Chapter 50: Chapter 50 : Raid
In the hideout, Hirota Masa was relaxing. He had joined the bandit group 3 years ago. He had already unlocked his chakra before joining the bandit group. When the leader of the bandits noticed him, he quickly recruited and trained him. Now he was one of the leaders of this group, and even had 2 subordinates who helped him in everything.
As Hiroto Masa was relaxing in a good mood, a hand, with two fingers pointing out, popped from the ground. It headed towards his chest from his back and released a heat ray that penetrated his heart and killed him on the spot. At the same time, Fujin slashed the head off one bandit, and Hoka jabbed two fingers in the chest of the remaining bandit. The raid had begun. All 3 bandits died, without even making a sound.
Fujin, Hoka and Mieko looked at each other and nodded. They separated and headed towards the other rooms. In less than a minute, the rooms on this side were all cleared. They had assassinated 16 bandits, including a ninja. They gathered together again, and looked in the main room. The bandits there were still unaware of the calamity upon them.
As decided, Fujin and Mieko split off in opposite directions, and began clearing the remaining rooms. Hoka, on the other hand, stayed there, and rigged the entrance to the main room with traps, so that the bandits couldn't escape in this direction. He created quicksand at the entrances, and also created a lot of rock spikes around the quicksand trap.
The second ninja bandit was closer to Mieko's location than Fujin's location. Therefore, she was the first one to reach him after she had killed 6 more bandits. Even though Mieko was as stealthy as she could be, the ninja still noticed that something was amiss, and asked his two subordinates to be prepared. As soon as he saw Mieko, who was rushing towards him at a very high speed, he threw a few shurikens to disrupt her. Seeing her enemy throwing shurikens at her, Mieko thought, 'Damn, they noticed.' Mieko used her Sharingan to skillfully dodge the shurikens and thought, 'Oh well, this makes it more fun.' She quickly approached him. To maintain the stealth, she couldn't use any destructive Fire Release jutsus and had to close the distance to use Fire Release : Four jutsu.
She soon reached the appropriate distance and used her jutsu. Her right hand was stretched out, with her middle and index finger pointing towards the rogue ninja's heart and released the ray. Though the rogue ninja didn't know the jutsu Mieko was planning to use, her outstretched fingers warned him and he quickly moved backwards. Mieko followed, but the ninja hid behind one of his subordinates. Mieko screamed internally, 'Coward!' and changed her target. She focused the heat ray on the subordinate and killed him. However, the rogue ninja used this opportunity to throw 3 shurikens on Mieko. Mieko had to dodge quickly due to the small distance. She barely managed to dodge at the last moment.
She recovered, and was about to continue her attack, when a sword pierced through the heart of the ninja from his back. This annoyed Mieko as Fujin had stolen her kill. She said angrily, "I could have killed him by mys..." But a loud scream interrupted her.
Seeing his boss getting stabbed through his heart shocked the remaining bandit. And he yelled in terror. Realising her mistake, Mieko quickly threw a kunai at the bandit and killed him.
Fujin ignored Mieko and focused on the main room. The battle had already created enough noise to attract some attention. And the loud scream had got the attention of all the bandits in the hideout. Fujin sighed and said, "You weren't stealthy enough." Mieko snorted and replied, "Well, it doesn't matter anymore." She began making hand signs. Fujin flickered next to her, and made a hand sign too. At the same time, they released their jutsu, 'Fire-Wind Dragon jutsu'.
In the main room, the bandits were busy with sorting their recent loot. Some of the bandits had heard some noises from the side where Mieko was killing the bandits. However it was mostly ignored by them. But soon, a loud scream attracted everyone's attention. The 3 remaining rogue ninjas too were on alert. One of them directed 2 bandits to go in and check what was happening. Those 2 carefully moved towards the exit in that direction. However, right before reaching there, they suddenly felt a lot of heat. But before they could do anything, a dragon head, made of fire, entered the room and engulfed them. They immediately began screaming in pain.
The dragon quickly entered the room completely. The sight of a dragon made of fire scared the bandits stiff. The dragon began spitting Wind Explosion jutsus all over the room. Seeing that, one bandit quickly made hand signs and slammed his hands on the ground, causing a rock shield to be created in front of him. Some of the nearby bandits quickly ran behind that shield.
The Wind Explosion jutsus hit 7 bandits head on. The winds created by the explosion, slashed the throats of 2 bandits, killing them on spot. However, they were much luckier than the ones who didn't die. For the remaining 5, the winds created small cuts all over their bodies. As it was a combination jutsu, the wind was incredibly hot. So, along with the cuts, it also caused low level burns on those bandits. And it was incredibly painful when their cuts were exposed to that hot air. One of those 5 bandits was even more unlucky as he didn't shut his eyes. It resulted in a lot of hot air bombarding his eyes, causing them to burn up. So though the jutsu didn't kill them, they were scarred and in immense pain.
Even the bandits nearby were harmed by the hot wind slashes. However, they could still fight or run. The attack caused panic among the bandits.
Three bandits quickly tried to escape out of the base. They rushed towards the ladder and began climbing it. Unfortunately for them, Hoka was standing just above the exit. Hoka waited for all 3 bandits to be on the ladder, and then made a few hand signs, 'Stone Spear jutsu'. From the walls around the ladder, dozens of spears began appearing. They stabbed all the 3 bandits on the ladder, killing them on spot. It also blocked the access to the ladder for the remaining bandits.
Two bandits ran towards the area which was cleared by Fujin earlier. On sensing the bandits running in that direction, Fujin made a hand sign and waited. As soon as the bandits exited the main room, Fujin exploded the explosion tag he had planted there. That caused the rocks from the ceiling to fall down, and crushed those bandits. It also sealed that exit.
Five bandits ran towards the room where Hiroto Masa was supposed to be. However, as soon as they exited the main room, they fell straight into the quicksand trap. The quicksand Hoka had created had a depth of 4 metres and had covered the entire entrance. All five bandits were trapped there and were slowly sinking in.
Eleven bandits were hiding behind the rock shield created by their leader and eight were still trying to escape in the directions of their fellow bandits. However, they stopped in their tracks after seeing what happened to them. Fujin used this opportunity to make the dragon bombard them with 3 Wind Explosion Jutsus, injuring all eight of them to a certain degree. The dragon then circled around to get a clear shot at the bandits hiding behind the rock. The leader quickly made another rock shield.
Sadly for him, Fujin and Mieko had anticipated it. Instead of bombarding, the dragon circled around more and launched 2 Wind Explosion jutsus in such a manner that they couldn't escape from there. They were surrounded by the rock shields on two sides and Wind Explosion jutsus on the remaining two sides. Only the 3 ninjas managed to jump and move to the other side of the rock shields. The remaining bandits were trapped and took minor injuries. The dragon then moved forward and engulfed all of those bandits. It set all eight of the bandits on fire, but also caused the Fire-Wind Dragon to dissipate.
This assault had incapacitated all the bandits in the hideout, with the exception of the three ninjas. Two among them were novices with no actual experience beyond their banditry. Only the leader had a bit of experience as he was once a genin in the Kusagakure. He had noticed that the jutsu was about to dissipate and said, "Hurry and follow me." He led the remaining two to the entrance from where the dragon had come in. However, on entering, he didn't see anyone there. Instead he saw the dead body of his fellow bandits and one of his ninjas. Seeing him dead alarmed him and he became much more cautious. He said, "Be careful, they might still be around. Let's look for them toge..."
Suddenly he jumped up and looked below. The ground had moved and wanted to trap his feet in it. Even though he dodged, Fujin smirked underground, 'Got them'. He had trapped the other two bandits.
Mieko saw that and appeared at the entrance. She quickly made hand signs, 'Fireball jutsu'. The trapped bandits couldn't dodge and were caught in the explosion. Only the leader managed to dodge. He saw his last two bandits burning with disbelief, 'It's all over... I need to escape.'
He quickly began running away. However, Fujin stealthily launched a shuriken enhanced with chakra flow at his left leg. Distracted by fear and the urgency to escape, the bandit leader didn't notice it. The shuriken hit his left leg from behind, and cut through it like a hot knife through butter. Suddenly losing his left leg made him fall down and cry in pain. Fujin then used Body Flicker jutsu to appear right above him and stab a sword through his heart. The bandit leader died with despair on his face.
Fujin looked at Mieko and said, "Looks like this is over." Mieko asked, "Aren't there a few still alive back in the main room?" Fujin chuckled and said, "Not anymore" and began walking towards the main room. Mieko followed him. In the main room, Hoka had already killed all the bandits who were still alive from the Fire-Wind Dragon's assault.
At that moment, Renjiro too appeared within the main room. He thought, 'Not bad, they killed every last one of them. And they have adjusted to killing well.' He said, "Good work. This mission is successfully completed." He then looked at his team and said, "It's good to see you guys being able to handle the killing very well." The kids nodded. Even though they were still repulsed by the gore around them, they could handle themselves without vomiting.
Renjiro then led his team out of the hideout. He then made the hand seal for an Earth Release jutsu. Fujin quickly stopped him by asking, "Sensei, isn't it a waste to destroy such a good base?" The sudden question stopped Renjiro from destroying the underground base. He asked, "What do you mean?" Fujin replied, "Can't we use this base for our own ninjas?" Renjiro asked, "And how will our ninjas use this base?"
Fujin thought for a few seconds and replied, "Well, they could use it as a base during war. Or they could use it as a temporary resting place or perhaps create an underground supply depot." Renjiro shook his head and said, "The closest hidden village from here is Kusa. And they are allied with us. Even if they weren't, they can't penetrate this deep into the Fire country. If there is any threat, then it'll be Iwa which is beyond Kusa. However, if they are able to penetrate this deep into the Land of Fire, then that base will be useless anyways as the majority of the Iwa ninjas are masters of Earth Release jutsus. They'll just bury all the troops underground. As for supply depots and resting places, there are already sufficient numbers of them. So it is unnecessary too."
Fujin fell in thoughts and realized, 'Yeah, that makes sense. Konoha has been around for decades. Surely their infrastructure would be top notch by now. And surely they'd have identified all the bases over the Land of Fire.' He then nodded to Renjiro, who destroyed the entire hideout.
On the way back to the town, Mieko asked, "Sensei, were they really ninjas? Only one of them used any Ninjutsu, and even that was only a rank E jutsu. They couldn't put up a fight at all." Renjiro answered, "They were just common bandits who had unlocked chakra by accident or luck. Only their leader was probably a former ninja gone rogue. However, he too barely had any proper training. So it wasn't a surprise that he wasn't a match for you guys, who are being trained by me."
Hoka asked in excitement, "Sensei, aren't there bounties on rogue ninjas?" Renjiro shook his head and replied, "Only if they are very famous. Someone who barely qualifies as a genin won't have any bounty at all." That drowned Hoka's excitement. He continued following the squad with his shoulders dropped.
Mieko, who was still stuck on how weak her enemies were, asked, "Sensei, when can we fight real ninjas then?" Renjiro turned his head and stared at her. He thought, 'Nice way of indirectly asking me for rank B missions.' On noticing that Renjiro had noticed her thoughts, Mieko was embarrassed. But she didn't allow that embarrassment to appear on her face. Fujin noticed that and thought, 'Damn, these ninjas are born shameless.' Renjiro smirked and answered, "After you have captured that cat a hundred times."
That answer drained the color off Mieko's face. Hoka glared at her. While Fujin chuckled thinking, 'I guess no one can compete with the older generation in shamelessness.' Mieko then began apologizing to Renjiro and began a funny banter. Sadly for her, she was no match for Renjiro.
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