Just then, a sudden change occurred!
Ren, who had been captured, suddenly transformed into a bolt of lightning and dissipated.
Caught off guard, the two Anbu responsible for restraining him were directly electrocuted, their bodies frozen in the act of subduing him, unable to move for a long time, with fine electric arcs constantly flickering all over them.
"This is… a Lightning Clone!"
Hozuki Mangetsu blurted out, then subconsciously turned to look at Ao beside him, opening his mouth as if to say something, but seeing the latter's tightly clenched fists, he wisely decided not to speak.
This was the ocean; water could erase all traces, and trying to catch the opponent was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Given their current state, they completely lacked the ability to continue pursuing the opponent deeper.
Even if they were lucky enough to catch the opponent, they wouldn't have the ability to bring him back.
"Hmph… retreat."
After a long while, Ao unclenched his fists, left a single sentence, and then turned to leave. Hozuki Mangetsu and the others said nothing, just silently followed.
Whether they admitted it or not, they had suffered a crushing defeat this time.
Both rogue ninja successfully left the country, and the scapegoat they had assumed would be easy to deal with turned out to be a tough opponent.
The primary objective, the Tailed Beast, was not recovered, and more than half of their personnel were lost.
Mist Hidden Tracking Unit, Tailed Beast Retrieval Mission, Failed!
...
This is the inner sea, the central sea area between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
Several seabirds circled in the sky, constantly watching for fish and shrimp in the water, ready to dive down at any moment for a meal.
On the calm sea surface, a water shadow broke through the water, splashing a large amount of water and startling away a large flock of seabirds.
"Hmph, finally got rid of them."
Ren half-crouched, hands on the sea surface, panting heavily. At this moment, his Chakra was less than ten percent, but the corners of his mouth couldn't stop rising.
Had he finally passed this last hurdle, successfully leaving the country?
His so-called desperate attack earlier was mostly a bluff, consuming very little Chakra; it was merely for show.
Even if they had taken the hit directly, they wouldn't have been harmed much, at most, they would have taken a cold shower and caught a slight fever.
After scaring those guys, Ren left a Lightning Clone in place to attract attention, while he himself submerged into the water and quickly escaped using Wave Rider. Looking at the endless sea behind him, those guys finally chose to give up.
"The Mist Hidden Tracking Unit, truly a troublesome bunch."
After sighing, Ren looked around, pulled a Kunai from his Pregnant and held it in his hand, then injected the last remaining trace of Chakra into it, and then waited quietly.
After a while, a figure appeared out of thin air in front of him. After landing on the water, he began to look around, his golden hair constantly swaying in the air.
"Don't look, Minato-nee, there's no one."
The person who arrived was indeed Minato Namikaze. At this moment, he was holding a Flying Thunder God Kunai and vigilantly looking around. Only after hearing Ren's voice did he shift his gaze to him, finally landing on the bundle on his back.
"It seems you found what you needed," Minato Namikaze said softly, while Ren took two steps forward, extending a hand with a bitter smile.
"Alright, Minato-nee, let's leave here first. I'll tell you on the way."
"Okay."
Minato nodded, turned around and squatted down, and Ren, not being polite, chuckled and directly pounced on him.
"Ren, you seem to have gained a lot of weight."
Minato suddenly felt a weight on his back, but it was still within his tolerance. He stood up while smiling.
"Uh, uh, uh, I'm still growing, perfectly normal, don't mind these details."
Ren scratched his head a little awkwardly. After all, during his time in the Land of Water, he had been eating well with Fujiwara kazane every day, and the food at the Konoha Camp simply couldn't compare.
After more than a week of gourmet food, his physical condition had clearly improved significantly.
"According to the Flying Thunder God coordinates I left at the Konoha Camp, why did you come towards the inner sea?"
Minato began to move after finding the direction, while asking with some doubt.
"Alas, it's a long story."
Ren sighed for a moment, and then began to narrate.
"After I met Fujiwara kazane, I had him take me into the Hidden Mist Village, and then…"
Ren recounted everything from infiltrating the Hidden Mist Village to meeting with the shina couple, locking onto the Three-Tails as his target, and then commencing his operation. Of course, Ren automatically skipped the details of the combat situations in between, and then continued from leaving the Hidden Mist Village to how he attracted the entire Mist Hidden Tracking Unit to the sea before the checkpoint, and finally, after an intense battle, successfully escaped.
"Hmph, that's roughly how it went. Minato-nee, I'll recover some Chakra first. Just call me when we're almost there."
After speaking, Ren relaxed, closed his eyes, and began to recover his empty Chakra.
"Okay."
Minato smiled slightly, slowing down a bit to make Ren more comfortable.
Although Ren had downplayed the battle scenes, how could Minato, with his keen observation skills, not see through it?
Stealing a Tailed Beast from the Hidden Mist Village's main base was akin to stealing someone else's child from their home.
Even with internal cooperation, the Hidden Mist Village, as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, possessed formidable strength, so how could it be as easy as he claimed?
His Chakra was almost depleted, and although he had no external injuries, he was virtually exhausted and had been pursued all the way to this inner sea.
The Mist Hidden Tracking Unit—Minato, who had dealt with them before, understood their troublesome nature even better than Ren. As long as there was even the slightest possibility, they would never miss an opportunity to kill their target. As the most elite unit under the Mizukage, even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were quite wary of these individuals.
Because the prerequisite for joining this unit was to belong to the Mizukage faction, it included a mix of civilian geniuses and heirs from various prominent families, such as Hozuki Mangetsu, whom he had encountered earlier, who was the young patriarch of the Hozuki Clan.
He was sent by the current Hozuki Clan head, Hozuki Mangetsu's father, Hozuki Mangetsu, to the Third Mizukage for training, and the latter was also cultivating Hozuki Mangetsu as a trusted subordinate.
Fifteen minutes later, Ren slowly awoke. Seeing the coastline appear at the edge of his vision, his spirits immediately lifted.
"Hm? You're awake."
Minato immediately noticed the movement of Ren on his back and smiled as he looked back.
"We're about to land. I was just about to call you, and you woke up."
"Hehe, my Chakra has mostly recovered. Minato-nee, you can put me down now, I must be quite heavy, right?"
Ren said somewhat awkwardly. After all, they were almost back at the Konoha Camp, and it wouldn't be good if Might Guy or those Uchiha guys saw him.
"Hahaha, alright."
As soon as Ren jumped off Minato, he reached for the bundle in his arms, grinning foolishly.
Finally, I, Ren, am about to take off!