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

12. 353

In Naruto: Reborn With Talent #Chapter 353 - Ch353. The Rightful Reward - Read In Naruto: Reborn With Talent Chapter 353 - Ch353. The Rightful Reward Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 353 - Ch353. The Rightful Reward

Rei's eyes twitched at how easily Kaguya dealt with Zetsu. It was ridiculous in his very justified opinion. The guy who was indirectly responsible for more nefarious plots than Danzo, Hiruzen, and Madara combined during his existence turned into a puppy wagging his tail at the mere sight of Kaguya.

Rei had a hard time accepting what he just witnessed.

Seeing Kaguya's smug and satisfied expression, he couldn't help but groan, 'Great. Now she will think she is good at making plots and try to advise me on a constant basis. How could one innocent joke bring such a disaster?'

It was really easy to manipulate a guy who would do anything you asked of him with a megawatt smile on his face, even if that thing was for him to kill himself. Manipulating someone who didn't want to be manipulated and having to make sure they didn't notice said manipulation was a different matter altogether.

And Kaguya... she sucked at that hard. It was not her keen, politically inclined mind that enabled her to weather through her time as a princess and ruler of a nation. For she had none of that. It was her overwhelming and unsurpassable power that made any scheme against her obsolete, enabling her to simply avoid all the unpleasant political maneuvering.

Not many dared to scheme against somebody who could squash them like bugs. Especially since the people had no chakra back then.

"What's wrong?" Tsunade asked after noticing Rei's sour face, causing him to give her a bitter, hopefully reassuring smile.

"Something just went incredibly wrong, yet right. Don't worry about it." He rubbed his thumb on the upper side of her hand in a calming manner.

"Kaguya again making problems for you without even realizing it?" She knowingly asked, a small smirk worming its way onto her face.

"I am not even going to try denying it." Rei snorted, causing Tsunade to giggle.

"And she is not even out of her seal yet." Tsunade offhandedly quipped, making Rei sigh.

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"Oh, woe is me." He dramatically shook his head.

"Uuh... who was that auntie?" Fuu curiously asked with a small head tilt. Unlike Kankuro who was on a mission and prying into the business of the client was considered rude, Fuu had no such reservation. She didn't ask straight away because she was still feeling a bit shy but her curiosity eventually won over her.

It was no wonder, really. With how quiet and subdued Chomei became the second the woman appeared. He usually watched the world through Fuu's eyes but when he spotted Kaguya, Fuu only heard a frightened mental squeak and her head felt suddenly empty... er, emptier than usual as Chomei fully retreated into his seal.

Fuu really wondered what that was about.

"She is just a weird old lady that likes uncle Rei." Tsunade smiled at Fuu, gently deflecting the question and teasingly nudging Rei who sat next to her and gave her an eye roll in reply.

That didn't tell Fuu anything but she felt asking more would be rude so she decided to keep her curiosity to herself. Even Kankuro who secretly listened to the conversation was a bit disappointed there would be no big reveal.

It was then that Kaguya reappeared from the treeline, still as unbothered and careless as she first arrived but now with a small, almost unnoticeable smug undertone in her expression while her eyes were shooting Rei meaningful looks that simply screamed 'Praise me! Praise me!'.

She obviously knew he was watching her interaction with Zetsu.

Sighing, Rei simply decided to indulge her and beckoned her closer with his hand, making her perk up and quickly walk towards him before making herself comfortable in his lap.

"Where are my sweets?" She asked as Rei started caressing her head and Tsunade had to avert her eyes to prevent herself from laughing at Rei's disgruntled expression.

"No sweets for you. You will get fat." He deadpanned.

Kaguya's blissful expression instantly grew blank as her eyebrow twitched, "Is that so?"

"That's right." Tsunade decided to join the fun with a roguish smile spreading on her lips.

Kaguya turned towards her and narrowed her eyes, pointing her gaze at her chest for a long moment before firmly nodding, "You would know."

Needless to say, Tsunade's smile quickly fell for a second before returning in full again, this time a bit too sweet and fake. "Yes, I would. I am a medic ninja, after all."

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"Maybe I want to get fat." Kaguya pouted, shuffling in Rei's lap, her eyes still aimed at Tsunade's chest, making both Rei and Kankuro sweatdrop as Tsunade became speechless. Kaguya nodded in satisfaction at her small victory and then turned slightly in her victim's lap and gave Rei a pointed look. "So... my sweets?"

Clearly, she was on the roll.

Unfortunately for her, that was when Rei felt the sand ninjas returning with his senses and inwardly grinned.

"The redhead who has no idea about our identity is returning. Off with you." He smoothly changed the topic, making Kaguya gobsmacked, her mouth slightly open in disbelief at the casual way her reward was disregarded before her body was forcefully dispelled in a puff of smoke.

After all, it might have her consciousness imbued but it was still Rei's shadow clone.

'One of these days, I will have my revenge!' Rei heard in his head before he got an impression of an angry huff as the mental connection between him and Kaguya went silent.

'I will be looking forward to it.' Rei smirked, knowing she was no longer hearing his thoughts. He did intend to reward her with her favorite foods but Kaguya was kinda spoiled. If he made it easy for her, she would demand rewards endlessly for the smallest of things.

The smoke barely managed to dissipate before Sasori came into view, followed by Temari and Gaara.

"Done already? That was quick." Rei asked in feigned surprise, looking at Sasori.

"Yes. Unfortunately, Kakuzu managed to run away." Sasori grunted, clearly not in the best of moods.

Rei just lifted his eyebrow at Temari since Sasori didn't seem very forthcoming with information. One would think the puppeteer would get a hint and realize that Rei was fishing for information with his praise.

"When we arrived, Kakuzu and four thread-like monsters with masks were engaging Sasori and his puppet of the Third Kazekage. We destroyed fire and lightning using monsters with our initial sneak attack and from there it was relatively easy. I took on the monster using wind and Gaara battled the one using Earth while Sasori dealt with Kakuzu himself. Needless to say, both I and Gaara had an overwhelming advantage in our elemental proficiency over the monsters so it was easy to kill them. Unfortunately, Kakuzu realized he wasn't winning the fight far too soon and retreated before we could corner him." Temari gave her report, getting a pointed look from Sasori whose eyebrows were furrowed.

He had no idea why she decided to narrate their fight to a civilian and wasn't happy about it. Sadly, he couldn't really reprimand her.

Eventually, he disgruntledly grunted in gruff acknowledgment. "Yes. That's pretty much what happened. Let's go." And turned around, beckoning the group to follow him.

Rei looked at Temari who just apologetically smiled before turning his gaze towards Tsunade who just shrugged at him before he felt her telepathic connection snap in the place.

'Guess we now know why the guy prefers puppets over humans. It was a long time since I saw someone so socially awkward.' Tsunade's voice amusedly spoke in Rei's mind.

'I guess carrying your shopping bags will teach him how to socialize.' Rei relayed back and both grinned at each other.

Oh... they did not intend to make it easy for Sasori these following days.. Not at all.

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Chapter 354 - Ch354. Kakuzu's Misfortune

Kakuzu finally stopped running, feeling that the sand ninjas didn't pursue him, and sighed in relief.

This mission was a veritable disaster of bijuu proportion and he still had a hard time coming to grips with how easily and quickly he was forced to retreat.

'There is no way these were genins.' Kakuzu wearily thought, unable to even be mad at his loss of four hearts. He was too tired to even contemplate getting angry.

Not physically. His tiredness was of the mental kind. It was weariness at having his preconceived notions of how the world worked forcefully broken. Kakuzu was a realist and knew he was not on top of the world. There were plenty of stronger fishes in the pond, so to speak. He, however, took pride in his strength and fully believed he would be solidly placed among the top twenty ninjas in the world.

Getting his stuffing beaten out of him by brats who were just entering their teenage years, even if they had Sasori's help and the advantage of an ambush on their side, was a heavy blow to Kakuzu's pride and worldview.

Kakuzu could take the loss of Hidan. The welp was not important. But four of his hearts! It will take him ages to replenish those. Yes, hearts were readily available resources if one knew where to look... But Kakuzu needed quality rather than quantity and there were not that many powerful ninjas with strong affinities across the world, much less many opportunities to get their hearts.

The only bright spot on this whole clusterfuck was that the heart of the Second Hokage was undamaged, still beating in his chest. Kakuzu was aware he would be unable to get a better quality water heart... ever. That's why he seldom took it out of his body.

"I see that you took a beating." A dark scratchy voice suddenly resounded in front of Kakuzu, making him alert and raising his guard up in an instant.

Zetsu suddenly emerged from the ground in front of Kakuzu, causing the old bounty hunter to relax again at the sight of his organization's spy.

"Zetsu. What are you doing here?" He gruffly asked, not paying him much attention as he was too focused on stitching his wounds shut.

"I was tasked with observing this mission." Zetsu indifferently replied, his tone holding a hint of amusement at Kakuzu's sorry state.

"Of course you were." Kakuzu grumbled. Part of him was irritated that his failure was witnessed by somebody but part of him was glad because it meant he would not be held fully accountable for it once Zetsu testified about the battle.

Nobody, not even the leader, could blame him for retreating when outnumbered by three dangerous individuals.

Plus... it was mostly Hidan's fault for rushing in. Kakuzu reckoned there would be no digging that dipshit up and putting him back together this time.

"Well, I should return to my stalking assignment. It would be very problematic if I lose track of our target." Zetsu suddenly said after a minute of silence between him and Kakuzu, getting only a dismissive grunt in return.

It didn't bother him. Akatsuki was not some kind of dysfunctional family. The sheer thought of that was ridiculous beyond belief. They were coworkers and mercenaries that could barely stomach themselves at the best of times.

Kakuzu barely registered Zetsu about to pass by him as he mentally grumbled and tried to remember the best elemental users from his bounty lists. He will have to spend the next two years on the hunt for new quality hearts and it was already making him irritated when he thought about the effort he will have to exert.

'And Pein will definitely expect me to continue my hunt for bounties.' Kakuzu thought in irritation. He often regretted joining Akatsuki. Not that he had much of a choice. When someone like Pain appears before you and gives you a clear choice between joining and death, the answer is obvious.

Kakuzu might have tried to pull Orochimaru on Akatsuki by now if they didn't provide him with so many financial benefits, to be honest.

As he was lost in his mind, his instinct suddenly flared in danger, jolting him awake from his reverie but... he was too late.

A sharp pain abruptly rushed through his chest as Kakuzu involuntarily spat blood before inclining his head downward in pained confusion only to notice a black arm sticking out of his chest, straight through his last remaining heart.

Horror instantly engulfed his mind as he realized what that meant for his 'immortal' self.

"Z-Z-Zet...su!" He gritted out in disbelief and anger, realizing who was responsible for his upcoming demise. "Wh-y?" He gurgled through the blood that tried to rush out of his throat.

"Because your continued survival is in the way of my mother's wishes." Zetsu calmly said, not worried about revealing it to Kakuzu. The man would die here and he had no way to relay this information to anyone. Zetsu knew. He had extensive knowledge of all Akatsuki members. He probably knew them more than they knew themselves at this point.

Hearing that, Kakuzu's eyes widened as he understood. He understood that Zetsu was not as loyal to Akatsuki as he portrayed but... 'He is one of the initial members!' Kakuzu thought in dismay. But that could only mean, 'We... we are all just puppets in his schemes, aren't we?' The dying man realized in painful astonishment. Zetsu was supposed to be the weakest of them but this...

Akatsuki suddenly seemed much darker than it outwardly appeared and Kakuzu cursed himself for getting caught in its web.

"It is funny, you know?" Zetsu's voice resounded from behind Kakuzu, laced with light amusement at the disbelief of his soon-to-be-ex colleague, "I am the weakest member of Akatsuki. Just a spy. Someone not worth being cautious of because I could never pose a threat to any of you. Thanks to that, most of you like to completely disregard my presence. You didn't notice anything was wrong until my hand was already about to penetrate your back." Zetsu let out a cold chuckle. "S-rank ninjas indeed. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

That was the last thing Kakuzu heard as his consciousness failed him, casting him forever into the oblivion of death.

Zetsu looked at Kakuzu's corpse that unceremoniously hit the ground and smirked, "I lied. I was never tasked with observing your mission."

Unfortunately for Kakuzu, with him still in the picture, the news of this failure would reach Pein very quickly and he would then organize a larger force to take down Sasori. This was a prime opportunity to hunt themselves a traitor, after all.

That, however, would disturb the peace of mother's friends and one of Zetsu's orders was to not cause trouble for them. Kakuzu simply had to go.

This way, Pein would not know about the outcome for a week or so before he will inevitably but correctly assume the worst after not receiving any communication from Hidan nor Kakuzu. It was not a long delay but by that time, mother's friends will be long in Konoha.

Zetsu could care less what happened to Sasori after that. The only reason why he even cared was that Sasori was escorting Rei and Tsunade.

Kaguya had no idea what kind of horror she unleashed with her casual and careless words for Zetsu would stop at nothing in order to fulfill her orders. Alas, what she meant him to do and what he perceived she meant him to do were two different things.

Not that the Rabbit Goddess could care less but the unsuspecting Akatsuki was in for a very bad time.

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Chapter 355 - Ch355. Sasori's Personal Hell

The time quickly passed and Sasori couldn't help but regret that Kakuzu was too incompetent to kill him. These past few days must have been the worst and most frustrating in his life so far.

The first day after the unsuccessful ambush, they arrived in a town that was well known for its gambling dens. Such a thing didn't matter for Sasori at first but he quickly learned the error of his ways.

One of their clients, Nadetsu, dragged them all over these gambling dens where they had to... ugh, wait for her as she lost the majority of her gambles. Sasori hated waiting with passion even before he had to spend most of his day doing it while watching the abysmal luck of his client. How that woman became one of the most influential people alive with such luck, he will never know.

If that was not enough, Nadetsu did her best to embarrass them. From betting their underwear and causing the whole gambling den to howl in laughter at Sasori's and Kankuro's expense... to betting Kankuro's catsuit.

The absolute worst was when she put Sasori's services for a day as a part of her bet. Normally, it wouldn't matter to Sasori. He was a ninja and that was basically the description of his job but when he remembered the woman Nadetsu was gambling against, he couldn't help but involuntarily shiver. She was giving him the same look he sometimes gave his best puppets. The problem was there was no way he could ever traumatize his puppets by appreciating their beauty and his gaze never contained the raw disgusting lust the woman's look oozed with. It almost turned Sasori's stomach.

Especially when he knew about his client's abysmal ability at gambling. That made him contemplate desertion yet again, to be honest.

Much to his surprise, however, Nadetsu somehow... really, Sasori had no idea how but he definitely did NOT gape in shock at her... she somehow won every single bet since they started to be so personal to the sand team.

After ten rounds like that, Sasori quickly formed a new opinion about Nadetsu Jusen. The woman was not enjoying the gambling per se. She simply enjoyed screwing with people. She enjoyed seeing them win and their faces lit up in hope only to plummet in despair the next round as they lost their winnings.

In short, she was just a sadistic bitch who found a non-offensive way to indulge these urges.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn't all bad. Sasori gained a bit of respect for the woman as she refused one gambler's suggestion to bet a night with Temari. The cold look Nadetsu showered the man in would probably make even a chunin piss himself. It was no wonder the man, in fact, did soil his pants and became a laughing stock of the entire gambling den as he rushed out with shame etched on his face.

Sasori barely noticed how tightly Temari was pressing her body into Rei's as she sat on his lap and he almost missed the look of absolute fury as she pressed her head into his shoulder.

Sasori could swear he saw Temari sneaking out of the hotel room later that night and when she came back, she had a bit of blood on her hands and the next day, he found out a man was apparently murdered...

Well, Sasori decided it was not his problem and stopped thinking about it.

Nadetsu surprisingly didn't make bets about Gaara either. When the group arrived at the hotel and he asked her why... Nadetsu simply stated with absolute conviction that Gaara is far too adorable with that expressionless facade to attempt to embarrass him and that Sasori and Kankuro simply had that virgin loser air around them that made her want to tease them.

Damned spoiled brat...

The first day of the escort mission passed and Sasori already wanted to tear his female client apart with extreme prejudice. That didn't inspire much confidence about the success of the mission in him.

The second and third day were spent traveling and thankfully, it gave Sasori the necessary time to center himself. Nadetsu didn't target him with her teasing... and he suspected she somehow sniffed out how close he was to snapping and decided to lay off for the moment... but Kankuro got the full brunt of it instead. From asking which of his puppets is his current girlfriend, to inquiring why he wears his pajamas as if it was normal everyday wear, to arguing with him if his make-up is a war paint or not...

Sasori had to admit his off-and-on apprentice's patience impressed him. If it was him, he would probably bitchslap the woman by now. Surprisingly, Kankuro seemed to almost enjoy the banter and snipping veiled insults at each other with her.

The total masochistic weirdo...

At that time, Sasori had no idea yet about the disaster awaiting him in the next town. If he thought that gambling dens were bad, the massive shopping district in the next town was hell itself.

Waiting... waiting... waiting... waiting... and MORE waiting!

Nadetsu dragged him, Kankuro, and Gaara as her personal bag holders all over the shopping district while she enjoyed her days, taking almost sadistic pleasure in making them wait for her.

The worst part?

Their second client, Rei, was not present to curb the woman's excessive teasing. Being in her presence when he was not around was pure suffering! She was well aware the thing he hated most was waiting and shopping around with a woman was made purely of that blasted activity!

Sasori wanted to rip his hair out after the first hour. After the third hour, he deeply regretted turning back to human if only because his emotions returned and he could feel the full brunt of frustration and impatience.

In the hours following that, he had to work hard on mentally persuading himself that killing her was not worth it as she hung one bag after another on him as if he was her personal hanger.

And when she informed him that tomorrow she would continue with her shopping spree? ... Oh, boi.

Anger issues were never Sasori's problem. Nor did he ever get murder-happy. His killings were always about gaining some benefit. It was about a pure cold calculation of gain and loss. Now, though, he could see what was so appealing about butchering someone with his bare hands.

... It was really fortunate for Sasori that he didn't try. Unknown to him, he wouldn't get far with that.

Unfortunately, he was alone in his suffering too. Gaara didn't mind being used as Nadetsu's personal porter. He was fully satisfied with the ice cream and the good expensive luxury lunch she bought for their 'noble' sacrifice as she called the hellish experience.

As for Kankuro... he actually enjoyed it and even joined shopping with Nadetsu occasionally, trading opinions on various clothes and so on. Well, Sasori thought he should have expected that from someone who wore make-up and a catsuit. Nothing new there...

What really worried Sasori, was that Rei and Temari separated from the group. He was not blind and could see how the young teenage girl looked at their male client and from the way Rei didn't protest when Temari simply flopped into his laps or started affectionately massaging his shoulders or when she got overly touchy... Sasori had a bad feeling about their mutual absence from his sight.

According to the law, Temari belonged to Kazekage. Her entire being was supposed to be Lady Pakura's. Lady Pakura had the right to decide who would take Temari's virginity, who she would marry, even how many children she could have. Her life and death literally belonged to Lady Pakura.

Yes, it was a messed up and very archaic law bordering on slavery but Temari entered this kind of service to Lady Pakura willingly. That's why Sasori was worried about the consequences if he suddenly woke up tomorrow only to find Temari with a slight limp. He was responsible for her dammit!

He would never leave the girl out of his sight with a man she had such an obvious crush on but Nadetsu simply rejected any attempt of his to separate from the group!

It really made one wonder if this whole irritating shopping trip of Nadetsu was not just one big farce to keep him away from Rei and Temari.

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Chapter 356 - Ch356. A Date With Temari

Temari and Rei walked side by side through the town, enjoying its bustling atmosphere as they effortlessly melded into the crowd.

Temari seemed excited and giddy while Rei was keeping a cool facade but inwardly, he was resigned and slightly happy. He refused to lie to himself. All that time he spent training the little whiplash next to him did make her close to his heart. If he didn't feel any sort of attachment to her, he would never agree to this... date.

On the other hand, her age was a bit of an obstacle and clearly, Temari was aware of it, making sure to remind him in subtle ways such as through her body language that she didn't care. Hence, the resigned part.

Soon enough, the duo entered a confectionery, deciding to sit down for a bit and talk while enjoying some sweets.

"I still can't believe you actually asked Tsunade for permission to court me as if I was some kind of pet." Rei amusedly chuckled, enjoying how flustered Temari became because of his statement.

When Rei during their light banter jokingly agreed to have a date with her if she managed to persuade Tsunade, she came to their hotel room yesterday and with a deep bow voiced her request to the Senju Princess known for her legendary temper tantrums. Rei had to admit, Temari had balls of steel for that alone.

Needless to say, both Rei and Tsunade were utterly speechless.

"Would it kill you not to bring it up again?" Temari mumbled and cutely pouted, intently focusing on the dessert in front of her and playing with it with her fork, too embarrassed to lift her head. "It's embarrassing."

Rei snickered and reached across the table and affectionately ruffled the girl's hair, "I think it was cute how you blurted out the first thing that popped in your head." He said, making her cheeks color themselves crimson as a small indulging smile appeared on her lips.

Rei and Tsunade totally expected such a situation to occur. Temari was trying to blatantly flirt with Rei during the past few days and Tsunade never once protested. It was a long time coming but the way Temari decided to go about it was still shocking.

"Poor Sasori though." Rei remarked, taking his hand back from Temari's head and causing her to briefly frown at the loss of the intimate feeling. "After your actions yesterday, the man will probably have to face the full brunt of Tsunade's vindictiveness for an entire day."

Yes, Tsunade, with a copious amount of amusement, allowed Temari to 'take Rei out'. She even gave Rei a mirthful glance, knowing his manly pride just took a severe hit because of Temari's wording. It was all in good humor.

That didn't mean deep down she wasn't irritated because of it.

"Should I worry about earning her ire?" Temari slightly widened her eyes at that.

"Nah, she might be annoyed for a bit but fortunately for you, my girls seem to hellbent on making me stop holding myself back because of them, and rather than being angry with you, Tsunade is the kind of person that would respect you for grasping the opportunity when it is available." Rei said.

Granted, if Rei didn't show interest in the girl and she wasn't Pakura's favorite, Tsunade would most likely make her into a pancake with a punch rather than give Temari her blessing. That didn't mean she would not respect her resolve though.

Temari nodded and reached towards Rei's hand, grasping it as she spoke with a sincerity lacing her voice, "I am grateful for that. Lady Pakura told me she could provide me this chance but grasping it is in my own hands." She admitted.

Their date continued peacefully as the two talked about mundane everyday things, opting not to go into heavy and important topics. They rather enjoyed the warm atmosphere between them as they discussed things like Temari's surprising interest in sewing or Rei's distaste for alcohol... which made Temari 'subtly' put her cup of sake she was drinking away, much to Rei's amusement.

They left the confectionery and continued on their walk through the town, visiting many clothing shops but that activity was quickly stopped as they realized neither of them was having all that much fun.

While Temari liked Rei's reaction and his veiled heated look when she tried out a few very good-looking kimonos, she was not one for shopping. She liked action more... or rather, she was more comfortable in the heat of combat rather than doing this girly stuff.

When she awkwardly told that to Rei, he just lifted his eyebrow at her and bought her a pink teddy bear.

She really had no idea how he knew her preferences...

Nevertheless, the date took an unexpected turn after that and the duo found themselves leisurely walking outside of the town where they found a clearing far enough that nobody would disturb them.

It was funny how the date quickly changed into an impromptu lesson on Wind Manipulation and taijutsu. It certainly felt a bit awkward for Rei since neither of his women would say no to a good 'girly' date. Except, Temari looked to be in her element and beaming at him as he helped her to perfect her personal Wind Jutsus.

Rei had to admit, he had fun doing it. He liked to teach. If he didn't, neither Ringo nor Mei would have turned out so well. Unfortunately, his position didn't give him many opportunities for taking students.

Now that he thought about it, Temari was his last 'student' as he taught her Wind Manipulation on Pakura's request and... 'Wait, is this my fetish?' Rei suddenly gained a ground-breaking realization, freezing in the middle of a spar and letting Temari's punch slip past his guard and deck him straight in the middle of his face.

Rei didn't even register as his back hit the ground. He could only stare at the clear sky with wide eyes full of reluctant acceptance and disbelieving shock at this self-enlightenment.

'It would make a twisted kind of total sense! I mean... Mei and Ringo were my official students. I taught Pakura how to better use her bloodline and I would be lying if I said these lessons didn't deepen our relationship. Tsunade might have been a full-fledged kunoichi when we met but it was my meddling that allowed her to develop her Sage Arts to such heights and the less said about Konan the better. If I ignore that I was a kid myself, I basically not only trained and taught the girl but I straight out raised her!' Rei blinked in disbelief. 'Does that make me a degenerate?' He idly wondered.

His eyebrows suddenly furrowed, 'Do I even care?'

Nope... he didn't care. At all.

It was still a very shocking revelation for him though. He briefly wondered if Kaguya also fit into this pattern before he realized that...

'I am currently trying to teach Kaguya manners.' Rei had no idea if that counted.

"Are you okay!?" Temari hurriedly knelt next to Rei who was still lying on the ground with shock written all over his face. "I didn't mean to-, I couldn't stop-, I..." She was clearly panicking, not yet used to sparring with Rei so she had no idea where the boundaries lied.

"Yeah, don't worry. I just had a life-changing concuss-, I mean, realization." Rei quipped with a grin, easing the worried expression of Temari.

Realizing that Rei's bewilderment was not because he was angry at her punching him, she regained her usual confident smirk, "Heh, I am glad that my punches can grant you enlightenment."

Rei just rolled his eyes at her. "Don't get arrogant. Considering the effort it took you to get that one punch in, it would be downright embarrassing if the punch was not enlightenment inducing."

"Looks like one punch was not enough for your full Buddha ascension." Temari quipped with her eyebrow twitching as she raised her fist in a mock-threatening manner. Both she and Rei stared at each other for a moment before chuckling. "So? What kind of secret life truth did you discern from being decked into the face by the little me?" Temari cheekily asked, causing Rei to snort.

She was so unsure and meek at the start of the date, cutely pouting and blushing. Yet now, she quickly eased into her comfort zone when they started training and sparring. She was no longer timid, regaining her usual confident presence and Rei had to admit, she might be fifteen but he found that extremely hot at the moment.

"You really want to know?" Rei gave her a shrewd look and smirked at her in a way that screamed, 'I know something you don't!', causing her to lean closer in curiosity.

"Of course." Temari's smile widened and her eyes narrowed in glee, her heartbeat quickening at the close proximity she was to her long-time crush. "I'd like to know what's so specia-"

She didn't get to finish it as Rei pulled her to the ground and started passionately kissing her.

Rei had his reservations but... Temari was kunoichi. She was an adult the second she received her hitai-ate and her hands were drenched in an ocean of blood. Treating her like a child was never on his to-do list. She wanted to have a relationship with him, fully knowing what it all entailed? Fine by him!

Since that was the case, Rei decided to take her determination seriously and his hands started to slowly undress her. He liked her, she liked him... if she wanted to give herself to him then there was no need to be hesitant about it any longer.

It didn't take long for Temari to come out of her initial shock and start to reciprocate the kissing, delight, and happiness surging deep within her as Rei's hands slowly took off layer after layer of her clothing while her hands also started to slowly undress him.

This was exactly what she wanted. She could see the hesitation in Rei's eyes when she flirted with him in recent days. Now she could see none of it and she would not waste this opportunity!

--

Author Note:

Firstly, I am sorry if the chapter was a bit 'meh'. I was quite tired when writing it.

Next...

Yes, I have previously said I will not expand the harem but I must confess, as a man, I have failed you. Yes, it is sob-worthy and waterfalls of tears are streaming down my cheeks as I write this, yadda, yadda, yadda...

I certainly did not roll my eyes at you. I swear... fingers crossed.

Anyway, I was content with these five girls in Rei's harem and Kaguya on the waiting list for a long while and I was struggling, fighting, wrestling, and raging against my desire to add more for even longer but with this author note, I am officially announcing, I sadly lost this struggle.

My cultural side won.

I know, it is sad but that makes it no less true.

Sorry if this disappointed you as much as it did me.

I am one of those who could not imagine having more than one woman in real life because I would find it extremely bothersome but because of that personal defect of mine, I also can't imagine NOT writing harem for the MC's in my stories because I find it a total waste not to.

They are fanfictions. They are supposed to have harems in them! You can't decide which girl you want as a female lead? Just add all of those you like! It is FICTION for a reason...

No dissing at stories with only one female lead though. I really respect these dudes for having the resolve to pick one girl and stick with her in their stories.

I would be unable to do that. I pick one girl and two days later, I have a deeply-seated urge to pick another after reading some fanfiction that 'promoted' her. It's kinda messed up but it is what it is.

Well, thanks for understanding, and have a nice day.

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Chapter 357 - Ch357. Arriving At Konoha

Sasori sat behind a table in the luxurious empty lounge of the hotel, cradling a cup of steaming hot coffee. Just what he needed to ease his shopping-spree-induced headache that was still going strong from yesterday.

He didn't need to worry about other people bothering him because their clients, Rei and Nadetsu, obviously booked the whole hotel just for them because... why not?

Somehow, that only proved to add to his increasing irritation of the two.

Just imagining the monumental waste of money it was, brought his subsiding headache back. The number of puppets he could make with that kind of money...

It was then the door to the lounge opened and in walked Temari wearing a somewhat loose but comfortable black kimono with her hair done into a bun and from her relaxed expression and contently squinted eyes, it was obvious she had a nice bath not long ago.

Sasori's eyes trailed over her form... before he almost did a spit-take, only barely managing to gulp down the coffee in his mouth before he started to chokely cough as he noticed that,

'Shit! She is limping! Lady Pakura will kill me!'

A terror surged inside the puppeteer as the pros and cons of going rogue instantly flashed through the forefront of his mind... again.

Temari leisurely walked towards the place where her brothers were seated and unceremoniously flopped into one of the seats with a content sigh before she started to fill the plate in front of her with the available breakfast choices. She was in the middle of this process when she abruptly stopped and her eyes rose up from the delicacies prepared by the hotel staff only to meet Sasori's intent stare.

"What?" Temari asked with a mild irritation seeping into her tone. She really did not like the judging way he looked at her.

"You slept with our client." Sasori dryly stated, his stare morphed into an unamused one.

"Yes. So, what?" Temari lifted her eyebrow at him, stubbornly refusing to play his blaming game. He probably wanted her to start apologizing or something but... meh, she didn't care. She felt heavenly and would do it all over again no matter what Sasori thought.

"Dammit, Temari." Seeing that his blonde charge had no remorse, Sasori started rubbing the bridge of his nose to cover the exasperated helplessness that was gnawing on him. "I am supposed to be responsible for you. Lady Pakura will kill me."

"Oh..." Temari's eyes slightly widened in the realization that Sasori was not angry that she slept with the client. He simply didn't want to face the non-existent consequences of her actions. Understanding that, Temari's temper cooled off and she continued in a friendlier tone, "You don't need to worry about that. Lady Pakura already knows."

Her reassurances finished, Temari returned to stuffing her plate with food, ignoring the gaping puppeteer.

Regathering his wits, the gears in Sasori's mind started to work overtime.

'Is that why we were given this mission?' He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the empty plate in front of him with his lips set in a frown, 'Is that why she flirted with Rei so much? To get him to bed her? But why...'

Sasori's eyes suddenly gained an understanding gleam. Temari's virginity belonged to Lady Pakura and the fact she just gave it to their client surely meant...

'This is a political transaction veiled as an escort mission!' Sasori's breath abruptly hitched and his eyes shot back towards Temari who was happily enjoying her food and chatting with her brothers. He couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for the girl.

Alas, it wouldn't affect him so there was no need to fret.

Satisfied with that conclusion, Sasori's worries subsided as he decided to indulge in his renewed appetite.

Unknown to him, he was totally wrong.

...

It took the group nine more days to reach Konoha gates, mostly because of all the detours Tsunade insisted on. Fortunately, the road was quite peaceful, the only eventful thing being Rei getting closer to Temari and Gaara finding a report with Fuu while Sasori grumbled under his nose about 'Riajuu'.

The redheaded boy could be seen almost smiling nowadays. And Kankuro secretly admitted to Rei that it was creeping the funk out of him before he promptly started to avoid Fuu in fear of being affected by her mentality adjusting hocus pocus.. as he named it.

In all honesty, there was no 'magic' involved. It was just her cheerful predisposition and insistence on being friends. But explaining that to a boy who thought wearing make-up was cool... yeah, Rei quickly decided it was not his problem.

The group finally arrived at the gates where a person was surprisingly already awaiting them.

"Greetings, Sabaku siblings, Mr. Sasori. I am Kurenai Yuhi and I will be your guide while you are in the village." A woman introduced herself with a polite bow, neither too submissive nor too small.

Rei lifted his eyebrow at Kurenai and looked between her and Tsu-, ahem, Nadetsu, his lips twitching into a smirk as he realized Kurenai had no idea that Nadetsu was Tsunade. That told him a lot about the level of trust his wife was willing to exert to the genjutsu mistress.

Rei could now see why Tsunade never showed Kurenai the village on the other side.

The fact Kurenai did not recognize Nadetsu Juusen, the CEO of the Biri-Biri company, however, would bite her in the ass on a later date if Tsunade's narrowed glare was any indication.

An observing outsider would probably suspect Nadetsu Juusen didn't like being ignored or that she was simply arrogant but Rei was sure Tsunade was glaring for a totally different reason. He knew this greeting of the important guests was probably Tsunade's subtle way of making Kurenai experience diplomacy and mingling among the people that will become important in the future while testing her behavior at the same time.

The Suna siblings might no longer be the children of the current Kazekage but they were still very close to Pakura, hence, deemed important by other villages.

That didn't mean Tsunade would easily disregard that Kurenai totally ignored the civilian tag-along and had no idea how Nadetsu Juusen, one of the most influential figures of the modern economy looked like. It didn't matter that Kurenai as a kunoichi did not really need to know Nadetsu's face. Nor did it matter that Nadetsu never introduced herself.

For Tsunade, this was a failure Kurenai will most certainly regret.

Sasori didn't respond as Kurenai expectantly stared at him. He knew he was the 'jonin instructor' of the team and it was his job but during the escort mission, the dynamics of the team became apparent. The real leader was Temari.

Not that Sasori minded. He was a loner by nature and preferred his puppets. Leading three brats was simply not on his list of preferred activities.

He simply silently turned towards Temari, an unasked question obvious in his gaze.

Kurenai noticed and quickly realized what was going on, her own eyes also relocating towards the fifteen years old blonde despite confusion being apparent on her face.

For this show of adaptability and understanding of subtle gestures, at least, Tsunade seemed to be happy and slightly nodded in approval.

Instead of answering, Temari glanced at Rei, and Kurenai's eyebrow twitched.

The ravenette had no idea what was going on anymore. A jonin instructor asking his student what to do? That she could take. Temari seemed to be politically higher than Sasori. But said student asking a civilian what to do? That baffled Kurenai.

She knew this was a sort of test the second she landed this mission but damn if these sand people weren't confusing!

Rei sighed and slightly squeezed Temari's hand before donning a small smile as he whispered to her ear, "Go and register for the Chunin Exams. We can meet at the Senju Compound later. You will be housed there anyway."

Needless to say, Kurenai narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the gesture, trying to understand the relationship and dynamics of the group in front of her. Unfortunately for her...

"Okay." Temari agreed with a small, almost unnoticeable pout before turning towards Kankuro and Gaara while her hand slipped out of Rei's before she gestured for Kurenai to lead the way and started following the clearly reluctant woman.

Rei heard Tsunade snicker next to him, causing him to turn towards her with a lifted eyebrow and a moment later, he felt her hand slide into his as she gave him a tempting look. Instead of answering the unasked question, she simply leaned forward and delivered an indulging kiss on Rei's lips, much to the embarrassment of the green-haired jinchuuriki that was trying to merge with the background.

"Let's deliver Fuu to the Senju Compound and then we can have a bit of alone time." Tsunade whispered, her hands snaking around Rei's waist.

Rei glanced at Fuu who averted her gaze downward with her cheeks flushed and smiled at the cute response towards the blatant affection, "Yeah," He looked back at Tsunade, "Sage knows the next few days will be a challenge with so many temperamental people all housed in the Senju Compound. A nice peaceful afternoon before the shitstorm starts will be nice."

--

Just a small rant to relieve my delicate sensibilities. Feel free to skip:

Yeaaah, sooo, I was browsing through the Avengers fanfictions on and I must say I am baffled. There is almost no good fanfic there.

Half of it is focused on hurt, drama, self-harm, mental illness, and similar shit that makes me feel as if it was written by 13yo edgy mentally unstable emo angsty fangirls and I still can't wrap my head around WHY. How did an action-based movie such as Avengers -- self-harm, emotional drama, angst, etc? Just... how?

More importantly... how did it become such a massive segment in the Avengers fanfiction community!?

And the other half is straight out homosexual content which I personally am not interested in.

Honestly, I have nothing against homosexuals but when I browse through fanfictions and all I see is Steve x Tony, Steve x Bucky, Steve x Clint, Steve x Bucky, Steve x Steve, I want to wring someone's neck not because they are homo but because there is no damn filter button that could just filter all of these out from my search. It is FRUSTRATING as heck.

It really says a lot about Marvel fans when half of its fanfictions are edgy angsty emo emotional wank fests that love increasing the emotional baggage of their readers and the other half are homosexual stories though.

Damn, I wonder how many people would get butthurt because of this :D.

No offense meant, people. It's a free world and you are free to do what you wish within reason. Let me just... sob my frustrations away in my lonely corner because I miss some good marvel fanfiction that wouldn't give me more emotional baggage or a mental illness for the shit and giggles of an edgelord author who is just coming into depression caused by puberty and think the world is out to get him and cutting his wrist is clearly the way to resolve all of his problems because why not?

Nah, thank you, keep your emotional baggage to yourself. I am not interested in buying that.

(Damn, I so needed to get that out of my system :D. Just browsing through the synopsis on Marvel Fanfictions on ff..net made me feel as if I had a mental illness.)

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Chapter 358 - Ch358. Reunion 1

Rei stretched as he shuffled into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, his eyes straying at the naked form of Tsunade who laid lazily on the bed like a cat with her eyes half-closed with contentment, enjoying the pleasant soreness of her body caused by the post-coital bliss.

"Mmm~, don't go." Tsunade whinily uttered, catching Rei's wrist with her hand which caused her to involuntarily shift her body and plant her face into the pillows with a girlish giggle.

A smile appeared on Rei's face as he watched her antics with a small headshake. He shuffled closer to her and gently ran his free hand along Tsunade's bare back, starting from her shoulder, causing her to shudder in anticipation as his fingers caressed the skin on her back before they got lower, reaching her posterior. The ticklish touch made Tsunade quietly squeal in delight and subconsciously raise her rear with desire but she was disappointed and let out a whiny groan when Rei's fingers didn't stop and continued, stroking the back of her thigh where they stopped, causing her to very unwillingly lift her head and give Rei an unamused look that silently informed him he better listen to her or else...

"No can do." Rei rejected her silent threat with an amused, yet somewhat innocent smile as if he just didn't make her hot and bothered. "My seals just detected Mei entering the compound with her team and the Sand siblings are already here too. We should go and greet them. You know... since they are technically the guests of the Daimyo." Rei said and lowered his head, deciding to indulge Tsunade and kiss her since she was basically begging for it with her eyes.

When she tried to deepen it and her hand slowly snaked towards his crotch, Rei quickly put a stop to it by ending the kiss and playfully shoving her body away, making her roll over on the bed as he rolled his eyes at her not-so-subtle attempt to ditch her duties for sex.

"Fuck the guests." Tsunade groaned into a pillow, clutching it tightly to her face in a petulant manner. Realizing she won't be able to sway him to have another round, she glanced at Rei, noticing he was having fun at her expense, she huffed, "You are no fun."

Rei sighed, too aware of the calculating glint that passed through Tsunade's eye that was watching him like a hawk. He knew what he had to do to get her out of bed and it honestly made him involuntarily smile at her little ploy.

"Fine," He exaggeratedly exclaimed, "What nefarious bribery will I have to bestow upon my Lady for her to consider getting her ass out of the bed?" He dramatically asked with no small hint of sarcasm.

"Why, my Lord, as the saying goes, eye for an eye, pleasure for pleasure. I will require of you a promise of spending at least three nights of every week with me for as long as we are in Konoha. That should be a worthy offering for asking such a huge and demanding favor of my ass." Tsunade said and pulled herself into a sitting position, making sure to show off her body in an attempt to entice Rei.

Rei knew what she was doing and it amused him to no end. Tsunade was one of his more sexually demanding wives. It had to do something with her sage arts and focus on physical training. Normally, though, Tsunade kept herself at bay in respect for Rei's other wives.

But now, they were on her turf, and for the duration of the Chunin Exams, she apparently decided to act a bit selfish and spoiled, demanding a bigger part of Rei's time. Rei knew she did so only because she was fully aware that Konan, Pakura, and Ringo were all too busy with the event though.

As such, Tsunade clearly decided to indulge herself.

"Since you give me no other choice, my Lady." Rei dramatically sighed and reached towards her head, affectionately ruffling her already messy hair, "It shall be done."

"Happy to hear that." Tsunade contently said and her lips stretched into a satisfied smile as she leaned her head more into Rei's palm.

Rei suddenly smirked and made use of the situation and Tsunade's momentary distraction by flicking her on the forehead, causing her head to snap backward and utterly breaking the sweet and warm atmosphere between them.

"Well, then, time to move your ass, my Lady." He jokingly quipped and left the bed, leaving Tsunade gaping at the audacity of her husband.

An hour later, Rei and Tsunade left their chambers, hand in hand, even though Tsunade was slightly glaring at the amused Rei who was soothingly rubbing his thumb on the back of her hand, making it that much harder for her to properly put the necessary emotion behind her glare. Tsunade was aware it came out mostly as a cute pout because of that but she was unwilling to stop the pleasant tingling this little motion was giving her.

The worst part? She couldn't even relegate him to the couch guard duty since this was supposed to be her chance at having more 'Rei time' of her own!

Life sometimes sucked...

But as they say, when life brings you lemons, you gotta make lemonade. Tsunade totally intended to fully milk her alone time with Rei and get the most of it.

They were nearing the courtyard when suddenly Rei came under attack from behind... ending up with Mei glued to him out of nowhere and pressing her chest into his back, her legs locked around his waist while her hands were hugging him around his neck.

"Long time no see, R-e-i." She seductively whispered into his ear. "It wasn't nice of you to leave us for two weeks." She petulantly complained with a small whine in her tone.

Before Rei could react, Tsunade snorted, attracting Mei's attention to herself. "Well, get used to it. Unlike us big girls who have villages to supervise, you have a chance to be with him almost nonstop." She snidely remarked without any real heat behind it.

"Hmm..." Mei gave out a long pondering hum in response before her lips stretched into a mischievous smile, "I distinctly remember that, unlike Ringo and Pakura, you took over your village out of your own volition, Tsu-chan. You really have no right to complain about that, ya know?" She cheerily said with a very teasing and punchable grin on her face, causing a vein to pop on Tsunade's forehead.

"Heh, I see you became a smart ass in the time we didn't see each other, Mei. I thought I raised you better than that." Tsunade's eye twitched and both Rei and Mei could see an illusion of her cracking her knuckles behind her despite Tsunade not pulling her hand from Rei's. "Looks like you are up for a few remedial lessons in tough love."

"Hell, nah. I'mma good." Mei dryly refused. Before Tsunade could reply, Mei turned back to Rei with the full intention of ignoring the previous topic, "Anyway, I brought the Uzushio team for the Chunin Exams. I must say, they were a delight to train this past month!" She exclaimed, erratically moving up and down on Rei's back from the excitement.

"I didn't want you to train them though." Rei's lips twitched. The 'genin' team was already too strong. They did not need more training.

"Huh?" Mei cutely tilted her head before she blinked and scrunched her nose as if heavily thinking. "I thought that was implied."

"You... thought?" Tsunade almost stopped in her tracks from shock, making Mei pout at the stark disbelief shown on her face. "Didn't know that was possible."

"Now you are just needlessly mean." Mei grumbled just as they reached the courtyard and halted just before they revealed their presence as they noticed that Karin was currently having a one-sided stare-off with heavily confused Naruto.

Knowing something interesting was about to happen, they used a bit of their supposed ninja training and became quiet, blending into the surroundings with a genjutsu as they waited for the ensuing Uzumaki get-together with anticipation.

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Chapter 359 - Ch359. Reunion 2

Naruto was on the courtyard of the Senju Compound, waiting for his teammates and minding his own business when he suddenly felt three foreign chakra signatures nearby and a stare trying to burn a hole into his back.

His body stiffened for a moment as possibilities flashed through his mind. He felt every single chakra signature of Konoha villagers at some point so feeling three foreign ones at once, inside of the Senju Compound... it made him think these were assassins or something.

That notion quickly left him when he hazily remembered Lady Tsunade saying something about guests and whatnot. To be honest, Naruto found that conversation boring so he mostly spaced out.

Still wary, he turned around and spotted the three newcomers, only for his eyes to widen as they landed on a pink-haired woman who was scowling at him. His hand quickly shot up and his pointing finger sprang into action, pointing at her while twitching. "Y-Y-You are the flute girl!" He exclaimed in astonishment.

Tayuya's scowl momentarily faltered and she gave Naruto a weird look. She might have been a prisoner but they spent a few days living in one house and the blondie still had no idea what her name was? How did he even become a ninja?

"It's Tayuya, shithead." She snorted.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, his gaze turning contemplative as he stared at Tayuya for a few seconds. Before the atmosphere could turn completely awkward and just as Tayuya was about to ask him if he fell in love with her due to how he was staring, Naruto suddenly slowly nodded as if accepting a foreign concept, "Tayuya Shithead... Weird name. I am Naruto Uzumaki, dattebayo!" He boisterously exclaimed.

Tayuya's eyebrow started twitching at that, 'I am going to kill him, consequences be damned.'

Tayuya was about to open her mouth in a retort when Kimimaro suddenly grabbed her forearm and pulled her to the side as he started walking away. She gave him an annoyed look but when she noticed his unamused eyes that conveyed, 'Don't even think about it.', she just frowned but obediently followed.

Naruto watched in bewilderment as the white-haired dude interrupted his introduction and rudely walked away without even stating his name. 'Honestly... what's with rude asshats and white hair?' He pondered as his mind briefly flickered towards his own sensei.

His musings were once again interrupted as he got uncomfortably aware the intense stare was still there, still trying to burn a hole into him. Turning his head, Naruto's eyes landed on a... 'Whoa! She is pretty!'

A red-haired bespectacled girl with fair complexion, red eyes, and red lips set in a firm line was studying him with an intensity that made Naruto both confused and self-conscious, making him fidget in his spot.

The stare-off continued for a few silent moments, Naruto growing more and more confused while Karin not moving even an inch. She was quite interested in this Konohagakure's Uzumaki but upon meeting him, she has to admit she was not particularly impressed.

Blond hair, blue eyes... where was the supposed Uzumaki in him?... fortunately for him, the feel of his chakra had that Uzumaki-ishness she was used to and that meant she didn't have to beat him senseless for lying about his heritage. The volume of his chakra was far above anything she would expect from a thirteen-year-old Uzumaki but then again, Karin was informed the kid was a jinchuuriki so that made sense too.

What really intrigued Karin, though, was the impression of sincere falseness he was particularly oozing. Not many knew but her Mind's Eye could do much, much more than just pick chakra signatures. She could even discern someone's personality, heritage, chakra nature, and much more from how their chakra feels and the boy in front of her was an extremely amusing specimen from a psychological angle.

He felt like someone who regularly hides under a mask of tomfoolery and stupidity, so much so, it became a part of him. If that didn't scream totally bonkers, then Karin had no idea what did.

Karin's observations were interrupted as her eyes briefly flickered to something behind Naruto when her senses picked up three chakra signatures entering the courtyard before they dispersed and her Mind's Eye stopped registering them.

Karin knew exactly who these three were. Not because she recognized the chakra signatures from the brief contact but because there were only very few individuals who could just make their signature 'disperse into thin air' under her scrutiny.

"Karin Uzumaki. Nice to meet you." She politely nodded at Naruto whose eyes comically widened.

"UZUMAKI!?" He excitedly exclaimed. "ARE YOU MY FA-"

And before he could finish his sentence, Karin's fist implanted itself into his face, sending him flying back and rolling on the ground while a vein was pulsing on her forehead.

"STOP SCREAMIN', BRAT!" Karin screamed, wincing at her own volume that was probably heard back in Uzushio. "Haaah." She released a tired sigh while inwardly dryly chuckling, 'The blondie is Uzumaki, alright.'

Chakra signature be damned. Only Uzumaki could reach such high decibels.

Naruto who suddenly found himself sprawled on the ground blinked, still trying to comprehend what happened. He... didn't even see her move!

Flipping himself into a sitting position with his legs crossed under him, he started to rub his cheek that now sported a new bruise while his wide eyes stared at Karin in awe and wonder, causing her to involuntarily shiver at the sudden feeling of danger.

On the edge of the courtyard, hidden in the treetops, one particularly jealous Hyuuga narrowed her eyes as she watched the two Uzumaki interact. She didn't like the look on her Uzumaki's face. Not at all. Her eyes narrowed even further, almost forming small slits, 'Looks like he is fit for a small retraining.'

Naruto abruptly shivered too, his gaze quickly scanning the surroundings for the source of the imminent sense of dread but even his incredible sensing abilities couldn't pinpoint it.

Karin, on the other hand, had no problem locating the... 'Is that a Hyuuga?' She blinked in bewilderment before paying more attention to the feel of the girl's chakra and her lips involuntarily widened into a grin, 'Ma~, ma~, who would have thought my cousin would have such a passionate lady already.'

Naruto noticed the creepy grin on the Uzumaki girl in front of him and was instantly reminded of Anko when she is in her mischievous and mercilessly teasing mood, causing him to gulp. He abruptly started to feel like a mouse eyed by a cat in the mood to play with her food and didn't like it.

His anti-Anko countermeasures kicked in and his expression went slack. Standing up and giving the perfect picture of calmness, Naruto brushed the dust off of his shoulder and gave Karin a small pitiful smile.

"I am sorry but I think I forgot to tidy up my bed. Gotta go."

And with that, he shunshined away in a hurry, leaving behind the utterly flabbergasted redhead who started to think her cousin was slightly mentally challenged.

Granted, that excuse might not be exactly on spot... but it always worked against Anko so Naruto saw no need to change it.

Karin was left standing by her lonesome self in the empty courtyard, a gentle breeze ruffling her hair as her blank gaze was aimed at the now empty spot where her blonde cousin stood just a few moments ago, and a firm resolve worthy of the future Uzumaki clan head filled her.

'I will have to retrain him.' She nodded to herself, feeling an inexplicable sense of camaraderie with a certain Hyuuga who also suddenly seemed more amicable to the redhead.

Poor Naruto escaped his current predicament but he had no idea what kind of storm he called on himself with his actions.

Nevertheless... this was the first step towards the unshakable Uzumaki-Hyuuga alliance that would be described by historians for generations to come.

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Chapter 360 - Ch360. Unexpected Council Meeting

When Naruto decided to quickly retreat, Rei, Tsunade, and Mei looked at each other in slight bewilderment but also exchanged a small shrewd smile as they now knew exactly what prompted Naruto's fight or flight instinct in the flight mode.

'Heh, I reckon the next time the brat decides to have a little pranking spree at our expense, it won't take long to sufficiently deter him.' Tsunade inwardly smirked as the trio canceled their cloaking and entered the courtyard where Karin was still in the state of deep bafflement.

"Looks like that didn't go exactly as planned, did it, Karin?" Rei teasingly asked.

Snapping out of her reverie, Karin abruptly turned towards him and gave him a small, embarrassed, and sheepish smile, "No... I guess his non-Uzumaki part is to blame. He basically flashed out of here."

"Well, at least he doesn't have a fetish for flashing others yet." Mei quipped.

"If he ever develops one, I will make him go out like a broken flashlight." Tsunade snorted and crossed her arms on her chest, showing what she thought about the idea.

Rei really pitied the boy for having this kind of family but as he was about to open his mouth to pitch in his own 'flash' joke, he was alerted that somebody just 'knocked' on the barrier around the Senju Compound.

Tsunade naturally felt that too and her expression soured. "There are only a very few people who have the access to do that. Funny how no matter which one of them it is, my day will now most certainly become shitty." She grumbled.

Rei fought the urge to smile at her disgruntlement and simply clapped her on her shoulder. "Just go. It's not like we have time to spend time together. Mei needs to tend to her team-"

"I do?" Mei asked in surprise and tilted her head.

Ignoring her, Rei just continued, "-and I promised Temari to give her a tour of Konoha. Let's see each other in the evening."

Tsunade sighed, putting her hand over Rei's which was still on her shoulder, and sourly nodded in agreement before taking off towards the Compound gate.

When she arrived near it, at least some of her sour mood was alleviated when she noticed the designated ANBU operative who was mostly acting as Hokage's errand boy standing there, waiting for someone to show up. That meant the day just might not turn out to be an utter disaster.

"Lady Daimyo." The ANBU bowed when he saw her, "Lord Hokage told me to convey that there will be an unexpected Council Meeting in..." The ANBU briefly stopped, mentally measuring how much time passed since he got his order, "about seventeen minutes."

Hearing that, Tsunade's lips twitched, 'Of course, he would. When there is a day without trouble, why not go and make some yourself. You know... just for kicks and giggles.' She tiredly sighed. "Did he tell you why or who asked for it?"

The ANBU uncomfortably shuffled in his spot before quietly answering, "Hiruzen Sarutobi." And quickly shunshining away just in case Tsunade's legendary temper rose and her fist 'subconsciously' jerked in his direction.

Which it did.

...

The council chambers were clamoring with quiet, subdued chatter, mostly from the elected civilian side.

Despite Tsunade coming to power, she didn't fully disband the civilian council. Instead, she just 'tidied' it up a bit and restricted what they could and could not deal with. After all, civilians should stick their noses strictly into civilian matters.

Nobody knew why they were called into a session, especially now, when everybody was in some way busy due to the Chunin Exams.

It may seem like a reason to meet more but in fact, it was the exact opposite. If every little decision depended on the council in these times, nothing would have been done in time.

Shikaku Nara swept the gathered people with his half-squinted, tired gaze, stopping at the clearly annoyed Tsunade who was looking straight at him.

He grimaced before schooling his expression into an apologetic one but Tsunade just rolled her eyes at him, making him know that she asked for the cause of this meeting since she wasn't annoyed at him.

That only made him inwardly wince some more.

'Great... this is exactly why the Council is not supposed to meet too much during these kinds of times. An argument among ourselves when we have foreign ninjas inside the village is never good.' He thought, instantly squashing his growing desire for ignoring the situation with the help of an impromptu nap with practiced ease.

It almost made his chest swell with pride. His time as Hokage clearly taught him at least something.

That feeling lasted for no more than two seconds as he was once again reminded about the incoming clusterfuck when Hyuuga Hiashi entered the council room in all of his expressionless glory, his gaze instantly straying towards the Senju seat before he slightly frowned when he saw Tsunade sitting there instead of Anko.

Shikaku almost involuntarily smiled at the small flicker of irritation in Hiashi's eyes. The man still did not give up on pursuing Anko but... the Hyuugas were like that. Stubborn to a fault.

By now, Shikaku could with certainty say there was no snowball chance in hell Hiashi would ever get Anko's attention, much less her hand in marriage. Alas, it was not his problem to worry about so he simply enjoyed the occasional show with sadistic glee.

His eyes continued their journey, completely bypassing the civilian council, and landed on the Inuzuka matriarch who seemed restless, tired, and almost growling at her own shadow. Shikaku's gaze morphed into an understanding one, 'Her clan is tasked with the perimeter security of the village to make sure nobody is sneaking around, huh? Must be exhausting. No wonder she is mad about this meeting.' He gave her a deeper look, 'Ah, so she had a night shift and was probably woken up due to this meeting.' He inwardly pitied the woman.

On the other hand, it also made him a bit glad. From her state, he could easily deduce she would be out of commission for the duration of the meeting, hence, of no use to anybody.

It was almost enough to make him believe in the existence of happy coincidences since the Inuzuka matriarch was one of those who still somewhat... well, not trusted per se, but... those who were willing to at least listen to what Hiruzen Sarutobi had to say.

Shikaku was about to look at his friends Inoichi and Choza when the door to the chambers opened and Hiruzen Sarutobi confidently walked in, his expression grave and the air around him commanding as if he was still in charge. Shikaku not for the first time wondered how could such a decrepit old man give out such an aura.

Hiruzen was followed by an annoyed-looking Asuma...

'Ah? Wasn't today the day Shizune finally managed to get a day off from her office so she could spend it with her husband? Yukino was saying something about babysitting their kid... or something, wasn't she?' Shikaku's lips twitched at the thought. No wonder Asuma vehemently glared at his father's back as if willing him to burst in flames if it meant the end of this meeting.

'Poor lad. Cockblocked by his own father.' Shikaku inwardly snickered, knowing Asuma's mood will sour even more when the meeting turns out to be pointless.

Hiruzen stalked towards the Hokage seat like a man on a mission, intending to inform him of the grave news he heard and caution, possibly even advise the arguably smartest man in the village. He might not be on the council. He might not be one of the Hokage's chosen advisors... but he had his duty!

He fully believed it was his right to use his influence and call this meeting into a session for the greater good of Konoha.

He was so set on his objective, he didn't even look around to ascertain who was attending. That's why when he walked past the Senju seat and his mind registered a brief flicker of blonde hair, Hiruzen briefly froze before abruptly turning towards it with wide eyes.

"Y-You... what do you do here, Tsunade?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him and smiled in amusement, fully intending to give him an answer that will annoy him the most.

"I rule here."

Chapter 361 - Ch361. A Threat In The Village

Hearing her proclamation, Hiruzen became completely speechless.

It was obvious from the sour expression on his face that he didn't expect Tsunade would be present in this meeting, nor did he like it one bit. Unwilling to rise up to her provocation, mostly because despite his seeming influence, he had no real base of support, Hiruzen schooled his expression before calmly turning around, and continued to walk towards Shikaku.

Tsunade watched Hiruzen's back with a small smile, knowing this was her small victory. She didn't care if it was petty and childish. This was why he let Hiruzen live, after all. This... was the worst punishment Hiruzen could be given.

Tsunade was raised by the man. She was taught by the man. She lived a long time alongside the man. She fought alongside the man. She prepared strategies and led armies with the man. She knew Hiruzen Sarutobi's personality the best and knew what would torture him, what would haunt his dreams, and what would really make him silently suffer. And it was not death. Far from it.

Tsunade knew Hiruzen Sarutobi would welcome death. He was a ninja. He was not afraid to die. No ninja above a certain rank possessed such a pointless fear. They would not get far with a useless thing like that.

What men and women like them feared was being left alive. Living and being tortured for who knows how long.

Oh, ninjas and kunoichi would tell others they are prepared for it and it is just a part of their job. That they could take it and that they have no fear of it. But...

Tsunade knew just how much they were all full of shit.

One simply had to find the correct torture technique that would really get under their skin. Everybody had something they absolutely did not want to happen to them. Something they absolutely did not want to lose.

It just so happened that in the case of Hiruzen Sarutobi it was his...

"Lord Hokage!" Hiruzen loudly said in an authoritative voice full of a lifetime of experience doing these things, "I have called this meeting to-"

"Yes. You have called this meeting." Shikaku raised his voice, something he did very rarely even when he was angry so it momentarily broke any hold Hiruzen's authoritative tone held over the spectators due to their sheer shock at such a rare occurrence. "Is it only me who finds that shocking? Considering you do not have that kind of power. Or rather... you shouldn't have that kind of power anymore due to your retirement. So, tell me, Lord Third. What exactly are we doing here?" He swept his hand in front of him, gesturing over all of the clan heads and civilians sitting in the council chamber.

Hiruzen momentarily faltered too, not expecting Shikaku's forceful reaction. The former Nara clan head was the last person Hiruzen thought would put on a show of strength. It was simply so unlike the usually quiet and demure man who lived more inside of his head than outside of it.

This faltering, however, cost Hiruzen dearly as the clan heads now had time to put two and two together, coming to a realization of how Hiruzen managed to call them all into one place on his whim.

That kind of thing did not bode well with many of them. What with Hiruzen's past actions against the Uchiha and the Senju clans, and many other questionable things he did that miraculously came out one after another after his retirement, ever-so-slowly tearing his reputation apart piece by piece while he was unable to do anything but watch in silence.

Him having the power to call all clan heads into one place? Despite many of them knowing Hiruzen would never do so, their thoughts couldn't help but stray in the direction of, 'What if he used that to gather them and assassinate them all at once to get back his power?'

It was only natural for the men and women in their positions to think like that.

Of course, Tsunade knew the old man too well for such thoughts. He loved Konoha too much to try something so drastic. But watching the faces of the people around her, as they made their own conclusions regarding Hiruzen without anything being even spoken out loud... now that was beautiful.

Hiruzen could not even defend himself since nobody accused him of anything.

'And to think he did this to himself.' Tsunade had to cover the newly forming grin on her face with her hand, 'He must be really on the end of his rope to slip like this.'

That filled her with such joy. Hiruzen would never outwardly show his discomfort. He loved playing a powerful man. He only showed weakness when it was a part of his plan or scheme. Just like his grandfatherly persona.

Tsunade had to be very watchful of his actions if she wanted to see how her little anti-Hiruzen propaganda affects the old monkey. But waiting for such a reaction could be frustrating at moments too since Hiruzen had far too much control of himself.

"Yes, I must admit, I have used the loyalty of some of our ninjas to send out an order to gather the council members but-." Hiruzen said, speeding up the tempo of his speech to prevent being again interrupted by Shikaku...

'Our ninjas, huh?' Tsunade snorted, seeing even Shikaku's eyebrow was twitching at Hiruzen's chosen wording. 'The monkey still has the balls of steel.' She almost shook her head in disbelief. 'To admit he compelled some of our highly placed personnel to commit what is basically treason, talk about the ninja forces as if they still belonged to him, and interfering in high politics of the village despite being explicitly forbidden from doing just that... and all that in one sentence without even batting an eyelash at it but also making it sound as if he was being reasonable and just? Just... damn.'

Tsunade really wanted to burst out in laughter. Especially when she saw most of the clan heads and civilians eating it up with gusto, having no idea what exactly just happened.

Alas, such was the good ol' Professor...

"- I did it for a very important reason! Our village is in a dire situation! It came to my ears that earlier today, Mei Terumi entered our village." He stopped talking, looking over the gathered people in silence in order to give his statement weight while his face was set in a grave expression.

Utter silence descended on the council room for a moment before Shikaku's long sigh finally interrupted it. "And?" He asked, slouching forward and lazily raising his eyebrow at Hiruzen.

"And?" Hiruzen stared at Shikaku in disbelief before his expression twisted and his anger burst out like a dam. "And!? Don't you see the problem with that!? The threat her presence inside of our walls poses to us!? She-"

"It's the Chunin Exam, old man." Shikaku strongly said, stopping Hiruzen in his tracks. "The other villages can send ANYONE they want to our village and as long as they do not cause trouble, we have no legal right to-"

"But she is the first SS-ranked ninja ever! She can face armies alone! Her being among us is-" Hiruzen interrupted Shikaku, horrified at the indifference of his successor to the very obvious problem.

"And how do you expect me to 'kick her out' without angering not only her but also the Uzushio village that sent her here?" Shikaku snorted, his eyes filled with derision as he condescendingly stared at Hiruzen.

Once upon a time, Shikaku looked up to the man but this... old, inwardly broken, and desperate has-been was not the man he respected. In the past few minutes, he did more oversights than in years of his rule as the Third Hokage.

Or at least, Shikaku hoped so because if this was really how Hiruzen ruled and everybody, but most importantly, him, were blind to it, then Shikaku had to wonder how Konoha was still standing.

Seeing that Hiruzen was still silent, Shikaku decided to enlighten the old fool. "Let's say I kick her out. What then? You do know we are allies with Uzushio and considering her strength, I reckon she is a very prominent cookie there. You do know that Terumi Mei being a part of Uzushio means that the Downpour-" A lot of sharp intakes of breath could be heard all over the room at the mention of the long-past but still a very famous team from Kirigakure, "- is also part of that village, don't you? You would have me risk souring our relations and alliance with a village that has possibly three SS-ranks, if not more, in their midst just because... because of what exactly? Because you feel unsafe not being the strongest ninja around?"

Another silence descended upon the council chamber, this time a deafening one.

Noticing Hiruzen was about to open his mouth to defend himself, Shikaku quickly put a stop to that by starting to speak again, "You know what? Don't answer that." He tiredly shrugged, "It doesn't matter anyway. If you want to kick Mei Terumi out, the person you have to persuade is not me nor is it the council. We do not have that kind of power. Not anymore. The person you will have to persuade is..." Shikaku trailed off as he raised his hand and pointed at Tsunade while thinking, 'What a monumentally troublesome waste of time this was.'

Tsunade observed Hiruzen turning towards her with wide eyes, probably having no idea she changed some policies. 'Look at him,' She thought while inwardly having fun at his expense, 'He so desperately craves control.' A small smile appeared on her face, making it even sweeter when Hiruzen frowned after seeing it. 'Many would assume the old monkey wants power but it was never power he desired, was it? Control... that's why he simply couldn't leave any affinity unmastered. That's why he spent countless hours making his chakra control the best he could. That's why he studied hundreds if not thousands of Jutsus so he always knew what to expect and had control in the battle because of it. Hiruzen Sarutobi is an animal of control. Take that away from him and he will start to flop like a fish on the land.'

Tsunade's smile widened into a pleasant one full of indulging enjoyment as she looked Hiruzen straight in the eyes, seeing the building frustration in them as he lost even more of his control. He probably thought warning the council of Mei would give him a more active role in the politics of the village because of his strength. Unfortunately for him, he hit a wall called Tsunade.

"Mei stays. Dismissed." Tsunade simply said and stood up, leaving the chambers.

Hiruzen never felt so powerless and helpless as when he watched Tsunade dismiss him with so few words.. He didn't even notice as the other clan heads left the council room, leaving the weary old man standing there, staring into nowhere.

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Chapter 362 - Ch362. A Small Powerplay

The days slowly passed and the Chunin Exams started. Since it was not yet the time for the public event, Konoha was somewhat quiet, not yet filled with merchants and important civilians. Instead, the entire village was somewhat on an edge.

Who could blame them? Especially when so many foreign ninjas were present.

Mei often grumbled that she has at least twenty ANBU tailing her at all times she is outside of the Senju Compound. Or... well, her clone does.

After all, Mei is skilled enough to use an improved version of Henge. Evading her tails was almost trivial for her.

Not like her silent observers would make any difference if she decided to be unruly. It took some heavy petting for Rei to keep her grounded. He knew well that Mei might as well just decide to be 'naughty' just to spite the dipshits who ordered her watched.

Rei was just glad Konan put Mei to work and asked her to scout the surroundings of Konoha, maybe even to create a few secret passages through the mountain range if she deemed it safe enough.

Plus, even if Tsunade did not care, the underground tunnels of Konoha could also see some use again according to Konan.

With all that, Mei was often raving and raking, pouting that she was too busy.

Tsunade, on the other hand, was kept quite busy trying to weed out Hiruzen's remaining supporters. The incident with the Council Meeting gave her a legitimate reason to deal with them once and for all. A civilian, a retired one even, should not have any power over the political elites of the village.

Of course, this was not really done to get rid of those with loyalty to Sarutobi Hiruzen. The man was the leader of the village for around four decades and children were raised hearing stories about him, taught to almost revere him. Every ninja of hers had some kind of attachment for Hiruzen.

No... this screening was simply yet another subtle way to remind the ninja elites of the village that Hiruzen Sarutobi was no longer their leader and that listening to him can have consequences. It was simply a powerplay for those slow enough to not yet realize that the new administration did not appreciate their soldiers listening to the leader from the old one.

There was no need for some harsh punishments. Most people got only fines and warnings but... then again, the targets were not those found guilty, but those who were innocent and just observed the proceedings.

Rei knew that Tsunade did not really expect a massive result but she made many similar moves over the years and the desired effect was slowly but surely starting to show. Hiruzen was losing more and more support base among the ordinary ninjas. Tsunade's reforms won the loyalty of many but even those who stubbornly clung to Hiruzen's past glory slowly started to see the light of the day.

After all, completely purging Hiruzen's supporters was unthinkable.

On a better note, this screening also helped to weed out spies. And boy did Konoha have its fair share of those in its ranks. Unfortunately for the poor lads, Rei's truth seals worked splendidly and the Yamanakas were incredibly skilled at asking unassuming questions about one thing but really getting answers to another.

For example, Kabuto Yakushi.

It was obvious he lied to several generic loyalty-assuring questions but there was no reason to call him out on it. Letting him go with the impression he passed the screening was simply better and made everyone happy.

Kabuto was happy nobody discovered him and that he was still the best double, triple, or whatever spy around. The Yamanakas were happy they did their job. And the Hokage was happy to have a new willing candidate for suicide missions.

After all, why waste expendable manpower? The dude would be unable to get any relevant information now that he was discovered anyway.

Unfortunately, these screenings came with their own downside. Hiruzen quickly caught up to what was happening and confronted Tsunade.

The best part?

This confrontation happened right in front of the Senju Compound and had many spectators. Something Hiruzen definitely wanted to use in his favor. Unfortunately for him, he was not as successful as he would like to be.

...

"Are you really trying to do some... some witch hunt on your own ninjas? Just because their trust in me was not corroded enough?" Hiruzen asked in outrage and disappointment, "I thought better of you, Tsunade."

"A witch hunt?" Tsunade raised her eyebrow at the phrase, "Why would you think so?"

"Why? Isn't it obvious!?" Hiruzen gritted his teeth and glared at his student. A lesser woman would cover in front of his gaze but Tsunade just rolled her eyes at his sad attempt to intimidate her. Seeing his tactics didn't work, Hiruzen decided to continue, "You are hounding people, punishing them for their loyalty-"

"Yes! I am punishing them for their loyalty to you." Tsunade dryly but firmly interjected. "And for a good reason. The village can't have two leaders. You are neither advisor nor clan head. You have no legal right to command my forces. Nobody can blame them for admiring you, sensei. Even I still hold a bit of admiration for you. But… Them listening to your orders is a dereliction of duty and that's that. They should be happy to not be treated as traitors."

Hiruzen knew she was right but he refused to end the conversation here. It was too unsatisfactory. He intended for the spectators to hear that Tsunade was unjustly punishing the ninjas for having lingering loyalty for him, their previous leader. Something that simply could not be prevented and should be expected.

Instead, his student gave a very short but reasonable explanation of why her actions are justified. The result was simply too neutral for Hiruzen so he decided to try a different approach.

"And? What are you going to do about them? Put them on the Red List? Have them go on suicide missions in the following years, slowly weeding them out? Just because they are my support base? Or are you going to bar them from advancing in the ranks, preferring to promote your own supporters?" Hiruzen shouted, creating a huge stir among the spectators. Naturally, the smarter ones quickly realized his game but Hiruzen knew that people, especially in the crowd, were sheep who believed anything told to them as long as it sounded good to their ears.

These were all things he had done to preserve his control over the village and the sole reason why he was so well-liked. The people who did not agree with him seldom managed to rise high enough in the ranks for their voices to be relevant... not that anybody needed to know that.

Tsunade quickly swept the crowd with her eyes, realizing this was getting out of control. By the evening, this confrontation would be all over the village via various embellished rumors. She didn't blame Hiruzen. He was just trying to get a measure of control and power in the village and now that he saw a chance, he desperately grasped at it.

'Still, it is annoying as hell.' Tsunade thought in exasperation. 'I might have pushed him a bit too far recently. Well, if he wants to stop being polite, who am I to not indulge him?'

"Don't worry. I will do no such thing. Only a total idiot would perform a massacre among his own ranks just because there is an unproved suspicion they are not loyal enough. We wouldn't want to have another Uchiha or Senju massacre at our hands, now, would we, Hiruzen?" Tsunade answered with a sneer before walking away, ignoring his reaction and the deathly silent crowd.

Needless to say, Hiruzen's sour expression when Tsunade threw these words in his face was priceless and the rumors indeed did spread all over the village.

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Chapter 363 - Ch363. Kidnapping?

The second part of the Chunin Exam started a half-hour ago and Rei was currently crouched on a branch high in a tree deep within the Forest of Death, contemplating the weird feelings within him.

"How strange. I can't even remember when I last had a kidnapping mission." Rei chuckled in nostalgia. It was a long time since he had any kind of mission. That's why his current situation seemed so funny to him.

He sensed his target running deeper and deeper into the forest and mused how nice it must be, being so woefully ignorant. If he wanted, he could kill almost everyone in these Chunin Exams the same way the Otsutsuki clan could decimate the Elemental Nation upon their descent.

These kids, just like the Elemental Nations, never even dreamed of the possibility of someone so much stronger than them suddenly appearing out of nowhere and attacking them.

Ignorance really was bliss...

Fortunately for the world, he was here and he would be damned if the planet on which he lived was destroyed by some rabbit bastards-

'Oi!' A voice in his head protested which he promptly ignored...

The Elemental Nations should be really happy to have him. His efforts would prevent a war with an alien race. If someone told Rei in his past life he would find himself in this kind of position, he would have laughed at him, and yet, here he was.

"I will definitely have to brag about my exploits once I am done with the shielding seal barrier for the planet. Since I am putting in the effort, I should be appropriately praised for it, don't you think?" Rei spoke to the wind.

'Not really.' Kaguya dryly butted in, 'Shouldn't the knowledge that your people are safe be a reward in itself for you?'

"Hmm... you know what? You are probably righ- HELL NAH!" Rei mock-pompously exclaimed and promptly got an impression of amusement from his mental tenant. "If I do something nice for someone and that someone has no idea about it, how could he or she revere me for it? Do I look like an idio-, ahem, a saint to you?"

The amusement simply intensified at that, joined by a small echo of, 'Shameless', in the back of his mind but Rei decided to believe it was just his imagination.

As they say, talking to a voice in your mind is not something a sane person would do, so ignoring it anytime it doesn't say something nice about you should surely be the correct approach in this situation.

'I heard that...'

"Mhm. Time for my mission." Rei firmly nodded to himself and went back to sensing his target.

'Oi, are you ignoring me?'

Getting the position of his target, he bent his knees and jumped, starting to move along the treeline silently and stealthily, easily, just like a gentle breeze.

'He is totally ignoring me. Sigh.'

It didn't take him long to reach his mark. In a clearing in front of him, Orochimaru and the three sound genins gathered while Rei observed their meeting, hidden in the thick bushes around as he masked his chakra signature and presence.

'Just you wait. Once I am out of my seal, I will relegate you to the couch guard duty! Not immediately, momma needs her milk, after all... But one day, when you will least expect it, IT. WILL. HAPPEN! HMPH!'

For some reason, Rei shuddered but decided that today his imagination was exceptionally wild. No need for concern... He will just have to remember to get rid of his couch. No biggie.

He mentally received an impression of astonished bewilderment and knew his solution was the correct one.

No matter... Rei seemed to be quite lucky as the meeting in the clearing was already concluding and Orochimaru jumped into the foliage, leaving the three genins to their own devices. Rei followed Orochimaru with his senses for a good while and when he deemed he was far enough... his attention shifted to the three unsuspecting kiddies in the clearing again.

They were so... unconcerned.

'They probably think Orochimaru is the biggest and baddest lad around these parts. Poor delusional fools.' Rei thought with a mock exasperated sigh. 'Just look at how they move. Such ease in every movement. They clearly believe in their superiority over anything that is in this forest and isn't Orochimaru.'

It was surreal, really. Watching genins that have no idea about the wide world. They were like frogs on the bottom of the well, unknowingly stalked by a hungry rabbit-

'Rabbits don't eat frogs...'

- that wanted to prey on them...

Rei rolled his eyes. It didn't matter what rabbits did or did not eat. In this world, there was this Rabbit Goddess-

'Here we go again...'

- that could destroy planets, create dimensions on a whim, and loved to eat every single cookie in his secret stash... how she found his secret stash is anyone's guess. Nevertheless, that was not nice. Not nice at all-

'And I already said I am sorry!'

- but no amount of apologies could make up for that fact. It saddened Rei greatly that such a heinous deed was performed by his favorite pet rabbit-

'I will bite you... !'

- and even though he knew the rabbit loved him deeply, he couldn't just let it go. There had to be retribution, no?

'No.'

Alas... Rei had his mind set. Since his cookies were under heavy assault from his pet rabbit whenever he made a new battalion of them, Rei simply decided to... stop making them. It was a simple solution, really.

'Oh, you will deeply regret that. Maybe not today, maybe not even a week later, but one day... surely.'

Rei could only imagine the deep regret in his beloved rabbit's eyes as she realized the cause of her deeds. The sheer sadness coursing through these lovely lavender orbs where one could lose himself in their beauty. Her juicy desirable red lips must be set in a small cute frown by now, and her rosy cheeks are most likely adorably puffed out-

'You have a mission, don't you? Get on with it!'

As an impression of embarrassed outrage entered Rei's mind, he victoriously nodded in satisfaction and decided to, for once, listen to the imaginary voice in his head.

Sneakily jumping down into the clearing, Rei appeared straight in the middle of the three genins. He had to give them credit where credit was due. The two boys instantly went rigid for a moment before abruptly turning around, prepared to fight for their lives while the girl was much sneakier about her intentions but that probably came with being a genjutsu practitioner.

Rei didn't give the kiddies a chance. He kicked a small stone into Zaku's gut, making him bend over and slightly fly backward from the sheer force behind the propelled stone as the air was driven out of his lungs. The boy was out of commission for the next ten seconds at the very least.

Dosu was fairly close to Rei so it was no surprise that during the three seconds it took him to deal with Zaku, the boy was upon him. He swung his melody arm at Rei... and then his eyes went wide in disbelief when Rei just caught the punch with his palm all the while negating the sound waves generated by the device. It was a clever but incredibly inferior and melee version of what Tayuya could do. Unfortunately for the boy, Rei had already seen that one once.

Dosu didn't get the chance to realize where his attack failed as he promptly felt a sharp pain all around his body before finding himself engulfed by darkness and going out cold.

Rei calmly observed as the electrocuted body of the boy impacted the ground with a thud, shaking his head, "This is why having a special attack relying on melee combat is bad when you are not an impressive melee fighter yourself." He said, not really bothered by the fact his advice would fall on deaf, or rather, in this case, unconscious ears.

Rei nonchalantly turned towards the still wheezing Zaku who was kneeling on the ground and glared at him in deep hatred...

Oh, yeah, the Kin-girly was flinging senbons at Rei all the time but he was simply using the wind release to bend the air currents around him, making all senbons miss their mark. Alas, the girl was a sound-based genjutsu fighter but after seeing Tayuya's proficiency in this new approach towards genjutsu, Kin was simply shit at it.

The sound was just the vibration of molecules in the air.

IN. THE. AIR.

It really had no chance against someone who mastered Wind Release and knew how to counter it with it. That's why Rei insisted on Tayuya learning how to create shockwaves through a bastardized version of her sound manipulation. That could not be countered so easily when playing with the big boys.

Zaku weakly tried to defend himself and raised his shaking arm towards Rei, releasing a wave of pressurized air at him... only for it to divide towards left and right on some kind of invisible shield in front of Rei, destroying everything around but evading the real target.

"Your airwaves are powerful. Against genins and some low-level chunins. Unfortunately for you, there is no real potential for development in them since they are a result of a shoddy body modification experiment. I'd rate it 2 out of five." Rei answered Zaku's silent bewilderment, causing it to turn into anger...

But Zaku couldn't act on this newfound anger since his head abruptly felt as if it was spinning for a second before the world went black.

Rei subtly used pressurized air, filling Zaku's ears with it which affected his third ear in the brain and caused him to get a nasty case of motion sickness which knocked him out.

Rei was simply showing the boy why exactly the scientific way is not better in some cases. Sure, the boy could use pressurized airwaves to a devastating effect thanks to these tubes in his arms, bypassing years if not decades of wind manipulation training, but he could never hope to use subtle applications of them. Zaku could at best brute force it and hope for the best, sending one airwave of pressurized air after another.

Alas, that did not always work...

Rei slowly turned towards the last member of Team Dosu, who watched him with fear-filled eyes while shaking like a leaf in a whirlwind as the despair and hopelessness of the situation seeped into her mind... and pleasantly smiled at her.

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Chapter 364 - Ch364. As Planned... Easy Interrogation

"Honey! I am home and I am also bringing presents!" Rei shouted as he entered the living room of Tsunade's house in the Senju Compound where Tsunade currently ate her lunch. She lifted her gaze from some documents strewn on the table in front of her only for a small headache to impact her as her eyes landed on the tied-up Sound kunoichi slung over Rei's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Please don't tell me you kidnapped one of the participants of the Chunin Exams." She stated in a dry tone in the hope that her eyes are lying to her. She even inwardly flared her chakra in case this was some kind of intricate advanced genjutsu she couldn't sense but... no such luck.

"Relax. Nobody will know." Rei rolled his eyes as he put the unconscious girl on the ground and sat down behind the table opposite Tsunade, "Besides, you know how hard it is for me to say no to Konan."

"Hmph. Simp..." Tsunade goodnaturedly snarked with a small smug smile, causing a good atmosphere between them for a moment before it fell alongside her smile and she got serious, "And her teammates?"

Rei shrugged, showing how little he cared about them. "Dead. I have discreetly sent my clones to deal with them during my trek here and make it appear as if the beasts got them. The girl was frightened enough as it was. No reason to give her the impression we would kill her anyway. It would simply make the whole interrogation that much harder."

"And just like that, when their bodies are discovered, Kin Tsuchi will be presumed dead, eaten by a wild animal." Tsunade nodded. It wasn't a bad way to deal with the possible repercussions from the Sound Village. "So, are we?" She asked, causing Rei to furrow his forehead in confusion. Seeing that, Tsunade decided to elaborate, "Going to kill her. I reckon she won't be very useful anyway so..."

"Nah." Rei casually said and shook his head, "Her sound Jutsus are valuable and not many can counter it as of yet. The way she was trained in Sound Village is simply shit. That's why she is so weak."

"So you wish to recruit her for our village." Tsunade understood what he planned.

"Yup. Unlike the boys of her team whose strength came from a device that can be easily taken or a failure of a body modification experiment, the girl, or rather, her Jutsus have the potential for development. No need to waste it by killing her." Rei said.

Well, Tsunade had to agree that it wasn't a bad idea. The girl was still just a kid. Unlike Tayuya who changed her loyalties because of selfish reasons and would stay loyal as long as it gave her benefits, this girl, Kin, could still be molded to be 'truly' loyal to the village.

Of course, Tsunade did not mean to blatantly manipulate her. It was also why she was wholly fine with Tayuya's reasons for loyalty. Making people see it is in their best interest to stay loyal to the village was simply much, much better than making them into some kind of semi-mindless drones that could only spout Will of Fire without really even knowing what it actually meant.

Since everything was explained, Rei decided it was time to move on. He took the unconscious Kin and put her on a nearby chair before tying her up to it with a ninja wire and plastering a partial paralyzation seal on her chest.

"There. Now she will be unable to move but still able to talk." Rei spoke, happy with his work and while Tsunade seemed quite unimpressed with his solution, he decided to pay it no mind. It wasn't as if the girl was some kind of magical ninja turtle. Even if she managed to get out of her bindings, there was no way of escaping with him and Tsunade present.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead." Rei said as he sent a weak current of lightning chakra into Kin, abruptly shocking her into painful wakefulness.

The girl's body violently flinched, straightening her like a rod before she let out a loud gasp and started to frantically look around, "W-Wha...?" Only then did her eyes land on Rei, causing them to widen as her memories returned with full force and Kin tried to back off away from him. Unfortunately for her, her current state prevented it.

Rei encouragingly smiled at the frightened genin, "Hello, I am sure you probably already have some kind of idea what is happening," He paused, lifting his eyebrow at the girl who after a moment meekly nodded much to his satisfaction. She understood the game! Good! "so, let me just tell you, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. For your sake, I hope you chose the easy way because I have a sudden itch to prove that Orochimaru is just a schoolyard bully compared to me." He pleasantly explained just how fucked she was while activating a storage paper tag on the table, poofing various torture instruments into existence.

They even had dried blood on them... as expected from Anko's tools.

Kin gave Rei an uneasy look before her eyes shifted towards Tsunade... but whatever hope the girl could have gained from her presence, Tsunade quickly shot down.

"Don't look at me. I won't help you." She rolled her eyes before returning to her paperwork. This would not be the first torture interrogation she experienced and it won't be the last. Honestly, Tsunade didn't see what was the big deal. She was in both Rei's and Kin's positions many times so this was not phasing her one bit.

"Why? Why me? I am just a genin! I know nothing important!" Kin desperately half-shouted, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She saw how utterly he crushed her teammates and didn't have any illusions about their continued existence. Seeing all the bloodied instruments...

"Oh, we know you won't be able to tell us Orochimaru's plans from A to Z. We just need a rough idea from you. If I was in your place, I would start thinking really hard about whatever details you heard and probably deemed unimportant because it just might save your life, ya know? I don't want to hurt you." Rei gently said and cupped Kin's chin and raised her head so she would look him in the eyes. "Do you want me to hurt you?"

Kin fearfully gulped and shook her head before slowly starting to speak everything she knew.

Rei actually marveled at how easily she succumbed to his subpar acting. 'I guess Tayuya was completely right in this case. Zaku would have been too hot-headed and Dosu too stubborn for his own good. They would definitely not crack without torture if only because of their pride.'

Tayuya told Rei everything she knew about Orochimaru and his plans, his hideouts and stuff... but it was not enough. Surprisingly enough, Orochimaru did not keep even his four bodyguards in the loop for the most part.

Nevertheless, since there was a chance to capture some of his subordinates in these Chunin Exams, Rei asked Tayuya about her recommendations and she told him Kin would be an easy target that will sing like a canary without a need of some heavy petting. Though, she did say she seriously doubted the girl will have any kind of useful information.

That didn't matter though. Spying on Orochimaru was pointless. The Sound Village was a deceptive term. No such place existed. The Sound Village was a collective term for all Orochimaru's hideouts. Hideouts that ceased to exist and popped into existence so fast that Konan was getting really frustrated with her attempts to pinpoint Orochimaru's location and get some useful intel about him.

The problem was... the Kages of the ninja villages and Daimyos had fixed places where they could be found. Konan simply had to bug their offices, the council chambers, the ANBU bases and she would get her intel. With Orochimaru, this approach didn't work.

Frankly, it was getting increasingly obvious how the man could stay out of Akatsuki's radar for so long despite them having Zetsu. Orochimaru never stayed in one place long enough. He could state he is going to one hideout only to change his mind mid-way and suddenly order to go to another. He destroyed his bases seemingly at a whim. He loved to do complete sweeps of his bases, throwing away and replacing everything that was not vital for his research. At the first suspicion of an information leak, he would just pack up and disappear, only to pop up again in a different part of the Elemental Nations.

Orochimaru was freaking unpredictable and always on the move to a paranoid degree.

Rei didn't need Kin to tell him what the man planned because whatever it was, there was no guarantee he would not simply change his plans at the last moment as a last fuck you to anyone who got wind of them.

Rather, Rei wanted to hear about her experiences and meetings with the man. Even if Orochimaru never told Kin his plans, his actions and details she noticed would give Rei some necessary puzzle pieces.

Such as when she admitted she briefly noticed a ninja from Kumo meeting with Orochimaru. Kin deemed it unimportant as it was not unheard of for ninjas from different nations to work together occasionally but... Rei had a much better picture of things going on in the world.

For example, the sudden increase in expenses for both Kumo and Iwa. The two villages were gearing up for something. Oh, they were subtle about it, stretching their purchases over many different companies and over a long period of time. Without context, it would not prove as a reason for concern.

But Tayuya's information gave these actions a bit of context and now Kin's interrogation only deepened some of Rei's suspicions.

Hearing all Kin had to say, Rei sent another dose of his lightning chakra into her body, knocking her unconscious before she could start asking annoying questions about what will happen to her.

Tsunade looked at the sleeping form of the girl with her lips pursed into a thin line, "So... he will attack during the last part of the Chunin Exams, huh?" She rhetorically asked, unhappy with the conclusion she reached. "If it's not one thing it is another."

While Rei's canon knowledge told him there would be an attack from Orochimaru, he had to admit he changed quite a bit in the world. For all he knew, Orochimaru might decide it is not worth his time to attack since Hiruzen was no longer the acting Hokage or because Konoha was marginally stronger than in canon or for whatever other reason.

Rei, however, doubted Orochimaru would not upgrade his plans if he decided to attack. After all, Konoha WAS stronger than it should have been. The man was no idiot. He would not attack head-first without a plan that had a high chance for success.

Knowing that there is no way of preventing what is going to happen, Tsunade sighed and decided to focus on something else, "And the kids? How are they faring in the Chunin Exams?"

Rei suddenly blinked, getting out of his thoughts at her sudden question. "Hm? Ah! Don't worry. Last I sensed, they were about to engage Orochimaru." He nonchalantly waved his hand around.

Tsunade facepalmed at that...

Chapter 365 - Ch365. Chunin Exams: Orochimaru

Author's Note:

Pa treon - 34 chapters ahead.

If you want to support me or read ahead:

https/www.pa /kasicair

--

The day started curiously for Orochimaru.

The first thing in the morning he infiltrated Konoha but was left bewildered by the new security standard of the village. Clearly, Tsunade was taking it to a new level of paranoia.

In the end, Orochimaru needed a few hours and Kabuto's help to get into the village unnoticed despite his vast knowledge of secret passages which made him both pissed and impressed at Tsunade's prowess.

The patrol routes now used sensor ninjas with different kinds of sensing abilities in case an infiltrator could negate one of them... and Orochimaru wondered where did Konoha get so many sensors only for Kabuto to inform him Tsunade spent a fortune to nurture medic ninjas and to train every sensor found in the village during the past years.

Getting past that was extremely annoying, especially since he could not kill even one of them as that would cut his visit short and start village-wide lockdown and investigation.

He almost punched Kabuto in that perpetually smug mug of his when he heard that...

But patrols were not the only problem. There were also hidden traps and seals unknown to him that did who knew what. It took great care and slowed his advancement to a snail's pace, hence, instead of the usual ten minutes he spent hours getting into the village.

And even then, in the middle of his endeavor, Orochimaru subconsciously shuddered and the hairs all over his body stood up as if some kind of scan passed through his body. It took him fifteen minutes of hiding in the same spot, using every subtle skill in his arsenal while trying to find out if Konoha found him out or not. When nobody came to intercept him, Orochimaru deemed it safe to continue but inwardly he still felt on edge every step of the way.

Something... definitely happened there and he had no idea what. It made his following hours of sneaking and getting past Konoha's defenses a lot more frustrating as his anxiety refused to disappear.

At least it diminished when he brutally murdered the team from Taki inside of Konoha and stole the kunoichi's skin and still nobody showed up. Konoha would not be letting him murder their guests if they knew about his presence, now, would they?

Well, he certainly would if there was some intricate plan on how to catch his target but... no. Tsunade was too soft to go so far.

Orochimaru was eighty percent sure Konoha had no idea about his presence.

Not that it mattered to him. Being discovered would simply mean he would fail at his objective but it would hardly obstruct his plans. Nor was he afraid of confrontation with Konoha ninjas. At worst, in case both Tsunade and Hiruzen decided to fight him, he could still escape with ease. There was nothing to fear here.

Orochimaru walked into the examination room for the first part of the Chunin Exams and if he needed any proof that Konoha was utterly unaware of his presence, this was it. No village, no matter how daring, would let an S-rank rogue ninja into a room full of the best of the best of their future generation.

Not only that but if he slaughtered every genin in the room... which he surmised he could do in under thirty seconds flat... it would mean a shitload of trouble for Konoha with the other villages.

Not that he would do it. His plans depended on the continuation of the Chunin Exams so the poor kiddies dodged a kunai.

For some reason, however, Orochimaru's hair still refused to stand down...

Sitting down in the place assigned to the skin he wore, Orochimaru giddily awaited the arrival of his prey.

Imagine his shock when into the room walked... Tayuya.

Orochimaru never gaped! But even he had to admit his mouth slightly opened for a second.

He distinctly remembered activating the kill switch on her Cursed Seal and losing the connection to the girl, after all. Yet, here the girl was. Walking in front of him as if she was not supposed to be dead. How dare she survive that!? The rude girl!

Granting her a peaceful and quick death was clearly a mistake.

Worse yet, her being alive meant somebody found a way to remove the Cursed Seal. Even if it was sealed away, he would still be able to feel Tayuya through it and cause her pain but he simply did not feel the girl anymore. That... was a massive problem.

The Cursed Seals were one of his secret death-prevention measures. He did not tell about their true function even to his closest aides and researchers. Somebody able to remove it would surely discover its true purpose and that was troubling. Someone in the vast world now knew one of his weaknesses and Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a surge of panic run through him.

He could not show it on his face, not in his current position. On one hand, he refused to show panic in a room full of genins because he knew it would be misunderstood as him fearing them which would mean he would have to slaughter every single person in the room to assuage his pride. On the other hand, Orochimaru prided himself at keeping a cool head no matter the situation.

Instead, he started to think about how this was possible.

Orochimaru made sure that the removal of his Cursed Seal was fatal. He intertwined the seal with the recipient's soul and body in such a way, there was no way to survive it.

Yet... the proof that it was indeed possible just sat a few seats away from him.

How very... curious.

And unpleasant.

And enraging.

What made Orochimaru silently seethe even more was what Tayuya's presence in these exams participating as an Uzushio kunoichi meant. He thought every member of the Sound Four was dead but she obviously wasn't. That meant she willingly betrayed him!

Orochimaru did not even notice that his target, Sasuke Uchiha, walked into the room. Nor did he pay any attention to the commotion he ordered to be caused by Kabuto and the Sound Team.. He was too invested in discreetly glaring at Tayuya's back while planning her excruciatingly painful demise.

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Orochimaru entered the Forest of Death as the second part of the Chunin Exam started and found himself on the verge of a dilemma.

On one hand, he could go after his original objective and hunt down Sasuke Uchiha to give him his present.

On the other, he felt an almost unexplainable itch to punish his wayward subordinate. Orochimaru knew he would not be sleeping well until Tayuya knew the error of her ways.

Yet, this presented a unique problem for him. The second he starts a fight, he will be on a timer. He had no idea if somebody would sense his chakra when he started to use it with so many sensors in the village. He also had no idea how long it would take for Konoha ninjas to discover the bodies of Taki genins.

The smart thing to do would be to go after Uchiha and test him for a bit before retreating. No need to give Konoha a reason to fortify before his plans even start, right?

But Tayuya...

'I guess the Uchiha can wait. I may still make it after I deal with Tayuya and even if not, there is an entire month in-between the second and the third part of these exams. Time to give the poor Tayuya a visit.' Orochimaru amusedly thought, knowing his future actions were decided for him already. His ego simply could not let this slight go.

Orochimaru ran through the Forest of Death, looking for Tayuya's team. He might not be the best sensor out there but he had enough experience to track them down in under an hour.

Hiding in the foliage, Orochimaru's eyes landed on his target. She no longer wore the standard sound attire, instead, she sported unassuming black pants and a black shirt. Clothes that allowed her to blend in with the civilians.

For a second, Orochimaru appreciated the concept. Ninjas had their uniforms based on which village they served so he obviously followed this trend without really putting much thought into it and made his own uniform for the Sound Village.

But seeing the Uzushio team looking perfectly civilian, no headband, no vest with many pouches, no clan symbol indicating their affiliation... Simply put, Orochimaru could see the usefulness of that.

Tayuya's teammates somewhat surprised Orochimaru.

The boy around fifteen was clearly a Kaguya, which should not be possible since they were supposed to be all exterminated except his own revenge-seeking pet Kaguya. And yet, here it was. A white-haired boy with clothes that were clearly not expensive and could be easily discarded, and red dots above his eyebrows indicating his bloodline.

Orochimaru couldn't help but lick his lips at discovering this treasure.

The girl was thirteen or fourteen and had Uzumaki crimson hair so identifying her was not a problem despite the lack of any symbol on her clothes. She was obviously an Uzumaki.

That in itself was also a good find. Orochimaru had to admit he was entirely too focused on Tayuya during the first part of the Chunin Exams so he didn't pay much attention to the other kiddies but...

He had no Uzumaki under his employ.

Since the Uzushiogakure sprang into existence, all Uzumakis as if disappeared. After his defection, Orochimaru didn't put much thought into acquiring an Uzumaki specimen at first. While Konoha had only one at the time, there were hundreds of them scattered across the world just waiting to be plucked. Everybody knew that.

And when he heard of Uzushio and decided it was finally time to procure one of them, if only to use him or her as a spy, there was not even one to be found. He spent two whole years looking for one with no result to show for it.

That's why his eyebrow started to twitch at the thought of Tayuya having any ties to the Uzumaki. Yes, she was strong but she was not interesting from the scientific point of view. It was not him who did her tests. There were thousands of more interesting specimens in his village and even more experiments in process at all times. He had no time to look at the DNA results of a pink-haired girl with limited potential.

'I'll have to make an example of whoever was assigned to be her doctor.' Orochimaru mentally grumbled.

"Come out." A voice suddenly snapped Orochimaru out of his thoughts, causing him to lift his eyebrows as he noticed the redhead of the team staring directly at him. He briefly wondered if she was bluffing but her gaze was too focused on him. He briefly thought how could a genin discover him when...

A smile started to creep on his face as he remembered a mention of Uzumaki's supposed bloodline prowess. 'Is that the Mind's Eye of Kagura?' He possessively gulped and the importance ranking of the kids in front of him was shuffled in his mind, the Kaguya boy dropping to second place as the redhead was promoted to the top.

Nevertheless, it was useless to keep hiding when he was found out so he calmly revealed himself to the group.

And was promptly shocked when Tayuya recognized him despite his Taki kunoichi skin attire.

"Snake bastard..." Tayuya tensed, preparing for a fight.

'How cute...' Orochimaru's lips twitched at the sight. He doubted she got strong enough to pose a challenge in the short time since she defected.

"Well, well, you grew disrespectful in the months we haven't seen each other." Orochimaru playfully said.

Tayuya wryly smiled, "And you haven't changed at all. Still the same shithead."

The only indication of Orochimaru's shock at her blatant rudeness was him blankly blinking at her as silence spread between them alongside the tense atmosphere.

Tayuya expected Orochimaru to give back some witty remarks. As his 'bodyguard', she spent enough time near him to know he never failed to have the last word.

That's why she was quite surprised when he suddenly lunged at her at incredible speeds. Clearly, her defection and lip disservice must have been too much of a shock to the man who loved instilling obedience.

When he heard Tayuya's response, Orochimaru decided he had had enough. The girl should have been shaking in her boots, knowing her end is coming because of what she has done but instead she dared to give him snark?

What did she think she was? An Uchiha?

He was almost upon her, noticing she didn't move even an inch yet, clearly unable to react to his speed. It was a pitiful display and the reason why she was expendable while serving him.

His mind already disregarded Tayuya, writing her off as dead, Orochimaru did not pay much attention to her as his fist was about to collide with her head. Instead, he focused on his follow-up. Should he kidnap the Kaguya boy and the Uzumaki girl? Should he leave them be for the time being and wait for a better opportunity?

His musings were interrupted when he suddenly heard a snap of fingers and instead of feeling the familiar wet crunch of his enemy's head being mauled by his punch, Orochimaru found his vision swirl before his brain registered the pain surging in his body, much to his shocked bewilderment. He was trying to put together what was happening, barely managing to figure out his body was uncontrollably flying through the air when it suddenly hit an obstacle with a dull thud.

Orochimaru's body collided with a tree, snapping it in two because of the force of shockwave used to fling him away, and a cloud of dust was sent into the air while the upper part of the thick tree slowly fell onto the ground, scaring the birds in the treetops and sending them flying away with an incessant fearful chirping. The impact of the upper part of the tree with the ground also cleared the cloud of dust as it generated a gust of wind, giving the three genins a clear sight of their opponent.

Orochimaru groaned, feeling as if he was just punched by Tsunade. He got barely any chance to regain his wits when his instincts screamed at him. Years of listening to them quickly turned his body into autopilot and before he could even think about it with his muddled mind, his body ducked, evading being decapitated by a bone sword.

The instincts didn't stop flaring however and Orochimaru had enough presence of his mind to jump away rather than attack. This appeared to be the correct decision as not even a second after he did that, chains burst from the ground, skewering the place he was just a moment ago.

Before he could get a breather, he heard the sound of a flute playing in the distance, dread inexplicably passing through his body. He heard this sound many times and knew it was Tayuya's attack but... He snarled to push these feelings away and focus on the unexpected challenge in front of him.

Something was wrong. How could these genins keep up with him? How could they surprise him so much?

Something... was very wrong!

Karin heard Tayuya's flute and watched as the air around Orochimaru bent, pressing on him and causing his knees to buckle, which spoke a volume about the strength of his body. Karin surmised that even chunins would be crushed under so much pressure. And yet, Orochimaru just cradled his head in his hands while gritting his teeth enough for blood to flow from his lips due to the intense sound that descended upon him.

Karin was trapped in the Sound Bubble of Tayuya once and remembering the pain and disorientation it caused made her wince. She didn't dally, however, and instantly used the situation to her advantage, sending chains at the momentarily restrained man while noting with the corner of her eyes that Kimimaro shot ten finger bullets, aiming them around Orochimaru in case he decided to evade. Under the sound suppression, it would be hard to avoid being hit.

The Orochimaru did not dodge, Karin seriously doubted he could even think straight right now, so Kimimaro's bone finger bullets didn't find purchase. Instead, her chains fiercely ripped into Orochimaru's body, severing several vital parts before brutally pulling out, tearing chunks of meat and bone. Karin had no intention of playing nice with a known S-rank fugitive.

Despite their attacker's body crumbling into pieces onto the ground, with a big puddle of blood underneath it courtesy of the sound pressure and the slaughter of Karin's chains, the Uzushio team did not lower their guard.

They had their doubts. It could not be so easy, could it?

Sure, they were all supposedly S-rank ninjas in their own right with Tayuya being high A-rank since she discovered how to use her sound properly. It would take a bit of training but she was on the right path to becoming the newest S-rank of the Village on the Other Side. But... sparring with other S-ranks was a routine. It was never this easy. Not once.

Their doubts were answered a moment later when Orochimaru's body and the blood underneath it started to turn into mud and Karin's eyes suddenly widened as her head snapped to the right, the girl almost gaping.

"How did you..." She involuntarily spoke, staring at an empty branch.

Hearing her, her teammates quickly refocused on the place, knowing better than to question Karin's sensing prowess.

"I must say... your team play and individual abilities are most interesting." Orochimaru spoke while emerging from the tree branch, his tone deep and laced with the slyness and amusement of a snake.

"What happened, Karin." Kimimaro emotionlessly asked, his eyes trained on their opponent in case he tried to capitalize on their discussion.

"For a moment, he disappeared from my senses." Karin said with a frown. That could be fatal and her job now became that much harder for it.

Tayuya clicked her tongue while Kimimaro's eyebrow twitched. Depending on Karin's senses was addictive because it was an easy way out that worked most of the time. Fortunately for them, their trainers made sure to beat this overreliance on the girl out of them when it first emerged. Karin had to depend on her senses because they were hers but that didn't extend to Kimimaro nor Tayuya.

Understanding the hidden meaning of Karin's words, Tayuya pulled the flute away from her lips in a show of relaxation while secretly drumming her pointing finger on her thigh, releasing a very quiet sound...

"If I may ask, how did you discover me?" Orochimaru asked and Karin pursed her lips before sighing. She could feel his chakra and it confirmed what she saw in his eyes. Pure curiosity. He was not fishing out a weakness. He was just curious.

Knowing they needed a bit of time, Karin decided to go with it, "Emotions." She said and shrugged, causing Orochimaru's eyes to go wide in glee.

"Emotions! You can sense emotions!" He exclaimed, "The possibilities for such an ability." With that, he would never have to worry about the intentions of his subordinates! "What a marvelous ability!"

"Now that I answered your question, you wouldn't mind reciprocating, would you?" Karin offhandedly quipped, causing Orochimaru to lift an eyebrow in amusement at her before he nodded in agreement.

"How did you disappear from my senses?" She asked, not really expecting him to reveal it. But even a hint would be enough to set her on the path of correcting the probable flaw in her sensing capabilities.

Orochimaru's lips almost mockingly widened and he gave Karin a condescending look, "Experience. Lots and lots of experience." He said, the glee in his tone unmistakable, only spreading into his eyes when he saw an angry vein bulge on Karin's forehead when she heard his reply.

He did answer her question as he agreed but both knew this was not really what she was asking about.

"Heeh~, wording, girl. You are not the smartest kunai in the pouch, are you?" He smugly goaded, "I thought about offering you a position in my ranks at first but now I see it would be pointless."

Naturally, he did think of that but from what he was observing, the girl would have never said yes. She was too smart for that and would most likely feel his intentions. Just his luck...

Hearing him, Karin's anger flared higher and her eye started to twitch as she balled her fists. The son of a... monkey just discreetly called her stupid! She gnashed her teeth at him while giving him a withering glare but didn't move from her spot.

Orochimaru's amused expression started to slowly blank out, eventually ending in a dissatisfied frown. Anger was one of Uzumakis' weaknesses so he tried to rile the girl up. She was young, it was a reasonable logical jump, expecting her to break the formation and go for an attack, making an opening in the team.

Alas... Orochimaru was left disgruntled when it didn't work.

"This is it, huh?" He indifferently stated, pausing for a bit and causing Karin to narrow her eyes as she felt... something. Before she could give the feeling more attention Orochimaru continued, a small snake-like smile appearing on his lips, "I guess Uzushio now provides its ninjas anger management classes. I won-"

With the corner of her eyes, Karin noticed Tayuya giving her the signal that she was ready. Without any forewarning, chains burst from around Orochimaru, tying him up. It was a real bother to sneak them so close to him without making him notice.

During their small talk, she did not just that but also trapped the whole clearing with remotely controlled seal traps.

Before Orochimaru could even try wiggling out of the chains, shockwaves impacted him from all sides, this time not going for lethal damage but only to incapacitate him.

As for Kimimaro... he stayed behind to protect his teammates in case the Orochimaru in front of them was just another decoy.

When Karin gave the signal that her sensing prowess was not sufficient, Tayuya swapped into a more subtle fighting style. She first spread the influence of her chakra into the surroundings. After weeks of training with Karin, Tayuya's control over this aspect of her Jutsu was so refined, even Karin had a hard time sensing the chakra in the surroundings. There was simply too little of it... and yet, it was completely sufficient for Tayuya's needs.

Karin could really see what Rei meant when he ranted about the potential of the sound-based Jutsus after she noticed this aspect of them.

The entire clearing was under Tayuya's control. She could sense almost any sound in her 'domain', create shockwaves out of thin air, make her target feel vertigo by affecting their inner ear, cause them to hear anything from annoying to utterly debilitating sounds, and that meant she could fake the voices of her teammates, disorienting her enemy...

Tayuya was really dangerous once she established control of her surroundings.

Obviously, it had many flaws as Rei, Konan, and even Yugito proved when they spared against Tayuya who smugly thought her new technique would be enough only to be smacked down.

Looking at the subdued Orochimaru, Karin's eyes narrowed and she focused more on her Mind's Eye when something flickered further away from their position...

"Shit." She cursed, attracting the attention of her teammates, "Just crush him." She clicked her tongue in displeasure as she realized what the weird feeling during his talking was, "It is a shadow clone. The real Orochimaru is already retreating."

Orochimaru gave them one last smug smile and dispersed into thin air before they could 'crush' him, making Karin and Tayuya pout.

Kimimaro looked over the spotless clearing, knowing the innocent look it portrayed was just a guise. The number of traps... "I wonder who will clear up all these traps. Not me." He shrugged and turned around, walking away and masterfully evading the traps while ignoring the heated glares of his female companions.

Well, they set the traps up so they can defuse them, no?

--

Author Note:

Yeah, no major fight in this chapter happened.

I mostly wanted to portray that not every confrontation has to end up in deathmatch and that some people are actually smart enough to retreat when outmatched.

Orochimaru is S-rank but so is almost every member of the Uzushio Team.

Now, that doesn't mean they are on the same level, mind you. Power levels are not so easy. The Uzushio Team members mostly have special ability and training so they can rank as S-ranks but they are still just 13-15 yo kids while Orochimaru has several decades of being an S-rank under his belt. That's why they did not just steamroll him and he somewhat played with them using his words while gauging their threat level.

Also, I got a few people complaining that my fight scenes are boring.. Anyone willing to elaborate and give me an idea of what is wrong with them? It might help me with bettering myself.

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Seeing the confrontation was over and feeling a bit of amusement at the predicament of the two Uzumaki girls, Anko decided to have some fun at their expense.

As Karin and Tayuya were about to start clearing up the traps, Anko silently appeared behind them... "Booo!" And childishly exclaimed.

Much to her continued amusement, it actually worked and both Tayuya and Karin jumped at the scare.

Nevertheless, Anko had to grudgingly praise the kids... if only in her head... at the quickness of their response.

Tayuya had flute near her lips almost instantly while Karin's chains were already halfway to skewering Anko despite the girl visibly not yet being out of her shock. Even the Kaguya boya already turned around with his arms up, pointing his fingers in Anko's direction in preparation for his only ranged attack since he was a bit far away from the girls and Anko.

'It is still hard to believe these brats are S-rank.' Anko thought, withholding a sigh at the luck these bastards possessed.

"Haa~, it is only Anko..." Karin resignedly said, her shoulders slumping as the sudden tension left her body.

"What do you mean it's only Anko? That's rude!" Anko exclaimed in mock outrage.

The only response she got was a lazy roll of Tayuya and Karin's eyes while Kimimaro decided to be his usual stoic self.

"You are no fun." Anko pouted when she got no retort back. Unfortunately for her, the members of the Uzushio team knew her too well than to participate in an argument with her.

"You were here the entire time?" Karin asked in a bit accusatory tone, crossing her arms under her nonexistent chest, unknowingly giving Anko ammunition for teasing.

"You couldn't sense me the entire time?" Anko smugly answered with her own question, crossing her arms under her considerable chest and pushing it up, her smirk widening when she got the expected reaction from Karin whose eye started to twitch in a typical angry Uzumaki fashion.

"As expected from Orochimaru's apprentice." Karin snarked.

"Low blow, kid, low blow." Anko scowled, all good mood deserting her. "As if that overgrown snake could come close to the fabulousness that is me."

"Yeah, whatever." Karin grumbled, not giving any retort in return because she was well aware of Anko's hatred of Orochimaru and her previous remark was a bit too much. She was only glad Anko didn't get angry because of it. "Why didn't you help us?"

"As much as I'd like to bash Orochimaru's mug until it is dented inwards," Anko wistfully sighed with such a longing that Karin had to fight her instinctual urge to step back and get away from the crazy, "I have my orders." She scowled. "Lady Tsunade forbade me from engaging him and if I helped you, I wouldn't be able to stop myself. Meh, not like you couldn't take him on."

"Lady Tsunade knows about the shithead!?" Tayuya exclaimed, abruptly interrupting the conversation between Anko and Karin. She assumed Orochimaru snuck in with no one the wiser because she couldn't see any reason why Lady Tsunade would let Orochimaru roam Konoha unhindered. Yet...

"Of course, she knows." Anko rolled her eyes at the naive girl. She was a good kunoichi and quite smart too as far as certain things went but... she was brash and oftentimes overlooked the bigger picture. No wonder she was relegated to a glorified bodyguard duty for a person who doesn't need bodyguards during her service for Orochimaru. "The entire Konoha is under a surveillance barrier. Lady Tsunade knows about everyone who enters and leaves her village."

Hearing that, Tayuya could only open her mouth before promptly closing it. That... how was she supposed to react to that?

"You want to ask why we didn't stop him, right?" Anko correctly read the girl's expression and Tayuya just numbly nodded, "Well, Lady Tsunade and Rei have a plan and Orochimaru has his own role to play in it. After that... his ass is mine." She shrugged.

Seeing that Tayuya was not wholly satisfied with that lackluster reply, Karin intervened, "So... what now?"

"Now you continue with your exam. Can't help you with that. Rules and whatnot." Anko said and shooed them away with her hand before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving three unimpressed 'genins' behind.

...

A few days passed since Rei kidnapped Kin and he had to admit, the girl was proving to be quite talented at being a maid.

Unfortunately for the girl, Rei left her alive in hopes she could be useful but she turned out to be no Tayuya. Her sound manipulation was quite subpar. She could do small things with it but that's where her ability ended.

It was quite a pity too, but since he already promised not to kill her, Rei decided to find a new use for her. Hence, the maid part.

He even commissioned a bonafide maid costume for her!

After a few complaints and a day of scowling, Kin accepted her new role, and her enthusiasm only rose after Tsunade promised her training if she did well.

Poor girl, she had no idea what kind of hell Tsunade's training was.

Even Anko started to offer prayers for Kin's naive soul once she heard about the devilish bargain Tsunade offered her.

Rei gave up on the girl, not because he was not confident in his ability to turn her into a badass kunoichi... after all, he managed to train Mei and Ringo and after them, he doubted anyone could be more challenging... but because he simply did not have the time to bother. Kin was not what one would say a talented individual.

Well, the girl surely had talent at something but Rei did not discover such a thing yet.

He could somewhat understand why Orochimaru sacrificed her. She was wholly unimpressive. Her ninja skill repertoire was just ugh and her mindset was meh. There was a lot of work to be done on that girl if she was to be useful.

Tsunade, however, didn't seem to mind and her promises of training were serious. She was just letting Kin adjust before she threw her head-first into a nightmare from where there is no escape.

Rei made sure to not be too demanding when it came to Kin's new maid duties. He could see how Anko silently seethed because she was ordered to let Orochimaru go unhindered. He also knew that the very first lesson Tsunade planned to teach Kin was how utterly powerless she currently was and that her opponent would be Anko who was given a few days to stew in her anger without any outlet.

Sometimes, Rei really marveled at how outright evil his girls can be.

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Rei sat next to Tsunade, mightily uncomfortable to be on a display like this. The preliminaries of the Chunin Exams were about to start and Hokage was giving his speech.

To be honest, if it was up to Rei, Shikaku's lazy and boring drawl would be a test unto itself. Those that didn't fall asleep while he monologued would pass.

Sitting next to Tsunade meant sitting next to the Konoha Daimyo and that kind of position attracted a lot of attention to Rei. He didn't like it. He was too used to being in the shadows. Even in the Village on the Other Side he seldom appeared in front of people, opting to have other people be the 'public' figures in his stead.

It didn't help that he was sitting in the seat reserved for the partner of the Daimyo, meaning people were interested in why this unknown man was parading as Tsunade's husband. While it was known that Tsunade was married, she never really revealed to whom.

Unfortunately for Rei...

'I should have never bet against her.' He sourly thought. 'It was such an obvious application of the Murphy Laws that the woman who loses every bet will win precisely the one that would put me in an uncomfortable position. I should have known.'

Rei wanted to do nothing else but stack genjutsu after genjutsu on himself, hiding in plain sight, but sadly, Tsunade accounted for that too. If he wanted to uphold his part of the bet, he would simply have to suffer through the gawkers in silence.

Frankly, this was still fine. Rei dreaded the third part of the Exams. Now, there was no Pakura or Ringo, or a vast amount of populace alongside nobles and Daimyos for that matter. It was just Konoha higher-ups and a few jonins right now. But in the third part of these exams?

'May the Sage have mercy on my soul...' Rei inwardly wailed just thinking about that kind of suffering.

Alas, there was nothing he could do. Becoming a public figure would be good for him. He didn't want to show himself as the leader of the Village on the Other Side. The existence of that village was a highly guarded secret, after all. Nor would Rei let his ownership of the Biri-Biri Company and the Uzushio Trading Company be known. That would attract a bit too much attention to himself.

Becoming known as the husband of the Konoha Daimyo was fine. Tsunade was part-Uzumaki so it would explain his pull with Uzushio while also giving him an 'in' with Pakura and Ringo since they would be introduced as Tsunade's friends she met during her travels.

Secrets attract attention and ninjas were no exception to this rule. Rei instead wanted to put a false front for the public, fooling them into thinking there is no secret and that they had all the facts so nobody will try to dig deeper into the mystery of Tsunade's husband. This bet between Tsunade and him only made him hasten his plans and gave them direction.

Personally, he would have been a bit more discreet about it but blatantly sitting next to her and kissing her in front of all the Konoha higher-ups would do as well...

The gazes were not Rei's only problem though. The boredom was almost worse.

Watching genins duking it out in the arena was... underwhelming.

For a normal person, this would have been an epic showdown and that was partly the reason why the village was making a spectacle from the third part of these exams but for a seasoned ninja... let's just say it was yawn-worthy for Rei and from the way Tsunade distractedly played with his fingers, she was not feeling any different.

There were eight teams that passed the second part of the exams. It was all the teams that passed in the canon except the team from the Sound Village and then there were Kirigakure and Uzushio teams.

Rei... couldn't bring himself to feel impressed.

This was all prearranged for the most part so there was nothing to be surprised about. He knew for a fact that half the Kirigakure and Sunagakure teams that participated in the second part could have easily steamrolled the Konoha teams that passed.

But having the Konoha Chunin Exams dominated by Sunagakure and Kirigakure, especially just a moment before the villages were about to sign a three-way alliance, would not be good for the relations between them. Not to mention the need for hiding one's strength. Hence, the second part was more about a friendly hunter-nin exercise in an unknown terrain between Sunagakure and Kirigakure.

These teams did not aim to pass. In fact, they were forbidden to pass as that would instantly mean a failure of their secret mission. They had their own objectives set for them by the Kazekage and Mizukage and if they managed to fulfill them, they would be promoted to Chunin the second they arrived back home.

Rei wondered if Fate actually existed since the Rookie Nine, Team Gai, and Kabuto's team all passed like in canon despite the numerous things that changed both in the world and in Konoha. This worrying belief briefly intensified before it quickly left him as the first match was called and progressed.

To put it shortly, Neji Hyuuga and Hinata Hyuuga were called to fight it out, Neji was his usual Fate's bitch about everything, but differently from canon, Hinata made a short work of Neji.

Rei had to wince when he saw the girl using Neji's self-important monologue as a distraction to land a solid kick to his balls. The boy did not even try to prevent her from walking closer. He was that assured of his superiority.

Needless to say, the match was quickly over as the Hyuuga boy fainted from the cheap shot, his eyes still opened wide from shock as he fell to the ground with a resounding thud whereas the whole arena descended into a deafening silence.

It lasted a few seconds before Anko started loudly cheering and praising her apprentice.

That, however, was the end of Rei's entertainment.

The following matches were simply boring.

Kimimaro faced off against Akado Yoroi, the guy with a peculiar ability to absorb chakra with touch. Sadly for the poor lad, it meant he had to get close and that was Kimimaro's domain. Akado found out in a quite brutal manner as Kimimaro's bones pierced his body when he tried to touch the bored Kaguya, making him into a swiss cheese without killing him.

After that, Yamanaka Ino was pitted against Yakumo Kurama... which quickly ended poorly for Ino. Sure, she was more motivated and driven than her canon counterpart but it was ever so obvious to Rei why Tsunade picked Kurenai as her apprentice. Yakumo was Kurenai's apprentice and her genjutsu proficiency would be quite impressive for a chunin, much less a genin. The girl didn't even need to use her bloodline.

The next fight was between Haku and Kankuro. An unfortunate match, in Rei's opinion, and one that was definitely not random. One glance at Tsunade and it was obvious from her quiet smugness that she wanted to eliminate the possibility of all members from Pakura and Ringo's teams passing.

Kankuro's puppetry was impressive. He could already control five puppets at once which made a few jonins drop their jaws but unfortunately for him, Haku had a massive advantage in speed and element. Not only was Kankuro unable to deliver even a glancing blow with any of his attacks, but Haku also focused on freezing the joints of Kankuro's puppets, and Kankuro was made painfully aware of this weakness of his puppets.

Well, at least the puppeteer got a valuable learning experience out of it.

The following showdown between Temari and Utakata was honestly expected. Even Shikaku slightly turned towards Tsunade with an unamused 'Really? Couldn't you at least put a few fights in between to make it look less suspicious?' kind of look.

Temari steamrolled Utakata. His explosive bubbles were neat but the young man had no way to reach Temari with them. Her ranged Wind Attacks shredded first his offense, then his defense, and then him, delivering him into the infirmary in five seconds flat before she turned towards Rei with her eyes shining with a 'Praise me!' kind of gleam.

As for Rei... he could only give Utakata a pitying look as he felt Tsunade's satisfaction when it became obvious her plan worked spectacularly. Neither Pakura nor Ringo would have their entire teams pass the second stage.

That said, many fights were really random. For example, the board again rolled Uzumaki Naruto versus Inuzuka Kiba for the next match, causing Rei to raise an eyebrow at that. Kiba did his arrogant boasting shtick, not expecting much from Naruto because the blonde played a jester during his academy years. The two boys had a fairly nice taijutsu fight for genins which clearly surprised the Inuzuka before Naruto decide to end it by using a special smoke bomb with chilly flavor... both Kiba and Akamaru were left rolling on the ground, crying and clutching at their burning throats and noses.

Well, it was still better than tasting Naruto's fart in Rei's opinion.

The next fight was Gaara versus Misumi Tsurugi. There was nothing much to say about that one. Misumi's elastic joints and stretching exercises did not help him when Gaara decided to squish him. They had to call a small break after the match and scrub what was left of the guy from the floor.

Needless to say, Gaara impressed and frightened quite a few spectators with that display. It was funny seeing even jonins throwing him wary looks.

Rei almost rolled his eyes when he saw Tayuya and Tenten being called into the arena. Tayuya instantly insulted Tenten, making her so angry she didn't even try to make a plan as she started hurling weapon after weapon at the redhead.

Tenten tried. She really did. But no matter how many weapons she had. No matter how precise her throwing was. No matter what she did... All it took was one blow into Tayuya's flute in between her taunts and insults, and Tenten's weapons were deflected mid-flight by what appeared to be nothing. They just veered off course out of nowhere or appeared to hit an obstacle that was clearly not there.

Half the spectators had utterly lost looks, not understanding what the Uzushio girl did while the other half were grimacing exactly because they recognized what she was doing and how troublesome it would be to fight against her.

After Tenten was utterly defeated, with no weapons left, with no hope left, Tayuya simply used a moderate shockwave to send the girl into the wall behind her with enough force to create a few cracks and knock her unconscious.

From the outside perspective, Tauyuya appeared to be a cold-hearted bitch who liked to taunt her opponent but... Rei had instantly seen through her intentions if only because he knew her better. She aimed to show Tenten how utterly worthless her path as the weapon mistress was.

And it really was. That ninja art did not have much potential in the higher leagues. Its user depended mostly on his weapons, so meeting a real powerhouse would be instant death. Tenten was a jack of all trades. She knew how to use numerous weapons but none to the satisfactory level even for a chunin. She... did not deserve promotion as she currently was.

The following match was between Karin and Kabuto Yakushi who surprisingly did not forfeit at the start. Frankly, it was understandable. With Tsunade's reforms, his spying got a lot harder and he could not just attend every chunin exam and fail without being suspected of ulterior motives. The guy decided to be smart about it and this was actually only his second attempt.

For those with context, this fight was somehow definitely pre-arranged by Orochimaru. At least the guy had enough wits to not show up for preliminaries. It was one thing to let him roam the village under heavy surveillance even if he had no idea about it, and it was quite another thing to let him be in the same room as the Konoha Daimyo and the Hokage without doing anything about it. But since he didn't show up, there was no need for a fight. He probably intelligently deduced that Tsunade would have recognized him.

Kabuto tried to taunt Karin, doing exactly the same thing as Orochimaru in an attempt to make use of the infamous Uzumaki temper. If Orochimaru was present, he would have winced at that...

Karin did not like to play with her food and Kabuto ended with a pointy tip of Karin's chain painfully going up his ass.

On the downside, Kabuto survived thanks to his healing factor. On the upside... well, moving on.

Sasuke Uchiha was pitted against Choji Akimichi and this was honestly the most even fight in the entire preliminaries. Not because the boys were on the same level. Far from it. But this Choji knew when to put his timid nature to the side and from the very start, he used his Human Bullet Tank Jutsu whereas Sasuke had no way of countering it. He tried to throw a few fireballs at the Akimichi but to no avail.

In the end, Sasuke could only dodge and dodge, waiting for Choji to run out of juice. The fight dragged on and on, the Uchiha trying to injure Choji in various ways and failing miserably at it because he didn't have heavy-hitting Jutsu in his repertoire.

Thirty utterly boring minutes later, Sasuke won because Choji could not hit him. Simple as that.

The next match featured Shino Aburame versus Chojuro. Shino's clan techniques certainly piqued Rei's interest and under any other circumstances, the bug boy would have had an overwhelming advantage but not in an empty room with no obstacles.

Chojuro did some freaky kenjutsu bullshit and sent an arc of compressed air at Shino with a swing of his sword, showcasing he was far above genin level while almost bisecting the poor Aburame.

The Kirigakure swordsman could only awkwardly laugh with disbelief written on his face when his opponent went down so easily while Tsunade was already moving towards Shino to save his life.

Alas, Chojuro wouldn't be the most liked person in Konoha after that stunt...

But everything had its bright side. Saving Shino's life and career would certainly cement the Aburame clan's loyalty to Tsunade, so there was that. Rei would honestly be unable to say Tsunade was unhappy about the accident.

The last fight was between Rock Lee and Shikamaru Nara and Rei thought the result was pretty obvious.

He was wrong.

It was a bewildering experience to watch the Nara heir utterly dismantle the taijutsu prodigy before he could even start.

Rock Lee was strong and fast. That was a fact. But that didn't help him when Shikamaru caught him in his Shadow Imitation Technique. Lee was simply far too direct and straightforward in his approach and that was his undoing.

Restricted by the Shadow Imitation, weighted by several tons of weight around his ankles, and unable to open the Eight Inner Gates because Lee wasn't yet skilled enough to open the first gate without performing Lotus beforehand. Lee was totally screwed no matter how much he tried to wiggle and get out of Shikamaru's hold.

Shikamaru did not need to be faster or stronger than Lee. Not when the green-clad idiot was restricting himself to a disgusting degree before the match even started. By all means, this should have been Lee's win without any doubt. Lee was fast enough to evade any attempt of Shikamaru to get a hold of him.

But that was true only for unrestricted Lee.

Rei noted that Tsunade simply looked at Gai, who seemed to be quite disgruntled at how easily his protege lost, and snorted. He could only wince at the verbal and maybe even physical thrashing the green-clad jonin would no doubt receive in the near future.

Wearing weights was a good training method if done right but wearing weights during a fight? What kind of idiot taught him that?

Still, Rei thought Lee would be able to handle Shikamaru despite the moronic self-imposed handicap but apparently, motivated Shikamaru is a dangerous Shikamaru.

The match ended quickly when Shikamaru used Shadow-stitching and put a sharp shadow spike near Lee's throat before looking at Gai with a raised eyebrow. Lee looked stubborn and would most likely rather have his throat slit than give up but thankfully, Gai had more common sense and stopped the fight.

Shikamaru won.

--

Author Note:

Yeah, did not want to make several chapters out of this so I tried to sum it up in a somewhat not-so-boring way.

Hope I succeeded :D.

Two weeks passed since the end of the preliminaries and Rei found himself by his lonesome self. Tsunade was too busy preparing the village for the upcoming trouble while Temari had her training.

One would wonder why would Sunagakure's strongest ANBU need to train when competing against genins but Tsunade gave the girl access to Konoha's library and Temari wanted to make the most out of it during this month. Rei only encouraged her when she came to him with a sheepish apologetic look. After all, he had to grudgingly admit he had his own pressing work he needed to focus on.

Hence, Rei spent the past two weeks pouring over complicated seals so much, it brought even him a headache. Then again, sleeping only one night a week might have been a part of the reason.

Then again, not sleeping with any of his girls for two weeks had surely something to do with it too. Rei was sure of it.

Nevertheless, after these two weeks of work, he finally finished his biggest project yet and that's why Rei had to visit his outpost on the other side of the moon, taking Izumi with him.

It was very fortunate that Izumi managed to get her Rinnegan. Rei reckoned that without it he would have to do a multitude of calculations that he was not sure were even possible in order to attain the desired result. With those cheaty eyes, however, all that complicated crap became that much easier.

So much so Rei briefly pondered about getting a pair himself but then he remembered it would require him to pluck out his own eyes since he was no Uchiha and that trail of thought was away in a jiffy.

Rei was willing to do many things but he had his own line he totally refused to cross. Exchanging his eyes just for a power-up was simply... bleh. No, thank you.

'Are you done yet?' An impatient voice eagerly resounded in Rei's mind for the n-th time that day as he was drawing seals over an area five times as big as Konoha on the surface of the moon. It was a very exhausting process but Kaguya was making it positively frustrating. Rei understood she was excited but damn if it wasn't annoying!

'No, Kaguya. The answer is the same as two minutes ago.' Rei dryly droned in his mind, getting a mental impression of a pout in return. It made him wistfully sigh because he knew she would ask the same thing again a few minutes later after her childish anger gets overpowered by her excitement.

It was then that yet another female voice, this time a bored one, asked from not far away, "Are you done yet?"

Rei's eyebrow twitched as he turned his head in Izumi's direction, finding her crouching nearby, watching him with her blood-red ringed eyes and supporting her chin with her hands while her elbows were on her knees in a show of utter boredom.

"No, Izumi. The answer is the same as two minutes ago." Rei exasperatedly said but inwardly he wanted to cry. What did he do in his past life to deserve this kind of treatment? Was it his fault he was forced to forbid Izumi from trying to help him after she, in her eagerness, unintentionally destroyed hours of his work for the third time because she was clumsy and tripped, wiping away some seals?

He had to start over three times already. No way was he allowing her to even come close to his work this time!

"When you told me you needed my help, I thought it would be much more fun." Izumi sullenly but weakly protested, feeling inadequate because of being useless to Rei at the moment. She was usually very polite but it seemed a few mind-numbing hours and even that went down the drain.

Rei really contemplated sending her to Konan for retraining of patience...

'And I thought having you here would be beneficial. Seems like we both were wrong and I should have just called you when I had it all prepared.' Rei thought while the corner of his lips slightly twitched. 'Honestly... women.' He discreetly rolled his eyes.

"Mmm, you just thought something rude about me." Izumi sulkily pouted. Her observatory abilities with her Rinne-Sharingan activated were simply unfair. She could see every little twitch of Rei's expression.

Rei thought normal women were bad but then he met kunoichis only to then get to know Izumi. The horror...

At least he was lucky and his women were a good sport about it. Imagining a woman with Izumi's capabilities of observation that bordered on thought reading but with a very easily offended nature and Rei had to shudder at the very thought.

Seeing that Izumi still awaited his reply with a veiled eagerness, he wisely held his tongue and swallowed his retort but he couldn't quite contain the smirk forming on his lips so he instead decided to focus on his seals. He could argue with Izumi about literally nothing for hours on no end, as he found out during the previous few hours and while it was entertaining for both him and Izumi, he really needed to finish.

Izumi clearly understood what Rei keeping quiet meant and didn't disturb him anymore but she still puffed out her cheeks at him. Frankly, she knew she could have left at any moment and Rei would have called her when he was done but she didn't have many opportunities to spend time with him and despite the boredom, this was quite nice.

Rei inwardly rolled his eyes as he yet again felt Izumi ogling him. The girl was such a typical Uchiha. She couldn't keep her eyes to herself.

Two hours of non-verbal flirting later, Izumi was a blushing mess while Rei was smirking in victory but more importantly, the seals were finally done.

Sage bless the Shadow Clones...

Rei loved how Izumi knew exactly what he wanted from her with nothing but a slight twitch in his expression. He enjoyed sending her mixed signals and making her come to wrong conclusions quite thoroughly these past hours.

He especially enjoyed the change in her expression after he non-verbally asked for sex before he quickly shifted his body language into disinterest, only to shift back into throwing a glance at her chest while licking his lips which translated as desire and when Izumi showed mild elation and acceptance in her expression, Rei again shifted into neutral body language, frustrating her.

Who said one couldn't have fun while working?

Rei also aimed to show Izumi to not depend on this observation of hers too much because skilled people could still lie with their expressions and body language. The trick was in always being at least partially truthful.

Which... will most likely backfire at him in the future once Izumi found that rule out and connected the dots but Rei couldn't bring himself to care. He had far too much fun teasing her.

Rei didn't even need to inform Izumi he was done with his part. Despite knowing nothing about seals, she instantly spotted that and approached with extreme care. Yet, Rei had to catch her with his Wind Release when she almost tripped and fell on a very important part of seals, almost ruining it.

That sight only made Rei a tad bit sour. 'How can she divine my thoughts from my expression but be still capable of being clumsy enough to misstep in a way that would mysteriously cause the most damage to my work?' He really couldn't wrap his head around that. 'If I didn't know better, I would say she is doing it on purpose.'

Alas, Izumi's clumsiness was legendary in the Village on the Other Side.

Izumi threw Rei an apologetic look as he 'levitated' her towards him like a sack of potatoes, not letting her touch the ground in fear of her smearing a part of his seals or something.

"Well, let's start the next part, shall we?" Rei amusedly asked while he gently put Izumi next to him and stretched his hand towards her.

The following part required them to mend each other's chakra together which was quite an intimate thing. Izumi was sure if one of Rei's wives possessed Rinnegan, he would not be doing this part with her and a part of her was glad that was not the case.

She timidly nodded and took hold of Rei's hand, giving him a small shy smile full of determination in return.

This was going to be hard but Izumi was resolved to do the best job possible.

'I can do this!' She quietly hyped herself up.

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Rei saw the look of deep concentration on Izumi's face and frowned, wondering what she was doing. The next part depended mostly on him and he only needed her to start the Jutsu before letting his chakra take control of its energies.

Deciding he would rather not think about what was going through the woman's head, Rei started to blanket the area with his own chakra, controlling his seals en-masse and preparing for the next stage. There was some margin for error but not much and he would loathe having to re-do it all.

Izumi closed her eyes and from how her chakra pulsed, Rei instantly understood she was about to begin. He gently squeezed her hand in reassurance, causing a small smile to appear on her lips before she slowly breathed out and opened her eyes. Nine tomoes in each eye, three on each of the three rings, were madly spinning around Izumi's pupils, with each spin her chakra felt more and more focused.

It was amazing to witness such a thing and managed to prove to Rei that the world held many more wonders he didn't witness yet.

The eyes were somehow helping Izumi with the concentration and mental processes necessary to facilitate the technique. No wonder those possessing them were capable of godly feats no human would have the mental capacity to replicate. Things like creating whole dimensions, jumping through space and time without any kind of anchor to set directions, and even the Creation of All Things.

Using those was not easy. Simply possessing the Yin-Yang release did not suffice. One could master the Yin chakra manipulation and the Yang chakra manipulation both and then learn how to successfully merge them but that didn't mean he could also recreate the Creation of All Things.

Rei knew. He tried. He tried it a lot.

He also succeeded but... The number of mental calculations necessary to create even a simple teddy bear almost floored him. His mind was simply not built to calculate the parameters of existence in such a way.

It really stumped Rei a lot how Hagoromo was capable of making the bijuu. Rei's method contained a lot of pinpoint precise calculations but he did them over time. It took him months and some even years to perfect. Yet, Creation of All Things required them all done in under a second.

That was the biggest 'fuck you' Rei received from a Jutsu in his life...

'No wonder the people with Rinnegan find it easy. Their eyes are more hax than they appear! They instantly do most of the work for them!' Rei mentally shouted in a small bout of jealousy, now understanding why various Rinnegan users had various special techniques and neither seemed to be able to 'use' the technique of another.

Of course, they could not do that. The idiots had no idea what they were doing even when using their own special abilities!

Nevertheless, now that he saw how exactly the eyes did what they did, he already started to think about how to replicate the effect for himself.

There was a reason why Rei never tried to implant a bloodline into himself. He simply found it redundant since most abilities could be replicated despite having one. Chakra was a very poorly understood thing.

Oh, people knew how to use chakra and create Jutsu during the Warring States period but they did not put much thought into how it worked.

Only after the conception of the Hidden Villages and when the clans started pooling together their libraries did research on chakra start. Yet, it was still nowhere, really. Ninjas still preferred mostly to fight and not ponder about how their abilities really form or work.

Rei didn't want to alter his body for power. Not when he didn't need to. He got so far with simply using his brains and managed to create things others thought impossible. Why should he break that trend only to do what everyone else tried and failed miserably at? Who cared about bloodlines anyway?

Rei was forcefully pulled out of his brief contemplation when he felt Izumi's chakra stir. She was clearly done with kneading and molding, remodeling it into what she needed. It took her some time but then again, what they were doing was quite complicated.

Izumi bit her lower lip enough to bleed, trying to keep her chakra steady and concentrated as it wanted to burst forth. It took her a lot of work to keep it all together. Then, when it somehow clicked in her mind, she understood the technique was ready and before she could even realize what she was doing, she quietly whispered, "Creation of All Things."

Rei felt the air around them vibrate at the blatant release of power as a figure started to form in front of them. It was a slow process. One that stretched for minutes and was just a tad bit disturbing.

For the first time did Rei get a front-row seat on the creation of the brain, various organs, bones, tendons, and muscles, all knitting together... It was beautiful.

Needless to say, Izumi looked fascinated and about to puke in the same measures, inwardly swearing to never do anything like this ever again as her complexion turned a bit green. She could handle the gore of battle but this was just a shuddering sight even for a seasoned veteran.

When the body finally formed, it resembled Kaguya Otsutsuki to the tiniest detail. Sort of.

But it was only a soulless husk with the strength and chakra of a normal civilian. All Izumi did was take one of her Shadow Clones as the model for the Creation of All Things and mold it into a living, breathing, physical body while altering its appearance to match Kaguya.

That's also why the new body did not have an eye on its forehead. It was a normal human body, after all.

With that, Izumi's part of the job was done and Rei pushed his chakra, taking hold of Izumi's technique. When he was mastering Yin and Yang chakras, he had no idea he would find himself in this kind of situation but here he was and it helped him with keeping the Creation of All Things going.

He knew there would be no way he could use it normally but that's what the seals were for.

Rei activated multiple sealing circles in the vicinity, the size of which easily dwarfed the perimeter of Konoha. These circles were nothing more than a crutch for his mental calculations to guide the Creation of All Things. And yet, it took so much space.

He officially dubbed Izumi a hax...

Now, Izumi's work seemed like a lot but it was fairly simple. She made the physical shell of Kaguya. Now it was up to Rei to recreate its spiritual components and give it sufficient chakra pathways while strengthening the body with Yang chakra enough that the inclusion of Kaguya's soul would not simply blow it up.

Yes, Kaguya could recreate the body according to her own wants from her upcoming vessel and she would subconsciously do so in a small measure anyway but Rei did not want to leave any open link to the moon seal. Kaguya signed a seal contract that used their souls for binding, the strongest contract Rei was capable of creating and one even he had no idea how to undo. He wasn't really sure it was even possible.

While it didn't mean Kaguya was his slave or property or anything, but she would have no way of betraying him anymore so leaving such a blatant weakness would be just him disadvantaging himself.

Hence, Kaguya's vessel had to be very fitting since it would be her one and only. There won't be a chance to send her back into the seal and remake her body after this.

Rei's part of the work was much more complicated. He used the Yin chakra manipulation to draft chakra pathways, widening them and enlarging the chakra coils while also making them sturdier than any human had any right to possess, all in order to allow Kaguya to wield the frightening amount of power he felt from her inside of her seal. Rei knew Kaguya would bolster her own chakra network anyway but he wanted to give her the best foundation possible for that.

Rei found it a bit funny because, in a way, he was building a miniature physical bijuu. His strongest yet.

The problem was, he had to infuse the normal human body with Yang chakra all the while he was creating and strengthening the chakra network. And it had to be in balance. He couldn't just push a large amount of Yang chakra into the body for it would explode. He had to do it slowly while increasing the output as the body became sturdier. He also had to balance that with the strengthening of the chakra network to keep them on a similar level, to keep the body's chakra in the balance of both Yang and Yin parts.

Frankly, seeing how the body comparable to a civilian was gaining strength both physically and chakra-wise right in front of his eyes made Rei a bit sour. He spent years training himself up to his current level and the soulless husk in front of him was about to surpass his state when he didn't use his bijuu.

Worse yet, Rei was fully aware it would surpass even his bijuu state by the end of the enhancement.

It was just a pity he couldn't mold his own chakra network and body via this method. The only reason why it was possible right now was that there was no soul in the body so it was malleable.

'Hmm... could I take a soul out of body... seal it somewhere to keep it safe maybe?... and then use this method to strengthen said body before putting the soul back?' Rei pondered before his eyes widened and he nervously gulped, 'God, I am turning into Orochimaru!'

By the end of ten minutes, Rei was sweating bullets and was nowhere near done. But he knew his part would be infinitely more demanding than Izumi's. He was creating a body for someone stronger than him. He really only managed to do it thanks to his seals doing most of the calculations for him.

On the bright side, he was gaining valuable data in both body strengthening and chakra network expansion. Data that would help him make the training methods of his village more effective and definitely open a new avenue of research for him. Clearly, the current level of top ninjas was just the tip of the iceberg if the transformation of the civilian body in front of him to that of 'Goddess' was any indication.

It took Rei three hours and mental exhaustion before he was done. In the end, the Kaguya-look-alike in front of him did reach a level above his own even in the bijuu state. It was both humbling and irritating.

'Or I could just use this method to create new bodies for all of my girls and myself.' He thought bitterly, more because of an annoyance than anything else. So much for his aversion to body modification...

Well, there was a multitude of problems with that but Rei wasn't in the state of mind to think about it right now.

He pushed on, activating the remaining seals to finish his part in the procedure so he could just sit down and rest.

As the last seals flared into existence and showered a great deal of the surroundings in light... and Rei was glad he was smart enough to do this on the averted side of the moon because he was damn sure the visual effect would be visible even from Earth... Kaguya's seal started to slowly unravel itself.

Now it all depended on Kaguya herself...

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The second the seal gave in, even if only slightly, Kaguya instantly pounced on the weakness and desperately tried to get out.

She knew the seal would give in. Rei promised her and she fully believed in him but she just couldn't help it. It was stronger than her. Her desire to escape overwhelmed her and made her act irrationally when she saw the first crack in the seal.

Fortunately for her, the Moon, and the Earth, Rei designed his seals with such behavior in mind. When he was paying a visit to various jinchuuriki and bijuu before he created his own artificial ones, many of the bijuu tried to escape the second he widened the seal enough for him to come inside despite there being no chance of them to get through the small leeway he created in the seal.

Kaguya got out but she didn't have a body nor her power yet. Before she could even register where she was, however, Rei's seals pulled her consciousness towards the pre-arranged place.

Normally, she would be pulled towards Black Zetsu because he was her will personified but Rei's seals were closer and worked instantly.

Kaguya felt herself entering the body created for her and a deep sense of relief flooded her. A moment later, her chakra started leaking from the seal directly into her new body.

Knowing she couldn't dilly-dally, she quickly started to use her power to adjust the body wherever it felt uncomfortable for her. She was molding it as clay and fortunately, Izumi and Rei did a marvelous job creating a body for her. Kaguya found she didn't need to put much effort into it.

Normally, this would have been a full-time job, and even after she was freed, she would have needed a long time to adjust while being unable to use her full power because inhabiting a foreign body was just not that simple... but the one she was stuffed into was surprisingly comfortable.

Maybe she was even starting to like it more than her original body.

But maybe that was because this body was a gift from the descendant she liked most and a man to whom she willingly gave her heart.

More and more chakra flooded her body, straining its chakra pathways... which, she now realized, would have been an immense pain in the ass. If Black Zetsu really managed to manipulate someone into freeing her, she would have inhabited that person's body.

At least, that was the plan.

Now, however, Kaguya saw that it would have been a massive problem for her. If the chakra pathways were strained due to her chakra despite them being on the level of Rei, then no matter who Zetsu manipulated in the Elemental Nations, her chakra would blast that person's chakra system to smithereens. That would have limited her even more for a long time. Worse yet, she had no idea where to even start repairing such damage.

Kaguya mentally released a relieved sigh and silently thanked the heavens for putting her in Rei's path.

The chakra pathways of her new body were strained but they held. Widening and toughening to hold her immense chakra, transforming into a system that could accommodate her power. It was an intoxicating feeling for her. Never before, not even in her original body, could she hold the power the chakra fruit gave her. That's why she mostly limited and restrained it, forcing herself to keep a lid on it.

But now...

Now she would no longer need to feel stifled!

Turning her senses inward, Kaguya quickly found the reason. On her belly, a seal started to form. A filter and storage, Rei called it. She was very reluctant to have it put on herself when Rei first introduced the idea to her but now she couldn't feel happier. The seal was sucking the excess of her power her body couldn't currently handle where it would be stored until her chakra pathways adjusted.

According to Rei, it would take a few months but her body and chakra would get progressively stronger until the seal would no longer be required. All Rei wanted in exchange was permission to monitor her during the process.

Something about gathering important data or whatnot.

As if he wouldn't observe her anyway... She fully intended to get into bed and show him everything of herself anyway so giving him such an insignificant promise was fine by her.

Oddly enough, there was no resistance coming from her power. Kaguya first expected some kind of epic but irritating mental battle, some kind of struggle between her own mind and the corruption from the chakra fruit but nothing like that happened.

She didn't even need to use her senses to know the reason for that.

It was the topic of most of her evenings in the seal with Rei. On her back, there was another seal. This one disguised as a tattoo of a pure white rabbit with two blood-red Rinne-Sharingan sporting nine tomoes in each eye and ten tails blooming behind him. Kaguya had to admit the tattoo was amazing... well, she designed most of it when she was bored so of course, it was amazing!

Her initial feelings about it were simply soured by the fact the tattoo was hiding a seal. One that would be etched not in her flesh, but in her soul. The tattoo was just a physical reflection of it. Her back could be fully skinned but once her skin regrew, the tattoo would appear again.

This mark was a permanent one.

The seal hidden in the tattoo had a simple feature. It purged the corruption in her chakra.

Not kept from influencing her but purged. A small difference in wording but one that meant so much...

Rei told her there was no way the corruption could ever be stopped. It was a part of the chakra fruit and it is now a part of her. But there was apparently no reason why it couldn't be turned into a benefit.

Sometimes, Kaguya really marveled at how Rei's mind worked. All she could think of was wishing to get rid of it the second she learned what it did to her mind while Rei was trying to figure out how to make the best use of it.

Kaguya had no idea about all its features though. That was supposed to be a secret for when she got out of the seal, much to her long-time chagrin.

Her power was finally fully out of the seal and settled in her body when Kaguya was harshly pulled out of her thoughts with a snap. Not a physical but spiritual one. The connection between her and the Moon Prison irrevocably shattered, bringing untold joy and elation to her.

She wanted to jump from happiness but instead, her eyes found the exhausted Rei softly smiling at her and her heart melted. With a massive smile on her lips, Kaguya jumped towards him and swept him into a tight hug, uncaring that she was naked and he was sweaty.

"Thank you!" She whispered, her voice cracking with intense emotion as she buried her head into the crook of his neck, and tears started to stream out of her eyes, down his shoulder.

A tired smile appeared on Rei's lips as he soothingly patted Kaguya and thanked Sage that Izumi left a half-hour ago because she was tired. It would have been embarrassing for his manly ego to let her witness this scene.

While Kaguya was embracing him, Rei also decided to scan her body, to make sure everything was working as it should.

Her power settled nicely, corruption was nullified and the soul seal on her back worked perfectly, the one on her stomach was filtering as it should and Kaguya possessed only two eyes, instead of her original three.

'Wait, what?' Rei's mind suddenly stopped as he gently rescanned her forehead just to make sure.

Feeling it, Kaguya finally pulled away from the embrace and rubbed her puffy eyes, not the Lavender pupil-less Byakugan eyes but three-ringed crimson-red ones with three tomoes on every ring, while sniffling. She looked Rei straight in the eyes and gave him a big watery smile full of emotions that was almost contagious as Rei found himself involuntarily smiling at her too, forgetting the issue of her eyes.

He counted on her correcting it by herself. He thought she would add that one eye by herself when adjusting the body but apparently, that didn't happen, and instead her 'normal' eyes gained Rinne-Sharingan.

It didn't matter. Not when such deep happiness and affection was plainly visible in these usually ruthless and frightening crimson eyes. Rei softly put his forehead on hers, content to just stare into those eyes while feeling her hands stiffly clutching on his waist.

They couldn't have physical contact with the seal so feeling her touch was a novelty. Rei circled his left hand around her waist, pulling her closer while putting his right hand on her cheek, rubbing it with his thumb.

Slowly, the distance between their lips shortened until they were softly touching. Kissing at first carefully before their confidence grew and their tongues started dancing with each other.

When they pulled away, Rei noticed Kaguya's chakra flowing into him, revitalizing him and soothing his tiredness. He grew a bit confused and wordlessly looked for the answer in her eyes only to be greeted with hungry desire and clear excitement.

Kaguya licked her lips and giddily whispered...

"Now... let's have sex! I have waited long enough!"

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Rei laid in bed with Kaguya in his embrace, her head resting on his chest while she gently scraped her sharp nails over his skin, causing him jolts of tingling pleasure.

Both were quite tired and sore from their night activities but still awake. Even with Rei's physique being boosted with nature energy for a few decades and him possessing a body far surpassing even Tsunade in the Sage Mode, Kaguya matched his stamina almost equally. Adding that to the fact she was on a dry spell for the better part of the millennium and her recent favorite hobby was watching Rei and one of his wives going at it...

Let's just say that Kaguya was one fiercely horny bunny.

Despite that, Rei enjoyed it. Surprisingly, Kaguya wasn't one to seek domination over her partner. She was ever so eager to bend to his whims, almost lovingly following the lead and going with the flow to get the most enjoyment out of the situation.

With Kaguya's personality, it was the most unexpected development.

Rei honestly blamed Konan for that. He had no idea how but definitely, it must be her fault. Somehow.

Rei's right hand was caressing Kaguya's silky snow-white locks while his left rested on her upper back, idly caressing her smooth skin, causing Kaguya to occasionally let out quiet sounds of appreciation.

Kaguya had to admit, she enjoyed this entirely too much. It was everything she hoped for and more. With her previous husband, sex was a chore after the initial affection waned, and even before then, it was nowhere near what she experienced just a few moments ago.

Some of the positions and places where they did it... It actually made her feel quite embarrassed! In a good way though. She would go for a repeat instantly!

Kaguya's eyes silently morphed from Rinne-Sharingan to Byakugan, hers was a perfect one so no veins bulging out around her eyes, leaving only perfect Lavender irises to appear. This way she didn't even need to turn her head to see all of her lover and it made her feel giddy on the inside.

'Mine.' She thought, almost purringly, subconsciously biting her lower lip. She wanted to melt and swoon when she saw Rei's content expression with his eyes closed and a small smile etched on his lips. It almost gave her strength to continue... before her sore body reminded her that it had enough for the time being.

Rei didn't let any outward sign but he could feel her overly eager heated gaze all over his body quite clearly and almost involuntarily shuddered. 'And the mystery of from whom did the Hyuuga clan inherited their kinkiness and voyeurism is solved.' He wryly thought.

Frankly, Kaguya reminded him of Hinata with her behavior. If it was only in certain aspects, it would have been fine but what he was most afraid of were the first signs of the sickness known as yanderism.

Since she got out of the seal, Kaguya just oozed this weird mix of fanatical possessiveness and timid submissiveness to the focus of her obsession that Rei always associated with the creepy Hyuuga Heiress. It was exhilarating and worrying in the same measure to be said focus.

During the first hours since she was out, he played it off as his mind playing tricks on him. After all, they were at the start of a very heated sex marathon and there was not much place for thoughts as their carnal desires and instincts took over.

But after five days of nonstop sex, Rei started to notice how she clung to him, how she soaked every bit of attention he was willing to give her, how she desperately tried to keep his interest on her rather than ending their lovemaking... he decided the first signs of her forming dependency on him and decided to show her the affection she so desired. If only to prevent her from going full yandere on him later on.

Rei did love her. It is quite hard to have someone basically live in your mind for months on end and not form at least a cordial relationship when you spend hours per day talking to said person and feel her presence almost constantly. Rei could admit... this solution of his with forming a mental connection between them did not work exactly as he hoped for. In fact, it backfired as they both formed feelings for each other without even realizing it. But... at least it backfired in a good way.

Kaguya was a very sweet and loving woman that would literally do anything for the person she loved. The only possible issue was her budding yandere tendencies but Rei wasn't too worried about it.

After all, Kaguya had an alright relationship with his other wives so that would not be a problem. She had nothing but the utmost respect for Konan and grudgingly tolerated even Ringo who was her least favorite member of the pack.

After the hundredth day, Rei decided to hell with it and started actively using nature energy to finally wear Kaguya down to her current state. It took him fifty days and he realized that... both of them were basically monsters at this point in time.

150 days of sex without water, food, or rest, their bodies only passively powered by the thick nature energy in the surroundings. And while he did feel a bit tired and was definitely sore, he was neither thirsty nor hungry. Rei never realized this. He never went without water or food for more than a few days. He never had any need to do that.

Nevertheless, they had all the time in the world since Kaguya created this dimension full of nature energy and containing just a single king-sized bed.

The irony of her doing in seconds what took Rei numerous months of research and a happy coincidence to accomplish when he was making his own dimension, was not lost on him... Damn the Rinnegan was a hax!

But now that he saw how she did it, Rei had ideas on how to replicate the feat so not all was lost...

The biggest advantage of this dimension was that time flowed extremely slowly. Hundred and fifty days inside was fifteen hours outside. Kaguya was simply the ultimate cheat worthy of the term 'Goddess' now that she had most of her power available to her.

But her biggest usefulness was not what she could do but how she did it. Kaguya did not do some incomprehensible hocus pocus. What she did was a technique based on chakra manipulation done subconsciously. Which meant, it was replicable.

This meant Rei could eventually find out how she did it and learn how to do it himself. Sure, it would take him a very long time to replicate what is basically a power of a God, but it was not impossible. After all, all she did was manipulate chakra to a degree not yet attempted by anyone else.

And while Kaguya didn't pay her powers much mind since they came naturally to her, Rei had his sensing powers going full throttle whenever she was using them. Data was important!

If Rei didn't miss his other women, he would probably spend a lot longer here with Kaguya and he would definitely come here again with all of his lovers for a vacation but it was time to return. It took a great deal of willpower from Rei to find this determination.

But… a little bit more wouldn't hurt, would it?

Her soft body and pleading eyes were definitely an enticement enough to stay but the little minx was actually learning how to excite him! Twenty days ago, she would definitely not try pushing her chest into his body nor would she put her thigh over his abdomen, nearing his crotch, close enough for it to be teasing.

Rei could feel himself getting hard again and if he didn't put a stop to this, he was fully aware they would start another days-long session.

Putting his left hand across her back on her shoulder, Rei suddenly pulled her over, making her roll over and land on her back next to him on the bed. He instantly flipped his body above her and before she could whinily protest, his lips sealed hers in a deep kiss while his right hand gently caressed her cheek.

Pulling away, Rei softly smiled and spoke, "Let me check your seals. It has been almost half a year already."

Hearing that, Kaguya looked at him in silent, unwilling shock for a while before she pouted. She wanted to continue kissing, touching, and...

But she rolled over and laid on her belly with a huff and great reluctance visible in her body language as she buried her face into the pillow.

Rei smirked and sat on her lower back, gently putting his hands on her tense shoulders while hearing her breath slightly hitch as she felt it.

'Now then... It was a long time since I used chakra to pleasure a woman but a small massage while I am checking the seal won't hurt, no?'

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Rei's chakra coursed through his hand into Kaguya's back, massaging her muscles and tingling her nerve endings with pleasure. Kaguya's eyes widened as a loud moan involuntarily came out of her mouth while her back stiffened from the sudden rush of pleasure.

As Rei's fingers started moving over her shoulders, slowly working their way down her upper back, pouring more and more of his stimulating chakra into her body, Kaguya couldn't help but whimper into the pillow and tightly close her eyes in joy, her body shivering in pleasure.

Rei watched as the gorgeous woman squirmed under him, listening to her muffled moans and feeling her involuntary shudders. He had to admit, it made him feel quite good to be able to get such a reaction out of her.

While his hands tried to make Kaguya orgasm with just his touch, his eyes scanned the intricate tattoo on her back, peering deeper into it. It was a masterpiece, both in artistry and seal making. At least he thought so but, then again, he was its creator so of course, he would have a high opinion of it.

Hearing another drawn-out moan from the woman under him, Rei's concentration was disrupted, causing him to wryly smile. He already knew they wouldn't be stopping anytime soon as he first wanted.

...

In the end, Rei spent another twenty days with Kaguya before they decided to rejoin the real world. When they did, they found out Izumi was already looking for them and only the prompt glomp from Kaguya stopped the girl from asking some uncomfortable questions.

Kaguya quite adored Izumi and before the Uchiha could even start to protest, she was 'confiscated'. Kaguya dragged her to her prepared room for some girl talk while Rei amusedly watched the mortified expression on Izumi, pleading with him to stop Kaguya.

He wondered if she already regretted helping him to free the woman or if it will take a few days yet.

"An entire day, huh?" Konan's voice resounded from behind Rei, startling him.

He turned around and spread his arms, causing Konan to chuckle as she dove into his embrace and kissed him.

"Will I also get an entire day of you just for myself?" She asked, intently starting into Rei's eyes and causing a cold sweat to appear on his back.

Unfortunately for him, he knew it wouldn't matter if he tried to hide how long he spent with Kaguya. She would brag about it anyway so...

"Sure," Rei smiled at Konan, putting her head to his chest. "Kaguya can make a special dimension for us where time flows slower." He instantly felt Konan stiffening in his embrace and could almost hear the gears turning in her head."

"Hmm~, and how long were you with Kaguya again?" Konan sweetly asked and Rei almost felt how she narrowed her eyes despite her having her head nuzzled to his chest.

"Around a... hundred... and seven...ty days?" Rei ended that statement with a clear question mark.

"Mhm. You are spending two hundred with me next time." Konan stated with finality and melted into the embrace again, her hold of Rei tightening.

Chuckling in relief, Rei gently nodded, letting her feel it since his chin rested on her head.

He could only briefly hear the muffled, "Who could have thought Kaguya would have been so useful." that came from Konan.

Deciding to do the right thing and ignore it, Rei asked, "So... what did you do while I was away?"

"I watched the other continents and even received new info from some of my spying clones. This world is a mess. I am grateful you took me in." She said and Rei was touched by the sincerity in her tone.

He may have been using her because of her talents, no way would he take just some random orphan from the streets, and she was also using him to survive but it all worked for the best. Rei would not change his actions for anything and he knew if Konan was thrown back in time, she would also look for him no matter what.

"We created a nice thing with the Village on the Other Side." Konan idly mused and Rei hummed in agreement.

They really did. Despite still being a mercenary village full of trained killers, the village was not divided into clans or ranks or anything. Even Uchihas were starting to come out of their shell and mingle with other villagers.

There was also not much hatred for other villages and no threat of war.

The Village on the Other Side was the most peaceful ninja village in these lands.

"Anything interesting from your spying clones?" Rei asked and pulled away from Konan, making her pout before he stretched his hand towards her and she cheerfully smiled, taking his hand into hers.

"Come, I will tell you in the Teleportation Room." Konan said and started dragging him towards a room in their mansion in the Village on the Other Side of the Moon.

Rei, however, had no idea what she was talking about. 'Teleportation Room?' He thought in confusion.

They arrived there in companionable silence, Rei opting to wait and see rather than demand an explanation. In the middle of the room was a drawn array of seals that Rei instantly recognized.

During his off time, Rei worked on the special teleportation seal that got them to the Moon the first time and he did finish it but then the work on Kaguya's seal took most of his time and he never implemented it.

"You... finished it?" Rei incredulously stated, not believing his eyes. He turned towards Konan who almost glowed with pride and expected praise but Rei only looked at her in utter disbelief and uttered, "You? Really?"

Needless to say, Konan was not amused to hear that. She pouted and hit Rei in the side before swiftly approaching the map in the room with a huff and frown on her face.

The map was clearly still a work in progress but it at least contained all known continents. and names of some states and layouts.

Rei was quite impressed and as he arrived next to Konan, he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, "It's beautiful." He whispered before kissing the side of her head and Konan preened, an indulgent smile forming on her lips.

"There is trouble brewing on the island to the west." Konan pointed towards an island between the western unknown continent and the Elemental Nations. "The Organization there is gathering some of its warriors in the north. All I could hear about it is the appearance of multiple Yoma there but I can't help but think something is fishy about it. And the whole Organization. Their whole modus operandi in the past reeks too much like Orochimaru's labs. I don't like it."

"So, you think these warriors of theirs-"

"Claymores." Konan added.

"Clamores," Rei nodded, "are just experimental subjects for them?"

"After learning their language I visited the towns with libraries..." Konan huffed, "Not that there was much to discover. The people there are so backward it hurts to spy on them. Most things I had to get from the context." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, the history of Claymores is just weird. Everything from the fact there is always only 47 of them at any given moment to the fact there was no progress in their living or fighting style for centuries now."

Rei looked at the map. He didn't remember much from the anime Claymore. It had been decades since his reincarnation and his mind was firmly set on the Naruto series. He distantly remembered what happened in the North but for all he knew, the canon might be long over or not yet started.

In the end, he asked, "And you think they are deliberately kept that way."

"Yes. You know that ninjas do not believe in coincidences. Dig deep enough and..." Konan started.

"There will always be some fucker pulling the strings." Rei finished for her with an amused chuckle.

"You would know, wouldn't you..." Konan snorted.

Rei ignored her and looked deeply at the map. This was a dilemma. He could go and save the Claymores or he could leave them be. Both options had pros and cons. "Hmm, what to do..."

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Author Note:

Well, I asked my patrons if I should or should not do a few chapters about Rei intervening in the west, and... considering it is here, you all can deduce the answer.

I apologize in advance if some parts will feel a bit bland to those who know Claymore anime but I had to account for those who do not know it so I am trying to input some explanations along the way and integrate them into the story.

--

Rei crouched on a roof of a house, withstanding a heavy snowfall and thanking his previous self for being smart enough to make seals that would keep him warm and wet in this kind of shitty weather as he watched how 24 Claymores gathered in the square of Pieta, the town they were currently in.

"This is insane. This Organization is going to sacrifice half of their numbers just like that?" Rei muttered in shell-shocked surprise. "It is pretty obvious this will be a one-sided massacre."

From the information Konan gathered, there were always only 47 Claymores and from what he remembered, this mission in the North was nothing more than a discreet execution. The Claymores had no other choice than to participate and participation in this was a sure way to commit suicide for them.

Even from his spot, he could clearly feel three malevolent unrefined chakras... or Yoki as they called it here... slowly approaching, taking their time. They would arrive in two to three hours with that kind of tempo so the first attack could be expected in the evening.

This Yoki had an artificial feel to it. It was honestly something he would expect from Orochimaru but... even for him, this would have been too primitive.

These beings felt a little bit like Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers who were swallowed by Kyuubi and survived by eating its insides, transforming themselves into a pseudo-jinchuuriki with the ability to form their own variant of kyuubi chakra.

Of course, such a transformation had many defects and affected the two brothers in ways even they themselves probably did not understand. If it was safe, Orochimaru would have used this method long ago. In fact, he did something similar with Juugo's DNA and it didn't turn out well for most.

But... 'That would mean there must be a being that was a precursor to these man-eating Yomas. If implanting Yoma flesh is how they make Claymores and Claymore that goes above her limit becomes 'Awakened' turning into a special kind of Yoma herself, then the first dose of the Yoma flesh had to come from somewhere too.' Rei reasoned.

He didn't feel good about how logical his thoughts sounded. He did remember that the continent to the west from this island where humans lived had supposedly two races living and always warring among themselves. One depended on their technology of sorts while the other on their own natural abilities? Or was he wrong?

It was too long for him to remember every detail but this stuck in his memory. Even then, it was muddled, half-forgotten knowledge and he couldn't be sure he got it right.

He had the distant impression that neither of these two races was humanoid though.

'This island full of humans should be one gigantic laboratory or something. If that's the case, it probably belongs to the race depending on technology and Yoma are something akin to the race depending on their natural abilities.' Rei continued his theory, 'So... they are trying to artificially create a tamable Yomas here? Damn, Orochimaru is bad enough alone. We don't need a whole race of him.'

And that brought a special kind of dilemma for Rei. He as the leader now had to decide if he should leave the western continent be, leaving the two races to continue their war or if he should intervene.

Both options held their own problems.

Letting them be now could backfire later as when the war between these two races finally gets its winner, who is to say the remaining race won't set its sights towards other continents?

Invading would however mean facing both races. One by one or together, it didn't matter. With war on the horizon on his own continent, Rei wasn't very keen on joining another in a different continent.

Then there was also the problem of what to do with the island full of humans so close to two races that could clearly give a shit about the well-being of humans.

Heck, one of them was using human girls as guinea pigs, implanting the flesh of the other race which caused immense agony until it mutated the girl or it didn't... and the girl died.

Honestly, the human in Rei wanted to exterminate the vermin. If only because Orochimaru was doing something similar, just his victims were not only little girls.

From what Rei could feel, the three incoming malevolent energy signatures were around the level of jonins energy-wise. And they did not suppress their cha-, ahem, Yoki even one bit.

Yet, not one of the 24 Claymores sensed them and the strongest of them felt just a bit weaker than the malevolent ones.

The power disparity between the Claymores was frankly ridiculous. Some of them were genin-level, some chunin-level, and only three could compare to jonins but Rei had a feeling it was not so simple. Yes, those were their energy comparison to the combat forces of the Elemental Nations but...

Rei could only wryly smile. Their chakra was unrefined and corrupted. He doubted they could do Jutsu with that for the same reason why Kyuubi could not do a Jutsu. Not because his chakra was too vast. But because his chakra was not supposed to be molded into a Jutsu in the same way as Nature Energy.

Both were more of enhancers capable of providing insane boosts rather than energies capable of forming Jutsus. They could enhance already formed Jutsu but there was a very limited range of things one could do solely with them.

Sure, a jinchuuriki using its bijuu's power was a frightening sight, and the jinchuuriki's power was something that far surpassed chunins even if they had almost no training but they were not exactly versatile. They were all about raw power.

Rei remembered some abilities of Claymores like enhanced healing, enhanced strength, enhanced speed... but he had no idea to what degree. 'If I am correct about my assumption about Yoki being more of an enhancer, then their abilities would make sense. Yoki would simply enhance their physical capabilities.'

Returning his attention to the gathering Claymores, Rei noticed they separated themselves into five teams with the five highest-ranking Claymores as the leaders.

That was... stupid.

If they had a similar level of prowess, sure. But like this, weaker, average, and stronger were all mixed and Rei couldn't help but think the weaker and average ones would just hinder the stronger ones in the team like this.

He predicted the fights will be something along the lines of weaker claymores either dying instantly or getting away from the fight, the average ones barely hanging on while the stronger ones would be really fighting. It would defeat the purpose of having teams and this way, the stronger ones would be hindered but Rei could also discern that no Claymore had any misgivings about this arrangement.

It was weird but... they were probably used to it. This was how things were done here so no matter what logic and common sense dictated, this is how they did it.

The Elemental Nations had similarly stupid traditions. Like sending barely trained thirteen-year-olds to war or to do dangerous missions. Rei quickly changed such idiotic traditions in his own village and every genin going on a mission had to have enough skill to compare to a chunin from other villages but Rei also understood that some people were blind to common sense when traditions were concerned and the others simply got used to it, stopping to think about it.

"Well, nothing to do but wait now." Rei stood up and jumped into an open window of a nearby house. He would not intervene before he could gather some more information about these Yoma and Claymores and watching them fight was the best way to do so.

'I wonder how the others are faring...' He idly thought.

After all, there was a reason why he was in Pieta alone.

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The evening hours quickly came and with them, the three malevolent signatures finally got to Pieta. Rei was half-wondering if he should just go and kick their ass to the town, fed up with how slowly they moved.

These were supposed to be scouts? They acted like damn tourists!

At least the action started soon enough and the three Awakened Beings, which were surprisingly male. This kinda surprised Rei since Claymores were supposed to be only women and Awakened Beings were just Claymores turned into Yomas by Awakening.

Deciding to uphold gender equality in this situation, Rei stopped caring.

The three malevolent signatures acted like proper scouts and... for some utterly baffling reason decided to just fuck whatever plan their leaders had and engage right of the bat.

If Rei was still doubting if he should save Claymores or try to persuade Yomas to join him, this was the answer. Why would he friggin' need animals incapable of doing basic reconnaissance? Yes, the Yomas were individually stronger than Claymores but they also seemed to possess exactly zero brains...

It was frankly sad to watch for him as a trained ninja. Seeing such incompetence made him a bit murderous.

Unfortunately for the Claymores, Rei didn't intend to interfere more than necessary just yet, so quite a few of them were in for some painful times.

During the wait for these three idiots to show up, Rei actively tried to sense a wider area around the city and found out there are around fifteen other Yomas, each stronger than the three incoming idiots, waiting some ways off from the city.

Interfering now would tip them off to his presence so Rei decided to let the Claymores deal with the three idiots while he watched their performance and judged if they had any worth for his village.

Sure, he would offer them a place anyway as he did to many, many other clans or more well-adjusted and reasonable rogue ninjas but if he would actively seek to improve their situation and help them, now for that they had to possess at least a minimal level of necessary usefulness to him.

Otherwise, they could simply be more cannon fodder for the village. Rei didn't have the time to pay attention to everyone and he obviously would put more effort into people with actual worth.

The first Yoma appeared right in the middle of the town square, looking like a tall bald humanoid with grey skin that resembled something akin to a carapace, swinging around five thin tentacles coming from the back of its head and massacring every human in sight.

Rei did not feel the need to save those humans. They knew well enough that the only reason for Claymores to gather was to hunt Yoma and they usually worked alone. Gathering of just three Claymores was a big reason for worry. Gathering of twenty-four? These people basically chose to stay in what was effectively a war zone so...

The Claymores quickly engaged with the bald humanoid Yoma, making him too busy focusing on them rather than killing the civilians.

The other malevolent signatures were 'hiding' on the roof of two houses, not yet transformed.

One of the Claymores, Flora, Rei thought was her name, found one of the not-really-hiding guys and instantly jumped through the roofs towards him, only to find out the guy actually had an ability to control the Yoki of others, being able to control their bodies.

That made Rei very curious. He never really saw this application of genjutsu.

Because that's what it was at its core. The guy just pushed his own Yoki into the system of his opponent and instead of causing illusions, he took control over their nervous system in a very crude and forceful way.

Yet, nobody in the Elemental Nations would even think of doing something so outrageous. According to the common sense of the Elemental Nations, this was impossible, and yet it was happening right in front of Rei's eyes.

He quickly noted the ability and its basic workings so the researchers in his village could look more into it and possibly recreate it.

The guy was playing with the attacking Claymores but it didn't last long. He got blind-sighted because he was being an idiot and wasn't taking the situation seriously. In a burst of speed, Clare, and this time Rei was certain that was her name as he distantly remembered her being the protagonist of the Claymore series, used a burst of her Yoki to give her arm... correction, to give the not-her arm a boost of speed.

Clare's sword blurred and the control-guy was almost slashed to pieces.

Oh, he seemed all fine and dandy, trying to show a strong front but Rei clearly saw him evading Clare's surprise attack just by a slight margin.

He too quickly decided to transform and took the likeness of a lizard crossed with a turtle... Yeah, Rei stopped using his brain at that point.

Surprisingly, this lizardo-turtle also had tentacles that could lengthen and be used for attacking. It was also incredibly tough as the Claymores had a hard time penetrating its skin no matter how many slashes they landed.

Honestly, the turtle Yoma was not even trying to evade. He just stood in one place and laughed.

And while that fight was going on, the last one from the Yoma recon group transformed into a monster resembling a massive grasshopper crossed with a bee sporting multiple legs. It seemed to also be blind since its eyes were covered in the armor-like carapace.

Of the three idiots, this one was the most disgusting-looking but also appeared to be the smartest. After all, he was the only one not trying to have fun but went for the kill right off the bat.

Rei actually had to intervene for the first time and prevent the Claymores from receiving fatal wounds.

He didn't do much. Just using very subtle and insanely advanced Wind Release to shift the air currents whenever the Grasshopper Yoma attacked, causing its attacks to steer slightly to the side. The Yoma still hit its targets but missed vital places.

Rei also tried to affect the three Yomas with genjutsu but their Yoki was too chaotic for his chakra to have an effect. It was dispelled before it could even take hold.

The following fight was much less dramatic than what would one expect from an anime... Well, Rei knew it was not anime anymore and his experience as a high-tier ninja was screwing the enjoyment out of the battle for him... but it was just so underwhelming!

Sure, both the Claymores and the Yomas moved at high chunin to low-jonin speeds and the Yomas had quite the physical prowess and durability but... Rei expected more.

The Yomas had everything one would expect from a monster. Speed, power, and toughness but almost no technique or tactics. Not to mention any sort of teamwork.

The three idiots could have dealt with the Claymores thrice over by now if they worked together. Instead, they let themselves be controlled by their baser instincts. It was just sad.

Rei almost lost hope for Yomas. What good is above jonin-level physical prowess when they are too lazy to even move from their spot, just letting others hit them?

But there was one signature with the gathering of the fifteen Yomas further away from Pieta that had energy-wise S-rank reserves, and two that actually surpassed average S-rank reserves, so he reserved his final judgment.

For now.

The Claymores had teamwork and technique alongside some special abilities of their own. From what Rei noticed, they were separated into different types. Some were defenders that had stronger healing abilities and some were the offensive types that had... Rei had no idea what. He didn't get that far yet.

The problem with Claymores was that they could not match the physical prowess of these three Yomas. Rei's senses were telling him that energy-wise the strongest three Claymores were on the same level as the Yomas.

In reality, the Claymores were far behind the raw power of the Yomas but they were using their brains and slowly started winning.

What Rei predicted happened though. The Claymores won the fight, killing the three Yomas by exploiting their arrogance and stupidity, and Rei gathered a lot of data from these fights, but most of the weaker Claymores were wounded.

The mix of power levels in the teams enabled all of them to survive as the strong Claymores protected the weaker ones but it also made the battle unnecessarily more complicated for the strong Claymores.

One wrong step and the outcome of this battle could have been the complete opposite. Simply put, the Claymores were lucky the Yomas did not actually try to win.

Rei was not very impressed. These Claymores would need a lot of work if he took them under his banner. But from what he saw of the Awakened Beings, the supposedly former Claymores, Rei was a bit impressed.

If the two above S-ranks in the distance were any indication, Claymores could become real powerhouses if trained well. And who knows? Maybe he could even find a way to give them the power of Awakened Beings without actually having them transform into Yomas.

That day, Rei was going to sleep with a lot of thoughts swirling in his head.

Yes, Claymores had potential... but that was all they currently had. The amount of work necessary to realize this potential was almost not worth it but if every single one of them could become a powerhouse physically rivaling an S-rank ninja...

Alas, Rei couldn't think about it too much. Tomorrow was his time to shine. The fifteen Awakened Beings started stirring once the three idiots were dead and Rei could already predict tomorrow would begin the real battle.

One he didn't intend to sit out.

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The morning came faster than expected and Rei realized the time as the leader of his village made him soft.

He became a lot stronger since his time playing a ninja for Kirigakure but when he woke up today because his senses picked up fifteen new and quite strong signatures coming into his passive range, approaching Pieta, he wasn't happy about it.

In fact, Rei wanted to just roll over and continue sleeping.

At least, before his eyes widened at that thought. He didn't even realize how he got used to the comfort of peaceful life.

Unfortunately, it was time to be a ninja so he had to get up from his bed.

These kinds of moments made him wonder if it wasn't high time for a change in profession. Being a ninja sounded cool when one didn't have to actually live through the gritty bits full of filth, early mornings, and hard training with no stop on end.

He would also mention killing but considering some people actually enjoyed that...

Rei had a nice and plentiful breakfast... and yes, he was still totally smug about making storage scrolls capable of storing food and water even though it happened over two decades ago... managed to properly wake up, and still had time before the Yoma forces would arrive.

It was maddening how conceited these monsters were.

Rei sensed as they finally entered the town and some of them started sneaking around, probably to surprise attack the hidden Claymores.

That told Rei some of the Yomas most likely had some way to sense this 'Yoki' since they knew where the silver-eyed witches were hiding.

He quickly suppressed his chakra even further, just to be sure. He definitely did not want to have to chase them if they decided to run away. Why should he bother when these Yomas were all coming to him, gathering in one place?

The first Yoma was trying to sneak in through the underground and the Claymores that were currently right above it, hiding in a house, had no idea about its presence.

"Great. If I don't interfere somebody is definitely going to die." Rei muttered to himself in dissatisfaction. "These girls are so gonna enter Anko's special boot camp once they join our ranks. That ought to improve their spatial awareness if they want it or not."

As Rei predicted, the Yoma burst from the floor, instantly grasping one of the Claymores around her waist in a surprise attack. Its hand was actually big enough it could hold the silver-eyed short-haired blonde like a kid would a doll.

The Yoma started to squeeze, causing the woman in its grasp to try resisting while a pain-filled scream tore out of her throat as her spine started to give out and her muscles and organs ground against each other inside of her due to her waist being forcefully compressed.

Her spine already started cracking and the Yoma was about to delightfully go for the last push, intending to use its full power to squash her like a bloody grape when suddenly it stopped feeling its arm.

Purple blood started to gush out from the new stump the Yoma sported as its arm alongside the Claymore painfully gasping for air with a face full of tears and fear fell onto the ground.

The other Claymores in the room could only watch in shock as a man appeared in front of the Yoma, pitifully small compared to the massive humanoid monster, and...

The Yoma was somehow vertically split in two without him moving even an inch.

The Claymores warily watched as the man turned around and gave them a cheerful smile, "You alright?"

The women clearly did not think what to think about what just happened but they did not drop their guard. Rei was actually mildly impressed by that. At least they seemed to be trainable, unlike the Yomas.

It was then the short-haired blonde groaned, alerting the other Claymores to her presence.

"Pamela!" Shouted one of them, carefully starting to approach her downed ally without stopping to look at Rei even for a second.

...

At the same time, on a roof of a different house, another group of Claymores was lying in wait, hoping to ambush an incoming enemy.

Unfortunately for them, there was another Yoma who snuck in through the ground and was about to use the exact same tactics as the first, intending to burst through the roof from below right under the weakest Claymore in the group.

It wouldn't take a genius to know what the Yomas goal was.

Unlike the first one, this didn't aim to grab the Claymore. Instead, its claws came first and were aimed to rip the Claymore open from the middle of her stomach up, probably fully bisecting her up to her right shoulder.

Rei, or rather, another of his shadow clones as it was too bothersome to move himself at this point in time, wasn't having that.

As the Yoma burst through the roof, Rei appeared behind the Yomas target, a girl with blonde hair done in two short braids, and put his arms around her waist before jumping back, causing her to evade her untimely meeting with death.

This happened so fast, the girl didn't even manage to react, only realizing she almost died when Rei landed with her a few feet away on the roof. The girl instantly started to hyperventilate from shock... but to give her credit, for how weak she was, it was commendable she gathered her wits almost instantly.

She was like a genin on a battleground full of jonins. Her fear was understandable.

The Yoma seemed incredibly surprised that it missed its target. It was some kind of humanoid with three eyes, the third one not exactly on the forehead, rather between its eyebrows, and it also sported bat-like wings.

Rei's clone watched how the Yoma took to the skies, clearly planning to make use of its aerial advantage and do hit and run tactics against the Claymores and him who were bound to the ground.

Unfortunately for it, the skill Rei chose to reveal for the time being was his Wind Manipulation.

The Yoma did not get far as its body suddenly split, its limbs, wings, and head separating from its torso mid-air due to invisible blades of wind doing their job.

It died with the disturbing and sadistic smile still on its face as it didn't even manage to realize its demise as the parts that previously made up its body fell separated onto the ground.

Seeing that, the Claymores instantly turned towards Rei who was still nonchalantly holding one of their comrades around her waist, and their guard was instantly raised.

They clearly did not like the situation since Rei had in his hands one of them and they also realized it was him who killed that Yoma.

Their eyes held resignation. They knew they would not be surviving a fight with someone who could do... that to an Awakened Being. But there was also a determination to fight to the last breath.

Rei smiled in satisfaction at their reaction and lazily put his chin on the shoulder of the slightly shaking woman in his arms as he spoke, "Don't you have other things to do than staring at me as if I was some kind of pervert?"

...

On the square, lizard-like massive Yoma was fighting another group of Claymores and managed to score a hit against one of them, pushing its open hand against her while she was mid-air, jumping towards it. The Yoma's hand suddenly stretched, planning to squash the Claymore like a fly on the brick wall of the nearby house.

The Claymore would most likely survive it with multiple broken bones if the Yoma stopped its attack once it broke down the wall with the Claymore's body but Rei's clone could see in its eyes that it wanted to push its hand forward until the Claymore was just a mangled mess of flesh.

He quickly sent a wind blade, separating the stretched arm from the Yoma's body and saving the Claymore's life despite the fact she did destroy a brick house with her body and many of her bones were broken because of it.

That woman was out of commission and would not be getting up anytime soon.

But at least she was still alive.

...

Rei made exactly twenty-four clones, one to watch over each Claymore. The Yomas clearly aimed to kill them in a way that was not instant, their attacks aimed to tear off limbs while also bisecting their target at the waist. This way, the Claymore they hit would be still alive for a few tens of seconds, feeling the pain and being fully aware her death was coming while only able to quietly dread it.

It was a cruel way of fighting but it was also the sole reason why the Claymores had even a remote chance at winning.

The Yomas were stronger than the Claymores. So much it wasn't even funny. The only reason why the Claymores could fight them was that the Yomas were playing with them.

There were only two more Claymores Rei's clones saved from certain death. Others were doing pretty well for themselves even though they were slowly being pushed back as the Yomas started to surround them.

Injuries slowly piled up, as Rei's clones only saved those in deadly situations and things like a torn arm were completely within the acceptable range, and the longer the fight dragged on, the less Claymores were able to properly fight.

The revealed clones of Rei didn't join the fray, they just sat on the nearest roof and watched the fight.

The more desperate the situation became, the more Miria, the leader of the Claymores and the strongest of the ones gathered in the town, was looking in the direction of Rei's clones.

Rei saw Miria's looks but he wasn't about to interfere until he felt the Claymores were sufficiently despairing.

It took another half an hour and by now, the last remaining Claymores capable of combat were gathered in a circle in the middle of the town square, surrounded by the Yomas who were having a lot of fun, while in the middle of the Claymore encirclement were all their members too injured to continue fighting.

The situation seemed hopeless enough for them so one of Rei's clones finally stood up while the remaining four revealed clones poofed out of existence, and smirked at Miria whose eyes outright begged for help.

The clone spoke, giving her his ultimatum. "I will give you a choice. I can help you survive. All of you.. But you all will have to desert the Organization and become mine. What about it? A cheap price to keep your lives, no?"

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Hearing the ridiculous proposition of the Yoma who for some reason seemed to save five of her comrades from certain death before it decided to just observe made Miria's despair only increase.

She had no idea what a Yoma of his strength would want with Claymores but probably nothing good. She heard a few stories about Riful, the Abyssal One of the West, the strongest Awakened Being in the western part of the world. Riful supposedly enjoyed torturing Claymores in various ways until they either died or awakened and even then, Miria heard that Riful killed every awakened one she didn't deem strong enough.

Miria shuddered at such a fate but the lives of her comrades depended on her decision. Her options were not great. Certain death or servitude to a Yoma who wanted who knows what with them.

Because that's what the man obviously was. There was no male capable of matching even the weakest Claymore in the world.

The only males capable of doing that were the former warriors of Organization before it started to use solely females because males usually awakened of their own volition rather than trying to suppress it.

The problem with male Awakened Beings is that they are all centuries old at this point. Experienced and incredibly strong. They all were exceptional warriors even before they became Yomas too.

The one in front of Miria, however, seemed to be even stronger than that.

For all Miria knew, the man in front of her could be another Abyssal One, Isley of the Northern Lands!

She saw how easily he dispatched the other Awakened Beings that were all male themselves. She didn't really see what he did. She didn't see him moving but... he had to move to cut the Yomas, no?

Yet, Miria, one of the fastest Claymores of the current generation, so much that it earned her the moniker of Phantom because she left after-images of herself after moving, couldn't even perceive his movements!

'Not accepting his offer is certain death.' Miria bitterly realized and gripped the handle of her sword tighter, 'We will either die to the Yomas surrounding us or he will get bored and slaughter us all alongside the Yomas. Dammit! I didn't survive for so long to die like this!'

For years now, Miria survived one suicide mission after another. The Organization clearly wanted her dead because she was 'half-Awakened' and then for trying to uncover the truth behind them and the only reason why she was not yet declared rogue with multiple single-digit Claymores hunting her was that she was the current number 6.

She might not be able to match any Claymore below her number since that was the league of the real monsters but warriors of her strength were not easy to get and that saved her from such a fate so far.

But apparently, this whole mission was just one big disposal of troublemakers.

Miria didn't have any illusions about Yomas. Since the man on the roof was certainly a Yoma himself, he would definitely be like the others and despite his cheerful and approachable facade, there would be sadistic and cruel nature hidden underneath it. Yet...

She glanced at her comrades who were looking at her with almost pleading worry, apparent unease, and, much to Miria's shame, a hint of hope on their faces, and at that moment, her mind was made.

'Even if we become his playthings, at least we will survive.' She wryly smiled, knowing that if the man really wanted to torture them into awakening, many of her comrades alongside her would rather choose death at that point. But... Miria couldn't make that choice for others. 'It's the only way.'

"I can't speak for you!" She loudly exclaimed, getting the attention of other Claymores while being grateful that this display seemed to be amusing for the Yomas surrounding them, so they just watched the drama unfold without attacking. "But I think we should accept the... offer."

Miria's tone was a level quieter with a hint of resignation and defeat. Usually, suggesting to surrender to a Yoma would quickly get her many cries of outrage. Doing that would be the quickest way to get on the hit list of the Organization and be hunted down by numbers one to five, the strongest Claymores the Organization currently had.

The Claymores around Miria clearly recognized that fact too, if the cynical and bitter smiles on their faces were any indication. There were only a few weaker Claymores that seemed highly uncomfortable but the higher-ranked ones understood her, in many cases already disillusioned with the Organization after experiencing their own shares of hardship.

After all, if they were not troublemakers, they would not be here.

"Heh, we are dead either way so what does it matter if the organization hunts us or not?" Helen exclaimed and grinned, breaking the pensive mood of the group, "I'd rather take my chances with him." She gestured with her head towards the man on the roof, showing she supported Miria's decision.

Miria was grateful for that but she also knew she could count on Helen, Deneve, and Clare as they also knew the Organization wanted them dead from their past joint mission where they almost died because the Organization 'accidentally' didn't give them enough information and sent them to hunt a male Awakened Being far above their strength.

Surviving that was frankly a miracle.

"I agree." Deneve also revealed her opinion in her usual reserved manner.

While neither Helen nor Deneve was one of the five leaders, they proved their worth during the previous battles so the other Claymores had quite a bit of respect for them.

No other Claymore expressed her agreement verbally but Flora, the current number eight, looked around at her comrades. She didn't like this one bit. She felt helpless and as calm as she looked, she didn't want to die.

She didn't train until her hands bled and her arms refused to move from repeating the motion of sheathing and unsheathing her blade so much it became second nature to her.

That's why she pursed her lips and also reluctantly agreed, "Fine. From the looks of it, we are all in agreement." She turned to Miria and nodded at her.

Miria was shocked that Flora accepted so readily. She pegged the mild-mannered woman that was like a sheathed blade most of the time as someone who would vehemently protest this because she thought it wrong but... apparently the Windcutter was not as loyal to the Organization as it first seemed.

Well, figures. She also wouldn't be here if she wasn't causing trouble.

Miria turned back to the man sitting on the roof and shouted, "You heard us. We agree to your terms!"

"Yes?" The man lifted his eyebrows.

"Yes!" Miria exclaimed nervously as the thought that this was just some elaborate play to mentally torture them crossed her mind.

"Hmm..." The man gave out a long thoughtful hum and Miria suddenly remembered something she saw on one of her missions where a high-ranked noble hired her to deal with a Yoma.

Swallowing her pride, she gritted her teeth. "Yes, Master."

That seemed to work as the man stopped his thinking and looked at her... before he snorted and slowly started to get up, "Oh, well. I guess I should do my part of the deal if you are willing to go that far, Miria-chan."

Miria grimaced at that and tried to ignore the silent snickers of Helen behind her as the tips of her ears definitely turned red.

One Yoma had clearly had enough of just observing and screamed in a tone that suggested it found this whole situation extremely entertaining, "Ha! You bitches think he can help y-"

It didn't finish its sentence because...

Suddenly, all the Awakened Beings in the surrounding stopped in their tracks and uncountable slash marks started appearing all over their bodies as their sadistic expressions full of enjoyment turned into bewildered ones... and suddenly they all burst like a balloon, smearing the town square with their purple blood and small bits that were previously their bodies.

Watching the spectacle, the Claymores couldn't believe their eyes as their jaws dropped from sheer shock and Miria was certainly not an exception.

Her feet betrayed her and she ended up dropping on her posterior, her legs folding next to her as she couldn't find words to describe her current feelings.

In the end, she could only bow her head to the man in resigned gratitude, relieved her decision seemed to be a correct one.

She just hoped this relief will last.

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Rei looked at the twenty-four Claymores in front of him, the prevalent majority of them exhausted, some injured by what would be definitely crippling injury for life among ninjas but none of them dead.

It was honestly curious.

These Claymores, even the weak ones, could regenerate lost limbs whereas in the Elemental Nations, despite the advances in medical ninjutsu, this was still considered impossible by most. Yet, these backward warriors who barely had any proper technique could do it.

"Well, would you look at that? You all survived! Isn't that just wonderful?" Rei cheerily clapped his hands, eliciting helpless and tired looks of cowed anger from some of the women while others were either in too much pain to react or too exhausted they didn't have the energy to muster a reaction.

"What are you going to do with us?" Miria hollowly asked, not in the mood for games so she got straight to the point.

She was not injured but deciding the fate of herself and her comrades in the face of this monster was mentally and emotionally exhausting. When she saw how he chopped the Yomas against whom they struggled to survive to pieces without even leaving his place... it just made her that more assured there will be no backing off from this deal.

Rei lifted his eyebrow at her and looked over at the group of exhausted women who watched him with worry and almost scared expectations again.

"As I said, you are now mine. I will take you to my village and-" Rei stopped when he noticed the eyes of the girls abruptly widened in fright and their jaws dropped. "What?" He frowned.

"There is an entire village of..." Miria trailed off, gulping nervously as the horror settled in.

The situation was worse than she thought! A village full of Yomas!? And he expected them to come there with him!?

Miria had no idea how to react to that.

Rei got an inkling suspicion there was some misunderstanding going on from the looks he was receiving but he couldn't seem to figure it out. Instead, he just curtly nodded, "Yes. My village."

Miria was too shocked to speak and so, Flora decided to ask the next question, "And what are we supposed to do in this village of yours?"

Rei looked at the small woman with wavy blond hair and tried to reassuringly smile, "It won't be all that different from what you do now. Many in my village are mercenaries-"

'A village full of mercenary Yomas!?' Miria almost choked at that, having to take a few deep breaths to calm herself.

But she wasn't discarding this chance in her mind. The Organization wanted them dead and this might very well be their only way to survive. It stung her pride and went against everything she was raised to believe by the Organization but joining this blond man might not be such a bad idea at the moment.

"-and you will be provided training and resources to improve your strength before joining the ranks of the village as its warriors. The work is similar but of course, we don't have ridiculous rules like not harming humans. I'd like to believe what I offer you is better than your current situation if only because I actually plan to make you strong enough to survive your future tasks." Rei shrugged casually, reminding them they were still on a clear suicide mission.

Which worked quite well if the mutinous and dissatisfied looks of the Claymores were any indications.

When the initial wave of disgruntlement at their predicament faded, the only emotion left in the Claymores was slight depression and unease. This was, surprisingly enough, broken by Helen.

"Sign me up. If you plan to train us so we can survive then I will fight for you. Not like there is a better option anyway." Helen light-heartedly spoke in a boisterous way, giving a clear direction for the Claymores.

Now most of them stopped being so 'lost' and started focusing on the chance to become stronger so they could protect themselves. This mission of theirs no doubt showed all of them how easy it would have been for them to die.

"I agree." Flora said, more towards other Claymores than Rei, "Even if he is a Yoma-"

'A what now?' Rei lifted his eyebrow at her in speechless disbelief, the gears in his head instantly starting to turn in overdrive.

"- he still saved us. Do you want to end up in a similar situation later on? In similar despair?" Flora finished and while her voice was soft, the effect it had on the Claymores was staggering as soft muttering was heard from the group, and the mistrust and small hostility some individuals were previously showing Rei lessened by a great deal.

Rei had to admit the woman was a natural leader.

Unlike Miria who was more of a fighter than a leader, Flora was capable of turning the opinion of the crowd with her words and natural charisma. A charisma that was not due to her status as a single-digit Claymore.

And the girl was apparently self-taught in this skill too. She didn't seem to have much idea what she was doing and about the small mistakes she was making. For Rei, it felt more as if she was put into leadership positions in the past and somewhere along the line realized what worked and what did not and now was using it to her benefit.

Miria was much the same but she lacked Flora's natural grace and was much more rigid.

Rei remembered it was also Flora who first engaged the scout Yoma during the very first fights, not letting it have a free hand while the other Claymores fought the other two Yomas.

That was a good call. The Yoma obviously wanted to sneakily take down Claymores from the behind and its ability to control the Yoki of others would prove disastrous for the Claymores if it wasn't engaged in a fight.

Flora more than likely saved all of them by breaking the ranks and interrupting the Yoma.

While Miria was undoubtedly stronger, Rei was more interested in Flora. Miria was at best jonin level, her afterimages caused by her movement technique rather than her sheer speed. There were many jonins in his village that could be more than her match even without using ninjutsu and genjutsu.

Her strength in this group was irrelevant. It didn't matter that she was one of the top dogs here. In his village, she was average at best.

But people like Flora with a natural aptitude for leadership and a good head on her shoulders... now these would be always in demand. Strength could be trained but natural charisma was hard to cultivate.

While the women were having their hushed talks, Rei was thinking about their apparent false perception of him. They thought he was Yoma? He couldn't understand how they got to that conclusion but the sooner he broke them out of it, the better.

"Before this discussion can go on, I think we have something to clear up." He said and silence suddenly descended on the town square. "I am not a Yoma." He bluntly spoke, causing the Claymores to look at him in incomprehension.

Deneve was the first to recollect her cool and carefully asked, "You are... not?"

From her tone it was obvious she didn't believe him, a sentiment shared by most of the Claymores, but Rei just plainly shook his head.

"No."

It didn't matter to him if they believed him or not but he had to say it. They would eventually realize the truth even if they currently didn't believe him so trying to prove himself was just wasted effort.

"But... men can not be so strong!" A burly girl full of muscles with two swords on her back, Undine, exclaimed and Rei involuntarily snorted.

He looked at Undine, causing her to defiantly stare at him with threatening body language... but her eyes were completely full of fright. It was hilarious, seeing that girl play tough. Especially when Rei knew all these muscles were just a Yoki manipulation technique. He could quite easily sense her real body shape and she was actually even tinier than Flora who was the most petite Claymore in the group!

"Girl," Rei drawled with amusement written in his expression, "I think you are misunderstanding something here. Your worldview doesn't matter. You are just a weak experiment living on a backwater island. You don't have any idea what is possible in this world."

And while his words were harsh, they were spoken jovially. It took a while for the muscled Claymore to understand Rei insulted her.

But Flora showed her leadership qualities again and put a hand on Undine's... forearm, since she would have to reach up if she wanted to put it on her shoulder, and broke Undine's rising indignation.

It was so easy to forget the man in front of them was dangerous enough to wipe them all out instantly if provoked. His behavior was just so disarming that Flora had a hard time keeping her vigilance around him.

"Then, what are you if not Yoma?" She asked.

Rei smirked, happy the woman was not arrogant enough to assume there are only Yomas and Claymores in the world.

"Me?" Rei nonchalantly pointed at himself, "I am a ninja."

Needless to say, that told the Claymores exactly nothing.

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Rei loved the confusion on the Claymores' faces. They clearly never heard of ninjas and didn't fully believe his claim of not being a Yoma but they also had doubts about their worldview.

If Rei was indeed telling the truth, then that would mean there were other people capable of slaying Yomas and... That rubbed the Claymores the wrong way.

They were always told they had to hunt Yomas because there was nobody else capable of doing so. They were made to dedicate their whole life, their whole existence, to serving the Organization and enacting their orders because only they could slay Yomas.

They took solace in the fact they were protecting humanity.

To be told they were not really needed? That there was somebody else who could do the job instead of them?

It was both relieving and vexing for the female warriors.

While he was enjoying the rare expressions on the Claymores' faces, Rei suddenly blinked and turned his head towards the north before clicking his tongue before walking forward.

The Claymores had no idea how to react as he started walking through their group. There was still wariness in their eyes but resignation was more prevalent. Rei didn't care about them right now, though.

He had a tougher nut to crack.

Arriving behind, or in front, depending on the perspective, of the group of Claymores, Rei shifted his body weight in preparation for a quick reaction.

"Will you show yourself or coward is your default setting?" Rei taunted.

Such a weak taunt would definitely not work on most chunins but Rei decided there was no need for anything overly complicated. These Yomas were apex predators for far too long. Having somebody they consider beneath them insult them would either rile them up or... it won't and tell Rei that his opponent was worthwhile and he should take him a bit more seriously.

It was a win-win situation for Rei anyway.

When a slow clapping sound resounded through the town square as a young man with dark hair that fell over his pale silver eyes appeared calmly walking from the blizzard that limited the visibility, Rei couldn't muster any kind of surprise.

By now, he fully understood that Yomas were prideful and arrogant beings.

Why should their top dogs be any different?

"Really? You show yourself just because I called you a coward?" Rei gave the condescending young man a deadpan look, stopping him dead in his tracks.

The young man narrowed his silver eyes at him before his gaze slowly slid towards the Claymores, disregarding Rei altogether.

Rei frowned. Not because of the disregard but because of the utter inability to read the situation. Yes, Rei had his chakra bound tighter than Anko ties her poor victims. In the young man's eyes, Rei is probably no more than a civilian.

There was a reason why he did not show his full power to annihilate the Yoma 'army'. He didn't want to scare this guy away. But still, one look at the battlefield and he should see something was amiss.

The guy just seemed to not care, judging his opponents' prowess only by their energy levels.

"This is a miracle. All of my Awakened Beings are dead but none of you died. You are fine warriors. If you had more time to grow, you might have posed a challenge. Unfortunately, I can't allow that to happen." The young man spoke before a massive discharge of Yoki erupted from him.

A vortex of crimson energy emerged around the young man, ferociously swirling and lighting the surroundings with a blood-red hue as his body started to shift.

It slightly reminded Rei of werewolf shapeshifting and for the first time, he actually appreciated the shape of a Yoma. From what he saw up till now, Yomas were ugly motherfuckers.

This dude however had it a bit better aesthetically.

When he was completely shifted, he resembled a silver-eyed, humanoid lion creature with a wolfs' elongated snout, bulging muscles, proper six-pack, and was around three meters in height.

Frankly, if Rei saw such a monster in his previous life, he would probably shit himself and reincarnate from the sheer fright.

Unfortunately for the lion wolfie, Rei saw much more dangerous 'monsters' than him.

When Miria saw the transformation, she instantly shook in fright, "Impossible!" She exclaimed in a quiet voice, trying to keep her fear out of it for the benefit of her comrades. "Tha-That's Rigaldo! The Silver-Eyed Lion King, Rigaldo!"

Her exclamation was supposed to serve as a warning to get ready for anything. Rigaldo was legendary and there was no Claymore that didn't know about him. Even those who still have no clue what exactly Awakened Beings are, knew that there was an extremely powerful Yoma called Rigaldo with strength just below the three Abyssal Ones.

Alas, Miria's lack of leadership qualities showed once again as the whole group of Claymores was now extremely scared for their lives now that they knew who they were facing.

Rei couldn't blame Miria for her oversight. She meant well and there was a need to remind the battle-capable Claymores that their enemy is much stronger than the previous ones.

He glanced at them with a small disappointment in his gaze. They already lost half of the fight if they refused to properly stand up to their enemy.

'And they were doing so well against the Awakened Beings...' He wryly smiled and gently shook his head.

Oh, they had the will to fight and survive but it was considerably shaken after knowing the identity of their enemy.

'I wonder what would they feel if they knew both Isley and Priscilla, two beings on the level of Abyssal Ones, are currently heading this way.' Rei snorted. Now that would probably completely finish off any sort of self-confidence the Claymores had left.

"Calm down!" Flora suddenly firmly spoke, "Focus on surviving, not on your fear! You will die that way."

Her words were simple and plain but they certainly hit home.

Rei's lips twitched upwards when he saw the Claymores settle down and the battle-able ones prepared for a fight to the bitter end. They rallied behind Miria, depending on her strength but Flora's words gave them the necessary final push to gain resolve.

Rei thought it was... adorable. He wondered when was the last time he faced a life and death battle.

Obviously, it was just an idle curiosity of his. The whole goal for him in this life was being smart enough to avoid such a thing. If one had to fight, he should first get strong enough to win the battle easily.

Depending on some on-spot mid-fight boosts and strength level breakthrough... now that was totally retarded.

In the real world, if one is not strong enough, he should not engage. Period.

Running headfirst into an avoidable fight one was not certain to win was stupid beyond words. Granted, there were some unavoidable fights, and giving your all even if it looked lost from the start was exactly the thing that could pave the path to victory, but the point still stood.

Now that the Claymores were ready for a fight Rei was not willing to let them participate in, he refocused on the lion wolfie.

Rei had manners. He left Rigaldo to finish his transformation without chucking a mini bijuudama at the stupidly stationary target. He wanted to see what the wolfie would do after transforming.

Rigaldo did not further disappoint Rei.

There was no overly long, boring monologue or boasting. He just disappeared the second he was transformed and...

A wind blew into Flora's face, causing her to squint her eyes, and her brain trying to process what her eyes were seeing. It took a second but her brain finally managed to register what was happening in front of her and her eyes widened in terror as she took a step back. She was however so shaken up she slid on the snow and fell on her posterior.

'I almost died!' Her mind screamed at her but her body couldn't stop shaking as he realized Rigaldo was right in front of her in the middle of the other Claymores who were only now realizing what was happening, 'And I didn't even see how.'

Rigaldo's claw on his pointing finger was just a small distance from the center of her forehead, his massive hand held back by the deceptively small... ninja.

The mysterious man saved her life!

Flora gulped, her throat uncomfortably dry all of sudden.

She could imagine what her fate would have been if the ninja did not stop Rigaldo. He would have split her head like a knife does an apple!

Flora shuddered at the thought and how close she was to death. She was straight out hyperventilating and felt the same fear as a rookie who was on her first Yoma hunt.

"Rigaldo wordlessly looked at the small hand preventing him from killing his first prey before his silver eyes slowly relocated towards the owner of said hand and found the... civilian.

If it surprised him, he didn't show it. Instead, he asked, "Who are you, weakling?"

Rei almost face faulted. Yes, he was still suppressing his energy levels but... wasn't him stopping his hand enough proof of...

'You know what? Fuck it.' He dryly thought and spoke, "Me? I am Rei Yotsuba, the new owner of these Claymores. Trying to harm something that is mine... now that was where you fucked up."

And with that, Rei released his chakra suppression, exactly matching Rigaldo's own energy levels and putting yet another scare through the group of Claymores who subconsciously started to put their hopes for survival in his hands and with that, seeing Rei as someone important.

Before Rigaldo could comprehend what was going on, he received a snap kick between his legs courtesy of annoyed Rei, and flew to the nearby building, demolishing it with his body while his brain was overloaded by pain from smashed eggs.

And who knows? Rei had his hopes up that maybe it would add some intelligence to that arrogance.

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Rei watched as Rigaldo shook off the rubble of the house that collapsed on him, and furrowed his eyebrows when the wolfie seemed to be completely fine after the kick to his balls.

Rei's eyes involuntarily slid down... and he promptly facepalmed when he saw nothing dangling between Rigaldo's legs.

He didn't know if he should feel pity for the werewolf-wannabe or mentally scold himself for his stupidity. Of course, the desired effect would not be achieved from kicking a dickless dude between his legs!

"Rei Yotsuba, you say?" Rigaldo regally asked with interest and eagerness shining in his silver eyes as the energy coming off of him became more intense. "You hid your strength well. Even I was fooled!"

'Damn... he is a battle junkie, isn't he?' Rei couldn't help but feel a bit dirty after realizing his kick between Rigaldo's eyes seemed to excite the guy more than it hurt him.

On the brighter side, Rigaldo seemed to lose all of his interest in the Claymores, fully focusing on Rei instead. That, at least, went exactly as intended.

"Is that supposed to be a taunt?" Rei raised his eyebrow at Rigaldo. "You know what? Let's just fight. I doubt you could give me an intelligent conversation, animal."

"I was praising you." Rigaldo dryly stated, "And your taunting skills are quite bad too." He deadpanned.

Rei blinked at him, shocked that his taunt didn't work. "Er... this is kinda awkward but you aren't wrong, dickless."

When in doubt, pull a Sai-move.

Apparently, that was a wrong thing to say because if he previously had Rigaldo's interest, now he had his full undivided attention and rage.

Rigaldo appeared in front of Rei in a burst of speed that roughly rivaled a low-level S-rank physically oriented ninja by Rei's estimation, and took a swipe at him with his claws.

Rei didn't react more than to lean back at the last possible moment, causing Rigaldo's claws to harmlessly pass less than an inch from him as he cocked his head at the three meters tall Yoma.

"Did I hit a sensitive spot?" He asked with an amused tone, causing Rigaldo to growl.

Rei did not wait for an answer and the only warning Rigaldo got was Rei's hand balling into a fist before he saw the figure in front of him flicker and then he felt a massive impact into his stomach and found himself flying back before again colliding with another house, causing it to collapse on him.

Rei casually retracted his arm and looked towards the rubble his punch caused with Rigaldo's body. He was... surprised by how durable the Yoma was.

Granted, Rei held his strength back but he doubted his punch actually hurt the werewolf-wannabe.

'I will need to use a blade or more strength.' Rei frowned.

This Yoki was certainly unbalanced bullshit when it came to Yomas. Their innate durability was nothing to scoff at.

Surprisingly, the Claymores didn't have as many physical advantages.

'Or rather, their techniques do not come instinctively to them.' Rei thought, briefly glancing at the group of worried Claymores that watched the fight with bated breaths full of hope.

After all, their survival depended on Rei's victory.

The rubble of the recently collapsed house suddenly burst from the force of Rigaldo abruptly standing up, and as Rei thought, he was not hurt even a bit from his punch.

Rigaldo fiercely looked at Rei, his eyes shining with arrogance, as he loudly and proudly proclaimed, "I am The Silver-Eyed Lion King! I am the second strongest man in the world! There is only one male stronger than me and it is definitely not some blonde-haired twerp!"

He then gave a long roaring bellow, the crimson Yoki erupting all around him as his muscles bulged and the aura around him became more fierce and primal...

Rei just watched it with a curious mind and deadpan look. He couldn't believe this was really happening and wondered when his life became an anime.

'So this is the fabled power-up during a fight.' Rei dryly thought. 'What's next? Will the next boss come after I deal with this one?'

Rei wanted to scoff at that notion. He really did. But the two S-rank Yoki signatures approaching Pieta did not inspire much confidence in him.

He really couldn't laugh it off as usual.

Rigaldo didn't care about Rei's unamused mood. He rushed at him at a speed that far surpassed his previous one and punched in Rei's direction, aiming at his head with ferocious and murderous determination shining on his broadly grinning expression.

Rei... sidestepped.

This caused Rigaldo to overreach and trip, his body starting to involuntarily somersault until yet another house stopped him.

Rei chuckled at that. Rigaldo clearly had trouble controlling this new strength of his. He was not used to this kind of speed.

But it was extremely curious. His previous low-level S-rank physical strength increased to high-level S-rank one in one big rise. All physical attributes of his were enhanced. Power, Agility, and Rei would bet his lunch money that Rigaldo's durability increased too.

With a roar, Rigaldo erupted from the newly made rubble. He shook himself, growled at Rei, a sound Rei interpreted as excitement and lust for battle, and lunged forward.

Rei wryly sighed at the sight as he once again sidestepped, this time however adding a spin kick for a good measure of Rigaldo's durability.

He used a bit more strength than what he thought to be Rigaldo's durability limit before his power up... and the werewolf-wannabe was sent through several houses.

Rei winced at that. 'We will completely destroy this town if this continues.'

He intended to privatize this island so destroying the town was basically destroying something that will soon belong to him.

'It is all for science.' He tried to appease his greedy mind.

By now, Rei had quite a clear picture of Yoma's fighting ability. Rigaldo's power-up was very interesting but in front of Rei, it was useless. In fact, Rei thought it made Rigaldo weaker.

Before he at least could fight intelligently as was shown from his attempt at Flora's life. Now he was more of a mindless beast focused only on fighting the opponent he focused on. He wasn't even using his smarts much during his pathetic attempts to attack and definitely couldn't control his new strength and speed.

All that strength and it was wasted for useless pounces.

Rei almost felt insulted.

Of course, in the face of a Claymore, even as strong as Miria, Rigaldo would totally wreck them before they could even realize what was going on even before he had his sudden power-up.

Rigaldo was an extremely strong Awakened Being.

The guy was practically a legend for centuries now. No Claymore could easily best him. Not even rank 1 could expect coming from a fight with him whole.

Rei did not see Rigaldo as anything special but his standards were skewed from the very start. He didn't value strength. He valued something else. Something much more important.

He valued sensibility.

Unfortunately for Rigaldo, he was found lacking.

Rei straightened up, shifting his body into a battle-ready state as Rigaldo found his way back to the town square after his quick roll through the town.

"I think I've got all the information and data fighting you could provide so... I am ending this now." Rei dispassionately said and raised his right hand towards the sky just as Rigaldo started rushing at him.

With a short puff of smoke, a sword appeared in Rei's hand and was quickly engulfed by lighting coating as Rei swung it in a downward arc, sending out a lightning energy wave with the slash.

Rigaldo appeared in front of Rei in a burst of speed, the kinetic force of his dash carrying him forward, just as the tip of Rei's sword reached the lowest point, the slash finished, and Rigaldo's body vertically separated into two pieces in the middle, falling around Rei who calmly stood in between them as they were on their way towards the ground.

The battle finished, Rei turned towards the Claymores only to notice them gape at him with wide eyes full of speechless wonder and admiration.

Most of them couldn't even see the clashes between Rei and Rigaldo! They were too fast! All they saw was a blur and then houses started collapsing. The Claymores felt extremely relieved that they were under Rei's protection.

Rei could only wryly smile at the degree of adoration in their eyes, deciding to leave setting the girls straight to Konan. No way was he doing something so troublesome!

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Rei looked towards the north where he felt the two massive Yoki signatures coming towards Pieta, one of them seemingly distressed that Rigaldo's Yoki disappeared, while the other was oozing satisfaction, most likely due to the weak third signature of a normal human without unlocked chakra pathways that was near her and gave of the feeling of worry.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a worry for his own life. It was some other kind of worry that Rei didn't bother deciphering.

He looked at the group of Claymores gathered at the edge of the town square, waiting for his instructions, and gave them a reassuring smile. It calmed some of them while putting others at the edge but one simply can't please everyone.

"I am going away for ten to thirty minutes." When they looked incomprehensibly at him, Rei's smile became a bit forced. They seemed to have no concept of hours, minutes, and seconds. He knew they were backward but he had no idea it was this much. "Haa~, I will be back soon. Just... wait for me here and tend to your injured, okay?"

He turned to Flora and Miria as he asked that, knowing these two were respected among the group.

Getting the hint, Flora nodded and Miria spoke, "We will wait for you here."

It would have been extremely bothersome for Rei if the Claymores decided to run when he went through so much to get them into his service.

Smiling in acknowledgment, Rei disappeared from the Claymores' sight in a burst of speed.

...

Rei appeared right in front of a traveling party of three people on two horses.

On the first horse was a youthful-looking man with long, silver hair, and next to him, on the second horse was a pretty ordinary-looking boy with short light-brown hair and a scar above his left eyebrow. On the second horse in front of the average boy sat a skinny, pre-adolescent girl with short brown hair and brown eyes.

The girl and the silver-haired man instantly noticed Rei while the brown-haired boy seemed oblivious for a while yet.

"Hi, I came to privatize your lives!" Rei cheerfully exclaimed.

His energy was once again tightly suppressed to levels of a normal civilian. The silver-haired dude at least definitely felt his chakra when he defeated Rigaldo so Rei didn't want to give his identity away so readily. He wanted to see their reaction first.

He was left disappointed. The three people silently stared at Rei without any reaction until he felt quite awkward.

The girl finally turned towards the silver-haired man and tilted her head in confusion, "What does privatize mean?"

The silver-haired man genially smiled and said, "I have no clue, Priscilla."

Before the girl could turn towards the brown-haired boy, he too spoke, "I don't know either."

The trio turned expectantly towards the flabbergasted Rei who decided it was the best time to facepalm, having to remind himself again he was basically dealing with cavemen.

'Elemental Nations, I am sorry for calling you backward when I first experienced your technology and civilization level. Compared to this, you are golden!' Rei wistfully sighed in his mind.

"Haa~, whatever. I came to see if you are useful to keep alive or if I should just kill you." Rei dryly said, suddenly giving off a menacing aura as his chakra burst free from the suppression in its entirety, causing both Isley and Priscilla to feel as if the weight of the world dropped on their shoulders.

Isley was instantly drenched in a cold sweat, looking at Rei as if he was a monster... which was funny, considering he was the one who ate people out of the two of them.

Raki, much like the horses, didn't feel a thing so he was quite confused about why Priscilla stiffened and Isley looked as if he saw a ghost. The poor lad was just a normal human. There was no need to traumatize him by letting him feel Rei's chakra.

But it was Priscilla whose reaction was the worst.

At first, she stiffened, staring at Rei with wide eyes full of terror.

Then she slowly whispered, "Yoma." In a scared voice... before her eyes turned gold.

That was the only warning Rei got before she blurred and he was forced to jump back to dodge the ax-kick from the now transformed Priscilla. When the kick impacted the ground, it created web-like cracks all around the zone of impact.

Rei steadied himself, quite impressed with the sheer physical power displayed, and looked at the transformed girl.

Her Awakened Form was a winged humanoid about two meters tall with a single horn on her forehead and a pair of wings on her back. It wasn't bad, as far as a Yoma appearance went but the most human part of her was her face. Her body reminded Rei of dryads from games whose limbs were made of several branches, just in Priscillas case it was all flesh and purple. She was humanoid but she did not resemble a human.

Rei saw how the horned girl glared at him with hate, causing him to lift his eyebrow at her and wonder what was her problem.

"Oi... I said I am going to kill you if I deem you useless but you don't have to make the decision so easy for me." Rei amusedly started.

Yeah, he could admit that attacking a dude who comes and threatens your life was a smart thing to do but... that only applied if the dude was on the same level as you. If he was leagues above you, then attacking him was suicide.

He wondered what was used as fillings in the girl's head because brains were clearly lacking...

Priscilla did not seem to appreciate Rei's comment and lunged at him... which he sidestepped and let her sail harmlessly past him, breaking several trees with her body as she impacted them like a cannonball.

Rei briefly glanced at the girl's companions, noticing the silver-haired one was in a dilemma about what to do. He was clearly smart enough to know defeating Rei would be a tall order even if he joined forces with Priscilla.

Worse yet, Priscilla was not a very reasonable being. It would be a miracle if he managed to not get attacked by her because he was in the way or something rather than expect teamwork from her.

Raki on the other hand looked helpless. He wanted to help Priscilla but she and the newcomer were just so fast his normal eyes could not even catch their shadows. He gripped the handle of his sword but did not draw it because he felt it would have been useless.

He could only powerlessly watch and hope for the best.

Unfortunately for Raki, Rei was going to disappoint his expectations.

As Priscilla returned, dashing at Rei again and her fingers started stretching at break-neck speed, becoming sharp and intending to skewer Rei's body, he stepped forward, drawing the sword on his hip in one fluid motion and...

All Raki saw was a blue electric flash and had to cover his eyes. When he finally regained his ability to see, he was greeted by the scene of Priscilla's head separating from her body and flying into the air.

Isley saw more of what happened but his vision was also mostly obstructed by the sudden blue flash. The undeniable truth was, however, that Priscilla was now dead.

Rei coldly watched as the headless body powerlessly dropped to the snowy ground as if its strings were cut and turned back towards the men on horses.

Raki seemed to barely restrain himself from attacking Rei but Rei just rolled his eyes. The kid posed no threat even if he stood and let him hack his sword at him to his heart's content.

Well, it didn't matter. His offer was not aimed at the boy.

"So? What will it be, Isley?" Rei asked the silver-haired man who gave him a forced smile.

"I... I think I would like to live a bit longer." Isley sheepishly said.

He was a warrior his whole life and didn't fear death in combat but what the man in front of him unleashed at Priscilla was not combat. It was a slaughter. She was so outclassed it was not even funny.

Isley did not want to meet his end in a battle against an opponent who didn't even consider him worthy to use his full power against him. That was not an honorable end worthy of a warrior. That was a pathetic end.

"Well, good for you." Rei nodded in acknowledgment.

Isley seemed a bit smarter and calmer than Rigaldo.

Well, it didn't matter. Rei gave them his offer because he wanted to see the differences between Yoma and Claymore after some training. He was also sure Tsunade would like the opportunity to research both of these 'species'.

And since he was going to subordinate an Awakened Being anyway, why not go for one of the strongest of the lot?

"Now, take the kid into your arms," Rei gestured towards Raki, "and come with me. I am sure you will be able to keep up."

With that, he started to run back towards Pieta at a moderately slow pace.

'Hah! As if I let the last bosses show up in the town where they could try taking my new group of subordinates as hostages! I'd rather cheat and bring the fight to them instead.. Rules of conduct between villains and heroes do not apply in real life.'

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Rei arrived back at the town square in less than fifteen minutes and the Claymores were almost done bandaging up their injured comrades.

In hindsight, he realized they would have not been able to run even if they wanted unless they abandoned most of their injured since he wasn't away for long enough for that.

Now... that made Rei feel like an asshole for warning them.

Several Claymores finally realized he was back and were about to greet him when Isley appeared next to him, carrying dizzy Raki on his back which made the Claymores stiffen.

They correctly guessed the man was a Yoma and that put them on guard.

Well, except for one Claymore who stood frozen as her eyes landed on the boy who shakily climbed down from Isley's back.

"Raki!" Clare exclaimed and rushed towards him.

Hearing his name being called out by a familiar voice, Raki stiffened for a second before his eyes went wide and his expression beamed in happiness as he realized to whom that voice belonged. He barely managed to turn in the voice's direction before he was engulfed into a tight hug.

Rei winced, hearing the thud as Raki's forehead collided with Clare's chest. The woman most likely forgot her strength was a few magnitudes higher than a normal human in her rush and Raki would have a bump on his head for the foreseeable future because of that.

Rei decided to ignore the reunion between the two as he was not interested in Clare's fussing over Raki and the boy's childish embarrassment.

Rei would have been happiest if the two finally got a room and shagged their petty issues into nonexistence. It was obvious they wanted from the way they looked at each other but they pussy-footed around it to a cringe-worthy degree.

Well, no skin off Rei's nose. At least the boy would have something else to focus on rather than his pathetic grudge against him for killing Priscilla. Rei didn't give him enough time to act upon it but he could plainly see the boy's agitation from his body language.

Noticing the wary looks both Miria and Flora were giving Isley, Rei decided to clear up any possibility of future problems, "By the way, this is Isley. He decided to join me rather than die." He casually said and shrugged.

Suddenly, the wary looks thrown in Isley's direction increased, causing him to sheepishly chuckle.

The Claymores realized this was the motherfucker who sent the army of Awakened Beings at them but they were also aware of the fact they were too weak to do anything to him.

While this could damage the loyalty of some Claymores, in the long run, it would show them they were not really all that special. Maybe it would push them to train themselves harder.

Or not.

Rei was honestly more interested in getting Tsunade someone to experiment with and Isley was quite a good specimen.

He was one of the strongest Awakened Beings in existence and there was certainly the usual arrogance and cruelty of Yoma ingrained in him but he still had a big part of his human personality. The soft pretty boy persona of his was not entirely a facade and his quick surrender proved he had a good head on his shoulders.

And who knows? Maybe Tsunade would be capable of restoring more of his humanity and stopping his need for human intestines.

Rei definitely wanted her to look at Claymores and their genetic make-up while trying to finish their mutation in the most optimal way. There was no reason to leave them in this 'unawakened' stage, always on the edge between becoming Yoma and being half-human. It was unstable and that meant it was an unfinished, crude, shitty experiment.

Even Orochimaru's Cursed Seal had more finesse than the method of creating Claymores. At least the Cursed Seal bearers could transform at will and learn to control it rather than this half-Yoma bull the girls had to learn to live with and be in constant fear of being turned into a man-eating monster.

"He won't attack us, will he?" Flora cautiously asked, loud enough for her comrades to hear her and Rei inwardly smiled.

While Miria looked resigned and had the expression of grudging acceptance, Flora did the necessary thing.

The answer to her question was obvious but it needed to be asked if only for the peace of mind of her comrades. They needed to hear it. Needed to hear they did not need to worry about being killed by Isley.

Not that it would completely put them at ease but quite a bit of the tension would be alleviated by that.

Rei doubted Flora actually understood the full effect of her question. He doubted she knew how important it was to put the minds of her comrades at ease. Not entirely. They just went through a suicide fight against monsters that could, would, and should have wiped them out at their leisure and barely survived.

And now, there was another, much stronger, monster like that going to be near them 24/7?

Everybody was different but the psychological impact of this could make quite a few of them into a nervous wreck quite easily. At least, they needed some reassurance to be able to sleep at night.

"No," Rei calmly reassured them, "if he wants to live he won't attack you." And gave a meaningful look to Isley who awkwardly nodded, not knowing what else to do.

The Claymores looked a bit better after hearing that... well, as good as a bunch of injured and exhausted warriors could look.

Now that these matters were dealt with, Rei focused inwardly on the mental connection he had with Kaguya. Despite her being out of the seal, their connection for some reason didn't disappear when the seal was destroyed.

Rei had no idea why as it was basically just a connection to her mind through the seal that no longer existed. As for Kaguya, asking her for the reason was like asking a 5-year-old child why the sky was blue.

She had no clue.

It was one of these mysteries that were unsolvable for Rei with his current knowledge but since it caused no harm to either of them, he decided to just shrug it off and be glad it remained.

'I am done. What about you?' He asked.

There was silence for a while but he could feel Kaguya felt... aggravated and mildly frustrated.

Before Rei could start to wonder why, a swirl in the air appeared in front of him and Kaguya appeared there with a...

'Is that Riful?' Rei thought in baffled surprise.

'Yes. How did you know?' Kaguya curiously replied, reminding Rei that their mental connection was still open.

'Er... Konan's reports. What is she doing with you?'

A feeling of irritation was conveyed through the connection as Kaguya mentally huffed, 'I was just walking around, enjoying nature while Konan got her part of the job done when this little kid appeared in front of me with some tall and dumb monster, all arrogant and condescending.'

'Ah. You probably didn't have your chakra suppressed enough and she felt a smidge of it.' Rei nodded, totally able to see something like that happening.

'So I naturally had to teach them a lesson!' Kaguya indignantly proclaimed.

Now that Rei looked closer at Riful, she did seem... torn in places.

'The tall guy died quite fast though. He couldn't even withstand having his head cut off. What a weakling.' Kaguya continued her rant.

'Right...' Rei quietly deadpanned.

Not even noticing Rei's reaction, Kaguya just continued pouring out her grievances, 'But this little girl... I just have no idea how to kill her! I thought about just dousing her with ocean-worth of lava alongside this entire island or something but then I remembered you actually want to keep it so I held myself back.' She petulantly acknowledged and Rei sweatdropped.

He could kinda see why Hagoromo and Hamura saw no other way than to seal her after hearing her carefreely mention destroying an entire continent because someone annoyed her.

Fortunately, she listened to him and Rei was good with children...

Ups, he meant good with childish people.

'Riful's real body should be... I have no idea, to be honest, but I know these ribbon-like strips forming her humanoid body are not it. You can tear it as much as you want and she would be fine.'

'Yeah, that much I gathered after I tore her limbs and head off for the hundredth time.' Kaguya mentally scowled. 'And now the girl is all clingy and stuff, calling me master with a starry-eyed look. It is creepy!'

'Uuu~, did little Kaguya get her first subordinate?' Rei teased, laughing his ass off.

Outwardly it only came out as a short chuckle but the annoyed look on Kaguya's face somewhat deepened as she suddenly smacked Riful's head, causing her to plant her face into the ground.

Riful quickly sprang up again, sitting on her knees next to Kaguya like an obedient dog. The entire picture was... hilarious and weird.

Both the group of Claymores and Isley were not spared gaping and gawking but neither Riful nor Kaguya gave a rat's ass for these plebs.

'Oh, well...' Rei decided it was in his best interest to ignore the situation. It will sort itself out somehow. No need to participate in needless drama. 'Up for some small terraforming now?'

'I suppose.' Kaguya pouted. 'It is the only reason why I am even here. I would have been completely fine staying at home with my cookie jar.'

'Ei, don't complain like an old widow.' Rei started, barely preventing himself from choking in laughter when Kaguya narrowed her eyes at him.

'I am an old widow.' Kaguya dryly stated.

Putting on his best innocent look and ignoring her statement, Rei continued, 'Now that you have a subordinate, you can order her to learn cooking for you or something. See? Me dragging you here was actually very beneficial for you!'

Kaguya sighed, shaking her head but the idea obviously appealed to her. On the other hand, this day was shaping up to be one massive headache and she was in dire need of a mug of hot chocolate if she wanted to keep herself from killing somebody.

The Duff, or Daft, or whatever was the name of Riful's shredded boy toy, did not count.

'Whatever.. Just tell me what you need of me.'

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'Mhm. What about transferring this island closer to the north of the Elemental Nations?' Rei casually spoke.

Why not make use of overpowered waifu when he spent so much time trying to free her from her prison?

Hearing him, Kaguya shrugged as if he was just asking her something extremely mundane and her body started to be lifted into the air.

All the Claymores and Isley gaped at the sight while Riful's worshipful gaze increased in intensity. Flying was rare even among Yomas and flying without wings looked more like a miracle to them.

Frankly, Rei knew most ninjas would have reacted in much the same way so he couldn't really fault them.

"What is she going to do?" Flora gathered her courage and asked, bringing Riful's, Isley's, and other Claymores' attention to Rei.

"Ah, she is..." Rei found it hard to explain. How was he to say Kaguya was going to relocate their homeland, the place they considered as the 'whole world', without sounding insane? In the end, he just helplessly shrugged and said, "She is lifting this entire place into the air."

He also conveniently omitted to mention what 'this entire place' was supposed to mean.

Naturally, that still earned him some weird looks but Rei expertly ignored them. They would understand later on what happened anyway.

Kaguya's body flew up until she was among the clouds and then she spread her arms, more for focus purposes than to be dramatic. Nobody could see her so high in the sky anyway so there was no need for dramatics.

She also spread her senses, engulfing the entire island with them, and instantly her head received massive information overload, making her very happy that Rei forced her to practice when she was still capable of inhabiting only a low-powered clone.

Thanks to that, her chakra control was much better, and surprisingly enough, with each small step in controlling her chakra, her powers rose exponentially.

When she learned Tree Walking, she, among other things, for the first time, managed to use her Rinne-Sharingan's ability to manipulate gravity for other things than the preset techniques it offered her at first.

Rei told her that it was not her powers that were increasing, just that she had more access to them now that she had at least a small idea of what exactly she was doing. But that didn't matter. Kaguya felt much more powerful than even when she fought her sons and it brought her joy.

With each power-up, she felt less and less worried about other Otsutsukis.

The practice sessions were hellish and hard... Kaguya never complained as much in her life... but at first, she stubbornly kept practicing because she wanted to be praised by Rei. Then when she found out just how much it was helping her with her powers, Kaguya happily suffered, only becoming much more vocal with her complaining to annoy Konan or Tsunade or whoever was training her for the moment.

It was surprisingly fun!

Kaguya started pushing her chakra into the island below her, flooding it with her energy as if it was an invisible tsunami in much the same way Earth Jutsu practitioners were using their chakra.

The biggest difference was the scale and amount of power.

Kaguya's chakra filled the whole island to the brim, making nature bloom no matter the climate, and sick people suddenly started to get better simply because of the overabundance of nature energy present in Kaguya's chakra, and yet, Kaguya barely felt the drain on her reserves.

It was another thing that astonished her. The vastness of her real energy reserves. She never managed to feel all of it. That was what over-inflated her ego previously. She could never reach her limit so she thought she did not have one. She thought her reserves were infinite which was not true.

In the end, this arrogance led to her being sealed. She thought she could resist the sealing because of her chakra so she let her sons touch her with those blasted sealing marks. Contrary to the uneducated belief, a strong entity needed an extremely strong seal otherwise even Kyuubi could be sealed in a storage scroll for kunais.

Once a sealing process starts, it is like a tug of war between the chakra of the being that is being sealed and the seal trying to withstand its energy volume. If the seal holds, the being is sealed. If not, the seal gets torn to shreds.

That was why Kyuubi needed an Uzumaki host and also why Hagoromo used the Moon to seal her. It was not because it seemed cool to him at the moment. Nothing less than a planet could be used as a medium for the seal to hold Kaguya's chakra.

Sealing was still an extremely unfair thing, in Kaguya's opinion.

Now that the whole island was brimming with Kaguya's chakra, it was an easy task for her to...

Kaguya lifted her hand and the island started shaking as if a sudden earthquake hit it. Her chakra was forcefully separating the island from its connection to the seabed, breaking it and trying to lift the whole mass into the air via her gravity manipulation.

While this was going on, Kaguya could feel the panic that hit the inhabitants of the island. Some screamed, others were paralyzed from fear, while there were also those who fell on their knees and started praying to their deities for mercy.

It was quite amusing to Kaguya.

So much over-exaggeration! She was just relocating the island, geez!

She wondered what would have been their reaction if she crumbled it under their feet and let lava start to erupt from the ground. Now that would have been a situation proportional to their reactions!

It took her twenty minutes. Twenty long minutes of tremors and shaking, which spooked the ever-living daylight of the superstitious medieval folk on the island who thought this was some kind of judgment day, but Kaguya finally managed to loosen the island from the seabed and started to lift it to the sky.

Kaguya could have done it faster but the island was embedded into the seabed quite strongly. Doing it quickly could cause some chasms creating on the island or even destruction of a few mountain ranges.

Not that she cared much about the collateral damage but the island was basically already Rei's property! It wouldn't be nice to damage it.

That would have also caused the crumbling of the buildings built by humans. And since Rei would certainly not appreciate that, Kaguya made sure to be gentle enough and reinforced the buildings, mountain ranges, and the ground of the island with her chakra while trying to separate it from the seabed.

Thanks to her efforts, the land and cities did not look devastated like they would after a real earthquake.

Unlike the separation from the seabed, the lifting of the island was quite a peaceful process. Kaguya doubted the inhabitants even suspected something was happening with their continent. Especially when most of them were lying on the ground in relief that their world did not end and Gods showed them mercy or some other bullshit.

Only those living on the edge would have realized the island was lifting. Others... not so much.

The process was too steady and nobody witnessing the separation of the shores from the oceans would think or feel something was wrong.

Which brought up an interesting point. What about the people fishing in the ocean when the island was being relocated?

Well, Kaguya had an easy solution to that. She marked their ships and would teleport them around the island when it was relocated. Until then... the sailors will have to suffer in despair in order to learn not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

When the whole island of the size of a small continent was finally above the sea, it suddenly disappeared. Anybody witnessing it would later swear that in one second it was there, in the next... nothing.

After all, why should she physically relocate it when she can just teleport it to her desired location?

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