-----
-----
"Sharingan!?" Akio's pupils suddenly shrank. If it's the Sharingan from twelve years ago… then that means… Obito?
"Please, my lord, grant us death!"
"If you want to die, just go die. Why come to me for that?" Akio sat back down cross-legged. Since they weren't going to hurt him, he could finally relax.
"Without our lord's permission, we do not dare to die on our own."
"…Was the Inzoro clan always this strict?" Akio curled his lips. "You don't have to die. You're free now. Go do whatever you want. From now on, the Inzoro clan is gone."
The four of them looked at each other, then back at Akio. "My lord… you won't avenge the clan?"
"Avenge them? Let's not even talk about whether I want to." Akio smiled. "Even if I wanted to, I don't have the strength."
"We are willing to serve at your side, even unto death!"
"Serve at my side? What good would that do? The enemy took you all down instantly. I couldn't even beat you guys, let alone the ones who beat you." Akio shook his head.
"Since you arrived earlier, you probably heard me say it already: I just want a simple life, enough strength to protect myself. That's all. As for the Inzoro clan… let it vanish."Honestly, this clan shouldn't have even existed in ninja history anyway, Akio thought.
As for revenge… that hadn't even crossed his mind. He wasn't originally from this world. Even if this body was a descendant of the Inzoro clan, that had nothing to do with him.
"If our lord has given us our freedom… then we now have the right to take our own lives. We hope that one day you'll come to understand, and avenge the Inzoro clan! We will now die to atone for our failure!" one of them said. Without hesitation, he pulled a blade from his back and slit his own throat.
Thud…
All four bodies collapsed before Akio's eyes.
"Wha…" Akio was stunned. What the hell were they doing? Did their own lives mean nothing to them?
He stared blankly at the four corpses in front of him, and even the drink in his cup no longer tasted good.
Gulp.
Akio swallowed hard. This was, in a real sense, the first time he'd ever seen dead bodies. Naturally, he was a bit shaken.
After a long while, he created a shadow clone, and together they buried the four of them in the woods. While doing so, he also took some stuff off their bodies.
Scrolls, ninja blades, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, soldier pills, and some money—which wasn't really useful to him.
"If you guys had to die, you could've at least left one person behind to bury the others. This is just a pain in the ass." After piling the last bit of dirt and sticking the shovel in the ground, Akio sighed.
"This Inzoro clan… what kind of messed-up rules did they have? They couldn't even kill themselves without orders, and they didn't care about their lives at all. No wonder Inzoro Hen must've been a cold-blooded bastard. That guy's probably my great-grandfather or something."
"A transmigrator's descendant ends up giving birth to another transmigrator… If I said this out loud, people would think it's the biggest joke ever." Akio muttered to himself. By now, it was getting late, so he gathered the gear from the ground, washed up, and went to sleep.
Tomorrow was the team-sorting day at the Ninja Academy.
As for the four Inzoro members, their deaths didn't cause any stir in Konoha. They'd come and gone like shadows—quiet, invisible. No one but Akio even knew they were ever there.
The next day at school, the girls noticed Akio wasn't responding to them. He ignored them completely, which left them disappointed. Still, none of them said anything else to him.
"Today we get assigned into teams. I wonder who I'll be grouped with," Tenten said to Akio.
"Who would you want to be teamed up with, Akio?"
"Me? As long as they don't slow me down or cause trouble, I'm fine. But someone like you? No thanks." Akio smiled.
"What!? Are you saying I'd drag you down!?" Tenten slammed the desk and stood up, making the whole class look at her. She quickly sat back down, flustered.
"See? You're already causing trouble." Akio shrugged. Tenten stared at him, gritting her teeth, but said nothing more.
Soon, a stream of teachers came in to collect their students. In the end, a thick-browed, bowl-cut man walked in and took away Neji, Tenten, and Lee. After that, only Akio remained in the classroom…
Still, he wasn't in a rush. He couldn't imagine who'd be assigned to him. And since he was the only one in the class, whoever was coming had to be pretty special.
After a while, the door finally opened—and in walked a spiky-haired man with a pineapple-shaped head.
"What a pain… Can't believe I've been stuck with this brat," were the first words out of his mouth as he looked at Akio.
"Nara Shikaku…" Akio frowned. Of all people, it turned out to be him.
But then it made sense. Shikaku hated trouble, so taking on a full squad of three Genin would be out of the question. Even just one student was already too much for him.
"Didn't expect you, Shikaku-senpai, to be my team leader. What a surprise." Akio stood up from his seat and walked over.
"I didn't want to, honestly. But the Third insisted I take you. I didn't have a choice."It wasn't just because of the Third Hokage—it was also out of respect for his old comrade Minato.
"Well, then… Shikaku-sensei, I'll be in your care." Akio gave a small bow. After all, he should still show proper respect to his teacher.
"Since no one else is here, let's just chat here for now." Shikaku nodded and sat in the front row. Akio sat across from him, the two of them face to face.
"I've heard a bit about your situation. So, what's your dream?" Shikaku smiled.
"My dream? Just become a normal ninja, strong enough to protect myself. Find a sweet wife, raise an obedient kid, and live a peaceful, happy life as a family of three. That's pretty much it."
"Oh?" Shikaku blinked, then laughed. "Haha, that sounds a lot like Shikamaru!"
Shikamaru's dream was to become an average ninja, make a decent living, then marry a woman who wasn't too pretty or too ugly. Have two kids—the first a girl, the second a boy. Once the daughter got married and the son could take care of himself, he'd retire from ninja work.
After that, he'd spend his days playing shogi and go, enjoying a quiet life… and die before his wife so he wouldn't have to live through her nagging.
"....."