Madman! Demon!

"Brothers! That guy's dressed head to toe in expensive stuff. We can definitely squeeze plenty of money out of him!"

The burly man in yellow pointed at Terada Yusuke among Team 8. A strip of white cloth was tied around his right arm, and behind him stood a group of men of varying builds, all with white cloth tied around their right arms as well.

Uchiha Mo frowned slightly. Although chaos had been the norm in the Land of Rain before Nagato took power, this was still far too outrageous. The three of them had only entered the Land of Rain less than half a day ago.

Yet the three members of Team 8 grew excited at the sight of the bandits, each scrambling to rush forward.

"Don't fight me for them!" Asuma charged ahead at the front, intending to turn his grief and indignation into strength.

The three youngsters swiftly became entangled with the bandits, but Uchiha Mo's attention was elsewhere. His eyes narrowed slightly as he activated Clairvoyance. His vision instantly pierced through layer after layer of obstruction and began scanning the area.

As his view shifted, a village quickly came into Mo's sight. With a slight focus of his attention, the village's exact appearance immediately became clear.

Inside the village, severed limbs and heads lay everywhere. The streets were piled with male corpses wearing terrified expressions, their bodies mangled beyond recognition, as well as half-naked female corpses with venomous looks on their faces. The already dilapidated streets had been soaked in black blood, as though covered by a dark-red filter.

Uchiha Mo frowned slightly and searched more carefully.

None of the corpses bore any obvious signs that pointed to the killers, which meant the villagers had been completely unable to resist when they died.

Besides that, every corpse had been piled in the streets, while the houses were all empty... Mo immediately thought of looting. Yet when he turned his gaze toward the interiors of the houses, he found that although there were signs of ransacking, the valuables had not been completely cleared out.

The more closely he looked, the deeper Uchiha Mo's confusion became.

In the time it took him to investigate, the bandits before them had all been subdued by the three members of Team 8. They lay on the ground, either howling in pain or unconscious.

Asuma stood among them with a smug smile on his face. Kurenai Yuhi and Hayate Gekko were also flushed, visibly excited.

But the next moment, a voice rang out. It was like a basin of icy water dumped over them in the dead of winter, thoroughly extinguishing everyone's excitement.

"What are you waiting for? If you don't kill them, are you waiting for them to go harm someone else?"

Mo's expression was cold, and Kurenai and the other two instantly panicked.

"Kill... kill them?"

"Use your kunai to slit their throats and pierce their hearts. Do I need to teach you how to do that too?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, their faces turned pale. Looking at the groaning bandits on the ground, their bodies began to tremble slightly.

"D-Don't kill me! Times are hard. I could only survive by coming out to rob people—I had no choice!"

When one bandit saw Kurenai turn her gaze toward him, he immediately pleaded in terror.

Kurenai trembled as she turned her head, looking at Uchiha Mo with a hint of helplessness in her eyes. Mo's expression remained cold. His black eyes were like an abyss, revealing not the slightest trace of pity.

Meeting Mo's icy gaze, Kurenai's heart abruptly seized. After a long while, she bit down on her lower lip and turned back around. Her expression hardened as she gritted her teeth, shut her eyes, and fiercely drove her kunai toward the bandit's chest!

"I'm sorry!"

"Aah—!"

The sensation of the kunai entering flesh felt disturbingly right. It was unlike training or ordinary combat; there was just the right amount of resistance, as though this kunai had been made to stab into someone's heart.

A warm sensation splashed against her face. Kurenai knew it was blood—the warmth of life. She squeezed her eyes shut with all her strength, not daring to leave even the slightest gap, as though terrified of seeing the scene before her.

Thus, she failed to notice that, in her panic, the kunai had not struck precisely into the bandit's heart. It had missed by roughly half a centimeter.

The intense pain stirred the bandit's ferocity. Ignoring the aches in his body, he suddenly grabbed the steel blade beside him and swung it at Kurenai's head!

Clang!

The sound of weapons colliding exploded beside her ear. Kurenai opened her eyes in terror and saw Uchiha Mo standing at her side. The ninja blade at his waist was partially drawn, firmly blocking the steel blade beside her face.

He raised his left foot and stomped hard on the bandit's arm. The bandit let out a scream, dropping the steel blade, and then his entire right arm hung limply at his side.

Uchiha Mo glanced at the stunned Kurenai, then drew the steel blade from his waist and held it out before her.

"Take this blade. Open your eyes and cut off his head."

As soon as he spoke, Kurenai's body shook and her face became even paler, utterly bloodless. She raised her ruby-like eyes, mist clouding her sockets. Her face was haggard as she looked at Mo almost pleadingly.

However, Mo remained in the same posture, without the slightest emotion on his face.

"Follow my orders, leave Team 8, or give up on becoming a ninja."

At those words, Kurenai bit her lower lip again. Only when a trace of blood slid from her lips, dripped down her smooth pale chin, and fell onto the dirt did she take the ninja blade from Mo's hand with trembling breaths.

"N-No! I was wrong! I'll never dare do it again! I shouldn't have tried to ambush you! I'll never rob anyone again, I—"

"..."

The blade was swift. Kurenai did not even use chakra to reinforce her body; with her own strength alone, she easily cut it off.

Looking at the terrified head, Kurenai's face turned white as paper. A powerful wave of nausea suddenly surged into her heart like a savage beast, and she could no longer endure it.

"Ugh—"

Beside her, Asuma and Hayate Gekko, who had watched the entire time, were equally pale and frozen in place. Only when Uchiha Mo turned his gaze toward them did they abruptly snap out of it. They hurriedly shut their eyes and thrust their kunai into the hearts of the bandits before them, afraid Mo would give them the same treatment.

"D-Don't... don't kill—"

"Spare me! I still have an elderly mother and a child who need—"

The kunai entered flesh, and the voices stopped.

Mo nodded slightly. "Not bad. Next, kill all the remaining bandits."

"What?!" Asuma and Hayate Gekko cried out in unison.

"Kill every last one of them?" Asuma's voice trembled, and even his breathing grew heavy without him noticing.

Mo frowned slightly. "I don't want to repeat myself a second time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Asuma could no longer hold back. Perhaps his fear had reached its limit and his emotions had boiled over; he even forgot his fear of Uchiha Mo and shouted furiously, "They're just ordinary people! Even if they're bandits, do you really need to kill them all? You're a lunatic! A demon!"