Raiden realised what he had done after staring at the corpse of the man for a good minute and immediately dropped to the ground and vomited.
Jiraiya sighed and came near him after taking care of all the remaining bandits and sealing them into scrolls.
"Are you okay kid?"
"I killed someone. but the problem is, I didn't even hesitate to kill him. I thought 'What if that was my mother or aunt Mikoto or Sasuke he was holding' and killed him with cold blood." Raiden said kneeling on the ground.
Jiraiya sighed again and tried to comfort him.
"It's okay because you killed him, a bandit, an innocent woman got to live."
At that moment the women whom the bandit was holding came towards Raiden.
"Thank you, thank you very much for saving us from those beasts." She said while crying.
Raiden looked up at her tear-filled face and stared at her face for a while. Her face, in his eyes, looked so much like his mother.
'Is protecting those you love, justify killing someone else?' Raiden thought to himself.
The other three hostages also came out of the tent the woman was taken from. Two women and a child no more than four. 'How cruel is the world for people to take a child of four years hostage.'
Both women came towards Jiraiya and Raiden and thanked them profusely. The child, a little girl, stepped up towards Raiden and hugged his kneeling figure.
"Thank you for saving us, Oni-san." Said the girl smiling towards him.
Jiraiya took them to the side and told them that they'll bring them back to their village.
Raiden, left to his thoughts, was thinking deeply.
'They were scared for their lives, scared about what would happen to their family. I never want my family to feel that way. I never want my friends to feel that way. I never want to feel that way. This is it! I will gain strength! enough strength so my family and friends never have to feel this way. I won't kill for no reason, but to protect them from such feelings I have to dirty my hands so they won't feel these kinds of feelings.' Raiden thought a lot before deciding.
At this moment, his Sharingan activated and started spinning extremely fast until it finally stopped as a fully matured Sharingan. He felt his vision enhance, but decided to check it out later so he deactivated his Sharingan.
He got up and went towards Jiraiya and the women. He said nothing but Jiraiya could feel that he had somewhat handled his feelings.
They took the women and escorted them towards their city which was deeper into the land of tea.
~~~
A day later, they were heading out after delivering the women to their city and turning in all of the bandits to the authorities and getting proof of completion for the mission. The Genins were kept with them to be delivered to their village which is an ally of Konoha.
Jiraiya looked Raiden who was jumping from branch to branch.
"Have you handled your emotions? Are you okay?"
"Sensei, I think I found my ninja way. I want to protect them, my family, my friends, you. I pursue strength to protect them, so they won't feel like those women, scared and alone. If I have to kill someone to do that I won't hesitate anymore, they will just stay with me as a memory, that my ninja way beat theirs." Said Raiden with a clearly stronger state of mind.
Jiraiya smiled a genuine smile before turning into a teasing smile.
"You want to protect me? you're still way too early to be saying that to me, you little brat."
Raiden smiled "Even if not now definitely in the future. I'll protect all those dear to me that's my ninja way!" He declared.
Jiraiya smiled again "Good, very good. I'll give you a gift for completing your first mission when we're back."
~~~
Another three days later, they were finally at the gates of Konoha. They checked in with the gatekeepers and entered Konoha.
"Ok, I'll go report the mission, you go home I'll come by later to get Naruto."
"Yes, sensei." Raiden walked towards his house slowly for the first time in a while. He's been flickering towards his house since he learned the flicker to practice it.
He looked around the village and observed the bustle in the shops and how the children were running around their mothers. He passed by the park and saw the children playing with each other, he even glanced his mother and Mikoto sitting down with the other moms. and Naruto and Sasuke playing around with two other boys one with pineapple hair and the other a bit on the heavier side for a child.
He decided to leave them for now and proceeded walking in the village. He passed by Ichiraku Ramen and decided to eat there.
After finishing his meal, he went towards the academy and saw the students working hard training all sort of things, from their bodies to Buki-Jutsu.
He finished his lap around the village by going towards the Hokage monument and looking over the entire village.
'This village, I'll definitely protect it!' He thought to himself, reaffirming his ninja way.
~~~
He finally reached his house and found Jiraiya waiting for him.
"Where've you been? I thought I told you to go home."
"I took a stroll around the village." Said Raiden with a smile.
"Well it seems you're in a good mode, let's keep it going. Here." Jiraiya threw a scroll towards him.
Raiden looked through it and then looked at Jiraiya again.
"This is the Lightning Release: Chakra Mode that we got from Kumo, although it is only B-rank, in the right hands it can become an S-rank Jutsu as proven by the third and fourth Raikages."
"Thank you sensei."
"It's fine, I promised you a gift, gift delivered. Now, we'll be taking tomorrow off than going on another C-rank mission the day after to deliver those missing-nin to Kusagakure."
"Yes, sensei."
After their chat, they both entered the house.