Chapter 21: Exterminating the Bandit Camp
[Quest- Exterminate the Bandit Camp
Description- Bandits have been killing and terrorizing innocent people. As a Shinobi on a mission, it is your job to exterminate such bandits.
Reward- 5000EXP and Mystery Scroll
Punishment- Death of the Teammates or failure of the mission
Hint- Do not hold back.]
Naruto froze after getting such a quest but he still turned his head toward Kurenai Sensei and asked.
"So, are we finally here?"
"No, we haven't reached the village. Our goal is to find the Bandit Camp and exterminate them. So, we will need your clones." Kurenai answered.
Naruto nodded and made fifty clones. He spread throughout the forest and all four of them waited.
"My involvement won't be necessary for this battle unless you mess up. Since the bandits are much less powerful than even the Genin, you have a superior advantage in strength."
"But, simultaneously, you have a clear disadvantage in number. So, plan!" Kurenai turned her head at three of them and spoke.
Hearing her words, Naruto and others nodded.
Hinata and Shikamaru were a bit hesitant but Naruto's calm attitude made them less nervous.
"Alright, your turn!" Without any hesitation, Naruto turned his head at Shikamaru and spoke.
Shikamaru sighed "Troublesome"
"Since we are fighting in a disadvantage field, we need to turn it into our advantage. They have numbers, and so do we. But, we can't overly rely on them."
"Our battle plan is to finish it quickly. Hit harder, hit fast. Use every single technique in your arsenal but also keep an eye on each other. Hinata, your Byakugan will keep an eye on Naruto in case he gets in a difficult situation."
"You will not fight higher numbers instead your job is to keep yourself safe while taking out a few of the enemies. I will finish anyone Naruto left on the battlefield."
Hearing his plan, Naruto and Hinata.
"Also, if anything changes and gets out of our control, we will regroup while distracting our enemies with clones and make a new plan."
Shikamaru finished.
Suddenly, Naruto received the message of his clone and spoke.
"They are nearly three hundred meters, northeast. Total number; above 50."
In an instant, three of them rushed toward the northeast. It took them nearly two minutes to each at the front of the Bandit Camp.
"Hit hard, hit fast!" Shikamaru repeated as they turned their attention toward the bandit camp.
Three of them took a deep breath and shouted.
"Go!"
Naruto rushed toward the bandit camp at his max speed with his weights. He quickly found several of the bandits guarding a few houses. They held swords and spears.
As soon as he appeared, those bandits noticed him and tried to attack him. But, Naruto quickly made several of the hand seals and released a massive gust of wind from his mouth.
[Wind Release- Great Breakthrough]
The sharp wind burst out toward those bandits and slammed them into those houses while cutting them with the sharpness of the wind.
[Shadow Strangle Technique]
In an instant, a massive shadow rushed toward three bandits that were charging at Naruto and stopped their movements.
The shadow came out from the ground and started clutching their necks, before twisting them.
"Gah!"
Three of them screamed at the same time and fell onto the ground, dead.
Shikamaru who had just taken the lives of three people suddenly froze. Even though his guts were telling him to move and continue, his body couldn't react to his first kill.
"You bastard!"
Two bandits who were near Shikamaru rushed towards him with their weapons. Seeing his frozen state, they almost thought they would get their victory.
[Eight Trigram- Air Palm]
Hinata thrusts her palm forward and released a powerful blast of wind that struck those bandits and threw them to the ground.
"Shikamaru-kun, snap out of it!"
Hinata shouted while rushing towards other bandits that were coming at them.
Shikamaru finally snapped out of it as he saw Hinata defending him from the side and Naruto releasing another gust of wind against those bandits.
The speed he killed bandits froze him for a moment. It looked like he wasn't actually killing them but those wounds were too deep and massive for them to bleed to death.
Even so, Naruto didn't stop for a moment.
Shikamaru made up his mind to never freeze like that and pushed down his gut feeling before releasing his shadow.
[Shadow Paralysis Technique]
Suddenly, the bandits in front of Hinata stopped and Hinata managed to land a kunai into the skull of the bandit. While landing another kunai into another bandit's neck.
The blood gushed out of their bodies and fell in front of her, some of it even falling on her face.
Just like Naruto, she froze. When she saw Shikamaru freeze, she didn't think much but when it actually happened to her, she froze.
Shikamaru knew what kind of situation she was going right now so he quickly pulled her away from those bandits.
He made several hand seals.
[Snake] [Ram] [Monkey] [Boar] [Horse] [Tiger]
[Fire Release- Flame Bullet]
A massive stream of flame burst out of his mouth and burned the bandits in front of him. The flame only lasted a few seconds before showing the burned bodies of those bandits.
"Shikamaru!"
Naruto suddenly backed away and landed next to him. His eyes fell on Hinata who was still frozen in shock and said.
"Only twenty of them remained. My clones are stopping them from running away. Let's end this with our combo."
"You sure? We haven't tested it yet."
Shikamaru paused for a moment and asked.
Naruto nodded with a serious look in his eyes.
"Alright then!"
Shikamaru started making hand seals along with Naruto.
[Fire Release- Flame Bullet]
[Wind Release- Air. Bullet]
When two powerful techniques burst out, the wind began to smack into the flame and slowly increased its size.
Although it was slow, the result was massive. Nearly the size of half of the entire bandit camp. It moved toward those remaining bandits like a firestorm.
[Combination Release- Fire Storm Bullet]
Naruto shouted as the firestorm burned the entire village. They secured Hinata and pulled her away from the bandit camp.
Soon, Naruto began to receive the memories of the remaining shadow clones and learned the death of all the bandits.
Only a second later, he started puking.
"Gah!"
His gut was intense. The feeling in his heart was also intense. He wasn't scared or frozen like Hinata but he had his own difficulty.
"I can't believe we did that." Shikamaru remained shocked while looking at the utter destruction they caused.
"Damn, these fools! They are ordinary people, they are just a bunch of people with Chakra but no Jutsu. Why do they have to be bandits?" Naruto clenched his fists after puking out and shouted.
"There could be several reasons, Naruto. Some might be doing this for a living while some might be doing this for enjoyment. You can't ask them one by one especially not this kind of scenario."
Kurenai's voice came from the side. She walked up to Hinata and hugged her tightly.
"It's okay. You did what you thought was right. If you hadn't killed them, they would've killed other innocent people."
[You have completed the Quest]
[Your rewards have been delivered]
Even though the reward was quite tempting, he was in no mood to check it out. However, he knew that if he just kept it away, more and more people would find it suspicious.
So, he used the Inventory to put the scroll into his pocket and said.
"Kurenai Sensei, I found this scroll in the camp. I thought it was quite important since it was kept secure so I took it with me." Naruto said while taking out his scroll.
"When did you get the time to get the scroll?" Shikamaru turned his head and asked.
"I didn't. My clone did." Naruto answered and looked at Kurenai.
"Well, since you found it, it's yours. You can check it out now or later." Kurenai said and looked at Hinata who still wasn't out of her shock.
"Considering Hinata's situation, we can take some time to rest here and return to the village."
Naruto nodded his head and stared at the scroll for a moment.
After studying it for a moment, he released the scroll, and suddenly three giant scrolls fell on the ground.
Those scrolls unfurled themselves, giving Shikamaru and Naruto a clear view of the content inside.
[Summoning Technique: Round Deer]
[Summoning Technique: Nue]
[Summoning Technique: Divine Dogs]
"Woah! Summoning Scrolls?"
Naruto screamed almost making Hinata unfreeze. Kurenai's eyes widened as well. When four of them walked near the scrolls, they gulped at the same time.
Kurenai took a deep breath and said.
"Alright, three of you! This is the best opportunity for you guys. If these summoning scrolls are real, you can get a summoning animal."
Naruto, Shikamaru, and recently unfrozen Hinata looked at each other.
"Deer!" Shikamaru said without a single thought of hesitation.
"Nue!" Naruto said and turned to Hinata.
Hinata looked at Divine Dogs' scroll and nodded.
They moved closer and saw that there was not a single summoner before them for all three scrolls.
The other two didn't know what to say but Naruto was genuinely surprised by this. Because he hadn't heard of these summoning animals as well.
So, taking a deep breath, he bit his finger and wrote his name on the scroll.
The next moment, three of them made the hand seals written on the scroll and slammed their hands at the ground, at the same time.
[Summoning Technique]
Poof! Poof! Poof!