10 months later.
Kira, Sachi and Raichi stood in front of a severed head that was hanging on top of a tree.
Sachi bawled her eyes out while Raichi and Kira stood silently as they stared at the face of the person who was the most silent in their group.
Even though it was unreasonable, Raichi still held a hope in his heart that the head in front of him would somehow start speaking, saying that it's a prank and that he finally mastered his kekkei genkai, but nothing like that happened.
"I'm going home." Kira said and left without saying anything else. He had realised one thing from what he had seen today.
'Many exceptional people like Taka weren't shown in the anime. I was wondering why, but now I know the reason. All of them died before Naruto was born and they died before they accomplished anything. They died like regular ninja; ignored and forgotten.'
Raichi stayed with Sachi for a few more minutes and then, even he was unable to take it. One drop of tear rolled down his cheek as he broke the branch of the tree that the head was tied to. He physically dug up a hole and placed the head inside before covering it back up.
"Let's go." he said as he placed his hand on Sachi's shoulder, which made her cry even more louder compared to before. Unlike Kira, he stayed to give her company, feeling a little empty inside.
A few more minutes passed and Sachi finally calmed down a little.
"Sensei, are you going to disband the team?" she asked, dreading the worst possible outcome, and when she saw Raichi sigh, she felt like her stomach was about to twist into multiple knots.
"That's... not in my hands." he said and didn't explain what it meant as he left the place to report this incident to Hiruzen.
Sachi stood where she was for a while before heading back to the Hyuga residence.
*****
Hokage Office
Raichi stood in front of Hiruzen and told him about Taka's death.
"So his head was hung up in the forest of death and it was Kira who found it?" Hiruzen asked.
Raichi nodded, "Yes lord hokage, I sent Kira to the forest of death and told him to survive there for a month, but two weeks later, he rushed to my house and told me about... this."
Hiruzen didn't say anything and inhaled some smoke from his pipe. A few seconds passed in silence before he spoke.
"Disband the team. You're free to get back to the Anbu now that the mission can't be completed." Hiruzen said, but when he saw Raichi's facial expression, he raised an eyebrow, "Do you have something to say?"
"..... lord hokage, I'd like to continue as a team leader. I want to guide those two."
"This is the first time you made a request like that. In the past, you never wanted to stay as a team leader, so what made you change your mind?" Hiruzen asked, very curious about the Raichi's reason for wanting something he had always disliked.
Raichi thought about it for a bit and said, "In the past, my teams were made of people who didn't have talent, or people who were good at combat, but were absolute idiots.
Even though they were talented, their talent cannot be compared to either Kira or Sachi. They also put in their emotions before the missions and would abandon them if they felt like they were doing something wrong even without knowing why they were asked to do the missions.
As for Kira and Sachi... At first, Sachi was the same as my old talented students, but with Kira's influence, she's gotten better. Both of them ask me a lot of questions when they feel like they're doing something wrong, but at the end of the day, they still carry out the missions.
That's what I've always been looking for, lord hokage. Please let me guide these two until they reach my level."
"So you're telling me that Kira has the darkness within him, the darkness that's needed to join the Anbu. Well, it's not like I have the time to teach Kira myself." Hiruzen said as he looked at the four tall piles of neatly stacked papers with a look of disgust on his face, "Sometimes, I really wish I was a regular Jonin, but the perks that come with being a Hokage are really nice.
Anyways, feel free to continue guiding them if you want. If there's a special case of someone becoming a Chunin or someone talented comes out of the academy, I'll send them to you."
"Thank you, lord Hokage."
Kira sat in his room, thinking about the past year and the time he spent with Taka. The guy was someone who barely talked, but was extremely kind to the people close to him.
He stared at the plain wall in front of him with a frown on his face, his mind wandering.
'I taught him the eight gates and even though he managed to learn how to unlock the first gate, he still died. No, that's not the main problem. He was killed, but he had been killed recently. About two to three days ago, but I was in the forest of death for quite a while and I had used the same route to hunt for food every single day.
No one other than konoha's ninja would have done this... but who? Taka is too normal for Danzo to have a eye on him... is it Orochimaru? Did he start experimenting already? Or is it someone who was never talked about in the anime?'
Kira had multiple questions, but there were no answers to these questions. At least, not yet.
'No, I'm straying too far from the topic. Let's start from the basics. I pass through the tree where I found his head every morning and there were no signs of struggle nearby.
This only means one thing. He was killed somewhere else and only his head was tied to the branch of that tree. Only the head... tied to the tree along the path that I take every day.... a message for me?' he came to a realisation as a frown formed on his face.