The trail narrowed as it climbed.
The tracks changed first.
More of them. Some deep. Some light. A few cut off into the brush and came back ahead.
Roen stepped over one.
The path tightened between rock and low brush.
Genryu walked straight into it.
Someone moved ahead near the rock.
Then another shape shifted on Itachi's side.
Roen didn't slow.
The one in front stepped in, blade already coming up. It cut straight, then turned halfway through. Roen met it early, kunai catching near the wrist and pushing it off line. He stepped in with it, shoulder closing the space, blade already moving.
The man recovered fast. His foot slid back, blade coming up tighter this time. Roen changed mid-step, letting the first angle go and taking the second. Steel touched once, then broke apart.
Roen stayed close.
Half-step in. Half-step out.
The man tried to hold his ground, but each time he set, Roen shifted him off.
Then it opened.
The man's front foot set wrong. His shoulder followed late. The guard didn't come up in time.
Roen stepped in
and saw it clearly.
No room to hold back.
Not here.
The cut went through clean.
Steel drove straight in.
The body jerked once.
The man's breath broke against it.
Roen pulled the blade free as he passed him and let him fall behind.
He didn't stop.
He was already turning.
On the left, Itachi was still engaged. His opponent pressed tighter than before, forcing him toward the edge where the ground dipped. Itachi didn't give it. His foot set just inside the line, not back, and his kunai met the strike early, cutting it off before it could build. The man tried to shift around him. Itachi moved with it, one step ahead, taking the path away instead of contesting it.
The next opening didn't get wasted. His blade came in once, precise, and the man dropped.
Genryu's side ended almost the same moment.
His opponent never got a second chance.
The man moved. Genryu stepped through it. One strike to break the structure, one follow-up to end it. He didn't look down after.
The choke point cleared.
More stepped out.
Ahead.
Two from the brush ahead. One dropped from the rock above.
They didn't rush. They closed the space.
Roen stepped in to meet them.
No pause this time.
The first came in tight. Roen took it head-on, turned the blade aside and drove straight through him before he could recover. Shoulder into center. The man lost his footing. The follow-up dropped him.
The second came right after, trying to use the gap.
Roen shifted across, caught the strike, pushed it off line and stayed in close, not giving him space to set again.
The exchange broke.
But Roen held it.
Itachi cut in from the side, not overcommitting, just enough to break the spacing the second man needed. The pressure split.
Genryu moved once and ended the third before it could fully enter.
Bodies hit the ground. Dust settled back into the prints that had been too clean before.
Roen's breath stayed even.
The trail didn't.
Ahead, past the bend where the trees thickened again, the ground flattened into a wider stretch. More tracks ran through it.
Roen stepped forward, eyes lifting from the ground to the space beyond where the forest broke.
People sat there.
Waiting.
This wasn't a bandit group.