Inheritance

CHAPTER 22

The last man standing. The fear rolled off of him in ways, though his trembling was the thing that gave him away. His weapon abandoned, the coward had decided to try and hide himself behind one of the stone support pillars of the arena. Unacceptable. He stopped before the pillar, and channeled his own chakra through his weapon for the first time in the battle, and struck out horizontally again, slicing through the solid stone like it was nothing more than paper.

He frowned. The man had screamed in agony and stumbled forward, a hideous gaping wound on his back exposed through the tattered rags he wore. He was still alive, which meant he hadn't been good enough, efficient enough. He suppressed his annoyance as his master's chakra flared once again; the likely reason was the man's babbling to be spared from death, his voice harsh and croaky as he fought to maintain consciousness after such a horrific injury.

"Your pain... You brought on yourself you know. I try to be merciful, kind, even; by allowing you the swift death my master would refuse you. But you..."

He drove his sword through the shin of the man on the ground, eliciting another gargled scream of agony before the man passed out in shock, his own body saving him from the excruciating pain that wracked him.

"...You refuse it. But that's okay. Because of that, I shall reward you in the best way I know how."

His eyes widened slightly, concrete grey pupils set against a sheer black backdrop, eyes that appeared as dead as the many corpses he had left behind, as he felt his master approach from behind him. He had crossed the arena without him sensing any movement until he was directly behind him. A stark reminder that though his position was a privileged one, it was no less precarious than the position of the men he had just slain.

"M-May I take him? Please? I know you ordered that they should all die, but this one, I want him..."

A hand on his shoulder, that somehow lacked the reassurance such a gesture would normally provide. He heard the man chuckle, an ice cold noise that would send terror along the spine of any who were not allied to him.

"Of course, of course. In return for such a... splendid display, I will allow you to keep him. But before you take him away, I must inform you of your very first mission."

He span to face the man he called his master, true excitement colouring his dull grey features for the very first time that day.

"You have a mission for me? I'll do anything!"

The man grinned wickedly at the display of enthusiasm from one who was usually so devoid of emotion.

"I know you will, my student. Tell me, were you aware that my dear old village, Konoha, is hosting the Chunin exams this year? How would you like to enter?"

"Will there be blood to spill?" The man nodded, the smile on his features twisting into a morbidly cruel grin. "Those that I kill... Can I keep them?"

"But of course! What kind of master would I be to send their precious student to kill without providing some kind of... reward."

Four Days Since the Start of Sealing Training

Jiraiya looked over his student's handwork with the most scrutinizing eye he could manage, and yet, the Sannin couldn't pick out a single fault. The kid's Calligraphy was flawless, even to his trained eye. Kage Bunshin allowed Naruto to master muscle-memory related tasks with astounding speed, and on a purely technical level, Calligraphy was just that. The blond had nailed it to a level good enough level by the morning of the second day, and Jiraiya had decided to see how far the Kage Bunshin method could be pushed.

By the end of the third day, Naruto had had over 300 Kage Bunshin working on it for around twelve hours, he was struggling for chakra towards the end, but Jiraiya estimated that over the course of the three days, Naruto had probably put more hours into the art as most practitioners of Fuuinjutsu put in over a few years, considering most would really only practice maybe an hour or two a day.