_________ POV Yue_________

Lord Ken can only really be described as a strict teacher...

It's only been a day since we've left the capital. One day since I've left the safe confines of my father's palace, and I'm already having to struggle to catch my own food in the wild...

Lord Ken still gave me the appropriate knowledge, told me how some animals behaved, how to successfully corner them, where their most vital spots are... It was basic knowledge, the type I am used to cramming already.

I could tell Lord Ken appreciated how quickly I picked up on what he taught me. Even if he didn't outright praise me I could still feel it.

So I had some of the basics down now... At least the bare minimum for survival in the wild.

But I still clearly lack practice... Lord Mifune's training did prepare me for combat, but it was always fighting on an even, pristine, training ground... Fighting in a forest provides its own obstacles...

But I am willing to grit my teeth and power through it all if it means getting more opportunities to learn his art...

The art of killing.

I can't help but think of it as a form of expression. Especially after getting to do it myself... I am still a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to finish off that prisoner, but I will certainly get the opportunity by following Lord Ken.

For now, I'll still settle for hunting down rabbits. Skinning them is actually pretty fun, although I was a bit hesitant at first...

Lord Ken said it helps me with my precision and dexterity, which I will certainly need a lot of in the future.

Rabbit meat is actually really delicious! Maybe it just tasted better because I caught it and made it with my own hands?

Regardless, I am glad I received this opportunity, and I only have one man to thank for that...

Said man is currently just sitting on a sturdy branch, seemingly looking down at my little makeshift campsite while resting...

I can't tell if he's actually sleeping or not, but I've yet to actually see him tired... It's hard to tell since I've not even seen his face yet...

I'm sure I'll get to see it soon! I can barely wait... Someone that can produce such beautiful art will surely look handsome!

Although, I don't know... Would that even fit the art he practices? This form of 'art' is certainly what my calligraphy teacher would call grotesque...

Whatever, he is the master, I am the student. His appearances don't matter in any way... Yeah...

Lord Ken's next lesson is what matters most! Especially to me.

Wire Traps and how to set them up efficiently.

Ever since that 'incident', I have had this fascination with wires... The way they can be used to 'manipulate' flesh, is to string up bodies.

It was simply amazing! But I was never able to try anything with them... I was too shy to ask my father for them, I was afraid he wouldn't like my fixation on them too...

Looking back, I think I could've just asked him... He clearly cares about me regardless of what I do... He's the best father I could've asked for!

Now, unfortunately for me, Lord Ken is only teaching me the basics regarding those as well. I did insist on learning more, but his exact words were:

"Never ask for more, Dear Student... Especially when you're not even close to mastering the basics..."

My rebellious nature led to me pouting a bit at that... And Lord Ken decided to make my lack of knowledge extremely clear...

A small demonstration was all he needed. He showed me how a basic wire trap was more than enough to trap a person and leave them helpless... And that person was me.

I was entangled and hung upside-down before I even realized what was happening.

Thankfully, I was wearing proper training clothes, not a skirt, that would've been embarrassing... But I highly doubt Lord Ken would've been too moved by the sight of my panties...

Despite the fact that I am already at a marriageable age, Lord Ken still treats me like a complete child... I like it. It just goes to show how far ahead of me he is.

Be it in his mastery of the art, or in his maturity, he is far above me... But oh, I will catch up.

I can only dream of the day I finally get him to acknowledge me...

But that is going to take a lot of time and dedication... Thankfully, I am young, so I have time! And I am nothing if not dedicated...

Our journey lasted a few more days after the Wire Trap incident.

During those days, Lord Ken continued to teach me more and more about survival and even Chakra Molding. He even gave me the manual for the three basic Ninjutsu that Shinobi use!

Apparently, despite not being an actual shinobi, Lord Ken uses Shinobi Arts too and even claims they can be crucial to survival at times.

Thankfully, I was able to impress him a bit with my Chakra Control... I trained diligently with Lord Mifune, I am not able to imbue an object with Chakra yet.

My external control is almost nonexistent, but I can do the basic training exercises for chakra control! I can even stick to a tree trunk for a few seconds!

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But my lacking external control didn't seem to matter to Lord Ken, he was impressed enough that I am able to control the Chakra within my body.

"This makes things a lot easier... But external Chakra control will be a necessity for proper Shinobi Arts, as well as other techniques I'll be teaching you."

So I got to work! Moulding chakra with hand signs and doing various exercises that were in the book Lord Ken gifted me.

And before I knew it, we reached a rather large fortress in the middle of a mountain range... Large wooden walls surrounded two dozen buildings of varying sizes.

"We're here..." Lord Ken patted me on the head and continued walking, the gates were guarded by masked men, who didn't even glance at us as we passed by...

They're almost like statues, they seem to be protecting the village, I can see them posted up on Watch Towers too...

From their robotic movements and trained postures, I can already tell...

This place is going to be a lot of fun!

_________ POV Narration _________

Ken had met many people in his two lives.

He had met hypocrites, manipulators, sadists and masochists. He had danced with the clinically insane and he had tangled with the most depraved minds.

So, with his boundless experience, he was able to pinpoint with overwhelming accuracy that the little girl he had brought into his village was...

'Fucking crazy...'

The Blind Monster wasn't above swearing when the situation called for it... And the little girl had already proved herself back in that courtyard, acting like a shy schoolgirl confessing her love while slowly gouging out a man's eyes...

But the more time Ken spent with her, the worse it got.

'It's almost as if she's a mix of the worst possible quirks a schizophrenic person is predisposed to having...'

She was a sadist with an overactive imagination. She sometimes even had trouble with her thoughts, getting caught up in her own little mind and missing her prey while hunting.

She was also, to some extent, masochistic...

The last thing that Ken had expected when stringing her up in a trap was for her to actually be excited.

And it wasn't just the excitement of a student seeing the possibilities of what they could do... It was almost as if she took almost sexual pleasure from just feeling the strings almost cut into her skin...

Besides that, she was also violent, bloodthirsty. And her priorities were extremely skewed.

Ken was unsure how to react when he sensed her show more hesitation while skinning a rabbit than when she had tortured a man...

'Better not dwell on it... I'll teach her as much as I can, but she'll be by herself most of the time... I'll just be there for guidance in case it's needed...'

Ken allowed her to live in his mansion, in one of the empty rooms.

But she would also have to sleep outside 4 times per week in order to get used to sleeping on trees and rocks.

She seemed to accept whatever training Ken had in mind, having no complaints at all regardless of where she slept.

Ken went to his office after letting the little girl settle in her new quarters.

Saburo and Tosho alongside the Uzumaki Prodigy, were already waiting for him there.

"Leader... Good to have you back." The First Blade stepped forward and took a knee in front of Ken, bowing his head as well.

Saburo, The Second Blade, followed in his footsteps and also greeted Ken in a similar fashion.

Kazue only nodded towards Ken, his hands crossed. He did stand up from his chair as a sign of respect.

"It seems that you've brought back quite the unexpected baggage..." Saburo muttered after his greeting, raising his head and looking at Ken directly.

"Baggage indeed... She's the Daimyō's daughter. She'll be in our care from now on and will learn from us."

Ken's words were like a bombshell. They dropped on top of the head of everyone in the room.

Kazue especially stared at the Blind Assassin with wide eyes.

'What Daimyō in his right mind would allow his daughter to be trained by a group of bounty hunters?!'

Besides the problem of rank and royal dignity, there was always the problem of safety... Was the Daimyō of the Land of Iron really that trusting of Ken? Or maybe he just didn't care about his daughter...

"I know you all have a lot of questions...

Long story short, little Yue was adamant about me being her teacher after encountering me once in the past... And after she proved herself more than just a spoiled little girl, I agreed to train her...

You could say that her father owes me a lot now..."

Ken decided not to go into detail about how the girl had proven herself, or about how the Daimyō had thought that Yue was actually smitten with him at first.

The people in the room also didn't ask any more questions. Ken had already quenched most of their curiosity.

"Well... You arrived just in time. Sir Kazue is going to start his teachings today..."

Ken turned his head towards Saburo, who noticed that and continued speaking.

"We ended up agreeing to postpone them momentarily, at least until you returned... We are well aware that you wish to learn Fuinjutsu as well."

The Strawman continued speaking with a smile on his mask-covered face.

"... I appreciate it." Ken turned his head towards Kazue and nodded.

After that, Kazue went and prepared to begin his lessons, while Ken listened to Tosho's reports on the state of the Brotherhood and the progress of the children among other things...

'Good... Things are progressing steadily... Just as I had foreseen... The children are exceeding my expectations... Their determination and diligence are nothing if not commendable.'

Needless to say, Ken was extremely pleased with what he was hearing.

Many of the children were already showing some semblance of mastery over Ken's original technique, 'Presence Control'.

Currently, only those above the age of 10 were allowed to start training it. And most of them were progressing nicely.

'It's only a matter of time before they become skilled enough to be let on missions...'

Ken sighed a bit when thinking about that.

He only wanted the recruits that were 13 and above to go on missions. And virtually all of them would still be under supervision until they reached at least 16.

Currently, only around 13 children fit the criteria. But Ken felt it was safer to have them train a bit more before sending them out... He still believed 13 to be quite young at the end of the day.

But at 13, they would essentially become 'part-time' bounty hunters. Only going after the weakest bounties alongside Saburo's clone squads.

Their tasks were going to mostly consist of seeing action on the field, and possibly fighting the opponents Saburo or Tosho picked for them.

In essence, they were only going to be in an internship program, preparing them for their jobs at 16.

But those were still plans for the future... The present was plenty interesting.

As Kazue was preparing for his lessons, Akira was still at the bottom of the sea, searching for bodies while attempting to whistle underwater.

It was boring work for the immortal bounty hunter. He had a small boat floating randomly above, he would sometimes resurface and eat there, but he spent most of his time underwater.

He didn't need to breathe in order to not die, but drowning did hurt a bit. Thankfully, Akira's pain receptors were pretty numbed, so he was mostly feeling like he was getting stung in his lungs a bit.

'I hate this job...'

Akira couldn't help but sigh underwater... The job wasn't bad because it was somewhat painful... But it was SOO boring...

But one thing was for sure...

'This place is a fucking gold mine... I get why Leader was adamant about looting it.'

And so, Akira's work continued... It was going to take a while more, but the Third Blade felt that it was worth it.

While he was struggling to find more stuff, Kazue was already greeting his students...

The class began in force, Ken was also present, sat down and was ready to listen. He was not much of a visual learner, unfortunately, but listening was nice too.

He could also envision the things that Kazue was either drawing or writing on the blackboard. He just had to pay attention to the strokes and movements of Uzumaki's wrist.

At some point, he did decide to just open a window. Allowing some wind in and giving him a better 'vision' of what was on the board...

He could feel the wind bending around the chalk-smeared blackboard, and the forms became more vivid in his mind thanks to that.

'Fuinjutsu... What a fascinating art...'