'Eris, activate all the protective seals.' Thought Ren as he quickly packed the things needed for the mission.
[Activating....All less chakra-intensive seals are now active]
'I need to be careful even though it is just an escort mission.' thought Ren as he simultaneously packed the gear.
He had avoided activating most of the protective seals he had built, for the reason that it was chakra consuming and to prevent detection from prying eyes.
Ren sealed the last item he needed for the mission using a chakra scroll. He was now fully geared up in his shinobi equipment.
He wore a light grey flak jacket (similar to a standard Konoha ninja vest) with added pockets for carrying scrolls and seals for fuinjutsu. Underneath, he wore a dark blue, form-fitting long-sleeved shirt. He wore dark blue, fitted pants for ease of movement.
It also had a utility pouch on the right thigh carrying essential ninja tools and a scroll holder on the left side for quick access to fuinjutsu scrolls.
The vest had hidden compartments for storing special sealing scrolls and tools.
Finally, he wore standard black shinobi sandals to complete his minimalistic but work-effective look.
"Hmm, good enough," murmured Ren in a low voice as he looked over his outfit, satisfied with his preparation.
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Fuma Toru a member of the Fuma clan, distantly related to the Uchiha Clan. He stood near the village gates, waiting for his subordinates to arrive.
Toru had been grumbling for quite a while, the reason being his old squad mates who had gotten caught trying to peep into the women's hot spring section by the current Hokage's wife.
Needless to say, their cries of agony and apology to be spared, did not avert their beating.
So now Toru had to take in two new people for his semi-regular squad, thankfully he knew one of them for quite a while and he only had to take in one newbie.
So colour him surprised when the so-called 'newbie' arrived first fully dressed in shinobi attire.
But upon not seeing any luggage on Ren, he sighed as if he had already seen it coming.
"Did you... forget your things in a hurry?" asked Toru as it was a common occurrence of young ninjas getting excited to leave the village for the first time and either over-packing things or forgetting their over-packed things.
"No sir, I have them all sealed up in this scroll," said Ren as he motioned at one of his cloth pouches.
"Fine. Just make sure to check once again in case you missed any items." Said Toru while scowling though he was a bit impressed and a little pleased by Ren addressing him respectfully.
'At least he isn't fully wet behind his ears' Thought Toru lessening his scowl a little.
Within a few minutes, all of the ninjas came to their designated spot, and thus the squad moved forward with Tomi Buta's carriage without any hitch.
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*sigh*
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'I knew that while the mission wouldn't be very action-packed but isn't this too peaceful' Thought Ren as he crossed another almost similar-looking tree.
He had been walking with the squad for almost a day and a half, even the thrill of being outside the village didn't last more than a day and the lush greenery became mind-numbingly boring.
So he did the only thing to alleviate his boredom, Train.
He had kept his senses sharp since the beginning of the mission and only rested when the carriage stopped to let the horses rest.
He had developed a good chakra sense due to his persistent and intense self inflicted tortu- *ehm* training.
****** ° ° ° ****** Flashback (One Year ago) ****** ° ° ° ******
"Fuck, Fucking duck, bitch......" anyone hearing this string of curses would be surprised to see that it came from none other than Kiyoshi Ren, the usually calm and kind hearted kid.
However, it did make sense if one looked at what he was doing.
*thud*
With that hit, Ren crumbled to the ground as he gasped for breath. Ren took off the blindfold he had on his eyes and glared at the wooden block that had hit him.
'Eris, Why am I doing this again?' Thought Ren rhetorically, a little irritated as he massaged his sides which he was sure now had a bruise.
[To Increase your senses.] Said Eris, answering his rhetorical question.
Eris had all but basically made him start harsh physical training as soon as the pain in his body subsided a little.
The previous year all he had to do was learn the theory of chakra provided by the all-knowing Eris herself.
Due to the conditions he had gotten from Minato he had to learn almost everything by himself without the help of anyone. Yes, by himself.
Allowing a practical 'nobody' with a sad backstory to get preferential treatment by assigning the teachers to cover all his syllabus in 2 years no less would make all the old and bald farts in places of power scream of preferential treatment.
Though all their screams would amount to nothing less than a buzzing bug in the eyes of the Hokage, the sole ruler of the SHINOBI village.
But still, even the buzzing of a bug would be irritating especially if you cannot squash the bug outright due to technical reasons.
Thus, the Hokage had made arrangements for Ren to receive tutoring only for the physical aspects of being a shinobi and atmost asking doubts if he had a hard time with the theory even after a mind-breaking amount of self-study.
However, he still got the study materials required for the theory on time due to the courtesy of the Hokage, Not that he required it as he learned from Eris. But he wouldn't reveal that, would he?
Even all this was hidden by a thin veil. To others, he was just an unremarkable person who would be attending the graduation test.
Which brings us back to the training cum masochism he is now performing.
This particular exercise was one of the many exercises enforced by Eris to improve his sensing abilities.
This basically involved dodging 3 swinging wooden blocks with the help of a rope, the rope was tied in such a fashion that each of the block's ropes would interrupt each other a little, causing the blocks to sway irregularly instead of the regular oscillatory movement.
The exercise would get harder every time he finishes without getting hit by adding another block. Truly an exercise which would make one's life harder if you are good at it.
Adding to the difficulty was Ren's current bodily strength or lack of it specifically, due to prior injuries.
'If only I could get into that damn trance or whatever that Eris speaks of.' thought Ren as he got up without showing any indication of pain.
This much pain was nothing to him as he had gotten a very high pain tolerance due to being in constant pain for the past year.
The easiest way to sense chakra with his puny chakra reserves was to sense the changes in his surroundings through the microscopic changes in his chakra.
Traditionally to sense chakra one needed to mould his chakra into sensor-type chakra. But that method was not feasible for him.
Thus, Eris settled to teach him another method which only he could do, as this method required either godly levels of chakra control or almost no chakra at all to notice the changes in an atomic scale of chakra.
[Cheer up host, You have improved a little even without getting into a state of trance, which is a great achievement by itself.]
'Thanks Eris, but it still seems I have to train more' thought Ren, a little grateful for the morale boost by Eris, and set up the blocks for another round.
****** ° ° ° ****** Flashback End ****** ° ° ° ******
Ren cringed a little as he recalled all his hellish training.
Thankfully he had managed to get into a trance due to luck during his days as a member of the shinobi corps and had thus gotten the hang of chakra sense.
His chakra sense did not require the usage of any chakra and thus could not even be detected by anyone, and could be kept indefinitely. Its current range was currently 120 meters.
'Now if only someone could answer why we are being tailed' Thought Ren, as he had sensed the person sometimes come into his range.
But he didn't mention it to anyone, as the person had been tailing them since leaving Konoha, from the village gates itself and hadn't shown any killing intent, only leaving for a little while when it was night.
'Most probably extra protection for the fat pig by Konoha.' thought Ren as he ignored the loud snoring sound coming from the carriage.
Honestly, it added to his slow corruption to insanity along with boredom.
'At this point, I am ready to believe a pig has been sleeping inside this carriage. How can a person even snore all day minus the time when he is awake to eat or when he goes to the bushes to do his business?' Ren questioned himself amusedly.
And the thought of Buta'san going to the bushes to do his business made him ask himself a mildly disturbing set of questions.
'How does he get up after pooping in the bushes? Or does he shit himself while standing? How does he even wash himself? Can his arms even reach his ass?'
Boredom is indeed the cause of creativity or in Ren's case, mild insanity.
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