Chương 316: CH_9.1 (316)

The last team to return was the Five and Sixteen duo, who returned two hours before the deadline. From the conversation, all teams had completed their tasks, and while they didn't discuss specifics, they had been given similar tasks: robberies, sabotage, bounty, and assassinations. The deadline passed, but there was no communication from the ANBU-nin until the early morning of the next day when Ant and his two subordinates gathered all eight candidates in the hall.

He returned their belongings, which they had taken away at the start of the assessment process. In return, they took away their candidate gear, intending to burn it to erase evidence of their presence and involvement in the increased chaos around the city. It was better for everyone that the city returned to its usual state as soon as possible, and the cases involving the candidate tasks went cold.

"With this, the assessment is over. All of you are free to return home," said Ant, causing a wave of relief to wash over the candidates. The things they had done in the past few days hadn't been unreasonably difficult, but they hadn't been allowed to rest from a mental and psychological standpoint. Being on a constant edge was tough and came with negative effects that slowly chipped away at all aspects of their performance.

The news was welcome, as most were just about done with all of it and wanted to go home and relax. The other ANBU-nin had left the hideout and perhaps even the city overnight. Only Ant and two subordinates remained behind to address the candidates.

"We will contact you with results in a week or two, depending on your residence. Please tell us where you'll be staying for the next couple of weeks so we can send our responses directly to you," he said, addressing all eight candidates sitting in the biggest room in the temporary hideouts. Takuma was sitting against the wall beside Three when she asked,"Where are you going?"

She was from the Yamanaka clan, proven by the fact she could practice the clan's hitsu, which meant she probably lived in the Hidden Leaf village unless she was stationed elsewhere.

"The Hidden Leaf Village," Takuma replied. His contract with the Police Force was about to end in another week, and he expected Uchiha Setsuna would present the Police Force's offer to him. He also had to give Mikoto an answer to her affiliation and sponsorship offer. It was rude to keep her waiting. In her eyes, he was on vacation, thinking about the offer even though he was, in truth, quite busy.

He had given thought to his future while he was on the road, but he couldn't decide and answer either offer until he knew if the ANBU wanted him.

"Me too. Let's travel together," Three suggested.

"That works for me," he said.

"Do not stay in the Ember Capital City. Leave today if possible or tomorrow at the latest," Ant ordered and warned them.

"Today," he whispered to Three, who nodded. That was all Ant told them before confirming their addresses and dismissing them. He then called Takuma and Three to the corner for a private chat,"Here, take this," he said, tossing the bounty office token toward them.

"Don't cash it here in the city. Use the bounty office back at the village; it'd be safer that way." Three caught the token and looked at Takuma, "Split the reward in half?"

"That's fair."

"How about we claim it together when we get our offers?"

"You're so sure they're going to accept you, huh?"

"Of course," said Three, confidently with a hint of pride, "I'm too good of a catch to pass up on." She bumped her shoulder into his and smirked.

"You aren't so bad yourself, my dear Thirteen. Not as good as me, of course, but not half bad either."

"Uh-huh," he said, nodding along.

"Come on, let's get something to eat and then get out of here." ———.

"So... how about doing an introduction?" Three said while on the road. Takuma looked at her. Although they knew each other's faces, they hadn't exchanged names because they considered it unnecessary. They also wanted to keep the flow of personal information to a minimum in case the ANBU had something else planned for them after the Ember City Capital tasks. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Look, we know each other's faces, and since both of us live in the Hidden Leaf Village, it's not going to be impossible for us to find information about each other. And well, you know, I am a Yamanaka—it's going to be pretty easy for you," she said with a shrug.

"So, let me go first, I guess. I'm Chunin Yamanaka Amami. And you are?"

"Nice to meet you, Amami. You can call me Thirteen," Takuma said. Three's face fell when he didn't reciprocate the gesture.

"Just kidding," he said when he saw the resentment and anger in her eyes.

"I am Genin Takuma. Come on, learn to take a joke, my dear Amami."

"Screw you, that was embarrassing," said Amami.

"So, you're a genin, huh? That must mean they're giving you a rank promotion along with the offer." Takuma wore a small smile in response, neither confirming nor denying her claim. Even though they had told him he would become a chunin, it was safer not to prematurely talk or brag about things like a rank promotion until they happened.

It was also why he hadn't talked about the current Police Force situation with anyone other than those he trusted, and only because he wanted their opinion on the situation—namely, Maruboshi, Mikoto, and Arisu.

"I've worked with a Yamanaka before," said Takuma, moving along the conversation with a common topic.

"Oh, no wonder you adjusted so quickly back then." It was during the farm raid, which was ultimately the thing that got him into trouble with the ROOT. He had fought a rogue-nin who knew a defensive B-rank jutsu, which, at that time, took eight genin working together to put down. One of those genin was a Yamanaka and a big reason anyone had made it out alive. He took control of others when they were knocked out unconscious and walked them away from the danger.

"We worked together in the Police Force."

"Oh yeah, I know that brat." Amami smirked.

"I used to take his money in spars when we wanted to make them more interesting. He used to get so mad," she cackled from the memory. Takuma wanted to say that they had something in common because he, too, fought for money, but that wasn't appropriate to share with someone he had only met ten days ago and had only known for three days. Yet somehow, it felt like he'd known her far longer than that.

"So... about the bounty," Amami asked after they left a traveller's inn they had stopped at for lunch.

"What about it?" asked Takuma, but he could guess when he heard the slight discomfort in her tone.

"What do you think?" she asked. They both knew the information disclosed in the task scroll. They knew that Kinohei Ukuri, the woman they had killed, had ultimately died because she had refused to work for the Hidden Leaf. She had refused the offer to become a Hidden Leaf shinobi once again, and that had clearly not gone well with someone up high, who had then tried to push her out of the market by undercutting her to her own clients. That, of course, led to them dropping her services.

The choices were either to pressure her to rejoin the Hidden Leaf or to simply ruin her livelihood. Whatever the reason, it was targeted maliciousness, a common strategy used by mega-corporations to run smaller competitors out of business. The Hidden Leaf village was essentially a monopoly for mercenary work in the Land of Fire, so when Ukuri started to take work against them she made herself an enemy—and a good one at that—she became a much bigger threat because she aggressively hurt the bottom line.

In a vacuum, it wasn't a problem because the majority of people who wanted to get something done would come to the Hidden Leaf. Everyone knew who the Hidden Leaf shinobi were—there was no need to advertise their existence. However, for independent mercenaries like Ukuri, she had to depend on word-of-mouth, which was a much unreliable and slow-growing process. If Ukuri hadn't been targeted, she would've only been a tiny, bug-sized competitor.

However, her threat level exploded when she started to take jobs against the Hidden Leaf, a market type that never had enough supply but high demand. And in that place, when someone was good, the word-of-mouth acted like wildfire. If Takuma had to guess, then the supposed high-ranker who had forced her out must've faced some heat for leading to creating such a situation.

The pressure must've forced him to take care of the situation, which led to the assassination attempt—and when that failed, it became a big enough matter that it became 'official' business. However, it was too late to fix the situation and mend relationships because regardless of what had happened, Ukuri was a threat. She had made a name for herself and built a clientele and connections that couldn't be easily persuaded or threatened. If left alone, she would continue to take jobs against the Hidden Leaf.

When she took protection under the samurai, they couldn't move against her in the open. Even though the sponsor was hidden, it was most likely an 'official' bounty issued by the Hidden Leaf. The Hidden Leaf had created a problem; now they wanted it gone. And ANBU, through Takuma and Amami, eliminated the problem. No—Takuma and Amami eliminated the problem.

"I don't regret killing her," said Takuma after a moment of silence, "but I feel I am going to be thinking about what I did for a while." He didn't care for shinobi's lives, but that didn't mean he enjoyed killing them. He realised there was much more to killing than the act of taking a life—there was a mess of other things that came with it. How could someone be in a position where someone wanted them dead? Were they at fault? What would be the consequences of killing that person? It was easy during the war.

The other side was a clear-cut enemy as they were trying to invade. He was a soldier defending his allies. He had even justified killing Gyon because he was a traitor. But— Takuma closed his eyes as the miserable screams of innocent civilians echoed in his ears, filling his body with a feeling that made him realise how ugly of a human being he had become. —for cases like Kinohei Ukuri, there was so much more nuance that made it impossible to look at it as a black-and-white problem.

He felt like he was swimming in an ocean of grey tar that was always trying to pull him to its depths.

"That money is undoubtedly dirty," Takuma said, looking Amami in the eye, "but so are we. I suggest you either not think about it or go all the way until you reach a conclusion and come to terms with your feelings—but if you do choose to think about it, don't stop halfway because it gets uncomfortable..." because it will haunt you. However, those words went unsaid. He wasn't going to deny the money, though—he didn't have the liberty to do so. He knew what was coming.

For someone like him, he had to get dirty if he wanted to secure his survival.