Chapter 36 - Trap

The "boss" wasn't actually their true boss.

One day he just arrived at their old hideout and killed their former boss and threatened them to obey him or else he would kill them too.

Actually, his real identity is 42, a henchman of Orochimaru.

For as long as he remembers was he in Orochamimarus's captivity, so long that he can't even remember his real name.

The other inmates called him 42, so he just went with it.

He grew up in Otogakure without any love of happiness and not long ago he was suddenly forced to participate in a deathly battler royal.

42 was the sole survivor and winner of this battle royal and then a mission was given to him.

Orochimaru was planning something big in the near future concerning Konoha, so his mission was to erase as much of Konoha's manpower before that while making sure to not alert them.

If you think about it, it's a pretty ludicrous mission: If a number of shinobis suddenly started to disappear, Konoha would absolutely be alerted!

Since not alerting them was far more important than the numbers and strength of the shinobis, 42 came up with a plan.

He would take over a bandit group, let them bait some rookie teams, and then kill them.

Since it's only some rookie teams Konoha wouldn't suspect something, since rookie teams have naturally a high chance of screwing up in missions.

Furthermore, rookie teams wouldn't be such a great loss for Konoha to start to dispatch elite troops to investigate.

He was strong, but he certainly couldn't fight an elite troop alone.

To make sure he only attracts rookie teams, he ordered the bandits to make as little trouble as possible, so that the bandits would be an annoyance but not a threat.

Unfortunately, bandits often had the characteristics of a small intellect and no self-control.

He ordered the bandits to only extort goods, but not long ago one of them started to harass the village girls.

That is why this bandit's brain was now splattered all over the floor.

For 42 killing was nothing, in fact, he hadn't even feelings towards Orochimaru: neither affections nor hate.

He had no purpose in his miserable life, so he always just went with the flow.

This mission was just something he got entangled with and he just tried to complete it without thinking too much about it.

"HOW AWESOME! This is my first time seeing a village outside of Konoha!"

Kotaru shouted with a happy look, while Arina was looking interested around.

Eiji was also intrigued: 'Konoha is really weird when it comes to technology and architecture, so seeing a village which resembles feudal-japan is honestly really cool...'

The village was small and had not many people in it.

But it was well maintained and it didn't look like some dirty peasant farm, where everyone is malnourished.

The people here were healthy and lived a happy life.

Occasionally they would have some festivals here, which aren't practiced in big towns or shinobi villages.

The clothes were similar to feudal-japan as well: with people who were currently working wearing simple working clothes and straw hats, while the rest moved around in kimonos.

When the village people saw team eleven approaching, the people hurried to inform the village chief.

The village chief rushed there and inspected them warily.

Only after seeing the Konoha headbands did he relax slightly and greeted them.

"Welcome to our humble village. I suppose you are Konoha shinobis?"

"Koff, yes. We came here to deal with your bandit problem..."

"Ah great, follow me, it's better talking somewhere inside with a cup of tea..."

"You see, normally we don't have any bandit problems around here, since our village is near Konohagakure. But around a month ago this group suddenly appeared. I have to say though, they are a weird bunch, they only demand a small number of goods and never used physical force. Though today one of them started harassing our girls, weirdly enough the other bandits stopped him and dragged him away. That's why we told Konoha that they aren't really dangerous and that we would pay for a D-rank mission. The hideout should be nearby somewhere, but I can't tell you the exact location. Well, you shinobis shouldn't have any problems finding it though."

"Koff, I understand. Don't worry, those bandits will be handled by us, just make sure that none of the villagers leaves the village while we are dealing with them."