{Tazuna's House, Land of Waves}

{01:09 PM, 20th Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Ren woke up as he sensed someone enter the room, the figure was quiet and rushed to Hayate sensei immediately.

'Jonin level chakra reserves, stronger than sensei...' Ren thought as he pulled out his sword from his inventory and jumped towards Sensei's bed with a slash. A dim beam of moonlight was coming into the room illuminating everything slightly. He saw a flash of purple hair on her head and then stopped mid-slash as he saw Hayate sensei holding up one of his hands indicating for him to stop.

[Yūgao Uzuki Lv - ?]

Ren froze and then looked at the blue name floating above her head, in a moment he saw her silver chest plate and then backed down and sat back down on his bed.

'Okay...that's new though, didn't know Sensei was married or anything...' Ren thought as he looked at the ANBU who was still hugging Hayate sensei.

"~Cough~ ~Cough~" Hayate coughed making Yugao move, as she looked up and scanned the bandages that were wrapped around his left arm and torso. She stepped back and picked up the mask that she had discarded. Ren didn't see her face and when she turned around to look at him, he only saw the markings on her mask that resembled a cat.

She flashed through a couple of hand seals and placed her arms on Hayate, a pale green chakra started emitting from her hands that seeped into Hayate's hands. Ren recognized the Mystic Palm Jutsu, the jutsu that has a 65% chakra control requirement to learn.

"You're okay," Yugao finally spoke, Hayate gave her a weak smile before he coughed a couple of times again. Ren recognized that look instantly, he flopped back on his bed planning to go back to sleep.

"Yeah," Hayate replied after a couple more coughs, Yugao put one hand on his chest suppressing the coughing fit that he was going through.

"You have a good student," Yugao complimented, she turned to look at Ren who had turned around just now, he was sensing another 4 chakra signatures around the house and although he was concerned he was pretty sure it was the rest of her ANBU squad.

"5 Man squad?" Ren asked suddenly, Yugao looked at him and nodded prompting him to relax into his bed and focus on sleeping.

"Yeah, I'm alive because of that," Hayate spoke giving Yugao a look that caused her to turn and look at Ren once again. She knew she had heard Hayate brag about him for the past month, a small smile appeared on her face as she gazed at Hayate, he looked at peace at the moment.

Ren realizing he wouldn't get any sleep in the room stood up and walked to the window intent on getting out of the room, before he could go through Hayate sensei stopped him, "Ren, can you leave behind Zabuza's sword, the ANBU team would take care of it."

Ren nodded and pulled out a scroll from his 'pouch'. It was stored in the same scroll in which Kakashi gave him his sword. He threw the scroll towards Yugao who caught it with her right hand before placing it beside Hayate and then her hand went back to healing Hayate once again.

Ren walked out of the window and then walked up the roof, in the four corners of the house sat an ANBU on the lookout covering all of the directions. A boar-masked ANBU noticed him coming up and he flickered in front of him.

"Genin Ren," Boar spoke and Ren nodded to the older man, Boar was tall and lean he didn't show any clan features but then again the name floating above his head meant that Ren didn't have to see through these things.

'Hyuuga Ken... unknown level again, he should be the captain.' Ren thought.

"Boar-san," Ren replied, the man paused for a moment, evaluating Ren again for a minute before he spoke, "Report everything that happened during the mission after you left Konoha."

'Didn't Hayate sensei already send back a mission report?'

"There were no inconsistencies when we started our trip from Konoha, Tazuna-san is an avid drinker, or at least that's what he showed on the surface. Because of the slow pace, it took us over 5 days to reach Hamasaki Village. In the Hamasaki Village, some of the inconsistencies arrived, till now we hadn't encountered a single bandit when we had to fight with bandits..." Ren started his explanation and then continued on speaking, from the condition of markets and black markets in the Hamasaki Village to the first battle with the demon brothers.

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It was during his explanation about how their fight with Zabuza went down that another ANBU interrupted his explanation, "Zabuza Momoichi, you sure about that, big ass dude with a big ass sword?" Inuzuka Tori asked, he was wearing a dog-shaped mark obviously.

"Well yes, Hayate Sensei confirmed it, although we had to bury the body because we had no sealing scroll at the time, the sword is still down there you can take a look," Ren replied, the Inuzuka visibly vibrated, and then turned to the Hyuga who shook his head.

"Not now later," Boar shook his head, the Inuzuka visibly deflated so Ren continued on with the report, after a few minutes of rambling Boar nodded to Ren and spoke, "Thanks for your hard work."

Ren nodded and then he jumped down from the roof onto the still ocean, his feet were very stable on the wobbling surface of the ocean so he unsheathed his sword from his shoulders and started going through the stances while dashing across the surface and his sword started vibrating a little as he channeled wind chakra through it.

'The Water Walking skill is almost close to max level, so this should be a nice time to upgrade of my skills. That way I'll have 60% chakra control and 30% control over wind.'

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{Meanwhile inside Tazuna's house}

Yugao marveled at the massive cleaver that she unsealed from the scroll, if she counted the handle the full sword was almost as tall as her. She lifted the sword and swung it slowly noticing the ease at which it moved through the air despite its massive size.

"How..." Yugao asked, the unbelievable truth was in front of her, she was holding the Kubikiribōchō in her hands.

"Luck and Zabuza's arrogance," Hayate replied as he stood up, Yugao's emotions had calmed down somewhat but seeing the huge sword still brought back the feeling of dread in her stomach.

"Still, that's Zabuza Momoichi," Yugao asked, she put the sword down and noticed Boar and Dog standing by the window, she nodded and the two of them slid into the room.

"Sempai," Hayate greeted getting a nod from Boar, Dog on the other hand went straight to the sword in one swift motion he pulled the sword up but his body was destabilized as he was unable to properly handle the weight.

"Dog..." Boar ground out and Dog placed the sword back on the other bed.

"So?" Upon hearing Yugao's question Hayate nodded, he thought about how to explain the situation and then shrugged, "It was quite a few coincidences combined with each other that allowed us to win, and Zaubuza literally throwing away his sword made all of it possible."

"You mean, Zabuza Momoichi, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist threw away his sword?" Yugao asked in disbelief.

"Well, it wasn't a throw as much as it was an attack," Hayate mused, "it all happened quite fast, Ren was focused on sensing any abnormalities in front while I was looking out for any sneak attacks. So I was in the back and was able to send out a warning, I took Tazuna down with me as Zabuza hurled a spinning sword towards us." Hayate explained.

"The sword was spinning too fast and there was no way to catch it, that's what I thought, and that's what Zabuza thought, but Ren used the flat of his palm to slap the center of the blade when it was flying above him and sealed the sword into one of the fuinjutsu tattoos that he uses for his own blade..."

"That was quick thinking," Boar commented, he could see it happen though it would have taken very precise chakra control to pull it off.

"He was looking at my Mystical Palm Jutsu in interest," Yugao commented, getting a nod from Hayate.

'Now there's another idea, maybe I should recommend that to Ren after the chunin exams...'

"So Zabuza lost his sword... earlier when we encountered an ambush from Kiri missing nins, I asked Tazuna to take us through a route that had access to no water bodies so we didn't have to worry about any large-scale ninjutsu. And Zabuza was unable to use the Silent killing that he is famous for because Ren is a sensor who can precisely locate where he was in a 150m radius leaving Zabuza to fight us with just a pair of Kunai with his location exposed."

"And because of your sword's longer reach you were able to whittle him down," Yugao nodded, that makes a lot more sense than Hayate and a fresh genin killing Zabuza Momoichi.

"Nope, Zabuza was faster and stronger than me, I had to take a lot of punches plus I won't be able to see him coming even if Ren tells me where he is coming from. Unfortunately, the last point of coincidence that happened was-" Hayate was interrupted by Boar.

Boar looked out of the window as he spoke, "...Ren's primary affinity is wind."

"Yeah," Hayate sighed as he stood up, he unwrapped the bandages and the bruises had almost faded away, his muscles were stiff but nothing some stretching wouldn't be able to fix.

"Why are you sad now," Yugao asked, she was relieved that he managed to come out relatively unharmed.

"Ren will be promoted to chunin in the upcoming exams," Hayate shrugged, he wanted to spend more time teaching Ren, two-man squads were very unorthodox so he wasn't sure they would be able to do solo missions like this one after he graduated.

"You..." Yugao was speechless before she sighed and shook her head, Hayate wanted to pass down his sword style, and although she was pretty sure Ren wouldn't switch sword styles she knew Hayate wasn't satisfied with just teaching him for 6 months.

'But then again, if he could intervene in Hayate and Zabuza's battle in a positive way means there was no point in him remaining a genin...'

Yugao's thoughts were interrupted by Ren who jumped up to the window, "4 shinobi incoming..."

At first, she was about to gear up for a fight but then she realized that Ken hadn't said anything, another figure in a Dog ANBU mask flickered into the room, he looked at Hayate and nodded before he spoke, "The checkpoint in Hamasaki Village is empty, no paper trail everything has been cleaned up. None of the shinobi who should be stationed here are present, the border is open."

Hayate sighed as he listened to the report, his guesses were right so he spoke, "We go for Gato, once we get Gato we get everyone involved in this matter..."

...

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{Sometime later in a hideout in The Land of Waves}

Yugao looked at the bodies that were piled up in the corners, after going through the whole base they arrived at the office that was burning, everything it contained should have already been destroyed.

"Well someone doesn't want us looking too deep into this matter..." Yugao muttered as the 2 squads of ANBU dispersed searching through the whole hideout trying to see if they could salvage anything.

...