Chapter 25: Sword and Shield

Iruka guided him out of the Academy through the populated streets of the village while chatting with him, bringing him to a small unassuming stand. A ramen stand, to be precise. One that every fan of the Naruto franchise would recognize by heart. It was Ichiraku Ramen, the favorite dining spot of the most reckless ninja. The stand was owned by the kind-hearted ramen cook, Teuchi.

The instant he spotted the stand, Tekku recognized it himself. He had always planned to come and eat here one day. But since he was saving up money for now, he never had the opportunity. "Hey, Teuchi, how are you doing?" greeted Iruka as he pulled the fabric covering the inside aside.

"Ah, Iruka. I am doing great. Did Naruto convince you to invite him for ramen again?" asked Teuchi as he tried to look behind Iruka, who chuckled embarrassed.

"No, not today. But I am bringing one of my former students again. This is Tekku. He completed the Sealing Expert Exam today," introduced Iruka as Tekku stepped inside the familiar shop that he had seen so many times but never visited himself before.

"Nice to meet you, Tekku-kun. I think that calls for a celebration. As a first-time customer and for your success, the first bowl is on the house," announced Teuchi with a smile, confident that he would hook another customer with his godly ramen.

"Eh, thank you very much, Teuchi-san," said Tekku as he sat down beside Iruka.

"So, what kind of ramen would you like?" asked the legendary ramen chef.

Without hesitation, Tekku blurted out, "A large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet, please." This was the ramen Naruto often enjoyed, and obviously the one Tekku wanted to try out first.

"Another one, huh?" muttered Teuchi before getting to work with a large smile. It was truly an impressive sight to see a master chef at work. "One large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet!" he announced as he placed the finished bowl in front of Tekku.

Both teacher and ramen cook stared at the young genin as he took his chopsticks and dug into the bowl of ramen. With the first bite of noodles, his expression lit up visibly. "So good!" praised Tekku as he continued eating his bowl of ramen.

Teuchi turned to Iruka, as he had hooked another customer on his legendary ramen. "What can I bring you, Iruka?" asked the chef with a large grin.

That afternoon, Tekku ordered another two bowls of ramen, paid for by Iruka, as he finally understood why Naruto loved the stuff so much. Teuchi was a true master of his art. He also later met Teuchi's daughter, Ayame, who was currently 12 years old and always helped her father out after school had finished.

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A few days after his Sealing Expert Exam, his team once again began their training together in their usual schedule. But now, after completing two D-Rank missions in between, they would also take a C-Rank mission, which usually lasted a few days to about a week. They always picked missions that wouldn't go too long, like long-range escort missions, so they didn't spend too much time outside of the village.

After all, as a team, if the mission wasn't personally chosen for them by the Hokage, they had the freedom to decide which mission to take, as the mission counter always had a full catalog of missions for them to pick from. Inoichi-sensei always picked ones where the team could gain new experience. Soon, they also had their first extermination mission, where the rest of the team got their first blood.

Of course, it wasn't a mission where they had to take out other ninjas, as any mission with enemy ninjas involved was B-Rank or higher. No, it was a pretty simple mission. A village in the Fire Country had gained a bandit problem after their trade became more prosperous. Seeing the higher amount of money they could rob there, a group of bandits settled down close by, always attacking the trade routes near the village, impairing their ability to trade. The original rich region now had trouble feeding their people.

On this mission, his teammates got their first kills, and experiencing the consequences from it, Tekku long since his first kill overcame the perspective of a shonen manga he had from the Naruto universe and accepted the fact that this world was much darker. Instead, he tested some of his new puppets.

He had two new puppets, to be precise. Both of them were more advanced versions of his first cheap puppet, the Crash Test Dummy. They still had the kunai shooter in their mouth and the transformation seal, which was a cheap but useful function. But instead of a standard smoke bomb, they now had poison smoke or a smoke bomb, as Tekku could choose which to activate. He had learned enough from Inoichi to create his first poison gas for his seals and installed that in his new puppets. Besides these basic functions, both puppets were different.

The first one was called the Sword Puppet. After studying the chakra blade mechanism of the puppet part he had from the Chikamatsu Collection, he recreated his own version and installed chakra blades on multiple parts of the puppet. It also had four arms, deviating from the standard human form to give his puppet more attack variation.

His other puppet didn't have a complex gimmick or something. It was called the Shield Puppet. As the name already suggests, it was a defensive puppet with a strengthened frame, which made it heavier and more immobile in comparison to other puppets. He could only use it up close. It was strong for taijutsu and could be opened so he could hide inside it if necessary. With its strengthened parts, it was able to endure the damage of strong B-Rank jutsu. If he wanted to make it more durable, he would have to add a chakra shield, which was a future plan of his, but he hadn't fully developed the mechanism yet.

Both his new puppets raised his combat efficiency greatly. The Sword Puppet cut through the bandits like butter, while his Shield Puppet protected him from close enemies. Unfortunately, he couldn't collect more corpses to study, as Inoichi-sensei or one of his teammates were always close. Not that he could do much, as he still hadn't found a place where he could dissect them. But he used the enemy corpses to practice his puppeteering on the human body, greatly confusing his opponents, and he managed to control four puppets at the same time now.

The mission only took three days to complete. Most of the time was spent finding the bandit hideout and later, with Inoichi calming his teammates down and helping them overcome their first kills. After that, they returned to the village, and already on their way to the mission counter, they felt that something was wrong in the village. The atmosphere just wasn't right.

It didn't take them long to overhear what had happened, as the civilians weren't really quiet when discussing such things. Shisui Uchiha, one of the geniuses and future pillars of the village, apparently committed suicide. 'That time is here,' realized Tekku as he heard that.

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