“So, Ms. Cannibal. It’s time you talk.” Jiraia said the woman just looked at him hatefully. “Don’t do that face now. Tell me, who else here works for Satsu?”

                “Everyone. Everyone here works for him. You won’t be able to touch him even with your monster of a what? Kid? You are not enough. You need an army if you want to kill him. You couldn’t even take me! Just you wait, I will get free and have a feast!” The woman said far too fast and far too heatedly. She finished while looking at my eyes.

                Jiraia stepped between the woman and I then said, “If you don’t want to be a feast for worms, you will talk. Now, who else works for Satsu? I am not talking about grunts, I am talking about capable people.”

                The woman gritted her teeth for a while then asked, “If I answer, will you let me go?” A nod. “Even though I tried to eat your kid’s brain?” Another nod. The woman chuckled, “You are serious. Okay, I will talk but you will leave the body of my ex companions to me.”

                Jiraia grunted then asked, “Who are the closest people to Satsu?”

                The woman shook her head, “No one is close to him. Paranoid bastard. No one can get close to him. But there is a man that does most of his dirty work, his name is Doro. He is a good fighter, much better than me, so your kid doesn’t stand a chance against him. He lives in the upper district, very rich thanks to all the jobs he finished. That’s the good thing about Satsu, he is fair. He gave me lots of bodies.” Jiraia cleared his throat. “Right. Other than Doro and us, there aren’t good fighters.”

                Jiraia got closer to the woman. “You are lying. There are more aren’t there? You just gave someone you didn’t like.”

                The woman sighed, “Fine. There is someone called Pitto. She oversees the arena. She is supposed to be a better fighter between her and Doro but I never saw her fight. That’s it, now will you let m-” Jiraia stabbed her heart.

                I looked at Jiraia feeling off, “Father, didn’t you tell her you would let her go?”

                Jiraia sighed, “She was a cannibal. She was crazy. Like this, she won’t eat innocent people and she won’t be in pain of her existence. Everyone wins.”

                “Well, I was just asking for the sake of it. I understand.” I said, looking at the lifeless form of the woman who was very much alive just a moment ago. ‘It’s just too easy to die.’ While thinking about life and death, I heard someone approaching and turned to the voice. It was Soichiro.

                Soichiro stopped in front of the woman’s lifeless body and asked, “Did you learn anything worthwhile?”

                Jiraia nodded, “There is a man named Doro. He does Satsu’s dirty work. He is supposed to be a good fighter. That’s it.”

                Soichiro nodded, “Let’s go before guards come here. They might be corrupt but even they won’t be letting us go if they catch us like this.”

                “Okay.” Jiraia turned to me. “Before we go, you did well. I will start your training when we reach our room. Stay behind us while walking and don’t wander off.”

                “Yes, father,” I said while walking towards the alley. ‘I wonder what does he intend to teach me. Maybe toad taijutsu. Though that’s supposed to work only in sage mod. Maybe Rasengan? I don’t have the chakra control necessary to do it.’ “Sigh.” ‘It’s going to be a surprise then.’

                While walking, I thought about the lives I have taken and the lives I will take, and the fact that I was already used to killing people.

                We reached the inn in a few minutes. Jiraia and Soichiro walked to the bar while I made my way to the room. As soon as I got inside, I jumped to the bed and started sleeping.

***

                “Wake up kid.” I opened my eyes and sat up groggily then turned to Jiraia.

                “What time is it?” I looked outside the window, it was dark.

                Jiraia jumped on his bed and said, “It’s my turn to sleep. Good night.”

                “Wait!”

                “What is it, kid? I am very sleepy.” Jiraia said while taking out his shoes.

                “You were going to teach me something, you said so.”

                “I lied kid. We are shinobi, we do that all the time.”

                I stood up fast, angry. “Shinobi might lie but no human being can get away with lying to a comrade,” Jiraia grumbled about sleep and such but stood up. He made a few hand signs and put his hand on the ground and lines and lines of kanji inscribed themselves on it. I leaned on the fuin and looked carefully. “It has three parts. One Chakra Storage Fuin, one Chakra Transfer Fuin, and the last… I don’t know.”

                “Kid.” I looked at Jiraia, he seemed to make a face but I couldn’t quite see it because of the low candlelight. “How do you see black chakra ink in this light?”

                I tilted my head. “Lines are shimmering.” He seemed to recoil slightly. “Isn’t that normal?”

                “Normal? Jiraia asked coming close enough to get in my personal space. “It’s not normal kid, it’s bullshit and probably a doujutsu.”

                I felt my eyes widening. “Doujutsu? Like the Sharingan? That’s awesome!”

                Jiraia didn’t answer he just went on grumbling about bullshit doujutsu and bullshit kids until he fell asleep. I, on the other hand, looked at the fuin he inscribed carefully. I isolated the fuin I didn’t know and started copying it on the paper.

It took a few tries but after a while, I finally managed to copy it correctly.

“Well, I at least won’t need to buy this from someone else.”