Chapitre 63: CH_3.4 (063)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
———
.
"You can change here," said the old farmer pushing open the door to the wooden shed. "Good job today. You really helped me out, boy."
Takuma thanked the farmer and entered the shed to change his clothes. Helping as a farm hand was a common D-rank mission. Strong shinobi were majorly effective in all kinds of jobs from tilling to repair work across a farm or livestock ranch, as such a significant portion of the genin population was involved in some part of farming throughout the year.
Today, he had dragged a farm tiller across the large field all day to help it prepare for sowing for a new crop.
Takuma changed out of his dirty shinobi gear into the change of civilian clothes he had brought along with him. His day's work was over, and all he wanted was to go home and take a shower, but before that, he needed to go shopping for groceries.
He sighed as he pulled the shirt over his shoulders.
"—You can take your time before answering me—"
Shady Guy had left Takuma with those words and a way to contact him, and since then, the conversation had been the one thing occupying his mind. No matter what he was doing, a part of his mind was always thinking about how to approach the invitation.
It was clear that Shady Guy hadn't extended the invitation because he had good intentions for him, and thinking otherwise would've been the height of naivety and foolishness. With what Takuma knew, it was most probably that Shady Guy gained some incentive to get a new fighter into the underground fighting ring.
Who better to employ as a recruiter than someone who had been observing a group of people daily over a two-month fighting period. Shady Guy had two months to watch him fight— not just fighting, he had two months to observe everything about him. The Iryo-nin must've seen something in him that led to the invitation.
What was that something? Was it something positive, meaning he would flourish in the fighting ring? Or was it something negative, like he was an easy target to dupe with the promise of mission points?
It could be either.
The way he saw it, a crossroad of two choices stood before him. The safe option— reject Shady Guy's invitation and continue on with his life, or the risky option— take a chance with the opportunity in front of him to earn an additional source of money and mission points.
He was conflicted because the invitation was a one-time thing. Shady Guy had told him that he would wait for a couple days, and if Takuma didn't have an answer for him, he would consider the offer rejected. What if the offer was legitimate, and he could gain more mission points fighting? He felt declining the invitation would have him miss out on an opportunity that could prove to be beneficial for him.
The decision continued to plague him.
As it stood, if he couldn't resolve his confusion by Shady Guy's deadline, he would let the opportunity pass.
Takuma grabbed the local produce he bought directly from the farmers and departed from the farm on the village's outskirts dedicated to large farming fields and plantations and began running towards the urban city part of the village. He liked the rural part of the village with its openness and quiet, so much different from the crowded and noisy city. It was one of the reasons why he liked farming jobs, as it took him away from the city. He had lived his entire life in metropolitan cities, and even now, he lived in the Leaf village— but he knew if he ever bought a house for himself, it would be away from the city. It helped that he could literally run to the city if he needed something.
The open field turned into suburbia, which then turned into the densely built tall buildings of the center of the Leaf village.
Takuma was tired. He had left home before the sun-up to get to the farm for the work that started at sunrise, and the sun was setting by the time he had left. He wanted to get the remaining grocery and get home so he could relax.
With those thoughts, Takuma entered the shopping street he frequented for grocery needs.
"Takuma!"
A voice that sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put the finger on it, called him, and it made him look. Looking at the person did connect the dots in his brain.
"Izumi?"
Standing in front of him was Uchiha Izumi. It had been well over half a year since he had seen her (or any of his classmates who had been selected by a Jonin). She didn't look much different from what he remembered; the only difference was that she now wore a forehead protector.
"It's been such a long time! How are you?" Izumi stepped closer to him and looked him up and down. "Hmm, you have grown taller… you're as tall as me now," she pouted.
Izumi was right. He had grown taller in the half year, enough to force a change of wardrobe because his clothes no longer fit him properly. Izumi was tall for a girl, and it had taken Takuma a year and a half of proper nutrition to catch up.
"Coming from somewhere? You have mud on your face," she giggled.
"Had a farming mission," Takuma immediately wiped his face with his sleeve. "What about you, how is the genin life suiting you?"
"Oh, an absolute delight. Last week we went out of the village to deliver a package to another city," Izumi crossed her arms, teeming with pride.
"Was that your first C-rank mission or something?" he asked.
"It was the first good C-rank mission. The other ones were boring work like doing background checks."
'So, the Jonin-team genin have already done multiple C-rank missions,' thought Takuma. He felt something churn inside him. If they were doing C-rank missions, it meant they were earning more mission points.
He knew there would always be a gap between the Genin Corp genin and Jonin-team genin… but it was the first time he could feel it.
"That's good for you," he said after swallowing down the bitterness. Izumi wouldn't need to participate in the underground fighting ring for mission points. The girl before him didn't even need to do missions for jutsu. Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu) was a C-rank jutsu, and it was supposed to be a coming-of-age rite for Uchiha— Izumi would be handed down something that had taken two months of grueling time culminating in a tournament of physical misery to just obtain.
He felt really bitter at the moment.
And the prospect of the fighting ring seemed more and more appealing.
He was about to ask for his leave when Takuma heard a voice from just behind him say,
"Izumi, I've completed my errand, shall we leave?"
Takuma was startled because he didn't know someone was standing behind him. He had developed a vague sense of people nearby his personal space— but he didn't have any inkling that a person was standing behind him.
He turned back to look, and the moment he laid eyes on the person, he was no longer just startled. His heart began to beat faster as he clenched his jaw to keep himself from gasping as he stared into the onyx eyes of the boy in front of him. Every hair on his body stood with a cold shiver as his skin tightened and goosebumps rose.
Memories he had set aside as he got busy with his life jumped back in, and he recalled that in a few years, only three of Izumi's clanmates would walk this land, and she wasn't one of them. And it scared the living fuck out of him that the boy in front of him was one of those three people… and was also the one who had wiped the great Uchiha clan from the face of this planet in a single evening.
In that moment, it didn't matter to Takuma the reason behind why the Uchiha clan had been eradicated. Any person who could commit parricide and mass genocide could definitely snap his head without him knowing.
He hadn't been more terrified than now in his entire life as he faced the Clan Killer—
Uchiha Itachi.
Itachi gave Takuma a glance as he walked past him and stood beside Izumi.
Izumi, unaware of Takuma's thoughts, spoke with a smile. "Ah, let me do the introductions. This is Takuma, my classmate from the academy," she then pointed to Itachi, "and this is Itachi from my clan. Takuma, you must remember Itachi, he was in our class in the first year. It was such a big commotion when he graduated early from the academy," she sounded proud, but Takuma wasn't paying attention.
Itachi nodded in greeting but got nothing in return.
"Takuma?"
Takuma snapped out of his petrified stance and barely got his nerves back into control.
"Ah, my apologies. I was so starstruck for a moment"— he was not— "I mean, who doesn't know Uchiha Itachi. And yes, I vaguely remember that time"— he did not— "Graduated after five months in the academy at age six…. Promoted to Chunin at ten…. I mean, does anything more need to be said?"
It didn't take meta-knowledge to know about Itachi. It was a big deal when Itachi made Chunin. The entire shinobi circle was talking about the ten-year wonder kid, and the talks had reached the academy. It was in the early days of Takuma's arrival into the world— a miserable time for him, so he had mostly ignored the gossip and chatter.
From what Takuma remembered, there was a chance that Itachi was already in the ANBU. He was the youngest ANBU inductee in the Leaf's history, after all.
"You flatter me," Itachi said politely. "Which Jonin are you assigned under?"
The question could've been seen as a slight against Takuma, and if Takuma didn't know the person in front of him, he would've definitely thought that Itachi was trying to insult him— but he knew that the question was innocent enough.
Izumi caught the potential of a misunderstanding and immediately interjected,
"Itachi—"
"Genin Corp," said Takuma.
"Ah, is that so," Itachi's eyes widened a fraction before he nodded. He moved on swiftly, "If you're from the same batch as Izumi…. Did you participate in the Genin Corp's basic training tournament?"
"Huh, what's that?" It seemed Izumi hadn't heard of the final tournament.
"I was invited to spectate, but I don't enjoy those types of competitions," said Itachi before giving Izumi a brief explanation about the final tournament— his explanation was from the Chunin viewpoint.
Unlike her clanmate, Izumi looked genuinely interested and turned to Takuma, "Did you participate?" she asked.
"I did. In fact, I won the competition," Takuma said with a smile— he wanted this interaction to end immediately.
"Oh, congratulations!" Izumi said, her face glowing up.
"Thank you," Takuma nodded. "Now, while I would like to catch up with you and get some tips from you," he glanced at Itachi, "I have an early day tomorrow. And I'm sure you guys are busy as well, so I unfortunately have to leave. Let's meet up sometime later, alright?"
Takuma made sure it didn't seem abrupt before parting with the pair. He walked and kept walking without looking back; not for a moment did he stop, not until he was inside his home with the door locked behind him and the curtains drawn.
He had forgotten…
The desperate training to catch up to his academy peers… the stress of passing the academy graduation test… the grueling basic training…. the hours devoted to learning jutsu in the efforts to win the final tournament… the day-in-and-day-out loop of D-rank missions.
He had gotten so busy and sucked into living his life day by day, doing the things required by him, that he had forgotten about what truly lay out there in the world and the future.
He was not ready. He knew that, of course— but the abrupt meeting with Itachi had made him come face-to-face with it. The Uchiha massacre was so close. He didn't know when it exactly was going to happen, but he knew that Itachi was really young when it happened. If he had to give his best estimate, he would say that it was two years away at best.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' his back was drenched entirely, and his heart was bursting in his chest.
It wasn't just the Uchiha massacre that was looming in the future.
Akatsuki had already been formed. Obito had started the 'new' Akatsuki with Pain. Orochimaru had already left the Leaf and had joined Akatsuki. After the Uchiha massacre, Itachi would join Akatsuki as a double agent, which meant they were already perceived as a significant threat before the massacre. Orochimaru would then break away from Akatsuki and form his own village— the Hidden Sand's attack along with Orochimaru at the Leaf village was so near.
He could be killed in that invasion.
Takuma didn't have the time he thought he had.
He was living as a genin, doing things that other genin would do, thinking that if he continued to do things he was doing, he would progress. But that was not enough.
He needed to do more.
That night, Takuma wasn't able to go to sleep— his mind kept him locked in with his own thoughts.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 64: CH_3.5 (064)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
———
.
How did one get stronger? The question ran through Takuma's mind more than it had ever. His previous answers to the questions had been: follow whatever Maruboshi taught… observe others' combat style in basic training and thus learn how to counter them more effectively… train to improve at his ninjutsu arsenal… and add more jutsu into his repertoire.
But now those answers seemed ineffective. He no longer trained with Maruboshi; both he and his teacher had their lives and couldn't follow their daily training; no matter how much Takuma would've loved to continue, he couldn't ask Maruboshi to adjust to his schedule. Yoshio's mandatory sparring sessions in basic training were no longer available; he could spar with Ai, Nenro, and Masaaki (Taro refused to spar), but their schedules seldom matched. He continued to train his ninjutsu, but he didn't have mission points to get more.
Even his total training time had reduced. During basic training, he would train by himself in the morning and then train more under Yoshio— but now, while he trained in the morning, he worked the rest of the day. On average, with the varying type of D-rank missions, he worked four to five days a week; he had tried to reduce that number, but it proved difficult when the choice of mission wasn't in his hand.
And when he wanted answers, Maruboshi was again out of the village on a C-rank mission, escorting some business caravan somewhere.
He thought about ways to get more powerful on his own, using his esoteric knowledge about this world to his advantage— but nothing seemed viable to him. He could snatch a Sharingan or Byakugan, but that would get him killed immediately. He could steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals stored at the Hokage's Residence like Naruto did— but the chances of getting court-martialled were inevitable. Every scenario he thought ended up in a dead-end.
Takuma sighed as he sipped the cold lemonade he bought from a food stand inside the Genin Corp complex to beat the scorching summer heat. He had just got a D-rank mission that would have him work the night shift as a security guard at a state food warehouse. He absolutely hated work at night— they wrecked his sleep cycle and disturbed his regular schedule of things.
"That's not a sigh due to the weather, is it?"
Takuma looked up and, to his surprise, it was Ebisu sitting down on the neighboring bench.
"No, it is not," said Takuma, making small talk.
"Would you like to share? Many times, simply speaking things out to someone resolves the problems."
Takuma chuckled, "Is this a way to get me to visit your counseling? I'd speak my problems to you, you'd say some words to me, I'd feel better— and you're hoping that I'd be impressed enough that I would come visit your office for a session. I didn't know you worked as a salesperson, counselor."
Ebisu smiled, "If you think about it, everyone's a salesman. All of us are putting up a version of ourselves in front of others to make them find us appealing in some way. We do it in front of our peers, friends, partners, bosses, and even strangers. Some do it poorly, others do it well, but everyone does it whether they see it so or not. And as to answer your other question, I'd be delighted to have you visit my office for a session."
Takuma glanced at Ebisu. He had a much different image of Ebisu in his mind. A stricter, no-nonsense, more straightforward man— but this one was somewhat of a talker.
"You know, I wouldn't mind a session with you," said Takuma, "unfortunately, you take mission points, which I can't spare. If you took ryo, I'd probably already be in your office planning my shinobi career with you."
While the counseling session with Ebisu didn't cost nearly anywhere close to a D-rank jutsu, they cost mission points nevertheless. Even if they cost a fraction of a mission point, he wouldn't use them for a counseling session when he could save that fraction up for a jutsu.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name," asked Ebisu.
"Takuma."
"Well then, Takuma, it's nice to meet you. How about I give you a quick session here without charge, and you decide whether an official one is worth the mission points or not," said Ebisu with a smile. "What do you say?"
Takuma thought about it for a moment before getting up from his bench and taking a seat beside Ebisu.
"I will take that as an agreement," Ebisu put aside his beverage and sandwich plate to the side.
"How do I get stronger?" Takuma opened up the conversation. If this was going to be a free quick session, then he was going to be direct and blunt to get the most out of it.
Ebisu took a moment of silence before replying, "It would depend on your skill set. I'm assuming you're talking about your overall skill set and not just physical strength." Takuma nodded. "I will need to know more about you to give a useful answer," said Ebisu.
"Doton(Earth Release) affinity, completed basic training, I don't specialize in anything, but I know a C-rank Doton jutsu. Other than that, I know two more D-rank ninjutsu," he gave Ebisu the names of the jutsu, "I consider taijutsu as my weakness…. That's about it, I guess," said Takuma.
"You know your affinity; that's extremely helpful," Ebisu looked pleasantly surprised.
"Yeah, but I don't have the mission points to buy more jutsu," sighed Takuma.
"Progress takes time, Takuma— but I understand your plight," Ebisu fell silent for a moment. "If we were to focus on the bigger picture, given that you know your affinity and already have a C-rank jutsu, learning more ninjutsu seems like one path for you. But if we are to look at what you can do right now… hmm, which sounds better to you: cover your taijutsu weakness with something, or do you wish to eliminate taijutsu as a weakness?"
Takuma was baffled by the question. "Isn't eliminating taijutsu as a weakness a better option? I mean, if I had a choice, why would I keep a weakness at all?"
"People aren't made equal. Everyone has their own strength and weakness, their own talents and shortcomings. Elemental affinity is an example. Sometimes it's better to further nurture your strengths than to pointlessly bash your head against a mountain," Ebisu pushed up his glasses. "Do you think taijutsu is something like that for you? Of course, I'm not saying to stop taijutsu training altogether, but you need effort management."
Did Takuma think that his taijutsu had reached a dead-end and that he needed to cover it up with something else? His spars and fights passed through his mind. From the day of his first spar to his first win against Airi to his blood-splattering wounds in basic training to his wins in the tournament…. Did he think he couldn't improve anymore?
No, he didn't think that.
"What would I use to cover up my taijutsu," he asked.
"You can work towards becoming a ninjutsu specialist and add an aspect of distance or range to your combat. Or, perhaps work on your bukijutsu— weapons are an important part of combat and add much to your combat style, and there's a chance they might add what you're missing to your close-ranged combat."
Takuma sighed. He had three jutsu. If he could use Raiton: Shokku like Nenro, he would've definitely tried to find and create opportunities to pick his opponents out from a distance. Suiton: Kirigakure Jutsu would also work well to keep people away, but there was a caveat that he himself couldn't see in the mist— Takuma had to rattle Nenro to ensure he didn't move so that he could nail him the kunai.
As for weapons… Maruboshi used a sword. His teacher had a prosthetic leg with a sword inside; it was one of the scariest things that Takuma had seen. He didn't have plans for picking up kenjutsu, but if he ever did, he would like it to be with Maruboshi.
He turned to Ebisu and asked, "What about… genjutsu?"
Ebisu hummed, "Genjutsu isn't like ninjutsu, Takuma. Sure, you can pick up a genjutsu scroll and learn it— but if you genuinely wish to learn genjutsu, you must learn several basics and theories. In many ways, genjutsu is closer to iryo-jutsu. That's the reason why we have so few true genjutsu users in the village. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn genjutsu to a functional level. Integrating it into your combat is another undertaking. However, once you know those, you have the freedom to create whatever you're capable of.
"My advice for those looking towards genjutsu has always been that if you aren't ready to commit yourself to properly learn genjutsu, then learning individual genjutsu from scrolls is a waste of time and resource."
Takuma licked his lips as he wondered if he wanted that level of commitment. He was vaguely aware of how much effort it took to learn to iryo-nin— it was quite similar to becoming a doctor back in his world.
He was aware that genjutsu didn't work properly on him, but Takuma didn't know if that would translate to his learning ability. He never had a chance to check that out. He had enough to buy a D-rank jutsu, but he didn't want to use that hard-earned mission points on an experiment. His experience with Raiton: Shokku hadn't been pretty. Takuma knew his primary affinity, and it made sense to go towards his strength than do something risky. Six months was a long time.
"I will continue working on my taijutsu," said Takuma. The next time he had mission points to spare, he would buy a genjutsu scroll to test it out. Until then, Doton was the way to go.
"Well, if it's like that, then taijutsu is your answer," Ebisu smiled as he showed a clenched fist. "Out of every skill in a shinobi's reach, taijutsu shows the most visible improvement. The more you use your body, the more your physical energies make the body stronger. You become faster, stronger, reflexes and senses improve, your endurance rises— not only that, your body becomes more resilient to damage.
"A shinobi difficult to kill is the worst enemy. Taijutsu is what raises that difficulty for most shinobi."
Takuma wholeheartedly agreed with that statement. Currently, the person he thought was the hardest to kill in the village was Might Gai, the monster of taijutsu. The chapters in which Gai fought the Jinchuriki Madara were his favorites; it was also one of those scenes for which he had seen the anime clips. Even from personal experience, Masaaki was the hardest to get down in their group. Despite not seeing it with his own eyes, he had heard enough to know how much damage Nenro had to do to put Masaaki down.
"There are jutsu that integrate with taijutsu, but you can invest in them later; for now, you can refer to the Hidden Leaf Kata from the general archives and start practicing," advised Ebisu. "Meet with your friends and spar with them…"
Takuma could do that. The Hidden Leaf Kata was free for him to refer to, and it was an entire style of taijutsu available to every shinobi. If he worked out a system with Masaaki, Ai, and Nenro, he could alternate reliably between the three and maybe even get Taro in the mix to spar with one person daily.
"…because the best way to improve taijutsu is to, put it simply, fight…"
Takuma's mind went blank as the words echoed in his skull.
"… the more you fight, the more your body will learn. For taijutsu, doing is the only way to learn…"
When he looked back, it was clear to Takuma that the basic training spars and the final tournament were more valuable to him than his year at the academy and his spars with Maruboshi. The fear of bleeding and broken bones made him improve drastically more.
"… Thank you, counselor."
He had a decision to make.
———
.
"Have you come to a decision?"
Takuma had called Shady Guy with an answer in mind, and as he stood in front of him, he thought about it once more…
"I will participate," he said.
If he could get stronger and get more resources to get even stronger. If he could get more mission points, he would be able to save up for his genjutsu experiment. Taking one risk to take another risk… didn't sound like a great deal, but it was his decision.
A smile stretched up on Shady Guy's face. He stepped out of the dark street and stood closer to Takuma with an outstretched hand.
"Then I must say, merry cooperation."
Under the moon's silvery light, Takuma shook the hand and sealed the deal.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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