The team ventured inside the town, the town is small and quite simple, with small square in the center with some stores, small market and the inn, the buildings made from wood and primarily a one-story size. The general atmosphere in the town is quite tense and the people look nervous.

‘Damn, what wrong with all this people? It’s my first time outside Konoha, why is everyone so tense here, is it like that everywhere in the Land of Fire I wonder...’

The group went to the market, it was already past 4pm and there were not a lot of people there, Koichi started to ask questions about the road to the Land of Grass, and how safe it is, the same road where the robberies were committed.

But there no a lot of useful information there, the people in the town are mostly clueless about the bandits, they heard some rumors about the bandits and that’s it. There also seems that prices on the general goods went up recently, and the people are quite worried about it, and there are a lot of people on the brink of poverty in this town.

‘So that how it is, the main road between the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire is the lifeline for this small town, and with how things are with those bandits for the last couple months, it’s had a very negative consequences on the people living here. Why is the noble that is in charge of this place didn’t hired the shinobi earlier I wonder.’

After that Koichi led the team in to the inn. As they entered the two-story building, there was a large open space with tables and the bar counter on the opposite side of the room. Only a few of the tables are occupied with normal-looking civilians, who seemed to be depressed.

Koichi ordered his team to occupy one of the tables and went to the bar counter to talk to the innkeeper. As Yuta and others sat at the table and waited for Koichi, after some time Koichi returned and sat at the table with them, bringing some food and drinks on a tray.

‘That’s a shame that the food is going to waste, Koichi taught us to never eat or drink anything on a mission, that isn’t prepared by us directly.’ Yuta thought while grabbing a one of the cups and pretending to take a sip.

“All that innkeeper knows,” Koichi said to the group, “is that the latest attack on a merchants happened a five days ago, and from our information, the previous attacks happened with the interval of a week or so.”

“That means,” Itachi said, “that we can use our cover to pretend to be a merchants and go through the same road where the previous attacks happen, and with a high chance the bandits will come to us by themselves.”

“Normally that is a good plan” Koichi said, “But we are close to the border, and if there is some rogue shinobi with the bandits, their ambush can turn out quite dangerous.”

“So, what is the plan then?” Hikari asked impatiently, she clearly can’t wait to go in to action.

“The previous bandit attacks happened on the road around a two hours of walk from this town.” Koichi said, “What you guys think we should do?”

“Going through that route in the merchant disguise can lure the bandits out” Yuta said, “We can just create shadow clones and send them as a bait, and we will wait in the shadows.”

”And if that didn’t work,” Itachi added, ”We can search the area for trails, or try to find them with sensory technique.”

“Good, that should do, we can go with that.” Koichi said and glanced at the man who leaving the inn right now. “Well, it seems that someone is spying on us, that man was listening on my conversation with the innkeeper before, and now he watched us with too much attention, he might be with the bandits. Let’s go, we will follow him.”

As Koichi said that the group quickly left the inn and followed the suspicious man while moving stealthily. The suspect went out of the town into the woods and after ten minutes of walking he came to an opening with a small wooden hut. Koichi and his team followed him closely, it’s not that difficult for even a Genin to hide from the normal civilian after all.

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The suspect knocked on the door and went in, Koichi and his team went closer to the single window of the wooden hut, trying to hear what was going on inside.

“Wataru, what is it, why are you here?” A middle-aged male voice sounded rudely from the hut.

“There is a new group of four traveling merchants in the town, looks like they will go to the Land of Grass soon, probably in the morning, I overheard the conversation of the merchants leader in the inn” A slightly different excited male voice sounded from the hut.

Upon hearing that, Koichi got the confirmation he needed and immediately signaled Yuta and Hikari to surround the area, and for Itachi to follow him. After that he went directly inside with Itachi, some screaming and loud sounds can be heard for a moment, and then everything went quiet.

After that Itachi came out and signaled to the Yuta and Hikari to come in. As Yuta comes in, he saw a three males tied up on the floor, the one of them is the guy they followed here, and the others looked just like the normal civilians of that town they were in not long ago.

Koichi sat beside one of them and draw a kunai to his throat and said in a cold voice, “Now you will tell me all about your bandit group!”

“Wataru you idiot!” The man yelled out loud, “It’s not a merchants but a shinobi and you brought them right in here!”

“Stop it and answer my questions!” Koichi raised his voice and pushed a kunai a little, the blood started dripping from the man’s neck.

Yuta while watching the scene, still in the merchant disguise, briefly activated the sensory technique to make sure that there was no one nearby and didn’t sense anyone else, and the chakra of the three man on the floor seemed to be weak, just a regular civilian amount of it.

Yuta glanced at Koichi while thought, 'Wow, every time I sense Koichi’s chakra it feels immense, I can’t even figure out how much chakra he has, is it a hundred times more than I have or a thousand times more? I have no idea...’

“What the point of it?” The man in question said hatefully, “You shinobi will kill us either way!”

“You right about that” Koichi said coldly, and the next instant he cut his throat and blood burst everywhere.

The two other man shivered watching this scene in horror, while the third one is twitching on the floor making some sounds, and a few moments later its stopped.

“You will be the next one” Koichi said coldly, grabbing the man that the group followed here.

‘Well, even I’m scared of Koichi now, killing someone is one thing, but to do it so naturally and methodically as if he just cuts of a piece of bread for his breakfast... Those two must be terrified shitless right now...’

“I don’t know! I don’t know! I only know of this place, I come here and tell them about the potential targets, that’s all I do, I don’t know about anything! Please let me go, I beg of you! I just wanted to make some money for my family!” The men yelled begging for mercy.

“I see” Koichi simply replied and sliced his throat in the same manner. After a few seconds of struggle the man died, and Koichi looked at the last one, slowly coming to him with his blooded kunai.

Yuta was very uncomfortable watching the whole scene of interrogation, the scent of blood become intense, that the first time he sees something like this, he glanced at his teammates, Itachi seems fine, without any reaction at all, like everything that is happening here is normal, Hikari on other hand is just having a little frown and didn’t look too bothered by the events unfolding.

‘Seems like I’m the only one who is actually bothered by this cut throating scene here. I have to get used to it if I don’t want to end up on the receiving end one day. I knew what to expect from this world the day I wake up in here, I was mentally preparing all this time for the coming bloodshed, there is no way out of it now...’

The last bandit is completely terrified by the death of others, and the closer Koichi comes to him, the more scarred he appears. And Koichi is coming closer to him really slowly...

“I... I will talk... please, don’t... Don’t kill me, I will tell you everything I know!” He yelled on top of his lungs.

“Then tell me now!” Koichi said, “Where is your hideout, how many of you left, is there any rogue shinobi with you?”

And just like that the last surviving bandit started to talk like there is no tomorrow...

‘Hmm, it turned out quite effective interrogation tactic, the last bandit is too terrified to actually think a little and understand the one simple truth, that no matter will he talk or not that’s a game over for him already...’

The last bandit told Koichi everything. About the hidden vast cave in the hilly terrain further in the forest, where their bandit camp is located. About the remaining 23 bandits in there, waiting for the intel for their next attack. And about two rogue shinobi that joined the bandits recently and taken control of them...

The rogue shinobi both are defected from Kusagakure, but the bandit doesn’t know about their actual strength or ranks, from the perspective of a normal non-shinobi man like him all shinobi are very strong and fast, and he doesn’t know anything else about them, except their appearance.

Both shinobi is middle aged man of average height and appearances, nothing really special about them.

Getting all the information he could get from the last bandit, Koichi cut his throat the same way and spoke to his team.

“The mission just become a little bit harder it seems...”