Arriving at Ryūgetsu Village, Uchiha Kiyoshi and his three companions were placed in an inn.
After asking more villagers about the bandits' general situation and learning little, Uchiha Kiyoshi returned to the inn and called out his two teammates.
"From the villagers' descriptions, the information we have is incomplete. We only know that this group of bandits arrived here half a month ago. Their leaders have rarely shown themselves, but according to the bandits, those leaders seem to be far stronger than ordinary people. I'm guessing they have the strength of veteran Genin. I just don't know why they've stayed hidden.
"I'll go to Green Mountain in a while to investigate and gather intel. You two check the surrounding area for anything unusual, especially in the direction these bandits came from. Look carefully."
After saying that, Uchiha Kiyoshi prepared his ninja tools, packed them all into his Ninja Tool Pouch, and left the inn.
Uchiha Kiyoshi's ninja tools were no longer the standard-issue kind across the board. Twenty finely crafted kunai had cost him a hundred thousand ryō! Fortunately, over the past three months, he had completed two or three D-rank Missions every day, earning roughly seven or eight thousand per mission. After daily expenses, he had saved around 1.2 to 1.3 million, finally pulling himself out of poverty. Otherwise, he might not even have been able to afford those twenty finely crafted kunai.
Besides those kunai, Uchiha Kiyoshi had also commissioned one specifically for close combat. The entire kunai was about fifty centimeters long, and both its craftsmanship and materials were relatively high-grade, costing a total of two hundred thousand ryō.
Those two purchases alone had taken a huge bite out of his savings, dropping his funds to six figures. That was without even counting the even more expensive Explosive Tags, Soldier Pills, and the like. All told, Uchiha Kiyoshi had spent more than seven hundred thousand ryō.
The Ninja Tool Pouch was also a high-quality one. It contained a spatial Sealing Jutsu formula, with roughly half a cubic meter of storage space, allowing it to hold a large number of ninja tools. Compared to storage scrolls, it was far more convenient, since he could take ninja tools directly from the pouch. It also had a fairly long lifespan and would not break for at least a year or two. Its performance was excellent, but it was expensive—four hundred thousand ryō. Uchiha Kiyoshi had gritted his teeth and bought it. He could not shortchange himself; buying better ninja tools was also taking responsibility for his own life.
Just like that, nearly all of Uchiha Kiyoshi's earnings from the past three months had been spent.
Uchiha Kiyoshi could only sigh at that. "Ninja really do make money fast, but they spend it just as fast!"
At that moment, in an open clearing outside Green Mountain, Uchiha Kiyoshi dragged along a bandit he had knocked unconscious and brought down from the mountain.
He patted the man awake and began using the basic interrogation methods he had learned from textbooks.
Since it was his first attempt, Uchiha Kiyoshi did not have a good grasp of the proper force. By a strange twist of fate, though, the results seemed quite effective. After suffering a few punishments, the man immediately spilled everything.
"Looks like I have a talent for interrogation after all. As expected, geniuses are the same everywhere—they're geniuses at everything."
Seemingly hearing Uchiha Kiyoshi mutter to himself, the bandit looked at him with eyes full of terror.
"Big brother, are you sure? It's not like I haven't heard of all kinds of interrogation methods, but who the hell is as ruthless as you? If my willpower had been any weaker, I would've passed out already."
Uchiha Kiyoshi ignored the captive and sorted through the information he had obtained.
This bandit force had also been formed only a month ago. Its leaders were the Matsuoka Brothers. All four were samurai with decent talent and some accomplishments to their names. They had subdued quite a few people through force and formed this group, becoming its leaders in the process. After establishing the bandit force, the four had brought it here and rarely showed themselves afterward, leaving most matters to their underlings. No one knew what the Matsuoka Brothers did every day. They were secretive, having marked off an area on Green Mountain and forbidden anyone from entering or disturbing them.
After roughly organizing the information, Uchiha Kiyoshi prepared to return to Ryūgetsu Village and meet up with the other two.
However, as he looked at the bandit lying on the ground, a trace of struggle flashed through Uchiha Kiyoshi's eyes.
"Kill him. He has plenty of lives on his hands anyway, so it would count as getting rid of evil for the people. Besides, we'll be fighting these bandits soon. I need to get used to killing first, or it'll be over if something goes wrong then. I should tell Nawaki and the other one about this when I get back."
Under the bandit's terrified gaze, Uchiha Kiyoshi pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into the man's heart.
Looking at the blood on his hand, Uchiha Kiyoshi forcibly suppressed the nausea in his heart and kept comforting himself.
"They're all murderers and looters. Killing them is nothing. Calm down, calm down. Hah..."
Forcing himself to calm down, Uchiha Kiyoshi finally took a deep breath. Propping up his somewhat weak body, he erased all traces before returning to Ryūgetsu Village.
Throughout the entire process, Uchiha Kiyoshi had no idea that Orochimaru had been watching from the shadows. Of course, even if he had known, he would not have been surprised. This was normal procedure; many teams' first missions went like this.
The one secretly keeping watch was Orochimaru's Shadow Clone. The same was true on Nawaki's side. Orochimaru had not yet gone through the meat-grinder-like wars, so he was not quite so indifferent to life. He still cared about his students' lives.
Orochimaru was also very satisfied with Uchiha Kiyoshi's actions. Some of his methods had been somewhat clumsy, but the process had been correct, and he had been able to harden his heart. Being able to endure his first killing like this was not bad.
By the time Uchiha Kiyoshi returned to Ryūgetsu Village, he had already recovered his composure. After waiting for about half an hour, Nawaki and the other boy returned as well.
"We didn't find anything suspicious nearby. There was nothing unusual in the direction the bandits came from either. We couldn't determine where they came from at all or what characteristics they had."
"It makes sense that you found nothing. I interrogated a bandit and learned that their force was only formed recently. For some unknown reason, though, the four leaders brought them here and then rarely came out themselves. According to that bandit, they should have the strength of veteran Genin. All four leaders may even be at that level, so this mission is somewhat difficult. When the time comes, each of you will take one. I'll hold off the two strongest, and you come support me as quickly as possible.
"Get some rest. We'll move tonight."
That night, outside Green Mountain, Uchiha Kiyoshi and the other two appeared at the entrance to the bandits' hideout.
Looking at the sentries chatting away, Uchiha Kiyoshi was speechless. Could this group of bandits really all be idiots? Setting up shop around Konoha was one thing, but they were even this careless with patrols.
Yet because of that, Uchiha Kiyoshi instead felt a nagging worry. He had the constant feeling that something unexpected might happen during this operation.
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