Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

A day had passed since Ren's unwanted meeting with Danzo and he was currently at Konoha's gate, checking his supplies and sealing scrolls to ensure he brought with him everything he needed.

The unfortunate part of being a ninja was that if you were sent on some important mission, refusing was not an option. And this mission came from the Barrier Corps themselves.

Because of the hostilities between Konoha and Kiri that sparkled in the Land of Waves, the village was putting in the effort to ensure all detection seals along the coastline borders of the Land of Fire were functional. Because of that, the Barrier Corps was spread thin.

This would usually be a job for a Jonin from the Barrier Corps. Or someone who was chunin for longer than Ren. But none of these were available right now so Ren had to go.

Honestly, he was surprised it took this long for him to be deployed. There were only three hundred-ish people in the Barrier Corps. Fuinjutsu was not very popular, after all. The village already doubled the required weekly quota of exploding tags each member staying in the village had to produce because so many of them now had to run around the borders, checking these seals.

The preparations for war were in full swing. Most ninjas in Konoha did not believe it would go that far. Kiri was in a very bad spot. They definitely could not start another war. But Konoha could not afford not to be prepared.

Inwardly nodding to himself when he confirmed he had everything, Ren briefly greeted Izumo and Kotetsu, handing them the necessary paperwork that confirmed he was going on a mission, and then he was on his way.

The anime always made it seem that travel time was short. During the Land of Wave arc, Team 7 fought the demon brothers and it seemed as if the confrontation with Zabuza happened right after that. As if it was on the same day.

But it most certainly wasn't.

The Elemental Nations were huge.

For example... When Gaara was captured by the Akatsuki, Naruto had to run for three days to reach Sunagakure from Konoha. That always sounded like so little time for Ren in his previous life. After all, if a normal person in his past life ran for three days, how far could he possibly get?

But his perception was limited back then. He knew that ninjas ran far faster than normal humans but he had no idea just how much faster.

A Jonin-level running speed tempo on an emergency mission like that was around a hundred kilometers per hour. They could go as fast as a car on a motorway. Ren did not have anything to measure the speed with. But this was his rough estimate of the speed a Jonin could sustain long term.

Counting in the need to sleep, eat, make camp, and the fact that Naruto's team was caught in the sandstorm... they still ran for fifteen hours a day for two days and spent the last day waiting out the sandstorm.

So, based on that, the distance between Konoha and Suna was something like three thousand kilometers. And Ren was really lowballing it. It was probably more along the lines of three thousand five hundred kilometers.

Ren couldn't be sure. It was not as if anybody measured it. This world had just exited its medieval stage. And they were still deep in feudal society. Distance between cities was still measured by how many days you had to walk to reach your destination.

The border base Ren was going to for his mission was near the Land of Waves. But even though it was still in the same country, Ren would still have to cross several hundred kilometers.

It took a week to reach the Land of Waves from Konoha with civilian walking speed. During Ren's last mission over there, his team still had to run for the entire day to catch up with Kurenai and her team.

Ren could get there in maybe seventeen hours of running if he pushed himself. But he had to be mindful of ambushes so he didn't go as fast as he could.

The meeting with Danzo was making him a bit paranoid.

The traveling was very bothersome. It's easy to talk about running for the whole day but actually doing it? It was Ren's most hated thing in his new life. He hated it even more than physical drills. Loathed it with his very soul. 

It was just so freaking boring!

He couldn't even go through his fuinjutsu work in his head because he had to be on guard. The scenery was just the same all the way long. Trees over here, trees over there, trees everywhere!

Ren did think of using the transportation seal he had in the Land of Waves and leg it to the border base from there. It would take him maybe an hour, max two if he did that.

But the seal was still a secret and he did not need the questions about how he got there so fast or why he came from outside of Konoha's borders.

He could sneak in but the Land of Waves was teeming with Konoha ninjas right now because of the conflict. It would take only one of them spotting Ren for some uncomfortable questions to arise.

So, as vexing as it was, Ren had to do the old-fashioned thing and obediently run there all the way from Konoha.

Of course, he was etching his transportation seals with his chakra on bigger rocks and burying them into the ground with earth technique a bit away from the main road every two hundred kilometers or so along the way.

Just so he could avoid something bothersome as travel time the next time he was sent on a mission on this side of the Land of Fire. Honestly, he didn't even care that his transportation seal could not be used in combat.

No matter what he did during his experiments, it just didn't work and he was starting to suspect that Hiraishin worked very differently from his own teleportation design. But who cared? The fast travel was very much worth it even if using the seal took twenty seconds of concentration.

Well, once he had set up a network of beacon seals, that is.

The next day, Ren finally reached the border base, bored, tired, and swearing he was going to make a seal that would prevent his body from being besieged by forest insects even if it killed him.

Of course, then he had to spend an hour going through various procedures to confirm his identity because ninjas were paranoid and the mission scroll from the Hokage was not enough for them.

In any other situation, Ren would applaud their caution. But now he was just annoyed.

He had barely avoided being thrown into jail by proving that he was indeed a seal practitioner here to repair their detection seals before he was shown into a small room with a very uncomfortable cot.

He may as well sleep on the floor. That's how comfortable it was. Plus the room was chilly. They clearly did not even bother to invest in heating for the base.

Ren groaned and decided to just set up a few heating seals on the walls before sleeping. He was also so going to store a comfortable bed in a sealing scroll the next time he went on a mission.

An hour later, he was finally finished making the room at least somewhat comfortable for him and laid on the cot, hoping he would sleep easily.

As he was falling asleep, he suddenly remembered all these people in his past world who would give anything to be in his place, Ren just inwardly snorted. How could anybody actually desire to be reborn into this world and be a ninja was beyond him. Going on missions was pure torture.

Lunatics! All of them!