Ch. 14 Resolve

Standing in the middle of a small fortress located on the boarder of the iwagakure territory, Chiba stood out among the resting Shinobi as he swung his sword.

It had been a little over a year and a half since Chiba had entered the academy, both he and Itachi graduated at the same time which was a month longer than kakashi, making them geniuses in the eyes of others.

Since their graduation, the duo were immediately seperated and stationed at different locations, more than likely on purpose.

Even with only a few torches that brightened the darkness of the night, you could easily see the sweat rolling off of his arms as he shakely forced his sword up before slashing it down once again.

"Hey blind genin, you need to rest up before your day shift or you'll be too tired to swing your sword if the enemy comes" a slightly chubby Shinobi said as he lazy laid on the floor, a cup of tea by his side.

The shinobi would've loved to have sake to drink instead of tea, but it was forbidden to drink alcohol while fighting in the war, resulting in 5 years of imprisonment if caught.

"Forget about him, whether he's tired or not, a blind kid won't be of much help in a fight" a weasel faced shinobi said, only for Chiba to stop swinging.

With his sword at his side, Chiba turned to the weasel faced shinobi as a tense feeling filled the air.

"W-what are you looking a-" Cut off mid sentence, Chiba lept forward at blinding speed as his sword neared the man's neck. The man saw his life flash before his eyes as he thought the six year old boy was about to decapitate him, only to hear the sound of metal clashing.

Collapsing to the ground, the weasel faced shinobi looked next to him and saw a Kunai kunai stuck into the ground. Chiba took a deep breath, opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

The moment he finished yelling that out, the outposts horns started blaring as the shinobi on night shift also realized that they were under attack.

Picking up the kunai on the floor, Chiba expanded his observation haki into the treelines that blocked the normal Shinobi's vision. Seeing the ninja that had thrown the kunai, Chiba started to calculate the distance and wind speed.

After a few second, Chiba's forearms tensed as he threw the Kunai and watched it fly through the air, piercing the chest of his target. As the life of the ninja died, a blue screen appeared in his mind.

[User has killed a Chunin and achieved a Milestone]

[User has unlocked the Milestone section of the template system]

Chiba paid the screen no attention as he watched the Shinobi fall from the tree and lifelessly land on the floor, a frown to appeared on Chiba's face. Unlike others, Chiba's observation Haki allowed him to see even the smallest detail on something a even a hundred feet away, allowing him to see the regret, fear and horror on the dead Stone Ninja face.

He was caught up in the moment and never really stopped to think, but he had just killed a man. Sure he had dozens of memories with Fujitora killing pirates in them, but he knew those werent his actual memories and that Fujitora only ever killed pirates who were absolutely vile human beings. Seeing the lifeless Shinobi laying on the floor, Chiba had a thought.

'I wonder if he had a child? Maybe he is the sole caretaker for his brothers and sisters or he had a sick relative that needed money for treatment.....' Chiba stood there as Leaf Ninja raced past him to the walls, trying to defend their outpost.

'....I guess this is life for you in this world. It's kill or be killed as a ninja, and I became a ninja to stop all of my clansmen from dying.....This won't stop me...' Chiba reaffirmed his resolve as he fully assimilated into this world.

Seeing a stone ninja jumping over the wall, Chiba forced himself to act before the shinobi could cause any trouble. This outpost carried the supplies for the Shinobi on the front line, making it a prime target for destruction.

The Stone Shinobi saw Chiba closing in with a sword in hand and started making hand signs.

Slamming his hands to the ground, a wall of earth rose up in front of the Rock Ninja to block Chiba's advance, only for the wall to be split in two by a single slash.

The stone ninja jumped back from the broken wall as his hands turned into a blur making signs. Once his feet touched the ground, he immediately sanked beneath the dirt and couldn't be seen.

There was tension in the air as the stone Shinobi waited underground to allow Chiba to become afraid, when suddenly he popped up beneath Chiba and grabbed his ankles, attempting to bury him alive only to be met with a blade between the eyes.

It was a quick and instantaneous death as the now dead shinobi that was half sticking out if the ground, never expecting for Chiba to still be able to follow his movements even underground.

With a heavy heart, Chiba used his observation haki and quickly realized that the majority of the stone ninja were acting as a distraction as a strike unit was going after where the supplies were held.

Chiba saw everything within two hundred feet of him in clear view. He saw dozens of humans dying, some died quickly and painless, but the majority screamed a mournful shriek as they got killed. Each death etched into Chiba's mind.

Sticking his sword into the crook of his armpit, Chiba raised his two hands together and made a plus sign with the middle and index finger on both hands. With a plum of smoke, a shadow clone of Chiba appeared next to him as he suddenly lost half of his chakra.

With a nod, Chiba and his shadow clone broke off as the shadow clone went to fight the weaker Shinobi used as distraction.

Running deeper into the outpost, Chiba saw Konoha Shinobi rushing past him and torward the walls that were being breached, not realizing that a squad of Shinobi had already snuck in.

After a ten second run, Chiba saw the giant tent the size of a large house.

'There is supposed to be two Shinobi guarding the entrance with 6 other shinobi guarding the sides. I guess in this commotion the leaf ninjas wouldn't pick up on this discrepancy.'

With his observation Haki, Chiba already saw the 8 dead leaf ninja laying collapsed in the tent with a squad of 4 Stone ninja trying to take as many storage seal that they could while simultaneously planting explosion tags.

Creating a plus sign once again, another plum of smoke appeared as Chiba felt he only had 1/4 of his chakra remaining as a shadow clone appeared. Thanks to it being a clone, they had no need for verbal communication as the clone circled the tent.

Silently walking around the tent as he started concealing his chakra to the best he could, both Chiba and the clone stopped on different sides of the tent with their blades ready and silently counted in their minds.

They waited exactly 20 seconds after he had summoned the clone before they both slashed open the tents at the exact same time to see a Stone Ninja right in front of them, one was taking storage seals while the other was planting explosion tags.

Before they could react, both Chibas slashed their blades at the same time decapitating both ninja. While they were trying to do this stealthily, the experienced Stone Ninja immediately knew something was wrong.

Not wanting to give the Ninja a reason to suicide bomb themselves to accomplish the mission, both Chiba and his clone immediately backed out of the tent just before the stone ninja had found their fellow ninja had been killed.

The two Rock Ninja looked around wearily, anxiously looking for the killer. They had been given the orders of destroying the supplies Konoha used on the front line, no matter the cost. This didn't mean they wanted to explode themselves with the supplies if they could help it.

The two Rock Ninja silently nodded at each other as they ran as fast as they could towards the back of the tent as they planned on slashing it open, preparing to run far enough away to not get caught up in the explosion.

The moment they arrived at the back of the tent, one raised his kunai in the air preparing to tear open a hole to escape, only for two swords to stab through the the tent at blinding speeds.

One had stabbed the Ninja leading the escape in the eye as his body went lifeless on the tip of the blade, while the other had been thrown through the tents fabric as his target wasn't within stabbing distance.

The blade quickly soared through the air and stabbed the Shinobi in the stomach, causing him to jump back in pain as he looked down at his fatal wound.

"You bastard! You'll die here with me!!" The Rock Ninja said as he tried igniting the explosion tags, only for nothing to happen.

Both Chiba and the clone looked at each other for a half second before the clone disappeared alongside the blade in the rock ninjas stomach, restoring the unused chakra back to Chiba.

The clones sword which had been preventing the Rock Ninja from bleeding out, now disappeared, causing the Stone ninja to desperately clench his wound as he couldn't understand what had happened.

Walking forward, Chiba stood above the stone Shinobi who was confused and in pain.

"My clone had stabbed your tenketsu Core, destroying it. That's why your were unable to use your Chakra to explode the tags." Chiba said as a brief look of understanding appeared on the Rock Ninja face.

With a quick swipe of his sword, the Rock Ninjas head was severed from his body. The man would've helplessly died on the floor after a minute of bloodloss, but Chiba didn't want the man to suffer such pain. Chiba's observation Haki also came with the ability to sense the emotions of others, and Chiba didn't want to sense the man's fear and regret.

A small amount of chakra suddenly returned to him as the memory of killing 13 Shinobi appeared in his mind, causing him to grit his teeth in grimace.

Because the Shadow clone would disappear in one hit, it was forced to used the precognitive ability of Observation Haki, pairing that with his swordmanship made him a killing machine. In an instant, he received the close up expressions of the 13 ninja his clone had just killed.

Emotionlessly swiping the blood off of his sword, Chiba sheathed it into his cane as he went through the supply tent and removed the explosion tags. Afterwards, he waited in the tent.

He would justify this by saying he was preventing any further attempt at destroying the supplies, but he knew that wouldn't happen. The real reason he stayed in the tent was because he only had a third of his chakra left and didn't feel the need to risk his life when a Jonin could easily kill him at the moment .

While he could use a military ration pill which would replenish his chakra, it would leave him fatigued and exhausted for 3 days.

'War is a marathon and not a sprint, I need to survive in order to save my clan from Genocide!' Chiba thought, justifying his actions.

At this moment, an early thirty's looking Leaf ninja rushed into the tent and saw Chiba casually sitting on a box of supplies.