As they walked, Yome quietly whispered to Chi,
“He’s obviously asking for our help, yet he makes it sound like we’re the ones holding him back.”
“He isn’t wrong, Yome.”
Chi smiled helplessly.
“Daimaru and I have already been Genin for several years.
You’re not a rookie anymore either.”
“If we weren’t dragging the team down, the three of us wouldn’t have ended up on the same squad.”
A team made up of three “failures.”
Whether they wanted to admit it or not, Daimaru was the strongest among them and the only one who still possessed enough ambition to aim higher.
“Let’s work hard one more time, Yome.”
“Daimaru isn’t exactly a kind-hearted person, but I don’t think he’d abandon us so easily.”
“Really?”
“So we have to keep up.”
“If we fall behind and get left behind, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.”
Competition within Sunagakure was simply too fierce.
Its limited resources were always reserved for the most talented and promising shinobi.
Those who had effectively been written off as mediocre usually struggled for a few years before either dying in the line of duty or leaving the ninja profession altogether.
Compared to Sunagakure, Konoha’s so-called harsh graduation system—where only one three-man team out of several candidates was formed—was a luxury.
…
The Land of Wind covered an enormous territory, but ninja could travel at astonishing speeds.
From Sunagakure to Konohagakure, it would take roughly three days.
Of course, that was assuming someone like Might Guy was running at his absolute limit without rest.
Ordinary shinobi were nowhere near that fast.
Leading Daimaru, Chi, and Yome, Otofū needed a full five days just to reach the border of the Land of Wind.
By Daimaru’s rough estimate, Team Otofū’s travel speed was less than one-third of Might Guy’s.
Accounting for stamina and sustained long-distance movement, it was probably not even one-quarter.
The gap was enormous.
This won’t do…
Daimaru grew increasingly anxious.
Their basic physical abilities simply weren’t good enough.
Chi’s stamina was average and her speed unremarkable, but she required too much time to recover.
Yome’s stamina was fairly good, yet her short legs severely limited her speed.
Daimaru could barely keep pace with Otofū, but by the time they reached a small town near the border of the Land of Wind, even he was so exhausted he could barely walk.
Left with no alternative, the group spent a night at an inn.
Only after recovering from the journey did they begin preparing to eliminate the bandit group.
…
Early the next morning, the four of them left the town.
Not long afterward, they secretly slipped back in under entirely different appearances.
Otofū had disguised himself as an elderly grandfather.
Daimaru played the role of his grandson, while Chi and Yome posed as his granddaughters.
“I feel like I’m getting the short end of the stick here.”
Having changed out of his shinobi attire and into the rough homespun clothing of a merchant’s son from the Land of Grass, Daimaru tugged unhappily at the ugly fabric.
Chi was dressed like an ordinary village girl, though the calm expression on her face hardly matched her appearance.
Otofū’s elderly disguise wasn’t particularly convincing either.
Despite supposedly being an old man, he looked far too energetic. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
It seemed Sunagakure’s lessons in disguise and infiltration weren’t exactly first-rate.
Only Yome looked perfectly natural.
With her tiny stature and youthful face, she looked exactly like a little granddaughter.
No one would have guessed she was actually a shinobi.
“Quiet down, Daimaru.
You’re about to tear your sleeve.”
Otofū reminded him in a low voice.
“I can’t help it.”
“This outfit is incredibly uncomfortable.”
The desert sun of the Land of Wind was merciless.
Any skin left exposed for too long would inevitably become sunburned.
That was why people here usually dressed in clothing that covered them from head to toe.
The everyday clothing worn by civilians from the Land of Grass simply wasn’t suitable for the Land of Wind.
In the short time they’d been outside, Daimaru’s exposed arms had already begun turning red and itching.
If the spring sun was already this intense, wearing clothes like this under the blazing summer sun would almost certainly make someone ill.
“If we could’ve gathered information in town openly, why go through all the trouble of doing this?”
“You three simply don’t have enough experience.”
Otofū shook his head.
“Take a good look around this town.”
“Doesn’t anything strike you as strange?”
“Strange?”
“Apart from looking rather rundown and messy, nothing really stands out.”
“The locals are a little wary of strangers, but that’s hardly unusual.”
The four of them strolled through streets almost identical to the ones they’d walked earlier, pretending to browse the wares displayed by traveling merchants.
“You saw that vendor just now?”
Otofū asked quietly.
“There’s a good chance he’s one of the bandits fencing stolen goods.”
“No way…”
The three Genin clearly found that difficult to believe.
“Idiots.”
“Don’t turn around.”
“You’ll only attract attention.”
Otofū immediately stopped his subordinates from trying to look.
“You Genin have hardly ever left the Land of Wind.”
“You’ve probably spent even less time in border regions.”
“There are certain things you simply can’t understand until you’ve experienced them yourself.”
Otofū led the three of them into a secluded teahouse and chose a quiet corner.
Only after confirming no one was paying attention did he lower his voice.
“This town…”
“…is very likely one of the bandit group’s strongholds.”
“What?”
“Don’t tell me we’ve already walked straight into a den of thieves?”
“Not that exaggerated.”
“For the moment, we’re not in any danger.”
“So that’s why we pretended to leave before secretly sneaking back.”
“We’re waiting for an opportunity to wipe out the bandits?”
“No.”
Otofū shook his head.
“Many of the people living here are family members of the bandits.”
“Others are ordinary civilians who’ll likely become bandits themselves.”
“The borderlands are very different from the interior.”
He then patiently explained the situation to his three subordinates.
Relations between the Land of Wind and the Land of Grass had never been particularly good.
As a result, stretches of buffer territory existed along the border where neither country exercised much control.
These regions constantly shifted as seasonal rivers and oases changed.
The town they were currently in had once been completely abandoned, only to come back to life several years ago after traveling merchants began using it as a trading stop.
Such gray zones naturally became breeding grounds for bandits and mounted raiders.
Given enough time, bandit gangs inevitably emerged to prey upon travelers.
Most of the people living in these areas were civilians who could no longer survive in either the Land of Wind or the Land of Grass.
Occasionally, rogue ninja and destitute samurai also passed through.
Life here was unimaginably harsh.
Survival itself was difficult.
Whenever hardship struck, the civilians barely scraping by lost even the means to support themselves.
They had only two choices.
Either become refugees and leave…
…or become bandits themselves, surviving by robbing merchants traveling between the Land of Wind and the Land of Grass.
“Our mission is to eliminate the bandit group terrorizing this region.”
“As for this town’s countless ties to those bandits…”
Otofū looked at the three of them.
“What do you think?”
“Should we lure the bandits out, eliminate them, and call the mission complete?”
“Or should we follow the trail and wipe out everyone behind them as well?”
After thinking for a moment, Daimaru asked,
“Captain…
is this part of the mission’s test?”
“You could look at it that way.”
Otofū nodded.
“The extent of what we do depends entirely on our own judgment.”
“There are very few truly innocent people in this town.”
“Even the infants still crying for milk are being raised with wealth their elders may have stolen through banditry.”
“And once those children grow up…”
“…they’ll have almost no legitimate means of making a living.”
“They’ll most likely become a second generation of bandits themselves.”
(End of Chapter)