CH_3.9 (068)

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'—a shinobi is much more than the chakra he wields—'

Did Takuma fully understand the depth behind the meaning of the words that Maruboshi had said to him nearly a year ago? The answer would be 'No'. His teacher had put him through many different skills that he initially thought would be of no use to him. To this day, there were skills he thought he would never ever use.

However, at the same time, the cycle of D-rank missions had shoved him into many paths of life. He had done more different things in his life than ever before. From farming in the soil to sewing with a needle to construction work under the sun to balancing books in an office to standing at a gate and smiling at people as they walked by— he had done a lot of jobs. And surprisingly, some of Maruboshi's teaching had helped him along, and he had learned much more things along the way that had come to his aid in one way or another.

Looking back at it, he was surprised at how little his previous self knew. The stupid college bozo wouldn't have been able to survive in the world if he was one day kicked to the street to fend for himself.

So, while he didn't fully agree or even understand his teacher's words, Takuma had to agree that having knowledge and skill of various kinds was beneficial in general.

Simultaneously, he was still a shinobi. He believed that if he was to learn different skills, they should be more suited to his job title and not just anything until he could call himself a jack of irrelevant trades. His time was better suited to learning and trying things he deemed more useful.

Which was why he decided to test out something practical and valuable to him in the future… and not all because he thought it was fun and something he always wanted to do.

Across the street from him was the headquarters of the Hidden Leaf's— nay, the Land of Fire's— biggest publishing house— Sume Publications. Takuma didn't have time to read many books in his time here, but he did follow the newspaper, and book reviews were a thing in it, and he had heard much about books from Sume Publications.

Takuma wanted to see how deep he could get into the building without getting caught. He could, of course, transform as one of the employees and walk into the building, but the risk of getting approached and talked to by someone was high. If that happened, his disguise would be outed with his inability to talk back— he could act rude and ignore everyone or pretend as if he was in a hurry, but that wasn't ideal.

Moreover, as useful as Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) was, trained shinobi could catch flaws. They had gone over it during basic training, looking for flaws in each other's transformations. And while Sume Publications was a civilian establishment, he didn't want to use that tactic. It was a self-restriction.

He had something else in mind.

Takuma looked down at the simple set of repairman clothes— they were the equivalent of the high-vis vest— and tucked the ladder under his arm and picked up the red toolbox before jumping down from the building's roof.

He walked up to the entrance of the building where two shinobi stood guard. Even though it was a civilian establishment, a couple of genin guards were hired by the business. The building was both the headquarters and a large printing press. In the Leaf village, a shinobi hub, having one or two genin guards, was considered the basic level of security for those who could afford it.

Taking a calm breath, Takuma crossed the road with his head held high. He had the toolbox, ladder, and a clipboard with blank paper— that was all he needed. Even if they were shinobi, they were still humans. He just needed to believe that this was where he belonged. He could do it.

Without slowing down or looking at the guards, he walked past them into the building. Takuma felt their eyes on him, and for a moment, he felt his heart skip a beat, but as he kept walking, they didn't stop him.

His lips twitched upward as he stepped inside the building. It worked! 'Holy shit, I didn't think it would actually work!' he cheered to himself. But as it turned out, a simple suitable disguise and the right attitude were all he needed to get into most places.

Putting away his smile, Takuma continued. To his surprise, even the receptionist didn't stop him as he walked deeper into the building.

Well, better for him.

His destination was on the floor with the editors, specifically fiction editors. His target: Shindo Eru, a senior editor for Semu Publications.

The reason why Takuma had chosen Semu Publications and Shindo Eru was that he knew both. During one of his delivery stints, he had been asked to deliver a package to Semu Publications, and the recipient had been Shindo Eru. He had been in the building once and had seen the man once.

If it wasn't his first exercise of the type and he wasn't participating in the Ring and thus short on time, he would've chosen a fresh target and would've done scouting— but since he still had to do missions, he deemed that experience as scouting.

As long as he entered Shindo Eru's office without raising suspicion, he would consider it a win.

From what Takuma remembered, Shindo Eru's office was on the edge of an office space that was shared between junior editors in an open-cubicle style. Shindo Eru, being a senior editor, was given his own closed office. For Takuma to enter the office, he needed to go through an entire floor of people without raising any eyebrows.

He had delivered the package directly into Shindo Eru's hands in his office— and he could've used the delivery boy's identity again, but that would've only given him a few seconds in the office, and that's only if Shindo Eru was in his office. If the man wasn't in his office, he would've been forced to hand the faux package to someone else.

He could hide somewhere, but that would've restricted his reconnaissance options as an unknown person would've stood out.

But, a repairman?

Takuma opened his ladder under a bulb just outside the office space with a direct line of sight to the office and pretended to work while observing the premise to figure out how he could get into the office and stay for a reasonable amount of time.

An ideal period to try getting into the office would be lunchtime when people go out to eat, but that was a little over an hour away, and he couldn't wait that long without someone figuring out that something was wrong. And, from the looks of it, Shindo Eru wasn't in his office.

Even if he could stay until lunch, he didn't have that kind of time. He had a fight right after lunch; as he was still a new fighter, his fights were not at times one could call primetime. He needed to be out and away to get prepared for his fight.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

As Takuma was peering around, a voice called out to him. He looked down and saw a bespectacled woman with documents cradled in her arms staring up at him.

Even though he was expecting someone to talk to him, it still surprised him. It took him a moment to reply, "Ah, there's nothing wrong; it's just routine maintenance work, miss," he said with a smile.

"Then can you look at help me with the light above my desk, it has been flickering lately," said the lady.

"Sure, where is it? I will head over there after I'm done with here," he said, keeping the pretense. Inside he was annoyed about the hindrance in his mission, but he kept the pleasant mask on the outside.

Contrary to his expectations, the woman pointed inside the office space. Takuma's eyes shined. He smiled and assured the woman that he would be there to help her in a jiffy. He followed the lady with his eyes, and her desk was a pebble's flick worth of distance away from the office. Lady luck was with him today.

He counted two minutes before heading to the lady's desk, and she showed him the bulb that was bothering her. Takuma set up his ladder and began his pretense.

"Hmm, this looks like it has reached the end of its life; we will need to change the bulb and put in a new one, miss," he climbed down from the ladder. "I don't have one that will fit in this socket right now, but how about I exchange this bulb with one from a less inconspicuous place. That way, you won't wait until we order a replacement."

"That would be really helpful, thank you," the woman smiled.

"Then, I will go search for a matching one," Takuma said, pulling the nigh invisible string wrapped around his pinky.

*Thud!*

The woman turned and gasped when she saw that a pile of paper on her desk had fallen down. She turned and saw that Takuma was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh, where did he go?"

. . .

Takuma silently closed the door to Shindo Eru's office behind him. He grinned as he looked inside the empty office. The tricky part was done, now all he had to do was complete the task and take his exit.

The office had a messy desk filled with stacks of paper in envelopes that looked like manuscripts. There was a bookshelf with a lot of books. Takuma could've stolen them, but he didn't want to cause harm to the man (or the people who had sent the manuscripts). This was just an exercise.

Other than the furniture and decorations, there was a large metal almirah. When Takuma pulled on the handle, he found the doors locked.

'This is it; this is a proper place,' he smiled.

Takuma took out his lock-picking kit from his person and got to work. It took a little under two minutes to pick the lock and… click!

He was in.

There were more documents inside, a packed lunch, a jar of candy, a change of clothes, a formal suit, and more. None of the things interested him. He just wanted to test out his lock-picking skills on the 'field.'

And for the final step… Takuma picked up a blank paper and a calligraphy brush from the desk

Takuma grinned as he put ink on the page.

. . .

Getting out was easier. Takuma threw a smooth decoration pebble from Shindo Eru's decorative bowl across the office space and made a large glass jar fall. The crash was loud enough that it caught everyone's attention for a moment, which was sufficient for Takuma to sneakily get out of the office.

He replaced the woman's bulb, packed his stuff, and walked out of Sume Publications with no one knowing any better.

And later that day, lady luck continued to shine on him as he got a sub-three-minute knockout on his opponent.

It made him think if he should go prowling into buildings as a ritual before fights.

It was a good day of quick in-and-outs.

———

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Shindo Eru looked up at the faintly flickering light bulb in his office with a frown before looking down at the manuscript envelope. He pulled out the manuscript with the title:

[Icha Icha – Part 1]

— Jiraya

As he got ready to read the first manuscript by the one of the three great Sanin, Jiraya, another folded page fell out of the envelope. It was an unruled page, different from the manuscript paper.

He spread it open,

"Huh?"

Written on it in bold writing were the words:

[BIG DADDY WAS HERE]

Shindo Eru frowned before shaking his head.

He could never understand the eccentric minds of shinobi.

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