When Ino and Hinata came back ‘home’, or rather, to Ren’s apartment, Ino came carrying her bags, fully intending to move in with him, and while Hinata was packed much lighter, her intentions were much the same. She just had to keep the illusion of living at the Hyuuga compound still going, so she could not just pack all her things.

Ren slightly chuckled at their excitement, but his eyes quickly slid back to the small TV remote controller he had lying in a sealing circle on a massive scroll placed on the table.

With the tip of his tongue peeking out of his lips, Ren meticulously checked the seal he had been creating for the last three hours and remade a part of it here and there when he found something he didn’t like. He got so absorbed in it that by the time he was finished, he was momentarily startled to see Ino and Hinata sitting opposite him at the table, silently staring at him working.

Shaking his head with a fond huff, Ren refocused on his little project and placed his hand into a second sealing circle, next to the circle with the controller. Channeling a burst of chakra into the scroll, Ren kept a steady flow of energy charging the process. The symbols of the seal on the scroll started to glow red as the array activated. They started to move, layering and folding into themselves, fitting into each other like pieces of a puzzle.

Soon enough, it became obvious the symbols were compacting and converging on the remote controller, and when that process was almost done, the seal started to move onto the item, slithering from the scroll onto it like a snake made of coiled black inky symbols.

Finally stopping in place once the entire remote controller was covered in an illegible mish-mash of chakra ink, Ren smiled in satisfaction when nothing went kaboom.

“Fuin.” He muttered, sending a second burst of chakra into the almost finished seal. A bead of sweat rolled down Ren’s temple as he controlled his chakra to sear the seal into the remote controller without damaging said item.

With a small sigh, Ren molded his chakra in a specific way… and the seal on the controller instantly shrank into a small, almost invisible pinprick black dot on the black surface of the item before it completely vanished out of sight.

His shoulders sagging, Ren picked up the remote controller and turned on the TV. Satisfied that its mundane function still worked as it should despite the addition of the seal, he couldn’t help but give himself a proud nod before he turned the TV off.

Nine out of ten seal masters would completely fuck up the item by doing this, so Ren’s pride was justified. He was better than those charlatans!

He could have activated the seal function on the remote controller right now, but better to give it five minutes to settle.

A clone popped into existence next to the table and took the big, now empty scroll from it and started to roll it back as Ren put the remote controller back on the table and looked at his girls.

“How was your day?” He softly asked, giving them the signal that he was done with his work and no longer needed them to be silent and not disturb him.

Ino and Hinata shared a quick glance before Ino shrugged, and Hinata rolled her eyes as they probably shared a quick conversation through their telepathy seals.

Speaking of which…

Hinata looked back toward Ren and started to open her mouth when he interjected.

“Wait. Now that I have this whole thing fresh in my mind…” Two more shadow clones popped into existence and walked behind Ino and Hinata, respectively. “I need to see your telepathy seals.” Ren said, his mind once again wandering as he went through several seal sequences.

With a small pout, Hinata nudged Ino, who was snickering at her, with enough force to make her stumble in her seat. Giving her an irritated look, she turned her head forward and tilted her head to the right, giving the clone access to her left temple where her telepathy seal was located.

The clone smiled at the girl from above, making her blush a bit as his warm left hand gently but firmly grasped her chin and, with a bit of strength, tilted her head a bit more to the side. His right hand swept her locks to the side and tidied them up behind her ear.

The other clone behind Ino did something similar, except Ino was more playful, and she moved her head, trying to kiss the palm of his hand, with an annoyed eye twitch, the clone grasped her chin and the upper part of her head with his hands and forcefully turned her head with a small resounding crack, making Ino flinch and yowl in pain.

Seeing it with her Byakugan, Hinata chuckled, just as Ino petulantly crossed her arms on her chest and gave the original Ren a narrow-eyed glare, but he only returned a smug smile back to her, which made her pout more.

For all of two seconds before the clone behind her once again yanked her head to the side, making her hiss in pain again.

“Don’t move.” The clone clicked his tongue after reprimanding her like a child. “If you can’t stay still, I will knock you out.” He said in a no-nonsense, chiding tone, and Hinata felt the stirrings of schadenfreude. Another chuckle started to form in her throat as she saw Ino’s muscles in her neck tense in preparation for a nod.

Unfortunately, her fun was thwarted when Ino realized she was about to disobey the order the moment it was given, and the muscles relaxed as she let the clone work.

Refocusing back on what the clone was doing to her, she saw how a small black point appeared on her left temple under the caress of Ren’s chakra. It was very close to her hairline. Even Byakugan would miss it unless the user was specifically looking for it or knew it was there.

Then again, that was the whole point. Her Ren could not leave visible and easily noticed seals on her. The clan elders would go sparse. But what they didn’t know can’t hurt them.

Hinata felt Ren channel more of his chakra into the seal, and it quickly expanded, covering half of her head in black symbols. A language she did not know. Engrisshu or something, Ren called it? She didn’t really care.

Seals were not her thing. She knew it disappointed her teacher and lover. But no matter how much she tried, she just couldn’t get herself to like it. She felt no passion for the subject. Sure, she did learn the exploding seal and loved to use it to blow things up. But beyond that?

She was not going to spend another month or two studying some scribbles. Once was enough. Never again. She’d rather turn people inside out with her medical ninjutsu. Contemplating how to do that was far more fun for her.

Hinata hissed from a searing pain as Ren’s clone was literally burning off parts of the seal on her skin with his chakra while he was at the same time replacing them in one go, reshaping the seal just a tiny bit.

He wasn’t really causing any damage to her or her skin. She could see that much with her Byakugan. There would be nothing to heal when he was done. But it still hurt like hell.

It was the downside of having seals etched into one’s skin. Adjusting them was one hell of a process.

Hinata could feel sweat pour over her forehead as she gritted her teeth and noticed that the original Ren relocated from his seat opposite them and was now between the clones behind them, controlling their work with extreme focus.

She saw the apologetic smile on the original Ren’s face and tried to return it, but her smile came out strained, and she could hear Ino whimper next to her.

Hinata had already resigned herself that she would have to heal the crick in the blonde’s neck due to her playful actions after this. But now she will also have to fix her lower lip as she saw Ino bite through it in her pain.

Seriously, what would the Yamanaka do without her? Sometimes she was like a little kid.

A minute or so later, Ren’s clones were done, and the telepathy seals once again shrank into the small black dot that slowly faded out of sight, and Hinata released a relieved sigh as she rolled her shoulders.

A glass of water was put in front of her, courtesy of the clone that Ren summoned to roll up the big scroll, and she gave him a thankful smile.

She was parched.

She might not have really burned, but she imagined the seal-altering process felt eerily similar to it, and her throat was very dry.

She sipped on the water as she glanced at Ino, who was greedily gulping the water down, and Hinata couldn’t help but fondly sigh at the sight.

Her eyes met Ren’s amused ones, and they shared a small grin. But Hinata’s grin quickly fell, leaving a way for a frown to appear on her lips as she noticed Ren seated himself in his previous seat opposite them while two of his clones flanked him.

She inwardly winced and turned off her Byakugan. She did not need to see how Ren’s muscles tensed under the painful ministrations of his clones as he adjusted his own telepathy seal.

Yes. It was a double standard. But knowing that he was in pain and she could not soothe it was frustrating for her. It left a really bad taste in her mouth.

“Well? Tell me about your day, girls.” Ren said, his body testing as the blue glowing fingers of one of his clones started to trace the lines of the telepathy seal on his head.

Hinata ducked her head, looking at her hands gripping each other on her lap. “We beat Kurenai-sensei in a one-on-three spar.”

“Really?” Ren asked with a bit of surprise in his tone, and Hinata nodded with a small smirk.

“I started at a barely genin-level speed and then suddenly accelerated to chunin-level straight in one go at the start. It caught her by surprise, and I managed to block five of the quite important tenketsu at that moment. After that, I kept myself at a low-chunin level of prowess, and it was just a team effort to beat her.”

“E~h? Are your teammates that good?” Ino asked, wiping her lips with her forearm after she finished chugging down glass after glass of water. “Or is your teacher that weak?” She teasingly added, and Hinata just nonchalantly shrugged.

“A little bit of both?” She hummed, “I wouldn’t say that Kurenai is weak. But…” She tried to find the correct words to express it.

“It’s a bad match-up.” Ren interjected, and Hinata nodded.

“The tenketsu I blocked were predominantly used for molding chakra for genjutsu. Because, duh, she is the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha.” Hinata admitted.

“Ah.” Ino grimaced.

Yeah. She started to sympathize with Kurenai a bit now. She couldn’t even keep count of how many times the Hyuga bitch burned out her specific tenketsu and then, when she tried to use a ninjutsu, she experienced a burning pain throughout her body, injuring herself, and her technique didn’t come out right, just to add the insult to the injury.

It’s why she switched to a predominantly ranged style of combat nowadays. Because fuck the Hyugas and fuck their unfair gentle fist. Fucking fucked-up fuckitty cheaing dipshits!

“What about you, Ino?” Hinata innocently asked, suppressing her smile at the way Ino started glaring at her. She could guess what went through the Yamanaka’s head right at that moment, and she was tempted to set Mt. Ino off, but… she glanced at Ren, who was still under the not-so-tender ministrations of his clone, and inwardly sighed as she banished the thought.

The things she was doing for love.

“Asuma just invited us to a barbecue. No fight. No test. His attempts to buy our favor were blatant and uninspired. The man didn’t even try, treating us like naive children.” Ino huffed in annoyance. “Shikamaru slept. Asuma smoked. Choji emptied Asuma’s wallet.” She smirked at that but only for a moment. Her smirk fell the second she continued. “I wanted to tear my hair out. It’s obvious I am supposed to be the driving force in our team.” She mulishly said with an unhappy grimace.

“I love Shika and Choji like brothers.” Ino added after a moment of silence. “But this is going to suck. For me and for them.”

Neither Ren nor Hinata had any idea what to say to that. Ren had to admit, he didn’t think of that little problem. Ino took a lot of pride in her strength. Mostly because of the effort she had to put in to acquire it.

She wasn’t going to let Shikamaru and Choji slack off.

Even restricted to chunin-level prowess, Ino was going to be a nightmare for them. The upcoming months will be good for the boys, but Ren couldn’t guarantee they would not come out of it with a healthy dose of fear of Ino.

As for Asuma, eh, he will do his job and teach them the basics of ninjahood. Ren didn’t think he would interfere with Ino doing his job for him. He didn’t strike him as a guy who would turn down some freely given slack time.

The silence started to get awkward, and Hinata decided that a change in the topic was needed. She glanced around and her eyes lit up as they fell onto the remote controller on the table.

“What were you doing with that?” She gestured at it. “Is it some sort of new super seal?” She curiously asked, even getting Ino out of her funk, as the blonde girl now excitedly waited for the answer.

Ren smirked, letting the anticipation build up as he stayed silent for a few seconds. His clones, done with their jobs, puffed out of existence, and he theatrically took the controller into his hands.

“Behold! My Peeper 3000!” He animatedly exclaimed, getting two deadpan looks in return.

Sigh. Everybody’s a critic nowadays.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep