Chen followed the caravan toward an unknown waystation. Along the way, he struck up a conversation with the burly man beside him.
"Uncle Zongtian, where are you headed?" Chen asked the man beside him.
"We're taking grain that the Land of Fire produces in abundance to a place called the Land of Bears. We'll trade it for their local specialties, then bring them back to Konoha." (Though I don't know whether the Land of Bears actually has any specialties!)
"The Land of Bears? What's that? I've never heard of it. I guess it's just some small country!" Chen listened to Zongtian and thought to himself.
"What about you, young man?"
"Me? I don't know where I'm going either."
As Chen talked with the burly man named Zongtian, he learned from him what sort of place the Land of Bears was. Some people might have heard of the Land of Bears, but if you mentioned Hoshigakure, everyone would know what you meant.
That's right, it was the Hoshigakure from the Original Story. The village had a meteorite that had fallen two hundred years ago, and so it was called the "Village Hidden Among the Stars." The village's ninjas all trained around the meteorite because it was radioactive and reacted to Chakra. The Star Ninjas specialized in the "Mysterious Peacock Method," which let them shape their Chakra into various forms to attack and even fly. Its weakness was that users couldn't defend against close-range attacks while performing it. Although the energy in the meteorite greatly amplified the Chakra of those who trained with it, not everyone could control the enhancement, and it could damage their bodies. For ordinary people, it was a training method that came at the cost of severe bodily harm, so the Third Hoshikage had halted the practice.
It was only a small ninja village, with roughly a hundred or two hundred ninja, most of them Genin. The village's leaders across the generations were given the title of Star Shadow, but they had bestowed it upon themselves. They were nowhere near the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, who were named after their respective countries. Even the strongest Star Shadow was only an Elite Jonin.
"I see. So there's a ninja village like that in the Land of Bears. The village itself isn't very strong, but that star seems to contain part of the Ten-Tails' power. It must be valuable. I bet I could get a good price for it from the system. Hehe!" Chen thought to himself.
"Ding! The system has issued a mission. Host, enter the Land of Bears and seize the star from Hoshigakure. Mission reward: points. Mission failure: points deducted. Time limit: none. Do you accept?" Just then, the system prompted him.
"Oh-ho-ho! The system's thinking the same thing I am. It actually wants to steal something from someone else. What a rascal. But... I like it!" The mission was right up his alley. "Accept! Of course I'm taking such a great mission."
After accepting the mission, Chen asked Zongtian for more information about Hoshigakure, but Zongtian was just an ordinary person and didn't know much, so Chen gave up. As Chen sat in the carriage, lulled into a drowsy state by its rocking, he suddenly sensed several dozen people lying in wait in the grass beside the road up ahead. He didn't warn the caravan, though. Most of them were ordinary people; only one had any real skill, around the level of a Genin. They were probably just a gang of bandits, and the one with Genin-level strength was likely their leader.
"Oh, here comes the cliché," Chen thought with a cold laugh.
The caravan had already entered the bandits' encirclement, but the two samurai hadn't noticed a thing. Suddenly, several arrows shot from the grass on both sides and landed in front of the caravan, blocking its path. The two samurai were startled and hurriedly drew the swords at their waists. "We're under attack! Be careful! Turn back, quickly!" they shouted at the caravan, telling everyone to turn around and leave. But they were already surrounded. Just as they tried to turn the carriages around, a group of bandits sprang out behind them and blocked their escape.
"There are people behind us!" "Damn, bandits!" The caravan fell into chaos. Another group of bandits then rushed out in front of them, trapping the caravan between the two groups.
"It's over, it's over! There weren't any bandits here before. These must be new ones. Why are we so unlucky today? I hope they'll let us go once they've taken our money!" Zongtian, sitting beside Chen, lamented and prayed. But when he saw how calm Chen was, he asked in puzzlement, "Young man, aren't you scared?"
"Scared? Not really. I don't have a penny to my name, so the bandits probably won't do anything to me," Chen said with an easy smile.
"They won't do anything to you? They're bandits! If you have no money, they'll definitely kill you."
"Then let them. I'm only worth a lousy life anyway!"
"You... You... Forget it. I've never met anyone like you. You're not even afraid of dying." Zongtian was exasperated by Chen.
"Hahaha! I've been waiting all day, and I've finally caught a fat sheep!" The bandit chief looked happily at the goods piled on the several carriages trapped in the middle.
"You... What do you want?" one of the caravan's samurai asked the bandits before him.
"Haha! What do we want? You're actually asking what we want? Men, tell him what I want!" the bandit chief shouted arrogantly.
"Boss, stop wasting time with them. Just kill them all!" one of the bandits ran up to the chief and suggested. The chief kicked him to the ground. "You idiot! Are you trying to get us killed? If we slaughter them all, this will become a big deal. Other caravans will take missions from the ninja villages to wipe us out, and we'll have to flee again." Then the bandit chief turned to the caravan. "You all know what I want. I only want money. Leave all your belongings, and you can go. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless."
Just then, an old man stepped out of the covered wagon. He faced the crowd of bandits without the slightest hint of nervousness, as if he had something to rely on. Then he calmly addressed them. "Hmph! I hate bandits like you. You have no class at all." He took a money pouch from his pocket and tossed it in front of the bandit chief. "Here, take this and be on your way. Hurry up and leave, or don't blame me for what happens next." With that, the old man turned and started back toward the covered wagon.
Chen watched the old man, lost in thought. Who would've guessed this old guy was such a braggart? But what is he relying on? Those two useless samurai? That can't be it. I could kill those two fools with one hand. If not them, then what?
"Hey, old man! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Looks like you didn't understand what I said." The bandit chief was getting impatient.
"Hmph! Greedy bandits. It seems I can't afford to show you any mercy. You two, take care of this. I don't want to see him again," the old man said to the two samurai in the caravan.
"Th-this..." The two samurai hesitated, afraid to act.
"Come on, you two. Get moving!" Seeing that they still hadn't acted, the old man urged them again.
"Are you done talking? If you won't make a move, then I will!" The bandit chief had lost patience and drew the sword at his waist.
"Weren't you two supposed to be Hundred Man Killers? Hurry up and chase those bandits away!" the old man shouted anxiously at the two samurai guarding the caravan.
"Sir... We... We..." The two samurai stammered, but still didn't dare to move.
"Kameda, didn't you say you'd killed a hundred bandits all by yourself? And you, Kitsuchi—didn't you say you'd wiped out an entire bandit hideout alone? I hired you because you said those things! Hurry up and drive those bandits away!"
"Sorry, but... we were lying to you. We're not Hundred Man Killers. We only said that so you'd hire us. We're not doing this mission."
"What? You... you two bastards... how could you..." The old man was furious. He'd been tricked by these two idiots.
"Hahaha! At least you know what's good for you. Old man, do you have anything else to rely on?" The bandit chief looked at him and laughed arrogantly.
"Pfft! Hahaha! So the old man really was counting on those two losers to put on a show! That's hilarious. He tried to act tough and ended up looking like an idiot!" Chen couldn't help laughing at how ridiculous it all was.
"Enough! I don't want to waste any more time on this nonsense. Killing all of you might cause us some trouble, but there are so many supplies here. We can take them and move somewhere else. Men, kill them!"
"Hmph! I still need someone to take me to the Land of Bears. How could I let you ruin my plans?" Seeing the bandits preparing to attack, Chen leapt off the carriage and quickly formed Hand Seals in midair. Then he used Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique on the group of bandits behind the caravan first. A huge fireball burst from his throat. The bandits were all ordinary people and had no chance of dodging Chen's fireball. In an instant, they were swallowed by the flames.
"What? There's a ninja here? Damn you, I'll kill you!" Seeing his men wiped out just like that, the bandit chief flew into a rage and charged at Chen, raising the sword in his hands.
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