Chapter 6:
I noticed it when I got closer to them, but these were truly the bottom of the barrel when it came to bandits. They were not organized at all. Half of them weren’t wearing shoes and none of them actually had any proper weapons. They were wielding rusty farm tools to fight against the samurai, relying completely on their much higher numbers. I also noticed that these men had accents that didn’t sound like they came from the Land of Fire. That explained why they were dumb enough to attack people on the main road that connected Konoha to the Fire Capital.
They also didn’t have any proper lookouts. They were all focused on assaulting the carriage the samurai were desperately protecting. There was also so much shouting and jeeing that they couldn’t hear my approach either.
I sprinted forwards while gripping my Katana as tightly as possible. All the bandits had their backs to me, so I simply picked the one who was closest as my target. I got directly behind the man and thrust my katana as hard as I could. That was when I discovered how squishy a human could be. I was shocked by how easily my sword slid into the man’s back! There was hardly any resistance at all.
My attack was so sudden that it took a moment for the man to properly register that he had been run through. He halted his jeering and stared down at the blade sticking out of his chest for a few seconds. Only after that did the screaming truly start. The bandit let out an infernal wail of agony. He started thrashing and jerking violently, only making the wound much worse. He thrashed around so much that I almost lost my grip on my Katana.
Thankfully, I managed to hold on until his crazed thrashing stopped. When the bandit slumped to his knees, I finally ripped my Katana backward. The blade was completely dyed red, drenched in blood. I felt vomit rise in my throat at the sight…
I covered my mouth with one hand and immediately swallowed the bile back down. I couldn't afford to lose my breakfast right now!
A steady pool of blood had built up underneath the bandit. I must have hit something important, because I didn’t think a person could bleed out that quickly otherwise. He died so easily.
‘I just killed a man…’ I thought to myself. I realized that’s what tends to happen when you stab someone in the back, but the severity of the situation only really started to register once I took a good look at the unmoving body in front of me. I leapt head on into a battle to the death between two groups and I couldn't back out now.
*+100 XP!*
*Achievement Unlocked: First Kill! +1,000 XP!*
*You have reached Level 2!*
*You have been rewarded +1 Perk Point and +1 Stat Point!*
The bandit’s initial screams were loud enough to alert the others around him that something was wrong. One of them spun around to find out what was wrong. He was taken aback when they found me standing over the corpse of one of their own.
“Shit! There's a ninja here!” the toothless bandit shouted, brandishing a rusted pitchfork. His outburst drew even more attention. Soon, ten bandits broke off from the main group attacking the samurai and turned to face me.
“You won't stop us, ninja bitch. That woman inside the carriage is our ticket to the good life!” one of the bandits snarled. This one didn’t even have a proper weapon, he was just holding a large stick.
“She’s just some stupid little girl! Kill her quickly so we can finish off the samurai!” another one spat, glaring at me hatefully.
“Wait a minute! She’s a pretty one. Let’s have some fun with her before we gut her.” A third bandit licked his lips while eyeing me.
A shiver of disgust ran through me at his words. That emotion was soon replaced with nervousness. Most bandits didn’t know how to use chakra, but a ten-on-one fight was definitely beyond me. If I faced them in my current state, then I would for sure be killed…or worse.
Thankfully, the Ninja System threw out a miracle in the form of that achievement. It had given me enough XP to reach Level 2, granting me a Stat Point and a Perk Point. They were my salvation.
I shifted my katana to my left hand and quickly waved my right in front of my face, pulling up the System Menu.
“What’s she doing, waving her hand around like that?” one of the bandits asked, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
“Watch out! She’s about to cast some kind of Jutsu! Ninjas wave their hands around before they do that!”
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“Shit! Back away from her!” They all hesitated, retreating slightly.
I took advantage of their paranoia. Their collective hesitation gave me just enough time to click on Tech Perks and select Almost Lethal, the perk I had been saving up for. I clicked on it and hit purchase. I then closed that window and glanced at my main Stats. I wanted to save up my Stat Points for when grinding eventually got a lot harder, but I couldn't afford to be stingy in this situation. I clicked on Body and raised it to Rank 3!
I immediately felt the changes surge through my being. I could feel my muscles tighten even more all over my body. I felt stronger, faster, just better in general. I felt like I had grown twice as strong when Body reached Rank 2, and now I felt like that a second time. That wasn't the only change though. I grit my teeth as a bunch of information suddenly appeared at the forefront of my brain. The information dump gave me the mother of all migraines, but the knowledge was worth it. The Perk Almost Lethal granted me basic knowledge in Taijutsu, Kenjutsu and Shurikenjutsu.
I glanced down at the bloodied katana in my hands and let out a slight chuckle, despite the situation. With my newfound knowledge, I realized how foolish I must have looked with my previous sword stance. I shifted my feet, centered my balance, and adjusted my grip on the hilt, bringing the blade in front of me. I wasn’t defenseless anymore, I actually knew what I was doing.
No more words were needed. I took a deep breath, steeling myself. There was no running away from this.
“She was just trying to scare us! She probably doesn’t know how to use any Ninja magic, she’s too young!” one of the men called out.
“Let's get her!” The toothless bandit, wielding the pitchfork, screamed and ran forward ahead of all of the others. I think he was expecting them to charge at me with him, but none of them did. Before he realized that fact, he was already directly in front of me. He lunged towards me and tried to run my torso through with his pitchfork!
He wouldn't succeed. I could feel my chakra flowing through my newly enhanced muscles. With a swift motion, I raised my katana and deflected his pitchfork to the side. The toothless bandit’s eyes widened in disbelief when he realized he failed to hit me with his suicidal charge!
I didn't give him the opportunity to try again. There were far too many opponents here and mercy was something only the truly strong could afford. I didn’t hesitate. I took a single step forward and swung my blade at his neck. The man didn’t even try to dodge. He still had a look of disbelief on his face when his head fell off his shoulders. I quickly hopped backward to avoid the spray of blood, but a few drops still managed to splash on my new outfit.
It was a fucked up, but I was actually more upset about the fact that I was getting blood all over my brand new equipment, instead of the fact that that a man just tried to kill me. I hoped Konoha had good dry cleaning services because I don’t think what I was wearing was machine washable. I think this world's casual nonchalance with death was starting to get to me…or it was probably just the adrenaline.
*+100 XP!*
I glanced at the latest notification. I missed it the first time because I was focused on the achievement, but the System gave me 100 XP for each bandit kill. So much for not being able to put a value on human life…
“Fuck! We can't fight her one at a time! We have to fight her together or she'll kill us all! Even a baby ninja is dangerous!” Another bandit stepped up now that the previous leader of their small detachment had just lost a few inches of height. Surprisingly, it was the guy carrying the stick. He took a couple wide steps and ran around to my right.
This time, the others actually followed someone’s lead. A few bandit’s ran to my left and a few others went wide to circle behind me. I watched them all closely as they surrounded me in a haphazard circle.
“You’re going to die now, bitch! There’s nowhere for you to run.” one of them taunted me. It was the creep who from earlier who wanted to “have some fun” with me.
It was decided, I was killing him first. I checked my Chakra Points and saw that I was down to half. I could fight at superhuman levels for about a minute and a half before I got hit by exhaustion. I’d have to make that time count.
I crouched down before leaping as high as I could. With Body at Rank 3, that turned out to be around 20 feet in the air. I easily leapt clear out of the circle they had trapped me in and landed behind the lecherous bandit!
“Fuck!” The only thing he could do was curse before my Katana lashed out and slashed at his unprotected torso. As it turned out, rags weren’t exactly blade resistant. I don’t know the circumstances that drove all these men to become bandits, but I couldn’t hold back even if it turned out they were just desperate and down on their luck–which I doubted to be the case because they all had foreign accents.
*+100 XP!*
“Get her!” “Avenge Takero!”
I laid claim to another life by the time the other bandits charged at me collectively. Three of them reached me at the same time. I blocked a rusted machete with my Katana and kicked out with my heel to stop another man from tackling me. He stumbled backward, clutching his stomach in agony. The third man was their newest leader. He swung his stick at my head.
I raised my armored left arm to block the hit. I grit my teeth in pain when the blow connected with my forearm. The armor stopped any serious damage, but I was going to have a nasty bruise on my forearm later.
“Just go down, already!” he complained loudly.
I glared at him. “You first!”
I parried away the other man’s machete and rapidly swung my sword sideways. The leader tried to imitate me and raised his own arm to stop my sword. Clearly, no one had ever told him the difference between a stick and a Katana. Even swinging with only a single hand, my attack had enough momentum to completely sever his lower arm. Even more blood spurted on me as the man stumbled backward clutching his bloody stump.
That’s when I made a mistake. I focused so much on those three bandits, that I forgot about the others. I barely caught a glance of an arrow flying through the air before it slammed into my chest. My armor stopped it from penetrating, but I found myself gasping for air and stumbling back myself.
The bandit with the machete took the opportunity to rush at me with his weapon raised above his head. My eyes widened as he started to bring the weapon down on me. I wasn’t going to be able to parry this time!
“DYNAMIC ENTRY!”
A green blur suddenly appeared between us and slammed into the bandit with so much force that he was sent flying backward over 50 feet!
“Kasumi! Are you ok!?” Another person landed right next to me. If I wasn’t gasping for air, I would have sighed in relief when I realized it was Suki.
Her entire team was with her. Might Guy had been the one to save me. Before I could catch my breath and thank him, he was already rocketing forwards to deal with the other nearby bandits.
Rock Lee and Neji both followed his example. The remaining bandits around us were defeated by the trio in a matter of seconds. Suki stayed next to me to make sure I was alright.
“I–I'm ok, Suki. I just got the wind knocked out of me…” I could finally breathe again. “What are you doing here? I thought your team went off to fight some bandits?”
“These are those bandits,” Suki said with a grimace. “By the time we reached their base, it was already empty. Neji tracked them down with his Byakugan. Thankfully we made it in time! Come one, we still have to help those Samurai fight off the rest!” With that said, Suki launched herself into the remaining enemies along with her team.
I picked up my sword and joined them. I didn’t take down nearly as many enemies as they each did, but I managed to net myself another 400 XP by the end of the fight.