While Konoha’s higher-ups were experiencing trouble due to Orochimaru, Kumo, and Hinata, Ren was happily sitting on the edge of a building in Amegakure, clad in his Tobi costume while humming to himself under the rain as he swung his legs back and forth.

It was great! He was not fully sure his new anti-sensory seal could cloak him properly, but considering he was in Ame a couple of days already and nobody seemed to notice just yet, he marked the seal as a tentative success.

If he had a system, his Infiltrator class would have no doubt leveled up! Nin-nin.

He left Konoha the very next day after he fought off Orochimaru, deciding to go and make sure that Akatsuki is properly busy enough to not get any idea about invading Konoha during the Chunin Exams.

And he was glad for that decision. He managed to scout the Amegakure a bit, find out in which tower Nagato was most likely staying, and even discovered a very nice and adorable thing!

Like the cute blue-haired woman playing tag with the local children in the park, as her paper made into a dome above them protected them from the rain.

Ren expected many things when he came here, but this was not one of them. He actually did pay attention to the people and how they lived. How good their lives were in this village. And despite Nagato’s psychosis, Ren had to admit he was not a bad ruler.

The Amegakure’s inhabitants seemed, for the most part, happy.

With a sigh, Ren realized that his time to observe Ame was coming to an end. The Chunin Exams’ second phase was about to finish, and he did want to be there to see Ino and Hinata’s triumph.

The only thing he still had to do here was to announce his departure.

Jumping off the building, Ren’s feet silently impacted the ground, the momentum driving him into a crouch for a moment before he sprang back up and casually walked toward Konan with a smug swagger.

Halfway through the park, he got too close for his new anti-sensory seal to work properly, causing it to fail, and Konan instantly stiffened for a second before she abruptly turned toward him. Her expression was full of shock.

Her fingers twitched, and she was about to attack him, only to realize she had children near her and any combat between them could endanger them. Anger appeared in her eyes as she realized his presence right now was intentional and calculated, but fear also crept in.

Wariness followed, and Ren could see the woman was utterly out of her element, having a hard time deciding what to do.

Ren casually walked until he was near her, and then he raised one hand in greeting, “Yo.” he cheerfully exclaimed with a grin that was unfortunately hidden by his mask, but he hoped his demeanor would clue them in to its presence.

Konan, rudely not returning the greeting, forcefully straightened up and narrowed her eyes at Ren as she stiffly asked. “What are you doing in Ame?”

“I am sightseeing! Like a tourist!” Ren cheerfully said, “Amegakure is nice. I like what you did with the clouds. Very rainy.” He gave her a thumbs-up.

“…” Konan’s lips stretched into a thin line while her eyes gave him an unamused and cold look.

Man~, and here he thought his pick-up lines were good, but it seemed they just pissed her off more. Tsk. Women and their desire to play hard to get. Ren ruefully sighed in his mind.

It was time for some masterful middle school flirting, then. The ‘pull her hair to get her attention’ kind.

His whole demeanor suddenly shifted, and his voice made it obvious he was ogling her when he dreamily said, “And what a nice sight you have in here.” He exaggeratedly gulped, loudly enough for anybody with chakra-enhanced hearing to notice.

A bit of embarrassment crept into Konan’s expression as the situation between them turned awkward under the curious gazes of the children behind Konan.

The bluenette even stopped trying to sneak her paper closer to his back behind him for some cheeky back stabbing. Ren counted that as progress!

“Be serious.” Konan eventually replied in an awkward, frustrated tone.

She knew he was flirting with her. But he was doing it in such a deliberately asinine way that she had no idea how to even react to it. For now, she was content keeping him talking. She had already alerted Nagato, and it was only a question of time until he showed up.

“M’kay.” Ren shrugged, interrupting Konan’s inner thoughts before he turned toward the kids who were behind her. “Hey, kids! Wanna some candy?”

Konan’s nostrils flared at what she took as a subtle threat, but before she could give Ren a rebuke back, one especially confident girl from the bunch exclaimed, “Mum told me not to take sweets from shady old men!”

Hearing that, Ren froze.

He put his hand on his heart, exaggeratedly showing how much the remark hurt him, before he slowly dropped to his knees and yelled out, “You are shady! You are old! I am not old, okay!?” He childishly pointed at the girl, who, alongside the other kids, started laughing at his antics, and even Konan found her lips twitching into a barely noticeable amused smile.

Ren’s eyes turned toward Konan, and with a petulant tone, he ordered her. “Tell them that Tobi is a good boy!”

The laughter only intensified, and Konan almost laughed out loud herself. “It’s the mask. Maybe if you took it off, the kids would not find you so shady, old man Tobi.” She mirthfully said, half-heartedly giving it a shot.

Of course, she did not expect it to be that easy. It’s why she was so shocked when Ren eagerly nodded with, “Oh, alright, then!”

Konan’s breath slightly hitched as he reached for his mask and then stopped for a moment for a dramatic pause, getting Konan’s and the kids’ undivided attention.

“Behind the mask is…” He quickly pulled the mask off, revealing another orange mask underneath it as he winningly exclaimed, “Another mask!”

He leaped onto his feet and put his hands on his hips before he started heartily laughing at the deadpan looks of his audience.

“Lame.” Konan snorted, giving him an eye roll, not even realizing how casual and friendly the gesture was.

Ren mock-gasped, “Eh!? But the masks are half of my charm, Konan-chan!”

Konan’s lips twitched. “It’s also orange.” She pointed out, causing several kids to shout their agreement.

“I don’t want to hear that from a girl with dyed hair.” Ren protested, and inwardly grinned when her expression slightly shifted. He didn’t expect her to be self-conscious of her hair, of all things, but it seemed he hit the nail right on the head here.

“My hair is natural.” Konan quickly retorted, taken aback.

“Really?” Ren doubtfully asked.

“Ye-” Konan heatedly started, only to stop herself halfway through the word, her lips pursing as she finally realized what Ren was doing. “Ah. Good try.” She acknowledged with a small, strained expression, only for Ren to tilt his head.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” He cluelessly said, but inwardly, he was pouting. Well, it wasn’t as if he expected to be able to misdirect the conversation for long against her.

He quite liked their casual banter while they both waited for Nagato to show up. Surely, she alerted him by now. But Ren would admittedly have been a bit disappointed if she had never noticed how at ease she was getting in his presence.

The impassive, cold facade appeared back on Konan’s face. “What are you doing in Ame?”

“Admiring your beauty.” Ren shamelessly said back the same thing as previously in the most sincere tone he could pull off.

It was personally important to him for her to understand that he was not kidding here.

“…” Konan gave him a silent, threatening look at that, and if the kids were not there, she would have no doubt already started attacking him already.

“I enjoyed seeing you so caring toward kids.” Ren grinned.

“…” Konan still gave him the silent treatment.

“I also liked seeing you give food to the homeless.” He hummed and enjoyed how Konan’s eyes slightly widened. She had correctly realized that for him to know about that, he would have to be in the village at least for an entire day, because the last time she had done that was yesterday.

“I find it admirable that you help out at the local orphanage, too.” Ren admitted, finding the frustration in Konan’s eyes adorable because she had done that two days ago, hence, it was an admission they had not discovered his presence in Amegakure for at least two whole days.

Who knows what kind of nefarious stuff he could have done during that time, eh?

He totally did not put a thin layer of transparent glue on every toilet seat in the main Akatsuki base.

Surely, the fact that every bottle of sake they had would now cause them a severe case of diarrhea was simply a coincidence, too.

Well, Konan did not drink. He found that out before he decided to… ahem. No, he was not confessing.

He also knew nothing about the fact that every cookie mysteriously disappeared from their pantry. Thieves nowadays. So petty.

At least, whoever raided it left a note saying, ‘Tobi was here!’

“… You are stalking me.” Konan uttered in disbelief after a brief moment of silence, and Ren almost face-faulted at her conclusion.

That wasn’t how he would put it! But…

“Holy shit, you are right. I became a stalker!” He gasped and exaggeratedly waved his hands around. “Oh, no. Momma gonna spank me!”

The kids laughed again, but Konan sadly stayed serious this time. “What can you tell me about Tobi?”

Ren blinked, not expecting that. That meant they had started looking into Obito. Which was good. But also bad. It could go either way. He had no idea who in the fight between them would win. Ren’s favorite was Obito simply because he could just pop in front of the real Nagato and stab him through the heart any time he wished.

But who knows? Maybe Nagato had some tricks up his sleeve.

“Eh? My brother from a different mother?” Ren tilted his head at Konan, wondering if he should reveal something about the man.

“… Yes.” Konan nodded.

For a moment, Ren stayed silent…

But then he casually shrugged, “No idea. We are not related.” He said, getting the biggest exasperated look of his life from Konan at that admission.

He decided not to reveal anything. For selfish reasons, too. Once the jig was up, Nagato and Obito were going to come to blows, and only one of them was going to survive.

That was definitely going to cause a massive butterfly effect.

Now, Ren knew it was the preferred outcome for him. It would reduce the number of his enemies and fracture the Akatsuki. But he also had a lot of things to worry about right now, and he didn’t need the additional headache.

He also didn’t want Konan to be hurt in the crossfire.

It was a… conflicting feeling. He couldn’t quite shake off the attraction he felt toward her. And he admitted as much to Hinata and Ino, who simply told him their variant of, ‘go get her, tiger’, completely missing the actual problem.

Konan was his enemy. And she wasn’t going to betray Nagato.

Realistically speaking? This was destined to end in tears. Logically, Ren knew that. But his heart was refusing to fully acknowledge the fact. It was quite bothersome.

Noticing that Pein was getting near, Ren decided to leave them one nugget of information that, while important and interesting, was mostly useless for them without all the context.

Just to mess with Nagato’s head because he was annoyed at the knowledge that Konan would choose him every time if it came to it.

“The better question would be… why does an Uzumaki kid have Rinnegan when that can only manifest when Uchiha and Senju genes are combined? You should reaaaally think about it for a moment, ne?”

Konan blinked, “What are you trying to-“

But she was interrupted when Ren suddenly appeared in front of her and swept her into his embrace. His arms snaked around her torso, and he grabbed a handful of her rear while his mask slid a bit to the side as his lips landed on hers and his tongue invaded her mouth.

Konan’s eyes closed, and she subconsciously started hungrily kissing him back… Ren quickly substituted with a poor shadow clone that instantly popped out of existence when several paper spikes rammed straight through him.

“Still stabby, I see.” Ren cheekily said as he emerged from the ground where his shadow clone was hiding and properly fastened his mask back on his face.

But his heart dropped, and he inwardly winced when he saw the mix of emotions on Konan’s face. There was longing, confusion, and anger. Ren doubted the woman actually understood her own feelings right now.

Well, that made two of them, he reluctantly guessed.

He felt bad about using her like this, especially because he did like the girl, but the more annoyed Pein was at his fake Tobi persona, the less likely it was for the man to march off and go Shinra Tensei Konoha into oblivion.

Turning toward Pein, Ren gave him a cheerful wave, “Bye-bye, Pein-kun! See ya later, Konan-chan!”

And disappeared in a swirl, hearing only an angry shout of, “Dammit!” before the scenery in front of him shifted.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep