Pathetic Fools

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Riko screamed in pain as her left hand was cut down by Asura in a single slash. Seeing Asura attack Riko, Kaito, who was the closest to Asura and Riko, ran towards Asura to attack him and save Riko.

But Kaito, like Riko, was useless and weak. Asura easily cut down Kaito's right leg without even using any jutsu or special technique.

The clan elders were just too weak, even weaker than barbarians who fought mindlessly. This was because the position of clan elder was permanent in a family. When the clan was founded centuries ago, many families were established within the clan, and each family was given a position called "Elder," which would stay within that particular family forever.

Because of this, over centuries, the clan elders became more and more incompetent. Though occasionally some geniuses became clan elders, helping the clan survive, the current generation of elders was completely useless. They didn't do anything; the last time they had gone to war was decades ago. Their jutsus were a complete mess.

Despite this, they were given power so that the code of laws on which the clan was founded could be honored.

"Y-YOU! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK YOUR ELDERS?" Suddenly, another elder tried to attack Asura. It was Elder Zuna, the strongest and oldest among the elders.

He ran towards Asura, lifting his right fist, which was covered by wind forming a kind of shell around his fist.

"That's cute," Asura teased as he made a gust of wind move circularly around his katana, blending it to the shape of the katana. Suddenly, he attacked Zuna's fist with his katana.

Slash

Not only was Zuna's wind shell completely destroyed, but the speed of the wind gust moving around Asura's katana also destroyed the right half of Zuna's body. The wind's force was so intense that it blended his flesh and rib, and Zuna's blood swirled around Asura's katana along with the gust of wind.

Crack

As soon as Asura finished his jutsu, his katana broke into pieces. It seemed like it couldn't handle such a strong jutsu.

Sigh "I forgot to control my power," he sighed as he saw his precious katana break piece by piece, leaving him with only the tsuka (katana's handle).

This katana was very precious to him. The Namikaze Clan had a natural affinity with wind, but Asura's affinity was the strongest anyone had in the clan in the current generation, or even in the entire history of the Namikaze Clan. This katana was specially made for him from the strongest metal by one of the best blacksmiths in their clan.

"Now that Grandpa Zuna is also dead, why don't we have a peaceful talk," Asura said, looking at the scared elders who were trembling in fear. With his father not in the city and the palace guards also absent, no one could really save them from Asura.

The remaining elders huddled together, their faces pale and their bodies shaking. They exchanged frightened glances, realizing their dire situation.

"Y-You... Do you really think you can get away with killing one of the elders?" Elder Ren suddenly gathered the courage to try negotiating with Asura.

"If you let us go, we will forgive you for what you've done so far," she continued before receiving a swift kick to her face from Asura, which made her crash into the wall behind her.

"You really are idiots. It's not about whether I can get away with killing one of you or not," Asura said as he took a seat in the room while all the elders lay on the ground.

"It's about how much reward I should ask for killing some traitors who leaked the clan's top-secret mission and corrupt old fucks who stole tens of thousands of gold from our clan," Asura said, giving Elder Ren a knowing look.

Gulp

Hearing him, almost all the elders gulped down their saliva in fear. The Namikaze Clan had very strict punishments for such crimes. Betrayal was punishable by death, and stealing the clan's money often led to being crippled, especially considering the amount they had stolen might be enough to build a city.

"The things you have done are punishable by death," Asura said with an amused tone while looking at the fearful elders. They never expected to be caught.

"But I'll be generous and let all of you live," Asura said as he stood up from the chair. The elders' eyes glowed with hope upon hearing this, but soon Asura added, "But I have one condition."

"W-What is that condition?" Elder Ren asked with a stuttering voice. She was second in the hierarchy among the nine leaders, while Zuna had been the first.

But as you see, Zuna was killed by Asura without any effort, and the "Ten Thousand Swords" Jutsu which Asura used to kill Zuna was terrifying to her and all the other elders. It was their first time seeing something like this, but they knew it was Asura's signature jutsu which could kill someone without any resistance.

"My condition is simple: just give me all of your gold, and I will let you and your families flee the clan's territory," Asura said with a cold smile.

"Unacceptable," all the elders said in unison as they stood up. What did this son of a bitch in front of them mean? Leave the clan? Hell no. If they left the clan, how would they even survive? And he also wanted all of their money. It was unacceptable to them no matter how they looked at it.

"I wasn't asking," Asura said calmly as a very strong gust of wind appeared in the room. It was strong enough to make all the elders unstable and fall once again, even making small cracks in the palace walls.

But soon it stopped as Asura said, "Of course, I will let you keep 10,000 gold coins each." He went near the fallen elders and said in a cold voice, "10,000 gold coins are enough for you and your entire family to survive for generations. It is better than dying for treason and for stealing the clan's money."

Hearing his words, the eyes of all six elders were filled with anger and realization that what Asura was saying made sense. If the clan found out about this and an investigation was launched, they were bound to be caught and die along with their families.

"I-I-I accept your condition," Elder Ren said suddenly. Even though she was greedy for money, her and her family's lives were still more important to her.

"I also accept."

"Me too."

Soon all six remaining elders agreed, as one was already dead and two who had their hand and leg cut down by Asura were unconscious due to pain.

"So, where's the gold?" Asura asked Ren while looking into her eyes with a mocking expression. He knew that Ren was second in hierarchy among the elders, and these nine were unlikely to store their gold in different places. It was probable they hid all of their gold at one location that was very hard to find.

"Take an oath on the honor of our clan that you won't harm any of us or our families," Ren urged Asura, her voice tinged with distrust.

Asura considered her request. Even though he was named after the god Asura, he acted nothing like him. He was the most cruel person Ren had ever seen in her entire life. But she knew that no matter how cruel he was, he respected and valued his clan. So, he wanted an oath in the name of honor of their clan. Such oaths were considered very important by some clans, and breaking them was considered bad luck.

"I, in the name of Namikaze Clan, promise not to hurt you or your family as long as you give me all the gold you have stolen," Asura said with a cold smile, his true emotions masked behind his demeanor.

"Follow me then," Ren said, standing up, though her face was still red from the kick Asura had delivered earlier.

Seven minutes later, after walking for about seven minutes, Asura and the elders reached a small rocky mountain on the eastern side of Namikaze Clan's city.

Soon, Ren found a wall of the mountain and seemed to discover something as Asura watched her with his cold gaze.

She soon found the gate to an underground cave. The gate wasn't all that special or fancy; it was just a rock cut in a perfect square to hide the passage to the cave.

"Follow me," Ren said as she entered the passage. Instead of going by himself, Asura sent the other five elders first before he entered.

"You old shits! How much money have you stolen?" Asura exclaimed as he reached the end of the passage, finding a small underground cave filled with a massive amount of gold, along with some stacks of documents. He also found this place suffocating.

Though Asura knew the gold coins might amount to 700-800 thousand, they were enough to fill the small cave completely. He had to admit, even he wouldn't have been able to find this cave considering how perfectly they had hidden it.

"Die!" Suddenly, Asura heard as he approached the gold coins. It was all six elders using whatever jutsu they had to attack Asura.

It was their plan to lure him here and attack him, since the amount of air present in this cave was minimal for Asura to use his jutsu. Considering how small this place was, if they all attacked at the same time, it would be impossible for Asura to dodge their attacks.

"Pathetic fools," Asura said with a cold face before using his chakra to gather all of the wind in the cave to make a shield for himself. It easily reflected all of the attacks from the six elders.

"How pathetic can one be," Asura thought to himself as he saw all six of the elders fall to the ground. He went to check a document that had fallen among the gold.

"Bingo!" He thought as he read the entire document. It was actually a report detailing how these guys had stolen money from the clan's treasury over the years: delaying payments to shinobi, stealing money supposed to feed the poor during a famine, and more.

"You guys should be happy," Asura said as he took that document and started to leave the cave. "You will be the first to die by the methods of Rome."

Actually, he was going to kill them even if they had given him all of their gold, because he didn't want any extra trouble by letting his enemies live. He would end all the trouble once and for all if he was on it.