Chapter 20: The Combat Begins

Rasa's group reacted quickly to the Bandit's Kunai attack and taking advantage of the enemy's missed opportunity for a surprise attack, the three of them didn't waste any time in talking to the Bandits and attacked together.

"Wind Release: Pressure Rupture Jutsu" said Custus as he fanned his giant fan creating a huge storm of air that attacked the three Bandits.

"Earth Style: Earth Spikes Jutsu" Rasa quickly followed and created where the Bandits were standing large earth spikes coming out of the sand.

"Wind Release: Great Sand Cutting Burst Jutsu" Nomad put his hands in the sand and then expelled a large amount of air that slid through the sand mixing with it and then quickly went in the direction of the bandits.

Nomad's Jutsu is a very powerful jutsu capable of shattering anything due to its charge of wind chakra and the sand which gives more cutting power to the air.

"Earth Style: Earth Protective Wall Jutsu" the bandit named Shinto who calmed Domura was the first to react to the attack by sealing with his hands and taking out from his hands a large amount of earth with which he created a wall of earth that stopped Custus' blast Jutsu.

"Wind Release: Violent Air Surge Jutsu" Caratsu also quickly sealed and from his hands shot out a series of wind waves that cut through Rasa's earthen spikes.

"Earth Style: Turtle Shell Jutsu" Domaru also reacted and surrounded his group with a sphere of earth that barely managed to stop Nomad sandblasts.

"Oh interesting..., he managed to stop my attack, yes... I'll take that one!" Nomad said to Rasa and Custus with a maniacal look on his face as he looked at Domaru as if he was his new toy.

"Fine, with Custus we'll hold off the other two until you take him out" Rasa replied calmly.

"If you think we're going to let him do that, you're sorely mistaken" shouted the Bandit named Shinto as he began to seal with his hands.

"Earth Style: Multiple Chains Jutsu" Shinto finished his Jutsu and threw a large amount of chains on Rasa's group, but these were easy for them to dodge.

"No one asked for your opinion rat... Air Escape: Great Sand Cloud Jutsu," Nomad told him annoyed as he formed seals without bothering to dodge first the earth chains.

Nomad quickly used a large amount of wind chakra to lift the surrounding sand and form a cloud of sand with it that covered the entire area they were in, blocking everyone's view.

"Wind Release: Tempest Jutsu," said Caratsu quickly causing the winds in the whole area to become violent and blow strongly thus dispersing the Sand Cloud that covered them.

But the instant he did that, he saw the shadow of a person attacking Domaru, he tried to do something but Custus held him back with an attack of his giant fan.

Shinto on the other hand was held back by Rasa who used her golden dust to block his actions.

Domaru managed to react to the close wind attack that Nomad threw at him, but he was pushed away from his group, leaving him in a close confrontation against Nomad, but with the anger, he had for what had happened to his loved ones he did not care about that and started to defend himself and attack Nomad with all the earth techniques he knew.

That's how each one began to face one on one against the opponent.

"Wind Escape: Gritty Wind Blast Jutsu" Shinto who was facing Rasa used a blast of air that mixed with the sand and impacted against the restraining bindings made of Rasa's gold dust.

'I see, so this is what the intelligence meant by Sunagakure's confidential information' thought Rasa when he saw the Jutsu used by the bandit named Shinto.

That jutsu he used(Gritty Wind Blast) was exclusive to Sunagakure ninja, so no other ninja should know about it unless he stole it.

'But ihis case, it must have been Suna's Jonin who rogue who taught them jutsus from the village and that's why they want everyone dead' Rasa concluded.

"Those bindings you created are quite interesting, they seemed to be made of golden sand but much harder, almost like gold" Shinto said with curiosity clear on his face.

Yes, Rasa had decided to use his Gold Dust in this fight, they didn't always have the opportunity to take on an elite Chunin with all your might and even though he could perhaps buy some time until Nomad had finished off his opponent using only his earth and air elements, Rasa had preferred to try and defeat the Chunin in front of him by his own gutter.

Whether Custus and Nomad discover his identity was secondary, now the important thing was to improve his strength.

"Well... I can say the same thing about that Jutsu you used" Rasa replied calmly making clear reference to the wind jutsu that was from Sunagakure.

"Oh, that one?, it was just a little gift from the leader for our hard work," Shinto said with a smile.

"How generous of him, gifting things to his followers that he knows they will later die for, very kind," Rasa said mockingly.

Hearing Rasa's taunts, Shinto suddenly glared at him with clear anger.

"You know, in the last few years, we all went from being common and despicable thieves to being hard-working people, like dogs, to the point where we managed to grow in strength and goals to what we are today and it was all thanks to the leader" explained Shinto.

"Hard-working people you say, you guys are still just simple thieves preventing the merchants from doing their job" denied Rasa.

"And what makes you so different from us, don't you kill for a living, don't you use force to achieve your goals? What we think about all the time is having more strength, money, and then being able to protect our loved ones and let them live better lives in this evil world."

In fact, Rasa did not disagree with what he said, the ninja world was ruled by strength and those who were weak were destined to die.

But it was true that everyone was seeking power so they could complete their goals and keep their loved ones safe.

Rasa was seeking that too, but he had the backing of Sunagakure and the bandits only had the backing of a Jonin who was probably already being eliminated by Captain Canteen.

"But you and your teammates ruined everything in one night, all our dreams and goals. you killed them all! Now suffer the consequences!" Shinto shouted angrily and began to seal.

"Earth Style: Sandy Earth Impact Jutsu" Shinto reached into the sand and pulled out a large chunk of sandy earth which he then threw with great force at Rasa.

Rasa managed to dodge the impact area with his Gold Dust to quickly slide across the sand.

The chunk of ground crushed everything in its path and Shinto who seemed to be in a rather unstable mood now started to throw Jutsu after Jutsu against Rasa, while Rasa only dodged and attacked with his Gold Dust when he saw an opening.

The more Rasa looked at this bandit, the more he understood that the values of his past life were no longer useful in this world.

He always feels that he still lacks time to fully adapt to this chaotic world.

The expression on Shinto's face distorted a little more with each attack that Rasa dodged.

"Wind Release: Sand Bullet Jutsu" Shinto quickly stamped his hands.

"Gold Dust Shild," Rasa said and the bullets were easily swallowed by the gold dust.

"Damn, it's almost as if my attacks had no effect against it" Shinto complained and it was the truth, wind attacks didn't have much effect against gold dust and sand was much more fragile than gold so no matter if he combined his wind with sand to give more strength to his attacks they weren't effective.

Only the earth attacks were strong enough to bother Rasa, but nothing so problematic, luckily this bandit only seemed to know how to use earth and wind jutsus which were weak against gold dust.

And it wasn't strange that his elements were earth and wind since most of the ninja of Sunagakure and the Wind country, in general, were these.