This shocked both Hodaka and Mieko. Both looked at Renjiro at the same time. Feng Zheng's alertness deeply impressed Renjiro. He said with a smile,
“Well, this is your Rank B mission. Or rather, it should be. This looks more like a Rank A Mission.”
Then he became serious and commanded,
“You prepare to deal with the bandits and Genin-level attackers. I will deal with the stronger ones. You don't need to worry about the goods. Prioritize your own lives and your teammates' lives. Then the merchants' lives.”
The three nodded and stood up.
Seeing them stand up, the merchants also knew something was wrong and became vigilant.
Iha Toshio, in particular, was very worried. Everyone immediately stood up and hid behind the carriages.
Two days ago--
Two people stood there, observing the deserted open space.
Both of them were Jonin. One of them was Kairan Tomio, from the Wasabi Family's rival clan. The other was Tamaochi Norio, a rogue Ninja from the Land of Rivers. His bounty was 5 million ryo.
Kairan Tomio said,
“According to the intelligence from our spies, five escort teams are traveling from Konoha to Fuhou Port. One of these teams will pass through here and will inevitably rest here.”
Tamaochi Norio asked,
“Who is escorting them?”
Kairan Tomio replied,
“The weakest team, a Genin squad.”
Tamaochi Norio was stunned, then laughed arrogantly,
“Just Genin? They'll die quickly.”
Kairan Tomio was annoyed by his arrogance. He warned,
“Don't underestimate them too much. Their leader is Senju Renjiro, an Elite Jonin. The Senju Clan and the Wasabi Family have deep ties, so it's possible they are trying to use this method to sneak him in. Moreover, their Genin squad has a Byakugan user, so we must be very careful.”
Tamaochi Norio frowned upon hearing this. He thought for a moment and said,
“An Elite Jonin is difficult to kill. The only way is to desperately protect the Genin. As for the Byakugan, I have a method. One of my subordinates has a rat summoning beast. He can use them to monitor from a distance. Once they relax their guard and rest, we can take action.”
Kairan Tomio nodded.
This plan was suitable. They might not be able to kill Renjiro, but killing the merchants should not be a problem.
Just as the Genin were about to enter the battle, Renjiro recalled his meeting with the Hokage before accepting this mission.
Hokage Office - Two weeks ago:
Renjiro walked into the Hokage's office and saw the Hokage and another old man.
Hiruzen said,
“Renjiro, come meet Wasabi Daichi.”
Renjiro looked at the old man and asked,
“Wasabi? From the Land of Tea?”
The man nodded and replied,
“Yes, from the Land of Tea.”
Hiruzen continued,
“A power struggle is underway in the shadows of the Land of Tea. There seems to be a conspiracy against the Wasabi Family, and perhaps also against the Daimyo.”
Renjiro analyzed the information and asked,
“The Wasabi Family has had good relations with Konoha and the Senju Clan for decades, so you want to help them?”
Hiruzen nodded and said,
“Yes. Unfortunately, we cannot directly intervene. This is just a ploy. If we interfere, it will damage our relationship with the Land of Tea's Daimyo.”
Renjiro nodded, he had already reached this conclusion.
Hiruzen continued,
“This Daichi holds an important position in the Wasabi Family. He manages the Wasabi Family's finances and many important transactions, so their opponents want to eliminate him. I hope you and your squad will escort him.”
This surprised Renjiro. He asked,
“This seems like a quite important mission, why send a Genin squad to execute it?”
Hiruzen replied,
“Their opposing forces have hundreds of Ninja. Even if I send an Anbu squad, they won't be able to protect him. The only way to protect him is to send a larger team, but...”
Renjiro took over and finished his sentence,
“But you can't do that, the Land of Tea's Daimyo wouldn't like it.”
Hiruzen nodded and added,
“And if I send a large number of troops with him, the enemy won't attack, but will hide. So it won't be very effective.”
“So we will adopt this strategy. First, divide the enemy forces. There are 5 routes from here to the Land of Tea. You will take Wasabi Daichi and carry out a Rank C mission to escort merchants. Your squad will depart via the fifth route, as it is furthest from the sea and prevents interference from the Hidden Mist Village.”
“Soon after, I will dispatch 3 Chunin squads along the other 3 routes to form similar escort teams. Finally, an Anbu team will escort a decoy along the middle route. They should send most of their forces to oppose this decoy team, because the decoy team is assigned a stronger force.”
“This way, we can divide their forces into five parts and have a legitimate reason to kill those who attack us. The other 4 teams can retreat after killing as many of them as possible, or employ hit-and-run tactics if possible. And you need to rush to Fuhou Port as quickly as possible, so that their remaining forces will not regroup and target you.”
Then Renjiro and the Hokage further discussed and refined the strategy, and formulated actions to implement it.
Back to the present —
The leading bandits were only about a hundred meters from the edge of the clearing.
Hodaka said excitedly,
“Finally, a good fight!”
Mieko was also very excited.
Feng Zheng, who was thinking, suddenly said,
“Don't activate your Sharingan or Byakugan. I think they want to disguise themselves as ordinary bandits, so let's pretend we haven't noticed them. I have a technique I want to try.”
With that, he walked into the forest.
Hodaka and Mieko wanted to argue with him, but the bandits had already started rushing out of the forest. Some people also began to descend from the mountain and shoot arrows.
Hodaka and Mieko noticed this. Hodaka quickly formed Hand Seals and performed the Rock Shield Technique.
A rock shield appeared behind the merchants. All the arrows shot at them were blocked by it.
At the same time, about fifty bandits, fifteen of whom were Ninja, ran towards them from the forest.
Since these Ninja were disguised as ordinary bandits and wanted to attack the enemy by surprise, their movement speed was the same as the bandits. More and more bandits emerged from the forest every second.
Feng Zheng drew a sword and held it in his right hand. Chakra immediately began to flow, instantly transforming into Wind Chakra.
Then he gripped the hilt with both hands, pulled the sword back, and then swung it with all his might, forming an arc, sweeping towards the approaching bandits.
As he swung his sword, a sword energy appeared and moved rapidly.
When close to Feng Zheng, the slash was extremely small, but as it moved, it expanded exponentially! Along the diagonal, strong winds appeared, kicking up some dust.