Raiden and Jiraiya were flickering from branch to branch in the forest near the border of the land of fire. They've been travelling for two days and should reach the border of the land of tea tomorrow.
At night, they set up camp and rested. Jiraiya was looking at Raiden with a bit of concern.
"Kid, although this mission sounds easy on paper with only Genin, you have to be careful. Three Genin can still beat you if they have great teamwork. This might also lead to you killing someone, if it comes to that don't hesitate, if you did it might cause severe damage to either you or someone else."
Raiden sunk into deep thought about the idea of taking another person's life. He looked up to Jiraiya.
"Sensei, how can someone simply take the life of another?"
"A shinobi's job is mostly collecting information and killing. How do shinobi adapt to the killing? It's by having a personal rule you won't break, a ninja way, Nindo, a person can have multiple of such rules. Konoha has the will of fire to support its shinobi's beliefs. we as Konoha shinobi follow the will of fire but having your own ninja way reinforces your beliefs and gives you a reason to fight for yourself and not just the village, so let me ask you what is your ninja way? why do you fight and train? Why do you gain strength?"
Raiden thought and thought about it, but wasn't able to figure it out immediately.
"Sensei, what is your ninja way? your dream?"
"I strive to have a world of peace. Even though I know I won't be able to do it, I still strive towards it."
Raiden went back to his thoughts.
"Don't worry too much about it, most people can't find their Nindo not to mention you who still isn't experienced enough."
Raiden went to sleep that night thinking about his master's words.
~~~
The following day, they continued their journey and arrived at the described area around noon. Raiden looked around the main road, but found nothing.
"Jiraiya-sensei, is there a village nearby or something close?"
"No, the closest village is half a day away."
Raiden thought for a bit and decided to take a side road after using a transformation to look like an ordinary traveller and took a side road to try and attract the bandits to come out.
After entering the side road and walking for a few minutes, a few people intercepted his path. They were 3 bandits looking at him while smiling.
"Heh heh, it looks like another idiot came to give us his money." Said one of the bandits.
Raiden looked at them with his Sharingan for a bit and concluded they were just normal people with low amounts of chakra. He used a Genjutsu to stun all three before flickering behind them and knocking out two of them.
He used a more advanced Genjutsu to extract information from the last one. If he had the three tomoe Sharingan he might've been able to read his memories directly.
"Where is your camp? How many of you are there? Do you have ninjas? Do you have any hostages?"
"The camp is west of here about 500 meters. There are twenty-three of us. The three leaders are Genins from Kusagakure that have defected. There are four women held hostage." Under Raiden's powerful Genjutsu he said everything he was asked.
Jiraiya who was hiding on a tree observing how Raiden'll handle this came down. Raiden knocked out the last one and looked towards Jiraiya.
"It seems this a hostage situation, how will you handle this?"
"Well, first I have to figure out what to do with these three."
"Don't worry about them." said Jiraiya then took out a scroll and sealed the three inside.
Raiden was surprised at the scroll's ability.
"I'll tell you about it later, for now, figure out how to deal with this."
Raiden nodded and started talking.
"Since they have hostages, I'll have to try and do this as silently as possible to not alert them. I'll use a mass Genjutsu to put the normal people to sleep and draw out the Genins. After they are far from the hostages, I'll engage them and disable them."
"Ok, let's go."
They started heading in the direction the bandit told them and arrived at the camp in a couple of minutes.
Raiden positioned himself somewhere that covered most of the camp before using his Genjutsu on the camp. The bandits started to fall to the ground asleep. From the main tent came a shout before three men came out. they all looked about the same age, their early twenties and had head protectors with a grass pattern that had a line going through it.
"Someone used Genjutsu on the entire camp, be on the lookout." said the one in the middle apparently the leader.
Raiden flickered behind them and hit the one on the left using the back of his sword which knocked him out. The other two immediately turned around and used the Kunais in their hand to attack. Raiden deflected the one closest to him then backflipped and stabilised himself before attacking another time using his sword.
The ninja on the right retreated while the leader went forward to engage Raiden. He tried to attack by throwing Shuriken which Raiden easily dodged by sidestepping then attacking with a lunge towards the leader.
The leader was about to be hit when a wind blade came towards Raiden from the ninja who retreated. Raiden retreated then used Wind Release: great breakthrough. The second ninja was blown away towards one of the tents.
Raiden refocused his attention on the leader who was also doing hand seals. Raiden immediately used his Sharingan to do the same hand seals and they both shouted "Water Release: Wild Water Wave" two huge amounts of water collided washing away some of the tents and sleeping bandits which Jiraiay immediately took care of and sealed.
Raiden used Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu on the water which generated a lot of steam. The leader was looking around in the steam for Raiden but wasn't able to find him. He turned around and saw red eyes looking at him. Raiden attacked the leader with Lightning Release: Thunder. Many lightning sparks converged on the leader and electrocuted him until he passed out.
Raiden finally relaxed a bit but suddenly he heard A shout. A woman was shouting.
"Shut up!" Said the ninja now coming out of the tent he was blown to while holding a woman.
"You'll let me leave or I'll kill her." He threatened.
Jiraiya saw the scene and got ready to save the woman, but he saw Raiden getting ready to rescue her himself.
Raiden suddenly flickered behind the man and used Lightning Release: Thunderbolt. Two lightning bolts were generated on his hands and were launched at the ninja. The woman bit the man's arm and kicked him before running away from his grip.
The lightning bolt went straight through the man's heart and killed him.