Chapter 25

"That is what I wanted to know. How come they all just stood there? Even the last guy. I could tell he would have been a problem, yet he just stood there." They may have been my targets of kill but they just standing there and being slaughtered was just boring and tasteless.

"Mm? So you did it without knowing? I don't know if I should be proud or worried." She chuckled loudly which confused me even more.

Seeing my confused expression, she explained, "Killing intent. You released such uncontrolled killing intent that you paralyzed your opponents. Someone that had only just killed a few should not have been able to release such intent." She paused and looked like she was considering a few things before she looked at me with realization.

"All men are mortal, right? Right. Don't worry, our trainings will help you control it better." She spoke but did not enquire further. "Let's finish up here and go."

For some reason I felt I needed to watch what I said around her. She was dragging away the chunin leader whose limbs had long since been broken, yet had not said a single word or even groaned in pain.

'I wonder what she said to him.' I wanted to ask him. Unlike the bandit I fought with the first time, this leader's eyes looked different, tranquil, perhaps, almost as if he understood; Live by the sword...

She dragged him along, with me walking behind with my guard up of course, through a path until we got to a large open space which seemed to be used as a prison, seeing the group of people confined in there. The group consisted of children, quite a few young and older women and finally about four or five men in the mix.

Some of them laid sprawled on the cold ground with no clothes on and bruised all over, while others lay there unmoving. They did not even bother to tie up the whole group. I assumed because they did not believe any of them would be brave, no, stupid enough to try to escape.

"You're up, Sakura." She threw the boss on the ground in front of the group, the noise finally startling them awake to our sudden presence.

"Huh? Why the hell am I up?! Old ladies should not shirk responsibilities, you know?" I retorted, not understanding her in the least. During the walk there I had already somewhat cleaned the blood on my face but there was nothing I could do about my bloodied dress for now.

"What do you mean you shitty brat?! It was you that wanted to come here. Hence it falls on you to obviously handle the situation." I really could not argue with her logic there. Fine.

I rolled my eyes and came before the captives. Most of them had lost their will to live. Some, even as they watched the boss of the bandits in such a state moved back in fear. Only a few however had fire in their eyes. They wanted nothing more than to kill the boss for taking away their village, their families, and here he was, defenseless. The opportunity had presented itself.

I shook my head with a chuckle when I saw that. I walked towards the fallen boss, crouched to pick him up by the hair. Well, tried. The arm strength I had was just terrible. Looking closer at him, it seemed Mebuki had really done a number on him. It was not just his broken limbs. I lifted him higher by the hair and with a hard slash, separated his head from his body. I threw it at them and spoke, "This is the man that took from you and now I have ended him. A few days to the north from here lie Konohagakure. Goodluck on your journeys." I walked away without another word, leaving behind the perplexed group.

That was it? Where was the comfort? Where was the pity? They were happy and relieved to have been saved but for people that had just lost their families and village, they were at least expecting some form of sympathy. Yet, this twelve or eleven years or so old girl gave them neither; She just pointed them to the nearest shelter. The way she put it, were they not going to protect them and take them there?

By this time, I had already reached Mebuki who had her mouth open, shocked. "What the hell was that?". She asked which confused me a bit.

"I handled the situation like you asked me to." I spoke in a matter of fact.

She began to massage her temple. I shrugged at her. How was she expecting me to handle that situation when I had zero intentions of returning? I already had a few plans made up for the situation, but that was only possible if I was stronger.

"Um?" One girl spoke up. We barely paid her any attention as me and Mebuki were having a subtle stare-down. "Um, excuse me?" She spoke up again. Since it looked like we were preoccupied the first time, this time she spoke louder.

She caught our attention as we both turned to look at her. It seemed to have shaken her a little, but she plucked up her courage and spoke up. "Um, thank you for saving us. We would not want to impose on you anymore than you have. We could always go back to the village and try and rebuild."

'What a smart, stupid girl.' There were too many things wrong with that plan but it was cute she felt she did not want to bother us. Well, that worked out for me either way. Just as I was about to speak up on her plan, one of the men of the group began to yell out before I could.

"Shut up you stupid girl! What village do you want to return to?!" His spittle flying all over the place. He turned to us and continued while pointing a finger at us, "It is your duty to take care of us till we get there, so take us there!" I could see a few of the people actually nod their heads at the man's words.

'Wow, there really are characters like these?' I was truly shocked. Was it that the sudden cool from their relief had turned part of the brains into mush? At the thought of it, I couldn't help but chuckle.

It seemed to have irritated the man as he began to yell once more, "What the hell is so funny, huh!? You are nothing more than hired hands. That is all you lot are good for; it is your job so do your fucking job!"

At this point I was honestly more intrigued than annoyed. I knew the civilians in Konoha had a complex, especially after having seats at the council, which seemed to have boosted their egos even more. Not that I cared about them though, but this man right here, I wondered why he was that confident.

"If Konoha had come to exterminate these bandits earlier we would not be in this mess in the first place!" He spoke up once more, this time with more confidence than before. This time, more of the people began nodding in agreement.

"You—". Before he could finish, I threw my head back and broke out into a full-blown maniacal laugh which echoed throughout the place.

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From next week, new stone targets. Happy we could cross the old target and more.

200 stones = 2 chapter

400 stones = 3 chapters

600 stones = 5 chapters.

Current reached = 550

Chapters owed = 4/5