Rain

Most of the village was in flames, screams echoed everywhere. Ryo leaped onto the roof of one of the houses that had not yet caught fire, sending out location waves to assess how many people were in the area and where to begin the attack.

As he gathered the information, he understood the situation better; there were several bodies on the ground, and Ryo could sense that there were at least 100 people in the location, including both the living and the dead. But he focused on the targets that were moving more than normal and were armed.

Then, Ryo flickered from his location, appearing next to another bandit who stood no chance against Ryo and his swift sword that cut the man down. However, unlike before, he couldn't save the person who had already been attacked and killed by the bandit.

With a sigh, he continued. Shortly afterward, making a hand seal, "Earth Release; Rock Bullet." The ground in front of Ryo cracked as a rock was shot towards a man 30 meters away, hitting him in the middle of the body and throwing him far away, without the slightest resistance.

Of course... They were only humans, and at that moment, against them, Ryo was an unstoppable force of nature. Without being a ninja, an ordinary human could never defend against a jutsu or a sword cut.

Every time Ryo killed one of the bandits, his expression grew more serious. Not that he was taking all this lightly, but such a level of strength was something he eventually wanted to achieve; he wanted to be able to do what he was doing now, but against other ninjas. However, there was a long way ahead for that.

"I have to finish this quickly..." He spoke in a neutral tone, looking around. The world seemed ablaze, and the screams were slowly fading. On the other side, one of the bandits flew after receiving a powerful blow from Denji, who had a smile on his face as he struck down any bandit he came across.

Further from the village, Haruka, after doing what Tora had asked, began to help evacuate the villagers who had survived or been saved by Ryo and Denji. Ryo's clone was also there, treating the villagers' injuries and stabilizing those in a more critical state for when the real body arrived to treat them.

After a few minutes, Ryo finished off the bandits in the area. He had left one of them alive, as Denji probably hadn't thought of that. Ryo dragged the bandit, already wrapped in tightly tied ropes and unconscious. As he arrived at the clone and Haruka's location with the other patients, the clone saw this and then disappeared.

All the memories of what happened transferred to Ryo, who promptly took out a scroll, unrolled it, and took out some medical tools. He knelt beside the young man in the most critical condition, who had a long sword wound on his abdomen. Ryo's clone had managed to stabilize the wound, but further care was needed.

"Hang in there a bit longer; it's going to get better soon." He spoke as he began suturing the wound, and after that, used a healing jutsu to stop the bleeding and enable the wound to heal itself. Then, Ryo moved on to the next patients, who weren were't as badly injured.

Around Ryo were young people, women, boys, a few older men and women; most had died in the bandits' attack. It didn't take long for Ryo to assist everyone there, and as he did so, Haruka helped those who had been treated, offering comfort through conversation, which she was good at, perhaps because of her genjutsus.

Tora appeared beside them, with a cut on his arm already bandaged. "They had a ninja with them; I've dealt with it. And confirmed that it was the same group of bandits we were after." He then looked at the burning village and took out one of the scrolls from around his waist.

Leaping up into the trees, Tora opened the scroll, made a hand seal, and then threw the scroll into the air. The scroll unfurled more and more, displaying a large seal, not complicated to perform in its normal size, but as it was, Ryo wouldn't know where to start.

As the scroll fully opened, a large amount of water began to pour out, like a heavy rain, dousing the village's flames. After a few minutes, the scroll closed, falling back into Tora's hands.

"Tora-sensei, I've captured one of the bandits." Ryo spoke, pointing to the man lying tied up and still unconscious on the ground. Tora nodded, seeing this, and then began to help the local residents. There weren't many adults, as Ryo had seen, but there were some elderly, including the village chief who had requested the mission.

Tora spoke with him for some time to understand why the attack had happened so suddenly. The mission brief hadn't mentioned so many bandits, nor had it described a potential invasion like this. Hearing this, Ryo mentioned that the first bandit he had killed had said something about them not accepting something.

With this information, Tora continued to question the elderly man, who eventually shared the situation. It was strange; the bandits, led by the ninja, wanted this small village to join them. However, since they refused and even requested a mission to exterminate the bandits, the group, commanded by the now-dead ninja, invaded the small village to kill everyone.

Tora and Ryo knew there was more behind this, not from the side of the small village's chief, but regarding the actions of the ninja who led the bandits, especially since it all took place within Konoha's territory. They needed to investigate further, and fortunately, they had someone to question, the unconscious bandit.

Team 13 stayed until the next day's noon in the village, helping the villagers stabilize as much as possible and building tents for them to live in for the next few days while the reconstruction of the village began. After that, team 13 left the area, returning to Konoha with another mission completed, though in a way they hadn't expected.