In Naruto: Reborn With Talent

by Little Merger

A soul was transmigrated into Narutoverse but was refused to be given any sort of insta-OP power, instead, he could choose from three talents. Follow him and his loved ones on their journey to become strong as they pave their own path through the battle-filled world of Naruto. Will they be villains? For some, surely. Will they be heroes? For others, maybe. But anything they do is d

5. 129 - 160

In Naruto: Reborn With Talent #Chapter 129 - Ch129. The conclusion of the war - Read In Naruto: Reborn With Talent Chapter 129 - Ch129. The conclusion of the war Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 129 - Ch129. The conclusion of the war

With the demise of thousand high-ranked Iwa ninjas, the war came to a screeching halt.

Iwa was put on a heavy stopper since their ranks suffered immensely and their overall power dropped. Plus the families of strong and influential ninjas were usually other strong and influential ninjas. Needless to say, Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Butcher, as they started to call him in Iwa, became the public enemy number one.

Despite everyone in Iwa wanting nothing more than to kill him, they didn't have enough power to continue the war. Many died, a lot of money was wasted, the country became poorer and the Daimyo was pushing for the war to end for almost half-year now. The loss of one thousand ninjas was just the last straw. A very painful last straw at that.

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Iwa... ceased all hostilities.

Sunagakure gained a considerable edge at this time and could push deeper in Land of Earth territory but they had their own problems. The new Kazekage, Rasa, was utterly incapable of having a cordial relationship with the Wind Daimyo. In short, the village suffered a shortage of supplies and lacked monetary support.

Rei thought the Wind Daimyo was an idiot since the second Suna lost the war, his head would roll and the Land of Wind would either get a new ruler or collapse into a brutal civil war between the various nobles and their territories in the country. Both options were quite nasty... alas, the Wind leadership just didn't see it.

This made Rasa unable to continue the war and also cease all hostilities with Iwa. In short, Suna was now out of the war and exactly nothing changed between Iwa and Suna from what was before the war. No borders were redrawn, no monetary satisfaction was paid, nothing. The war was a complete waste of time and lives. The only thing that really changed was that both villages were now weaker... this having a much worse effect on Iwa than Suna. Then again, Suna was much weaker than Iwa initially anyway.

Kumo was complicated. They wanted to continue warring, if only against Konoha but since the 3rd Raikage died, A, the new Raikage wanted to hear nothing about a more offensive approach. Especially after the debacle near the shores of the Land of Earth where thousands of Kumo troops were destroyed by mercenaries of all things. That sealed the deal and Kumo became defensive in nature.

As for Konoha... nothing changed. Through the entirety of the war, they were on the hard defensive, creating stalemates and barricading their enemies from attempting to cross the border of the Land of Fire. Rivers of blood flowed to ensure the war was fought in smaller countries between the major nations.

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And while the war was as good as over when Minato triumphed against Iwa's last offensive, for the next few months, a sort of a cold war continued since no peace treaty was signed. The date of such signing was currently in a month in the Land of Iron. Half-year the countries just sat on their eggs, watching and waiting for what would happen while trying to preserve whatever strength they had remaining. And when they realized their enemies had no strength to continue... only then was decided the war would end.

Konoha however cemented their position as the strongest nation and as the one that came out on the top in this conflict, the second Minato became the Fourth Hokage. There was an incredible blockade to that by the Uchiha clan that wanted one of their own as Hokage, the Hyuuga that wanted a clan ninja other than an Uchiha as the Hokage, and surprisingly by the Aburame and Inuzuka clans that didn't think having someone with such a ridiculous Bingo Book picture should represent the village. After all, Minato did become a sort of a laughing stock all over the nations despite his SS-rank. One peek at his Bingo Book picture and nobody would take him seriously.

This meant Minato was on the edge. The most influential clans didn't want anything but say f.u.c.k you to his face for various reasons while the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, and many clanless shinobi wanted him in the office. Surprisingly the Ino-Shika-Co clans decided to stay strictly neutral in this conflict. Well, the Nara clan did and everybody knew who called shots in that particular alliance.

And then, much to Yozora's amus.e.m.e.nt, it all came crashing to the decision of the Senju clan. With the influence Tsunade's clan had in Konoha, her word could either make or end Minato's career. And Tsunade did exactly as was expected of her. She safeguarded Rei's interests and made sure to get a whole lot of concessions for herself by giving Minato her vote. In short, come the next war, she would not even be expected to help Konoha and they were utterly unable to make a missing-nin out of her. Considering the economical advantages in favor of the Biri-Biri company she asked for... Minato ended up wanting to rip his hair out after that particular meeting with 'old blond greedy hag'.

Needless to say, he underestimated the range of Tsunade's hearing and was… reprimanded for such an insult. Poor lad couldn't leave his bed for a week due to pain. Thankfully, it took only a week for Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the entire council to succeed in begging Tsunade to finally heal Minato's injuries that even the best of the best medic-ninjas in the village couldn't heal.

The second the war officially ended, Tsunade would be out of the village too without anyone being able to stop her, no matter what kind of law or regulation they pull. No way was Rei having his sweet gentle Tsu in the village when Kyuubi gets ripped out of Kushina and this way it would at least be all legal rather than having Tsunade run away and depend on Hiruzen's softness for his students. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-the-conclusion-of-the-war_51191575446879060 for visiting.

Minato became the Fourth a week after his legs were finally pulled out of his ass, nobody said Tsunade was particularly merciful, and that meant Konoha had SS-rank ninja as the Kage and the God of Shinobi as someone who could move freely. Hokage, after all, could not leave the village for long periods of time either due to his administrative obligations or because he was the main protector of the village. But with Hiruzen no longer being the Hokage and his newfound ability to be sent into the field...

Yup, the war really ended in the favor of Konoha, now it only had to be officially doc.u.mented. No matter what Kumo would like to proclaim, they didn't have enough firepower to even utter a word against Konoha and other nations didn't either. In the end, Konoha once again prevailed as exceptional ninjas rose during the conflict, their path paved by the rivers of Konoha fresh blood. As usual...

And while the other nations were preparing to attend the treaty meeting, the Mizukage was preparing to attend the treaty meeting AND schemed one last stunt during this war. After all, no village would have their respective Kage in their village since every single one of them was heading to the Land of Iron shortly and as long as his plan happened before he put his signature on that damn paper saying the war was over, nobody could legally say anything to Kirigakure about being underhanded. As if he left the killing of Himeno unanswered.

Little did the Mizukage and the other leaders of villages knew... he was not the only one seeking to take advantage of Kageless villages.

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Chapter 130 - Ch130. Ichibi

Sunagakure was in turmoil.

Stormy clouds dark as night gathered above it, creating a sight never before seen in the village where rain never fell. The entire village was covered in a blanket of shadow, not even one ray of light getting through the clouds that sparkled and roared with barely contained lightning. The ninjas of Suna ran left and right, evacuating civilians, trying to find out what was happening, trying to find out whoever was responsible...

And then it started. Rainstorm fell like drops of water as big as eyeballs cropped the Sunagakure, desecrating its name as now the village looked more to be hidden in the flood of water.

"Karuhiko! What did you find out!?" Pakura screamed through the deafening sound of rain and lighting raging all around, not enjoying being literally bathed in water due to the rain. She even had to use water walking if she didn't want to have her feet ankle-deep in the water.

Karuhiko, one of the best sensors of Sunagakure was completely shaken. The water level was ever-so-slowly rising, and he really didn't want to find out what would happen once the lighting started raining down instead of staying in the clouds. Not when the entire village was flooded by water.

"I... The storm..." It was almost painful for him to convey his findings. "The storm is natural." He said, completely defeated.

Pakura's mood soured as she heard that. Natural... that meant no chakra was in the clouds or water... which meant there was no hope that defeating the caster would stop it. They couldn't even send Wind techniques at the clouds since they were too high up in the sky and their techniques wouldn't reach.

Pakura quickly created thirty small, marble-sized orbs of Scorch Release and moved them around her to evaporate the water in the hope to keep the flood-level down.

'No... there is no way this is natural!' Pakura thought in dismay. 'Who... Downpour.' It hit her. The only ninjas who could do this were Rei and Konan of Kiri. That was not so hard to realize considering only they were famous for such large-scale water attacks. 'But what is their goal?' Pakura desperately thought, sending even more small orbs of scorch style up in the air, vaporizing the water as it fell.

The village was now a mix of vapor that was constantly being riddled with big drops of water and reforming. The sizzling sound of evaporation fought with the deafening fall of the rain. The visibility was nil at best as the blanket of darkness, vapor, and water covered the Sunagakure. The civilians and ninjas alike shook in their boots from all the helplessness and despair... not knowing what to do.

Pakura quickly lost command. There was no way to coordinate men when her orders wouldn't go further than a few feet through all the noise around her. She couldn't even use sign language due to the abysmal visibility and vapor that covered the village like a mist. Unfortunately, Suna didn't have mind arts to connect with each other as the Yamanaka clan did and in this kind of situation, they were plainly f.u.c.k.i.e.d and Pakura knew it.

Forsaking the defense of the village for a second, Pakura thought what could be the attackers' goal as she continued creating small orbs of scorch to fight the heavy rain. It did create the current situation and maintained the utterly abysmal visibility but Pakura couldn't stop. That would mean letting the water-level increase. Considering there were natural walls of hardened sand around Sunagakure... letting the water-level rise could very well end with creating a lake where Sunagakure stood, completely flooding it. And even then Pakura couldn't create enough scorch balls to prevent the water-level rise completely. She was able to only slow it down. After all, the village was huge and Pakura could cover a few blocks at best. So... the water slowly rose, covering more and more of the village.

'This had to happen two days after the Kazekage left.' Pakura gritted her teeth but then it hit her. There was only one valuable thing Sunagakure had readily available. 'The bastards are after Ichibi!' Her eyes widened before hardening. Pushing half of her whole reserves into one massive orb, she guided it far up the sky above the village, and then, using her sheer knowledge of her village, she navigated through the thick vapor towards the main hidden treasury of the village where the Ichibi sealed into a jar was currently held.

...

Rei finished copying most of the high-level Jutsu scrolls and the sealing of ten percent of the Tanuki's chakra... and damn was the beast loudly cussing during the process. Rei would naturally leave the Ichibi for Suna as he did up till now. He only needed a sample of its chakra and honestly, he only took ten percent because the sand-f.u.c.k was just so annoyingly loud, Rei loved hearing the screaming cussing. For Ichibi, he even stopped mitigating the pain of chakra absorption after a few seconds in his presence.

'The sage of the six paths really must have liked them vulgar.' Rei shook his head in amus.e.m.e.nt.

He was about to walk away when... on instinct, Rei raised a Water Wall in time to intercept a ball of scorch release, sending superheated vapor all over the room before Rei blew it away with a burst of Wind Jutsu.

And there she was. The Hero of Sunagakure, Pakura of the Scorch Release. Gasping for air with wide eyes betraying how scared she was, meaning the subtle fright-inducing illusion seals inwoven into his black garbs worked, shivering despite the hot air just blowing past her, meaning the chilling illusion seals also worked, but determined to stop him.

'Cute...' Rei thought in amus.e.m.e.nt. The woman would clearly not give up despite being downright horrified and wanted nothing other than to faint.

"You won't steal Ichibi!" She cried out, barely capable of doing so without stuttering and two scorching balls appeared next to her shoulders before they flew at Rei, not even giving him time to answer.

"I think I already got what I wanted." Rei quipped and raised his hand in the direction of the incoming balls and...

All Pakura could see was white. The entire room was covered in... snow?

'How!?' She mentally shrieked, noticing her scorching balls freezing of all things and only then the change in temperature hit her as she barely heard Rei's whisper before she fainted from the mix of low temperature, fright, stress, and exhaustion.

"Snow Release: Snowfield."

Rei hummed as his new mix of Nature Energy, Wind, and Water Release covered the room in the blanket of white snow that had the ability to steadily bring the temperature lower and lower. The temperature in the room was getting chillier by the second and Pakura's body was horribly shivering despite her being unconscious. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-ichibi_51228359409066413 for visiting.

Rei could only sigh as he canceled the Snowfield. He didn't want to kill Pakura. If anything, she would be a nice addition to his future plans if Sunagakure betrayed her. He didn't want to be a rogue ninja for the rest of his days and the most prudent way to achieve freedom was to create a village. Modern-styled village, at that. No way would he do all the administrative work himself as the other Kages do. Pakura was up there with the most important people to secure for this plan so he couldn't just let her die.

Not to mention, he was quite impressed by her determination. Where others would flee with their tail between their legs, she stood her ground. The woman was… something else, Rei decided.

'I guess that kind of foolish bravery will have to be beaten out of her later on. Fighting a battle where she would surely die without even knowing if it was the only way… I am sure Mei would like to have her own apprentice in due time.' Rei chuckled, picking her up onto his shoulder before disappearing from the treasury room.

The clouds above the Sunagakure finally cleared, letting the ever-present desert sun warm shine on the village as the vapor slowly disappeared, leaving only glittering water flooding the village, reaching up to three meters in height. The civilians hiding on the highest floors and ninjas in the streets fell on their butts in relief, thanking whatever deity it was finally over and they survived.

Oddly enough, not even one casualty came from this ordeal.

On the floor of the highest building in the village, the Kazekage Tower, unconscious Pakura peacefully laid, right under a massive message carved into the roof. Its contents...

'The Yozora was here!'

Chapter 131 - Ch131. Yonbi

Roshi stared at the blue-haired woman in black garbs. Surprisingly, her attire had a hood that she decided not to use for whatever reason since she was clearly here to fight him if the slight chilling aura in the air was any indication. Roshi really couldn't understand. What he did understand, however, was his immediate need to get serious. The woman was standing there as if she was completely uninterested in him and yet, it was so obvious she was there for him.

'I can't read a damn thing from her body language!' Roshi mentally screamed. That was bad. That was a skill only the most skilled learned. The girl in front of him was bad news... was what the instincts that kept him alive for the past several decades and through two shinobi wars.

Alas, becoming old as shinobi was something that made Roshi quite arrogant.

"Whose way do you think you are crossing, kid?" He straightened up to add the additional inch to his already pitiful height and sneered. "I survived the God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, do you really think some pathetic upstart like you can block my way? Begone!" He said in a wizened old tone but the bluenette in front of him, much to his dismay, only tilted her head without even a single twitch in her expression.

"I am... that doesn't matter." Konan impassively stated. "Yes. I can block your way. In fact, I just did. You stopped, and I am blocking it." She said in a 'are you blind?' kind of even tone. "As for what I want... would you be amenable to parting with some of Yonbi's chakra? I can promise it will be quick and painful." She stated, her expression still ice cold but her piercing eyes staring straight through him.

Roshi's face darkened. 'Quick and painful? Part with Yonbi's chakra? This bitch wants to kill me? Ha! Not gonna happen!' He prepared for a battle.

'I hope this Iwakagure's pathetic imitation of Konoha's monkey has half-brain to comply. I am still not sure I can draw the chakra painlessly with me being completely talentless at using seals and the jinchuuriki chakra containment seal is quite complex.' Konan depressingly thought. It would be so much easier if the man relented and let her draw the small amount of chakra.

Neither noticed the misunderstanding between them growing.

"What do you need the chakra for anyway." Roshi tried to get a bit of information from his would-be assailant and Konan was impressed.

'So he can use brain? Hm, from what I saw of Iwa ninjas, that's a very rare ability, indeed!' She mentally praised. "Ah, we just want a sample. I doubt we have much of a use for it but having it wouldn't hurt. At worst, we can leave it to rot in storage."

'She wants to drain Yonbi's chakra from me, to kill me... without even knowing what to use the chakra for!? Rot in their storage!?' Call Roshi dramatic but that kind of death... he couldn't accept it!

The air became heavy.

"So this is just for some research subject not worth shit in your eyes?" He snarled, making Konan hum as she thought about it for ten seconds in complete silence.

"Pretty much..." She answered at last.

"Argh! F.u.c.k you! I won't die!" Roshi had enough and charged at Konan.

'Die? Who wants to kill you?' Was the only thing Konan could think of before she had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with obviously more experienced ninja in such discipline.

The fight continued as the two exchanged blows, Konan keeping on the defensive. By now, she was very proficient in deflecting and parrying blows. Many broken bones during spars with Tsunade taught her exactly how to redirect the force of a much stronger punch or kick than what Roshi could currently dish out.

From Roshi's point of view, he was winning, and winning easily at that. Sure, he might not have landed even one proper hit but the woman being pushed back without even a chance to retaliate! She was trying to get out of the deadlock of his furious punches with no luck! He was winning!

All the while Konan was frowning. 'How the heck do I activate the chakra draining seal?' She pondered in frustration, failing to do so for the 20th time during their taijutsu fight. 'Why the heck was I sent to do this!?' Konan mentally angrily huffed. Rei had to know about how stupidly untalented she was with seals. There was no way she could use, much less create complex seals. The only kind of seal she knew and could do was simple storage one and various kinds of explosive seals and that was quite enough in Konan's opinion!

Unfortunately for Konna, this was one of these instances where Rei wanted to show her she needs to pull her weight and start learning more about seals. Her suffering was appreciated. It was all for the Greater Good of the Sealing Arts, after all.

The fight continued and no matter how it seemed that Roshi was winning, the mental pressure on him was raising when even after minutes he still didn't, no... couldn't land even a glancing, much less a solid hit on the petite woman who was still looking at him utterly unimpressed without even breathing hard.

"Gah! I've had enough! Lava Release: Lava Stream!" Roshi spat out a river of lava right into Konan's face and jumped back onto a nearby tree as the ground disappeared under the searing orange liquid.

He watched as Konan's body started sinking into the flowing lava, her expression was still impassive which impressed him a lot considering how much pain she must have been in.

The top of her head finally disappeared under the lava and Roshi released a sigh of relief. "Well, that was a nice warm-up." He grinned but his grin fell almost instantly as the spot where Konan sunk suddenly erupted in a fiery explosion and the bluenette just apathetically walked out of the slowly solidifying lava.

"What? How!?" Roshi exclaimed, not believing his lava couldn't hurt her! Not even her clothes were signed!

Konan just rolled her eyes and fed more of her mix of water and earth chakra into her paper, water chakra countering the fire attribute of lava and her earth chakra overpowering Roshi's own. 'As if lava attacks could faze me after training Mei...' She suddenly froze. 'On second thought, that's probably why Rei sent me against this man. His attacks are primarily Lava-based. Hmm~, food for thought later, perhaps.' Konan relaxed and looked at Roshi. "You are really unlucky, you know? No matter what kind of Lava attack you use, I can just brush it off." She said in an apathetic tone with a hint of mocking pity which made Roshi mad.

He gritted his teeth and decided. 'Getting into Lava Chakra Mode might take a bit of my lifespan but for this bitch... I am quite willing!' Yonbi's Chakra erupted around him, enwrapping him in dark orange bubbles mixed with a light orange aura as the temperature around him rose to searing heights. He was about to gloat, trying to unnerve his enemy when he froze, noticing a small and calm, barely present smile on his opponent's face.

And then... nothing. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-yonbi_51251537753733391 for visiting.

Konan deadpanned, looking at the idiot who actually went into Bijuu Chakra Mode knowing there is somebody trying to get his chakra, meaning somebody knowing seals. Naturally, Rei would never send her against full Bijuu, not because he thought she couldn't take it but because he would loathe to endanger her. Konan's first order was to get a seal that would knock her opponent out the second he tried using Bijuu chakra in their fight.

"I see... Rei added something-something to his anti-bijuu seal." Konan slowly started giggling, watching as Roshi's body slowly morphed into a female. "So this is the added function of providing a month of despairing doom he was talking about." She calmly nodded, her lips still twitching upwards as she kneeled next to the newly-changed redhead. It took her about a half-hour of trying until she finally managed to siphon Yonbi's chakra... needless to say, by the time she was finished, Konan was utterly peeved and needed some much-deserved relief.

"I was told to leave a message... hmm~." Konan's eyes gleefully glinted in a mischievous light that didn't spell anything good for poor Roshi.

Poor lad, ahem, gal, gained a new tattoo right across her chest saying...

'Yozora was here.'

For the following month, Roshi hid in a forest and refused to show his new feminine charm due to shame. To his complete delight, after a month he finally changed back into being male but something stayed the same. For some reason, his female self was unlocked and Roshi felt weird and...

Yozora... was still there.

Until the end of his days, Roshi never went to public baths anymore.

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Chapter 132 - Ch132. Nanabi

Tsunade stood with her arms crossed under her chest and her face hidden deep under the hood of her black cloak, staring at the slowly gathering ninjas of Hidden Waterfall Village. Sure, maybe challenging the entire village by her lonesome self via breaking the legs and arms of some arrogant s.e.xist jonins did not give her the best first impressions but she was a woman on a mission.

Rei wanted her to 'show Takigakure they are weak to protect jinchuuriki' were his words. Tsunade had no idea why exactly he cared enough and not just ordered her to sneak in, break some skulls, take the chakra from the utterly defenseless newborn who wouldn't even notice, and discreetly leave without leaving even a single trail but she was not complaining, alright?

She was missing a good fight and one versus a minor village was as good of a fight as she could get since Konan's earth-hardened paper rain was simply too strong to overcome for her and Mei was not yet on the level to give her a proper challenge.

'Oh, the woes of mine...' Tsunade amusedly shook her head, astonished that such arrogant thoughts passed through it. When she was a teenager, she would have never thought she would end like this. A man she adored, a place she could call home, a family that always had her back whether emotionally or physically if needed, and tons of love, s.e.x, and cozy welcoming feeling. It was really something dear to her since she never felt like that growing up as one of the last members of the fabled Senju clan, something she would fight to the bitter end for.

"So? Are you finally gathered?" Tsunade asked the man in front of her, the supposed leader of the village, in a highly impatient tone while tapping her foot on the floor. She was waiting for a half-hour already, dammit!

No answer.

The Taki ninjas were quiet and stared at her dumbly.

'Well...' Tsunade awkwardly shuffled. 'Maybe coming here to attack them and then wait for them to gather their forces and evacuate the civilians right in the middle of the village center might have come out as stupid.'

"Yes... we are ready. Thank you for waiting." The Taki leader awkwardly nodded, not knowing how to feel about his current situation. Frankly, he could see his fellow ninjas were also utterly baffled and had no idea what exactly was going on. Were they attacked? If so then why the f.u.c.k was their attacker just standing in front of them, waiting? Was this some kind of joke to the clearly feminine figure? Needless to say, anger sparkled in most Taki ninjas at the arrogance shown to them.

"Well then, what are you waiting for!? Come at me!" Tsunade loudly exclaimed, letting her hands fall from under her chest to freely hang alongside her body and crouched slightly while spreading away her legs in a taijutsu stance.

At her shout, all hell broke loose.

The Taki ninjas leaped at her, kunais blazing, shurikens swishing through the air, only for the projectiles to be sent flying away alongside the first line of the Taki ninjas. Nevertheless, the army of Waterfall didn't get discouraged as the air started to become full of powerlessly sailing bodies of their comrades whenever a squad approached the invader.

Tsunade stood her ground, not moving even an inch from her position, using her arms and hands to redirect every weapon, deflect every projectile, throw every exploding tag into the air, punch away every ninja who approached while doing it lightly enough to not kill anyone.

Genins, Chunins, and Jonins alike rammed into her defenses, trying to engage her in hand-to-hand combat while overwhelming her with their numbers, only to despair when they noticed they were unable to make her take even one step back as she still somewhat relaxedly stood in her initial place.

Blocking a punch, grabbing a wrist, throwing her opponent into the air, away from her. Using her elbow to hit a forearm of incoming punch to steer it away from her body, clench the collar of her opponent, and throw him into her another would-be assailant, causing both to be out of commission. Letting a kick land on her stomach, smirking at how her clearly jonin-level opponent flinched as the bones in his leg rattled due to the impact, grabbing his ankle and using him as a club to bat away three other opponents before also throwing the half-unconscious man away.

Tsunade was brutal and efficient, her steel-like body not even feeling the blows she allowed to land thanks to the mixture of Rei's technique of melding Nature energy into the body and her own Sage Arts. Not that the barely noticeable black highlights around her eyes would be noticed to be as anything else than an eyeliner even if she didn't wear the hood.

Since she started using Sage Arts, Tsunade felt her body becoming nigh impenetrable. 'Except for Rei, of course... hehe.' She daydreamed, grateful for the hood hiding her blush and small nosebleed as she distractedly bated away yet another jonin, breaking a bit more of his bones than she initially wanted.

Seeing the poor man, the Taki ninjas stopped their vain attempt at attacking her and retreated, creating a distance between them and Tsunade who didn't move even an inch since the start.

Seeing she is not interested in moving, the Taki leader gritted his teeth. He asked her for an nth time what she desired to achieve by doing this before the fight started but she always only shrugged, saying she came here to play with them!

"What the hell do you want!" He shouted agitatedly. This was his village! Not some playground for bored monsters!

"You want me gone?" Tsunade teasingly asked, leaning forward which would normally show her cleavage, and make the man into a stuttering fool. A second later, she frowned when the Taki leader just nodded seriously without even trailing his gaze towards her cleavage before she slightly stiffened and suddenly felt an urge to facepalm. 'I am clad in a full-body black cloak! Of course, seduction would not work... Stupid!' Not that Tsunade ever received training in seduction but as a kunoichi, she clearly learned a few tricks on how to make a man not pay attention. "If you want me gone so bad... Wanna make a bet?" Her love for gambling showed.

The Taki leader frowned. "What would be the stakes?" He was aware there is no way out of this situation than indulging the kunoichi in front of them.

"You throw everything you can on me for five minutes. Any Jutsu or technique. As long as you can make me move even an inch from my place, you win and I leave.", 'After I get the chakra of Nanabi, of course,' Tsunade added in her mind, "but if I win and don't move, I want to see the child with Nanabi sealed inside of it." She quickly saw the reluctance of the Taki leader and so she decided to force him to accept through his subordinates. "You know, until now I never went for a fatal hit. Not one of your subordinates is dead yet. I think it would really be in your best interest to comply with my bet." She shrewdly voiced out with a teasing tone that caused a shiver to run up the spine of every single Taki ninja present. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-nanabi_51281549089359214 for visiting.

Not long after that, the second round started.

Technique after technique rained onto Tsunade in hundreds and she decided to get at least mildly serious...

Wind Jutsus... were blown away by the wind pressure of her punches.

Fire Jutsus... were stifled by the violent winds generated by her punches before they could even approach her.

Water Jutsus... were dispersed as the water was sent flying away, yet again by the pressurized winds of Tsunade's punches.

Earth Jutsus... an earthquake-causing stomp was enough to snuff out any chakra in the ground that could potentially endanger her winning the bet.

Honestly, three minutes in, and the Taki ninjas knew they were utterly outclassed when they saw the nonchalance of their enemy, punching the air and completely mitigating whatever Jutsu they threw at her.

At the last minute of the contest, the Taki ninjas just shook their heads in exasperation, knowing they lost.

Ever so reluctantly, the Taki leader presented baby Fuu, making Tsunade coo at the small girl which caused the baby girl to giggle and prompted Tsunade to swoon even more. This in return made all the frustrated Taki ninjas lower their heads in shame when they saw Tsunade take a step forward to get a better look at the girl.

'Defeated by a baby not even a month old!' They wanted to cry.

Tsunade really liked the chocolate-skinned baby. She was cute but that didn't stop her from discreetly activating the Bijuu chakra draining seal hidden on the palm of her hand as she put it on the girl's stomach, tickling her. Five seconds later, Tsunade had the sample for Rei without anyone noticing.

'I wonder how long it would take Konan to do this. I bet paper-brain would have to rely on angering the Yonbi Jinchuuriki in order to activate the knock-out seal.' Tsunade chuckled.

She knew how Jinchuuriki are normally treated and since she quite liked the small baby girl, Tsunade turned towards the Taki ninjas. "You will treat the girl right. I don't want to hear about any physical abuse. If you don't like her, don't bother with her. But you won't beat her up nor will you stand still seeing she is physically abused. And god help you if I hear she was r.a.p.ed in this village because, at that moment, the annihilation of Takigakure will be assured. Do I make myself clear?" She threatened, releasing some of her killing intent that silenced any possible protest and made the Taki ninjas take a step back. Only now the fact that the woman was really a monster was hammered down. The killing intent was almost inhuman in their opinion!

Tsunade worked hard to intertwine her killing intent with her Senjutsu Chakra, making it even more terrific, after all.

The Taki ninjas only very reluctantly agreed to her demand so Tsunade added something. "If you really can't come to love and accept the girl when she is about to become a genin, I will come and take her away. My visit was more to show you how utterly outclassed you are and how her presence could be a threat to the village since you don't have the strength to protect her."

'And just like that, I made my plan to take the girl under my wing when she is a teenager acceptable.' Tsunade grinned before silently disappearing.

The only indication the Takigakure was ever invaded were the various marks of Jutsu all around on the surrounding buildings. The Taki leader let out a relieved, stressed, and tired sigh before his eyes narrowed as he spotted something written in front of him, right on the spot the woman was standing during the fight. He actually had to take a step back to see it since the writing was quite big.

After he read it, he blinked. Then blinked again. And then let out an exasperated groan when he recognized the ground was marked by almost unremovable Earth Jutsu.

The writing stated...

'Yozora was here!'

Chapter 133 - Ch133. Nibi

Kumogakure was quite busy this time of the year. It was the harvest season and that, for a mountain village like Kumo, meant their ninjas run back and forth between bodyguarding, bandit extermination, and supply delivering missions for farmers and various traders going and coming to sell their crops. It didn't help the situation that the Raikage left some days prior to the peace treaty. While the ninjas were grumbling about signing such a worthless piece of paper that eventually meant nothing, the civilians were quite happy. Alas, it was happiness brought by ignorance. Not that the ninjas would enlighten the civilians about it.

If anything, the Raikage wanted nothing more than to storm Kirigakure in revenge for the death of his beloved. To kill every single man and woman from Kiri who was part of the Nagori Isles invasion. To kill Ringo Ameyuri who was the commander...

His rage was legendary after that mission. He single-handedly reduced an entire mountain to rubble and cemented the public opinion on his position as the Third Raikage's successor. What many didn't know, however, A was also afraid.

Afraid of Rei of Kiri, the monster that man-handled him and Killer B as if they were children.

Mei, wearing a straw hat and a bit battered old-looking civilian clothes, merrily strolled through the gate to Kumo, not even being stopped by the guards since she was just one of the numerous children of farmers coming and going to help their parents to sell the crops. As long as they couldn't feel chakra from her, everything was just peachy.

Just like that, Mei infiltrated Kumogakure. Through the front gate, inwardly snickering that Rei's chakra hiding technique and some old clothes were all she needed to get in.

'But really, the Kumogakure is incredibly beautiful.' Mei looked up the houses built either on the tops or on the sides of the mountain and the bridges connecting them. It was an ethereal sight and she really believed no other village could surpass Kumo when it came to the natural beauty of the place. 'Not really it has anything on Rei's dimension though...' Mei scoffed and turned to enter a side alley.

Apparently, that was not such a bright idea since the second she was far enough, five thugs who obviously followed her into the alley blocked her path. They were about to open their l.u.s.t-fully grinning mouths but... Mei couldn't really be bothered. Five kunais and five thuds later, she was again on her way, deeper into the alley.

When she decided she was sufficiently out of sight and nobody followed her...

"Boil Release: Steam Clone Jutsu."

The air thickened until a small amount of smoke soundlessly burst out, not unlike when someone creates a shadow clone, but unlike shadow clones, this smoke didn't reveal a body, rather it gathered into a smoke-like figure of Mei.

"Here," Mei handed each clone a pouch with a set of hundred spying seals which the clones quickly absorbed into themselves, causing it to sink into the smoke. "put this all over the village. Especially in restricted areas." Mei ordered and the five figures vanished as if dissipating.

'Ha! Who said I can't be subtle! Take that Konan!' Mei smirked, remembering Konan's distraught expression when she showed the woman this sneaky use of her Steam Clones. They can dissipate into the air, becoming wisps of barely noticeable chakra, and get wherever they want, capable of squeezing themselves even through the smallest of crevices. The only thing capable of showing them were incredibly strong seals... which meant Mei's clones were much, much better than Konan's when it came to sneaking around.

Needless to say, Konan's eyebrow twitched for days on end, much to Mei's delight, when that little tidbit became clear. And then... much to Mei's displeasure, Konan came with the marvelous idea of... 'let Mei take care of the spy network!'... and just like that, the tables turned and now it was Mei who was perpetually scowling and Konan who was smirking like a loon at her suffering.

After all, Mei hated sneaking around. Melting something? Easy. Bathing enemies in lava? Sure! Drowning somebody? Fun... But sneaking around? Nu-uh! Having hundreds of clones sit around in a room, shifting through the material on spying? Bleh. Maintaining a spy network? No. Freaking. Way!

Fortunately or unfortunately, Rei intervened, and Konan stayed in charge of the spy network while Mei became the person who was tasked to spread the spying seals. Not that it lessened the playfully condescending smirks of Konan that threw into Mei's face that insufferable message of 'I am still more useful to Rei!' Konan liked to subtly portray.

Despite everything, Mei could only wistfully smile as she really couldn't imagine her life without these small rivalries between herself and her sisters.

Hours passed quickly while Mei toured the civilian-accessible parts of Kumogakure, trying out the local cuisine, getting to know some people, and just eavesdropping to get some information while she waited for her steam clones to be finished. Finally, three hours later, all five hundred spying seals were installed, no one from Kumo the wiser.

'And now, the last part of my mission.' Mei nodded to herself and used a SelfWithdrawing seal her clone put near her target.

...

Yugito Nii was a twelve-year-old and already a ninja of Kumo for two years. She was not like Uncle B despite knowing they were the same. He was a hero while she was mocked. He was the right-hand man of the Raikage while she...

Her throat hitched as she remembered her unpleasant memories and the slashes of her sword became faster, more ferocious, scarring the poor wooden dummy on the empty training ground far away from the village.

She wanted to run. Slash. She wanted to prove herself being useful. Slash. She wanted to gain respect. Slash. She wanted to be treated normally. Slash. She wanted to get stronger. Slash. She wanted her suffering to stop. Slash. She wanted many things but...

That was when an amused snort woke her from her anger-induced rampage. "You really love slashing things up, don't you? You would get along well with our resident sword loon." A feminine voice alerted Yugito to the presence of somebody unknown to her.

Her body instantly tensed as she quickly turned around only to blink when she spotted a bit older auburn-haired girl in civilian clothes. Worse yet, the girl didn't seem like a ninja. Her posture was far too relaxed and lazy. She didn't give off that tense feeling other ninjas do. She was a perfect picture of a harmless civilian.

"Who are you and how did you get here? This place is off-limits." Yugito evenly warned only to get a pointed and piercing look from the girl. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-nibi_51312350178896419 for visiting.

"Oh~, is that so? Fine," The girl uncaringly shrugged. "I am Mei, by the way." She sat down into the grass and Yugito barely prevented herself from gaping. The civilian girl just completely ignored her warning! "If you don't introduce yourself I will call you Grrr-chan, ya know? Since you were growling at the poor wooden dummy."

That pulled Yugito out of her reverie. "I am Nii Yugito, genin of Kumogakure." She nodded but totally ignored the girl when she patted the patch of grass next to her, signaling Yugito to sit. Yugito just stood a few feet in front of the girl, prepared for a fight.

"You can call me Mei. I came here because I am interested in you." Mei stated with a hum in her tone, causing Yugito to flinch and almost take a step back due to how intensely Mei's eyes trialed over her body. "I see you were trained on what it means to be a kunoichi from an early age." Mei lightly said, a bit of... a feeling Yugito couldn't quite put her finger on... in her tone.

"Yes, I have trained since I became six years old." Yugito nodded. It was not like the entrance age to Kumo Academy was a secret.

Mei only snorted derisively at that. "I am not talking about that." She shot Yugito a knowing look that made Yugito's breath hitch, and her body tense. She took a step back while taking a stance with her sword, preparing to pounce at Mei at any indication of hostility. The girl might look, seem, smell, even feel like a civilian but Yugito now knew the girl was certainly NOT just a civilian.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Yugito stated and Mei raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why are you taking a battle stance, then?" She asked with apparent amus.e.m.e.nt, causing Yugito to scold herself. "You really are only a kid..." Mei chuckled, making Yugito irritated at being called a kid. "But tell me... how long are they raping you?"

As if a bucket of cold water was poured over Yugito. "I... I ha-... no idea..." She sputtered, her mind a complete mess while she tried to make herself appear small as her body uncontrollably shook. That was something she desperately tried to hide and not even her teammates knew about.

Mei just gave the poor girl a pitying look. 'Female jinchuuriki... I should have expected this, shouldn't I?' Mei wistfully lamented. She thought Kumo would treat the girl properly due to Killer B but, apparently not. 'And here I wanted to just come here, grab some of Nibi's chakra and be on my merry way...' She sighed in irritation.

"Stop!" Mei's firm voice rang through the training ground, stopping the distraught Nibi Jinchuuriki in her tracks as she fearfully looked at Mei. "I was spat on, stepped on, beaten, starved, cursed, had rocks thrown at me, and the only thing that saved me from being r.a.p.ed is my master. Quite honestly, I thought you would avoid that fate since Killer B is so famous and seen as a protector of the village." Mei tilted her head in a pondering manner and Yugito could only listen, unable to tear her eyes away from her. "Hmm... I see, it was the war, wasn't it?" Yugito flinched, "Neither Killer B nor A could watch over you so the people who didn't like you had easy access and a free hand to do whatever they wanted with you. Typical... If I had to guess, it was Kumo Councilmen who love to abuse you, no? That's why you have to keep your mouth shut or face the consequences." Mei slowly guessed what exactly happened to Yugito.

Yugito started shaking again and tightly closed her eyes only to feel herself being gently hugged, something she never felt before. It didn't take even a second for Mei to feel Yugito melting into the embrace, creating a sour taste in Mei's mood. "I am Mei of Kiri," Yugito's eyes shot wide at that, "I can protect you and give you a home where you will be appreciated. The question is... Do you want to be protected?"

Mei reached her hand towards the crying Yugito in a silent offer.

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Chapter 134 - Ch134. A stray cat

Rei looked at the sheepish Mei and the quiet shy-looking quivering blond girl she dragged into his dimension.

"Care to run that by me again, Mei?" He asked, blankly blinking at his second apprentice slash soon-to-be-lover slash current pain in the ass.

"Uh... you see, Yugito needed home and I thought... you know." Mei briefly glanced at Rei's face, noticing his unreadable expression, and lowered her head again.

"So... you basically stole a jinchuuriki from Kumo." Konan pointed with an amused tone.

Yugito suddenly found herself staring at the floor while fidgeting. She knew taking Mei's offer is basically treason which is certain death. She also knew that despite it looking like she was kidnapped, the Kumo Council would just spin their usual bullshit and put the blame on her. Not to kill her, but to gain even more hold of her. She hated them to her core. But... she didn't want to inconvenience Mei, one of the very few people who were nice to her.

Sure, Killer B was nice to her and tried to look out for her but he was always away, fighting on the front lines. A, B's surrogate brother, was also trying to be nice to her but Yugito knew it was more because of B rather than out of his own volition. She was not that close to either of them and that's why she accepted Mei's proposal. There was just nobody genuinely waiting for her in Kumo.

"Hey! Rei wanted a sample of her chakra. Now, here she is," Mei gestured to Yugito who looked between her and Rei in complete shock. "I would say I fulfilled the mission requirement better than anyone!" Mei gave Konan a defiant stare.

"And by doing that you most likely utterly pissed the Raikage off. Please, at least tell me you didn't leave the mark behind." Rei asked hopefully.

"Uh... no? I made sure to mark the entire training ground with the 'Yozora was here' mark." Mei tilted her head confusingly, causing Rei to facepalm. "You know what?" He drawled tiredly, "F.u.c.k the Raikage. Anyway," He turned towards the fearful Yugito, "welcome to our home." He smiled ruffling the girl's hair which made her flinch and Konan and Rei suddenly understood why exactly Mei dragged Yugito back with her.

'I guess a sudden contact with a man will be a bit too much for her in the following weeks. It will take a bit to get the mental trauma out of her.' Rei turned towards Mei. "Since you brought in the stray cat, you will feed, bathe, and train her." He told her jokingly, making Konan snicker while Mei looked as if she just ate a lemon. She didn't consider who would take care of Yugito. She definitely didn't think it would be her... "Consider her your pet and your first apprentice." Rei quipped and turned around to leave Mei's room alongside Konan who was mirthfully snickering at Mei's predicament.

The two left and the room descended to complete awkward silence.

"Uh... am I a bother?" Yugito asked unsurely only for Mei to drop back onto her bed and bounce up and down for a bit with an audible groan.

"No..." Mei answered with a pout. "I have no clue how you interpreted that but if you were a bother Rei would have thrown you out, no questions asked. That was basically him allowing you to stay here. I just..." Mei grew silent only to let out a frustrated yell and started flailing her arms in the air, startling Yugito for a moment. Her frustration finally dropping, Mei calmed down and continued, breathing a bit harder than usual, "I am just angry at myself for not considering who would take care of you. I could have pinned you on Konan if I did." Mei sullenly said.

'So I am a bother...' Yugito sweatdropped while also feeling a sinking feeling in her stomach as sadness overcame her. 'Even here nobody wants me.' She bit her lower lip.

"It would have been infinitely better for you," Mei continued a bit miffed at saying that, causing Yugito to stop her self-pitying and snap her gaze back to Mei who still laid on her bed. "Konan trained me, Konan trained Ringo, Konan trained Tsun... ahem," Mei coughed, "my second sister Tsu. Only Tsu can match Konan when it comes to the women here and even that is only when Konan is not using some of her Jutsu. Being in Konan's care would give you the best training available. That's why I wanted to pin you on her." Mei explained and Yugito's heart warmed as her eyes widened at being told Mei thought about what would be best for her.

"This Konan... is she... Konan of Kiri?" Yugito asked unsurely. The woman looked around eighteen at best and definitely didn't seem to be somebody who tore Kumo fleet to shreds by herself, brutally killing thousands in the process. Nor did she look like someone whose specialty was drowning people alongside their own castles.

"Yes... she is the strongest one of us women here." Mei huffed.

"But I thought you gained your SS-rank sooner?" Yugito tilted her head. Mei's story about how she decimated the Iwa army of ten thousand mercenaries and over five hundred ninjas was legendary. Sure, many versions were outright retarded but still! Mei's fame was a big factor in why Yugito took the offer of protection. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-a-stray-cat_51324892020268913"#.-a-stray-cat_51324892020268913/a for visiting.

"And who do you think trained me, duh..." Mei rolled her eyes, causing Yugito to avert her eyes in shame but for the first time since she entered Rei's dimension, a small smile appeared on her lips. "Konan can be a bitch sometimes. Especially during training. I might want to one-up her to satisfy my vindictive pettiness," Mei acknowledged that very easily, too easily in Yugito's opinion, "but I look up to her, you know? She is like a mother I never had to me." Mei quietly added with a nostalgic smile.

Yugito didn't know what to do in this emotional situation and did the only thing she knew would calm her if she was distraught. She unsurely walked towards Mei, dragging herself above her on all four as the girl still laid on her bed, and then Yugito suddenly hugged the surprised Mei whose arms sn.a.k.e.d around Yugito's torso, both enjoying the comforting feeling of their embrace.

"Ne~... wanna be friends, Yu-chan?" Mei suddenly said, causing Yugito to frown at her new nickname.

"Hm." Yugito made what she later deemed to be at the same time the best and the worst mistake in her life... she agreed.

"Good! That means I will have to train you so I won't be embarrassed by your strength! I wonder if Ringo would like a sparring partner..."

The poor stray cat had no idea what was in store for her in the future.

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Chapter 135 - Ch135. Sanbi 1

The next day came and Yugito was settling in well.

Unfortunately, the operation to round up the remaining samples of bijuu chakra couldn't wait despite the surprising addition of Yugito. Yesterday, Konan acquired Yonbi's chakra, Rei got hold of Ichibi's chakra, Tsunade took a liking to the Nanabi girl and got some of her chakra while Mei brought in a freaking Nibi jinchuuriki...

Now only Sanbi, the most important of the bunch, remained.

Why was he the most important?

Because Rei wholly believed in using whatever waves Akatsuki will create in the future to provide yet another cover for his next steps. For that, Sanbi had to go to Yagura. Well, there might or might not be a scheme of Rei... or two involved in that but details aside, even the messages of 'Yozora was here' were basically just warnings to other villages that Yozora can threaten them... at least, that's what the villages would see, and partially, that was really their purpose.

But Rei had something else in mind when he asked his girls to relay this message after their tasks are done. These messages were a direct provocation to other small gatherings of strong ninjas...

Groups such as...

Nah, there was no other group than Akatsuki like that. Or will be, since Akatsuki was not yet created.

Anyway, the problem with these mercenary underworld organizations was rather simple. They mostly relied on a good reputation, especially at the start. Akatsuki needed to be the best in the underground sphere to gather sufficient funds. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-sanbi-1_51325631828392696"#.-sanbi-1_51325631828392696/a for visiting.

So, Rei thought hard and long, basically from lunch to brunch, and at the end of his enlightenment, he found a very simple solution to the equation. He just had to create his own organization and make it famous. Not through mission success rate, rather through attacking other villages or their strong ninjas. Humiliate a village here, poke a jinchuuriki there, perhaps show a middle finger to the Raikage and voila, Yozora would be famous.

As for attacking jinchuuriki, Rei knew it had no relevance as of yet but later? When Obito finally becomes dead set on Project Moon-Eye? Oh, Rei would pay a fortune to see the expression of the future Obito when he finds out that some group called Yozora was in possession of the Nibi jinchuuriki and that they attacked some other jinchuuriki as well. When the boy finally realizes he has competition...

Better yet, once Yozora gained notoriety, Akatsuki would have to step up their game in order to get more funds so Rei hoped they would come to light sooner than in canon and other nations would focus on them. He certainly planned to help this to happen as best he could. Not that it would be so hard since he knew Akatsuki were a bunch of arrogant self-centered pricks.

Meaning they would never rest until they claim first place in the notoriety.

Rei decided they could have it and he would even give some intel on them at the right time to the right people. The more eyes on them, the less on him.

Nobody could say he was not generous!

...

"I feel bad for the girl." Tsunade impassively said, looking at the cave where Rin was screaming bloody murder as the Sanbi was in the process of being stuffed into her.

It was already evening so she found a spare minute to visit Rei, Konan, and Mei observing the place while Ringo was preparing herself. This was her mission.

"She could have been a good medic if only she learned how to freaking fight. Stupid fangirl of that Kakashi boy. All she knows is healing which is nice but utterly useless in the field if you are captured in a second." Tsunade brutally summed up Rin's situation, not leaving the girl any dignity left.

Sure, Tsunade wanted to see at least one medic on a team but that didn't mean she would suffer an incompetent medic ninja who could not even properly throw a kunai. If there was something Tsunade hated more than people who dismissed her, it was medic ninjas who didn't train to fight and kill.

"I am ready." Ringo suddenly said, clad in her own black cloak with a hood and two chakra metal swords strapped on her waist.

She was doing some serious observation for the last hour. Rei and the girls got the prime seats to watch how one of the best assassins of Kiri worked. And even Rei had to agree that he didn't put as much thought or consider as many angles as Ringo did when planning on executing an attack on the enemy base. It was both weird and gratifying to see that Ringo learned something useful even after her apprenticeship to him ended.

Rei had set up some observation seals inside the cave... how, not even Ringo who meticulously watched it knew, but thanks to them, he and his girls sans Ringo, who was currently sneaking closer towards her first target, the two guards at the entrance, could see what was happening inside without actually having to leave the comfortable nearby hill.

"Atta girl, Ringo made yet another two lads lose their heads!" Mei exclaimed, watching two heads fall towards the ground and Ringo catching them before they finalize the fall and gently placing them on the ground. She then fluidly caught the falling bodies and soundlessly dragged them into the bushes before also depositing the heads there.

"Yeah, well... that was fast." Rei nodded. Ringo's movement of preventing bodies from creating any sound was certainly well-practiced. Even he doubted he could do as well as she due to the sole reason of him not really having the needed muscle memory for it. Obviously, by now, Ringo was doing it on instinct alone.

Rei then snapped his fingers, activating the observation seal and a hologram-like structure of the cave appeared on the right side while a screen appeared on the left side in the air.

The girls gawked at it, seeing something like that only in cinemas and Rei smirked. 'It is so easy to impress.' He shook his head.

While this world had Televisions, in fact, his Biri-Biri Company sold the best of them, they were not really that widespread nor 'modern' so seeing such a screen was something of a novelty for the girls. 'Well, that just means I will have to add television to the house in the dimension. Maybe we could have a nice evening with popcorn while watching movies together?'

Rei stopped thinking about it when he noticed Ringo bypassing the first line of defense, starting to take care of the chunins from behind.

"Let's see what is in our newest member, shall we?" Konan calmly said with a slight trusting smile.

"Hmph, it's not like this is hard for Ringo. This mission is actually right up her alley! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?" Mei snorted, crossing her arms. She wanted to end this quickly by 'smoking' the Kiri ninjas out but Rei put a quick stopper to that so she was now a bit butt-hurt.

Tsunade just watched in amus.e.m.e.nt, not really knowing Ringo's skillset or ability all that well due to her spending much of her time in Konoha. She stayed quiet and just observed.

Rei sighed. He liked Ringo and didn't like her endangering herself before she was deemed strong enough by him... alas, the woman wanted to prove herself and here they were... His gaze sharpened when she finally felled the last chunin in the first line of defense. While he was impressed she didn't alert anyone, Rei knew this was just a start.

"This is where the real challenge begins..."

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Chapter 136 - Ch136. Sanbi 2

Ringo released a sigh of relief as she laid the body of the last chunin in the first defense line soundlessly on the ground. She could feel how rusty she became at this during the years of war and the half-year she spent in the Uzu Islands with Rei. Normally, she would not even feel weary but now... now she was actually a bit annoyed because her instincts were a bit delayed. She almost alerted the enemy to her presence on three separate occasions, which was unforgivable in her opinion.

'The more I train with Mei, the louder in my approach I become. Sigh, that girl is really a very bad influence on me, isn't she?' Ringo bitterly smiled, walking up the wall until she crouched upside down on the ceiling, sneaking deeper into the cave.

'Rei said the Rin-woman managed to run away but I see no way she could do such a thing with all these ninjas around. The Mizukage must be bonkers if he really wants to unleash Sanbi in Konoha. Sure, some tree-huggers would die but Konoha would gain Sanbi which in turn would surely be an unimaginable loss in the opinion of the Council. What is the old coot thinking he is doing?'

Ringo mulled over the actions of the Third Mizukage as she silently walked on the ceiling, high above the heads of Kiri jonin. It was quite easy to avoid any and all sentries when she knew the protocols and how Kiri trained their jonins and ANBU to counter this exact way of infiltration. Hence, it didn't take long for Ringo to be behind the second line of defense, the one manned by jonins. She turned around and started looking for lone targets.

Ringo knew she would be unable to terminate every jonin and ANBU but the success of her mission depended on the number of Kiri ninjas she would be able to dispatch without anyone noticing. She only needed to thin the proverbial herd in order to create an opening for herself.

After three minutes of searching, Ringo scored. She found two jonin going at it like rabbits in a remote area of the cave. Needless to say, the man and woman could only look at each other in shock as her sword ran them both through.

'I am really good at connecting people's hearts, am I not?' Ringo smirked but it didn't last long before she noticed the man pissed himself as he died... right into the woman and Ringo grimaced. 'I didn't need to see that to lead a happy life.'

Ringo hopped onto the ceiling again and searched some more through the jonin area.

Her next target was two men playing cards in a room sculpted into stone. Obviously, these were the highest-ranked jonins since they were here only to observe and command. Not like it helped them when Ringo appeared crouching on the table and before they could even widen their eyes, each of her two swords removed one head. Thankfully she didn't need to worry about the sound of falling bodies since they were in a quite remote area of the cave system.

"These chakra hiding and self-soundproof seals of Rei are plain cheating." Ringo pouted a bit before gathering all valuables, weapons, and exploding tags from the corpses. Not like they would actually need them anymore.

Ringo proceeded with her mission. Creating a lighting clone to kill via quick shock, wrapping her fist in lighting chakra and ramming it from the back through the chest of one ninja, using her swords for quick kills, or simply throwing a shuriken or kunai at a vital place fast enough for her victim to be unable to react... She managed to kill twelve Kiri jonin out of thirty-six. She counted... Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-sanbi-2_51374236362655425"#.-sanbi-2_51374236362655425/a for visiting.

Honestly, not everything was that smooth. Many of them noticed something off but thankfully her instincts and experience were good enough for her to dispatch them before they alerted others.

But...

"Now the hardest part, huh?" Ringo frowned.

She knew ANBU were specially trained for this. She also knew she could not keep the fact that some jonin disappeared hidden for long. Moreover, she had no idea what kind of tracking Jutsu bullcrap would the ANBU have. For all she knew, they might already be alerted to her presence and preparing despite the jonin being utterly oblivious. After all, only very skilled trackers can ever make it into Hunter Squads of Kiri ANBU, and that most of the time means some special type of Jutsu for such things.

Ringo moved towards the ANBU area, this time not on the ceiling because she knew the ANBU would be too careful for her to let her sneak on the ceiling. While the jonins were occasionally looking up, the ANBU would have hidden sentries posted even on the ceiling and the walls. In fact, it was a standard procedure.

'This might be a bit of pain in the ass...' Ringo mentally grumbled as she spotted no less than four ANBU guarding every single of the three entrances to the third and final defense line in the cave.

Two stood right in the middle of the corridor while one was above them on the ceiling, hiding in the shadows... but it was the last ones who worried Ringo. They were hardest to find for the sole reason of being members of the Hozuki clan which meant they hid in a puddle of water near the wall slightly behind the two ANBU guards standing in the corridor.

'If I want to get through I will have to either soundlessly kill the guy on the ceiling in a way that won't alert anybody... bah, that's impossible!' Ringo whined.

This set-up was incredibly well thought out. The guy on the ceiling watched the entire corridor from above, and that meant he had his eyes always planted on the two 'obvious' guards below him. The guy in the puddle however served more as an ambusher for any idiot who made it this far and was incompetent enough to not spot an unnatural puddle on the ground.

No laughing! It actually happened more often than not in the shinobi world!

The real problem was the puddle guy had a clear line of sight on the guy on the ceiling at any given moment. Meaning no matter who Ringo attacked, the other three would be alerted the second she showed up.

After ten minutes of observation and consideration, Ringo decided to go for the middle path.

The guys on the left one looked a tad bit too familiar with each other... not due to how they acted but due to how deceptively relaxed they were in each other's presence. ANBU never took their guard down, not even towards other ANBU but the guys there trusted the others which meant they had a fair share of missions together under their belt which in turn meant their teamwork was better which... would be bothersome and could cost Ringo precious seconds.

The ANBU guarding the right path, on the other hand, were certainly not familiar with each other. Their senses were so high-strung one almost noticed Ringo with the corner of his eye before she stepped back into the shadows. She had to be still for an entire minute for the guy to finally decide it was just his imagination. The fact there were over thirty jonin and even more chunin ahead surely had a value in him deciding not to check more closely. Sneaking on these guys would be a plain bother.

That left Ringo only with the middle path which was still troublesome but clearly, the puddle guy was not familiar with his teammates and was alert, the guy on the ceiling had hots for the female standing guard in the corridor and his gaze lingered on her from time to time while the woman and the man standing next to her in the middle of the corridor were clearly former teammates since they were relaxed to each other. These guys had their guard up too but their teamwork would not be as good as the guards on the left nor were they as alert as the ANBU on the right path.

Ringo narrowed her eyes and joined her hands into a hand seal as a plan formed in her mind. Clearly, she would not avoid the fight and the fact the missing jonin would be noticed sooner or later made the decision for her. She could only confront them.

"Let's do this... Kage Bunshin No Jutsu." She whispered.

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Chapter 137 - Ch137. Sanbi 3

Ringo created five clones in total. Two for the right and left side each and one for the middle path where her real body was going to hit. The clones quickly sneak into their positions as the plans start. The ones on the right and left side distance themselves from the ANBU guarding the corridors and create a small commotion not far from that place, drawing at least some ANBU away and creating confusion among them.

Honestly, the cavern corridors were all interconnected and this was a bit risky plan but if she didn't make the side corridors' guards busy, the risk would be way bigger. As long as she dealt with the guards in the middle corridor quickly enough, she might even be lucky enough to lower the number of ANBU guards in the last defensive line with the actions of her clones.

It didn't take long for sounds to start spreading from neighboring corridors and Ringo grinned. The guards in front of her certainly looked restless enough as she watched them from behind a small protrusion on the wall near the ceiling, cowered in shadows, while her clone was a bit further away.

Ringo's clone planted a low-powered explosive tag on the wall of the corridor quite far away from the guards before taking an appropriate distance and hiding in the shadows as the exploding tag ignited.

The explosion alerted the guards almost instantly, making the two visible ones move towards the spot. They were far from the puddle and ceiling guy when they finally arrived only to see a scorched wall. But clone or not, Ringo was still way better at sneaking around... they didn't even manage to widen their eyes as two swords pierced their hearts from behind by the clone lurking in the shadows before it dispelled.

While the two visible guards went away, Ringo infused as much lighting chakra into a kunai and threw it towards the puddle guy. Not even glancing if he noticed and prepared to dodge, Ringo ran on the ceiling towards the ANBU hidden there. She could only hear a sizzling sound of lightning in water and a loud scream as her sword impacted the tanto of the last remaining ANBU, pushing him back. Clearly, her kunai hit spot-on.

Ringo could see the minuscule widening of the ANBU's eyes as he realized just who was clashing swords with him and... panicked. After all, not every day one found himself crossing blades with a legend from his village. His hesitation lasted barely a split second. A small flinch that would mean nothing in front of most jonin but alas, Ringo was not most jonin. Her instincts flared and before even she herself knew it, her sword slightly tapped her enemy's blade away, with minimal strength in order to do it as soundlessly as possible, before the tip of her sword quickly found its way into the ANBU's chest. The man was dying before he finally recollected his wits.

Ringo's eyes also widened in surprise at how she reacted and she only barely managed to catch his body and stick it to the ceiling with her chakra as she flattened herself by laying on her back there just in time for a unit of four ANBU to run under her through the corridor.

'Fortunately, they are too busy to look up.' Ringo mentally sighed, hopping onto the floor and with a quick flick of her wrist, she threw the cloak of the corpse currently sticking onto the ceiling around her shoulders and put his mask on.

Sure, she will probably be discovered if someone pays her too much attention but now? When the second defensive line in the cave is 'under attack'? Ringo doubted anyone would care about one masked ANBU walking around.

Ringo walked through the corridors, avoiding the rushing ANBU. Whenever she met such a group, she pretended to make haste as if she was going to report... and nobody really even raised an eyebrow at her despite her heading deeper into the cave rather than to check out the commotion.

The further she walked, the more apparent it became that the chunin and jonin were just a diversion. In the cave must have been stationed at least a hundred ANBU and compared to that, the first two defense lines were quite pathetic.

Ringo really couldn't help but chuckle and praise herself for making many of the ANBU head outside of the third defense line in order to check out whatever setup her clones made. From time to time, she could even hear explosions going off and only one of her four shadow clones on the sides dispelled so far. Honestly, reputation or not, she didn't like her chances at sneaking inside with such skilled sentries all over it. The entire place was more guarded than a damn castle of a major Daimyo!

After twenty minutes of walking through the cavern corridors that resembled a labyrinth, Ringo finally arrived at the main hall where the sealing of the Sanbi just finished. The whole room was big, almost massive, with a stone altar covered in seals and four big crude stone pillars covered in big sealing tags. On the altar, a small n.a.k.e.d form of teenage female laid, only her Konoha forehead protector was still on her head as she drooled onto the altar and occasionally twitched from pain.

Ringo winced when she saw the girl. Killing might have been her job but she at least made sure to make it as painless as possible whenever the target was not somebody deserving it. The girl on the altar though, she was clearly put through hellish pain and her brain was still in the process of rebooting.

Ringo didn't wait and walked towards the girl while discreetly molding her lighting chakra. Before anyone even noticed her actions, she was sufficiently close to the altar and that's when all hell broke loose. The old farts that were Kiri Seal Master tried to desperately distance themselves, the guarding ANBU tried to rush closer to Ringo, and Ringo clapped her hands.

A loud bang resonated through the cave before a static noise unbalanced everyone in range. The second this happened, powerful lighting tendrils coursed out of Ringo's connected palms, creating a cage around the altar, completely cutting out the guards.

'To think this is not even a Jutsu yet, just an exercise for manipulation of my lightning chakra...' Ringo smirked and walked towards the girl before she took a sealing tag given to her by Rei and after twenty minutes of trying drew some of the Sanbi's chakra into it. Mission completed, Ringo sighed as she saw her lightning cage being surrounded by no less than thirty ANBU and flexed her chakra.

The lighting cage instantly morphed but the ANBU guards didn't have time to rush in since the lightning took shapes of various animals... bears, wolves, dogs, deers, and many more, before it started engaging the ANBU who did their damnedest to avoid the moving concentrated lightning constructs. The biggest of them, however, was a big Chinese dragon made of lightning that rammed its head into the side of the cave, creating a way out through the wall.

Ringo briefly glanced at the waking girl on the altar and shook her head before uncaringly walking out.

'And just like that, the last piece is collected.' Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-sanbi-3_51433314191474070"#.-sanbi-3_51433314191474070/a for visiting.

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Chapter 138 - Ch138. Kazekage's return

Rasa returned from the Kage Summit where he signed the worthless piece of paper called the Peace Treaty. Honestly, he didn't really know what actually was the purpose of the doc.u.ment except for being an agreement for the official end of the war.

Sure, it had a few stipulations here and there but frankly, Rasa didn't even remember what exactly these stated since nobody really could enforce them, hence they were not worth remembering. He was sure that Kumo would breach it in three to five years tops without even knowing they did it. After all, the new Raikage looked young and brash, and worse yet, he looked driven to strengthen Kumo at all cost.

Rasa secretly heard him yelling threats at the Mizukage while asking for the heads of every ninja who participated in the mission that resulted in the death of his fiancee. Needless to say, the Mizukage just smiled with amus.e.m.e.nt at the young brute.

Rasa was just glad Suna was far away from Kumo so he would not be forced to deal with the man much.

Crossing the last sand dune, Rasa finally spotted his beloved Sunagakure... and promptly froze.

"Oi, Baki... is that mist?" He asked in disbelief.

"That is mist, my Lord." Baki nodded, not knowing what else to add.

"But... shit!" Rasa cursed and instantly sped up towards the village. 'Did the water-f.u.c.ker breach the treaty already!?'

Fortunately for Suna, the Mizukage had no interest in them.

The visit from Yozora happened two days ago but there was still an enormous amount of water all around constantly in the process of vaporizing. The entire Sunagakure was veiled in a thin cover of water vapor.

Rasa didn't even look at the guards standing at the sides of the corridor in the sand wall. He just ran forward, passing the bewildered chunins at a speed they could not follow.

'Why are chunin guarding the gate when they can't even intercept someone at jonin level speed?' Rasa idly thought but it was quickly squashed as he finally entered Sunagakure.

He stared in bewilderment at the houses made of hardened sand soaked in water, some of them partially dissolved. The buildings in Suna depended on the environment where rain never happened. This new... flood or whatever it was, destroyed quite a bit of building and the damages... oh the damage! Suna looked half-buried in sand and half-flooded by water! Even now the Kazekage was actually ankle-deep in the water.

"What the heck happened to my village!?" He screamed with wide eyes.

"Oh, Lord Kazekage," One passing jonin saw him and jumped in front of him, taking a kneeling position before slightly frowning due to having to kneel in the water. "Er... we survived a storm? I have no idea but the sensor ninjas are saying it was natural. Pakura however says it was not and that she briefly fought the enemy. She was found passed out on the top of the Kazekage Tower with what the Council believes is a 'message' from those who attacked us."

'Pakura?' Rasa's eyes narrowed but nodded the ninja to lead the way.

He really didn't like that woman. Always criticizing his decisions, saying what she thought would be a better decision. Worse yet, since she became the 'Hero of Suna' in the war, she actually had some support in the Council and that was that. Maybe her advice had merit but couldn't she give them in private so he won't be publically undermined? Nope, he really didn't like that woman.

The Kazekage arrived at Pakura's room in the hospital and saw her sitting in the bed, giving orders to a few jonin which only soured his mood.

"Jonin Pakura, who gave you the right to command my forces?" He coldly asked the bedridden woman.

"Oh, Lord Kazekage," Pakura smiled. "Councilor Saruna gave me the command since this situation is non-standard." She informed him indifferently. "I started with having our ninjas help with getting rid of the water and the repairs of the half-collapsed buildings."

'Our forces? F.u.c.k.i.n.g Saruna! I gave her the command because I knew she would not under any circ.u.mstances pass it to someone else!' Rasa inwardly cursed while his face stayed impassive. He clearly miscalculated and the second there was a problem, Saruna passed the command to someone else in order to not be blamed if she did anything wrong.

"I see..." He jerked his head down, trying to pass it as a nod. "Then could you describe what exactly happened?"

"Yes, sir. Two days ago, a heavy storm impacted Sunagakure. I quickly asked for the help of our sensor ninjas who assured me it was natural. There wasn't much I could do about it in that case so I started trying to vaporize the water with my Scorch in order to prevent the village from being completely flooded. Sometime during this action, I realized that if this was not really a natural occurrence, the enemy would most likely aim for the treasury. The rain was too thick and the communication with others was completely cut so I risked it and went alone." Pakura stopped her droning out how the events happened and grimaced. "I... it was the guy who was hired by you to help us get past the Iwa border outpost. The Yozora..." She trailed off, knowing this information didn't look well for the Kazekage. It might not mean much but it has certainly shown a bit of incompetence on his part.

Rasa bristled at that. The political situation in Suna didn't look all that well for him. He and Pakura's supporters were in direct opposition. Funnily enough, Pakura herself didn't give any indication of being interested in the position but that didn't mean anything since she was the only ninja capable of facing him in the village. This entire thing just proved she was more competent than him and he didn't like it. He could already see some councilmen harping at him for months, uncaring he was not present during the attack.

"What of the Biri-Biri representatives?" He asked. It was them who recommended Yozora so...

"I have had them interrogated. There was no real need for anything serious in that regard since they were very cooperative. We have information of what exactly Yozora is," Pakura gestured towards the table where the report lied. "I must say... I was taken down by one Jutsu. I... I have no idea how to even start thinking of fighting that monster." She quietly added, lowering her head.

The room suddenly descended into silence as the Kazekage took the doc.u.ment and read through it. The present ninjas were all jonin-ranked and seeing one of their strongest say she had no chance... it didn't bode well for them. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-kazekageapos;s-return_51451356527001425"#.-kazekageapos;s-return_51451356527001425/a for visiting.

'Rei of Kiri? SS-rank? What the f.u.c.k is somebody like that attacking Suna for? According to this report, nothing was stolen too despite him being in the treasury.' Rasa read through the doc.u.ment and sighed in relief, 'At least the seals in the treasury worked and nothing was destroyed despite the snow covering everything... Seriously, snow? In the desert? What the f.u.c.k is that guy? At this rate, we can write him off as a natural disaster instead of a ninja!'

Rasa glanced at Pakura and his eyes gleamed. 'Maybe I could?'

"I see... this is troubling. Jonin Pakura, what is the extent of your injuries?" He asked.

Pakura shook herself from her sullen mood and raised her head to look at the Kazekage. "I have many cracked bones, torn muscles, and... I was half-frozen when they brought me to the hospital. According to the medics, I will stay in bed at least for a half-year followed by another half-year of retraining myself to get back into shape."

"Very well. Job well done, Jonin Pakura." Rasa nodded before turning around and walking away with the report on Yozora. Despite his stern face, he was inwardly grinning.

'Looks like luck is on my side! I was talking with the Mizukage about how we could help each other out but to think a Kiri nuke-nin would attack Suna...!'

Rasa was almost skipping with elation. He couldn't just assassinate Pakura. He needed a good reason to get rid of her. After all, the Daimyo liked the woman. Rasa even tried to find out if she pulled kunoichi on the old decrepit fool but apparently there was no hanky-panky between the two. But because of this connexion, Rasa needed to get rid of Pakura quietly and legally. He was aware it would considerably weaken Suna but the woman was too dangerous to him. Daimyo's support, many supporters in the council and among clans, moreover fame and being liked by the general populace and non-clan shinobi? It was as if the woman was aiming to become the Kazekage.

The saddest part was, she didn't even realize her actions were threatening Rasa, causing him to think of a way to be rid of her.

'I thought it would take years to send her on her way but this... this made it all so much easier! I have to send somebody competent to Kiri, after all. I just hope the Mizukage won't ask for too much for this help since I will be providing him with a quality bloodline breeding sow.'

As such, Pakura's fate as an 'emissary' to Kirigakure was already sealed, a year before she even recovered.

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Chapter 139 - Ch139. A leisure morning

It was morning, almost a month after the end of the war and Rei sat behind the kitchen table in his newly built house in the Uzushio, trying to doodle seals in the middle of the circle made of nine paper tags with samples of all of the bijuu. Seriously, it was a strenuous job and he was at it for quite a while now.

'The things I do for my girls.' Rei sniffed and wiped an imaginary tear before his face split in a shit-eating wide grin. 'But damn, having a personal Bijuu will be so worth spending the time on it!'

Suddenly n.a.k.e.d Tsunade groggily walked into the kitchen, yawning while pressing the bedsheets to her b.r.e.a.s.ts. Rei looked at her and smiled.

"Already awake? I thought it would take you more to recover." He cheekily stated, making Tsunade roll her eyes as she approached him and tenderly pecked his lips.

"I am Senju. If anything, stamina is my good point." Tsunade nuzzled her head into the crook of Rei's neck while sleepily pulling her body into his lap. "Yesterday's 'celebration' took a whole lot out of even me, however. I doubt Konan will be up before noon. As for Ringo and Mei... er, I doubt they will walk today. Seriously, what the heck was Vibration Style. To think you can handle all four of us." Tsunade mock-glared at Rei with a sullen pout.

'Senjutsu for the win!' Rei's lips twitched in amus.e.m.e.nt. "Shush. If I remember correctly, it was mostly you who..."

Rei was interrupted when Tsunade pressed her lips to his again.

"What happened in the bedroom stays in the bedroom." Tsunade whispered while giving him a warning look, causing Rei to give her an amused accepting hum as his hands sn.a.k.e.d around her waist and pulled her n.a.k.e.d body closer into his chest, only the thin bedsheet and Rei's clothes separating them, before surprising her with a sudden make-out session as he stuck his tongue into her mouth, causing Tsunade's arms to lock behind his neck and press his head more into hers. She really missed these kinds of mornings during her time in Konoha...

After five minutes they separated, a trail of saliva still connecting their mouths as their infatuated eyes stared at each other. Tsunade was starting to get increasingly aware of Rei's hands tenderly rubbing her sides while Rei enjoyed how Tsunade's fingers lovingly played with his har.

Their lips again met, this time in a quick peck as a loud growl of Tsunade's stomach interrupted them, creating an awkward silence between the two lovers.

"Ah... I-, I am going to get you something to eat." Rei said after a while, making the embarrassed Tsunade stand and relocate to the chair next to Rei's one, letting him go to prepare her breakfast.

'And here I really wanted him to bend me over the table.' Tsunade sullenly laid her head on the table, pouting while letting the bedsheet covering her fall on the ground.

When Rei came back to the table after five minutes, he wasn't really surprised that Tsunade was n.a.k.e.d. In the past month since she came back from Konoha to permanently stay with him, they had s.e.x almost on daily basis so sitting next to her n.a.k.e.d form didn't really do anything to his focus anymore.

He sat into his previous place while placing the plate with sandwiches and some bacon in front of Tsunade. With a barely restrained smile, Rei watched as Tsunade whose eyes were already closed as she laid on the table, first started cutely sniffing with her nose. Once... twice... thrice, before she was scrunching it and subconsciously leaning her head closer towards the food he prepared. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-a-leisure-morning_51464059161206664"#.-a-leisure-morning_51464059161206664/a for visiting.

"I swear, your food should be banned as a very potent addictive drug." Tsunade huffed and raised her upper body from the table with an annoyed groan mixing with a delightful m.o.a.n before she started eating and Rei turned back to his little sealing project, enjoying occasional satisfied sighs from Tsunade.

"By the way, Konan's clone dropped off the reactions of the various villages to our little Bijuu chakra gathering a month ago." Rei started after he saw with the corner of his eye that Tsunade was finished with eating and was now just licking the tips of her fingers like a lazy cat.

"So~?" She drawled. "Why would their reaction even matter?" She laid back onto the table with a content sigh, causing a small blush on Rei's cheeks when he saw how her b.r.e.a.s.ts squished against the table. Needless to say, Tsunade's content smile only widened at his reaction and her eyes mischievously sparkled but she kept herself from commenting.

"It matters a lot, really. The Kazekage, for example, decided to get rid of Pakura sooner than expected." Rei said not raising his head from his sealing project.

"Hm~, so this Pakura will be our new sister?" Tsunade asked, a bit interested. No matter that it grated at her pride and she promised to get more stamina, yesterday Rei f.u.c.k.i.e.d all four of them to the ground so she naturally welcomed another addition to their family, pride be damned.

Rei shrugged. "I like the girl. No... I like her a lot. Unique bloodline, a mastery at kunai-handling that could potentially rival even Ringo's sword skills. She was a solid S-rank ninja for years. Plus I already made my preparations. The rest depends on her. If she is willing, then yes, she will become one of your sisters, the last one of them, in fact. I don't intend to breach the number five, mind you." Rei hummed while erasing the entire left side of the seal with a frown as he understood the foundation was fundamentally flawed.

"Last one..." Tsunade muttered under her nose before sighing dejectedly. 'Yup, definitely have to step up my stamina training and potentially pull the girls through it too if Rei decides to refuse taking more than five girls. Damn, such a pain!' She huffed before refocusing on the important stuff to get her current predicament out of her mind. "What about the other Hidden Villages?"

Rei flashed Tsunade a knowing smile before turning back to his seals. "Well, the Raikage actually made us the public enemy number one when he saw the message in the training field where Nibi Jinchuuriki usually trained. I heard his pissed half-scowl, half-snarl, an exaggeratedly twitching left eyebrow, and hilariously twitching chest from anger was a quite ridiculous sight." He lightly commented and Tsunade snorted at the mental image. "Oh, and his hair supposedly stood up from how 'shocked' he was too." Rei added, causing Tsunade to be unable to hold it in as she started openly snickering.

"I can see how that information matters." She commented between her snickers.

"Then there is the Mizukage..." Rei continued, "Fortunately for us, Ringo was not seen so he has no idea it was us who infiltrated the cave which helped the girl run. She still died by impaling herself on her teammates lightning Juts-"

"Chidori," Tsunade nodded, "It was a shocker when I heard the Namikaze brag about the new technique of the Hatake brat." Rei smiled, knowing what would follow. "And it was even better when I blatantly told the cheerful idiot that I saw it used by Kiri ninja years ago when he tried to register it as an A-rank original in front of the Council. The Hatake brat was so furious and even the good-natured Minato glared at me!" She merrily laughed at the memory. "Though their protests quickly quieted down when I used Chidori in front of the whole council, my eyebrow smugly raised at them. It is a known fact that lightning is not my nature and I never really met with neither Minato or Kakashi so they could not teach me the technique."

"Let me guess, you told them you thought it looked cool so you learned it." Rei chuckled.

"Exactly." Tsunade beamed. "Poor Kakashi didn't get his original move."

Both shared a small laugh at that before Rei calmed down and continued with telling her what Konan's spy network found out.

"Iwa has no idea anything ever happened to their jinchuuriki. The gender-confused guy must have been quite embarrassed at what happened to him," Tsunade smiled, "and Konoha... well, the blondie is neck-deep in paperwork while two of his students are dead, and another is depressed and he has no time to really juggle between his new position, his newly pregnant wife, and his last remaining student. I doubt he expected so much stress when he took up the hat. He probably didn't expect shit thrown at him by lazy civilians who just slide their own paperwork to him instead of doing it themselves either." Rei shrugged.

There was a reason why he vehemently avoided any position of power in Kiri. Sure, his status as secretly pending nuke-nin was one but he actually wanted to avoid being pulled into the political games and siding with one or the other side. Minato was currently between rock and hard place since wealthy civilians wanted the civilian council to stay even after the war ended, the clan heads wanted it to end, and the advisors didn't get swapped yet due to Minato not having enough time to consider their substitutes. So far, the councilors wanted the civilian council to stay but that was more due to personal... gains, rather than for the good of the village.

Surprisingly, the Hokage's paperwork actually only increased since the establishment of the civilian council despite its main function was to lessen the bureaucratic burden on the leader.

'Sad thing... becoming the big honcho. A truly sad fate, being unable to push work on somebody else.' Rei gently shook his head, spotting that Tsunade actually fell asleep. He formed a chakra string and pulled the bedsheet from the ground, putting it over her shoulders while using Chakra Sealing Method to channel Temperature Seals on the bedsheet to make sure Tsunade is warm and won't catch a cold. As he watched at her content smile as she slept, Rei sighed.

In the end, everything he did was worth it if he could enjoy and share his happiness with his girls.

--

Author Note:

Yeah, sorry, I was really between making lemon with Mei and Ringo but then I decided against it. There might be some teasing R-18 scenes with them later on but I won't do full-blown lemon.

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Chapter 140 - Ch140. Training 1

Rei leisurely sat on the porch of his mansion in the Uzushio, contently watching Mei and Ringo spar with weapons while hordes of his clones were rebuilding the village. He especially loved Mei's sullen exasperation at the bored and completely almost half-asleep look on Ringo's face.

"Well, at least we know Mei will not be a swordsman." Rei chuckled, sipping the tea Konan prepared for him.

"I guess... It is quite amusing how she is flailing her tanto around like a petulant child." Konan who sat next to Rei shook her head. "Then again, pitting her against someone as skilled in kenjutsu as Ringo is not providing a very beginner-friendly learning environment."

"She is certainly not giving up though." Rei quipped.

"You know she is taking it as a way to bolster her stamina?" Konan barely restrained herself from grinning. "She at first tried to follow Tsunade in her suicide physical training but..." She amusedly snorted, "she didn't last for three hours."

"As if you lasted more than six." Rei rolled his eyes, enjoying Konan's huff.

"Not my problem she literally breaks, heals, rebreaks, and re-heals her body as she infuses chakra and healing chakra into her muscles, bones, and organs while she is in Sennin Mode, her body brimming with senjutsu chakra. It can't be called training. It's more of a self-torture. I doubt any Interrogation squad would be able to break anyone who manages to get through five hours of that no matter their method. The feeling of having your muscles slowly pulled from your bones is frankly disgusting only surpassed by having your beating heart being repeatedly squeezed enough to constantly damage it while she pumps healing and senjutsu chakra through it." Konan shuddered, rubbing a spot on her ribcage, "I am telling you Tsunade is crazy. We should never give her a Kaguya to play with. It made her bat shit insane! The best part? She with a gleefully grinning expression told us she can not provide us with any pain-numbing drugs or Jutsu so we should just suck it up and take it as pain tolerance training. How f.u.c.k.i.e.d up is that!?" Konan was almost hyperventilating as she finished her rant. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-training-1_51494142185889801"#.-training-1_51494142185889801/a for visiting.

Needless to say, even Rei was surprised at Konan's outburst. 'I guess there is a first for everything, eh?' He thought as silence fell on the two of them, only the sounds of Konan's quickened breathing and the background noise of Mei and Ringo's fight interrupting it. Rei stared at blushing Konan in disbelief as she averted her face to avoid his gaze before he started loudly laughing. "So there really exists something that can break even your composure, eh, Konan!"

"I would like to see your reaction when she cuts you open and sticks her hand through the cut into your body before proceeding to grope your organs." Konan sullenly sniffed.

"Nobody told you to join her training." Rei shrugged uncaringly.

"You really have no care in the world, do you? She can kill herself by doing that." Konan sighed and Rei grew silent for a moment. It was only his serious look that prevented Konan from saying anything else.

"I can understand Tsunade and her reasons for doing it." Rei told Konan with a rueful smile. "She is jealous, you see." He saw Konan was about to interrupt but he just took hold of her hand and squeezed it, signalling for her to listen, "You have your paper Jutsu which is disgustingly overpowered if applied in a correct way. You can throw meteorites made of earth-chakra-hardened paper willy-nilly, Konan. Leveling a village is not really a problem for you. Then there is Mei who has her own two bloodlines with even more destructive power than yours. Do you really not see how that could make Tsunade feel a bit useless and jealous of you?"

"Jealous? Why? She has Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku." Konan tilted her head.

"You and I have Wood Release too. That really doesn't count. As for Shikotsumyaku... that is exactly why she is undergoing such brutal training. If there is one thing Tsunade is proud of, it is not her Wood Release, Sennin Mode, or her medical knowledge. She is proud of her ability as a physical fighter because that is seriously the only thing she is excelling in between the three of you."

Tsunade could not passively strengthen her body with Nature Energy like Rei did every day almost all day. Honestly, take away all the ninjutsu variants with Nature energy from Rei, he would still have an incredibly powerful body after almost over a decade of using that method. His way of strengthening it was gradual and took a lot of time but he could honestly overpower Tsunade in Sennin Mode.

Tsunade actually approached Rei before she started with her insane body training. The punch line of every body strengthening technique using chakra or any energy was according to her repeated breaking of the cells while recreating them stronger as chakra nourished them. This way, the body gradually became stronger. Hence, Tsunade decided to... quicken the process.

"She is the best medic ninja in the world. She knows her limits and won't go beyond them nor will she cripple herself. The stronger her body becomes, the easier and safer it will be for her to use the Shikotsumyaku. That bloodline is really twisted. There are adverse effects of using it and a whole lot of problems. And while most of those are negated by her Senju physique Tsunade requires a strong body to use Shikotsumyaku without much of a strain. Actually, nobody but she could use it to its best capacity since any internal injury, no matter how small, caused by using that bloodline she will discover and heal thanks to her vast medical experience. Tsunade is actually building herself into the juggernaut of the team, you know?" Rei said, completely trusting that Tsunade knew what she was doing.

Rei was really a bit curious about the limits of the Shikotsumyaku when used by a Senjutsu user with a ridiculously strong physical body. She wouldn't even need to use it outwardly. Just plating her organs and the inward side of the skin in internal bone armor would make her incredibly hard to injure considering that the Shikotsumyaku makes the bones way denser than normal and with the addition of chakra... it was as if she wore plate mail made from chakra metal under her skin.

"You didn't mention Ringo..." Konan tried to change the topic as it grew a bit uncomfortable. She didn't want to question Tsunade's capabilities as a medic but her methods... Konan really didn't like seeing Tsunade suffer because of her damn pride.

"I doubt Tsunade counts Ringo as important enough to care about her as she cares for you and Mei. It will take a lot of time until that happens. Plus Ringo is weak for now and her specialty is clearly tracking and swords. No real world-breaking bloodline to speak of either." Rei hummed and Konan nodded in understanding.

"I see. She does have a long way to match even Mei..." She said, her eyes straying towards the redhead who was boredly deflecting Mei's wayward slashes. Konan really didn't think Ringo could survive Mei for longer than three minutes if the girl tried to really kill her. After all, it was Konan and Rei who trained her and they put a whole lot more effort into it than when they trained Ringo. Mei was, in the end, loyal only to them since the start.

"Not really, I saw some of her ideas and I can tell that Mei would really have to step up her game if she wanted to stay above Ringo in combat power." Rei's eyes sparkled with excitement, "Despite everything, when it comes to lighting release, Ringo is a genius and she indeed deserves praise. Her newest technique is frankly mind-blowing."

Konan just raised her eyebrow at him in a questioning way which made Rei frown a bit.

"Don't give me that look. I was really, really surprised when I saw what she came up with and while we kept it a secret, my clones helped her with the technique for three months already. She is almost finished with it. Honestly, it can probably make her completely impervious to Mei's mist," Rei gleefully smirked, "and I can't wait to see what face will the pipsqueak pull when she realizes it!"

Konan slightly smiled and shook her head before her eyes landed once again on the petite sword-wielding redhead, her opinion of her slightly changing. 'Maybe... I am a bit too harsh on Ringo? Maybe I am still underestimating her.'

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Chapter 141 - Ch141. Training 2

Both Konan and Rei watched Mei and Ringo in silence, Rei leisurely enjoying their sword fight, in which Mei was grossly outmatched, while Konan observed only Ringo and her movements. She was not interested in the farce of a fight whatsoever.

Slowly, Konan's discerning eyes started widening as she spotted what she previously didn't even bother noticing.

'Her style changed?' Konan pursed her lips in concentration. 'Indeed... it did change!' She frowned, 'Ringo became slower? No... she stopped dodging. Why would she...' Konan narrowed her eyes. Someone who didn't intimately know Ringo's fighting style would not catch up on it but Konan had trained the redhead! If anyone knew how Ringo fought, it would be her. 'She no longer dodges everything. She fights as if she was heavily armored and most of her opponent's attacks didn't even matter.'

Rei smirked as he saw the focused look on Konan's face with the corner of his eye. He quickly understood that Konan noticed. Ringo's style simply became more reckless. Blows that she would previously in no way let even graze her, the weakest but dangerous ones, now ever-so-slightly scr.a.p.ed her. She still tried to evade but... Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-training-2_51501789643589827"#.-training-2_51501789643589827/a for visiting.

'The new technique of Ringo is a game-changer for her and I made sure the girl understood it.' Rei thought while merrily shaking his head. 'I really look forward to when she is finally comfortable testing it in a real fight.'

Just then groggy Yugito walked out of the house, rubbing her eyes and stretching like a cat.

"Good morning." She mumbled, just loud enough to be heard.

"O~, Yugi-chan, finally awake?" Rei teased while gesturing towards the spot next to him, causing the girl to happily nod and sit where he told her to.

"As if you didn't know I woke up..." Yugito cheekily puffed out her cheeks. The month she spent with Rei and his girls really improved her overly serious nature and she became more playful, truer to her feelings. She was no longer wary whenever Rei was around.

A second later, Rei's clone stepped outside with a trail of scrambled eggs, toasts, and two fishes for the resident cat. Naturally, it started to prepare breakfast the second she woke up since Rei had the entire place covered in various seals, among which, various detection seals were quite common.

Yugito's expression brightened like the sun when she saw the trail with breakfast, and especially the fishes. Rei proudly chuckled when he heard her audibly gulp her saliva down. The girl was getting quite used to his cooking.

Without even waiting, Yugito started chomping on the fish first. "Yes, yes... eat up, kitty. Mei wanted to start your training today. You will need all the energy you could muster." Rei shrewdly grinned. He knew what Mei prepared and honestly, Nibi Jinchuuriki or not, he was pitying the girl.

'Maybe I should teach Mei some common sense when it comes to instructing others? ... Nah, practice is better than a thousand words. Sorry, Yugito, your sacrifice will not be in vain!' His lips slightly twitched which was noticed only by Konan who hid her silent snickers behind the sleeve of her purplish-black kimono.

Yugito started choking on her food, clearly wanting to say something in return if her narrowed glare was an indication but Konan spoke first. "Well, I think you should stretch before Mei is able to get you in her care. Anyway, Rei, you promised me a sparring match yesterday. Still up for it?" She leaned closer towards him and kissed his cheeks with an expectant expression, making Rei's eyebrow twitch.

In the end, he sighed and relented. He knew there was no avoiding it. 'She clearly knows I hate fighting her because it is so hard to hit her. Why the heck did she have to come to enjoy sparring against me? It is pure torture chasing her all over the field! Damned Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, I clearly remember she got this bad habit of enjoying making her opponents irritated when she started sparring against them with her clones while she hid in the treetops, snacking on sweets as they made fools of themselves.'

Rei stood up, resigned to his fate, and followed excitedly skipping Konan to the nearby empty training field while leaving Yugito to her much needed breakfast.

Unfortunately for him, there was no member of the Seven Swordsmen present so it was him who had to suffer. Needless to say, his desire for Ringo's new Jutsu to be showcased and Tsunade's power-up was not entirely without any ulterior motives. He desperately needed a new 'play-mate' for Konan!

'Maybe I should fetch Kisame later on?'

...

"This is pure bullshit." Yugito subconsciously muttered as she watched the fight between Rei and Konan. Yes... fight. It was not a sparring match. Not when both threw around assuredly lethal moves! "What kind of madmen did I agree to join?" She dryly laughed.

Most of the time, the only thing Yugito could see was blue lightning flashes and a flurry of paper slices. She couldn't even hear the sound of fighting as the sound of static deafened her and more often than not, she had to cover her eyes from the ferocious winds generated from the exchange. She got only glimpses. Glimpses of severed limbs and… Well, she now really didn't look forward to the training Mei prepared for her if this was any indication.

'This... isn't that similar to the Raikage's speed!?' Yugito mentally screamed.

In the field, Rei, holding his chokuto, zapped from one place to another, cutting Konan's limbs, piercing her heart, decapitating her... only for the blood to sprout the second he slashed through her flesh. Then a second later, the blood burst into uncountable red paper slices as her body changed to variously colored paper slices.

By that time, however, Rei was already exchanging blows with yet another Konan who attacked him a split second after he scored a hit on the previous one.

'Hagoromo, have mercy on my soul!' Rei whined.

'IT,' He cut of Konan's hand, 'JUST,' He turned around and pierced the head of the Konan that appeared behind him right through her eyeball, 'NEVER,' He kicked the body away, getting his sword free out of her head and fluidly slashing towards the right, slitting the throat of the next Konan, 'ENDS!' He kicked behind himself, hitting the knee of the next Konan, unbalancing her while he heaved the sword up and brought it down on her in a downward slash, bisecting her.

The entire surrounding was now just a flurry of paper, forcing Rei to saturate his body with lighting chakra and bolt away from there in order to avoid being caught in them.

This repeated again and again and again... for the next hour.

'7150, 7151, 7152, 7153...' Rei counted.

"How many freaking times do I have to almost kill you until you are satisfied, Konan? It's been an hour already!" He stopped, lowering his sword and Konan appeared in a flurry of paper four meters in front of him, totally fine in pristine condition.

"I take it, you like my newest masterpiece." She said with a very rare full-blown content smile on her face, making Rei scowl.

"Only you could create such a complicated yet perverted thing from a foundation made on most basic Jutsu. It's damn annoying!" Rei huffed, glaring at the woman who giggled, making him involuntarily smile.

'Why is it only during these moments when I am completely irritated that she forgets her facade? Not cute at all...' Rei hummed, also slightly smiling without even realizing it.

"So? Did you see through my newest Origami Technique?" Konan proudly asked.

"Are you really going to call it Origami Technique?" Rei asked in disbelief but Konan just playfully shrugged.

"That is a very big part of it, after all." She innocently blinked at Rei's fed-up yet piercing and accusing stare.

In the end, Rei had to admit his defeat and sighed. "Fine. Whatever." He grumbled.

"So~, my technique?" Konan tilted her head with a small coy smile, causing Rei to stop his grumbling and snort in derision.

"What technique?" He asked with thick sarcasm covering his tone, "All you do is Kawarimi right before you are hit with a singular slip of paper while activating the storage seal on that paper which pops in a paper clone mid-Kawarimi. There is that henge sustained by the clone itself that makes it seem as if my attack really hit you and blood actually spurted out before the clone dissolves back into paper slices a second later. All you do is use Clone Technique, Kawarimi, and Henge." Rei wanted to scream. "So why the f.u.c.k is it so hard to freaking hit you! What is this bullshit! You didn't even try to dodge! You didn't take even one step during the entire fight! Kawarimi, Kawarimi, Kawarimi! The f.u.c.k is that shit!?" He raged.

Konan just heartily laughed at his outburst with a teasing look. "Cool, isn't it?"

"Cool my ass..." Rei whispered under his nose. He was moving at solid Raikage-level speed when the guy was using his Lighting Armor and yet... despite his senses being enhanced, even he couldn't spot the moment when she substituted herself with the paper.

'To think her Origami would reach such a level. She is a monster, no doubt. At this rate, there is no way to win against her without a large massively destructive area of effect Jutsu. The way she used Henge to actually simulate blood and gore while she transfers herself to her opponent's blind spot and attacks while he is distracted due to scoring the hit. That's outright nasty. I can see how most shinobi could fall for that. Everyone stops for a millisecond if their enemy doesn't dodge an obvious attack they are certainly capable of evading. Whether they want or not, their brain starts to think about whys and... that momentary pause is when she strikes from behind. It would take some serious battle and danger instincts or high sensory ability to react to that.'

Rei's eyes gleamed with happiness despite his sullen appearance. He was naturally glad Konan was getting even stronger.

Rei sighed to calm himself down and decided to indulge Konan who had this 'praise me' shine in her eyes. "I must admit," He shook his head in disbelief, "the way you fluidly connected the three basic aspects of shinobi arts into a singular technique and made it into something like this..."

There was a reason why the basic three Jutsu were... well, basic. The Henge was an introduction to the lowest level Genjutsu. The Basic Clones were also supposed to be Genjutsu aimed technique but their purpose was to make sure the students have at least basic chakra control. And Kawarimi was a preparation for ninjutsu. One just stretched his chakra, connecting it with a thing they wanted to swap with and well, then swapped. This meant it was not teleportation. Just chakra manipulation.

As Konan demonstrated, she could swap with any of her uncountable paper slips since they all contained some of her chakra. It was basically a teleportation technique in her hands since she didn't need to reach with her chakra. The entire thing barely cost her anything and she could probably do it with her eyes closed for an entire week without a single break.

'How broken Jutsu...' Rei inwardly chuckled and walked towards Konan and with a gentle smile, he lovingly rubbed her head while tenderly hugging her. "Good job, honey."

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Chapter 142 - Ch142. Mei's idea of training

Konan and Rei finished with their sparring match and alongside still flabbergasted Yugito, they went towards the training ground where Mei prepared something special for her kitty charge.

The second Yugito showed her face, excited Mei dragged her towards the middle of an... obstacle course if it still could be called that. Rei could somewhat see parts of the obstacle course used to train ANBU ramped up to insanity levels. Lethal traps, maiming traps, and worse yet...

'So this is why Mei wanted those area-effective chakra constricting seals, gravity-heightening seals, and water-like environment simulating seals.' Rei thought with a sweatdrop as his throat went dry.

'And they say my training methods are brutal.' Konan mentally deadpanned at the clueless Mei. She couldn't help but feel proud.

'Does she want to kill me?' Yugito did the clever thing and fearfully took a step back. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click a href="#.-meiapos;s-idea-of-training_51530625248718026"#.-meiapos;s-idea-of-training_51530625248718026/a for visiting.

"This," Mei proudly gestured towards the huge death trap she prepared, "is my masterpiece! As the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi, you are naturally nimble and agile so training those aspects is a must!" She exclaimed with twinkling eyes, making everyone's face twitch. "So I asked myself, 'Hey, Mei, how could we help Yugi-chan?' and the answer was obvious! Obstacle course!"

"Uh... M-Mei...s-sensei?" Yugito asked unsurely, looking at the obstacle course. "A-And the corpses around?" She pointed towards the bodies or parts of bodies still strewn all over the course.

"Ah, that?" Mei dismissively waved her hand around, "Don't worry. I just borrowed them for testing purposes!"

Rei facepalmed.

Konan approvingly snickered.

Yugito gulped.

Only now that she took a closer look did she notice... 'They are all B and A-ranked rogue ninjas from the Bingo Book. All of them are jonin level!' She mentally freaked out.

Not paying attention to the fidgeting blond Jinchuuriki next to her, Mei tilted her head in a pondering manner. "Though, I am not really sure why they all decided to take a permanent vacation from this realm after starting the obstacle course. The best of them didn't even get half-way through..." Mei shook her head in disappointment. "Yare, yare."

'Permanent... vacation?' Yugito took another step back. She didn't need a permanent vacation from her living state. 'Maybe I should have stayed in Kumo...'

"Mei," Rei butted in. "Maybe it would be prudent to shroud Yugito in your Steam Armor to ensure she is not fatally injured." Jinchuuriki or not, he didn't see a twelve-year-old finishing even ten percent of the insane death sentence of an obstacle course Mei prepared. Not when experienced jonins apparently died, not getting past one-fourth of it.

Mei looked a bit conflicted at making it easier for Yugito. She clearly had great expectations of the younger blonde but...

"Mei," Konan gave the girl a meaningful but amused look, making her flinch and quickly nod in acceptance. "Good girl." Konan smiled at Mei while inwardly she was facepalming. 'No matter how you look at it, with all those restrictive seals affecting the entire area of the obstacle course... even chunins would be reduced to civilians. Just the water-simulating seal would make this almost impossible ordeal unless one had incredible body strength but...'

Rei walked towards the two girls, wrapping his right arm around Mei's shoulder to cheer her up while wrapping his left around Yugito's to make her feel better. He felt there were things that just had to be said. After all, this was also training for Mei on how to train someone.

"Mei you are expecting too much of Yugito. She is barely high genin to low chunin level right now. You can't compare her to yourself when you were twelve. You were already training for years with us at such an age. Yugito didn't have personal trainers. If you want to help her train, you gotta start slowly and be mindful of her needs. Not..." His voice turned awkward, "try to kill her with the first exercise."

It took some persuasion but in the end, Mei relented to go easier... much easier on Yugito. Needless to say, the resident kitty-holder was elated at hearing her life was spared from having any restricting seals placed on her during the course and the fact her life was safeguarded by Mei's Jutsu, Rei's seals, and to give her a bit more comfort, even Konan created full body underwear from her earth-chakra-hardened paper slices for the girl. Much to Yugito's dismay, they didn't have the heart to outright cancel it since Mei put her heart into preparing it.

Half-hour later, Yugito stood in front of the entry point of the course, nervous as all hell while she felt up the invisible Steam Armor shrouding her. Seeing she needed encouragement, Mei walked closer to her and gave her a brief hug.

"Yugi-chan..." She firmly addressed her. When she was sure she had Yugito's full attention, her voice softened, "I know you had a very hard and sad upbringing. I had too. I remember every rock, punch, or kick thrown at me. The only advice I can give you is to not try to forget but remember and steel your resolve. Train so it can't happen to you again. Train so nobody can treat you like trash again. I can give you training. I can teach you. But... it is you who needs to repeatedly break your limits. It will be painful and at times you will cry in hopelessness but trust me, it is worth it." Mei said with a gentle encouraging smile.

'A bit flimsy speech at cheering her up but it would do.' Rei chuckled, shaking his head.

'How cringy.' Konan who sat in Rei's lap slightly smiled and leaned her back into his chest. 'Then again... that might be exactly how she felt training under me and Rei.'

They watched as Yugito gained a determined look and turned towards the obstacle course.

And then, it started.

Yugito ran inside, masterfully running through the first corridor which was riddled to the brim with projectile trap seals that spewed kunais when somebody was near them. She almost made it look easy.

"Eh... She is actually using Surface Walking to run on the wall where the amount of trap seals is the lowest. At least we can be sure she can use her brain well." Konan pointedly commented, causing Mei to be a bit depressed when she remembered the numerous hours of Konan telling her she was doing cool-looking but moronic things.

Yugito reached the second obstacle. Vertically laid poles in a sea of swirling fog that kept close to the ground. The half-melted slowly sizzling bodies in the fog gave Yugito a clear image of what would happen should she fall.

With a gulp, she used all the nimbleness and dexterity of a cat she could muster in order to jump from pole to pole, trying to get through the obstacle as fast as possible. She stepped on the third pole... and discovered the room was not as simple as it first appeared.

"Ah, gravity enhancing seals with an area of effect around the pole, isn't it?" Konan asked, observing the panicky blonde as she almost fell into the melting fog.

"Yup, some poles have none, others have seals with different gravity-scaling. This entire exercise is built to make her control her balance at will and become accustomed to gravity or pressure shifts in the environment." Mei said, proud of herself to come up with it.

"Look! She managed to land on the fourth pole!" Rei said, changing the topic.

He was not about to discuss how asinine this entire exercise was. One misstep and you are in a melting mist. Yugito had to step on very small poles of various sizes. The smallest could fit only one tiptoe while the largest barely had place for one and half of her small foot. Needless to say, the ones on the smaller side were more common. She also needed to be capable of adjusting her gravity center in a split second to adjust to sudden gravity pressure change due to the seals. The only thing that was missing would be something to force Yugito to go quickly instead of her own pace. Now that would make the creator into one right asshole.

Yugito was doing well, she noticed she had time to adjust so she jumped from pole to pole, taking at least five minutes to get used to the sudden gravity shift on each pole. Even those that didn't have gravity seals were quite challenging since she was expecting the gravity shift and when it didn't come, she got unbalanced. Many times did Rei think she would finally fall as she flailed her hands, only her natural cat-like balance saving her.

Konan could see Mei getting excited as Yugito was about to jump from the tenth pole to the eleventh. She only managed one 'Uh-oh.' before...

Rei deadpanned, seeing the pole under Yugito fall down a second after she landed on it, causing her to fall into the melting fog. Only the Steam Armor around her prevented the girl from being made into a mushy goo by the fog. Rei slowly turned his gaze towards Mei and gave her a dry look.

"Really?" Now he understood why so many jonins died without even completing one-fourth of the course. It was the work of a completely sadistic bastard! The whole thing was made to be impossible to pass.

"Yup. It wouldn't be an obstacle course without proper traps to give her a bit of a push!" Mei brightly smiled before frowning. "But to think she would fail at the second obstacle out of twenty... You were right, Rei, Yugi-chan needs a more refined approach!"

'I am not gonna ask what exactly refined means. Clearly, Mei got her inspiration and training ideas from somewhere,' He glanced at amused Konan, 'Sorry, Yugito. It's for your own benefit. This concerned observer is unable to ease your suffering!'

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Chapter 143 - Ch143. Practical Training 1

Ringo stood in between a small man in green spandex with thick eyebrows and Konoha headband who was on his ass and the group of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

"Well, well, I heard the Mizukage sent his seven best to cause some mayhem in the Land of Fire but to think you would be bullying..." Ringo glanced at Duy and shuddered, "whatever that green creep is."

"Ameyuri," Raiga Kurosuki sneered. "Shouldn't you be hiding in some hole? Going rogue... bringing such a shame to the title of Kiba Wielder. I will enjoy making a funeral for you." He said, reminding others who was the woman in front of them. Funnily enough, half of them were new wielders. Capable but nothing like the ones in Mei's generation.

"Sparkling Shitstain, you can't even handle your own little sword. Making this into a pissing contest? Seriously? Acting cool doesn't suit you." Ringo rolled her eyes, ignoring his enraged spluttering, and drew the chakra blades she received from Rei years ago, attracting the attention of the swordsmen. They naturally knew a quality blade when they saw one. Ringo decided to indulge them. "These two have no names. Rei told me it is the swordsman who should be known, not the swords. While I might not wholly agree, I can see his reasoning. You all are nothing. You have no reputation by yourselves. You are known for the reputation of the weapons you wield. The reputation that was given to them by the feats of their past wielders." She slowly trailed her gaze on each of the seven in front of her, "But... you are not them."

As someone who grew up on stories about the 'heroics' of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Ringo was really disappointed by the current generation. They might not be weak and each of them is at the very least experienced A-rank ninja but...

The war was very costly for Kirigakure. Especially the failed attack on the Land of Fire. Not to mention the viciousness of A after his fiancee died.

Kirigakure ninjas were forced to invade the Land of Lightning because of the decision of the Council but A was putting his everything to slaughter as many of them as humanly possible. Considering his Lightning Armor, he was doing pretty well for himself.

Haruto Kurainare, the previous holder of Samehada from Ringo's generation, died in the Land of Lightning. His squad was intercepted during one of their missions by Kiri hunting squad led by A himself. The man knew he could not win against A and his hunting squads. Even if he disregarded the blatant disadvantage of being outnumbered one to five, his squad members were not trained ANBU like the Kiri ninjas.

Haruto also knew he could not run either since A was much faster than him. So, Haruto chose the logical option. He gave Samehada to his squad and told them to run while he, holding an ordinary katana, stood his ground against A and all his hunting squads. The man actually managed to hold them all long enough for the Kiri ninjas to run away with Samehada. Without his sacrifice, Kiri would have lost one of its seven blades that day.

'Compared to that...' Ringo wryly looked at Fuguki Suikazan, the newest wielder of Samehada.

She could see the man was compatible with the sword. If he were not, Samehada would not choose him. But compatibility only meant he had high enough chakra reserves and his chakra was tasty enough for Samehada. Without the sword, the guy was a bit lacking, to be honest. Ringo knew of him, and even now she asked Konan for intel about the wielders of the seven swords. Frankly, Fuguki depended too much on Samehada's abilities in her opinion which made her respect for the guy drop.

Samehada was overpowered. Even a total beginner genin-level swordsman could defeat a chunin-level opponent with the sword by just waving it recklessly. Hence, Ringo didn't feel the need to respect Fuguki himself, rather than the blade he was wielding.

Her eyes trailed towards the wielder of Kubikiribocho Juzo Biwa, and she smiled. The man was a total asshole but Ringo couldn't say he was not skilled.

'Mari, your successor just might live up to your expectations.' Ringo mentally noted with a small amount of relief.

The previous owner of the Kubikiribocho, Mari, was the only other woman in the group in Ringo's generation. She was vicious and fought for every single bit of infamy. In the third war, she, despite being only an A-rank ninja, killed at least one Konoha S-rank ninja, Uchiha no less, and twelve A-rank ones. Not to mention over fifty B-rank victims of her Silent Killing. Out of all of the members of the seven, it was Mari who dealt the biggest damage to the enemy forces. The woman was one hell of a battlefield assassin.

Honestly, Ringo would even go as far as saying the woman created the Silent Killing method. Sure, the previous owners did use Kirigakure no Jutsu in tandem with the sword but it was Mari who improved it to such a degree that it actually became an art of killing.

'Mari always said that there is just something magical about assassinating people with a big-ass cleaver.' Ringo inwardly chuckled, full of mirth.

Unfortunately, Mari died in the failed attempt to invade the Land of Fire.

Kubikiribocho was one of the 'unimpressive' swords. Its ability was not overpowered. Drinking blood to repair itself? Bah...

But that only meant the wielders of the blade had to be that much better skill-wise. 'And hungry for fame.' Ringo grinned at the obvious desire to prove himself in Juzo's eyes.

Kubikiribocho was weak compared to the abilities of other swords. Hence, its wielders always aimed to make it more and more known. Make it taste more and more blood. With Juzo... Ringo was satisfied.

'Yup, that guy is so not getting killed today.'

Then her gaze fell onto the last member of the current generation of the seven who was worth her attention. To her eternal irritation, it was the wielder of Kiba blades, Raiga Kurosuki, or as she dubbed him, the Shitstain.

'How I would love to kill him...' Ringo seethed, 'But Rei wants him to live.'

It took quite a bit of persuasion for Rei to make Ringo promise him she would not kill Raiga. After all, Rei was not omnipresent, much less omnipotent. If the guy survived, there was a chance he would end up meeting the kid with strange dojutsu again and Rei was mildly interested in the kid. As for Raiga? Rei didn't care about the guy! He was only a convenient tool to find the crippled kid with dojutsu, whatever he was called.

'Well, the surroundings are slippery and my hand could always slip and cripple the bastard.' Ringo offhandedly hummed.

The last four... Jinin Akebino, the wielder of Kabutowari, Jinpachi Munashi, the wielder of Shibuki, Kushimaru Kuriarare, the wielder of Nuibari, and Arata Haruna, the wielder of Hiramekarei.

Now these four, Ringo was killing for sure. They were all from her own generation, therefore dangerous and highly experienced in using their respective blades.

"Oh yes... I will enjoy testing my new Jutsu on you." Ringo whispered to herself as she looked at the four of them with a battle-hungry look while raising her right arm and blade towards the sky. At that moment, all four of them had similar thoughts.

'Damn, did we have to encounter this kind of crazy!?'

The cloudy heavens rained lightning.

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Chapter 144 - Ch144. Practical Training 2

"Lightning Release: Lightning Susanoo Armor."

Streams of crackling blue lightning continuously fell from the sky, connecting with the tip of Ringo's raised sword. Every time a stream fell, a loud booming sound and strong shockwave followed, sending Duy who was close flying back and forcing the members of the Kiri Seven Swordsmen to leap back and brace themselves to not be blown away.

It was Raiga Kurosuki who first noticed what was happening. The natural lightning that should have dispersed after falling from the sky, actually gathered around Ringo, wrapping itself around her body while becoming more concentrated. He knew she was doing some kind of insane and powerful Lightning Jutsu, a Jutsu that would instantly kill even him, the best Lightning User of Kirigakure. That's why he wanted to stop her...

The other members of the seven noticed a bit later and instantly wanted to disrupt Ringo but the shockwaves were too strong. No matter what they did, they were kept at bay, gritting their teeth in frustration and watching as the natural lightning started to become visible and shape up into a pulsing blue fiery aura.

Five seconds passed and the blue aura started slowly solidifying, creating electric-blue samurai armor on Ringo made of natural lightning held together and shaped by lightning chakra. She looked as if she was armored in mini-Susanoo, only two intense electric-blue orbs shining from the fearsome helmet.

Dropping down the arm with the sword she used as a lightning rod, Ringo mumbled. "I still have to train a lot to do this instantaneously." She was really disappointed with the time it took her to create the armor coating.

Her brown eyes turned electric-blue as a side-effect of pulling una.d.u.l.terated Nature Energy into the lightning chakra armor. It made the armor stronger but also allowed her to enter something Rei called pseudo Sage Mode. Instead of balancing the Nature energy with the chakra in her body, Rei said she is balancing the Nature Energy in her armor made of natural lighting with the chakra in her body while her lightning chakra was holding it all together. To get that right was quite the pain in the ass. After all, it was impossible to do it normally. It was Rei who found the solution to that little problem after a month of researching...

Duy was flabbergasted to the core when he recognized what he was watching. The woman in front of him half-opened all of her inner gates! Shuddering fright washed over him as his bushy eyebrows disappeared in his hairline. Never once would he imagine it was possible to open an inner gate half-way and use it to perform a Jutsu!

Duy's fright only increased when the armored form of Ringo half-turned towards him and the electric-blue intense orbs landed on his small frame. Ringo looked at him for a second before speaking. "Run along towards the team you saved. This will get messy fast and you are frankly in the way."

Duy had no idea how to react to that but his fear was instantly suppressed when after hearing her speak about his son. He jumped up, "YOUTH!" and started running in the direction his son's team left.

All seven members of the Kiri Swordsmen and Ringo deadpanned at the green blur.

'And just like that, the green screaming weirdo lives on to spread Youth-induced heart attacks all over Konoha.' Ringo sighed. 'According to Rei, having two of them in one village might just be the thing that could finish the village off at a later date. Nevertheless, I am a bit disappointed if that was the best Genjutsu user of Konoha. He didn't even use his unbreakable Youth Genjutsu Rei praised so much.' She shook her head in disappointment with a relaxed posture but the corner of her eye already stalked her first prey.

Fuguki Suikazan only barely managed to raise Samehada in order to block Ringo's slash who just appeared in front of him without any telling sign.

'Shit! Her speed was enhanced to such a degree!?' He thought in a slight panic as sparks flew from the spot where Samehada met Ringo's nameless chakra blade covered in a bluish fiery aura that occasionally crackled with lightning.

The panic quickly subsided however as he realized they were almost matched when it came to strength. That was a big surprise too though. He was considered to be one of the physically most able in the Kiri Seven Swordsmen. After all, wielding a greatsword required a great deal of strength. So the former wielder of Kiba blades, swords that needed agility and flexibility instead of strength, was quite surprising.

Fuguki flashed the bored Ringo a brief grin as he saw his comrades react and jump towards Ringo. They were still a bit far away but... 'Hah, touching Samehada with a sword covered in chakra? This woman really learned nothing during her brief stay as one of the Seven!'

There was a reason why Kiba wielder never fought against Samehada wielder. There was just no way to parry or block a sword that sucked chakra when one was relying on coating his swords in chakra.

The fiery lightning aura around Ringo's blade instantly vanished and Fuguki's grin widened. He did not notice that Ringo already let go of that sword which made him a bit late in seeing her second blade approaching his waist. When he finally spotted it, he could only move Samehada's handle to the left, blocking Ringo's second sword with it.

'F.u.c.k, even handle can suck chakra!?' Ringo inwardly cursed as she felt the chakra in her sword quickly disappearing and let go of her remaining sword.

Samehada was now positioned horizontally in front of her at the level of her head since Fuguki was a giant of a man and she only reached his chest. He was fully grinning at her with a mocking gaze at the now disarmed woman. He could not believe how easily he forced her to abandon her weapons! In his opinion, she was the biggest shame of the Kiri Seven Swordsmen!

"Ha! You got rust-"

And Ringo who was still clad in the Lightning Susanoo Armor simply willed her lightning chakra to make the natural concentrated lightning extend from her palm and a shining blue sword made out of natural lightning appeared in her left hand in a split second.

Instead of attacking, Ringo just swiftly positioned the back of her sword in the middle of Samehada's handle, between Fuguki's hands that were holding the upper and lower part of the long handle of the greatsword. Her right hand also flashed and another sword made of concentrated natural lightning appeared.

Chill ran up Fuguki's spine. No wonder she let herself be disarmed if she could create lightning swords at will! He knew he had to do something and since the back of her lightning sword was connecting with Samehada's handle...

Samehada hissed in pain as it tried to suck chakra out of the sword. Ringo's blade however just slightly shimmered. Unlike the fiery lightning aura that coated the blades from chakra metal, her current created swords were mostly made of natural lightning held together by Ringo's lightning chakra like the rest of her armor. Samehada managed to eat up the lightning chakra but all Ringo had to do was keep supplying the sword with more and more of it to make it keep the shape while Samehada was getting constantly zapped as it tried to eat the chakra.

Needless to say, it didn't take even a split of a second for Samehada to refuse to eat the chakra. Fuguki could force it but at that point, he had other problems. While he tried to make Samehada eat the chakra from the lightning sword, Ringo slashed the sword in her right hand at his neck in a piercing move.

Assessing his situation, Fuguki quickly realized he had only two options. He could not evade while holding Samehada because of the sword hooked around the middle of Samehada's handle. Refusing to be disarmed, he went for the other one... offense.

Letting go of Samehada's upper part of its handle with his right hand and at the same time, pulling his left hand that held the handle on the lower part back, Fuguki smashed Samehada into Ringo's unprotected left side without any obstruction since the sword in Ringo's was still hooked around the middle of Samehada's handle.

Fuguki's eyes widened when Ringo didn't even budge from the force of Samehada's blade slamming into her.

His plan was simple, shred into her left side and send her flying away, freeing Samehada and creating distance. But Ringo didn't move even an inch. The Lightning Susanoo Armor on her left side was shimmering not unlike the lightning blade, just on a bigger scale while Samehada was shrieking in horrific pain, trying to wiggle away from the armor of natural lightning covering Ringo. Even the enlarged spikes that covered her whole left side and were supposed to shred her couldn't even pierce through the armor!

Fuguki didn't have much time since Ringo's sword was almost upon his neck... His left hand let go and he jumped back while Samehada finally disconnected from Ringo's armor and fell on the ground next to her, wheezing in pain while smoke was rising from between its scales.

Ringo smirked at Fuguki who was looking at her with immense rage and a bit of humiliation at being disarmed in a four-second-long exchange. Ringo didn't have much time to gloat, however. The other six members of the Seven were already upon her, their swords slashing, piercing, and stabbing into her figure with a loud clang, or boom in case of Shibuki... but their wielders' ferocious winning grins disappeared when her armor blocked all of their attacks without even leaving a scratch on the armor.

"Well, so much for that..." Ringo amusedly quipped and pulsed the chakra in the lightning swords she held.

A split second later, the swords burst into a large energy wave that slammed into the six swordsmen surrounding her and sent them flying back at breakneck speed while the lightning swords dissolved.

Fuguki hatefully watched as his associates were flung away and Ringo casually bent down, picking Samehada up by its handle. Samehada tried to pierce her hand with some spikes but again, they could not penetrate the armor covering Ringo's hand and one fast zap made the sword very obedient.

Ringo, with a gleeful smile, pulled out a special stasis storage scroll given to her by Rei. Normal storage scrolls could not store living things, hence, Samehada or any other of the Seven Swords, for that matter, could not be stored, no matter if they possessed sentience or not. Hence, this feat required special high-level fuinjutsu.

Fuguki could only helplessly watch as Ringo stored Samehada and put the scroll into her pocket, all the while she stared straight at him with a mirthful gaze.

'Haaaa~, why is he glaring at me so much? I am a ninja, not some honorable samurai who would throw the blade you dropped back to you. I would naturally take the only thing that could possess any sort of danger in this fight out of the equation as soon as possible. Does he even realize this is basically one versus seven?' Ringo thought, resisting a strong urge to shake her head in disappointment at him.

Her armor didn't take much chakra since she only had to hold the natural lightning together. But once Samehada started eating the chakra from a large area, she had to quickly resupply it and... Just the single second when Samehada was connected with her left side cost her two percent of her whole reserves.

'There is no way I would leave such a weapon in the hands of my enemies.' Ringo sighed as she connected two chakra strings with the handles of her nameless chakra-metal blades on the ground and pulled them back into her grip, coating them in her Lightning Susanoo Armor which made them many times sharper and tougher. She only started with the Fiery Lightning Aura coating her blades at the start of her fight against Fuguki to goad him into a false sense of security when she dropped her blades, after all.

'Well then...' Ringo's eyes flashed in giddiness when she saw Fuguki taking out an ordinary greatsword from a storage scroll while the other six members of the Kiri Seven Swordsmen stood up and prepared for a fight, 'Let's start the real testing of my new technique!'

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Chapter 145 - Ch145. Practical Training 3

Juzo jumped at Ringo the second he regained his balance, forcing her to block a sweeping slash from his Kubikiribocho with her right blade. Not even a split second later, Jinin's Kabutowari's ax met Ringo's left blade as sparks flew all around. Jinin's blow was much stronger than Juzo's but nevertheless, it fulfilled its purpose and Ringo was now in a deadlock.

Ringo knew Jinin would most likely use his hammer to strengthen the force behind his ax so she leaned on her left leg, putting as much weight onto it as possible to brace for the impact that would come from her left side.

Jinin smirked pushing himself from the ground into a spin... and before Ringo registered what he planned, his hammer impacted... Kubikiribocho instead of his ax. Ringo, who was still blocking Kubikiribocho with her right blade and was balancing herself for a strong blow from her left side, didn't last even a second before her guard broke and Kubikiribocho met her waist, bending her and sending her flying through the air to the left.

Despite preferring working solo, the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist knew what teamwork is and could work together seamlessly. This was shown by the direction Ringo was sent flying to, straight at Jinpachi, the wielder of Shibuki.

Ringo tried to regain her balance by twisting in mid-air but a string caught her leg, again making her unbalanced as Kushimaru kicked her chest, sending her back on her track towards Jinpachi even faster than before. Kushimaru landed onto his feet, and instantly fell onto his ass as smoke started rising from his right leg, the one he used to kick Ringo's armor. Clearly, he got zapped by the natural lightning in return and would not regain his nimbleness anytime soon.

Jinpachi held Shibuki like a baseball bat and when Ringo's body was finally in his striking range, he swung... a booming explosion resounded from his Explosive Sword as the dust was sent into the air. The ball of dust was broken up not a second later by Ringo's body that was sent flying in yet another direction by the explosion, right at the wielder of Hiramekarei who was already waiting for her with a hammer made of chakra.

Ringo however twisted her body mid-air as she was about to reach into Arata's striking range. This time, there was nobody able to stop her. Her foot kicked the ground which completely changed the trajectory of her 'flight', making her crash through the air towards the ground instead of towards Arata. Crouched on all four, Ringo slid on the ground in front of Arata who didn't expect her to do something like this.

Ringo seamlessly transferred all the kinetic force from her flight into sliding, mitigating it slightly, and then she pushed against the ground, again changing the sliding into the spin... It was so fast that Arata didn't even have time to register when exactly she appeared in front of him as her body was about to spin from right to left and with that, her right blade was rushing towards his neck.

Ringo was already in Arata's guard. He didn't have time to change the shape of Hiramekarei and with a massive weapon like the chakra hammer, it would be hard to counter so he was forced to go defensive and block. Pulling the hammer slightly towards his left, Ringo's natural-lightning-coated blade crashed into the chakra-made hammer-head, cracking the ground under them from the force, causing Arata's knees to bend.

Nevertheless, Arata was already in the process of changing Hiramekarei into the shape of two swords to match Ringo's dual-wielding. He was indeed the best to block her or stop her momentum as both used energy-made or coated blades and both could dual-wield.

And as Ringo spotted he divided Hiramekarei into two while changing its shape into some kind of oval chakra blades... she decided to take the kiddy gloves off. The twerp was really arrogant if he wanted to fight with two swords against her of all people.

Her left arm snapped into action, slashing towards the left blade of Hiramekarei as Arata was barely done with the division of his sword... Needless to say, he couldn't put as much strength behind his block and was sent sliding back, ending the deadlock of their right blades.

Ringo didn't wait for him to regain his bearing and jumped forward, viciously slashing her swords, getting faster and faster... one slash, two slashes, four, eight, sixteen... lightning bolts cracked and snapped all around the duo of a petite redhead who was like a rushing bull and a tall blue-haired man who barely managed to block with his big oval swords made of chakra. Ringo's speed was increasing by slash and Arata had really a big problem to block her fast-paced combo. Slowly, he started redirecting, parrying while retreating backward...

Ringo's swords stopped as three blades landed on her from behind. Kubikiribocho, Kabutowari, and Kiba wielders put their best into it, wanting to injure her while she was focused on Arata. Kubikiribocho stopped on her neck. Both of Kiba's blades were flashing with lightning and trying to dig into her right side, in an upward stab that would reach her heart, and right leg, right above a quite important artery. And Kabutowari's ax was in the middle of her back, right alongside her spine, as Jinin smashed his ax into it.

The battlefield stilled.

Arata was gasping for air, happy he held Ringo down long enough for the others to attack. His two Hiramekareis were crossed over his chest, stopping one of Ringo's stabs a few inches in front of his face. Really... lucky.

"Pffft." Ringo suddenly snickered.

Hearing that, the four swordsmen around her stiffened. Three of them felt a chill go up to their spines when they realized that... 'How the heck is there not even a scratch on her armor!?'

Kubikiribocho stopped on the armor coating her neck, many cracks appearing on the blade as the natural lightning reverted most of the force of the blow back onto the blade. Juzo's eyes widened. Sure, Kubikiribocho was broken many times but never by its own attack!

The lightning coating of Kiba blades shimmered down to inexistence almost instantly as the electric energy was absorbed by Ringo's armor. The only reason the Kiba blades were not damaged was their lightning attunement and Raiga was forced to step back as his blades uncontrollably shook from the impact, causing his whole body to tremble while his wrists screamed in pain as he tried to not let go of the vibrating Kiba blades.

Kabutowari... the second Jinin stuck his hammer onto the back of its ax, trying to use it as a wedge to break through Ringo's armor and dig into her spine, the force was completely negated. At least from his perspective. He didn't feel a thing. His ax though... the whole force of his blow and that of Ringo's armor's counter was focused solely on the ax, causing it to shatter into pieces as two opposing forces squished it. Needless to say, Jinin was horrified at part of his sword that was supposed to be able to penetrate any defense being broken!

'Lightning Armor: Force Reflection.' Ringo's eyes gleamed. 'Did the idiots think I would not prepare for them?'

The previous exchange where she was sent flying was enough of a lesson for her. Clearly, having superb defense didn't mean she could not be unbalanced or sent flying. It might be still in the stage of development but Ringo naturally already implemented a few tricks into her armor to increase her defensive and offensive power.

Arata didn't see what happened behind Ringo. He still thought she was affected by the three blows to her back and he just had to keep her in a deadlock while his associates penetrate her armor and finish her off but...

With a mocking smile, Ringo suddenly lengthened the blade he was blocking. The one he stopped just a few inches in front of his face. And Arata was sent onto a permanent vacation as his head was skewered by a blade made of natural lightning, creating a charred hole into it.

'Didn't expect that, did ya, f.u.c.ker?' Ringo cheered while the lengthened part of the blade made of natural lightning retracted back into a coating around the chakra-metal blade.

'Shit!' The three swordsmen behind Ringo had all similar thoughts, wanting to distance themselves from her. They weren't stupid and knew the hunter just became prey.

But Ringo would not let them go so easily when they had the guts to attack her back, right?

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Chapter 146 - Ch146. Raijin's Descent

Ringo's blades gleamed blue as she spun on her heel, sending a piercing stab at Jinin who now held only the hammer part of Kabutowari. He quickly put the hammer-head in the path of Ringo's sword, blocking it but Ringo was no longer paying him any attention as her feet impacted Juzo's chest, cracking most of his ribs while breaking some as lightning from her armor shocked him unconscious and the kick sent him flying way back, causing him to let go of Kubikiribocho that quickly spun in the air until it stopped by its blade burrowing into the ground.

'Two down.' Ringo hummed, half-turning her head towards Jinin who just now realized he was used only as a diversion.

The situation was quite bad for him. He was closest to Ringo, half of his weapon was destroyed, Raiga was behind him without any way to help him fast enough for it to count, and other remaining members of the Seven who were capable of fighting may have been on their way to intercept Ringo but it was apparent they would not make it before she attacked him.

Jinin took a defensive stance with his hammer. For now, he had to endure...

Ringo looked behind where Kuriarare Kushimaru was running at her, trying to hide his injured leg by acting alright. She then glanced to the right where Jinpachi Munashi with his Shibuki was also approaching at a fast pace. To her left, Fuguki Suikazan ran at her with an ordinary katana.

'Smart...' Ringo thought as she looked at the giant of a man. She knew he could run faster. That meant he was letting others engage her first. For someone who lost his sword, which was his best advantage, this was indeed the best approach.

And finally, in front of her were Jinin, and Raiga who was still slightly trembling but looked determined to kill her.

Ringo smirked. There was just one last test to do. Stabbing her swords into the ground, their Lightning Susanoo Armor Coating disappeared the second she let go of them and lightning started to surge around them. The sky above her also started crackling with blue bolts as Ringo's lightning chakra seeped into the swords, making them perfect lightning rods.

"Watch out!" Raiga shouted as his eyes briefly widened when he recognized the technique. Gritting his teeth, he started pouring his own lightning chakra in big amounts around himself in preparation for Ringo's technique. "That's Raijin's Descent!"

He was, however, too late...

"Lightning Release: Raijin's Descent!" Ringo gleefully shouted, grinning like a loon with her arms theatrically spread apart, her hair standing up from both excitement and the exhilarating feeling of the static electricity coursing through her body.

From the black clouds above, two blue lightning dragons coiled around themselves in a swift descent. Their maws as big as a house deafeningly roaring at the ground they were fast approaching.

It barely took two seconds since they appeared high in the sky for them to crash on top of Ringo's head... a deafening 'Booom' resounded through the surrounding lands while the lightning painted the world blue as the lightning energy instantly raced through the area.

The trees in the radius of a few kilometers lost all of their leaves. The trees in the radius of a few hundred meters became charred. The ground in a hundred meters radius became shallow but still a massive crater and the air crackled with spontaneous electric discharges all over the whole supercharged area.

Raijin's Descent...

A secret self-sacrificial technique passed from Kiba user to Kiba user through special scrolls. The so-called above S-rank one-time final army-killing move.

Ringo was hunched over with her knees bent from the strain of two S-ranked Lightning Dragon Jutsus smashing together into her as she discharged a large amount of lightning chakra around herself. It was not to protect her body, rather it was a part of the technique. She had to envelop herself in the pure una.d.u.l.terated lightning chakra of the amount of high-level S-rank Jutsu that would supercharge the two S-rank Lightning Dragons upon impact.

When the three S-rank level energies met head-on, pushing against each other? Naturally, the two S-rank Lightning Dragons would win because the amount of energy was bigger...

At this point, the user who is serving as director for the two Lightning Dragon Jutsus would be torn to shreds because of the immense pressure of three S-rank forces focused on one point... her.

But the Jutsu would continue.

The power and energy contained in the two S-rank Lightning Dragon Jutsus would literally be deflected from being vertical to being horizontal due to coming into contact with the S-rank lightning chakra the user exerted. This would also boost the two S-rank Lightning Dragon Jutsus before it would all explode in a horizontal surge of lightning energy and pressure, devastating kilometers of land around the area of impact.

It was not only Madara and Hashirama who were well above their peers in their time. Every village had one or two of these 'hidden' experts who could fight these two even if such a fight would mean sacrificing their life. Hashirama would never decide to go the peaceful way and hand out the bijuu in wishful thinking for peace if the villages could be easily conquered by him without much bloodshed. His diaries certainly said enough. In the end, he was raised to be a ninja, not a monk.

"Shit..." Ringo let out a deep breath and cursed. She could already feel the bruises forming on her body as her bones creaked. "Thankfully, nothing is broken or cracked." She gritted her teeth through the pain as she straightened herself and stretched her protesting muscles who were just put through a literal shredder made of pure energy.

She would never use the Jutsu if she didn't know she could survive it. Her armor would protect her but... Kirigakure had some recounting on Madara's and Hashirama's power and Raijin's Descent was something made to counter Madara's Susanoo or Hashirama's Wood Techniques. In close range, the trees would be literally liquified and Susanoo would be breached, injuring the user if not killing him.

"Sixty percent of my chakra, huh?" Ringo bitterly smiled as she realized how much of her chakra she had to use to concentrate her Lightning Susanoo Armor in order to prevent her muscles from tearing and bones from breaking. The armor still had massive cracks all over it but was somewhat intact. 'Well, considering this would be way above my chakra reserves limit before bonding with Rei...' She subconsciously smiled while a slight blush dusted her cheeks as she thought about that while looking around, not forgetting she is still in combat.

The first person she spotted was Raiga Kurosuki who was a few meters away from her. He was kneeling on one knee, tightly gripping Kiba blades stabbed into the ground as faint, slowly dissipating bluish shimmering coating covered his body and swords. It was almost depleted and the man himself was already unconscious because of chakra exhaustion but he survived. If he was even a meter closer to Ringo, his chakra reserves wouldn't make it.

'Well, I was ordered to leave him alive.' Ringo sighed and shook her head, 'I so hate calculating these things.'

The next thing Ringo realized was that Jinin who stood closer to her and was in fact, in front of Raiga when she started her technique, was nowhere to be found. 'I guess he was vaporized alongside the hammer, then.' She shrugged.

Not every weapon could withstand such concentrated lightning chakra at such a close range. Kiba survived because it was from the start attuned to lightning. Her own nameless blades were covered in a protective chakra layer... but Kabutowari? It had no chance without Jinin coating it in chakra and the guy had no time for that.

'What a pity to lose one of the seven swords...' Ringo clicked her tongue.

She looked to the right where Fuguki should have been located. Honestly, she didn't put much thought into his survival so she had no idea if he withstood the Jutsu.

The second Ringo spotted his body, she mirthfully chuckled.

'The Earth Dome he hastily created for his protection must have been run through instantly, burying him in the dirt without him even knowing how or when he was knocked out.' Ringo analyzed the situation as she saw Fuguki's half-buried bend-over unconscious form with his legs sticking up towards the sky from the ground. The guy survived only because he was lucky that his nose didn't get covered. 'Then again, the dirt most likely grounded most of the lightning, causing him to survive. How lucky...'

Left side... Ringo only nodded when she saw a bit charred but still breathing form of Juzo Biwa. She kicked him far enough for the energy discharge to give only a slight caress to him.

Merrily walking towards the half-liquified, half-broken Kubikiribocho, Ringo amusedly noted that the 'weakest' of the seven swords actually survived her technique at close range. She took it by the half-destroyed handle, 'He can still regrow it to its former state if he sacrificed about two hundred liters of blood and fifty times of his chakra reserves.' She threw it towards Juzo, where it landed with an audible clang.

"So, Jinpachi is dead..." Ringo's eyes lingered on the dust-covered Shibuki on the ground, "that explosion maniac would never let Shibuki out of his hand willingly." Her head turned slightly, "Hiramekarei is also fine but Arata's corpse was vaporized. Huh? No big loss there..." Ringo briefly pondered if she should take Hiramekarei but decided against it. One sword taken and another destroyed was enough spoils for now. Kiri still needed its swordsmen.

Ringo relaxed. "I guess this is i-"

Kushimaru's Nuibari stabbed into the biggest crack on Ringo's chest, right above her heart. Sparks and lightning discharges flew around as the Nuibari trembled from the strength its user used to push its tip against the impenetrable yet cracked lightning armor.

Ringo blinked and Kushimaru sweatdropped as he realized he f.u.c.k.i.e.d up.

"Oya? You are still breathing?" Ringo asked as her empty hand snapped in Kushimaru's direction, taking hold of his masked face before she pulled him closer towards her.

Normally he would surely dodge since he was the most agile of the seven, even surpassing Ringo's past self but now... Kushimaru's left side was incinerated. He lacked his left hand, he lacked half of his left leg, half of his left chest and stomach... only the fact his wounds were burned shut prevented him from bleeding out by now.

Ringo sighed in exasperation. 'Kushimaru was always vicious little shit. Of course, he would try to score a killing blow despite being half-dead when his enemy finally relaxed. How the hell did he even survive?'

She didn't try to talk to him. There was nothing to talk about. She just started a Chidori on her free hand and speared his chest through, tearing his heart out before using lightning discharge to destroy it. Blood started slowly dripping from under the chin of his mask as his body slackened.

Kushimaru Kuriarare died.

Ringo threw his body onto the ground and stretched her arms up before leisurely walking towards her chakra blades stabbed into the ground and picking them up.

'Oh well, job well done. Time to go home, I guess...'

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Chapter 147 - Ch147. The start of a... town?

Pa treon - 41 chapters ahead.

If you want to support me or read ahead:

pa /kasicair

--

Rei caressed Ringo's hair as she dozed off in his lap after she carefreely threw Samehada at Yugito with words, "I think this one will fit you well considering you are jinchuuriki...". It was funny how no matter Yugito protested that Greatsword and nimble cat-like fighting style didn't go together, Ringo just shrugged her off and said she believed Yugito would find a way before promptly monopolizing Rei's lap for herself with a smug self-satisfied expression.

"She must be really exhausted," Mei commented, half-glaring at Ringo clad only in a skimpy yukata after taking a long bath to scrub off all the dust from her fight. "How could it be so," Mei started carefully poking Ringo's butt, making her whimper, "bouncy..." She muttered to herself while her free hand was comparing her own...

Rei just chuckled and let the girl to her own fantasies while he read his notebook where all his rough ideas on his Bijuu project were written. It was a very slow-going and tiring process. His days were filled with research, research, s.e.x, and more research... but he was sure it would be worth it in the future.

Strong or not, neither of his group was at the level of the end-game Naruto or Sasuke, much less Kaguya. The anime made it seem so easy...

In under four years, a total orange-loving Hokage-screaming loser became a deity level powerhouse.

In under four years, an edgy duckbutt-haired language-impaired Hn!-avenger-wannabe became a deity level powerhouse.

All because of some nonsense about being the reincarnations of Indra and Asura, some magical eye-power, and beast sealed in the stomach.

'When one really looks into how exactly Naruto and Sasuke got so strong, it is really sad because they are nothing but predetermined to be such. What hard work? I bet at least half of the jonin put more hard work into being a ninja than Naruto's bird brain could ever comprehend or Sasuke's avenging tunnel vision could discover.' Rei sighed. 'I am so jealo-, ahem, pissed!'

Becoming Jonin was not really all that easy. The amount of seemingly useless skills one had to perfect was mind-boggling. It was not all just about fire-power and killing things. Not entirely.

Rei was putting in the hard work. Training, studying, researching, earning money, playing politics through the Biri-Biri company, and much more. He was progressively getting stronger too! He was also making his girls stronger and was delighted when they put in the needed effort to become incredibly strong without him even having to ask them for it. But the main characters? What the f.u.c.k was with some old deity-class world-peeking geezer touching the two boys and them suddenly gaining the necessary additional power to face against Kaguya.

'Maybe I should have chosen some plot-armor bullcrap during my reincarnation?' Rei hummed jokingly, getting back to his Bijuu-creation research as he enjoyed Ringo's silky hair in between his fingers and her soft cheek pressed into his thighs.

In the end, as long as he had his girls and all people he cared about were happy, was there even a reason to complain?

...

Rei sat on his couch with Konan sitting on his right side with her back straightened and with a pondering expression on her face while Tsunade was sitting on his left side, leaning on his arm, totally uncaring about the meeting. Only these two knew what Rei wanted to say and while Konan was racking her brain to think about how to improve or make Rei reach his goal easier, Tsunade didn't care. If Rei told her to do something, she would do it but leaning on Rei was more enjoyable than thinking about the current topic.

Opposite them, Mei sat in Ringo's lap. Since they found a common interest in weapon forging, Ringo and Mei became almost inseparable... and together, more often than not, even flammable. Rei might have repaired five houses per day thanks to his clones but Mei and Ringo destroyed at least twelve per week in their 'sisterly' arguments that left craters all over Uzushio.

Both were a bit curious about what Rei wanted to talk about since he grouped them all together but while Mei's eyes were gleaming in interest, Ringo had a bored expression. There was no way Rei would call all of them together for a fight at this stage so... meh?

"I called this meeting because the rebuilding of Uzushio is mostly finished. We have a village... now we need villagers." Rei said, taking a teacup from the table.

Mei and Ringo instantly snapped at attention.

"We are finally going to make a ninja village?" Ringo's eyes gleamed.

Since she got to know Rei will eventually make his own village, she wanted to create a group similar to the Seven Swordsmen... alas, she was currently the only swordsman and with Mei, they were in the stage of finding out how to create swords on par with Kiba at the very least. That was partially the reason why she took Samehada, the most incredible of the Seven Swords. She needed an example to study...

"No..." Rei shook his head, causing Ringo to deflate, "We are making a civilian town with the goal of making it into a very important trading hub in the future." He continued, and enjoyed Ringo frowning for a bit before he added, "Officially at least."

Ringo and Mei looked at each other, tilting their heads in confusion.

"What do you think the 'hidden' in Hidden Village stands for?" Konan added, a bit annoyed at their dull expressions. 'Modern Ninjas... really.' She scoffed, making both Ringo and Mei blush a bit from shame.

"I didn't think of that..." Mei admitted with a high dose of sarcasm in her tone before her tone turned to seriousness as she looked at Rei. "So you want the ninja village to be hidden behind the appearance of a civilian town? You know that won't work for more than a few years, right? Konoha already tried that."

"Of course not. The actual Ninja Village will be in a different location and we will use seals to thoroughly hide its existence. But that's not important for now. First, we need to build Uzushio into an important trading town and for that, we need people."

"Why not use the merchants and employees of the Biri-Biri company?" Ringo asked but Tsunade gave her a deadpan look, causing her to sheepishly smile in confusion which made Konan giggle and Tsunade groan.

In the past months, Tsunade took over Konan, or Na Kona as was her alias, and became Nadetsu Juusen, the new director of the Biri-Biri company with her Wood Clones that could literally be molded to a different image. Nadetsu Juusen was a tall tanned lady with an average chest, blue eyes, and blond hair of a darker shade. There was no way to relate her to the real Tsunade in any way. Plus the wordplay with her name was so lame, childish, and elementary no self-respecting ninja would actually believe it to be more than a dumb coincidence.

"Obviously it's to avoid exposing that Uzushio and the Biri-Biri have ties. The entire success of the Biri-Biri company is built on the fact that we have no affiliation with any village or nation and provide equal services to everyone at the same price." Tsunade explained with a patient tone before gesturing to Konan. "It took Konan and Karubo years and the entire third war had to happen to firmly establish this fact in the minds of our clientele who believed us to still be biased towards Kirigakure since we originated in the Land of Water. Make no mistake, the Mizukage and the Water Daimyo were pissed at us for not showing any favoritism towards them during the war. Showing a favorable relationship is fine but outright putting our people to Uzushio is a blatant show of favoritism and bad for the business. And I am not even talking about the message such an action would send."

Despite her tendencies, Tsunade was groomed to be very skilled in politics and economy from an early age. It was just that most of the time, she disregarded everything in favor of resolving her problems with a straight punch to the noggin.

Alas, the second Konan discovered there was a bit more to Tsunade's mind than rampaging around like a drunk half-mad badger and healing, she started grooming her, Nadetsu Juusen, to be her 'successor' as she started showing that she, Na Kona, was 'ill' and would eventually step down.

In Rei's opinion, it was a good move since Tsunade was indeed more able in these matters compared to Konan. Naturally, that particular agreement took a lot of intimacy, a promise of more time spent together, which Rei planned to do anyway since he missed her when she was in Konoha... not that she had to know that... and Konan had to 'donate' twenty of her paper clones to do the paperwork for Tsunade. After all, paper Jutsus were a huge advantage there. All in all, Tsunade only dealt with the direction of the company and the most important stuff.

"So? You will probably want highly loyal people acting as merchants for Uzushio and the first inhabitants so... I guess the strategy will be the same as what you told Karubo to do to get employees for the Biri-Biri? We are going to save some poor bastards and offer them a safe haven, food, and comfortable life and slowly build their feeling of belonging... some basic manipulations, maybe?" Tsunade bit the tip of her finger and Rei smiled, patting her head.

"I, Konan, and Tsunade are going to the Land of Grass. Ringo and Mei can focus on their forging or training Yugito in Mei's case," He gave the pouting girl a knowing look before his expression shifted to seriousness itself, "but please, stop fighting in the open. If you feel the itch to destroy a big plot of land, go to the Dimension." He strictly said, narrowing his eyes at the two women who gulped and started frantically nodding.

Rei smiled. "That is all I wanted to say to you."

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Chapter 148 - Ch148. Harima Village 1

Three figures were walking on the muddy road in the countryside of the Grass Country, clad in black cloaks. These cloaks were the same and yet different from the ones Yozora members wore. Thanks to a special Illusionary Seal, they were tattered and seemed to portray a guise of poverty while still being fully capable of covering the wearer's identity.

Rei never really understood why Akatsuki members always wore their cloaks. Or how the heck did they manage to infiltrate a hidden village while wearing it, for that matter. He was a ninja and the first thing ninjas did NOT do was scream 'I am here' with his clothing. That was also the reason why neither he nor his girls wore their ninja forehead protectors anymore.

Finally, Rei and his party arrived at the entrance to Harima Village.

Despite this village being quite far away from the war frontier, many of its inhabitants attempted to flee only to be returned by Kusa ninjas who needed them in the village to grow a special kind of poisonous plant for them.

Needless to say, the average lifespan of Harima Village inhabitants working with these plants was around thirty-five.

The village was dependent on the Kusagakure for everything from food to even things like shovels. It was already a miracle they had their own well. Kusagakure would never let them be independent since a lot of their income came from what the villagers grew there.

"Are you sure we are at the right place?" Tsunade questioned, frowning at the small wooden huts, more often than not having many cracks, being completely in disrepair, or showing previously destroyed parts unevenly patched with planks of wood. Tsunade turned towards Konan with a pissed off look, "You said an Uzumaki family is living here?"

Rei only nodded in agreement. Long ago he distributed bloodline identifying seals of his own creation to the peddlers and merchants working for the Biri-Biri company. He had quite a lot of places where Uzumaki clan members lived in relative peace but he nor the Biri-Biri company could not do anything during the war in most cases.

Frankly, so far the Biri-Biri company found means to take in only twenty Uzumaki from the 212 discovered cases of people with bloodline ties to the Uzumaki clan. Most of these didn't even know they were Uzumaki clan members and more often than not they were affiliated with some ninja village.

At this point, they have so scattered the revival of the Uzumaki clan without any major help would be just a pipe dream.

"Just remember that Uzumaki are not our primary objective." Rei lightly said and started walking towards the village.

...

Kazuto Kareki looked at the villagers gathered in the square, all underfed and wearing shabby clothes with many tears. His cold brown eyes scanned every single one of them until they stopped at one pale-skinned young girl with red hair, amethyst-eyes, sunken cheeks, and a slightly bulging stomach.

Kazuto could only click his tongue at that. He knew the brat she was expecting is his. He made sure none of the male villagers dared to approach her and his men knew well she served him exclusively.

The position of overseer of Harima Village was a poor one without any way to get rich since the villagers didn't have much but nobody could say it didn't have at least some advantages.

'But who would have thought she would get pregnant?' Kazuto glared at the woman who was kneeling a bit away from him, causing her to flinch. 'Should I just kill her? But she has that bite-heal ability! If it came out I killed her when she could become such a valuable asset for the village...'

Kazuto was not really exceptionally strong. During the entire war, he survived on his smarts rather than brawns and even his high position was thanks to his skills in flattery.

This situation was not really different. He kept her ability in secret for the entire duration of the war for his own benefit. Whether it was satisfying his l.u.s.t with what was in his opinion the prettiest girl in the village, or having an easy to use healing tool...

'Meh... I will just take her to the village and when the higher-ups get to know of her ability, they will take care of the matter for me. As long as I play my cards right, a bit of threatening her with her parents will be enough to ensure her mouth is shut after I take her to Kusagakure. Nobody has to know I knew about her ability for years.'

Kazuto's eyes then landed on the two people in their late thirties kneeling next to the girl. Alas, they would have to die the second the girl left the Harima village to tie loose ends. He could only sigh in sadness at that. His poor subordinates will be saddened. The girl's mother was the second prettiest woman in the village despite her 'advanced' age.

Honestly, Kazuto didn't like it when he took over the post. He outright hated how the villagers were treated but... The position of overseer of the Harima village was the only thing that prevented him from being sent to the front-lines.

At first, he only took the redheaded girl as his servant only from pity because he knew the ninjas appointed as his subordinates were always those nasty, vicious, and bitter forever genins who just love to make other people, those weaker than them, suffer to alleviate the feeling of their own incompetence and stress from living on the edge.

But as years went by, he got used to it. He only did what was necessary for the Kusagakure to thrive... at least, that was what he told himself every time he saw his servant girl cry in the corner.

'The stupid cow doesn't even know how good she has it. Other girls would jump to be in her place.' Kazuto mentally scoffed when he saw the girl clutch the hem of her tattered clothes with her hands.

"Kaya Uzumaki, you will accompany me to the Kusagakure. It is time to start being useful to the village that is feeding you." Kazuto bluntly exclaimed, making the girl and her parents' heads snap in his direction with scared expressions. He smirked, walking closer to her before grabbing her hair and yanking it back to make her look at him. "Don't worry, you will still be considered my slave... What? Do you have a problem with my decision?"

They could only lower their heads in acceptance.

Neither Kaya nor her parents wanted her to go alone to an unknown village, much less a militaristic one like the Kusagakure when she was pregnant. Life in the Harima Village was not comfortable and most of the time it could be called downright cruel because of the ninjas who were stationed there for the village's 'protection'... but at the very least, they knew what to expect from such a life and were already used to it.

Work diligently in the fields, bear with some bullying from the ninjas, not like they could overdo it too much, and spend as much time in the comforting presence of the family in order not to mentally break.

Going to the Kusagakure was a big unknown and it scared Kaya to think how she would be treated there. If the way her family was treated here was any indication, going to Kusagakure frightened her to no end. Especially since she would not have her family to encourage her.

"I sure as hell do have a problem with your decision, twat!" A low gruff growl of a very pissed woman resounded through the surroundings as a monstrous killing intent and chakra pressure flooded the square.

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Chapter 149 - Ch149. Harima Village 2

Tsunade, wearing a blank white mask, suddenly appeared behind Kazuto who suddenly found something grabbing his shoulder and pressing him down with massive force, causing him to fall on his knees.

With an abrupt twist of her fingers, Tsunade snapped his collar bone, making him scream and attempt to trash but her grip was too strong for Kazuto to break free. She saw the silent and verbal interaction between him and the barely fifteen-year-old frightened and underfed Uzumaki girl and she didn't like the conclusion of her findings at all.

Tsunade expected the Uzumaki family not to have a very easy or nice life since Rei chose the village for recruitment, which meant the living conditions must be frankly a wholesale shit but to think the entire village would be abused by ninjas of their own country? That was unthinkable.

Not even one of the big five would dare to do a stunt like this openly. Sure, they do a lot of nasty business, sometimes even massacre is involved but ongoing abuse against civilians is something that would make their clientele drop faster than a meteorite if it was known. Poverty was widespread... but bullying of the populace was something only bandits did. Not to mention the shitstorm the Daimyo would cause if it reached his ears. There would simply be a hell to pay.

"Treating an Uzumaki like shit in front of me... you must have balls of steel!" Tsunade quietly said in a dark tone, causing the people around to get chills. "Let's put them to a test, then."

Kazuto suddenly found his field of vision shifting into the blue sky as he was flipped back. Brief pain impacted his senses when his back roughly met the ground before he was even capable to register what was happening. And then... white searing hot pain overwhelmed him, causing his vision to go blur. He wanted to scream, thrash around, curse, but his mind was completely numb from pain, unable to think about anything else, and his body was paralyzed.

Tsunade gritted her teeth as she noticed Kazuto fainting and lifted her foot from the bloody fleshy bony mush that was previously Kazuto's crotch. "Looks like your balls were not made of steel, after all." She derisively snorted and every man in the vicinity, even Rei, suddenly had an overwhelming urge to ascertain their important bits are alright and as far away from Tsunade as possible.

"You know... not even steel could withstand your stomp." Konan's voice snapped many Kusa ninjas out of their reverie but it was too late. Every single one of them who were close to the kneeling villagers found their heads took a short trip towards the ground as Konan's razor-sharp spinning paper disks cleaved through their necks so fast, they didn't even notice when they died.

Tsunade just rolled her eyes and turned towards the ninjas further away from the villagers but Rei had it already solved. He didn't use anything extraordinary. Just hundreds of ten-centimeter long water needles skewing the twenty or so remaining Kusa ninjas and the job was done.

In the end, the ninjas stationed in the Harima Village were at best high genins ability-wise. The so-called failures who were unfit to do anything else due to their bad personality and low talent. It would be an embarrassment if Rei, Konan, and Tsunade couldn't finish them in under five seconds.

Rei steadily walked towards the crowd of kneeling, and now scared, villagers, stopping only when he was five meters away from them. Every single pair of eyes were on him, showing fear and anxiety. After all, they did just see him and his companions slaughter their 'protectors'.

'Fear? That's fine. Anxiety? Also understandable... But it is that small hope in their gazes that makes me assured we won't have to do much work to persuade them.' Rei thought as a satisfied smirk appeared on his face.

"Hello everyone, we came with an offer you just can't turn down..."

...

The talks were finally finished.

The villagers jumped at the offer of relocation and a chance at a new and better life almost instantly, only a few older ones had a few questions that Rei readily answered to ease their worries.

Needless to say, he also explained what exactly he wanted in return, and that was for them to learn and improve before entering his service. After all, this was a business deal, not a charity and he made sure they understood that part.

Rei was willing to provide better life and education but the villagers would be expected to join Uzushio Trading Company, UTC in short, and strive to make the company and the Uzushio better.

"Well then, time to go." Rei clapped his hands and activated a seal he left on the edge of the square. Instantly, an oval-like portal appeared in the air a bit above the seals. "This is a portal that will get you to Uzushio and apply the Secrecy Seal we talked about before." Rei gestured towards it.

The secrecy seal was what Rei decided to use as a security measure. It was placed via chakra on the heart of the recipient, meaning removing it with any currently available means would be impossible to survive.

The seal basically prevented the recipient from disclosing vital information about Uzushio and not to be so totally totalitarian, Rei even added a function that would improve physical health, fitness, and even brain a bit through circulating their latent chakra. With that, no common bandit would be able to pose a threat to his new workforce after their bodies get a bit of time to adjust and they pass some rudimentary training!

The villagers started going through the portal under Konan's supervision and Rei walked towards the corner of the square where Tsunade was talking with the Uzumaki family.

"How is the family meeting going?" Rei asked jovially, causing all four of them to turn towards him.

"Fine," Tsunade smiled, no longer wearing her mask, "Uzushiogakure apparently started evacuating civilians the second they heard about the invasion. Kara and Kentaro were members of one of the groups that succeeded to run away." She offhandedly pointed towards the two older people.

"Hello," Kentaro sheepishly smiled, not knowing how to act towards Rei who nodded at him.

"I gather you heard my offer." Rei stated, crossing his arms under his chest.

"Yes. We would like to join." Kara started after pinching her husband silent. The poor man looked like a kicked puppy. "I must admit, we ended up here because we were afraid of being discovered. When we came, this was just a quiet rural village far away in the countryside and it was only ten years ago it all changed and nobody was allowed to leave anymore." She sighed but her eyes were warily looking at Rei.

"You will be allowed to leave from Uzushio but the seal will prevent you from talking about it. After all, I plan to make it a merchant town so being isolated is a big no-no." Rei explained with a smile.

"Fine... It will be better for our daughter and grandchild anyway," Kara sullenly relented. She knew their chances to survive would be nil if she refused. "Not like we could get an education and a good earning job offer for us anywhere else."

Rei could see both Kara and Kentaro were hanging on the last thread of hope. If the new Uzushio treated them badly, it would probably crush their spirit. He chose to give them one last reassurance.

"Ah, don't worry. Tsunade is somewhat of a family with you and she would beat me up if I didn't treat you well." Rei laughed, gesturing to the woman who was chattering the time away with Kaya a bit away from them while also giving the young pregnant girl a quick medical check-up.

It didn't take long for the Uzumaki family alongside the other villagers to leave through the portal and Tsunade rejoined Konan and Rei.

"So... portal? That's the first time I am seeing it." She hummed.

"Well, dear," Rei sn.a.k.e.d his hand around her waist and pulled her closer, "You are not the only one who improved. My clones are non-stop researching new seals. This one will be a good way for our future most trusted merchants and ninjas to go around the Elemental Nations without anyone being able to intercept them. The problem is only the means to keep it all secret for a long period of time."

"Hence, the Secrecy Seal." Konan added.

"Hence, the Secrecy Seal." Rei nodded, his c.o.c.ky smile getting wider and wider. "Don't worry, for our future ninjas I have a better version in the process of making. No matter what, I will make the first really hidden village in the Elemental Nations."

"So? What about him?" Konan pointed at the only alive resident of the village except for them.

"Ah?" Tsunade turned her head towards the fainted form of Kazuto, her lips twisting into a scowl, "Just leave him there. If he survives, living with such an injury will be hell and if he dies, it would take a few days of hell anyway."

Both Rei and Konan nodded, turning back towards the portal and walking through it.

The second the portal closed… the fields of poisonous plants suddenly flared up in fire… there was no need for Rei to leave the last batch of them available for Kusagakure, now, was there?

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Chapter 150 - Ch150. New SS-rank?

The Third Mizukage sat in his office, drinking his afternoon coffee and reading his last report for the day when suddenly, various clan heads and division leaders, basically the whole freaking Council, barged into his office looking constipated.

"What are you all doing here?" The Mizukage tilted his head in confusion only for the councilmen to angrily narrow their eyes at him.

"You sent the Seven Swordsmen to the Land of Fire!" Tsurumi Suiran, the head of the Suiran clan, barked out in an accusatory tone.

'Oh! So that's why the old geezers are gathered here looking at me as if I stole their spare teeth!' The Mizukage finally understood before he returned back to his paperwork while starting to talk.

"Ah, no worries. The treaty had a few loopholes and this is one of them." He dismissively waved his hand around while feeling smug about this scheme of his. "Due to the nature of ninja work, there was no way the treaty could contain a clause of complete forbiddance to enter a territory belonging to one of the five big nations. The treaty only said a big force is forbidden to be dispatched onto the territory. I sent only seven of them. No matter how you look at it, nobody can say anything." The Third Mizukage smiled smugly, thinking how he used the system to screw Konoha and the Land of Fire over.

"Mizu-" One of the councilmen patiently started but was quickly interrupted by the Mizukage.

"Mah~, mah~, don't worry. Everything is just fine. I know that ordering them to destroy a few important towns might be too much but I have full trust in our Seven Swordsmen. They know when to run. Plus," He took out a few files, "I have already made sure to create fail-proof doc.u.ments saying the mission was a valid one given by a noble from the Land of Earth who hates Konoha and lost a lot of money due to the newly established tax law of the Land of Fire. All ways how anyone could screw us over diplomatically are covered. Now we only have to wait for the Seven to return."

"Lord Mizukage, the swordsmen r-" The head of the Hozuki clan tried but...

"You are still not convinced?" The Mizukage frowned, not raising his head from the doc.u.ment he was the whole time reading. "You really think the ability of our strongest ninja group is so weak?" He sighed in exasperation and continued in a bored drawl, "Fine... I can assure you nothing can happen to them. Konoha is still consolidating their power and most of their jonins are focused on border outposts. Most of their ANBU are on illegal and secret missions out of the Land of Fire. The only Konoha ninjas doing missions located inside the Land of Fire are chunins at best and our Seven Swordsmen can eat those guys for breakfast. This entire thing was meticulously planned. I even used a lot of our ANBU to draw Konoha's attention elsewhere so our boys can rampage all they want in the Land of Fire while I am focusing on tightening the defense of our territory in case Konoha wanted to retaliate. Not even a mouse will move in the Land of Water without us knowing about it. See? I got it all thought out. No need to worr-"

"SHUT UP!" The head of the Yuki clan, Himeno's father, burst out as he glared at the Mizukage who finally raised his head and looked at the elder in bewilderment and confusion. "I've got enough of your bullshit! We came to tell you the Seven Swordsmen have returned! Four are dead, and the remaining three will need a few months of recuperation at best, and at worst their injuries will never heal, permanently lowering their fighting potential! The mission ended up in a failure! The second they were heading towards the first targeted town, they encountered a freaking Ringo Ameyuri who merrily slaughtered her way through them without even getting a single scratch! Moreover, she destroyed Kabutowari and stole Samehada!" He finished while breathing hard, greedily gulping air and gripping his chest. Just remembering it almost gave him a heart attack!

The more he talked, the more the Mizukage's expression darkened. How could they be back so soon? Then his question changed. How could they have failed? The second the Yuki clan elder mentioned Ringo, however... there was only one response the Mizukage was able to give as his expression turned ugly with a grain of powerless hopelessness in it.

"F.u.c.k it all! Again them!?"

...

Minato Namikaze sighed for the n-th time as he filled his hundredth paper in the office of the Hokage.

'If I knew I would become a paper-slayer upon achieving my dream, I would never volunteer for this shit. Fighting hundreds of Iwa ninjas was much more enjoyable than bickering with old geezers, doing paperwork... and why the heck do I feel as if my work became ridiculous? Leading this village is worse than explaining to a five-year-old boy that girls do not have cooties or giving the talk to my students!' Minato mentally raged, 'Is it only me or the councilmen in this village are all mentally disadvantaged? Why the heck do I have to sign paperwork about taxes? Isn't that the whole reason why the civilian council was formed? To ease the Hokage's workload in times of war? For someone who vehemently refused to be dismissed after the war ended, they clearly are happy with not fulfilling the reason why they even exist!'

"F.u.c.k.i.n.g lazy sly old snakes who can't do anything but complain and whine! See how I dismiss you..." Minato mumbled under his nose as anger started rising in him the more paperwork that didn't belong to him but the members of the civilian council he saw on his table.

Alas, not even his four shadow clones were capable of being satisfactory help to Minato in his new duties.

As he was thinking of a way to flay the civilian council alive, the door suddenly creaked open, causing Minato to smile widely as his pregnant tomato of a wife, not that he had the guts to call her that to her face, walked inside his office with her confident grin.

"Yo, Minato! What's up? Enjoying the paperwork?" Kushina cheerfully asked, innocently smiling but Minato wisely kept quiet as he spotted her threatening gaze. 'Hehe, serves you right, taking my hat and putting the kicking devil inside of me, bastard! You can forget about having s.e.x for the next half-decade at least!'

"Ye-yes, dear?" Minato unsurely answered with a twisted expression while in the back of his mind having a very, very bad premonition of his very own personal armageddon happening without him having any ability to stop it.

"Good. I am sure this won't destroy your good mood then." Kusha nodded in satisfaction and sat in the guest chair in front of his desk with a delighted groan before she put on his table a small book and slid it towards him.

"What is it?" Minato took the book into his hands and froze for a bit. "Another new Bingo Book? Now? The last one came two weeks ago..." He narrowed his eyebrows in worry.

It was a huge secret but the Bingo Book only updated once per two months. If the update came sooner, that meant someone extremely extraordinary was put into it and they could not wait.

Minato browsed through the pages until he came upon a new entry...

"This is gotta be some cruel joke, right?" He looked with a hopeful expression at his exasperated wife who just shrugged, "Fourth SS-rank coming from Kirigakure? Seriously? Plus this one is yet another rogue ninja? That makes four rogue SS-rankers all from Kiri and all of them are most likely in one group. Let's see... she was given the title by Kirigakure? That's rare, they didn't give such a high ranking to anyone yet." Minato nodded, realizing how serious this was. For a ninja village to give their own rogue ninja SS-rank? It meant something serious must have happened that completely frightened the village higher-ups.

"Huh? She was given the title for... oh f.u.c.k it all to hell!" Minato stood up and banged his palm onto his table while gritting his teeth after reading how exactly she earned that title. "Say what now? She killed four members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Kiri and injured three of them to the degree they would need months of recuperation? Stole one of the Seven Swords and destroyed another? And this all happened on the territory of the Land of Fire and I am only getting to know about it from the Bingo Book!?" Minato's chakra flared from anger, forcing Kushina to offset the pressure with her chakra.

"Lord Hokage!" The secretary quickly ran inside as she felt the chakra flare, only to stop in her tracks as she spotted the furious glare of Minato and the four ANBU guards frozen stiff on the ceiling.

"Go and call the Council Meeting." Minato's voice was quiet but very menacing, "I want to see what that snake Danzo has to say about this. There is no way he did not know about it."

Needless to say, the Konohagakure's Council Room was not peaceful that night.

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Chapter 151 - Ch151. Uzushio Development 1

A few months passed since Rei led the occupants of the Harima village into Uzushio, causing it to experience a mind-shattering change.

After setting the new occupants in, Konan's and Rei's clones were made to thoroughly educate the people from the Harima village for the entire first month. It was quite a bother too since there were around two hundred people from the Harima village.

From the experience, it was obvious it was a waste of clones that could do something else so Rei used the portal to bring back all the Uzumaki from the Biri-Biri company under some kind of fake pretense. These people had to wear a hair-color altering seal anyway since the Uzumaki clan members were a highly sought-after commodity even now in the ninja circles of the Elemental Nations. It would not do, to have an abundant amount of bright-crimson-haired people in one place.

Rei just had to put the Secrecy Seal on them, dismiss them from the company, and bring them to the Uzushio Village to teach and prepare the new occupants for their future work as traders. Rei wanted to recreate the Uzumaki clan under his order anyway so this was something that had to eventually happen.

What took him by surprise, however, was how obnoxiously grateful the Uzumaki clansmen were. Rei finally understood why Naruto was... well, Naruto. Apparently, it was in his blood.

It was not as if the Uzumaki people were stupid. They just couldn't live without showing their gratitude for being saved. Rei was actually very flabbergasted when he realized he would not need to put any effort into bringing them under him since... they already recognized him as their leader. In the end, the sullen Rei reluctantly expended five clones to teach them useful Seals and the basics of sealing. If they decided to be so loyal, it was his duty to make them useful, no?

Just like that, the first clan of Uzushio was formed, numbering twenty-three.

For the following month, Rei and Konan were run ragged, gathering any and all Uzumaki they could get their hands on without people noticing and the Uzumaki clan count in the Uzushio quickly rose to an astonishing hundred and fifty-two... without anyone in the Elemental Nations even realizing.

At least, Tsunade was making their work easier by settling the newcomers in the village by herself.

It was also quite annoying explaining to over a hundred people their heritage and then persuading them to come to Uzushio. Fortunately, most of them lived in remote places with harsh conditions so many jumped at the offer and only a few of the wealthier ones had to be brain-r.a.p.ed of their recent memories through seals after vehemently refusing to join no matter what Rei or Konan did. Alas... their loss. Literally.

Slowly, twenty educated Uzumaki from the Biri-Biri company taught other Uzumaki what the Biri-Biri company deemed as the basics of necessary knowledge for their employees. These then taught others and the chain reaction continued until Rei found himself with a village full of people that could knowledge-wise pass for an average merchant.

But Rei was not satisfied and ordered them to scram and learn intermediate and advanced stuff before bragging in front of him! What good are merchants who are unable to swindle even nobles, much less the Daimyos, to him? He needed real professionals!

Rei also started going rounds around the places where people were treated the worst for various reasons. Whether it was because their feudal lords were stingy pieces of shit or because the countries were so poor there was just no way to survive... Rei collected them all like pokemons.

The size of Uzushio was gradually expanding, day by day tens of new people were brought into the town by Rei. Naturally, since Rei himself brought them over, he was regarded as their 'savior' and the new leader. He could only shake his head in exasperation while thinking... 'Orochimaru, you really are a genius. It's so easy to get loyal followers by saving desperate people, ku, ku, ku!'

As the population grew bigger, Rei suddenly found himself in a need to create farmlands. His main supplier of food was the Biri-Biri company and while it cost him exactly nothing since the company was his, he would rather Uzushio be self-sufficient than digging into his pockets. Even if he didn't pay for the food, the company supplied it at loss to its profits... which meant in the end, Rei suffered loss anyway.

It was such a sad fate too! Hence, the villagers had to learn how to farm. It was all for the Greater Good of Rei's pocke-, ahem, of Uzushio's well-being!

Most of the people Rei brought to Uzushio came from small rural villages that focused on farming anyway so getting the Uzushio farming project started was not such a hard thing. A lot of farmers wanted to continue their life-long profession but Rei first ordered them to get a proper education. Only when they attained at least an intermediate level of knowledge did he allow them to sign up for a piece of land around Uzushio to start their farms.

Well, not like the intermediate level was something extremely tough. Even an average farmer could pass the test with an acceptable grade in two months if he put his all into it. For basic grade, three weeks were enough while the advanced would take half-year. These timeframes were naturally for average people so the few geniuses that were found actually managed to learn it a lot faster. One even attained advanced grade in under three months.

Honestly, finding talent through this method while also making sure that Uzushio's future will be assured to become extraordinary due to the intelligence of its occupants was much easier than Rei previously thought. There were only a very few of those who refused to learn... mostly because the level of education provided to peasants and farmers in the world was abysmal at best.

There were civilian schools... but these were only in big towns or ninja villages. Even then ninja school had much higher requirements in things like math and even then it was only learning stuff that could potentially help in their future ninja careers like calculating throwing angles, distances by the shadow cast on the ground, etc. The civilian school mostly focused on things like how to run a business, and so on. These were for daughters and sons of wealthy merchants, after all. Other kids were simply homeschooled. The ninja schools also mainly focused on brainwa-, uh, indoctrin-, ahem, well, teaching the kids who their owner is, or the so-called Wills of Elements.

The most educated people were generally nobles followed by wealthy merchants. What Rei was creating in Uzushio... no noble could be bothered by it. Nobody in this world would educate the entire village to the level surpassing even merchants or nobles in some subjects. Well, nobody ever accused Rei of being sane...

Thanks to the education, the farmers who signed up for a piece of land didn't have a hard time grasping some 'advanced' farming techniques or usage of farming tools Rei provided. He, Tsunade, and Konan could use Mokuton and they made sure to create special trees they gave to that small village in Amegakure when they first started their journey all over the Uzushio. Putting the effect of that together with some special seals and farming tools... Rei estimated a harvest could be up to six times a year with the yield being three to five times as bountiful as normally seen in this world.

Rei was basically using Nature Energy and Sealing Arts to shamelessly cheat his way through. His shamelessness power level reached 9000 when he created an auto-gathering paper tag for crops that could gather them in a certain radius. Naturally, thanks to the Secrecy Seal, the villagers had enough chakra to activate them on their own. The tag had a sealing matrix with a seal that gathered the crop and deposited it into a special storage seal on it. Honestly, being a farmer was probably the easiest profession in Uzushio with the number of cheats Rei provided for them. Whether it was planting, watering, or gathering... The farmers were basically just supervisors who sat in their rocking chairs while fishing most of their days away.

Well, food supply was the most important thing when it came to self-sufficiency so Rei had it well covered while making sure the people would love doing the job since the taxes were extremely high at 50% of each yield. Alas, with six harvests per year and the cheating farming tools provided for free... especially since the order was done by Rei, their savior, the farmers reluctantly relented. It was only when they calculated their losses and gains did they find out that the tax didn't even matter. They would get rich by just sitting on their asses, tending to their plots of land from time to time by taking a stroll through it and activating the seals.

In a short six months... Uzushio had over three thousand inhabitants and over fifty farms all around. The people were getting more knowledgeable, showing their talents in various fields. It was a lot of work for Rei, Konan, and Tsunade while Mei and Ringo were closed in their workshop, trying to make progress in making a special sword close to one of the Seven Swords of Kiri and blowing the place up at least once per two days.

The Uzushio Village was very small for now. Not even one-fifth of the whole place was filled but something great, something never before seen in the Elemental Nations was steadily being created.

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Chapter 152 - Ch152. Righteous Kidnapping

Rei and Tsunade were lying on a blanket, fiercely making out while their hands roamed the body of the other as they panted and m.o.a.ned in between the kisses. Tsunade's feet were firmly locked around Rei's waist while Rei's body was pinning her down onto the blanket, pressing his chest on hers.

It was already midnight and both were very disheveled, their clothes torn in many places since they were at it for eight hours straight. By now, it was only their training as a ninja and countless nights spent together that prevented both of them from acting on their l.u.s.t, undressing, and having straight out s.e.x with each other right on the hill close to the village of the Kaguya clan they currently 'watched'.

Who said something so senseless such as the observation jobs were boring?

Suddenly, Rei stopped and pulled a bit away from Tsunade who let out a protesting groan, pulling herself up to reach for his lips only to be stopped by Rei putting his hand on her cheek and gently caressing it, waking her from the pheromones-induced desire.

"We will have a guest in a minute. Let's tidy ourselves up." Rei pecked her lips for one more time before pulling a new set of clothes from his Dimension Storage Seal and started to change his attire.

Tsunade huffed at that. She finally got her alone time with Rei and it barely lasted eight incredible sweet hazy quick amazing... hours. 'Shit, I really do love him beyond all reason, don't I?' She bit her lower lip while her cheeks painted themselves red as she realized just how much she had fallen for Rei. Sighing in resignation, Tsunade also pulled out a new set of clothes and started redressing.

A minute later, exactly as Rei said, a white-haired woman wearing white kimono walked towards them. Her pace was slow, almost timid and Rei instantly saw a few bruises on her face, no matter how low she tried to hold her head to hide them. Her steps were measured, calm, and careful but it was all too easy to pinpoint the smallest of winces every time she stepped on her left foot.

'So she is our contact in the Kaguya village? The one who wished our help to flee?' Rei frowned and from the corner of his eyes, he could see that even Tsunade had her own conclusions from the state of the woman. These were certainly much worse than his since she was a seasoned medic ninja. Rei could only mentally shake his head. 'Well, I can guess why the woman would desire to run from the Kaguya clan. Meh, their loss, my gain.'

"Hello, my name is Chizuru Kaguya, nice to meet you." The woman bowed low as she introduced herself. "Am I correct to presume you are Rei and Konan of Yozora?"

Rei lifted his eyebrow at her polite speech while Tsunade chuckled. "I am Rei," He introduced himself before pointing at Tsunade, "and this is Tsunade. We heard you would be interested in emigration?"

"Yes... when I was visiting Kuzari town with my husband I certainly discreetly showed a desire to... change my current owners to a local merchant from the Biri-Biri company who promised to arrange this meeting. I would be willing to come under your employ if you are willing to treat me well." Chizuru subconsciously rubbed her left forearm as she spoke in an even emotionless but polite tone.

Tsunade didn't answer. She just abruptly moved towards Chizuru who stiffened. Her posture instantly changed to a defensive one as her pupils dilated, only to relax when Tsunade showed her hand glowing in a coating of medical chakra. Chizuru then, still somewhat warily, let Tsunade approach her and when Tsunade placed her palm onto Chizuru's bruised cheek, the white-haired woman took a sharp breath from the nice feeling it gave her. A stray tear rolled down her left cheek as she showed a bitter smile and sniffed. This single gesture of kindness was actually one of the nicest things in her life.

Rei on the other hand watched the woman like a hawk before smirking. "And your real purpose being?"

Chizuru barely restrained herself from taking a step back before sighing and giving Rei a sheepish expression. "As expected, I really can't keep secrets. My desire is for women of the Kaguya clan who desire a safe haven to be accepted by you. At first, I wanted to see the conditions and the way you will treat me, and if I deem it appropriate, I would request-"

"Fine, fine..." Rei waved his hand in annoyance. The woman was just too... polite. Honestly, it was a bit irritating for him. "We can take all of those who are willing to leave with us right now. Do you still want to come and check the conditions by yourself or are you willing to gamble?" He shrewdly asked.

Chizuru slowly looked towards Tsunade before lowering her head. "I accept. If you can take all of us then I would be glad." She quietly said.

"Well then... god for you that Tsunade made the preparations." Rei said, making Tsunade darkly chuckle.

"Yup, I wonder how effective my newest anti-Kaguya drug will be..."

...

The chilly night wind spread through the Kaguya village as the time neared 1 am. Slowly, a mist started to form, blanketing the area but the guards did not panic as this was natural for the Land of Water. They only checked if there is a chakra in the mist and when they discovered there was none, their shoulders immediately relaxed.

Minutes ticked by as the mist thickened and soon, by the time the clock rang 2 am, the mist covered the whole village in a thick white mist. The Kaguya clansmen slowly became weary and sluggish, their eyes dropping as their bones appeared to become heavier and heavier in their bodies.

The whole village... fall asleep.

At the entrance, Rei, Tsunade, and Chizuru watched as the white mist with zero visibility cleared in under ten seconds, only faint wisps of it remaining in the area.

"To think such a way to defeat the fabled Kaguya clan existed..." Chizuru whispered to herself in utter astonishment as she remembered the pill Tsunade gave her to counter the effects of her drug that was spread through the village alongside Rei's mist.

Chizuru, like every member of the Kaguya clan, lived with a simple perception of the world. Violence and brutal physical might were supposed to be the greatest thing. Thanks to the Kaguya physique, even poisons that would be instantly lethal to others only made them ill for an hour or two. When Chizuru saw her clansmen fall unconscious due to some unknown drug? She was scared beyond the grave and suddenly Tsunade became somebody to be regarded only with the utmost respect.

From then on, the entire mission was incredibly easy. They strolled around the sleeping village, feeding pills to women at whom Chizuru pointed, explained the situation, watched how those women rejoiced, before gathering in the square when Chizuru's entire group of around sixty young women was awake.

After that, both Tsunade and Rei created around thirty clones each and sent one clone with one woman to gather other people in the village they would be taking. This time, they didn't wake them and they would be relocated while unconscious.

"Man~, who would think I would be kidnapping young kids and girls?" Rei whined as he watched around 40 sleeping kids under 5 years old being placed on the square right next to the sleeping forms of around a hundred girls up to 17 years old. "I somehow feel really dirty..." Rei deadpanned, making Tsunade giggle.

"Well, just imagine what would become of them without us doing this." She tried to cheer him up, causing Rei to give her a playful look.

"Sure... we can count this as righteous kidnapping, then." He nodded with a snort.

It didn't take long for around three hundred of the Kaguya clansmen, most of them still asleep, to be relocated to Uzushio.

Just like that, the biggest case of missing people greeted the world.

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Chapter 153 - Ch153. Uzushio Development 2

There were naturally a few problems with the Kaguya clan members when they woke up.

The sixty women did their best to persuade the older teenage girls to be co-operative while calming down the kids. Unfortunately, twenty of the most crazed ones had to have their memories adjusted and were promptly dumped back into the Kaguya Village the following night, with their last memory being going to sleep two days ago. Uzushio didn't need crazed Kaguya-style gangbang loving masochistic fanatics.

Not like they could reveal what they experienced even if their memories somehow restored themselves. The Secrecy Seals were already in place the second they used the portal.

The kids were trickier though. These couldn't just be discarded because they could still be raised to accept their situation. Temper tantrums were a common sight that day. Thankfully, the Kaguya clan tempered their kids with some tough, steely love with the appearance of a cane so crying was not a habit the Kaguya children had.

Rei decided to follow a simple rule. Desperate times, call for a desperate solution... he showered the kids in modern board or card games while offering them candy and chocolate. In short, he used honeytrap!

And it worked spectacularly...

'As expected of me... cough, cough.' Rei smugly thought about his achievements while giving the disbelieving Tsunade and Konan a meaningful look. 'Ha! Superpowers or not, kids will be kids! Just look at Ophis!'

In the end, the number of the Kaguya clansmen who accepted their situation was 272. Most of these were women and the males were only kids under 5 years old. This was because of the Kaguya customs which clearly stated any boy aged 5 or above had to start the clan training... which usually started with a bucket load of brainwashing to be loyal to their clan first and foremost to the point of sacrificing their lives for it. Alas, these kids simply were just not worth the effort in Rei's eyes.

But Rei was patient and he could wait a decade or so for his Kaguya clan members to grow. No pressure… Especially the lil' crying bundle that was stolen from the house of the Kaguya clan head... little Kimimaro.

Uzushio now had two clans. Uzumaki and Kaguya. For now, both lived in the same compound, which was quite intentionally done by Rei so these people could grow closer to each other. Rei would not suffer internal clan disputes in his own village! Being at odds in certain situations was fine... but if he could make them understand and help each other, teach them how to work together instead of against each other from the start, Rei would try his damnedest to do so. This also came with the added benefit of Uzumaki teaching Kaguya kids their ways. Whether they were about the love for their family or… the reverence they had for Rei.

'Maybe I should stop copying Orochimaru…' Rei thought about the prospects of having the Kaguya kids grow up into his fanatics due to the care of the ever-so-loyal Uzumaki. 'Then again… maybe not. After all, Orochimaru was the favorite pupil of Sarutobi. He knows his stuff when it comes to manipulating impressionable children.'

Surprisingly, the Uzumaki clan members were steadily learning and developing their sealing arts. For now, it was nothing extraordinary but they could ease up the time of Rei's clones that had to keep up with creating the supply of goods for the Biri-Biri company so Rei could delegate more research work to these while paying the Uzumaki sealers a commission for making the seals in his stead.

The other thing the Uzumaki clan and even some civilians showed an interest in was forging. And for forging, they needed metal.

Simply said, Rei decided to start hiring miners and reopen the chakra metal and iron ore mine near Uzushio. The Uzushiogakure of old was the main supplier of chakra metal in the world and the mines were far from depleted.

Naturally, like with farmers, Rei made sure the miners had an easier job than normal. Instead of carts, there were storage scrolls, The pickaxes were all enhanced with seals and had a special feature of adding weight to every swing. The miners didn't even have to be that strong for these pickaxes to be effective. Honestly, Rei could make some automated mining factory with seals and his rock clones but this was a good way to broaden the number of jobs in the village.

Just like that, the storage houses in the village that previously contained only crops now started to be filled with storage scrolls containing a whole lot of chakra metal, iron, gold, silver, and more. The future Uzushio Trading Company gained their first saleable commodity.

The next thing Rei put the effort into were docks. Creating sh.i.p.s was not hard since Rei, Tsunade, Konan, or even their clones could do so without any hassle with just a few hours a day and a bit of effort put into Mokuton shaping.

Considering Uzushio was an island nation, sh.i.p.s were important and Rei made sure to put Mokuton and Sealing Arts together to create floating fortresses when it came to both defense and offense. The best part in Rei's opinion, however, was the natural camouflaging seals all over the hull that could make the ship invisible unless in close proximity. After all, why fight with pirates when you could show them the middle finger without them even noticing?

The last part Rei needed was capable sailors but that was quickly solved by secretly sending some capable men and women to the branch of the Biri-Biri company that focused on naval trade where they would learn under the supervision of an experienced captain. Rei could almost see how a year later they would return, and Uzushio would gain their very own trading fleet!

'Just a year more and Uzushio Trading Company can start operating!' Rei smiled in content. Yes… the fleet was the last thing Uzushio required before rejoining the world stage.

And while Rei was doing all this, Tsunade was training carefully selected people in medical ninjutsu and knowledge needed for doctors. Thanks to the Secrecy Seals that improved the physique of the residents, nobody got ill for months now so the hospital was not really needed. Only when a woman got pregnant she approached Tsunade's clone for a check-up and there were even a few births, such as the young Karin Uzumaki, on whom Tsunade instantly called dibs and the girl's future in the medical field became sealed, but apart from that, medics were not needed yet.

Unfortunately, Tsunade was irked that she was the only one capable of doing these things so she gathered her own pupils from those with exceptional chakra control and started their hellish fast-track training.

Rei could only pity them... poor bruised saps.

Konan, on the other hand, focused on creating a library. Naturally, there were no ninja arts but the size was five times the library of a Daimyo from a major nation. Any notable piece of paper that could enrich the knowledge of the residents, Konan gathered and put in there. She also made sure to hire five librarians who took care of the place since she could not do so while creating the paperwork system of the village.

Naturally, the village could not be without its leader. For now, that position was filled with Rei but he knew Konan was already grooming Kaya Uzumaki for the position. Thankfully, there was no real resistance to that from the Uzumaki clan. Even the twenty members who came from the Biri-Biri company didn't utter a single complaint.

But while Rei could manage tons of paperwork with his clones, Kaya would be hopelessly outclassed. That's why Konan was creating a hierarchy and putting together a government system not much different from what was used for the Biri-Biri company, only on a more concentrated scale. Basically, the leader would deal only with the most important stuff pertaining to the well-being of the village and its development while under the leader, numerous heads of various departments would have their own paperwork and so on and on...

Well, Konan had it all thought out so Rei didn't care much about it.

The Uzushio was slowly becoming more and more lively, especially since the people started to invent their own things or ways to earn money like the shrewd merchants they were educated to be.

Just a few months passed since the establishment of Uzushio and yet, the place was already starting to thrive.

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Chapter 154 - Ch154. I am going to win

Rei and Konan watched Yugito swing Samehada at Mei clad in her Steam Armor and cleave through her as if she was made of paper. A bit away, the real Mei cursed at seeing that, gnashing her teeth at smug Ringo who just won the bet of 'who has the better armor'. The Jutsu that previously made Mei invulnerable to any attack from the Yellow Flash, was reduced to just an useless layer of steam in front of Samehada.

"So carefree..." Rei chuckled, looking at the sky of his dimension.

"Isn't it fine? Being carefree, I mean." Konan sighed in contentment and leaned closer to Rei who just lovingly pulled her even closer as they watched Mei trying to attack Yugito who countered almost everything with Samehada or used her nimbleness to dodge.

Mei was naturally not going all out but she was using enough power to take down A-rank ninja without a problem. The improvement rate of Yugito was incredible, especially since she was taught Shadow Clones. That technique was really created for Jinchuuriki...

It has been a while since Yugito was 'recruited', and Rei was really astonished when he one day found himself in front of the kneeling blonde as she swore herself into his service while he was still half-asleep due to just waking up. Rei had no idea how to feel about that. One part of him wanted to reject but the other knew Yugito would be useful so he dazedly nodded in acceptance at the time...

Just like that, he earned himself a devoted kunoichi.

'At least she doesn't have any romantic feelings towards me.' Rei felt immense relief because that would be just awkward since he didn't spend much time with the girl due to the last months being very busy. He saw her more like a cute little kitten living in his house. Mei's pet of a sort.

"So... what about Konoha?" Rei asked Konan, admiring how Yugito kicked Mei's chest and sent her flying back only to reveal it was just a clone.

"Hmm? You mean the nine-tailed fluff that appeared and devastated quite a lot of the village while killing the Fourth Hokage?" Konan tilted her head, "Meh, they will get back up on their feet. It will take years but the peace treaty is still valid. No new war is coming." She shrugged in disinterest.

"And the jinchuuriki?" Rei asked, wincing as Mei brutally slugged Yugito right into her right cheek.

"What jinchuuriki? The fourth supposedly killed the immortal beast, no?" Konan sarcastically exclaimed in a mocking tone while appreciating how Yugito returned the punch by kicking Mei's stomach.

Rei derisively snorted, "Please... I can't believe Konoha higher-ups are stupid and naive enough to hope other villages would believe a make-believe story such as 'our Hokage killed the strongest Bijuu! Cower before us!' The entire thing is the biggest joke the entire Elemental Nation ever heard of." He rolled his eyes. "It's as if the Konoha in their stress and panic completely forgot the other villages have their own Bijuu and know their own fair bit about them."

"Yeah... Konoha is pretty much the laughing stock of the world right now. The only measure of respect they command is due to them winning the last war." Konan nodded just as Mei's experimental sword blocked Samehada which was promptly blown away by the seal incorporated into Mei's sword. "Hooo~, who would have thought the sword would actually work?" Konan added with an interested smile.

"Yeah…" Rei's lips also curled to a small smile, "Ringo and Mei will eventually create incredible swords. To think their repelling sword would work so spectacularly to repel even Samehada..." Rei said before kissing the temple of Konan's head to get her attention. "So? Back to my question... the Jinchuuriki?"

Konan happily hummed, averting her pondering gaze from the sword, and stopping scheming about how easy it would be to steamroll through an army if her ninjas had these repelling swords, before starting to talk, "In an orphanage, supposedly for his own protection. His status is apparently kept as an S-ranked secret... except, Raikage received the report about the boy yesterday and Tsuchikage today. Heck, they even know his parentage. Both could care less whose son the brat is. They are well aware he would not receive proper training the second they heard about the rumors about the demon reincarnation into a small boy. So far, neither is interested since they have bigger problems on their hands due to the war just ending."

"In the end, it is just a simple attempt at manipulating a child by the Third Hokage, huh?" Rei wryly smiled. "Dammit, if only the little brat was not a member of the Uzumaki clan. It would be all so much easier." He exclaimed while watching Yugito clash blades with Mei in a bitter endurance match where neither of them had an advantage.

"You wanna snatch the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Konan turned towards Rei in astonishment, her gaze clearly asking, 'Are you serious?'.

"Maybe later..." Rei dismissed the idea but Konan knew what it meant. Rei could care less about the boy.

"I know our activities in the past year were a bit too concentrated on saving the poor and helpless but we are not a charity, much less an orphanage for the unwanted." Konan shrugged, losing interest in the topic, and looked back towards the fight between Yugito and Mei. Yugito was keeping up only thanks to her status as a Jinchuuriki, the fact she was holding Samehada, and due to Mei not brutally aiming at Yugito's body, instead Mei was only trying to disarm her.

"I have no idea what I am going to do. I can let the little guy suffer. I can help him. I can manipulate him. I can snatch him... Choices, choices and consequences." Rei mirthfully chuckled. He was still tempted to just let nature run its course but... maybe he could give it his own twist? "And what about the case of the villages disappearing? Did the ninja villages finally give up their respective investigations?" He changed the topic just as Mei managed to land a blow on Yugito, injuring her left upper arm.

"Let's see..." Konan became a bit dazed as the information was relayed to her by her clone, "Sunagakure already called it off and just signed it off as some kind of unnatural Sandstorm. The village was in a very remote and desolate area, after all."

"Figures. Rasa has other problems than hundred or so civilians going puff into the air." Rei nodded, already predicting this outcome. "Oh~, would you look at that? Yugito landed a right hook just after dispelling Mei's smoke armor! The girl's instincts really are incredible!" He excitedly smiled.

"Considering both refuse to use large-scale ninjutsu... they are so-so, I would say." Konan commented with brutal honesty in her voice. "Anyway, the Tsuchikage is acting as if nothing happened, not even a bit bothered by a few remote villages disappearing. He probably thinks it is the work of bandits taking the villagers and selling them as slaves. Considering he is not getting any request to rescue them... he firmly believes in no pay, no way policy."

"Good for us, then." Rei just smirked. Slaves were yet another good way to increase the population of his village but he had to be careful and not attract much attention from Onoki. He was a bit afraid that clearing these villages out would somewhat put Onoki on guard and hinder this option but... Now it just seemed as if Onoki was making it easy for Rei on purpose.

"Konoha has no idea since we didn't take anyone from the Land of Fire. Kumogakure is seething and looking for the reason, not that they would be able to figure it out... The problem is Kirigakure." Konan quieted down.

"Yeah..." The corner of Rei's mouth twitched.

Who would have known that taking away three hundred Kagyua clan members would send the hot-blooded morons into a frenzy and cause them to march straight towards Kirigakure where they would attempt to massacre everything that moves! How stupid one had to be to attack a village with tens of thousand strong experienced force of killers with only a few hundreds of combatants head-on?

In short, the Kaguya clan was no more.

At least, that was what the world believed. Alas, it would be a decade at the very least before Rei could prove the world wrong.

Rei smiled and watched Yugito and Mei shake each other's hands with smiles on their exhausted faces. Jinchuuriki were quite capable and compatible with the clone training method. He sighed as he really had no idea what to do about lil' Ruto. Nevertheless...

"And so the plot begins..." Rei reached his hand towards the fake sun in his dimension with determination shining in his eyes as he silently promised to himself, "I... am going to win."

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Chapter 155 - Ch155. Pakura 1

Pakura was slowly and leisurely walking towards Kiri, sent on a diplomatic mission by Rasa. All around her were mist-filled forests and her senses were flaring at her, telling her she was being followed but she already expected that. The Kazekage himself told her it would happen and she shouldn't be too worked over it. She accepted it. After all, Kirigakure would not just leave a foreign ninja roaming free on their land.

Nevertheless, Pakura was still cautious and kept her guard up. She was almost half-way on her way towards the village through the Land of Water when her senses flared into high heavens and she only managed to whip out a kunai into each of her hands as her eyes widened. She nimbly started to deflect the flurry of projectiles flying her way while acrobatically jumping from side to side, weaving through the trees and using their trunks as temporary shields.

Pakura deflected the last projectile and glared into the mist as she could feel her body getting numb from a small cut on her thigh.

'I am poisoned!' She thought in panic and tried to counter the poison with her chakra only for her stomach to sink when she found out it was impossible. 'Chakra Poisoning and partial paralysis!? How? This is a poison only Sunagakure can produ-' Her mind completely halted.

"What's the meaning of this!?" Pakura screamed only for laughter to come out of the mist as ten figures appeared. They were all clad in Iwa shinobi attire but what made her widen her eyes was that she recognized them! They were quite famous Kiri Hunter Ninjas!

"Why?" She asked as her mind was swirling with possibilities.

One shinobi smirked at her provocatively, his eyes clearly condescending as he twirled his chokuto in his hand. "Well, Suna sc.u.m, wouldn't you like to know... Now, be a good girl and let us kill you." He smiled widely and Pakura's eyes steeled. There was no walking away from here, it seemed. She would have to fight.

Pakura wasn't just standing while they talked, her chakra was ready and the second he finished his monologue, she pushed it to create three Scorch Release Orbs and combined them in a blink of an eye into one big flaming orb several times as high as she was. She held it with her chakra above her head and with a snarl, she threw it onto the Kiri Shinobi while jumping backward.

White vapor exploded as the orb hit the ground and vaporized everything in its range. The vapor quickly spread and engulfed the entire battlefield, thickening the mist around even more.

Pakura was in the process of conjuring more of her flaming orbs while panting from exertion due to pushing her chakra through the poison effects when she could feel her thigh to be pierced, forcing her to drop onto her knee and grit her teeth in pain.

"You bitch! You killed Akio!" Another man shrieked, giving away his position.

As she heard him from the mist, she raised her kunai, just in time to block a sword about to decapitate her.

'Shit! They are all masters at Silent Killing and moving through the mist!' Pakura thought in despair as she could barely see three meters in front of her.

The sword stopped, and Pakura could feel yet another senbon aimed at her other leg, and with a great deal of effort, she twisted her body into a roll, making the senbon hit the ground. She sprang up and put her entire weight on her uninjured leg as she protectively held her two kunai at the ready while secretly kneading her chakra for her Scorch Release as she started deflecting more and more senbon flying her way while her back faced a tree.

She was f.u.c.k.i.e.d and she knew it. The initial flurry poisoned her and her body was getting number and number by the second. She could only move due to her extraordinarily strong chakra coursing through her body and somewhat forcedly mitigating the poison. A normal Suna jonin would already be a completely paralyzed lump of flesh lying on the ground.

Also, she was an agility-based shinobi. One of her legs useless basically meant game over for her. She steeled herself and decided to take as many of them down together with her.

It was then that a raiton coated sword pierced the tree she was leaning on from behind and her lower abdomen with it, making blood spurt from her mouth. She looked at the piece of sharp steel in her and lashed out with her orb, vaporizing the man behind the tree.

With a painful groan, Pakura pushed the sword out of her body as she dropped on all four, coughing blood while panting. She could feel the poison spreading through her body more and more as she slowly grew weaker and started to lose even the remaining control over her chakra.

The remaining Kiri men appeared in front of her, smiling in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Just give it up. You won-"

That was as far as the man got before Pakura's kunai embedded itself into his forehead. This however alerted the others and her follow-up scorch orbs missed.

Pakura cursed and stood up. "Well... If I am to die, you are coming with me." She brokenly smiled, her eyes the picture of exhaustion as she was pressing on the wound on her bleeding abdomen.

Three flaming orbs appeared around her and the bloody clash in the mist-covered forest continued.

...

Pakura sat beaten, leaning her back onto the tree as her right hand was raised upward, pierced through the palm with kunai to the tree. One of her legs, the one that was previously hit by a senbon, was completely numb while the other was broken at the knee, twisted at an unnatural angle. That was not as worrying as the fact it was lying in front of her unattached to her body. Her other arm... was full of cuts and senbons pierced it in many places as she used it to shield herself in desperation while the men laughed and jeered as they used her as a target for throwing practice. They were actually surprised she could still move it after the fiftieth senbon pierced it. They clearly didn't aim for anything vital but instead focused on the painful spots.

The men stopped throwing and quiet ensued in the clearing. Pakura raised her head to see them approaching her and took a shuddering breath as she coughed blood, making the trail of blood flowing from the sides of her mouth even redder.

How she would like to vaporize these men! But whatever poison they used, it was specifically engineered against her... She was unable to control her chakra fluidly. Well, she could but not enough to throw her bloodline around anymore. Her best bet was taijutsu and kunai but her body was already a wreck. No... this was game over and she knew it as tears trailed down her cheeks. She only wanted to know one thing.

"Why?" She rasped out as she looked at the three men. She managed to kill seven of them. All of them elite jonin level. That was what earned her the current torture they were putting her through. If she didn't kill them, her head would roll and it would at least be painless.

One of the men scowled at her question and sighed as he crouched down in front of her and grabbed her hair, yanking her head up to look at him.

"Why?" He smirked condescendingly. "Suna offered you in exchange for peace... Hero of the Suna." He mocked, gleefully enjoying Pakura's shaking eyes at the revelation that this was not a coincidence. "This was your last mission from the start, bitch." He slapped her cheek, a large bruise appearing on it.

"Rensatsu," A man next to him started but was cut off with the scoff from Rensatsu.

Pakura still couldn't believe she was sold to Kiri. She sacrificed her entire life for the village. Academy, Training, War, More Training, Training Disciple... She had never had time for herself. She gave herself to Sunagakure and this was how she was repaid?

With wide eyes, she stared in horror at the three men as her throat went dry. It was so unfair.

"I know, Akabo." Rensatsu, the man crouching in front of Pakura said in annoyance. "I won't hit her again."

"Good." Akabo grinned as his hand went to his pants. "I was really looking forward to this." He eyed Pakura's broken and bloody body with a want in his eyes, making her shudder. She knew what would follow. Hours upon hours of being their s.e.x toy. She stared at them in despair, unable to move...

'This is it?' Tears streamed down her cheeks with even bigger intensity as she watched two men unbuckle their pants, leering at her, while the third went away in annoyance, clearly disgusted but uncaring to her plight.

She shakily stuck her tongue slightly out, between her teeth. She would prefer a swift and painful end rather than a miserable and... humiliating one. She was about to bite her tongue off as her eyes closed.

Her mind was hazy and afraid, confused due to the revelation she was sold out by her own, no less. She was shaken enough to let out the only thing, the first thing that came to her mind.

'Help, please. I don't want to die, yet...' She sobbed but it was obvious no help would come. She was here to be slaughtered, set up by her own Kage. Her thoughts suddenly shifted into a desperate wail as a mad determination showed in her exhausted eyes. 'Sunagakure, Rasa, I curse you to hell!'

Pakura forcefully bit down on her tongue.

(Cliff-kun, yahooo!)

Chapter 156 - Ch156. Pakura 2

Pakura's teeth jerkily touched her tongue in full force about to bit it off while she tightly closed her eyes. Ninja or not, death is death and humans fear it like the plague. Pakura was simply no different. While she might not exactly fear it in the height of combat, suicide was still a big mental pressure for her.

As her teeth went through the first layer of flesh on her tongue though... her entire body froze, completely paralyzed. No matter how she tried, she was unable to twitch even a singular muscle.

"Holy shit, I was almost late! Damn, Tsunade really knows how to hold onto somebody!" Suddenly a disgruntled loud voice resounded right in front of her, causing Pakura to widen her eyes as a young man in the process of hastily pulling on his shirt just popped into existence there, kicking the two approaching Kiri ninjas away. Unfortunately for them, their pants were half-down so there was not really much resistance they could offer.

For better or worse, Rei didn't really pay attention to where his foot flew. One received a nice kicker into the crotch, sending him flying a few meters back while the other got himself a nice one right into the noggin.

"Oh!" Rei realized he kicked somebody only after feeling the impact, "Sorr-" He was about to apologize when he saw Pakura and he finally understood why his 'alarms' went off. Honestly, he actually forgot he had her marked... "On the other hand, I am not sorry at all." Rei scowled, bending down to pick up Pakura's cut-off leg.

Paralyzed or not, Pakura was inwardly gaping in complete disbelief. At least, the three remaining attackers of hers were also as surprised as her. One was rolling on the ground, holding his crotch while the other was wailing, holding his face. Lying on the ground, Pakura idly wondered how strong that kick had to be to disable two highly trained Hunter Ninjas.

Rei didn't like the state he found Pakura in. She was the only user of Scorch Release, meaning valuable. Even if Rei didn't take her bloodline into consideration, the woman could still fight one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri with only kunais. She had the potential to become someone really incredible and Rei wanted to see her work for his future village.

'So I was a bit too late, huh?' Rei sighed as he crouched down next to Pakura's paralyzed form... only to find out the woman fainted a few seconds ago. He frowned as he realized the woman would most certainly die if he didn't get her to a medic asap, 'I better take her to Tsunade. A chance to get S-rank ninja for free is not something I am gonna pass up on.'

Rei heaved her up on his right shoulder while holding her unattached leg in his left hand. He was about to teleport away when he stopped and slowly turned towards the two groaning men on the ground... his lips twisted into a feral grin as two shadow clones popped up next to him, both eager to try out reactions of the human body to new mixtures of chakra with nature energy.

Needless to say, when the third man who left when he saw his companions wanted to have their fun with Pakura finally came back, the only thing waiting for him was a bloodied tree bark and underneath, a puddle of Pakura's blood.

A chill went up the man's spine when he realized both Pakura and his two companions just disappeared... At first, he quickly put his guard up, waiting for some kind of ambush but even after a few minutes, nothing happened. He then thought about what could be the reason for neither of the three to be present. Heck, the woman was literally nailed to the tree so her disappearing was really disgruntling.

And after he went through various scenarios, the man finally came to the crux of the situation.

"Shit! I will have to report this to Mizukage! I am so dead!"

Needless to say, the Suicide Squad almost gained a new member that day.

...

Rei sat next to Pakura's bed, leisurely reading Icha Icha Paradise. Naturally, he read it because of the plot, not the smut. He had enough smut going on at home, after all... Right?

'God, if only it was not so boring, sitting here and waiting for her to wake up!' He mentally whined.

Honestly, Pakura was a bit too close to death by the time Rei managed to get her to Tsunade. The woman already lost an almost lethal amount of blood, and if she wasn't a ninja, she would be six feet under half an hour before Rei got to her. For example, it took even Tsunade hours to reattach the leg properly.

Today was the third day Pakura lied in the newly established hospital in Uzushio. Sure, it might have been Rei's fault that he forgot about her but in his defense, Pakura should have been sent to Kirigakure only after Yagura became the Mizukage, and yet... here she was.

'Looks like the butterfly effect is really a thing,' Rei inwardly sighed, 'How... troublesome.' He thought, turning the page in his book. Only with the corner of his eye did he notice Pakura subtly stirring.

She slowly fluttered her eyes open and Rei praisingly noted she had her guard up even before she did so. With her eyes finally open, Pakura quickly took in the room in which she found herself...

"I will commend you for being careful. I am Rei and I saved you... well, you should be able to remember that part." Rei drawled before the woman could come to some misguided kind of her own conclusion.

Pakura shifted, finding her upper body bare, only covered in bandages, and quickly pulled the sheet up, causing Rei to smile at how shy the supposedly toughest woman of the Sunagakure's younger generation was.

"Where am I?" Pakura asked, her tone low and measured, guarded even.

'Oho~, she is definitely mentally probing her body and muscles while looking for escape routes.' Rei smiled at how her eyes almost unnoticeably flickered from side to side at times.

"Uzushio... that's not important." Rei dismissively waved the Icha Icha book at her in a silly manner, making her relax while distracting her, "What is important is that I have an offer for you since Suna betrayed you which gives you only two choices. You can either die as Sunagakure and the Kazekage wish or you can go rogue. In case you decide to go rogue, we, Yozora, could possibly find a spot for you. If you choose the first option, please, at least kill yourself somewhere far away from the bedsheets."

Pakura could only dumbly nod at him. She... was really speechless for a moment.

"Uh..." She coherently summed her feelings up before shaking her head to get out of the daze, "So... er, I... you are offering me," She pointed at herself in bewilderment, "a chance to join Yozora? The same Yozora that completely enraged four out of five major ninja villages? The same Yozora that could infiltrate any village they wished? Yozora... the rogue ninja organization which has three SS-ranks?" The more she talked, the more weirded out Rei's gaze became.

"Hm... didn't know we are so famous. In a nutshell? Yeah, you can join." Rei had an urge to pat her head due to how cute her disbelieving expression looked but he held himself back. Kunoichi and all that funk... who knows if he would not lose his hand if he tried to touch her head without warning her first. "Honestly, I had my eyes on you for some time now," Rei said, causing Pakura to narrow her eyes slightly and shuffle back a bit. Especially since she saw the Icha Icha Book in his hands. "and no, I did not orchestrate this nor am I some kind of closet pervert." He uncaringly shrugged, "Anyway, I had you marked with a Locator Seal. The only reason why I was late to save you was how unexpected the situation was."

'I can't really tell her I was late because Tsunade wouldn't let me leave the bed, right? Meh... it was unexpected for her to get sent to Kirigakure so early. Half-truths for the win!' Rei inwardly cheered. 'Now… let's hope she never asks for the entire description of the Locator Seal functions. She did get completely paralyzed before fainting so maybe? Nah… I am not going to open that can of worms.'

"I have so many questions I have no idea where to even start." Pakura started, completely lost. She had no idea what to do in this situation.

'Uh, oh...' Rei, as if instinctively, threw the book he was holding at her, making her catch it on reflex.

"Read it. The plot is fine, the smut is second-rate and I think I am being generous, and at the complete end of the book, I wrote basic info about Yozora and what I would want from you if you join and what I am offering you in return." Rei explained, not even giving her the chance to ask her questions, before standing up from his chair. "Tomorrow we will talk about it. Make sure to think it through."

And with that, Rei walked out of the room, leaving the flabbergasted woman to her own devices. He called this move an ultimate tactical retreat.

The door closed after Rei left the room and Pakura's shoulders instantly sagged, the bedsheet edge slipped out of Pakura's hands, exposing her bandaged body while tears started to stream down her cheeks as her hand subconsciously rubbed the place where her leg was severed as if to confirm this was really happening. Pakura let her body fall back onto the soft bed, sobs escaping her lips while her free hand worked hard on wiping the rivers of happy tears when her brain finally registered how close she was to…

"I am still alive." Pakura's face bloomed into a beautiful smile, her eyes turning towards the closed door with sincere gratitude in them, "Thank you so much!"

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Chapter 157 - Ch157. Pakura 3

"I accept!"

Rei momentarily halted, his hand on the handle of the door in the motion of opening them.

'Well, that was quick. And here I thought we would at least exchange greetings first...'

It was already a day since he gave her the book and Rei was sure she looked through every nook and cranny of the room, tried to get outside at least fifty-three times only to be stopped by a nurse or a doctor with Tsunade-certified training under their belt... needless to say, Pakura stayed put. She then tried to look for monitoring devices, checked and re-checked her kunais which were left on the table near her bed in order to give her a bit of safety, and spent hours near the window, trying to find out as much as she could about Uzushio through it. On top of all that, she also made damn sure the food nor water she received is drugged or poisoned. Rei was only glad one had to be Seal Grandmaster to even detect his monitoring seals.

'Then again, her vigilance is really fitting for a kunoichi.' He mentally mused.

Fortunately, Pakura didn't try to get out of the room nor did she become violent. The place was, after all, still a hospital.

"Why so sudden?" Rei asked while finishing opening the door and walked in. "I thought you would want to negotiate the terms or something."

"I don't really have a choice here anyway." Pakura sighed. "It's exactly as you said. I might be the Hero of Suna and people there might love me for putting my life on the line during the war for them but... Rasa is the Kazekage. Coming back and announcing what happened would only lead to a civil war and Sunagakure is in no state for that. It would ruin it. That means..." Pakura balled her hands into fists, "The higher-ups would just give up on me and declare me a missing ninja. They would choose to abandon me and weather through some public unrest because of that rather than having a full-blown civil war on their hands." Her expression turned bitter.

Of course, Rei knew all that but he let her talk to vent her feelings a bit. The woman seemed to need just that at the moment.

"As for going rogue..." Pakura continued in a bitter tone, "The second Suna declares me a rogue ninja, Konoha will follow because of their alliance. Kirigakure will also put the kill on sight order on me if only because it is a mark of shame that I survived the ambush from ten of their hunter ninjas and destroyed their plot to implicate Iwagakure. As for Iwagakure, I killed quite a lot of them during the war. No way I would find peace in that country." She shrugged amusedly, "The only real possibility is Kumogakure and while the new Raikage is rumored to be putting some old policies down, they would still sooner breed me against my will to reproduce my bloodline rather than have me on their roster."

Well, they are basically more barbaric and showy Konoha." Rei quipped, making Pakura smile at the jab on Konoha's hypocrisy. It was no secret Konoha liked their bloodlines a bit too much.

Frankly, Rei knew it would end this way. It might, at first glance, be easy to hide in the wide world. After all, there are only so many ninjas that would hunt for her, no? She could always hide in some remote island in the far south or something, right? Or in the continent on the opposite side of the Land of Water. There are not many ninja villages and it is quite big too...

But in reality, ninjas, for better or worse, roamed through every nook and cranny of Elemental Nations. All it would take was one who would recognize her without Pakura knowing about it and stopping him for good, and there would be a hunt for her. ANBU from all villages, mercenaries, and worst of all, the fellow rogue ninjas would all scramble to get their hands on the bounty for S-rank ninja's head or body. Especially since she was the sole user of Scorch Release.

"Anyway, being in the organization with three SS-rank ninjas would give me far more protection and opportunities than going by myself." Pakura honestly said.

She was very grateful for being saved and it might or might not have played a role in her final decision. When she was on the brink of death, knowing that Sunagakure betrayed her... all she wanted was a place where she would be safe and for somebody to save her. It was the very first time in her life she ever wanted to be saved. Pakura believed in training, in giving the effort if she wanted something. She never depended on others more than necessary. But for the first time, she prayed to be saved and something she thought to be a miracle happened. The man in front of her saved her and then offered her a safe haven. While she was still a bit wary, Pakura decided to stay.

Not to mention, if the man in front of her was able to conceal the existence of the whole Uzushio village during its formation, hiding one more rogue ninja would be no problem for him.

"Just tell me what exactly you are expecting of me." She asked, hoping Rei would not say anything outrageous.

"Well, I am in the process of making a new hidden village, you see. I need somebody capable to be my Jonin Commander." Rei shrugged. Konan already called dibs on the secretary role, Tsunade wanted to be the head of the medics, Ringo quickly decided she would pull the reins of Hunter Squads and ANBU, and Mei decided she would be a housewife.

And as it usually happens between men and women, Rei was informed about their decisions only after they were set in stone and there was no way to change their minds.

'Not like I can offer you any other position... Sorry, Pakura.' He thought, feeling a bit exasperated.

"I can do that." Pakura smiled in relief. Position of Jonin Commander for a soon-to-be-established hidden village? Rei wanted to give her protection and on top of that offering her a relaxing but prestigious job?

Pakura ashamedly averted her eyes. If Rei asked a lot out of her, the next request would be so much easier...

"But... Er, in the information you provided, you wrote I would be allowed to leave the village, within reason of course." Pakura started a bit unsurely, "You also described the Secrecy Seal. I am fine with that but would it be possible for me to covertly go to Suna and have a talk with my apprentice? I practically raised the girl and she would surely follow me..." She looked at her hands.

Naturally, Pakura understood that Uzushio was still hidden from the world and Rei didn't want people to know of its existence just yet. Making this request was a bit awkward for her but she loved Maki as if she was her own.

Rei momentarily halted. 'So... She is basically giving herself to me as if gift-wrapped and even offering to pull her apprentice with her? Two for the price of one? The one being for free at that? Sure... why the hell not?' A Cheshire grin spread on his lips.

"I see no problem with that. In fact, let me give you a lift to Sunagakure."

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Chapter 158 - Ch158. Land of Snow 1

Rei, sitting in the armchair in the corner of Daimyo of the Land of Snow's office, watched the unsuspecting man as he walked into his office, humming a happy tune. It was a bit sad sight in Rei's opinion since the man didn't even know he was about to die in a few days. Or maybe he suspected something going on? It would certainly explain the more frequent visits to his beloved daughter and hiring little and depressed Kakashi to protect her for the next few days.

At least the man had enough common sense to expect someone trying to kidnap his closest family to get an advantage over him during the talks between Yukigakure and the Daimyo of the Land of Snow that will be happening in two days.

Despite all that, Sosetsu Kazahana, still could not see his brother Doto betraying him. 'How sad...' Rei thought with an eye-roll. The man was not stupid. He just... always tried to see the best in people.

Then again, because of that, he always did what he thought was best for the people of the Land of Snow. A trait that made Rei think highly of the man... and ridicule him at the same time. The problem was not that he did so. The problem was Sosetsu did nothing substantial to protect himself and his daughter, to deter anyone trying to take the country from him.

"I see the life of a Daimyo is quite busy." Rei announced his presence to the man shifting through paperwork with a sour expression.

Rei enjoyed how the man stiffened when he registered he was not alone. "And yes... the security in this castle sucks hard. You may think about updating it... Nah, scratch that. You should fire every idiot you call a guard first. I spotted five sleeping on duty, one going at it with a maid, three playing cards, five talking about their scary wives and shivering as I walked right past them, and... well, you get the picture." He sincerely added.

Thoughts flashing through his mind could almost be seen flashing through Sosetsu's eyes as his expression changed almost every second. From stunned to scared, changing to resigned, only to morph again when he heard Rei's jab at the security. It changed to a hopeful one.

"Since you are giving me such advice... you are not here to kill me, are you?" Sosetsu asked in a quiet voice that made it obvious the man was scared beyond belief while trying to look brave.

"That is quite a naive thing to ask. Would I really answer truthfully if I was an assassin?" Rei couldn't help but smile. "But no. I am not here to kill you."

Hearing the answer, Sosetsu sweat-dropped.

'So is he or is he not an assassin!?' He mentally cried in a sullen way.

"I came to propose a, let's call it a business deal." Rei said, standing up.

He walked towards Sosetsu's table, making the man more and more uncomfortable as Rei came closer. When he was finally near the table, Rei reached his hand into a pocket of his black garb, purposefully being slow about it while enjoying how Sosetsu's nervousness levels shot through the roof, making the man sweat like a pig. Rei then quickly whipped his hand out of the pocket and slammed it onto the table.

Sosetsu's heart almost jumped out of his throat at the sudden movement. His body, however, really jumped back on reflex. Or at least, it tried to. His chair blocked his attempt, causing him to flip over alongside it, his feet shooting into the air.

Rei peered in satisfaction at the groaning mess of a man he most likely frightened to death and he couldn't help but chuckle at Sosetsu as he tried to scramble back up while gasping for air.

"Didn't I tell you I am not an assassin? What are you jumping for?" Rei innocently asked, getting only an annoyed grunt in return.

Sosetsu finally managed to stand up and sit again behind his table, this time a lot less wary of Rei than before. Seeing him read through the doc.u.ment he slammed onto the table while being somewhat relaxed, Rei inwardly grinned. 'Well, that worked perfectly, didn't it?'

The more Sosetsu read through what Rei came to propose, the more horrified he became. A huge frown appeared on his face and his wide eyes stared at the text in apprehension.

'Well, at least he didn't freak out. I will give him that.' Rei mentally praised. After all, how many men could stay calm when finding out the preparation for their execution are already in place and they have no way of surviving past the next 2 days? Worse yet, his daughter was also already marked for kidnapping at the very least.

Honestly, there were many ways Kazahana Koyuki could end up after this little rebellion. Running away from the country was a very good outcome. She might have been only a child but she was an heir to the throne in the Land of Snow. Meaning she could become a corpse quite fast. That was also a quite good outcome for her, to be honest. Doto's wife at thirteen, prisoner, slave, toy, experimentation subject in Yukigakure were all possibilites.

Rei made sure to portray the situation somewhat realistically, leaning more towards a pessimistic outcome for the girl. He was here to persuade Sosetsu and what he wanted from the man was a whole lot. He needed Sosetsu desperate so letting the man know his daughter would be saved by the Konoha ninja he hired was a big no-no.

"Oh, and yup, these doc.u.ments are completely truthful. If you wanna proof I can provide one, no problem." Rei smiled widely at Sosetsu.

"You want me to give you the Land of Snow." Sosetsu said, completely flabbergasted as he leaned on the backrest of his chair, rubbing his eyes.

"I certainly wouldn't call it as such. Nevertheless, don't forget I offer you and your daughter safety." Rei shrugged. Sure, he might be a bit cruel here but honestly? Sosetsu had full accountability for his and Koyuki's situation. If the man were more vigilant and more perceptible to the ugly side of human nature, if he actually employed some skilled ninjas as guards, Rei would not be here today.

The most ironic part of it all was that the Land of Snow, and by extension Sosetsu, was literally drowning in money. The land was quite harsh but their science was top-notch. They were the only party that could be loosely called competition to the Biri-Biri company in the world, despite both focusing on different things and therefore never going into a direct confrontation with each other.

Sosetsu was quiet for ten minutes and Rei simply sat on the couch for guests. He knew this decision was a massive deal for Sosetsu and the Kazahana family.

"I want you to guarantee me you will treat the people of the Land of Snow justly and fairly." Sosetsu finally said in a resigned tone. In the end, the man chose his daughter before his country.

'Define justly and fairly, Sherlock… I am sure Mei would think melting somebody who she deems a prick is quite just and fair in her humble opinion.' Rei inwardly snorted but outwardly he only rolled his eyes. 'But... I can work with this.'

"Nah, do it yourself. Sure, I want control of the Land of Snow and the final say but I never said I want to manage it. Consider yourself hired into the position of the Daimyo." Rei jovially stated. "I want to create a new hidden village so I have no time to manage an entire country. If you want the people to have good lives, then simply stay as a manager of sorts. That way you can check what I do and how I do it. Frankly, I think me being here would give this country more benefits."

"Hidden Village? But we already have Yukigakure..." Sosetsu suddenly quieted down and Rei nodded at him, seeing that the man understood his meaning.

"Well, since they are going to betray you, the Daimyo, I would say they desperately need reforming. And coincidentally, the right man for the work stands right in front of you!" Rei barely held himself back from laughing, the entire situation was incredibly humorous if one wasn't on the receiving end.

Sosetsu stared at Rei with an open mouth when he finally managed to comprehend the magnitude of what Rei wanted from him. He wanted to create the first nation ruled from the shadows by the hidden village in it. And he wanted to keep it secret to boot.

Nobody would know the country was in the hands of another if Sosetsu agreed to stay. And Sosetsu didn't think he had a chance to leave.

Even if he left... what then? While he might be able to gather some support in foreign countries, it would all simply go down to the benefits he would offer these countries. His daughter? Something belonging to his people? Territory? Even if he wanted to retake the country from Rei, he would have to promise something in the possession of his country to others or wed away his daughter. That meant...

"Okay, I will continue being the Daimyo." Sosetsu's shoulders slumped in resignation. He then suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at Rei with an inquisitive gaze, "To whom am I actually giving my country for the safety of my daughter?"

Rei pursed his lips, "Well, you might know me. I am a bit famous these days." He reached his hand over the table for a handshake with a pleasant but somewhat mischievous smile plastered on his face, "Rei, the leader of Yozora, nice to meet you."

Sosetsu fainted.

Chapter 159 - Ch159. Land of Snow 2

Tsunade and Yugito sat on the floor of Koyuki's room, watching the girl play with her dolls as they talked. Rei asked them to keep an eye on the girl and both decided they could not be bothered with sneaking around so they asked the owner of the castle to introduce them to the little excitable girl.

From there, it went just peachy. A few cheek-pinches here, a lot of head pats and head rubs there, and a tiny bit of obvious praise to calm down the fl.u.s.tered pouting girl and Koyuki officially decided she now has two new onee-chan.

"She is quite cute, right?" Yugito wistfully smiled at how innocent the girl around ten was. Honestly, it was an endearing sight but when she compared her younger self to Koyuki and remembered what she was doing at that age... it filled her with a desire to brutally murder someone. Preferably the closest councilman from Kumo.

"Yeah..." Tsunade chuckled, her eyes following Koyuki, "She reminds me of my younger brother." She sighed sadly. It was not the bitter sigh of the regretful and lost woman, however. Rei made sure she faced the fact Nawaki died head-on and now Tsunade, while sad about it, no longer dwelled so much on it. It was just something that happened in the past, something unable to be changed.

Tsunade actually put quite a lot of thoughts into the research of resurrection Jutsu. If her uncle was able to create such a Jutsu for combat purposes... was she supposed to be a lesser Senju or something?

She indeed could bring somebody back to life by now. The problem was it always needed something to balance it off. Sacrifice, lifespan, unimaginable amount of energy... and most importantly, it needed to tinker with soul and that was the thing which finally convinced Tsunade to just let it go. She was simply unwilling to tinker with the souls of her kin.

Alas, after studying the topic, she only hoped her uncle would one day appear in front of her so she could smack him right into his noggin for creating the Impure World Reanimation and not creating a proper failsafe the Senju clan could use against it. Sure, he created and put into the clan library a way for the summoned Senju to break the hold the user had on him. Such a thing was so easy that even a paralyzed genin could do it if he knew the proper way. Problem was, Tobirama probably never imagined the Jutsu could be used by anyone other than a Senju.

Yet another thing that made Tsunade seething mad at her supposed sensei. How the heck did Senju clan Jutsu appear on the Forbidden Scroll? She knew for a fact her uncle never put it down there! His diary certainly said so!

"What about you and Rei? Did you think about having kids yet?"

Tsunade was suddenly pulled out of her reverie by Yugito's question. It took her a few seconds to comprehend what her fellow blonde was asking. She blankly blinked... before snorting.

"Do I look like a motherly type?"

"Yes, you look like someone who would like being surrounded by family." Yugito deadpanned, making Tsunade open her mouth but stay quiet which made Yugito involuntarily smile. 'Spot on! Way to go girl!'

In the end, Tsunade just sighed heavily before looking at Koyuki and discerning that the girl was thankfully not paying attention to them in favor of the new wooden doll she was given by her.

"It's... complicated. Having a kid would be easy, you know? Just disabling the anti-pregnancy Jutsu for ten days and with the pace, we are going at it... But we are all just so busy nowadays. When we were in Kiri, our days were more or less leisure but now? Rei is shoulders-deep in planning, researching, creating these pseudo-Bijuu of his, taking in refugees, setting up the Uzushio Trading Company, and now here we are. I help with settling people in after they arrive in Uzushio, train new medics, help at the hospital... There is just always something going on! I even have to drag him to bed every other day!" Tsunade pouted and Yugito giggled.

"Yeah, you are the only one who ever took Rei by his collar and pulled him out of the living room by force, his expression was just so hilarious!"

Tsunade cracked a small grin, "That's nothing. Konan can be far scarier when she gets going. It's just that she would never direct it at Rei. One time she dragged Ringo to the training ground before leaving her there half-dead without care. Fortunately, their relationship improved a lot since then but still..."

"Wow, what did Ringo do to deserve that?" Yugito excitedly asked and Tsunade showed her a grin before starting to narrate how Ringo jumped at Rei like a bitch in heat and how Konan gave her a proper beat-down for it.

'Sorry, Yugi.' Tsunade thought, very pleased she managed to change the topic. 'But kids, huh? With how slow our bodies are aging after being tempered by the nature energy in Rei's dimension, there will be millennia before they lose the ability to reproduce. No rush there. I certainly am not bringing a new Senju onto the world when just one little slip-up would basically mean all of the five ninja villages hunting him or her down for the Senju bloodline.'

Tsunade had no illusions that her kid would be able to use a very potent mokuton. She theorized that the parents of her grandfather simply had too strong Senju Bloodline and Hashirama was gifted with extraordinary sensory ability. He simply could sense nature energy from an early age, somehow discovering how he could create mokuton through it. It was all just one big coincidence, to be honest. And that was also why the other Senju were completely unable to awaken it. They either lacked sufficient Senju Physique or Sensory abilities capable of sensing it, no matter how fleetingly. No wonder her grandfather kept quiet every time he was asked about his unusual bloodline.

Tsunade and Yugito chatted their time away, going from topic to topic. Tsunade had to admit, the younger blonde grew on her during the days they spent together since Mei brought her from Kumo. She only had no idea if it was because of both of them being blondes or some other mysterious force but Yugito was very easy to talk to for Tsunade, not to mention amusing. The kitty-girl was so easily distracted. At times, Tsunade likened her to a cat staring at a ball of yarn.

Yugito suddenly stiffened mid-sentence, her ears perking up as a small breeze ruffled the curtains on the sole open window in the room.

"Yugito, I think a cup of tea would be lovely. Would you mind bringing some, please?" Tsunade asked, making Yugito tilt her head slightly to the right and slowly nod as her shoulders slumped.

"Yeah..." Yugito heaved herself up and leisurely walked towards the door, briefly stopping before her hand reached the handle. "Milk or sugar?" She innocently blinked, to which Tsunade chuckled.

"Sugar. Tons of it."

"Gotcha."

With that, Yugito left with a nimble spring in her step, seeming a bit happier and somewhat anticipating.

Tsunade also lazily stood up and walked towards Koyuki before gently rubbing her head to get her attention. The pouty girl looked at Tsunade with a small glare, not liking being interrupted from her playtime.

'So spoiled,' Tsunade almost shook her head at the sight but she knew she could not fault the girl. Growing up with no mother and a Daimyo for a father? The people who raised her were servants and well... paid to fulfill every whim of her. They were servants, period.

Tsunade didn't wait for Koyuki to start speaking. That would be stupid. She leaned slightly forward and asked, "Do you like butterflies, Koyu?"

Koyuki, already prepared to give her biggest onee-chan a piece of her mind, stopped in her tracks at the question and scrunched her forehead.

"Un." She unsurely nodded after a while of pondering.

"Do you want to see one?" Tsunade lifted an eye-brow in a coaxing manner.

"Un?"

"Are you sure?" Tsunade teasingly asked.

"Un!"

"Then look!" Tsunade pointed forward, making Koyuki turn around, her back facing Tsunade.

The time almost stopped as Tsunade who was slightly leaning forward used her posture to quickly spin her body around on her toes. It was so fast, the man standing behind her, about to plunge kunai into her back, only managed to widen his eyes as Tsunade slugged him into the face, sending his body into the air, causing him to fly through the open window behind him.

And while surviving being dropped from high places was a mandatory thing for tree-hopping, chakra-using ninjas, unfortunately for the man, having his cheekbone broken in multiple places was quite distracting, causing him to go splat.

While the man was having his last flight, Tsunade used the force of her spin to carry her on her toes, stopping only when she did a whole 360 degrees, ending up in her previous position, just in time to smile at the peeved little girl who didn't manage to find a butterfly.

Koyuki was about to protest when she spotted a small, colorful, and finely-crafted butterfly made of wood, perching on Tsunade's pointing finger, causing her to whoop in excitement. Tsunade just crouched down and started playing with the girl.

Twenty minutes later, the door slowly opened, and Yugito walked in, holding a tray with three cups of tea. But Tsunade quickly discerned something changed. The air around Yugito was more subdued... satisfied.

Yugito put the tray on the floor where they previously sat and started sipping on her milk-heavy tea. It didn't take Tsunade long to coax the girl into chasing her new wooden butterfly that could somehow fly. Naturally, Tsunade really appreciated the chakra strings.

Sitting down on the opposite side of the tray, Tsunade smiled, "Did you have fun?"

"It was... sugary." Yugito shrugged and Tsunade snorted, looking at the small, almost indiscernible bit of blood on the cuffs of her right sleeve. A testament that Samehada saw some use in the previous minutes.

Milk always calmed Yugito down while sugar gave her so much energy she just had to get a proper beat-down from Mei or be all fidgety for the whole day. The second Tsunade told her 'tons of sugar', it basically meant 'go nuts'.

"How many?" Tsunade asked as she took her cup of tea and grimaced the second she took a sip. "Sugary indeed..." She mumbled, causing Yugito to chuckle and wordlessly put the third cup of tea in front of Tsunade who gave her a small glare.

"Twenty. Not bad. High chunin, maybe? For a small village such as Yukigakure, it is a considerable force considering they mostly give guys like this rank of jonin." She said as if she was talking about the weather but Tsunade only shrugged.

Ten minutes later, a disheveled, bloodied, exhausted, panting and high on adrenaline Kakashi with an ANBU mask strapped onto his face barged into the room with kunai in his hand, ready to... and then he froze the second his eyes landed on the leisurely sitting Tsunade, sipping her tea.

"Oh, hello there, Kakashi. Having a fun afternoon, I see. Tea?" Tsunade swept him with an amused look and tilted her head as she innocently pointed at her previous sugar-bomb of tea with an inviting smile.

Kakashi... fainted.

Chapter 160 - Ch160. Sosetsu's problems

While Tsunade and Yugito babysat Koyuki, Sosetsu was being babysat by Rei.

Sosetsu was currently sitting behind a round table in the meeting room of his castle, waiting for the Yukikage to show up for a little bit of chat.

'The prick is really taking his sweet time.' Rei, who was hidden in a dark corner of the room, thought bitterly. The Yukikage was supposed to be there for an hour already. 'Sigh, if only the Land of Snow had some kind of strong standing army... Yukikage would never dare to do this.'

This was a problem with small ninja villages. They usually cared for country politics because it was bringing them some benefits. The bigger countries had no such problems for one reason or another. For example, the Land of Wind. Yes, the Daimyo hated Rasa with a passion which could be seen in the steady economic decline of Suna. It was nothing much as of now but Rei knew it would get a whole lot worse. So then... why won't Rasa simply assassinate the Daimyo and put somebody who favors him on the top?

That's what happens most of the time behind the scenes of the countries with small ninja villages when they get far too much power. No longer do these villages have to painstakingly beg for funds while wagging their tails at their owners. They simply use what they are the best at to become the said owners.

Rei saw Sosetsu lacked three things many Daimyo of richer and bigger nations had.

Firstly, they had their own freaking ninja guards. Assassination suddenly became a whole lot harder when ten jonin level ninjas guarded the target. It would most likely be stopped before the guy was dead which would result in retaliation and Daimyo's kind of never played fair in this department. They would never use open warfare against ninja villages because... well, they would lose. Instead, they almost always used money. Refusing to fund them, ruining their reputation by spreading the fact they tried to assassinate him, and so on and on. Hence why every ninja who accepted a mission to assassinate some kind of Daimyo, no matter how small the country was, was already written off as a rogue ninja. If he managed to successfully accomplish the mission without anyone knowing about his identity, this record would vanish and nobody would talk about it. If he didn't... well.

Secondly, reputation. On paper, the whole concept of a village of superpowered ninja warriors seems strong, nice, and appealing. How the heck could such a thing be toppled by a powerless withered old chump such as Daimyo, right? Shouldn't he be afraid?

And here Rei wanted to groan every time he thought about this. Surprisingly, no ninja village was self-sufficient, and it had an excellent reason. A reason why he went for a place such as the Land of Snow which is ruled by a kind-hearted but still somewhat competent wimp such as Sosetsu. The Daimyo more often than not had control over merchants to some degree.

Konoha was a picture-perfect example of this. The supposedly strongest village that is able to rally up and work together, civilians and ninjas alike, to protect it even when they are facing enemies on three fronts. During the war, the civilian council made damn sure to do their work and give the Hokage time to focus more on the war efforts than running the village. Now? They are subtly sabotaging the village whenever possible. And Rei knew not all of it was because they were bored. The Fire Daimyo had his own grubby hands in it.

The Hokage knew it. The Konoha Shinobi Council knew it... but what can they do when the man who is feeding them is behind the scenes? Especially after the catastrophe with Kyuubi? At the very least, it had its advantages. So many merchants slash saboteurs meant they were the richest village and didn't fully depend on the Fire Daimyo. But this was just yet another layer of dependence on the Daimyo in itself. Konoha Clans knew their wealth came to existence thanks to the Daimyo and his support of their businesses. Merchants prefered to do business with them, gave them discounts, and much more. There was really not much the Hokage could do when even the clan heads were supremely reluctant to deal with the civilian council simply because of who stood behind them.

And then... the civilian council couldn't do too much damage to the village either. Firstly, most of their wealth kind of depended on the existence of ninjas, and secondly the Daimyo wanted the village to exist as some kind of a buffer. Since these ninja villages sprang up, there was no war between the major countries of the elemental nations. The wars were fought by the ninjas while the Daimyos and nobles watched from the front rows as if it was some kind of sport, occasionally sending in a few samurai squads to deal with some breaches if enemy ninjas actually manage to enter the country.

The system worked like clockwork in every major village. While the ninja villages had brute power, the Daimyos and the nobles were political and economic powerhouses who simply used the system that had been set up for centuries to hinder them and keep them exactly where they wanted... which was horribly missing in the Land of Snow, causing the Yukigakure to grow a bit too big pair... of horns.

According to Tsunade, the sole exception to this rule was Konoha when it was ruled by the Senju. And it had a good reason why the Fire Daimyo started harassing it only around ten years after Sarutobi became the Third Hokage... and the Senju clan was on the brink of extinction.

Rei glanced into the opposite corner of the room where the young Kakashi was hidden, completely oblivious to Rei's presence in the room. Seals sewn into the clothing were simply that broken.

'It is kind of ironic, isn't it? The masters of espionage, infiltration, and assassination are being spied upon by lowly merchants. All that is needed is a list of their expenses and some rumours for the Daimyo or the nobles to know what is currently going on in the village. The saddest part,' The corner of Rei's lips twitched, 'most jonin have no idea it is going on. After all, there was a perfect reason why Sarutobi was so thrilled,' Rei rolled his eyes, 'when the younger monkey wanted to become one of the Fire Daimyo guards. I mean other than the fact it was a bit humiliating for his son to be one. Lazing around on the ceiling while making sure that probably the safest man in the whole country is safe... Prestigious position my ass.'

The door finally opened and inside walked a small man with shaggy brown hair and a self-important expression, clad in what looked like armor. Rei blinked before a proverbial lightbulb went on in his head. 'So that is the earlier stage of the chakra armor? The only selling point of Yukigakure? Looks a bit bulky and useless, to be honest.'

"Suzufumi, welcome." Sosetsu smiled and gestured towards the empty chair opposite him.

Mikado Suzufumi, the Yukikage, just walked towards it, not even bothering to greet Sosetsu. Behind him, on his right side was Doto and on his left side was Nadare Roga. Both gave at least a slight bow to Sosetsu before sitting down next to Mikado. After all, it was common courtesy. Even if Doto planned to kill his brother, he would at least bow in greeting before he got to the bloody work. The man was still his brother...

'Ouch, judging by the way Doto and Nadare are looking at the uncultured prick of a Yukikage, the guy is not supposed to last long in his position.' Rei noted with amus.e.m.e.nt. 'Well, not that it matters now that I am here.'

Mikado grunted and his gaze landed directly on Kakashi, causing his lips to briefly twitch before he narrowed his eyes at Sosetsu.

"Let's get straight to the point, Sosetsu. I want independence."

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