"Stop! Who are you?"
As soon as Bai and the others started up the mountain, someone from the wooden cabin appeared and stopped them in their tracks.
"We're ninjas from Konoha. We're here on a mission."
"Ninjas from Konoha! Did you bring the goods?"
Hearing Bai say they were from Konoha, the ninja on the mountain immediately said something that left the three of them stunned. He knew someone from Konoha would come, and that they would bring something. So he wasn't a bandit at all. He was probably a ninja from Amegakure, sent by Lord Hanzo to meet Nobi O.
Bai knew who the man was and what he wanted, but she didn't want to get further involved. Instead of answering his question, she asked him something else.
"Have you seen any bandits around here? We're here to eliminate them."
At Bai's words, the ninja flew into a rage.
"So Konoha really doesn't intend to honor its promise! I told Lord Hanzo long ago that Konoha couldn't be trusted. You treacherous wretches!"
After saying that, he took his own life.
Watching the ninja die, Uchiha Yu checked that he had no signs of life, then hit the body with a Great Fireball Technique, burning it to ashes.
As the flames blazed, Hyuga Riko couldn't help asking Bai and Uchiha Yu:
"So does this count as completing the mission?"
"Yes. We've fulfilled the mission requirements on the scroll and eliminated the bandits in this part of the Land of Grass."
Although she was puzzled by how fixated Riko was on completing the mission, Uchiha Yu gave him a clear answer.
"We're still too close to the enemy-occupied outpost. We could be spotted here. Let's get out of here first and discuss what to do next."
Seeing Bai staring blankly at the fire and Hyuga Riko looking a little excited at the news that the mission was complete, Uchiha Yu thought it would be better to leave.
According to what they knew, the enemy at the Konoha outpost had nothing to do with the fake bandits here. But the two places were too close, and the fire they'd started to conceal some of the information could still be seen from the direction of the outpost.
At Uchiha Yu's words, Bai, who had been distracted by the system prompt, immediately came back to her senses.
Ding? Detected absorbable Chakra Origin Energy. Absorb?
Absorbed 0.1 Chakra Origin Energy. Current total energy: 0.2.
``` I wasn't the one who killed him directly this time, either! How come I can absorb energy again? Can I absorb energy whenever someone connected to me dies? Or whenever someone dies near me?
The system gave no response to Bai's doubts. It seemed to be dormant again.
"Phew! Let's go!"
Bai came to her senses and let out a soft breath.
Half a day later, inside the Land of Fire, the three of them relaxed a little as they looked at the woods around them.
"We've completed the bandit mission in the Land of Grass. Should we head straight back to the village to report, or investigate that enemy outpost again?"
Hyuga Riko seemed eager to get home now that the mission was complete. They'd only rested for a little while before he asked.
Hearing Riko's question, Bai was just about to answer when Uchiha Yu shouted beside her.
"Careful! We're under attack!"
"Earth Release: Rock Missile!"
More than a dozen rocks shot toward Bai and the others. The moment they hit the ground, a tremendous explosion rang out, followed by flames and a cloud of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the three of them emerged.
Thanks to Uchiha Yu's warning, they had used the Body Flicker Technique to escape before the jutsu landed. But they had still been caught in the blast from the Explosive Tags attached to the rocks.
All three had sustained noticeable injuries. Uchiha Yu and Hyuga Riko had gotten off lightly, with only minor scrapes and burns.
But Bai, who had been standing at the front, had a clear wound on her abdomen. During the explosion, flying chunks of rock had struck her as she shielded Hyuga Riko and Uchiha Yu from some of the debris.
Bai's muscles had temporarily stopped the bleeding, but without treatment, she wouldn't last long.
Despite the sharp pain in her abdomen, Bai didn't dare treat herself, because the enemy who had ambushed them had appeared.
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
Amid a round of applause, a somewhat battered figure stepped out from the shadows of the forest.
"You little brats from Konoha are pretty capable! You even managed to dodge that!"
"It's you!"
Looking at the man dressed as a Konoha ninja, Bai and the others recognized him as their enemy from Iwagakure—the one who had occupied Konoha's border outpost.
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