out the vigilant samurai would also create a clear escape route in case Ukuri made noise.

Amami observed for a bit more before carefully leaving the estate and regrouping with Thirteen and informing him of her plan.

"The back right of the estate is dark; we should go in from there and remove the samurai actively patrolling the long side."

As she expected, Thirteen frowned and immediately questioned her suggestion.

"That's risky," he said. "We could alert everyone by confronting him. What if the target wakes up and decides to foot it out of here to avoid the entire situation?"

Since they started working together two days ago, he had questioned her suggestions and advice at every turn. While she was relieved that he wasn't an imbecilic asshole—and that he listened to her, and if her suggestions made sense, which they always did, he would readily accepted her ideas upon realising they made sense—it was a little irritating that he had to get a word in every time.

I could just take over the samurai's body, and we could finish him silently, thought Amami—not that she'd actually do it unless strictly necessary. The Yamanaka clan practised their Mind-Body hiden jutsu, allowing them to possess their target's body and scour their minds if they wished. Their jutsu wasn't protected by an inherent requirement like bloodline, and anyone could learn it, but they wouldn't gain the same proficiency as a Yamanaka.

Not only had the clan created the jutsu so that it would work the best for them, but the Yamanaka themselves had evolved through the generations to adapt to the jutsu—resulting in their clan's jutsu being categorised as a hiden jutsu, or simply, hijutsu.

The Akimichi clan's Calorie Control and the Nara clan's Shadow Manipulation were also categorised as hiden jutsu. Seven, the Hyūga, couldn't hide his bloodline limit because of his dōjutsu, but she could hide her hiden jutsu simply by not using it. The candidates didn't know if the ANBU had something more planned for them, so keeping some of her cards hidden to retain an advantage would be beneficial.

Amami glanced at Thirteen. The boy had been surprisingly open to showing his skills. She knew he could use genjutsu; he possessed a chakra augmentation jutsu, which meant he preferred taijutsu; finally, he used Water Release on the ninjutsu front. There was no way for her to know everything about him but Amami knew it was enough to gain an advantage during combat.

"You can use genjutsu to silence him," she answered, starting another conversation to make him understand line of thinking, "like you did with the old woman at the samurai's house."

"The paralysis worked as well as it did because she was a civilian." Thirteen shook his head. "This is a samurai with chakra training. My control over the genjutsu will not be anywhere as strong as it was on the old madam."

"So you can't paralyse him?" She sighed. It was her way of subtly challenging him.

In the short time they knew each other, she noticed he did not like it when she would speak down to him—nobody did. Thirteen, however, happened to be the sort of person who would do something about it. He was quick to bite back when someone assumed things about him. His usual bland tongue would sharpen and he'd throw a dig of his own instead of calmly explaining that he could.

She wanted to smile when Thirteen's eyes narrowed.

"I can do it," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"I just said that I can do it—keep up."

"Great, it's decided then."

Amami wasn't being reckless by ignoring the risk that Thirteen might fail. Something told her that he had an appetite for risk and understood the value of the risk-reward equation. In the assassination, he decided to kill the target in the middle of a busy street—but all of his suggestions and opinions played it safe.

She realised it was because he didn't trust her and was compensating by choosing options that left room for mistakes—but in doing so, he made things needlessly complicated.

Amami was simply pushing him just enough that they could hit the sweet spot.

"...So, no qualms against someone just trying to make a living?" she asked him.

Amami was surprised at how clearly the scroll stated that the bounty on Ukuri's head was because she offended the Hidden Leaf. One would think the ANBU would try to sugarcoat it so the duo would feel better about killing her, but they had very bluntly put the situation before them.

It didn't change her mind or anything, but it warranted some introspection on her part.

"...They're testing us by being so straightforward," said Thirteen as though reading her mind. "They most probably want to see if we will complete the mission despite our feelings about the situation. They wouldn't want to hire someone whose personal views interfere with every mission."

"You will do anything as long as they say it's a test?" she asked, curious at how he'd rationalised such a thing. She had been involved in a couple of assassination missions where the target hadn't done anything averse to her and would even be considered innocent from certain points of view, but had he?

"Those who kill must be ready to be killed. The lives of us shinobi aren't valuable enough to warrant guilt or hesitation. Besides, by killing a shinobi, you rid the world of a killer—net positive in the end."

"That's a rather grim view of your own profession, of your own self, don't you think?" she asked. As a shinobi herself, she thought her life had immense value not only to herself but to a good crowd of people.

Thirteen didn't reply, and Amami didn't feel like she should push it.

"But if you kill a shinobi, wouldn't the number of killers stay the same?" she asked to move past the heaviness of the topic.

"Kill two then," he replied.

———
.

The moment twilight began, and the sky started to lighten, they infiltrated the property from the darkest portion of the boundary and slipped past the staff quarters. It was reasonable that some staff would wake up early to prepare for the day, so they had to be quick to keep their footprint minimum.

The plan was to exit after ten to twelve minutes.

The vigilant samurai patrolling his route suddenly heard a clicking sound from a few trees and thick bushes at a distance.

"Cricket?" he muttered to himself. It sounded off to him. Having been focused his entire shift, he strayed from his position momentarily and approached the trees to get a better listen.

As he approached, the sound got clearer and louder, and it became apparent that it wasn't a cricket but something else entirely.

Before the samurai could even get the chance to register suspicion, his body froze up, and he found himself paralysed, unable even to shift his weight over his legs. As the panic rose, Three emerged from the thick bushes and stabbed the man in his chest, almost instantly killing him. Not wasting any time, she dragged his body into the bushes, where Takuma helped her hide it before they swiftly closed in on the main building.

They had scouted the building for several hours but never had an indoor view of the main building; as such, they couldn't be sure that there weren't samurai stationed inside. However, it was unlikely for someone on guard duty to not step out for fresh air or stretch their legs in the time they had been observing.

With that assumption, they entered the building through an open door. They remained cautious and quiet in case their assumption turned out to be false. Fortunately, the house seemed empty, with no guard presence.

The next problem was to find the target's bedroom. As they traversed the house, they had to be utterly silent to prevent alerting the samurai outside and the Ukuri. As the minutes passed, the tension between the duo rose until, five minutes later, they found the bedroom.

As Takuma grabbed the handle to pull the sliding door open, Three stopped him and gestured for him to step aside, after which she inspected the door. He didn't know what she was doing and simply observed as she took out a rigid wire and slipped it between the gap in the door to check if it was bobby-trapped.

Clear, she gestured.

Takuma nodded and took out a kunai as Three slowly opened the door. The room had no bed-frame bed, and Ukuri had pulled her futon away from the door and was facing the door.

The moment Takuma entered the room, he threw his kunai for her throat.

Three looked surprised at his sudden action—but it was the right choice as Ukuri's eyes snapped open an instant before the kunai hit her but she had no time to react to the kunai tearing through her throat.

Three reacted quickly and rushed towards Ukuri while she was still in shock and unable to even think, much less do anything directly to defend herself. She finished her off with a stab to the heart, Ukuri's hand trembled as she went for Three's mask, drawing on it with her blood. The strength left her fingers, and her arm went limp as life extinguished inside her body.

Takuma used a dagger to remove Ukuri's middle and ring finger from the base as proof of assassination for the bounty office. The most preferred proof was the entire body or the head—which would get them the money the quickest as the verification could be done on the spot—but they didn't care about the money, and the risk of carrying an entire body without a storage scroll was too much.

"Let's go," Takuma whispered as he bagged the fingers.

They left the estate without alerting the guards just as the sun became visible over the horizon and immediately split up with the plan to rendezvous at the bounty office .

Twenty minutes later, Takuma entered the bounty office located within a single-storey building. The office itself was built in the basement and accessible from the outside. The plain, white-painted metal pipe railings along the concrete steps leading to the green heavy metal gates set the tone.

If Takuma had to describe the interior, it would be— all function, zero form.

The interior was a reception area with not a single piece of furniture possessing aesthetic purpose. The reception desk looked like it was from another era. There were three types of mismatched waiting chairs without a care for uniformity and even the wall posters existed solely for instructional reasons.

Takuma stepped to the reception desk and rang the bell. There were two doors behind the desk—a single-panel door and a double-panel door—which closed off the rest of the building from the reception. Thirty seconds later, a stout man exited the single door with a bored expression. He looked at Takuma, and the blood on him made him click his tongue with unhidden dissatisfaction.

"Do you want to claim or register a bounty?" he asked.

"Claim."

"Name or reference number?"

"Kinohei Ukuri."

The man curled a brow when he heard the name, but it went back down almost immediately. "What proof do you have?"

"Two fingers."

"Show me. Don't put them on the table," said the man quickly.

Takuma held the fingers in the small pouch and put it in the man's gloved hand, who then took out one and gazed at it for a moment. "I can only issue the reward after I have confirmed the kill. It will take a week. After I confirm it, you can collect your reward." The man reached into his pocket and took out a token. It was stamped in the middle, surrounded by a blue-coloured outer ring. "Bring this back in a week and not a day before. You can show up a year later for all I care—but you need this token. Anyone who has this token will be given the reward."

"Understood," said Takuma as he put the token into one of his pockets. "Anything else?"

"No, nothing."

Takuma turned around and left without another word.

He was nervous as he stepped out. He feared that someone would be waiting to catch him—but he breathed a sigh of relief when the street was as empty as it should have been.

He caught a glimpse of Three on the edge of the street before she disappeared, which meant the situation was clear.

He weaved hand seals for the Body Flicker Jutsu and did the same himself.





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[Fiction]

Agando Morosumu, a.k.a Four, felt a bead of sweat slip down his face. He sat in a restaurant with food before him, but had no appetite because he was in the middle of a task, and his target was aware of his presence.

Two tables down, he could feel three men glancing at him. One of them had a bounty target on his head that the ANBU wanted him to reap and claim with his partner. They had been following their target since the morning he had left his house, and somewhere along the line, he noticed.

Speaking of his partner, Ten was sitting opposite him, eating three men's worth of food without a care in the world, as though he had come to the restaurant to eat and not because their target entered it.

"Is this really okay?" he asked with a gulp.

The muscled man with a glorious afro raised a finger, gesturing to him to wait a moment as he finished chewing his food.

"You sure are one worrisome fellow, Four. Like I've been saying, it's fine," he stretched his words. "And look at that; you haven't touched your food. You better hurry up and eat before they leave."

"They're suspicious, Ten," Four whispered.

"I know, and it works well for us," said Ten as he munched on a leg piece.

"What if he decides to hide to avoid us? It's the last day; we will be screwed!" said Four.

Their other two tasks had gone exceptionally well; they had sabotaged some machinery in a samurai-guarded factory as their first task, and then they had kidnapped a man and delivered him to a designated place where a woman asked them to wait for an hour—after which, she came out with one of his kidneys that they delivered to a sprawling mansion.

Four closed his eyes and covered his face at the memory. He didn't know the man, but had done something terrible to him. He tried to console himself that perhaps the man had consented to donate his kidney—but that excuse was shot down internally almost immediately—if the man had consented, why would he need to be kidnapped?

Since yesterday, the thought he had done something terrible to an innocent man would not leave him be. To make things worse, they had picked him up near his house, so they knew he had a family—two energetic boys and a loving wife.

Four glanced at Ten, who had been extremely pissed when he realised what he was part of. Despite his tall, muscular stature and intense features, Ten had a friendly face and gave out a relaxed vibe—but the moment they found out why they had kidnapped the man, he went deathly silent and looked like he was ready to kill.

Four was worried that he would do something reckless, but Ten opted to finish the task before returning to the woman who had removed the man's kidney. She told them that she had returned the man to his house—which they confirmed to be true. The man was alive and back with his family.

It was the only silver lining of the whole ordeal.

Ten was back to normal in the morning, but Four could tell he didn't want to discuss it.

"We will automatically fail our task," Four stressed.

"Well, you're not wrong. If he shakes us off, they might go into hiding," said Ten, freaking him out.

"Then—!"

"But these guys aren't going to do that."

"What makes you so sure?"

"They would've already made a run for it," said Ten as he ate. "This is the type that believes in solving the problem instead of running away from it. I'm as sure as I can be that they're planning to confront and kill us."

"Fuck that," said Four, rolling his eyes. He wasn't going to die on a recruitment test. He was more concerned with failing the recruitment.

"Killing us would give them time to decide what they want to do next. You saw that house, it was prime real estate; no one would abandon a place like that. Moreover, killing us will send a signal to others that it's dangerous to go after them. And in case they do want to change their base, killing us gives them time to set their affairs in order."

"So why haven't they done anything yet?"

"The same reason we haven't done anything yet.." Ten's eyes wandered for a moment. "I think they're done with their prep, though... get ready for action, Four."

The three men, their target among them, walked past their table. Neither side glanced at the other despite being acutely aware of what they had come to do.

"See? You should've eaten when you had the chance. Let's go now. It's time for action," Ten got up and patted him on his shoulder.

Four looked at his untouched plate and sighed as he left the table and followed Ten. They followed the three men through the city for an hour, taking them to the city's edge. Their surroundings turned to an underdeveloped outskirt with farmland and dull factories in the distance with no people in sight.

It was the perfect place to fight and kill without gaining attention.

"Nice going! This place is perfect," Ten addressed the three men.

Four had his lips pressed into a line because they were at a numbers disadvantage with two against three. Even though they only had a single target, they had to face three men. The Fugazo Triplets were a mercenary trio trained in shinobi arts who hadn't been part of any shinobi village—having learned their craft from ex-shinobi.

They operated mostly in the Land of Wind but had moved to the Land of Fire after they caught too much heat from the Hidden Sand and the Wind Daimyo's samurai. Their bounty's sponsor was hidden, but the information from ANBU claimed that it was the Wind samurai.

Making only one of them a target felt like ANBU jerking them around.

"Which one of you is Fugazo Ren?" Ten asked straightforwardly.

The three men were identical to the point where they felt like clones rather than triplets. The only defining feature was their gear, which, while also identical, had some quirks, but that didn't help them identify which one of the triplets was their target.

Which meant they had to kill all three to be sure they had their target.

Or we could kill one and claim him to be our target, thought Four, but Ten filed the idea as a last option, opting to kill the right target before resorting to what he deemed as a last-ditch effort.

As expected, the triplets didn't respond. They were known to take all of their jobs together and were considered a package deal—marking one of the triplets was the same as going after all three.

"We only want Fugazo Ren," said Four, giving it a try. "The other two are free to leave."

In response, the triplets took out identical twin axes strapped to their backs.

"Shit," Four cursed as he took out a kunai, and it felt inadequate. His main weapon was a machete, but the ANBU had taken away all of his gear before the recruitment test started.

We should've planned an ambush or just blew their home up, Four thought.

Ten raised his massive hand and slapped Four's back.

"Don't be nervous, Four. My aunt says I'm not a guy with a great head on my shoulders, and she's not wrong. I'm not suited for smart stuff like iryojutsu or fuinjutsu, nor do I have the imagination for genjutsu… but when it comes to fighting, I'm really good at it, so don't worry so much—"

Ten disappeared with a strong gust of wind, startling Four—and the triplets too because when he reappeared, he was standing behind them.

He was so fast that no one could keep track of him.

The triplets moved in unison, surrounding Ten as they swung their axes at him with identical movements and tempo.

"—I'll make quick work of this miserable lot and we can move on, 'kay?" Ten smiled as siblings approached him.

———
.

Amami explored the abandoned ruins of a factory that would be used as the meeting point for the exchange. The building looked like it hadn't been used in years, and the surrounding area was similarly empty and abandoned.

The perfect location for an illicit deal.

She heard footsteps and turned back to see Thirteen pacing about. Usually, he would go on about the plan and details, but he had been silent since they had reached the factory. There was no change in his expression, but she could tell that something about the location made him uncomfortable.

"Found anything?" she asked.

"Nothing at all," he replied in a slightly quieter voice that echoed. "This place is big, but there's only one unobstructed entrance, so we can assume they will be near the entrance, but..."

"A trap would be too unreliable," she sighed.

Thirteen nodded.

The building was too long and wide for them to set up a reliable trap with limited provisions. Even if they stuck explosive tags on the ceiling and chained them up with steel wire to run chakra through to trigger the tags, there was no telling that they would be near the entrance and not somewhere else.

"It's better to just chuck the tags at them," he said.

"Agreed."

Seeing that the goods to be traded were explosive tags, shinobi were sure to be present among the two parties. They were sure to be outnumbered and thus had to rely on traps to gain an advantage.

A silence hung between them the moment the topic ended. The vibe from Thirteen seemed like he didn't want to be there, which made Amami curious, but she had no way to ask what he was thinking. She could be shameless and ask but didn't think he would answer.

"You have the bounty token, right?" she asked.

"I have it," Thirteen showed her a familiar metal token with a blue lip.

Amami had been to a bounty office a couple of times, and from what she knew about others, all bounty offices used the exact same tokens. "Give it to me; I'll keep it safe. That's going to be the proof we will have to show," she said, moving forward to take the token.

If the task had just been an assassination, the token wouldn't have mattered, but the task included claiming the bounty, which made the token important as proof that they had completed the task.

Thirteen pulled his hand back and put the token into one of his zipper pouches. "It's safe with me; don't worry about it," he said.

Amami thought about it for a moment before letting it go. "Alright, but don't lose it. It would be terrible if my performance suffers because you lost the token," she said. Thirteen had proven himself capable enough that she could trust him with the token.

"Don't worry." Thirteen nodded. "As for your performance, you're my teammate right now. I wouldn't let anyone on my team suffer. Either we both make it, or I go down with you—and because failing isn't an option, we'll both pass."

"Oh my, are you finally warming up to me, my dear Thirteen?" Amami joked with a sly grin. "I will give it seven points. It would've been nine if you said you would ensure I pass even if it meant failing yourself."

Thirteen rolled his eyes at her and walked away.

Amami giggled behind her hand.

What Thirteen said was true. They were teammates, so taking care of each other was par for the course and she wasn't the one to answer good with evil. As long as someone treated her well, she would return the favour.

———
.

There was a knock on the door to a large office that looked like it belonged to someone in a high-ranking position.

"Come in."

A young man stepped in with an urgent look. "Sir, we just got time-sensitive information. The rumoured weapon deal involving the Bedrock group was just confirmed. The deal is happening in the city right now! We might have a chance to catch them if we hurry!"

"Is the source reliable?"

"We have no confirmation, but the source has been reliable thus far."

"...Very well, alert the team. We move out in ten minutes," said Zakahira Nozan as he stood up from the desk in his workspace office. His house had been robbed, but he had no leads on who the robbers were—and that bothered him to no end.

"You're coming along, sir?"

"Yes, I'm feeling very frustrated; this might be the perfect opportunity to blow off some steam..."





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[Fiction]

The forsaken factory brought up bad memories. The dust in the air, the smell of abandon and rust, even the way faint sounds echoed—everything reminded him of the factory base in Yu, where he had spent the worst months of his life.

If it weren't for the task, Takuma would've left the building and the area the same moment he arrived. He tried to control his emotions, managing to compose himself outwardly—but his heart refused to calm down. He was embarrassed as Three had noticed something was off despite his best efforts to hide it; she didn't show it, but her frequent glances and lingering stares said it all.

"Someone is coming," he said, looking toward the source of the faint sounds in the distance.

Three looked around for a moment to check if they hadn't left behind a trace that would alert their targets before they both disappeared from the floor and hid underneath an empty window that had a clear view of the factory below.

Takuma focused inwardly and masked his chakra by lowering the natural mixing, thus obscuring his presence in case the group had a sensory-nin, which was unlikely due to their rarity. Three was also proficient in chakra masking, something she revealed only after he asked if she had the skill.

A minute later, a group of six men walked into the factory. All except for one person were dressed in gear inspired by the standard Leaf shinobi kit; the remaining man had a cloak over his, a simple pair of pants and a shirt, hiding whether he possessed weapons.

Takuma tried to deduce information from his gait, posture, and stride, but the cloak got in the way. From their conversation, the group was the sellers, which meant they had a shipment of explosive tags.

"Keep an eye on the cloaked man," Three whispered.

None of the men carried any big bags or cases, meaning the tags were stored in a storage seal, which would be worrying as that would make it difficult to target, but given the situation, the tags would be unsealed to confirm the contents for the buyer's confirmation—and that would be the duo's chance to strike and destroy the tags.

Takuma and Three split up and hid themselves as the seller group spread to check the abandoned factory. Takuma slipped into the shadow inside a room with abandoned junk and focused on masking his chakra to ensure complete stealth.

They looked around for ten minutes before deciding they didn't have unwanted company.

Soon after, the meeting time struck the clocks, but the buyer was nowhere to be seen. At first, the seller group wasn't nervous and bitched about the buyer for being late. However, as more time passed, the tension among the group rose; they went from cursing at the buyer in anger to being nervously silent, thinking that something might have gone wrong—or that the buyer had screwed them.

However, the buyer finally arrived at the factory thirty minutes after the decided time.

The seller group looked pissed and immediately questioned the buyers, who acted nonchalantly as though they had done nothing wrong. Some back and forth happened until weapons were drawn, and the two groups were on the verge of clashing until the two leaders calmed their groups down.

"Let's complete the delivery and get this over with so we can go our separate ways," said the cloaked man leading the seller group.

"I want nothing more," said the rugged man leading the buyers. "Let's see the goods."

The cloaked seller took out a scroll from his person and weaved a couple of hand seals before rolling it open on the ground for a cuboidal stack of explosive tags packed in bricks with plastic on a wooden pallet to appear on the factory floor.

Takuma narrowed his eyes when he tried to estimate how many tags were in the shipment, but he knew his estimations would be wrong. There was too much destructive firepower that could be used to do a lot of damage.

He took out a kunai equipped with an explosive tag of his own, ready to throw it at the shipment to destroy it. He looked at Three, who had her hand up in a fist, gesturing that it wasn't time yet.

"I would like to try one to check its authenticity," said the buyer as he stepped forward. This caused the sellers to draw their weapons, which caused the other side to do the same.

"I'm afraid that's too dangerous. Allow me to give a demonstration," said the cloaked seller as he stepped to the pallet with a kunai. He cut through the plastic wrapping and pulled one random explosive tag, which he tied to a kunai and threw in the air above them.

The kunai was still a safe distance from the ceiling when it reached its apex, which was also when the tag exploded. The harsh sound was amplified in the abandoned factory, scaring the rats, roaches, and birds who had made it their home.

"Satisfied?" asked the seller, patting the dust off his clothes that the explosion had unsettled.

"Very much so," said the rugged. He also pulled a scroll from his person and tossed it to the seller. "All the payment is in there. Feel free to check it."

And that's what the seller did. He unsealed the scroll to reveal a mound of money comparable to that of the explosive tags.

The explosive tag and money that had been sealed away in scrolls were now sitting in the open, and that was the window Takuma and Three were aiming for. They took out their tagged kunai and were ready to rain down explosions when Takuma heard the sound of rhythmically clanking metal. He was confused about what was making the sound, and it took him to realise it was the sound of armour parts tapping against each other.

"Three, someone is—" he began to say.

Before he could complete his sentence, Three grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him down to hide them behind the wall before ensuring he wouldn't throw the tagged kunai. Takuma, who had only removed his eyes from the floor for a moment, looked back at the two groups facing each other to find a new figure among them.

Every nation's samurai wore different coloured armour. The Land of Fire samurai who served the Fire Daimyo wore blood-red colour and held their swords in a scabbard licked by flaming tongues. The figure who had suddenly appeared wore the expected armour worn in Ember Capital City.

He had appeared in the blink of an eye as though he was invisible until a moment ago. Other than the two leaders, who were utterly startled, not a single person had even reacted to the new presence as their minds were still processing the sight before them.

"Don't move," said the samurai.

The two leaders who tried to move away froze in their spots, not daring to defy his order. Goosebumps rose on their skin, and panic sweat began to pour out. They hadn't seen him move or much less felt his presence; that was enough for them to understand that the samurai could kill them before they could twitch their fingers.

Takuma muttered, "I-Isn't that..."

The samurai didn't wear a helmet; thus, his face was visible. He had salt-and-pepper hair and faint wrinkles on his face that showed his age. Despite that, his figure donned in samurai armour screamed danger.

Takuma and Three recognised the man because they had recently seen his photograph.

"Zakahira Mahachi," Three nodded.

It was the samurai whose house they had robbed two days back.

A samurai who was classified as a "jonin-class" combatant.

This man wasn't someone to be messed with.

More samurai, fully decked in armour, ran into the factory with their swords drawn. Takuma couldn't help but think that ANBU orchestrated the samurai's arrival as part of a test because Zakahira Mahachi was too much of a coincidence at the meeting they were trying to sabotage.

The moment the samurai entered, one of the men from the seller group threw a smoke bomb onto the ground, triggering chaos as everyone decided to use the smoke screen as the opportunity to escape.

"Fools," sighed Mahachi as he drew his sword and swung it leisurely. A strong gust of wind rushed outward, almost lifting everyone off their feet. The opaque black smoke, which was rapidly spreading, vanished into absolute nothingness as the winds rapidly and aggressively dispersed the smoke particles far and wide.

Despite being far away, Takuma felt the gust of wind flutter his clothes and forced him to narrow his eyes to protect them from the sheer force behind the winds. It scared him to think what it would be like if Mahachi concentrated all that force along a thin edge. He could only imagine it going through him clean without any resistance.

"Thirteen," Three looked at him with a severe expression.

She didn't need to say anything. Even though the samurai's arrival was jarring and wholly unexpected, they still had to complete the task. Moreover, it was imperative that they completed it now because if the samurai seized the money and tags, he and Three weren't getting their hands on them.

And the chaos set the stage perfectly.

The samurai were fighting the criminals in the factory. The only reason the criminals even bothered to resist was that Mahachi's gaze was locked onto the stack of explosive tags without participating. His subordinates understood he wanted to deal with the capture of the tags, and the criminals wouldn't complain as it meant that there was a chance of escape.

———
.

On the ground, Mahachi gazed at the explosive tags with a frown. The quantity was too large; the estimates they had received from informants were nowhere near the amount before him.

If we didn't catch this, it could've turned into a disaster, Mahachi thought. The intel they had gathered told them that the explosive tags from the deal would be further distributed to illegal shops dealing with independent mercenaries and smaller groups. It wasn't anything new, as they had tried to crack down on such pipelines before, but in his experience, this was too big of an order to be regular.

This felt like something else.

They were lucky to receive the intel at the last minute.

Mahachi glanced at his subordinates fighting the criminals. His son, Nozan, was among them. He wasn't planning to help them unless they were in danger. How would they learn and grow if he did all the work.

As he was observing the combat, something caught his eye, and he looked up in surprise to see a volley of kunai descending towards him and the group. His eyes widened when he caught the fluttering explosive tags bound to the kunai.

"Look out above!" he yelled.

Mahachi's hand on his sword stilled for a moment before he drew it to release half a dozen slashes in the blink of an eye. Razor-thin crescents of chakra flew out of his sword and slashed through every single explosive tag, effectively defusing them. The kunai themselves didn't stop, but his warning was enough for his subordinate and the criminals to avoid them.

"Dad, are you alright?!" asked Nozan, momentarily removing his eyes from his opponent, who took advantage of the situation and charged for an attack that Nozan managed to block and evade at the last second.

"Pay attention to your fight!" Mahachi barked back. His son was still lacking in various regards; it always worried him as his parent and boss.

Mahachi traced the trajectory of the kunai to see where they came from and was stunned to see a man and a woman dressed in grey-and-green gear with masks identical to what his wife had described throwing another, larger volley of tagged kunai in their direction.

He gripped his sword as a flood of cold anger coursed through his veins. He drew his sword faster than anyone there could track and unleashed a single strike. It had none of the finesse or precision of his last attack and was pure power, which created a gust so strong and wild that it pushed against the kunai and cancelled their momentum, causing them to stall and explode mid-air.

Mahachi didn't stop and switched to a two-handed grip, which he never did unless he was serious about the fight—but the masked people had touched his wife, and he wanted them to feel pain.

He dug his foot into the floor and drew power from his lower body to unleash an even stronger strike. A visible wave of deep blue chakra raced out of his sword edge. One moment, the wall was good and standing, but the next moment, it exploded as though one hundred explosion tags stuck to it had exploded simultaneously.

The kenjutsu exploded the wall and even cut through a large portion of the ceiling that crumbled down at the other side of the building.

The wall exploded so violently that other samurai and criminals had to stop fighting to defend against the debris.

"Dad!" Nozan yelled in surprise

"Come out and face judgement," Mahachi announced as the chakra around his sword grew larger and harsher, forcing the others to step back in pure fear as it felt like something was cutting into their skin just by being near the sword.

———
.

One moment, Amami stood on the metal corridor, getting ready to throw her last volley of tagged kunai; the next moment, she had huge chunks of wall hitting her in the face as the corridor underneath her collapsed.

Zakahira Mahachi's strike was so fast that she literally had no time to react. She was lucky the kenjutsu didn't cut through her, killing her instantly.

No, it's not luck, thought Amami—the old samurai didn't want to kill them.

She hit the ground and immediately put her hands up as the wall collapsed over and around her. The debris hit her body all over, but she protected her head—it hurt, but it was nowhere enough to take her down.

Amami understood they would be killed after the samurai got what he wanted. They had to escape immediately if they wanted to live. She remembered that the ANBU-nin Leopard had told them that in case something went wrong, they would get them out, but it could take time—and things could go wrong in that time.

Waiting for ANBU to rescue them wasn't an option. They had to escape now. But how? How could they escape now that they had the old samurai's ire locked in on them.

"Thirteen," she called.

"Here."

She breathed a sigh of relief to confirm that Thirteen was fine. Her mind raced to see what they could do to escape the old samurai when she suddenly recognised something she had seen before.

Amami was sure she saw Zakahira Nozan, the old samurai's son. She recognised him from the file, and even though it took her a moment to recognise him because he was wearing samurai armour, she was sure it was him.

I'm going to take over his body, she decided.

Her clan's Mind-Body Switch jutsu to take over her target's body. There was too much risk-taking over the Mahachi's body with a chance he would resist and kick her out, which came with a high chance of blowback. But she was confident she could dominate Nozan's spirit and make his body do her bidding.

She was betting on the fact that the Mahachi and Nozan had a good relationship and the father wouldn't hurt his son.

"We need to leave now," said Thirteen as he crawled to her.

"I'm a Yamanaka," she said, cutting him off. "I'm going to stop the old samurai, so I want you to pick up my body and get us out of here. Do you understand what I mean?"

Thirteen was still for a split-second before he nodded. "I understand. Are you sure it will work?"

"Do you have a foolproof plan?"

"...No."

"Then we don't have a choice."

Amami wanted to hide her clan's hiden jutsu as a trump card, but her plans were no longer a factor with her life on the line. She took a deep breath to suppress her discomfort about leaving her body to someone she didn't trust to that level. If Thirteen wanted, he could kill her while her spirit was in someone else's body, and her spirit would still be alive while she was in her target's body, but the moment the time limit hit, her spirit would leave, and she would die.

"You better take care of my body."

———
.

"I can see you. Come out!" Mahachi yelled as he started walking towards the collapsed wall. His anger rose with every second the masked duo hid within the debris.

He pumped chakra into his sword for another swing. He was going to hurt them so they would understand the severity of the situation. Everyone was more cooperative after tasting some pain.

"Dad, what are y-you-you—"

Mahachi raised his sword to release another strike when his eyes widened as he felt something behind him. He moved on pure instinct and put his sword behind him just in time to block a slash aimed at his back.

"Nozan!" he gasped as he turned to face his son, who had a determined expression on his face. "What are you doing, boy!"

"...I despise you. It's all your fault, dad!" Nozan whispered as he swung his sword at him, which Mahachi parried and deflected effortlessly.

"What's got into you, Nozan!" Mahachi yelled, unable to understand what had gotten into his son. Not only did he suddenly attack him, but his kenjutsu was so sloppy that it was an embarrassment.

He pushed Nozan away and turned to look back at the masked duo, only to find a dense mist covering half of the factory. It was a shinobi ninjutsu.

"Shit," he cursed and immediately followed, not wanting the masked scum to escape, but was immediately obstructed.

"Mom is unhappy because of you!"

Mahachi stopped and faced his son, who attacked him while spouting nonsense, which angered him. He once again blocked poor swordwork. He paused to look at his son, wondering why he was doing this. He noticed the poor movements, and for a moment, reason peered through anger, and he realised something was wrong.

He disarmed Nozan's sword effortlessly, which wouldn't have happened that easily.

Genjutsu, he thought.

Mahachi kicked Nozan in the gut, forcing him to kneel before disrupting his chakra to pull him out of the genjutsu, but nothing changed as Nozan said,

"I'm ashamed to be your son!"

Nozan's eyes rolled over, and he suddenly keeled over, startling Mahachi, who immediately checked on his son. He sighed in relief because he didn't find anything outright wrong—but he couldn't be sure.

Mahachi pursed his lips as he looked at the opaque mist before clicking his tongue.

His son came first.





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[emberwing]

I uh... kinda feel bad for big bad samurai guy.

 

[nquddus]

It feels weird that the Anbu are running these tests in the fire capital. Like what if these examinees mess something up like if they had killed someone important while bumbling around? That would do more damage to the leaf than this test is worth. It's like taking a shit in your own backyard.

 

[resusplus]

It feels weird that the Anbu are running these tests in the fire capital. Like what if these examinees mess something up like if they had killed someone important while bumbling around? That would do more damage to the leaf than this test is worth. It's like taking a shit in your own backyard.

Click to shrink...

i would think the anbu candidate are already selected from those they know will not fuck up massively and cause mass damage

 

[Khettien]

It feels weird that the Anbu are running these tests in the fire capital.

Click to shrink...

I have to agree with this feeling; I get stress-testing your candidates, but this is the equivalent of the CIA running ops using prospective agents in Washington, D.C. and killing police while doing so. The whole thing is just begging for a totally unnecessary fuster-cluck to occur, when you could be running the same kind of testing in some third-world country that barely exists on the maps.

 

[Fiction]

Three woke up with a start and glanced at the running scenery around her.

"I am awake," she said from the princess carry in Takuma's arms, "you can put me down now."

Takuma didn't put her down and continued to run at full speed while following the standard procedure of throwing off a tail. Their opponent was a dangerous samurai who could kill them anytime he wanted; they had been lucky to escape, and he didn't want that to go to waste.

His heart was drumming fast. He had been too careless. Blinded by the task before him, he ignored all precautions and took no additional measures.

"We messed up back there," she groaned.

"Yes, we were careless," he said while leaping over three buildings.

"The tags and money are intact." Three removed her mask and bit on the nail of her thumb in frustration. "I should've triggered the explosive tags back there or at least done something to the money... Ugh!"

"No, it's good that you didn't. It could've become a bigger problem."

They had heard the news about the arsons, which they thought was another team's work. Even if not, it was already a big local incident; if they set off hundreds of explosive tags the very next day, the entire city was likely to go on high alert. This was their nation's capital—it was bad for the entire nation for their ruler's home to be in distress due to suspected terrorist activity.

"What should we do now?" she asked in a tired whisper.

"...We will report that we are done."

Three pursed her lips. "How about we try once more? Maybe... just maybe, there's a chance that we get lucky and the security is not tight."

Takuma didn't think she was wrong. There was a chance the samurai might store the tags and money as evidence in a location they could access. However, that was too much wishful thinking. They had to follow Zakahira Mahashi, which was already too big a risk. At the Police Force, evidence storage was always heavily guarded—he didn't think it would be any different with samurai.

A part of his heart wanted to believe they had another chance, but his brain knew it was too late.

"It's too risky," he replied.

Three didn't like his answer and frowned. For a moment, it looked like she wanted to argue and fight with him, maybe even go on her own, but all the tension deflated out of her body, and she lay dejectedly silent in his arms.

"Do you think any other team failed?" she eventually asked.

He understood her question. If any other team failed to complete one of their tasks, they might have a chance to remain in the winning.

Having run far enough, Takuma finally stopped and let Three down in an alleyway. She leaned against a wall and gazed up at the sky. He could tell she wasn't happy about it but had already moved on to thinking about a solution instead of wallowing in their failure. It was an admirable trait.

"We haven't failed," said Takuma, bringing up his solution to their current problem.

Her brows were furrowed as she asked, "What do you mean?"

Takuma took out the task scroll and pointed out a section as he passed it on to her.

"I don't know if this will work, but if you look here, it says...."

———
.

As the evening approached, the candidates began to gather at the designated location mentioned in their scrolls. The location was at the edge of the entertainment district and near the slum area, making it an unsavoury part of the town and a place without many eyes, making it suitable for people who wanted to hide.

ANBU had chosen the basement of an old building as their temporary base. It wasn't one of their official hideouts in the Ember Capital City, as using those would mean exposing valuable locations to candidates who weren't part of ANBU yet.

"So, they failed?" asked Eisbar, the jonin in charge of recruitment, who had visited the city on the second day.

"The raid was successful. They got the people, money, and goods," Leopard laid down on a couch that had faded from age with no care about being in the presence of a jonin and her superior officer.

Eisbar, familiar with her behaviour, knew that speaking or scolding her would make no change. The Department of ANBU had a strict hierarchy structure; orders from superiors had to be followed, but the culture of military-like formality was missing. People didn't care much about manners and courtesy beyond basic politeness as long as work got done—a partial byproduct of the flexibility given to the operatives to perform their jobs.

"It's not entirely unexpected when someone like Zakahira Mahachi suddenly shows up," he said.

"I guess the samurai got the information at the last moment," she commented.

ANBU received information about the deal from its sources and assigned it to be used as a recruitment task for the candidates. A high-ranking samurai showing up wasn't part of the plan, which caused Three and Thirteen to fail their task.

"Or the informant sold the same information to the samurai." Eisbar's comment made Leopard frown and click her tongue,

"Greedy fucks."

But it was also true that they needed their civilian informants. Information was power. Knowing something in advance to stop it was many times more valuable than a jonin's strength—especially for ANBU, which wouldn't be able to protect against foreign threats if it didn't know something was coming.

There was a knock on the door before it opened, and Ant peeked inside,

"Three and Thirteen have arrived."

"Send them in," said Leopard after Eisbar nodded.

Three and Thirteen were the second team to arrive after the Seven and Fourteen duo, who had completed their three tasks in two days and had reported first thing in the morning.

"It seems they gave up," said Eisbar. It had only been a few hours since the meeting time, and there were still many hours until the deadline.

"Can you blame them?" Leopard replied.

A moment later, the masked duo stepped in. They immediately glanced at Eisbar, who was new to them, before looking at Leopard when she spoke.

"I heard that you ran into a high-ranking samurai. Sit down," she pointed at the chairs in the room.

"The samurai were aware of the deal and raided it while we were there," Three said after taking a seat. "The samurai in the lead was Zakahira Mahachi, our target from another task. It might not have been a problem, but he saw us."

"You wore your masks, I hope," asked Eisbar.

"We were, but he recognised us by our masks." Three put her backpack on the floor and pulled out a storage scroll. "These are the twin daggers we retrieved from Zakahira's home." She passed the scroll to Eisbar, who unsealed it and admired the twin dagger through the case's glass showcase.

"These daggers belonged to Sarutobi Pikku, the clan head of the Sarutobi clan during the Warring States time. I'm sure both the Lord Hokage and the Sarutobi clan would be happy to have a piece of their heritage returned to them," said Eisbar.

Three and Thirteen looked understandably surprised to find that they had retrieved something related to the Third Hokage.

"You also killed the bounty target. Did you complete the task?" asked Leopard.

Thirteen tossed a bog-standard bounty token to her.

"It looks real, but we will have to confirm with the bounty office to confirm its authenticity," she said.

Thirteen informed them that the man at the bounty office asked him to visit in a week.

"So you managed to complete two of the tasks," said Eisbar and was about to drill them about the one incomplete task to see how they would respond and justify it when Thirteen cut him off—

"We completed all tasks."

There was a moment of silence in the room where Eisbar and Leopard were confused at first, but then they looked at each other with a similar thought. Were they trying to lie? Perhaps they thought they could lie to make them believe they had completed all the tasks. The problem with that plan was that the ANBU-nin knew the task's details because they had sent an operative to the meeting as they knew the exact time and location.

"I'm disappointed. To think you would resort to lying," said Eisbar harshly. "Not only that, lying is a stupid decision. We will confirm and double-check your performance afterwards, and it'll be easy to find the truth—we would've found that you lied then. In this situation, we sent one of our own to monitor the situation; we know what happened. The samurai left with the tags and money intact. So—"

"The mission was never to destroy the money and explosive tags," Thirteen interrupted him again.

"What are you talking about?"

"The task was to harm the two parties involved and have them suffer a setback. The instructions said that we should destroy the tags and money to accomplish the objective—and we were going to do that—until the samurai's unexpected arrival, which made the plan no longer viable. So, we pivoted at that point and changed the plan on the go. We left the location and let the samurai take over."

"Thus completing the objective," Three said.

"I'm sorry. I'm not sure I'm following you properly," asked Leopard, confused.

"The objective was to make the two parties suffer," said Thirteen, "but destroying the tags and money is not the only way to achieve that. Currently, the samurai have taken possession of the money and tags, which means they are out of the hands of either party, which, as you might have noticed, was the objective. Not only that, but they also arrested people, which is even more harmful as they now can interrogate them for information."

Eisbar and Leopard were stunned into silence for a moment. They had really completed the task by technically achieving the objective. However, there was a glaring problem,

"But neither of you had any part in it," said Leopard.

"What does that have to do anything?" asked Three. "We completed the task, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters..."

"What she said," said Thirteen, pointing at his partner.

Eisbar gazed at the two candidates before him, who looked confident and comfortable in their claims. He realised they were trying to pull one over them using a technicality, but they were also not wrong. How a mission was executed was often just as important as the end result—but in this case, the final result was all that mattered. The money and tags were off the market and in the possession of the samurai, and would unlikely never return to their original owners.

"We stand corrected. You completed all three tasks. It might not—"

Thirteen once again cut Eisbar off for the third time, which was now getting on his nerves.

"I'm sorry, but we did four tasks."

"Four tasks?"

"The robbery, the assassination, the bounty, and the sabotage," Three listed the tasks.

"We never ordered an assassination other than the bounty," said Leopard hastily when she saw Eisbar looking at her confused.

Seeing the ANBU-nin's reactions, the candidates looked at each other and silently communicated, which turned into an open show of displeasure.

Three's face twisted in anger as she slapped her thigh. "I'm going to kill that fucking pig of a man," she said with acid in her voice.

"It seems your informant duped us all and had us do something private for him," said Thirteen, not looking impressed.

"Not only did he make us do a fake task, he also messed up our timings," Three said in a pointed tone. "We didn't sleep before going to the exchange meeting; if we had proper rest, we could've been more alert and possibly not shown ourselves to the samurai at all. Now, the samurai know that the two incidents are somehow connected and will needlessly look into them, which is good for no one!"

The tone of the conversation suddenly made it seem as though ANBU was at fault, which was true, as their informant was the offending culprit. However, they didn't know about the fake mission until then.

"He'll be dead before I leave this town," said Three.

Thirteen nodded, showing his support.

"You will do no such thing. He's an important informant," Eisbar said, looking at two angry shinobi. "But I promise that ANBU will handle it, and he will be punished for his actions."

And despite their affront at his shutting down of their improptu assassination, he genuinely planned to do something because ANBU couldn't have their informants using them like this without their explicit intention. The ANBU-informant relationship was a two-way street where both parties benefited from the relationship—but ANBU couldn't have the informants think they had the dominant role.

Moreover, he suspected the informant had sold the information to the samurai. If that turned out true, then,

Maybe he's better off dead, thought Eisbar.

"You must be tired. Ant will show you to your rooms and bring you something to eat," said Leopard, dismissing the two candidates when she sensed Eisbar's mood worsening.

She suspected the informant's handler had made their next few weeks unpleasant by loosening the leash too much.

———
.

Ant was sitting in the hallway when Three and Thirteen walked out

They closed the door behind them and looked at each other. A bratty grin split Three's face. Thirteen also had a small smile on his face and both raised their hands and high-fived each other.

I guess it went great, Ant thought, which surprised him because he knew they had missed a task. However, he was happy because he hoped both of them would enter the ANBU.





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[Fiction]

The last team to return was the Five and Sixteen duo, who returned two hours before the deadline. From the conversation, all teams had completed their tasks, and while they didn't discuss specifics, they had been given similar tasks: robberies, sabotage, bounty, and assassinations. The deadline passed, but there was no communication from the ANBU-nin until the early morning of the next day when Ant and his two subordinates gathered all eight candidates in the hall.

He returned their belongings, which they had taken away at the start of the assessment process. In return, they took away their candidate gear, intending to burn it to erase evidence of their presence and involvement in the increased chaos around the city. It was better for everyone that the city returned to its usual state as soon as possible, and the cases involving the candidate tasks went cold.

"With this, the assessment is over. All of you are free to return home," said Ant, causing a wave of relief to wash over the candidates.

The things they had done in the past few days hadn't been unreasonably difficult, but they hadn't been allowed to rest from a mental and psychological standpoint. Being on a constant edge was tough and came with negative effects that slowly chipped away at all aspects of their performance.

The news was welcome, as most were just about done with all of it and wanted to go home and relax. The other ANBU-nin had left the hideout and perhaps even the city overnight. Only Ant and two subordinates remained behind to address the candidates.

"We will contact you with results in a week or two, depending on your residence. Please tell us where you'll be staying for the next couple of weeks so we can send our responses directly to you," he said, addressing all eight candidates sitting in the biggest room in the temporary hideouts.

Takuma was sitting against the wall beside Three when she asked,

"Where are you going?" She was from the Yamanaka clan, proven by the fact she could practice the clan's hitsu, which meant she probably lived in the Hidden Leaf village unless she was stationed elsewhere.

"The Hidden Leaf Village," Takuma replied. His contract with the Police Force was about to end in another week, and he expected Uchiha Setsuna would present the Police Force's offer to him.

He also had to give Mikoto an answer to her affiliation and sponsorship offer. It was rude to keep her waiting. In her eyes, he was on vacation, thinking about the offer even though he was, in truth, quite busy.

He had given thought to his future while he was on the road, but he couldn't decide and answer either offer until he knew if the ANBU wanted him.

"Me too. Let's travel together," Three suggested.

"That works for me," he said.

"Do not stay in the Ember Capital City. Leave today if possible or tomorrow at the latest," Ant ordered and warned them.

"Today," he whispered to Three, who nodded.

That was all Ant told them before confirming their addresses and dismissing them. He then called Takuma and Three to the corner for a private chat,

"Here, take this," he said, tossing the bounty office token toward them. "Don't cash it here in the city. Use the bounty office back at the village; it'd be safer that way."

Three caught the token and looked at Takuma, "Split the reward in half?"

"That's fair."

"How about we claim it together when we get our offers?"

"You're so sure they're going to accept you, huh?"

"Of course," said Three, confidently with a hint of pride, "I'm too good of a catch to pass up on." She bumped her shoulder into his and smirked. "You aren't so bad yourself, my dear Thirteen. Not as good as me, of course, but not half bad either."

"Uh-huh," he said, nodding along. "Come on, let's get something to eat and then get out of here."

———
.

"So... how about doing an introduction?" Three said while on the road.

Takuma looked at her. Although they knew each other's faces, they hadn't exchanged names because they considered it unnecessary. They also wanted to keep the flow of personal information to a minimum in case the ANBU had something else planned for them after the Ember City Capital tasks.

"Look, we know each other's faces, and since both of us live in the Hidden Leaf Village, it's not going to be impossible for us to find information about each other. And well, you know, I am a Yamanaka—it's going to be pretty easy for you," she said with a shrug. "So, let me go first, I guess. I'm Chunin Yamanaka Amami. And you are?"

"Nice to meet you, Amami. You can call me Thirteen," Takuma said.

Three's face fell when he didn't reciprocate the gesture.

"Just kidding," he said when he saw the resentment and anger in her eyes. "I am Genin Takuma. Come on, learn to take a joke, my dear Amami."

"Screw you, that was embarrassing," said Amami.

"So, you're a genin, huh? That must mean they're giving you a rank promotion along with the offer.".

Takuma wore a small smile in response, neither confirming nor denying her claim. Even though they had told him he would become a chunin, it was safer not to prematurely talk or brag about things like a rank promotion until they happened.

It was also why he hadn't talked about the current Police Force situation with anyone other than those he trusted, and only because he wanted their opinion on the situation—namely, Maruboshi, Mikoto, and Arisu.

"I've worked with a Yamanaka before," said Takuma, moving along the conversation with a common topic.

"Oh, no wonder you adjusted so quickly back then."

It was during the farm raid, which was ultimately the thing that got him into trouble with the ROOT. He had fought a rogue-nin who knew a defensive B-rank jutsu, which, at that time, took eight genin working together to put down.

One of those genin was a Yamanaka and a big reason anyone had made it out alive. He took control of others when they were knocked out unconscious and walked them away from the danger.

"We worked together in the Police Force."

"Oh yeah, I know that brat." Amami smirked. "I used to take his money in spars when we wanted to make them more interesting. He used to get so mad," she cackled from the memory.

Takuma wanted to say that they had something in common because he, too, fought for money, but that wasn't appropriate to share with someone he had only met ten days ago and had only known for three days.

Yet somehow, it felt like he'd known her far longer than that.

"So... about the bounty," Amami asked after they left a traveller's inn they had stopped at for lunch.

"What about it?" asked Takuma, but he could guess when he heard the slight discomfort in her tone.

"What do you think?" she asked.

They both knew the information disclosed in the task scroll. They knew that Kinohei Ukuri, the woman they had killed, had ultimately died because she had refused to work for the Hidden Leaf. She had refused the offer to become a Hidden Leaf shinobi once again, and that had clearly not gone well with someone up high, who had then tried to push her out of the market by undercutting her to her own clients. That, of course, led to them dropping her services. The choices were either to pressure her to rejoin the Hidden Leaf or to simply ruin her livelihood. Whatever the reason, it was targeted maliciousness, a common strategy used by mega-corporations to run smaller competitors out of business.

The Hidden Leaf village was essentially a monopoly for mercenary work in the Land of Fire, so when Ukuri started to take work against them she made herself an enemy—and a good one at that—she became a much bigger threat because she aggressively hurt the bottom line.

In a vacuum, it wasn't a problem because the majority of people who wanted to get something done would come to the Hidden Leaf. Everyone knew who the Hidden Leaf shinobi were—there was no need to advertise their existence. However, for independent mercenaries like Ukuri, she had to depend on word-of-mouth, which was a much unreliable and slow-growing process.

If Ukuri hadn't been targeted, she would've only been a tiny, bug-sized competitor.

However, her threat level exploded when she started to take jobs against the Hidden Leaf, a market type that never had enough supply but high demand. And in that place, when someone was good, the word-of-mouth acted like wildfire.

If Takuma had to guess, then the supposed high-ranker who had forced her out must've faced some heat for leading to creating such a situation. The pressure must've forced him to take care of the situation, which led to the assassination attempt—and when that failed, it became a big enough matter that it became 'official' business.

However, it was too late to fix the situation and mend relationships because regardless of what had happened, Ukuri was a threat. She had made a name for herself and built a clientele and connections that couldn't be easily persuaded or threatened.

If left alone, she would continue to take jobs against the Hidden Leaf.

When she took protection under the samurai, they couldn't move against her in the open. Even though the sponsor was hidden, it was most likely an 'official' bounty issued by the Hidden Leaf. The Hidden Leaf had created a problem; now they wanted it gone.

And ANBU, through Takuma and Amami, eliminated the problem. No—Takuma and Amami eliminated the problem.

"I don't regret killing her," said Takuma after a moment of silence, "but I feel I am going to be thinking about what I did for a while."

He didn't care for shinobi's lives, but that didn't mean he enjoyed killing them. He realised there was much more to killing than the act of taking a life—there was a mess of other things that came with it. How could someone be in a position where someone wanted them dead? Were they at fault? What would be the consequences of killing that person?

It was easy during the war. The other side was a clear-cut enemy as they were trying to invade. He was a soldier defending his allies. He had even justified killing Gyon because he was a traitor.

But—

Takuma closed his eyes as the miserable screams of innocent civilians echoed in his ears, filling his body with a feeling that made him realise how ugly of a human being he had become.

—for cases like Kinohei Ukuri, there was so much more nuance that made it impossible to look at it as a black-and-white problem. He felt like he was swimming in an ocean of grey tar that was always trying to pull him to its depths.

"That money is undoubtedly dirty," Takuma said, looking Amami in the eye, "but so are we. I suggest you either not think about it or go all the way until you reach a conclusion and come to terms with your feelings—but if you do choose to think about it, don't stop halfway because it gets uncomfortable...."

...because it will haunt you. However, those words went unsaid.

He wasn't going to deny the money, though—he didn't have the liberty to do so. He knew what was coming. For someone like him, he had to get dirty if he wanted to secure his survival.





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[Fiction]

The day after Takuma returned from the ANBU recruitment, he found himself visiting the Torture and Interrogation headquarters. While he was away, they sent an invitation to Maruboshi's house. How did they find he was living there? Oishi Yori, Taro's mom, asked her son who gave her Takuma's current location along with the fact that he was away at the moment.

"T&I is interested in me?" Takuma asked Anko as she gave him a tour of the headquarters. He had already been to the headquarters while leading the Narcotics Taskforce and consulted with Yori on cases—but it was his first time roaming around the facility instead of making a bee-line to Yori's office.

"Yes, they are," Anko grinned and slapped him on the back. She wore an outfit made from thin metal mesh that fit the lines of her body, covering her from neck to thigh. Over it, she wore a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a dark orange mini skirt. "They know all about your work in the Police Force; they found out about the interrogation you did before you arrived at Camp Banana—and I told them about the information gathering and interrogation you performed in Yu."

Takuma was momentarily worried about what Anko might have shared, but the nervousness faded almost immediately. He trusted her to be discreet because she knew what he thought about their time in Yu. He also considered that T&I would regardless know about his actions as they were part of his file, and it wasn't difficult to access it. He was about to meet two Tokubetsu Jonin, who would have enough clearance to know all about him. The only thing they would struggle to access would be his Police Force records, as those files weren't shared with outsiders without a proper reason, and even then, the Police Force made it difficult as they didn't want their internal matters to be aired out.

However, they didn't need his official records because informal flow of information always existed. People knew things, and they talked. There was bound to be someone somewhere in the Police Force who shared what they knew about him. Moreover, Yori knew a lot about his important cases—because he only called her when there was a problem the Narcotic Taskforce couldn't handle on its own.

Takuma just assumed they knew plenty. Since they were interested, he believed they liked what they saw or, at the very least, didn't mind it. It was no use wasting his time and mental bandwidth thinking about what they knew.

"How was your trip?" asked Anko.

"Tiring," Takuma replied with the truth. "I should've just stayed at home and trained." His time in the Narcotics Taskforce, which was around nine months, had slowed down his growth to a crawl. The exuberant free time at Camp Banana had allowed him to learn new ninjutsu, improve his chakra augmentation, and even work on bridging the energy imbalance—but he felt he hadn't done enough. There was so much more work he could, wanted, and needed to do.

"You need to rest more and train less," she sighed.

"Have you already started work?" he asked.

Anko joined Torture and Interrogation after her return from the Steam-Frost war. Although she had been selected before the war, her deployment delayed her joining.

"Yeah, it'll take some time to get used to working, but I've already made acquaintances and friends. It's sure to be smooth sailing," she said before humming a tune softly.

He gazed at her from the side. She seemed much more carefree from when they were at Yu or even Camp Banana, and he was glad to see that as it meant that she had shed the weight she carried during the war. He knew what the position at the Torture and Interrogation meant for Anko; it represented a chance to start fresh.

His eyes briefly gazed at the back of her shoulder. Even though they hadn't discussed it, he knew the true burden she carried. Her past with Orochimaru was something that might never leave her, but as long as she could prove herself in this new place, she could at least move forward.

"Have you seen the dungeons yet?" he asked.

"Dungeons? You mean, the interrogation cells?"

"No, I mean dungeons. You haven't? Yeah, they have dungeons where they keep people for months."

"No way, come on."

"Nasty place. Keep one of those herbal fragrant inhalers on hand."

No such dungeons existed. He was just pulling it out of his ass because it fit T&I's image to have some dungeon-like place. If it were someone else, they would show concern and nervousness, but as he glanced at his former team leader, who had poisoned him in the name of training, he saw curiosity and excitement in her eyes.

Perhaps it was impossible for her to leave her connection to Orochimaru behind.

They arrived at the Head of Torture and Interrogation's office.

The nameplate on the door said:

{Tokubetsu Jonin Morino Ibiki}

The assistant shinobi dressed in the standard grey Torture and Interrogation uniform guided them into the office. In fact, everyone else other than Anko wore the uniform. He was dressed in the standard Leaf shinobi gear.

"Welcome, Genin Takuma. I've been looking forward to seeing you," Morino Ibiki said as he stood behind his desk. His gravely deep voice matched his rugged looks. The two thin scars on the front of his face enhanced his menacing appearance. If nothing else, he looked the part of the Head of Torture and Interrogation.

"I believe it's our first time meeting, sir. I've heard plenty about you from Tokubetsu Jonin Yori," said Takuma as he shook Ibiki's hand.

"She has told me much about you as well," said Ibiki. As he gestured for Takuma to sit, he spoke to Anko, "You must be busy; you may leave, Chunin Anko."

"Eh? Not really," she whispered.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Alright, I will see you later, Takuma," Anko patted him on the shoulder before leaving them alone.

Ibiki sighed at the door before sitting down.

"I will not beat around the bush, Genin Takuma. Tokubetsu Jonin Yori has been interested in you for a long time and has been lobbying for you to join us... Seeing that your contract with the Police Force is almost over, I decided to meet to see if you would be interested in joining Torture and Interrogation."

Takuma already knew about it from Anko, but it was still surprising to hear it from Ibiki's mouth. When he returned from the war, he thought the Chunin Exam was the natural progression—but here he was being headhunted by various entities. He understood that he had developed a professional reputation that others found valuable enough to recruit him—but it felt that things were changing too fast. Now, he had another offer before him that he needed to juggle along with the ones he already had his hands full with.

"It would be a delight to work somewhere as prestigious as Torture and Interrogation, sir," said Takuma. It wasn't flattery; T&I seemed like it was a good place to work. It came under the umbrella of the larger Intelligence Division, which was an important entity in the Hidden Leaf and thus offered many opportunities.

Their reputation in regards to work culture was also quite popular—which was a big positive for Takuma, who valued being able to focus on work without dealing with all the office politics bullshit. He knew things like that would exist regardless of where he worked, but he appreciated it if it was less obtrusive.

"Why would you be interested in joining us?" asked Ibiki.

Takuma thought about it for a moment. "I know the importance of what you do here. Information is power and, many a time, more important than military strength itself. If you don't know what's coming, no amount of strength will allow you to stop it before it's too late... The Department of Torture and Interrogation and the larger Intelligence Division are vital to the security of our nation, and I would like to contribute to that."

"So the importance of your work matters a lot to you?"

"Not really," Takuma replied without needing to think. "A job is a job. Of course, I would prefer if the work I'm doing is important—but even importance is many times subjective—something important for you might not be for me—at the end of the day, what matters to me the most is a good work environment and competitive compensation."

In other words, he wanted to be paid well.

His results from ANBU hadn't come in yet. If he didn't have Mikoto's offer, he would be trying to put more of an appeal in front of Ibuki—but because he had a rank promotion, he had the flexibility to be bold.

"Is that so," said Ibuki, sitting up straighter in his chair. "And what do you think is a competitive compensation?"

"A chunin rank promotion, my own team, a 'CN-3' pay grade as the base right from the start, a signing bonus, and immediate access to B-rank jutsu archive," said Takuma.

The Police Force, ANBU, and Torture and Interrogation were very different places.

Even though the Police Force was a Hidden Leaf entity, it was entirely run by the Uchiha clan without any oversight—so even though Setsuns was a Police Force representative, Takuma was negotiating with the Uchiha clan. However, Torture and Interrogation had no such clan backing. As such, he had to change demands they could realistically fulfil.

He had asked Setsuna for access to "jutsu archives," and even though it was left unsaid, he meant Uchiha clan's "jutsu archives." Torture and Interrogation had no such personal archives, so he couldn't put that demand—so he changed it to a higher pay grade. When he was a genin, he started with a "GN-1" pay grade, the lowest a genin could get. He had walked up to a "GN 5" pay grade when he joined the Narcotics Taskforce, the highest a genin could get, along with some Police Force bonuses. Upon a chunin rank promotion, he would start with a "CN-1" pay grade, the lowest a chunin could get, but he demanded to start at "CN-3" as base, excluding T&I departmental incentives and bonuses.

Unlike the Uchiha clan, Torture and Investigation couldn't give him a B-rank jutsu, so to compensate, he asked them for immediate access to the village's B-rank archives, which were usually only unlocked one year after the chunin promotion. He had just enough money to purchase a B-rank jutsu.

Another one of his demands to the Police Force was to have his choice of assignment. He could ask them about it because of his existing track record. However, he would be a new outsider to the Torture and Interrogation; he couldn't decide what he wanted to work on, so he asked for a team—so even if he was given work he did not like, he would be able to handle it on his terms. It was a difficult demand, but negotiations were supposed to be challenging.

Finally, he asked for a signing bonus as a cherry on top to sweeten the deal.

If he was being honest, Torture and Interrogation was at an inherent disadvantage. The Police Force had the advantage of familiarity with Mikoto's offer, which he was thinking about accepting if he went with the Police Force. By tying his wagon to the Uchiha horse, he would have a much easier time progressing in his career. ANBU had the almost overwhelming advantage of incentives in terms of jutsu access. Their only disadvantage was the five-year term. He would be locked in and unable to pursue a better opportunity.

"That is indeed competitive," said Ibiki, his tone hiding that he disagreed.

Takuma wanted to nod. Even though he had worked with Taro's mom, that wasn't enough for the Head of Torture and Interrogation to be convinced that he was worthy enough to warrant such a generous compensation package. The demands would've been much more acceptable if he was a seasoned chunin—but for a genin, who would take up one of the department's promotion slots—the demands were difficult to accept.

"Very well, we will return to you with our decision," said Ibiki while standing up, signalling that the conversation was over.

They had barely started to talk, and the conversation had already ended. Takuma knew that Ibiki didn't appreciate his terms.

"Please, take your time," Takuma smiled. Being so upfront with his demands was a gamble, so losing Ibiki's interest wasn't that surprising. He didn't blame the man; his response would've been similar if he had been in the position.

"May I ask where you base your expectations from?" asked Ibiki.

"I have been offered something similar," Takuma replied.

"Oh, and who might that be?"

Takuma couldn't answer the question because neither the Uchiha nor the ANBU had officially extended their offers. Without official confirmations, he couldn't voice his claims—but he could hint without going into the specifics.

"We can talk about that when you extend an offer in earnest," he smiled.

———
.

After he met with Ibiki, Takuma visited Anko and Yori separately and set up plans to have a meal with Anko along with Kameko and visit the Oishi family at their home for dinner. As he was leaving the headquarters, he looked up and saw Amami walking in his direction with four other shinobi in tow, all looking busy and in a hurry.

The Torture and Interrogation uniform looked surprisingly suitable on Amami. Perhaps it was because she looked comfortable in it.

She had been very playful during their team-up. He decided to return the favour.

Amami looked up and saw Takuma wave at her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she stopped, utterly surprised.

Takuma didn't stop and patted her on the shoulder.

"I came to apply for your job, of course," he said before leaning in to whisper in her ear: "You better pass the recruitment because you're out of the job here."

He winked and patted her shoulder before walking away.

"Huh?" she asked, startled.

Takuma didn't turn around and simply waved his hand as he continued to walk.





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[HatedGrimm]

"I came to apply for your job, of course," he said before leaning in to whisper in her ear: "You better pass the recruitment because you're out of the job here."

Click to shrink...

We do a bit of trolling

 

[Jaron]

Amami being easily riled while also being a bit of a tease is fun and believable.
Thank you for the chapter.

 

[Fiction]

Takuma sat alone in Maruboshi's living room, gazing at the package that had arrived for him via courier. Maruboshi was on an overnight wilderness trip, leaving him alone at the house. Even though ANBU had given them a week to decide, the package arrived three days after the end of the exams. This could either mean they liked him enough to send him their response instantly, or that he had no chance of making it, so they didn't even take their time to deliberate.

He was surprised he had the patience to get to the living room without tearing the package open at the door to see the result. He took a deep breath, carefully cut open the white envelope's glue seal, and removed the small cardboard box with a mini storage scroll inside that held a five-page offer letter.

His natural response was to set the letter on the table and lay flat on the floor with a sigh. Even though it was only noon, he felt tired enough to retire for the day. He was happy that he had a job with ANBU, but he wasn't as elated about it as he expected. And he didn't think anything would change the next day when he would be hearing the Police Force's offer.

Ultimately, either option would be just a job at the end of the day.

"Either way, I am going to be a chunin," he whispered to himself.

———
.

The next day, dressed in his Police Force uniform, Takuma arrived at the Police Force headquarters an hour before noon for his meeting with Setsuna.

However, things happened differently than he was told.

When Takuma arrived at his office, Setsuna said, "The chief wants to talk to you."

In his time at the Police Force, he hadn't visited Fugaku's office once. He had met and talked to him several times in and out of work because of his job in the Narcotics Taskforce and because of his lessons with Mikoto. They were not close, and for Takuma, he was his teacher's husband—but he was also the boss of his boss' boss.

Not to mention the Uchiha clan's head, which was more applicable at the moment. So, while he was nervous, he also felt somewhat positive because he assumed that the Police Force was serious about retaining him.

"Come in," said Fugaku when they knocked.

They wore the same Police Force uniform, but Fugaku looked the most dignified out of the three of them. The man had an aura around him that made people feel like they were talking to a king, which had nothing to do with his bloodline, rank or status. One look was all that was needed to tell he was someone who held himself differently than everyone else.

"Take a seat," said Fugaku as he sat behind his desk

While Takuma sat in front of Fugaku, Setsuna settled on the couch in the corner of the office, making it clear that Takuma was dealing with Fugaku directly. The office had a practical feel and matched the owner's personality.

"How was your vacation?" asked Fugaku.

"Tiring, but worth it," said Takuma. Now that he had confirmation from ANBU, the exhausting testing procedure hadn't been a waste.

Fugaku nodded before saying, "I see that the war hasn't left you yet."

Takuma didn't know how to respond. Although he thought he maintained a normal exterior, it seemed that Fugaku could see right through it.

"There's nothing to be surprised about. I have been through a war; it changes you... it takes a lot to leave war behind and return to a new normal," said Fugaku.

All of a sudden, Takuma realised that,currently, he possessed Fugaku's full focus. The Police Force chief and the Uchiha clan head wasn't thinking about his responsibilities to his work or his clan. Even Setsuna, sitting in the same room, was all but nonexistent. It was as though only the two of them mattered in the entire world for the duration of the conversation.

Takuma hadn't ever given someone that much of anything, not to the same degree. It was flattering and burdensome and he partially understood why why the Uchiha clan rallied behind Fugaku as their leader.

Not knowing how to respond and uncomfortable about being seen through, Takuma lightly nodded. It was true, after all. The war would only leave him once he avenged Rikku by killing her murderer; only then would he let it go.

"There is a difference between 'it leaving you' and 'you leaving it'," said Fugaku calmly as he stared into Takuma's eyes. "Keep that in mind."

Takuma clenched his hands under the desk's shadow. He couldn't tell if Fugaku was speaking broadly or if his words were pointed at his specific experience.

"Let's move on," said Fugaku, brushing the topic aside before it dominated the conversation. "Your contract here has all but ended; you are even listed as being on paid leave until your last day. Setsuna listened to your requirements and discussed them with me and I want you to stay in the Police Force, Takuma."

Fugaku didn't say Setsuna, the Narcotics Taskforce, the Department of Organised Crimes, or even the Police Force—rather, he wanted him to stay. It didn't feel like they were just words to appease him because Fugaku had called him into his office to converse personally instead of leaving it to Setsuna or another high-ranking officer.

It could've been because he was Mikoto's student, but if that were true, Fugaku would've made an appearance when he was in the hospital after the assassination attempt.

"And to make that happen, I wish to give you what you requested."

Takuma resisted his urge to perk up. However, the following words reminded him not to get swept away until he had heard everything.

"But with some conditions."

Takuma licked his lips. "Please proceed," he said.

"Here's what I'm offering you with respect to what you asked," Fugaku said after looking down at the document on his desk. "You will receive a rank promotion as you desired. As it's an internal promotion, we control it entirely. Therefore, it will be immediate without any review period from the village."

Takuma nodded. The Police Force was unique among the other Leaf entities. When it was created, the Uchiha had demanded and received special administrative powers. Among the various discretions granted to them, they had the authority to apply chunin rank promotions without any influence from the village.

Not many entities possessed that power; they, too, could promote anyone they desired, but it had to go through a review period, which took some time. And while the village rarely intruded on internal matters, they could always reject a rank promotion if they desired.

The Police Force's rank promotion completely avoided that issue.

"You will receive access to our internal jutsu archives. However, there will be restrictions. You may study D-rank jutsu as much as you like without a limit. For C-rank jutsu, you may get access to one per month—without needing to pay, of course," said Fugaku, presenting the first deviation from Takuma's conditions. "I believe I'm being generous, as twelve mid-rank jutsu per year is more than enough. Learning them would take time... much less training to apply them practically."

"Understood," said Takuma without further comment. He wouldn't have been able to master twelve C-rank jutsu a year in the first place, so he didn't mind this alteration.

"As for B-rank jutsu, your first one will be provided free of charge. However, it will only be dispensed to you after you have completed the standard one-year B-rank chunin restriction."

All new chunin had to wait one year before they could gain access to B-rank jutsu. However, the law was worded such that the restriction was not on learning jutsu itself; rather, it was on accessing the jutsu inside the village's archives, creating a loophole where a shinobi could learn B-rank jutsu during the restricted period so long as it came from a source outside the village's archives.

This was either done intentionally or unintentionally as it allowed the clans to ignore the law by training their members jutsu from their personal archives. But it also allowed clans to give the same treatment to outside shinobi to gain their favour. The law hadn't been changed because it would diminish the clans' power—which was something they would never allow to happen.

That Takuma hadn't been offered the same privilege said everything that it needed to.

"Understood," said Takuma, but this time, he was wholly dissatisfied with the alteration to his demands. He had the confidence to learn and train a B-rank jutsu to practical application in one year.

But to learn a B-rank jutsu under the Police Force, he would have to waste a year. He wouldn't say anything now, but he would surely bring it up with Setsuna later.

"You asked for a pay rise, so your base pay will start at the 'CN-3' grade along with other Police Force incentives and bonuses as time goes on."

Takuma nodded, satisfied. If nothing else, the Uchiha paid well.

"Finally, there is the matter of your assignment. I will ask again, are you sure you do not wish to return to the Department of Organised Crime?" asked Fugaku.

"I am," said Takuma without a shred of hesitation. That place had been soured for him after his ousting from the Narcotics Taskforce, and he didn't want to run into 'old friends' like Enomoto, who could make life tough by overstepping.

"Very well." Fugaku nodded. "You desired for your choice of assignment. After consideration, you will be transferred to the Department of Corruption Investigation—"

Takuma's eyes widened when he heard the words leave Fugaku's mouth, who caught it because he didn't bother to hide his reaction.

"...Is there a problem?"

The reason Takuma wanted to use Setsuna as a middleman to air his dissatisfaction was that he didn't want to affect his neutral relationship with Fugaku as that would influence his relationship with Mikoto—but what had just been proposed was too much.

"You're asking me to isolate myself from the rest of the Police Force and thenmake more enemies," said Takuma.

The Department of Corruption Investigation handled corruption-related cases. They not only acted as internal investigators, targeting Police Force officers for their misdoings, but they also went after any shinobi in the village who were suspected of misusing their positions in any way.

They were called "rats" inside the Police Force, and no one, without exception, liked them. During his time running the Narcotics Taskforce, he had been audited by the Department of Corruption Investigation twice, which had slowed down work to a crawl. They hadn't found anything incriminating because he hid his misdoings well, never shared anything with his teams, and built legitimate systems for his team to use.

He had even bitched about the rats himself with his team as a method of team building.

Then, there was the fact that they took cases of corruption all around the Hidden Leaf village. Corruption cases often involve powerful people; going against them meant making powerful enemies. He had heard stories about Corruption Investigations members who were tired of working in a place where they were treated as traitors, applying for jobs outside in want of a better work environment—but struggled to find good jobs outside as they had offended too many people.

Once someone went to Corruption Investigations, it was near impossible to get out scot-free, and only became harder the longer they stayed. It would even affect his life if he became independent afterwards. Influential people could black ball him from missions of note and kill his career progression.

Takuma didn't want to get chained to the Police Force. He didn't even want to be bound to the ANBU if he went their way.

"I won't work in Corruption Investigation," he said.

"You desired freedom," said Fugaku, calmly. "Any other department will have you follow what your supervisors want you to do until you have gained enough trust and credit to gain freedom. If you're willing to follow that route, I will transfer you to any department you desire without question."

"But the Corruption Investigation will let me run free?"

Fugaku nodded.

Takuma pursed his lips. Listening to that hadn't changed his opinion. He still did not want to become a fucking "rat", which would overshadow everything he had done till now.

"I chose this position personally, Takuma," said Fugaku.

"Why?" asked Takuma, clamping down on his indignation. Was Fugaku trying to push him out by offering him a terrible deal?

"Because I think you will thrive there," he replied, once again levelling Takuma with his overwhelming gaze. "I believe this has the potential to make everything you did in the Narcotics Taskforce pale in comparison."







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[Fiction]

The rest of the day after his meeting with Fugaku was a blur for Takuma. The Chief of the Police offered him a deal he would be a fool to take, claimed that it suited him, and then gave no further explanation. In truth, Takuma didn't want an explanation—he didn't want to get roped into something clearly detrimental to his career, so he wrapped up the conversation and left behind a token statement of getting back to them.

He was so upset that he didn't even talk to Setsuna about the B-rank jutsu restriction because even if that problem was solved, he still didn't want to work in the Department of Corruption Investigations. No reasonable amount of benefits would have him take the job. He wasn't at a stage of his career where he could take such a controversial offer—nor did he have a powerful backing or background to survive the job.

The work itself wasn't a problem. He had the Police Force's backing, so he could use their weight to get what he wanted. The real problem started after he was finished. Once he was out of the Police Force, he would lose the backing but retain the enemies—so many doors would be barred for him. He would either have to be very lucky, or just stick it out with the Police Force, which had a limited ceiling due to its clan-dominated nature.

Becoming a ra" would only push that ceiling lower. He had the option of choosing another department and starting from the ground up, as he had done at Organised Crime, but even then, the benefits weren't enough to warrant accepting the offer—especially with the B-rank jutsu restriction.

"Why would he say I would be good at it?" he whispered.

Despite the awful nature of it all, Fugaku's words floated atop his thoughts. The statement struck out to him. Was he so gullible that a vague compliment was all it took to sway him? Takuma didn't want to believe that, but something about Fugaku's words stuck out to him.

He didn't think the man was trying to dress up an ugly deal to him—but at the same time, he wondered if it was nothing but flattery. When he tried to look at his options from a strictly objective point of view, there was a clear winner.

"The ANBU leaves them in the dust," Takuma whispered to himself.

Limitless access to C-rank jutsu archives, access to village's B-rank jutsu archives without the year-long wait, and a performance-based jutsu compensation package. The ANBU deal stood out despite its non-negotiable five-year employment clause and Takuma didn't particular mind it, either.

He was only worried about the performance-based jutsu compensation because it complicated things. Things were simple with mission points—earn and exchange them for a jutsu— and the ANBU pay was fixed with zero variable components, so he could calculate the specific date he would have enough points to buy a jutsu.

Not to mention the lack of a waiting period until he could purchase a B-rank jutsu.

However, the free-of-charge performance-based compensation came with an inherent uncertainty as someone else would be judging his performance. If said person didn't like him or simply didn't think his output was particularly impressive, they could mark him down, all but eliminating the benefit altogether.

He would still have the ability to get B-rank jutsu the standard way, but that still meant a huge advantage going to waste.

Takuma, sitting alone in the living room, sighed as he thought about his decision.

The Police Force had given him five days to decide, but he had to send in his response to ANBU in two days, which meant he only had that much time to make a decision.

Despite how the Narcotics Taskforce situation had been handled, somewhere in his heart, he wanted to continue working there. Maybe it was because of the comfort. Because he didn't have much power, he had to learn to work the system to boost the growth of his taskforce.

Some part of him genuinely thought that if he had another try, he could game the system even harder. However, the decision seemed to have made itself.

———
.

"Now, this is a first," said Mikoto as she walked around the Uchiha compound with Takuma. You have never asked out on a walk like this. I must admit, I quite like this." She gazed at him silently for a moment. "Hmm... this is not the good news kind of walk, is it?"

Takuma pursed his lips as he shook his head.

"I didn't want to run into your husband," he replied. It would've been awkward if Fugaku walked in on him breaking the news to Mikoto.

"So you're turning down my offer," she said.

"Unfortunately. I've decided not to return to the Police Force, and seeing that you wanted me to stay until the external hiring stabilised in return for your sponsorship."

He had decided to go with ANBU.

"What if I waived that condition?" she asked.

Takuma looked at her, unsure how to answer. He wasn't surprised to see another offer from her. If he was being completely honest, he didn't think she really wanted him to work at the Police Force when she had first set down the condition. She knew his conflicted feelings toward what had happened, and her setting up the condition away to settle those feelings.

And now she had even waived that condition.

He understood that she was thinking about her clan, but that didn't mean she wasn't also thinking about him. Becoming affiliated wasn't just a big decision for the individual shinobi—it was also important for the clan, which was not only offering resources they could use elsewhere but also attaching their name to an outsider.

Mikoto's offer showed that she valued him to devote the clan's resources that could be used to satisfy another subordinate clan, and trusted him to be the right representative for the clan. Being valued like this wasn't something he was familiar with, so her straightforward intentions meant a lot to him.

Enough that he couldn't put them in words."I... I'm sorry."

"May I ask why?" asked Mikoto; she sounded neither happy nor angry.

Takuma gazed up at the sky in silence for a moment. "I think I'm tired. I thought I'd spent too much time away at war and wanted to start strong when I got back in—but I've been feeling tired. For a while, I thought it would get better if I just pushed through it," he shook his head, "but nothing has changed. If I let myself go, I would be listlessly staring at clouds all day long," he chuckled. "But I can't allow that to happen, but I can't also allow myself to crash and burn, so I decided to just focus on one thing."

Too many things were changing in his life.

He was being promoted to chunin, which came with additional responsibilities. On top of that, he had to adjust to his new job at ANBU and whatever they had waiting for him after joining. Training for a B-rank jutsu was a different beast than learning a lower-ranked jutsu.

His genjutsu sessions with Mikoto were making a return and he had to fix his approach to combat; he was on the verge of grasping on something, and yet it felt far in the distance simultaneously.

All those things were alread too much for him to handle.

"And my offer can't be that one thing," said Mikoto, a tone of understanding in her voice.

"Right now, I don't think I'm in the proper mental space now to join the Uchiha clan. All eyes would be on me because when they find out that you brought me in. I would need to show results—great results—to not only hold up your name but also show my worth. You might not care, but I do care about not disappointing you—"

"Oh, I do care. Ruin my name, and I'' get angry, and no one likes me when I'm angry," said Mikoto with a smile.

Takuma chuckled before sighing.

"And what is the one thing you'll focus on?" she asked.

"Inner peace, I think," he said. "I've been ignoring some things that I need to take care of before I can move forward."

Above all else the real benefit of joining ANBU was the closeness he would have with ROOT.

More than learning powerful jutsu, he wanted to hunt Kon down because Rikku would not rest in peace as long as her murderer stayed alive. Moreover, Takuma would not be safe as long as ROOT existed to come after him for revenge. He didn't think he could exterminate an entity as vast as ROOT, but ignoring them wasn't an option either.

The day he could tell Rikku's family that she was avenged and informed the team of the same would be the day he would put down the guilt he carried for being the one to survive.

Mikoto hadn't missed the turmoil writing across his face. "So what's next? Back to the Genin Corp?"

"I have something else lined up. I'll tell you when it's confirmed." Takuma didn't want to say anything before ANBU briefed him about what he was supposed to tell people.

"Alright, your loss," said Mikoto as she ruffled his hair.

"Indeed," Takuma smiled apologetically.

"You better not skip our genjutsu lessons."

"Wouldn't even dream about it. Speaking of lessons, there's this girl I want to introduce to you who could use some taijutsu pointers, if you don't mind. Her name is Uchiha Izumi; you might know—"

"You're introducing a Uchiha... to me?" said Mikoto, looking at him as though he had said something absolutely ridiculous.

Takuma grinned. "Well, what can I say? I'm very well connected."

———
.

The next day, Maruboshi returned from his wilderness trip looking refreshed, and he brought along wild herbs and berries that Takuma used to prepare dinner. They sat together and talked about the ANBU recruitment, explaining what he had to do during the ten days he was away.

Takuma set his chopsticks down and said, "I have decided to join the ANBU. I sent my response earlier today."

"I see." Maruboshi smiled. "I suppose congratulations are in order. You are about to be promoted to chunin. You have worked hard, Takuma."

"Thank you," Takuma smiled.

"Have you already talked with the Police Force?"

"Yes, I even had a meeting with Morino Ibiki of Torture and Interrogation. I also visited Mikoto-sensei and had to apologise for declining her offer," Takuma sighed as he rubbed his temple. It had been very tiring.

"Good, it's good to deal with these matters swiftly," Maruboshi nodded.

Takuma gathered his empty dishes and was about to get up and wash them when he stopped, but he decided to stay seated and fixed his posture while sitting on his knees and facing Maruboshi.

"Uhm, about what you talked about before," said Takuma hesitantly. "Are you sure it won't inconvenience you? Me staying here, that is."

"Of course." Maruboshi smiled warmly. "Do you want to stay?"

"If you would have me," said Takuma, bowing his head.

He had decided that he did not need a separate place, and with Maruboshi opening his home to him, he was more than happy to live with his teacher. He enjoyed their conversations, and it was a warm experience to have someone there to welcome him when he returned home.

"That makes me happy. Meals will be more interesting from now on."

"Thank you," said Takuma, once again bowing in gratitude.





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[Fiction]

The process of joining the ANBU was hectic.

He had to formally turn down the Police Force offer and participate in an exit process, which had him sit in three meetings with the Narcotics Taskforce, the Department of Organised Crime, and the personnel office. The only nice thing about the process was that they let him keep his Police Force uniform and identity badge, which he was planning to frame and hang up at home.

He also attended a farewell party with the original Narcotics Taskforce members. He was bombarded with questions about what was next for him, which he answered vaguely because he genuinely didn't know much and also didn't want to reveal anything before everything was confirmed.

The Torture and Interrogation department also sent an offer, which would have been a good, standard rank promotion deal. However, it was lacklustre compared to what the ANBU and even the Police Force had offered, so he politely refused them with a formal letter.

Anko admonished him for rejecting the offer when he said he didn't have anything else lined up. Just like everyone else, he had been vague with her as well, but when she found out that he had quit the Police Force, he had to sit through a long talk. She even offered to talk with Ibiki to convince him to disregard Takuma's refusal—but he managed to reassure her that he was fine.

After all that, he was finally invited to the ANBU headquarters for a briefing.

———
.

Just like the last time, he entered the headquarters through the front gates and found himself before the same kunoichi receptionist he had pickpocketed for weapons. And from the way she was frowning, she remembered him.

"I am truly sorry about last time." Takuma took the initiative to apologise because, from the looks of it, she had at least been reprimanded for the blunder—and he felt guilty about that.

The kunoichi narrowed her eyes at him before putting on a plastic, professional smile. "Please, there is no need to apologise. I was careless. It wouldn't happen again," she said before guiding him through the building.

She walked beside him instead of leading from the front and remained at a vigilant distance so he wouldn't be able to swipe things off of her. He felt awkward because she didn't speak a single word to him the entire time, and he felt it was not the correct time to make things right.

The location was through same door as the last time, which opened up to an empty space with office rooms on one side and open floor space on the other. The bright white lights were all turned on, but unlike the last time, five people dressed in standard gear were waiting instead of the two ANBU-nin.

They were the other candidates from his cohort.

"Yo, you're the last one," Amami waved at him before patting the empty seat next to her.

Six chairs were set up in two columns of three, facing each other. Only six candidates, including Takuma, were present. The final round had eight, meaning the other two had either failed or rejected the offer.

He sat down beside her, and she immediately bumped his shoulder with hers.

"Stealing my job, was it?" she whispered into his ear.

He shrugged. "Did it bother you? I hope so."

"Not one bit. Seeing that you're here, you must've accepted them."

"You as well, I suppose," he said.

Amami nodded.

Takuma gazed at the other candidates. None of them were strangers to him; he chatted with everyone during the day they had spent at the camp after the forest test. But, except the Hyuuga, it was his first time seeing their faces.

Four and Five were missing, but their teammates, Ten and Sixteen, were present.

"Introduce yourself," said Amami.

"Oh yeah, sure." Takuma faced the candidates. "Hello, everyone. I am Thirteen. My name is Takuma. It's nice to meet you all again. Congratulations on passing."

Everyone introduced themselves to him.

Three — Yamanaka Amami.

Seven — Hyuuga Kojuro.

Ten — Sonaba Yazo.

Fourteen — Azugimoto Etomi.

Sixteen — Yaya Utamatsu.

All of them except for Takuma were already chunin.

"You're quite young, Takuma," said Yaya Utamatsu with an impressed nod.

"I might be wrong, but ANBU's minimum age requirement is thirteen and above. You barely meet that at fourteen. They must really like you to recruit you so young," said Azugimoto Etomi as she looked him up and done with crossed arms.

Takuma was by far the youngest of the group at fourteen. After him, Hyuuga Kojuro was eighteen, and Etomi was nineteen. The group itself had a wide age range. Utamatsu was the oldest, at twenty-five. Amami was twenty, and Sonaba Yazo was twenty-two.

"It just means I have the most to learn," said Takuma. And it was true when it came to experience. The others had been chunin for a while, and seeing that ANBU selected them, they were all talented and skilled.

He knew he would be playing catch-up from the very start.

"The ANBU gives their operatives animal codenames. Eisbaer, Leopard, Ant, and so on." Amami addressed the group. "Naturally, we'll get our codenames as well, but I was wondering how about we have a group thing and use our candidate numbers with each other. Something more personal just for our cohort."

"It works from a practical standpoint," said Kojuro. "It will prevent us from using our real names or codenames since we'll be in the habit of using numbers, so the chances of accidentally revealing our real names or codenames at the wrong places will go down significantly."

Sonaba Yazo smiled. "I like the sound of that; let's do it."

"I don't mind it either," said Takuma. It gave the group a sense of belonging unique to themselves; they were entering a very secretive organisation, and having allies for even moral support was a positive.

He glanced at Amami; she was very good at socialisation. Since everyone was in agreement, it was decided that the group would address each other by their candidate numbers. Ten minutes later, the door opened, and two operatives dressed in black-and-grey ANBU gear walked in. They were Swine and Vespa, the two shinobi he had met during his first visit to the headquarters.

"Good morning, everyone," said Swine, a large man with even larger muscles. He made Yazo, who was taller than him, look smaller in comparison in sheer width. "First of all, I would like to congratulate you on passing our assessments. We are excited to bring you in and allow you to show what you can do for the village and the country."

Vespa, the kunoichi wearing the bee-inspired mask, stood behind Swine and stared at the group like she had done the last time.

"As a welcome, allow us to introduce ourselves," Swine said before removing his mask to reveal a a square face, sharp jaw and rough beard, and swept-back dirty blonde hair.

Vespa removed her mask as well. She had sharp, angular eyes and a gaze that seemed to cut through steel. Her hair was styled in an asymmetrical bob, and she wore earrings with a yellow crystal design.

"Every ANBU-nin is given a codename. Mine is Swine; my associate goes by Vespa. You will be given your names on your first day. There's no rule against sharing or using your real names among operatives and colleagues. I imagine you will use your real names regularly, however, we encourage you to stick to codenames to address yourself and your colleagues whenever possible to develop a habit of only using codenames. Do not stress about having your name floating out there within the department; it will eventually get out regardless of your intention."

The group glanced at each other; they were just discussing codenames.

"This meeting is to inform you about what the next few months of your life will look like and other key details now that you are joining us," said Swine. "Your employment with ANBU is a secret that's not supposed to be shared with others. However, we understand everyone has family and friends, and you need to tell them something. For that reason, we provide cover jobs for all operatives that you are free to share with whomever your heart desires.

"For example, ANBU-nin often use covers such as being diplomats, secretaries, cultural and security attache, or nothing at all and simply being independent shinobi running missions. Usually, the cover jobs are anything that allow for and expects frequent travel so your loved ones won't be suspicious about why you are out of the village so often."

The ANBU had extensive manuals and modules to prepare them for their cover job and Takuma would need to pass a test to check their knowledge so they don't attract suspicion by behaving incorrectly. To support the cover, he would even work out of pseudo-legitimate offices and workspaces outside the headquarters, which was very important for the cover's legitimacy.

"What is your cover job?" Yazo asked Swine.

"Good question. Many operatives' cover jobs have them work from a restricted area within the village to avoid family looking for them at their place of work.."

Restricted areas existed within the Hidden Leaf village and were heavily guarded. Only those with specific clearance and access could enter them. The ANBU headquarters itself was located within a restricted area, as was the area around the village's water treatment and power plants, which were considered key security locations.

"My cover job has me working in a fuinjutsu research and testing facility located in a restricted area," Swin replied. "My family or friends can't visit that restricted area, so I don't need to be there, which allows me to work out of the headquarters. Even if they somehow managed to get there, we have contingencies planned for those cases."

"We've had decades' worth of experience to refine our operating procedures," said Vespa for the first time; her voice was soft but clear. "As long as you properly study the resources, you won't have to think, much less stress about maintaining your cover."

"She is right. In my nine years working with ANBU, I have only run into a problematic situation once, and it would've been avoided if I followed the instructions in the manual," Swine nodded with a sigh.

"Can we choose our covers?" asked Etomi.

The entire group was interested in the question. Since they would all have to justify their choices to their friends and family, it was important to have a cover that was easier to explain. There was also a prestige and reputation aspect where having a good cover would mean having a better social status.

"The short answer is no. We will discuss options with you, but the final decision will not be yours to make," Swine said semi-sternly.

The disappointment was expected.

"After your onboarding is complete, you will go through a training period that may last anywhere up to three months, depending upon how quickly you pass all our requirements to be field operational," said Swine before his amusement vanished, replaced with a cautioning stare. "Do not take more than three months to complete all your requirements. The moment you pass that three-month mark, your pay will stop, and you will start accruing harsh fines that will be deducted from your future pay—and you do not want to be known as someone who didn't pass the training."

"People will look at you differently," said Vespa in a grave tone.

The way the two ANBU-nin put it was enough to get the point across, nevermind the fines. They couldn't tell them to hurry up the training as that would be reckless and irresponsible, but their intention was clear: complete the training as soon as possible.

However, when Takuma heard they had three months to train, he was thinking of something else entirely. 'They're going to pay me to train for three months? Hmm...'
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[Brass Cogs]

I feel like this is setting up to have Takuma's cover job be one of the positions he rejected.