Chương 29

"…What.. What kind of place is this…" Meizu whispered while looking outside the giant windows. Gozu meanwhile had already moved closer toward the glass, his eyes widening seeing the roads outside.

"…The carriages move without horses…" Daniel blinked once afterward.

"I take my words back.. What kind of backwater places have you both crawled off from?" Daniel had to say that.

"And can you take off those huge metal gloves. You are not here to murder me, are you?" Though Daniel meant that as a joke, he surely hope it wasn't a prophecy.

"We can't kill you even if we want to." Meizu said, while looking at Daniel with piercing eyes. Daniel could only smile in return, while his back turned cold. The brothers continued staring outside like civilization itself had betrayed them. Cars moved through the roads below while distant lights stretched across Malibu. And then suddenly, a loud engine sound echoed outside. Both brothers immediately tensed.

"…Enemy?"

"That," Daniel sighed tiredly afterward, "is called a Lamborghini."

"…A what?"

"…A rich person problem. Umm.. Our kind of problem..." Honestly, Daniel suddenly understood why Ray constantly looked exhausted around people. You are thinking too much Daniel, I am exhausted sometimes because I am learning too much of funinjutsu lately. The twins meanwhile slowly turned toward the television nearby afterward. Unlike the cars, television itself didn't shock them much. It was around, mostly for surveillance and some videos to be played around using VCH tapes. Still… the content itself confused them.

"…Why is the man dancing around explosions?" Gozu asked while staring at some random action movie trailer.

"…Entertainment."

"…Humans here enjoy watching so much destruction?" Daniel didn't know what he should reply to them. He was questioning his own life choices now. Then came the kitchen appliances. Not because electricity itself shocked them. Shinobi villages already had modern utilities to some extent. But the sheer convenience and scale of things here still looked absurd. The refrigerator full of food, the dishwasher, the microwave....

"…The box heats food instantly?" Meizu whispered suspiciously.

"…Yes."

"…Without fire?"

"…Yes."

"What kind of place is this...." Still, after another several minutes of awkward explanations regarding modern civilization, phones and several other things, the twins finally calmed down slightly. Then naturally came the important question.

"…What exactly is Rei?" Gozu finally asked quietly afterward. He asked himself that question constantly too.

"…Trust me," he muttered while pouring himself another drink, "I ask that question to myself too." While the twins were looking at the television, after calming down, they suddenly realized that they could also understand/talk and were completely fluent in another foreign language. The contract took care of the language problem by default and make two languages Japanese/English perfectly native for them.

While this was happening in MCU, Rei had returned from "peeing". Naruto and others were getting annoyed but Kakashi knew what he had been doing. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Hey Rei, do you have some kind of bladder problem that you took so much time to pee." Naruto had to ask. This made Tazna scoff and Sakura almost laugh, but stopped herself. Rei didn't bother to reply and took out his kunai from the small pouch he carried on his thigh. And then using that kunai he pointed at Tazna.

"What.. What.. Rei what are you doing?" Sakura was horrified. Sasuke went from mildly amused to serious. He had been with Rei for sometime now and knew that this person had hidden more things that he ever let on. The last few months was a wakeup call for him. Rei was more then he let on, and since this guy had shown the kunai at Tazna, he would bet that there was something wrong with Tazna. Meanwhile Tazuna himself had gone pale.

"…K-Kid what are you doing?" Rei didn't lower the kunai. His expression remained completely calm while Kakashi quietly watched everything from nearby without interfering immediately. Honestly, that alone already told Team 7 something was wrong. Because if this was merely Rei acting crazy, Kakashi would've stopped him instantly. Instead the jonin simply observed.

"You lied." Rei finally spoke calmly afterward.

"This was never a normal C-rank escort mission." Naruto blinked once. Sakura looked confused while Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly further. Tazuna meanwhile visibly sweating now.

"…What are you talking about?" Rei sighed lightly afterward before lowering the kunai slightly.

"While I was 'peeing'," he made air quotes mentally at that stupidity, "I ran into two missing-nin from Kirigakure."

"…What?" Sakura whispered.

"Demon Brothers," Rei continued calmly.

"Gozu and Meizu." Even Kakashi's visible eye brow lifted a bit hearing the names spoken so casually. Not because he knew something about them, but because this genin who had never taken down any ninja before was able to do a solo v duo and even obtain extra information. He had already known that some guys were following them. What he didn't expect, was that his new student knew this too and even acted before they could even strike.

This kid was anything but normal, reminding of the words spoken by Hiruzen about Rei before he took such a huge team under him. Meanwhile, Sakura and Naruto were lost, and Sasuke wasn't far off either from them.

"…Who?"

"Chunin-level missing-nin from the Hidden Mist," Rei replied. And immediately the atmosphere around the bridge road changed. Because suddenly this no longer sounded like simple escort work anymore. Rei pointed the kunai toward Tazuna again afterward.

"A C-rank mission doesn't involve missing-nin ambushes or any kind of shinobi for that matter." Tazuna stayed silent.

"A mission involving enemy shinobi automatically escalates the danger level." Rei continued calmly.

"Especially Kirigakure shinobi." Naruto finally looked slightly nervous now.

"…Wait… does that mean…"

"Yes." Rei nodded lightly.

"This mission was misreported." Tazuna finally broke afterward.

"…I had no choice!" the old bridge builder suddenly shouted.

"If I submitted the real mission rank, my village could never afford Konoha's prices!" There it was, this old man had been dancing over their heads for quite sometime now. Glad that he could be brought down a notch. You can't be begging for sympathy but also cocky at the same time. Naruto might be a fool, but he was our fool.

"What more you asked from them?" Kakashi, now didn't bother with this old man who would soon pee his pants, rather interested what Rei had asked and extracted from the Demon brothers.

"They were the underlings of one of the seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza who is proficient in water style and mist techniques. He also has a close follower named Haku, a kekkei genkai user of Ice techniques. Both could be taken as jonin class or at least powerful enough to be considered that."

"Kekkei genkai. Kekkei genkai.. Where have I heard that word.. Ah yes I remember.. It's.." Naruto wanted to shout loud that he remembered Rei was one, but suddenly his brain stopped him from speaking him any word. The contract played it's part. Kakashi noticed it, and found it odd, but right now Naruto's weird reaction was the least of his concerns. Zabuza and a kekkei genkai user.. Those were not even B class missions? These were at least A class. Maybe even S class.

"Rei.. What did you do to the Demon Brothers..." Sasuke had to ask. Rei was gone for a minute and returned with such information that made him think twice of himself. He was already irritated that it was Rei who knew that they had been followed and more now as Rei's information gathering was not only applicable in D class missions but also in A class missions, yes, Sasuke had already considered this mission as A class once he got to know that jonins were involved.

"I took care of them.." Rei gave an innocent smile.

"Huh.. You.. You killed.. them.." Sakura by the end of sentence whispered.

"Something like that." Rei refused to speak more about it. Kakashi, meanwhile, was impressed but the compliments could come later. Tazuna meanwhile had gone from pale to outright spiritually broken now. The old bridge builder looked like he had just realized that perhaps lying to shinobis about mission rank was not the greatest decision of his life.

"…Please…" he finally lowered his head afterward.

"Please don't abandon this mission." Tazna spoke of how their village and land was in the tatters and if they couldn't help him, there was nobody and people would continue to suffer endlessly.

"The mission details were falsified." Kakashi said calmly.

"Meaning by regulation, I have full authority to abandon the mission and return to Konoha immediately." Those words alone almost made Tazuna collapse.

"But…" Kakashi's visible eye slowly shifted toward Team 7 afterward.

"…this is no longer only my decision."

"…What?"

"You're shinobi now." Kakashi continued calmly.

"If we proceed, there is genuine danger ahead. Real danger."

"Jonin-level opponents aren't academy sparring matches." Kakashi's tone remained serious now.

"If things become truly dangerous, people can die." After much silence it was Naruto, who spoke first.

"…But if we leave…" he looked toward Tazuna afterward, "…then his village is finished, right?"