Chapitre 313: CH_8.48 (313)

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The link is also in the synopsis

———

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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Chapitre 314: CH_8.49 (314)

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———

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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