Back in the mountains, the bandits were busy making their preparations. Weapons were being distributed, all the important stuff was hidden etc.

Looking from above, it felt like observing an ant nest that was bustling with activity.

"Sensei, is it really alright to attack it now?" Sakura's uncertain voice came from the side.

"Of course it is. We won't get a better opening than this," Naruto's cold voice came.

Team 7 all collectively turned to Naruto, who was giving the bandit base a cold glare. After the poisoning attempt yesterday, Naruto had been busy making preparations the whole day, preparing to attack the bandit base.

Now that it was evening, the bandits were relaxing after running around the whole day.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well, it's just as Naruto had said. The bandits think we are busy investigating who attacked us, so right now is a perfect opportunity to attack."

Kakashi then turned to all of team 7. "For this attack, there are several objectives."

Kakashi then looked at Sakura, "Sakura, your job will be to observe the enemy shinobi, because I doubt that those guys will show up at the beginning of the fight. Once they make a move, your job is to inform us."

Kakashi then turned to Saori, "Saori, your job is to find and secure the prisoners. These bandits will probably try to use them as hostages to make us surrender. Your job is to not let any bandits get close to the prisoners."

Finally, Kakashi turned to Naruto, "Naruto, your job is to raise some noise and to deal with as many bandits as you can. Once you distract them, I will personally go after their leader."

"What about their escape route? Shouldn't we cover that?" Saori asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "If those bandits find out that there is no escape, they will be like cornered animals. You guys aren't used to fighting such battles, so let's take a more simple approach in this mission."

"Any questions?" Kakashi asked.

"What will we do about the enemy shinobi?" This time, Sakura asked.

"Avoid confrontation. These guys are being hired for money, so if we take down the enemy operations, these shinobi will have no reason to stay here," Kakashi explained.

Seeing that there were no further questions, the team started walking to their own positions.

Naruto was walking leisurely towards the front of the bandit camp. His job was the most simple one – beating up bandits.

Once Naruto was close enough to the gates, he stood behind a tree and listened. And soon enough, Naruto heard a bird chirping in the distance.

"That's the signal," Naruto's face became cold and indifferent. Now was the time for him to vent his anger at the bandits.

"None of them will have an easy time," Naruto mumbled as he walked out from behind the tree and towards the bandit camp.

"Who is there?" One of the guarding bandit's yelled.

In response, Naruto exploded with chakra and charged forward. Two bandits ran out of their positions and prepared to intercept Naruto. However, it was like an ant trying to stop a mad bull.

Naruto's body was covered in chakra, and as soon as he was near the bandits, he punched forward. Naruto's strength overwhelmed the bandit's and the bandit flew back like a kite with its strings cut.

"What the hell? How can a kid have so much strength?" The second bandit stood in place, dumbstruck.

Naruto then spun on his heel and unleashed a vicious kick at the second dumbstruck bandit. The bandit's reaction was too late and Naruto's foot dug into the bandit's stomach, also sending him flying.

Now that the way was clear, Naruto straightened his posture and leisurely walked inside the camp under the astonished gaze of dozens of bandits.

"A kid?" One of the bandits asked incrediously.

"Don't let your guard down! Look at his arm, there is a shinobi headband!" All of the bandits immediately became serious once they noticed the Konoha headband on Naruto's left bicep.

"Should be enough," Naruto mumbled.

Naruto took out a single kunai. He then got into a throwing posture and covered his arm with chakra. His arm then moved as fast as lightning, and the single kunai flew towards the bandits.

However, Naruto wasn't done yet. His hands quickly went through some hand seals as he observed the single kunai.

Kunai Shadow Clone

With a popping sound, the single kunai turned into dozens and iron rain fell on the bandits who were completely unprepared for the strange jutsu. A second later, yells of pain came from the direction of the bandits as they were all stabbed by the kunai.

The bandits towards the back had survived because only the bandits at the front had suffered from the jutsu. The trade-off was that although not a lot of bandits were killed, the ones who were caught up in the jutsu were definitely dead.

The bandits stared at their dead comrades in mute silence. However, Naruto wasn't willing to wait for them. His sharingan manifested, his chakra exploded around him, and Naruto lunged at the dozens of bandits.

Bam!

A fist smashed into the face of one bandit, sending him flying into the air. Naruto then jumped into the air and kicked out in both directions, landing two kicks on the nearby bandits.

Seeing Naruto lunge into the middle of their numbers, the bandits woke up.

"Get the brat!"

"Raaagh!"

The bandits yelled as they all lunged at the lone Naruto.

Somewhere else, Kakashi was silently observing Naruto, making sure that he had no problems before proceeding with his own mission.

"A rather straightforward approach to his mission. Oh well, I suppose it's just his style," Kakashi mumbled and made his way towards the bandit leader's building.

As a jounin, it took him less than a minute to appear there. As the bandits were focusing Naruto, only a few bandits remained to guard the boss. However, that was nowhere near enough to stop Kakashi.

Like lightning, Kakashi charged through the bandits, knocking them out in less than a second. He then leisurely opened the door and walked inside.

"Hello, anybody home?" Kakashi didn't even bother hiding his presence. His lone eye looked over the the spacious room.

"Yes, yes, I am here, Kakashi Hatake," Kakashi was slightly surprised to be identified by a simple bandit.

His eye scanned the room and landed on a figure who was calmly doing some paperwork behind a desk.

The figure didn't seem disturbed at all by what was going on outside, which made Kakashi raise his guard immediately.

The figure then raised its head and looked at Kakashi.

"It has been a while since we last saw each other, Kakashi," The figure revealed a smile.

Kakashi immediately realized who this person was and it caused him to break out in cold sweat.

"Shin…" Kakashi said quietly.

Short black hair, an average face that had held a long scar on it's left cheek, normal clothes. If you were to place this man in a group of people, he would blend in with no difficulties. He seemed like nothing more than a friendly neighbour.

However, Kakashi knew better.

Shin, also known as Vicious Snake. He was one of the most notorious bandit lords throughout all the countries.

What made this man fearsome was not his strength but his intellect. In the past, this man had engaged in a battle of wits against Konoha's current lead strategist, Shikaku Nara. The result was that Shikaku had forced Shin to run away, but that was only because Shikaku had Konoha's shinobi forces at his command.

Meanwhile, Shin had ran away with minimal casualties and had even given Shikaku a lot of trouble. Throughout all the countries, this man is considered to be one of the best strategists out there.

Chakra flared around Kakashi and he immediately charged at Shin. No words were needed.

However, a shadow leapt out of the shadows and blocked Kakashi. Once the figure came into light, a headband with a horizontal slash in it came into view.

Two chains shot out from behind the shinobi, forcing Kakashi away. Once he landed further back, Kakashi got a proper look at the rogue shinobi.

'Warden, was it?" Kakashi asked.

The enemy shinobi was clad in a worn out traveler's cloak and a white mask hid his face. This man was also an infamous A-rank shinobi.

"Kuku, you came here, as expected. Truly, you shinobi are so arrogant," Shin said as he stood up from his chair.

He then went beside the rogue shinobi, Warden.

"Warden, I will leave Kakashi to you," leaving those words behind, Shin then turned around and made his way outside through a back entrance.

"Wait, Shin! Just what are you planning here?" Kakashi yelled.

"Haha, what schemer would reveal all his plans before his foe? However, let me ask you this: should you really be worrying about me right now?" Shin threw a smile at Kakashi before turning around and walking outside.

Kakashi's eyes widened.

"The genin... Oh no," Kakashi then turned around and was about to dash outside, but his way was blocked by Warden.

"Kakashi Hatake, ignoring you foe is considered a foolish move in shinobi culture. If you want to help your students, then you will have to go through me!" Warden roared and dozens of chains shot out from beneath the cloak.

Kakashi quickly jumped back, avoiding the chains. A kunai appeared in his hand as he deflected the last chain.

"Please be alright, everyone," Kakaashi mumbled and then charged at Warden.

While Naruto and Kakashi were engaged in battle, Sakura was at the back of the bandit outpost, observing a hidden house.

"Huuu… I hope everyone is okay," Sakura mumbled as she felt her stomach start aching. Everyone said that they could do it, but Sakura had been having a bad feeling all this morning. She felt as if something was definitely going to go wrong.

"Haaahh... Must be imagination. That's right, we are the strongest genin team, so there is no way we can't deal with a few bandits," Sakura tried to encourage herself, but still ended up downcast.

As Sakura was observing the small hideout, she heard the leaves rustle behind her. Sakura quickly took out a kunai and spun around.

"Well, well, what do we have here, hmmm?" A voice came from in front of her.

As Sakura observed him, a headband with a horizontal slash in it came into view.

"Rogue shinobi… How?" Fear crept into Sakura's heart.

Among genin, her abilities were nothing to brag about. However, she wasn't so useless that an enemy shinobi could sneak out of the house and then get behind her.

Realization came to Sakura.

"You… Knew?" Sakura asked.

The man released a low threatening chuckle as he said, "Bingo"

A kunai appeared in his hand as he slowly started inching towards Sakura, causing her to nervously swallow her saliva.

"No, I must hold him off here. Come on, Sakura, what have you been training for?" Sakura encouraged herself as she got into stance. However, as the man approached, she still felt more and more nervous.

On the other end of the camp, Saori had also just made it to the prison area. It was a two-storied building with a large basement beneath it. Saori had to fight through both floors of bandits until she had finally made it to the prison area.

Once she went downstairs, a dark area greeted her. The place was made out of cobblestone, making it felt very cold and damp in here, and the only source of light were a few candles.

Saori slowly made her way across the straight path, on each side of the room there were rows of prison cells full of frightened women.

After making sure that there were no enemies here, Saori used her kunai to pick a lock of one of the cells. She then walked inside.

Saori wasn't used to comforting people, but as a woman she still sympathised with these frightened women. She drew out every drop of kindness within her and put on a small smile on her face.

"It will be alright now. We are shinobi from Konoha who were sent here to deal with these bandits," Saori explained as she walked next to a frightened girl.

Saori used her kunai again to pick the lock on the woman's chains, freeing her. Tears welled up inside the woman's eyes.

"You are Konoha shinobi?" she asked.

Saori only nodded her head as she picked the locks on the women's chains.

"T-thank you very much for helping us. If it weren't for you, we… We…" the woman next to Saori began to cry.

Saori's gaze softened as she let out a helpless sigh.

"We wouldn't get money for our job," the woman finished her sentence.

Saori froze in place, her head processing the woman's words.

Stab!

Saori felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She slowly looked down only to see a knife stabbed into her abdomen. Her eyes then travelled up to meet the mocking eyes of one of the prisoners.

"Y-you…" Saori stammered.

Alarm bells rang inside Saori's head as she suddenly noticed that each woman in the cell had a mocking look in their eyes. Her chakra flared around her and Saori quickly jumped out of the cell while breathing heavily.

With a grunt, Saori then took out the knife from her abdomen.

Creak!

Saori froze in place after she heard the creaking sound of the prison doors moving. What terrified her was the fact that it was a sound that come from the very beginning of the corridor. Saori slowly turned her head to the right and saw each prison cell door open. From each cell, women started pouring out, filling the corridor.

Saori then suddenly felt a wave of diziness wash over her, and took an unsteady step backwards.

"What is going on?" Saori mumbled as she felt her thoughts become clouded.

Her eyes then fell on the knife in her hands.

"Poison!" She growled quietly.

Step, step

Saori panted heavily as she slowly looked up and saw a corridor filled to the brim with women, looking at her as if she was a bag of money. In response, Saori could do nothing but grip the knife in her hand and prepare for the incoming onslaught.

Slam!

Another bandit flew beyond the horizon as Naruto punched him in the face. Naruto had already forgotten how long he had been fighting these bandits. His initial anger had already been vented out and his usual calm had returned.

However, a bad feeling had formed inside Naruto's stomach at some point.

"Something is wrong. Why is Kakashi not done yet? Why are these bandits not scattering? No, rather, aren't there too many bandits? It feels like they just keep on coming out of nowhere," Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked around him.

Naruto had already been fighting for a while, so a large stretch of land was covered with unconscious or dead bandits.

Although the bandits haven't scattered yet, Naruto's strength had put some fear in them. Currently, there was a circle in the middle of the large bandit group. The only person inside the circle was Naruto, who was sweaty and out of breath.

As Naruto looked at the arrogant looks in each bandit's eyes, Naruto's mood dropped lower.

"Something is definitely wrong. Did these bandits predict our movements? No, how can it be possible? These guys shouldn't know that we already knew about the sneak attack… In that case, did Takeshi sell us out?" Thoughts flashed inside Naruto's mind, but he just couldn't come to a conclusion.

The most suspicious one was definitely Takeshi, but even then, the bandits shouldn't have been able to predict their fast response. Team 7 had attacked the bandits the very next evening after their poisoning attempt.

Many would even consider this a reckless tactic because team 7 was lacking in preparations and information. The only real benefit of this strategy was that they should have been able to catch the bandits off guard. Though considering that they were shinobi, it should have been enough to succeed in this attack.

And yet, what happened was definitely not a leak in information. There was someone out there who managed to predict their fast response, and after Naruto came to this realization, his bad feeling became even stronger.

Stab!

Naruto's eyes widened as pain shot throughout his body. His head slowly turning back, Naruto saw an arrow lodged inside the back of his left shoulder. His gaze then travelled up and he saw that there were a group of bandits with bows on the roof.

Naruto's bad feeling had been confirmed.

The large group of bandits have already surrounded Naruto. At first, it looked like nothing more than a mob of people. However, Naruto reassessed their formation and noticed that the formation wasn't as messy as he had initially thought.

All gaps have been filled, destroying all possibilities of breaking through. The front line of the bandits all had spears in their hands, forming a wall of spikes to keep Naruto away. Behind the mob of people, on the roofs, there were bandits with bows.

"There is someone dangerous behind these people," Naruto cursed inside his head as he took out a kunai and blocked another arrow.

But this wasn't over yet as the bandits had switched from swarming tactics to an endurance run. Despite having archers now, the bandits weren't in a rush. The archers started showering Naruto with arrows, forcing him to play defence. The moment Naruto would show an opening, a bandit would run in and stab with a spear before quickly retreating.

The archers weren't stupid, they didn't unleash a reckless rain of arrows. All of their arrows were coordinated, making sure that there was not a single pause in the rain of arrows. Furthermore, with the wall of spears all around him, Naruto didn't even have a chance to use any jutsu. All he could do was use chakra to enhance his physique and defend.

As Naruto started defending, he couldn't help the fact that injuries started piling up. At first it was nothing more than a few scratches, but Naruto's stamina started running out and the injuries became more and more serious.

Stab!

Another arrow stabbed into Naruto's thigh. A pained growl came out of his mouth, but Naruto couldn't do anything but continue defending, searching for an opportunity.

"Arrows! The archers will definitely run out of arrows! Once they do, I will immediately use all my strength to break out of this formation!" Naruto thought inside his head as another arrow flew past his face, leaving a scratch on his cheek.

However, to Naruto's dismay, it didn't go as he had hoped. The moment the archers were running low on arrows, another set of archers climbed on top of the roofs. These guys then started firing, while the first set of archers climbed down to replenish their arrows and rest up.

Scratch!

Naruto had sensed a bandit run at him from behind, so he had just barely managed to avoid the attack. However, the spear attack still left a deep scratch on his body. Before Naruto could retaliate, the bandit ran back to his comrades.

"Shit! Shit!" Panic started welling up inside Naruto. Never in his entire life would Naruto have imagined that he would die at the hands of some bandits, on his very first mission.

His calm facade started crumbling and anger welled up inside of him. But he still didn't let anger take control. At this intense fight, he needed to calm down as much as possible, which is precisely what Naruto did.

His eyes scanned his surroundings and Naruto then charged towards the nearest bandits.

"My only chance is to get close to the bandits! If I can get close, then those archers will stop firing in fear of hitting their allies," Naruto quickly dashed forward.

Because Naruto had to shift his focus on moving, some arrows managed to get past his defence and left even more injuries on his body. However, Naruto could only grit his teeth and endure.

"Spear Wall!" Under a bandit's command, all of them gathered together and created a literal wall of spikes.

"Stab!" Once Naruto was close enough, they took a step forward and collectively stabbed forward.

Many spears hit Naruto and forced him back.

Stab!

This single moment broke Naruto's flow and multiple arrows stabbed into his body.

"Gah!" Naruto fell on one knee as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Die!" Naruto looked up to see a single bandit before him, his spear prepared for a stab.

It was this single moment. Because their allies closed in, the archers had stopped firing, and the bandit was still preparing his attack.

For a fraction of a second, a pause in their attacks appeared.

Naruto, who was searching for an opportunity all along, noticed this miniature opening. Naruto didn't defend, he simply lunged at the bandit.

The bandit took a step back out of surprise, making his stab go off course slightly. The spear left a deep scratch on Naruto's side, but Naruto had managed to survive the attack. His kunai stabbed forward and Naruto killed the bandit.

He then spun on his heel and charged at the bandits again. This small opportunity had changed into a big one.

These bandits had believed that Naruto was already at death's door, only a finishing strike was required. However, the bandits didn't know that Naruto had the Uzumaki bloodline, had spent 6 years recklessly training his body, and that he was full of adrenaline.

His will to live flaring like a beacon, Naruto had ignored all pain and forced his body to move, greatly surprising the bandits. This single moment was enough for Naruto to close in on the bandits and start another slaughter inside.

"Ha-ah!"

However, before Naruto could kill more than a few bandits, a massive shadow covered him. Through his blurry vision, Naruto's sharingan travelled up and saw a massive man stand before him, his mace raised up. With a yell, that man smashed his mace down right on top of Naruto, forcing him to step back.

"Now!" A bandit yelled.

A whirling sound came from behind him.

Before Naruto could do anything, an incredibly hard and cold object pressed against his body. The hard object then started wrapping around him like an iron snake.

Naruto's eyes traveled down and saw that it was actually an iron chain with two weights on each end - an iron bola!

The iron bola had firmly tied itself around Naruto's upper body, sealing the usage of his arms.

Stab!

While Naruto was forced to jump back and was tied up by the bola, the bandits had managed to make a circle around Naruto again. As soon as their allies were out of the way, several more arrows were unleashed and stabbed into Naruto.

"Gah!" Naruto spat out another mouthful of blood and fell to his knees.

His gaze was blurry and he slowly looked up. A rogue shinobi came into his view. The man was very lean and was wearing a tight sleeveless shirt on the top, and baggy pants.

The man was standing at the back of the bandits, twirling around another iron bola in his hands with a smile on his face.

"Alright, finish him!" The rogue shinobi let out a command.

This time, the bandits took no chances. All of them understood now that Naruto was like a cornered animal. If they got too close, who knew what he would do. Because of that, all of them formed a wall of spears around Naruto, their stances firm. On the roofs, the bandits pulled back the strings of their bows.

"Gah!" A yell came from one of the archers.

All of them looked back and found a young girl on the roof. The girl was none other than Saori, and she had just killed one of the archers.

She had surprisingly managed to deal with the women in the underground prison. However, it was obviously costly, as she had some burn marks on her body.

"What were those whores doing? Shit! Ignore the girl, kill the guy first!" the rogue shinobi yelled as he moved to intercept Saori.

The archer bandits followed the shinobi's command and let go of their strings. The arrows drew a graceful arc through the air as they accurately flew towards the kneeling Naruto. In order to finish this, all of the archers participated, thus the result was that the sky was covered in dozens of arrows.

Naruto could only dumbly stare at the incoming rain. Because his sharingan was active, the rain seemed to come at him in slow motion. He could almost see the air being split by the tip of the arrows. He could see the fluttering feathers on the back of the arrows.

Naruto had already forgotten how many times the sharingan had helped him. Its amazing ability to predict the future movements of his opponents has lit up hope inside his heart many times. However, even his sharingan didn't see a way to survive today.

"Ahh… So this is the end?" Naruto sighed in his heart.

His gaze then travelled to Saori who was looking at him with great panic and fear. Her mouth was open and she was yelling something.

"Hmmmm, so even this girl can make a face like that. Surprising. I thought that she would be the happiest one after my death," The edges of Naruto's lips curled up into an unnoticeable bitter smile.

"Ahh, damn… There were still many things I wanted to do. I wanted to grow strong, to experience many things," As Naruto was thinking about his life, for some reason, his thoughts travelled to a particular memory.

It was an old memory of his youth.

It was a rainy evening then, and he had gotten caught up in it. As Naruto was making his way across the village, completely drenched, he walked into a figure. That person was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

At that point, Naruto didn't really know Hiruzen very well, so he still had his guard up against the old man. However, to Naruto's surprise, Hiruzen had invited Naruto to his house.

Once they had returned, Hiruzen had personally helped Naruto clean up and get dressed. Then they both sat on the porch and drank tea while talking. That was the moment when Naruto had finally understood what it meant to have a family. That was the only moment when he had gotten close to having one.

In his heart, once it had gotten difficult, he would always travel back to that place, back to that memory. He would sit on that porch with the old man and drink tea while talking about random stuff.

The ground grew dark as the arrows approached and Naruto closed his eyes.

"Just once more," Just this one time did Naruto allow himself to open up and travel back to that place.

Stab!

The first arrow stabbed inside Naruto's body.

Stab!

Then the second. Saori only looked on dumbly as the arrows had reached Naruto.

"How stupid… To be done in by a few powerless bandits, aren't you ashamed? Fight, you stupid brat!" A roar came from the very bottom of his stomach.

Naruto's teeth bit his lips as his eyes burned with fire.

Stab!

Another arrow reached him.

"Of course I want to live!" Naruto yelled in his mind.

He knew he couldn't do anything. It was nothing more than a desperate attempt. Perhaps it was simply Naruto's way - to never give up. Even if Naruto knew he will die, he wanted to cause trouble to these bandits to the very end.

Stab! Another one reached him.

Naruto unleashed a massive amount of his chakra, hoping that the resulting chakra explosion would knock away the arrows. It was the only thing he could do now that he was down on his knees and his arms were bound. However, what happened was very different than what he had imagined.

As Naruto flared his chakra in all directions, the massive amount of chakra traveled to every corner of his body. Naturally, that means that a massive amount of chakra had also reached his eyes. Like a sponge, his eyes started absorbing the massive amount of chakra.

His red sharingan then spun at fast speeds and started changing. The original three tomoe came together in the middle and formed a pinwheel with four spiralling curves.

Instead of the usual blue, red chakra exploded around Naruto. Every single person observed Naruto in mute silence.

There he was, right in the middle of the bandits, down on his knees. His body was leaking blood all over, there were multiple arrows in his body. However, none of the bandits dared to approach him. That is because Naruto had a massive red rib cage protecting him.

As the remaining arrows flew down, they hit the ribcage and bounced off as if they hit an iron wall. They didn't even leave a scratch.

Up on the roofs, Saori observed Naruto as he raised his head. His long hair moved aside, revealing his sharingan.

"That's… Mangekyo sharingan…" Saori mumbled quietly.