The bandits on watch never saw it coming. Their bodies slumped silently, and the last torch on the observation deck flickered out. Naruto crouched above them, breathing steady, eyes glinting in the night.
Across the ravine, Sasuke had already taken down his own targets. Naruto caught his eye and gave a subtle hand sign—one they'd agreed on before the mission.
Sasuke nodded from his post. Sakura, stationed on the lower ledge, returned the gesture with trembling fingers. Message received. Time to move.
Naruto's figure blurred, vanishing in a flash of light. Rikudō Shingon—Ten'on mode.The voice echoed faintly in his head, both divine and mocking.
"Harvest time, Host. Don't keep me waiting."
His lips twitched. He didn't reply.
One flash, one kill.Again.And again.
Every time his kunai gleamed, another bandit's life was cut short. Within minutes, the shadows were full of corpses.
By the time he stopped, his three-pronged kunai dripped crimson. Even his short black jacket was stained dark red. The smell of blood clung to him, heavy and metallic.
He didn't flinch. Not once. Maybe it was because of his childhood drills, or maybe… because something inside him was already broken.
Either way, the killing continued.
When the last body fell, Naruto regrouped with Sasuke and Sakura near the bandit barracks.
Sasuke's face was pale, his hand still gripping a bloodied kunai. "Nine…" he muttered.
Sakura's voice trembled. "Three…" Her eyes darted away from the corpses.
Naruto smiled faintly. "Twenty-eight."
They both froze.
He said it casually, almost like he was talking about weather. But everyone knew what that number meant. He had killed twenty-eight men. Two patrol teams wiped out singlehandedly, and if Sasuke hadn't interfered, the count would've been thirty.
Naruto looked at them both, calm but sharp. "We've got two choices. One—take the leader alive and subdue the rest. Less blood, more danger. Two—kill them all. It's safer for us… and it'll help us adapt faster to what it means to be ninja."
Sasuke didn't hesitate. "The second."
Sakura's lips parted, but seeing the two of them so certain, she nodded weakly. "…The second."
Naruto's expression didn't change. "Good. Then follow the rule of shinobi—'cut the weeds, root and all.' Be prepared. That means no survivors. Not the old. Not the young."
His tone was steady, but even he could feel his heartbeat pounding. This wasn't just another mission. It was a line you crossed and could never return from.
Sakura went white as a sheet. Even Sasuke looked shaken. Everyone had heard of such orders during the war, but few had ever been the ones to carry them out.
"Na-Naruto… do we really—"
"It's already decided," he cut her off. "This is the shinobi world. You either adapt, or you die. I'll carry the burden. You two just follow through."
He gripped his kunai tighter and turned toward the campfires glowing in the distance.
For my dream… for my promise… for her.
If he had to become Shura, a god of slaughter, then so be it.
The night wind swallowed his silhouette as he moved toward the enemy camp.