Ch98. Conclusion

Rei landed next to Konan who was quietly observing the Kiri shinobi searching through the corpses while gathering all valuables and then storing the corpses into scrolls. Konan didn't even glance at him when he appeared as they could always sense each other so she knew he was about to abruptly appear. Kuga Mizura who stood next to Konan and was de-facto the second hand of Ringo was a different matter. She almost jumped back while drawing her kunai from fright when Rei silently appeared next to her.

Rei gently put Ringo on the ground while slowly channeling his healing chakra into her face. "Kuga, could you please call Irazu? Ringo is stable but I am not a medic and there are still injuries done to her skull." He said in a soft tone but Kuga quickly listened and scrambled away to get Irazu, the best medic they had.

"So she lost." Konan impassively commented, not even glancing in Ringo's direction. It was more to occupy Rei's mind with light banter rather than have him focus on being worried for Ringo. 'Sigh, Ringo... you really are more trouble than you are worth. Rei should not show such a worried expression because of you.' She thought apprehensively.

"Yes... but to be honest, she did have every disadvantage in that fight." Rei nodded.

"She should have been a good little girl and let me handle A. But no, she just had to try to prove herself." Konan said in the best deadpan voice she managed, making Rei chuckle.

"In a way, you are right. Anyway, how did the battle go?" Rei 'smoothly' changed the topic.

There was no way he could defend Ringo as they told her she wouldn't be able to handle A but she stubbornly wanted to fight him. Their hands were tied as, firstly, Ringo was the commander, and secondly, she actually had orders from the Mizukage to fight any strong lightning user so she could get a grasp of his technique and try to replicate it. In a way, she was forced into this situation due to her orders.

"Not perfect but it was��� satisfactory," Konan showed a rare smile as she gazed towards the men sealing up corpses. "We lost only two and that was because the idiots threw their shurikens straight at the shockwave from the initial explosion. Retards. Of course the 'sharp and spinny' returned straight back at them, giving them a reward for their stupidity in the form of a new hole in their body." Konan rolled her eyes. To be killed by your own thrown shuriken... that was new even for her. "Then we had twenty injured but none of them is in a critical condition..." She stopped herself and half-turned towards Rei, briefly glancing at Ringo with a snort. "Well, except the commander."

"I see. Good job assisting them." Rei praised and Konan beamed at him while giving him an eye-smile. Rei smiled as he saw that. His praise could always lit the woman's expression up... that was actually the reason why he praised her so sparsely. It wouldn't lose its spark this way.

Konan crouched down for a second and quickly kissed him in acknowledgment of his praise. "Thank you." She whispered before standing up and turning away to observe the troops. This time, however, Rei could see that she was slightly swaying from right to left while quietly humming to herself. Oh, if he didn't have injured Ringo next to him he would drag the adorable bluenette into bed and...

'Down boy.' He thought grumpily.

Just then, Mei pitter-pattered towards them with expectant expression and puppy eyes that simply screamed 'Praise me!'. Both Rei and Konan quickly swept her with their eyes, noting she had a lot of blood on herself but fortunately not even one scar marred her skin. She shot Ringo's body a quick curious look while she was approaching but then an uncaring shrug told Rei what Mei thought about Ringo.

'Really now... certainly, I can see your tutelage in the girl, Konan.' He dryly thought at the utter disregard Mei had for her senior disciple Ringo and could swear there was amusement in Konan's eyes for a split of a second.

When Mei came closer to Rei, he chuckled and affectionately patted her head. "So, how was your first battle, Mei?" He sincerely asked, knowing that it was a completely new experience for the girl. Not necessarily a good one, at that. 'Well, her career as shinobi depends on how her psyche holds up to something like this. Not like I have to be overly worried as Konan prepared her well.' He thought as he observed any, no matter how small, gesture Mei did. He would not risk her keeping her emotions to herself and drowning in them.

"It was..." Mei's beaming smile slowly started to turn into a concerned frown, "different. Fighting bandits or small squads of shinobi is much less chaotic and easier." Mei said and her face told everything Konan and Rei needed to know. The girl had no idea how to feel about this. Now that the battle is over and instincts stopped flaring, and Mei got time to think about all the people she killed, about all the times she could have been killed, about the chaos that was the battlefield. In the end, Mei just looked at Konan with a determined gaze. "I want to become as strong as Konan-nee! Thanks to her many of us survived. I know that I was saved three-"

"Seven." Konan quipped with an amused smirk.

"times..." Mei stopped in her tracks and widened her eyes when her mind processed Konan's correction. "What! When?!"

"You know about the one time I covered you with earth paper to protect you from an explosion. You also should be aware of the man who I decapitated because he was awfully close to removing your arm from the elbow down. Then the last time you counted as a save would be when I helped you fight against five enemies who surrounded you... and by the way, we will talk about that later." Konan hummed, making Mei cringe but nod at the accuracy of Konan's statement. "There were two situations where a lightning enhanced projectile would skewer you if I didn't intervene. They were covered by the smoke and you didn't notice them so we will have to train on that too. Then there was that one time when 'you' parried a downward strike from jonin that, by all means, should have bisected you. Stupid girl, I taught you better." Konan rolled her eyes, making Mei lower her head in shame. She really thought she managed to parry it! Apparently not.

"And the last one was something I can't really fault you for. It is a standard Kumo tactic though so remember it. The first thing the Kumo ninja did was to charge the ground with as much lightning chakra as possible, creating various areas with different concentrations. I had to keep my earth chakra flowing to the ground in order to prevent a few inexperienced idiots who didn't isolate their soles with their own chakra from being fried inside out by stepping through areas with different concentrations of lightning chakra. Just because it goes to the earth doesn't mean it becomes harmless." Konan lectured and Mei was eagerly nodding before her expression turned to puzzlement.

"But why could the Kumo mercenaries fight then? Shouldn't they also be fried?"

Konan smirked and also patted her. Something she did not do often as she tried to emulate in Mei the good feeling she felt every time Rei praised her. "Clever girl." She praised, making Mei blush. "If you look attentively, you would spot the mercenaries having mostly electric proof boots and their clothes are also made from materials that are good insulators. They were simply prepared to fight in that environment."

The lecture was interrupted when the two girls stopped talking as the medic-nin finally came and Rei could finally stop pushing his medical chakra into Ringo. He walked toward Mei and scooped her into a princess carry which made her squeal. "Well, princess, do you have any other questions?" He asked her tenderly as he nuzzled his nose on hers, knowing she loved that.

Mei giggled and despite wanting to protest that she was too old to be treated like this, she wanted nothing more than to lean her head forward and steal a kiss from Rei. Unfortunately, she knew it would not be received well. 'Three more years... endure!' She chanted in her mind.

"How was your fight, Rei?" Mei asked after Rei pulled away from her, still cradling her in his arms.

"I fought A and Killer B. Both should be lying unconscious a bit further that way." He gestured towards the direction he came from with his chin while focusing on channeling his soothing water chakra into Mei through his hands. It would at best prevent bruises from forming and relax her muscles but he knew Mei loved the feeling it gave her so this was akin to her reward for having to be saved only seven times by Konan. For her first chaotic mass-battle, it was good. Especially since some jonin had to be saved a lot more, at least according to the glares Konan was giving a few select people.

"Why spare them? Didn't they hurt Ringo?" Mei curiously peered into Rei's eyes.

"Sometimes, it is better to let your enemy live so he can still be useful." Rei shrugged, noticing that Mei didn't understand him but didn't elaborate as he turned to Kuga, Ringo's right-hand-woman. "I see the sealing of bodies is almost finished. Ringo is out so I am taking the reins. Order retreat to the newly created," His lips curled into a devious smirk. "base."

Kuga bowed and jumped away to notify the squad captains.

"Eh... I wonder how our dear Mizukage will react to having his plans completely fucked up, haha." Rei exclaimed as Konan snickered. The old coot's plan depended on them losing, after all. "Well, time to write a letter, I guess..."