Chapter 43 - Vs The Demon of the Hidden Mist! Part-2

{Somewhere in the Land of Waves}

{08:56 AM, 18th Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

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'Shit!' Zabuza cursed in his mind as he focused on the two-leaf shinobi in front of him, 'I was careless... how did that brat know a wind release jutsu, didn't Haku tell me he used the Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu.'

The wind jutsu caught Zabuza off guard, he was prepared to dodge another Great Fireball jutsu when he rushed but the speed of the Great Breakthrough was several times faster, plus the jutsu had a wire range. He looked at his left arm and there were several small cuts on his entire arm but it was still within his body's tolerance, only a small amount of blood dropped from some of the cuts that were weaker.

'That wind jutsu is a far greater threat than the Great Fireball jutsu, but since Gato told me that they won't have any reinforcements, I can take my time to whittle them down.' Zabuza thought as he concentrate on his chakra once again, the fog that was dispersed with the wind jutsu started to once again fill the clearing.

'Battle of attrition it is...' Hayate sighed as he let out a small relieved sigh, as long as their battle stretched for a longer period of time they would win. Still, he focused a small stream of chakra to enhance his sense of hearing and focus.

The battle entered a calm period as Zabuza dipped from Ren's range but he kept prodding in and out of his range forcing him to keep his sensing active. If Ren wasn't a sensor Zabuza would have tried to use silent killing but there was no point in risking an attack now when he could just wait for Ren to exhaust his chakra and then finish the job.

Ren kept an eye on his chakra reserves as time passed, he didn't have to use much chakra when he actively uses chakra sensing. When he had full access to his reserves he could keep his chakra active for almost 15 hours but he had to use quite a bit of chakra in the two elemental jutsus.

'I can still manage to hold on for almost 8-9 hours...' Ren calculated as Zabuza once again dashed towards them, Ren warned Hayate sensei again, and at the same time he noticed the abnormality, "90m 3 o'clock, wait sensei its a clone..." Ren's warning was a little late as Hayate was already moving to confront Zabuza according to Ren's initial shout.

'Dammit,' Ren realized his error as he sensed Zabuza rushing at him from behind him. Having no other choice Ren had to use another Great Breakthrough at Zabuza who sensed the jutsu heading to him and backed away once again darting out of Ren's range.

"How are your reserves," Hayate whispered as he arrived back after finishing fo Zabuza's water clone.

"If I don't use any other jutsu I can last for another 4 hours..." Ren whispered back, Hayate nodded, although the situation was a bit more dire now it was still within the acceptable range.

"Kukukukuku..." Zaubuza's chuckled once again surprising the two of them, "I'll admit you both are better than I first gave you credit for, but the brat is on his last legs, he had already used 3 elemental ninjutsu today and he probably has chakra for one more jutsu left..."

'I have to give Ren a soldier pill just in case,' Hayate thought as he pulled one from his pouch and threw it towards Ren who chucked the pill into his inventory before he formed the hand signs for ram seal once again to focus on Zabuza. Ren noticed Zabuza was rushing towards the three of them from their left side right now.

'Did he anticipate that Hayate sensei would have to throw me a soldier pill after he spoke and I would have to let go of the Ram seal to either take the soldier pill or store it away.'

"Sensei 6 o'clock," Ren shouted, Zabuza was just 50m from the two of them and by the time it would take Ren to mold the chakra he would come too close for comfort. Hayate shifted to cover that direction but he was at a disadvantage in this thick fog.

'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough'

Ren had to fire the jutsu up into the air, dispersing the fog just in time for Hayate to counter the attack. Thankfully Zabuza was injured in their last exchange so Hayate was far faster than Zabuza at the moment. Ren pulled out the soldier pill from his inventory and popped it into his mouth.

Ren formed the Ram seal again as he blew another Wind Release: Great Breakthrough in the air disrupting the fog that was starting to once again close on them.

'This is bad, we now only have 1 hour before the chakra that Ren gained through the soldier pills leaves his body and then he would enter a weakened state. We would have to finish this fight right now...' Hayate thought as he blocked another swipe from Zabuza's twin kunai's.

Hayate desperately fought against Zabuza as Ren tried to follow their battle but he was having difficulty following their movements. He had to use Wind Release: Great Breakthrough one more time to stop the encroaching fog once again, realizing that the situation was getting more dangerous Ren went with his backup plan.

He opened his quests and focused on the current quests, he focused on the sub-quest that he cleared and accepted the reward. A blue box appeared in front of him as he felt chakra rushing through his body once again as the uncomfortable feeling that he had since taking the soldier pill disappeared.

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[You Leveled Up. Chakra has been restored to 100%. All ailments and negative status effects have been cured.]

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Ren looked through his stats once again, he had perfectly 50 stat points remaining which should be enough for him to break through his vision and reflexes to another level, he opened his stats and dumped all his points into INT. It was the first time he had used his stat points so dramatically, he focused on the fight and he noticed he could barely follow both of their movements now. After a couple of minutes, he was able to get used to his improved dynamic vision and new chakra sense radius. Hayate sensei and Zabuza's spar was a lot more clear to him now as he could follow their movements.

'This should be enough,' Ren thought as he poured almost half of his chakra into overcharging a Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, he held his sword in front of him and dashed towards Hayate sensei. Zabuza saw Ren charging at him and Hayate and he tried to disengage from Hayate.

Hayate also realized that this should be Ren's last contribution to the fight so he didn't allow Zabuza to escape. Ren arrived towards the two of them from the side and tilted his head to avoid the kunai that Zabuza threw at his head.

'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough'

The funnel of wind this time was four times as large as before and this time it dragged Zabuza with him and slammed him to a nearby tree, Hayate sensei was also clipped by the jutsu and he flipped through the air and had to do a handstand to regain his body balance. Ren noticed that Hayate Sensei was okay and after sharing a nod, both Ren and Hayate rushed to Zabuza's location at the same time. Both of them ran in a zig-zag manner covering each other's path but before they could close in two senbon needles went straight through Zabuza's neck.

Hayate and Ren both paused as they assessed the new assailant that appeared out of thin air, Ren had stopped focusing on actively using chakra sensing so he wasn't sure when this masked shinobi closed the distance.

"Stop," Haku spoke as he dropped down from the branch and checked on Zabuza's pulse and injuries, at this exact moment Ren morphed his hands once again into the Ram seal and he sensed Haku's chakra signature.

'He's the one who was lurking around earlier and Zaubuza isn't dead because I didn't get a notification for the bounty mission... they could be involved.' Ren thought as he analyzed the situation swiftly.

Whatever this new assailant's plan was Ren sensed his chakra reserves were somewhere between High-Chunin and Low-Jounin at best, so he decided it was better to eliminate the treat first since both of them had gone through a tough fight just now. Ren dashed towards Haku suddenly who noticed him rushing but wasn't able to jump away from Ren's slash who was carefully looking at his movements, seeing that he would not be able to jump away in time he pulled out a bunch of senbons from his pouch in order to deflect the sword strike.

Ren used chakra flow mid-strike and his sword was suddenly covered with a layer of wind nature chakra. Ren's sword cut through Haku's senbons and before he could react slashed through his neck. Ren didn't attack after that as Haku's body collapsed on the ground and then his head separated from his body.

Hayate walked toward Zabuza, Zabuza was dead, his heart was not beating and he wasn't breathing so he turned around and asked Ren, "Why did you attack him, Zabuza's dead he could be Kiri Hunter-nin according to his mask."

Ren shook his head and looked at Zabuza, "No his chakra network is still active, if he would have died then his chakra network would have stopped circulating," Ren spoke and Hayate swung his sword detaching Zabuza's head from his shoulders.

"Can you store their bodies in your inventory?" Hayate asked and Ren nodded he picked up their bodies and threw them in his inventory, each of them occupied a slot in his inventory.

'This is a perfect chance to establish myself as a body disposal system.' Ren thought, his plan was simple he had long since realized the problem with the Bounty System. When he collects a bounty the body is consumed by his weird power in order for him to get the rewards. So the only way for him to collect the bounties of the enemy he had killed during official missions was to create a cock and bull story about his ability.

Ren put on a surprised expression on his face which wasn't difficult to do as he looked at the information that appeared in front of him.

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[Bounty Completed!]

[Name: Momoichi Zabuza]

[Rank: Jonin]

[Level: 83]

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...

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[Bounty Completed!]

[Name: Yuki Haku]

[Rank: Chunin]

[Level: 49]

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...

'Level 83...' That was the highest level he had seen but he controlled his expression as he tried to grab something from the empty air in front of him. Hayate noticed Ren's peculiar actions and stopped before he motioned for Tazuna to come to them.

"What happened?" Hayate spoke startling Ren from his attempts.

'Don't exaggerate too much' Ren thought as he spoke, "Uhh.. sensei the corpses that I placed into my inventory disappeared... no disappeared is not the right word they seem to be locked behind a veil. I can't sense them anymore in the slot where I placed them but I can sense that they are in the storage space somewhere else, but I don't know where..." Ren looked back at Hayate with a puzzled look.

Hayate froze for a moment as he looked at Ren with a confused look, 'That doesn't make any sense, none of the objects in the test moved, and even when we tested the slot with a mouse didn't the dead mouse appear back in the same slot...'

"Can you sense all 50 slots still?" Hayate asked and seeing Ren nod he continued, "Then it isn't a priority right now, first we need to focus on this mission." Hayate was tired but he still checked on Tazuna briefly before urging Ren to once again focus on sensing as they rushed back to the capital of the Land of Waves.

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AN: If anyone can think of a better explanation pls comment! That's all I can think about! Also, any comments regarding the changed fight would prove helpful!