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Ren quickly cut through the ropes binding the three hostages, then removed the tape covering their mouths.
"You can stand?"
The three frightened-looking civilians nodded and struggled to their feet.
Technically, the mission only required each team to rescue a single hostage. Ren had no intention of leaving the other two behind for the Grass shinobi, though. At worst, they could be treated as emergency reserves—spare hostages for the spare hostage.
And if Team Minato no longer needed them, Ren could always trade them to teams that had failed to find any.
That should not count as violating the rules.
After all, the objective was to rescue the hostages. Whether the other candidates rescued them through combat, negotiation, or a mutually beneficial transaction was merely a difference in method.
Ren gestured for Rin to lead the three prisoners out of the cell.
They had barely entered the tunnel when he suddenly stopped.
A faint, knowing smile appeared on his face.
"So they finally lost their patience."
Rin glanced back at him. "The Grass shinobi?"
Ren nodded.
Although they were still some distance from the chamber where the two passages intersected, the Shadow Clone Ren had left behind was transmitting everything it saw directly to him.
The Grass team had already returned.
Since they had discovered nothing in the tunnel they searched, it was obvious that the hostages had to be hidden on Ren's side. The tall, thin captain and his gloomy companion were now approaching Ren's clone while pretending to ask questions.
The distance between them steadily narrowed.
Ten meters.
Eight.
Six.
The moment they came within five meters, the captain's expression sharpened.
Without warning, he drew his blade and slashed toward Ren's Shadow Clone.
The Grass captain understood one critical detail about Konoha's Shadow Clone Jutsu: the technique divided the caster's chakra evenly between the original and the clone.
If the clone was voluntarily dispelled, much of its remaining chakra and experience would return to the original. But if it was destroyed violently, the amount recovered would be far smaller.
In his mind, killing the clone first meant reducing Ren's available chakra by nearly a third.
At full strength, the captain was not completely confident that he could defeat the white-haired Konoha genin.
But if Ren were weakened?
Then the odds would shift.
Ten against seven.
The advantage would belong to him.
His reasoning was not entirely wrong.
Unfortunately, it relied on one fatal assumption.
He believed the clone would be easier to kill than the original.
The captain's blade cut through empty air.
His eyes widened.
Ren's Shadow Clone had vanished from directly in front of him.
A cold sensation crawled across the back of his neck.
He began twisting his body, desperately attempting to turn and defend, but the clone had already appeared at his side.
A fist slammed into his ribs.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bone echoed through the stone chamber.
The tall Grass shinobi screamed as his body left the ground. He flew across the room like a man struck by a charging wagon, crashed into the wall, and slid down while coughing blood.
Several ribs had shattered.
His breathing became ragged and uneven.
He could no longer stand.
The gloomy young shinobi stared in disbelief.
They had attacked first.
They had possessed the element of surprise.
Yet their captain had been defeated in a single exchange.
What kind of speed was that?
What kind of strength?
More importantly—
That monster was only a Shadow Clone.
The gloomy shinobi stumbled backward and began forming hand seals.
"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Prison!"
The floor shook.
Thick pillars of stone erupted from below and burst from the walls, converging around Ren's clone to form a reinforced cage.
Before the prison could completely close, the white-haired figure flickered.
He disappeared.
The gloomy shinobi's pupils contracted.
Ren's clone appeared in front of him for the briefest instant.
Then it stepped past him.
For one or two seconds, the young Grass ninja remained frozen in place, staring blankly ahead. Confusion crossed his face as he slowly lifted one hand toward his throat.
His fingers came away covered in blood.
"Uh…"
A thin red line opened across his neck.
The young man collapsed before he could utter another sound.
Two opponents had fallen in less than a second.
The Grass captain, still conscious near the wall, watched in horror.
The Shadow Clone turned toward him.
Desperation flooded the captain's face.
With trembling fingers, he reached inside his clothing and pulled out a leather waterskin. He tore away the stopper and poured its contents into his mouth.
The smell reached Ren through the clone's senses.
Blood.
Fresh human blood.
As the captain swallowed, the bruising around his ribs faded. His breathing steadied, torn flesh began knitting together, and even the bones beneath his skin shifted back into place.
Ren's expression changed.
There was only one bloodline in the shinobi world known for such an extraordinary healing ability.
The Uzumaki clan.
So that was how Kusagakure used the captive Uzumaki woman.
Perhaps Karin's mother had not yet been forced to travel from battlefield to battlefield as a living healing tool. Instead, Kusagakure was draining her blood and distributing it among its elite shinobi like medicine.
A portable healing potion.
A resource to be consumed.
Ren's eyes turned cold.
He had been wondering how to justify investigating Kusagakure's captive Uzumaki.
Now the enemy had presented him with physical evidence.
The Shadow Clone flashed forward.
Before the Grass captain could finish healing and rise, Ren seized him by the throat and slammed him back against the wall. With his free hand, he snatched away the waterskin and gave it a slight shake.
There was still a considerable amount inside.
The captain struggled weakly.
Ren held the container near his face.
"I'm going to give you one chance to remain alive," he said softly. "Tell me what's inside this waterskin."
Aboveground, Obito and the remaining Grass shinobi stood roughly eight meters apart.
Neither trusted the other enough to relax.
The forest surrounding the tunnel entrance was unnaturally quiet. The wind stirred the leaves overhead, and distant birds occasionally called from somewhere beyond the marsh.
The peaceful sounds only made the tension worse.
Obito shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
He could not hear what was happening beneath the ground. He hated being left outside while Ren and Rin faced whatever traps waited below.
The short, heavyset Grass ninja broke the silence first.
"Hey, black-haired brat."
Obito glanced toward him.
"Are all Konoha genin as arrogant as that white-haired one?"
Obito snorted.
"That isn't arrogance. It's confidence. With Ren's strength, killing you seven times in one minute wouldn't be difficult."
The Grass ninja blinked, then barked out a laugh.
"You really know how to boast! Do you have any idea how strong our captain is? He reached chūnin level long ago. The only reason he hasn't been promoted is because the opportunity hasn't come!"
He pointed proudly at himself.
"And if the captain hadn't stopped me earlier, I could have defeated ten brats like you!"
Obito stared at him.
For once, even he struggled to respond to such shameless boasting.
Remembering Ren's instructions to avoid starting a fight unnecessarily, Obito forced himself to calm down.
"Hmph. I'm not wasting time arguing with you."
He looked toward the trees as if making casual conversation.
"How long does it take to travel from Kusagakure to Konoha? Is there anything interesting in your village? Maybe I'll visit someday."
The Grass ninja gave him a strange smile.
"Interesting? Do women count?"
Obito frowned. "What are you talking about?"
The man saw his confusion and immediately grew smug.
"Hahaha! You're still a child. You've never even touched a woman, have you?"
Obito's expression darkened.
The Grass ninja continued, enjoying the chance to show off.
"In Kusagakure, shinobi are free to enjoy the village's resources. Even genin can get money, expensive food, or women. It doesn't matter what happens to them afterward. If you become bored, you can simply kill them."
He laughed again.
"Last year, we even captured an Uzumaki—"
His voice abruptly stopped.
The smile vanished from his face.
Information regarding the captive Uzumaki was classified. Only a small group of village officials and their trusted descendants knew about her existence.
The three members of this team came from influential Kusagakure families. They had been informed because the village expected them to become future elites.
But leaking that secret to Konoha?
That could bring disastrous consequences.
Obito did not understand the political significance of the confession.
He did, however, understand the words that came before it.
His hands began trembling.
"You… kill them?"
The two tomoe in his Sharingan rotated faster.
"You take people, use them however you want, and then murder them when you're bored?"
The Grass ninja instinctively stepped back.
"Sharingan? You're an Uchiha?!"
Obito barely heard him.
His scarlet eyes shook with anger.
"What's so funny?"
The question came out low and unsteady.
"What do you take a human life for?"
A vibration passed beneath their feet.
Warm air surged from the underground entrance.
The Grass shinobi's expression sharpened.
Fighting had started below.
He looked at Obito again, greed replacing his earlier caution.
The Uchiha clan was feared throughout the shinobi world. Even a young Uchiha possessed enormous value.
If he killed this boy and returned with the Sharingan, the village would reward him beyond imagination.
He gritted his teeth.
It was worth the risk.
The Grass ninja suddenly whipped his arm forward.
Kunai and shuriken shot toward Obito from several angles, while the man's hands blurred through a sequence of seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
He inhaled deeply and expelled a ball of orange flame.
But under the Sharingan's gaze, his movements had been exposed before the attack even began.
Obito copied the same seals.
Only faster.
Much faster.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of fire erupted from Obito's mouth.
The two attacks collided.
Boom!
Heat exploded across the clearing.
The Grass shinobi's flames lasted less than a second before they were swallowed. Obito's fireball tore through them and continued forward, scorching the ground and bending the surrounding reeds beneath its pressure.
Obito charged behind the flames with a kunai in hand.
"Does Kusagakure not have any Fire Release techniques of its own?" he shouted. "Why are you using an Uchiha jutsu?"
The Grass ninja retreated, raising his arms against the heat.
Obito's Sharingan burned brightly.
"If you're going to steal our technique, at least learn to use it properly! That pathetic flame is embarrassing!"
"You damned brat!"
The Grass shinobi lowered his stance, preparing to fight desperately.
Then Obito heard something.
A wet, sliding sound.
His eyes flicked toward the reeds beside the marsh.
A blurred shadow moved between them.
Chakra pulsed beneath the surface.
Obito's instincts screamed.
"What is that?"
The shape disappeared.
Obito turned back toward his opponent.
"Behind you!"
The warning came without thought.
He despised the Grass ninja, but allowing someone to be devoured by an unknown creature while he watched was another matter.
The heavyset man sneered.
"You expect me to fall for such a clumsy trick? I—"
A long, fleshy object shot from the reeds.
It crossed nearly twenty meters in an instant.
The appendage was slick with mucus, pinkish-green in color, and covered with rows of tiny backward-facing barbs.
It wrapped around the Grass ninja's waist.
"Argh!"
The man screamed as his feet left the ground.
The tongue tightened around him and began dragging him toward the marsh with terrifying force.
Obito reacted immediately.
His wrist snapped forward.
A barrage of kunai and shuriken whistled through the air.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Several weapons struck the tongue, releasing pale green fluid. Unfortunately, most of the projectiles buried themselves in the Grass shinobi's body instead.
The man stared at the weapons protruding from his chest and shoulder.
"You bastard! Konoha scum—"
He was dragged into the reeds before he could finish.
The vegetation shook violently.
A sickening crunch followed.
It sounded like bones and flesh being crushed between enormous jaws.
The Grass ninja released one final, piercing scream.
Then everything became silent.
Obito stood frozen.
Cold sweat covered the kunai in his palm.
What kind of monster could swallow a grown man so easily?
Footsteps sounded from inside the tunnel.
Obito spun around.
Ren and Rin emerged with four people behind them. Three were the disguised hostages prepared by Konoha. The fourth was the unconscious Grass captain, tightly bound and carried along as a prisoner.
Ren intended to hand him over to the Yamanaka clan.
With the man's memories and the blood-filled waterskin, Konoha would have enough evidence to investigate Kusagakure's treatment of the Uzumaki captive.
For now, however, the prisoner had become another life they needed to protect.
Rin immediately noticed the missing Grass shinobi and the blood scattered near the reeds.
"Obito, what happened? We heard something from below. Where is the other Grass ninja?"
"Ren! Rin! Stay back!"
Obito pointed his kunai toward the marsh.
"There's something huge in there. I don't know what it is. It caught the Grass ninja with its tongue and ate him!"
Ren raised an eyebrow.
The instant he climbed out of the tunnel, he had sensed a large, savage chakra presence nearby. The aura carried an icy hunger that seemed to press against his skin.
Earlier, Summoning Jutsu had warned him about a "big one" living inside the wetland.
Apparently, this was it.
"Rin, protect the hostages!" Ren ordered. "Obito, take the right flank!"
He drew the short blade from his back.
The metallic whisper of steel leaving its sheath cut through the clearing.
Rin moved without hesitation. She positioned the hostages behind her and raised her kunai, her eyes scanning the tall reeds.
Obito stepped to Ren's right.
His Sharingan spun furiously as he searched for any trace of chakra.
The marsh became still.
Wind rustled through the reeds.
A bird called once in the distance.
Then even the birds fell silent.
The scent of blood drifted across the clearing.
Ren tightened his grip on his blade.
Something was watching them.
Waiting.
Obito's eyes snapped toward the left.
"Ten o'clock!"
His hands were already moving.
The reeds exploded outward.
The barbed tongue shot toward them, carrying the stench of mud and rotting flesh.
Obito completed the final seal.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A sphere of orange-red flame erupted directly into the creature's path.
The tongue plunged into the fire.
Hissssss!
The smell of scorched flesh filled the air.
The appendage immediately recoiled, vanishing back into the reeds.
Ren had been ready to rush forward and cut it apart, but he stopped himself. Instead, he activated the Nerve Activation Technique.
Electric chakra surged through his nervous system.
The world slowed.
His dynamic vision doubled, allowing him to catch a faint distortion moving across the surface of the marsh.
Something enormous plunged into deeper water.
It was camouflaged almost perfectly.
"A creature that lives in wet areas, hunts with its tongue, and can turn invisible…" Ren muttered. "A giant lizard? Maybe some kind of salamander?"
Judging from the tongue's length, the creature had to be at least five meters long.
Possibly closer to ten.
The only question was whether the examiners had deliberately placed it near the hostage facility or whether Team Minato had simply encountered one of the Forest of Death's natural predators.
Rin kept herself between the creature and the prisoners.
"The hostages are safe," she said quietly. "Should we retreat?"
"Not yet."
Ren kept staring at the marsh.
"It attacked us willingly. If we retreat now, it could follow and strike from behind. We can't protect four prisoners while running through dense forest."
His voice hardened.
"We either kill it or injure it badly enough that it can't pursue us."
A faint splash came from farther away.
Then came the slow rustling of reeds.
The sound moved in a wide circle around them.
Obito turned, tracking the chakra disturbance.
"It came out of the water," he warned. "It's circling us from the land!"
Ren slid one hand into his ninja-tool pouch.
"Obito," he said, lowering his stance, "tell me exactly where it is."
Obito's Sharingan swept across the trembling reeds.
For a moment, he saw nothing.
Then a massive, transparent shape silently climbed onto a tree behind Rin.
Its jaws opened.
Rows of jagged teeth appeared in empty air.
Obito's face drained of color.
"REN—ABOVE HER!"
The invisible monster dropped from the canopy.