{The Great Konoha Bridge, The Land of Waves}

{08:45 AM, 4th Apr 13 Yrs ANB}

Ren looked at the massive crowd that was gathered at the opening ceremony of the bridge the letters 'The Great Konoha Bridge' were carved onto the gate.

Apparently, Konoha had donated 5 million Ryo to help feed the families in the Land of Waves for the next couple of months and during that time the farmers could work on their next produce with peace of mind.

There were quite a lot of people crying and waving as Ren and Hayate walked onto the bridge.

"Well that was something," Ren muttered and Hayate nodded, he looked back one last time, the look of gratitude on the faces of everyone present was quite clear and it filled Ren with an unknown emotion.

He took a deep breath and sighed, the small hint of pride that had wormed its way into his heart was discarded as the sounds of the cheering faded away.

"You know you can feel proud, you were an important part of the reason so many people would have a better quality of life," Hayate spoke.

"Yeah," Ren muttered, he turned back to look one last time at the fading village and then asked Hayate sensei, "Should we speed up a little?"

"Yeah let's go..."

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{Hokage's Office, Administrative building, Konohagakure}

{12:13 PM, 5th Apr 13 Yrs ANB}

"...and after that Team Ichi and Team San arrived." Hayate finished his report. Hiruzen looked at the two members of Team #21 and sighed, this was too close a call and the hole in their intelligence network was perfectly exploited by Danzo for his benefit.

'Jiraya has been lurking in the Land of Rice for the past year searching for Orochimaru, Danzo used this distraction to sink his claws into The Land of Waves. Not like Jiraya would be interested in going and setting up a spy network in a small country like Wave anyway...'

Jiraya was Hiruzen's last remaining student, the one he least expected to be a good shinobi turned out to be the last pillar that Konoha could lean upon.

"Good job, the mission was a lot harder than it was expected and the two of you did a good job." Hiruzen praised and he noticed the small smile that appeared on Ren's face.

'As expected, seeing the condition of the Land of Waves must have resonated with him, and then Konoha helped to save the whole country. That would have flickered the first few feelings towards the village as a whole in Ren...' Hiruzen thought.

This wasn't his only intention in helping the Land of Waves but he also knew something like this would happen, the D-Rank missions and C-Rank missions don't actually bring much value to the village.

D-Ranks were just cheap labor that anyone could do except for some strategically important missions, while C-Ranks have a higher casualty rate than even B-Rank missions. The only advantage that these two missions provide is that they build the idea of Konoha as a whole in every shinobi's mind.

The contrast between the unlawful world out there during C-Rank missions and the homely nature of D-Rank missions subconsciously creates the identity of Konoha in a young shinobi.

'But what happened to the bodies of Zabuza and the hunter that was allegedly his companion...' Hiruzen thought as he leaned forward, Ren's eyes flickered to him but they didn't have the trace of nervousness they had before.

"Your ability stored their bodies and for now you can't access them?" Hiruzen asked, he kept the question open letting Ren answer it however he wanted.

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"Hokage-sama," Ren bowed slightly, the defiant nature was still in his body but compared to last time his bow was a little deeper, "Uh, it's a little complicated I can feel the two bodies they are stored in my powers but... " Ren pretended to claw at an empty slot in his inventory, "It's a bit weird the bodies aren't stored in those 50 slots that I told you about, they are somewhere... different."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed as he leaned back, he could tell that Ren didn't lie, his breathing and heartbeat didn't change nor did his chakra fluctuate. Though that last part wouldn't have indicated anything since Ren is a sensor, but Hiruzen was sure that Ren didn't lie, the action of him trying to access the bodies was the same as before too.

'That could only mean that his ability isn't strong enough now or maybe something else, I'll have to talk to Shikaku about it. But most likely it means his ability can grow, even if not in quantity but in quality as well... maybe one day he'll be able to carry living beings in his ability too...' Hiruzen thought and then nodded to the two of them.

"Alright, Hayate submit a written report by tomorrow, and Team San got this safely back to Konoha. Now normally you would have been able to claim Zabuza's bounty with his head but since that isn't available right now you can only claim his bounty by revealing his sword to the world which would have both of you face political and personal targeting." Hiruzen spoke as he put a storage scroll in front of the two of them.

Ren looked at the storage scroll easily recognizing it to be the same scroll that Kakashi once gave him. He looked at the scroll and then shared a look with Hayate sensei before he shrugged.

"I'm not short of money and I don't want to change my sword and kenjutsu style, that sword is way too big for me," Ren replied, he didn't land the killing blow at Zabuza so he wasn't sure about the ownership of the sword, letting Hayate sensei decide it was both a small test from him and also a delegation of an important decision that he didn't want anything to do with.

"It doesn't fit me either," Hayate spoke before he threw the scroll towards Ren, "...keep it, you can sell it when you are strong enough... take the day off we'll start training again tomorrow."

Ren heard the dismissal and after scanning Hayate's nonchalant face he shrugged and unsealed the sword before throwing it into his inventory. Seeing no protests from either of them Ren walked out of his room and went towards Training Ground #10.

...

Hayate looked at Ren's disappearing back before he turned back to Hokage-sama and spoke, "I would like permission to search for teams that would suit Ren for the upcoming chunin exams."

"Do you think he's ready?" Hiruzen asked, according to the reports he got from the ANBU teams that monitored Ren's progress from afar during the mission he was pretty sure Ren was more than ready for the exam.

"Yes, his personal strength is bordering on High-chunin to Low-jonin level depending on who he's facing. Keeping him stuck as a genin would not be beneficial to his growth when the challenges he faces drop down in quality." Hayate spoke, he was quite confident in Ren's progress, especially since his speed was his greatest advantage still, and now his insight, battle IQ, and reflexes were capable of keeping up with his speed.

"Alright you can look through the squads, there is one squad that recently lost a team member check them out, one of their team members is quite proficient in medical ninjutsu so they would be able to cover any weakness that Ren-kun might have..." Hiruzen spoke as he took out a file from his drawers, Hayate nodded and took the file before he flickered away.

He thought about going home to write the report but then decided against it, he still went home to take a shower and freshen up but his face lit up with a small smile when he smelled something delicious.

"I'm home," Hayate spoke and walked towards the kitchen. Yugao was making curry while the rice looked like it was done.

"Hii," Yugao spoke as she came closer and hugged Hayate, they both stayed like that for a bit before Yugao took a step back and looked at Hayate once again.

~Cough~~Cough~

Hayate coughed a couple of times habitually and then smiled as she turned to take another look at the curry.

"Your mission went okay, you left a day early with the team?" Hayate asked.

"Umhmm..." Yugao hummed as she once again buried her head in Hayate's embrace.

"What's with the file," Yugao asked as she peaked at the file that Hayate had put down on the counter.

"Looking for a team so that Ren could participate in the chunin exams," Hayate replied as he sighed, his mood went down a little bit at the thought of the end of Team #21.

'Maybe I should have made a 3-man cell around Ren, that way Team #21 shouldn't have to be inactive after he gets promoted to chunin.'

While Ren would still be his apprentice after the chunin exams they wouldn't go on the same missions as much, Ren would become chunin and for the first 6 months, he would mingle with other chunin from Konoha and go through a series of C and B- Rank missions to get used to his new duties.

Hayate was pulled out of his thoughts by Yugao's lips kissing his neck, he froze as Yugao brought her mouth close to his ears and whispered, "I have an idea where you could find another apprenticeship to teach for a long looong timee..."

He shiver went down Hayate's spine as he looked into Yugao's eyes, he leaned down and kissed her as he grabbed her by her waist and pulled her upwards. He dashed into their shared bedroom leaving behind the stove on which some vegetables in the curry were bobbing happily...

...