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Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_296
🕑 Added 2024-09-15 03:09:11 +0000 UTCAs the last hour of the gathering wound down, Takuma and Arisu sat shoulder to shoulder, feet kicked out, leaning against the wall, away from the tables. The mood of the gathering had long since settled down; some people had left, and the conversations had turned softer; some had even laid down on the tatami floors.
"I really wanted to spar with you," Arisu sighed with a hint of irritation.
Takuma wanted to spar with Arisu as he did with Nenro and Masaaki, and she had readily agreed, but she ran into a work problem the day before their spar and thus had to pull out from the spar commitment.
"It's okay. Let's do it after I return from my trip," Takuma replied. He also wanted to fight Arisu because she had a unique combat style from her Fuma clan lineage that was often required to handle the giant fuma shuriken and turn it into an effective weapon. He wanted to see closely what insight he could gain from it.
"Don't you think it's too early for you to go out again? It hasn't even been a month since you came back," said Arisu, glancing up at him.
"It is early, but it's also the only time I'm free. I'm on leave until my contract runs out—if Setsuna somehow pulls through, I would need to start working in my new position; if he fails, I would need to start looking for work... And I just showed up at Maruboshi-sensei's house; I think I've already outstayed my welcome, so the trip helps me get out, and when I return, I'll couch-surf at Ai's house while I find myself a new place to rent."
Of course, as Arisu said, it was indeed too early to leave on a leisure trip when he had just returned home after nearly a year at war. But he couldn't push postpone on the ANBU recruitment tests—and, in some ways, doing something challenging would be an excellent way to get him back in the grove.
"Did you decide where you're going?" she asked.
Takuma answered with the pre-prepared response of his trip taking him through a couple of major cities, a hunting hotspot, a long-standing temple, and some planned detours on his journey. However, because he wasn't visiting any of those places, he would not have any stories to tell, nor any souvenirs to bring back—so he had thought of an excuse where he would come across a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere and decide to stay there after being captivated by itself. That town was an actual lake-side settlement once found by Maruboshi during his travel and would give Takuma enough information to lie effectively.
"Dad said that you should come and visit," said Arisu.
"Sure, I would like to see your dad again," said Takuma. He had known Arisu for a while now, and in that time, he had met some of her relatives, like her dad and aunt, who worked in the Police Force. He had also visited her home once to have dinner with her family. they
"How's the family doing?"
Suddenly, Arisu's face darkened, and her body stiffened as she bowed her head, causing her green hair to fall down and cover her face.
"Dad and mom are getting a divorce," she whispered.
"What?" Takuma was utterly shocked and taken aback by the sudden. She had been so cheerful since he had returned and showed no signs of any distress or a problem as grave as her parents getting divorced. Or she did show some signs, and he had missed them because he was rotting in his own misery. "Hey, are you alright? How can I help? If you want to talk—"
"Pfft!" Arisu turned her head away with her hand covering her mouth. She shook from trying to hold her laughter back.
"You dick! Come on, I was genuinely worried!" Takuma punched her in the shoulder.
She wiped a tear from her eye while grinning ear to ear. "Everything is fine. They had their sixteenth anniversary two months ago. They're thinking about raising a chicken to see if they could manage up a coop in the future."
He sighed but was happy that everything was good. He noticed her gaze on him and asked what she was looking at.
"The scar really changed your look." Arisu held her face with one hand and gently brushed her thumb against the scar on the edge of his lips. "You should get it fixed. There's an iryo-nin in the clan who's really good in the reconstructive and cosmetic field—after he's done, it will be like you never had that scar."
It wasn't the first time they had talked about the topic of his scars. The Hidden Leaf standard uniform had a turtleneck and full-sleeved undershirt, which hid all of his body, and the Police Force uniform too covered his body so he never had to worry about other people seeing his scars but someone who had spent as much time with him as Arisu, she knew to a large extent how many scars he had. She never liked them and would bring up cosmetic reconstruction to wipe them off.
"I don't mind them," Takuma replied with the same answer as always. "They serve as reminders of mistakes I shouldn't make again."
His time in the Ring had put many marks on his body, and he could immediately point to one and recall why he got it. They were signs of failure, but more importantly, learning. He didn't like his scars—he would prefer not to get new ones—but he was fine with them being there. Then there were the surgical scars; they were his connection to the boy's past—and ever since Yu, they had become more important in understanding the truth, which was now his past.
"ROOT was behind the assassination attempt," Takuma whispered just loud enough for Arisu to hear. The ANBU and Police Force had kept that information on the low so it hadn't spread out.
"That ROOT?" Arisu exclaimed in a whisper as her eyes turned to saucers.
Takuma nodded. "The man who most probably ordered the assassination was at the city I was operating... I got the scar while fighting him. I cut off his arm, but he escaped," he said. He clenched his arm until anger flared just from remembering Kon's ugly mug.
"But why did they target you?"
"Remember the Farm Raid? That belonged to the ROOT; they wanted to retaliate and scare us away."
"Oh my god... That must've been terrible to see him there."
It was indeed terrible. The man had made his life miserable by releasing the wanted posters, which had led to innocent people getting tortured.
"He killed one of my teammates, Rikku, a dear friend," said Takuma. For a split second, a terribly dark flashed past his eyes. "I hate that man from the depths of my being. He escaped back then, but when we meet the next time, I'll feed him to hyenas just so that he would finally be of some actual use in his death."
Arisu placed a hand on his hand, and Takuma exhaled deeply to release the rage build-up.
"I'm sorry, let's change the topic," he said with an apologetic look.
"There are rumours that you are getting promoted," said Arisu, surprising him.
"Seriously?" he asked because he lacked confidence in Setsuna.
"I didn't talk about our conversation with anyone, and if you only shared the promotion talk with me, then it must be from Chunin Setsuna ... I heard that he has been meeting with department heads recently, and seeing that no higher-up has stopped him must mean that they don't mind it, which means that they're seriously considering your promotion."
Since meeting with Mikoto and her offer to swear allegiance to the Uchiha clan, Takuma saw two paths before him.
Assuming he got the Police Force promotion, if he went that route, then he was thinking of taking up the offer, becoming affiliated, and hitching his ride with the Uchiha clan; he would be working on the clan's home field, but unlike before, he would concretely be on their side—and he would have Jonin Uchiha Mikoto, the Uchiha matriarch as his backer. Not only would he have stable power in the Police Force, but he would also have a clan's resource—he wasn't delusional to think he would get the clan member treatment, but as long as he got anything comparable, that would be a huge boon.
The second route was joining ANBU if he passed. The moment they had put the jutsu archive access on the table, Takuma had almost made up his mind to the point nothing would change it. His initial aim had been to survive; getting unfettered access to a C-rank archive and favourable access to a B-rank archive based on performance fulfilled that aim. However, he was no longer comfortable aligning himself with the Uchiha clan if he wasn't working in the Police Force; the moment he revealed his position in the ANBU, he would undoubtedly be turned into an insider—and the moment the ANBU found his affiliation with the Uchiha, he could see them pressuring him to be their insider.
Takuma didn't want to get stuck between them, and hiding one from the other was impossible as it would inevitably be revealed.
Another of his concerns with ANBU was that one of his long-term goals was to become a jonin. He had lived in the world long enough to understand that rank promotions, especially jonin promotion, were deeply political affairs. While the ANBU was an optimal place to rack achievements by handling matters of national security and had all the power one could ask for; they weren't as politically influential as one of the two founder clans of the Hidden Leaf.
Having the Uchiha as his backers would raise his chances like almost no one else could.
While he could be incorrect, he also guessed that getting promoted inside ANBU itself would be more difficult when the average skill of their members, along with their achievement, would be higher, which meant harsher competition leading to lower chances of getting promoted.
Rank promotions were inherently essential to getting stronger for someone like him who didn't have a clan's deep shinobi culture to pull from. Without becoming a chunin, he wouldn't be able to do higher-level missions; would earn fewer mission points and money, limiting his purchasing power; and wouldn't have access to the B-rank archives, limiting him to weaker jutsu—thus stifling his growth. And because of that, becoming a jonin was absolutely necessary if he wanted to become someone truly strong—without that promotion, the only way to get stronger was to take drastic measures requiring him to uproot his life, which wasn't something he wanted to do.
There was no doubt that both paths before him were excellent, and he would be fortunate to go either way—but he didn't know what his personal future had in store for him, and he didn't want to regret taking one path only to realise then that he would have done better if he went the other way.
"Ugh, I don't want to think about it. It just makes me anxious," said Takuma, rubbing his arm.
"Well, you're lucky that you're going away," Arisu replied.
"Let's go on a trip somewhere together someday, even if it's only one day," said Takuma.
"Really? I would like that actually very much," said Arisu with a bright blooming on her face.
"Uh-huh, let's gather some of our friends and go somewhere relaxing," Takuma said. He hadn't ever been on a trip with friends other than school excursions and wanted that experience at least once.
Arisu's smile turned into a glare, and she kicked him in the shin so hard that he yelped as pain jolted him.
"Ouch, what the fuck!" Takuma yelled as he briskly rubbed his leg to ease the pain.
"Your ugly face irritated me!"
"That makes no sense!"
———
.
A/N: And that's it for class gathering. Unfortunately, no Hiji-whooping this time around because it doesn't make sense with Takuma's personality, current mood, and the coming ANBU tests. But I promise that I will have Hiji feel Takuma's fist in his face one day.
Comments
Lestrat Shadow
Thanks for the chapter...I think three filter chapter in row is little above me taste but we are happy that arisu have some good time with takuma...for future more chapter that move stroy forward...:D have nice day and good mood
Celtic Bard
"Really? I would like that actually very much," said Arisu with a bright blooming on her face. - missed a word here
Yod
Takuma is living that stressful life. Not to mention he is a man and as a man i must confirm we can be really obvious to some situations. I liked it
Kelevra
He’ll probably end up with a small weak animal like Rat or Mouse
Lazybeep
Basically face slapping is like either a physical or verbal beatdown of ur bully. Most preferably physical
Javier Ricaurte
The final part felt a little off, normally I like the "Shonen protag doesn't realize someone loves him and invited her to a platonic event" trope, but in this case it falls a bit flat because Arisu kissed him before he left, so he should know that she wants to talk about it and a private trip would have some connotations, so even if he meant a regular trip with friends the moment she hit him he should have realized what her problem was.
Dreaded
Bright smile blooming on her face
BestHopes2U
ANBU would be cool cuz we might see Sango but worried about his mental health if he joined
Fleisch
I hope he learns the shadow clone jutsu or the multiple shadow clone jutsu.
Fleisch
If Takuma joins Anbu, what do you think his mask will look like?
Fleisch
I don’t know. Maybe by joining Anbu, Itachi will begin to trust Takuma and therefore give him Shisui’s eye.
Kelevra
That’s the problem with Live updating stories, if nothing plot related happens, it’s sort of a downer because one is so Invested in the story and always want something more
Kelevra
I’m hoping that plotline is far from finished, it might even be part of how he will get revenge on ROOT by uprooting the criminal world which I assume is a big part of where funding for ROOT comes from
Kelevra
What is that?
Kelevra
Wow, appreciate the lengthy and thorough response, it answered all I needed to know and more ❤️
FictionOnlyReader
Let's take the current chunin rank promotion as an example. Takuma has enough mission points to buy a B-rank jutsu, but if he remains a genin, he isn't able to buy one because genin aren't allowed to have B-rank jutsu—there are exceptions like being from a clan or having a jonin teacher vouch for you. Takuma has neither of those options, so he needs to be promoted if he wants to get his hands on a B-rank jutsu. It would be a similar problem with A-rank jutsu if he doesn't get promoted to jonin. In fact, it would be worse because you even clans are stringent in giving out A-rank to their members because of how dangerous they are, so the village is never giving an A-rank jutsu to a chunin—thus, if he isn't promoted, he is never getting one unless makes one up on his own. —— Missions and Pay-- You need mission points to buy jutsu. Just by being a jonin, the village pays you an enormous amount of money and mission points even if you aren't doing mission For a genin, if they work hard, they can get a couple C-rank jutsu every year, but it would take years for working hard and saving to afford a single B-rank jutsu—after which they would be broke. For a chunim, if they work hard, they could get one B-rank jutsu every 1 or 1.5 years or even more depending on what types of mission they're taking—and it would genuinely take perhaps more than a decade of saving(as in not spending a single point) if they wanted to get an A-rank jutsu. But for a jonin, buying a couple B-rank jutsu every year is easily possible. And they earn enough to make purchasing an A-rank jutsu not an absurd dream. (Eg— Even if you're the most skilled employee of your company, your boss is still earning more than you. Takuma can't be a chunin and expect to earn more than a jonin who make more than him by literally doing nothing.) Rank promotion allows a shinobi to take higher-rank missions and thus earn higher amount of money and contribution. A genin will never be allowed to go on B-rank mission, a chunin will have to be REALLY good to see A-rank missions sparsely—but jonin not only take A-rank missions, they lead them. And that's where achievements kicks in. Let's say Takuma becomes a very good chunin one day, good enough to be part of teams that take A-rank missions. At the end of the day, the jonin who's leading the A-rank mission will get the majority of the credit, while Takuma will be labelled as a team member—which is not bad at all, but he will never be the one to shine as long as he stays chunin. —— Being a jonin gives you freedom. When you're a genin, you don't have much choice but to follow orders. If you're a chunin, you can lead C-rank missions of your choice, but if you want to do some higher level stuff, that will depend on what the jonin wants to do. But when you're a jonin—there's not many people who can order you around. You get true freedom where, for the most part, you can do whatever you want. —— As for ANBU being skilled, it doesn't mean that every ANBU is more skilled than a jonin. No, that doesn't make sense. ANBU has genin, chunin, special jonin, and jonin—yes, they have genin; more about this in the future—but a genin is still a genin and a chunin is still a chunin. By being more skilled, I mean they're generally better than their peers, but that doesn't mean they're the best. Being a taijutsu specialist in ANBU doesn't mean they will be better than Might Gai. Being in ANBU doesn't make them skilled, them being skilled is what got them there. If they make mistakes and perform lower than what the ANBU wants from them, they would be kicked out. —— As for the Mikoto's offer. Yes, the contract is 5 years, and while I, the writer, doesn't want Takuma to be in ANBU for the rest of his life, Takuma himself doesn't know that. He will be in the ANBU for 5 years and he would think if he things go well, he would be there forever. And let's say Takuma rejects the offer. While Mikoto was very generous and kind to make it clear that there will be no ill will, that doesn't mean that the offer will remain open for Takuma take whenever he wants. What if Mikoto never offers it again?
Andre
Anbu - I think his previous ties to crime will probably influence his final choice - he can’t hide his identity in the police like he can in the anbu so they’d potentially try to manipulate him again
Kelevra
ANBU of course, Though I’m quite a fan of Mikoto and think she would be able to take Takumo to a whole other level, and perhaps with that path, we’d be able to get a Takumo with a single Sharingan
Kelevra
Why does the rank promotion mean that much? In terms of Jonin and why is it so needed if the average skill set is higher in ANBU anyways? It’s only a 5 year contract anyways and he would probably be able to become affiliated with the Uchiha afterwards anyways if he really wanted it with Mikoto
Jabari Lambert
Thanks for the chapter. Love the Arisu screen time, missed having her around she’s one of my favorite characters
Anonimacho
this...... well, I think these characters deserved some screen time. But anyway, this dragged on unnecessarily, unless it adds something to the plot in the future. I have to be honest, I didn't like this chapter one bit. Although it's probably related to Arisu not being my favorite character.
Fleisch
Which route do yall want him to take?
Penguin Glutton
Tftc!
Thomas
Disappointed there was no hiji fight but at the same time it’s refreshing to see a character that is above that
Lazybeep
Ñ9ooooooooooooooo all I wanted was xianxia style face slapping
sn0_0ker
First, Thank you for the Chapter! Second, typo here: "He had also visited her home once to have dinner with her family. they"
Nappa
Ah, our boy truly is becoming a Shonen protagonist.
Beater
THANK YOU FOR THE CHAPTER
