Chapter Nine

While Indra was investigating the rumoured alliance between the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Lightning, the embers of war had finally ignited with Iwagakure and Kirigakure officially declaring war on each other. The enmity between Mu, the second Tsuchikage, and the second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengutsu had finally reached a boiling point. With both leaders of their respective villages having fought countless times over the years, they were now bent on killing the other party.

This alone wouldn't have caused the Five Great Nations to devolve into war, but with the constant plundering of resource from the smaller nations, and the fact that Kirigakure and Iwagakure forces would battle in parts of the Land of Fire made it so. The other option was to go through four other smaller nations which would have reduced their forces as those nations won't sit back and roll over for both Kirigakure and Iwagakure to invade it, this left the Land of Fire as the best option. With the safety of the citizens, and the territory of the Land of Fire at being used as a battle ground by hostile forces, Tobirama had no other option but to officially join the war, making it three out of the five great nations at war.

Seeing the Land of Fire facing two of the five nations, Sunagakure sensed an opportunity to invade the Land of Fire and capture fertile land for themselves as Konoha would be stretched thin defending against three nations at once. While the four nations were mobilising their entire forces, Kumogakure hadn't officially joined the war as they were waiting for the other nations to weaken significantly before they swoop in and gain the most, so for, now all they did was mobilise their shinobi force to protect their nation's border.

............

The Land of Rice Fields was a beautiful country with a lot of rice fields as most people could guess from the title since most nations were named after their country's specialty. The small nation had no official shinobi village but it had numerous clans that made up its pitiful shinobi force, enough to protect it from the smaller nations. But sadly they had a Daimyo that possessed more ambition than even the Daimyo's of the great nations, this caused a tense and oppressive atmosphere around the nation. Most of the towns Indra passed through on his way to the capital of the nation were either abandoned or completely destroyed, and when he found a village or town with people in it, they were so impoverished and scared of bandits that he started wondering why the Daimyo wasn't doing anything about the bandit situation ravaging his land. For an incompetent leader, he should at least know he needs to have his citizens working and earning something for him to be able to wring out whatever little they had. So having bandits, 'missing-nin and civilian' alike causing havoc in his territory was pretty much damaging to his tyranny.

Indra was currently sitting on a rickety bed inside a run-down inn, mulling over the situation of the Land of Rice Fields. 'Based on the information I have gathered, the Daimyo wants to increase his power and the only way to do that is to invade the neighbouring countries, so he's going to need lots of money fund those ware, wars aren't cheap after all. This means an alliance with Kumogakure is highly inevitable, as Konoha would not support invading another country for invading sake. But why is he letting bandits and slavers run rampant around his country?

This is highly damaging to his finances, bandits and slavers in his country mean less tax he can forcefully take from his citizens.' Indra wondered, not understanding the thoughts of the Daimyo.

'He can't be that incompetent that he'd actually be sponsoring them, would he?' He mused. But thinking about the countless numbers of burned villages, towns and numerous about of missing people, he was leaning towards the Daimyo being that big of an idiot. 'Ok, let's imagine he is that incompetent. What about the clans, they're over 20 clans in this small country so it's impossible for all of them to be that stupid. I need to investigate this more, if the Daimyo is involved in the slave trade occurring in his own country, it would make finding my mother easier as I'd know where to start from.'

Getting up from the bed, planning on continuing his investigation he left the room to check out of the inn, although not before he placed a contact lens on his eyes to hide his dojutsu. A few moments later, Indra stood at the extremely damaged reception of the inn with his eye twitching.

"Don't you think this bill has too many zeroes for a day stay at this danger hazard of an inn?" he asked the heavily make-up-clad woman.

"Fufufu, don't you know we provided protection for you throughout the entire night, with the current bandit situation it would be a shame to have a handsome boy such as yourself captured at night while you sleep, and then sold as a slave," the woman said with her eyes partially closed.

Indra chuckled as over a dozen men with weapons streamed into the inn, "Fine," he said, bringing out the money to pay the woman. The money wasn't much, it was merely 20,000 Ryo so it didn't warrant him killing everyone in the inn as that would mean he'd have to leave no witnesses, which would force him to kill everyone in the village including the children, something he didn't want to do.

"Fufufu, you're quite rich for a young boy, aren't you?!" the woman said as she collected the money from him with a scheming look on her face.

'They'd definitely try to rob me after I leave the village,' he sighed as he left the inn.

It would have been wiser for him to just kill everyone here as that would save him unnecessary trouble later, but he was investigating as himself, not as an Anbu operative of Konoha. Travellers and villagers were more likely to talk to a handsome 12 year old than someone wearing an animal porcelain mask. When he wants to gather the special bit of information that a normal 12 year old won't be able to get, he'd wear his Anbu gear and ensure he leaves no witnesses, but now wasn't the time for that.

Only the higher-ups in the other great nations knew how he looked so he wasn't worried about someone recognising him yet, so until he reaches the capital, he was Indra and not Kitsune. Although he dyed his hair brown, the official canon-fodder hair colour.

Indra's destination was the town under the control of the Fuma clan. As one of the clans in the Land of Rice Fields, the Fuma clan was famous amongst the citizens of the country with their reputation being somewhat good from what Indra had heard. So he was going to the city they directly controlled to continue his investigation, if they're involved in the mess happening around the country or they're supporters of the Kumogakure alliance he'd assassinate the patriarch and elders of the clan.

Just as he'd expected, Indra sensed the chakra of those rip-off inn guards from earlier. Although they hadn't received even the basic shinobi training, but to them, Indra was just a handsome, and seemingly rich 12 year old. In this small and impoverished country, targets like Indra were had to come by so it was their duty to alleviate him of his funds and then sell him afterward or just outright kill him.

Indra didn't bother leaving, he just sat down by the roadside waiting for them and within five minutes they had caught up to him.

"Hehehe, if it isn't the rich brown-haired boy," one of the guards, well bandits now said with a creepy laugh.

Not letting another one talk, Indra replied with a dismissive tone. "Let's get this over with, you want my money, but I won't give you my money so you'd insist I do unless you'd kill me, but I'd end up killing all of you in return. So let's skip that and get to the part where I get to kill all of you."

"You!!" the bandit that spoke earlier shouted out with the others getting agitated.

"I'd kill you a....."

Before they could react, Indra attacked them, appearing in the front of the talking bandit with the blade of his tanto entering the opened mouth of the bandit. Turning the blade to the side, Indra dragged the tanto out of the now dead man's face, severing his jaw from the right side. The other bandits were stunned and weren't able to react on time as Indra flashed to the next bandit with the woman's head separating from the rest of her body as he swung the tanto.

"Ahhhh!!!" Indra didn't know who screamed out first but the rest of them soon followed.

They all clamoured around, trying to escape but it was too late. Indra disappeared from sight and then reappeared next to a bandit with his tanto stabbing the man's heart before disappearing again. Every time Indra reappeared, one of the bandits would drop down dead until there was just one left.

The remaining bandit was sitting in a pool of the blood of his associates with his face contorted in fear. "Please, spare me," he croaked out as Indra walked closer to him.

Squatting so he'd be able to look at the man in the eyes, "Would you have spared me if I was the one begging?" Indra asked the already crying man.

"That's what I thought," he stated when the man wasn't able to reply.

"Please, I have a family!!!" the man said amidst the tears.

"I know," Indra replied as he stabbed the man in the neck.

"Don't be stupid in your next life," he whispered as the man's dead body dropped to the pool of blood on the ground, adding more to it.

Looking at his body, "Now I'm dyed in blood," he hissed in annoyance. The very next second, his outfit burned up with a clean and most importantly blood-free outfit replaced it.

'Earth Release: Mass Burial'

Indra walked away as the ground opened up behind him before covering back up by a new surface, swallowing the evidence of what just happened there.

"Whoever created this jutsu was a mass serial killer."