Naruto: The Blind Swordsman

Chapter 18: Trust, Organization and Techniques

_________ POV Narration_________

Three weeks.

That was all it took for Tosho to completely respect his new master/teacher, who he now knew was named Ken.

Tosho felt odd about addressing a child with such titles at first. But one thing became clear after a while... Ken certainly had the skill to be called those things.

He also had the temperament and mentality of a teacher. If he didn't know any better, he would've thought Ken was actually a lot older than him.

But he could tell Ken's age rather easily, especially after spending so much time with him.

The biggest indicators came in when Ken was relaxed... Which was only whenever he took a 3-4 hour nap.

Tosho somehow could tell that Ken was still alert even then, but when his body was relaxed, he looked about as normal as a child could be... Well, without the red armour, mask and swords.

Ken's voice was still somewhat hoarse, but the hint of youthfulness in it was a lot more pronounced now that he had a bit more practice with social interactions.

The Masked Child also didn't bother to change his tone or even hide it in any way. He simply couldn't care less.

Tosho actually learned that Ken was actually using his age as a weapon against others...

"People will drop their guard more when they see their opponent as a child, even when child soldiers are common.

Since everyone was once a child soldier, adults tend to have more confidence as they also tend to think they have more experience..."

Tosho sweated a bit when hearing that explanation...

'Well... They do have more experience?'

Normally, adult Shinobi had a lot more practice and experience than any academy child. Tosho could somehow tell that this wasn't the case with Ken.

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Maybe it was a gut feeling? Maybe it was somehow related to the fact that Ken had decapitated a bear and sheathed his blade in the blink of an eye.

Regardless, at that point, Tosho was well aware that sticking around with Ken was for his own benefit.

In those three weeks, Ken had trained him daily. And at that point, he was a lot more proficient at dodging hits while in the dark... Although he still got hit often.

Tosho was satisfied though, as he had made a lot of progress in an extremely short time. His reflexes also got sharpened quite a bit.

He had lashed out to Ken at some point early into their training. As he found it particularly harsh and he couldn't quite see how it helped him at the time.

Ken didn't even answer him, he simply swung his sheathed sword towards him, and out of reflex, Tosho actually blocked it, his eyes widening but as his body had almost reacted instinctively.

"Even if your mind has some catching up to do, your body has already learnt a lot..."

That moment had somewhat humbled Tosho once again. As he decided to stop questioning Ken altogether.

Then he learnt about Ken's condition... He found out in a strange way, as Ken simply took off his mask to eat some meat.

Usually, Ken would've just moved it slightly to the side, and eaten like that, but now he decided to take it off completely.

This had most likely because he had gotten a bit more comfortable around Tosho, who was basically his student at that point.

That was the first time Tosho had gotten a good look at his teacher's face... It was a bit stomach-churning. It certainly wasn't what he had been expecting.

So a conversation started.

"H-have you always been like that?" Tosho asked while scratching the back of his head, unsure if Ken's condition was a taboo subject or not.

Surprisingly for him, Ken didn't seem bothered by that question.

"Since I was born... I guess I was just unlucky in this aspect. Though, my luck manifested in different ways..." Ken couldn't deny the fact that he was lucky.

He was lucky to have been born with a special body, even if blind. He was lucky to have been rescued and raised by his real family, the samurai.

He was only alive thanks to that luck of his. Otherwise, he would've died not long after his birth...

"I-I see... I mean- I understand..." Tosho seemed to be somewhat unsure of what words to use, which made Ken chuckle a bit.

"Don't bother mincing words with me, recruit..." His voice sounded serious for one moment, sending a shiver up Tosho's spine as he muttered back.

"Y-yes, sir! Sorr-"

"I'll be honest with you..." Ken continued to speak, making Tosho stop his unneeded apologies.

"You are the first of many... You are to be a leading figure for the group that I plan to build in the future, a teacher and a mentor..."

Tosho's eyes widened when he heard that, he immediately felt flattered at being given that opportunity. He still considered himself a washed-up Genin after all... 

"T-Thank you! I will do my best to meet your expectations!" He kneeled before Ken this time, showing his loyalty as well as his desire to grow stronger.

"... No need for that. Needless posturing won't get you far." Ken's words caused Tosho to awkwardly get up, but he still appreciated that Ken didn't ask him to lower himself.

"The organisation will be my eyes, my ears, my nose... And my sword if I so desire..." Ken said as he leaned on the long blade he carried with him.

"I understand... Do you plan to compete with the hidden villages?" Tosho still wanted to know more, since he was meant to be a leading figure, he needed to at least know the forces they'd be facing in the future.

"I've no gripe with the villages... We will mainly collect bounties from the Bingo Book, which will be our main source of income..."

Tosho nodded when hearing that, somewhat glad that they weren't going to be gunning after the hidden villages.

No organisation made in a few years could take down a hidden village after all... They had too much power in the form of unique bloodlines and decades of experience.

Tosho didn't even want to think about the number of soldiers the villages had...

Thousands died constantly in their wars, yet they seemed to be able to throw more and more Shinobi on the front lines as they competed with one another.

The Hidden Villages were a frightful existence, and that was just what Tosho knew on the surface...

Ken didn't bother explaining more than that, and the two of them continued to train.

This time, Tosho also took his duty more seriously, and eventually, Ken finally felt that he could be trusted enough to help him with reading the techniques...

Tosho was elated to be trusted with such an important duty.

'I am still in training, yet I am already tasked to be the eyes of this person... He's already helped me change my fate, I owe him at least this much...'

With Tosho's help, Ken was able to find out that three of the scrolls he had gathered were actually just mission details.

One of them was a scroll on Equipment Storage Seals, which Ken was immediately interested in.

Tosho remembered them from his life as a shinobi. "They are basically pockets of space created through basic Finjutsu... This particular one only stores inorganic objects."

Ken instantly decided to learn them after finding out that tapping them and applying chakra was all that was needed to take out the weapon.

'Finally, a way to hide my weapons while travelling! Shinobi arts are truly a wonder...'

The other Jutsus written down on the scrolls were rather rudimentary.

One was a Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu, it was considered a rather powerful C-rank Jutsu that could go up to B rank if one was willing to spend enough Chakra on it.

Another was Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall, which was actually a B-rank jutsu that the Jonin had used.

And the last one, the most promising one besides the Equipment Storage Seals, is Lightning Release: Lightning Clone Technique. It was a B-rank technique that the Jonin Ken had killed used. 

It required quite a bit of Chakra, and it seemed to also require one to have really advanced control of their Chakra, as well as to have the lightning attribute.

Thankfully, Ken fit into both categories, so he decided that the clone technique was a must for him.

Those were the only scrolls with any techniques, and Ken decided to actually learn all of them in the end, he had also given Tosho free reign on which he wanted to learn.

From Ken's perspective, the more tricks they had up their sleeves the better things were for them.

And so, the training continued. This time Ken also practised Jutsu seriously for once.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Again, this was written over the course of a few days.

I also went through and edited it a bit, so there shouldn't be many mistakes(hopefully) Not uploading often at least allows me to do a bit of proofreading ;)))

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