Chapter 2: Underbelly of Cruelty

Disclaimer: Disclaimers don't actually mean or do anything, but tradition is tradition. I do not claim any ownership of Naruto.

Preceding Authors Note: Note this chapter will contain an element of human trafficking and what it is used for. If this something you cannot stand to read, I suggest you do not finish this chapter. Other chapters will not contain this, but I understand that bad experiences can be relieved with the wrong triggering event.

June 27th Nighttime, Unknown year

Outside of Boss Kawaguchi's Fort

Forest Clearing

"Fuck!" I cursed as a fist impacted my stomach and I collapsed to the ground.

"Your reactions are too slow, you think too much. Your memory may be good, but you don't have time to search through it when in combat," lectured my attacker. My designation of Mr. Eyepatch had given way to the more widely used nickname of Old Salt, how a nautical term came to be used for a trained killer I have no idea. It did fit him better considering he was both old at least relative to everyone else who worked at the Fort, and he was angry and mean like salt in a wound so that also fit.

I struggled back to my feet and retook the ready stance. My training with Old Salt had been extremely productive, or at least that's what he claimed. From my perspective it seemed like I just had an appointment to get the shit kicked out of me for three hours every night. Though, I would admit I was making it hard for him to to separate me from my fecal matter so there was progress.

Early on he had figured out that the modern conditioning, muscle building, and nutritional knowledge I already held was equal or superior to his own methods so he let me do my own thing when it came to physical training. All I had to do was continue building muscle and improve my stamina. To this end I had been able to procure a set of dumbbells, a primitive leg press, and get larger meal portions from the dining hall, all with the expressed enthusiasm of Boss. The general trend of my days went something like, wake up, eat large breakfast, run laps around the fort, shower, work for the Boss, eat lunch and do short periods of weights during the middle of the day, finish the work for the Boss, eat dinner Tsunoda, do extended workout, have a late snack, work with Old Salt, and bed. It was an exhausting routine, but it wasn't much different than my high school football routine though with some minor differences.

When it came to arts of combat and chakra manipulation I was on less firmer ground. Learning stances, hand seals, and other feats of pure memorization were easy. Putting them into practice was less easy. I did tend to get stuck within my own head trying to search my memory for information such as what to do when punched high, when kicked, and ect. It was a routine I had become well used to, turning what I had stored in my memory into deeper reaction and total understanding. That was why I continued to get thrown to the floor by Old Salt.

One thing that was interesting was the hand seals. These were 12 positions in which I could place my hands to make my chakra do something, on the surface not that interesting. However, hidden underneath those 12 simple gestures was the fact that they provided for nearly infinite combinations. A jutsu that had four hand signals could be any one of 20,736 possibilities! Each of which would have a totally unique effect, because each hand seal was like a fold of a piece of paper in Origami. So each hand seal would fold and shape chakra in the body in certain ways due to how Chakra flowed through the hands extensively, so changes in hand shape would cause corresponding changes further down the flow of chakra in the main body.

As I understood it, this worked because Chakra was transported around the body by a "Chakra Pathway System", which as far as I could gather was a literal physical structure within the body that followed a similar developmental pattern as the circulatory or lymphatic system. This begged the question of how I was able to generate and use chakra since there was no way I had developed this physical structure at birth or in the short time I had been in this world, when I asked Old Salt about this he simply shrugged and said "Life finds a way, don't question it if works"

This was an acceptable, but unsatisfying answer. So I punted the question deep into my memory for consideration at a later time. I had been doing that a lot lately, pushing important questions away for later consideration. My middle school hockey coach used to say that 'If you leave your work for tomorrow, your work from tomorrow will take two tomorrows to finish,' so while a bit rough around the edges the general intention made sense to me. But, he also never had to work for a crime lord while learning how to wield magic wizard powers so maybe it didn't apply in this case.

Though my own progress in actually performing those magic wizard powers was less confused than my theoretical understanding of them. So far I have been able to do all the hand seals and feel the different flows and "shapes" of chakra within my own body. I was still far off from ever making it do anything, but it was exhilarating to feel the fluctuations of this new 6th sense within my own body. It was definite proof that something was going on, what that was? I hadn't the foggiest.

"There is one last item we shall do tonight, a test," Old Salt proffereding me a chance to open my big fat mouth and earn a set of push ups. I managed to not take the bait and waited for him to continue. He did after the bait wasn't taken, though his mouth did twitch a smidgen downwards when it was clear I wasn't fooled.

"It will be a simple test. You need to just touch me, if you do that you win and I'll teach you a skill that will make you one of the most valuable chakra wielders in the region. You can choose to decline this test as well if you don't think you're capable of it and there will be no punishment. However, if you cannot complete that task within 20 minutes, you will have to sleep out in the forest for the night," Old Salt stated, his face betraying no emotion.

High reward? Deceptively simple goal? Easy out? This was 100 percent going to be a test that he expected me to fail, so I was left with only a single course of action.

"When do we start?" I said puffing up my chest.

"Now," He stated simply before disappearing into a puff of smoke. In his place a ticking clock sat on the ground.

"Son of a gun!" My head around, but in the dark forest it was impossible to see anything distinguishable. Where had he gone? I searched my memories for any clues, a slight blur moving to the left of me gave me the only clue I needed. I took off in that direction. Other evidence of him moving this way came in the form of broken twigs, stomped leaves, and other signs of disturbance.

And I chased him, and chased him, and chased him some more. There were always little noises and glimpses of something up ahead to keep me going. It was when I passed a tree with the exact same bark pattern that my bullshit detector finally woke up from its nap and started screaming bloody murder.

I skidded to a stop. There was absolutely no fucking way that two trees would share the same swirly bark pattern on my left next to a moss covered rock in the straight line that I was running. In nature, patterns like that did not repeat, ever. I remembered every single fucking tree and rock from my gramps cabin up in Northern Minnesota, and all of them were slightly different in bark patterns, branch layout, and other minor details.

It was then that I noticed that the forest that wasn't on my straight line of pursuit was kind of indistinct, darker somehow which was odd because the light level in the forest should have been roughly the same everywhere. This set off a new question in my head, how was it that I was able to see well enough in the dark to notice snapped twigs and crushed leaves. Before I could only barely ever see in moonlight, and here the tree covered the moonlight. Something was up and I needed a sanity check

I set off towards the indistinct darkness that was perpendicular to my line of advance and something odd happened, as I began to travel in my new direction the light level increased dramatically and new details seemed to pop in existence. I stopped and closed my eyes. I slowly worked through the playback in my mind and yes, they literally did pop into existence and yes there was an unexplainable brightening that had occurred as I moved perpendicularly.

So where did that leave me? I foresaw two distinct options, 1. Old Salt had somehow dumped into a funny space of some kind, or 2. He was fucking with my mind.

I sat down to have a think. Time was limited and I had burned some of it running through the funny house I now found myself in, but if I tried to solve both of the two distinct options that would explain my imprisonment I most certainly would run out of time. So I had to pick one of the two possible avenues on which would break out of this predicament. For this I relied upon the one rule that had never led me astray. KISS, 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' so which of my two options would have been simpler for Old Salt to place upon me pocket dimension or hallucinations?

Hallucinations obviously were, so how was he doing that to begin with? Drugs? Or some usage of his wizardly chakra powers? Drugs would be easy, but they probably wouldn't be this specific in their affect, plus when would he have had the chance to inject him with something. Old Salt didn't wear a gas mask so it wasn't airborne otherwise he also would've been afflicted by it. This all led back to some usage of chakra, but how could chakra be used to change what I was perceiving or experiencing? It'd have to either attack my brain directly or attack the connections between my sense and my brain. I'd definitely be able to tell some kind of difference if there was some foreign chakra affecting my brain, the feeling would be completely different from the norm.

I focused inwardly and noticed how it felt at that moment, I then checked my memory on how it had felt 3 days ago. Yep, there was a distinct difference in my head. It was as if something was reshaping the chakra within my head. That pissed me off.

In retrospect, it was a bit dumb of me to throw as much chakra at the construct as I could, but I was annoyed and dumb. The construct in my head shattered as the pressure of all the chakra I could muster overwhelmed it. All of a sudden my sense shifted and in front of me was Old Salt, his single blue eye gazing at me with an almost bored expression. On impulse I reached out and tapped him with my right hand. He didn't even raise his eyebrow. I grinned.

"I win," I said.

"So you have. You've surprised me, I shall teach you the skill and I shall make you more than a simpleton who knows how to barely manipulate chakra. I will make you into a Shinobi, and I shall teach you the art of sealing," he responded with his voice flat.

August 27th Evening, 2016 RY

Boss Kawaguchi's Fort

Roger's Office

I stretched out my body as I put the finishing touches on a report that had been in the works for two weeks. It would be the crowning jewel of my work for Boss Kawaguchi, it was an analysis of inefficiencies in Boss Kawaguchi's operation, if I was correct I could end up increasing profit margins by as much as 20% while cutting costs and raising overall morale. Once he read and implemented my recommendations, Boss Kawaguchi would become a very rich man.

On a side tangent, I had finally given in to the inevitable, I was going to return to Earth years as my benchmark for what was the current year. For the past two month's I had been struggling to find some kind of universal year system that all of the Five Nations could agree on, so that I could start marking my memories accordingly. Alas, I was defeated by the fact nobody in this godforsaken world seems to give shit that everyone uses different year schemes. So I have reverted to using years as they would be back home, though I will continue to label the months as they are locally. Months matter because they dictate seasons and weather, years are just a number so I can use any number I well goddamned feel like, so 2016 it shall be until I find something better to mentally delineate my time here.

On the subject of what I've been doing the past 2 months, it can be summed up by one word, WORK!. My god it's endless, "Do this!", "Find that!", "Oh can you find out who's the traitor by Thursday, I want to cut out their tongue on Friday", and so on. It's ridiculous how much paper pushing a criminal organisation needed to keep the wheel spinning. They never showed this in the Godfather that's for sure.

In other news something disturbing has started to happen, I've begun to notice that memories are now starting to have emotions and commentary added on to them. Now you( or I) may be thinking, 'Roger you utter fucking buffoon emotional interpretation always happens with memories, this isn't odd you emotionally stunted nutjob'. To which I reply, first off why are you criticising me? You are me. Second off this is different than that, it's more like I'm re-experiencing memories and there is a director's commentary added on, except I'm definitely not the director in this case. Which only leave's my subconscious, and I'm not sure how I feel about my subconscious unionising to criticize Roger INC. Maybe this is just the inevitable conclusion of perfectly recalling memories on demand, or maybe the stress is getting to me and I'm just starting to lose it. Either way it would be something to watch.

In more grounded news I've become an "acceptable piece of Iwa cannon fodder" according to Old Salt. I guess a two month nightly crash course isn't really the ideal way to learn how to duel to the death with other Shinobi. Either way, I've been learning many things, but I've also been accumulating an ever growing list of 'Questions to be asked at a later time, TBD' and it's driving me crazy.

For example, one time Old Salt used a jutsu to let him spew material out of his mouth to raise a stone wall 5ft tall by 10ft high by 1ft thick. When I asked him where he got the material to do this he said he moulded his chakra into the material to form the wall. Unfortunately this makes no fucking sense at all. Remember E = m X C^2? Einstein's famous equation, it basically says you can turn energy into mass or mass into energy, but it's barrier for doing so is the speed of light squared. That means it takes a shitton of energy to create mass or you get a shitton of energy when you convert mass to energy. So lets say that the wall Old Salt created was 100 pounds(an extremely conservative estimate), if you use E=m X C^2 to calculate how much energy would be needed to create that you get roughly 4 X 10^18th! That's roughly the amount of energy released by the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever tested by humanity! So if I'm correct that means every Shinobi is running around with thousands of nuclear weapons worth of energy stored within them. Maybe Chakra is just extremely energy dense, maybe it isn't being converted into real mass, or maybe E doesn't equal m X C^2 here or C is just slower? I don't know, but it freaks me out to see the laws of physics so easily be pissed on here.

Anyways, I've been learning how to control, convert, and utilize my own chakra to do all sorts of wild and fun things. For one part, I can now cloak myself in an illusion to appear as someone else, create an independent visual illusion of myself, and "switch" myself out at a moment's notice for an inanimate object. How all these tricks actually "worked" was still a bit of a head scratcher for me, but I knew the hand seals, what they felt like inside of me, and that they did something so further examination on how they worked would again be thrown on the 'figure out later' pile.

In somewhat brighter news, I was having much more success learning the art of sealing. My rapid progress in this field seemed to be the biggest and only shock I had managed to deliver to Old Salt. Sealing was a massive pain in the ass, but it was incredibly interesting. For one part seals were at the same time both two dimensional constructs on a piece of paper and a three dimensional construct within themselves. What I mean is that the lines on the paper acted as the literal manifestation of the seal, but within the lines in the seal lay a 3 dimensional chakra construct that existed solely in the two dimensional space on the paper. In a nutshell, the lines in a seal were holograms that encoded the 3d aspect of the chakra machinery into a relatively simple 2d format that was easily transportable and robust. It was like a popup jutsu machine that would be flat and 2D when it didn't have power, but when it gained power it would become 3D within the 2D space of the ink and would execute the jutsu that was built into it. So you could have two seals that would look exactly alike on paper, but would do completely different things depending on the holographic chakra machinery.

The problems with sealing was that it required extensive memorization of both 2D seal shapes and 3D chakra machinery within the seals. Every little factor in how the seal was drawn, what it looked like, what chakra machinery would be imbued within it, and many others all played a part in what, how, and if a seal would work. Fortunately, I was set in the memorization department so I was able to gobble up sealing information as fast as Old Salt could give it to me. I quickly outpaced Old Salt to the point where he just shrugged and told me not to kill myself. So I experimented with wild abandon, testing whatever I figured would be interesting.

Now this is not to say that I was already a seal master that I was a prodigy or genius, because I most definitely wasn't if you considered how many times I had nearly blown off my fingers. What I did have was a super memory that turned me into a rapid experimentation machine. I was able to perfectly remember how my chakra would feel as it shaped itself when I imbued it into the seal. I was able to perfectly remember how different hand seals made chakra form into different constructs within my body and what those constructs felt like as they left my body. I was able to perfectly remember what the sealing, and jutsu books said. I was also able to use information from books on high level physics, fluid dynamics, circuitry, electromagnetism, and many other fields of modern earth science, whose books I had skimmed one night on a whim.

Not that I actually understood what they meant or what all the math in them was saying, but the diagrams were helpful and I sometimes understood a paragraph or two. All in all though, what these things allowed me to do was to constantly make predictions on what would happen if I changed an element of the seal and what the outcome would be. I was usually wrong, but every experiment helped me get closer to understanding what chakra was, what it did, and why it did things a certain way if acted upon in some way.

"State your business," the command by the guard snapped me out of my self reflection.

"I'm here to present my report to the Boss," I said confidently. My language skills had gone from barely understandable to fully fluent in the two months I had been here. Life was much easier with me not having to repeat myself over and over to be understood. The guard knocked on the door and announced me. An affirmative answer came through the door and I was let in.

Present in the office was the Boss and Old Salt.

"Good Evening Mr. Walker, It's a pleasure to see you. The jovial tone of the Boss combined with the large glass on his desk confirming my suspicions that he was in the process of one of his drinking fits.

"Good to see you Boss," I responded with a cheerfulness I only half felt.

"Good, good. How are you doing without Tsunoda? I know he was a good friend of yours, but I just needed him to be on the watch at one of my less reliable bases." That had been a hard thing to adjust to, Tsunoda had been the closest thing to an actual friend or even older brother that I had in this new world. It had been a lonely week, but I had just focused myself even deeper into my work, studies, and experimentation.

"It's been a bit lonely, but I've been fine. I have the report on business optimizations right here,"
I jiggled the thick folder of paper in the crook of my arm. Boss waved for it and I set it down at his desk.

"I have found numerous areas where profitability can be increased. Overall, I expect that the profit margins of your enterprise could be raised by as much as 20% All those detailed changes can be found in the folder," I summarized.

"Excellent! That's way better than I truly expected! You are an amazing asset, you know that," He gestured at me with his hand holding his glass.

"Thank you Sir," I accepted the praise.

"No I mean it, I don't know what I would do without your help. You are a lifesaver. Hell you've probably read almost every single ledger and scrap of paper in this building," Boss complimented.

"Maybe, maybe not. Honestly, it's hard to keep track of everything I've written," I said contemplatively. That was a lie I did remember every single sheet of paper I had read, and I had read everything in this building.

"There's only one thing I can guarantee you haven't read and you never will!" Boss chuckled at what seemed to be his own joke.

"Pardon? What have I missed sir?" I asked confusion flowing through my head as I tried to think if I had missed anything.

"You missed the most important of them all! The master ledger!" That statement confused me even more.

"I have read the master accounting ledger sir," I stated hesitantly. It was not wise to contradict the Boss.

"I don't mean that one. I mean this master ledger!" He drew open a drawer in his desk and lifted a book out of it. He was right. I had not read that one.

"This book holds the secrets of every man I've hired. It holds the locations of all my safehouses and secret treasure depots. It holds everything I need to know to keep on top of this pit of vipers!" He laughed at his own joke. I could see why he had not and would never let me read that book. If I did there would be nothing to prevent me from running off and collapsing his organization.

"I can see why you keep that one a closely guarded secret sir," I mused.

"Yes yes it has all sorts of contacts that I can use for valuable business information. For one example did you know that the Leaf Village was attacked by the Sand and Sound villages recently? I knew. I knew a month in advance due to the numerous people who I hold leverage over, and I keep all of that in this single book! I made a huge profit off moving all my goods out of the Leaf right before the attack and then returning to sell them at inflated prices when they were rebuilding. Pure Genius!" He complimented himself.

"Very true sir,"

"Oh yes, in recognition of your excellent work for me I've had a gift delivered to your room. Make use of it however you like, just remember that I always make sure my supporters are richly rewarded. You are a valuable supporter and I hope what I reward you with is to your taste," He chucked at the word taste, and I felt a tingle in my spine that screamed something bad was a foot. I hid my fear and simply nodded.

"I thank you in advance. You are always generous and kind Sir," I said as I left the room. Behind me I heard more laughter and my stomach tightened. Something was definitely afoot.

I delayed my return to my room. I found every excuse imaginable to push back my arrival, something in me screamed 'DANGER DANGER GET AWAY NOW' I wanted to run, I very much wanted to run. But where would I go? How would I survive and start over with no food or money. It wasn't an option. So once all my reasonable time wasters had been used I trudged to my building.

I stood in front of my door. A sense of dread gnawing at me. I unlocked the door, and after a 2 breaths I opened it.

My fear turned to confusion as my mind tried to process what it was seeing. There was a girl on my bed, under the covers, staring at me, eyes screaming some kind of emotion. My mind shut down.

"Welcome Master, I'm here at your behest to service your needs," She cooed. Her voice was soft. It broke me from my mental car crash. The details in the room fell into place, the two robes hung over my chair, the collar around her throat, the seal on her exposed neck, the similar age she was to him, and the content of her words. It all fit into place in a single moment.

Bile rose in my throat as I tried to keep myself under control. I now understood what was so funny to Boss and I found I very much didn't like his sense of humor. My voice was flat, as I spoke.

"I have no need of service, have a nice day," I shut the door and walked away. The hand that held my keys shaking as I tried to not run away screaming or throw up at the intended use of my 'reward'. Understanding dawned upon me as the emotion I had seen in that girl's eye came into focus; it was terror, absolute terror. I walked out of the building and bee-lined for the nearest gate.

I had to go somewhere, anywhere that wasn't here. Bile again rose in my throat and threatened to spill out of me, but I forced it down. For once in my life I wish I didn't have such a good memory, so I could forget the look in that girls eye. I did not forget.

I managed to keep the storm of emotions that was tearing apart my insides hidden until I had made it to the treeline outside of the fort. Clouds obscured the moon so the night was pitch black. As the tree's behind me began to obscure whatever light the torches on the fort put out. It helped me imagine that I was hidden from everyone, most of all myself.

It started as suppressed sniffles, my own pride trying to hold back the flood of emotions that had been set off by the sight and realization of what that girl in my room meant. The sniffles turned into tears and full throat sobs as the reality of both her and my situation came into focus. She was an asset of the business that was used to generate profit, profit from her body and not of her own will. I was the guy who was helping that business run more efficiently and cheaper so they could use more people like they used her, for profit. I was helping in the system that enslaved and used that girl, I was literally part of the problem. I collapsed into the road and just full body sobbed.

A witch's brew of anger, sadness, self-loathing, loneliness, and helplessness consumed my being. I was lost in a strange world, full of bad men who did bad things and I didn't have a choice in the matter. I was just a dumb 14 year old kid who had wanted to be a football player, and now I was helping in the trafficking of sex slaves only several years older than me, I was a victim and a monster. By trying to save my own skin I had fucked over unknown numbers of innocent people. If I hadn't gotten myself this cushy accounting job I might be in the same place as she was, or worse.

I cried for a long time on the road, longer than I'd ever admit to anyone. It was just too much. I didn't want to go back and be a part in hurting more people. I just wanted to go home. I was a coward, I just wanted to get away. I wanted to cleanse my memory of this accursed place and go out into the wilderness and get lost. I was just sick of pretending that being lost and probably never getting to see my parents or sister again was okay.

I could remember all the hugs my mom had ever given to me, but I still felt I needed someone to hold me and say, "It's going to be okay, it's all going to work itself out." That alone would have made me believe that everything would be alright.

"You've left yourself extremely exposed to attack, I could have plunged a kunai through your throat and you wouldn't have had time to dodge." A voice cut through the emotional fog that had dulled my attention. I spun around, coming face to face with Old Salt. How much had he seen? He must have known and heard how much of a sad coward he was. It was the end of him.

Looking into his lone eye though told a different story, not anger, enjoyment or even disgust, just resignation.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time," I snarled back. I scrambled to rise to meet his challenge with strength and determination that I wish I actually possessed. The look on Old Salt's face didn't change.

"It seems that Yamaguchi went through with his plan to 'make you a man,' '' Old Salt commented, betraying nothing about his opinion on the matter.

"Yeah? What of it?" I growled.

"He's a fool and you made the decision that would allow to keep being my apprentice," He stated simply.

"Yeah and fuck you t-, Wait what?" My angry retort died in my throat as I realized what he had actually said.

"Come walk with me," He stated before turning and beginning to walk down the pathway further into the forest. I stood in stunned confusion before I ran to catch up. We walked in silence for several minutes afterwards. I stewed in my thoughts, trying to parse out what he actually meant.

"What did you mean by me keep being your apprentice?" I finally gave up and asked.

"If you had taken advantage of that girl, I would have never taught you a single thing again. I most likely would have broken your arm and then told Kawaguchi that you were unteachable." His voice was firm and cold. He paused for a moment before continuing.

"You demonstrated that you hold at least an ounce of character and decency, rejecting such a vile gift isn't a demonstration of you being a moral paragon, but it is enough that I could hope one day you could grow into a good person. So that you can make up for the sins you have already committed," That last part drove a dagger into my stomach.

"You mean helping Bos- I mean Yamaguchi?" Old Salt nodded. The shame turned to anger in a flash.

"How can you say I'm this person barely worth saving, you've been helping him way longer and way more substantively that I never have. How are you such a paragon of morality as to judge me?" I was mad. I didn't know why but him calling me a barely saveable person pissed me off. I saw him shake for a second and my anger dissolved as I realized what I had done. He still might break my arms, or hell my fucking neck after that comment.

"I'm nothing, but a full coward pretending to be a man." This stole my breath away as I just stared at the back of the hardest, meanest, and coldest man I had ever known. He continued.

"I've done nothing but screw up and run from my fate in this life. I have nowhere to go, but I'm too much of a coward to just take my own life rather than continue helping inflict harm upon the world. I'm nothing but an empty shaped leach and have been for many years. There is no redemption or salvation for me. However, I can tell you already possess more strength and I do, you could be both a great shinobi and an even greater man. That's why I have been training you, to see if you have the moral strength to be someone that isn't just another power crazed monster. You proved to me today that you at least have the chance of becoming a force for good, so I will give you the chance to survive and do good. For your time in the service of Yamaguchi will come to an end at some day in the future, whether it be through your escape, someone killing him, or any other possibilities whatever they may be. However, I will ensure you have the skills to survive and have a chance at being the only good thing I will ever do in this godforsaken existence." Old Salt spun and fixed me with his singular blue eye. It drilled into me with an intensity stronger than that of the sun. He continued.

"In return though, you must swear to me that you will be a force for good, that you will use your power to defend and lighten the burden of the weak, that you will not let your power corrupt you into weakness or evil, and that you will make up for the evil you've done already ten-fold. Swear it to me!" He commanded. I was stunned, I had to think about this didn't I? You don't swear oaths willy-nilly. Shame filled me at this thought, this was not an Oath I could even afford to think on. Who thinks about the pros and cons of an Oath to not be a bad person. I steeled myself.

"I swear it, I swear that I will be one who defends the weak and lightens their burden, I swear I will not let my power corrupt me to weakness or evil, I swear that I will make up for the evil I've done ten-fold!" I was yelling by the end. I was not going to let Yamaguchi get his fucking way, I was going to make that son of a bitch choke on the consequences of what he's done. I was going to kill my cowardice, because anything else was not an option. I was committed.

Old Salt stared into me a little longer before he turned away and nodded.

"Good. Now prepare yourself, you have much more to learn,"

September 12th Evening, 2016 RY

Outside of Boss Kawaguchi's Fort

Training Grove

Old Salt had stepped up my training after that day. Apparently he had convinced Kawaguchi that I needed a break from book work so that he could train me properly, Kawaguchi had agreed. So for the next two weeks Old Salt had turned me from the bumbling fool I had been into a bumbling fool that would trip over his own legs and stab himself with his own kunai. The gaps in my knowledge were plugged with deadly efficiency as Old Salt had taught the true fundamentals to being a shinobi. Weapon identification, breaking genjutsu, camouflage, tree climbing, water walking, tree jumping, trapping, and many other skills that were critical to survival as a shinobi. I learned about the Five Nations, and all the hidden villages. I learned how to bribe, steal, and cheat my way through life. He was working me to the bone.

It helped distract me from my dreams. Every night now whether it was that girl or someone I had known from earth, all of them would look at me with those same eyes. It could've been me or it could've been anyone. Either way, I was not forgetting what horrible things that girl had been through and was going to go through because of the man I worked for. Training was a very welcome distraction.

We were going through a lesson on genjutsu when a sound caught my attention. It was a loud boom. I twisted my head to locate the sound, it came from the fort. I turned back towards Old Salt whose own eye seemed to harden. Without a single word he took off back towards the fort, I scrambled after him. He ran faster than I had ever seen him go, it was a struggle to even track him with my eyes. He came to a dead stop at the edge of the treeline. It was a half minute before I caught up to him, but when I did I saw what held him in place.

Fire was rising up out of the fort as small black shapes darted around the fort. A ball of fire emerged from one of the black shapes and slammed into a guard tower that burst into flames. The fort was under attack.

Post Chapter Author's Note: This chapter was a bit of struggle to write. For one part, second chapters are always difficult because it's hard to take the initial plot thread and begin to weave into a more cohesive thread of a story. Also it was hard to write about the very real problem of human sex trafficing in a way that didn't seem trite or simplistic, honestly I'm not sure I even succeeded in making it clear how much of an atrocious act it represents. I however can assure that I don't intend to make dark evil things such as that a key point of the story, but it's important for the protagonist to understand that there are known and unknown consequences for actions one takes. Either way thank you for reading, feedback is always appreciated as it helps me write. Chapters 3 and 4 should be out in relatively quick time and will begin to lay bare the main story arc.