With Shizune guiding us we reached our destination in less than an hour. We came across a small rundown village that had a population of not more than fifty people.
As soon as Shizune and I landed at the village entrance most people quickly rushed to their homes and shut their houses. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the rogue shinobi had traumatised this village by doing something terrible to them.
Shizune walked calmly until we reached the biggest home in the village and *knocked* on the door.
We waited for a few seconds before there was a light *cough* heard from behind the door as it was slowly pulled open. An old man with long eyebrows opened the door and looked at Shizune and me with some wariness.
Shizune said nothing to greet the man and quickly got to the point by showing him the piece of paper she'd torn from the book in the bar.
The old man looked at the paper for a while before his eyes widened.
"Ah…are you here to help us? Thank you for coming! Please come ins-"
"Don't worry about all that. Tell me which way they left the last time they were here."
The old man looked at Shizune with a little worry but then simply nodded as he spoke calmly, "They rushed eastwards and disappeared into the forest after taking our supplies and a few of our daughters."
The old man looked at us with hope-filled eyes but Shizune responded coldly.
"Alright. Stay indoors until tomorrow. Don't help anyone that comes here injured."
The old man simply nodded and we left what I guessed was the village chief's house. It took us a little bit of time but we were soon heading eastward and rushing into the forest.
One the way Shziune taught me how to study and follow tracks by searching for broken twigs, branches, fresh drag marks and footprints. It took me some time to get used to staring at the forest floor and being able to make up any sense of what I was seeing but slowly I started to get the hang of it.
Not in any easy way that I would be able to tell if the lion who walked through was hungry or not but I would surely be able to tell that there was at least a big cat that walked through the area.
We didn't sleep for the night but given how we didn't do any training today, I had plenty of energy left in me to stay awake. By the end of the morning, we arrived at a cave. It was mostly Shizune that followed the tracks and me following behind her but we got there nonetheless.
"I want you to handle things from here."
I was a little startled but looking at Shizune's serious expression I said nothing else and stared at the cave entrance for a while.
A sort of plan formed in my head and I spoke calmly.
"Why don't you stay outside to take care of any that try to escape? I'll head inside and finish them off while they're asleep…?"
Shizune didn't say much but just nodded silently, there was no commendation about how good the plan was and neither was there any critique. She just stood on one of the branches of the tree silently as I was left to my own devices.
I jumped down from the tree branch in silence before slowly and carefully making my way towards the cave.
I stood at its entrance for a while, silently lingering to see if I could adjust my eyes to its darkness before venturing deep into it.
I wanted to find a way I could see and detect the people inside the cave but there wasn't enough light and I didn't want to risk lighting one up, so I waited patiently until I figured out the terrain inside before sticking my feet to the walls of the cave and slowly walking on its ceiling.
The cave smelt downright putrid.
It felt like a pig had died in it and that someone was letting nature marinate this dish so that it would become unfit for consumption.
I could hear the faint whimpers of various people in the background and I realised that they were from women that had been kidnapped.
I was glad none of them made any noise when I arrived since that would've led to a much different situation had I been detected by the jonin because of them.
I wanted to wait for longer, but knowing that the women might see me at anytime, I quickly started my business.
I performed a few hand seals and summoned chakra scalpels in both my hands.
I aimed to slice their necks while they were asleep.
A fast, quick and soundless way to get rid of my targets so that I didn't have to fight them inneffeciently.
I could feel my mind try and suppress my underboiling emotions to think rationally yet my hands trembled at the thought of taking a human life. Especially one that was as young as the ones in front of me. It was easier to spot them using the soft green glow of my chakra scalpels.
Paing attention to the sound of snoring I heard from the cave, I spotted two little kids probably half my height sleeping in bags near me.
I used chakra threads to hang from the ceiling, mind you this was much different from the complex chakra training that required one to control their entire body with chakra threads like a puppet since I just extended chakra threads from the base of my feet to hang myself upside down.
I reached close to the two kids and then after firming my mind, I stabbed their necks.
Both the kids instantly had their eyes shoot open. And I realised they were about to scream so I stuffed my hands in both their mouths to muffle any sounds they would make.
But the blood in their necks was already choking them and the only thing that they would do was stare into my eyes that hovered above theirs as they passed away, silently.
I looked around the cave, wondering if anyone had witnessed my assault but seeinig nothing wrong around myself I was about to continue before I heard- or rather stopped hearing the muffling sound that was a constant until recently.
I quickly scanned around using the dim lights of my chakra scalpel and soon noticed two pairs of eyes quietly staring back at me from the darkness.
Not knowing what to do, I just slowly brought my finger to my lips to indicate that I expected silence.
The eyes bobbed up and down which I assumed to mean agreement and so I continued walking upside down on the ceiling.
Under the dim lighting, I quickly moved through the cave looking for more targets but I didn't realise I was grossly underestimating a rouge Jonin.
By instinct, I felt an attack speed my way and my brain fired up to protect me.
A thick water wall formed behind my head and forcefully held a shiny thin blade that was just about to pierce my head like tofu and kill me instantly.
The water shield caught the Jonin off guard since to him it meant a lot of things that were unexplainable, like sealless defence jutsu which gave him a small panic about the level of his killer.
I however took advantage of the blunder and jabbed both my hands at the jonin's head while using the water dome around me to keep his short sword locked mid-air.
But turns out I was still underestimating him.