The journey to the village took several days, but Shiki's team did not spend all their time solely on the road. During every rest stop, Jiraiya personally supervised Minato and Kushina's training.
It was during these days that Kushina began to master Monstrous Strength. By all accounts, she possessed an extraordinary talent for it. Watching massive tree trunks splinter and snap in half beneath her strikes, Jiraiya's eye twitched nervously. In this girl, he saw the terrifying shadow of a certain old acquaintance of his growing ever more distinct.
Minato did his best to smooth over the awkwardness.
"Kushina, you are doing an absolutely amazing job with Monstrous Strength."
Waiting until Kushina's temper cooled slightly, Shiki floated back down to the ground, though he remained on high alert, ready to activate his elemental transformation at a moment's notice. It couldn't be helped. Whether it was due to the influence of the Nine-Tails or some other unknown factor, the sheer destructive might of Kushina's Monstrous Strength was nothing short of terrifying. No one in their right mind would ever believe she was merely a beginner. It felt as though if she were to put all her power into a single strike, even a solid rock face would be pulverized into dust.
After all, Monstrous Strength was fundamentally different from ordinary ninjutsu. Other shinobi had to invest an immense amount of time and effort into achieving surgical chakra control, aiming to maximize their damage output while minimizing energy waste. For Kushina, however, such problems simply did not exist. The innate vitality of the Uzumaki Clan, coupled with the bottomless chakra reserves of the Nine-Tails, meant she never had to worry about control. All she had to do was unleash her chakra however she saw fit. Ultimately, a colossal volume of raw energy was the very essence of Monstrous Strength.
Minato, on the other hand, devoted all his time to honing his chakra control. He could constantly be seen concentrating energy in the palm of his hand, forcing it to take on various shapes. This approach was dictated by his own physical limitations. Compared to Kushina, his chakra reserves were rather modest. Therefore, in order to reach his full potential, he had to rely entirely on flawless, pinpoint control.
As for Shiki... catching him training was an absolute impossibility. He spent all his free time either sleeping or eating. And if he had a spare minute, he could be found lounging by the river with a fishing rod! Jiraiya sometimes felt as though the boy had set off on a leisurely spring picnic rather than a deadly mission. However, thanks to his daily catch, the team was at least spared from having to choke down Food Pills for every single meal.
Following another brief rest, they finally reached their destination in the dead of night. Shiki looked up. Looming before them was a sheer cliff, at the very top of which sat the bandit lair. An icy wind whipped mercilessly at their faces.
"Brr, it's freezing... I'd much rather be sitting at home right now, slurping down some hot soup," Shiki shivered, pulling his cloak tighter around himself and burying his hands deep in his pockets.
Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh.
"Enough chattering. Go finish off those bastards. And remember: I will not interfere."
It was his final warning. The enemies before them were nothing more than a run-of-the-mill gang of thugs; there was not a single shinobi among them. The main hurdle for his students would not be a gap in strength, but rather a psychological barrier. Could they, who were just children yesterday, cross that line and take a human life? This very trial would determine whether they had what it takes to be true ninja.
"Got it," Shiki tossed back casually, and in the very next instant, he vanished into thin air.
For an ordinary person, a sheer, twenty-meter cliff would be an insurmountable obstacle. But for a shinobi, it was mere child's play. Focusing chakra into the soles of their feet, Minato and Kushina sprinted soundlessly up the vertical rock face as if it were a paved road, seamlessly infiltrating the camp.
…
"Five and six!"
"You lost! Drink up!"
A rowdy crowd of bandits had gathered around a roaring campfire. They guffawed loudly, rattling dice in wooden cups. The air throughout the camp was thick with the nauseating stench of cheap booze. A short distance away, several emaciated children huddled together, tethered by their necks to a wooden post. They were being treated worse than livestock.
One of the bandits clumsily knocked his dice onto the dirt. The crowd instantly erupted into gleeful roars.
"Three penalty cups! Three penalty cups!"
"Alright, alright, I'll drink! Just let me take a leak first!" the man waved them off, prompting a chorus of drunken laughter from his companions.
Staggering, the man ambled over to the edge of the cliff, unfastened his trousers, and began to relieve himself directly into the abyss below. Suddenly, he thought he heard a faint rustling sound coming from the darkness beneath him. He leaned over drunkenly, squinting to find the source of the noise. A silhouette darted out from the dense shadows. There was a flash of golden hair in the gloom of the night, a swift, merciless arc of a kunai—and the bandit's throat was slit.
"Ene..." was all he managed to gurgle before collapsing dead onto the dirt.
The heavy, metallic stench of blood hung in the air. Having taken a human life for the very first time, Minato paled noticeably. But no matter how stealthily he had acted, the camp was simply too small. The rest of the bandits quickly sensed that something was amiss and leaped to their feet.
"Who's there?!" they bellowed, scrambling for their weapons.
But the moment they raised their heads, they were blinded by an unbearably radiant golden brilliance that flooded the entire sky above the encampment. Initially, Shiki had harbored no particular hatred toward this scum. However, the instant he laid eyes on the emaciated, rag-clad children tethered to a post like animals, his demeanor shifted drastically.
It was as if a second sun had risen in the dead of night, and a torrential downpour of myriad blinding rays of light cascaded from the heavens!
Shiki's voice rang out, cold and measured.
"Tell me... have you ever seen the light?"