{Jashin Hideout, Land of Hot Springs}
{7:12 PM, 28th May 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
'...what?' Ren froze for a moment breaking their formation for a bit, Kakshi turned and gave him a questioning look but Ren shook his head and ran a little to once again take up their flank.
'What kind of growth speed is that,' Ren read through Naruto's stats again and then used an {Observe} on both Hinata and Sasuke.
...
[Name: Uchiha Sasuke]
[Title: Konoha Genin]
[Level: 24]
[Chakra: 960]
[STR: 53]
[VIT: 61]
[END: 56]
[DEX: 79{118}]
[INT: 46{69}] (AN: This is entirely unintentional I tell you)
[CHA: 48]
[Control: 39%]
[Titles:]
...
[Heir to the Uchiha Clan: +25% additional EXP gains towards Katon Ninjutsu. Chakra Multiplier +10, +Special Perk {Sharingan}]
[2-Tomoe Sharingan: +50% to DEX & INT. +10% EXP to Chakra control exercises. Huge improvement in reading movements as well as reading the flow of an opponent's chakra]
[Description: Uchiha Sasuke is one of the last living members of the Uchiha Clan, one of Konoha's founding clans, and formerly one of the most powerful clans in the world. After the massacre of his family in one night, Sasuke became Konoha's last loyal Uchiha. Constantly having lived under the shadow of his brother's actions, under Kakashi's tutelage his hidden genius once again starts shining.]
...
...
[Name: Hyuga Hinata]
[Title: Konoha Genin]
[Level: 22]
[Chakra: 740]
[STR: 47]
[VIT: 59]
[END: 59]
[DEX: 76]
[INT: 53{106}]
[CHA: 37]
[Control: 51%]
[Titles:]
...
[Heir to the Hyuga Clan: +25% additional EXP gains towards Gentle Fist. Chakra Multiplier +10, + Special Perk {Byakugan}]
[Byakugan: +100% to INT. Precisely see through walls and other Yang entities. See in diameter of INT meters around the user, while changing into panoramic view the user could focus on objects 10 times farther.]
[Description: Hyuga Hinata is the current recognized heir to the most powerful clan in Konoha. Currently, a member of Konoha's Team #7 she displays an extraordinary advancement in Taijutsu and scouting, her desire to be acknowledged by her 'special person' drives her further to improve.]
...
...
'Those bloodlines are kind of cheating...' Ren grumbled in his mind as he read through the information collected by his {Observe}. All three members of Team 7 were kind of special and had their bloodlines, still, Naruto's progress somehow eclipsed the rest of his team by quite a bit.
'And he's the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki... I guess the rumors regarding him being a monster and now those make some sense, but still, what's up with those ridiculous chakra modifiers...' Ren thought as he read through their information.
Ren had been feeling a bit complacent in the past few weeks, the fatigue from all those years of mindless training was getting to him making him slack off a little in his physical conditioning, that's one of the reasons he hadn't broken through to 200 DEX. He has thus gained just about 30 DEX in the past two months, but then again it could be because of the fact that getting those stats to increase through hard work might not become more difficult.
The importance of points in his mind has increased but the dilemma of INT stat still remained unsolved, through the past year Ren had noticed that only information that pertains to chakra affects his INT stat, so fuinjutsu and chakra control helps increase his INT and no matter how many history texts he reads it won't have any effect.
'Plus completely mastering a Jutsu gives a bonus to INT, maybe 1 or 2 depending on the Jutsu's rank...'
"Ren anything?" Kakashi asked.
"Nothing within 300m," Ren replied, although normally the job of scouting would be left for Hinata as her panoramic range is effectively better at scouting ahead while Ren could more easily cover their flanks and sides.
"I see Pakun around 500m ahead, Kakashi-sensei," Hinata spoke once again surprising Ren, there was no stutter in the girl's voice as she was locked on her target.
"Alright let's hurry, every second is precious," Kakashi spoke as he started running faster. Pakun was a talking dog...
'Uhh, why is he wearing a leaf forehead protector.' Ren thought as Pakun immediately spoke.
"Kakashi, I got the scent they are around 5km 2 O'clock." Pakun spoke, "I could smell 7 distinct scents while following them but there could be more."
"Alright lead the way," Kakashi spoke and the 5 of them followed behind the dog. The journey this time was a lot quieter as everyone was focusing on the possible battle ahead.
They arrived at the entrance of a similar-looking cave, except for the fact that there were no guards standing at the entrance, Ren closed his eyes to easily map out the cave and realized that this cave wasn't as deep as the other one but had a similar looking area carved into it like they just came from.
"Uh, Kakashi-san, in the cave there is a similar sealed room like in the last cave, but there is no one currently in the cave," Ren reported as he opened his eyes.
"Hinata?" Kakashi asked.
Hinata shook her head, "I can't see past the e-entrance like before Kakashi sensei." Hinata stuttered as her confidence broke for a bit. Naruto walked beside her and looked at her in worry causing the fidgeting girl to blush a little. Ren watched their interaction in slight amusement.
"Alright, you 4 stay here, don't move," Kakashi spoke as he flickered to the cave entrance, Ren's gaze followed his blurred figure as he dashed into the cave for a bit before he dashed out and arrived before them again, he looked around for a bit before he spoke.
"I heard some sounds coming from the secret room, we need to be on the lookout. Hinata keep your byakugan active at all times and sweep the surroundings every couple of seconds, Sasuke stands on top of the cave and focuses your eyes on the forest, if you see any movement throw a smoke bomb at the entrance of the cave and retreat south with Hinata. Naruto, Ren we'll scout in and see if we can find anything." Kakashi instructed and then waited for Hinata and Sasuke to take their place.
'He made sure to keep Hinata and Sasuke away from the carnage while making an excuse of using their bloodlines for scouting,' Ren thought as he walked into the cave. As soon as he walked through whatever seal was protecting the entrance he could hear quite whimpering sounds.
"Naruto, at any sign of trouble flood the cave with multi-Shadow Clone jutsu," Kakashi whispered as the three of them tiptoed into the cave. The secret area was in a similar location so the three of them completely ignored the right cave and went deep into the left cave.
~Wheezing~
Ren could hear a slight whimpering sound along with several clangs of swords tapping on the ground.
"...told you we should have taken that spear," someone shouted in the cave, the whimpering increased which was followed by another shout, "SHUT UP! you want me to lob your head too?"
The voice had a maniacal tone and Ren exchanged glances with Kakashi and Naruto, they exchanged a nod before walking closer to the secret area. The stone wall that should have been blocking their way into the ritual room was nowhere to be found, but Ren could still not sense anything from in the room even though he could see the brown-haired bandit shouting at a couple of dozen villagers who were cowering in one corner of the room.
A mother was covering her kid's mouth so that the kid wouldn't cry and attract the bandit's ire, Naruto stared at this scene in astonishment which quickly changed to anger as he charged into the room.
'Idiot,' Ren cursed as he spoke, "Kakashi, the seals are active so they might have someone who was able to manipulate the seals."
The bandit had already turned around as Naruto burst through the invisible bubble and smacked through him. The bandit flew and slammed into the wall as cracks appeared in the wall. Kakashi charged at the seal with lightning in his hands like last time and slammed it into the same spot as before, Ren sensed the 15 remaining people in the room and he dashed into the room but then paused.
Naruto's chakra was spiking and a feeling of dread filled him, the feeling was familiar to when Zabuza unleashed his killing intent in his first C-Rank mission but this one was a lot more potent, Ren stared at Naruto as he backed away a couple of steps.
"Naruto," Kakashi spoke and dashed towards his students, Ren saw Naruto's slit-red eyes turn to look at him with teeth bared but he was still unable to respond to Kakashi's movements who put a seal tag on his head.
Everyone was frozen in the room but slowly the feeling receded as Naruto slowly slumped down into Kakashi's arms, Ren looked at the sleeping blond and then immediately dashed toward the two remaining bandits in the cave. He didn't give them any chance as he beheaded both of them in quick succession.
Ren quickly realized that one of the two rooms at the side was fortified with seals. Realizing that whoever was in there must have turtled up he looked around at the carnage remaining in the room. There were 5 men who were beheaded on the platform, their blood slowly draining to fill the ritual shape on the ground, the pit was covered with at least 15 more civilians whose bodies were discarded there.
At the corner of the room, 12 people were huddled together, sitting over the dead bodies of some of their fellow villagers...
...
'This is kind of grim, whoever the seal master is he tried to recreate the events that happened years ago...'
Ren shared a look with Kakashi who nodded indicating him to evacuate the remaining civilians. Ren nodded and then turned to look at the shivering civilians... he had no idea where to begin.
-------------------------------------------------
AN- We Back!!??
Hopefully! Let's see if I can keep up the pace till the end of the month.
P.S- Read 19 Chapters ahead at - P.atreon.com/Version_401.