Bandit Extermination
It has been a couple of days since the team left from Kumogakure. Their destination is the border of the land of Lightning and the land of Frost. Ever since the war against Konoha in the land of Hot Water there has been an influx of Bandits in the area. The Lightning Daimyo had issued the mission to Kumo to exterminate all the bandits causing trouble so that land can regain their economy. Bandits are a huge problem in this regard as merchants will always prefer to go to trade in safer areas rather than bear the risk of death and losing merchandise.
The closer we got to the border, the colder it got. No joke this place is called the land of Frost for a reason. This place is also mentioned in some Naruto movie from what Rai can remember. The plot had something to do with armors but he didn't know the specifics. The place looked like a deserted wasteland. Like all cold places, people tend to tend not to spread out too much and stay in closer and tighter communities.
On the way to the village where the request came from, they saw a couple of completely burned down villages with corpses of civilians numbering in the 100s. It looked like the men were slaughtered before the bandits had their way with the women and even children were not spared. Rai expected to see something along these lines but the sheer numbers and the brutality of it came as a shock to him. It was a wake-up call to say the least. The kind of violence that humans can cause to each other was a sad sight.
From the looks of the kind of damage that was caused it was obvious that the perpetrators are a rather large group of bandits and should have a few nukenins as well. Darui, C and Samui were not in a much better condition either. Rai thought that they might've been more clear-headed since they had been to war before but, you never really get used to this kind of sight and nor should you get used to it.
Rai also made sure to use the White Room for his daily spars with Scáthach every day. He cannot even imagine what would happen if he did not go there.
We finally reached a medium sized village. There were quite a few guards at the gate. They seem to be on edge and who can blame them. They might be a slightly bigger village but not many people can really stay calm in the face of death. After identifying ourselves and explaining why we were there. They quickly guided us to the Village Chief's house.
"Thank you so much for coming here to our aid. Those bandits have been wreaking havoc across all the smaller villages." – Village Chief
"It's no problem. Do you have any idea where these bandits are coming from or know how many of them are there in this group?" – Darui
"All we know is that they have made a camp somewhere within the mountain range nearby. We also estimate their numbers to be around 70. They are also supposedly led by a few Chuunin ranked Nukenin. We don't know much else." – Village Chief
"I see, Thank you for the information. We'll head out now to take care of the problem." – Darui
"You can't be serious. You have to stay here and keep us safe. What if they attack while you search for them?" – Village Chief
"I'm sorry but, our job here is to exterminate the bandits to ensure that they don't kill more people. While we wait here guarding you they will destroy other smaller villages. So, we will have to leave. We will leave behind a messenger bird which you use to contact us if they attack. I'm sure you can hold out until then unlike the smaller villages that we saw on the way here." – Darui
They were not really happy with our decision to leave and track down the bandits, rather than holing up with them as guards. Don't exactly blame their selfishness after all they too are desperate. But, we were given a job to kill and not guard. And to be frank, they also needed to let out some steam after what they saw. The sooner they find the bandits the sooner they can be done with this shit.
They reached the mountain range that the bandits are supposedly holed up in and decided to split into 2 teams to scope the place out. Rai and Darui in one and Samui with C the other. Even though Rai might actually be stronger than the others it was decided to do it this way since none of them wanted to face an angry Raikage if something does happen to Rai, so they paired Darui with him first thing. They left in opposite directions to cover more ground.
Rai is not that great when it comes to sensing people from far away. He can sense any sort of attacks or danger but has no way to sense others in the vicinity. Only C in the team is a sensory ninja. Since, neither Darui nor Rai could sense accurately, they decided to do it the hard way. They used their superior speed to scour the place for hours but ultimately found nothing. They were about to call it quits and regroup when a messenger bird came with a letter from C and Samui saying they found something.
They quickly headed to the place marked in the letter. They soon met up with the other 2 to discuss the next steps. From C's scouting they found that the number of bandits is in the 100's rather than 70. They also seem to have just came back after an 'outing'. It was decided to first capture one of the bandits to get the details about the strength of the former ninjas in the group. 100 bandits is a huge number and if there are also a good number of ninjas in there. It'd become extremely difficult, borderline suicidal actually.
Rai volunteered to catch one of the bandits and bring him back stealthily. They were against the idea initially but after showing his presence concealment skill, they decided to let him do it. The bandits were holed up in cave which was well hidden by natural vegetation. Rai camped out close to the entrance to look for a bandit to come out alone or maximum of two. There was some movement in and out but they were always in bigger groups. They seem to be drinking inside. No doubt celebrating after their latest exploits.
After what seemed to half an hour. 2 slightly drunk people tiptoed out of the cave. Rai waited to see if they were being followed first before sneaking behind the two bandits. They seem to be having a squabble about something. Rai sneaked just behind them and quickly smacked one in the neck and followed with a punch to the other's jaw knocking them both out. Rai proceeded to carry them both to his team's position.
After some torture, they gave out everything that we needed to know. The exact numbers were 108 with 10 of them being nukenins. 2 Special Jonins, 3 Chuunins and 5 Genins to be exact. It should be possible to take them on as long as they do it quickly and sneakily. It was decided to wait for a while longer for more of them to be drunk before we take action. There were also quite a few hostages in there, mostly women but we had no choice but to wait since taking action prematurely will only cause them to use the lives of the hostages against us.
It was an hour later when the sounds from inside started dying down. All 4 of us made our way towards the cave. Darui quickly took out the guards who were slacking at the entrance and we made our way in. What followed was simply a massacre. Rai was initially feeling conflicted on killing people but after seeing what they were doing to people he simply did not think of them as human anymore. He was going after the ones who were sleeping and breaking their necks with this overwhelming strength. He decided not to spill blood as that might give them away sooner. It was only after about a half of them died that the bandits found something fishy.
We quickly let go of our stealth tactic and started killing them quickly. None of the bandits lasted more than a couple of seconds under Rai's attacks. He was using his lightning cloak and flickering between the bandits while slitting their throats with a kunai. It was unnecessary to use flashy Jutsus against these kind of opponents after all. While Rai was slaughtering the bandits. Darui and C were keeping the nukenins busy whereas Samui was guarding the hostages from wildly attacking bandits and a couple of genins.
Within a few minutes, Rai had dispatched all the common bandits. He quickly used presence concealment and went to where Darui was taking on the two Special Jonins and C was taking on the 3 Chuunins. Neither of them looked to be in any trouble but they were not able to find an opening either.
Rai took out his new sword, sneaked behind one of the Special Jonins and beheaded him before he knew it. Darui also swiftly dispatched the other one and a few minutes later the whole den of bandits were thoroughly exterminated. Rai slumped down to the floor from mental exhaustion after finishing the battle. As easy as it was to kill them, he still had to continuously flicker between the lines of these bandits and watch out stray shots. After taking the hostages out of the cave, we escorted them to a nearby village, reported the job as finished and left back towards Kumo.
This single mission that Rai took part in made a few things clearer to him. The value of a life in the shinobi world is dirt cheap. It is almost a sin to be weak here. It also is completely understandable why so many people are just numb when it comes to killing people. He kind of knew that this how the shinobi world is but seeing is believing i guess.
They finally made it back to the village a couple of days later were kept on standby until some other mission turns up.