Sand Drifters

[New Mission Available]

[Mandatory Mission - Sand Drifters (D-rank Mission)

Over sixty sand drifters have targetted the convoy you are supposed to protect. Despite being numerous, these sand drifters are lacking in equipment and training, making them easy targets. You must kill or incapacitate them for the completion of the mission [Merchant Convoy Assistance (C-rank)].

Task - Take care of the sand drifters (Progress: 0%)

Rewards - 300 EXP, +50 Reputation with the Turtle Merchant Union, +100 Reputation with Mr. Hiroshi, +20 Reputation with Eiji, +30 Reputation with Aki]

Sand Drifters were common in the lands of wind.

Mainly composed of farmers who picked up swords and axes for feeding themselves, they became outlaws who plundered villages and stole from their peers. Ruthless and without morals, they would commit atrocities.

In other words, they were trash.

There were plenty of evil people in this world. But the fact that you didn't have to be strong to do evil made it more commonplace.

The hidden villages provided a semblance of protection for the inhabitants of these lands, but it would be more precise to call them mercenaries, offering protection services for the most offering.

In a way, Kaito too was evil. As a Sunagakure shinobi, he was an opportunist, one who would only protect those who paid him to do so. He now possessed enough strength to do more, but rather than that, he kept taking more and more generous clients and did their bidding.

After all, he was not some philantropist.

He was a pragmatic shinobi.

Still, when the opportunity arised, he would gladly do the world a favour and kill those sand drifters.

[Shuriken Launcher Puppet (42)]

After his last mission, Kaito had added one trick to his arsenal of weapons and puppetry. Sunagakure was not the strongest village, and never did due to its geographical location. However, it was undoubtedly the strongest when it came to poison arts, puppetry arts and wind jutsus.

As someone who was not especially strong in martial arts and without a bloodline, Kaito naturally walked the path of puppetry, but this did not mean that he should never practice the art of poisons. The only issue with poison was its price. A mission's supply would cost him roughly three to five thousand Ryôs. Fortunately, this mission paid well, so it was enough to gather enough supplies for the following missions.

Eiji and Aki only watched. In missions like this, it was better to let Kaito deal with the small fries. The more time went on, the more they felt that their role in the team was to defend Kaito from enemy attacks, rather than taking out opponents. Ever since their time in the academy, Kaito was excellent, both in terms of leadership and combat. He also happened to be the one who progressed the fastest.

He had his weaknesses. For one, he was not very alert about some aspects of relationships, and often disregarded both Eiji and Aki's feelings and opinion, trusting only himself.

But besides that, Kaito was someone who was highly respected...perhaps even admired by his teammates. They had faith which was rarely seen at this age. Unlike other teams of shinobi who constantly had internal conflicts, Kaito's leadership provided them with a harmonious and complementary set up which allowed complex situations like an assault of roughly 60 sand drifters into...

A complete massacre.

[You have dealt 8 points of damage]

[Poison Ailment inflicted on the target...The target will receive 3 points of damage every 5 seconds until treatment...]

[Bleeding Ailment inflicted on the target...Stamina will decrease by 5% every 5 seconds and the target will receive 10 points of damage over the next minute...The situation will worsen if not treated immediately...]

[You have successfully killed [Level 2 Sand Drifter]...You have earned 10 EXP...]

The shuriken launcher puppet possessed enormous ammunitions, working with a system of seal. The enormous amount of weapon needed also explained its cost of 350 000 Ryos despite being only D-rank. Purchasing the thousands of shuriken and their seals were a big investment, but it also happened to be Kaito's main attacking mean. After all, the dual arm puppet were very strong, but were specialized in close combat, which was not his field of predilection. Rather than a weapon, the dual arm puppet was a trump card.

[You have successfully killed [Level 3 Sand Drifter]...You have earned 15 EXP...]

[You have successfully killed [Level 3 Sand Drifter]...You have earned 15 EXP...]

Each shuriken was coated in a potent poison called [Red Needle Scorpion Poison], brewed by some poison experts from Sunagakure. Ironically, Kaito earned the cheap contact of this poison dealer from his cursed father, Yaito. Although his father was a scum, his lack of finances forced him to find the cheapest dealers, and following him a couple of times allowed him to earn some useful information.

The shuriken were not aimed at specific vital spots.

Rather than quality of shots, the shuriken thrower aimed at throwing barrages of shurikens. If not prepared for it or trained to parry dozens of shuriken at a time, the shurikens would hit you, and make you bleed. With this additional poison, regular humans like sand drifters would die after taking one shuriken, perhaps two if they possessed abnormally high vitality.

However, without the proper antidote, even a strong adult male in his prime would eventually die.

This was the strength of sunagakure poison...

Ten minutes later, both the merchants and the mercenaries from the Turtle Union were forced to reevaluate Kaito. This was not the strength that a regular genin could display.

However, Kaito's focus was not the reputation gains.

Instead, his focus was set on the notification.

[You have received 300 EXP]

[You levelled up]