The majority of the bandits were just armed thugs.
They were rogue mercenaries or desperate individuals with basic fighting skills.
They used simple weapons like swords, axes, clubs, knives, and primitive bows.
They had no chakra control or ninja abilities.
They were indeed weaker than even a fresh Academy graduate individually.
Their only threat came from their numbers, their brutality, and their willingness to harm civilians for their own benefit.
With Kunai in their hands, the team directly went inside the broken shrine.
Nao was the first to attack, she used Shuriken, one of which struck the forehead of one bandit, taking him down instantly.
"Enemy Attack!" a bandit yelled.
The remaining bandits quickly threw their bottles of sake aside and took up their weapons.
Before Kuita and Nao could take further action, Kaiji, Shin, and Sato, with Kunai in their hands, attacked the bandits without mercy.
Clubs, knives, bows, and Swords were useless against the speed and skill of the new Genin.
Kuita looked at Nao. "Looks like they are quite eager," he commented.
Nao nodded with a chuckle. "We should help them," she said.
Even though they were individually stronger than the bandits, the bandits still had numbers on their side.
And these three new Genin had no real combat experience aside from Academy spars.
Kaiji faced a bandit who wielded a sword. He blocked the swing with his Kunai.
Kaiji also noticed that these bandits had many swords among their weapons.
'Looks like I didn't need to worry about a sword, for starting my Kenjutsu training.' He thought.
Kaiji had calculated that it might take him at least two or more months to save enough money to buy a decent sword not any small Katana to start his Kenjutsu practice.
But upon seeing that these bandits possessed some decent-looking swords, his eyes shone with interest.
However, he knew that all the bandits' belongings would be confiscated by Kuita and Nao.
They would give everything to the village.
The weapons, money, and other stuff would be given to the village, and the village might give the team some bonus Ryo aside from the mission pay.
But Kaiji had a thought and reasoned, 'If I silently take one or two swords, who is going to find out?'
With this decision made, he used Body Flicker Technique and instantly got behind the bandit he was fighting.
He cut that bandit's neck from behind with his Kunai.
Upon killing for the first time, Kaiji felt a mix of emotions – a brief shock, but quickly followed by cold calculation.
This was the first time he had ever killed someone.
He knew that he needed to become insensitive to killing if he wanted to stay alive for long in this life.
After quickly calming down his emotions, he looked around.
He saw how Kuita and Nao were just playing with the remaining bandits.
They were clearly not taking them seriously and were tormenting them rather than ending the fight quickly.
Just like Kaiji, Shin, and Sato, these two seniors were also a little irritated from the long, arduous travel here, though perhaps not to the same level as the three new Genin.
Shin and Sato were also busy taking down their opponents and weren't fully focused on Kaiji.
Kaiji sneakily took out a small storage scroll from his pouch.
He put the sword of the bandit he had killed into the scroll.
He then put another sword lying nearby into the scroll as well.
Having silently stolen two swords, he moved towards another bandit. He took down the other bandits in quick succession.
Within a few minutes, all the bandits were dead.
They all sighed in relief that the mission had been completed quickly.
However, Nao noticed one thing and asked Kuita a question.
"Who was the leader among them?" she inquired.
"All of them looks like normal bandits, and no one was ordering anyone?"
Kuita also noticed this detail upon hearing Nao. It wasn't a major point initially, but it meant the bandit leader was still alive.
"Let's find inside," Kuita suggested. "He might be there or maybe already run away."
They nodded and were about to move towards the entrance when a rough voice came from behind them, from the side.
"Run away? Why would I need to run away from you small literal kids?" The voice boomed.
All five of them looked towards the direction of the voice.
A very tanned man stood there, he had sandy blonde hair and a thin scar on his left eyebrow.
He wore rough clothes and carried a long sword in his hand, longer than the ones Kaiji had sneakily stolen without his team knowing.
The team was shocked upon seeing him. It wasn't because he looked particularly tough.
But it was because he wore a Headband of Sunagakure.
On his headband, the symbol of Sunagakure had a prominent, horizontal scratched-out mark, clearly identifying him as a missing-nin.
Kuita quickly took out his bingo book. He began searching for an entry for Sunagakure missing-nin.
Shin and Sato also quickly understood that this man, the leader of the bandits, was actually a former shinobi of their village.
This was a basic piece of knowledge they had been taught in the Academy: a scratch mark on a headband represented a shinobi as a missing-nin.
The leader of the Bandits, Ryun, didn't take any immediate action.
He allowed Kuita to search for his entry in the Bingo book. While Kuita searched, Ryun scanned the group.
His eyes at last landed on Nao. He smirked and licked his lips lecherously with his tongue.
Nao didn't see it, as she was also focused on helping Kuita find out who this missing-nin was.
After a few minutes, they finally found his entry. They matched his face with the bingo book entry's details.
Kuita read the details aloud to his team. "His name is Ryun, age 18," he stated.
"Three years ago, he killed members of his team and run away."
Kuita added a caution, "He is listed as Genin missing-nin, but don't takes it as is. This entry is Little old, and he might be stronger than just a Genin now."
Kaiji, however, didn't care about this stuff – his age or his listed rank.
He knew one thing from his anime knowledge that even as a Genin missing-nin, they had at least a higher bounty on their head than any C-rank mission paid.
He asked Kuita excitedly, "How much bounty on his head?!"
All the team members, and even Ryun himself, looked at him, their expressions a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.
***