Different

The night was as dark as ink. Darkness shrouded the land, gloomy clouds churned overhead, and not a trace of moonlight could be seen. Every so often, the wind howled past, whipping up branches and leaves that shrieked like night owls.

Ye Zi, who had arrived at the foot of the mountain, looked up at the sky and felt the biting chill of the wind against his cheeks. He muttered, "Looks like it's going to rain."

The bandits' base was at the mountaintop. There was only one route up, and they relied on the terrain to defend it, making the stronghold difficult to conquer. For ninjas, however, taking such a stronghold was not difficult.

Orochimaru led the three of them straight up the steep cliff, infiltrating the stronghold without making a sound.

Hiding behind a crude house, Orochimaru did not give Ye Zi and the others any time to observe the distribution of the guards. He simply made a hand signal, ordering the three of them to act immediately.

Infiltrating the stronghold merely reduced the danger. The main purpose of this mission was still to draw blood and face blades and swords directly. Therefore, Orochimaru did not allow Ye Zi and the other two to gradually wipe out the bandits through assassination.

When Kushina and Bei Xingye saw Orochimaru's signal, they did not act at once. A trace of hesitation remained on their faces.

Seeing that the two were still standing where they were, Orochimaru frowned slightly but did not urge them on. He knew that everyone who graduated from the Ninja Academy had to go through this process. They did not have to become cold-blooded... but they had to possess the ability to disregard bloodshed.

Compared to Kushina and Bei Xingye's hesitation, Ye Zi was incomparably decisive. Not long after Orochimaru's signal fell, he fixed his eyes on a man who had come to the corner to relieve himself. Holding a Kunai, he charged straight at him.

The dull sound of a foot striking the sand startled the man who was relieving himself. He turned his head and, by the faint firelight, saw only a Kunai stabbing toward his throat.

"Enemy...!"

The man's pupils contracted. The moment he got the word out, his voice abruptly stopped. The sharp Kunai easily pierced his throat, and the hot blood that sprayed out splashed across Ye Zi's face.

A warm heat spread across his face, while the unpleasant stench of blood rushed into his nose and seemed to churn his stomach. Ye Zi kept his arm extended, staring blankly into the man's eyes, which were filled with despair and resentment.

"Gurgle..."

The dying man made a meaningless sound as the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.

Ye Zi stared motionlessly into the man's eyes. Only after the light vanished from them did he slowly pull out the Kunai, then wipe the blood from his face. It was his first time killing someone. Watching a living person's life snuffed out by his own hand, he felt little guilt—almost as if he could coldly butcher a chicken simply to fill his stomach.

In truth, when he was young, he had witnessed too many horrific scenes. Some people would cruelly cripple another person for the sake of a piece of bread. He had once wondered whether, if circumstances allowed it, people might even resort to eating one another.

Thud.

The lifeless corpse collapsed limply to the ground with a soft sound. Ye Zi did not spare it another glance and charged silently toward his next target.

A satisfied curve appeared at the corner of Orochimaru's mouth in the darkness, while Kushina and Bei Xingye stared blankly at Ye Zi, who was drenched in blood.

Bei Xingye's body trembled slightly. He was timid, and this was the first time he had seen such a bloody scene. Although he had mentally prepared himself before coming, that preparation was useless when he witnessed it with his own eyes.

Kushina looked at the fallen corpse. Its head happened to be turned toward her, and beneath the firelight, its dim eyes seemed to retain a trace of resentment.

She bit her lip slightly and slowly took a step forward. After that single step, she froze like a statue.

Several minutes later, after Ye Zi had killed several people, he finally attracted the bandits' attention. Accompanied by a fierce roar, all the bandits in the stronghold rushed out. When they saw the forehead protector marking Ye Zi as a ninja, they were all startled, but their shock quickly receded like a tide, because their opponent was alone—and still a child.

"He's just a little brat. What's there to fear?" a muscular man wielding a spiked club shouted angrily. The moment he finished speaking, a flying Kunai plunged into his throat. He stared wide-eyed and lowered his head in disbelief to look at the Kunai's handle. A moment later, he collapsed limply.

After throwing the Kunai that killed the man with the spiked club, Ye Zi still had plenty of stamina. He pulled another Kunai from his ninja tool pouch and charged into the bandits like a wolf among sheep, slaughtering them.

After slicing a bandit's throat with his Kunai, Ye Zi immediately leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the iron rod that smashed toward him.

There were too many enemies, and they possessed considerable strength. If he were injured, he might very well be overturned in the gutter.

Though Ye Zi was gradually seeing red, he still maintained his reason. After killing more than ten people, he clearly felt his strength waning. He decisively made several backward leaps, escaping the bandits' encirclement. He first glanced at the nearly hundred bandits remaining, then looked toward the place where Kushina and Bei Xingye were hiding, frowning.

In terms of individual ability, Ye Zi was one hundred percent certain he could crush anyone in the stronghold. However, there were simply too many of them. They could overcome quality with quantity, and this mission was not meant to be completed by him alone.

Perhaps sensing Ye Zi's gaze, Kushina and Bei Xingye finally realized that they had come to carry out a mission. Kushina took a step forward and no longer hesitated, revealing herself directly. Bei Xingye hesitated for a moment before slowly walking out from behind the house as well.

Corpses lay strewn haphazardly across the ground. Bright-red blood gathered into countless little streams that flowed across the sand before slowly seeping into the soil. The air was filled with the sharp stench of blood.

The bandits had already felt fear when they saw that Ye Zi, merely a child, was so powerful. Now that two more had appeared, every one of their hearts sank.

"Even if we die, we'll drag a few of them down with us!" one of the bandits shouted harshly. The others erupted with waves of ferocity at his words.

Having lost their humanity, they walked along the edge of a blade every day. Each of them had taken many lives. Just as Ye Zi felt no psychological burden killing them, they too felt no guilt when killing their own kind.

Rumble...

Several streaks of lightning suddenly tore across the gloomy sky. The brief illumination revealed a large swath of hideous faces.

Looking at the hundred or so bandits surging with momentum, Ye Zi ignored Kushina and Bei Xingye, who had just appeared, and formed hand seals!

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A scorching fireball burst from his mouth and flew into the crowd.

As they watched the high-temperature fireball fly toward them, the bandits' newly risen momentum instantly collapsed, and the ferocity on their faces turned to terror.

Boom!

The fireball exploded. Amid a chorus of overlapping screams, the blazing heat killed more than a dozen bandits on the spot. The unpleasant smell of charred flesh drifted through the air.

Kushina and Bei Xingye's faces paled as they looked at the bandits who had turned to charcoal in such a short time. The other bandits were even more terrified. Their newly kindled momentum shamefully faded away. The fireball shattered their hopes of getting lucky, and they immediately shouted as they scattered in all directions.

"What are you two waiting for?"

Ye Zi barked at them, then charged after the fleeing bandits with his Kunai.

Kushina and Bei Xingye exchanged a glance, endured the discomfort in their hearts, and joined the slaughter.

If they did not even dare to kill, what right did they have to bear the title of ninja?

Thunder and lightning rumbled across the sky. After a long while, torrential rain poured down, promptly extinguishing the flames started by the fireball.

The mixture of charred flesh, blood, and the stench of urine and feces was extremely foul. Ye Zi paid it no heed. He tilted his head slightly, closed his eyes expressionlessly, and let the cold rain fall over his face, washing away the bright-red blood. Not far from his feet lay one cold corpse after another.

Kushina lowered her head and looked at the Kunai in her hand. In the flashes of lightning, she could see blood dripping continuously from its tip. Not long ago, when she had killed her first person, she had even felt her stomach churning. Now... she felt no discomfort at all.

She turned her head toward Ye Zi, who had his eyes closed. All she saw was an indifference as cold as the rain. For no apparent reason, a chill rose from the depths of her heart and spread through all four limbs. She shuddered violently, though she did not know whether it was because of the bone-chilling wind and rain.

"So this is what it means to be a ninja."

Bei Xingye looked at the corpses covering the ground, his body still trembling slightly.

"Mission complete."

Orochimaru walked out of the darkness, his hoarse voice announcing the end of the mission.