It had been more than a month since another wave of missions and training came to Takeru's life. He enjoyed it very much. Team 9 took mainly C-rank missions with a few D-rank missions in between.
One such D-rank mission was to catch a cat that had been stealing and vandalising local restaurants, bakeries and food stalls. Shunsui as usual dumped the task all too lovingly onto his students. Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu started searching for the cat throughout the village. Unfortunately for the three genins, that little bastard was good at hiding. Nonetheless after a full day of searching every nook and cranny of the village, they found the cat sleeping lazily on top of a Kikyo Castle.
The cat had brown fur, with a line running down its forehead with three going across it, and amber-coloured eyes. Takeru instantly recognised the cat. It was Tora, the immortal cat who became the pet of future Fire Daimyo's wife.
Takeru warned his teammates that the cat was an immortal devil spawn but they did not believe him. Biwako and Shikatsu both underestimated the cat and payed the price as Tora scratched the shit out of them in seconds.
Only after Biwako throwing a water bullet at the cat and Takeru covering its escape routes with searing strings, did Shikatsu manage to capture the cat using Shadow Possession Jutsu.
Takeru flickered behind it and knocked the cat out. Biwako was fuming with rage as her whole face was filled with scratches and bite marks. Even the calm and cool Shikatsu had his lips twitching with annoyance.
They literally dumped the little shit in front of the mission assignment desk. The Hokage saw their state and understood what was going on. He tried his hardest to suppress his laughter but failed to do so, earning him vicious glares from Biwako and Shikatsu. The Hokage did not say anything and simply gave them the mission completion reward without a word.
Other D-rank missions included cleaning Inuzuka clan kennels, helping the builders build various houses and buildings in the village, managing the Senju Park, etc. Most of them were boring as fuck with a few of them mildly tolerable.
Team 9 did a few C-rank missions. Most of them were regular ones with little to no trouble at all, lime delivering some information or guarding someone. Although they had a few fights in those missions, none of them involved killing.
The last C-rank mission Team 9 did turned out to be different than the rest. Shunsui knew that he would have to make his students experience killing. So, he deliberately took a C-rank bandit extermination mission specifically for this very reason.
The mission was to exterminate a band of bandits who had been terrorizing a couple of small villages on the western part of the Land of Fire. Bandits like those were common as they frequently roamed main roads of the land. They were usually dispatched by common guards and mercenaries.
But what this group of bandits did recently put them in the limelight. They did a small scale raid on Tanzaku city and its nearby areas. They looted a few shops and a casino, but importantly they killed the son of the casino owner. It was him who issued the mission.
Shunsui shared the mission details with his students. He explicitly told them to be prepared as they would have to kill those bandits as per as the mission required them to do so. Takeru was ready for it but his other two teammates were not.
Shikatsu understood that this type of mission was common and as a shinobi he would have to kill no matter what. He was somewhat composed. Biwako on the other hand was quite nervous. As she really did not want to take a life.
Team 9 traveled to the Tanzaku city first. The city was full of restaurants, entertainment venues, pleasure houses, brothels gambling dens, casinos etc. The group of 4 went to the casino to get some information from the its owner about the bandits.
He was not in the casino. Team 9 found the man in the graveyard. He was sitting in front of the grave of his dead son. The man was in a daze. Shunsui told his students to stay back and went to talk with him. Shunsui jerked the man out of his daze.
Shunsui talked with the casino owner for sometime. The owner gave Shunsui all the information he had about the bandits. He begged them to kill those monsters who took his son. Takeru was bristling in anger when he saw the state of the man.
Takeru looked at his teammates and they too had a grim visage on their faces. They all nodded to each other. After getting all the information and promising the man that his son would be avenged, Team 9 went out to track the bandits.
It took them 2 day of hunting high and low to find the bandits' lair. Shunsui and Takeru tracked a small group of bandits using their sensory prowess, and finally tracked their lair down on the morning of the third day. The bandits had made their lair quite far from the Tanzaku city. The lair was in a hilly region near the border with Land of Rain.
Team 9 noticed that the hills in that region had multiple caves. Takeru sensed around and found that all of the caves were connected to each other through a vast network of underground passages.
Shunsui knew that going inside blindly would be disadvantageous to them. So, he formed a plan. He told his students that they would first scout the area and would wait till it became dark. They would have to determine if any of these bandits were rogue shinobi or not.
Takeru volunteered for the scouting task as with his senses, speed and stealth he was the best scout in the team. Shunsui agreed and Takeru went ahead to scout.
After flickering near the hills, Takeru used the Extreme Concealment Technique and went invisible. He expanded his senses which had grown quite a lot during these few months. Takeru estimated that his active sensing range was probably 1.5 kilometres now.
Takeru sensed all around the hills and underground and found a total of 57 bandits. Nearly all of them were regular bandits with nothing special about them except one. One bandit, who was probably the leader, possessed chuunin level chakra which was quite familiar to Takeru.
Takeru remembered the bandit group that attacked the caravan on which he and his family were came to the Leaf Village. 'So, those bastards did not stop their criminal acts.' - Takeru thought to himself as he suddenly stopped.
Takeru remembered the casino owner's face. And his face became contorted as whole mind got filled with guilt and remorse. 'Is it because of me that man lost his son? If I had killed those bandits that night, then the boy would have been alive right now. Is it my fault? Did that boy die because I showed unjust mercy to these scums?' - thought Takeru as he was slowly getting more and more pissed off at himself.
Takeru broke himself out of his depressing musings and went back to his team with a somber expression. Takeru returned and relayed the information he had gathered to the rest of his team.
All of them began thinking of suitable plans to complete the mission with least amount of hassles. Shikatsu sat down on a tree branch and began formulating plans after plans. Biwako began checking her supplies with a serious expression.
Among them only Shunsui noticed Takeru's sudden change of behaviour. He wanted to ask his student about what was bothering him. But he did not. He thought that it would be better to hold it off until the mission ends.
Shikatsu after thinking a bit told his team about his plan. Team 9 would first split into two parts. Shunsui would go with Biwako and Shikatsu would go with Takeru.
Takeru and Shunsui would use earth release to block most of those cave entrances except a few. They would place clones to guard those few open entrances.
At midnight all of them would strike those bandits at once on two fronts. Team 9 would be able to easily and silently take those bandits out when they would be sleeping.
The rest of the team agreed to the plan as like this both the two person team would have one sensor or tracker and one capable of using medical ninjutsu.
Team 9 waited until it became dark and all of then sprung into action. Takeru and Shikatsu went to one side while Shunsui and Biwako went to the other.
Both Takeru and Shunsui used earth release to close up all the cave entrances on all sides of the hill, leaving only 2 entrances unblocked.
It was near midnight when the task was completed. Takeru and Shunsui left two clones each outside to guard the cave entrances and went inside the caves seperately with Shikatsu and Biwako in tow.
Takeru and Shikatsu ran along the dark underground tunnel to the place where the bandits were gathered. Takeru used his senses to the maximum as he checked around inside his sensing range.
When he did not find any wayward bandit on other passages, he nodded to Shikatsu as both them zipped towards the bandits with flare stick with them lighting up their passage.
Both genin following the underground tunnel, came to a large cavern. Shikatsu and Takeru made as little sounds as they could. Takeru had already applied silencing seals onto all of his teammates' footwear. But still they were prudent in their actions.
Takeru made a shadow clone and the clone made itself invisible. Takeru and Shikatsu slowly approached two half-asleep bandits who were on guard. While clone Takeru while invisible climbed the wall and walked on the ceiling as he kept a lookout. Takeru and Shikatsu put out their flare sticks as there were torches in the wall.
Shikatsu knew how shinobi operated and what his job entailed. He knew he had to take these two lives. He was not happy about it. But he knew these bandits were scums of the world they lived in. And getting rid of them was the best course of action. So, he hardened his will and focused.
Takeru and Shikatsu both took hold of one bandit and swiftly slashed their kunai on their throats while keeping their mouths shut.
Shikatsu tried to calm himself down but failed as his hands started shaking nearly dropping the kunai he was holding. Takeru gripped his friend's shoulder hard. It stopped Shikatsu's shaking. Both looked at each other for a moment and nodded to each other.
Takeru knew what his friend was going through. He had been in the same position in the past. All he wanted was to calm Shikatsu down as losing composure in this situation could prove to be fatal.
Takeru had succeeded in doing what he wanted to do. Shikatsu stopped shaking and was reassured as felt his friend's support. The slight cracks that had begun to form in his will, slowly went away. And Shikatsu could focus on his task once again.
Takeru did not feel sympathy for these bandits. None at all. Infact what he felt was guilt, for not killing these bandits earlier. He wanted to redeem himself. And he did so by killing each of these bandits ruthlessly. Taking out his rage on these scums.
Takeru felt no remorse when both he and Shikatsu traversed the cavern while finding and killing any and all bandits they found. Even Shikatsu was stunned at Takeru's ruthlessness. He thought maybe it was because Takeru had an inherent dislike or hatred towards bandits.
Soon, Both of them came to the middle of the large cavern. Both of them killed more than 20 bandits together. As they reached the central part of the cavern, Takeru sensed something horrible.
A pile of dead bodies were there in a large cage. Most of them were women, with a few children too. All of them were physically violated and showed signs of torture.
Pure, unbridled rage and regret took over Takeru's mind as tried his hardest to rein control over his actions. Shikatsu noticed the sudden change of expressions Takeru was having. He asked silently about what happened.
Takeru relayed to Shikatsu everything he sensed. Shikatsu face became cold. Finally, Takeru managed to control his emotions. He instantly went into Battle Mode. Takeru and Shikatsu went towards the camp of bandits with a promise of vengeance.
The bandit leader was sure feeling lucky today. The past few raids and especially the raid on Tanzaku city was bountiful. He and his brothers had enough money to spend a few weeks lavishly. After that they would start raiding merchant caravans once again. He did not even think that little boy had so much money with him.
The bandit leader had taken enough precautions to avoid leaf shinobis. And he was sure that even if shinobis attacked them, in this cavernous underground system, all of them, especially he would be able escape safely. The bandit leader was quite happy with himself. Perhaps the only regret he had was the loss of his previous leader.
He knew he could not do anything about it as if he even sniffed around for the killer of his leader and brothers. Those damned dogs of the leaf would surely hunt him down.
As the bandit leader was slowly falling asleep, he started feeling uneasy. He heard sound one set of footsteps. He immediately woke up and took his sword as he fell into a battle stance.
But what befuddled and even horrified the bandit leader was that he could not see anybody. All of his brothers were gone. He did not even know what happened to them. The only he kept hearing was the steady sound of footsteps coming towards him.
"Motori, Genjiro, where are you guys?!" - the bandit leader was becoming more and more afraid. He could not figure out what was happening but one thing he knew that it was not good, not good at all.
The bandit leader made a run for the nearest exit, wanting to escape through the various tunnels. But as he war nearing the exit, all the shadows in the cavern started moving and shifting creepily, like they were alive.
Suddenly, all the shadows rushed towards him. The bandit leader was not someone powerful but he had survived dangerous situations numerous times luckily either by escaping at the opporunate time or by sacrificing other bandits of his own group. After surviving various life-threatening situations in his life, the bandit leader's survival instincts had gotten much better.
And his survival instincts were screaming now. He knew he could not let himself be touched by those shadows. He jumped and moved as he continued to dodge those creeping shadows but the shadows were relentless.
After a couple of minutes of dodging and weaving, the bandit leader found that the shadows did not try to approach him anymore. The bandit leader wanted to sigh in relief but what he saw made him lose all of his composure.
A huge pile of bodies were there in the middle of the cavern. And the worst thing for the bandit leader was that all of his subordinates were the ones that formed the pile. Each and every bandit except for him was dead.
The bandit leader was genuinely afraid now. He knew stumbled and slipped as he rushed towards the tunnel once again. He ran like his life depended on it.
The bandit leader had almost reached the tunnel when he saw a pair of red eyes with three tomoes spinning in them and felt a tinge of pain on his throat. Suddenly his whole vision shifted as he saw a headless body running a bit and collapsing on the ground.
'Is not that my bod...?' - was the bandit leader's last thought as he lost his consciousness to perpetual darkness.
"Are you alright?" - Shunsui asked Takeru and Shikatsu. Biwako was standing behind her sensei. She had a horrifying look on her face.
"Yes. We are fine." - Takeru answered coldly.
"I see. Check for survivors. Finish them if there are any. Seal all the bodies in the scrolls. Biwako you go and help them. Come out when you are done. I will be waiting outside." - Shunsui said with a stoic face as he went away, leaving the three genins inside the cavern.
Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu checked all the bodies. Both the bodies of the bandits and the bodies of the prisoners. None of them were alive. After making sure that all of them were really dead. They stored all those corpses and all of their belongings into storage scrolls. They completed their tasks silently, without even saying a word.
Takeru and Shikatsu had killed nearly 40 bandits. Where Shunsui and Biwako had killed the rest. Biwako still had that look in her eyes. Shikatsu had grim visage. Only Takeru was calm, unnaturally calm.
After completing their tasks, the three genins went out of the cavern system to meet up with their sensei.
"You are all done? Great. Let's go back" - Shunsui told them in a stoic manner as the group of 4 went back to Tanzaku city. Their journey was smooth and silent. Nobody talked.
It was almost dawn when Team 9 returned to Tanzaku city. They informed the local authority that they had completed the mission then went to visit the casino owner in his house.
"You all came back. Is it done?" - the owner asked.
"Yes. The authorities are here too. They have checked and confirmed the bodies. The mission is complete. We would like if you gave us the mission statement." - Shunsui said.
"Yes, sure. This way."
Soon, Team 9 received their mission completion statement from the owner. They were just starting their return journey towards when Takeru told his team to wait for a few minutes. He told them that he had something to do. Shunsui agreed and they waited for Takeru.
Takeru went to the graveyard and saw the casino owner listlessly sitting in front his son's grave. He walked silently towards the grave and stood in front of the grave.
Takeru did not disturb the man. He just stood there for a moment looking at the grave. Before he left, Takeru bowed deeply and said, - "Thank you for the lesson".
Team 9 was running along the trees back towards the Hidden Leaf Village. None of the three genins spoke anything since they had started their journey.
Shunsui, who was at the back, started speaking, - "I know this day was shocking to all of you. Some of you might be feeling overwhelmed by what has happened. You may feel that what you did was wrong. You may also feel hate, hate towards those bandits, hate towards yourself or towards the world.
But know this, this is the shinobi world. This is how we operate. This is reality. Being a shinobi does not just mean flashy jutsus, heroic deeds and fame. It involves doing the dirty things, wretched things too.
There are many vile things that we, as the shinobi of the Hidden Leaf must do to protect out village. Yes, it is not heroic, neither is war. The world is not just eternal sunshine. It has its dark spots too.
You may have to do far more vicious and cruel things in the future. Anytime you feel even a bit of hesitation about killing or doing what must be done, remember the boy's father. Put yourself in his shoes. Think about what you would have done if that grave belonged to someone you loved.
The world is unforgiving. We can do little to change how it works. But what we can do, is to strive for betterment, to be more than we were before. We can dream, we can hope, that one day we would not have to do such things anymore. But till that day, we must endure."
Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu were silent. Biwako and Shikatsu were a little less depressed than before. The aura of gloominess that was covering them, slowly dissipated. Shunsui's speech really helped them.
Takeru on the other hand, understood his hypocrisy today. He had always wanted to live his life normally. To be the one of the masses. He did not want fame. He did not want to be someone great. He just wanted to survive and live.
Yet, he went and became a shinobi. But for what reason he did not know. Was it because it was cool? Was it because he fantasized about it in his previous life? Was it because of his repressed desires that had surfaced when he reincarnated into this world? He had no answer to them.
He could have requested his family to move into the Land of Iron. They did not have to go to Hidden Leaf Village just to stay safe. Infact they would have been even safer in the Land of Iron.
But he did not. Takeru noticed his flaws. He wanted to survive but chose a profession that had the least survival rate. He wanted to live a life of mediocrity yet he trained harder than anyone else. Beyond survival, Takeru lacked motivation.
Yes, Takeru trained. He gave his all to grow stronger. But for what reason? Did he wanted to flex his powers to others? Did he wanted to feel superior?
Takeru did not know why he was training so hard. He made himself believe that he wanted to face those future challenges that would come. But did he really? Then why did he always want to be low-key? Why did he want to be average?
Takeru understood that his actions were different from what he said. His words and actions were contradictory. He still had not been able to curb his average mentality, even after death.
Takeru did not kill those bandits earlier partly because he only wanted to drive them away from the caravan to avoid conflict between them and the guards of the caravan which included his father, and partly because he could not take the emotional stress anymore.
Takeru thought to himself that if he had killed those bandits earlier, then the boy would have been alive. Could he guarantee that? No. But he could have killed the majority of them. He could have made it so those bandits would never harm anyone else again.
But he did not. He thought about how killing was bad. He cried and whined about the unfairness of the world. He did not see past his sadness. He accepted the harshness but only did so reluctantly.
Takeru was weak. Today after seeing the casino owner and his dead eyes. Takeru for the first time regretted his weakness. He was physically strong, stronger than many people even double his age. But mentally, he was weak. He was not decisive. He deluded himself continuously. His actions were contradictory. He lacked conviction.
Takeru had a downcast expression as he and his team traversed the Land of Fire towards their destination.
Sorry for the late chapter. I recently started re-watching Naruto again, and just could not stop myself from watching all the episodes continuously.
Many of you might find this chapter boring. I tried a little character development which I know shit about. But I tried. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please comment below.