Mission Name: Bandits Are Stupid
Mission Rank: B
Theater of War: N/A
Relevant Plot NPCs: No
Mission Goal: Eliminate the bandits
Description: Bandits are stupid, you can tell because of this wonderful example. See, a bandit chief has taken his men and started to waylay travelers trying to get to the safety of the Emporium. You know, that place where every nation in the war is doing everything they can to keep it neutral? This isn't about to end well for them.
Payment: 25,000
Number of Participants: Maximum of 4
There was something about jumping people right as they were within sight of the promise of safety that just tickled Danzo Hattori and his men. It made them feel like sharks grabbing divers just as their fingers broke the water's surface and dragging them back into the cruelty of the world they had just tried to escape. And nothing quite filled the hearts of weary travelers with hope like the image of the Heavenly Emporium, hovering just above the tree lines with the promise of a life free of the madness wrought by the Great Shinobi World War. He sneered down at the morbidly obese merchant and his disproportionately beautiful but empty-headed trophy wife as his his dozen men went about ransacking the caravan. He let them bicker over whether or not to kill the guards, thinking that it'd be better to let them get it out of their systems while the opportunity was present.
As usual, the goods were immensely valuable and the thought of selling them to the high-and-mighty flying mall's own black market was just frosting on the cake. The fact that his gang's biggest rival had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared didn't register the kind of threat in his mind that one would normally expect such a thing to. Nor did the suspicion that someone might be able to see them from the Emporium's elevated streets some half a kilometer away. Consequently, the fact that a hiss and a cry of pain signaling the reduction of his forces by half a member came as a complete surprise. Especially since in the time it took him to register that they were under attack, one dead subordinate became four. The arrows glinted like rays of light and seemed to be just as fast. Those unfortunate enough to only receive a glancing blow lost entire limbs. The lucky ones were struck directly and simply died on the spot as considerable portions of their torsos were turned into a red mist. Another four died almost simultaneously as they stood to look for somewhere to run or hide.
"Show yourself, you coward!" the bandit chief bellowed at the unseen assailant, losing the remainder of his men over the course of his demand. He just managed to work out the source of the arrows that had slaughtered his entire troop in a matter of seconds when his head disappeared in a fountain of blood as the one with his name on it found him. His hostages went into hysterics as the decapitated body fell to the ground a few short meters away from them.
"Told you I could hit them all from here," Ashitaka said to the shocked gate guard standing next to him as his bow poofed back into its previous form as a pair of heavy wooden bracers. "You said your bet was... what, 500 ryo each, right? Tell you what. You won't owe me anything if you go get my arrows and escort the caravaneers back up here."
