53 A 'C'ult!

{Ozawa Village, Land of Hot Springs}

{6:27 PM, 28th May 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Darui looked at Karin, her eyes contained fear that he hadn't seen before making him realize that even if they could somehow resolve this current situation peacefully, she would quite a bit of counseling to resolve this incident in her heart.

The cut on her shoulder wasn't bleeding as much as before but there was still some blood oozing from her wound. Omoi at least wasn't hurt but his immediate problem was the man in front of him.

Kakashi had quite a reputation from the last war to his ANBU days, although he couldn't be certain Kakashi had at least 100 A-rank missions attributed to his record and most of them were combat focused.

'We are at a numerical disadvantage, the risk-to-reward ratio is against the mission parameter,' Darui thought as he took a step back and motioned for Samui to do the same.

'Kakashi should be the backup so the swordsman must be the one who actually took the mission...' Darui concluded and he asked, "Why did you abandon the mission and then kidnap the villagers..."

Hayate realizes that they once again are back to the negotiation phase took a step back as well and explained, "There is a space in the cave that is shrouded from Ren's senses. So we waited for backup to arrive just in case and stopped the villagers from alerting the bandit group."

Darui nodded and then looked around once again, the situation was not looking good for them even if he decides to fight, retaliation would simply mean losses on both sides.

"Kumo will withdraw from the mission in exchange for Karui," Darui proposed, Samui turned to look at him but he avoided her eyes by looking at Hayate.

Hayate looked at Darui and then turned toward Kakashi for his opinion, now that an Elite Jonin was in the area the primary decision-making power was in his hands.

Kakashi's Sharingan stared at Darui's muscles noticing the tension in his frame, "You are quite far from the Land of Lightning, to go through the trouble of crossing an entire country just for a C-Rank mission and with 2 Jonins to boot..." Kakashi started walking forward making both Darui and Samui stand on guard.

"What is Kumo's intention exactly," Kakashi spoke as he arrived in front of Hayate and stopped, he looked like he was in a relaxed stance but Darui knew that a battle could start up at any time.

Darui felt the pressure coming from Kakashi as he got ready for a serious fight, Samui also got ready but Kakashi waved his hands and spoke, "Ren-kun, why don't you join us."

Knowing that it was now or never Darui rushed toward Ren who was already focusing most of his attention on Darui.

'I can't drag her with me it would slow me down,' Ren thought as he let go of Karui and flickered to a tree before using air gliding on the tree to change his direction mid-flicker and arriving behind Hayate sensei.

Samui grabbed Karui before she collapsed and then rushed into the treeline, Darui and Kakashi clashed as they engaged in a rapid taijutsu spar giving both Ren and Samui an opportunity to retreat. Darui glared at Kakashi as he was quickly suppressed by Kakashi's quick reflexes thanks to the Sharingan, having bought enough time he took a hit to the chest as an opportunity to retreat.

Ren noticed Team Kumo's retreat so he shouted, "I was manipulating her clotting factor to heal her if you don't get her to a medic-nin within a day she could die from her blood continuously clotting inside her body..."

Darui paused at the edge of the treeline, he turned to look back at the stoic leaf shinobi before nodding as he vanished into the forest. Ren made a Ram seal and tracked him vanishing from his range before he nodded to Hayate sensei.

Kakashi closed his left eye and covered it with his headband again, he turned around and walked back towards them. Naruto had been silent for a while because of the tense situation so he spoke/shouted, "Why would you tell them that?"

'Interesting... same brash behavior but not so innocent anymore,' Ren concluded as he formed a Ram seal once again to check their surroundings and spoke, "Because either they do or don't know medical ninjutsu. If they do then my shouting that information won't do much considering I was lying, if they don't have a medic-nin then they would have to rush back to Kumo or at least a border patrol for medical treatment which gives us ample time to complete the mission."

Naruto froze as he thought about what Ren said, Sasuke on the other hand was staring at Ren, he had his one-tomoe Sharingan active when Ren dashed away using the Body Flicker jutsu but he wasn't able to track his movement. He clenched his fists and buried his impulse to attack Ren to see just how much he has improved since the academy.

Kakashi walked back to the group and stared at Naruto and Sasuke, both of them backed down and stood silently beside Hinata, he then turned to Hayate and spoke, "So where's this cave that you mentioned..."

...

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{Jashin Hideout, Land of Hot Springs}

{6:39 PM, 28th May 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Ren closed his eyes and concluded that nothing has changed in the cave, there were 13 bandits who were still milling about in the outer cave. After their small fight with the Kumo team, they went back to find that the 3 villagers were still knocked out. Ren replied the {Sleep seal} and then they arrived at the cave entrance.

"There are 13 bandits, with 3 of them having genin-level chakra reserves," Ren reported.

"Hinata?" Kakashi asked and veins started bulging around Hinata's eyes as she stared at the cave, after a few minutes she shook her head and spoke, "I can't see past the cave entrance sensei, something is blocking my eyes..."

"Alright make stealth your priority, everyone would focus on one target and make sure that you make no noise, we don't know who is hiding in the sealed area. Ren, you weren't able to sense any seals on those two guards?" Kakashi asked.

"No, they are no sign of their seals on them, although my sensing isn't completely accurate for these minute details so I'm not sure..." Ren replied.

'Then there's only one option left,' Kakashi thought but just as he was about to give the signal to attack Ren cleared his throat as he rummaged through his weapons pouch.

"Here these should work better, they would knock out even genin-level shinobis so no one should be able to resist. Although you would have to apply the seals to either their forehead or to the back of their head." Ren spoke as he took out a stack of {Sleep seal} tags from his pouch.

Kakashi nodded and each of them took 4 tags just in case and got ready, Kakashi and Hayate both nodded and dashed towards the two guards at the entrance.

Everything after that worked a little too well for them, none of the bandits posed any resistance and within a minute all of them were standing in front of a dead end. Ren closed his eyes and focused on sensing, the wall in front of them was solid but Ren could feel a sense of hollowness from there.

'This really weird, the room isn't so big the space is barely enough for it to be some sort of storage room...'

"K-Kakashi-sens-sei..." Hinata stuttered causing Naruto to look at her in surprise and concern, she had stopped stuttering after the first few camping trips.

"What is it, Hinata-chan," Kakashi asked, he gave her a small eye smile trying to relieve the Hyuuga's concern.

"T-there are bones scattered all around the room, t-there's a skeleton speared to the wall at the end of the room..." Hinata gulped as she stared in horror at the number of bones in the room, her eyes already had started cataloging the number of bones that she was sure were human.

"Is there anyone alive in there Hinata-chan?" Kakshi asked and Hinata shook her head.

"Turn off your Byakugan, Naruto take Hinata-chan away to the cave entrance," Kakashi ordered and then turned to look at the wall, his Sharingan scanned the seals that were only visible to his left eye and after a minute of searching, he motioned everyone else to back away.

Kakashi supported his right hand with his left by grabbing his forearm before carefully channeling lightning chakra through his right arm. He used his left arm to carefully manipulate the shape and contain the chakra as a blue lightning ball manifested in his arm.

Oddly enough lightning cackled but no sound erupted from this technique only light that lit up the entire cave, after supercharging his 'Raikiri' he dashed and blew through the wall in front of him.

At first, only his arm went through the wall but then he let go of his arm and pulled his hand back. The chakra in his hand destabilized and blew up a small hole in the wall, after the dust cleared Ren peered into the hole.

Ren's eyes widened as he saw a rectangular platform going from the place where Kakashi blew a hole to a circular platform. A massive triangle was etched on the ground enclosed in a circle and all around the platform were filled with bones of human remains.

...

'What in the world happened here...'

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AN- Hidan's genesis?

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