Night.
Uchiha Madara quietly slipped into the tea shop in the valley and quickly found the hostage while everyone was asleep.
He was a child who looked no older than his teens. He had been sleeping soundly in plain view of everyone, but the moment Uchiha Madara lifted him and moved, he woke with a start. As he tried to cry out, Uchiha Madara hurriedly covered his mouth.
"We're here to save you..." Uchiha Madara whispered, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
The child was as terrified as a mosquito in the night—at the slightest rustle, he was ready to fly off with a frantic buzz. Had Uchiha Madara not covered his mouth so quickly, he might truly have cried out and awakened the bandits.
Yet even those tiny sounds were enough to rouse one of the bandits from his groggy sleep...
He opened his eyes, took one look, and shouted loudly!
"Someone's taking the hostage!"
Seeing that someone had awakened, Uchiha Madara simply lashed out with a kick, knocking the bandit to the ground. At the same time, several other bandits jolted awake. Unlike ordinary travelers, they slept fully clothed with their weapons at hand; once startled awake, they immediately sprang into battle.
Of course, it was precisely because of this trait that Uchiha Madara and the others could more easily tell the bandits apart from ordinary people.
Just as those bandits woke up, McBain had already led Forte and Una in a charge. With one punch each, they knocked three bandits to the ground. Evan and Mel attacked from near and far with swords and boomerangs, respectively. The bandits on watch were knocked unconscious without even making a sound!
Though this surprise attack was not completely silent, it struck with the swiftness of lightning. Thanks to