Chapitre 151: CH_5.8 (151)

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———

"Come on, sheep. Is that all you got?" asked the chunin.

He enjoyed the look on the kids' faces. The slow growth of displeasure, pain, anxiety, and exhaustion crept up on the brat's face as they continued to fight. It was only a matter of time before the little chicks got tired, and as they did that, he would drop them one by one until the fucking brat in front of him was the only one remaining.

He glanced at the small gap in the canopy. He could see smoke. There were more people than the brats. He, of course, knew that there was a chunin running the farm, and there was no way these little chumps could've taken him out and still be in the condition to take him on. There was a good chance that there was a chunin leading the brats— and if their numbers were to say anything, and taking the Hidden Leaf's standard team structure, it wasn't crazy to assume there were multiple chunin.

He was guessing two. The chunin running the farm was good, but the narcissistic fucker wasn't good enough to take on three peers at the same time.

At the end of it all, there were one or two chunin waiting for him on the other side of the brats. He wasn't proud, but he had suffered some injuries— nothing serious, but against a litter of genin, he shouldn't have suffered anything.

All of it was because of the brat in front of him. The leader of the bunch. The lean brat looked like he hadn't trained a single day in his life, but there was a nasty bite behind his strikes. Chakra augmentation— both him and the Akimichi chick. Then there was the pyromaniac Uchiha, the pesky little Yamanaka who was controlling people when they went down, the Fuma girl with her shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags, and there was even the Inuzuka fighting one of his genin— there was an entire galore of clan kids here.

Which raised the question of who was the leader brat. He had been out of the village for five years, but he couldn't pinpoint the background of the combat style. The brat wasn't from a clan— his fighting style reeked of the Ring, and he was experienced, excellent body control, a surprising amount of skill in two chakra affinities— a rarity for the age. The boy was the strongest, but that didn't explain why the clan kids followed him. To pull prideful clan kids into a line was something else.

'Well, whatever,' he thought.

He needed to finish this. He didn't know if there was a chunin or two waiting for him after he was done with the kids, so he preferred not to use more chakra than he had already. He had no problem running away, but he had built a good comfortable life for himself after leaving the village; it would be a huge pain if he had to start over. He figured he could use some chakra before going to see if the narcissistic fucker needed some help or if he had done the world some good and had left two heavily injured Hidden Leaf chunin for easy cleanup.

———

"Play time's over, kiddo."

Takuma caught a punch in the face, but he lashed out with an uppercut for the jaw. Unfortunately, the chunin caught that punch and threw him away, but Takuma's tentacles latched onto the chunin's arm to stay close. Takuma tugged on the chunin, but the man suddenly sped up and dug a palm strike into Takuma's gut. He felt a sheer physical force hit him. Instinctively, all five tentacles tried to latch onto the chunin, but he was sent back with such force that the water couldn't stay together, and the tentacles were ripped apart— and the water tentacles were quite resilient because of the chakra flowing in the water.

Takuma flew back meters, and he had to concentrate hard to maintain his focus and balance mid-air. The water redistributed between the tentacles, and they jammed into the ground to slow him down. He dug his feet to slow himself further down but still ended up slamming against a tree trunk with rib-shaking force.

He shook his head to get rid of the dizziness and looked up just in time to see the chunin weaving hand seals before long thin earthen spears emerged out of the ground and shot toward his team. Gouki was hit by two spears hit straight, and he was all but skewered. Arisu was wielding her Fuma shuriken in close-combat mode and ripped two spears to threads, but a third one stabbed through her thigh. Akimichi had an impressive performance with her bo-staff and avoided all the spears aimed at her, only for the chunin to take her out after a couple of seconds of taijutsu back and forth.

"Now, it's me, just the two of us, brat," the chunin looked towards Takuma as he held Akimichi by the throat. He threw her away as he made his way to him.

Takuma got up and cracked his neck. He was sure he had broken at least a couple ribs; his left leg felt off, a fracture for sure; his right shoulder felt sluggish and painful, he had screwed up his rotator cuff; there were three more things he could feel, and then a few more that would show up when the adrenaline would exit his bloodstream.

All of his combatant teammates were out.

Yuhi and Yamanaka were within the trees.

"Stay!" he yelled.

He didn't want the two of them to come out.

"You should tell them to run. I'll get them after I'm done with you. At least, this way, there'll be a fun hunt," said the chunin.

The raids were always in teams, so Takuma never got the chance to use it in the field. The Ring didn't allow it because of the stupid rules. And he had gotten bored of dodging logs and rubber pellets.

"Oh, there will be a hunt, alright," said Takuma as he began weaving hand seals.

The chunin stopped in his tracks and looked at his surroundings as a dense mist descended onto the area. The mist became whiter by the second, and visibility plummeted until no one could see further than they could reach with their hands.

Takuma breathed in deeply and felt the mist fill his lungs. He himself couldn't see that well in the situation, but he had been training his ears and nose for years. He had given more effort to this jutsu than any other thing— and he barely saw any use.

That was going to change today.

"Let the hunt begin."

———

He looked at the mist surrounding him. Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu. The kid seriously had some skill with Water affinity. He could barely see anything, but that meant neither could the kid. They were in the same situation.

"I can see you clearly, you know."

He whipped a kunai in the direction of the brat's voice.

"That was not even close."

The next moment, he was assaulted by an augmented kick into his knee. The chunin tried to grab the brat, but his instinct forced his body to catch the kunai that suddenly appeared before his face.

"Be careful, or you'll lose an eye… but that won't make any difference here."

The brat's voice echoed. He was using some sort of voice modulation using chakra. 'Party tricks,' he thought, but he couldn't help but his caution growing. He had no way to blow away the mist, but that didn't mean he was trapped. He simply needed to run out of the area covered by the mist. He followed his internal compass and ran north.

But the moment he took his second step, he felt cold metal slice through his calf. It was a deep cut, and he almost lost balance.

"Don't try to ruin the game. You don't want a penalty, do you?"

The chunin, now hobbled, slowly moved. It was better to stay on the move rather than stay at a location the brat knew. Getting out of the mist was still his only option other than using more chakra to blow everything up around him. But he needed to reserve some chakra.

"Eh, this is a rigged game. I'll give you the penalty."

Alarm bells rang in the chunin's brain, and he got ready for an attack. It didn't come. He waited for a second, two, five, ten, but nothing. But just as he released some tension and got back on the move, he got assaulted by a fist in the face, a kunai in the side, and a blow to the kneecap.

He bit his lip and waited for the moment the kid came close in for another attack, and the moment the brat became visible, he went for the grab. He got a kunai in his shoulder, but he got the hand in his grasp.

"Fuck you, kid!"

He landed a solid punch into the kid's face and was about to break the arm when water was suddenly forced into his mouth. The moment of shock made him lose his grip, and the brat picked up a chance to run away, but not before slamming a knee into the face. He had forgotten about the damn tentacle.

'Fuck this,' thought the chunin. 'I need to wall down.'

It was clear that the kid wasn't going to play mind games with him anymore. He was going for the silent kill the next time he hit. Screw saving chakra. He was going to get rid of the genin and escape. Fuck this joint and job— there was no shortage of work, and he guessed he could get to a comfortable spot in a couple more months.

He began weaving hand seals for a B-rank defensive jutsu that would cover him in a dome. But as he weaved hand seals, he heard a sound.

*Ding*

"Hmm?" What was that noise? He had heard that before. In fact, he had heard it a lot during the fight. Since when had it been going on?

And that's when it happened.

*DING!*

He froze up. He couldn't move a single muscle, and the sound of a bell filled his head, repeatedly filling his ear. The mist suddenly lifted, and he moved his eyes to find himself surrounded by a field full of the brat.

The broken nose on the boy did make him happy, but it didn't change the fact that he couldn't move. What had the brat done?!

He saw a kunai slip into the brat's hand— every brat's hand—and he started to struggle harder, but no matter what he did, he couldn't move. It was as though he was set in stone, a statue.

Shing. As his attention was on the brat, a short sword was shoved into his back and came out of the front. He looked down at the dripping tell. He could instantly tell the blade had gone clean through his heart.

… He was dead.

He looked back and found himself staring into the red eyes of an Uchiha. What a beautiful sight. It seemed he had helped an Uchiha activate his Sharingan. That didn't make the situation feel any better. He wondered if he could screw up the Uchiha brat— traumatize him somehow.

"You were a tough fight."

He turned back to see the brat had hobbled close.

"Genjutsu?" he asked.

The brat jammed a kunai into his throat, and only then did he nod.

"It usually only takes half a dozen or eight rings to work, but I had to be careful with you so I had it keep ringing. And well, there was no way in hell you were going to break free after several dozen bell rings."

"B-Bo-H-h-oo," said the chunin as he spurted blood. He didn't want numbers to be the last thing he wanted to hear.

A hundred little things passed through his mind. An entire lifetime of memories. There were happy ones, but he couldn't pick out happy ones from recent memories, all of them were so far in the past.

'Ah, this is not how I imagined it.'

And with that, he drew his final breath.

———

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Chapitre 152: CH_5.9 (152)

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———

As the mist faded, the first thing Yuhi searched for was the chunin. Among the cardinal rules of combat was never letting the enemy out of sight. She held the bell tight and rang it again while her eyes scoured the ground, darting among the trees. Her sight finally landed on the chunin, who now had a short sword stabbed through the back and a kunai dug into the throat.

Takuma pulled the kunai out. The blood spurted as the chunin's body fell to the side. Takuma and Uchiha, still alert, stared down at the chunin for a few more moments before Takuma pressed his foot into the chunin's throat for a few seconds before pulling back. It was gruesome, disrespectful, and made her stomach squirm.

Her hold on the bell lightened; she no longer needed to ring it. As she dropped down from the tree, Takuma disappeared using the Body Flicker Jutsu. She jogged to Uchiha, her eyes sticking to the dead body.

"Where did he go?" she asked.

"He went to check up on Inuzuka and the Minoru."

Yuhi noticed that the Uchiha was breathing heavily. The sheen of sweat had almost cleared the blood and dirt on his face. Then she saw his eyes. The tired but deep red eyes of the Uchiha clan stared at her.

"Y-You… your Sharingan." She knew that he didn't possess it already.

"Huh, w-what?" Uchiha's hand went to his face. It seemed he hadn't noticed. Yuhi pulled a pocket mirror from her weapons pouch and held it before his face. The Uchiha looked stunned as he stared into the mirror with his eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he got the words out. "I did it…. I did it…. Thank god, I did it…"

He looked relieved as though a burden had been lifted off his shoulder. He laughed a weak chuckle as he stared at the sky. When he looked back down, the eyes had reverted to their original onyx color, and he looked exhausted like he could fall down the next moment.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, just tired." He then sat down on the ground and stared at the dead chunin. "We did it," he said. "We killed the bastard… and survived."

"We did," she said.

She noticed the short sword in the chunin's back belonged to Uchiha. He had been on the ground, risked his life, and from the looks, had landed the killing blow to the chunin…. While she had hidden in the trees, ringing a damn bell again and again without knowing if it was working.

When Fuma gave her the bell and told Takuma would know what to do with it, she was confused. But it immediately struck her. A bell. A bell for the Genjutsu: Bell Sound Clone. Takuma wanted her to ring the bell for her.

She was deeply skeptical about Takuma's plan working. Bell Sound Clone was an auditory genjutsu and used the sound from the bell as the carrier of the chakra. She didn't think the plan would work because the bell was so far away from Takuma, and he had no control over the bell. For the genjutsu to work, the user had to load the sound waves with the chakra, and for the user to do that, they needed to know when the sound was produced. Takuma had outsourced that job, trusting her to do it for her— he was lucky that she knew to ring the bell at equal intervals so that Takuma could count mentally to know when the next ring was coming.

Most importantly, lacing the sound with the sound was easier when the source was close. With her ringing the bell and Takuma moving constantly in battle, the simple task of imbibing sound waves with chakra shot up in difficulty.

"Did Takuma put the chunin in a genjutsu?" she asked. The fog from the Hidden Mist Jutsu obstructed her view of anything that was happening inside, so she didn't know if the plan was successful.

"I don't know," he said. "It was very hazy, but I saw the chunin standing still, so I took the chance. Wait, I remember now; the chunin asked Takuma if it was a genjutsu. Takuma nodded after he stabbed him in the throat."

Yuhi's eyes widened. It worked. Takuma pulled it off. He had managed to pull off the genjutsu while being in a disadvantageous position; not only was he gathering the chunin's focus on his own, the difficulty of casting the genjutsu had gone up due to the situation. But even in those circumstances, Takuma had managed to pull it off.

And she was supposed to be the genjutsu specialist in the group, Yuhi thought bitterly.

———

Arisu dragged her feet towards Yuhi and Uchiha. Her arm was killing her; she was hit directly by an earth bullet in her shoulder, and it had all but disabled it for the moment. She could tell it would take medical help and some physical therapy on top of it to get full functionality back.

"Yuhi, check him for injuries," said Arisu. She placed a small scroll on the floor and weaved a release seal. A puff of smoke later, a full-sized field emergency medical kit sat over the open scroll.

Yuhi had Uchiha lay down and begin treating the 'Damage' team member. As Arisu turned to walk away, Yuhi called out,

"What about you?"

"I'm fine. Go look at Akimichi as well. I'm going to see how the others are doing."

She located Yamanaka looking after Nenro and Masaaki. Both were lying unconscious on the ground. On the other hand, Yamanaka was sitting beside them, holding his head with a pained look on his face.

"Are you injured?" she asked.

"No, no, I… I'm fine," Yamanaka replied with a groan. "I overdrew my hand. Taking over five of you was a strain. None of you were actually cooperative with me."

Yamanaka had taken control over the bodies of Arisu, Nenro, Masaaki, Akimchi, and Uchiha at least once during the fight, getting them out of the danger's way or alerting them of risky situations. Arisu didn't like someone else taking control over her body and instinctually resisted, but she recognized Yamanaka's contribution— he had probably, at the very least, prevented serious injuries, deaths even. She shivered at the thought that there were Yamanaka who could take over minds and bodies without the person ever realizing they were possessed.

"Especially him," Yamanaka pointed at Nenro. "He really didn't like me in his body."

"It's an uncomfortable feeling," said Arisu, "but thank you for everything."

Yamanaka waved her off. "Everyone had a role. I just played mine. And I'm okay not being in front, facing that monster," he said.

Arisu nodded. She might not have been completely detached from the fight like Yamanaka, but she was more than comfortable snipping at the chunin with her Baby and explosive tags from a distance. She had gone close when Nenro and Masaaki had gone down and understood what risk everyone was facing.

"Can you carry them? Yuhi's doing emergency treatment. I can take one of them." One of her shoulders was still good.

"No, I'll take them both," he said, glancing at her bloody shoulder.

They returned to where Yuhi was treating Uchiha and Akimichi. Takuma hadn't returned yet. Her eyes went to the chunin. Blood leaking from the neck had pooled around the head and shoulder. She shivered when the intrusive thought of the chunin getting up and killing them all before they could react flashed past her mind.

"He's dead. I checked his pulse," Uchiha said. Arisu gave him a nod.

Arisu had been working with Takuma since he exited training and entered active duty. They had gotten closer when she joined him in the Narcotics Taskforce— working under him as his second-in-command made her privy to much of Takuma's day.

She knew that he woke up early in the morning to train every day, and he showered at home, but for the past few months, he had been showering at the office because he had been training more in the morning because he had to cut short his after-work short as he had started working late. She even trained with him in the morning a day or two every month, and Takuma trained early, and he trained hard— called it a habit instilled into him.

But not once in the spars or raids had Takuma ever shown that he could use the Hidden Mist Jutsu. So when the heavy fog covered the field, her vigilance had shot up, thinking it was the chunin either trying to escape or, worse, wiping them out while they couldn't see. But as it turned out, it was Takuma.

She was well aware of how dangerous Takuma was in the field. They had been on plenty of raids and arrests for her to know how Takuma operated. Setting leadership aside, Takuma was aggressive as a combatant. He gave one chance for surrender before ensuring none had any attention to resist by using force that bordered on excessive.

A point that they had discussed and fought over multiple times. Keeping him in check had become part of her job. A job she had done well; they had complaints, but she had made sure nothing stuck. The Narcotics Taskforce was a new initiative, one led by a genin— they had to be careful how they operated. Takuma was a good leader, a better manager, but no one could be perfect. Thankfully, Takuma wasn't a one-man department, and everyone covered each other's backs.

"Looks like everyone's gathered."

Everyone looked to see Takuma emerge from behind a tree. He was supporting Minoru, who was limping, his foot bleeding from a nasty cut. Beside them, Inuzuka and his ninken were dragging three people behind them.

"Are they dead?" asked Arisu.

"Two of them," said Inuzuka as he sat down on the ground. His ninken settled in his lap.

Arisu walked to Minoru. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"I… think I'm going to stick to being a sensory-nin," Minoru said with a pained looked.

Arisu chuckled.

"You need to improve your combat abilities," Takuma interjected with a frown. "You can train with me once a week in the morning if you want. Give me a year, and I'll make sure you won't die in the field."

Arisu chuckled as she shook her head. Takuma had been trying to train Minoru for months now, but the latter refused to accept Takuma's offer because Minoru knew he would be trapped if he accepted.

"Arisu, lie down. You're bleeding," Takuma said as he laid Minoru down.

"So are you," she said but followed the instructions.

Takuma poked her in the shoulder, and she yelped in pain. "What the fuck!?" she hissed at him.

"I can still move my arms," Takuma chuckled. "You did a good job out there. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you."

"I know; you should thank me more," she said.

Takuma smiled as he disinfected her wound.

Arisu stared at Takuma. After a moment of silence, she said,

"Thank you."

———

Uchiha Gouki stared down at the ground. He didn't have the energy to lift his head or even raise his eyes. All he wanted was to sleep for a week and not do anything, which would be an appropriate way to spend time after a B-rank mission— but he knew he wouldn't get to do that because the moment he revealed that he had activated his Sharingan, he wouldn't be left alone for a week. There would be relatives coming home to congratulate him, the ceremony that happened after an Uchiha activated their Sharingan; all the preparation involved in that. He would be swamped for at least a week.

Just thinking about it made him tired. He contemplated holding back the news for a week before revealing it to his parents.

"Congratulations are in order."

Gouki glanced at Arisu, lying on the ground, getting treated by Takuma.

He smiled. "I didn't even know I had activated it. Yuhi had to tell me. The mist was so thick that I could barely see anything anyway." Gouki glanced at Takuma. The Hidden Mist Jutsu was a known way to obstruct the Sharingan, but one required extraordinary skill in the jutsu to obstruct the Sharingan with great effectiveness.

Maybe it was because he had just activated it that Takuma was able to blind him even with the Sharingan activated… or Takuma was just that good with the Mist. He couldn't say for sure.

"Will you be staying with us?" Takuma suddenly asked.

Gouki furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"Yes, what do you mean?" said Arisu.

"Well, with the Sharingan, your status in the clan has changed. Doors which were closed before are now open. You probably can get any opportunity you want right now. Which raises the question: will you stay with us or move on?" Takuma said as he continued to treat Arisu.

"Of course, he'll be staying!" said Arisu.

"It's not a sure thing," said Takuma. "His situation has changed. He has new options in front of him now. He should take time to think them through and make the best decision for himself."

"You don't want me on the task force?" asked Gouki. It sounded like Takuma was trying to kick him out.

Takuma laughed. "Are you kidding me? An Uchiha with Sharingan; of course, I would want you on the team." He looked up at Gouki. "But that might not be the best course of option for you. I care for everyone on the team and want to see the best for everyone. As the person in charge of the task force, I would hate to lose you, but as a teammate, I would have you doing what you deserve." Takuma pointed at Gouki's eyes with two fingers. "Those upgraded eyes of yours change the situation…. Think about it, Gouki."

Gouki stared at Takuma, who moved on to treating Minoru.

He had been part of the Narcotics Taskforce from the very first raid on the Maiko Triad before Takuma had even floated the proposal. He had been there every step of the way. Seen their ups and downs and participated in their victories and losses. He had worked hard to make the Narcotics Taskforce what it was today.

He didn't want to move, but as Takuma said, he now had more options and, indeed, had a choice ahead of him.

And just like him, Takuma too had a choice in front of him with the situation brewing back at home with the change of leadership, which was all but sure to happen, looming on the horizon.

———

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