4. The Bandits of Borgo

Story Start: Bandit Hideout

Naruto gave the derelict fortress the bandits had taken over as a base a look of such loathing an outsider could be excused for thinking that it had somehow killed his puppy and then pissed on its corpse in front of him. Sneering in contempt, he said "THIS is what those bandits considered a good base?"

Next to him Ross nodded with a just as disgusted look and said "If I had to choose between this and a tree to spend a single night in I'd grab some boards and put them over a couple of branches. This place isn't even worthy to house a water barrel with just a few drops left in it."

"Got that right son." Garcia growled, the former and now reinstated soldier giving the fortress his own look of disdain.

Back with the rest of Eirika's group, said princess was speaking with a pair of teens, a pink haired archer named Neimi and a blue haired thief named Colm. Her group had met the two on the way here and their agendas currently matched since the bandits had stolen a mirror from Neimi that had belonged to her mother. Seeing as how the pair were the only survivors of their village Lark, Eirika was giving the pair the equivalent of an on site job interview, allowing them work with her forces in order to see if it would be 'safe' to let them join their mission. (Safe of course being a relative word during times of war.)

A minute later though, the princess and her general came to the front and the bluenette nodded to Naruto as she said "Alright Naruto, make us a door please."

"Won't be too hard." Naruto groused before he shoved his hand forward and shot out pure wind chakra at the decrepit fortress entrance. The door, and ten feet of stone on either side of the door, fell inwards without a single ounce of protest breaking apart into dozens of pieces upon landing even as it flattened the 'guards' who had been sleeping on either side of the door on the other side. At the sight, Naruto glanced upwards and muttered under his breath something that sounded suspiciously to Eirika like "Sage help me from idiotic bandits."

Shaking off her question of just why a sage would be revered like a god, Eirika gave a quick follow me gesture and said "Come on everyone!"

The Princess quickly sprinted towards the entry way, Naruto and Seth on either side of her with the others not far behind. Soon as they were in they saw a group of five bandits rushing towards them from down the hallway. That wasn't what caught Naruto's attention though, instead it was the four bandits who rushed up to the large holes in the wall right next to the group with throwing axes. Four kunai, one to each bandit's throat solved that problem and he said "Huh, guess they have a reason for using this place after all."

"Looks like it, everyone be mindful of the walls!" Garcia called out as the other group was quickly taken care of and the group began making their way further into the structure, a group of four shadow clones quickly checking each hole in the wall so that way the more valuable non shinobi fighters wouldn't get taken out by anyone trying to be sneaky. Good thing too since an archer with twitchy fingers managed to take one out from where he was hiding in the back of a dark room. Said archer got a mini wind dragon for his troubles from the clone's vindictive brother. After that Ross who had been eagerly moving at the front of the formation made a point of giving the clones five steps between them rather than two.

The group soon came across a treasure room where there was a large collection of valuables stored with six chests in the middle of the floor with heavy pad locks on them. As the soldiers quickly secured the room Colm strode over to the chests and made short work of the lock on the first one. Popping open the lid, he let out a whistle and said "There must be at least five hundred gold in here!" Quickly opening the others revealed even more gold and he said "A guy could live pretty comfortably for a couple months with this much gold."

"Only a couple of months?" Ross asked incredulously as he looked at more gold than he ever saw in his entire life combined.

"Well half of it would go into the small mansion I'd buy." Colm said with a shrug.

"Hold that thought until after all of the fighting stops." Naruto advised as he quickly closed the chests and sealed them and everything else in the room into a sealing scroll.

"Hey!" Colm yelped at the sight of everything rapidly disappearing.

"Save it, Naruto's right." Seth said with a disapproving frown causing Colm to shrink back a little at the look on the general's face.

"As amusing as this is, it sounds like we have company coming." Moulder said.

Sure enough, there were shouts coming from the hallway leading further into the fortress and several bandits came rushing towards them screaming for them to get away from their loot, that was theirs, they had rightfully stolen it, yadda, yadda, yadda. Their shouts were rather abruptly cut off when Neimi put an arrow into each bandit's right eye, the archer reclaiming her arrows with a grimace as the group moved past the corpses.

A couple of minutes later, the group reached a rather large open room that held no less than fifty bandits waiting for them with weapons in hand and a BIIIG guy sitting on the throne like chair at the back wall with a just as big steel axe in one hand and a throwing axe in the other. Standing up with a sneer, he said "I'm the head of this bandit pack, the mighty Bazba! And you all have made the monumental mistake of attacking us in our home! Hope you've enjoyed your lives 'cuz their about to end! Gettem Boys!"

The bandits all let out cheers and rushed towards the group. Seeing this, Eirika yelled "Naruto, clear a path to the leader!" Her response was Naruto shooting forward with a pair of wind blades in hand, his clones hanging back with the others as he carved a bloody path to Bazba, Eirika right behind him. Any bandit that tried to turn around to go after them wound up with an arrow in their back and the others weren't any better off either, the fighters forming a line under Seth's orders and easily holding it against the much more numerous but sadly more inferiorly trained bandits.

As soon as they were clear of the other bandits Eirka said "He's mine!" and Naruto sidestepped and allowed the Princess to overtake him.

Bazba in turn gained a blood thirsty grin and said "C'mere girly!" The Bandit leader leapt forward swinging his large axe down in a strong overhead that Eirika dodged with a twist of her torso and quick step over before she struck out with her rapier. Bazba countered with his hand axe only for Eirika to use the momentum of the block to swing her rapier downwards and stabbed it into Bazba's left foot. The bandit leader howled out in pain and rage before he tried to bisect his smaller opponent with his bigger axe. Eirika leapt back out of the way though and the missed swing left him wide open as she quickly jumped right back into the fight and pierced his chest with the rapier.

Bazba's eyes widened and he coughed up blood. Slowly sinking to his knees, he said "I'm the…mighty…Bazba..This….ain't-" He didn't get any further as he finally hit the floor and died.

"Not bad princess." Naruto said with a grin and Eirika nodded before the two looked over to their companions in time to see Ross kill the last bandit with his hatchet buried in the man's throat. Pulling it out, the teen said "And that's why you don't mess with a true warrior!"

"Is anyone injured?" Eirika asked as she and Naruto walked back towards them.

A quick look between each other had Seth shaking his head and he said "We are all unharmed Princess Eirika."

"I'm glad." She said with a smile before she grimaced and said "But still, these bandits were burning out villages and stealing from our people without fear of reprisal. It isn't right."

"No, it isn't. It wasn't always like this, the knights used to protect the citizenry…However, with Renais in ruins and her army tattered, law and order are hard to find. It doesn't look like the Grado army is interested in maintaining order here either. If nothing changes, Renais will continue this sad plunge into savagery." Seth said with a large frown on his face.

"All the more reason to put an end to this war as quickly as possible then." Naruto said as his clones made sure that all of the bandits were dead.

Eirika nodded as her eyes steeled and she said "You are right of course. Let us keep moving then, my brother awaits."

End

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