Naruto : Venom

”If he stays he goes with you on the mission.” Tsunade threatens. ”Still want him to stay?”

”I’ll go with you! I’ll be really quiet and stay out of your way and everything!” Konohamaru’s eyes are full of hope. I think I just upgraded from role model to hero. ”I’ll even carry your mission bag if you want.”

...

Actually that isn’t a half bad idea. Since she wants me to go after bandits attacking civilians I could use Konohamaru and we could pose as a pair of young brothers visiting family or something. There’s just one minor problem, I don’t know if he’s done something like this before. I don’t know if he’s killed.

”Depends, there’s going to be killing on this mission. Have you killed someone before?” I ask him.

”...No.” He quietly says. Most of his enthusiasm is gone. ”I haven’t even been outside of the village before.”

So he probably hasn’t seen anyone die either, I can guarantee he was in a very safe place during the invasion. ”I’m sorry Konohamaru, you shouldn’t come with me on this. I’m the last person you want to help you through your first kill.”

”But why not? You were so nice earlier, you explained the whole scars thing to me and it made sense! You’re way better than the teachers at the Academy.”

”Really now?” Tsunade has a dangerous gleam in her eyes. I’ll worry about that later.

”Konohamaru-”

”I want to go with you! I can do this!” There’s a fire in his eyes. He truly thinks he is ready. I know he’s not, he won’t be for a long time still. He probably never will, I wasn’t ready for my first kill either. I’m not sure anyone is ever truly ready for the first time they take a life.

”Konohamaru I’m a gennin.”Sure I have the skill set of a chunin but I’m still not one. ”I can’t lead a mission, hell I shouldn’t be getting a solo mission!”

”But she’s already bending the rules for you! What’s one more?” He eagerly barks out.

”Alright, this is a waste of my time.” Tsunade got tired of waiting. ”Konohamaru you can’t go.”

”But why?”

”I need this mission done fast. The reason I’m picking Alvarcus to do this is because right now he’s the fastest shinobi I can spare. I’m pulling him off of leave time just for this, he can’t waste time taking care of you. Not on this mission.”

”This is so unfair!” Konohamaru stomps out of the office.

”Maybe next time don’t give him a chance to go on the mission. You’re lucky I didn’t think he should come.” I turn back to her. ”Anyways, I shouldn’t even be here. Why did you choose me?”

”I picked you because of the Jiongu.”

Things turn serious. The time for joking is over.

”Explain further please. I don’t follow.”

Tsunade leans forward on her desk, supporting her head with her hands.

”You don’t get tired. You can literally sprint there and back. You have overwhelming jutsu at your command. You can make up to four extremely durable monsters that are capable of using jutsu. You’re perfect for Search and Destroy missions. The only thing that could make you any better at them is if you had any knack for tracking or sensing.”

I think over what she said. She does have a point.

”I’ve never thought about that before. The Jiongu does have minor sensing capabilities, it can tell what affinity each person has. That’s how it knows which elements I need.”

”Even better. I could use you to go after missing nin.” Tsunade grins maliciously. ”Imagine that, you leave Konoha and we send our Heart Thief after you.”

”Great.” I groan. ”That nickname is staying isn’t it?”

”Oh?” Tsunade looks surprised. ”I thought for sure I would be the first to say it to you. I didn’t think anyone else had the courage. Who told you?”

”Konohamaru.” I smirk. ”Kid asked if I really was the Heart Thief. We had a nice chat about it. I think that’s why he stuck around me so much.”

”Really? You didn’t lash out at him?” Tsunade picks up a mug of coffee. It’s good she’s not drinking. Yet. Shizune must be keeping her in line.

”Why would I? It’s a title, a nickname. It’s also very accurate. It could be much worse, like the Legendary Sucker.” I smirk. ”Are you sure that title is from gambling?”

Tsunade crushes the mug with her bare hand.

”Want to say that again?” She’s mad, oh she’s really mad.

”I believe I have a time sensitive mission to go to. I’d love to stay and chat, but alas I have no choice but to leave now. Preferably before you crush me into a paste.” I dive out the window.

”Get back here brat! You need to be taught a lesson!” She roars at me. ”I’ll only break a few bones!”

Jokes on her, I don’t have bones.

”Nope! I’ll see you in a few hours. Bye!”

...

On the Road to Otafuki Gai

”Alright, solo mission as a gennin. This happens all the time. No it doesn’t Tsunade just likes you or knows you’re at chunin level. If I have to take those damn exams again I’m going to destroy everyone. I need to find the bandits, simple enough. I just need to tail some civilians, the bandits will attack them and I’ll jump in as the hero. Perfect. I can probably finish this today. Let’s see, I was awake at 6am, got into the Hokage’s office at around 8am, left the village around 8:30am, got to here at around noon. So I have twelve hours before today is over. I got this!”

It doesn’t take too long for civilians to show up. It’s a family, two parents and an adorable little girl. They’re heading to Konoha from Otafuki Gai, and are merrily chatting among their selves. Perfect, if they were harassed by bandits already they wouldn’t be this happy and carefree. They’re also prime bandit targets, they have a child that will be easy to overpower and threaten the parents with. The world is a cruel place.

I tail the family from the trees for the better part of two hours before the bandits make their move. They’re armatures. It’s a group of ten bandits, they literally are hiding in the bushes on the sides of the road. That’s right, their plan is to all stand up at once and intimidate the civilians into handing over their valuables. It is going to be five minutes before the family is in the ambush zone. I’m not going to let that happen.

~Do we get to kill them?~

I slink over to the north side of the road and position myself behind the bandits.

Alright how am I going to do this? I don’t want something flashy to alert the other bandits, if they think they’re being attacked they might run away and I really don’t want to track them all down. That means most of my jutsu is out. It also means any noisy kill move is out too, so sneaking up behind them and snapping their necks is a no go.

When in doubt go back to the basics.

I pull out five kunai and use my chakra strings to throw them all at once. Each kunai lodges itself in the base of their spines. Easy. I move up the road away from the bandits and the approaching family to cross the road. I double back on the south side of the road this time to the other five bandits. They aren’t even hidden well. Disgraceful. I sheath five more kunai in flesh. Bandits are too easy to kill, they had no idea I was even here.

~Disappointing. You should have used me, it would have been more enjoyable.~

I ignore the Jiongu. I refuse to enjoy killing. It’s just a job, a task.

A few minutes later the family walks past. None of them notice me or the ten corpses. Once they are a sufficient distance away I dispose of the corpses. Basically I puppeteered them all into a pile and I opened up a big hole in the earth and buried them all. Usually we’re supposed to cremate the bodies but I’m missing a fire heart so I can’t do that.

There is only one thing I take from them, their matching armbands. I figure the client wants proof that the group was dealt with and this is a good way to prove it. They wouldn’t willingly part with their own symbol, and it shows I killed all ten of them.

”That was an easy mission. Oh Kami, I’m becoming desensitized to killing. I just added on ten to my kill count and my first thought was that was easy. What’s that put me at? Twenty? Thirty? I don’t even know anymore. Freak out later, go back to Konoha so Tsunade wins her bet. I don’t want to be on her bad side.”

Without further ado, I start to sprint back to Konoha.

...

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