25 [25] Battle

Chapter 25: Battle

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A week later…

The day had finally come… War… something Akio deeply lamented. Its presence had been looming in his head since the day he came.

Just the other day, Orochimaru told him to prepare heavily before they set off. So, he was currently at a store buying all the stuff he could.

"What can I do for you Akio," the cashier behind the till smiled and asked.

Akio glanced at the display of weaponry behind him. "I want a stack of shuriken, kunai, paper bombs and food pills. By any chance do you guys have storage scrolls?"

The cashier gave a weird look to this request but disappeared when he thought about something.

"Yes we do, but they're rather… expensive," he replied.

Akio just nodded. "It doesn't matter, get me two of those."

Akio took out a wad of cash and put it on the counter; the cashier was not surprised at this. Akio was a repetitive customer here and knew about his financial situation… or rather inheritance.

Also, Akio's been trying to add this amount of money, finding different ways and planning a lot. He needed a way to increase his money quickly and efficiently. There was a saying… you need money to make money. Akio had a lot of money.

He was thinking of using this ability, to make a global worldwide book, from his previous life and earn a bit of dough. There were also thoughts of opening up some sort of fancy modern-day restaurant, that will monopolise all the others.

After Akio bought all the tools and everything, he headed back to the lab where his row of poison-coated kunai and shuriken lay.

Carefully, he put the poisoned weapons all into one storage scroll and the clean ones into the other. His traps and wires were also put into the clean weapon storage scroll.

The food pills he bought and other things in bulk were put into a third storage scroll. A bunch of medical stuff for first aid was also put in here.

Now he had all his basic necessities: paper bombs, kunai, shuriken, food, water, first aid and his vials.

After all these things were done, he packed it all up and decided to head home — where he went to sleep at the earliest he could — to be fresh in the morning.

However, it was quite hard to get some sleep when you were going to the battlefield tomorrow… But there was no option: a lack of sleep meant low performance.

A place where you could get easily killed for being tired. Akio could never imagine not going to sleep.

There was one thing he was confident of though…

He was ready now… more than ready.

—---

The early risers chirped; the morning sunbeams peaked through his curtains, causing a rosy hue in Akio's eyes. It signalled a new day.

With brisk eyes, he looked at his alarm clock as he yawned, stretching his arms.

'7 am. She said to meet at 10. I've got about 3 hours…'

The first thing he did was go downstairs and do his daily routine of eating breakfast. Akio never skipped out on this — rather he didn't. It was like a diet of some sort.

After a healthy and hearty breakfast, he decided to go for a quick run and come back. Then, do some light stretches before heading to the bathroom.

Now, he sat on the bed crossed-leg with his eyes closed. Meditating was a daily ritual for him. It cleared his mind, and thoughts and put him in a state of peace — something he can enjoy.

After an hour passed, he opened his eyes and looked at the clock which struck 9:30 — it was time to head out

Akio carried all the things from yesterday. It didn't feel like much due to the storage scroll, it was fascinating how it worked for him. This was the work of fuinjutsu — sealing arts — something Kushina is proficient in. He wanted to dabble in this later if he could. Akio could tell its usefulness from afar.

"So you guys are finally here," Orochimaru said in a serious tone.

All three of them glanced back at their mentor as he said another couple of words.

"We will be heading to the camp and for that, we need to pass various enemy territories. So always be on alert, whether that be now or later," he added.

The trio's eyes looked at him with stern gazes, taking in his words seriously. Their hours of teamwork building and missions were all for this moment.

Akio looked at the two teammates and was quite pleased that he had these two. Any other people in his class and there'd be too much of an imbalance in strength. Although he was stronger than both of them, it wasn't to a high extent.

Plus they both had something which he didn't. Like Tsume — she was good at closer quarter ranges.

Arise — he was good from mid-range and close range. They made up for certain weaknesses. But time was needed for him to cover this up.

Yes, team strength was good for now but later… Akio needed individual strength. This was what mattered in the end. Relying on someone was not his style, he could die due to his own incompetence.

So just like they did in training, the trio walked in the basic triangle formation… Akio was at the back, Arise at the front, on the right and Tsume level on the left.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru walked at his own pace to their side, happy with what they were doing.

Soon, the terrain changed from normal ground to now a forest — walking past numerous trees which surrounded them. It switched on a certain paranoia in them, thinking of enemies around every corner. Akio was cautious of them all, always ready to strike.

"Good, this is how it should be. Walk around like you're expecting enemy's from every corner. There's no harm in being too careful," Orochimaru explained.

And soon enough… they realised the importance of this statement.

As they carried on walking, Orochimaru's expression slightly changed. His eyes wandered around a nearby tree and smirked, looking back at his students.

A few minutes passed and Akio's brows furrowed. He looked straight at Orochimaru, who looked back at him deeply… Akio nodded.

Tsume also rapidly sniffed and kept making movements with her eyes, turning her head around constantly. Even her ninken sniffed a few times...This confirmed Akio's suspicion…

There were enemies…

In their conclusion, they still acted as if everything was normal. Tsume stopped sniffing and walked normally with her team after exchanging some meaningful glances.

Just moments later, the bushes rattled and Tsume's ninken barked.

At the same time, three teenagers, wearing sand village headbands, jumped out. Knowing this surprise attack was coming, they all backed out a kunai and clashed with there's… all three fending each of them off.

The suna shinobi had a frustrated look, seeing that their ambush didn't work. They looked at the pale-looking man just standing there with his arms folded doing nothing, raising a brow in each of their faces.

Although, this didn't last for too long as a choking sound came to their left. To their horror, one of their teammates' throats had been ripped open, showing its bone sticking out as he gurgled over his own blood.

"One down, two to go. Good work Tsume," Orochimaru praised.

Akio was now standing a few metres away from his attack after a clash of kunai…

Just as the opponent was about to attack, the Suna shinobi suddenly lost his balance and tripped… he was confused…

His kunai was laced with poison…

The opponent's face was gradually getting paler and paler. His voice yelling in agony as lay on the floor… Akio just watched all this with a cold look, not feeling any sympathy.

It was kill or be killed…

The shinobi's state was straight horror. His mouth was gurgling foam and a vein on the side of his head had popped. It was extreme agony. He died choking on his own foam.

Arise had also quickly finished off his enemy after a quick tussle.

All of them came together; the corpses of the three shinobi still laying there, lifeless.

Orochimaru looked at all this and had a content expression as he clapped.

"So, this was your first battle as a team. Get used to this and keep your guard up always," Orochimaru explained.

Everyone just nodded, a bit ecstatic at their first battle but also afraid. Afraid of what was to come, now that they had experienced it in reality…

This time, Akio never felt as disoriented after a kill like his first time. Instead, he felt relief… relief that he had survived and actually won. He looked back at the dead corpse he had just killed and felt absolutely nothing for him.

As they carried on in their journey to the camp, Akio revised through the battle in his head and saw the few flaws and mistakes he had made…

Next time, he aimed to cut down on these and be more efficient.

This was the cheat of such an ability and its most important use. He could figure out his mistakes and not make them again.

He couldn't make the same mistake twice…