Back in Ren’s secret training ground, Ren finally relaxed after an entire hour and a few minutes passed, and his shoulders slumped in relief when the last remnants of Shukaku’s chakra were finally sucked into Gaara’s seal.

That… didn’t go according to the plan at all.

With a wry smile, Ren inspected his chakra pool and slightly grimaced when he found out he only had half of it remaining. He couldn’t even replenish it as his chakra storage seal was already empty.

An indescribable feeling filled him. Chakra problems were something he didn’t have very often anymore. Certainly not often enough to warrant properly looking for a solution to them. He usually had enough chakra for anything he wanted to do. But now, Ren realized he had been lulled into a false sense of complacency without even realizing it.

‘I guess, figuring out more ways to bypass my chakra pool limitations would not hurt.’ Ren decided, giving himself an encouraging mental nod.

To be honest, it was not as if he had stopped looking for a way to enlarge his chakra pool. But finding a good solution that wouldn’t cripple him in some way, utterly destroy his future potential for a quick boost in the short term, or wouldn’t need at least years of highly dedicated training was hard.

The more Ren looked, the more he started realizing that Naruto and Sasuke were unique existences, much like Hashirama and Madara. The rest of the mortals around them, however, simply had to suck it up and keep training for decades in a vain hope to match at least a tenth of their prowess.

There didn’t seem to be any comfy ‘quick fix’ to make his chakra pool match these monsters. The world was very unfair like that.

Great. And now Ren felt the desire to slap Naruto on the back of his head.

Shaking his head and chasing away that thought, Ren pursed his lips. ‘I guess if I can’t increase the maximum amount of chakra I can use internally, I will have to rely on external solutions.’ A few ideas he had never properly pursued from his early days as a seal user flashed through his mind.

His mind strayed to the thoughts of magic stones in different universes. Having an external battery where he could store chakra and use it at his leisure would have been amazing. It was something he contemplated years ago, but couldn’t create due to insufficient experience and knowledge back then. He eventually shelved the idea, focusing on other ideas.

But now… Ren glanced at Gaara’s prone body, remembering what a struggle sealing Shukaku had been for him. Now it might be the time to return to his more outlandish ideas from his earlier days when he was still full of impossible dreams.

Unfortunately, just as he started thinking about how to put together a base for such a thing, Ren was interrupted by a growling noise suddenly coming from next to him and flinched.

In bewilderment, he turned toward it, only to see the bound Temari struggling in vain as she tried to flex her chakra, trying to break the seals that were restricting her.

“Oh, I have forgotten about you.” Ren breezily said, getting only a few frustrated grunts from the girl who was now glaring at him.

Her hands were bound by a ninja wire behind her back, and her feet were also bound together at her ankles. The reason she was letting out these growly noises, however, was the cloth that was stuffed in her mouth and tied around her head. She even had a cat eared headband sitting on the top of her head.

Clearly, his clone had been bored.

She was lying on the ground, looking like a squirming worm as she slightly moved. Ren found it a bit amusing. If nothing else, the girl was determined and wasn’t a quitter. Even if, in this situation, her efforts were meaningless.

The restricting seal on her was designed to give her a slight leeway of movement if she struggled enough and would harm herself. It was not enough to break free. In fact, the more leeway the seals gave her, the more absolute their binding effect would become.

That feature was purely made to give the prisoner a measure of comfort while tightening the cage around them, so to speak. Temari simply misinterpreted it, thinking that her ability to slightly move now meant she was close to breaking the seals.

With a groan, Ren stood up and stretched. Sitting down for so long while having to channel his chakra so much made his muscles a bit stiff.

Temari, on the other hand, pushed herself up with a great effort and managed to get on her knees in a show of defiance and an attempt to preserve her dignity as Ren walked toward her.

Ren reached out with his hand, and the girl stiffened. She tried to lean away, but there was not much she could do with so many restricting seals on her after Ren tightened them back up once she was sitting on her knees. Ren’s hand landed on her bare shoulder and slid down her arm until he reached the fallen neckline of her kimono.

As she struggled to sit up with her ankles and hands bound, she had ruffled her clothes. Her right shoulder was now bare, and her kimono had fallen to around the middle of her upper arm, revealing the right side of her chest. Not enough to be scandalous, but definitely enough to look indecent.

Ren couldn’t help but chuckle as he felt the glaring girl use the small amount of chakra allowed to her by the seals to desperately stick the edges of her kimono to her body. And now, there was also a bit of fear in her eyes.

Rolling his eyes in a way that made Temari see it, Ren grabbed the cloth of her kimono and overpowered her chakra before he dragged it up her arm, properly covering her bare shoulder and chest with it.

“Sorry, girl. As pretty as you are, I must refuse your attempts at seducing me.” Ren proudly said with a teasing tone to her before patronisingly patting her head. “We are not meant to be.” He shook his head, giving her a mock sad look.

For a moment, Temari stared at him with befuddlement. But then she registered what he said and that he was still patting her head as if she were a cat, and fury rose in her chest.

She growled and tried to shake Ren’s hand off her head while her glare turned defiant with a small measure of promised threat in the future.

“I know, I know.” Ren continued, “No pretty girl would be happy after being rejected. But try to look at it from my perspective, too. We barely know each other, ya know? Even if you try to unclothe in front of me…” Ren trailed off, letting out a rueful sigh while secretly enjoying the angry, quickened breathing of the girl.

He reckoned that if this were an anime, she would have had a massive pulsing vein on her forehead by now.

Heh. Teasing her was quite fun.

He had decided to have some fun while he still could. Once he handed her over to Konoha, who knew what his village would do to her? The most likely outcome was the village trading her back to Suna, and Ren doubted he would ever meet the girl again.

He had to say it was a pity. Temari was… well. Looking at her, Ren briefly regretted not being born in Suna. It was an irrational thought, mostly driven by his hormones, but he couldn’t really help it. She was downright gorgeous.

‘Dammit. Shikamaru, you lucky dog.’ Ren inwardly sighed.

“Don’t be discouraged. I am sure you will find a suitable man for you in the future. If you wear that cat-eared headband and-” Ren paused for a moment before unsealing his sealing brush. He grinned. Temari’s eyes slightly widened as a realization struck her, and she tried to vehemently shake her head in protest, but it came out as just a small, barely noticeable move of her head to the left and right.

Undeterred, Ren painted a few whisker marks on her cheeks.

After he was done, his brush briefly faltered in the direction of her forehead. He was really, really tempted to paint a dick on it.

With a great deal of effort, Ren eventually restrained himself, but not before he left a black smudge of ink on the tip of Temari’s scrunched nose.

“There. Much better. I dub thee a proper cat girl.” Ren nodded to himself with a teasing grin, ignoring the unamused gaze of the girl.

But he didn’t get the desired reaction. Temari realized he was trying to piss her off and decided not to play his game. Her shoulders slumped in resignation as she silently watched Ren with a very dispassionate and reluctant look.

“You are no fun.” Ren huffed, but inwardly, he was quite pleased. The animosity between them was reduced to nonexistence due to his antics, and the girl hadn’t even noticed what he had done.

Having a Yamanaka as a student was very… educational when it came to manipulating others. Ren was by no means an expert. He didn’t hold a candle to Ino in this area when she got motivated to even bother trying. But he still managed to learn a bit from her.

Noticing Temari’s head and eyes shift a bit, Ren realized she was still worried about her brother and gave her a small, genuine smile. “Don’t worry. Gaara will be fine. I resealed Shukaku and improved his seal. He should be able to sleep now. Who knows? Maybe he would get less cranky due to that?” He shrugged, and was happy when he heard a small choked chuckle full of relief coming from the girl.

Of course, she stifled that reaction the second she realized what she had subconsciously done before returning to glaring at Ren with reddened cheeks and the vehemence of an angry kitten, but the cat was already out of the bag.

“Aw~, how adorable. You are embarrassed!” Ren cooed and was glad that Temari was bound in his seals. He would have definitely been introduced to some form of casual violence backed by feminine fury if she had been unrestrained.

If a glare could kill…

Laughing out loud, he momentarily contemplated removing the cloth from her mouth and seeing what she had to say. He wondered what curses the angry girl would come up with. It was certainly bound to be entertaining.

Alas, he sadly reconsidered. Time did not permit it. He still needed to give her some form of Talk no Jutsu, considering Naruto was not present.

Ren had no idea if it would have an effect, coming from him, but he had to at least try.

“Foolish girl.” Ren said in his best imitation of Itachi and poked Temari’s forehead, “Even if you glare at me like that, I won’t marry you!” He exclaimed and almost burst out into another bout of laughter at the look on Temari’s face.

That said, he definitely had her full attention now.

“More importantly,” Ren smiled, but the air around them shifted into something more serious. With her trained instincts, Temari felt it immediately and grew guarded. And when Ren was absolutely sure the girl was taking him seriously, he continued speaking. “I need you to be a better sister to Gaara.”

The mix of massive, deeply ingrained fear, soul-crushing regret, and a small bit of hope, mixed in Temari’s expression after hearing that, and Ren hoped he was on the right track with his Talk no Jutsu.

Temari reluctantly grunted in reply and looked down with a bit of shame shining in her teal eyes.

“No. No. Don’t worry.” Ren tried to reassure her. “He won’t harm you. Just try, okay? I will have a talk with him, too. But the kid is lonely and screwed in the head. He needs somebody who cares about him and actually shows it.”

“Hmphmh.” Temari replied, and Ren shrugged.

“My condolences, but your father is not surviving this day. He won’t be a problem.”

“Hmph, hmph.” Temari resignedly let out.

“Yes. Very sad.” Ren casually said, “Anyway, will you be a good girl and take proper care of your brother from now on? Please? For me?”

And the annoyed look was back on Temari’s face as her eye twitched, but she nevertheless slightly nodded. Even if Ren had the barest impression that she wanted to strangle him in his sleep.

Eh, he was probably imagining things.

“Good. If you are a good girl, I might even reward you when we meet again! Yes. Good girls get headpats! Who is a good girl, hm? Yes. You are a good girl.” Ren reached out and patted her head, stifling an amused smile when the girl growled.

There. His vengeance for her part in invading Konoha was fulfilled with her suffering through this amount of humiliation.

With a satisfied nod, Ren sighed. “Alas, this handsome ninja has things to do now.” He gave Temari a regretful look. “Good girls should go to bed.”

Temari didn’t even manage to register the words properly as Ren’s hand shifted from the top of her head and struck her neck, sending her into the dreamlands.

The smile fell from Ren’s face as he caught the knocked-out Temari before she could fall face-first onto the ground. He gently laid her on the grass, and a frown appeared on his lips.

While he was patting the girl, the clone that had been originally guarding her had sent him an update on the situation in Konoha. When Ren was almost done with the sealing, the clone had seen that he was no longer required here, so he popped over to Konoha for some pre-emptive reconnaissance.

And now, the clone was hiding inside the barrier where Hiruzen Sarutobi was kicking the ass of Orochimaru and his two butt-buddies. Well, the old man was having a hard time of it, but he wasn’t losing. It was pretty astonishing.

Ren ruefully sighed. It was just a pity that he needed Hiruzen either dead or crippled for Tsunade to get the hat. It was why he was here, dicking around with Temari, instead of rushing back to Konoha at the earliest opportunity.

Fortunately, Hiruzen was old and tiring fast. Over an hour of intense fighting against three ninjas took its toll on the old man, even if he was kicking their asses black and blue. He was going to screw up sooner rather than later now. And Ren had to be prepared for it. He preferred Hiruzen crippled rather than dead, so his timing had to be perfect here.

Ren stood up and started walking toward the wooden house on the other side of the grassy clearing.

“I guess it is time to suit up.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep