Heart of Tobirama

Shingo's eyes slowly opened before quickly darting around the unfamiliar surroundings. His heart began to race but calmed down when he realized he was alone.

"Where…?"

It looked to be a storage cellar. There were boxes scattered about on the dusty floor. Pipes ran up and down the walls and ceiling. A single lantern that hung from the ceiling swung softly on the draft that blew in from the door at the top of the stairs.

Shingo winced in pain. It felt like someone had bashed in his rib cage, even breathing hurt.

"Dammit." He tried to move his hands but found that they had been tied to two separate pipes, leaving his arms spread open. The thick ropes had been applied too tightly, and his wrists hurt like hell.

He vividly remembered inviting himself into Lady Nyoko's house and finding her in the dining room. The crazy woman had been fiercely sniffing a pillow for some unknowable reason. At some point during his usual threatening routine, a shinobi kid from the Leaf showed up and proceeded to knock his lights out. Even now, he had absolutely no clue where the shinobi pulled the strength from; it felt like it had nearly doubled mid-fight.

'He must've been holding back to begin with,' Shingo concluded. It was the only reasonable assumption he could make.

He tried to yank on the pipes, but they didn't budge. All he did was hurt his wrists more.

A door opened. Shingo's eyes focused on the top of the stairs where the shinobi had appeared. He slowly descended the stairs, his eyes fixed on Shingo at every step.

"I see you've awoken," the shinobi said. He crouched in front of him.

"What do you want?"

"For what other reason would I have tied you up if not for information?"

Shingo sneered. He had no reason to give up anything, and if he did, he would only be condemning himself to a brutal death at the hands of Kazu; the psychotic bastard was not known for his forgiveness.

The shinobi calmly pulled a kunai from his pouch and pointed it at Shingo's face.

"What? You're gonna use that on me?" It was not the first time Shingo had been on the receiving end of a knife.

"Maybe… I'm not sure how effective it'll be yet," the shinobi said with a face that suggested he was deeply contemplating something.

"Hmph, I've been cut befo—" Shingo was cut off by a sharp pain that assaulted his leg. After a small shout of pain, he lowered his vision to where the shinobi had dug the kunai.

"Sorry," the shinobi said, "You said you'd been cut before, so I figured I might as well jump straight to stabbing. Are you fine with this too? Because we can always move on to dismem—"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Shingo yelled out. "Why in God's name would I be okay with being stabbed?!" His face twitched at the waves of pain that radiated from his left calf.

"Your crew runs out of a casino," the shinobi ignored him and continued, "so you're familiar with card games and the luck of the draw. You know that the blacksmith was dealt good cards when I bought this from him, and I was dealt good cards when I was given a reason to use it on you, but what kind of cards have you been dealt?"

The shinobi yanked the kunai out of Shingo's leg and slowly glided its edge up his body before resting it on his left bicep. "I wonder if they're any good," he added.

Shingo's heart pounded inside his chest.

"You're a lefty, right?" The shinobi asked, moving on as though he hadn't just stabbed him.

"What? Yes?— No!" Shingo scrambled his brain to understand what the shinobi intended to do. His answer came when another agonizing pain appeared on the inside of his left elbow. He cried out, "W-What the hell do you want from me?"

"I want to know how far I can push this in before you lose feeling in your lower arm."

Shingo's back was drenched in sweat, and he became unsure of whether it was truly better to face the shinobi's discontent over Kazu's.

Another shot of pain raced up his arm. The tip of the kunai had begun to touch the bone on the inside of his elbow. Soon, it will have been pushed all the way through.

"This part will be hard…" The shinobi said. He looked determined to accomplish an arduous task that had beset him.

"Okay! I'll tell you what you want! Just please, pull it out," Shingo said. His voice leaked with the pain that he felt.

"I'm so close to the other side, though?" The shinobi looked unwilling, but seeing Shingo's pleading, he loosened his grip on the blade. "Fine… What do you know?"

Shingo breathed a sigh of relief. "We're led by a man named Kazu."

The shinobi looked unfazed by the information and asked, "How many?"

"We recently hit forty-one members."

"How many Konoha shinobi do you have on your payroll?"

"I don't know. Kazu is the one who bribe—" Shingo screamed in pain. The kunai had been reinserted into his arm. "I don't know! I swear, I really don't know!"

The shinobi paused for a moment but then continued forcing the kunai in deeper.

Shingo practically screamed out, "There's a list!" When the shinobi stopped, Shingo continued, "Kazu keeps it in his office at Quickly Rich Casino! It should have all the names of who works for him, including the Leaf shinobi, so please stop…."

"Among your gang's members, are you the strongest? Or do they hand out names like 'Chakra Thug' to anyone?"

"Other than Kazu, I'm the strongest. We're just regular people, you know? If it wasn't for Kazu's scheming and bribing, we'd have been wiped out long ago… Although, maybe he would've survived."

"How strong is Kazu?"

"Well, I heard he graduated, so genin? Chunin? I don't have a clue. They all look powerful from where I'm standing."

"What jutsu have you seen him use? What are his skills?"

"I've mostly only ever seen him beat the sense out of people… But I remember he once burned some evidence with a fire jutsu."

"Evidence?"

"It… was a body — some old gramps that refused to pay what he owed."

"That's all I needed to know," the shinobi said. He wiped the blood off of his kunai using Shingo's pant leg.

"Then you'll let me go, right?" Shingo asked. He would have to beg Kazu to understand his position, but so long as he stopped being treated like a pincushion, then it could only be considered a trivial challenge in comparison. Besides, he and Kazu were good friends.

'Yes, real good friends…' Shingo thought.

"Not once did I say I would let you go," the shinobi said, "Sorry…"

Shingo's eyes shot open. "Hey! Wha—" The rear end of the kunai slammed into his head, and his world turned black.

~~~

Reiko observed the once more unconscious Chakra Thug. The man's leg and arm were bleeding profusely, and blood trickled down from the new wound on his head.

Reiko did not enjoy being an interrogator — he was not designed for it — but he thought he played the role convincingly enough. He had adopted the 'fake it until you make it' approach. Although he disliked it, he needed the information. To use his own analogy: it had been the cards he was dealt, but his cards got even worse than that.

Now that they had gotten to this point, Reiko couldn't let Chakra Thug go. If he did, there would be a real chance that the man would come back in search of revenge, leaving Lady Nyoko's life in constant danger. Not to mention that he held knowledge of Reiko's presence in the city, which would destroy any sort of element of surprise that he had. The shinobi stationed in the city were compromised, so he couldn't turn the man in with the fear that he would just be let go. There was an obvious solution, but it was messy…

Reiko swallowed and tightened his grip on the kunai. He had never taken a life before — not even the previous Reiko. It would be a novel experience of the malevolent kind. Something about extinguishing the life of a calmly sleeping man, though painless, felt especially callous. He hadn't even bothered asking the man for his name because it would only make what came next harder.

'But you live with the hand you're dealt…' Reiko thought. That went for both of them.

Reiko lifted his kunai to the side of Chakra Thug's throat, and in a brief moment, brought it across with full force. He didn't look away; he forced himself to watch — not because he relished in it like some sick freak, but because he had to face it and live with it.

Reiko was first startled by the overwhelming surge of blood that threatened to drench him, but it quickly turned to disgust. Just as he was about to vomit, a few notifications appeared in his vision, and the revulsion vanished as though it had never existed.

[You have killed "Chakra Thug." Reward: 30 XP.]

[Your Level has increased to 2. Your Attributes have increased by one. You have received a portion of Tobirama's understanding of [Senju-Style Taijutsu]. You have received the Heart of Tobirama.]

[[Senju-Style Taijutsu] has increased to Level 2.]

[Heart of Tobirama: The steely will and composer to do what is necessary.]

~~~

Current Status:

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Name: Reiko Kaneko | Info

Level: 2 (10/220 XP) | Evaluation?

Chakra: 5 | Strength: 6

Agility: 5 | Dexterity: 5

Vitality: 5 | Perception: 3

Attribute Points: 0

Skills | Jutsu | Releases

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