Chapter 80: Land of River (3)
As we neared our mission objective after crossing the border, as porous as we had been told, Asuma dispatched Hinata and Shino to conduct reconnaissance on the farm. We had waited till nightfall before doing so since darkness would give us extra cover. Plus neither the Hyuuga's Byakuugan nor the Aburame's kikaichuu needed sunlight to illuminate their search.
Thankfully, our pessimistic prediction of possibly having to contend with Tanigakure shinobi were found to be proven false. Other than the farmer and his family members, one wife and three children, there were no one else in the immediate vicinity of the farm.
Our strategy was straightforward given the newly acquired information: strike fast and withdraw to the perimeter, making sure the crops were truly destroyed before we left the area. I volunteered to be the one lighting the cornfield on fire given my proficiency with katon ninjutsu – Asuma agreed.
He had commented that in a different situation where heavier restrictions on chakra-usage and discretion were imposed, the first-choice would not have been to use katon ninjutsu to accomplish the goal since traces of chakra could be picked up by investigators searching for the culprits. Instead, gasoline and matches would have done the job just as well. There was no need to waste chakra if it wasn't necessary.
This time, however, it wasn't that important to conserve chakra and stealth wasn't a big deal neither. Asuma would rather we strike fast and hard before quickly leaving to minimize the chances of triggering Murphy's Law.
Once I was given the go ahead, I went in. The corn fields were vast and expansive. Even under the cover of night, a sea of green and gold looked almost boundless, as if stretching infinitely over the horizon. It was a sea of green and gold that would soon turn into a sea of flames.
In order to cover such a large area, a single katon ninjutsu would not be sufficient. So in order to get it over and done with as fast as I could, I created two shadow clones and we spread out evenly to maximize the cover area. My CP that had been divided by three immediately started recovering, but was still enough to throw out a couple high rank, chakra intensive fire ninjutsu.
It wasn't necessary to completely torch every single inch of the corn field. The destructive nature of fire is its ability to spread by itself, igniting anything it could get a hold on that was flammable. We decided that something like a cornfield only needed half of its acres ignited and it would slowly finish the rest of the job.
When my clones and I got into place, as if connected by telepathy, we jumped and unleashed the same jutsu at the exact same time.
"Katon: Goryuka no jutsu!"
A large amount of chakra gathered into our chests, and thanks to the effects of [Fire Nature Transformation], the ease at which the chakra was transformed into a fire attribute was much faster than before I acquired the skill. Additionally, I could also now tweak the effects of the jutsu to suit my needs rather than following the execution of the technique to the letter.
For instance, the Goryuka technique, a B-rank Katon ninjutsu, originally shaped a dragon-head fireball that was more of a single target explosive attack. However, with my increased expertise in handling fire nature chakra, I altered its results by releasing the gathered fire as a stream instead.
As a result, liquid fire erupted out of my mouth like a fire hydrant expelling flames instead of water. Furthermore, I was still able to slightly manipulate the fire that was released to spread out over a wider area than the initial trajectory of the fire jet would have suggested. Again, it was due to [Fire Nature Transformation] skill that granted enhanced control over the handling of fire nature chakra.
Immediately, bright, and scorching flames swept the corn fields, illuminating the night with a horrendous sea of fire.
Months of hard work; planting, fertilizing, and caring for the crops was erased in a single instant. The fruits of the farmer's labour were turned to ashes by me, for no other purpose than the completion of a mission and quest.
I turned around and unleashed another hell storm of fire in another direction, lighting up even more crops in the corn field.
With two B-ranked fire jutsu, six in total counting the clones, I reduced just slightly more than half of the total acres of corn fields to ashes. Already, the fire was burning out of control, spreading faster than regular flames. Fire formed out of chakra burned hotter and spread faster than normal fire, and it would take a bigger effort to extinguish them as well.
Like a dam broken, there was no taking back the hell that I had unleashed unless a strong Suiton ninjutsu user was around to counteract the effects. This farm was finished.
I left as quickly as I had arrived, leaving behind me a torrential sea of fire that was quickly cascading to the previously robust harvest. From a distance, over the roaring of flames and hot wind, I could hear panicked cries of horror and alarm with my [Heightened Senses]. It seems the farmer and his family were now alerted.
It didn't matter, for there was nothing they could do now. The fire was already spreading out of control, and it would likely take herculean efforts just to contain the conflagration and prevent it from igniting areas outside the cornfields like their homestead.
What was being incinerated were not just the cornfields, but also the hopes, dreams, and livelihood of their entire family. Reduced to ashes in the span of a single night.
If one did not stop to think about the inevitable despair and anguish of the farmer's family once what was assured to be the worst night of their lives was over, the contrast of the intense incandescent blaze against the darkness of the night sky could almost be considered beautiful.
When I returned to my team, the sight of their grim faces marred by lightly wavering resolve and conviction greeted me. I wasn't sure what my face looked like right now, but if the hollow and weary feelings inside me was any indication, I probably didn't look much different from them.
It was not the fatigue of unleashing two B-ranked ninjutsu one after another while having my CP divided by three that wore me out. Rather, it was the notion that I had just erased the hopes and dreams of innocent civilians that drained me. Inexplicably, traces of guilt and remorse found their way into my heart.
The Gamer's Mind that usually stepped in to intercept such emotions was no where to be found. Perhaps such feelings were not debilitating enough for it to intervene, or maybe the system found it an appropriate punishment for my deeds. I couldn't tell nor did I care. Perhaps I did deserve it. It would be too easy, too convenient for me to be spared the confrontation by my conscience just because a skill prevented it.
Knowing that my family in my previous life probably did something similar but on an even larger scale was one thing, doing it myself was an entirely different matter.
Asuma's concerned gaze met my eyes, the question in his head going unasked. I nodded back with a grim resolve. This was the life of a shinobi - distasteful acts, unspeakable deeds and atrocious measures was our lived reality. The rose-tinted glasses I had been viewing my new life with had shattered, and what replaced it was a jaded realization of what it truly was that I asked for when I reincarnated here.
[Quest [Slash and Burn] Completed!]
Successfully complete the mission!
Set Hatanaka Farms crops on fire (√)
(Bonus) Burn the crops yourself (√)
Rewards:
+5000 EXP
(Bonus) New Title: Arsonist
[Arsonist]: +20% damage dealt when using fire-related skills.
I dismissed the notifications without paying much mind to the alert contents. I wasn't in the mood for that right now.
The fire in the cornfield was still flaring wildly when we left the farm; the radiant glow of the flames illuminating the night and casting light on our backs and our shadows on the ground now seeming more nightmarish than beautiful.
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"Fuck, that caravan had nothing valuable on them." Kenta cursed as he counted the spoils of their raid.
His partner, Miki, collected the kunai and shuriken they had used on their attack, pulling the embedded weapons out from the corpses they had struck.
Around them was an overturned carriage as well as several dead bodies on the ground.
"I told you there was not going to be anything worth taking. Merchants who can't even afford hiring shinobi guards are poorer than us." She replied while cleaning off the blood from a kunai on the clothes of a dead carriage driver.
"And I told you, dummy, that hitting a caravan with shinobi guards would just be suicide! Even if we do win, one of them might escape and our bounties will get increased." He shot back.
Miki glared at him, "Hey screw you!"
Kenta continued, "Right now, where we are, is the perfect sweet spot. Our bounty is high enough to deter weaker bounty hunters, but too low for the really strong ones to even bother. Robbing merchants who can only afford mercenaries lets us eliminate all witnesses. No one will find out it was us, missing-nin from Tani, that did it."
She stalked forward annoyed, "I know, I know! You've said that how many times already? You think I'm dumb!?"
He smirked, "Yeah you are so fucking stupid, it's tiring to even talk to you."
Miki narrowed her eyes and growled, getting up in his face. "The fuck did you just say to me?"
"You heard me. What're you gonna do about it, bitch."
She snarled before lunging forward and capturing Kenta's lips, furiously assaulting him with her tongue. After some moments of heated passion, she broke away from the make out session and leered sensually, "I love it when you talk dirty to me."
Her hands snaked underneath his shirt and up torso, while his gripped tightly on her bottom.
"Ooh looks like someone is in the mood. Seriously, you always get horny after killing people. It's becoming a problem." Kenta whispered, breathing out on her neck that sent a pleasurable tingle down her spine.
Miki sultrily smiled before reaching down and groping his noticeably growing bulge, "Yeah? You love it too though."
He chuckled, "Leaving Tani was the best decision we've made. That place was a dead-end, sad, useless dump of a hidden village. There wouldn't have been a future there for us. That fucking geezer had the audacity to demote me, an elite chuunin! How many chuunin do they think they have? Fuck that place. Out here we can do whatever we want-"
"And fuck wherever we want." Miki licked her lips and made to unbutton his pants.
"Damn, calm down Miki. Let's get out of here first before we get nasty." He grunted, obviously trying very hard to get his carnal impulses back under control.
She pouted, "Fine, fine. Get the loot and let's go. Quickly."
The urgency in her voice only served to arouse Kenta even further, but rationality took over as he gathered the ryo notes and what few valuables he could find.
Just as he was about to leave, however, the years of instincts built up over his career as a shinobi and more recently as a missing-nin kicked in. An alarming sense of self-preservation, almost like a sixth-sense, arose as Kenta injected a burst of chakra into his legs and used Body Flicker to move away.
Luckily for the missing-nin he did as the next thing he knew, a blade comprised solely of wind chakra carved into the dirt road he had been standing on.
"MIKI!" Kenta yelled out in warning, drawing his primary weapons – a pair of short scimitars, one black and one white.
A figure leaped out of the nearby shrubbery. Kenta's eyes widened as he took in their appearance. What caught his eye the most, however, was the forehead protector engraved with Konohagakure's symbol and the dark green flak jacket signifying the rank of chuunin or higher.
As Asuma leaped out from his hiding place, his hands were already in the midst of finishing his handseals. Ending on a tiger seal, the jounin yelled out, "Katon: Ash Pile Burning!"
A cloud of chakra-infused gunpowder and ash spewed out of his mouth, surrounding Kenta before Asuma flicked his lit cigarette into the cloud and igniting the smokescreen.
BOOM!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone