Naruto knelt in front of the loo and was vomiting. He had given his clones the command to dispel and by now all the killings of the last night had been transferred to his mind.
If other kinds of clones would have the ability to use jutsu, he would have used them. They at least didn't transfer the memories.
But now he was facing the guilt for killing all those people. Sure, they were criminals that had killed, raped, beaten up and blackmailed others, but taking a life through assassination was never easy.
Naruto didn't notice when Kakashi entered the bathroom and handed him a glass of water to get the remains of his vomit taste out of his mouth.
"It's okay, Naruto. That kind of reaction is normal after the kind of mission we did." Kakashi said. "I would have been surprised if you didn't break down once you got the memories from your clones. Do you want to talk about it?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto looked up with his bloodshot eyes and saw that Kakashi had changed his clothes. The other ones had been bloodied from the mission.
"I feel so guilty. I technically know that there was no other way to protect Tazuna and his family and get us a chance to survive this mission.
I also know they would have killed us in an instant and did with others before. But I can't stop shaking. I can't stop seeing the pictures in my mind." Naruto said.
"Somehow the fight against Aoi was easier as he was aware what he could do and that I would kill him if he messed up. He never had the chance because I was too fast with my first attack. I, I used Dad's jutsus.
When I saw him, I realized that I had the chance to get great-grandpa's sword back. I couldn't pass up on that. And he seemed to have waited for somebody to use the hours before dawn to attack." Naruto said.
"I understand. The first time going out to assassinate others isn't easy. You are somewhat blessed and cursed at the same time to be so good at your job. Thanks to your shadow clones you could postpone being hit with the whole dimension of what you did last night, but now it comes back in heaps.
I can only tell you what your Dad told me. 'As long as you are capable of feeling remorse for what you had to do, you didn't lose your humanity. We are ninjas and in battle or on missions we have to kill to protect those that can't protect themselves.
But I refuse to regard taking the life of a criminal that would kill innocents without a second thought as murder. It's more like putting down a rabid animal.' That was after we had to take out a bandit camp that had caused trouble in Fire Country.
I killed twenty bandits on that mission, fifteen of them in their sleep. It's never easy. It will never really get easier, but we all know that if we don't do our job, the next ones dying won't be the criminals, but their innocent victims." Kakashi said.
"Thank you, Kakashi sensei." Naruto said gratefully.
"You're welcome, Naruto. Here take these and sleep for some hours. They're pills to soothe your stomach." Kakashi said and held out two little light blue pills.
Naruto nodded and gulped the pills down with some water.
"I'll knock myself out with one of my poisons. It will last five hours. Otherwise I won't be able to get any sleep which would be fatal for me. I can guarantee that my seals will keep any attackers out for that time.
If any of the ninjas should try to attack us, this is the antidote. I'll be at full strength after getting it ten minutes later." Naruto said.
"You aren't immune to your own poisons?" Kakashi asked surprised.
"To most of them I am. Kyubi's chakra in my system works like a natural antidote. If I have enough time to recover and don't have other dangerous injuries, I won't die from any poisoning. This one I specially developed to circumvent the Kyubi's chakra.
After I found out about the possibilities of poisons and that I was a jinchuriki I wanted something that could take out another jinchuriki. I refuse to just rely on Kyubi whenever things get dangerous. And I know that the fox's chakra is a double edged sword.
It may be incredibly powerful, but I have a high price to pay if I use it. Kyubi is so full of hate that it will try to control me if I give in to the temptation of using its chakra." Naruto said.
"That's sound reasoning. Well, I'll put Sasuke and Sakura on guard, then I'll turn in myself." Kakashi said.
Naruto nodded and walked to the room where he, Sasuke and Kakashi slept. He injected the sleeping poison into his vein and was soon fast asleep.
...
Five minutes after Naruto fell asleep Kakashi woke up Sasuke.
"Come with me." Kakashi said.
Sasuke stood up and followed his sensei.
"How did the missions go, Kakashi sensei?" He asked.
"It went off without problem. Naruto got rid of the Ame genin and Aoi Rokusho, we are down nine hundred thugs and I captured Sanae Nogunaba and Kimie Roino who were thankfully asleep.
Which I strengthened with a bit of one of Naruto's poisons that he gave me before we started, and didn't put up any resistance.
They may be missing nins from Kiri, but their bloodline limits are very valuable.
If we could convince them and that Haku boy that Naruto defeated and captured to join Konoha it would be very beneficial for the village. Either way, they could possess important information which our T&I department will find out.
You and Sakura are to keep watch over the house. Tazuna can't go out today. We need to wait for back-up from Konoha until we can let him continue building his bridge." Kakashi said.
"Understood, sensei." Sasuke said.
Sakura joined them.
"Good morning, Sasuke, Kakashi sensei. How was your mission?" Sakura asked.
"A success. Sasuke can tell you more. One more thing. Wake me if we are attacked by anybody. Naruto won't wake for five hours; he knocked himself out with one of his poisons to be able to get some sleep.
And if possible I want him to get all the sleep he can get. Don't ask him about the mission when he wakes up. He had to assassinate hundreds.
While they weren't difficult to kill, he still feels guilty for taking all those lives. You too will find out in your career that killing an opponent in a fight and assassinating somebody in their sleep are two very different things. Just let him come to terms with it." Kakashi said.
Both nodded. Kakashi left them to go up and sleep for some hours as well.
...
Gato was shell-shocked when he returned to his base. He had enjoyed a great night in one of his luxury brothels and was now ready to work on his business.
Tomorrow the Iwa ninjas would take out the Konoha scum and perhaps the bridge builder. If they only got that strong Konoha ninja it would be enough.
With the bridge builder on his own his thugs could deal. And then this country would completely be his. After all, who would be able to take up thousand thugs at the same time? Nobody. Even those pesky ninjas tired out after some time. He didn't like the silence in the base though.
Normally there should have been his minions guarding the base or preparing a new delivery of drugs that was due this afternoon. When he told his guards to see what the reason for the silence was, he got a nasty surprise.
They were dead. Every single person here in the base was dead. After one hour he got the information that even the Ame ninjas he had had in the base were dead.
The genin killed in their sleep and Aoi in a fight. But only his blood remained. His body couldn't be found.
The former subordinates of Zabuza had also vanished, probably killed as well and their bodies taken for the bounties. Damn it all, how had this happened? He needed the Iwa ninjas to act now. This couldn't be tolerated.
Then he thought of his second base. He would call back-up from there. These ninjas would get to know his power.
While losing four hundred of his subordinates hurt in power, with six hundred remaining he still had more than enough manpower to keep the iron grip around Wave. And he didn't need to pay those four hundred anymore.
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Hey guys I really need some power stones to Elevate the ranking :)
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