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Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_318

Takuma sat in Maruboshi's living room, gazing at the package that had arrived for him via the courier. Maruboshi was on an overnight wilderness trip, leaving him alone at the house.

Even though ANBU had given them seven days to a week to decide, the package arrived in three days. This could either mean they liked him enough to send him their response instantly or that he had no chance, so...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_317

The day after Takuma returned from the ANBU recruitment, he found himself visiting the Torture and Interrogation headquarters. While he was away, they sent an invitation to Maruboshi's house. How did they find he was living there? Oishi Yori, Taro's mom, asked her son who gave her Takuma's current location along with the fact that he was away at the moment.

"T&I is inter...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_316: ARC-09

The last team to return was the Five and Sixteen duo, who returned two hours before the deadline. From the conversation, all teams had completed their tasks, and while they didn't discuss specifics, they had been given similar tasks: robberies, sabotage, bounty, and assassinations.

The deadline passed, but there were no communications from the ANBU-nin until the early morning of th...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_315

Three woke up with a start and glanced at the running scenery around her.

"I am awake," she said from the princess carry in Takuma's arms, "you can put me down now."

Takuma didn't put her down and continued to run at full speed while following the standard procedure of throwing off a tail. Their opponent was a dangerous samurai who could kill them anytime he wanted; th...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_314

The forsaken factory brought up bad memories. The dust in the air, the smell of abandon and rust, even the way faint sounds echoed—everything reminded him of the factory base in Yu, where he had spent over two of the worst months of his life.

If it weren't for the task, Takuma would've left the building and the area the same moment he arrived. He tried to control his emotions, ma...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_313

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 he 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 ANBU wanted him to reap and claim with his partner. They ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_312

Yamanaka Amami scouted the estate in the cover of the night. The main building and one of the secondary buildings, which seemed to be the guard quarters, were well-lit—but the rest of the grounds were covered in darkness. As long as she stayed clear of a couple of lamp posts around the property, she could observe the main building as long as she was careful.

Ukuri was insi...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_311

A silence hung between Takuma and Three as they sat in their shared inn suite. It was their second inn due to their decision to switch places daily. They sat in comfortable chairs opposite each other around a circular table, but the set of four open scrolls given to them by the informant, along with the separate third task scroll, distracted them away from relaxing after a busy day of pl...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_310

When the local newspaper hit the streets in the early morning, the article about the robbery at the high-ranking samurai's house became the topic of discussion and chatter among the city populace. It wasn't something they hadn't seen before, but it was rare enough to be a once-a-year sighting.

It was expected to be talked about for a couple more days as more details about th...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_309

Sune Jakusho had been looking to the evening for the entire week. He had been making progress with the geisha, Yuri, and thought it would be another week before her futile resistance would crumble. He didn't mind her reluctance and defiance—in fact, he appreciated it—the prize was so much more enjoyable when the hunt was a real challenge.

He had visited her every week wi...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_308

The Zakahira estate was abuzz with commotion. The house of a high-ranking samurai was robbed in broad daylight. For that to happen in the Ember Imperial City was astounding, and the news was bound to spread throughout the city by the following day.

A man with long salt-and-pepper hair dressed in a black montsuki stood in the study and stared at the empty spot where the frame...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_307

The target's name was Sune Jakusho, a low-level samurai who was connected to a local yakuza-styled gang involved in extorting "protection fees" from businesses, duping elderly people with no relatives into signing over their wealth, and running a predatory loan shark business with absurd interests and a violent collection process.

Jakusho was a mid-level member invo...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_306

As far as first impressions were concerned, Takuma wasn't entirely pleased with his assigned partner.

"So how do you want to play this?" asked Three as the duo sat at a two-person table at a teashop. Both had their masks off and were dressed in civilian clothes; revealing their faces was deemed necessary if they would work together as a show of rudimentary respect and trust,...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_305

The ANBU were a bunch of assholes, Takuma decided when they didn't reveal duo pairing at the camp and declared they would only announce them when they reached the capital city. They were clearly trying to make it hard for the candidates by decreasing the time the duos would get to establish each other as teammates.

The group of ANBU-nin and candidates took breaks on their wa...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_304

The ANBU had set up a temporary camp to house the candidates. It was a bunch of tents around a campfire and was located near a small stream. After Takuma had passed through the woods, the ANBU-nin showed him the way to the camp. Instead of immediately going to the camp, he first went to the stream to clean up a day's worth of sweat and grime and wash his gear before making his presence k...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_303

Two candidates ran into each other on the fourth day as they left the fourth checkpoint at dawn.

Number #16, Yaya Utamatsu.

Number #5, Igabi Kyusu.

Both of them had their masks on and faced each other cautiously. They subtly put a distance between each other where they felt comfortable enough to react if the other launched an attack. They had seen i...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_302

ANBU-nin codenamed Leopard reclined on a patio chair on the log cabin deck outside the forest with a thin gauze-like cloth spread over her face because wearing her mask while she relaxed was a massive pain. Even though she was at work, it felt like a vacation because others handled the job, and all she had to do was 'supervise'.

"Ma'am."

Leopard di...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_301

A dirty wild boar sauntered out of the woods while looking around the flat meadow for any predators. When he decided the field was clear, he found a good patch of grass and put his nose down to get food in his belly. As he greedily ate the green, he felt something in his surroundings and snapped his head up while preparing to run if he saw one speck out of place.

The meadow,...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_300: (Sparta!?)

Three hours after the questionnaires were collected for evaluation, the candidates gathered in the hall on the ground floor. Takuma stood in the crowd, wearing the 'Scars' mask; he was surprised when he was instructed to wear it as he thought it was placed in the room only to mess with him—but everyone was now wearing a hard, front mask over their balaclavas.

"All of you m...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_299

"How are they doing?" Eisbar asked as he returned from his break. He was a fit middle-aged man of average height with light grey streaks all over his hair that well complemented his blacks, giving him a mature, charming salt-and-pepper look.

Six hours had gone by since they had locked the candidates in the rooms designed to make them uncomfortable. On top of that, they knew ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_298

At a location far from the office building with the candidates, a group of ANBU-nin and department staff used another building as their base. They preferred to be in the same location, but a Hyuga was participating in the assessment, and they didn't want to be seen by the Byakugan.

They were inside a spacious room with a large conference table in the centre and a wall lined ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_297

At six in the morning, Takuma and Maruboshi stood in front of the latter's house. Takuma was dressed in the standard Leaf shinobi gear with a slightly chunkier backpack with what he thought he would need during the two-week assessment. Seeing that they didn't know anything about the assessment, they built a survival kit that would at least keep him dry and fed.

"How are you ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_296

As the last hour of the gathering wound down, Takuma and Arisu sat shoulder to shoulder, feet kicked out, leaning against the wall, away from the tables. The mood of the gathering had long since settled down; some people had left, and the conversations had turned softer; some had even laid down on the tatami floors.

"I really wanted to spar with you," Arisu sighed with a hin...

Narut(o): The Outsider's Resolve: CH_295

"Do you like your life now or when you were back at the academy?"

Izumi considered the question from the boy sitting beside her. Even though she had sat beside him five minutes ago, they had only been part of the same conversation instead of actually talking with each other. She was just about to start thinking that he wasn't interested in talking to her.

"... I...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_294

The gathering continued, and Takuma changed tables in an attempt to preserve his social battery and found Taro on the least occupied table.

"Thank you for before. Things would've gotten awkward if you didn't speak up," said Takuma, grateful that Taro was the first to order when he offered to buy everyone a round of drinks, which allowed Hana to be comfortable about someone e...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_293

"Kameko was talking about the gold mine operation your base ran, and I asked a question about keeping track of your surroundings when there's such a sheer quantity of enemies and allies around you," asked Momoe.

It had been almost two years since she had seen Takuma after their impromptu spar session. He had always looked tired and haggard from their academy days, but it had...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_292

The vibe of the class gathering had turned awkward when Takuma left the building soon after coming in to talk with Kameko outside. Taro, who had arrived alongside him, sat down and ordered a large oolong tea.

He had caught the tail end of the conversation before it was shut down. Takuma hadn't mentioned anything about a jonin when he had talked to him and the trio about the ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_291

As the week drew to a close, the weekend arrived. On an early Saturday evening, Kameko found herself standing outside an izakaya nestled deep within the Entertainment District, away from the bustling main streets. The front door had a notice taped to it that said the place was reserved for the day for Inuzuka Hana's rank promotion celebration. Her academy class always booke...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_290

Beautiful.

That was what Maruboshi thought when he saw his student getting beat up. The skill shown by Uchiha Mikoto was exquisite; every move looked elegant and effortless, but all of it was planned down to the very minute details. He expected it from a jonin, especially a Uchiha, to possess such skill, but that didn't take away from the fact that it was a delight ...

Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_289

Takuma didn't rush in, nor did he pause to relax. Almost getting a hit in was nothing special when Mikoto was playing around with one hand on top of restraining her to his level. Unlike spars with Maruboshi, which were essentially "simulations" where he allowed Takuma to test out moves and tactics freely and purposefully left openings to see if Takuma would notice and correctly ...