Little Devil

The reflection of the sharp blade flashed across Yuehua Ai's eyes, and the bandits, who had been kneeling and begging for mercy, suddenly erupted into action.

"Brothers, grab him! If we don't, we're all going to die here today!" shouted the bandit named Kazuma. As the group's strategist, he knew that begging was futile the moment Yuehua Ai pointed out the rock thicket outside.

No one knew better than they did what their group had done. Thinking back to the wanton torture and humiliation they had inflicted on those women, he knew that even the most soft-hearted person could never let them go.

Since there was no way out, they had to fight for their lives. Fortunately, the boy was foolish enough to send the others away. If they could capture this brat alive and use him as a hostage, they might just have a glimmer of hope.

When Yahiko and the others had attacked earlier, they hadn't struck with lethal intent. Despite the blood, the injuries were mostly superficial, far from breaking bones or causing permanent damage. After overcoming the initial shock, the bandits had regained most of their mobility.

The most severely injured among them was their leader, Tōkichi; the kunai Yuehua Ai had driven into his right chest had nearly killed him. In truth, if not for the fact that Yahiko and the others needed to undergo a psychological process of adaptation and change, that strike would have pierced his heart.

Ninjas were ninjas, after all. Even as children, their strength far exceeded that of ordinary people. After being brutally suppressed by the boys, the bandits knew they were no match for them. Facing four young ninjas, they naturally dared not act rashly, and even after Yuehua Ai exposed their crimes, their despair left them too terrified to resist.

They had been prepared to bow their heads for the execution, but a turn of events occurred at the last moment. To satisfy his own curiosity, the boy had left only the youngest one behind to guard them.

Although the seemingly harmless and deceptive little boy had demonstrated undeniable strength, the bandits' intense desire to survive surged once more. At the end of the day, he was just a brat. His skills were impressive, but they now held the numerical advantage.

With so many of them, could they really not subdue this child who looked no older than five or six?

If they missed this chance, they were truly dead!

Hmph!

Watching the bandits charge forward with ferocious expressions, Yuehua Ai sneered again.

"Rat-Snake-Tiger!" His hands moved with lightning speed, his fingers tracing illusions in the air. In less than a second, Yuehua Ai completed the hand seals.

"Clone Technique! Poof!"

Five puffs of ninja smoke exploded instantly. When the smoke cleared, six identical figures stood in a row before the bandits.

"Damn it, it's a clone..."

"There are so many, which one is the real one?"

The charging bandits slammed on their brakes. The men who had been brandishing weapons with crazed looks now glanced left and right, their composure crumbling into panic as they stared at the six indistinguishable figures.

"As expected, they have absolutely no experience fighting ninjas," Yuehua Ai muttered, curling his lip. This reaction was exactly as he had anticipated. Even if ordinary thugs knew a bit of common knowledge about ninjas, they lacked the practical experience to face one.

A basic clone technique like his, which only created afterimages without physical substance, was easy to see through. Since the caster couldn't move easily while maintaining it, one could simply throw a rock to identify the real body. It was merely a minor distraction technique; breaking it was simple for anyone who knew how.

Anyone with a slight understanding of ninjas would know how to dispel it, but looking at the bandits, who were scurrying about like headless flies, it was clear they lacked such awareness.

Facing over a dozen bandits alone, Yuehua Ai didn't dare to be careless, despite the disdain on his face. He had only begun his ninja training a year ago. While his progress was significant, he was nowhere near the level where he could ignore a swarm of enemies.

Currently, the four of them focused primarily on the Three Body Technique and had yet to learn offensive ninjutsu from Jiraiya. In combat, they relied mostly on taijutsu and shurikenjutsu.

At their current stage, shurikenjutsu was the most effective tool against ordinary people, but unfortunately, Yuehua Ai had already thrown his two shuriken earlier. Because the boys lived in a remote area, obtaining ninja tools was no easy task.

The tools they were currently using were those Jiraiya had carried with him. During training, Yuehua Ai had only been allotted one kunai and two shuriken.

With his shuriken gone and his only kunai still embedded in the leader's chest, Yuehua Ai was effectively unarmed. To deal with the aggressive bandits, he could only rely on taijutsu and the Three Body Technique.

Yuehua Ai was quite agile and had good reflexes, but he was still young, and his physical limitations were set. No matter how high his aptitude, his taijutsu couldn't yet match Yahiko's.

Furthermore, using taijutsu meant engaging in close-quarters combat. While the bandits were ordinary people and couldn't outmatch him in speed or strength, there were simply too many of them. As the saying went, two fists couldn't fight four hands. In a real battle, the enemies wouldn't take turns attacking like the cannon fodder in the movies and anime of his past life. If a dozen blades came at him from all directions, even Yahiko would be in trouble, let alone him.

He couldn't let them surround him. To ensure his safety, he had to divide and conquer.

When he decided to stay behind alone, Yuehua Ai had already considered the bandits' likely reactions and devised a strategy. That was why, the moment the bandits lost their patience, he had used the Clone Technique to disrupt their formation.

"Don't panic, everyone! Only the real body can attack! Let's all charge together!"

There were, after all, clever people among the bandits. Seeing that Yuehua Ai's clones didn't take the initiative to attack, Xiangyuan guessed the truth.

Yuehua Ai, hidden among the clones, remained motionless. Even if they figured out the nature of his jutsu, they still couldn't tell which one was the real body at a glance.

He had lined the clones up specifically to prevent the bandits from surrounding him. With six figures in total, the bandits were forced to attack all of them simultaneously.

Since there were only eleven of them, the pressure was distributed; Yuehua Ai's real body would only have to face two or three bandits at most. By the time they identified his true location, the situation would be entirely different.

Because the clones were spaced out, the bandits were forced to scatter.

Seeing a fishing trident thrust toward him, Yuehua Ai's eyes narrowed, and his body moved in an instant.

"Slap!" Yuehua Ai sidestepped, grabbed the shaft of the trident, and stepped forward, planting his foot against the attacker's toes.

With a swift pull, the man lost his balance and fell backward toward Yuehua Ai. Just as the first bandit was about to hit the ground, another bandit who had been moving with him swung a machete.

The cold glint of the blade was chilling, but Yuehua Ai, facing the impending strike, felt no fear.

As a ninja, the most prominent advantages in taijutsu compared to ordinary people, besides strength, were speed and reaction time.

Yuehua Ai grabbed the collar of the falling bandit. Using his own toes as a pivot point and extending his arm, he used the force of the bandit's momentum to tilt his own body even faster.

In a split second, Yuehua Ai's body was at a thirty-degree angle to the ground, and the bandit he had grabbed was now positioned as a shield in front of him.

"Ah!"

Blood splattered!

The bandit above Yuehua Ai screamed as his companion's machete, unable to be stopped in time, buried itself deep into his shoulder blade.

Because he was light on his feet, Yuehua Ai used the bandit he was holding as a pivot, spinning his body in a semicircle. The centrifugal force allowed him to regain his footing, while the bandit who had held the trident had already collapsed, his weapon falling into Yuehua Ai's hands.

Without hesitation, Yuehua Ai thrust the trident into the belly of the bandit with the machete.

Another shrill scream echoed as the man collapsed and writhed on the ground, looking exactly like a large fish caught by a fisherman!

The two bandits fell to the ground in the span of a single breath. As Yuehua Ai pulled his machete from the shoulder of his opponent, the afterimages left behind by his shadow clone technique were slashed apart and vanished one after another.

"Bastard! Kill this brat!" Seeing two of their own fall in an instant, the remaining bandits were filled with a mix of rage and terror.

With a weapon in hand, Yuehua Ai felt even more composed. He brandished the machete in a provocative gesture. The cave was spacious enough that, given his speed, he had no fear of being swarmed as long as he didn't make a mistake and kept up his hit-and-run tactics.

Seeing that they couldn't even take down a child, the group realized that if the other youths returned, they would have no chance at all. Faced with a life-or-death choice, the bandits' eyes turned bloodshot.

"Kill him!" The group of bandits charged with their weapons raised.

The enemy came on aggressively, but Yuehua Ai didn't care; in his eyes, this was simply an excellent opportunity for real combat.

He could see they were desperate, but Yuehua Ai had no intention of getting tangled up with them. He struck and retreated, wounding when he could and killing when he could, his small figure leaping constantly throughout the cavern.

In less than twenty breaths, four more bandits had fallen to his blade. Of the four, three were severely wounded, while the last one had his throat slit by a single strike; watching him twitch on the ground, it was clear he was breathing his last.

A faint scent of blood began to permeate the vast interior of the mountain. Seeing that more than half of their number had fallen to this little devil in such a short time, the remaining few bandits trembled and dared not step forward again.

The remaining bandits stopped their pursuit and huddled together. Yuehua Ai watched them, showing no intention of taking the initiative to attack.

Dealing with five people at once was still dangerous; not only could he get hurt if he wasn't careful, but he also wanted to save them for Yahiko and the others.

In Yuehua Ai's eyes, these guys were not just bandits who deserved to die, but also training materials that could help Yahiko and the others grow rapidly!

The two sides stood in a silent standoff, illuminated by the firelight. Aside from the flickering flames, the only sound in the cave was the low groaning of the severely wounded bandits.

The scent of blood lingered in Yuehua Ai's nostrils, and the machete in his hand was stained thick with gore. Once he stopped moving, Yuehua Ai felt a sticky sensation on his face; he knew it was the blood of the bandits that had splattered onto him. Not just his face, but his entire body was covered in bloodstains, and his right hand, which held the blade, was dyed a vivid crimson.

The bandit lying at his feet clutched his throat weakly, his face filled with pain and terror. The soil beneath him turned a reddish-brown in the firelight, and though his body still twitched feebly, his life force was rapidly fading away.

Yuehua Ai caught a glimpse of the man's eyes as they began to glaze over, and his heart couldn't help but tremble. That look—helpless and desperate—was so similar to the women he had sensed outside earlier.

Yuehua Ai felt a sense of melancholy, but he felt no regret for his actions.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; this had been his principle for conducting himself throughout his two lifetimes.

Just as Yuehua Ai was momentarily distracted, the remaining five bandits seized the opportunity and bolted toward the cave entrance.

Run! This little devil was too terrifying. It was hard to say how he compared to his companions in terms of raw strength, but when it came to ruthlessness, the three other youths combined probably couldn't hold a candle to him.

Gone was any thought of taking the others hostage; the bandits only wanted to escape now, to get as far away as possible.

Fear drove them on. They no longer cared about their remaining companions, each scrambling to be the first to flee.

The formation of the five men scattered instantly. They didn't care if they would be picked off one by one; they only wanted to muster all their strength to reach the front, praying as they ran that the companions trailing behind would slow the little devil down.