Chapter 17: Nomad Solution

It was far from easy to successfully complete the mission if things turned out poorly.

They could first silently eliminate most of the sleeping bandits and gain some advantage.

But once they had done this it was probable that one of the bandits would end up alerting the other bandits in the base, creating chaos, and causing the civilians to seek to escape from the base while the remaining bandits would gather to confront them preventing them from eliminating the civilians escaping from the Base.

If this were to happen, the mission would fail as there could be a possible leak of information.

But if they don't do this, and decide to eliminate the civilians first to prevent them from escaping, the bandits would be more, and confronting them later would be even more difficult, worsening the situation and leaving little chance for the three of them to get out alive.

Well, in Rasa's case it wouldn't be much of a problem since if he used his control over the metal he could easily deal with the situation, but he still didn't want to expose himself, he had other plans that required him to keep his control over the metal hidden, but now he would be in a complicated situation if he didn't use it.

He already knew that it was likely that to successfully complete this mission, he would have to use his gold dust thus revealing his identity since Rasa was clearly the only one who could use this KeKkei Genaki besides the Kazekage who used the iron sand.

But the truth was that he wasn't too worried if his team found out his identity.

He didn't mention it before only because now being the recognized apprentice of the Third Kazekage could be an awkward situation with his team and he preferred to save himself trouble, but if it was necessary he would use his gold dust in front of them.

On the other hand, his control of the metal was another matter, unless it was life or death Rasa wasn't willing to reveal it to anyone.

"Oh I know, I thought of a wonderful way to take care of these civilians" Nomad suddenly said proudly as if he was a genius.

"Sure I hear you, say your great solution," Custus said sarcastically.

"Paper Bomb!" exclaimed Nomad with full confidence.

Custus and Rasa looked at him in confusion not understanding what exactly he had planned to do with the Explosive Tag.

"And tell us genius, how exactly would the Explosive Tag serve us?" asked Custus with a frown even though she couldn't be seen because of the turban she was wearing everyone knew she was doing it.

"Since there are too many civilians on the other side that can escape in the chaos, and so we can't attack the sleeping bandits, it's simple what we have to do, we plant Paper Bomb everywhere there are civilians and blow them all up" Nomad explained his reasoning very simply.

They both looked at Nomad for a few moments as if the idiot had suddenly turned into some kind of genius in their eyes.

"Actually that might work, if we do that the only ones who might survive the explosions are the bandits, so we shouldn't have to worry about civilians escaping" agreed Rasa who wasn't expecting such a convenient idea to come from Nomad.

'It's funny because I thought of many different ways to deal with the situation, but something as basic as that never crossed my mind, it seems I underestimated Nomad or maybe he just got lucky, but I'll give him credit this time' thought Rasa to himself.

Custus on the other hand seemed reluctant to believe that Nomad's stone head had come up with such an efficient plan to deal with the situation and she hadn't.

"I told you, I'm a genius" stated Nomad proudly.

"TCH, it was just luck" commented Custus unhappily.

"Is that what I hear envy maybe?" scoffed Nomad.

"You...!" Custus was about to explode with anger.

"That's enough you two, after the mission argue all you want, now, how many Explosive Tag do you have?" asked Rasa to the two, causing them both to unwillingly calm down and check the number of explosives they had.

"This..., it's not too much. You know, they're pretty expensive so I only brought about 15," Nomad said a bit embarrassed as he grabbed the back of his head.

But it was true, Explosive Tags were something that ninjas used to buy at high prices since in Sunagakure not many were made and it was more difficult to access them than in other villages, although it didn't matter the village, in all of them it was expensive to buy Explosive Tag.

With the payment of a C-rank mission, only about 15 explosive talismans could be bought, but one had to keep in mind that silver was usually used to replace the equipment used in the mission and the daily life uses, so it was not anyone's priority to spend that much money on Explosive Tag.

"Don't worry Nomad, it's a good amount. And you Custus?" said Rasa in understanding.

She seemed to be even more embarrassed than Nomad for some reason.

"Well... I don't usually use Explosive Tag for anything so I only have the basic 7 explosive tags" whispered Custus with obvious embarrassment at the awkward situation.

"Pfff, only 7, now we're really screwed, unless Gold has more than 30 Papers Bomb, we won't even get to eliminate half of the civilians," said Nomad laughing mockingly, making Custus only get irritated and start arguing with him again.

'Good gosh, those two don't stop for a second, they're like cats and dogs' thought Rasa.

"No need to argue, I have about 35 explosive tags, so that should be enough to at least eliminate or incapacitate all the civilians," said Rasa, causing Nomad and Custus to stop arguing and instead look at him strangely.

"Tell me Gold, why the hell do you carry so many talismans with you, do you always think about blowing things up on missions?" asked Nomad who seemed to be quite interested to know the reason for him to carry such a large load of explosives.

And even though Custus didn't say anything, she seemed to be paying close attention to what Rasa would answer, which gave her clear intrigue away.

"It's simple, if I find myself in a situation where I know I'm going to die I'd rather be prepared to take someone with me," Rasa said calmly, making Nomad and Custus shudder at the thought of an enemy that is about to be eliminated and suddenly detonate 35 explosive talismans.

'Terrifying' they both thought and both vowed to make sure from now on that their enemies did not have the same crazy ideas as their teammate.

If a ninja of Chunin rank were near the explosion of the 35 explosive seals it was likely that they would not survive and if they did, they would be crippled at the very least.

Only a Jonin could survive that without much injury.

The three of them prepared the plan to follow to complete the mission.

Rasa and Custus would be in charge of placing and distributing the explosive seals in various strategic positions of the base where all civilians would be affected and then they would also make sure that all civilians had been eliminated.

Nomad, on the other hand, had the task of being the distraction once the talismans exploded, he was to lure the bandits so that Rasa and Custus could eliminate the civilians who managed to survive the explosions.

If everything went off perfectly, the explosives would not only take out the civilians but also eliminate a good group of sleeping bandits.

IIf things went average, the explosives would take out or incapacitate most of the civilians as well as a small group of bandits.

And if for some reason luck was not on their side, the explosives would only manage to eliminate a good amount of civilians leaving some alive which would have to be eliminated by Rasa and Custus, and if they were unlucky it was likely that many of the bandits who were asleep would not be affected by the explosion.

But the last option was extremely unlikely as Rasa and Custus planned everything in such a way that it should go perfectly, but who knows, anything can happen in this world and Rasa knows that better than anyone.

" Remember my words, do what you can, if you can't, hold them off until the captain arrives, don't get excited, don't think you can beat them all!" said Rasa staring at Nomad who was the one most likely to get carried away in the fight.

They had already seen in training how he used to fight without caring if the enemy was stronger, he would just go to fight head-on like a psychopath.