"What is it?"
Seeing that he neither said nor did anything. Genzō asked. His heart was in his throat.
This shipment was extremely important.
His promotion within the city administration was at stake.
Kaito didn't answer. His head tilted barely a few degrees.
The forest was quiet. Too quiet.
Ino searched the branches for movement.
Nothing.
Chōji looked toward Kaito.
"Sensei...
"Thirty-seven." He said.
Ino blinked.
"What?"
Kaito tightened his grip on the sheath of his katana.
"Thirty-seven bandits."
Silence fell over everyone.
One of the civilian guards laughed nervously.
"That many. Are you serious? Where the hell are they?"
Kaito didn't even answer him when a whistle cut through the air.
He drew his katana with ease and blocked it.
An arrow split in two fell in front of him.
"Looks like there's someone among them smart enough to make me their priority target."
During the next second, the forest exploded.
Men emerged from both sides of the road. Some descended from the slopes while others appeared from behind the trees.
They carried katanas, axes, bows, spears, and a disorderly collection of weapons that made it quite clear they weren't shinobi.
But there were many of them.
"Surround the carts! Protect the supplies." Ino shouted.
Chōji reacted immediately.
Both of them moved toward the civilians while the two guards drew their swords. Trembling.
Genzō turned pale.
"What the hell?!"
A huge figure then appeared atop a rock ahead on the road.
He was a broad-shouldered man with a dark beard and an enormous sword resting on one of his shoulders. A scar ran across his nose and several pieces of armor protected different parts of his body.
He smiled crookedly.
"Leave the carts and the women and you can go."
Kaito watched him and stopped Ino, who was about to lunge forward.
The bandit's smile widened and he grew excited by Ino's ferocity.
"I said....
"I heard you. Don't be so loud." Kaito said.
The bandit's smile disappeared.
Ino quickly looked around.
She counted eight men to her left. At least another ten to the right. There were archers on the elevated ground and several more blocking the rear.
A ridiculous number. There could easily be as many as Kaito had described.
A chill ran down her spine.
How the hell had he detected them so accurately?
The bandit leader spat on the ground.
"Then you already know how this works. We don't want to kill anyone unnecessarily. Leave the merchandise, the women, the horses, and the money. You can keep enough food to make it back on foot."
"For a bandit, you're pretty kind."
A vein appeared on the bandit's forehead.
Suddenly everyone present felt something strange in the air.
Kaito simply let go of the relaxed demeanor he had maintained throughout the journey.
And then the air seemed to grow heavy.
Ino felt every muscle in her body tense simultaneously. Chōji slowly let out a breath as his eyes widened.
The horses neighed.
One of the workers dropped to his knees without understanding what was happening.
Another grabbed onto the cart.
Then something incredible happened.
It was as though an invisible hand were sweeping through the forest, surging in every direction when suddenly the first bandit fell unconscious.
Then the second, the third, the fourth.
Several men collapsed one after another. Some managed to stagger before falling. Others lost consciousness instantly.
Seventeen.
Twenty.
Twenty-three.
Ino stopped counting.
The bandit leader had completely lost his smile as he watched more than half of his men fall unconscious.
"What... what the hell are you?"
Kaito didn't answer.
The few men who remained conscious instinctively stepped back.
One dropped his sword.
"Boss..."
"DON'T MOVE!"
The order managed to stop them. But it didn't bring their courage back.
Kaito then began to walk.
One step.
Then another.
The leader gritted his teeth.
"KILL HIM!"
The archers fired.
Ino saw the arrows rise and the next moment she also saw Kaito disappear.
The arrows struck the empty ground.
"Where...?"
The bandit didn't finish when Kaito appeared in front of the first group.
His katana was already moving.
A single slash.
Ino would never forget that sound.
It wasn't particularly loud. Barely the clean whistle of steel slicing through the air.
But something shot out from the blade.
An invisible force tore across the terrain.
The first trees trembled. The bandits didn't even have time to scream before the cutting wave tore through the entire line.
Weapons snapped apart. The earth split open, forming a deep scar, and several bodies were violently hurled backward.
The most terrifying part was that they had been split in half. Their blood splattered across leaves, earth, and even the other bandits.
The silence lasted less than a second.
The survivors screamed and quickly tried to flee.
But Kaito pivoted on one foot and his gaze shifted toward the second group.
The bandit leader's eyes widened.
"RUN! Damn it, RUN!"
But it was too late.
A second slash struck them head-on.
This time Ino saw it clearly.
Kaito held the katana with one hand and made a simple horizontal motion, almost casually.
Dark energy briefly coursed along the edge before disappearing.
The result was monstrous.
The wave tore across the road and struck the men trying to escape. Several weapons exploded into fragments upon impact.
But it didn't stop there.
The packed dirt road split apart. A deep fissure, almost a meter wide, opened in a zigzag from the point of impact until it disappeared into the dense vegetation of the forest.
The trees standing on both sides were next. The closest ones simply exploded, reduced to splinters. The ones farther away were simply ripped out by the roots,
When the dust began to settle, the landscape was unrecognizable. Where there had once been a well-traveled path, there was now a trail of destruction.
Kaito slowly lowered the katana. The blade, which had been wrapped in dark energy, now merely reflected the sunlight, clean and gleaming, as though it had done nothing more than cut through the air.
He didn't look at the destruction he had caused. He didn't even check the condition of the bandits. He simply adjusted his grip on the hilt and turned around to look at Ino and Chōji.
"Is everyone all right?"
His face showed no emotion whatsoever. Neither satisfaction nor remorse. It was the same serene and damn frustrating expression Ino had been complaining about ever since they left the village.