A Fierce Dragon Crosses the River

Land of Frost, Fangchain Mountain.

The mountains rose like teeth, straight and razor-sharp, their peaks linked by iron chains. In the depths of winter, the chains were coated in frost, impassable even for birds.

Kawamoto Seiichiro tightened his cotton coat and huddled behind a large boulder, unable to stop stamping his feet.

Bandits established themselves through violence, so naturally, they could not value loyalty and brotherhood like in legendary novels. Their ranks were strictly hierarchical. Though Kawamoto Seiichiro was strong and sturdy, he had only recently joined, so he could only stand watch in the wind and snow.

"Standing watch... what the hell am I watching for? Those bastards are inside eating and drinking while I'm stuck out here..." Kawamoto Seiichiro muttered angrily.

The cold wind howled. Kawamoto Seiichiro shivered and stomped his feet hard.

Damn it... what kind of idiot could climb Fangchain Mountain in weather like this? Better find somewhere to hide... have a drink to warm up...

Still grumbling, he stood up, intending to sneak into the building and find something to eat. They were bandits, after all. They had rules, but nowhere near the discipline of a regular army. Leaving one's post during a night watch was perfectly normal.

However, just as Kawamoto Seiichiro straightened up and instinctively looked beyond the mountain peak, he froze as if struck by lightning. He could not believe what he saw—

In the heavy snowfall beneath the deep night sky, a figure had abruptly appeared in midair. He stood atop the iron chain connecting the peaks, utterly unconcerned by the freezing, slippery metal beneath his feet. With terrifying balance and control over his body, he walked across the bottomless abyss as though on level ground.

Kawamoto Seiichiro rubbed his eyes, thinking the cold had made him stupid and caused him to hallucinate.

He rubbed his eyes hard with both hands. When he lowered them again, the figure on the chain was gone.

Then it appeared before him.

"Fangchain Mountain? It really is an excellent place to defend and difficult to attack."

The young man's clear voice was the last thing Kawamoto Seiichiro heard.

Bang!

Hyuga Yuto lightly pressed a hand against the burly bandit's chest, effortlessly destroying all his internal organs. His heart stopped at once, and he died instantly.

The branch family youth shoved the bandit's corpse aside, put on a conical hat, and concealed his face.

Then, with a kunai in each hand, he calmly walked deeper into the bandits' den.

The main peak of Fangchain Mountain was the bandits' lair. Whoever had built it must have been a fairly learned man. It imitated the structure of an ant nest, with main passages and side routes. Even if a powerful enemy attacked, the bandit leader could calmly retreat through a hidden tunnel below.

That was, provided he had the time.

Hyuga Yuto killed too quickly.

After taking out the sentry, he traveled barely a hundred meters before reaching the entrance to the bandits' den.

Without a word, the Byakugan's perception proved to be a devastating weapon on such a snowy night. Three kunai sank into the guards' heads almost simultaneously, shearing off half their skulls before they could make a sound.

Then the one-sided slaughter began.

Inside the warm mountain, the bandits drank and laughed as they shared the spoils from the past few days. Every one of them carried the stench of blood. Some wore clothes stained a vivid red with blood. Of course, that dried blood was not theirs. In truth, they did not even know whose it was. Arson, murder, robbery, and plunder were things bandits did every day. Who had the patience to remember the poor wretches who died beneath their blades?

Then, suddenly, cold wind swept inside. The gates were blasted apart by an external force, and the thick iron-plated wooden doors shattered into splinters.

None of the bandits could see who had attacked them. All they saw were jets of blood bursting into the air.

The attacker moved as swiftly as lightning. Every strike was clean, ruthless, and decisive. A quick thrust could shatter a bandit's neck, bones, tendons, internal organs, muscles... Every defense the body possessed was useless, left only to be ravaged beneath an irresistible force. Severed limbs carpeted the ground, and blood flowed like a river.

This was a world that belonged to ninja.

The name of that great power was "chakra"!

Before a Hidden Leaf Village jonin, even the fiercest bandits were as fragile as tofu.

Wood splinters from the gates danced in the cold wind. Before they could touch the ground, every bandit on that level was dead.

Then Hyuga Yuto kicked open the second wooden door.

Expressionless, he drove onward like a nail piercing a block of tofu. After turning that floor into a bloody hell, he descended again.

The third floor, the fourth floor, the fifth floor...

The slaughter was that simple. Hyuga Yuto encountered no resistance until the final floor.

Clang—

Hyuga Yuto looked up in surprise at the burly man who had blocked one of his strikes before being sent flying.

"Oh... a ninja?"

The bandit leader gasped for breath, feeling as though his wrist were about to break. Terror filled his face.

"M-my lord! Please spare me! We've already paid taxes to the Land of Frost..."

Oh? Officials colluding with bandits? Hyuga Yuto shook his head and closed in again. He did not use Gentle Fist. Instead, he relied on the Byakugan's perception and his solid physical abilities, fighting at close range with kunai in hand.

Having killed too many people, the edges of both kunai had become chipped and jagged, like a shark's teeth.

The bandit leader struggled desperately to defend himself, but blood soon began to seep from his body.

"My lord! Please spare me..."

"How disgraceful. A ninja should charge down the path he chose until the day he dies. When you led this rabble to gather in the mountains, setting fires and killing people, you should have expected this day... This is the ninja way you chose."

"My lord! No! I... I can still be useful! I stole a lot of money, this money..."

"Once all of you are dead, that money will be mine." Hyuga Yuto spoke calmly, but then seemed to think of something. He broke into a smile. "Oh... right. There is indeed one thing I need your help with."

Hearing this, the bandit leader was overjoyed. But before he could say anything, he saw the other man's speed suddenly explode. He nearly turned into an afterimage. As the kunai flashed, all the tendons in the bandit leader's wrists and ankles were severed.

Then a palm glowing with a pearly white radiance shot forward and slammed into the bandit leader's face.

The next moment, the bandit leader could no longer see anything.

"AAAAAAAH—MY EYES! AAAAAAAH—!"

Overwhelmed by excruciating pain and the terror of blindness, the bandit leader completely broke down. He screamed and rolled about, just like the people he had once tortured to death.

Amid boundless fear, the bandit leader faintly heard the voice of that powerful enemy.

The voice was calm and steady, as gentle as an old friend reminiscing.

"The muscles around the eyeballs were cut beautifully, but the corneas were damaged, and the fluid inside leaked out... Hmm? As expected of a ninja, you instinctively covered your eyes with chakra to resist the medical ninjutsu I used, resulting in the complete destruction of the optic nerves..."

"To sum up... these two eyes are unusable."

"My hands are fast enough, but not steady enough. My chakra control needs to be even more precise."

"But it's fine. This was only practice... There will be plenty more opportunities in the future."

"The lessons learned from this failure will surely be put to use next time."

Bang!

In the next instant, the bandit leader's head flew from his body, and the eyes taken from him were casually tossed aside.

The bandits were completely exterminated.

(End of Chapter)