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'Damn it, I'm running out of time, I can't survive another fight,' thought Ren, gritting his teeth, trying to mask his exhaustion with confidence.
In front of him, he sensed one chunin, one jonin and another above jonin levels of chakra. Ren was sure initially he had only sensed one chunin and two genin level chakra when they entered.
On seeing Ren holding his kunai in a defensive position, Mei quickly tried to defuse the situation.
"We are not here for a fight."
To which Ren snorted as he took notice of the condition of the area around him.
'The owner of the Inn would beg to differ'
"I will accept your words when the guy next to you stops trying to use a justu." Retorted Ren in a calm tone.
'What! How did he know' Ao was surprised. He was using the byakugan under his eyepatch and was quite sure Ren wasn't using sensory chakra.
So Ao had been preparing his jutsu and was leaking out a bit of chakra charging up a long-range attack if he tried to attack Mei.
Because it would be a bad reputation if the leader of the resistance fought a Konoha Shinobi. They already had Yagura on their backs, They didn't want Konoha shinobi on their backs too.
"Ao, drop your justu." On Mei's command, Ao let his chakra dissipate and then looked at Ren, who was still holding the kunai towards them.
"See, you can drop your Kunai, we mean no harm," Mei told Ren in a calm tone as they walked forward a bit.
"I told you I will accept that you don't want to attack me, for now. I didn't say that I would drop my only weapon." declared Ren, unfazed, as if he wasn't just a genin facing two jonin.
"Watch your mo-" Ao snapped seeing the blatant disrespect, he was a ninja who fought in the Third Great Ninja War he wouldn't tolerate disrespect from a kid who wasn't even a third of his age.
But his anger was quelled by a single look by Mei. He immediately stopped talking and looked subdued.
"I am Mei Terumi from the Hidden Mist, I am the leader of the resistance."
"Resistance?" questioned Ren as he raised an eyebrow, not giving his name to Mei.
'It would be foolish to give your name to the enemy' Ren still hasn't let his guard down, even with Mei's assurances.
Ao glared at Ren, a small vein was bulging on his forehead.
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Mei sighed as she said " The hidden mist is going through an internal conflict with the Mizukage turning tyrannical"
"....He has ordered the killing of all shinobi with kekkei genkai. So we, the Resistance, are opposing him." finished Mei, she was hesitant to talk about her village's internal issue with an outsider.
She could easily kill him right on the spot, but she wanted Konoha's support or at least their silence regarding Mist's internal power struggles.
And even if she did kill him to erase evidence of fighting here, One or the other day the truth would reach Konoha that the leader of the Resistance had killed their Shinobi.
Because the place where the fight occurred wasn't an isolated forest, traces would always remain, especially since there were also civilian casualties during their fight.
"So the one who attacked me...ah... Water head idiot, was from the hidden Mist village?" asked Ren, he didn't care to remember Suigetsu's name. What good is knowing a dead enemy's name, especially a stupid one?
If Suigetsu heard this, he would have died throwing up water. He was defeated only cause of his pride as a swordsman and didn't even use his jutsus.
"From YAGURA, he was a trainee to become one of the seven swordsmen of the mist." Mei answered, emphasising Yagura and then glanced towards the Nuibari in his left hand.
Ren had quickly exchanged the kunai to his dominant hand when Mei and the Resistance arrived, he wasn't about to make the stupid mistake of using a weapon he had little experience with like Suigetsu.
"Hmm, what about the other one with him?" questioned Ren, remembering an older bearded man with a dangerous aura.
"Jinpachi is safely stored in my storage seal." Said Mai with a smile. Suddenly, that smile didn't look so disarming to Ren any more because storage seals can only store non-living things.
".... I see. What do you want from me. " asked Ren as he was running on a timer right now.
"I just wanted to apologize and clarify that We the RESISTANCE, bear no ill intent towards Konoha.... and if possible could you deliver a message to the Hokage." Admitted Mei, adding the last part as she thought of something on the spot.
To which Ren just shrugged. " Well, whatever you want to talk, say it to him," he said, pointing at a tree.
"....."
There was dead silence for a few seconds as Ren grew more and more embarrassed.
"..."
*Woosh*
But finally, ceasing Ren's embarrassment was a sudden sound as weasel shunshined from the tree and now stood in front of Ren.
[Chakra Reserve is completely drained... Putting the host to Recovery mode ] With that, Ren collapsed senseless to recover from exhaustion.
But what went unnoticed to anyone was a blob of water slowly crawling away from the shinobis.
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".....and that is all, Hokage- sama." Said weasel as he completed his message.
Minato looked troubled as he quietly listened to Weasel. He relaxed back into his chair, his face displaying a pensive expression as he mulled over his thoughts.
'Only two of our shinobi survived out of six.' Minato thought of the simple mission which had gone completely out of track.
'This is a diplomatic nightmare.' If it had only been the death of some shinobi from the shinobi corps it wouldn't have been such a terrible outcome.
Yes, while shinobi are very valuable, but it was common for them to die. After all, it was a job of life and death.
But the fact that the Hidden Mist had taken such a drastic measure of attacking someone in Port City, a neutral city is of great importance.
The Mist had now basically spit on the agreement between Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni Daimyos.
If the Daimyos took offence, it would lead to a war between The Hidden Leaf and Hidden Mist or worse, entire nations.
'The hidden sand would also join the war as they have been trying to encroach more and more land.' Kaze no Kuni was always low on food due to it being a desert,
They have even tried over the years to take some of Hi no Kuni's fertile land for growing crops but each time they were rebuked by Konoha.
'I don't even want to think about Hidden Stone Village' Minato shook his head a little, he knew how much Onoki hated him.
He wouldn't even think twice if he got a good chance to attack, and adding The Hidden Clouds for whatever reason and you have the perfect recipe for the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
Minato could only hope that such a situation does not come to pass.
'And then we have this' Minato rubbed his chin and closed his eyes for a few seconds.
'Shall I help Yagura, who is still the Mizukage, despite the deaths his men have caused, to foster peace between two nations by blaming the Resistance for everything'
'Or Shall I help the Resistance for morality in a war which they may or may not win, putting my village in danger'. He needed to consult someone for this decision.
' I could ask the elders, Homura, Koharu, or Hiruzen'
Hiruzen was one of the elders instead of Danzo. Minato had personally sacked Danzo along with his organization from the council after finding out about the shady ROOT Organization despite protests from the other elders.
Minato followed the idea of Lesser Evil more than the Greater Good.
Minato opened his eyes and then looked at Weasel.
'Uchiha Itachi, son of Fugaku, heir to the Uchiha Clan, became a genin at 7, chunin at 10 and then joined the Anbu, became an Anubu captain at the age of 12.'
And one of the few Candidates eligible for the Hokage position.
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