Chapter 3: BANDITS

Authors note:-

Dialogues are in "...."

Thoughts are in '....'

Then there is the 3rd person's POV of the author and MC(do tell me if I should remove the part where MC talks in the 3rd POV)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[ALEX'S POV ]

'Hmm....I should go out now and gather information from the bandit camp that I had previously found. on top of that I, also have a couple of techniques that I have to practice. That is the Substitute technique and spore technique of Zetsu.'

' if I remember correctly the transformation technique forms an exact copy of Said person by absorbing their chakra. Then there was another technique I think it was called the spore technique that the zetsu used to Suck 5th mizukage's chakra hmmm... Noice!!!.'

Thinking of his next plan of action Alex came out of the Cave that he had been living for the past week and ventured in the wild to find the bandits that he had seen a week ago. After searching for some of the bandit groups for some time Alex found the group that he had previously seen.

It was a small group of bandits most likely it was newly built from what Alex could make out from such a large distance. Alex made a clone and tasked it to scout the bandit camp. After some time the clone spied on the camp by using the mayfly technique and Alex was able to figure out what was going on in the camp. The camp consisted of 9 men all with civilian-level chakra with the head bandit being a sword user. They had already robbed a wealthy merchant who was travelling with some chakra metal and some ryu. They were laying low to lose any investigating ninjas.

"hmm....So, 9 men are in the camp. It's best to act at night. when they are asleep. But in the meantime"

Saying that Alex spread the spores throughout the camp using his spore technique now he just needed to activate the technique and all the bandits would be incapacitated.

Having done the preparation Alex sate on a vantage point having a good view of the camp and waited for midnight.

Alex: 'I am going to kill these people....but strangely I don't feel as much guilt and disgust as I think I should feel. Was I always like this? Or is it due to me being a tree monster and having less empathy...? *sigh* sadly mercy is for the strong and I am anything but that. if any of them leaves here out alive after seeing me and black Zetsu finds out....I am a dead tree.so I should focus only on getting strong that is the only way to survive.'

[AT MIDNIGHT]

[ALEX'S POV]

'Now it is time to act. Two of the bandits are watching guard while taking turns to guard every 2 hours.'

"I have to act fast. there is a 2-hour window to do the job."

Said Alex as he went underground near the bandit camp. The camp had 3 tents with two having three men each while one tent had the bandits head.

Entering the tent of the Boss bandit, Alex slowly created a clone just in case things went downhill. Having prepared himself Alex activated the spore technique on top of using the mayfly technique to drag the boss bandit into the ground and started absorbing all the chakra of the man through his hands and spores. The bandit tried to struggle but he was already 6 feet into the ground so it was a futile endeavour.

while absorbing the chakra of the bandit. Alex was able to learn the sword style of the bandit as well as some random surface memories as he died due to suffocation. After the bandit died Alex had his clone try to assimilate the bandit's corpse. The body of the bandit got converted into biomass and got absorbed into the body of the clone making it slightly stronger on top of that he changed his chakra signature to the bandit that he just absorbed and his white complexion changed into that of the bandit.

Alex: "voo...I can feel my 2nd body getting stronger by absorbing the biomass of the bandit....this method can be used to increase power early on quality. Also, the shapeshift ability of Zetsu had become overpowered when combined with assimilating"

After coming down from his power high Alex made his way to the 2nd and 3rd tents only this time both of Alex's bodies were working together.

Lastly, Alex and his clone knocked out the remaining two bandits guarding the camp by using the spore technique and captured them to extract information back at the cave.

After dealing with the bandits Alex looked through the camp to look for hidden loot and the stolen goods, money and decent weapons.

After scavenging the camp for a while and taking all the goods that can be useful Alex made his way back to the cave carrying all the loot and the clone carrying the captives.

On the way back to the cave Alex thought' I don't feel much guilt after murdering someone....*sight* Let's not think about it and have an existential crisis. It is probably due to this body's psychology and let's leave it at that till I get a human body.'

Making his way back to the cave Alex placed the unconscious captives in another cavity of the cave and decided to bring the loot to check the useful ones near the bed.

[ALEX'S POV]

"Hmm... let's look through the loot that I have gathered from the bandit's camp."

'there is a bag full of money, then there is a fine katana though a bit rusty, two sets of black kimono, a chunk of pure chakra metal and finally basic swordsmanship and movement techniques.'

"I'd say a good harvest."

said Alex happy with the loot that he had got from the bandits.

____________ ____________ _____________

well guys this is the first chapter of the fic. so do give your review on the chapter and the topic of Zetsu and its powers.

Also, I don't have patrol and I am doing it only because I like it so do give me some power stones.