At the base of the mountain, a group of bandits—laden with bags stuffed full of freshly looted grain—were trudging up the winding trail. Unfortunately, their path led them directly toward Rin's position.
Her pupils shrank sharply—
The bandits who went out… have returned.
On the narrow mountain trail below, more than a dozen bandits cursed and shouted as they climbed, the blades at their waists still slick with blood—undeniable proof that they'd killed during their latest raid.
Rin hurried ahead of them and swiftly set up traps on the path before ducking behind a large boulder.
The lead bandit, a one-eyed man with a grizzled expression, abruptly halted in his tracks. Seasoned by years of bloodshed, his instincts screamed danger.
"Shut up," he barked. A vicious glint flashed in his lone eye, and the men behind him instantly quieted.
He scanned the familiar path ahead. It looked just as it always had—quiet, unremarkable.
But there was something off about the silence. An invisible pressure hung in the air.
Something is watching us.
Behind the boulder, Rin held her breath as she watched the bandits pause just before her traps. They wouldn't take a single step forward.
They've sensed it…
She had no choice but to abandon her original plan. Lowering her presence even further, she stopped looking at them entirely.
She realized now—
The one-eyed leader had a highly attuned sense for killing intent. Even eye contact might give her away.
And then she saw it:
Three bandits detached from the group and cautiously made their way forward.
They circled the traps with precision… and began creeping toward her hiding place.
They found the traps?!
Rin's fingers dug unconsciously into the dirt. Sharp stones bit into her palm—
This isn't training. This is life and death.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
With a surge of chakra, three identical clones burst forth from behind the trees.
But Rin herself didn't move with them. She had already slipped away, circling around toward the bandits' rear.
All she could hear was her own pounding heart.
She watched—
One of her clones launched a clean kick, shattering a bandit's windpipe. Blood arced violently through the air, glinting in the sunlight.
"Urrggh—"
The stench of blood and rust hit her like a brick wall. Rin gagged, her stomach convulsing.The man wasn't dead yet. He writhed on the ground, choking on his own blood, dark froth bubbling from the corners of his mouth.
"A ninja!"
The one-eyed leader's expression twisted with fury as he gripped his greatsword. He understood now—
Someone had hired a shinobi to wipe them out. And once a shinobi accepted a mission, there was no mercy. No begging, no escape. Only battle.
"Kill her! She's just a brat—I don't believe she can take us all!"
"Yeah! Just a brat! I'll cut her down!"
These were men who lived with blood on their blades, who'd long since lost their fear of killing.
They surged forward, roaring, slashing at the clones.
Slash!
One of the shadow clones was struck and immediately burst into smoke.
Another was struck down and vanished instantly.
Rin didn't have time to think. Her body moved on instinct.
She'd made it behind the enemy. Her small figure shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, sudden and fierce.
Her right foot snapped up, striking the wrist of a bandit holding a sword. A sickening crack echoed—his bones were broken.
Rin spun on her heel, her left leg whipping into his temple. He crumpled.
Another blade swung toward her—
Rin plunged her dagger into the attacker's chest. Hot blood surged over her hand.
Panting hard, she didn't pause. Ducking under a wild horizontal slash, she twisted her grip on the kunai, slashing it across the next bandit's wrist.
Blood sprayed. He screamed and dropped his sword.
She flipped back swiftly, gaining distance, and flung three shuriken in a blur of motion—
Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!
All three struck true, embedding in the knees of three charging bandits. They screamed, crumpling.
One shadow clone capitalized on the moment, slamming an elbow into a man's throat. The snap of crushed cartilage was sharp and final.
"Damn brat!"
The one-eyed leader roared and charged, his sword sweeping down like a guillotine.
Rin twisted to the side. The blade narrowly missed her head, slicing a lock of her hair and slamming into the earth with a shower of broken stone.
She lashed out, her right leg cracking into his wrist—
Crack!
The sword dropped.
But the man grinned savagely through the pain and drew a short blade with his other hand, thrusting it at Rin's abdomen!
Her eyes widened. She bent back instinctively—
The blade missed by a hair, slicing open her clothing. Using the momentum, she flipped backward, landing with one hand on the ground.
With the other, she hurled a kunai—
Thud!
The knife sank into the man's throat.
His eyes widened.
A gurgle rose in his throat as blood poured down his chest. He staggered… and fell.
Rin stood, breath ragged, surveying the aftermath.
Bodies lay strewn across the path, blood soaking into the mountain soil.
Her shadow clones had all vanished.
Only she remained—alone—in the midst of the carnage.
Her fingers trembled.
Drops of blood dripped from the kunai in her hand, hitting the earth with faint plip-plap sounds.
—She had killed.
This wasn't training.
Not a dummy.
Not a sparring partner.
She had taken lives. Real ones.
Their screams, the terror in their eyes, the way they twitched before going still—
All of it burned into her memory.
Her stomach lurched. Her throat tightened. But she bit down hard on her lip, forcing herself to stay calm.
"This is just the beginning…" she whispered.
"This… is my life now. I have to get used to it."
She tightened her grip on the kunai and turned her gaze upward, toward the battle on the mountain.
—
At that moment, further up the slope, Obito and Nohara Rin were already locked in battle.
Despite being mocked as the "dead last" and even nicknamed the "disgrace of the Uchiha," Obito was still a genin. His mission was merely to cause a diversion, not fight head-on.
But what none of them expected was this—
The moment Obito launched his Fireball Jutsu, the bandits didn't panic.
They didn't scatter.
Instead, under the command of their new leader, they immediately regrouped and formed a tight encirclement around him and Rin.
They had numbers—and numbers overwhelmed skill.
Obito and Rin quickly found themselves surrounded and on the defensive.
—
Rin retrieved her short blade and scattered tools, then sprinted uphill.
What she saw made her eyes narrow—
Obito and Rin were encircled by a large group of armed bandits.
Without hesitation, she hurled several shuriken from a distance, instantly taking out some of the outermost enemies.
"Another one?!"
"Damn these shinobi—just die already!"
The bandits, alarmed by her arrival, split off several men to engage her.
Rin braced herself, legs tensing.
Then—
She pulled back sharply, retreating from the main battlefield.
Because she knew one thing:
Even the strongest fists can't fend off four attackers at once.
If she let herself be surrounded like Obito and Rin, she'd lose all advantage.
A ninja's strength lies in speed.
As the bandits chased her, Rin suddenly twisted her body—
In the blink of an eye, her petite frame vanished from their sightline.
From their perspective—
Her small form had simply disappeared.
But the question was—
Where did she go?
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