章 61: Chapter 61 - 1 year later

It is the middle of the night, snow is slowly falling, and in the distance the sound of swords clashing and dying scream could be heard in the distance.

As one got closer to the mountain range surrounding the famous Three Wolves of the Land of Iron, three huge mountain at the center of the Land of Iron in the shape of a wolf muzzle, that can be seen from anyplace in this country.

In front of one of the caves of a particular mountain of 3,128m with the summit in the form of a giant mushroom of rime ice formed by this land famously strong winds, a figure in black kimono and with a strange horned porcelain mask and on his right wrist a protector with the number 1 and a chrysanthemums engraved on it, can be seen fighting with 20 thug looking men.

He is easily able to defend against his attacker but strangely he doesn't counter attack, but it seem like he is buying time, or waiting for some kind of signal.

Just as he redirected another strike, and at the same time side-stepped to evade other two mans trying to tackle him into the ground, he suddenly heard a music coming from the cave.

♪(Doo-bee-doo-bee-do-bah) (Doo-bee-doo-bee-do-bah)♪

Soon the figure of platypus-like animal with a soft green fur and a brow fedora hat with the number 7 and an iris engraved on its band, walking upright on his legs and holding on his right shoulder a radio and making the sign of a thumb up.

Meanwhile the music on the radio continued "♪He's a semi aquatic\Egg laying mammal of action\(Doo-bee-doo-bee-do-bah)\(Doo-bee-doo-bee-do-bah)\He's a furry little flatfoot\Who never flinched\From a fra-ee-ay-ee-ay (Fray)♪".

The masked figure, who is non other than Ren, noticed his partner signal and finally started to counter attack, and directly decapitated the four nearest guys, at the same time the platypus who is oblivious Peri put down the radio and join the fight by throwing his hat at the nearest thug.

The brim of the fedora hat starts rotating and as soon as hit the thug on the neck, his head is cut off, while the hat like a boomerang turn back and return once again on Peri's head who just finished doing hand seals, and then uses the Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Bullet Technique) shooting a strong jets of water from his beak.

"♪He's got more than just mad skill\He's got a beaver tail and bill\And the women swoon\Whenever they hear him say♪"

As he finished using his jutsu Peri does his sound, and then starts join the melee, sometimes using his hat as a shield, others as a circular saw.

"♪He's Peri, Peri the platypus\(You can call him Agent P)\Peri\(I said you can call him Agent P)\Agent P\Agent P\Agent P♪"

And soon the fight was over, and Ren gather all the corpse and then set them on fire with a weak Hadō #31. Shakkahō (Red Fire Cannon), than he turn to Peri and ask "So do you like your new hat, this time I made it with some of piece of Kubikiribōchō of course I asked Zabuza first, but now your hat is tough enough and even if it is damaged you can easily repair it"

Then Peri replies with a thumb up, and then move once again inside the cave and Ren followed him while thinking 'In this last year both Peri and I grew a lot, he is now able to deal with a jonin level opponent without problem and that is only in one year, and he is good a both earth and water jutsu, but more important he can do THAT, meanwhile I finally did it, I was able to finally beat Senbonzakura'

After some time Ren and Peri finally reached the end of the cave where a large room full of cages could be seen, inside those cages where, man, women and children, and on the ground there are 5 thugs and in one of the corners a pile of explosive tag.

This was one of the relays point of an underworld organization that dealt with human trafficking, and one of their client is our loved Pedo-sennin, he got this info from Dosu who found their headquarters as he was searching for info on Orochimaru's various hideouts.

While Dosu did kill everyone at the HQ the various ralay points and other branch are still in the game so Ren decided to call the others and wipe out this syndicate, Dosu is taking care of the branch in the Land of Fire, Zabuza in the Land of Water, Haku Land of Hot Water, and he and Peri in the Land of Iron, luckily in the others Land this syndicate wasn't present.

After Ren and Peri freed all the captured people they escorted them out of the cave and once they were far enough, Ren turn to Peri, "Peri did you take everything of value?" and Peri looks at Ren and nod, then Ren says "Then do it", and Peri from his shell take a detonator and activate all the tags in the cave, causing to a cave in.

After that Ren and Peri escorted all the former captive near the closest town, then went to their temporary hideout, another cave in a mountain near the famous Samurai Bridge, built out of grey stones and features a large gate at one end, somewhat resembling a torii, emblazoned with the kanji for samurai, on top of the gate is a large stone statue of a sheathed sword with weights hanging on both ends.This is the famous bridge were Danzo died.

Once inside their hidden cave, Ren took out his mask and Peri went back in his pet mode hiding his fedora hat into a sealing scroll hidden in his shell, together with the radio with his theme song on it, a gift that Ren gave him on their meeting anniversary.

Then Ren went to the artificial lake to wash himself and as he was relaxing he started reading the letter sent by his sister Sakura, his sensei, Yakumo and even one coming from the now Mizukage Mei.

'At home is all well, Sakura keep getting torture...ehm trained by Tsunade, mom and dad are well but mom decided to retire, all of them became chunin, even Taro and Jiro, and she heard the rumor that Neji will be made jonin soon, sensei had a boy and he has his mother hair, his name is Gekko Mikatsuki and now he is around 7 month old, and from what he said sensei once again has shadow under his eyes, a least this time the cause is sleep deprivation instead of illness, Yakumo was able to graduate thanks to her new control over her Kekkei Genkai, and she now in the same team with Taro and Jiro, and will take part in the chunin exam this year'

But as Ren read Mei letter his expression turned serious 'Some Kiri ninja saw Itachi and Kisame near the Land of Rivers, so they discretely left and then send Mei the info who then told me, If I remember well, one of their hideout is in the Land of Rivers, and if I search that zone maybe I can find him, luckily I went to the Land of River before...."

Then Ren got out of the water, dressed himself again, and called Peri who was drinking some tea, as soon as Peri was once again on top of his head, Ren spun a long, white piece of cloth around himself and Peri within its coils "Bakudō #87. Sentan Hakuja (Thousand-Coil White Snake)".

As the cloth tightens, with a white flash, it teleports the Ren and Peri to another hideout in the Land of Rivers.