Ch451. Return to Konoha

After getting the resigned confirmation from Kurotsuchi, Rei decided to stop being an asshole and gently put his hand on her hair, ruffling it a bit.

"Good girl." He kindly said and started to properly heal her. His healing Jutsu was nowhere near Tsunade's, but when living with the foremost expert in the field, one learns a thing or two.

Fortunately for Kurotsuchi's continued well-being, Konan helped too.

After the still morose girl was all patched up, she calmed down enough to appreciate in silent wonder as her broken arm and bruised body were mended in a matter of minutes.

While it was still astonishing even for the Suna ninjas, since Pakura became the Kazekage, a lot of improvements were slowly introduced to the village, one of which was better medical techniques. Rei had no idea what kind of bullshit reason Pakura gave her people for having those techniques, but he knew she didn't hold out on them. That's why the sight of advanced healing didn't shake them as much as it did Kurotsuchi.

For the girl, this was a very shocking sight. The medical field was nowhere near as advanced as Rei thought in his past life while reading Naruto. In fact, it was Tsunade and Orochimaru that were the freaks of their generation when it came to medical techniques.

Most of their techniques were self-made. Hell, most of the 'modern' healing procedures were either invented or improved by Tsunade herself. Her title of the best med-nin in the world was not just lip service.

The woman was a legend in the ninja world for a reason...

For other medics, broken bones were still very bothersome and while their mending could have been accelerated, the hospitals existed for a reason. If every injury could be shrugged off with just a few minutes of a healing technique, they would have been redundant.

And while Tsunade started researching methods how to accelerate the process tremendously, and was successful for the most part as a bit of it was already applied in the hospitals all over Rei's villages, not many 'average' medics had the necessary chakra potency and quality to pull it off the same way Tsunade could so she had to dumb it down for them. It was still a work in progress.

Now that Kurotsuchi was in a good condition, Rei freed her from the wire that bound her to the chair, all the while not letting down his guard. As much as he would love to believe the girl knew what was best for her, she was still a teenager.

Kunoichi or not, hormones affected everyone the same.

Rei could not be sure something flipped in her head, causing her to try a foolish thing like escaping a room full of experienced jonins or starting a fight. Hence, he stayed vigilant.

Thankfully, Kurotsuchi was still in too much shock to think about things like these, and Rei's visit to Iwa went without any unforeseen incident. He and Konan didn't dilly-dally in Iwa, leaving the situation there in the capable hands of Riku as they ushered the bewildered Kurotsuchi out of the room, and using a teleportation technique back to Konoha the second the door closed behind them.

They arrived in the exact same place where Rei and Konan previously disappeared from the village. In the middle of a street.

'Hiraishin!?' Kurotsuchi mentally freaked out, mistaking the technique.

It didn't last, however. When her eyes took in the surroundings, her thoughts were diverted by the sight of Iwa ninjas' bodies strewn around the street, causing her to grimace in sadness as she distractedly followed Rei.

It was obvious the invasion did not go as her grandfather planned. If it did, the friggin Konoha ninjas would not have been leisurely laughing and joking among each other, as if it was just another usual Monday at work, while they were clearing up the bodies of Kumo, Iwa, and Sound ninjas.

Two hours passed since Rei and Konan left Konoha and the battle was pretty much over by now. From what their chakra senses were telling them, there were some stubborn stragglers that still needed to be dealt with, but the overwhelming majority of the enemy troops were already either killed or had surrendered.

Eventually, Rei, Konan, and the disheartened Kurotsuchi reached the arena, and Rei led them to where he could feel Pakura still leisurely sitting, She was still in the same spot as when they left, much to Rei's amused surprise.

Well, he could feel the showdown between Temari and Onoki was still not concluded so it was only natural that Pakura would pay attention to it so no mishap happened to Temari. After all, Onoki was a highly dangerous ninja despite his old age. One good hit and Temari could be in danger.

This fight was supposed to be a training exercise for the girl and while a bit of danger was healthy for her awareness, by now every woman of Rei adopted his distaste for putting their proteges at unnecessary life-threatening risks.

It sure worked for those who survived them. Pakura was taught that way and she became a legend in Suna during the Third Ninja War. But there were a lot of those that failed at the surviving part.

In Rei's opinion, doing that was just a waste of talent. Nobody was the same but everybody could be taught and trained to become strong. While some didn't have the predisposition to be great fighters, that didn't mean they could not become competent in the field if a good teaching method was implemented. The necessary approach differed from person to person. Trying to force one kind of approach on everybody just caused a lot of unnecessary casualties.

"They are still at it?" Rei asked as he entered the room where Pakura sat, announcing his presence with the question.

"Yeah. The old geezer is tenacious as hell." Pakura quipped, not even turning to look at Rei. She could sense him the second he teleported back to Konoha so she was aware of him when he entered the room too. "But I gotta say, I am proud of my girl. I was a bit worried when she underestimated him at the start but thankfully, she learned her lesson and took the fight seriously since then."

When Kurotsuchi realized who the person sitting in front of her was, her eyes went wide. Rei told her that her grandfather fought against the Kazekage's apprentice but Kurotsuchi inwardly doubted that. An apprentice would not be strong enough to fight her grandpa!

She naturally thought it was actually the Kazekage herself who battled Onoki but here she saw the woman leisurely lounging in a comfortable chair, while...

Kurotsuchi's eyes slowly moved towards the arena, discovering a sight she would have never thought possible.

In the arena, a girl not much older than her was facing her ancient grandpa on even footing, pushing him back even. Kurotsuchi's jaw dropped to the floor at that. She found it hard to believe this was possible. She fought against her grandfather a lot in her training but not once did she manage to erase his leisure smile.

Yet, Onoki right now was completely focused, his expression grave and full of tiredness. That shook Kurotsuchi's confidence like nothing else.

It was with great apprehension that Kurotsuchi realized the Kazekage really had not made a move yet.

At that moment, Kurotsuchi felt relief flood her as she realized that her decision was correct. For, there was no way her grandfather would have survived this situation without the deal she made with her new master.

Now… she had a different problem.

How the hell was she supposed to explain it to her grandpa in a way that won't send him into a fit of rage? Logic didn't work on her family!