Pitiful Mountain Bandits

"Finally, I've left the village."

Kushina skipped ahead, a smile on her face; ever since arriving in Konoha, she had never once stepped outside the village.

Mikoto was also curiously looking around, as if everything were incredibly novel.

"I'm telling you both, the further you get from the village, the more dangerous it becomes. Don't you dare let your guard down."

Tsunade warned Kushina and Mikoto.

Most ninjas died from carelessness; one had to cultivate a habit of constant caution.

"Oh."

Kushina ran back and, seeing Shin lost in thought, nudged him before asking, "Shin, are you still thinking about that guy?"

"Yeah, it's impossible not to care at all."

Shin nodded. At that moment, he was contemplating how to take out Dan Katō. Since the guy had shown malice toward him, he was clearly an enemy.

When dealing with an enemy, one must naturally nip the threat in the bud to prevent any future repercussions.

However, there was no opportunity within Konoha. If he were accidentally discovered, his only path would be to defect.

Life in Konoha was quite comfortable, and Shin had no desire to defect; he didn't want to become a wandering rogue ninja.

"Hmm, there are ninjas approaching us."

Shin turned his head and looked back.

Upon hearing this, Tsunade immediately turned to look in the direction of Shin's gaze. Although she hadn't sensed anything, she trusted Shin deeply, as he had already demonstrated strength worthy of her trust.

When he saw the ninjas rapidly approaching them, Shin's expression turned strange. It was actually Dan Katō?

"Jōnin Tsunade, I've finally caught up with you."

Dan Katō arrived with three ninjas in tow and said with a smile.

"Why is Jōnin Katō following us?" Tsunade asked, her gaze unfriendly.

Faced with Tsunade's clearly hostile expression, Dan Katō was thick-skinned enough to act as if he hadn't seen it, smiling as he said, "The Third Hokage sent me to assist you in completing the mission."

"Really?" Tsunade looked at Dan Katō with deep suspicion. With her leading the team, was there any need to send someone to assist with a simple bandit suppression mission?

"We don't need help. You can head back."

Tsunade waved her hand, effectively shooing them away.

At this, a look of difficulty appeared on Dan Katō's face. "My apologies, Jōnin Tsunade, but this is an order from the Third Hokage. I have no way to defy it."

"Tsunade, since it's the Third Hokage's good intentions, let's just accept it. It will just be a bit of extra work for Jōnin Katō," Shin said with a smile, looking at Dan Katō as if he were very welcome.

Tsunade, Kushina, and Mikoto all looked at Shin strangely; they didn't believe for a second that he was genuinely welcoming Dan Katō.

Watching Shin's smile, Dan Katō felt a strange sense of familiarity. Right, isn't this the same kind of smile I use? It was full of insincerity.

"Fine, follow along then, but don't get in our way."

Tsunade glanced at Dan Katō and his group before speaking.

Although she didn't know what Shin was planning, she decided to play along.

"Jōnin Katō, I look forward to working with you," Shin said to Dan Katō with a smile.

"Likewise." Dan Katō wore the exact same smile as Shin.

"Ugh, it feels so fake."

Kushina felt goosebumps rising on her skin, and she wasn't the only one; Tsunade and Mikoto felt the same way.

With Dan Katō and the three Genin he led added to the group, the atmosphere became somewhat awkward, and no one spoke.

Ninjas travel quickly, and within half a day, Shin and the others arrived at their destination: Xitian Village.

"Where are the bandits?" Kushina asked, looking eager to jump into action.

"Not far from Xitian Village. See that mountain? According to the mission intel, they are on that mountain. There are six of them in total, all ordinary people."

"Only six bandits?"

Hearing there were only six, Shin was momentarily stunned. He had assumed there would be dozens.

However, Shin had overthought it. Within the Land of Fire, there weren't that many bandits left, especially since they were frequently killed by ninjas, making them quite a rare sight.

After searching for over half an hour, Shin finally found the group of bandits. He had expected them to have a stronghold, but they were living in a cave—it was incredibly crude.

Moreover, these six guys looked skin and bones. Were they really bandits? Shin suspected they looked more like refugees.

"Are they really bandits? They look so pathetic," Kushina asked skeptically.

"They should be; the intel points to them," Tsunade said, though she wasn't entirely sure herself. If these really were bandits, they were having a truly miserable run of it.

"Big Brother, look, women!"

One of the scrawny men said to the beanpole standing in the center, who was their leader.

"No kidding, I'm not blind. Kill the men and keep the women," the beanpole barked, drawing a rusted blade and charging forward.

"Are they brain-damaged? Can't they see we're ninjas? Do they not see the Ninja Headband?"

Shin muttered, speechless, feeling that even lifting a finger against them was beneath his dignity.

"Mikoto, Kushina, I'll leave them to you two. I believe in you," Shin said to Mikoto and Kushina.

In truth, this mission was primarily to train Mikoto and Kushina; as for Shin, he had already killed ninjas by the time he was five.

Kushina and Mikoto were somewhat nervous. Even though their opponents were clearly weak, they couldn't help but feel tense.

Even Kushina, who had been looking forward to this, didn't know how to act in the moment.

"Kushina, Mikoto, if you two don't act now, I'm going to get hacked to death by this guy."

Watching the bandit leader charging toward him, Shin said to Kushina and Mikoto with a helpless expression.

"Ah?"

Hearing Shin's words, Kushina and Mikoto saw the bandit leader reach his side and raise his blade to strike. Their eyes turned cold, and in a fit of anger, they threw the Kunai in their hands.

Thwip! Thwip!

The bandit leader's eyes widened as one Kunai pierced his throat and the other pierced his heart.

Ignoring the dead bandit leader, Mikoto and Kushina asked Shin, "Shin, are you okay? Why didn't you dodge just now?"

"If I had dodged, who knows how long you two would have hesitated before acting," Shin said, looking at the two girls.

"But that was way too dangerous! What if you had gotten hurt?" Kushina glared at Shin angrily.

"But I didn't get hurt, did I? And do you really think he could have injured me?"

If an ordinary bandit—a malnourished one at that—could actually hurt him, Shin might as well just slit his own throat.

"Besides, you two don't seem scared at all," Shin said with a smile.

Only then did the two girls look at the bandit leader they had killed. Kushina's expression remained steady, but Mikoto's face had turned pale.

Earlier, they had been so concerned about whether Shin was hurt that they hadn't paid attention to the man they had killed. Now that it had sunk in, they felt a bit unsettled.

Kushina was doing better; looking at the corpse, her feelings were merely complicated. After all, when the Uzumaki Clan met its disaster, she had seen things far bloodier than this, though killing someone with her own hands still felt heavy.

Mikoto lacked Kushina's experiences, so she trembled slightly as she looked at the body before her.

Tsunade remained silent, letting them adapt on their own. This was an important step that every ninja had to take.