14 Dancing in the rain of blood

Team 9 reached the outpost after three and a half hours. It was a simple wooden house located in the middle of the forest, inside Kaname saw an Anbu unit waiting for them.

"Hello, Inoichi-san, this is the report, it's class S document, Hokage's eyes only." Anbu with a monkey mask greeted, handing the document over. A moment later, he disappeared in a <Shunshin no Jutsu> (Body Flicker Technique).

"Okay, kids, let's rest here for an hour, and then we will head back to Konoha, check your gear, and eat something." The blonde ordered.

"Sensei, what are the classifications mean on documents? Is S class so important to risk sending a team instead of delivering them with the summons?" Kaname asked.

"Everything below A class is delivered by summons, mostly it is just private conversations. The A-class documents are private letters from one ruler of the village to the other or the help requests from the team in the field, the fun starts with S classes. Those documents are mostly about the movements of multiple ninja teams. If an enemy took hold of such information, they could ambush and kill many of our friends. The double S class documents are the movements of entire country armies, I don't want to think what would happen if it got in the enemy's hands. For the triple S class, it's hard to say what information they could contain - such secrets can easily start new wars or destroy countries." he explained.

Twenty minutes away from the outpost, they noticed a group of thirty or so men surrounding a heavily decorated coach. The carriage had many flaming ornaments, on the back of it, there was a small symbol of Fire Country.

'Why those stupid nobles can't stay in their homes at the times of a freaking war?!' Inoichi thought angrily.

The only thing stopping the contingent of bandits from reaching the coach's wooden doors was a single young black-haired ninja.

"What should we do, Inoichi-sensei? Leave them or act?" Maki whispered to the jōnin.

"If I see right the kid that is protecting the coach is Sarutobi's-sama son, they're just bandits, I want you to do deal with them without me. Let's call it a new training, Takeshi-kun, what's your plan?" their captain questioned the boy.

"Without you? Hmm, troublesome." Takeshi scratched his head, "Maki-san, you attack from the front, try to get their attention away from Sarutobi-san, he killed some of them already and is most likely tired, Kaname goes from the back and unleashes hell upon them. I will support you and bind as many of them as I can, let's leave one of them alive, it's the best to keep the loudest one - he will be the easiest to get information from. Try to get as close as possible without them seeing you, I will give the signal when to start." said the brain of their team.

...

'Why won't they even look behind themselves? I'm a single leap behind them.' Kaname sneaked near the bandit rabble with tanto blade in her hand, at this moment, from her right she discerned a small flash of red light, and all hell broke loose. She was moving way too fast for the bandits. Before the group even noticed the black-haired girl, Kaname killed two of the bandits cutting them with her blade and another one with a fireball. She didn't feel any remorse, she was dancing between much bigger men slashing, stabbing, and spewing flames, she soaked her hands with their blood. In thirty seconds, a bandit rabble of thirty men got decimated, only one was left alive bound by a shadow.

"Thank you, my name is Asuma, you are Kaname, aren't you? I heard about you from Obit-." Asuma started greeting her, only to be interrupted by a loud wailing of a teen girl.

"Asuma-sama, did you save us?! You're our hero!" screamed the fourteen years old girl looking out from the window of the couch.

"Guh, here we go again…" Asuma murmured under his nose.

"*Pft* Wow Asuma-san, you scored big, isn't she a noble from the capital?" Kaname tried to hide her laugh.

"*Sigh* Yeah, she is the fourth or fifth daughter of the daimyo, I'm not sure which one, I lost myself in counting. God knows why she likes me… Every time she wants to go somewhere outside the capital, her father gives a C rank mission with my name on it in big, bold letters."

"Hahaha, good luck, Senpai. Sorry, I need to go away for a moment." Kaname ran away to hide behind the nearest bush. On her mind, there were scared faces of all the men she killed, her face still held smudges of their blood, her hands were dripping with a red substance, she started breathing extremely hard, a couple of seconds later she threw up her lunch.

"It's okay, Kana-chan. Stay calm and breathe." Inoichi gently caressed her back, "Every shinobi has to go through it."

"Why do I still see their faces, will they ever go away, Sensei?"

"It's hard for me to say it, but with your continuous duty, killing gets... easier. Unfortunately, memories of all your victims will stay with you. In time you will learn to accept those memories, but promise me, if you ever start to feel any positive feelings about killing people, you need to talk with me. There is a very thin line between being a skilled shinobi and becoming an animal hunting for blood. Now go to Maki-chan, she is good now, but Hamimaru is grumpy on her, I think Maki-chan barfed everything she ate today on her ninken, I will go talk with our new prisoner."

Half a minute later, Kaname found Maki cleaning Hamimaru in a closeby water stream.

"How are you doing, Maki-chan?"

"Thanks, three or maybe four sleepless nights before me, and nightmares for another month, no biggie. And you?" Maki asked.

"I feel like shit, those men could have their own families, and I butchered them. I think I failed as a person."

"No, Kana-chan, you didn't. They were bandits, they killed, raped, and abducted children for ransom. I would say you made the world better for killing them."

"Kaname-san, Maki-san, our captain calls, we have a problem," Takeshi said, appearing from the nearby bushes.

"Listen up, from our late friend I got some bad news. This rabble was just a small branch of a bigger group, they consist mostly of bandits, but the upper echelons got ninja teams as well. I'm sorry, Sarutobi-kun, we need to deliver our report as soon as possible to Konoha, those ninjas would gladly get their hands on it and sell it on the black market." Blonde reported his findings.

"I understand Inoichi-san, I can deal with bandits, be careful of those ninjas, and good luck!" Asuma nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Okay, Team 9, I sent a summon to the Hokage-sama with a request for backup. We need to move, formation stays the same, now we double-time it. Let's go!" their captain ordered in a no-nonsense voice.

-----------------

Ten kilometers south of the Team's 9 positions, a meeting of three ninja groups took place.

"Hanzaki-sama, one of my spies reported to me that the document is in the hands of a single Konoha team. We can still get it before they get too close to Konoha. It's our best shot for scoring some big money." reported a ninja with a rat face.

Hanzaki was a very tall man, his eyes were dark brown, as well as his cheek-length hair. On his back, there was a giant sword called zanbatō or horse-slaying sword.

"Hmm, how big is the team?" Hanzaki inquired.

"One jōnin and three genins, easy pickings. My mouse summons said they just shed their first blood." the rat face answered.

"Good, I will take care of the jōnin, team 1, and team 2 are with me. Team 3 will stay back and slow down any possible reinforcements. Let the hunt begin!" their leader announced.