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Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_254 [Updated]
🕑 Added 2024-05-26 01:50:29 +0000 UTCEDITS—
1) Chapter has been cleaned up to a public-release ready state.
2) Slight additions to the chapter to foreshadow Anko's displeasure with what Takuma had done.
———
.
Martial law was declared in the city and people were ordered to stay inside their homes and only leave if it was absolutely essential. Anyone wandering outside were subject to mandatory search and interrogations and even arrests if they were even slightly suspicious.
In Chinatsu’s house, the entire team sat together with a sombre atmosphere bearing down on them. Even though the Hidden Frost shinobi were keeping an eye on them, it didn't mean that they were chained to the house. They had to keep up appearances and go about their days as usual—which meant finding new clients, meeting those clients, taking care of their regular needs.
They had found out what had happened last night—or at least, a part of it. There was no official news regarding the explosion that killed dozens upon dozens of people, and their source of information was a varying cluster of rumours floating around the city. They were calling it a terrorist attack that had killed many of the city's well respected and beloved people.
Of course, given the location of the blast—a high-end banquet hall—those people were neither well respected or beloved, but at the same time, there had to be staff that worked in the banquet hall who were also killed.
"He really blew them up?" Daiki gulped nervously.
"Why would he do that?" Kameko asked, her brows locked in a furrow.
The team couldn't be sure that it was Takuma behind it, but they had to assume so. After Motohiro's group had been arrested, the various resistance groups had gone silent in fear that they would be pulled in and were biding time until the heat subsided.
"We can't just assume it was him," said Iori, defending her youngest teammate.
Even though Takuma had been largely operating independently from the rest of the team, Anko was still their leader, and most things were pre-approved by her before they were executed. If Takuma was the one behind the blast; that plan wasn't approved by her. Gyon's murder wasn't approved either, but the team understood why he had done so, and that he needed autonomy when they were under surveillance—but killing so many people... it was hard to come to terms with that.
Killing came with the trade, but most shinobi didn’t enjoy it—at least, not at first.
"The bosses won't be happy," Daiki commented.
Yu was a city in the Land of Hot Water, thus it came under the purview of the Hidden Steam, and even though Hidden Leaf was heading the mission, they couldn't just kill such a large amount of civilians even if they were turncoats who were helping the enemy—that duty and right belonged to the country’s Daimyo and the Hidden Steam.Outsiders like them weren't supposed to overstep like that and there were real chances that Takuma and the team would get in trouble because of it.
"You're silent in all of this," Anko looked at Gaku sitting beside Chinatsu. "This is your city; don't you have any thoughts?"
Gaku stared at his lit cigarette; he hadn't taken a drag in a minute. He looked up at Anko and chuckled,
"As long as it benefits him when he returns home... he will do anything," recalling Takuma's words when they had gone to renew the prisoner seals.
Everyone was confused and when Anko asked him what he meant, Gaku remained silent and just smoked his cigarette.
"Let's worry about this after we have confirmed that it was him. It's useless to speculate when we don't know if it was him—and if it was him, then I believe there must've been a reason." Rikku walked away from the group and went up to the second floor.
Even though what she said was true, it didn't alleviate their worries one bit.
———
.
Rikku went to the room she shared with Kameko. It was small and felt claustrophobic when she was agitated—like she was now. She stood by her words of not judging Takuma before they had all the facts, but she was still nervous if it was true.
She couldn't help but think that the blast might be an act of revenge. Motohiro and his group were Takuma's contact that he developed, and they had been arrested because Gyon from the Kumi family had turned traitor. Rikku wondered if Takuma blamed himself for that. He had obviously punished Gyon, but what if he had taken revenge against the turncoats by blowing them up when they were enjoying their lives as the rest of the city suffered.
There was also the unspoken problem of the banquet hall staff that had died during the blast. She could tell that Anko didn’t like that Takuma might have killed so many people, but Rikku didn’t care about the traitorous turncoats, but the death of the blameless staff didn’t sit well with her. If Takuma was indeed behind the blast, then she was of the opinion that he was in the wrong.
Fwip!
Rikku's instincts sharpened when she heard the familiar sound of a kunai and immediately hugged the wall to get away from the window where she was an open target.
She got ready to jump to the door so she could rush down to inform her team about the attack when she noticed the kunai embedded in her floor. Its handle was wrapped in cloth like they usually were, but she noticed that the cloth had black spots of ink. She considered that for a second and then crawled across the floor to grab the kunai before jumping back to the wall.
Unwrapping the wrap, she noticed that there was writing on the inside of the cloth. It was in code, so it took her a moment to decode and understand, but when she did, she walked down to the living room where the team was still discussing the explosion.
She stopped on the stair steps when she registered what she just read before rushing into the living room.
"He killed a jonin, four chunin, and seven genin," she announced.
The conversation died down and everyone looked at her.
"What?" asked Anko.
Rikku gave her the cloth wrap and Anko's lips parted in surprise as she read the words written by Takuma.
Anko gulped, "H-He killed a jonin? He killed a jonin.... He killed—!"
The room went silent before exploding into questions. Kameko got up and snatched the wrap to confirm for herself. They couldn't believe it even after they read it with their own eyes. Their source of information was gossip they had heard from others and in that gossip there was mention of shinobi being part of the dead was nowhere part of the gossip.
The death of a jonin changed everything. The team was sent to Yu with some expectations, but killing a jonin was nowhere in those expectations. That one jonin off the board was so big that the four chunin that he had killed weren't noticed.
The impact he made was so huge that if the entire team decided to duck out of the mission right now, it would still be considered a massive success.
But that wasn't the entire message from Takuma.
"What about his suggestion?" Iori asked.
At the end of his message, Takuma had suggested abandoning their cover and going into hiding because after his blast, the Hidden Frost shinobi would be picking up people who were even remotely suspicious—and the team was more than remotely suspicious. For their safety, it was better for them to go into hiding before they were arrested by the shinobi.
"I think we should go into hiding." Gaku looked at Chinatsu with a sombre look. "Your job is done; I think it's better if both of us go into hiding as soon as possible so I can keep you safe."
"Wait, both of you? You're planning to split up?" Kameko asked with a frown.
The entire team looked at Gaku because of that.
"Like Chinatsu, my job as your native contact is over. I'm going to take Chinatsu with me to hide somewhere safe none of you can find us," Gaku said as if stating the obvious. "We're going to only show up after the main forces invade the city and the dust settles—until then, it's going to be like we don't exist."
The team was taken aback because Yu was Gaku's hometown and he was refusing to fight for its freedom. They thought about their respective hometowns and they would've done anything to protect their home, so they thought that Gaku would be fighting with them.
"Don't give me that look," Gaku sneered at them. "I was pulled out of retirement. I'm not a shinobi anymore for a reason.... I'm not going to put my life in danger by participating in a full-on battle."
There was a silence in the room. They couldn't force Gaku to participate and even though it felt morally wrong, he was only brought in as their inside connect and not an active combatant. It was as he said: his job was done.
"Do you need any help?," Anko asked Gaku.
"I'll manage," Gaku smiled lightly.
"Very well," Anko stood up. "We leave in the evening—all of us."
After two months, they were going to shed their covers and return to their lives as shinobi.
———
.
Ebi was nursing a drink alone in his office when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up to see Kon at his door. Before he could send him away, Kon stepped into the office and settled down across from him on the table, sighed as he rubbed his shoulder.
"I'm not in the mood, tree hugger. If you value your life, leave this instant," Ebi said as he picked up his glass. He wasn't always sure where Kon was from; he had a few guesses that he shaved down from observing the man, but when he provided detailed information about 'Takuma'—it made him sure that Kon was from the Hidden Leaf.
Kon didn't move and even had the gall to smile. Ebi wanted to punch a hole in his face.
"Were you close to any of those shinobi?" he asked.
They hadn't known each other for long, but Kon hadn't seen Ebi drink once in that time. The jonin was a workaholic with absolutely no vice—or he had done a great job hiding them from him. Seeing him drink meant that he must've been affected to get intoxicated.
Ebi sighed. "The Hidden Frost is a small village. I don't know about the big villages, but for us—if you were a jonin, you knew other jonin because there aren't many of us in the first place. I wasn't his friend, but I knew him; we went on missions when we were chunin and even did a couple missions as jonin. Hell, he even invited me to his wedding... all three of them."
"Well... I can't relate. Don't have much experience with weddings," Kon chuckled.
Ebi put his glass down and his chakra flared. Kon froze up in his chair and clutched the armrests as he faced the jonin's full, blood-stained fury.
It was intense, but nothing he hadn't faced before.
"If you want me to put you out of your misery, just say it," Ebi rose up from his chair.
"I-It was him," Kon said, the killing intent making it difficult.
"Who?"
"Takuma."
"Again, how does that help me?" asked Ebi as he walked around the desk, increasing the bloodlust expressed through chakra, suffocating Kon.
"H-He k-killed a jonin. T-That was his true t-target." The muscles in Kon's neck flexed as he continued, "T-The Hidden Leaf is coming for the c-city, and they are coming soon-n."
That made Ebi stop; he pulled his blood lust back and glared down at Kon.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Kon took a moment to catch his breath and comfortably slumped in the chair before continuing. "He took out a jonin and four genin—just in a day, your combat ability has taken a significant dive. I think the Hidden Leaf sent him to the city to weaken you from the inside and prepare you for the forces who will take the city back."
"You said: soon. Why do you say that?"
Kon raised his fingers one at a time. "He poisoned your shinobi.... Kidnapped two of your shinobi the next day.... Murdered one of the city's criminal big shots in his own home.... And now he took out the city's most powerful along with some powerful shinobi." A look of begrudging respect appeared on Kon's face. "Not only are the civilians fearful because of the blast and martial law—but your men are restless because one day they were ruling the city and in the next day, they lost a jonin and four chunin.
"They're scared—scared that they'll be abducted like Aranai and Ryoya and disappear, or die in a freak explosion. There's nothing you can do to remedy that. That guy has primed you guys to be an optimal target for an invasion."
"...How soon?"
Ebi had noticed how agitated his men were as they sifted through the debris in search of clues, wondering if the chunk of meat they found belonged to their fellow shinobi. He had to imagine everyone else was feeling the same.
"I'll give you less than a week."
Three days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.
Comments
FictionOnlyReader
It's not that, don't worry, I'm not worried about running out of content. My problem was more of how to round up things that I had setup and then was unable to make them come to fruition—it's a inherent flaw of how I write (without much planning, and unlike traditional writers, I can't edit/revise books before releasing them—I also don't want to, lol. I like the process of how I write and post.)
Mohammed Sheekh
if you are struggling with the storyline just pull up the elemental nations map, then the Canon storyline in order. also refer to every side story of sasuke, kakashi, naruto or sakura, they are all Canon. I promise you, you will not run out of content
FictionOnlyReader
There's two sides in this war. Hidden Steam/Land of Hot Waters (backed by the Hidden Leaf) Hidden Frost/Land of Frost (backed by the Hidden Cloud) Hidden Frost is trying to push into the Land of Hot Waters, usurp their territory. They're backed by the Hidden Cloud who also benefit from the change of borders as it puts them closer to the Land of Fire— [Hidden Cloud could place their troops at the new Land of Frost (their ally) border and be closer to the Land of Fire, and thus be an increased threat to the Land of Fire/Hidden Leaf] On the other side, something to know about Hidden Steam (which I've already mentioned) is that Hidden Steam has transitioned away from being a traditional shinobi village (canon)—they're no longer for-hire mercenaries—and have become more of your traditional army who protect the citizens. It's seen as a positive as they've moved away from violence, but it also made them weaker as less funding was being poured into shinobi development. So when the Hidden Frost came knocking, they were on the weak side. Back when Danzo was still in the Hidden Leaf and still in power, he was in support of the Hidden Leaf helping the Hidden Steam to keep Hidden Cloud from gaining a closer vantage point to the Land of Fire. (The war has being going for a year before Takuma joined.) Danzo has been manipulating the war landscape for ages. He helped Hanzo deal with the 1st-gen Akatsuki. He was doing the same here: he offered ROOT's services to the Hidden Frost to help them convert Land of Hot Waters' territory to their side—but in doing so, he got an into the what the Hidden Frost's planning with an indirect link to the Hidden Cloud. As for why the Hidden Frost would trust "traitors"—because it's not all black-and-white and Danzo and ROOT have a reputation. And Ebi wasn't always sure who Kon was (CH_7.10 (228))—and it's also not his decision, he didn't directly hire ROOT, that decision was made by someone higher up in the Hidden Frost. When Danzo was kicked out of the Leaf, and ROOT officially became a private merc company—the priorities changed and the mission which was just a way to get intel became a priority. —— Now, why aren't Hidden Cloud and Hidden Leaf aren't being super aggressive. Neither party is currently ready or willing to go full-on war against each other. The Hidden Cloud is making preparation by helping the Hidden Frost—but it's part of a long-term plan that's still long away. As for the Hidden Leaf, they're not ready for a full-on war because of the Nine-Tails incident at Naruto's birth which deeply damaged them (they even lost their Hokage). So they're not provoking each other by declaring full-on war; they're only supporting the two nations who are officially at war. They dress up in Hidden Frost and Hidden Steam attires, claim to only support by sending supplies–but it's an open secret that the two nations are involved much deeply. And it's a war, jonin (as valuable as they're) will still die. Of course, if jonin start to fall like flies, the conflict will blow up so quick that a full-on war would be inevitable regardless of what anyone wanted—but at the same time, neither side would allow that to happen—1) by not sending a high number of jonin to the war. 2) if casualties rise, the two larger nations will pull back temporarily. They also can't allow too large of losses because they don't just have each other to worry about. If they fuck each other up, they open themselves to attack from the other 3 other big shinobi villages who will jump on the opportunity. [There are Hidden Cloud shinobi in Yu—2 of them—but Ebi is still in-charge. I think I've mentioned that there are 5 jonin in Yu—and two of them are from the Hidden Cloud. I haven't shown them because they wasn't a reason; Ebi served well as the "enemy leader" , and I didn't anyone else.] (Also, sidenote: I don't think all jonin are equal, but that doesn't mean some jonin are useless—I've done a lot of work to even make chunin dangerous, so of course, all jonin are threats, but some are just too powerful.) —— I agree that I pulled back from the street-level stuff, but I wasn't able to spin up something meaningful even after I took the large break. On Takuma's first day in city, there was a Yu policeman, who still part of the police force despite it being overrun by thugs, and actively stayed on the force so he could continue to help the citizens, but nothing came of it. There was a chapter about a single mother with two children. I wanted to do something more with her, but she only show up in the background when Motohiro got arrested. I was also lossing motivation during the break when I was struggling to round-up storylines. I don't think I'm rushing things, but I've definitely shifted my focus so that I can return to the Hidden Leaf and move onto the next stage.
JaegerAeden
That should have been explicit in the way you developped you characters and if Kon is not doing a good job (which he didn't bc of reasons) there would be a lot of friction between Ebi and him (which there really isn't). The Root is active enemy personel in an active frontline against their own village. If I invited a hobbo into my house for cleanup and suddenly a lot of hobbos started to throw trash outside and inside of my house I would be Very crossed with the original one just outta suspicion. That there is a lot of drama waiting to unpack that hasn't been addressed
JaegerAeden
Why is Ebi and the Hidden Frost cooperating with the Leaf when the Hidden Frost is supposed to be working with the Hidden Cloud? What are the repercussions up the chain for losing One Full Team of Jonin and Chunnin squads. Where are the Hidden Cloud Shinobis? If the Frost just commited a major fuckup (and they did, cuz there's a fat chance of an active war-zone Jonin actually dying by what amounts to a walking frag at a dinner party [at an obvious disputed location where there had been previous terrorists attacks before and there's an obvious enemy present in the city]) Why hasn't the Cloud just flooded the frontline with their own Shinobis? after they deem the Frost useless to do anything/ They aren't known for being tactful, mind you. Definitely not A/. If Konoha lost Kakashi/ Guy or Asuma in the frontlines there would be SERIOUS action coming from the top. The Frost doesn't have manpower to squander. That explosion was the equivalent of losing easily an entire battalion of the Leaf just because of logistical issues. Takuma just erased an entire city's worth of reinforcement. At least. You haven't explained Why a Jonin from an opposing village would be respectful or even listen to what an obvius traitor ANBU from the other village has to say or to provide. You haven't also explored the street level. At the beginning you did well touching on the lives affected by the war. This is another opportunity to do so. Do it good, don't rush it. Let the KO come to you. Don't go for the KO.
FictionOnlyReader
CH_7.8 (226), and there's a little bit of the same in CH_7.10 (228). To explain it here, Kon(ROOT) was hired by the Hidden Frost to help them convert Yu to Land of Frost's side. Make sure that the people don't rebel or be sympathetic towards the Land of Hot Waters—and Kon was sent there to manipulate the situation to make that happen. He was involved with making the rich and wealthy turn to their side and use the Goharu Family—one of the top 2 gangs in the city—to their side and exert control through them.
JaegerAeden
What's the point of Kon/ Root being in the village? What's their angle. They had been there from the beginning and they even received intel after Danzo's fallout with the Leaf but you never explained what they're supposed to be doing?
Aeon
chances are, he'll become a Chunin if not Tokubetsu.
Lazerate
"Just say it if you want me to put you out of your misery," Ebi rose up from his chair. "I-It was him" Ebi said with some difficulty. Ebi speaks with himself...
Astral Aion
If the fighting is taking place in the city I would like to see how the fighting happens with all those civilians in their homes to see how the fighting affects them maybe a recount of property damage and stuff after it’s all done too.
SleepySnake Zzzz
In the end theses are all ideas do it how ever you want I just hope they gave you some help of how you want it to be
SleepySnake Zzzz
I think the way you did the battle at the mines was good fights were quick and ended fast. I don’t think the raid should last more than 6 chapters with the first being the start and two chapters for each fight with the jonin fight getting one. I would like to see a lot of ninjas on both sides die along with civilians and buildings being destroyed. I would also like to see maybe a wide coverage of the entire battle with no real pov just want to hear about the battle of the genin and chin in with no real focus on anyone specific. Also like someone else mentioned a strategy meeting before the battle and maybe a command center giving commands as the battle changes depending on the outcome of the fights.
SleepySnake Zzzz
I think there should be three main battles with a beginning raid of the city setting up the background of the battles one the fight with jonin two the the battle against root and three the battle the other ninja. The beginning raid I think should setup all the fights and each chapter after should be the fights one by one(please don’t break up the fights such as fight 1 then to fight 2 and back to 1) finish one at a time with the outcome of that fight potentially affecting the other. The jonin fight would decide the end of the raid which ever side win will win the city. If the jonin fight ends early it should affect the subsequent fights.
hh
Konoha knows root is there right? So ANBU should be sent after them. I would love to see that. Besides that, don't show too much npc fights, as this arc has been pretty long.
John Dope
I’d like to see Anko get her own fight
Mohammed Sheekh
should get a bucket load of merit points for the death of 1 jonin, 4 chunin and 7 genin right?
redk1ng0
What I would like is to see Takuma fight a lot, and see different perspectives, nothing more.
Nil
A Konoha ANBU team or Camp Bananas strategic unit observing and guiding the fights from afar. ANBU focusing on ROOT hunting and Strats noting places of stiff resistance and distributing the main forces along different parts of the city by their available staff as situation evolves. That would be fun to see to give the fight a true feeling of being in an entire city and what a massive undertaking it might be.
Joan Casado
Kon and his group definitely. As interesting as Ebi and the Frost have been, I want to see what the play is here for the remnants of Root after Danzos exile. Especially when the attacking force is their former hidden village.
