Inara and Hanzõ look at each other in silence for a short moment.

"Aff" Hanzõ sighed.

"What information do you have about this organization? Names, positions, purpose, actions, what?" Hanzõ asks.

Inara gives a brief summary of all the information he has gathered so far, Hanzõ listens attentively and questions it.

"Kotaka? Are you sure?" Hanzõ asks.

"My lord, you know what I did for this, that was the information I was given, we need more questioning to be sure, or we can take any action you want" Inara says.

Hanzõ watches Inara for a moment, considering his next move.

"Tsk" Hanzõ mutters.

"How is the boy?" Hanzõ asks.

"The boy is doing very well, for a boy who has never been in contact with war or battles he has done much better than I thought, especially his chakra control is extraordinary, I haven't had time to teach him how to control his emotions properly, so he is still a bit of an amateur ninja, but his decision making is very efficient and he is also brave" Inara says.

"Let that courage not turn into stupidity Inara, I trust you" Hanzõ says.

Inara agrees and gives his word.

In the middle of Inara's answer, Hanzõ's eyes widen.

...

Hanzõ gets up from his chair, creates a clone that sits on his chair and walks to Inara's side, signaling him to be quiet, Hanzõ's clone says.

"This organization, what else do you know about it?" Hanzõ's clone asks, signaling Inara to answer.

"Oh, the boy who was caught spying on Kosuke and me is..." Inara is interrupted by an action of the original Hanzõ.

Hanzõ undoes his clone and with a sharp blow on the door, Hanzõ smashes the solid wooden door and grabs the head of one of his guards.

Hanzõ removes the door from his quarters and throws Hanzõ's former spy and royal guard under his desk.

*Pow

The spy hits the table and almost breaks it.

Hanzõ calls out his Kusarigama and before the soldier can even recover, Hanzõ rams his weapon into the table near the spy's neck, leaving him completely startled, trapped but unharmed.

"All that stuff you heard, Oshiro... is it true?" Hanzõ asks.

Oshiro, one of the men connected to the Fukkatsu organization, found himself in a delicate situation.

"Shit, shit, shit..." Oshiro thought.

*Cackle

Hanzõ brings his kusarigama closer to Oshiro's neck, a small cut from Hanzõ's weapon is enough to make even the most powerful ninja in the ninja world fall paralyzed and await his inevitable death.

"I would never do something like that Mr. Hanzõ" says Oshiro in a pitiful but very nervous tone.

Hanzõ looks at him without any visible change in his face.

"I wasn't questioning your loyalty, I was questioning whether all this is true." Hanzõ says.

"Ah... it is..." Oshiro hesitates to speak.

"Hm" Hanzõ mutters.

"Then it is true..." Hanzõ says.

"Hm?" Oshiro exclaims.

Hanzõ cuts off Oshiro's head with a dry, precise slash.

"I don't need anything else" Hanzõ says and makes the cut.

Oshiro's head falls and rolls across the room.

"Sir..." Inara says without reaction.

"I don't care what kind of peace these bastards want, whether it benefits them or the village, two different ideas within our shinobi force will create debate, debate that would come from the naive freedom of the weakest of our nation" Hanzõ says.

"We don't have the luxury to discuss what to do... we have to survive" Hanzõ says, staring at Inara with a penetrating gaze.

Inara agrees with Hanzõ's ideal and says.

"What about the other guard?" Inara asks.

Hanzõ goes to the entrance door and looks to the right - the second guard is no longer there.

Onara was gone.

"Hm" Hanzõ sighs.

"Inara, take care of the boy and speed up his training, he can't be weak anymore, we don't have time for that" Hanzõ says.

Inara accepts Hanzõ's order and leaves the room at dawn.

Kosuke's house.

Kosuke slept with a guilty conscience that day, perhaps because he had never witnessed such violence before, every now and then he had flashes of that disturbing vision of the mercenary's disfigured face.

The next day, a little more apathetic now, Kosuke wiped his face in the bathroom sink and thought to himself.

"I did that to defend myself... uh... man, such a fight is so morbid... never when I read and watched Naruto and saw those fights, did I imagine that it could turn into something so grotesque..." Kosuke thinks.

Kosuke tells himself in an inner monologue.

"The reality of war is much worse than I imagined" Kosuke says and looks at himself in the mirror.

Now more apathetic, Kosuke, who wants to go to the training camp, goes out the door of his house.

As soon as Kosuke opens the door, he sees Inara waiting for him.

"Kosuke, you slept late" Inara says at 07:21 am.

"Sensei, it's still 7 in the morning..." Kosuke says with a confused look on his face.

"Here" Inara offers a hanami dango to Kosuke.

"What is this ?" Said Kosuke confused.

"an appetizer, it's a bit expensive here in Amegakure but it's very good, I wanted you to try it" Said Inara.

"How much was it ?" Ask Kosuke.

"and does it matter?" Inara says irritated.

"Let's go lazy boy" Inara says.

"I'm the lazy one, but he was the one who slept all afternoon during my first training session" Kosuke thought angrily.

"Come on, we have to train, your emotional control still needs a lot of improvement" Inara said.

"Oh... It's okay, Sensei" Kosuke said, surprised by Inara's change of attitude.

At the training camp.

"I see you managed to make good use of your prosthetic weapon, can you still use it?" Inara says.

"Ah yes, I think so" Kosuke says without much certainty.

*Tchlak Tchlak Tchlak Tchlak Tchlak

Kosuke manages to activate his Suzaku Lotus.

"Hmm. Impressive" Inara says.

Kosuke puts a silly little smile on his face.

"I think he's ready for the next step" Inara thinks.

"Do you feel the flow of chakra through your prosthetic weapon?" Inara says.

"Hm hm" Kosuke says in agreement.

"Then concentrate on keeping your chakra flow balanced on it, and try to increase the chakra dosage slowly so as not to lose the rhythm" says Inara.

"By gradually increasing the chakra flow, you can manipulate such a high density of flow that you can not only improve your cutting, but also manipulate the strength and shape of your weapons" Inara says.

Inara produces an ice axe, closes his eyes and says.

"Chakura Nagashi."

*Swoosh

"Wowww" Kosuke says impressed.

Inara creates a chakra blade on his axe, which increases the size of his axe, but as an chakra blade.

"This chakra blade is malleable, more resistant and more powerful, but of course be careful, this chakra doesn't come from nowhere, if you overdo it, your energy will run out soon" Inara says.

"Yes Sensei!" Kosuke exclaims.

"Come on, try it" Inara orders.

Inara goes to a nearby tree to watch Kosuke listening.

"Chakura Nagashi."

*Swoosh

"Huh?" Inara exclaims and looks back.

Kosuke had created a constant flow of chakra around his suzaku lotus, a flow that would be more complex to keep circulating than a simple blade, Inara thought.

"What? How did that boy do that so quickly? his chakra control is at a level far beyond what I imagined..."

As he watched, Inara realized something.

"What?" Inara mumbles.

Kosuke's chakra, while his eyes are closed, glows faintly white, not only his tattoo but also his own chakra flow.

"What is this presence... this boy has a very dark potential..." Inara thinks.

// 
 
Author note 
 
10 chapters ahead at patreon.com/persima