Naruto: Tango with Death

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"Are you sure he is in that inn?"

"I already told you…"

"We only have one shot at this, so you better be sure."

While I was about to work on my last tenketsu, I heard hushed voices from my hiding point, making me open my eyes. I saw a group of men in hoods, approaching the inn we were in stealthily in the dark of the night.

"What about the ninjas from Konoha? I have a bad feeling about this…"

One of them rolled his eyes under his hood and said, "They are not gods, they need sleep like anyone else. Besides, I already confirmed they aren't in the same room as the target."

I squinted my eyes as I recognized this voice, it was the innkeeper's!

Now 100% sure they were here with bad intentions toward our target, I scanned my surroundings, making sure no one was hiding nearby to act as support for them, and upon making sure we were alone, counted the enemies.

There were 6 of them.

6 average men intended to attack a man protected by three Genin and a Jonin…

How laughable.

With a small burst of my chakra, I disappeared from my hiding spot as I used the Body Flicker to appear in their midst, and before any of them could react, I chopped my hand on the back of the neck of two of them, before doing a split kick to hit two others' in their kidneys.

In an instant, only two men were left capable of fighting, the other four all incapacitated. They didn't immediately go for the attack though, and instead took several steps back. Their mistake.

"Y-you…"

They didn't even get to finish what they wanted to say when I appeared before the two, and incapacitated them with a jab to the throat, before knocking them out with a chop to the back of the head.

In less than two seconds, I had taken care of six grown men… Sometimes people tend to forget how absolutely terrifying ninjas could be.

Of course, beasts of power like Madara or any Kage Level were obviously monstrous, but because of their extreme power people tend to forget about the lower ranked ninjas.

In reality, with the help of chakra and training, even a Genin like myself could easily dispose of an untrained grown man. Of course, it didn't mean I was invincible, the fight would have been harder if they knew of my presence from the beginning, but even then…

Once again using the Body Flicker, which I had learned from Shisui in the past month, I appeared outside of Sensei's and Laiko's window, and peering inside I could see Laiko sleeping, while Sensei was looking at me.

"Good job taking care of them… but you should go to sleep."

I nodded at my sensei's words, before asking, "Will you interrogate them, or should I before switching with Izumi?"

Amai-Sensei shook his head and replied, "I'll do it… and no need to tell your teammates about this."

I hummed slightly and asked, "Bad history with night attacks?"

Amai-Sensei sent a subtle glance at Laiko before replying, "You have made good progress with the team."

I shrugged, ignoring his blunt change of subject, "I know how to handle people. Well, if we're done, I'm getting sleepy, so good night, Sensei."

Amai-Sensei nodded slightly, but as I began walking on the wall toward my own room, his voice once again came from his room, "Sukaina?"

Not turning around, I asked, "Yes?"

Amai-Sensei sighed and replied, "No, it's nothing. Good night."

I hummed in response, and finally regained my room.

I then woke up Izumi, before joining my own bed. I didn't immediately go to sleep though, as I quickly checked my last Tenketsu, not because it allowed me to achieve anything, but because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't finish it.

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As dawn arrived, I was woken up by Izumi, who didn't wait for me to properly wake up to pull on my cheeks.

"You little brat, how long did you watch yesterday?"

Still a little groggy from my sleep and tired from yesterday's rounds of experiment, I replied, "Calm down girl, I was busy."

"What do you mean busy?"

I replied, "Creating a new jutsu… anyway, let go of me now, it's time we join Sensei and Laiko."

Izumi puffed her cheeks, obviously still unhappy, but I ignored her and looked out the window. They weren't outside yet, so I asked, "How long since dawn started?"

Izumi replied, "I don't know, a couple of minutes. I spoke to Sensei, we will meet in front of the inn in ten minutes… but he said he wanted to talk to you. Alone. So go now."

I looked at her, feigning surprise as I asked, "He wants to speak to me?"

Izumi shrugged and replied, "He probably knows you remained awake longer than you should have."

I nodded, before jumping out the window. Walking down along the wall, I stretched my body, warming up as I reached the entrance of the inn, and at the same time sensei walked out from the doors.

"Morning Sensei."

"Morning Sukaina. Follow me."

I nodded, and we walked until the inn left our view. Once we did, Amai-Sensei suddenly used the Body Flicker, moving to a roof. I was surprised, but I immediately followed after him as we began moving fast from roof to roof, quickly reaching the town's edge.

There, we approached a tree, where I saw the men I had incapacitated last night. They were in a pretty bad shape, their hoods were all down, so I could see their bloody face.

Sending a glance at my sensei, the later said, "They are part of a bandit group strong within the Land of Tea, they want to kill our client, or at least deter him from coming to the Land of Tea because he could potentially weaken their group, as his arrival could mean a shift in the country's economy, thus allowing them to pay for ninjas to clear the country."

I nodded, before asking, "You didn't bring me here only to tell me that, did you?"

Amai-Sensei's expression remained stern as he asked, "Do you know how many Genins die or quit every year in Konoha?"

I shrugged, and Amai-Sensei said, "Several dozens. Out of all those possible teams that had a spot that opened up, do you know why you were put in my team?"

I shook my head, I thought it was random, but it seemed it wasn't.

Amai-Sensei clarified, "I used to be part of Anbu."

Suddenly I understood yesterday's hesitation. I asked, "I am not to follow in my teammates teachings, am I? You were tasked to train me in… different subjects, weren't you?"

Amai-Sensei nodded, "To prepare you for Anbu. You understood why you're here now, don't you?"

I sent another glance at the beaten men, before saying, "They're not really much of a threat to us, even if they managed to somehow reach the Land of Tea before us, they probably wouldn't be able to gather a force strong enough to endanger us…"

I momentarily stopped, before my hand went to the katana on my side, and I said, "But no matter how slight the threat is, we can't let it go."

Before Amai-Sensei could reply, I turned into a blur as I shunshined towards the men, and unsheathed my katana as I started cutting them up.

It was a little disturbing though that as I killed the men, the thing that bothered me the most wasn't me killing grown men like nothing, but having failed my strike.

I had been learning…

Alright, maybe not the best moment. As I finished the last bandit with a stab to the heart, I cleaned my blade on his clothes.

I don't consider myself a psychopath, far from that actually, but I never really understood in my past life all the fuss about taking a human's life.

Of course, thinking like that alone in my room and in an actual situation was completely different, but my first encounter with death cemented my beliefs.

I didn't feel any joy in taking a life, but if it was to ensure my own, then I would not hesitate to take a life.