Destruction and disaster were much like wounds. And like wounds, they were prone to opportunistic infections if not treated properly.

Sometimes it might be corruption in the government, or thieves looting the homes of the victims.

And other times, it was something even simpler.

Bandits.

The Nobikazu Bandits made it a point to not have much of a reputation. That was how low-level bandits survived in a world of shinobi; never going after enough people in numbers or importance to warrant having a Jonin or ANBU sent after them, always keep moving where they struck.

And of course, never fight fair, never leave witnesses, and only take people alive if they were...valuable, in one way or another.

So, when the Nobikazu saw a traveling caravan, just waiting to be slaughtered and plundered? They saw a very good payday.

But when they saw four female ninjas among them, three of them very young with the last obviously being their teacher?

Now that makes things more dangerous but...

"Well, this made things more tempting," Mobitaro, one of their leaders said with a grin.

"Careful, even a Genin could take out a lot of us if we're not on our toes," another cautioned.

"Yeah, but a ninja, especially a Kunoichi goes for a lot of money to the right buyer," Mobitaro retorted, his grin gaining a fouler element. "After we're done with them, of course."

Many of the others chuckled nefariously, others swallowed uncomfortably. While some weren't as depraved as others, it was mainly a healthy fear of facing trained shinobi that had their attention.

"You all know the plan," Mobitaro said as they all tied clothes over their nose and face before holding a ceramic orb, the content swirling about within. "The antidote will keep these from putting you to sleep, but try not to breathe too much of it in. Once the ninja girls are knocked out, we'll raid the rest of the caravan."

They all nodded and began to move into position, using the cover of night to remain unnoticed as much as possible.

Mobitaro gave the signal by throwing the first bomb, the others following suit. A green gas filled the area with each that was thrown, clouding the air.

"Let's get them!" someone cried out as they charged forth to take their prey in the confusion.

The two dozen bandits ran from their hiding spaces, running to the encampment...

"What the hell!?"

"Where did it all go?!"

"Everything is gone!?"

Mobitaro glared as he looked around and saw that the entire caravan was gone, replaced only by logs and rocks of vaguely similar shapes and sizes to what they had seen. "Don't tell me...!"

"Wind Release: Great Gale!"

The green smoke was cleared as a strong wind swept over the area. Mobitaro and the others looked up to see Anko standing on a tree branch in the moonlight.

"You know, we don't need very powerful Genjutsu to fool bandits like you," Anko said with a wide smile.

"Grr! We've been played! Everyone, retreat!" Mobitaro called out, knowing it was better to flee for another day than risk a battle like this.

"Not as stubborn as I thought they'd be," Anko mused as she held up her hand and started counting down. "Three, two, one."

A stone along the tree line poofed, turning back into Sakura who threw a kunai with an explosion tag at a line of explosion seals along the canopy. The trap flung several bandits back while cutting off their immediate escape.

From opposite sides, Ino and Sakura made their presence known and charged forth, throwing kunai and shuriken at the bandits before they could get their wits about them. They met in the middle, back to back with weapons in hand.

From on high, Hinata used her Byakugan to watch the fight, taking out unsuspecting bandits while watching for any that slipped through Ino and Sakura's defenses.

Anko hadn't exactly planned on this mission going this way, but she wouldn't complain. It was a good chance to get these girls to deal with their first kills, and know the gritty details of shinobi life, like cleaning up bandits.

They were doing pretty good. They had hesitated several times. Not that the bandits noticed, but Anko could see it. The split second these girls needed to regain their resolve, the trembling in their hands that they had to fight down.

If a Genin didn't have their first kill on their own, it was customary to have it done against a low-level enemy like bandits for this very reason. Against another ninja, these hesitations, these fuck ups could end their lives. But here? They could get it out of their system, and make it easier in one way or another when they had to take the life of another shinobi.

Still, she wasn't about to make them do all the work.

She leaped down to join the fray, flashing through the hand seals. "Hidden Shadow Snake Hand!" she called out, serpents shooting from her sleeves as they extended out to bite and ensnare two bandits, before tossing them away with screams as they crashed into their comrades.

The girls didn't get by unscratched, of course. Sakura and Ino both had a few shallow cuts. Hinata's hiding spot had eventually been discovered. She abandoned it by leaping down to sink a kunai into a bandit's neck before she leaped to join Ino and Sakura.

Mobitaro growled at the girls. "When I get done with you bitches, you'll regret that your whore-mothers ever brought you into this world," he promised maliciously.

The trio shared a glance as they regarded the situation. Between them and Anko, they had already cut through a third of the bandits. They just had to be...

The ground shook slightly with a sound like thunder.

The fighting slowed.

"The hell was that?"

"Earthquake?"

Anko frowned as she looked in the direction of the noise.

The south.

The ground shook again.

"Ooooohhh, fuck," Ino said, her face torn between grinning and worry.

"Is that...?" Sakura asked, glancing at her and then at Hinata.

The Hyuuga heiress winced and deactivated her eyes. "He's coming. He's angry."

"What are you cunts talking about? What's coming?!" Mobitaro snapped out. "Is this one of those damn summon pets you chakra-freaks keep?!"

"You idiots," Anko spoke up with a smirk as she stood there with her arms crossed, confident that these bandits posed no threat to her. Not now, especially. "Don't you know where you are, right? Just how far south you are, right?"

Mobitaro stiffened. They couldn't mean that thing, right...?

Everyone refused to keep fighting as the shaking became impossible to ignore, nearly knocking many off their feet.

Sakura looked at a puddle nearby, watching how each shake came in a rhyme, a pattern. Footsteps.

"Where is it?! Why can't we see it!?" one of the bandits yelled, trying and failing to see past the canopy in the dark night.

The snapping and crushing of trees were heard, growing ever closer.

And without warning, nothing.

There was a brief, terrible silence as the world grew still.

None of the bandits dared to even breath.

The bandits could barely even scream as a golden blur and a rush of wind blitzed through the area and made everyone shield their eyes.

Sakura looked up and saw him finally standing in view.

Naruto loomed over the trees around them with a chilling look about his face. One of his mighty tails had swept through the forest, taking most of the bandits and sweeping them up into the air to launch the trees and bandits high into the sky. They cried out in fear as they came crashing down to their deaths.

Naruto paid their screams no mind as he coldly gazed down at the survivors.

He stopped trying to hold back his killing intent.

The stunned surviving bandits fell backward in horror as the golden kitsune aimed his full wrath on them.

"Naruto," Sakura whispered in concern.

His eyes looked to her and the others briefly, before he turned back to the bandits with glacial eyes.

"Wa-wait, stop! We give up! We're sorry!" a bandit pleaded desperately.

Naruto didn't say a word. It was so strangely unlike him, so cold and ruthless.

Another tail reached out and crushed more of the bandits beneath his might even as they tried to flee from him. The ground shook and the wind howled from his strike.

"Hey, are you going to detain us or something!? Call him off!?" Mobitaro called out.

"You think we have any power over him?" Anko asked with a smirk. "If you want to beg, beg to him. But I don't think he's in a listening mood."

"I'm not."

Mobitaro stiffed, trembling as he looked up at Naruto. "You...you can talk, huh?"

"You know," Naruto started as he snapped his tail in the air, flicking the blood and bodies from his fur. He sounded calm, but he was definitely not calm at all. "I might not have come. I know that four ninjas, even if three are Genin, are more than enough for a pack of bandits. But I heard what you were planning."

Naruto leaned his mighty head down until his great fangs were right in front of Mobitaro. The outlaw spoke unintelligibly, all but pissing himself at this point as he saw the razorsharp teeth theat were bigger than his entire body.

"You were planning to rape them."

Sakura grimaced, as did her fellow Genin. They knew it was a possibility, but this was the first time each of the young ninjas had been confronted with that danger. Anko merely had a grim look about her.

"You were going to use and violate them, sell them when you were done," Naruto snarled, his killing intent flooding the area. "Do you think I can hear something so disgusting and not want to kill you all!?"

Of the few remaining bandits, all of them passed out. Save Mobitaro. It wasn't bravery. If anything, he was just too scared to faint.

"Naruto."

He paused and looked at Anko.

She smiled at him. "Thank you for the help, but we can take it from here," she said, subtly glancing behind herself.

Naruto followed her gaze and peered into another clearing nearby. There was a caravan of people, and they were truly terrified by his arrival and the slaughter of the bandits. Oh, they were relieved, grateful even, but what could one do but tremble when so close to a force of nature like him while wreaking such destruction?

Mobitaro looked ready to bolt until Anko knocked him out as well, with the blunt end of her kunai hitting him in the head.

Naruto looked at her again with a questioning frown.

"I just want to make sure we got them all before we kill him," Anko explained before lowering her voice so only Naruto could hear her. "...You know we had this handled, right? That they weren't in danger?"

"I know. I just don't care," Naruto answered as if challenging Anko to say that he shouldn't have come. That he shouldn't have put these outlaws down like sick animals.

Anko raised a hand in surrender. "No, I appreciate the sentiment. As long as you know those three aren't helpless without you."

Naruto grumbled and turned away.

"Naruto? Are you leaving?" Sakura called out in surprise.

"No. I just need a moment," Naruto said as he sat down with his back to them, taking a deep breath.

The Genin turned to Anko who approached them. "Anko-sensei? What now?" Ino asked uncertainty.

"There's only a couple of survivors. I'll deal with them. You three did very well, by the way," Anko praised.

"Right," Sakura said as she had a wary look in her eye. Hinata had a squeamish expression now and Ino ran a trembling hand through her hair.

"Why don't you three go and see how the big guy is doing," Anko said with a smile.

The three shared a look before deciding to do just that as they walked over to the Bijuu.

"Naruto? We're coming up," Hinata called out.

Naruto grunted in acknowledgment, which was all they needed before beginning to scale his form with a mixture of body flicker and chakra-walking up his fur.

The trio eventually sat between Naruto's ears in silence for a moment, gazing up at the night sky with him.

"So..." Ino started slowly. "What was that about, exactly?"

Naruto didn't answer for a moment.

"Naruto, I know you. That...wasn't normal," Sakura said carefully.

Hinata nodded silently. "Were you...worried we were too weak?"

Naruto took a breath. "I heard them."

The girls looked at each other.

"I sensed you all nearby. Then I noticed them. I was a bit worried, but I thought it would be fine. Then, I started listening to what they were saying. Planning. I heard everything each of them said they were going to do if they managed to catch any of you," Naruto said with a sickened voice. "They enjoyed talking about it."

The trio winced. It was a hazard to always be aware of in their profession. Some enemies were more twisted and honorless than others.

"After hearing all that, what was I supposed to do?" Naruto asked as he carefully looked down from the sky to the southern horizon. "I knew you three could probably handle it with the snake woman. But if something, anything had gone wrong..."

"Thank you, Naruto," Hinata said, her small hands rubbing his scalp beneath her. "And...we understand."

"Yeah. I definitely would have come over and killed them myself at that point," Sakura agreed as she gazed at Naruto's ears.

She could barely imagine Naruto having to listen to something like that. It wasn't like he could just unhear it and ignore it. That wasn't in his nature. And that was a good thing, no matter what else might be the case.

"That was noble of you in a way, Naruto," Ino assured, rubbing his head beneath them.

"In a way?" Naruto questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"...Even if they definitely deserve it and worse, I'm not sure how "noble" you can call throwing chakra-less people a mile into the sky to fall to their deaths," Ino explained with an awkward chuckle.

Naruto huffed softly with a weak smile. "Fair enough...You three are okay, right?"

"We just have a few scratches, but…" Ino trailed off.

Sakura looked at her hand. She was trembling a bit. "It was our first kills."

Naruto's ears drooped.

"...Mine too."

Hinata inhaled as she looked at the other two in realization, all their eyes wide.

Naruto's first actual kill, and as a Bijuu no less.

"You can vomit on my head if you feel better, I won't complain this time," Naruto offered softly.

"Statements that sound weirder out of context. But thanks. That means a lot," Ino muttered as she looked over to Hinata, who swallowed thickly. "...And we might need to."

Elsewhere, Anko had finished restraining the few remaining bandits and watched the exchange from a tree with a curious hum. She could only hear Naruto's side of the conversation, but she could guess what that "mine too" was about.

She had gone into this situation expecting to help three Genin get through taking a life for the first time. She never expected a Bijuu's first killing would be involved too.

She stilled as she sensed something coming, but relaxed as she recognized the presence.

Nerugui the ferret scurried to sit down near Anko's feet. If the creature was bothered by the dead human bodies, he gave no sign of it. Instead, he was staring up toward the great Bijuu's backside.

"Brave little guy," Anko mused to herself.

Naruto shifted.

Maybe he heard her, maybe he just noticed the extra pair of eyes. Regardless, he glanced over his shoulder towards the small creature.

Anko raised an eyebrow as Naruto seemed to be confused by something, holding his eyes on Nerugui for a moment before looking forward.

"Everything alright, Naruto?" Sakura asked in concern.

"Just thought I heard something,' Naruto answered evasively.

Anko tilted her head before looking down at Nerugui suspiciously. "You're not a normal ferret, are you?"

Nerugui tilted his head at her without any sign of understanding her.

Well, it wasn't like she had any reason to look into it. There were lots of little oddities like this across the elemental nations, creatures that were abnormal for one reason or another. The summon beasts were only one example. She once had met a client with a cat that could change its fur color like a chameleon.

However, that depended entirely on whether these bandits told or implied anything to her that would say they were targeting this caravan for a reason beyond just seeing it as easy pickings. Then she might have to interrogate the old man.

But that was tomorrow.

Now...she had to deal with the bodies. "I was going to teach them how to dispose of corpses too, but we'll do that another day with an animal carcass," Anko decided, not wanting to interrupt whatever moment the three girls were having with Naruto.

Tonight, her snakes would eat like kings and queens.

"Ummm, Ma'am?"

Anko looked over to see the caravan leader's granddaughter, Emina, who had come over and collected Nerugui. "Everything okay on your end? Nobody hurt?" Anko asked calmly.

Emina nodded stiffly, eyes glancing at the corpses every now and again. "We were just wanting to make sure, but..." she paused and looked up…up, and at the mountainous beast of golden fur. "Is he staying the night?"

Anko smiled playfully. "I mean, if you want to try and tell him to buzz off, be my guest."

"Snake woman, don't use me to freak her out, you're crazy and scary enough on your own," Naruto said flatly.

Emina blinked at the annoyed response. "Wait, so...he can...?"

"I can hear everything everyone is saying right now, yes," Naruto informed flatly. "And I'll leave whenever I want to."

Anko tilted her head. Vague answer, but they had nothing to do besides deal with the aftermath, so she guessed it was fine.

"So...you think we can convince Anko-sensei to let us go to Naruto's beach for a day?" Ino asked with a grin.

"We could always just pretend to fall asleep on Naruto's back and he can pretend to walk back without remembering we're here," Sakura suggested.

"You think she'd believe that?" Hinata asked uncertainty.

"Believe? Hinata, I'm pretty sure she'd sell that excuse for us so she can join in," Ino countered.

"Did I ever mention the giant octopus at my beach?" Naruto asked nonchalantly.

"...And suddenly, the beach day has a serious con to consider," Ino remarked with a sigh.

Naruto smiled to himself. It would be nice though, to have some of them down for a day or two.

He just had to keep the rude neighbor away.

End of Chapter

Yeah, the thing that gt Naruto pissedo ff was bandits talking about raping the girls. Naruto being Naruto, decided he couldn't ignore that, even if the kunoicih could handle the situation in all likelihood. But this was also a first kill for all of them, including Naruto himself. Cue slight bonding moment. And also Naruto noticed the ferret.

Hope you all enjoyed Naruto's cold-rage moment, one sided though it be. But that kind of just shows how screwed bandits are in the Naruto setting if they don't have any training with chakra.

Early viewing of chapters 37-38:

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