{Jashin Hideout #2, Land of Hot Springs}
{7:37 PM, 28th May 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Ren walked over to the group of civilians and put his right index finger on top of his lips. He then motioned for everyone to follow him, and after a couple of seconds of silence, everyone slowly started moving.
They scrambled a little and then looked at the bodies of the people that came with them, a few of them looked like they wanted to take the bodies of their family members or close relatives with them.
"Leave them, I'll collect everyone and bring them back to the village," Ren whispered getting a few whimpers in response.
He suppressed the inclination to sigh as he took the group with him and walked over to the cave entrance. Maybe it was because they finally saw the headband or maybe the pressure on them got relieved but a few of them started sobbing.
'Should I take them out of the cave, Sasuke and Hinata seem equally affected by all the dead bodies. And what was up with Naruto's eyes, was that the Kyuubi...'
It didn't take a genius to connect the dots, the oppression that Naruto's chakra gave him was beyond that of a seasoned shinobi like Zabuza. There was also the fact that Naruto was a Jinchuriki so there was only one explanation for that, the Kyuubi.
Ren hadn't known his parents, he doesn't remember his early days of birth, and according to the orphanage he was admitted to the hospital by someone who found him among the debris of a hotel. Maybe if the Kyuubi attack hadn't happened he would have had a chance to grow up with parents too.
His thoughts kept bouncing along those lines as he arrived at the cave entrance, he looked back at the group of 11 people with him and motioned for them to sit down around the cave. He started pulling out some food and bandages from his inventory and spoke, "Here take some food and wait for a bit, and use these bandages to cover up your wounds, I'll go back and collect everyone else."
'I'm not going to waste chakra on healing them now, the seal master must be hiding in there still...' Ren thought as he placated everyone and got them to settle down, then he and dashed back toward the secret room.
Kakashi had placed Naruto down outside the ritual room, there were several cuts all over his body, they weren't deep but it should have happened when he bumbled his way through the seal trap before Kakashi disabled it.
'Idiot,' Ren thought as he squatted down to look at the injuries carefully, his clothes were ruined and in tatters but surprisingly his bleeding had already stopped.
"Ren, heal Naruto while I deal with whoever's hiding in there," Kakashi spoke as he turned around and walked toward the fortified room.
Ren looked at Naruto's crumpled form and hesitated, the years of loneliness made him hesitate a bit but then again he knew what a Jinchuriki was, he had come across the term when he was studying Fuinjutsu, also coined as the epitome of Fuinjutsu, the ability to seal away a Bijuu.
"Ren?" Kakashi spoke after a bit startling Ren awake, he looked back and nodded before flashing through two hand seals.
Ox → Tiger
'Mystical Palm Techinuqe'
He carefully separated his chakra into Yin and Yang chakra and started using Yang chakra to increase Naruto's natural healing factor, the effect was surprisingly fast as immediately the cuts started closing as his body helped mend itself.
Whatever that seal was it left net-like marks across Naruto's body, seeing his clothes were in tattered remains Ren pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt from his inventory and placed them over his body after healing him.
'That took surprisingly little effort, his natural regeneration rate should be very high...' Ren thought as he looked at the sleeping blond once again, a seal tag that looked like it was a chakra suppressant was placed on his forehead which Ren didn't touch as a bright light and sharp chirping sound emerged from behind him.
Ren turned back to look at Kakashi bursting into the room with that lightning jutsu of his once again, Ren could feel Kakashi's chakra reserves dip into dangerous territory so he rushed back to help just in case. The whole room inside smelled of burned paper and scrolls a red-haired man turned back to look at the chirping lightning in Kakashi's hand with a serious expression.
Ren watched as the Iwa missing nin looked at Kakashi with a startled expression, he looked like he had given up as he stood there in a daze. Kakashi walked up to him and placed his right hand gently on the missing nin's shoulders.
"Arghh!!!" Oshiro woke up from whatever daze he was in and convulsed on the spot before he slumped down as his muscles gave way. Kakashi took out one of the seals that Ren had given him and placed it on Oshiro's forehead.
"His chakra is chunin level so the sea-" Ren stopped as Oshiro's body further slumped as his head gave way, he looked puzzled but Kakashi spoke clearing his confusion, "Lightning-natured chakra has some special properties, it can easily penetrate solid objects and when it comes in contact with your body, it disrupts both chakra flow and damages muscles in that area."
Kakashi leaned down and lifted Oshiro and placed him on his shoulders as he continued, "...Mah, Mah, good job on the mission Ren-kun, you surely have grown a lot in the past year..."
Ren looked at Kakashi's relaxed posture and realized that the mission was over, there wasn't any secret squad waiting for them behind the seals, they just took a lot of precautions that made them delay their mission and maybe caused a lot more civilians to die because of that dealy.
Ren nodded as they walked out to the ritual room, he looked at the fresh dead bodies piling up in the pit and spoke, "I'll collect them..."
'If we had rushed in would these people still be alive...' Ren thought as he started pulling out the corpses one by one.
Kakashi nodded as he walked up to Naruto and pulled the seal from his forehead, Naruto woke up with a start after a bit and looked around in confusion.
"Get dressed Naruto, you recklessly charged through a trap... thanks to Ren's healing you're still alive..." Kakashi spoke looking at Naruto who had knocked off the t-shirt that Ren had placed on his chest.
"Uhhh..." Naruto looked around in a daze as his eyes snapped into focus looking at Ren who was collecting the bodies of several villagers into small scrolls.
"Naruto," Kakashi spoke once again getting Naruto's attention, he walked over and picked up the t-shirt, "Get dressed Naruto..."
...
Hayate was already waiting for them at the group entrance calming down the civilians that he had startled when he walked into the cave, Ren nodded to him when his eyes met and he spoke, "Alright, I've got everyone with me, let's get back to the village?" Ren spoke/asked.
Kakashi nodded and they left the cave, Sasuke and Hinata jumped down from the top of the cave and looked at the group that came out, Kakashi nodded at the two and they started walking back to the village.
Ren took the position at the back of the group as Team #7 and Team #21 surrounded the small group of civilians, they were around 6km away from the village so it took them around 90 minutes to cover that distance before they were ushered into the village among whispers.
An old man from the survivors stepped up and followed the Konoha teams to the village head while the rest were quickly escorted to the nearby hospital.
Murata Akiko, greeted them as they came into his office and his eyes lit up as he rushed forward to hug the man who came in, although the man was dressed in rags right now listening to their chat Ren could conclude that he was one of the merchants that work out of Ozawa Village.
What followed was the standard procedure of getting their mission scroll verified along with the supplementary mission that Kakashi and Team #7 took to come here and provide backup. The merchant promised to cover the cost of Team #7's mission.
Ren gave the scroll with bodies to Hayate-sensei and let him deal with the next few steps as he walked out of the room. The genin's of Team #7 were outside the room and Ren looked at Hinata fussing over Naruto, her Byakugan active as she checked up for injuries on Naruto's body.
Sasuke immediately stepped forward in front of Ren his eyes scanning Ren's body and posture as he spoke, "How about a spar," the challenge was visible in his eyes but Ren wasn't interested in fighting him since there was no benefit to be had.
Sasuke saw the disinterest in Ren's eyes and spoke, "I'll bet a B-rank Fire ninjutsu."
'B-rank, that could work... but I won't be able to learn it from a regular scroll without learning Fire nature manipulation first...' Ren thought as he contemplated Sasuke's proposal.
'But then again I could ask Hayate sensei for the method to improve my Fire nature manipulation...' Ren thought and nodded.
"Alright but not now, I'm a little low on chakra," Ren spoke as he saw he had gained Naruto's attention.
"Hey, what about me!!!"
....
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AN- The mission will come back in later chapters, after this we'll skip to the long-awaited chunin exams phase!
P.S- Read 18 Chapters ahead at - P.atreon.com/Version_401.