The next day, Ren arrived at Konoha's gate, only to see that Hikari was already there with two older men, talking and laughing like old friends.
He released a small sigh of relief. Accepting to go on a mission with Hikari was a spur-of-the-moment thing for him. Only later did he consider all the problems that could happen.
His main concern was that her teammates would not want an 'outsider' they knew nothing about to join the team. And it was a valid concern too so Ren had no idea how they would react to his inclusion.
He was relieved they didn't look angry or tense. For the most part, Ren just wanted to get out of Konoha for a week. Not behind the scenes, but officially. He was going to enjoy the week out on a mission and then he could continue worrying about Danzo's next move.
Thankfully, he had Hinata checking with Byakugan when he gave Hikari some probing questions after hiring her and according to her, Hikari did not lie. The woman probably did not realize it but that's the biggest reason why Ren could be at ease near her. He was certain she was not one of Danzo's.
Then there was also the fact that Naruto now seemed to seek him out, which would inevitably get him unwanted attention from Sarutobi.
It's not as if he could just evade the boy either. That would just be a dick move, considering that most of the village already does that.
But nobody could complain if Ren went on a mission. It's what ninjas do. No. He was certainly not running away from his problems. This was... er, a tactical retreat for a week so he could regroup his thoughts?
Yup. He decided he would call it that.
He approached Hikari and her team, waving at Hikari who noticed him and turned toward him, "Hello. I am Ren. Chunin. Sorry for intruding." He spoke to the two men.
"No worries, man. It will be safer with four. I am Norio, a chunin. We are happy to have you." A dark-green-haired man said in a laid-back manner with a lazy but welcoming smile on his face.
"Yeah. Welcome to the team. I am Sarutobi Kaito, jonin and the lead of this team." The older man introduced himself and Ren barely refrained from freezing at his surname. He wondered if it was just a coincidence... but then he decided to not dwell on it. There was nothing he could do about it anyway.
Kaito put the cigarette he held into his mouth and lit it up with a rudimentary katon jutsu before he put his hand on Hikari's hair and ruffled it as if she were a kid. "Heh, this girl was so worried about our reaction. She really likes you, ya know?" He said with a wide grin, which made Hikari flustered.
"Shut up." She harshly rebuked him and poked him hard in his ribs with her elbow, making the Sarutobi man visibly wince from pain but he didn't stop grinning through it.
He looked at her with concern in his brown eyes, and disturbingly enough, Ren could not tell if the man was faking it or not. "I was honestly starting to worry you won't find a man but I see everything is alright." Kaito happily said and Hikari looked in embarrassment at the ground.
"We are not..." She mumbled but Ren spoke at the same time.
"We are n..."
They both stopped when they realized they were speaking in sync and Kaito's grin widened even more as they unsurely looked at each other.
Well... Ren had to admit that Hikari was pretty and he did like her big blue eyes and shoulder-long light brown hair. He may or may not have checked her out one, okay, two, maybe five times during the period she trained Hinata. The woman was a kunoichi so Ren didn't have any illusions about her not noticing.
But like responsible adult teenagers they were, they approached the topic in a very mature fashion and had a tacit understanding so they never mentioned it.
Honestly, Ren was just too busy to consider girls unless the topic was blatantly shoved in front of his face. Alas, he had Ino under her care and she had a very big mouth.
"Of course." Kaito sagely nodded at them and clapped Ren on the shoulder, "Just don't wander off together into the bushes during the mission. Leave taking her virginity for after we come back to Konoha and we are golden." He gave Ren a thumbs-up and evaded a senbon thrown by the embarrassed Hikari.
Ren felt pretty flustered too but he just took a deep breath and dryly said, "Right."
He knew Kaito's type. The man was like a shark. He smelled blood and encouraging him would just make him tease them more.
Deep down, however, Ren had decided to give it a shot and ask Hikari out after this mission. He quite liked the woman. Both her personality and how she looked. Giving it a shot would not cost him anything.
"Good. I have enough trouble with one troublemaker on the team." He said and threw a glance at the green-haired Norio who was silently snickering to himself and enjoying the show.
Blinking his equally green eyes at suddenly being the center of attention, Norio clicked his tongue, "One time. I fell for the honey trap one time, boss." He rolled his eyes, making Kaito huff.
Abruptly, Kaito's grin fell as the man turned serious and entered his work mode. He took out a mission scroll and all four of them instantly tensed, paying full attention.
"Alright, boys..." He gave Hikari a small smirk, "and tomboy." The woman's eyebrow twitched but she didn't react further. "This is a standard easy supply run. We reach our destination, drop off the supplies in sealing scrolls, and get back to Konoha. It should be quick and safe but be on guard. We are still going into an active warzone. Anything could happen."
"Warzone?" Hikari worriedly asked and Kaito nodded.
"We are bringing supplies to an outpost in the Land of Waves." He announced and Ren had to restrain himself from facepalming.
Of course, it would be the Land of Waves again. Honestly, he should have asked where they were going before accepting.
'What are the chances this will go pear-shaped?' He idly wondered with a forced smile as he listened to the rest of the team briefing.
...
"Hm. It's not as bad as I feared." Kaito said as they entered a small town in the Land of Waves and started walking through its main street in a civilian disguise. This town was their last stop before they reached the Konoha outpost in the country.
So far, so good. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and Ren was happy that he could enter the country without encountering an S-rank ninja or something similarly ridiculous.
With his luck as of late, it just might happen. Then again, it was a ridiculous notion. There were less than a hundred S-rank combatants in the world. And the world was as big, if not bigger than his last one. The chances of meeting one of them were very low.
Most ninjas could do missions their entire lives, even participate in wars, and never actually encounter an S-rank enemy. It's just Naruto who is the 'child of destiny'. But it basically just meant the sucker has worse luck than Tsunade when it came to random encounters.
"You were here in the past?" Hikari asked as she looked around with a sad gaze. The town was ramshackle and the people looked visibly poor.
"Yes. On a mission with Kurenai Yuhi." Ren idly answered, too preoccupied with observing the people to notice the small frown on Hikari's face at the mention of Kurenai's name.
"Wait, isn't she the bitch who killed the local overlord and started this whole mess? She doomed these people." Norio asked in surprise.
Yeah, Kurenai did not have a good reputation in the village right now. Rumors and all that. The only reason Ren was not impacted by it as much was that he was just a chunin under Kurenai's lead so despite giving her that idea, she held the responsibility for her actions.
But he really didn't feel like letting people shit-talk Kurenai for doing something good. "On the contrary, she saved them." Ren said in a serious tone, looking Norio straight in the eyes. The man was caught off guard and unsurely nodded that he understood.
"You can't be serious." But Hikari did not see Ren's look and spoke, unhappy at the state of the town, "Just look at them. It's miserable." She pitied them.
Ren sighed, his shoulders slumping, "And yet, it is ten times better than what it was a few months ago." He said and even Kaito looked a bit uncomfortable at that. The conversation ceased right there and then.
The people... they seemed to be much happier than when he was here the last time. They seemed to actually have hope for a better future.
The conflict between Konoha and Kiri happening in the Land of Waves was unfortunate. But it brought jobs and money for the local people. Yes, some of them would die as the result of said conflict but the rest? They would recover and once the conflict was finished, the country would be much better off, no matter who won.
It was an objective win for this country.
It's not as if the usual ninja conflict was a full-blown war. Mostly it was just shadow operations and assassinations or small skirmishes that rarely impacted the local populace.
Obvious war crimes were reserved for the major Ninja World Wars, which this was not.
"I feel bad for them." Hikari finally said as they left the town. She sighed as she reached into her pocket and retrieved her Konoha headband, binding it around her forehead.
The other members of the team followed before they picked up their pace, desiring to arrive at the outpost before the sun went down but it seemed the fate was not on their side today.
Barely ten minutes outside of the town, Ren's face scrunched up in a 'are you freaking kidding me!?' way.
Seeing an enraged Yagura in a two-tailed bijuu shroud chasing two people with featureless ANBU masks who were running straight at their group in a clear attempt at aggro transfer, Ren had a hard time believing his eyes.
"Fuck me." He whined, causing his frozen teammates to shake their shock off and burst into action.
'I knew I shouldn't have come to this country again!' He exasperatedly thought just as Yagura started charging a bijuudama right in their direction.
---
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