170-We Are Just Friends

"What happened? Because I made sure Yano and I dealt with the Jounins," Minato asked after appearing in front of Renjiro.

Seeing that Minato had arrived, Hiro and Sama joined them as fast as their bodies could manage. Renjiro responded, "We actually managed to get rid of the Chūnin and Genin faster than we expected, and as we were about to store their bodies and wait for you guys, they suddenly appeared and attacked us." He exhaled deeply, his fatigue evident.

'So they arrived later after we began our attack? Was it a coincidence or was it planned?' Minato wondered before asking, "Besides the one I found Renjiro fighting, were there any others?"

"They were a squad of four Jōnin. It seemed that they had just come from a mission elsewhere," Hiro managed to answer.

'So they were part of the seven unaccounted for? This means that three of them are somewhere out there. This wasn't what we expected. For all we know, our information might not be as accurate as we thought, and there might be more Jounins out there since we expected all of them to be in the base tonight.'

Minato's mind raced with these thoughts as Yano finally appeared. Minato did not hesitate and quickly brought him up to speed with the current situation.

"So what happened with the other three Jounins?" Yano asked.

"They are dead, we managed to kill the other three," Sama said, surprising both Minato and Yano, especially the latter, whose eyes widened in shock.

"How?" Yano couldn't help but ask. He was aware that a squad of four Jounins had gone against three Chunins. While they were in the same squad, the fact that the Chunins had zero casualties and came out on top of the exchange surprised him.

Renjiro sighed, sensing the need for an explanation.

'I knew informing them about this would be a hassle.' he thought before saying,

"I managed to kill one of them when I caught her unaware, and I used Genjutsu on another one before killing him. Hiro and Sama took down the fourth one."

He tried to be as vague as possible while also making it realistic. 'He managed to kill two Jounins? Granted that they are not up to Konoha's level, that is still a huge feat. Has he been holding back this whole time?' Yano wondered as he processed the information Renjiro had just dropped on them.

Minato shared similar sentiments, thinking, 'Already? It looks like he is stronger than I anticipated.'

"That is good to hear, Renjiro. I did not know that your Genjutsu was that powerful," Minato said, glancing at the red-headed Chunin.

Renjiro did not respond and instead just smiled nervously, thinking, 'At least I did not need to say more. It's not that I don't want to tell Minato about the chains, I'm sure he probably knows since I find it hard to believe Kushina would not inform him. What I am worried about is Yano. Besides his clan head being Danzo, I just keep getting this weird vibe that he is hiding something or maybe I am just paranoid for no reason?'

"No, it wasn't his Genjutsu. Renjiro manifested these large chains that he used to kill both Jōnin," Hiro said, receiving a cursed look from Renjiro that surprised him.

'I spoke too soon. I just had to go and jinx myself,' Renjiro thought bitterly.

"Chains? What chains?" Minato inquired as Both he and Yano stared intently at Renjiro, curious about his response.

"Yes, it is my chakra seinou, just like Kushina-sama, although it is a bit chakra intensive. I am sure she already told you," Renjiro said glancing at Minato and emphasizing the chains' chakra consumption.

"Why would she tell me?" Minato asked, feigning ignorance.

'Is he really going to make me say it?' Renjiro thought before asking with a dumbfounded look on his face,

"Aren't you two close? Or am I mistaken?"

Minato's face paled for a moment before a faint blush appeared on his cheeks as he said,

"We are all shinobi, Renjiro. We take up a lot of sensitive missions, so we do not tell each other everything... especially because we are just friends."

Minato rushed through the last part, which did not go unnoticed by everyone present, but they did not bother pursuing it because they knew Minato would try his best to downplay it.

'Sure, Like we believe that.' Renjiro scoffed inwardly.

"Aah, at least now I know. Thanks, Minato-sama, for the clarification," Renjiro smiled as he said, while Yano was deep in thought.

'A Sharingan and the Adamantine Chains... It's like the boy was born to tame the Nine-Tails. I wonder what will happen when this information reaches the Clan head,' Yano mused quietly, lost in his contemplation.

Minato, attempting to shift the focus back to their mission, spoke up, "We need to be sure we haven't missed anything."

Sama, tending to a cut on her arm, nodded. "Agreed. We should sweep the area thoroughly before we consider this mission complete."

The five shinobi then decided to loot the base of the Iron Fang Mercenaries, taking whatever valuables they could find.

"Remember, if you come across any valuable resources, scrolls with recorded information, be sure to store them well," Minato instructed.

Minato's squad was lucky that their confrontation with the mercenaries was contained as it was only destroyed in the entrance where Minato and the Chunins exchanged attacks with the mercenaries.

So when they further went into the base, all the resources belonging to the group were left intact, making it easy for the shinobi to collect and store them. Scrolls, precious metals, soldier pills, weapons, you name it—all of it was collected by the team and stored since they would greatly help the village.

As they were rummaging through the base, Renjiro came across a stack of scrolls. At first, he could not understand them, deeming them useless, when he suddenly realized that they were seals.

'What? I can't understand them now, but I'm sure this would help better my Fūinjutsu skills,' Renjiro thought as he stored the stack of papers in his personal storage seal, which fortunately for him, no one noticed.

After ransacking the base, the squad did not linger there for long and they left since dawn was approaching.

Later that morning, three Jōnins would come back from their missions to an empty and quite vandalized base. "What the hell happened here?" one of the Jōnins would think in anger.

"Looks like someone hit the base hard," another Jounin said, surveying the damage. "The others must have been taken out."

"Check for any survivors or clues about who did this," the third Jounin commanded. "We need to report back to 'that' person."

As the Jounins began their search, Minato and his squad were already miles away, heading to their next mission. They had just under a week to complete all the missions Minato had taken.

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