[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Well, when put so bluntly, it was honestly a little embarrassing that he did not know "shit" as she so eloquently put it.

It wasn't like Sho hadn't picked up a few running themes in the tasks that he had been given - assaulting the compound, training under Mister Hayato, and now under this girl. The first was a test of tactical fortitude and skill at infiltration, the second was more like a field assessment, especially the part where he had critiqued his armour and its usefulness in the field, but this last one? This had seemed different, somehow. It was far less tactical, far less strategic, and far, far more messy.

Whilst he had to admit that she was indeed a pretty strong opponent, one that were she not holding back he might genuinely have some trouble with, but this entire fight seemed sloppy. Messy, chaotic - it was like comparing excising tumors with a scalpel to shoving someone's arm into a blender.

But then when she asked what he was being groomed for... Shosuke cocked an eyebrow. The very way that was phrased...

Well, ignoring the potentially uncomfortable phrasing of a woman in her 30s "grooming" a teenager, the idea that this was for some special position and not simply just making sure he was up to par? It was a relief. It wasn't just that he was a failure or lacking in some department but that she had seen some potential in him for something that made him feel a lot more relieved.

Though, now that she mentioned it? Was this somehow ANBU related? It would explain why Hayato was so obsessed with his armour being too bulky and noisy. Now that he thought about it, the idea that he hadn't paired that together already seemed a little ridiculous.

"She wants you to teach me how to be ruthless?" Sho asked, repeating her own words back to her. "Somehow that seems hard to believe - Our hachidaime has many flaws; she's a heavy sleeper, she's overly quick to forgive, and she's definitely an alcoholic, but she doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would encourage someone to be... ruthless."

It was true that being a shinobi would sometimes come with duties others would consider unpleasant. Sometimes, deaths couldn't be avoided and some people had to be excised for the good of the whole. Even he hadn't managed to get out of his career so far completely bloodless. The tale of the Inter-village System was one decorated with gore and trauma. But there was a difference between being able to pull the trigger and being ruthless.

Ruthlessness wasn't just being willing to pull the trigger, it was pulling the trigger without consideration for its necessity. It was shooting first and answering questions later. Something which, from what he had seen from Ume, seemed accurate to her character. But to Kizumi's? Hard to believe.

"Well, either way - so are you going to teach me to be ruthless then? What, are you going to have me torture a prisoner, or endure pain, or something? Cos all I've done so far is punch you, that's not exactly all that different from Ops Team level stuff. And I've certainly not lost my mind."

540 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 8/9
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

Still standing just below him, Ume laces her fingers behind her and rocks on the balls of her feet to the heels as he maps out his thoughts to her. Quite frankly, she didn't care if he knew or not, she couldn't be urged to care any less about his feelings or rationalizations on the matter. All she cared about was doing her job, and adding numbers to the ranks of their secret services. Of course she's not ruthless - that's what Ume's for! Not that it was asked of her in so many words...

"Cos all I've done so far is punch you-..."

Ume tuts, interjecting over the last of what he says. "Tried to punch me."

She walks backwards away from him, arms outstretching completely innocently, as if showing him she has nothing to hide - never did, never will. She doesn't put a lot of distance between them; just enough to have to raise her voice a smidgen. "Give it time - y'just met me! Know me long enough, I'll drive you insane~" Clicking her tongue, Ume drops her arms, bringing one hand to poke at her chin. "Did you think today was about teaching you anything?" A laugh, a wild gesture. "Baby boy! Today was all about getting to know each other. So, yeah, you can say that - maybe we'll start with a little assassination, or- ooh! Yeah, torture might be good, see how you hold a knife to someone's throat without knowing the reason. You pick. Assassination or torture first?"

Ume lets out an unabashed, unhinged laugh that rolls off the distant mountains. It's uncertain whether she's serious or not, and she does not elaborate.

---

Yamamoto Shosuke - 277WC

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

As Ume attempted to correct him on whether or not he had successfully struck her, Sho simply gestured down to the girl's leg where open cuts from the vines' thorns were still very present, slowly dribbling blood. Whether or not she'd managed to get out of it, he had still done enough to do actual damage to her.

Though, he supposed, he had to admit that that was only through being able to outfox her. She was certainly fast enough to avoid any sort of melee strike, something that meant anyone who wasn't at the very least a competent shinobi would be shit out of luck fighting her. So, this was the level of competence expected by ANBU, was it?

Whatever the case, Sho shrugged as he mentioned that she was liable to drive him insane. Somehow he doubted that - if responding to the plague's lingering side-effects firsthand hadn't done that, he doubted that a single girl was going to be able to do that. Even still, there was definitely something about her that made it seem like she was being serious.

"I had rather noticed that nothing conducive was being taught..." Sho admitted, but the more that he thought about it, that only made sense. He hadn't learned to be a doctor in a day, learning to be a shinobi at all had taken years back in the academy, of course Black Ops training wouldn't be quick. Now that he knew what he was actually working towards, everything else seemed to make a sort of retroactive level of sense.

"Forget what I said about not seeming bloodthirsty eariler, there's definitely something wrong with you..." Sho murmured, shaking his head slowly. Even so, Sho sighed, considering his options only for a brief moment before saying. "Well, its not like I'm exactly innocent either way... I guess let's go learn how to assassinate?"

[END THREAD]

310 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 9/9
Jutsus Used: None