Ch45. Ino's panic

"Hello, beautiful. Do you perhaps have any band-aid for my boo?"

The second Ren uttered those words he inwardly cringed. His mind must have been disoriented due to the pain. That was seriously uncool.

And flirting with his student? His image as an amazing teacher basically crumbled to dust!

Alas, it seemed Ino was too fretful due to his injured state and her mind didn't even register Ren's flirting as she approached him. Her body was slightly shaking and her eyes were wide in fright. This was most likely the first time the girl saw an injured ninja fresh out of the battlefield and Ren had to admit he was a proper mess right now. He grimaced a bit, which only made him try to hide another painful wince. He was probably a gruesome sight for the girl.

Ino put her shaky hand on Ren's uninjured arm, trying to do it gently as if afraid a touch would shatter him like glass. "Wh- what happened to you!?" She half-whispered, half-shrieked, obviously panicking.

"That is not really important right now, Ino-chan." Ren slowly said with a visible effort. Even speaking was a hard task when many of his bones were cracked and most of his muscles were bruised.

"What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do!? What am I supposed to do!?!?" Ino hysterically repeated, her eyes darting all over Ren with dread written in them while her mind was clearly going a mile a minute but supplying the girl with no useful thought to grab onto.

"Stop panicki-" Ren shouted, knowing he needed to get the girl out of her funk. Or at least, he tried but he had to stop midway due to a sudden spike of pain racing through his body.

He promised to himself right there and then that the girls would undergo some first aid training the hospital was freely offering because Ino should have helped him get into a more comfortable position by now instead of asking stupid questions and panicking like a kid.

Then again, he probably should have made them do that first-aid training long ago. Hindsight was twenty-twenty.

There were simply far too many things to learn for a fledgling ninja, many of which even he hadn't learned yet, and Ren was sometimes feeling like there just wasn't enough time in the day.

"And was that Hiraishin? You can use Hiraishin?" Ren's attempt at shouting clearly did not help as much as he hoped because Ino was still going, not even registering it. "Since when can my teacher use Hira-" 

"Ino!" Ren harshly grabbed the girl's hand with his uninjured hand before gritting his teeth as another spike of pain made his slight spasm, which only aggravated the injuries all over his body, cue another spasm in pain that just made other injuries flare and... 'God fucking dammit!' Ren mentally cursed as he sent some chakra from his dangerously low chakra reserves through his body, quieting down the intense pain spikes.

"No, it is not Hiraishin. Yes, it is a secret so don't go gossiping about it." He gritted out through the pain and spoke in a tone full of exasperation, "Could you focus on getting me help now? Preferably before I bleed out?"

That, fortunately, finally managed to kick Ino's mind into gear, "R- right, sorry! I'll get... um." Before it inevitably crashed not two seconds later.

"Hinata." Ren reminded the blonde with a small sigh that came out more as a hiss, "She is good enough medic. Get her here. Don't tell anybody else."

"But..." Ino weakly protested with a hesitant worry etched in her expression.

Ren got it. She probably wanted to take him to the hospital to get proper treatment. And he would love nothing else than to go to the hospital himself.

Some of that sweet, sweet medical jutsu mojo they were selling there was exactly what his damaged body needed. Unfortunately, people in this life were not stupid like in all those garbage bashing fanfictions he read during his previous one.

Questioning how he got to Konoha so fast with an injured body like that would undoubtedly be the first thing coming to their mind. After all, Ren's impromptu team left on the supply mission just this morning and he was already back with some outrageous tales of fighting Yagura in jinchuuriki mode, encountering two S-rank criminals, and somehow managing to get Yagura killed by outsmarting two S-rank ninja and running away?

All in one day? With no witness?

Yeah, frankly? Even Ren had a hard time believing it actually happened. He would be lucky if he didn't end up locked in the T&I department if that was the angle he tried to play.

No. He needed to get fit enough for his body to not spontaneously decide to give up on him. Then, he needed to teleport back to the battlefield where Yagura died, preferably one or two days later. Hopefully, the Akatsuki dipshits would not be camping there.

They had no reason to do it. It's not like they would know Ren would be coming back or something.

... Right?

After that, Ren decided to trek back to Konoha on foot, creating a nice trail and a few witnesses so that anybody investigating would have an easy time.

That should give the village higher-ups time to get at least some information on what happened in the Land of Waves. Ren had no idea if or how much damage Yagura caused before encountering their team, but an enraged jinchuuriki who fired two blasted bijuudama was definitely noticed by somebody. The explosions were probably seen and felt all over the island. He would not be surprised if all Kages had a report about Yagura's rampage on their table by the next morning.

The spies on the Kiri side would also notify Konoha if Yagura went out and did not return.

So, coming back a few days later would make things much easier to explain for Ren because the Hokage will already possess all these small bits of information independent of his report and the man will make his own assumptions based on them.

Without asking Ren how he practically 'teleported' all the way from the Land of Waves back to Konoha.

Was it troublesome? Yeah. Ren hated it. He would love nothing more than to gift himself some nice time in the hospital right now and tell the Hokage to go fuck himself with a cactus. But he just couldn't afford to get more attention from Konoha's higher-ups. Sarutobi was one thing. But Danzo and the Elders?

No. Thank you very much.

Ren looked Ino directly in the eyes, "That's an order." He flatly said but his tone also fully conveyed how serious he was, making Ino momentarily freeze.

"Right." The girl awkwardly nodded, and switched into her professional mode, "Understood."

With that, she was off to get Hinata and Ren relaxed, before a helpless smile appeared on his face.

"Ya know..." He blankly blinked at the ceiling, "she could have at least helped me to properly lie down on the couch first." He exasperatedly complained, still sprawled in the uncomfortable position he landed in.

---

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