[A/N : Expect 2 chapters if the novel reaches 95 power stones, or else a single chapter in the next 24 hours ]
Tony's eyes widened completely as he imdiately caught Yinsen before he collapsed fully onto the ground. Blood slowly spread across the man's chest while his breathing imdiately beca uneven.
"...No no no no..." Tony instantly panicked. "Yinsen!"
Naruto froze too. The smile on his face disappeared instantly. Because only now did he understand what had happened. The shot wasn't ant for Yinsen.
It was ant for Tony.
And Yinsen took it because Naruto got distracted bragging.
"...I..." Naruto's voice lowered and slowly tears welled up in his eyes. "...I didn't see him..."
For the first ti since entering the cave, the blonde genin looked genuinely shaken. Yinsen anwhile coughed weakly before giving a small tired smile afterward.
"Do not bla yourself..." He spoke slowly while looking toward Naruto. "I saw sothing miraculous today..."
Tony imdiately tried stopping the bleeding desperately using whatever cloth he could grab nearby.
"No. No, you're fine. You're gonna be fine." Tony spoke rapidly afterward. "Co on, Yinsen, stay with ."
But Yinsen already knew. His eyes slowly shifted toward Tony afterward.
"Do not waste your life..." He said quietly. "Do not waste this chance..."
Those words struck Tony harder than the gunfire. Because after nearly two months trapped inside this cave... Yinsen still cared more about Tony surviving than himself.
And then suddenly, green light illuminated the cave. Tony barely even had ti to react before another figure appeared beside Yinsen almost instantly.
Rei.
His palm glowed with strange green energy while he imdiately pressed it over Yinsen's chest wound.
"What the hell—" Tony stopped midway.
Because the bleeding was slowing down. Actually slowing down. Naruto imdiately looked up afterward with watery eyes.
"Rei!"
"Move." Rei spoke calmly toward Tony.
And strangely enough... Tony obeyed imdiately. Not because he trusted him. But because nothing about the current situation made sense anymore anyway.
The green light intensified slightly afterward while Yinsen's breathing stabilized little by little. Torn flesh visibly began recovering beneath the glowing chakra. Not fully. Not perfectly. But enough to stop him from dying imdiately.
Tony stared at the scene with completely broken eyes.
"...No." He muttered unconsciously. "...No, that's not possible."
Yinsen himself looked equally shocked.
"...You are healing ..."
"Temporarily." Rei corrected calmly. "You still need proper treatnt later."
And then more footsteps entered the cave.
Sasuke.
Sakura.
Kakashi.
All of them stopped briefly seeing the destroyed cave interior filled with unconscious terrorists.
"...What happened?" Sakura imdiately asked afterward.
Before Naruto could even speak, Haku calmly answered first.
"Naruto found them first."
Naruto sniffed slightly while wiping his eyes.
"But then one guy woke up and—"
"He got distracted bragging." Haku added rcilessly. Sasuke's eye twitched and Sakura froze. And then both exploded simultaneously.
"YOU IDIOT!"
Before Naruto could react, Sakura punched him directly on the head while Sasuke kicked him across the cave floor. Tony genuinely flinched.
"OWWWWW!" Naruto scread.
"YOU ALMOST GOT THE CLIENT KILLED!" Sakura shouted furiously.
"Golden goose!" Sasuke snapped imdiately afterward. "Do you have any idea how important he is?!"
Naruto curled on the ground defensively while getting absolutely bullied.
"I SAID I WAS SORRY!"
"Sorry doesn't stop bullets!" Sakura yelled while bonking him again.
anwhile Tony and Yinsen could only stare at the chaos unfolding in front of them. A magical healing child. A blonde screaming clone army kid. Two other teenagers (or were they teenagers? if not, then they were very early teenagers) assaulting him over tactical incompetence.
And a silver-haired masked man casually leaning on the side of the cave door. Tony slowly pointed weakly afterward.
"...Who are these people? Who are you?"
Kakashi finally looked up to him with his one lazy eye.
"Professional rescue team." He replied lazily.
"...You sent children." Tony imdiately said.
"Technically they sent themselves." Kakashi corrected.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER!" Tony shouted.
Finally after a few minutes of silence and Tony's anxiety induced walked to and fro, Yinsen was healed, or at least half of whatever happened. It was am exit wound, and thus Rei didn't need to perform so kind of surgery to take out the bullet.
Thankfully the bullet just grazed his lungs and it wasn't punctured. He would still need better dical attention but this wasn't the ti. Since the bleeding had stopped, they could move. Naruto being the guilty man that he was helped Yinsen up.
"I am sorry.. I am really sorry.. I didn't see that man. Or else I would have taken care of him." Naruto helped him up and was very remorseful in his speech.
"It's alright. You arriving to save us is already magical. I can't expect more." Yinsen said.
"Hey man.. Don't try to be a hero next ti. Alright? I have enough conscience to die under, don't want add your na to my tombstone later." Tony said. Though he was a bit confused of what was going on, he still needed to say sothing to cut the attention. Yinsen smiled and then looked at Rei.
"Thank you.. For saving ."
"Well, Naruto here almost made a ss of things. Thankfully I arrived in ti." Rei replied. Yinsen was one of the deaths which weighed down heavy on Tony for along ti and he was the one who set Tony on a path that would make him a hero.
Thus when Rei saw him dying, even after so much manipulation and arriving ahead of ti, this guy still almost faced death. Was the tiline trying to heal itself? If yes, then what was HWR or Loki doing? Eh whatever.. Since TVA didn't show up the mont he had shown up on the first day, it ant, he was fine.
"Thank you.. Regardless of the situations." Yinsen was really grateful. They had questions for sure, but that could wait. Rei looked around along with others. After stabilizing Yinsen, everyone's attention slowly shifted toward the center of the cave itself.
Toward the giant tallic structure hidden beneath cloth and scraps.
"...What is that?" Sakura asked first.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly afterward while looking at the massive armored fra.
Tony imdiately straightened slightly despite the exhaustion and captivity. Pride swelled in his heart. He was already in kind of a brain fade after witnessing the things few monts ago, but now seeing that they didn't know what his engineering was, it gave him a huge boost in his mind.
These were just children after all. Forgetting that Kakashi belong to the group too.
"My ticket out." Tony answered afterward while walking toward the unfinished armor. "Or well... it was supposed to be."
Naruto's eyes imdiately widened.
"WHOA..."
The thing looked ridiculous. Huge armored tal plates, chanical systems, wires everywhere and also primitive flathrowers. And that wasn't all. Tony himself had sothing that defied common sense for most of the people here.
Right in the middle of Tony's chest—
A glowing blue device.
"...What is that?" Haku quietly asked.
Tony imdiately smirked afterward.
"This?" He pointed proudly toward the glowing reactor in his chest. "Miniaturized arc reactor technology."
Nobody understood anything he just said. Not even remotely. Still, Tony continued proudly anyway because nobody stopped him.
"It powers the electromagnet keeping shrapnel away from my heart and also powers the suit."
"...You made that?" Sakura blinked slightly.
"In a cave." Tony replied smugly. "With scraps."
Rei had to admit that sounded absurdly impressive every single ti. Even in reality. Naruto anwhile had already rushed toward the armor with sparkling eyes.
"THIS IS SO COOL!"
Tony imdiately looked mildly horrified seeing a random magical child touching his unfinished Iron Man suit with greasy hands.
"Kid— careful!"
Naruto ignored him completely.
"...Can you make one too?"
...What?"
"A red one!" Naruto continued excitedly afterward. "And maybe orange too! OH and rockets!"
Tony genuinely didn't know how to respond to this conversation anymore.
Because from his perspective, this child literally:
*duplicated himself
*dodged bullets
*invaded a terrorist base
*and now wanted a custom ch suit like he was ordering ran toppings.
"...Sure." Tony replied weakly afterward. "Why not. Let's add that to the list of insane things happening today."
anwhile Sasuke was already examining the armor carefully too.
"...Heavy." He muttered.
"Obviously heavy." Tony replied imdiately. "It's bulletproof armor, not pajamas."
Sakura anwhile poked one of the flathrower systems curiously.
"...This thing explodes?"
"Please stop touching things." Tony imdiately said. Rei anwhile quietly looked around the cave afterward, one last ti and asked Tony as they got out.
"You want to destroy this before leaving?"
Tony looked toward the unfinished Mark 1 armor silently for a mont. There wasn't much attachnt, no there wasn't any attachnt at all. He was never a man for nostalgia.
Besides... without the arc reactor attached directly to it properly, the entire thing was basically unusable anyway.
"...I don't care." Tony finally shrugged tiredly afterward. "It's a dud without this." He pointed toward the reactor in his chest.
"Besides, if those lunatics outside couldn't figure it out in two months, they probably never will."
"Good enough." Rei replied. He didn't say that his arrogance sotis might lead to his own doom soday.
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