Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_68

‘—a shinobi is much more than the chakra he wields—’

Did Takuma fully understand the depth behind the meaning of the words that Maruboshi had said to him nearly a year ago?  The answer would be ‘No’.  His teacher had put him through many different skills that he initially thought would be of no use to him.  To this day, there were skills he thought he would never ever use.

However, at the same time, the cycle of D-rank missions had shoved him into many paths of life.  He had done more different things in his life than ever before.  From farming in the soil to sewing with a needle to construction work under the sun to balancing books in an office to standing at a gate and smiling at people as they walked by— he had done a lot of jobs.  And surprisingly, some of Maruboshi’s teaching had helped him along, and he had learned much more things along the way that had come to his aid in one way or another.

Looking back at it, he was surprised at how little his previous self knew.  The stupid college bozo wouldn’t have been able to survive in the world if he was one day kicked to the street to fend for himself.

So, while he didn’t fully agree or even understand his teacher’s words, Takuma had to agree that having knowledge and skill of various kinds was beneficial in general.

Simultaneously, he was still a shinobi.  He believed that if he was to learn different skills, they should be more suited to his job title and not just anything until he could call himself a jack of irrelevant trades.  His time was better suited to learning and trying things he deemed more useful.

Which was why he decided to test out something practical and valuable to him in the future… and not all because he thought it was fun and something he always wanted to do.

Across the street from him was the headquarters of the Hidden Leaf’s— nay, the Land of Fire’s— biggest publishing house— Sume Publications.  Takuma didn’t have time to read many books in his time here, but he did follow the newspaper, and book reviews were a thing in it, and he had heard much about books from Sume Publications.

Takuma wanted to see how deep he could get into the building without getting caught.  He could, of course, transform as one of the employees and walk into the building, but the risk of getting approached and talked to by someone was high.  If that happened, his disguise would be outed with his inability to talk back— he could act rude and ignore everyone or pretend as if he was in a hurry, but that wasn’t ideal.

Moreover, as useful as Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) was, trained shinobi could catch flaws.  They had gone over it during basic training, looking for flaws in each other’s transformations.  And while Sume Publications was a civilian establishment, he didn’t want to use that tactic.  It was a self-restriction.

He had something else in mind.

Takuma looked down at the simple set of repairman clothes— they were the equivalent of the high-vis vest— and tucked the ladder under his arm and picked up the red toolbox before jumping down from the building’s roof.

He walked up to the entrance of the building where two shinobi stood guard.  Even though it was a civilian establishment, a couple of genin guards were hired by the business.  The building was both the headquarters and a large printing press.  In the Leaf village, a shinobi hub, having one or two genin guards, was considered the basic level of security for those who could afford it.

Taking a calm breath, Takuma crossed the road with his held high.  He had the toolbox, ladder, and a clipboard with blank paper— that was all he needed.  Even if they were shinobi, they were still humans.  He just needed to believe that this was where he belonged.  He could do it.

Without slowing down or looking at the guards, he walked past them into the building.  Takuma felt their eyes on him, and for a moment, he felt his heart skip a beat, but as he kept walking, they didn’t stop him.

His lips twitched upward as he stepped inside the building.  It worked! ‘Holy shit, I didn’t think it would actually work!’ he cheered to himself.  But as it turned out, a simple suitable disguise and the right attitude were all he needed to get into most places.

Putting away his smile, Takuma continued.  To his surprise, even the receptionist didn’t stop him as he walked deeper into the building.

Well, better for him.

His destination was on the floor with the editors, specifically fiction editors.  His target: Shindo Eru, a senior editor for Semu Publications.

The reason why Takuma had chosen Semu Publications and Shindo Eru was that he knew both.  During one of his delivery stints, he had been asked to deliver a package to Semu Publications, and the recipient had been Shindo Eru.  He had been in the building once and had seen the man once.

If it wasn’t his first exercise of the type and he wasn’t participating in the Ring and thus short on time, he would’ve chosen a fresh target and would’ve done scouting— but since he still had to do missions, he deemed that experience as scouting.

As long as he entered Shindo Eru’s office without raising suspicion, he would consider it a win.

From what Takuma remembered, Shindo Eru’s office was on the edge of an office space that was shared between junior editors in an open-cubicle style.  Shindo Eru, being a senior editor, was given his own closed office.  For Takuma to enter the office, he needed to go through an entire floor of people without raising any eyebrows.

He had delivered the package directly into Shindo Eru’s hands in his office— and he could’ve used the delivery boy’s identity again, but that would’ve only given him a few seconds in the office, and that’s only if Shindo Eru was in his office.  If the man wasn’t in his office, he would’ve been forced to hand the faux package to someone else.

He could hide somewhere, but that would’ve restricted his reconnaissance options as an unknown person would’ve stood out.

But, a repairman?

Takuma opened his ladder under a bulb just outside the office space with a direct line of sight to the office and pretended to work while observing the premise to figure out how he could get into the office and stay for a reasonable amount of time.

An ideal period to try getting into the office would be lunchtime when people go out to eat, but that was a little over an hour away, and he couldn’t wait that long without someone figuring out that something was wrong.  And, from the looks of it, Shindo Eru wasn’t in his office.

Even if he could stay until lunch, he didn’t have that kind of time.  He had a fight right after lunch; as he was still a new fighter, his fights were not at times one could call primetime.  He needed to be out and away to get prepared for his fight.

“Is there something wrong with that?”

As Takuma was peering around, a voice called out to him.  He looked down and saw a bespectacled woman with documents cradled in her arms staring up at him.

Even though he was expecting someone to talk to him, it still surprised him.  It took him a moment to reply, “Ah, there’s nothing wrong; it’s just routine maintenance work, miss,” he said with a smile.

“Then can you look at help me with the light above my desk, it has been flickering lately,” said the lady.

“Sure, where is it?  I will head over there after I’m done with here,” he said, keeping the pretense.  Inside he was annoyed about the hindrance in his mission, but he kept the pleasant mask on the outside.

Contrary to his expectations, the woman pointed inside the office space.  Takuma’s eyes shined.  He smiled and assured the woman that he would be there to help her in a jiffy.  He followed the lady with his eyes, and her desk was a pebble’s flick worth of distance away from the office.  Lady luck was with him today.

He counted two minutes before heading to the lady’s desk, and she showed him the bulb that was bothering her.  Takuma set up his ladder and began his pretense.

“Hmm, this looks like it has reached the end of its life; we will need to change the bulb and put in a new one, miss,” he climbed down from the ladder.  “I don’t have one that will fit in this socket right now, but how about I exchange this one with a bulb with one from a less inconspicuous place.  That way, you won’t wait until we order a replacement.”

“That would be really helpful, thank you,” the woman smiled.

“Then, I will go search for a matching one,” saying that, Takuma pulled the invisible string wrapped around his pinky.

*Thud!*

The woman turned and gasped when she saw that a pile of paper on her desk had fallen down.  She turned and saw that Takuma was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh, where did he go?”

. . .

Takuma silently closed the door to Shindo Eru’s office behind him.  He grinned as he looked inside the empty office.  The tricky part was done, now all he had to do was complete the task and take his exit.

The office had a messy desk filled with stacks of paper in envelopes that looked like manuscripts.  There was a bookshelf with a lot of books.  Takuma could’ve stolen them, but he didn’t want to cause harm to the man (or the people who had sent the manuscripts).  This was just an exercise.

Other than the furniture and decorations, there was a large metal almirah/cupboard.  When Takuma pulled on the handle, he found the doors locked.

‘This is it; this is a proper place,’ he smiled.

Takuma took out his lock-picking kit from his person and got to work.  It took a little under two minutes to pick the lock and… click!

He was in.

There were more documents inside, a packed lunch, a jar of candy, a change of clothes, a formal suit, and more.  None of the things interested him.  He just wanted to test out his lock-picking skills on the ‘field.’

And for the final step… Takuma picked up a blank paper and a calligraphy brush from the desk

Takuma grinned as he put ink on the page.

. . .

Getting out was easier.  Takuma threw a smooth decoration pebble from Shindo Eru’s decorative bowl across the office space and made a large glass jar fall.  The crash was loud enough that it caught everyone’s attention for a moment, which was sufficient for Takuma to sneakily get out of the office.

He replaced the woman’s bulb, packed his stuff, and walked out of Sume Publications with no one knowing any better.

And later that day, lady luck continued to shine on him as he got a sub-three-minute knockout on his opponent.

It made him think if he should go prowling into buildings as a ritual before fights.

It was a good day of quick in-and-outs.

———

.

Shindo Eru looked up at the faintly flickering light bulb in his office with a frown before looking down at the manuscript envelope.  He pulled out the manuscript with the title:

[Icha Icha – Part 1]

— Jiraya

As he got ready to read the first manuscript by the one of the three great Sanin, Jiraya, another folded page fell out of the envelope.  It was an unruled page, different from the manuscript paper.

He spread it open,

“Huh?”

Written on it in bold writing were the words:

[BIG DADDY WAS HERE]

Shindo Eru frowned before shaking his head.

He could never  understand the eccentric minds of shinobi.

———

.

AN:

[1]: First, I hoped I could've written this as Chapter 69

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[2]: Second, my apologies for being rude.  I failed to acknowledge the contribution in the Help for ARC-03 post in the last chapters.  I would like to seriously thank you guys for such a great response.  Here are some points I got from the contribution:

• Takuma should pick up a hobby to escape from stress.  I'm thinking about going with gardening(I'll bring farming when Takuma buys his home in the rural part of the village)  and going on wilderness camping as Takuma's hobby, and I will think of an eccentric/wierd hobby for Takuma to give him some more personality.
  
• Takuma showcasing/practicing his non-combat shinobi skills.  I actually like writing those and wrote this chapter as an example.  I will keep writing this kind of chapters— the only problem is that I have to carefully chose these skills and space them out so I don't run out.
  
•  Meeting with academy classmates.  To be honest, I have plans to bring named classmates like Taketori Kameko, Fuma Arisu, Okubo Momoe, Uchiha Izumi (damn, that's 4 girls), and well, Inuzuka Hiji in future.  All of them will play some role in the future and will get significant 'screen time.'
  
• Learning Resource Center.  I have a plan for it which will come soon in ARC-03.  It'll be only after that plan when I'll use it as a training tool— if you go read when I introduced it, you might get a hint on what that experience might be like.
  
• Iryo-jutsu and Summoning Jutsu.  Unfortunately, I have no plans for these in the near future.  I'll look towards these after Takuma reaches Chunin and is in a better position to empower himself.
  
• Other POVs.  I proposed this, so I do want to write them.  However, the problem from my side is that those plots need to eventually mean something in the story and affect Takuma in some way without getting him directly involved (at least not immediately).  I will only write these when I can think of a plot line from start to finish before I pen a single work, only then it'd be worth it.
  
• Leadership Skills.  I'll start working on those in ARC-04.  You see, how I envision C-rank mission is that they're always headed by a Chunin who takes a team of genin with him on these missions.  So, first I'll let Takuma get hang of C-rank missions as a team member before I eventually start giving him 'lessons/experiences' with leading and managing.
  
• Connections.  A very good point.  I was thinking about this recently.  The way I envisioning it right with Takuma's current situation is that he will make connections, but it'll be in the shady part of the Leaf village.  Which I think is great from a story standpoint as in Naruto fic, when the MC makes connections, it's to people like Anko, Kurenai, Gai, Asuma, Kakashi— the named canon characters who're on the 'light' side.  I want Takuma to make connections on the seeder side of things— which will make him a resource full man in the future.  Make Takuma like one of those connected aid/bodyguard type characters under the antagonist.  When the antagonist needs to get something done, it's that guy who gets it done and it's usually shady as fuck.
  
• Big Brother Type Relationship.  To be completely honest, I don't want to do this right now.  Takuma has his own thing going now and need to focus on himself.  After he's a little comfortable, he has his friends who he can 'take care of', which I'm currently thinking plot points about.  So, none of that.  Also, I don't like my MC getting chummy with canon maincast characters this early in the story.  That'll come later.
  
• Interesting D-rank missions.  Believe me, if I can think of those, I'll immediately put them in.  I choose the Genin Corp plot because I thought it'd be fun to write some interesting D-rank missions.  But, it turns out it's difficult for me.  I can write the anime styled comedic D-rank missions, but I feel with the tone we have going in the fic, those won't hit hard.  Tell me if you want to see this type.
  
• Introduction of C-rank missions.  The reason I'm not dishing out C-rank missions right now is because the first C-rank mission is supposed to be a special one as foreshadowed in a previous chapter.  After I get that special first mission out, we will start seeing C-rank missions.
  
• First Kill.  Will happen during a C-rank mission in the future.  I actually already have the aftermath in mind, but it won't happen in ARC-03.  It'll be a dangerous mission where Takuma will be forced to face his mortality and check his resolve to preserve it.  Note: Special thanks to SleepySnakeZzz for showing me the topic of killing some in the heat of battle vs killing someone outside of that— I hope that I'll get to address that in this fic.
  
• Learning From Other People.  Essentially more people like Maruboshi.  I actually have a perfect group of people who I will have Takuma learn from.  In my mind, these people will be the perfect and willing teachers.  The problem is simply the timing of this introduction.  Takuma is learning through fighting, I'll have him learn through Learning Resource Center, and now this group— it creates a crowd of isolated training, something I want to avoid, so I'll balance them.
  
• Maruboshi, where you at?  He will show up again in the future.  His story isn't over yet.  I want to do something special with it.  Right now, while Takuma and Maruboshi are close, they aren't as close as Naruto&Iruka or Naruto&Jiraya or Gai&Lee or Shikamaru&Asuma— I will be developing this relationship later.

It might look like I rejected or delayed most of the ideas.  But believe me, the help was tremendous.  My brain cells are working right now.  I now have a vague vision about the B-plot for ARC-03— and it's all because of reading the ideas from you guys.  It just gave my mind a kick.

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[3]: To answer Coalman95's comment in the last chapter about Takuma sticking his fight record on the wall which makes his identity as Scars in the Ring vulnerable.  It's true, it does that.  However my motive for it was to shows how Takuma percieves his home.  It's his personal space which he doesn't let anyone in.  While not explicitely stated, Takuma doesn't invite people into his home.  Except Jurou from that one chapter in ARC-01 (and maybe the landlord), no one has ever entered Takuma's home since he took residence.  It'll stay that way for a while before Takuma drops those walls.