Kitahara Kaede accepted the mission slip and read through it carefully.
A bandit gang had surfaced on a trade route inside the Land of Fire and needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible. According to the report, the group consisted mostly of rōnin and common bandits. Against shinobi, that should not have been especially difficult to deal with, which was why the task had only been classified as C-rank.
After all, once chakra spread through the world, the era of samurai had long since been pushed into the background. This was the age of ninja.
"Any problem with taking this assignment?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked in the routine tone of someone who had handed out countless missions over the years.
"No problem," Kitahara Kaede replied. "We'll complete it."
"All right. Then take the mission booklet and depart as soon as possible."
The Third Hokage did not give him a second glance. To a Hokage, a chunin like Kitahara Kaede simply was not important enough to remember.
"Yes."
Kitahara Kaede accepted the mission and left the mission hall without another word.
Once outside, he informed Xiang Tianyuanlong and Hyuga Keiko to go make a few preparations, rest for a short while, and get ready to move out that afternoon.
"I'll try to finish this one as quickly as possible," he said. "If we do it cleanly, maybe we can squeeze out a three-day break afterward."
At that, both Tianyuanlong and Keiko nodded. Soon, the three of them headed toward the edge of the village together.
In terms of official rank, Xiang Tianyuanlong and Hyuga Keiko were still only genin.
But in actual combat ability, both of them were already around chunin level. What they lacked was simply the formal promotion.
That meant the current squad was, for all practical purposes, a genuine chunin team.
And with Kitahara Kaede added in—a man whose real combat strength could already rival a Special Jonin—handling a mere C-rank mission felt like using a hammer to crack a peanut.
After traveling for most of the day, the three finally arrived near the mission site.
A village lay ahead, tucked into the mountain.
Not far below the slopes stretched a broad roadway where merchant caravans usually passed. Recently, though, traffic there had been repeatedly blocked by the local bandit group.
According to the mission record, many of those bandits were former samurai and wandering fighters. Ordinary civilians could not deal with them, which was why the request had ultimately been handed off to Konoha.
"Rest for an hour," Kitahara Kaede said, standing on a branch and looking toward the mountain hideout in the fading light. "After that, we attack. Tonight we wipe out this entire bandit den."
"Got it."
"Understood."
Neither of the other two said much more. Both dropped beneath a nearby tree, took out soldier pills to restore their stamina and chakra, and sat down in silence.
Kitahara Kaede remained on watch.
This was already the habit he had slowly cultivated since becoming squad leader. He let the others recover while taking responsibility for the surrounding field himself.
By the time night finally fell, he was still standing atop a tree branch, looking out into the distance beneath the moonlight.
He could tell clearly that his eyesight had improved again.
Even though he had not yet awakened the Sharingan at that point, his vision had already become far sharper than before. The standard Uchiha bloodline alone was enough to bring an obvious boost.
After the hour of rest was up, the three of them moved.
Under cover of darkness, they slipped into the mountain stronghold.
Most of the people inside were already asleep. Only a few scattered watchmen remained awake, posted lazily around the perimeter.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
A string of shuriken cut through the dark.
Before the sentries could even react, several of them were pierced cleanly through the throat and collapsed where they stood.
Xiang Tianyuanlong and Hyuga Keiko both turned to look at Kitahara Kaede in visible shock.
Since when had his shuriken skill become this frightening?
Especially in the middle of the night—under poor light, at a distance, with such perfect accuracy—it was no minor thing.
Among the three, Hyuga Keiko had originally been the most skilled in shuriken combat. After all, she had the Byakugan. Even though the branch family's Caged Bird Seal made her eyes incomplete compared to the main house, the Byakugan was still vastly superior to ordinary vision.
That naturally made ranged combat easier for her.
Which was why it was so shocking that Kitahara Kaede's throw just now did not merely rival hers.
It may already have surpassed it.
And that kind of thing could not be explained through simple hard work alone.
The three moved quickly after that.
To an outsider, they were just children.
But shinobi had never been like ordinary people.
In wartime, children were sent to the battlefield all the time. Killing at this age was not considered unusual at all. Some of the most terrifying names in shinobi history had already begun making themselves known when they were this young.
That was the cruelty of the profession.
Then, suddenly—
Just as Kitahara Kaede silently cut down another bandit in one of the courtyards, a scream tore through the night from somewhere deeper inside the stronghold.
It was Xiang Tianyuanlong.
Kitahara Kaede recognized the voice immediately.
But what kind of bandit hideout could possibly threaten Tianyuanlong like that?
Even an ordinary genin would not have much trouble killing regular bandits. As long as they overcame the fear of bloodshed, it became simple. And Tianyuanlong was no ordinary genin at all. His actual strength had already risen above elite genin level.
The moment that thought finished, Kitahara Kaede moved.
With one step, he shot toward the source of the scream.
When he arrived, he found Xiang Tianyuanlong pressed into a corner, clutching his shoulder and gritting his teeth in pain. In front of him, Hyuga Keiko was doing everything she could just to hold the enemy off.
The man facing her was dressed like a wandering samurai.
But he was no samurai.
He was a chakra user.
A rogue shinobi.
His long blade flashed through the dark with terrifying speed, each strike forcing Hyuga Keiko closer and closer to the edge.
That level of ability had unquestionably already reached elite chunin territory.
No wonder Tianyuanlong had been badly hurt.
If it had not been for the Byakugan's dynamic vision allowing Keiko to track him, she probably would already have been cut down.
At that moment, Kitahara Kaede understood.
So that was why this bandit gang had been able to cause such trouble.
There had been a wandering ninja backing them all along.
Just as Hyuga Keiko was about to be overwhelmed, something shifted inside Kitahara Kaede's vision.
The entire world seemed to slow.
His sight sharpened instantly to an astonishing degree. He could even make out the path of a mosquito drifting through the air nearby.
The Sharingan.
Kitahara Kaede realized at once what had happened.
He had awakened it.
Otherwise, there was no way his dynamic vision could have improved so violently in a single instant.
Was it because he had seen his teammates in danger?
Had that pressure naturally triggered the awakening?
If so, then the system-provided Uchiha bloodline really was much easier to activate than the legends suggested. There was no need for absurd myths about killing one's closest friends. At least, not for this first step.
All of those thoughts flashed by in less than a heartbeat.
Then instinct took over.
He flung a shuriken.
The rogue ninja sensed the attack from the side and almost instantly turned, bringing up his sword to knock it away.
But at the same time, a second shuriken was already in front of him, cutting straight toward his throat.
To be precise, the two had been launched almost simultaneously.
And just as he twisted to dodge that second strike, two more shuriken sealed off the routes he would naturally have taken to evade.