Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_316: ARC-09

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 were no communications 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 days hadn't been unreasonably difficult, but they hadn't been allowed to rest from a mental and psychological standpoint. Being on constant edge was tough and came with negative effects that slowly chipped away at all aspects of their performance. The news was a good one, 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 hiden jutsu, 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, 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.

Takuma took her up on her company. "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 in 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 are so sure they're going to accept you?"

"Of course," said Three, confidently with a hint of pride, "I am too good of a catch for them to let me slip from their fingers." She bumped her shoulder into his and smirked. "You are not so bad yourself, my dear Thirteen. Not as good as me, of course," she winked at him.

"Uh-huh," he said, nodding along her good-hearted quip. "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.

"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 am 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," he mimicked her speech pattern.

"Screw you, that was embarrassing," said Amami, holding her red cheeks.

Takuma didn't tease her further.

"So, a genin, huh... That must mean they're giving you a rank promotion along with the offer," she said, speculating.

Takuma put on a small smile in response, neither confirming nor denying. Even though they had told him he would be a chunin, it was safer not to prematurely talk or brag about things like 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 he wanted their opinion on the situation—namely, Maruboshi, Mikoto, and Arisu.

"I have 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 had gotten 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, who was a big reason all of them had made it out alive. He took control of others when they were knocked out unconscious and walked them away from the danger.

"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 only known for three days.

"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.

Both of them had the information given 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 high-ranking, who had then tried to push her out of the market by undercutting her to her own clients, which led to them dropping her services. It was either to pressure her to rejoin the Hidden Leaf or to simply ruin her livelihood—whatever the reason, it was targeted maliciousness.

It was a common strategy used by mega-corporations to run smaller competitors out of business. It happened to emerging competition in the mega-corporations market space to maintain their leadership—and it happened when a mega-corporation entered a new market and used its vast, dominant resources to outgrow a party that had been an existing player in the new market but couldn't defend against the giant, outside invader.

The Hidden Leaf village was essentially a monopoly for mercenary work in the Land of Fire.

So when Ukuri started to take work against the Hidden Leaf, she made herself an enemy—and became a good one at that—she became a much bigger threat because she aggressively hurt the bottom line.

Previously, when she was taking 'normal' jobs, she was only one woman, who could only take do so much work due to being a single person. In a vacuum, it wasn't a problem because the vast majority of people who wanted to get something done would come to the Hidden Leaf because of its vast presence and reputation. 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 to spread her existence, 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, when she started to take jobs against the Hidden Leaf, a market type that never had enough supply but high demand, her threat level exploded. 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 very... long time."

He didn't care for shinobi 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. Why was someone in the position that 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.