Chapter 31

A few days passed after our… encounter with the now former wielders of two of the Seven Swords. Anko had gone on a hunt for the remaining members of the mercenary group, both for some revenge and for information. Nuibari and Shibuki had both been sealed inside scrolls and were both being guarded by me. I had the one duty in case of attack: To run, as far and as fast as possible. Simple and easy. I liked that, especially right that moment.

I… didn't actually feel that much different from before. And that's what kept me in a daze, really. I didn't know what to think about myself when I had just killed a bunch of people and wasn't even feeling anything in particular for it. Was it wrong of me? To feel guilty because I didn't feel guilty? Was it weird? Those questions kept me up those nights.

I had tried all I could. Thinking it over, meditating, seeing it from outside perspective. Nothing helped, really. I wished I could be back home, with the dogs in the vet, as it had become normal with me when I wasn't doing so well. But alas, I was in this distant town, by myself with the weapons I had used to kill all those people hidden in the pouch on my hip.

I sighed, looking down at my arm, now covered in white bandages instead of the red ones I was used to. This was actually for medical purposes now, instead of just aesthetic ones. According to Anko, the cuts done by Nuibari's thread were bad enough to leave scars, contrary to the cut I had gotten on my cheek. I didn't know what to think about a permanent scar, let alone one such as this one. It would leave lines all over my right forearm forever…

"Still in a funk, eh, kiddo?" Anko asked, appearing out of nowhere right beside me on the tree and looking at nothing in particular.

"You could say that," I admitted easily. There was no point in saying that I was fine. Everyone always noticed those lies.

"Want to talk about it?" She asked, and I appreciated her not beating around the bush. What would dancing around the issue do for anyone? In the end, the problem would still be there. "Or you could visit a Yamanaka once we go back, if you prefer," She offered, but I quickly shook my head.

"No offence to them, or those who use their services… but I think I prefer talking about this with someone I know," I said, my eyes still roaming idly through the landscape in front of us. Next to me, I heard Anko humming noncommittally.

"Between you and me, I haven't ever visited a Yamanaka either," She said, a hint of a smile in her voice.

"And I'm sure they are thankful. Nobody would want to be in your head," I responded, although there was no hint of humor on my face. She hit my shoulder without any real force in it. "Am I a monster?" I asked then, as subtle as a sledgehammer.

"Definitely," She replied instantly and without a doubt. I internally grimaced at that. "No normal person gets as strong as you as fast as you did, Eiji. Even prodigies, those appear right away, but you? You appeared in your last two years at the Academy. That's definitely not what I would call normal," I felt a knot on my throat, that I hadn't even noticed I had, loosen a bit. "And your mind is scary too, not gonna lie," She continued with a matter-of-fact voice. "But you are not a bad person, Eiji, if that's what you mean."

I didn't say anything. And that seemed to tell her enough.

"You are not," her firm voice softened to levels I had not heard before. "Anyone can tell that, Eiji. You aren't a bad person. And whoever says otherwise hasn't seen you with your friends or in the Inuzuka vet."

"It doesn't feel like that."

"Everyone deals with kills differently. That you deal with it this way isn't bad."

"I'm not dealing with it," My voice raised the smallest bit before I slumped. "There's nothing to deal with… nothing at all."

"Exactly," I blinked dumbly at that. "Your brain pushed all emotions out, Eiji. You've barely shown anything in your face since then. I would know, I've been trained to see these things."

"I… I don't know..." I stuttered out, unsure what to say to that.

"Maybe you are doing it unconsciously, but you are doing it," She continued, apparently ignoring my breaking down. "But… I'm not particularly worried about you, kiddo," She said, a small smile forming on her face. "You are a special kind of person, Eiji. You've adapted to everything this world has thrown at you and came out better than you were. This is just another step forward for you."

I went completely still as my brain processed her words.

"You've adapted to everything this world has thrown at you."

I blinked and turned around, staring forwards again. My breathing evened. A coldness that I hadn't even realized was there seemed to lift a bit from my mind and my thoughts, previously accusing and angry, seemed to grow calmer.

"... This world..."

When had I stopped thinking about this world as another one? Because whenever that happened, I had grown delusional. This wasn't my world, despite how at home I felt. And I had been trying to apply logic from my world in this one. Of course I thought that working for Danzo was horrible of me. Of course I felt terrible about it. He was an absolute monster by my world's standards… And maybe he was one in this world too. But the point was… I wasn't… at least not yet.

And killing… I was aware that it was part of this world. But, now, I knew. I had experienced it. And I… didn't know what to think about it.

"What do you think?... About what I did?" I managed to say, my voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't… have to kill them. Any of them. I could have used Stunning Thread and knocked all of them out… but I didn't," I admitted, grimacing slightly and intently not looking at her. "I was just… the things he said…"

"They weren't good people," She said, not quite answering my question. "Maybe they would have ended up in a prison, maybe they would have been killed regardless. But the point is… they weren't good. Most people would tell you that if a bad guy can be stopped without killing them you should do that. Because then it's not about preventing more suffering anymore."

I gulped.

"But I don't care about that," She admitted and the shuffling sound of clothes told me that she had shrugged. "More people than you think, have the same opinion as me too. There's so much killing happening in this world… that as long as you have good reasons, you might just avoid becoming the bad guy yourself."

I thought that over for a minute, during which silence reigned once again. It didn't feel reassuring. But then again, maybe it wasn't meant to. What were you supposed to tell someone that had killed like I did? What would I tell my friends if they ever came to me with similar questions? I would still love them just as much, I was sure of that, at least. But was there even a right answer to that?

"How has that worked out for you?" I asked this time, hesitantly.

"Not so well," She confessed. "Sooner or later, as a ninja, you'll do something that you are not ok with. Something that you'll regret. Nobody that I've known has been able to escape that. Be it from orders or from our own decisions."

"..." I closed my eyes for a second. "You think I managed to avoid that this time?"

"Why did you kill them, Eiji?" She asked back instead of answering. For a second there, I was tempted to make excuses. I could have easily blamed the blood loss, the pain from my wounds. It would be believable, even if it wasn't the truth. She would have picked up on it, probably, but maybe...

"They… they threatened you… and the people that would come next…" I admitted. "And I just… I got so angry. I wanted them dead, all of them…"

"You did it to protect those close to you," She finished for me. "For what it's worth, I think you avoided it, Eiji," Her fast answer made a huge part of the weight on my shoulders vanish into thin air.

"Anko..."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"Anytime, kiddo."

It was nice, I decided, to be able to breath without the weight of death on me. Or, at least, with it considerably reduced. It would take time to get over it, but I was confident I could do it. Maybe I would regret it for the rest of my life, but I would move on and continue living.

I sighed.

"Does it get easier?"

"It does, for some people. It doesn't, for others. Eventually, most are ok in the end. And I know you'll be ok, kiddo."

"I see."

And with that issue somewhat resolved for the moment, I was left with another one of my other doubts to take over my mind. I couldn't keep pushing the issue away. Not now that my life choices seemed to be coming back to bite me. I also… didn't want to keep avoiding it, to be honest.

"You know, don't you?" I asked, still not looking towards my sensei. "About..." I trailed off, unsure of how to say it.

"I do," She accepted, without even needing me to specify.

"Why did you never say anything?"

"Two very big pairs of eyes, kiddo," She said, as if that answered everything, which it didn't. Or, at least, in normal circumstances, it wouldn't. But I had extra information that nobody knew I had.

'So, because of both, Hiruzen and Danzo, huh?' I thought to myself. I chuckled weakly. 'Sometimes I wish I had just left the academy and the village and settled as a civilian in some unknown town. Life would be much easier if I had done that.'

And my thoughts were probably true… but they were also not what I wanted. I was happy as I was. I was content with my friends, my brothers and sisters. I was proud of my progress and my strength. I could get past these inconveniences.

With everything I wanted to say out of the way, we spent nearly half an hour after that simply sitting there in companionable silence. I had half expected her to break the silence at some point. Maybe she would say something about herself, or maybe she would just get bored and make a conversation more like those we usually had, or maybe just offer some more words of comfort. The silence though, was both unexpected and relieving in its own way.

I was very surprised though, when, after getting a room for the night, I saw the remnants of tear trails running down my cheeks.

[}-o-{]

With the mercenaries out of the way, we started moving again. This though, didn't go as I thought it would...

"Why aren't we going back to Konoha?" I asked once we stopped for a breather, confused by the path we were taking. Idly, I manipulated my tanto with my left arm, trying to get used to it since my arm would take some time to heal completely.

"Because we are doing a follow up mission, apparently," She answered, as if that explained everything. I sighed. It really did, explain everything, I realized. "Yeah, kiddo, should have seen that coming."

I took a moment to let that sink in as I thought it over. That and all the information I had at my disposal, obviously. The result was equally obvious too, much to my dismay. After all, we had been sent tracking two of the Seven Swords, Anko had told me that we joined a side in the civil war, and now… we were traveling towards the Land of Water.

"Oh, fuck me," I spat with a grimace.

"Too young, kiddo," Anko snorted out, clearly amused by my realization. "And your girlfriend would have something to say about that."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I grumbled to myself.

"Never gets old," She said, sounding delighted. "Everyone falls for that kind of teasing, eventually they all fall," She added ominously.

"And you wonder why I'm surprised you have friends."

My answer was a smack on the back of my head.

[}-o-{]

"So, just wait?"

"Just wait," Anko said, nodding and making me slump down. I just couldn't wait to be back home. I really wanted to just sit down and relax, working on my garden or visiting the vet. But alas, I had to wait in a random spot in the forest for a bunch of Mist ninja to come for the swords. 'Just great,' I grumbled internally.

And so, there we sat. Anko eating food that I didn't even want to know where it had come from and me sitting against a tree and idly throwing a kunai against another tree and pulling it back with a thread. Ninja wire was weird to use now. Everytime I handled the tool I could feel a phantom pain shot through my right arm. I hoped it would go away soon. It was, after all, one of my favorite things to use.

"You are the ones the Leaf sent?" A voice broke me from my musings and my eyes moved towards a five person team standing on a tree branch above us, all wearing a Mist forehead protector.

"We are," Anko replied with her mouth full, lazily waving back to them. One of them commented something, low enough not to be heard, that was most assuredly not nice about my sensei. My eyes narrowed slightly. "Password?" She asked back, gulping down her meal.

"Roots support the tree from underneath," I almost choked at that. 'Danzo picked that one, didn't he?' I thought to myself with a wry smile that went unseen by the others since they were focusing on each other.

"And the sea pulls back before rising once again," Anko shot back easily before standing up. I did the same quickly and moved to stand behind her. The Mist ninja followed suit, standing right in front of us.

"So, what are you waiting for?" The man that seemed to be the leader and spokesperson raised an eyebrow at us. Anko, instead of answering, tilted her head to the side.

"No, I don't think I'll give them to you," I turned my head to look at her, although I tensed up in preparation.

"You are betraying us?" The guy grew angry instantly, red coloring his face and the others went for their weapons.

"Not really," Anko smiled that smile that everyone that knew her feared. "Because, you see… you aren't our allies, are you?"

"Just give the swords to us and the brat and you can live, woman," The man spat out, visibly trying to remain somewhat calm. "Nothing has to happen to you, if you stay out of this."

"Eiji, do your thing, would you?" Anko said, and I tilted my head, just like she had done before and copied her smile.

'Free Running, Intermediate Taijutsu,' I called out in my mind before doing a quick motion with my hand and jumping as high as I could. Ninja wire moved quickly through the place. A second later, four of them stood there, wrapped in steely threads, unable to move. Me, for my part, stood right in front of them, where I had been before, after falling from my jump. Anko, meanwhile, had gotten a hold of the only guy that had managed to escape my trap and had already wrapped him up in one of her bigger snake summons.

'Good thing I set up those just in case,' I thought to myself looking at the wires.

"Well… that was easy," I pointed out, surprised. "Are you Gennin?"

"We are Chuunin," One woman in my trap spat out.

"And this one must be a Jounin," Anko said looking at the guy in front of her. "But still, sending a bunch of Chuunin? Is your side running out of competent people?" All five bristled at that. "Or were you coming here thinking that you would be enough to take out a Jounin and his Genin student?... Oh, I was right, huh?" I didn't know how she gathered that last bit, but I guessed she saw something on them that answered her question. She was scary perceptive like that.

"We aren't going to talk," The man in her hold said curtly.

"I don't know about that, tough guy," She replied with a smirk. "You are telling me plenty already. So… you had intel about all this, huh. Hm, you probably had inside information. I see, I see," She nodded, her grin widening. "Knock those out, Eiji. They don't know anything useful."

"Sure," and following that, I shocked the four Chuunin with a Stunning Thread until they were unconscious. As this went on though, I couldn't help but wonder if I was really that powerful, taking out Chuunin like they were Academy Students. I had expected to be stronger than normal Genin, but all I really had was a bunch of E and D rank techniques, really. Why was it that I was this strong already? Was it the system, affecting everything more than it let on?

"What do they feed the brats in Konoha these days?" A new voice asked and Anko, the guy that remained awake and I turned our heads in his direction.

I don't know what the other two thought of the new arrival, but I know that I stiffened and my eyes grew wide.

There stood a man, wearing a pair of baggy pants, wrist warmers that extended to his elbows and matched the ones on his legs, a pair of black sandals and a blue belt that crossed his muscular previously mentioned belt held the biggest sword I had ever seen on his back. A forehead protector wore sideways under his spiky black hair, not dissimilar to mine, and the bottom half of his face was covered by bandages.

Next to him, slightly behind, stood what seemed to be a girl in a pinstriped outfit under a green haori with white trimmings. The person's long black hair was gathered in a white bun holder, two bags left to hand on the sides of their face bound with metal hair cuffs. They also wore a forehead protector, traditionally this time.

Their appearance wasn't what surprised me though. It was who they were.

Zabuza and Haku.

"And you are supposed to be the right ones? This time, that is," Anko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Doesn't seem like the password will be worth much," The swordsman commented casually.

"Not really," My sensei shrugged.

"Hm, that complicates matters," The man hummed and I licked my lips preparing for a much harder fight. "What do you think, Haku?"

"I'm not sure, Zabuza-sama,"

"I can take care of her, for sure," He pointed out before signaling to me. "The brat though, I'm not sure who would win between you two."

There was something very unnerving about the way they were talking. And I could easily see this been the standard conversation they had before killing a target of theirs. The fact that they were here and hadn't been where they should have been before only added to my nerves.

"No need for that," Anko said with a casual tone, turning around and completely ignoring the man she had been previously interrogating. "It's difficult to impersonate Zabuza Momochi of all people."

"Is that so?" The man raised an eyebrow at that, and I could swear I heard a bit of disappointment somewhere there.

"Yeah, that is so," My sensei nodded amicably. "And, just for the sake of that curiosity, if your brat isn't Jounin level, then he doesn't stand a chance," She added, a wide grin on her face. I was torn between being in awe of her recognizing Haku as a boy or incredulous about what she had said.

"Hm," The man hummed, this time his eyes locking firmly on me. "Then it would be an interesting fight to see, if nothing else."

"Right?" Anko asked enthusiastically.

'Why am I not surprised that she gets along with this guy?' I thought to myself, somewhat resigned.

"Zabuza-sama," Haku interrupted softly.

"Right, the mission."

"Eiji?" Anko called out, her expression turning serious. Instantly, I pulled out the scroll with the swords. "And as simple as that, we are-"

"Out of curiosity," Zabuza interrupted, his tone and eyes telling us that it wasn't mere curiosity what drove his following question. "How did you get them?"

"We followed and took out the two with them, as simple as that," Anko explained with a raised eyebrow, clearly as unaware as I was about the reason for his question.

"You fought together?" He pressed.

"They ambushed us separately," My sensei started, her tone somewhat impatient. I could understand. I also couldn't wait for this mission to be over and go back home. "The one with Shibuki took me to a trapped place and fought me with the help of a bunch of mercenaries. The one with Nuibari went after Eiji here," She finished signaling at me. "After he took out that guy, he went and helped-"

"The brat took out the swordsman, alone?" He prodded again, although I was surprised to notice that there was no disbelief in his voice.

"Yes?" Anko answered, cautiously and I could see her eyes narrow when Zabuza's eyes snapped towards me again, this time with much more intensity behind them.

"What's your name?" He asked, this time looking straight at me.

"What's going on?" Anko countered, clearly growing agitated with the man's attitude. A second later, she tensed up as a wave of bloodlust washed over us.

"His name," Zabuza demanded.

"Eiji Satou," I answered, gulping down my nervousness and deciding to just get it over with.

"Eiji Satou," The man muttered, as if tasting the name. "Take out Nuibari, brat," I did so without protest. We were going to give the weapons to them anyway. I could do that much without problem. "You took out its wielder in a one on one, huh?" He whispered, more to himself than to us.

'This isn't going where I think it's going, is it?' I asked myself. Because if defeating one of the Seven Swords wielders was an insult to Kiri or something and Zabuza decided that he had to kill me, I would be very pissed. Very pissed indeed.

The man nodded firmly after a moment of staring between the legendary sword and me.

"It's yours now," The Swordsman said, with a tone of finality.

I blinked.

"What?"