7 First Blood

In the Land of Fire, on the road towards the capital, there was a merchant caravan, going towards its destination. It was noon currently, and the sun was hanging on the sky. It had been 6 days since the Yamamoto family started their journey. Takeru and his father were walking behind the caravan talking with each other.

"So you are telling me that you knew I wanted your sword and you kept it sealed inside a scroll?" - asked Takeru incredulously.

"Well, I had to, you know. You were a very active child and ran around the house pretty much all the time. You do not know this but you once cut your hand with a kitchen knife when you were just a year old. I did not want any of such accident to happen again" - replied Toru.

"That is not important. Why did you not tell me that you know fuinjutsu?"

"You want to learn fuinjutsu?"

"Why would not I 'sigh'…Yes, I want to learn fuinjutsu, dad."

"Well you could have just asked me. You asked me about my sword practices and chakra. I thought you would ask me about it but you did not. So, I thought you had no interest about learning fuinjutsu."

"I asked you about those because I saw you doing them. I never saw you doing fuinjutsu."

"You do not 'do' fuinjutsu, son. You either create fuinjutsu seals or use already created seals. It is an art form of sorts."

"So, can you teach me?" - Takeru asked hopefully.

"Sure, I can do that. But know this, I only know the basics of it. A couple of seals only to be exact. So, if you want to learn more about the subject, you have find a good fuinjutsu teacher."

"Do not worry about it, dad. I will find one for sure."

Takeru and Toru chatted along the way. Akane was sleeping inside the carriage. They were at most 2 days away from arriving to the Leaf Village. Their journey was uneventful. Toru made the acquaintance of some guards. They were all simple men struggling to amke a living. He got along pretty well with them. Takeru was behind his father, with his sword hung on his back, keeping a look out. Takeru was practicing his chakra strings and was trying to imbue fire nature in them. It was hard. When he first tried to do so, the whole string glowed up like a burning filament. He hurriedly stopped the flow of chakra, fearing someone might see it. The glowing string completely negated the invisibility of the chakra strings that he worked so hard to achieve. Whenever he tried to minimise the glow by decreasing the chakra output, the strings lost their firepower. Takeru surmised that either it could not be done or he lacked something or did it the wrong way. He thought about it much on the way but could not find a way to make it happen.

The sun was setting on the horizon. The caravan soon stopped beside a small clearing for dinner and rest for the night. Everyone set up their tents, Toru helped unloading the food and utensils. Takeru set up their tent. Soon, the food was being prepared, Akane helped the others preparing the food. Toru and the guards chatted among themselves. Takeru meanwhile maintained his guard. He dispelled the active clones, receiving all the memories. He was going to make 2 clones for lookout when he suddenly stopped. Just before the moment he dispelled his clones, one of them saw a group of forty or so people. Takeru immediately made 4 shadow clones. He ordered 2 of them to stay around the camp and to keep a lookout and sent the other 2 away on the direction of those people his clone spotted. Takeru meanwhile got up and went to his father and sat beside him. He too joined the chat. Soon, the food was ready and all of them started eating. After dinner they went to their tents to sleep. The guards along with Toru took shifts to keep a watch out. Toru was on the second shift. Takeru meanwhile did not sleep. He waited for his clones to send him some information about those people.

"What? Are you not going to sleep?" - asked Toru entering the tent and seeing his son awake.

"No. I think we are going to face problems soon." - Takeru said seriously.

"What problems?"

"I do not know. I just get this feeling that something is about to..." - Takeru was speaking when suddenly he received memories from his clones back. There were 37 men in the group. Most of them were regular bandits but 5 of them were shinobis, rogue ones most probably. 1 elite jounin, 2 chuunin and 2 genin levels. This complicated things. If they were just regular bandits then Takeru could fight alongside his father and the guards. But with shinobis with them, Takeru had to thin out the numbers or with just him, his father , the 13 guards would never be able to face them. Takeru did not know whether the two hidden shinobis would help them or not. But he could not count on their help. They might just protect the head merchant and their family and escape with them. Takeru hurriedly went out of the tent. Toru seeing his son's sudden change of behaviour also went out.

"Hey, what happened?" - asked Toru in confusion.

"Dad, would you believe me if I told you that I think bandits are going to attack us tonight?"

"Are you sure about this? It could be just because we are out in the woods for such a long time. And it is your first time out of the village."

"No, I am sure of it."

"How are you so sure about it?" - Toru asked with a piercing look.

"I do not know how. It is just a feeling. I do not know how to describe it."

"It is alright. I believe you. I will go warn the other guards about it. You stay with your mother."

"Huh? You believed me?"

"What is there not to believe? Trust your instincts Takeru. Instincts are one of the greatest asset a warrior can have. My instincts saved me from dying and difficult situations many times. I trust you son and if your guts are telling you that danger is ahead then I am willing to put my trust on that too." - Toru rubbed Takeru's head a little and went on to warn the other guards. Takeru was stunned. He thought maybe his father would dismiss his warnings as they were completely unfounded. He was happy to know that his father trusted him so much. Takeru swore that he would protect his family no matter what. Takeru dismissed his shadow clones and made 3 other shadow clones. Then ordered 2 of them to keep a look at the camp and pumped the other one full of physical energy and increased its durability, he ordered it to stay beside his mother in his place and to protect her. Takeru went into the forest to the direction of those bandits. He quickly used Transformation Jutsu to transform his appearance into a plain middle aged man with golden blonde hair and a face full of facial hair wearing black ANBU combat gear and a plain white featureless mask. Takeru used his ability to control emotions to dampen his emotions and severely lowered his capacity to feel any intense emotions as he knew that tonight things could get very dirty and he might have to take extreme measures. He then sped towards the bandit group's location, jumping along the trees.

Kakuzu was a shinobi of the Village Hidden in Waterfalls. The Hidden Waterfalls Village was situated on the north-western side of the Land of Fire. Kakuzu was born in a poor family. To secure the livelihood of his family he trained to be a shinobi by a shinobi clan in the Land of Waterfalls. Although he was very greedy and materialistic and always wanted more money, Kakuzu was a good shinobi. He served his clan faithfully and had an astonishing mission completion rate. Unfortunately his family died during a scuffle between clans. After the Warring States Period ended his clan and a few other shinobi clans came together and founded the Hidden Waterfall Village. He devoted his whole life to the betterment of the village. His reputation was ever increasing among his village and among his peers, though he was most notoriously known as a money grubber, he always put the interests of village first. But his success made other people jealous and insecure. Perhaps that is why he was now given an nearly impossible but simple mission: ' Assassinate the Hokage'. Kakuzu knew his chances were slim, but he had to try first. His livelihood depended on it, his village depended on him. So, he made himself look like an average bandit and joined this bandit group with a fake name and identity, easily infiltrating the Land of Fire. There were 4 other rogue shinobis in the group and he recognised them from their bingo book entries. Kakuzu's hands were itching to kill them and take their bounties but he kept reminding himself that this mission was a priority. He could kill them anytime after his mission is completed. A few days ago the bandit group somehow got some news about a caravan carrying some big shot merchant who was going to the capital. So, they went to intercept the caravan and loot it. They would hold the merchant hostage and ask for ransom or they could just use him to get more money. Maybe they would even get some women form the caravan for them to enjoy. They were all rushing towards the place where the caravan must have set up camp for the night. They were practically seeing the money they would get in this raid. Kakuzu was also rushing with them when suddenly he noticed something. He heard a soft squelchy sound and saw some shadows flashing in the corner of his eyes. He looked around and saw that 10 of them were missing. There were 37 bandits in the group but now there were only 27 of them. It was like 10 of them had suddenly vanished in thin air. Kakuzu spotted fallen weapons and bags of the probably dead bandits on the ground. He felt danger and instantly searched around with vigilance. He thought that warning these guys would be better.

"Hey, guys. I think some of us just went missing." - warned Kakuzu. Immediately the other 4 shinobi noticed the sudden loss of numbers too.

"Gather around! Somebody is killing our guys." - the chuunin bandit leader shouted to rest of the group.

"Gouken? Touma? Where are those guys?" - panicked a bandit.

"Somebody has taken them out, you idiot. Keep watching the surroundings. I think they are leaf shinobis." - spoke another bandit.

Kakuzu saw the panicking bandits and knew he could not stay here any moment longer. His mission was a priority and if leaf shinobi found him out, the mission would end up a failure. He was slowly slipping out of the group when the bandit leader saw him.

"Where are you going Kazu? Are you leaving us?" - the bandit leader asked him with a withering look.

"You are deserting us?! You fucking traitor!" - suddenly one panicking bandit attacked Kakuzu with a sword. Kakuzu deftly parried the blow, disarmed the bandit, caught the him in a headlock and stabbed him on the shoulder with a kunai.

"I am no traitor you bastard. There are shinobis attacking us and we do not even know their numbers or capabilities. We are sitting ducks out here. I say we split up and divert them. We could escape for now. We will try to intercept the caravan tomorrow. If we stay here any longer we will all die." - spoke Kakuzu.

"That is a good plan Kazu, but know this, you injured a brother and when we escape safely, you will pay for your actions." - warned the bandit leader.

Kakuzu took out the kunai from the bandit's shoulder and released him. Tha bandit glared at him gripping his bloody shoulder but Kakuzu did not heed it. Kakuzu was meanwhile thinking, 'Heh, threaten me all you want but you guys will not survive to act upon it. Tomorrow the caravan would have already passed through the Leaf Village shinobi outposts. Even if these guys survive tonight somehow, they will not be able to attack the caravan. They will get killed by leaf shinobis the instant they show themselves. Now, I just have to escape this nuisance. The bastards attacking us are pretty stealthy. I have to escape or I will be found out for sure. Fuck, if only I had enough money then I would not be in this shitty situation'. The bandit leader ordered them to spread out and the bandits dispersed in all directions, with two or three bandits in a group, each of them hoping that their attackers will attack the other group.

When Takeru arrived near the group's location he sensed the 37 bandits. He wanted to thin out the numbers first so he can face the shinobis without any interference. He sensed the bandits and identified the regular ones. He then made 9 shadow clones and used the Body Flicker Jutsu to take out the regular guys first. He and his clones flickered behind the bandits, shut their mouths, sliced their throats with chakra scalpel, grabbed them with chakra grab and used body flicker to return to their previous position on the trees. He dropped the corpses and used a simple fire release to burn their bodies. He took the belongings some were carrying and set them aside. He did all of this in matter of a few seconds with dead-cold accuracy and precision without any hesitation. He could feel that his emotions were whirling inside him but he crushed them. He knew if he let his emotions control him now or if he even hesitated a little, he would be putting his and his family's lives at stake. After taking out 10 of those bandits at once. He was just going for the second round when he stopped. Takeru sensed that the elite jounin level shinobi of the group, who for some reason was using a Transformation Jutsu, had noticed the sudden lack of men. He and the clones stayed still and observed the interactions of the bandits, though from this distance he could only hear some incomprehensible sounds. What Takeru could make out from the interactions was that either the jounin was a coward which would be just plain nonsense or the jounin was never part of this group and he had some other agenda. Soon, the bandits were leaving in groups of two or three. He surmised that they maybe overestimated the number and affiliation of the imaginary shinobis that killed their memebers. He created 5 more shadow clones and ordered all the clones to follow one group each to make sure that the bandits were truly escaping. If they were truly escaping then his clones would leave them and if they did not, he ordered his clones to go for the kill. He then followed the group of bandits that were escaping in the direction of the camp personally. This group consisted of 1 chuunin who was the bandit leader, 1 genin and a regular bandit. He went ahead bypassing them and set a trap with chakra strings weaved among the trees like a spider's web. The group ran inside the forest unaware of the trap Takeru set up in their path. They had just entered the trap when Takeru used his chakra strings to completely close the trap. It was the genin who was first caught in the chakra strings. Takeru immediately bound him up and channelled fire nature chakra along the strings. the strings glowed red hot and instantly seared the genin all over, nearly burning all of his body.

"Look out, its a tra…Ahhhhh!" - was all the genin could shout before he went unconscious due to the massive injuries and pain.

"Fuck! Be careful of the traps. The bastard is here somewhere" - the chuunin leader warned the other bandit. He started looking everywhere but he could not see anyone. He kept the location of the chakra strings on his mind and weaved some hand-seals and made an earth clone of himself. Then he weaved another set of hand-seals and went down the earth, hiding like a mole while his clone kept shouting and cursing Takeru in order to bait him out. Takeru sensed everything. He made a shadow clone and stayed hidden behind a tree. The clone flickered down the tree to the ground and stood facing the bandits.

"I assume you are one of those shinobis who attacked my group." - stated the clone of the bandit leader.

"So, what if I am?" - the clone Takeru asked changing his voice to an emotionless cold one with his near perfect physical control.

"Are you a leaf shinobi?" - asked the bandit clone.

"Does it matter? You guys wanted to raid the caravan. You would have killed and looted everyone. Consider it me returning the favor in advance. Leave and I will not attack you any further. You can take your injured accomplice away too." - replied clone while he and the original sensed the original bandit leader slowly creeping underneath the ground towards him.

"So, you are one of the guardians of the caravan then. I see, so you can just die then!" - the bandit clone suddenly charged towards Takeru's clone with a kunai. Clone Takeru ducked beneath the stab, spun, took out his sword and stabbed the bandit clone in his left armpit using his sword. The clone bandit swerved to the right, narrowly dodged the blow and grabbed clone takeru with his free right arm. Clone Takeru wanted to jump back away from the clone bandit but suddenly, two hands came out of the earth and grabbed clone Takeru's legs and dragged him into the earth leaving only his head outside. The original bandit leader came out of the ground and faced clone Takeru with a smug smile.

"You are pretty calm for a guy who is about to die"

"You know, you are a really bad leader. Infact I think you got the position because no one else wanted it."

"What are you saying you bas.." - the original bandit leader could not finish speaking as he heard a small whimper behind him. He and his clone turned around to see the same man they trapped inside the earth standing behind the regular bandit. A black sword was jutting out of the regular bandit's body where his heart was. The original Takeru slowly pulled the sword out of the now dead bandit's body, letting the body fall on the ground.

"A clone!" - both the bandit leader and his clone were stunned. He did not even sense him coming. He was raging at the fact that two of his most trusted underlings were now dead in front of him.

"So, you are an equally bad shinobi as well. Did no one ever teach you to never turn your back against your enemies?" - Takeru said casually as he flinged off the blood on the sword and suddenly flickered away.

"Wha..!" - as soon as the bandit and his clone turned they saw a huge fireball coming towards them, nearly touching their nose. He could feel the intense heat coming off of it and it was too close. The bandit leader could not dodge the fireball or weave any hand-seals for that matter in this short time. The clone bandit hurriedly tried to push the original out of the way but before he could do it completely, the fireball exploded, 'BOOM!'. A huge explosion occurred devastating the place and creating a small crater on the ground. Takeru, standing on a tree branch sensed the still alive bandit leader leaning against a tree trunk. The bandit's body was half-burned. He was bleeding profusely and could not even move. Takeru landed in front of him and stood a few feet away.

"Ninjutsu without any hand-seals. I did not think anyone could do that. You are not a regular shinobi. Just who the fuck are you?" - asked the bandit gasping, nearly in his last breath.

"Just an average guy protecting his own." - Takeru slashed the bandit's throat in one swift strike with his sword, looted the corpses and burned them to ashes. He then cleared out any evidence he could find of the fight here as much he could and sped up towards the camp. Along the way Takeru received the memories of the clones he sent after the escaping bandits and one of the clones on lookout duty at the camp one by one. Most of the remaining bandits escaped after the fiasco in the forest barring 4 of the regular bandits. They ran into his father and the guards of the camp and were swiftly dispatched. The elite jounin shinobi of the bandit group however did something interesting. After running for a bit, he immediately killed the other bandit who was with him. He then disposed of his body, used transformation jutsu to change his appearance and escaped hurriedly. Takeru could make out the features of this shinobi. He was a tall man with tanned skin and long dark brown hair. He was wearing a sleeveless body armor and black pants and had a black mask over his face covering his mouth and up to the nose leaving only his eyes which had an unusual coloring: green pupils and red eyes. Immediately a certain person came to his mind but Takeru dismissed it. It would be too much of a coincidence for this man to be that person. Takeru, before arriving at the camp undid the transformation jutsu on him. He, after arriving at the camp and sensed his clone sleeping inside the tent. He packed the spoils he got from the bandits directly into his bag without even checking them. He went inside the tent and saw his mother was also sleeping. He dispelled the clone and promptly went to bed. Takeru slowly released his control over his emotions and he broke down crying. Takeru weeped silently. He knew this world was cruel. He knew he would have to bathe in blood just to survive and protect his loved ones. He knew that if he did not do what he did today, and if they attacked them in night he could not have kept an accident from happening. A stray shuriken or kunai or even a missguided strike of an sword could prove life-threatening. Even with his senses, speed and other abilities he could never be sure his parents' safety. He was not omnipotent. He could not revive people back from the dead. So, he had to dirty his hands. He knew what he did would haunt him. He killed not one, not two but 13 people in cold blood. His hands were soaked in blood. He could have just knocked them unconscious and bound them. Alas! Takeru miscalculated. He did not count the fact that by dampening his emotions he also made himself more logical, more cold and far less a human. Takeru simply did what he thought was the best course of action and at that moment, the best course of action was to eliminate his enemies permanently. Takeru also did not factor that while his dampened emotions made him ignore the immediate effects of intense emotions. It did not shut off his ability to sense emotions from other people. He sensed all the desperation, rage, regret, remorse, hate, resentment and most importantly the loss of hope his victims felt. And when he relinquished his control over his emotions, all those emotions he felt or sensed cam back crashing on him all at once. Takeru knew he killed for a cause but it did not justify his actions. He killed someone's father today, someone's brother or someone's son. He deprived their families from happiness to keep his own. He could still see the hopeless eyes of his victims as he snuffed the light out of them mercilessly. He was a murderer. There was no sugar-coating it. But he also knew that he would have to do awful things over and over again in the future if he wanted to keep himself and his loved ones out of harm's way. Takeru knew he would have to confront the moral conflict he was feeling or it would eat him from the inside but for now all he wanted was to sleep. And so he slowly fell into the grasp of the sandman.