Encountering Bandits

Chen followed the wagon convoy toward an unknown relay station, striking up a conversation with the big man beside him along the way.

"Uncle Zongtian, where are you folks headed?" Chen asked the man next to him.

"We're hauling grain from the Land of Fire to a place called the Land of Bears, trading it for their local specialties, then bringing those back to Konoha." (Though I've got no clue if the Land of Bears even has specialties!)

"Land of Bears? What kind of place is that? I don't recall it at all—probably just some small country," Chen thought to himself after hearing Zongtian's words.

"What about you, young fella?"

"Me? I don't even know where I'm going."

Chen kept chatting with the big man named Zongtian, and from him, he learned what the Land of Bears really was. Mention the Land of Bears, and some might know it, but bring up Hoshigakure, and everyone would get it.

That's right—it was the Hoshigakure from the Original Story. That village had a meteorite that fell two hundred years ago, so they called themselves the "Star Shinobi Village." The ninja there trained around that meteorite because it was radioactive and reacted to Chakra. The Star Ninja specialized in the "Mysterious Peacock Method," which let them shape Chakra into various forms for attacks, even flight. The downside was that they couldn't defend against close-range attacks while using it. Though the meteorite's energy greatly amplified the Chakra of those who trained with it, not everyone could control that amplification, leading to bodily harm. So for most, it was training at the cost of severe physical damage, which was why the Third Hoshikage had stopped the practice.

It was just a small ninja village, with maybe a hundred or two hundred ninja, most of them genin. The village leaders over the generations had taken the title of Hoshikage, but it was self-proclaimed, far inferior to the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, who were named after their countries. The strongest Hoshikage was only at the level of an Elite Jonin.

"So that's it—there's a ninja village like that in the Land of Bears. The village itself isn't much, but that star seems to hold part of the Ten-Tails' power. That should be pretty valuable. If I sell it to the system, I could get a good price, heheh!" Chen thought to himself.

"Ding! System mission issued: Host enters the Land of Bears, seizes the star from Hoshigakure. Mission reward: points. Mission failure: points deducted. Mission time limit: none. Accept?" The system chimed in.

"Oh, heheh! The system's thinking the same as me—wanting to steal someone else's stuff, what a scoundrel. But... I like it!" Chen grinned at the mission, which fit his plans perfectly. "Accept! Of course I'll take such a good mission."

After accepting, Chen tried to pry more info about Hoshigakure from Zongtian, but the man was just a civilian and didn't know much, so Chen let it go. Sitting on the wagon, lulled into drowsiness by the jostling, he suddenly sensed several dozen people lying in ambush in the grass on both sides of the main road up ahead. But Chen didn't warn the caravan. From his sensing, most of them were ordinary folks, with only one who had a bit of skill—around genin level. This bunch was probably just bandits, and that genin-level guy was likely their leader.

"Oh, how cliché," Chen sneered to himself.

The caravan had already entered their encirclement, but the two samurai hadn't noticed a thing. Then, arrows shot out from the grass on both sides, thudding into the ground ahead of the caravan and blocking their path. The two samurai startled, quickly drawing the tachi at their waists: "Ambush! Watch out! Turn back, turn back!" they shouted at the caravan, telling them to wheel around. But they were already inside the bandits' trap. Just as they tried to turn the wagons, a group of bandits burst out from behind, cutting off their retreat.

"There's people behind us!" "Damn it, bandits!" The caravan fell into chaos. Then, another group of bandits sprang out from the front, blocking the way ahead, trapping the caravan between two forces.

"It's over, it's over! There were never bandits here before—these must be new ones. Why'd we have to be so unlucky today? Hope they just take the money and let us live!" Zongtian, sitting next to Chen, wore a grim face as he prayed. But when he saw Chen's calm demeanor, he asked in surprise, "Young fella, aren't you scared?"

"Scared? Not really. I've got nothing on me, so those bandits probably won't bother with me," Chen said with an easy smile.

"Won't bother with you? They're bandits! If you've got no money, they'll kill you for sure."

"Then let them kill me. I'm just a worthless life anyway."

"You... you... forget it, I've never met someone like you who isn't afraid to die." Zongtian was exasperated.

"Hahaha! Waited all day, and finally, your old man's hit a fat sheep!" The bandit leader grinned, eyeing the goods on the wagons trapped in the middle.

"You... what do you want?" one of the samurai in the caravan asked the bandits.

"Haha! What do we want? You're asking what we want? Boys, tell him what your boss wants!" the bandit leader shouted arrogantly.

"Boss, stop wasting words with them—let's just kill them all!" A grunt ran up to the leader and suggested, only to get kicked to the ground. "Idiot! You want to get us killed? If we slaughter them all, this'll blow up, and some other caravan will hire ninja to wipe us out. Then we'll have to run again." The bandit leader then turned to the caravan: "You all know what I want, right? I just want the money. Leave everything behind, and you can scram. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Just then, an old man stepped out from one of the covered wagons. Facing the crowd of bandits, he showed no sign of nerves, as if he had some ace up his sleeve. He said calmly, "Hmph! I hate you thieving scum—no class at all." He pulled a money pouch from his pocket and tossed it in front of the bandit leader. "Take this and get lost, or don't blame me for what happens next." With that, he turned to head back into the wagon.

Chen watched the old man thoughtfully. "Didn't see that coming—this Old Man sure knows how to bluff. But what's he relying on? Those two worthless samurai? No way, I could take them out with one hand. If not them, then what?"

"Hey, Old Man, you looking for death? Seems like you didn't hear me," the bandit leader said, growing impatient.

"Hmph! Greedy bandits—I guess I can't be too merciful. You two, make your move. I don't want to see him anymore," the old man said to the two samurai in the caravan.

"This... well..." The two samurai hesitated, too scared to act.

"Come on, make your move!" the old man urged again when they didn't budge.

"Are you done? If you're not acting, then I won't hold back!" The bandit leader had lost patience, drawing the Great Blade at his waist.

"Aren't you two supposed to be Hundred Man Killers? Get up there and drive those bandits off!" the old man shouted desperately at the two samurai guards.

"S-sir, we... we..." The samurai stammered, still unable to act.

"Kameda, didn't you say you'd killed a hundred bandits single-handedly? And you, Kitsuchi, didn't you claim you wiped out an entire bandit stronghold alone? That's why I hired you! Hurry up and chase them off!"

"Sorry, but... that was all lies. We're not Hundred Man Killers. We said that to get you to hire us. We're quitting this job."

"What? You... you bastards... you actually..." The old man was furious, realizing he'd been duped by these two idiots.

"Hahaha! Smart move. Got anything else, you dead old man?" The bandit leader laughed mockingly at the old man.

"Pfft! Hahaha—so the Old Man really was counting on those two losers to bluff! You kidding me? He didn't pull it off—just made himself look like a fool!" Chen couldn't hold back his laughter at the farce.

"Enough! I'm done wasting time on this boring crap. Killing you all might stir up some trouble, but with all this loot, we can just move somewhere else. Boys, kill them!"

"Hmph! I still need someone to take me to the Land of Bears. No way I'm letting you ruin my plans." Seeing the bandits ready to strike, Chen leaped off the wagon, formed hand seals midair, and unleashed a "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique" at the bandits behind the convoy. A massive fireball erupted from his throat. Those bandits were all ordinary people, with no chance to dodge Chen's fireball, and they were instantly consumed.

"Nani! A ninja? Damn it, I'll kill you!" The bandit leader, enraged at seeing his men wiped out, raised his tachi and charged at Chen.