Chapter 8 : What is my weapon called?

Thank you. For all the advices. It's hard to move on. But it's not like I have any other option.

Well, life just keeps on moving.

It won't wait for me to sulk around. It's true that I'm hurting, but hey, who's not been where I am? (Probably some protag-halo holders who were lucky enough to avoid such stupid plots life has for its players.)

I don't have time to waste on something that doesn't even matter anymore. We were a thing. Not anymore. I had so many dreams about our future. Well, not anymore. I thought she really loved me. Again, not anymore.

I loved her. Not... Well that's still there, but it doesn't matter, does it? She doesn't love you back afterall.

My feelings have free space limited to me. I can't and don't have any right to go and try to make the world work according to that. (Maybe that's why I wanted to write a fanfic)

I have limited life here. Can't waste it sulking about her.

Life keeps on moving and so shall I!

Alright with that pep talk to myself done, I'll be writing my next chapter.

Hope I can finish it without letting the cold chest ruin it. Wish me luck! Please?

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

It has been half a month since we started our journey to Uzushiogakure.

The penguin trio officially finished their first year of training under me a few weeks before my Un-Rooting. Which means they are about six right now.

Why mention their age? Because they witnessed something that no 6 years old should ever have to. Dismembered body parts, innards smeared on the surrounding ground and boulders, some crushed, some barely intact eyeballs, heads that have been cut off. land drenched with blood and nearly 40 intact dead bodies.

This was the convoy carrying supplies to the battle field. A huge one at that considering the number of casualties that can be guessed from here. I guess they got attacked by the other party. They must've left them like this here to create fearful atmosphere on the other side. It's hard to guess the identity or association of anyone here for some pretty apparent reasons.

As for the carriages they brought upto here, they are gone. Nowhere to be seen. Which is obvious. I was just expecting a fire burning on some wooden carriage or maybe some ashes left from it. What can I say, I have read too many fiction mangas.

Why burn the supplies if you can steal them from your enemy and even kill them with the same thing you stole?

Anyways... All three had to empty their bellies out after seeing those gruesome scenes.

"It's really a bunch of ruthless people to leave their enemies' body out in the open like this."

Back then, my act with Dōmō-gao's head was a major taboo for warriors. That's why a huge number of those soldiers were genuinely hostile to me. To them, I was a wicked existence that shouldn't be allowed to exist. Not that I regret doing what I did to him, but I wish I could do it in a better way.

Back to the present situation. I used Earth attributed chakra on the ground to bury everything that was there on the ground and used Deep Forest Emergence shown by Hashirama. On a controlled level ofcourse.

With that, small trees appeared over the area where the bodies have been buried.

"Are you three feeling alright now? This will be pretty common for a few years I suppose. It's better you get used to it and etch it in your memories. These are the horrors wars brings in." I told them as they seemed back to their normal but extremely uncomfortable state.

"We understand Sensei! Wars are cruel. We'll soon grow up and become so strong that we can stop the war from ever happening again altogether." Yahiko stated in cute voice but determined expression. While Konan and Nagato nodded to it.

"I know you will, my little penguins. I'll make sure of it. But for that, you'll have to get involved in war itself. Which means, more of what you just saw here and possibly sometimes be the one who causes it." I pointed towards the newly made path surrounded by trees.

The trio had shivers run down their spine, imagining about a kunai in their hand being plunged into some unknown person's chest, impaling their heart.

"Don't be afraid of it. I'm not asking you to go around killing people. But if you try to stop wars from ever happening again, you'll be putting your steps on the interests of many people who benifit from wars. Many will oppose you in the name of 'freedom'. They'll never allow you to walk away with that. You'll need to fight for yourself and inevitably have to kill the ones who attack you. If not them, then it'll be your close ones or you who will die." I said with a serious expression with clear indifference in my voice.

I can't always be doting on them. As their responsible Sensei, I have the responsibility to prepare them for the world.

Perhaps my words were depressing for them, their expressions were the same kind as the one I 'saw' the first day they entered the cave. The look of worry about bleak hope towards survival.

"You don't need to worry too much though. You three have me standing right behind you. Go ahead and do whatever you want, I'll be there to guide you when you go wrong. Don't worry about falling down, I'll be right behind to help you stand back up. Even if the sky falls, I'll be there to hold it for you." I assured them with all the cliche pep talk lines that showed support I could make at the moment.

And I'd like to believe I nailed it!

Because I saw them looking at me with a new brilliance in their eyes. Also some tears... Probably tears of joy?

For the next few weeks we kept on moving towards our destination while taking regular breaks because even though they have strong endurance, the distance is quite huge for the kids. Our speed was quite slow.

Why am I not just carrying them and make a rush for it?

I want to enjoy the journey of moving around again. I was imprisoned for over 600 years. There's no way I'll let this opportunity pass by. Yeah, it's war ongoing, but what of it? I can pretty much solo anyone that shows up here. So I'm going to enjoy this journey even if it takes months.

During this journey we kept training.

I was training to get better control over my body and shake the rust off my swordsmanship. They were training their same Chakra Control routine. However it got upgraded a lot after they succeeded in making chakra threads.

Now they have to move objects like pebbles or leaves using those chakra threads continuously while avoiding each of my wind bullets (simply used wind attributed chakra to imitate a bullet) aimed at their objects.

Each object in control they lose, their stamina training duration extends by an hour. Which they did get extended as I had expected from the beginning.

They've got a long way to go, that's for sure.

-----------------------------

The place where my cave was located at was close to the border shared between Hi-no-kuni (Land of Fire), Ame-no-Kuni (Land of Rain) and Kawa-no-kuni (Land of Rivers). So it didn't take more than a week for us to leave Ame.

We've been traveling through Kawa-no-kuni for almost three and a half weeks now. Currently, this place is acting as a battlefield for Konoha (Leaf Village) and Suna (Sand Village).

Why are we going there?

First, Ame doesn't have many trade channels between them and Hi-no-kuni. So there are barely any carriages moving towards there. But in Kawa-no-kuni there are more trade channels. We just need to reach their trade route and wait. Then hitch a ride for some payment and enter Hi-no-kuni.

Second, Kawa-no-kuni is beautiful. When I watched the anime, I had seen how beautiful it was. But now, in real life, this is just something else.

Anyways, we enjoyed our stay there for four days and then we got into a carriage moving towards Kisaragi Village which was at the south of Konoha.

Everything till this point was smooth sailing. But I just had to jinx myself when I sighed in relief after getting into the carriage.

I had some doubts when I saw that this carriage had three Lieutenant levels, ah, I should say Jonins and fifteen Genins protecting it. Turns out, this carriage was informed about the possibility of being one of the targets of Sunagakure and it was indeed one.

I seriously don't want to do anything here. They sent six Jonin, seven Chunin and ten genin to loot this carriage. Total of 23 people.

'Are they taking their situation so lightly that they'd send Jonin to be a bandit instead of being at the Battlefront?' I had this thought. But it's not like I care about what they do.

They don't possess the ability to threaten my penguin's safety at all. I have no need to fight them and get myself noticed by anyone. I will get noticed only after I reach Uzushiogakure. That's the plan atleast.

If these people die and this carriage is taken by me, I can take it directly to Uzushio. But, I don't have the trade permit nor the identity to be allowed to pass border. So that means I'll have to reach Kisaragi Village and then get into another carriage.

You can imagine how we'd be treated if I took a carriage to that village and said that "The others died in the attack so I brought the carriage here". One massacre is enough of a hit on my morals, I don't want one more added to it.

"Hey! We have a tight schedule and I'm not in the mood of changing carriages. So how about you people get out of here and spare yourself some shame?" I shouted at the figure standing at the forefront of the attackers.

"Hahaha... Whose deranged son ar..." Before he could finish what he said....

BONK!

I bonked his head with a wooden club I made using Wood Release. The shape of it is very similar to baseball bat.

"Don't you dare get my mother into this!" I said in a little annoyed voice that could be heard by everyone.

The supposedly leader died right there.

After a moment of daze, they all started attacking. There's not even thirty of them. I could deal with these people when I was 14. Ofcourse, not even a single attack of theirs could touch me.

BONK goes this guy and BONK goes that guy.

In five minutes, I was already done. I was being lazy afterall.

"Well, that hardly even counts as a warm-up." I said while using Water attribute Chakra to clean my weapon.

"Sensei is so strong!" Nagato couldn't help but mutter as he could understand the flow of battle a little. I attribute that to Rinnegan.

For others, they don't even know what actually happened. Soon they realised that their crisis was averted.

The merchant who was incharge of this carriage hurriedly ran towards me and,

"Thank you! I was ignorant of your identity as a ninja. I apologize for that. If I knew I'd have been more respectful towards you! Please allow me to make amends!" He said in a respectful tone after giving me a bow.

"Even though I understand the respect shown by bowing to someone like this and I accept the sentiment, I don't like a human bowing to another. So please, stand straight." I said to the merchant.

«You are not a human anymore though.» came the rare voice in my mind.

«You remember that I'm still alive?! How did that happen?!» I replied in an obviously teasing voice.

«Whatever, dummy. I've been enjoying the manga books you made for me. They are interesting.»

I knew she'd be lonely up there after I start moving around and getting myself busy. So I used mental connection to gain limited control over her Chakra and made a few books for her.

«Am I going to be replaced by bunch of papers? Oh! The pain I'm feeling right now, it's killing me! How could you do this to me.» I said all those lines in as dramatic manner as I could.

And boy am I a sh*tty actor. I am glad that I spared my old school mates from my cringe. I wonder how Sara even dealt with my goofy a*s for so many years.

«That's something you should've thought of before introducing these to me. We're gonna enjoy ourselves here while you do whatever you're doing out there. Hehehehe» Kaguya went silent after trying to make her chuckle sound villainous.

I guess that was her attempt at being funny. According to a manga she read, when one of your friend initiates a joke, you, as a friend, are duty-bound to continue that joke.

'She's definitely my friend. We're both sh*tty actors. But atleast unlike her previous cold demeanor that was maintained towards me for more than 67 years she's trying to act like a friend to me.'(A/N: You wanted two more years added to it, didn't you? Hehehe. No horny.)

Back to the merchant.

He saw me get silent after saying him to stand straight. I stood there in a daze for a minute or so. He didn't disturb me, maybe to avoid offending me. But after a minute he got a little restless and tried to check if everything was alright.

"So, what were we talking about? Right! I remember. Whatever happened here, must stay between you and your people. We'll consider that promise and 50,000 ryo as compensation. Deal?" I asked him after coming back to focus.

It's not that I completely lose my senses when talking to Kaguya. I get alerted the moment there's danger around me even in that state.

Anyways, I got the promise and money.

Promise actually doesn't mean anything here. It was just me being whimsical. Not that it matters. Those ninjas are gonna report it regardless.

-----------------------

A few days later we got ambushed by some bandits.

This was an opportunity. There were many bandits here. These ninjas wouldn't be able to deal with all of them without losing a few of their own.

So, I offered them my assistance and took a few strong ones out of picture so they can deal with the rest. I captured three weak ones from them and had them fight Yahiko, Konan and Nagato.

Knowing and experiencing are two different concepts after all.

-------------------------

Yahiko.

This guy may not have some great Kekkei Genkai package or anything like the other two, but he sure has above average talent and determination that make up for it, even if only by a little.

Fighting his first fight with a human opponent must be stressful. I can see him constantly alert of any movement made by his opponent, which is a good and bad thing at the same time.

The bandit used feint movement which Yahiko fell for and threw his Kunai at the bandit, which got dodged.

Even though it was dodged, Yahiko seemed calm and dashed towards the bandit with another Kunai in his hand.

The bandit was around 6 foot while Yahiko was barely 3 and a half foot. So Yahiko had to keep this disadvantage at mind while fighting and he was doing a great job at it.

What surprised the bandit more was that everytime he tries to move, something slows down his movement as if he's bound by ropes.

Yahiko was binding the weak points of his body with chakra strings one by one slowly taking advantage of nimble body and ability to move around more freely due to small body. He had him wrapped in his strings in a few minutes.

And then came the moment where they needed actual training. Deciding whether to kill their opponent or not.

{Narrator Changes}

"Yahiko, remember, he's a bandit. Someone who lived his life until now by spilling the blood of innocents. Would you be okay to let him go if he had killed anyone you care about?" Yahiko saw the faces of Konan, Nagato and his Sensei in his mind. Imagining whether he'd be able to handle seeing them hurt or not.

"Mercy to the cruel, is cruelty to the innocents. Yahiko. If you really want that world where everyone is at peace, where there's no need for war, you'll need to be someone whose justice and judgement they can count on. You need to be someone who would be there to remove scums like these from the peaceful world they willingly gave up their rights to, so that those trying their best to live in peace can do so." Hiroshi said to him.

Yahiko's mind was in chaos right now. He couldn't decide whether to do it or not. It sounds so hypocritical that you want to tell others to live a peaceful life but you are spilling blood for that. But in reality, it's not really hypocritical at all.

There will always be elements that will be obstruction to peace. Human greed being one of the major reasons for that. Take Danzo for example. His excessive greed for Hokage's position had him ignore his duties even when his own village was being completely decimated by Pain.

Human greed is necessary, otherwise they won't grow. But once they give everything else up for that greed, they become the factor that ruins multiple lives.

"If you can't do it, let me do it for you. We still have enough time for you to grow and understand these things. It's fine. I am still here." I said while patting his head.

I took the kunai out of his hand and swiftly slashed it over the bandit's throat.

At the other two's side, things were almost the same with only difference being that Nagato chose to kill. Understandably so.

Well, now I have to focus two ways. One, they learn that not everyone deserves mercy and also that we don't have the right to forgive just anyone, while I need to focus on Nagato to have him understand that killing is supposed to be the last resort.

Man! This is tiring! But no way I'm giving up on my Penguins.

At night, I had to comfort the trio before they went to sleep. They were pretty shaken up by the events of the day. Not surprised about that.

"Sensei, what's the weapon that you used in battle that day called? I've never seen anyone use something like that. Only that one bandit used something similar to it. But it was much bulkier and heavier than yours" Nagato asked.

"My weapon is called Bonkai." I replied.

"My mother loved to use hollow and flexible ones when she trained me how to dodge attacks. It may not hurt the bones, but the irritation it causes on the skin made me want to dodge it even during my sleep. She used to call it Bonkie because of the sound it made. Which later on got changed by me into Bonkai." I told him the story behind my weapon.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

That's it for this chapter.

See you guys in the next chapter soon.