Naofumi of the Sharingan

Chapter 17 - The Nue and the Magic Gemstone

I LIVE!

Kinda...

Not really at this point...

I have a presentation in a day and a bit but I couldn't focus on my work. I've been seriously thinking about a change in career paths lately and I've been going through a lot. The only thing that brings me any joy at this point is writing, but I'm trying not to in order to get my work done.

Today I snapped.

This has been sitting half finished for the better part of a month now. Forgive me if this is crap but I needed to write something and get it out there to the world. Anyway, read at your pleasure. If you need me, I'll be desperately trying to do my uni work.

And probably failing at it too.

———

Naofumi hated what he had to do. He took no pleasure in the act of killing, but he couldn't help but feel satisfied that he saved his precious genin once more. They hadn't spoken much over the week they had been with the jewel merchant, since they were still coming to grips with what happened, but it was to be expected. They were braver than Naofumi, who holed himself up in his room for weeks before his future teammate finally had enough and dragged him out of bed and into the streets.

He would never be able to repay her, even if she was still alive.

But he had killed again, for their sake. He knew bandits and thieves well enough to know just how petty they could be, especially when they were in a blind rage. It was foolish to leave angry and vengeful thieves alone, lest you wish to be killed in your sleep. His instincts and previous experiences had proved himself right, and now the bandits were taken care of.

For good.

His genin were, understandably, still shaken up by The Rite. There were night terrors, days of almost next to no food, and a lot of crying. Rifana had taken it the worst, being physically sick on an almost hourly basis, sometime with vomit, others with tears, which left her little to no energy to do anything, so she had mainly stayed in the cart whilst Naofumi held up her, Raphtalia's and some of Keel's share of the work.

Keel didn't even want to think about what she had done, and had tried to keep herself busy in a number of ways, by cooking, cleaning or training. She couldn't hold a kunai, having heavy flashbacks to the time she wanted to forget, so instead worked on her chakra control and opening only the first of the Eight Gates, the Gate of Opening. Naofumi was certain that once she had that down, she'd come to him for training in another jutsu.

Naofumi sighed, before deciding that he needed to call it a night on his studies, and went off with the jewel merchant for some dinner. He apparently had a few friends in town that he wanted to introduce to Naofumi.

———

When Naofumi came back into his room, he had a full stomach and a heavy head. He had a thumping headache, having been hit on the back of the head by one of the hostesses by mistake after dropping her tray. No amount of apologies or free food was going to make him feel any better come the morning after.

But his head was heavily filled with the recent knowledge he gained (or lacked) on the other three heroes. Motoyasu had seemed into taking care of humanitarian acts and had provided a new type of crop for a famine stricken village, which was a very kind thing to do. Naofumi did suspect that Myne had a roll to play in that, but it fed people, so he'd leave it alone for now.

Ren, on the other hand, had taken to searching for powerful monsters to kill, having recently slayed a dragon. Naofumi knew that dragons were no joke after his run in with the dragon in the territory or Rabier that was released by Idol, so he was incredible impressed at what Ren could accomplish.