Warning(s): Violence, swearing,

When the boss told them that the short, skinny kid standing next to him was coming with them, Ryota wasn't the only one who thought he'd gone crazy.

A group of bandits was no place for a kid, especially not a girl. She'd get in the way, get herself killed or get them killed if they tried to protect her. Kids needed looking after and were always whining about one thing or another; they couldn't survive on the road, constantly on the lookout for enemies. She'd be just dead weight, a responsibility they could really do without.

But you didn't argue with the boss. After he cut the tongue out of the sorry bastard's mouth the last time someone questioned his orders, no one was willing to try it. Besides, the boss had never led them wrong in all the years they'd followed him. Why would this be any different?

So yeah, they let the kid tag along. It was kind of creepy how she just stood there whilst they loaded the women and kids into the wagons, not protesting or crying or anything. Ryota was pretty sure her mother had to be with them, but the kid didn't give any indication that she was bothered. She ended up standing with the boss whilst Ryota and thirty or so guys searched the houses for supplies, money and anything valuable they might be able to sell.

When they set off to the meeting point they'd set up with the slave traders Ryota figured she'd get exhausted and start whining to be carried soon enough. A couple of hours in he drifted over to where she was walking along next to the boss, having to take two steps to match his one. Seeing her tiny frame next to the much taller man was kind of funny, especially when the boss was happily chatting to her, but Ryota didn't think the boss would appreciate him commenting on it so he kept quiet.

A few months later Ryota was still wondering why the kid was with them. He'd heard about what she'd done to Jiro, stabbing him in the leg without the slightest hesitation before cutting his throat, and damn if that wasn't creepy as fuck.

He steered clear of her after that, like most of the other bandits did, except the boss and that weird ex-shinobi guy the kid had convinced to teach her – he'd seen them doing those kata things real early in the morning. Ryota didn't like the idea of a shinobi being in their group, but the boss apparently got a kick out of it for some reason, so there wasn't anything they could do about it.

The girl wasn't as much trouble as he thought she'd be. She'd struggle to keep up the pace after a while and had to be carried by the boss, especially in the beginning, but he could almost see her endurance built up as the months passed and soon she was trotting along happily. She'd help the guy whose turn it was to cook sometimes, and she'd gotten good enough with her kunai that she could put it through most animal's eyes at a fair distance, and Ryota gained a new appreciation for rabbit that hadn't been pulverised. He still thought she was creepy with that constant smile of hers, but she wasn't a total pain in the ass so the kid was okay in his books.

It wasn't until they were set to attack another small town that she truly earned her place amongst them. It was pretty routine – cause a stir, get them good and scared, kill the men and capture the women and kids – so when it turned out that there were a few Iwa-nin returning from a mission they hadn't been prepared.

The shinobi were only genin, probably in their pre-teens by the looks of it, but they were still damn feisty. The girl of the genin knew some fancy jutsu that sent spikes of rock protruding from the ground, killing a couple of the guys and injuring four others. Fortunately it seemed to exhaust her since she didn't do it again and kept to throwing shuriken at them, like her teammates though one boy sure liked kicking them in the head.

Then the kid arrived. One minute Ryota and the twenty men under his command were getting their asses kicked, the next a tantō was sticking through the brunet genin's neck. He hung on the blade for a few moments, eyes wide with shock and pain as he choked for breath, before the kid removed her sword with a slick spray of red and attacked his gaping teammates.

The Iwa girl didn't react quick enough, barely managing to flinch back as a foot smashed into her chest. She flew back a couple of feet and brought up a kunai in defence, but then the tantō sliced through her wrist, forcing her to drop the kunai with a shriek. It wasn't a clean cut – the girl's hand hung limply to her wrist by a few meaty strands of flesh and muscle - and she forgot her training in favour of clutching it to her chest, only to cry out again when she pressed down on what must have been cracked or even broken ribs.

That cry turned into a gurgle when the tantō thrust upwards under her chin and into her mouth cavity, before she was kicked off to bleed out on the ground.

The last remaining genin, face pale and trembling violently, spun on his heel and ran when the tantō-wielding child turned to him. With a casual flick of her wrist a kunai – the one the genin girl had been holding, Ryota realised – was sent flying at the back of his head, entering with a dull thunk and sending him tumbling to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

Throughout the entire thing Ryota and his men hadn't been able to do anything more than watch in horrified fascination. The entire time it was almost like she was playing with them, giving the girl genin a chance to recover and attack when she kicked her, rather than just stabbing when the Iwa-nin was open and vulnerable.

It seemed unreal, watching a kid who couldn't be older than six decimating shinobi twice her age, even if he factored in all the intense training she got up to. She and that missing-nin went off on their own sometimes and returned with blood on their clothes and weapons, but it never really registered before now that such a young kid was a killer already, and a damn good one.

And she was still smiling that same serene grin, like she was enjoying some joke no one else seemed to get. She picked her way over to the cooling bodies and with an almost obscene gentleness pulled the hitai-ate from their heads, having to remove the kunai from the boy-who-ran's head. Neatly folding each one she tucked them into her oversized shirt.

Ryota suppressed a shiver and decided to just be glad she was on their side.

. . .

Tantō – Japanese short sword commonly used by samurai in feudal Japan. Usually between about 10-30cm long.

Why can Sai kill three genin when she's five? She's been training intensively with a missing-nin of at least high chuunin level, the Whispers are very good at pointing out weaknesses in opponents, the genin were genin (just out of the Academy, civilian background, weak) and they were put off-guard since they were being attacked by a kid, who they've been taught to protect and think of as harmless.

Short chapter is short. The next one is much longer, and I'll probably post it soon.