12: So What?

[AN: Sorry for not uploading, I was outside the town for some family issuesy.]

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-Konoha, Year 33-

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Ryoichi moved through the dimly lit tunnels of Anbu headquarters. Ever since he managed to get the location of the base of that organisation, he had been preparing to take them down.

From what Ryoichi has gathered the organisation is called Mizuki meaning beautiful moon. Quite strange for such a dark mercenary group.

Mizuki is made up of small clans, vagabonds and surviving members of destroyed clans from the Warring States Era.

'In short, they are losers from the previous era who couldn't establish themselves in this era.' Ryoichi mocked his mother's killer internally and entered the temporary Anbu mission area.

Normally Anbu's missions are directly given by Hokage, but since he had little to no time on his hands by the sudden increase in the number of missions due to War, Tobirma has temporarily made a mission hall in Anbu headquarters where the Anbus get screened and assigned mission according to their capabilities.

"Ahh Hawk-san you're here." A Chunin greeted Ryoichi with his code name to which Rypichi replied with a nod.

"I'm here for a mission," Ryoichi said while giving a warm smile behind his mask.

Normally Ryoichi's face stays emotionless, like his feelings inside, but after a recent mission where he saved a small clan heir, he found that the heir didn't become his zealot follower like everyone did when Natuto saved them.

After much thought, Ryoichi realised it was his cold unapproachable aura and face that repelled others, unlike Naruto's warm aura and bright personality.

Fortunately, Ryoichi could control his facial expressions to microl level and has superhuman charisma, one of the perks from his improved brain. However, he still had to make a spec with an illusion seal on it so he could hide his emotionless eyes. It was a pain build it as it wasn't as easy as it sounds.

But it was worth it, now he gave a vibe similar to a certain brown-haired glasses Shinigami, just much more handsome.

"Ahh! Yes Hawk-san, let me get all the mission you could take." The middle-aged Chunin instantly fell for Ryoichi's unseen smile and warm aura. He hurriedly started sorting all the missions Ryoichi could take, unlike his usual unmotivated self.

"Here! These are all the missions Hawk-san is eligible to take." The middle Chunin exclaimed while handing Ryoichi a thick stack of papers.

"Thank you." Ryoichi thanked with a similar expression while secretly analysing the smiling Chunin.

He noticed the usual unmotivated man doing things which he usually won't without even releasing. The Chunin was so clueless that it even scared Ryoichi slightly, but along with small fear, a new kind of rush filled him seeing a change in Chunin's behaviour and attitude with just his few casual words.

It was a new feeling for Ryoichi whose most emotions had gotten either numb or suppressed. He feels a similar kind of pleasure when he survives a hard battle where he would normally die. Who knew controlling a person's action with a few words could also be so… exciting.

Ryoichi shook his head to the removed thoughts that could have given shivers to normal people.

"Here, I'll take this one," Ryoichi said while handing the paper to the Chunin to approve and record.

"Bandit extermination of Akihara village near the Water Country border? You sure Hawk-san? You know the person who took over the village is estimated to be a Jonin, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure…" Ryoichi answered while noticing the worry that Chunin had never shown before.

'Charisma really is the best tool to brainwash someone.' Ryoichi thought while looking at his mission.

The mission he took is not only near the Mizuki's base but also very remote where he can easily grow his forces without anyone noticing.

And if he's clever with it, he can even take over the whole village without others finding it, and use it as his main operation base.

With a plan forming in mind, Ryoichi returned to his newly rented house and entered straight into his underground training/research centre.

Ryoichi meticulously started preparing for the mission as he knew it could very well be his last.

He knew how stupid it was to attack an organisation with at least one Kage-level shinobi, but he could neither wait nor did he wanted to. His desire to avenge his mother are affecting his future plans.

The war is already in full swing and he hasn't achieved anything. He needs to take down this organisation and find the culprit behind them.

Ryoichi knew Mizuki collected bodies and kidnapped people for someone else, most probably Jiren or was it Jigen… anyway, he needed to find them before they destroyed her body. Once he found and destroy every one of those sons of bitches, he can finally move on and focus his goal.

Aftet checking every piece of equipment and their backups and backups's backup, Ryoichi slowly sealed everything in sealing scrolls. Once he was done with them, he refilled special Chakra ink in his SEAL MATRIX and walked towards a table where a pen stand without any pen stood. Ryoichi took out a pen put it inside the pen stand and clicked the top button.

Instantly a hidden compartment fell from below the table. The pen and table were personally crafted by Ryoichi to hide important files and items. Both items were very common, and with his ingenious crafting, they became very good secret keepers, of course nowhere near enough to fool the trained eyes of Shinobis.

'But they will be one day…'

Ryoichi slowly opened the box revealing a fist-sized pale blue stone.

It was a Chakra stone… Ryoichi took inspiration from Spiritual stones of the cultivation world to create them. But unfortunately, they are not cost-effective.

It took Ryoichi a year's worth of his 80% Chakra supply to create this one stone only.

99% of the Chakra he supplied was wasted even with his level of Chakra control.

Ryoicho thought of building a device that could absorb Chakra released by dead people in the atmosphere, but he couldn't because unlike the Natural energy, Chakra in the atmosphere was not only contaminated by a single Will, but countless Wills of their dead owner. He can remove one or two Wills, Yes. But remiving the Wills or Imprint of every single human that has died till this day is impossible for him… or at least for now.

Storing the Chakra stone in a hidden pocket of his Anbu uniform, Ryoichi left his house and started his travel towards the border between Water country, land of noodles and Fire country.

Ryoichi completed his journey in a day and a half and built a campfire dozens of kilometres away from Akihara village.

After resting for the whole night and recovering to his peak state, he walked openly into the village much to the surprise of the bandits guarding the entrance.

Before the dumbfounded guards could come out of their shock, Ryoichi severed both of their heads and entered the village.

Ryoichi boldly walked towards the biggest building he could find under the stupefied gazes of the surviving villagers.

Normally if an Anbu takes a mission like this, they try to silently eliminate as many targets as possible, but Ryoichi thought it was too much of a hassle to deal with a bunch of idiots like that.

'Who is this idiot Jonin who took over a village so openly despite knowing how Hidden Villages send Shinobis to kill bandits.' Thought Ryoichi while entering the big building he termed the boss building.

Inside, a bunch of rough-looking men were drinking and gambling while throwing profanities at each other.

"Who is this fucker!" One of the bandits playing a dice game asked while pointing at Ryoichi. Instantly the whole room was silenced and all the bandits started fiercely staring at Ryoichi.

But Ryoichi ignored them and started scanning the room.

'Hmm… 5 Chunins and 22 Genins, looking at them carefully I can recognise quite a few of them from the missing-nin bounty.'

"Where is your leader," Ryoichi questioned. His utter disregard of the previously asked question made the face of bandits go dark.

"Arrogant bastard! Where do you think you're standing, huh?!!" The bandit who previously asked the question jumped at Ryoichi with his sword drawn.

The bandit tried to hack his sword at Ryoichi, but he simply sidestepped and broke the bandit's neck with a chop.

*CRACKKK!!!!*

The others watching the scene immediately brandished their weapons and attack Ryoichi too, but a voice from the next room stopped them.

"Hooh I didn't know Konoha had someone like you." A man with a scared face said while entering the room.

"What gave me away?" Ryoichi questioned that since he has changed his uniform, he intends to pretend to be a traveller to make the villagers feel indebted towards him since it will make it easier to manipulate them.

"Heh… this place is between Konoha and Ame, so only those to will dispatch shinobi, and since I can't recognise you that means you're not from Kiri" The scared man explained.

'No wonder… no wonder, who other Jonin will be this stupid other than the ignorant Shinobis of Kirigakure who barely goes outside their territory.'

"I'm assuming there are two Jonins here, so Kenji… where is your brother-The Wicked Sword of Kiri?"

"Heh, you know us, huh? Then you should have realised how fucked you are coming here alone." Kenji licked his lip viciously as he listened men cracking loudly.

"Two Jonins? It was in calculations, rather your gang made up of Genin and Chunin instead of civilians was unexpected but… so what? 2 Jonin… 10 Jonin, 5 Chunin… 50 Chunin… it's all the same." Ryoichi genuinely asked while shaking his head. He truly didn't see any difference between 2 or 20 Jonins. 2 Jonins has zero percent chance of killing him and so is 20.

Ryoichi's nonchalant attitude engraged Kenji and his men.

"Aghh you arrogant piece of shit! Kill him!!!" Kenji yelled and attacked Ryoichi. His men also followed his order and they all started weaving hand signs. Immediately dozens of Jutsu flew towards Ryoichi who repelled Kenji back.

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[AN: If you want to read more go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are 10+ advance unedited chapters on it…]

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