Chapter 33: Chapter 33: The Dark Brotherhood and Compound

__________ POV Narration__________

When naming an organization, it was important to get across the message of what the organization was about and for.

In truth, Ken had no clue what to name it initially. He wanted the organization to be his eyes in that world, but he didn't want to give them a name hinting at his lack of vision.

While he didn't care about that fact getting out, he didn't want to put an even bigger sign on his back claiming that he was special.

After all, when Ken finally took his mask off and Akira and Saburo saw his face, both of them seemed petrified.

Saburo especially, who had personally seen Ken in action. His blindness didn't affect his awareness of the world in any great manner but knowing he used his senses to see allowed others to find ways to use that as a weakness against him.

Just like the explosions had overloaded his senses for a few seconds back in the Grass Village.

If Ken was fighting a powerful shinobi that was already privy to the fact that the blind monster was susceptible to such attacks, they would have used them to distract him constantly.

There was a clear fix for that. Ken could always just use his Nature Energy to sense his surroundings constantly.

There was nothing stopping him from sensing others using that, as no living lifeform could truly hide their natural energy.

The problem was that Ken would have to shut off his other senses, making him well and truly blind to the world. He would feel the aura, he would feel attacks coming, but he would not be able to 'see them'.

It would be like a normal sensor(well, a sage) fighting with a blindfold on.

In the end, Ken decided to keep that part of him a secret in order to avoid enemies taking advantage of it when the time came.

So that left him without any ideas of how to name the group he was creating.

That was when Saburo came with a few pieces of advice and ideas.

'Why not come up with something to strengthen the bond between recruits? Make them feel like they belong in something more than just a bounty collecting business and information gathering squad...'

The former shinobi came up with plenty of ideas that Ken liked when it came to strengthening the bond. All of them are greater than the last.

He also wanted the name to represent their work. He wanted a name that people would hear once, and would understand what type of business they dealt in.

But eventually, the name that Ken settled on was something that Akira came up with.

'How about the 'Dark Brotherhood'? It's a 'brotherhood', so it will help with forging the bonds between recruits later. And we do plan to be assassins mainly, so something broody like that sounds fitting.'

It was a bit simplistic, maybe.

But it somehow managed to both give their organization some identity and help with forging bonds between the recruits, which was exactly what they were brainstorming towards anyway.

Having all recruits be brothers and seniors/teachers to be elder brothers and elders, in general, was a bit of a classic when it came to creating comradery and strengthening bonds.

Still, there was really no reason to reinvent the wheel at the end of the day.

Saburo also instantly liked the idea. And Ken had nothing to complain about it either.

The Blind Swordsman was more than glad to be able to tell Tosho about their organisation now finally had a name.

There was still the problem of housing though. Tosho came out with a blade as soon as he felt around 50 Shinobi descending on his location.

He instantly calmed down when seeing Ken's masked face in front of them all. His situational awareness wasn't so bad that he would attack a group led by his leader.

He immediately rushed to greet them. Or more specifically... Ken.

"Leader!" Tosho shouted as he arrived in front of them with impressive speed, shocking Akira slightly.

The Masked Retainer immediately took a knee and bowed his head, much like one would when greeting a king.

Saburo and Akira also looked at the compound and the man kneeling before them with a curious gaze.

A tall black-haired man dressed much like Ken, a red armour covered by a black coat and a straw hat. The only difference was that his mask had one red line in the middle of it, instead of a dot.

Saburo instantly narrowed his eyes when seeing him. His speed, his lack of presence, all of them made the Strawman quite wary.

'This man... Ken's second in command, huh? He feels a bit worse than regular Jonin when it comes to chakra...

But he seems to be almost as difficult to detect as Ken himself, so he is certainly a master assassin...'

Saburo immediately judged Tosho as a dangerous individual.

Even if his chakra reserves weren't anything special, Tosho was still the most skilled person in the Dark Brotherhood...

With the exception of Saburo himself and Ken of course.

Akira wasn't able to judge Tosho's skills that much, just muttering that he felt a bit sneaky, before finally looking around at their base.

It was... Strangely big and rather homey.

About a dozen somewhat large wooden homes and one large training area with targets, rocks and wooden dummies.

All buildings were designed beautifully and spaced out perfectly, the area having clearly been made with great passion.

The entire small village was built right in front of a large cave entrance, which seemed to have a sealable entrance, using a wooden gate and an actual airtight seal that Tosho had managed to buy at some point.

The sealed cave was the one that Ken had initially carved out for training, which was designated as the main training hall, the cave being expanded to house more interconnected rooms to accommodate more and more recruits.

It had been gruelling work for Tosho in the past few months, but he was able to recruit 20 people by the time Ken had gotten there.

10 people more than the last time he had reported to Ken. It was a rather great achievement for Tosho, and he was quite proud of himself as well.

Ken also felt his surroundings and sighed with a satisfied smile on his masked face.

"You've done a great job, Tosho... It seems you were preparing for a large recruitment drive with all of the homes..." Ken finally addressed his retainer and trusted right hand.

"Yes! I had first focused on creating the accommodations, only starting recruiting when I felt that the site was ready." Tosho finally raised his head, his masked face looking towards his leader.

He immediately started reporting the situation and going into detail about the recruitment process and what orphanages he had approached and paid to do recruitment in.

Orphanages were close to selling children as slaves in some regions, so gaining recruits was really not difficult when one had the budget.

Tosho would've had a lot more of them if he wasn't handpicking only the ones willing to join and grow stronger.

Saburo couldn't quite tell what emotions Tosho was displaying. But it was clear that the retainer held a lot of admiration and respect for Ken, a child that was likely not even half his age from the looks of things.

It was a rather strange scene, but the Strawman couldn't really blame Tosho for respecting and/or admiring Ken.

Akira didn't really look into things in such a detailed manner. He just continued looking around, seeing the two dozen children that were training in the compound.

They didn't seem to have noticed the approaching shinobi, all focused on their training, throwing weapons, sparring and even doing regular physical training.

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Saburo also looked towards them with one of his many pairs of eyes. Judging them rather quickly as still fledgelings, none even reaching the level of Genin currently.

It was to be expected of a new organization though. Not many people were as talented and/or as determined as Tosho, to improve at such an impressive pace.

Not only that, even the earliest recruit had only been training for around two months, which wasn't much.

From Tosho's reports, it seemed that their only real issue currently was the fact that they were nowhere near being self-sufficient when it came to food.

They had no one to really handle cultivation, so Tosho always had to leave for food, leaving the oldest in charge for days at a time every month.

It was not uncommon for him to return and there to be a recruit less than when he had left.

It seemed that leaving orphans unattended on a deserted mountain range was not a good idea after all(Wow, who would've thought?).

Alas, the ones that remained at least learned not to wander randomly, so at least that was good...

Still, the children seemed to be in quite high spirits from what Saburo was able to see.

All of them were intermingling with each other, creating rivalries and friendships as they would have inside the Academies of the hidden villages.

It seemed that Tosho was prepared to recruit at least three times as many children, and he had already made accommodations for them.

It seemed that Saburo's clones wouldn't have to sleep outside in the dirt after all...

Alas, they didn't really need sleep anyway. Only Saburo's main body really needed it. But it did help keep up the facade that they were real people and not puppets.

Also, when Saburo was actually asleep, all of the clones would enter a vegetative state as well, as there was no way for him to split his consciousness into so many different bodies while unconscious.

It was good for there to be a place where they could hide while Saburo rested.

In the end, it was also time for the children/recruits to learn who the leader was.

They had always been calling Tosho their teacher and mentor. But they already knew that he wasn't the leader of the organization they had chosen to join.

To them, Tosho had given them a chance for a better life. But the one to have made all of it possible was someone they hadn't ever met.

In a way, it helped make Ken seem a lot more enigmatic. But actually seeing the Blind Swordsman in person made them all shudder.

All of them stopped training when seeing him walk over.

Ken was by no means a tall man(yet), but he had a great presence even to most shinobi, so one could only imagine what the children were feeling when he walked into their line of sight.

It was a strange feeling for the children. They could all feel that Ken was not normal. It was as if the world itself was telling them that.

That filled them all with both blind admiration and fear. Especially when seeing dozens of Shinobi trailing behind him in rows, including Tosho.

Ken's scanned the children in front of him. He could feel their fear, their emotions hardly hidden, though some of them did try to keep their emotions in check.

"... Children..." They immediately flinched when hearing Ken's raspy voice.

Saburo found it rather ironic, as Ken was likely not much older than the recruits.

"No reason to fear me... I am the last person that will hurt you in this life, all you have to do is not betray me." Ken's voice, despite being rough and raspy, still had a calming cadence to it, managing to relax some of the young boys and girls in front of him.

"Thank you. Thank you all for choosing to join us. From this moment on, you are officially part of the Dark Brotherhood. Those who have joined are now family, whether you like it or not."

That was all that the leader said. Finally announcing the name of the organization to the children, who were rather excited when hearing it.

'Family'... That was a rather powerful word for war orphaned children. It was something that many of them were tragically denied in that life.

But now it was offered to them.

They had already started considering each other family, but they didn't know what the future had in store.

Officially becoming a family had managed to finally seal the deal for the recruits. Tosho and the rest could see how their motivation became stronger. How the fire burned brighter in their eyes.

Saburo simply smiled when seeing that, considering the indictment of the young orphans to be a rather successful endeavor.

'It does feel good to follow someone competent for a change... I wonder how far he will go. With his talent, I think I will get to climb to the peak in this lifetime...'

After that, the children continued their training. Their wills were strengthened by their finally seeing their leader and listening to his speech.

Now, they could also finally start calling themselves brothers and sisters, something they had longed to do for a long time.

As they trained, the rest of the Adults(and Ken) also got to work.

Saburo put his tireless clones to work instantly, building a few more houses to have spare storage space just in case.

They also voted for Ken to get the largest house for himself, as he was the leader at the end of the day.

'The leader must get a house befitting his status! With our current budget, even making it out of the most expensive materials would be feasible.'

Saburo was surprisingly the one to come up with the idea. It was a clear tactic to garner even more respect for Ken, as his position of leader would give him his own housing.

However, Ken argued that it could also garner some jealousy from the recruits. Though that was quite unlikely with how high their opinion of the Blind Swordsman had become...

Still, Ken simply found the concept rather wasteful. In the end, only his closest retainers were to live with him, each having their own room.

By closest retainers, Ken simply meant Tosho, Akira and Saburo.

The newer recruits were not really on the same hierarchical level as Tosho, at least Akira wasn't. But Ken still trusted them enough.

Saburo especially became the head of the Research Department. And Ken promised to build him an underground laboratory in the village after they settled in properly.

Then, Tosho, Akira and Saburo all received a task...

Sorting through everything that Ken had stolen and categorising their spoils properly.

Saburo didn't think much of it at the time. But it seemed that Ken had gathered quite a good amount of resources in quite a few sealing scrolls.

'This might take a while...'

The Strawman could only sweat when seeing the piles of books and scrolls that lined the table in front of them.

Ken wasn't helping them by the way. Akira tried to complain, but Ken simply waved his palm in front of his eyes and basically told him to fuck off.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Yep, named it the Dark Brotherhood in the end! Why? It was the most liked comment on webnovel honestly. Also, I really like it, so yeah!

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