Chương 99: Interlude: A Mercenary Choice (1) What Is Talent?

Shun Koyo worships geniuses. All styles, all tastes, men, women, parents, childrens, aliens, humans, animals, doesn't really matter for Shun. What matters is talent. Isn't it beautiful? Talent. How does talent work? That's something he ponders a lot, during the night, during the slow agonizing time where his plans build up and he has nothing to do but remember his past, during the day too when a class is boring or when he's in the middle of a boring meeting, and this? This meeting example?

Is the exact reason why he's thinking about talent right now. Sitting on a comfortable chair in the middle of an underground cave they dug with the help of a -now injured- hunter nin, who's bandaging his charred left arm without any help from the other hunter nins that are, themselves, waiting in silence, just like Shun. They're boring. They're pretty strong.

But they're not TALENTED, they're just like him, chunnin, some close to jonin level even if it's hard to categorize with the different systems they're employing for hunter nins, it's just like anbu really, just have a different specialization. Removing people that shouldn't exist. Removing bloodlines that should not exist. Removing a stain from their young history. Can't handle someone to stain their quote on quote 'perfect' records.

Without minding the smell of medical drugs, Shun takes out a piece of candy from the folds of his flak jacket and eat it, the jacket is a memory from konoha, even if he's not there anymore. He's what those hunter-nin would hunt if he was from Kiri. Unfortunately for the dumb guys. He's from the best. He's from the place that taught him about talent, that fed his obssesion for talent. What is talent?

Looking up at the rocky ceiling above him, lit up by a lamptorch he shoved in there, he plays with the candy in his mouth while thinking about this. What is talent? The start of his obssesion with talent started at a really young age, when seeing some of his classmates, especially Orochimaru. Well. Recently, he fought hanzo of the salamander with two of his other classmates, Jiraya, and Tsunade Senju, they're calling themselves sannins now. Shouldn't he call him Orochimaru of the sannin?

That's a great question, doesn't he get friend advantages though? He was their classmate for some time after all! Even if they left him in the dirt, became students of the hokage himself, and have been fast tracked to jonin while he's stuck as a lowly chunnin and-! He lets out a sigh, the candy cracking in his mouth. Even Jiraya, seriously? Orochimaru is the purest genius he's ever seen, he can understand the fast tracking, the senju? Her family name is enough of a justification, but Jiraya? JIRAYA!? I mean...

he was good but he was good like HIM, but he's a sannin now? What the fuck! And he's teaching a genius too!? Someone he, with his obssesion for talent, can recognize as a genius, that's what's weird with talent. Current strength doesn't matter. A kid like Minato is a genius in his book, even if he could beat his ass right now. Why isn't he a fucking joni-! Well, maybe he is. It's not like he has a village to give him the promotion anymore after all.

Hmm, that sounds good, he's a hidden genius, yes, yes, he likes this way of thinking. No matter how BULLSHIT it is! He saw true genius before, and it doesn't look like a man that ally himself with Kiri hunter-nins to gang up on a samurai that's older than ALL of them! That's the kind of things NORMAL people do to win against geniuses. Geniuses... Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Talent... Such a beautiful concept.

If you're not a genius in this world, surviving is hard, Dan was a semi-genius in his eyes too, but he died nonetheless. He lacked that spark he saw in Orochimaru and Minato, and to a lesser degree, the one in Tsunade. He would like to visit his grave, unfortunately, he isn't allowed anymore. A hunter nin, who's smaller than most men and carries a big red stripe on the bottom of his white mask stares at the wall. Ah. He's here.

Coming out from the wall with the hiding in the mole jutsu he taught him, his subordinate comes out, brushing a piece of dirt off his average shoulder with a steady hand, he doesn't have the best of skills, but he's not bad for a genin level he'd say. He has steady hands, that helps for handsigns. The red stripped short hunter nin looks away from his subordinate, he can't see his face because of his mask, but with the way he crosses his arms and previous experiences.

He knows damn well he's mocking his subordinate henge. Tsk. Let them try and teach a random bandit in his thirties how to do a henge in some months, while teaching him how to fight, get a relative genin level, ALL while he never wielded chakra before in his life. Let them try. His henge is fine for random villagers and a samurai he'll never meet. Even if... that's true. He'll admit, that he looks a bit eerie with how AVERAGE he looks, he still have trouble putting life into his henges.

"What the fuck was that fireball!?" The ninjutsu specialist, with his now bandaged arm, gives a look to his subordinate, and Shun answers before tensions rise. Waving his subordinate away "A small trap from Iwa. Nothing's changing" Goto -his subordinate- gives him a look before nodding and opening his mouth again.

"Saw him run towards it, why didn't you took him on?" Another hunter nin answers with a distorted voice, a girl, who isn't on any chair but is leaning against the wall, long black hair over her shoulders, a book in front of her, white mask covered by blue wavy patterns.

"Too much rain" Shun cracks his candy between his teeth and swallow it. See? They need to wait for the perfect moment and retreated from an opportunity just because 'too much rain' they're in Amegakure for fuck sake, OF COURSE IT RAINS! Tsk. That's why they're not geniuses. Maybe that's the difference between Jiraya and him? He rose through the occasion and bit the opportunity like a rabid dog? Maybe he could have been a sannin too. Took Jiraya's place. Not Orochimaru's place though.

The difference between Orochimaru and him is a birth issue. He was born a genius Shun was not. So he needs plans. And subordinates. And he needs to ask questions to said subordinates "Anything important?"

"Pretty sure the old man is gonna be even more paranoid than before" He grunts while the red stripped hunter nin that spotted his subordinate digging in the ground lets out an annoyed puff of air.

"We'll hit at a later date then." Goto shrugs "Well that gives us more time to be ready, I'll see if I can get more information through his son but..." goto shakes his head before putting both hands in his pockets "He's a bit of a waste""I know" Shun closes his eyes and pushes himself to standing a second after his words. He nods at the three hunter-nins present, knowing they're gonna report to the other hunter-nins when they come back "Gonna go do my job. Be back in some months to debrief."

They nod at him and without saying anything else, he follows goto out, his hands blurring handseals for the hiding like a mole jutsu. He pushes through the wall of the cavern like it's warm butter, digging and swimming through the dirt and the rock like a shark in the middle of water, when he pops out of the ground, no dirt or any sign of what just happened on his body, he barely takes the time to do two handseals and pushes his foot against the ground to seal back the hole he made.

They don't need to be that careful cause the samurai isn't a ninja, he only has sharp eyes for fighting, but a little of cleaning up is always good. An environmental genjutsu would be good, but ninjas threw so many environmental genjutsu at the guy he practically has a part of his brain that's probably just dedicated to dodge environmental genjutsus, guess being hunted by ninjas and coming out a victor for decades build habits. So he'll go with the good old track cleaning.

It's worth it to avoid a fight with the old monster. He still wants to kill him to get the money but he won't complain if he can avoid a direct fight, number advantage or not, old samurais like him are beasts in close combat, better to play this like a ninja would. Especially since that old monster checks the forest and the surrounding of the town routinely. He's bad at tracking, but he's good at running. Really damn good. He bursts in like a bulldozer and whenever he sees a headband, he kills.

Stragglers from pretty much every great village died in this forest. How can those dumb villagers believe not even ONE ninja stumbled on this town. It's isolated. Yes. But no place is safe in amegakure. Well, I guess it is when you have Mastuoko Hidefumi as a guardian beast. Ten seconds later, geto comes out of the ground. He cleans up his hole too and follows close behind Shun "Still don't know why you trust those guys""I don't" His subordinate turns his head to look at him. Obviously confused.

"Kiri's are bitches, doesn't matter if they betray us in the end, I'll deal with it" Geto doesn't talk for a moment but soon enough nods. He trusts him. That's good. And understandable, that's probably what happens when you're a lowly bandit and suddenly you meet a veteran chunnin of the leaf. Probably looked like a god from a bandit perspective. The experience of seeing that didn't fade out, and won't for years.

It's probably even worse when you consider that Shun met Geto when he was a younger, and he only grew stronger in front of his eyes since. This kind of overwhelming power builds up loyalty. And that's why he taught him some tricks recently, reinforce loyalty, reinforce his mercenary group. Perfect. Still, it's not like Shun is lying to Geto. If, and when the hunter-nin betrays him, he has a plan to deal with it. He managed to betray the leaf and get away with it. What's a bunch of hunter-nins like them?

"Going back to the academy?" Shun barely thinks before answering.

"Of course."