Threat from Black Wind Stronghold

Xian Yu had no intention of entertaining this annoying, obese merchant; saving lives was like fighting a fire, and he had no time to waste on such a trivial character.

"Wind Style: Shuriken!" Ten shuriken, imbued with wind-attribute chakra, tore through the air at high speed. They suddenly veered in mid-air, adjusting their trajectories as if they had eyes, and struck ten bandits with lethal precision.

Each hit was fatal; the victims didn't even have time to let out a scream!

A young man, who had been desperately resisting the bandits with a hoe, blinked in confusion, completely at a loss. He had been on the verge of death, unable to fend off his opponent, yet the enemy had suddenly collapsed? What was going on?

A burly man over six feet tall had just knocked a small kitchen knife out of his opponent's hand and was about to deliver the killing blow when he caught sight of two of his comrades falling silently to the ground beside him. He froze in his tracks...

Scenes like this were playing out all over the battlefield; as the fighting continued, people suddenly realized that the once-ferocious band of robbers was rapidly thinning out.

"Squelch!" A sound like tearing fabric rang out as a sturdy bandit slowly toppled over, revealing a petite girl standing behind him.

"Crackle, crackle..." Another bandit collapsed in a seizure, his back charred black, with faint blue sparks of electricity dancing across his exposed skin.

By now, only seven bandits remained on the field, all of them wearing expressions of sheer terror!

"W-what... what happened?" A smaller bandit trembled so violently he could barely keep a grip on his blade.

He had only recently joined the Black Wind Stronghold. Just moments ago, he had been reveling in the thrill of the fight; the opponents were weaklings who, despite having some strength, only knew how to block. Even though the villagers outnumbered them, they lacked any semblance of tactical coordination, and his teammates had been performing well. The situation had been perfect, and he was just about to claim his first kill, only for everything to fall apart in the next second?

The scrawny bandit found it impossible to accept.

"Ninjas..." The remaining seven, shivering, quickly huddled together. Several of them looked utterly bewildered, their eyes locked onto the two youthful figures—a boy and a girl—who had suddenly cut into the fray.

"Idiots, you've just made things easier for me." Xian Yu rolled his eyes with a sneer, then immediately formed hand seals: "Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!"

The group AOE attack hit like a hail of gunfire from an AK-47. The wind-chakra bullets pierced through the seven huddled bandits, instantly killing five of them. Only the two who had been standing further back were lucky enough to survive.

"Spare me... spare me! I just joined! I haven't even killed anyone yet! I... I only joined the Black Wind Stronghold because I couldn't survive otherwise. I won't be a bandit anymore! I'll never do it again! Give me a chance, give me a chance to turn over a new leaf! Don't kill me..."

The remaining twenty-three villagers, clutching hoes and other farm tools, glared at the two surviving bandits with hateful eyes, yet none of them made a move, their gazes shifting intentionally or otherwise toward the two young ninjas.

Xian Yu had two shuriken ready to harvest the 2 kill points before him, but noticing the villagers' hateful glares, he hesitated for two seconds before slowly returning the weapons to his pouch. He curled his lip at the bandit who was begging for a chance to reform and said in a flat tone, "A bit of friendly advice: do yourself a favor and end it quickly; it might be less painful."

With that, Xian Yu called out to the villagers, "These two are yours."

Hearing this, the twenty-three villagers exchanged glances before closing in on the two bandits with bitter resentment.

"Here, Yu, catch." At this moment, Shinozaki Ayumi had finished clearing the battlefield and retrieving the shuriken, wiping the blood off the ten blades with a cloth before handing them over.

The two bandits tried to flee, but how could they escape with over forty eyes fixed upon them? In the end, they were cornered at the village entrance by the enraged villagers and beaten until they stopped moving under a chaotic barrage of hoes, shovels, and rakes, their eyes slowly losing their luster until they were nothing but a bloody mess.

"Honorable ninjas, thank you so much for your help! If you don't mind, please come rest at my home." A short while later, a farmer led the villagers back and spoke to Xian Yu and Shinozaki Ayumi.

"Hmph! You idiots! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've brought upon yourselves? That gang is from the Black Wind Stronghold! Kid, here is your two thousand ryo; take it back! From now on, you two have nothing to do with my Hua Qi Trading Company! Don't follow us anymore! Hmph! Let's go." Hua Qi's fat face quivered. Accompanied by a ninja wearing an Amegakure headband, he tossed over two banknotes and ordered the caravan to prepare for departure, unwilling to stay even a second longer.

Xian Yu took the banknotes in silence, watching the caravan leave. Black Wind, White Wind—it didn't matter. After being out in the rain for so long, finding a place to wash up and rest was the priority.

"The Black Wind Stronghold!" The lead villager's pupils constricted at the mention, his face turning pale with worry. He said to Xian Yu, "Honorable ninja, the Black Wind Stronghold is the largest bandit force in this area. They have hundreds of men, and rumor has it their leader was once a powerful ninja. I never imagined we would be targeted by them. After so many of them died here today, they certainly won't let this go."

Hearing this, Shinozaki Ayumi grew serious and quickly asked, "Sir, do you know where the Black Wind Stronghold is located?"

One had to understand that if a battle involving ninjas were classified by mission rank, it would be at least a B-rank mission.

And the two of them—one was still a student at the Ninja Academy, and the other wasn't even a registered ninja. While their strength wasn't lacking, they lacked extensive combat experience.

As they spoke, they followed the villagers into the village, and the two were brought to the home of the lead villager.

It was the largest courtyard in the village, consisting of five or six thatched huts. As they entered, they saw an old man leaning on a cane standing at the entrance of the main house.

"The Black Wind Stronghold is on the mountain behind the Great Warm Valley." After the lead villager finished speaking, he hurried over to the old man to report what had happened.

Seeing this, Xian Yu pulled Ayumi to the edge of the eaves and took off his raincoat and conical hat.

"Meimei, we've been in the rain for so long; have some rice wine to warm up." As he spoke, Xian Yu pulled a new flask from his pocket.

"It's a bit sweet." Ayumi hesitated, uncorked it, and took a small sip, a blush immediately creeping onto her pretty face.

"Thank you both for saving our Yangxi Village. I am the village chief, and this is my son, Hosaka Takashi, who brought you here. We plan to send someone to Konoha to hire ninjas to wipe out these bandits, but in the meantime, if the Black Wind Stronghold attacks, our village's able-bodied men alone won't be able to stop them. Would you be willing to be hired to help us protect the village?"