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Chapter 61 - Arc 4 - Brawling in the Streets: There's Two Sides to Every Death
🕑 Added 2024-07-21 09:37:52 +0000 UTCAnother gruesome warning here. Skim part 2 if you're feeling squeamish. (Long note feel free to skip)
Since the last chapter was posted I went ahead and made a collection for all the chapters, and even got all the chapters posted in the text posts. You can still download them by scrolling to the bottom or going to discord, but they're here.
I'm so lucky I wrote this chapter in advance, the last few days have been very difficult. A disabled friend of mine's in a very abusive situation, and has decided he'd rather be homeless than deal with it any longer. I've offered to take him in, and he has accepted, so he'll be moving in with me shortly. Issue is he's still being runaround by disability - our tax payer dollars at work, paying people 20 to 30 dollars an hour to give a hard time to people who actually need help - so he has no income to speak of. He should be able to get access to a few resources which'll lessen the burden, but, getting my affairs in order in such a way that I can help without screwing myself has been a lot of effort.
Patreon money will probably go pretty much exclusively to helping him out while he lives with me, so, I guess I'm writing for him now. I understand that analytically I'm making a bad decision, that I'm taking on someone else's burden for no benefit to myself, and that I'm asking to be taken advantage of.
But I don't feel like I have to do it, I feel like I want to. And I think as long as I can hold onto that, it'll stay a positive instead of a negative, even if it does end up blowing up in my face, which it might.
Anyway, enough about me.
You guys are here to read the chapter. Please enjoy Chapter 61. Also, this is the first chapter I realized I gave Sakura an objective kill counter for a select group of people, that I have technically given a form of light ethnic representation for. I think, making them people, is a pretty good step towards it not being problematic. But uh, we'll see if SV thinks that.
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Equipment, check.
Personal charms, check.
Everyone present?
His dark eyes roam over his two allies, ready to descend upon the darkened version of the village they’d taken refuge in from the leaf ninja. A gate had opened and Fierro had ordered them all to follow her into this horror show version of the village they’d taken over days ago. She’d called this a Dungeon, said it would help them and hurt their enemies. So far it just seems like it lacks vibrance. The structure is unfamiliar, and it makes quickly navigating harder. Despite that, they did what Fierro said, so here they are.
Gita and Luminella, brunette and of the grossest green hair imaginable respectively, are both strapping in their leather gear and using every extra crevice their girly bodies allow them to strap on other equipment where their opponent likely won’t look. Mostly places like their inner thighs, under shorts. A spear rests in Gita’s hands, a set of personal kunai, twisted with hooked ends rest in Luminella’s, they look pretty ready to go out and fend off the invaders that have been chewing through the necromancer’s experiments as of late.
Comrades check, they seem pretty ready. “You two done wasting time?”
“Shove it where I asked, Miel,” Gita’s attitude is always well appreciated, especially when it doesn’t make any sense.
“No, I asked, that was a question.” Miel sighs at her, and shakes his head when his teammate glares at him with dark, brooding eyes.
“We should go after Maestro, he gave me headpats this morning.” Luminella’s rather immature, but that makes sense, she’s ten, passing the genin test early is supposed to be a huge accomplishment but when you immediately use your success to run off and do your own thing it’s a bit diminished. That she uses all that childlike glee and wonder to worship all the Chunin around only makes it a little weird. He’s not about to complain, it gets them free snacks when the Chunin come back from missions. Well it did, before they came to this hellhole out of fear.
“We can do that, just don’t let him notice we’re following him or he’ll give us another training session.” Miel rubs his cheek in phantom pain, a memory of just yesterday coming to the forefront of his mind.
“Are you three ready?” It’s not one of them that speaks up, it’s a round glowing ball at Miel’s side, resting loudly in a satchel. He lifts it quickly, readying himself to speak. “Reporting in, Fierro, we’re ready to move out.”
“Good, I need as many of you searching as possible, stick together okay? I already have reports of deaths in our troops.” The ball responds. Fierro’s voice is a little deep and regal, but she’s forcing it. They all know she’s forcing it. It’s comforting, knowing she’s putting in all that effort for them. Fierro’s about as formal normally as they are employed.
“You what?” Luminella gasps at the stone, grabbing it from his hands, “they’re already killing our people? How dare they!?”
“Just get out there and back someone up, okay?” The ball orders, and Luminella hands it back, ready and invigorated to destroy the invaders. They’ll not be late!
----------------------------------------------------
“Ugh-bluuuhh-What the-why-why would anyone-guuuh-” Luminella’s not handling the sight very well, then again neither is he. His hand rests on the young girl’s back, rubbing circles and using his need to comfort her as an excuse to override his own desire to run out there and attack that bitch. “Maestro…” Luminella’s tears well up for all of them, it’s a lot, and he…
“Why is she doing that?” Gita asks, rage sparking in her eyes as she stares across the street and down two alleys away. It’s not some random act of violence, or a comrade’s death they’re witnessing.
They saw his death, but that was quick and easy, that was fine. This is a rebellion, people die. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time they witness a friend’s body slump over.
It’s after his death that has them on their toes and ready to go die with him.
The meaty stabs are still ringing in their ears a solid minute after his execution, mostly because they’re still going on so they can still hear them quite actively.
“He was so nice to me…” Luminella whines, a hand over her mouth, now that she’s run out of things to reject. The green haired kid is now aggressively dry heaving.“Why like this, why is she?”
That’s when Maestro's body, having twitched and rocked with every jab, falls in half, and slides down the wall to the ground with a wet thump.
“Guuhhhhh-” Luminella found something deep inside her, to continue her conquest against everything she’s ever eaten.
“Okay… Retreat.” The crystal ball from their side orders them.
“What?” Gita asks, gripping her spear with both hands, and clenching her teeth.
“Retreat, you’re not equipped to handle that.” The ball explains.
“She seems pretty distracted.” Miel says, pointing the ball towards the demon that has no right paying that much attention to their fallen comrade, their sometimes mentor, someone that made sure they had food when they were lost and afraid. Maestro’s who found them, starving and full of regrets, and now… Now, the one that gave them purpose is without an arm, they watch it slide down the wall leaving a streak of red following along it as it slowly moves to the ground. Asking it to just fall after severing is apparently too much of an ask..
“Look at that, take a deep look.” The ball says, unfazed, or possibly too fazed to show it. They stare, unable to look away less because they’ve been ordered, and more because they can’t. No matter how much they want to, they can’t pull their eyes away from a monster.
“That’s you if she notices you sneaking up. Come back to me, Maestro wouldn’t have wanted that for you. I’m signaling the retreat of all Genin, the Chunin will cover your retreat and join you shortly.”
“But-” The girl with the spear clenches it hard-
“But nothing Gita!” Fierro snaps at her through the stone. “That’s someone who’s given into madness and allowed themselves to live in darkness. My homeland was filled with forces of nature like that, you will die if you step towards her even one step, retreat. I’ll prepare an ambush later, I’ll send thanks to my homeland that you’ll be alive to see it.”
“As you wish, Fierro.” Miel doesn’t like it, but orders are orders, and there’s nothing they can do for him. It’s a shame, after he did so much for them…
That girl will pay.
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Despite searching thoroughly, Sakura can’t find anyone. Technically, silence is a good thing, but what it really means is that most of the enemy has left and they’ll need to fight them later. It’s not so much a positive as it is a matter of perspective, and her perspective is that taking them out one at a time here is so much better than the alternative.
Unfortunately, they’ll see that alternative, Sakura’s not looking forward to getting ambushed.
[4/20 Genin Killed]
She’s glad their kills count towards the counter, it’d be so awkward if it just kept generating dungeon enemies for her to execute. She’s pretty sure they’re real people in this dungeon, so would it draw in more real people in that case? Could they depopulate an entire area of traitors like that? She’s not sure she’s comfortable with that idea. A kill or two here or there is one thing but at what point are they doing something much worse than saving the capital from zombies? Luckily, that’s Neji’s problem to figure out, she’s just tagging along. Well, it’s not his issue either, since it’s hypothetical.
The idea bothers her, is all she has to say on that. If she’s to wage a proper war, there better be others there to shoulder the blame, lest she end up Kakashi.
It’s a needless thought meant to distract her from just how much gore she’s covered in. She’s not in a good place, she can feel it, she needs a bath, maybe a palate cleanser. She could go for some chips and maybe a soda? They’re bad for her but nothing beats a nice gaming session with a bag in one hand and a drink in the other, and she gets constant exercise, so it’s not like… Actually, can she even get fat? Would her system consider that a status condition and reset-
Again, she’s distracting herself from her own actions. Enough of that.
She stumbles into where the smoke was before, and follows a trail, until eventually she’s stepped on and crushed enough smoky gravel and what was path beneath her feet, that she can see her bun haired bestie - of the moment - in an axe fight with some crazed looking maniac. Neji is standing to the side, giving him threatening glares, so she finds herself walking right up to him instead of intruding. “Is there like, a reason, we’re not getting involved?” She asks her temporary teammate, watching as Tenten narrowly avoids being bereaved, and watching her strike back in a display that causes her ears to ring from the sheer scrape of metal against metal.
“She doesn’t need our help,” Neji says, “our time is much better spent watching our surroundings and making sure no one else joins the fight or sneak attacks her.”
“Oh wow, that’s advanced.” Sakura whistles, a part of her truly means that. Her team would never just let her fight something without assisting in some way, and they’d definitely not think about watching the surroundings. “Is that standard Hyuga practice or like, ninja practice?”
“Ninja, though, being a member of the Hyuga clan does make me more comfortable with just watching. A lot of our childhood is spent mastering observational techniques, as it is the role we will take in the group more often than not. It pays to pre-train in our niche.”
“Oh wow… I think I get why Kakashi sent me here, well, one of the reasons, there’s a lot of them.” She sighs to herself, watching the fight with renewed vigor. She too, could learn to just watch when necessary, and only get involved if she has to. “But what if you see a good opportunity to take them out?”
“That depends on if your ally is struggling,” Neji answers with an odd patience seemingly conjured up just for her, “if they’re not, chances are they see the opportunity too and you’ll just get in their way. If they are, well, I cannot speak for your teammates, but Tenten’s my top priority in the field. I never want to get in her way, or mess her up, but I also do not want her to get hurt because I missed a chance when I should have acted.”
“Because she’s weaker than you and Lee?” Sakura asks.
“Because she gets too excited,” Neji shakes his head for her, “excitability in a combat situation is a liability. I need to ensure that she does not overextend herself in the heat of the moment. I believe that you may have the same problem.”
She doesn’t need to look down to know he’s referring to her clothes and her, everything really. “I do,” She agrees, “thank you for saving me earlier.”
“You can thank me by never doing whatever that was, again.” He growls at her, lowly, it’s almost missable but she can tell she lost some respect from him for that. She lost some respect for herself too, she’s genuinely not sure what happened there. She did that with Gato as well, both times really, it seems her response to fighting a superior opponent is to just kind of lose it and get stabbing. They’re going to start calling her ‘Sakura, Stabby Stab, Haruno’ at this rate.
So instead of defending herself, she sighs openly and concedes, “I’ll ask Kakashi how I can improve on that,” and then answers with an honest, earnest desire to do better, “Lee doesn’t need help? He seems like the kind to get excited and overextend too.”
“Lee is very durable, he can survive a mistake or two. Tenten, might not. So Tenten is my priority.”
“I bet that guy was durable and could survive a mistake or two.” She mumbles to herself, thinking back to the guy she just so recently killed. He talked to her, he acted like a real person, he didn’t seem like a dungeon bandit or a fantasy Gato at all, his teammates probably also thought he was invincible.
Despite saying it only for her, she finds Neji nods at her statement, a wistful look taking over his features at the thought. Perhaps she should just stop talking before she ruins his day anymore.
Comments
Christopher Cummins
She's terrifying.
Dopplerdee
It's nice to see Sakura from the enemy prospective. As for your friend, sometimes you need to stick your neck out for people. You might get burned but if you just refuse to help anyone because it might end badly then why even have friends.
The Human
Not really a big deal which is why I didn't say something earlier, just a little easier not having to switch apps
Christopher Cummins
Just took two people speaking up for me to put in the effort. I think it's worth getting the text in here for Patrons to read if it'll make people feel like the chapters are more convenient. It's a service being paid for, so it should be convenient, is my stance on it. I didn't think downloading it was a big deal, but when two - now three - patrons are willing to comment on it, it becomes evidence that I was wrong and should have been posting the chapters this way the entire time.
The Human
I appreciated having the text in patreon and not needing to download it, thanks! Good luck with your friend
