Seeing one out of the three Bandits isolated near a bush it was my time to strike, out of line of sight from the rest of the camp. Taking a quick glance at my surroundings, there was no one close.
[Body Flicker]
Within half a second I was behind the man.
*Sqwelch*
A stab straight into his heart.
With my hand on his shoulder, I pulled my weapon out. Quickly sealing my Ninjato back with a quick flow of my chakra to the gloves, I dragged the body to a bush. It was my first ever hands-on kill...
Because of the dripping wound, there was a blood trail.
'Thankfully it was a clean stab, no large outburst of blood.'
The sounds of my sword stabbing the man stayed in my mind as a sudden urge to vomit occurred. Still aware, my hands form a seal and gain a 30-meter distance to regain myself.
*Blurghh*
The calm eerie night was disturbed by the silent gurgles of vomit as it only took a minute for focus to be regained. Taking some water from the scroll on my leg, I clean up my mouth not wanting to uncomfortably have that in my mouth for the next kills.
There was an inherited trait of me hating being dirty.
There wasn't any time to waste now.
'Two more.'
Heading back to the camp which took a little, a few tens of meters were the last two guards chatting with each other. Getting to a higher elevated position using the tree climbing exercise, it was time to pounce.
They were on the complete opposite side of my last kill.
*Poof*
Two kunai appeared in my right hand.
'Well, I'll need to take out both of them.'
My heart started to beat louder and louder as I finally struck.
Feeling the metal embrace of my kunai leaving my hand I sucked in a breath preparing to [Body Flicker] to the bandit if the weapon missed.
"Swoosh."
Two fast kunai sailing through the air hits its targets. The two bandits without any time to react had a kunai embedded into their brains.
High-quality kunai were neat.
Clean hits.
'four dead.'
Going up to the bodies, I take my kunai back and drag both of them to the closest bush. Of course with blood trails leading there. It's not like these guys could survive for long if I prolonged my attacks over a week.
Just intimidation if they break my stealth.
Wall climbing up the wooden watch tower, I silently look over the tents which surrounded the campfire. On the little seats next to the fire was one guy heating up some unknown meat, probably looking for a midnight snack.
'Relatable, but what's going to happen next isn't...'
Taking the previous kunai which killed the second bandit, I get into form as I take more deep breaths.
By the second exhale it launched.
*Swoosh*
*Sqwelp*
A fallen body later happened as my heartbeat slowed down a little.
Slowly walking down using the sides of the watch tower, my footsteps were silent as I went to the first tent. Two people were sleeping in their little beds as they snored into the night, blissfully unaware.
On guard, I carefully walked forward.
Looking for anything out of the ordinary, there was a gleam of string reflecting the moonlight. It was at the bottom of both entrances inside the tent.
'A trap.' I conclude.
Overstepping into the tent, my Ninjato now in hand.
*Sqwech*
*Sqwech*
Two more dead...
Making my way it, it was more of the same. The more I killed the less hesitation there was at every attempt.
I became a killer.
Now every other tent was empty besides two which had one sleeping bandit.
Each dead.
Taking my time, I scout the rest of the camp making sure nothing was out of the ordinary. No hiding bandits.
"I've finished Sloth." My voice croaks out loud as I make my way back to the bandit watch tower to retrieve my first kunai thrown. Can't forget my equipment, after all, it's like an unwritten rule to retrieve all your stuff after battle.
--A day later--
Calmly hopping through trees at fast speeds I start to make out the outline of a town in front of Sloth and me.
"Is this Narawara town," I ask in a neutral voice.
"Yes, Shimura-sama," Sloth responds similarly.
Speeding through the trees for a few more minutes I quickly find myself in front of a small town with heaps of people.
'Hmm.. Sloth said he only sensed one person with Genin-level reserves. Could it be Guren?' I think to myself as I remove my mask and start to walk around the village.
The village is quite decently large having a lot of houses with a small market where some civilians sell necessities like some food or clothes. A cosy place all things considered if this place wasn't destined to get absolutely clapped by Orochimaru of course!
Walking through the small crowd near the market area I start to follow Sloth to track where the person with Genin level reserves is.
Heading into an alley, I widen my eyes to the sight of a little girl who looks to be the age of 5. Way smaller than her actual age in the documents is due to not being able to eat proper food. She was dirty, with light blue hair which looked more brownish hair due to the dirt all over.
Guren with dark eyes looked like a street rat.
'Damn.'
It was like seeing a homeless person as a kid for the first time.
As a child when I did something bad my parents would say something about if you're bad, you'll become homeless. Sh*t just never felt right with me but hey, what would someone broke do when I can't even give money.
My eyes started to get a pitying look as I slowly walked up to her.
Guren who saw this just huddled herself up into a ball.
Not even looking me in the eyes.
'In all fairness with Sloth behind me, it must be creepy.'
"Hello there, what's your name. Mines Raiden Shimura..." I say gently.
The girl with puffed-up eyes looks up with an emotionless expression. Just pure darkness in her already dark eyes.
"M-My name is Guren." She says keeping silent not wanting to converse further.
Taking out the scroll from my leg pouch, I get a few rations and hand it to her. The little girl after a bit stopped huddling up and saw me with some food out. Encouraging her I smile trying to get her to eat.
Seeing this she slowly reached out her hand.
Taking the food she quickly brings it to her chest, hugging a bit. Creating some distance I watched as she happily ate her food like a squirrel.
Waiting a bit till she finished up, it was time for my speech!
"Guren, I want you to be mine. I'll provide you with food, a home and friends. My only ask is you be loyal."
--POV Guren--
Every word he said.
Every bite I took of the food.
It was like a bright light was shining before me.
'Loyalty? I'll gladly give it to him. He can have everything, I'll do anything...' My mind was starved, of energy as my only hope was in front of me.
Raiden Shimura.
I'll be yours.
My mind was already made up.
The kid who was a similar size to me, hoisted me up in a piggyback ride and ran out of the village. It was hard to hold on as I gripped his shoulders.
Raiden noticing this though paused.
"Put your hands around my neck. I wouldn't want you to get hurt or fall." He says in that gentle voice. For the only time that my memory could remember, a comfortable feeling spread throughout my chest in a burst.
For the first time.
It felt warm.
--POV Raiden--
'Who's hugging me.' I think to myself as I start to wake up.
Groggily moving around the was something or someone of a similar size.
Opening my eyes, I start to remember what happened.
I brought Guren back to the room with Bird using her healing jutsu to heal Guren as I took a quick bath and immediately slept when I returned.
There was a chance of arresting her, the way she ate pizza.
Ignoring that I guess she can stay here for a bit.
Later on, she's banished to her own room or to sleep with Sumiko and Karin.
Wiggling my way out of the jade beauty's embrace, I start with my normal morning preparations with my early shower and neat clothes as I always want to be in comfort in the compound.
I ended up spending like 20 minutes in the shower as that shit felt amazing after all the stuff I went through.
Looking back I'm extremely impressed with myself, a person with no killing experience eliminating a whole bandit camp is pretty nice.
There wasn't much hesitation.
To be honest, though I feel like I could have battled all of the bandits that were awake all at the same time, but it was still some good assassination experience. The only time I think I would need to do something similar again would be in Anbu which is also something I'm aiming for in the future.
There are many things being an Anbu would help out with.
More combat experience as I will be able to spar with my seniors, access to loads of techniques and jutsu I wouldn't otherwise thought I could have gotten and a good thing to have on my track record of course!
I mean I will aim to graduate as soon as I physically can which is exactly at the midpoint of the academy. While there probably won't be a team for me to join, I can just spar with root members or practise ninjutsu.
Chunin who get considered into anbu, were already scouted since the academy. But since I'm gonna graduate earlier. The only way for me to join it is through my connection with Ojisan, or build up a monster Chunin resume.
The former probably wouldn't prefer I do that but wouldn't be opposed to it?
While the latter is like why not.
May as well at that point.
I'll be going for that 100% completion rate so everything should be fine.
Finishing off my shower I put my clothes on and make my way back into my bedroom to see that Guren is finally awake.
"Harro! Let's go eat."
Guren with her eyes threatening to close again stares up at me cutely.
"Allo master..." She says in a tired tone getting out of bed.
Guren getting out of bed clumsily walks towards my direction and after a few seconds just stands there expectingly.
'Cute.' I think to myself.
I proceeded to pat her head.
"Umu!"
The rest of the afternoon went by and Bird picked up Guren to teach her about the basics of what she needed to do. She seemed to snap out of her sleepy self and started to get a very determined look whenever Bird said something like "Help Shimura-sama", which I found quite amusing.
With no rest, I make my way to the training grounds in the Shimura compound as I'm about to learn the one ninjutsu I've been thinking about for a while now.
[Wind Release: Wind Wall]
The justsu is one of the elemental defensive justus I picked out. One of the reasons is that I have wind release affinity and would the the best to start out with.
Why suffer first with other ninjutsu?
It's not like I'm trying to master the other elements, just be able to use them efficiently enough to the point where. The more chakra that's pumped in, the better the quality of the defence. Not really much about how little chakra I can spend and make it better.