Rei and Konan stood in the woods, both clutching a slip of paper between their palms as they trained their nature transformation.

Konan was trying to cut the paper in half while Rei trained his zap-ability first. But damn was it hard to make the paper wrinkled. ​​

They trained for months on this alone. Rei really had no idea how the twerp of Uchiha learned Chidori in a month… Kakashi had to be a helluva good teacher for that to happen! A pity that was only when he actually wanted to teach something to someone. After all, he was ANBU captain and DID train new recruits. Saying he didn’t know how to teach… yeah, sure.

Alas, Rei was in a severe lack of a teacher and had to wing it.

Konan had similar problems but Rei’s advice of ‘try to make your chakra sharp’ helped… somewhat. She could already cut the leaf after three months but now she wanted to learn to control her wind chakra and actually coat the paper in it instead of cutting it. It was still a work in progress.

Rei could actually create lightning chakra. It was no Jutsu, alright. But he could numb, or give a slight jolt to others. He tried. He had a lot of unsuspecting test subjects in the marketplace. It was nothing much so far but this was Ame no Kuni. There was water everywhere so it would prove useful. Especially since he could conduct his lightning chakra through his chakra strings!

Rei mostly focused on his fuinjutsu. After these months, Konan had hundreds of exploding tags on her person and he had a few tens. Same with the storage seals filled with paper shurikens. He had ten while Konan had around a hundred.

Rei was very curious why the seals work even though they have no real chakra sustaining them. Surely the seals should cease their function as the chakra dissipates, right? No way a seal could function years…

He found the answer when he left one storage seal near his bed when he was about to fall asleep and focused on the natural energy to strengthen his and Konan’s body. He spotted a very, very minuscule amount of natural energy sustaining the seal. It was so small it seemed like an occasional flicker and even Sage Mode Naruto would have a hard time spotting it even if he was looking straight at it. But it was there. He once again thanked God for his Godly Nature Energy Attunement Talent.

The day after that, he started consciously putting natural energy into his seals the same way he did with his and Konan’s body, and… his exploding tags effectiveness improved by a factor of two. They were now slightly stronger than the tag stolen from the Iwa shinobi. Considering Konan had more than a hundred of them…

Thanks to natural energy and being older, both their bodies improved tremendously. They didn’t have any taijutsu style but often sparred together.

Rei’s body was stronger though. Thanks to his talent, he could take much more senjutsu chakra into his system to passively boost his body over time and it showed. He was faster, stronger, and more durable. It all became a moot point the second Konan started to use her paper.

It really put into perspective just why bloodline clans and clan shinobi are so much more valued in shinobi villages. With the same amount of training and in the same conditions, Konan could trash him because he did not have anything special. No technique. No bloodline.

The strength of his body could get him only so far.

Thankfully he had his talents. He knew exactly how strong fuinjutsu and sage-arts are in later stages. For now, he would endure and become stronger.

“Rei,” Konan suddenly called out to him, pulling him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, and instantly spotted her wary look. “check.”

His eyes widened. Konan could leave her paper around and use them as a kind of extension of her chakra sensing. The entire town and the woods had pieces of her paper scattered just in case.

‘Check’ meant she discovered something wrong.

“House.” Konan thinned her lips.

Rei quickly started sensing the area through senjutsu and froze.

“Fuck. Ten squads. 30 feels similar to Genin. 15 Chunin. 5 higher.”

Rei used the shinobi from Iwa as a measuring scale so he could at least feel amounts of chakra.

“They are slaughtering people.” He cursed. This was not how he imagined his afternoon to go.

Thankfully, their supplies were stashed in storage scrolls they had always on themselves.

“Orders?” Konan looked at Rei.

While Rei thought it was cute how she started to act as a subordinate, especially since they both were eight but…

“Activate the exploding tags scattered around the town when a shinobi comes into their vicinity. I will alert you when they get into the forest, we will do the same. We can’t outrun them and will have to outsmart them and hide. For now, let’s run in the opposite direction of the town.”

Rei didn’t know if they had a chakra sensor or anyone who could track them but he was not really inclined to find out. Both Konan and Rei started running away.

…

The town was a mess.

Blood, guts, and gore-filled the streets as men, women, and children were being slaughtered left and right by Konoha shinobi.

Why?

Because it was a good place for an outpost. Surrounded by woods so rare in the Ame. Konoha-nin were used to woods. It was their home field. There was no way they would not try to acquire this town. Alas, the people were quite useless for them.

“Hey, Daiki!” A woman screamed at a man nearby who was tearing clothes from a young teenage girl. “No ****!” She barked, showing her canines. Clearly an Inuzuka.

The man grumbled but obeyed and instead slit the girl’s throat in annoyance. He wanted to say ‘fuck you’ to the Inuzuka bitch but she was jonin and he was still a genin…

Misa Inuzuka looked around with a cold gaze. Deep down, she could sympathize with the people but… she had her orders. She could only watch in apathy as her subordinates kill children, women, and the elderly. She was long used to scenes like this.

That’s when it happened.

Daiki was approaching her and out of sudden, he… wasn’t.

A loud ‘boom’ resounded through the town as the exploding tag tore Daiki to shreds, sending his torn limbs flying apart as his guts painted the ground red and shitty.

Misa could only curse. This was a trap!

“Regrou-” Before she could give that order, a series of other loud booming sounds resounded all over the village…

…

The Konoha-nin finally met with each other, uncaring about the people who were running away as their orders were to leave nobody alive in the town. If somebody manages to outrun shinobi, no qualms there. Laughable thought. Who would believe it…

Misa and her ninken sat in the corner as she saw three of her jonin-ranked colleagues.

“That’s all of us.” A man, Aburame, told them, making them astonished.

Four jonin, 9 chunin, and 18 genins. They lost 19 people so far. Misa couldn’t help but curse. This mission was swiftly becoming one of those fabled troublesome rank-ups…

“Okay,” Misa sighed as she heard the man who had the command. Sazo Hatake.

“We will stay here and secure the place. Misa, you will take five chunin and go scout the forest. Mukuro,” He nodded at the Aburame man. “says there is a chakra trail there. Be careful, we have no idea how the exploding tags are hidden from his bugs. Especially since there seems to be no delay between activation and explosion. If you find hostiles, kill them!”

Misa and her five chunin came to the edge of the forest, all feeling uneasy. That’s when ninken barked at her, that he found the smell of humans.

The group quietly hopped from tree to tree, keeping some distance between them.

Ikaru, a chunin, was about to spring himself away as his feet impacted the thick branch when…

Are? What?… Were his last thoughts as his mind didn’t even manage to register the pain as he was literally slaughtered by a flurry of paper shurikens enhanced by wind chakra.

Misa could only watch in horror as one of her chunin was made into a swiss cheese instantly. She gestured to the group to stop.

“Guys. Careful… I have no idea what this shit is but obviously, we are against a very skilled fuinjutsu master! The explosive tags have no delay and the traps are enhanced with elemental chakra!”

Rei didn’t know that his stasis seal was a masterpiece in the eyes of the ninja. No stasis or storage seal was able to hold chakra infused into the weapons, much less if that chakra was elemental one.

The group scattered, getting even more distance between themselves in fear of being caught up in the traps together.

The hopped from tree to tree, following the ninken. Misa could swear she could occasionally see two running figures far away through the trees but as she was about to focus more on them…

Kira, the man in the position next to her was sent flying to high heavens… and fell near bushes

Misa could only curse. Her instincts flared and even if Kira was a slight distraction, surely intentional, she managed to jump backward, just in time to avoid another flurry of futon paper shurikens. She landed on the ground and noted that the branch was completely shredded. She cursed again. A powerful wind user! A groan tore through her throat.

With the corner of her eyes, she could see shaken Rika staring at Kira, her fiance, and wobbly approach his corpse while tears streamed down her face. Misa was about to admonish the girl when she took the charred body of her man into her arms but…

A whirl of papers flew out of the bushes, sticking onto terrified Rika. Misa will never forget the horror-filled eyes as the chunin under her command looked at her pleadingly just a split of second before the papers exploded, torn both her and her already deceased fiance to shreds, leaving only a bloody smear and charred ground behind.

Suddenly, Misa and the two remaining chunin didn’t feel like…

Correction. One remaining chunin.

Mika watched as Kaguro fell prey to yet another storm of futon paper shuriken.

Yes, Misa and Muko, the last chunin, really did not feel like following.

“Retreat.” Misa ordered in apathy and Muko obeyed with a gulp.