Chapter 55: Blood-Bath

With a blur, Kaida disappeared from his position and appeared behind the grunt. Both of the bandit's hands fell to the ground, cleanly cut from his shoulders, with burn marks from his shoulders to his waist on both sides.

Even though he should have been soaked in blood by now, no blood came from his wounds; they were burned and sealed due to the fire chakra Kaida had coated his claws with. The bandit fell to the ground and started shouting for help.

Kaida lifted his leg and crushed the bandit's legs into the ground. His cry became a source of fear for the other bandits. The bandit who had thrown Ayame out ordered another, "Go call the boss here."

Kaida ignored him and kept walking toward the other bandit. With each of Kaida's steps, every bandit took a step back.

"What are you terrified of, you bastards? He's just a single kid, and there are so many of us. Go kill him!" the bandit shouted again. Hearing this, the bandits ran toward Kaida—not because they were motivated by the command, but because they knew there was no way they would survive if they ran; the ninja was far too fast. They prepared to fight for their lives.

But the problem was that Kaida's kenjutsu defense was so strong that even veteran ninjas would have struggled to land an attack on him. These half-assed bandits didn't stand a chance. Now that he had the Sharingan, he could see every minute detail and movement of the bandits.

Kaida kept walking, and with each step, one bandit would fall to the ground with holes in various body parts—some burned and sealed, others missing limbs. Each one was left barely alive, suffering from a slow and painful death.

With each passing second, the intensity of the screams on the battlefield increased. Yukihiro watched as Kaida easily handled every bandit. Though he didn't want to admit it, he even felt pity for the bandits, seeing them in this condition.

After just 20 seconds, only Kaida and the bandit who had thrown Ayame remained standing.

Seeing that he had no other choice, the bandit picked up his battle axe and slashed at Kaida. Kaida easily dodged, then simply bisected the axe in two with his claw.

He followed up with an attack on the bandit's hands and legs, leaving only the torso behind. The last bandit simply joined the rest in increasing the screams in the area.

By this time, the bandit who had gone to call the 'boss' returned with a ninja dressed in bandit attire. Yukihiro tensed up once again, just as he was about to go and help Kaida.

Kaida disappeared from his location again and appeared behind the ninja, slashing his claw toward him.

Though the ninja tried to block the attack with his kunai, the claws, made of chakra metal and coated with fire chakra, easily sliced through the kunai. One of the ninja's arms fell to the ground. Yukihiro appeared behind the ninja and knocked him unconscious with a strike to the neck.

"He's a ninja, Kaida. We should take him back to the village for interrogation," Yukihiro said.

Kaida nodded, then turned to see the hostages he had rescued. Seeing that they were frightened by all the screams, he simply used Wind Blade Jutsu to kill every bandit on the ground.

Afterward, he sat down on the ground, his spirit completely broken. Seeing him so down, Yukihiro approached and said, "Kaida, don't worry. It wasn't your fault. These were bandits. There are much worse people in the world doing things we can't even imagine. And we can't save everybody. The only thing we can do is our best every day."

"Sensei, I had a chance to kill these bandits during a previous mission. If I had done that, none of this would have happened."

"I know, Kaida. But even if you had killed these bastards, someone else would have taken their place. As I said, it wasn't your fault. Just do the right thing from now on. No need to blame yourself."

Kaida nodded, and Yukihiro left him alone for a while and went to clean up the mess Kaida had made.

First, he buried every bandit in the ground using Earth Jutsu, then stored everything inside the cave in a storage scroll.

He restrained the ninja with ninja rope and a paper seal that would keep him unconscious for the entire journey. By now, Kaida was up and ready to move.

They went to where Ryota and Kiba were handling the hostages. Kaida made three shadow clones—one transformed into a cart with enough seats for everyone, while the other two transformed into two bulls. They headed toward Ayame's father, who was coming in their direction with a kunai from the dead ninja in his hand, ready to fight for his life to save his daughter if necessary.

Kaida picked him up onto the carriage too, and they headed toward Konoha. For the entire ride, Ayame was unconscious. Kaida carried her on his lap, while Yukihiro stored the body of a fallen party member and the ninja in a scroll.

Upon reaching Konoha after four hours, Ryota and Kiba got down from the cart with Yukihiro.

"I'm going to report this to Lord Hokage. You can take them to Konoha Hospital," Yukihiro said.

"I'll tell Yomi about our return. You can go on," Kaida replied.

Kaida nodded and went toward the hospital, while Yukihiro, Ryota, and Kiba went in a different direction.

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**At the Hokage's office:**

"You're saying that on his first mission, Kaida was so against killing that he left the bandits alive. But when you returned to the village, you learned that some bandits had attacked someone Kaida knew, and you went on a rescue mission to save the hostages.

And there, Kaida killed all the bandits in such a brutal way that you felt pity for them. He also unlocked his Sharingan when he saw a girl he knew thrown out by a bandit in a very bad state, right?" the Hokage asked.

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

"He even handled a Chunin-ranked ninja alone?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage," Yukihiro repeated.

"Argh, I'm getting a headache just thinking about the Uchiha's reaction to this. They won't leave Kaida alone now that he's unlocked his Sharingan. They're very strict about this. Well, send that ninja to the T&I department for interrogation."

"As you wish. I'd like to request a week off for my team, Lord Hokage."

"Approved." Hiruzen said without any delay. The first kill is always difficult to handle, especially when you've lived in a place like Konoha where everything is relatively peaceful.

After submitting his report, Yukihiro took the ninja to Konoha's T&I department.

Just after 30 minutes of torture and investigation, the ninja started singing like a parrot. The result was something every higher-up in Konoha had been expecting.

Given Konoha's current state, every village is trying to exploit the situation. They are sending their ninjas disguised as bandits to attack Konoha's economy. This particular ninja was from Sunagakure, in the Land of Wind.

The Hokage was already aware of this but couldn't do much as every ninja in Konoha was already stretched thin with their duties.

They were doing missions back-to-back. Though he was sending ninjas from time to time to exterminate bandits, they kept increasing, no matter how many were killed.

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(A.N: For this chapter, I don't want Power Stones that much. Just tell me if you liked the chapter or not. Though you can still give Power Stones, I would primarily like to know your review of the chapter.)