Wanted (6)

At the south-west edge of the land of fire, there lied a moderately-sized village, named Mesamatsu. It was a peaceful village where the civilians lived their lives to the fullest.

However, recently, the huge-scaled war in the north drove the ronins to the south. With Konoha being unable to close off the vast borders of the land of fire, the southern section has now become a lawless zone.

Did the civilians' lives change? Yes, they did. They were forced to pay the 'protection' fees from the lawless ninjas, in order to ensure their 'safety.' Unfortunately, there wasn't anything that they were able to do, but to be thankful that they were still alive.

And it was no exception for the owner of the mask store, who had plans to raise the price of his products to mend for the huge expenditures.

"Hello, and welcome!" Today was the same as any other day, with him greeting two customers with a business smile on his face. With slanted eyes, he watched them as they walked past him without any reaction, with their attention on the masks showcased in the store.

'...A girl, with short brown hair and black-coloured eyes,' The mask store owner thought, 'Along with one cloaked person behind her. Are they ninjas as well?'

But he supposed that it was none of his concern. He was just a humble shop owner—someone whom even the weakest ninja can kill within seconds.

"Two masks!" The girl said as she placed two masks down on the counter. Each of them had the exquisite designs resembling that of a cat and a dog.

"That will be 2500 yen in total."

Upon hearing the shop owner's statement, the cloaked individual silently placed the money on the counter, before walking out. The girl, immediately grabbing the masks, followed him.

Strange, the shop owner thought, for there was no sound of footstep from the cloaked one. But he didn't pay much attention to that, for he had something better to do: the money in his hands.

"Thank you for the purchase! Come again next time—hm?" The shop owner, who was counting the money busily, noticed that the pay was more than what he called. Believing that those strangers may be testing him, he hurriedly walked out of his shop to give the refund...

—and stopped.

"W-what... is this...?"

Five dead corpses. The blood oozed out and spilled over the street. The corpses were all lacking heads. And most importantly, apart from the clothes, nothing else remained on top of them, indicating that the victor took all.

Thud. With a pale face, the shop owner fell on his butt. Gulping as he found himself sweating profusely, he hurriedly returned back into his shop, as if not having seen anything.

However, one question popped up within him, 'Just who are they?'

__________

Tired. Exhausted. I wanted to rest.

Day and night, one attack after the other. The war pushed off all the ronins to the south, and resulted in the bombardments of enemies, endlessly. Land of fire, sitting at the hub of the Elemental Nations, surely harboured many dangerous foes.

Although I found myself becoming more and more skilled as time went by, my mentality was withering. With a bare minimal sleep for a month, along with the heavy burden of needing to protect this civilian girl, Rika, I found myself driven to the edge.

Rika. 15-year-old. An average civilian girl with an attractive appearance. Though there was little information about her, I believed that she wasn't a threat to me. If she was, I would've already been dead.

She seemed to be a meek individual. I later heard from her, that the inn in which we stayed, was far above 300 ryo; she, without a doubt, was scammed by the innkeeper. Surviving by doing all sorts of grunt work posted at the hub of the Koahi town, she barely managed a day up to this point.

Sometimes, I wondered to myself, 'Should I just abandon her?'

A guilty thought it was.

'After all, I may simply be being paranoid. Would those headhunters really resort to torturing a girl—'

In the end, always the same result. The cruelty of this world is staggering, and I've come across many filths—not even deserving the title of a human—so far. And the reason why she got herself in this trouble in the first place, was due to saving me at my weakest. If I leave her for my peace, I would be lowering myself as one of them, and that's something that I would never succumb to—even at the cost of my life.

"Are you sure that this is necessary?" Rika asked warily as we walked across the empty street, with her hands holding onto the cat mask. Looking around, she whispered, "I already am wearing this... weird skin-mask-thingy, so shouldn't it be enough?"

This town named Mesamatsu wasn't the only town that we've come across during our month-long travel. To minimize the risk, I've not only bought ourselves these skin masks, granting us the facial features that didn't match our profile, but every time I found a chance, I had us change our garments frequently, to render the process of the enemies identifying us harder.

Although we still were discovered in the end, they bought us a slight amount of time—something that played a crucial role in my victories.

"There is no such thing as being 'excessive' in front of death," I said in a monotone, trying to hide my overwhelming fatigue, "And what matters is that I've killed five just before, with this 'face' on."

"Oh... I see." Rika seemed to have understood. Though she was weak physically, and she may be inexperienced, she wasn't an idiotic one. She, with a nod, placed the mask on her skin-mask-covered-face, accepting my point.

I, on the other hand, looked up at the blue sky, with exhaustion.

'My ideal of peace, my morals, along with my survival—am I asking for too much here?'

It was hard. I found my will wavering these days, that perhaps peace doesn't exist, and that this world is already doomed. Was I being too selfish, trying to preserve all I got? It is truly necessary to throw away one's morals for his or her survival?

...But I knew. This negativity was born out of my mental stress from being unable to sleep, and facing blood frequently. Thinking negatively makes me further tired from the stress, and accentuates my exhaustion. Therefore, 'focus on the present,' I had to tell myself.

'I have to hurry up.'

Lifting my hand up, and feeling the dog mask that I was wearing, I brought my mind together.

'Iwa and Konoha are on a head-on clash, with the latter at a disadvantage. Though I didn't manage to collect the necessary information, Kumo and Kiri can begin their action at any time.'

And if that were to happen, the entire land of fire may become a war zone, and all the scums within this land will be pushed off to this point—the border in touch with the land of rivers. Time wasn't on our side, and I planned to get us to Ame as quickly as possible.

"H-hey..." Then, from my side, Rika spoke up timidly. In response, I turned to her, ready to listen.

But instead of her words, the growling sound from her stomach was what I heard instead.

She looked down, obviously embarrassed. I chuckled, and shaking the fatigue off of me, replied softly.

"Let's get something to eat then."

"Which is?"

"Ramen."

Rika slumped in return, "...Again?"

In contrast to her demeanour, her footsteps followed me without any dissatisfaction.