Chapter 29: Maiko Kaguya

At dawn, Akeno woke up and checked his chakra circulation system again. No internal injuries could be observed anymore. Just like the chakra...

However, there was one detail: the circulation system seemed to be disappearing gradually, his body automatically healing his internal system, gradually returning it to normal.

If this continued, Akeno was clear that he would lose all the efforts Izaya had made for him to have this Tenkutsu system.

Chakra was his key to growing confidently in this world. He had to find a way to make this circulation stable and active.

Easier said than done, though...

Wishing his roommates a good day, he went to his younger brothers' room and prepared to return to the world of Ninjas.

Everything was accelerating for him these days. In just a week, he had for the first time used his system, recruited three members from the ninja clans of the Naruto world, was about to recruit the remaining three, and perfect his chakra system.

All things he had never imagined when reincarnating into this world.

With this system, he could become like those geniuses walking over every obstacle appearing on their paths.

Becoming a legend in this world and others.

But for now, he had to focus on the present. He was lucky that nothing disturbed him while he strengthened himself and his younger brothers.

Standing beside a bed, Izaya and Chikara were again tasked with guarding the room for a while, while Kaede went to join the other children of the sect to socialize and learn from this world.

"System, transport me to the world of Naruto!"

[Attention, the host will now be transported to the world of Naruto]

Feeling the pressure of the system again, Akeno struggled once more to resist it before sinking back into a deep sleep.

...

*** Naruto World ***

"Maiko!" shouted a woman in her thirties with black hair and an authoritative demeanor. Her face was beautiful and serious with two red marks on her forehead.

In front of her, a young girl barely ten years old stood trembling and frightened.

With hair as white as snow, she possessed the same physical attributes as the woman before her.

"Maiko, stop trembling and fight!" the woman shouted, visibly furious at the girl's behavior.

Terrified by the shouts, Maiko trembled more and more, and the tears could no longer be held back. "Mom, please, sniff, hic, stop... waaah," crying desperately, Maiko begged her mother to stop.

She simply couldn't do it. She didn't want to continue. She wanted to stop.

SMACK!

Receiving a blow from her mother, Maiko was knocked to the ground, continuing to cry in a ball on the floor of the training ground.

"Please, hic... sniff"

"You're disappointing..." said the mother before leaving, going home and leaving her daughter on the ground crying.

Around the training ground, other members of the clan looked at the young girl with disgust. Most of them had black hair, and some had white hair, with the same red marks on their foreheads.

It was the Kaguya clan, a clan of warriors whose bodies were built for war.

The members of this clan possessed the kekkei genkai allowing them to control the growth of bones and the body. Thus, they could use the bones of their bodies to fight, use a spinal column as a whip or a sword, and have a skeleton much more resistant than normal.

A body built like a war machine.

Maiko, who had fully awakened this peculiarity, unfortunately had a slight problem. She had no self-confidence and hated to fight, unlike other members of her clan.

It was even beyond that, as members of this clan were mostly bloodthirsty. Their fights always ended in a bloodbath, where their enemies' bodies were shredded by their bones.

With their skeletons, they had nothing to fear from most attacks.

Thus, Maiko, who refused to fight out of fear and lack of self-confidence, became the shame of the clan, and no one wanted to approach her.

If she had not awakened the power of their lineage, some would have killed her to ensure that this weakness did not recur in their clan.

"Sniff sniff, sorry... I'm really sorry... hic..." continuing to cry in a ball on the ground, no one wanted to come to help her, preferring to forget her presence, leaving her there in the cold.

...

This situation repeated itself daily for Maiko. At home, during training, or just in the alleys of her village.

Whether by her mother, her elder brothers, or just members of her clan.

She was ostracized by her own clan and her own family. Leaving her alone to cry in her sorrow and loneliness.

But all of this was about to be a thing of the past...

Today, her clan had been paid for a mission to exterminate a poor village that did not agree with the agreements proposed by a wealthy merchant.

The Kaguya clan was not known to be tender and accepted any mission as long as money was present. Not that they wouldn't do it if the money wasn't there, in truth.

For this mission, which was the simplest for ninjas, Maiko was one of the twenty children sent for training.

The adult ninja from the clan who accompanied them to observe the progress of the mission was none other than her mother, leaving Maiko no chance to escape her responsibilities during the massacre that was about to take place.

On the way to the poor village, joy could be seen on the faces of the children of the clan. Maiko was the last in line, experiencing a deep internal crisis.

"Hurry up, Maiko! You're holding us back!" the children shouted.

"She's useless anyway, we should just leave her here to cry."

Under the cries and laughter of the others, Maiko felt more and more alone and abandoned. Her mother, who was nearby to watch them, only took notes on the lack of discretion and noise the group was making.

From her point of view, Maiko was a mistake, and although she was her daughter, she felt no maternal love for her. Only regrets and shame for giving birth to such a weak child.

It was the world of ninjas, a world in constant war. Where the weak prayed every day not to die and where only the strong had the last word.

Or those who could afford to buy them...

The sky was covered with threatening clouds, obscuring the warmth of the sun's rays. A fine rain began to fall, making the environment humid and adding a sad and oppressive atmosphere for Maiko.

As the small group of Kaguya reached the village of their mission, the rain became increasingly violent, leaving little room for visibility.

They could count about a hundred villagers, from the elderly to the young children playing in the rain.

While adults ordered their children to go home to take cover from the rain, hidden under the pouring rain and the leaves of the trees, twenty Kaguya waited with smiles on their lips.

Only Maiko was starting to really panic. In front of her, children even younger than her played unaware of the danger watching them.

The group of Kaguya were the predators, and the villagers the prey.

An unequal match from the start, just for the sake of money.

With the rain came the storm, and at the first thunderclap, the Kaguya dispersed in every direction, surrounding the village.

Maiko, who remained in place, saw a silhouette appear behind her.

Her mother looked at her coldly, without a trace of tenderness. Pointing to a random house, with just that look and without saying a word, Maiko understood that her fate was sealed.

Walking step by step in the pouring rain, towards the small wooden house, each step seemed to be another trial for Maiko.

With her mother following her, they saw the corpses of the villagers who had already encountered the other Kaguya. Missing limbs, bruises inward on vital areas, terrified looks still on their faces. The members of the Kaguya clan did not kill discreetly.

For these villagers, they simply represented the harsh truth of this world, it was the world of ninjas.

Even in the rain, the cries of the villagers resonated throughout the village.

Maiko approached the house alongside her mother, and the horror of the massacre gradually unfolded before her eyes. She wanted to flee, look away, be somewhere else. To turn around, cry, and run as fast and as far as possible.

Not to be part of this clan of killers.

Entering the house, the entrance was empty, without any sound. A calm marked by the cries from outside.

Advancing on the creaking wood, she prayed not to find anyone, not to be faced with the inevitable.

The pressure mounted, tears flowed unconsciously down her cheeks. Her cyan blue eyes scrutinized every wall of the rooms, the vases, the bowls, and the children's toys. All of them testified to the family that lived in this place, each object having a story, memories...

Then the icy gaze of her mother, impassive, leaving no possibility of turning back.

Continuing to walk, the silence was marked by some sobs coming from the floor.

A small hatch under a futon...

In this silence, Maiko was paralyzed, could she pretend not to hear it, could she pass by it?

Could she wake up from this nightmare?

Seeing Maiko remain motionless, trembling all over, her mother took the lead and advancing toward the hatch, she took out a bone from her arm using it as a blade.

Slicing toward the ground, a cry of pain was pushed through the wood. The bone had pierced with such ease that the hatch was destroyed, sending splinters of wood everywhere in the room.

Under the hatch, in the small empty space, stood a woman whose left shoulder had been severed, holding her seven-year-old child close to her...

Under Maiko's petrified gaze, her mother gave her a simple order, an order that every Kaguya should be able to carry out. "Kill them"