Chapter 18 - First Kill

ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am currently moving to a new residence and the chapter updates will be a little off-timed and maybe not daily until January 15th.

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A - Indifferent. It was part of his job, he didn't care about it too much. People die all the time, it was only a matter of time. (NEW PERKS!)

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Chapter 18 - First Kill

…

Shinji glanced at the man, as he clawed at his neck. It was a gross sight and one that he didn't feel happy to do. But he didn't feel necessarily bad about it either.

He had more important things to take care of, like Kota being quite panicked. As his teammate, he had to be there, and not worry about a bandit's life. People made choices in their life, and they were responsible for their own choices. Shinji wasn't going to burden himself with the wrong choices other people made.

He wouldn't get used to killing, but Shinji didn't feel guilty about it either. This was a part of his job, and he had prepared to kill someone ever since in the academy, he comprehended what he was going to have to do.

Shinji signaled towards Kota and Sayuri to follow him, they did.

"Kota, calm down, follow my orders and everything will be alright," Shinji commented calmly. "You trust me right? Remember we are the Demon Sword Brothers of the Setting Dark Sun Overshining The Moon."

Staring at his friend acting so casually, Kota seemed to relax too and take a deep breath. His eyes sharpened too, showing that he was now ready to kill too. "Sorry, I feel better now. Also as you said, that name kinda sticks now."

Shinji cringed, and this made Sayuri chuckle. The lighthearted mood calmed Kota and he stared towards one of the bandit guards. He swallowed in fear and clenched his kunai. Getting up, he calmly walked towards the bandit.

With a clean swipe, Kota's kunai cut someone's neck from behind and the bandit's body slumped to the ground. His eyes were wide in shock as his body shook while bleeding.

Sayuri went through some hand seals, and just as the man was about to scream, no sound came out of the now paralyzed bandit.

*Clang*

Kota's kunai clattered on the ground as he stared at his now bloody hands. Sayuri frowned. "What's that fool doing now?"

Fwish!

Shinji moved within an instant and covered Kota's mouth as they both stared at the dying man. Cutting the man on the back of his neck wasn't a good idea as it caused a bad decapitation, and Shinji could tell that it was horrible and this would visit Kota's nightmares for a while.

'This could grow to become a troublesome situation.' - thinks Shinji, using his hand to keep Kota's mouth shut so he doesn't notify the bandits with any sounds. "Kota, remember, these guys aren't good people."

Now Shinji understood that while he had thought of killing someone for years now, Kota was the exact opposite. He hadn't thought of killing anyone until the brink of when he had to do it and they came to the bandit camp.

Deciding to finish this by himself, Shinji instructed Kota to stay quiet as he moved towards the roofs of one of the crudely built houses.

There were five more bandits left, and Shinji moved around like a ghost, slitting everyone's throats without thinking about it too much. But he made sure to leave one alive for Sayuri.

The one who was left alive was a chubby man who looked around fearfully. "Who-" but his face morphed into one of terror when Shinji walked out of the shadows he was hiding.

Focusing on the Konoha headband, the man's legs buckled. "N -Ninja!!"

Fwish!

A kunai was thrown, and it pierced the man's head. Sayuri walked next to Shinji. "Heh, human lives are really easy to take."

Her comment made Shinji side-glance at her. "Be careful about what you say out loud. You've been growing reckless as of lately."

"Sorry not everyone can be as sharp-minded as you constantly," she sighed, but noticing Shinji's serious demeanor, she rubbed her eyes. "Sorry about that. I have been a little stressed out lately."

Shinji only stared at her for a couple of seconds before nodding. "Just be careful."

Fwish!

That was when the wind shifted and Yamato appeared, he looked around, seeing the dead people. He only glanced at Shinji and Sayuri for a split second, before his eyes settled on Kota. Who was staring at the dead bandit's body that he had killed.

Yamato also caught sight of the fat bandit that Sayuri had killed and the jonin went and put his dead body in a scroll. "This one messed with the wrong people." Yamato looked up at Shinji. "He sexually assaulted the governor's daughter. A father unable to deliver the death sentence to the one who killed his daughter decided to orchestrate certain events to happen."

Shinji immediately caught on to what Yamato was getting at here. Since he had asked a lot of questions about the B Rank Mission, it seemed like Ninjas were quite accommodating to the less legal side of things too.

'Yamato -sensei's B Rank Mission was probably something along the lines of making sure that the man Sayuri killed is dead. No matter what. An assassination order was made by an angry father. No doubt the Mayor made sure that the prisoner's life was so bad in prison that at any chance he would escape from there.'

Shinji didn't even want to think about this situation too much, as it was annoyingly complicated. Still, he now understood what kind of scumbags he was dealing with. "Yamato -sensei, can you explain to Kota that the people he killed were scumbags? This would help him come to terms with his actions."

Yamato nodded and immediately went to console Kota. While Sayuri observed them from afar together with Shinji.

"He is an attentive teacher," she commented, smiling slightly. "Though for your training maniacal tendencies, it's probably torture."

"That joke is getting old real fast," Shinji commented, smiling at her pouting face. Her blue eyes though showed that she was quite entertained.

…

Yamato took care of Kota and gave him as much advice as he could. Shinji couldn't hear exactly what was being said between them, but the young genin seemed to end up in a better mood. At least he wasn't panicking all over the place.

The jonin then came towards Shinji and pointed towards the buildings. "Check them all out and make sure no one is alive. If there is, kill them."

Fwish! Fwish!

Immediately both Shinji and Sayuri went searching through the houses. He found a man with dark hair, and blue eyes hiding under the bed in fear. He was middle-aged, and in his younger years might have even been handsome. But now he has scars all over his face and seems like a hardened criminal. Though as soon as he caught sight of Shinji's headband, he was so afraid he didn't even offer any resistance as Shinji slit his throat.

Sayuri didn't have better luck either. "There was no money, these bandits were poor as hell."

"Hey now, I am supposed to be the broke one here," Shinji remarked jokingly.

She put her arm around his neck in a friendly manner and chuckled along. "Yes, I know, and I am your-"

"Free meal ticket," Shinji added without missing a beat.

She stood there, frozen as if the coldest winds had hit her for a hundred years. When what he said finally registered in her mind, Sayuri's expression resembled that of a cat ready to scratch its victim.

But Shinji wasn't the kind of guy who would give an advantage and had already taken off when she was absentmindedly staring into empty space.

"Yamato -sensei, I eliminated another person, he was hiding under the bed," Shinji said respectfully, acting like he didn't notice Sayuri wanting to punch his head off, but couldn't do so due to the jonin in the vicinity.

…

Shinji made sure that he wasn't outside of Yamato's view. His actions made the knit of Sayuri's forehead grow tighter and tighter. Through all of this, the subject of her annoyance was supporting their other teammate.

Though by now he wasn't sure if she was still annoyed. As Sayuri's previous predatory smirk had turned into an amused one as she tried to get her clutches on Shinji.

"Did you get a boost in speed every time you annoy me?" She whispered, but her frown slowly morphed into a smile. "Seems like we now have the average teammate relationship. We should do this more often."

Shinji only looked at her weirdly, wondering if she is one of the people who are into things like humiliation, anger, etc? Was that considered masochism? He didn't know enough on the matter, so he didn't think too much about it.

After arriving at Tanzaku, a shadow clone of Yamato went to make a report to the governor. While this was considered unprofessional, especially for a jonin, the real Yamato was there to comfort Kota and about what he had done. Shinji was there to help too, and Sayuri looked on from the sidelines with a small smile and strange look in her eyes.

After some time in Tanzaku Town, Team 13 set off towards Konoha, with their mission completed.

"Since the Chunin Exams are so close, only two weeks away and we don't have enough time for the Chunin Exams," Yamato announced, and Shinji immediately knew that this was because of Kota, but didn't say anything as he didn't want to ruin the team dynamics.

Still, now that he knew the exact timeline, Shinji wondered what he would do with these two weeks.

"By the way, you're going to join the Chunin Exams, right?" he looked at Shinji, knowing that whatever he said, both Sayuri and Kota would follow along.

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[Pick one choice, and write it in the comment section below.]

A - "Yes," Shinji planned to join and get the rank of Chunin as soon as possible. He will train moderately hard during these two weeks as he plans to spend some time with his teammates to make sure they're all for the Chunin Exams.

B - "Yes, I can't wait for it," Shinji will work extremely hard, just like the three previous weeks. Though this will leave him with very little time with his teammates, and Kota might become something unpredictable in the exam.

C - "No, maybe next time. We aren't ready yet." Shinji felt like Sayuri's strange reactions and Kota's recent shock would make them an unstable team.

D - "No," Shinji answered simply, as he felt like he wasn't strong enough for the Chunin Exams yet.

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Author Note/ ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am currently moving to a new residence and the chapter updates will be a little off-timed and maybe not daily until January 15th.

P.S: If you like the story, give it some Power Stones.

P.P.S: Join discord where I post the dice rolls of the chapter and their effects. And discuss with other readers about plans for Shinji:

https://discord.gg/wbwRTqd7jr