Spoiler:

Konoha was... losing it's power, stretching itself thin, becoming weak. Anyone who lived there could tell as much. There just simply wasn't the man power that it used to have. With Lady Risu inexplicably absent as of late, and many of the other stronger shinobi of Konoha simply out of the village, Konoha was fairly low on numbers. That lead to a shortage of people who were able to do patrols, as the normal ones that were on patrol had to be bumped up on the chain of command to take on higher ranked missions. Some of the Chuunin were instead assigned the usual patrols of the outskirts of Konoha. And Yoichi Uchiha was no exception to this. As much as it irked him to be forced to take on some missions on behalf of Konoha under Sousetsu's regime, Yoichi didn't argue, and quietly accepted his mission, knowing that it would help him out in the long run, even if it meant helping out the village in the short term. Besides, he could use some more money to fund his research, as well as use the practice against enemies. Bandits weren't much of an issue to a shinobi, as they rarely were able to utilize chakra, and because of this, even weak shinobi were more than a match against bandits. The main problem with them was their numbers. Due to the shinobi forces being so spread thin, they tended to be unable to send out any large forces to actually push back bandit raids, and because of that, the bandits had been starting to gain foot holds and secure choke points that would allow them to jump unsuspecting travellers, raiding caravans, and causing general mayhem. And for this reason, Yoichi had been dispatched to take care of them. He'd been offered a small squad to help him deal with the issue, but had turned down the help. It wasn't something he'd need help on, for certain. If he couldn't take on a group of bandits by himself, then he certainly wasn't strong enough to actually be of use to Lady Risu, although it wasn't simply a matter of pride to him. He had knowledge of techniques and tactics that he didn't particularly want many people to see, as it would be much more of a surprise to be an unknown, especially when he finally decided to make his move against Konoha. If they had more knowledge of his techniques, then he'd be more easily countered. So to this end, Yoichi decided to go alone.

Sneaking through the hills rather stealthily, using the rising mounds of earth to hide behind so that he could sneak up on the bandit's camp. From the reports that previous patrols had given, he had a fairly good picture of the layout of their camp, which was minimal at best. According to intel, there was only a few tents to house the men in, and some stolen wagons and shipments of whatever they'd managed to raid. Nothing important to Yoichi would be in those shipments, so he wouldn't even bother going through them. Anything worthwhile would have had a heavy guard on them, not something that a small contingent of raiders would have been able to steal anyhow. So this mission would be a straight up purge. Most shinobi in these parts would rather capture their enemies to imprison them, but Yoichi was a killer. He was incredibly efficient at lethal take downs, even if he more than possessed the skills to capture people. Reviewing the reports in his mind, Yoichi planned his strategy. He was only about a half kilometer away from the camp, having been able to see it a while ago, but had been careful not to be spotted by the lookouts. He was performing this mission in the dark of the night, so that his dark clothing would help him blend in much more efficiently. Their camp fire was a dead giveaway, but it wasn't much of a concern for them. To be honest, they were a rather efficient band, and were actually quite strong for bandits, from what he'd heard. Taking direct hits would prove troublesome. Most of them were ranged fighters, preferring to use bows, with three of them being melee fighters, the leader included. That was how many of the bandit groups had been organized lately, which led to the underlying truth that there was a higher level of organization behind the raiding. Since they seemed to be organizing in similar groups, perhaps there was someone stronger behind the scenes, organizing them into units now. It would be something to look into, so that perhaps Yoichi could take control from the shadows, providing more of a problem for Konoha and bolstering his power base for the eventual take over.

WC: 818/1500

Sneaking closer to the encampment didn't take much more work, to be honest. He was able to get pretty much right up on it without even being spotted. While still hidden, Yoichi took in the lax nature of the place. It was dark, it was night, and there were only two people on guard at the moment, each armed with their own bows. Yoichi grinned to himself, because those wouldn't be doing them much good at all. The others were huddled around the fire, laughing and drinking, enjoying in their own merriment and revelry. Boy would they all be in for a surprise. Something that Yoichi noted was that all of them had their weapons in quick grasping range, so if anything were to come up, they'd have weapons almost immediately. The archers would be the main problem. In such a low light, it would be difficult to see arrows flying his way, although it would work more to his advantage. The main tactic of attacking at night was that they wouldn't be able to pinpoint his location very well either. Adjusted to the light as they were, the ones by the camp fire weren't the main issue, but the two who were on guard would be more adjusted to the dark, meaning they'd be the ones he'd have to take out first. Katon technique would be the most useful to him, as it would allow him the ability to blind them, as the sudden flash of light would be too much for their dark adjusted eyes. From there, he'd still have momentary element of surprise as they'd have to all grab their weapons and turn, adjusting their eyes to the dark, while Yoichi could see them perfectly due to their proximity to a light source.

Having his plan in action, Yoichi bit his thumb, pressing his hand to the ground. "Summoning jutsu." he muttered, pouring out chakra to summon out Kali and Istral, his personal summons. "Istral, you're with me. I'm going to need your wind enhancments. Kali, cause some mayhem by the fire once we start our attack. You're free to go once you do so." he said, the snakes nodding. Kali slithered away, his dark blue scales letting him vanish into the night almost immediately. Istral slithered up Yoichi's outstretched arm, shrinking himself down so he could comfortably wrap around Yoichi's shoulders and remain there without worrying about being jostled. Standing up, Yoichi waited for a suitable time for Kali to have gotten into position, perhaps hidden among the tents, so that he could strike at a moment's notice. Snakes were animals, and even if spotted, didn't usually warrant too much alarm. Yoichi himself tended to use the transformation jutsu and turn into an animal to blend into the woodland environment when on missions. It made sense after all. Too often the ninja around here simply charged into battle without any secrecy. Against a stronger opponent, secrecy and subterfuge was the most important skill to have.

Walking towards the two of the guards, Yoichi ran forward, surprising the two who managed to call out. The rest of the bandits stumbled to their feet, surprised to see a man who had clotheslined the lookouts, having knocked the two men back towards the rest of the group. Weapons in hand, attention focused on Yoichi, nobody saw Kali's attack. The snake had used it's primary attacking jutsu, Ophidian Venom Trap, to send out 10 venom snakes, each of which had paired up, each pair attacking one of the 5 men that wasn't the giant hulking mass of muscle. Crying out in pain, with the snakes biting them, the men stumbled about, snakes wrapped around and biting them relentlessly. One of the men stumbled, knocking another into the campfire. It was chaos, as had been planned. Yoichi went on to his part of the plan, nodding to Kali, who started building up chakra in tandem with his master, who also did the same. Yoichi combined his Misty Flame Dance and Phoenix Flower Jutsu, to increase the power of the Phoenix Flower Jutsu to deal 2nd degree burns instead of the weaker 1st. Kali, on the other hand, had used his own Ophidian Venom Trap first, sending out 10 more snakes for the men to deal with, now 20 of them crawling around, biting relentlessly, to allow Yoichi time to build up his own jutsu. Suitable time done, Yoichi let loose his attacks, sending out 10 basketball sized fireballs, 7 of which went for each of the underlings who were already injured, and the other 3 sent towards the leader who was stomping at the snakes. As the jutsu left Yoichi's mouth, Kali let loose his own wind style jutsu, Gust Bellows, which would increase the already increased damage another degree.

Yoichi's attacks found themselves hitting home, the men getting hit with basketball sized fireballs, which burned them in 3rd degree burns. The leader got blindsided by 3 of his own, falling into the campfire as well, the smell of burnt flesh littered around the camp. Yoichi grinned, letting the snakes continue on, doing their damage, until everyone ceased moving, then dismissed Istral, Kali already having left. He went around, slitting everyone's throat to ensure death, and then without further ado, left to go report in.

WC: 912
TWC: 1730/1500 Mission Complete, Exit thread
Reward: B Rank Jutsu alternate