Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve

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The link is also in the synopsis

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Agando Morosumu, a.k.a Four, felt a bead of sweat slip down his face. He sat in a restaurant with food before him, but had no appetite because he was in the middle of a task, and his target was aware of his presence.

Two tables down, he could feel three men glancing at him. One of them had a bounty target on his head that the ANBU wanted him to reap and claim with his partner. They had been following their target since the morning he had left his house, and somewhere along the line, he noticed.

Speaking of his partner, Ten was sitting opposite him, eating three men's worth of food without a care in the world, as though he had come to the restaurant to eat and not because their target entered it.

"Is this really okay?" he asked with a gulp.

The muscled man with a glorious afro raised a finger, gesturing to him to wait a moment as he finished chewing his food.

"You sure are one worrisome fellow, Four. Like I've been saying, it's fine," he stretched his words. "And look at that; you haven't touched your food. You better hurry up and eat before they leave."

"They're suspicious, Ten," Four whispered.

"I know, and it works well for us," said Ten as he munched on a leg piece.

"What if he decides to hide to avoid us? It's the last day; we will be screwed!" said Four.

Their other two tasks had gone exceptionally well; they had sabotaged some machinery in a samurai-guarded factory as their first task, and then they had kidnapped a man and delivered him to a designated place where a woman asked them to wait for an hour—after which, she came out with one of his kidneys that they delivered to a sprawling mansion.

Four closed his eyes and covered his face at the memory. He didn't know the man, but had done something terrible to him. He tried to console himself that perhaps the man had consented to donate his kidney—but that excuse was shot down internally almost immediately—if the man had consented, why would he need to be kidnapped?

Since yesterday, the thought he had done something terrible to an innocent man would not leave him be. To make things worse, they had picked him up near his house, so they knew he had a family—two energetic boys and a loving wife.

Four glanced at Ten, who had been extremely pissed when he realised what he was part of. Despite his tall, muscular stature and intense features, Ten had a friendly face and gave out a relaxed vibe—but the moment they found out why they had kidnapped the man, he went deathly silent and looked like he was ready to kill.

Four was worried that he would do something reckless, but Ten opted to finish the task before returning to the woman who had removed the man's kidney. She told them that she had returned the man to his house—which they confirmed to be true. The man was alive and back with his family.

It was the only silver lining of the whole ordeal.

Ten was back to normal in the morning, but Four could tell he didn't want to discuss it.

"We will automatically fail our task," Four stressed.

"Well, you're not wrong. If he shakes us off, they might go into hiding," said Ten, freaking him out.

"Then—!"

"But these guys aren't going to do that."

"What makes you so sure?"

"They would've already made a run for it," said Ten as he ate. "This is the type that believes in solving the problem instead of running away from it. I'm as sure as I can be that they're planning to confront and kill us."

"Fuck that," said Four, rolling his eyes. He wasn't going to die on a recruitment test. He was more concerned with failing the recruitment.

"Killing us would give them time to decide what they want to do next. You saw that house, it was prime real estate; no one would abandon a place like that. Moreover, killing us will send a signal to others that it's dangerous to go after them. And in case they do want to change their base, killing us gives them time to set their affairs in order."

"So why haven't they done anything yet?"

"The same reason we haven't done anything yet.." Ten's eyes wandered for a moment. "I think they're done with their prep, though... get ready for action, Four."

The three men, their target among them, walked past their table. Neither side glanced at the other despite being acutely aware of what they had come to do.

"See? You should've eaten when you had the chance. Let's go now. It's time for action," Ten got up and patted him on his shoulder.

Four looked at his untouched plate and sighed as he left the table and followed Ten. They followed the three men through the city for an hour, taking them to the city's edge. Their surroundings turned to an underdeveloped outskirt with farmland and dull factories in the distance with no people in sight.

It was the perfect place to fight and kill without gaining attention.

"Nice going! This place is perfect," Ten addressed the three men.

Four had his lips pressed into a line because they were at a numbers disadvantage with two against three. Even though they only had a single target, they had to face three men. The Fugazo Triplets were a mercenary trio trained in shinobi arts who hadn't been part of any shinobi village—having learned their craft from ex-shinobi.

They operated mostly in the Land of Wind but had moved to the Land of Fire after they caught too much heat from the Hidden Sand and the Wind Daimyo's samurai. Their bounty's sponsor was hidden, but the information from ANBU claimed that it was the Wind samurai.

Making only one of them a target felt like ANBU jerking them around.

"Which one of you is Fugazo Ren?" Ten asked straightforwardly.

The three men were identical to the point where they felt like clones rather than triplets. The only defining feature was their gear, which, while also identical, had some quirks, but that didn't help them identify which one of the triplets was their target.

Which meant they had to kill all three to be sure they had their target.

Or we could kill one and claim him to be our target, thought Four, but Ten filed the idea as a last option, opting to kill the right target before resorting to what he deemed as a last-ditch effort.

As expected, the triplets didn't respond. They were known to take all of their jobs together and were considered a package deal—marking one of the triplets was the same as going after all three.

"We only want Fugazo Ren," said Four, giving it a try. "The other two are free to leave."

In response, the triplets took out identical twin axes strapped to their backs.

"Shit," Four cursed as he took out a kunai, and it felt inadequate. His main weapon was a machete, but the ANBU had taken away all of his gear before the recruitment test started.

We should've planned an ambush or just blew their home up, Four thought.

Ten raised his massive hand and slapped Four's back.

"Don't be nervous, Four. My aunt says I'm not a guy with a great head on my shoulders, and she's not wrong. I'm not suited for smart stuff like iryojutsu or fuinjutsu, nor do I have the imagination for genjutsu… but when it comes to fighting, I'm really good at it, so don't worry so much—"

Ten disappeared with a strong gust of wind, startling Four—and the triplets too because when he reappeared, he was standing behind them.

He was so fast that no one could keep track of him.

The triplets moved in unison, surrounding Ten as they swung their axes at him with identical movements and tempo.

"—I'll make quick work of this miserable lot and we can move on, 'kay?" Ten smiled as siblings approached him.

———

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Amami explored the abandoned ruins of a factory that would be used as the meeting point for the exchange. The building looked like it hadn't been used in years, and the surrounding area was similarly empty and abandoned.

The perfect location for an illicit deal.

She heard footsteps and turned back to see Thirteen pacing about. Usually, he would go on about the plan and details, but he had been silent since they had reached the factory. There was no change in his expression, but she could tell that something about the location made him uncomfortable.

"Found anything?" she asked.

"Nothing at all," he replied in a slightly quieter voice that echoed. "This place is big, but there's only one unobstructed entrance, so we can assume they will be near the entrance, but..."

"A trap would be too unreliable," she sighed.

Thirteen nodded.

The building was too long and wide for them to set up a reliable trap with limited provisions. Even if they stuck explosive tags on the ceiling and chained them up with steel wire to run chakra through to trigger the tags, there was no telling that they would be near the entrance and not somewhere else.

"It's better to just chuck the tags at them," he said.

"Agreed."

Seeing that the goods to be traded were explosive tags, shinobi were sure to be present among the two parties. They were sure to be outnumbered and thus had to rely on traps to gain an advantage.

A silence hung between them the moment the topic ended. The vibe from Thirteen seemed like he didn't want to be there, which made Amami curious, but she had no way to ask what he was thinking. She could be shameless and ask but didn't think he would answer.

"You have the bounty token, right?" she asked.

"I have it," Thirteen showed her a familiar metal token with a blue lip.

Amami had been to a bounty office a couple of times, and from what she knew about others, all bounty offices used the exact same tokens. "Give it to me; I'll keep it safe. That's going to be the proof we will have to show," she said, moving forward to take the token.

If the task had just been an assassination, the token wouldn't have mattered, but the task included claiming the bounty, which made the token important as proof that they had completed the task.

Thirteen pulled his hand back and put the token into one of his zipper pouches. "It's safe with me; don't worry about it," he said.

Amami thought about it for a moment before letting it go. "Alright, but don't lose it. It would be terrible if my performance suffers because you lost the token," she said. Thirteen had proven himself capable enough that she could trust him with the token.

"Don't worry." Thirteen nodded. "As for your performance, you're my teammate right now. I wouldn't let anyone on my team suffer. Either we both make it, or I go down with you—and because failing isn't an option, we'll both pass."

"Oh my, are you finally warming up to me, my dear Thirteen?" Amami joked with a sly grin. "I will give it seven points. It would've been nine if you said you would ensure I pass even if it meant failing yourself."

Thirteen rolled his eyes at her and walked away.

Amami giggled behind her hand.

What Thirteen said was true. They were teammates, so taking care of each other was par for the course and she wasn't the one to answer good with evil. As long as someone treated her well, she would return the favour.

———

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There was a knock on the door to a large office that looked like it belonged to someone in a high-ranking position.

"Come in."

A young man stepped in with an urgent look. "Sir, we just got time-sensitive information. The rumoured weapon deal involving the Bedrock group was just confirmed. The deal is happening in the city right now! We might have a chance to catch them if we hurry!"

"Is the source reliable?"

"We have no confirmation, but the source has been reliable thus far."

"...Very well, alert the team. We move out in ten minutes," said Zakahira Nozan as he stood up from the desk in his workspace office. His house had been robbed, but he had no leads on who the robbers were—and that bothered him to no end.

"You're coming along, sir?"

"Yes, I'm feeling very frustrated; this might be the perfect opportunity to blow off some steam..."

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The link is in the synopsis!