NRaO Chapter 65 (Patreon)

Nawaki’s Point of View

We were all promoted to Jonin at some point. Since it was wartime it meant there were no tests, just surviving during the war was enough to count towards the higher rank. That meant we could break up and do our own thing but the five of us stuck together, we could accomplish more as a team than five other teams could.

It also gave us time to do our own things. It meant Fugaku and Hiami were still part of our team but were too busy to do this boring border guard mission we signed up for. Fugaku was officially the youngest clan head in history having forgone the process they wanted him to follow. They wanted him to marry a nine-year-old girl named Mikoto to solidify his strength but it was no longer necessary as Fugaku was the strongest Uchiha alive.

The marriage would still happen most likely as they had grown close in their courtship, but it would be at their own pace instead of the one the elders set for them to marry when Mikoto turned fourteen. He was busy with leading the clan and altering the way the police force worked with more of the Uchiha spread throughout the ranks instead of working separately from the non-Uchiha shinobi.

Hiami was off learning even more poisons from her new second master Granny Chiyo. She was already the most dangerous out of them but with her specializing in puppets and poisons she would grow to be the perfect assassin in the future. She had also started taking in and training her own Hyuga to be assassins in the future, but that was a job our sensei placed on her and she didn’t take it all that seriously.

Ninjas were already extremely good at assassinations but those focused on killing swiftly and silently were the most dangerous out of all ninjas. Even my grandfather, the strongest shinobi, had problems with assassination attempts, and his death was thought to be a slow-acting poison that turned his healing capability in on itself.

Without her here, leading was left up to me as Ami had grown up enough to not constantly fight for leadership. She had also advanced in her own pursuits. She started a business and although it wasn’t that profitable at the moment, all of its profits were rolled right back into the business which meant it was rapidly growing. She sold weapons but the main focus was on ninja tools and fuinjutsu creation.

She was normally too busy as well, which left most missions to Gin and me but she was testing a new trap, and placing them along the border would allow her to get real battlefield testing of her newest product. Gin had grown tall. He was younger than me but now passed me up in both size and height. He had focused almost solely on his sword skills while I had grown in other directions.

He was one of the strongest swordsmen on the planet now. Our sensei had gifted him the first perfected sword of the seven swords he stole from the mist. The newly improved executioner's blade was far more dangerous. It was one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever seen before. It had become almost unbreakable with a mix of new metals in the process of breaking it but that wasn’t the dangerous part of the weapon.

The blade was fed blood that allowed the wielder to manipulate blood to some degree. The weapon grew more and more dangerous the bloodier the battlefield became and Gin kept a few barrels of blood to get the weapon up to its full effectiveness quickly. It was normally unnecessary. He moved faster than most ninjas could see and by the time the enemy knew he was there, they were already missing their head.

That left me. I had grown the most well-rounded out of our group. I had plenty of contract beasts to call upon with me becoming a relay point for the students of the Hokage. I could summon a slug, toad, snake, monkey, and dog now which sounded like a lot… It was mostly for relaying messages between them. I gained usage of my wood style, but I would never be as skilled as my grandfather and it was mostly for vanity purposes.

I handed off most of my duties as the clan head to other members who didn’t drop their clan names and incorporated them into the village. There was still a decent-sized group of us in the village and it only expanded as more and more married into our clan. We were making our way back to becoming one of the largest clans in the village again.

The businesses I ran were more popular than Ami’s but soon she’d surpassed me and I left my businesses again to the people leading our clan. I was hands-off on most of my duties, delegating it to more talented people. It meant I was one of the few that was doing most of the missions assigned to us by the Hokage. I was growing close to him and I think he even saw me as his successor.

Having him as my second sensei… Wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. He had practically not taught me anything. No ninjutsu or actual fighting skills and had actively hampered my progress in those directions. He was fighting me at almost every front when it came to having my clan flourish. Many of our caravans were getting hit heading to and from the village and I knew it was another Konoha shinobi that was leaking the routes we’d take.

There was a brief scuffle at the border as a few dozen shinobi were spotted. Gin got to work cleaving them while Ami set off her trap killing one out of every five. I went on support as I grew roots that would trip the enemy while blocking kunai, shurikens, or paper tag bombs before they reached Gin. He quickly began wielding his blade with even more ruthlessness as the blood lengthened the blade and shot out as he swung as bloody ice spike projectiles.

Gin and I began chasing the stragglers as Ami looted the dead. Everyone I’d take down, Gin would kill three. Soon enough we only had three left alive and I ran ahead trying to kill the remaining myself. They had placed a trap down beforehand though. In one moment I was fine, the next a gigantic explosion overtook my body. I couldn’t believe it.

Meanwhile, back in Konoha, my original body got an update after my shadow clone was destroyed. I couldn’t help but grab my head and curse out loud. “Fuck! Oh no! I can’t believe this!” The meeting I was in with the Hokage was interrupted as they waited for me to explain why I was cursing. “My clone just died. They’re going to make fun of me forever because I died so stupidly!”