Naruto : Shadow King

[Shikas POV]

Escorting is a boring mission. I didn't feel this boredom the first time when I was travelling to the Land of Waves due to the nature of that mission and since I had team 8 with me.

However, now since I'm the only shinobi here escorting this small merchant caravan to the capital, the boredom has finally started to weigh on me.

The company was boring and the journey was long. Nothing to do so I just took out a Fuinjutsu scroll and started reading it after putting one of my dogs into the guard duty.

It was a three-day long journey, didn't have to be that long but since it was a merchant caravan one couldn't compare its speed to a normal shinobi jumping on top of the trees.

On the first day, we didn't face any issues, everything was fine and we left the general area of Konoha very safely.

It was the next day when we finally saw some action.

*WUff Wuff…

My concentration was broken exactly when I started to understand the complex equation in the Fuinjutsu scroll, or at least I wish to believe that as that way I can blame my lack of progress on the dogs.

Hearing the barks I knew that something wasn't right. Looking around I found that the caravan had already entered into a forest area.

Though there was a well-built road here but it still went through a forest, those people in the capital can't clear out an entire forest to build a road after all.

And that is the reason this area was the most unsafe.

From Bandits to enemy shinobi, anyone could hide here and no one would be wiser.

Hearing the barks it was easy to get that the dog got someone's scent.

Just as I was about to act, I noticed the ruffling and shuffle in the bushes.

The caravan was immediately stopped while 8 figures stood in front of the caravan.

'Okay, point notes, dogs might be able to find them but it's obvious that if they start barking then the other party also will get alert.' I berated myself for not ordering the dog to stay low upon finding someone nearby.

Now neither side had an element of surprise.

"Bring out everything valuable you have, be quick." That was a generic dialogue for a bandit.

I was still sitting inside the caravan, reading the scroll so they hadn't seen me yet. So maybe I still have an element of surprise in my hand.

Since I usually have one Clone dormant inside my shadow, I directly exchange position with the clone and the clone goes out to take my place while I travel through the shadows to see how many people are there and whether they have any shinobi with them or not.

"10 people in total, 8 are in front while two are hiding behind so that none can escape." It was pretty easy to see what they were going for since those two are hiding, separate from others then I rather handle them first.

On both sides of the road, one bandit was hiding ready to jump from his place to stop anyone who would want to run away. Neither realized that a shadow was creeping towards them right.

The next second the shadow morphed, biding them making them immobile. But that is not all, from shadow came creatures.

Before they could even shout for help, their throats were blocked and soon both lost their lives.

—-

"What's taking so long? Bring out all the valuable things which you have with you… quick." Shouted the man who looked like the boss of this bandit.

For the time being I label him as a leader. After my shadows was done taking care of those two hidden bandits, I went upfront under the shadow of my shadow clone.

"You, shinobi why are you not doing anything." the fat merchant came out with his hands up and whispered to me so that those bandits wouldn't hear him.

Clone remained silent, there was no reason to attract unusual attention towards him while I took care of these bandits.

It was a good thing, that before going out clone turned himself into a normal boy rather than a shinobi not to attract attention.

"But now that I think about it, do I even need to be this secretive to take them down like an assassin." I ponder, I'm already pretty strong thanks to Zabubza's skills and all this training.

But I guess this habit of playing assassin won't go away any time soon.

Smirking to myself I just formed a hand sign when I saw there was nothing extraordinary about this group.

No shinobi in hiding, no more hidden bandits for plan B and lastly I got all of them close in one place when they came closer to the caravan.

Soon shadow spread around the place, both clone and I worked together and used Shadow Possesion to strangle all the bandits.

"What… what's going on." Shouted the Bandit.

"Shinobi!… that brat is a ninja. Take him out, hurry." The leader shouted but it was already way too late. All of them were already captured by the shadow.

"Way too easy…"

—-

After I bound them to a tree, I finally came to the fat merchant as he seemed to want to ask something of me.

"You need something ?"

"Ah yeah, we're missing someone." He said though I could sense a hint of hesitancy or urgency in his tone, I couldn't say it for sure.

"Missing someone? Who," I looked around, I could see almost everyone there. No one was missing.

"That…it's a girl who was supposed to be in the cavern but maybe she ran away in all this ordeal." Replied the merchant.

"Girl ?" I can't help but ask since I didn't notice any girl in the cavern. There were only men.

Though the phase ran away sounded strange.

"She ran away… why ?" Though I have no idea where this fat man was hiding a girl but that has nothing to do with me.

"Are you an idiot, the girl got scared of the bandits and upon getting a chance she ran for it." He shouted, his logic did seem to be right but there was still something which was making me unsure.

"Okay, tell me how the girl looks, I'll find her." What else I could say at this point? He was paying for this escort mission, quite little for all this hassle he was putting me through but still can't leave a defenceless girl alone in this jungle.

"She's around 16 or 17. Haszel hairs and eyes." Replied the merchant to which I just nodded.

Making a clone I was ready to send him to find this girl when the fat man spoke again.

"One minute, you are not going yourself ?" Asked the fat merchant sweating a little, it was a little hot but he sweat a lot.

"Don't worry, my clone is very similar to me, he can find her…" I just offhandedly wanted to make the fat man assured but he then tossed a bag at me which surprised me.

I thought it was a bomb or at first, shinobi training makes you suspect even opening your wardrobe, who knows there is a bald man with a dagger ready waiting for you.

But then a very familiar jiggle of coin made me instinctively catch the pouch. This was a coin pouch no doubt about it.

"This…" I asked, not sure what the man was trying to pull here.

"For your extra effort. Make sure that you bring the girl back safely. And don't listen to that girl. She has a tendency to run away. Just bring her back." Said the merchant.

Now this was really suspicious.

I slowly jiggled the pouch and by the weight and sound, I could tell that it at least had more than 20,000 ryo.

50% of the original rewards just to find this girl.

"Bring her safe to us and there will be more…" As if he read my mind, he said.

And that was when I realized that this mission too is not as simple as it seems.

xxx

[Word Count: 1370]

Who do you think that girl is ? What the fat merchant hiding ?