Leaving the Village

Bandit-suppression missions were only issued when local villagers had suffered attacks. Once accepted, they generally set off immediately.

Orochimaru led the three members of Team 3 toward the location stated in the mission to meet with the client.

The meeting place was not far from the Mission Office, and the four soon arrived.

The person in charge of meeting them was a farmer dressed like a young man in his twenties or thirties. When he saw Orochimaru arriving with three children, he had originally intended to complain. But the moment he saw Orochimaru, the words caught in his throat. That cold, sinister aura, combined with snake-like vertical pupils, was intimidating enough that an ordinary farmer like him could not withstand it. Even though Orochimaru had restrained his presence because the man was an ordinary civilian, his appearance was still somewhat frightening.

"Are you the one who issued the mission? Could you tell us the details?"

Seeing that the man remained silent, Orochimaru frowned and broke the silence first, asking about the mission details.

The young farmer had yet to recover and merely stood there blankly without speaking.

"Don't worry. These three ninja may look young, but they are fully qualified ninja and more than capable of completing your mission. Besides, Lord Orochimaru is here. He is a Jonin. Being able to hire a Jonin for a C-rank Mission means you have struck gold."

The ninja who had been responsible for receiving the young man earlier explained the situation to him.

The young farmer understood that he had not been unlucky this time. On the contrary, he had been incredibly fortunate to have a Jonin accompanying a C-rank Mission. At the same time, he became even more afraid of Orochimaru. Orochimaru's demeanor was simply the very image of a great villain; any ordinary person would probably have reacted the same way.

After cautiously glancing at Orochimaru, the young farmer stammered out the details of the mission.

"I am a villager from Ryūgetsu Village. A group of bandits has recently appeared on Green Mountain near our village. Every few days, they come to ravage our village, so the village sent me here. Also, from what we overheard in the bandits' conversations, their leader is very strong. He seems to be a samurai."

"Hmm. If he is a samurai who has fallen this far, he probably is not that strong. At most, he should have combat strength around that of a Genin."

Uchiha Kiyoshi made his judgment based on the man's words, and Orochimaru nodded as well. Orochimaru had remained silent just now because he wanted the three of them to make their own assessments. He hoped they would complete this mission on their own too; Orochimaru was merely insurance against unexpected circumstances.

"About how many bandits are there? Have you counted them? Also, aside from their leader, are there any other strong fighters? What do they usually do? Is there anything unusual about them?"

"No, no. How could we possibly have the courage to count them? Sending me to issue the mission was already a huge risk for the village. As for strong fighters, we are just ordinary people. We cannot judge their exact strength. But I think I heard something about a Third King and a Fourth King. They should be brothers of the bandit leader, so their combat ability should not be low either.

As for anything unusual...

Oh, I do not know whether this counts, but none of their leaders has ever appeared before us. We only learned about them from the bandits' conversations."

Uchiha Kiyoshi could not glean any useful information from what the young farmer had said. Of course, he was just a farmer, not a ninja. He was not as professional at gathering intelligence as they were. They would have to investigate further after arriving at the location.

"All right, we know the basic situation now. You seem to be in a hurry, so let's set out immediately."

Seeing how anxious the man had been all along, Uchiha Kiyoshi decided to depart early. Everything that needed preparing had already been prepared anyway.

The young man was delighted and quickly thanked them. He knew that although he was the client, he could not force ninja to move at any particular speed. It seemed he had encountered people who were easy to talk to.

With one more person, the group of five set off directly.

After registering at Konoha's entrance, they left Konoha Village.

The three members of Team 3 were all excited to have finally left Konoha Village. Aside from Uchiha Kiyoshi, who remained relatively composed, even Sarutobi Saku was much like Nawaki, looking around at everything. Even the young farmer could not help wondering whether they were really reliable.

However, after looking at Orochimaru walking at the rear, the young man relaxed. With Orochimaru here, there should not be any problems.

"Kiyoshi, the outside world does not seem all that different. It looks pretty much the same as the village."

After marveling at things for quite a while, Nawaki realized that the outside was not much different from the village and became dispirited.

"How could there be as many differences as you imagined? Besides, we are just on the road. What could possibly be special about that? Wait until we visit other countries or some unusual towns. That is when things will get interesting."

"Huh? Kiyoshi, how do you know so much? I remember you have never left the village either, have you? Why do you sound as if you have been everywhere?"

Pushing away Nawaki, who was staring at him with wide, curious eyes, Uchiha Kiyoshi began to explain.

"I have not been there, but books contain all that information. Books basically describe all the special places in the Ninja World."

The moment he heard the word books, Nawaki immediately lost interest. He hated that stuff the most. He even believed that if he did not quickly get away from Uchiha Kiyoshi, Kiyoshi would probably start recommending books to him.

Ryūgetsu Village was not far from Konoha, which was why they had dared to send someone to Konoha to issue the mission. Otherwise, the journey alone would have taken a long time, and the chances of encountering an accident would have been much higher. What was going on with these bandits? They had actually established themselves only one day's journey from Konoha. There had to be something wrong with their heads.

This was what Uchiha Kiyoshi could not figure out. One day's journey, calculated at an ordinary person's pace, was only about a hundred kilometers. If they traveled at full speed, they could reach it in around five hours.

"Forget it. No matter what, they definitely are not ninja. Otherwise, they could not have gone this long without using Ninjutsu. And this close to Konoha, Konoha would definitely have detected traces of Ninjutsu."

No longer dwelling on it, Uchiha Kiyoshi came back to himself. As they hurried toward Ryūgetsu Village, he kept watch on their surroundings to prevent an ambush.

Although they were close to Konoha, there was no guarantee that some fool would not attack them here. Since bandits had appeared so close to Konoha, Uchiha Kiyoshi did not dare overestimate some people's intelligence.

If carelessness led to Orochimaru having to act before the three of them even reached the mission location, that would be bad. Uchiha Kiyoshi did not dare imagine what they would face upon returning to the village.

However, the facts proved that the Green Mountain Bandits were the only example of such stupidity. Konoha's surroundings were still quite safe, and nothing unexpected happened along the way. The five arrived at Ryūgetsu Village without incident.

Please recommend it! Please add it to your collection!

Please invest!