When two rogue shinobi from Kusagakure exited the cave, there dozens of bandits can be seeing far behind them, but they looked hesitant to come any closer.
Two rogue shinobi looked extremely angry and annoyed when they came out, the one of them that had a small beard yelled angrily, “You bitch, who are you and what do you think you are doing!?”, then pulled out a kunai and throw it at Hikari, she blocked it with a sword, but showed it as if that was hard for her to do.
‘Well, looks like Hikari didn’t forget the plan after all, that’s good, her bloodthirsty attitude makes me a little worried though…’ Yuta thought watching the scene.
After that Hikari jumped forward and slashed her sword against the other shinobi to test him too, he blocked her sword with a kunai, and Hikari jumped back after that.
‘Good, now it seems that both are on the low-Chunin level, that’s if they don’t hide their actual strength like Hikari does of course. If that is true, then confronting them head-on should be no problem for us.’
After that Hikari showed a worried expression on her face and made a step back, both shinobi seeing that start laughing evilly and started to approach Hikari.
‘Damn, is she that good at acting? That is a good performance there…’
“Hey girl, don’t think that you can run away after what you have done here!” Shinobi with a beard yelled with an expression, which doesn’t promise anything good for Hikari.
Hikari hearing that turned around in fear and start running in the direction of a trap. Two shinobi seeing that glanced at each other and followed Hikari.
‘Those two are just too easy, we went overboard against them with our plan, that is just overkill for those two fools…’ Yuta thought while changing his position and hiding in the outer perimeter of a trap, ready to activate explosive tags at any moment, Yuta’s shadow clones are doing the same, Itachi is nowhere to be found, already hidden and waiting for the right moment to strike, and Koichi followed two shinobi staying hidden, ready to intervene if something goes wrong.
After all, even if Koichi’s students are talented and already have skills surpassing those two rogue shinobi from a minor shinobi village, they didn’t have combat experience and they are too young, and they found themselves fighting against two Chunin level shinobi that definitely fought many times in their life, so Koichi can’t be too confident in his team, and he is ready to intervene at any moment.
When Hikari was already in the middle of the trap, running further away from the two shinobi, they just got in to the trap and triggered the first layer of it that Itachi is settled up, a bunch of kunais and shurikens starts flying at them from behind, forcing them to dodge in the direction of the center of the trap.
Rogue shinobi jumped closer to the center of the trap and blocked the projectiles with a kunais, their faces started to show some fear as the situation worsened for them. Hikari stopped to hold back her speed and flickered away while the two shinobi were distracted dodging the projectiles.
‘Well, everything in place, that’s the time for pushing them in to the center and blow them up… But let’s try something else first, they are not that strong after all, there will be no problem even if something goes wrong.’ As Yuta had the idea to try a little something, he came closer to the two shinobi, then he spotted a flying kunai that targeted the bearded shinobi and he casted a genjutsu on him hiding the kunai from his view.
And just as simple as that, the next moment the hidden kunai pierced the bearded shinobi in the neck, there was an expression of shock and disbelief on his face as he stumbled and dropped dead on the ground. The other shinobi watched at this scene with fear, mumbling to himself, “No… that can’t be… how is that can be…?”
‘Isn’t that was too easy?’ Yuta thought unable to believe of how easy that was, to kill that Chunin level shinobi…
The moment of distraction was a mistake on Yuta’s part, as the remaining shinobi was able to spot Yuta and yelled at him while approaching him with eyes full of hatred, “You little bastard, I will kill you!”, Yuta seeing that he was spotted and remembering Hikari’s performance, he feigned a fearful expression and started to run away with the intent to lure him further in to the trap, where he will be doomed for sure.
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But that was of no use, as when Yuta start running away and the rogue shinobi start chasing him, that exact moment a kunai pierced the back of the shinobi, going right through the heart.
Yuta hearing that stopped and turned around, watching how Itachi pulled out his kunai from the back of the last rogue shinobi and how the shinobi with painful and fearful expression, slowly fallen on the ground.
“Nice one, Itachi!” Yuta praised Itachi with a smile.
“Don’t get distracted, let’s finish our job first” Itachi said and flickered in the direction of a cave.
“Sure” Yuta said and followed Itachi.
‘Well that a shame, almost all of that prepared traps are just a waste.’ Yuta thought while following Itachi, and his two shadow clones followed them slightly behind.
But when they came to the cave, they heard screams of horror coming from inside the cave.
Yuta and Itachi glanced at each other, then Yuta sent his shadow clones inside the cave, as well as Itachi created a three shadow clones and sent them in as well, then Yuta and Itachi followed behind their clones into the cave. That was the strategy for that kind of situations, that Koichi taught to them - to never venture in to the places that can contain traps and always to use some means to counter the potential traps first.
‘What is Hikari thinking, isn’t Koichi said before that there might be traps in there?’ Yuta scolded Hikari in his mind while following inside the cave.
Yuta activated his sensory technique and spotted Hikari’s chakra signature further in, as well as six more weak signatures, which turned to five the next second.
As they proceeded inside the cave, they saw dead bodies of the bandits all over the cave, and most of them get their heads cut off. The scene was nauseating, the intense scent of blood mixed with a lot of other unpleasant scents is unbearable.
As they went further in, they catch up with Hikari when she was dealing with the last bandit, cutting his head off, and screams of horror that filling the cave up until now is finally stopped. Hikari was completely covered in blood, her entire head and face is red.
‘Damn, she didn’t spare anyone for me, I only killed one shinobi, and that felt too easy and unreal for me to experience killing and get used to it…’ Yuta thought staring at Hikari with annoyance.
Seeing that everything is already over, and Hikari seems fine and uninjured, Itachi turned around and left the cave.
“Ha, I beat you!” Hikari yelled showing her superiority when she spotted her teammates, “They were just some weaklings, I bet I would be able to solve everything on my own without you guys and your stupid traps!”
“You shut up!” Yuta had enough of her, becoming more and more annoyed the more Hikari is talking, “Why you even went here alone, isn’t sensei told you that there might be traps here?”
“There aren’t any traps here, and you are just angry that I didn’t left any bandits for you, isn’t that right?” Hikari said with a mocking smile.
“Sigh, whatever you say…” Yuta decided that there is no point arguing with this bloodthirsty little knucklehead, turned around and left the cave, dispelling his shadow clones.
Leaving the cave, Yuta one more time scanned his surroundings and felt only his teammates chakra signature in the area, he relaxed a little and sat on the grass outside the cave, looking at the sunset in the sky.
Recalling the whole experience that he went through today, Yuta was a little shaken, from the start of the operation and until now he was on high alert and concentrated on a mission, filtering any not important thoughts and emotions, even now he is still a little on guard, but knowing that Koichi somewhere nearby Yuta allowed himself to let a little loose.
With that Yuta become a little pale and his hands become shaky, remembering all the people that died today, the three mans outside the town, when Koichi interrogated and cut their throats, then the two shinobi that died one after another by Yuta’s and Itachi’s hands, than all those bandits that was slaughtered by Hikari like they are just a pigs in a slaughterhouse… Yuta remembered their faces, they all had expressions either of a strong fear or hatred in the end…
Yuta closed his eyes, taken a deep sigh and relaxed, laying on the grass and opened his eyes looking at the sunset in the sky, his mind is slowly calmed down while Yuta accepted his new reality where he is supposed to take lives on the daily basis.
A few minutes later Yuta was returned to his usual self and stand up, putting up his guard once again, returning his concentration on finishing the mission, as Koichi taught him, mission is not over until you return to the village, there is no place for being relaxed right now.
Yuta concentrated on his sensory technique and felt his teammates nearby, he still was unable to spot Koichi though, then he went in their direction and found Itachi sitting beside a tree, Yuta felt that Hikari was a hundred meters further away.
“Are you okay?” Itachi asked Yuta when he appeared.
“Yep, better than ever. What is Hikari doing?”
“She went to wash herself in the river up ahead.”
Yuta sat beside Itachi and said in a calm and relaxed manner, “Damn, can’t she avoid the blood spurts at least a little? It’s like she collected all the blood she can on purpose, isn’t she felt disgusted about it at all?”
“Who knows” Itachi said, and they waited for Hikari and Koichi in silence.