Chapter 27: Land of Waves (4): Wave of Bandits.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.

Break

Tang! Clang—shrkkk!

"Argh! You—!"

"Tsk, so annoying! Benjiro, be careful, they're skilled in kenjutsu!"

"Yeah, thanks! Sakura, don't forget to set up traps, in case a bandit slips through."

"Got it!"

In the wide plain, dozens of corpses were scattered around like useless junk. The corpses were either burnt or sliced in the neck, killing them either slowly or instantly. This was the handiwork of two genins, namely Sasuke and Benjiro. Sakura, Kakashi, Habiki, and Habiki's genin team, team 3, were all watching far away from the vicious theater.

"Rat (ne), tiger (tora), dog (inu), ox (ushi), rabbit (u), tiger (tora). Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

Sasuke puckered his lips and blew out, spitting out a dozen of small fireballs that rushed toward the bandits like a bird of prey.

"Dodge!"

Seeing the fireballs, the bandits dodged, but six of them were caught by the fireball and started burning. Since the fire was made out of chakra, it wasn't possible to put out in a short amount of time. They wailed and cried, begging for help, but no one came to their rescue.

Team seven certainly won't help their enemies, and the bandits liked the fact that there would be fewer of them. Because the more bandits survived, the less reward each bandit receives, and vice versa.

"Damned brat, take this!"

Then, a bandit rushed at Sasuke and was close enough to engage him in combat. With his sharingan active, Sasuke could perfectly see the movement of the bandit.

Woosh—woosh!

When the bandit saw that his wakizashi missed, the bandit swung his sword again but like the previous attempt, he missed.

"Hmph."

Sasuke took out a kunai from his ninja pocket and embedded it deep in the bandit's chest. He looked back at the bandits only to see three more bandits surround him, and more were coming.

"Sasuke!"

When Benjiro saw Sasuke in a tight spot, he wanted to rush in to help or throw some kunai at the bandits to give Sasuke an opening, but he was forced to mind his own business.

"Brat, where are you looking?"

Because in front of him was a bandit who was very skilled in using the katana, and behind him was another bandit who was using a tantō like a stick. The second bandit didn't have skill, but that made his every move unpredictable and erratic, especially since he wasn't like Sasuke who had the sharingan.

"Damn it!"

Benjiro side-stepped and jumped to his left, but the bandit behind him charged forward and tried to stab his chest.

CLANG!

With his reflexes, Benjiro was able to block the tantō in the nick of time.

"Heh, your head is mine!"

However, that gave the other bandit an opening to strike. He raised his katana high in the air and brutally brought it downward.

"Crap, Ninjutsu: Substitution Jutsu!"

POOF! BANG!

When Benjiro successfully used the substitution jutsu without hand seals for the first time, the emotion he felt wasn't joy but relief. At that moment, he gambled his life on his skill. If he wasn't skilled enough to pull off the substitution without hand seals, he would be a goner.

"So slippery!"

When Benjiro was replaced by a log, the two bandits cursed and glared at Benjiro.

'I only have a third of my chakra left… but I have no choice!'

"Rat (ne), snake (mi), horse (Uma), dog (inu).Wind Style: Vacuum Blast!"

Benjiro breathed in a large amount of wind, to the point that his chest was bulging out like a frog's throat. He channeled the last bits of his chakra into his lungs and launched his third B-rank, wind-style jutsu.

After the jutsu was launched, Benjiro fell to his knees and trembled like a lone leaf on a hurricane. On the other hand, the two bandits he was facing off against were blown back, and their abdomens were sliced open as their guts spilled into the ground.

'Although the power isn't as strong as master's, it's enough to give me some time.'

When he saw that the other bandits were still far away, Benjiro took out some chakra pills to temporarily give himself chakra. After popping the chakra pills into his mouth, Benjiro opened a scroll and took out a katana.

'Time for kenjutsu. I hope my skills are enough…'

Having this thought, Benjiro charged at the nearest bandit in front of him and engaged him in close combat.

In the distance, Kakashi was deliberating whether or not to join the fray.

'No, let's observe. Benjiro needs to overcome this, or his talent will run out sooner than later. The same goes for Sasuke, although his potential has a higher roof. I just hope that none of them dies.'

As Kakashi was silently praying, the battle had already reached its climax.

In a short few minutes, another 25 bandits died in the hands of Benjiro and Sasuke. Because of Benjiro's low chakra reserves, he only killed ten bandits, while the other fifteen were killed by Sasuke.

"Rat (ne), tiger (tora), dog (inu), ox (ushi), rabbit (u), tiger (tora). Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

"Damn it, it's that jutsu again! How much chakra does he have?!"

Seeing Sasuke spit out another dozen of small fireballs, the bandits scattered like flies, resulting in only one casualty.

'Damn, this technique is getting less and less effective… and I don't have much chakra left. It's time for shurikenjutsu, but I don't have a storage scroll like Benjiro, so I'll have to engage in close combat soon.'

As Sasuke analyzed the battlefield, he took out six kunai and held three kunai in each hand before throwing them at the bandits.

The bandits dodged and jumped away, but Sasuke threw out another six kunai that ricocheted with the other kunai, forcing them to travel further and hit six bandits.

'That's the last extra kunai I have.'

Sasuke didn't delay and jumped at the nearest bandit when he saw Benjiro in the distance.

"Benjiro, look out!"

Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw a bandit behind Benjiro. The bandit was about to swing his sword, and Benjiro didn't seem to notice.

'Oh no, Benjiro doesn't have enough chakra to use the substitution!'

Knowing this, Sasuke didn't hesitate to throw out his last kunai with all his strength, aiming at the bandit's neck. But since the bandit was too far away, the kunai only struck the bandit's shoulder. However, the pain only made the bandit flinch before swinging his sword down.

When the bandit flinched, Benjiro was able to tilt his body slightly to the right, and when the sword fell down, Benjiro's right shoulder was nearly severed. Thankfully, he was wearing chainmail armor underneath his clothes, and he used his remaining chakra at the last moment to give himself another layer of protection, so the sword's impact wasn't as lethal.

"Siiip—"

Benjiro took a deep breath and drove the kunai on his hand to the bandit's neck, killing him before jumping away and landing next to Sasuke.

Only a dozen bandits remained, but Benjiro had a serious injury on his left shoulder and was suffering from minor chakra exhaustion, while Sasuke ran out of ninja tools.

When the dozen of bandits still didn't retreat, Sasuke used his remaining chakra to launch his last ninjutsu.

"Snake (mi), ram (hitsuji), monkey (saru), boar (i), horse (uma), tiger (tora). Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Because the bandits were bundled together as they charged, they had a hard time dodging Sasuke's fireball jutsu, and half of them burned to death.

"Damn it! ATTACK!"

"So tenacious. Benjiro, give me some kunai."

"Here… haaa…"

Although his left shoulder was bleeding a lot and it was painful for him to move, he could still move his right arm. Using his right arm, he took out a scroll and channeled his chakra into it, releasing a dozen of kunai.

"Thanks. Let's end this."

Sasuke smirked and picked up the dozen kunai. There were only six bandits left, and although his sharingan had deactivated from the lack of chakra, twelve kunai were more than enough to finish the job. Even if he missed one or two, he could engage in close combat to finish the job.

"Sakura, heal Benjiro's wound."

"O-okay…"

Under Sasuke's order, although Sakura was afraid of the blood, she forced herself to calm down and approached Benjiro to apply basic first aid. She also used her chakra to heal Benjiro's wound, although she could only stop it from bleeding.

Woosh—woosh—woosh!

Ten kunai flew in the air and all of them ricocheted off each other. When the kunai finally stopped, four managed to hit the bandits in the neck, while one was hit in the shoulder and the last came out unscathed.

"Nice, only two left."

Sasuke smirked and charged at the remaining bandits.

Kakashi looked down and frowned. Then, he used his chakra to further heal Benjiro's wounds.

"Sigh… I'm not too skilled in medical jutsu, so Benjiro, you'll have to wait until we return to the village…"

"Kakashi-dono, I don't want to have these injured genins with me. Let them stay in the land of waves with the other jonin, while you escort me back to konoha."

"This…"

Hearing Yukito's request, Kakashi pondered it for a bit.

'If they stay here, then only Habiki will be able to protect them… but if they follow us, we will take a whole week before arriving at the village. Hmm, I guess I should request backup and let the team stay in the land of waves, while I go escort Yukito-san as he requested.'

"All right, I agree. But first, let me call for backup, is that all right, Yukito-san?"

"Yes. Do what you have to do, I'll be waiting inside the carriage."

After Yukito closed the carriage door, Kakashi started weaving hand seals.

"Boar (i), dog (inu), bird (tori), monkey (saru), ram (hitsuji). Ninjutsu: Summoning Jutsu!"

POOF!

"Pakkun, please deliver this scroll to the hokage."

Pakkun didn't even have time to greet them before Kakashi shoved a scroll in front of him.

"…all right. It will be done. See you, Kakashi."

POOF!

Pakkun appeared quickly and left just as fast.

"Yukito-san, we are ready to go."

"All right, please lead the way, Kakashi-dono."

Before he left with Yukito and his servant, Kakashi glanced at Habiki, who smiled at him.

"Don't worry, Kakashi-senpai, we'll be safe."

"…I'll have to trouble you, then. See you back in the village, Habiki-san."

After bidding goodbye, Kakashi and Yukito disappeared into the horizon a day later. Team seven and team 3 watched as Kakashi and Yukito left, but none of them had any complaints.

They understood that following Kakashi would amount to nothing, and it was better to wait for the reinforcement that would arrive a couple of days later, as the reinforcements would include medic ninjas.

"WHAT?!"

Just as everyone was relaxing in the cool breeze at night, Benjiro suddenly shouted and stood up, pushing down the chair he was sitting on and wincing in pain. Seeing this, Habiki frowned.

"Benjiro, did something happen? Don't move too much."

Habiki asked, but he already knew that something did happen. He was just asking what happened.

"Habiki sensei, there are two hundred bandits heading our way, and they all have genin-level chakra!"

"Two hundred, you say?"

Hearing Benjiro, Habiki relaxed. It's just bandits, even if they all had genin-level chakra, they can't use it.

"No, Habiki sensei! The chakra systems of these bandits are active!"

"WHAT?!"

Now that's a different story.

200 hundred bandits with active, genin-level chakra. That was basically the same as fighting on 200 genins. Even if he was a jonin, he could only hold off so many genins!

"Habiki sensei, what should we do?"

"Let's wait and set up traps. Sakura, scatter these three scrolls near the front where the bandits will arrive. Benjiro, how much longer until the bandits arrive?"

"They aren't marching rapidly. We have at least five minutes."

"Good."

After hearing the estimate of Benjiro, Habiki channeled a small amount of chakra into the three scrolls.

"These scrolls will explode after ten minutes, so be sure to avoid the scrolls ten minutes later, understood?"

"Yes!"

"All right, Sakura, go ahead and plant them. Sasuke, come here, let's discuss collaboration jutsus."

"All right, Habiki-sensei."

While Habiki began brainstorming with Sasuke, Sakura took the three scrolls and tilted her head curiously. She didn't know what these scrolls were, but her hands pooled in sweat just by holding onto them.

"Let's do this quick."

Sakura huffed and ran into the field. She ran until she was 20 meters away before burying the three scrolls into three different areas, and then she quickly left the field.

"Hmm?"

Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly felt as if someone was watching them from a distance and turned to look back, but she was greeted only by the trees over yonder.

"Weird."

Sakura muttered and went back to Habiki and the rest.

In the entire group, only Habiki, Sasuke, and she was capable of fighting. Maybe Benjiro could provide support by throwing kunai with his right hand, but that was it.

Against two hundred genins, they were undoubtedly underprepared.

Meanwhile, as Habiki and Sasuke discussed a plan, a man wearing a black cloak was quietly watching over them. When he saw Sakura bury three scrolls, his lips curled upward and chuckled inwardly.

'They're using master's explosive scrolls… should I tamper with them?'

The man thought before hiding behind the trees when he saw Sakura about to turn and look at him. After a minute, he left out a soft laugh.

'That was a close call. Because of that, I'll tamper with the scrolls. That way, they will explode ten minutes late!'

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