Aoki Tsuki stepped forward and pried Kareki's mouth open. He saw a black seal on his tongue.
The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal? So he really was from Root.
Shinichi emerged from hiding and began retrieving the Senbon from the ground.
Ryōta dragged Ogawa Kōhei, who had wet himself in fright, out of the house and threw him to the ground, splashing mud everywhere.
Several weapons were handed to Aoki Tsuki.
"These should be the weapons they were trading," Ryōta said.
They had intercepted Okamoto Hisao as he tried to escape. He had sensibly explained why he was there and said he had no desire to fight them.
Only then had they allowed him to leave.
Aoki Tsuki took the weapons and examined them closely. Their markings had been ground off, leaving nothing to identify them by.
"Ryōta, search the rooms, especially the storeroom and basement."
"Yes." Ryōta darted off to search the other rooms.
"Any last words?"
Aoki Tsuki held his blade against Ogawa Kōhei's heart.
"Spare... spare me!"
Ogawa Kōhei trembled all over. "I'm just a businessman. I can give you money. Name your price."
"Why didn't you do that earlier? You wouldn't come forward, so we had to come looking for you."
"I was wrong. I'll pay... I'll keep paying from now on, I swear!" Ogawa Kōhei vowed.
"Mm."
Aoki Tsuki nodded noncommittally and pointed at Kareki's corpse. "Tell me about him."
"He was just a wandering ninja I hired with money..."
Crack...
"Ah...!"
Ogawa Kōhei stared at the fingers on his right hand, which had been stomped to a pulp, and let out a scream.
He immediately forced himself to stop because the blade at his chest had pierced his skin.
He could even feel the sharp point touch his heart with every beat.
It seemed it might pierce his heart the next second.
"I'll give you one chance to reconsider your words," Aoki Tsuki reminded him kindly.
"I'll talk... I'll talk..."
At that point, Ogawa Kōhei had no concern for keeping a dead man's secrets. He quickly explained everything.
He had originally been a small-time weapons dealer. Then one day, someone came to him, claiming to have a large supply of secondhand weapons.
They had him act as their agent to develop a market in the southeastern Land of Rain and promised to send a ninja to protect him.
How could Ogawa Kōhei refuse such a windfall? He could tell at a glance that the weapons were all Land of Fire designs.
Most likely, they had been discarded by Konoha ninja.
The first group he contacted was the Araki Ronin, a fairly well-known organization in the area.
Everything went smoothly, bolstering his confidence, and he began smuggling and selling the weapons. He was in talks with a potential customer, the Gokudo Group, when he was caught.
"Is that so? It's getting late. Time to go."
Spurt...
Having gotten the information, Aoki Tsuki swiftly finished Ogawa Kōhei off, afraid he might say something more and cause him trouble.
The Land of Rain was a paradise for rogue ninja and a dumping ground for weapons.
The chaos was like the never-ending rain.
He took out a storage scroll and sealed Kareki's and Ogawa Kōhei's bodies inside. The village required them to bring back the corpses.
By then, Ryōta had also found the entrance to the basement and discovered a cache of weapons inside.
Aoki Tsuki inspected them and put away a few whose markings were still faintly visible. The rest were boxed and packed separately.
"All right, the mission is over. Everyone worked well together. Let's find somewhere to rest and return to the village tomorrow."
Mieko walked over. "Should we go check out that Araki Rōnin Organization?"
"No need. There are plenty of ronin organizations like that. We could never kill them all."
Aoki Tsuki waved a hand. "Remember, we're here to show the village's presence, not to kill."
Avoid all unnecessary fighting.
The four found a small inn to rest in. While there, they reviewed the battle and summed up what they had learned.
Aoki Tsuki taught the two newcomers the technique of using Kunai tied to Explosive Tags.
It was a standard combat technique and highly effective. Apart from being expensive, it had no other drawbacks.
They set off early the next morning.
After returning to the village, they headed straight for the northern district. The northern district had always been Amegakure's true core, and nearly all its ninja were concentrated there.
Most of the towers in the western district stood empty and were used only for ceremonies and special events. Some poor people also lived there.
The eastern district was Amegakure's commercial center, where most of its civilians lived.
The mission hall.
Aoki Tsuki had his head down, writing furiously as he prepared the mission report.
A Shinobi World PowerPoint.
It took skill: the report had to show that the mission had been completed successfully while also demonstrating the team's overall combat capabilities.
Most importantly, he couldn't cause trouble for himself.
As captain, he had coordinated the team and made good use of each member's abilities, covering intelligence analysis, tactical coordination, and so on.
These were basic requirements for a Chunin. The higher-ups relied on mission reports to learn about the people under them.
Mieko, Ryōta, and Shinichi waited patiently nearby.
Half an hour passed. After polishing the report, he finally finished and handed in the scroll.
He also submitted the corpse of the suspected Konoha ninja and several weapons with indistinct markings.
The village would make its own judgment. He didn't need to speculate.
After reading the report, Takenaka Osamu gave a slight nod.
"The mission was completed quite well. The village needs two days to verify everything. Your payment will be issued then."
As the head of Amegakure's mission office, Jonin Takenaka Osamu represented Hanzō's will. He also had the undisclosed duty of identifying talented people.
As the first of the previous batch of Genin to be promoted to Chunin, Aoki Tsuki had naturally drawn his attention.
"I hear you want to become Lord Hanzō's guard?"
Aoki Tsuki wasn't surprised that the village knew about his dream.
He had spoken about it in public more than once recently.
"Yes, Lord Osamu. That's my dream. Lord Hanzō is the guardian deity of our Land of Rain. As long as he's here, our Amegakure will have a place in the Shinobi World.
"I've felt that especially strongly when I've gone out on missions. I'll keep growing stronger until I'm qualified to stand behind Lord Hanzō."
Takenaka Osamu was very satisfied with Aoki Tsuki's answer, and his expression grew much warmer.
"It's good that you understand that. The ninja of the Five Great Shinobi Villages are arrogant and rude, trampling on the dignity of small countries like ours as they please.
"Amegakure cannot do without Lord Hanzō. You're still young and need time to mature. You'll have plenty of opportunities in the future."
"Yes! I'll do my best. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."
Some talent, ambition, loyalty, and reliability.
That was the image Aoki Tsuki wanted to cultivate.
Next, he needed to keep reinforcing those impressions with his superiors, so that when they needed someone in the future, he would be the first to come to mind.
He explained the situation to his teammates.
"The payment for this mission probably won't come through until the day after tomorrow. After tax, there should be around twenty thousand ryō left. As captain, I'll take half, and the three of you will split the other half."
The so-called tax was a tribute to Lord Hanzō.
Although the village issued the missions, they first had to thank Lord Hanzō for his protection. Otherwise, how would there be missions for them to take?
Everyone accepted this rule without question.
"Take a few days off. I'll contact you when there's another mission. Dismissed."
"Understood."
Even with ten thousand ryō split three ways, each of them would get more than three thousand.
For Genin to earn that much in two days was already quite good in Amegakure, a small village plagued by war year after year.
After they parted, Aokihara arrived home near Shibuki Bridge in the eastern district.
The Kanamonodō Gift Shop.
It was his family's shop. His father, a Chunin, had died in the Second Shinobi World War, but fortunately he had left the family a means of livelihood.
His mother, Eiko, had raised him by running the shop.
"Little Tsuki, you're back! Here, have a bun."
An old woman who sold pork buns next door took a meat bun from her steamer and handed it to Aoki Tsuki.
"Thank you, Grandma Chiki. How's business today?"
"Same as always. I heard you went out on a mission. Did it go smoothly?" Grandma Chiki asked with a smile.
"Very smoothly. I only do simple missions. If I run into danger, I run away."
"That's right. I knew you were clever, hahaha..."
Aoki Tsuki finished the bun in a few bites, waved, and turned toward home.
"I'll head home now."
Grandma Chiki's buns really were good. Even Jiraiya had praised them.
"I'm home."
After entering, Aoki Tsuki called out and saw a blue-haired middle-aged woman in house clothes hurry out from behind a shelf.
The years had left marks of varying depth on her face.
Her tired eyes were full of worry as she looked Aoki Tsuki up and down.
"Little Tsuki, are you all right? Are you hurt?"
"Don't worry, I'm very careful. Besides, I'm a Chunin now. I can go wherever I want in the Land of Rain."
"Your dead father was a Chunin too, and what happened to him?" Eiko said disapprovingly.
"I know. Not much business today?"
Eiko's mood was directly tied to business at the shop. As a woman raising a child, she had no choice but to rely on it for their livelihood.
How well the shop did determined whether they had food to eat.
"Don't mention it. I didn't sell a single gift all morning, so I just closed up," Eiko said helplessly.
"Don't worry. I earned ten thousand ryō on this job. It'll last us a while."
"Oh, that much? You have to admit, being a ninja pays well. Apart from the danger, there's nothing bad about it."
Aoki Tsuki agreed wholeheartedly and headed upstairs. "I'm going up to rest. Call me when it's time to eat."
After all, he wasn't the original owner of the body, and his personality was different to some extent.
Aoki Tsuki himself had mixed feelings about living with her, though he was gradually getting used to it.
Eiko watched her son's retreating figure. He was at an age when children grew rapidly, and he had shot up in just two years.
"Little Tsuki really has grown up. He's become much steadier too. Well... life is looking brighter and brighter."
The ground floor was the shop, while the second floor was the living space, with two bedrooms and a living room. It had all been left by Aoki Tsuki's father.
He had also left the D-rank Body Flicker Technique, the C-rank Water Clone Technique, and the B-rank Water Formation Wall.
Aoki Tsuki had already mastered the Body Flicker Technique and the Water Clone Technique.
Compared with the Shadow Clone, the Water Clone Technique had limits on its power and range, but it was sufficient for infiltration and luring enemies.
The Water Formation Wall was quite difficult. Aoki Tsuki had already begun practicing it in earnest recently, but he would need to grind at it for some time before he could use it in combat.
Once he had mastered those techniques, he would take missions for a while longer to gain experience and build up his credentials as an elite Chunin.
He would strive to secure a stable position.
He took a quick bath and lay down for a short nap. When it was time to eat, he went downstairs for lunch, then slept through the afternoon and rested up.
The evening was his time to train.
In the dim, yellow-lit room, Aoki Tsuki sat cross-legged and adjusted his mental state.
A candle burned before him. He formed the "zen" hand seal and began his meditation training for the day.
His spiritual power had been exceptionally strong since he transmigrated, giving him a great advantage in both molding and controlling Chakra.
The "zen" seal could be used to strengthen and focus spiritual power.
There were many benefits to increasing spiritual power, and it would be a tremendous help in developing other techniques in the future.
The meditation method he currently used was called the Single-Point Gazing Method.
Its principle was to condense and strengthen spiritual power through extreme concentration, with the goal of interfering with reality.
Once he could light a candle with a glare, he would have succeeded.
By then, his spiritual power would surely have reached a new breakthrough.
In his previous life, that would have been pure bullshit, but this was the world of Naruto, where things that defied reason were everywhere.
The Nara Clan used spiritual energy to forcibly control the shape and behavior of shadows. The Yamanaka Clan's Mind Body Switch Technique and some advanced genjutsu were also applications of spiritual energy.
This was a necessary step toward entering the realm of Yin Release.
The Nara Clan seemed to strengthen their spiritual power through board games and deep thought. The Uchiha relied on stimulation from negative emotions, while ordinary ninja practiced genjutsu to improve their resistance.
Each had their own way of honing it.
With a cheat to help him, all he had to do was grind.
Give form through Yin Release, and become as vast as heaven and earth.