Thank you all for your kind feedback on the last 2 chapters.
The Pyre
"Team Riichi, step up!"
As I and Riichi stepped up in line, I thought about how this random office chūnin was going to decide(maybe not decide) whether I lived or died in this war.
There are a bunch of camps and forts that I could be sent to. If I was sent to a frontline camp than, I was dead, if I was sent to protect the supply train I was pretty dead, if I was sent to infiltrate, I was ultra mega dead if a random A-rank shinobi showed up in one of the middle forts I was dead. Honestly, I was more concerned for Riichi, I didn't want my terrible luck to drag him down with me
The chūnin checked his paper, looked at us, and said "Waterfall Country camp, under jounin Iwai Michi" with that he handed us our papers and we left the line.
That was pretty fucking bad. It wasn't the worst, but it was right next to Grass Country which was bad as I could be transferred there pretty easily which was a death sentence due to all the ninja from Iwagakure there, close enough to Lightning Country which meant I could be caught up in that big fight against the third Raikage, it was next to Iron country which could potentially be bad though they were a pretty isolated country.
To top it off Takigakure was the only minor village to have a tailed beast. While they weren't the most active in the war, recently we saw some movement from their ninja so that was a bad sign.
I already had all my stuff packed and had said bye to the director and the kids at the orphanage(I'm going to miss them), so Riichi and I just headed to the place where we would leave with a group that was heading to the same station.
Bandits started to see the war as an opportunity to set up camp in Fire Country. So all squads that were leaving were tasked to eliminate them, this also had the added benefit of toughening up genin who hadn't killed a person yet so they wouldn't freeze up in war.
Putting that out of my head as we reached the northwest gate where the squad we were traveling with was waiting. Seeing them, I saw we were traveling with a jounin to our camp so that assured some of my worries. The rest of them were some inexperienced genin and one chūnin.
"Alright, that's everybody," the jounin said as soon as we arrived. "Everyone Ready?" he asked and as soon as everyone gave him a nod, we started heading towards the gate.
After we gave the gate guards our registration cards we started to get ready to tree run. It was a mandatory skill to learn in the genin corps, so I doubted that anyone didn't know it.
The jounin turned to us and said "We are tasked to eliminate two known bandit camps on our ways there but if you see one that's not known we'll take care of it as well, now let's go".
I had no idea how I was going to react if I killed a person. I'm not that much of an emotional person so I don't think it will make me start crying, but I wasn't a psychologist so I didn't know.
Later
We were about to reach the first camp and I was feeling a little more nervous about it, but I didn't have time to ponder on it as the jounin signaled for us to stop.
"Alright, when I say go, all of you spread out and enter the camp; this is a silent operation so don't wake them up as you kill them."
When the jounin said go, Riichi gave me a look of reassurance, and then we both left.
Hopping over the little fence they made I spotted a shack. Walking towards it felt like a pressure on my shoulders, making it inside the shack I saw my target a woman wearing worn-down clothing. I was surprised that she was a woman for a second but if there were men thieves and in all terrible people then there had to be women thieves and in all terrible people.
Pulling out my kunai, I looked down at her and put it near her throat. I felt a twinge of guilt for what I was about to do, but it was me or her and I would always choose me.
Silently slitting her throat, I watched to make sure she died and then left the little shack and moved on to the next. This time it was a man whose throat I slit.
I did this 7 times until there were no more to kill. I was feeling some emotion that I couldn't identify, it wasn't sadness as I felt nothing for people I don't know. I couldn't identify it by the time I reached the squad.
Looking at them, I felt bad for the other genin, they looked terrible, 'probable due to some of the of the bandits waking up', they had blood on them and one was crying. The jounin looked at us sternly and ordered us to collect the bodies and loot the camp. Two of the fresh genin were catatonic, so only one left with me to complete the orders.
Looking at him, he was around my age, had dark brown hair and dark brown; all in all the type of guy you wouldn't notice in a crowd.
"How do you feel about it?" he questioned out of nowhere while we were looting one of the houses.
I responded "About killing them?" at his nod, I said, "What's done is done, all that matters is that my precious people and I survive". That's the conclusion I came to, while the loss of life saddened me, my will to survive dwarfed it.
"How, about you," I asked, he seemed to be on the verge of tears so maybe that wasn't the best question to ask but I wanted to know.
"I think, I'm going to throw up, but I don't want to die so the job has to be done" he responded, he looked like he found resolve as he said those words. I counted it as a positive, that he wasn't going to cry anymore.
"What's your name"
"Matsuo Asuka, yours?"
"Ogasawara Kame"
Reaching out my hand in a fist, he looked at it before doing the same.
Riichi
Watching as the kid and the other genin came back with the last of the bodies, I prepared to step up to get rid of them, but I was stopped by Jonin Hirata. He looked at me and at that moment I knew what he planned on making them do. 'Why is he going so far to toughen them up, is he crazy'.
"Genin!" he yelled both Kame and the other genin stood attention. The kid looked like he had an idea of what the jounin was planning on making them do.
"Dispose of the bodies".
The kid looked pretty shaky, he seemed okay earlier but carrying dead bodies and being told to get rid of them probably shook his mask of stoicism.
Kame looked at the other genin and nodded signaling that he was going to do it. He raised his shaky hands and started to do hand signs, it was some fire jutsu.
When he completed it fire started to come out from under the pile. It was most likely an altered supercharged bonfire jutsu that he worked on before.
'Why does it have to be like this' The kid as soon as he stopped started crying. Rushing over to him I caught him in my arms as he was bawling.
"I killed them, Riichi" Kame said hysterically as he looked at the burning pile of bodies.
" It's okay" I responded though he didn't take it to heart. We would have to talk about all that happened. 'He looks so distraught'.
Looking at the jounin, I asked if we were traveling now and he replied, no, seeing that the genin wasn't in the condition to be traveling.
Taking the kid with me I walked away from the inferno behind me. Idly I thought about a word to describe it, A fire to burn the dead, then I remembered the word, A Prye
AN: Yo, sorry for the wait for this chapter, I was lazy and never really made any progress into the chapter till yesterday.
Let me know what you thought of Kame's reaction to his first kills and this chapter in general.
