Ren and Konan climbed down the stairs, and Ren slowly started to lead her through the room while she was looking around with a glaring interest. This kind of thing was nothing new to her. She wasn’t extremely good at the sealing arts, but she had her own small squadron of paper clones creating exploding paper tags for her back in Amegakure.

The sudden memory sent a jolt of pain through her, almost making her wince. Instead, she pushed it down and only showed a small frown.

Moving on…

What surprised Konan was not the operation itself, even though there were times, long, long ago, when she was much younger, when she smugly considered herself smart for using her paper clones in such a revolutionary way. As far as she knew, nobody else used them like that until, well, today.

No, the amazing thing was the sheer scale of Ren’s seal production operation. She had counted twenty-six clones just in this room alone, and her mind was very aware of the three doors around the room, leading somewhere else in the house.

Each clone was making a seal so complicated that her own head couldn’t wrap around it. Her own exploding-tag-making endeavors couldn’t really compare. Not to mention, she noticed that seals were literally hidden everywhere in the room.

Her eyes slightly narrowed as they passed a clone, and she noticed something peculiar.

“What are those seals on the clones?” Konan curiously asked, fully expecting not to get a proper answer, but Ren gave her an easy smile that conveyed a small, smug self-satisfaction.

“There are three seals on each clone.” Ren spoke, “The first is the Durability Seal. This one ensures a shadow clone can endure more punishment than just a slight jab.”

Ren playfully slapped the back of a clone’s head they were passing by, one that wasn’t working on a seal but was resting for a moment after he finished his last one.

“Oi!” The clone exclaimed as he turned toward Ren with an unhappy glare for a moment.

“Sorry.” Ren unapologetically said with a small, amused smirk, “Just proving a point.”

“Why don’t you prove it with your own body, bastard?” The clone scowled.

Ren casually shrugged, “Because clone abuse is not only legal, but also the smart thing to do?” He jokingly answered, and the clone snorted before rolling his eyes at Ren.

“Yeah, yeah, fuck off already.” He shooed Ren away with his hand, grumpily turning back to his table, “I don’t have the time to spare to argue with you.”

Chuckling, Ren obliged the clone and didn’t bother him further. After all, he was grateful for the work and effort his clones were putting in. He wouldn’t get so far without them.

Ever since he realized Madara might be back in the world, his clones worked several times harder, producing, testing, experimenting, trying to find ways and seals to counter the dude. It wasn’t easy, and his clones were busy as hell.

Ren turned back toward Konan, who gave him a strange look after witnessing the interaction with his clone, but he didn’t pay it much attention. Once she lived long enough among them, she was going to get used to it.

“The second seal,” Ren continued, “provides clones with chakra.” And Ren was very proud of this one. “It siphons a minuscule amount of natural energy from the surroundings, filters it, and through this process, the seal produces chakra.”

Ren gave Konan a rudimentary explanation, but he didn’t get into the actual intricacies of the seal. The whole process was a lot more complicated. Alas, he didn’t trust her enough for that. Nor did he want to spend the next few hours giving her a lecture.

“The whole thing is still in the early stages of development, but it is already very useful. Usually, I can provide a clone enough chakra to keep him existing for a few days, but this seal can prolong it pretty much indefinitely as long as the clone doesn’t heavily spend his chakra reserves.” He said and pointed at the thin, black seal lines peeking from the collar and spreading upward on the neck of a nearby clone. They were barely noticeable, but once Konan focused on them, she started seeing them on every clone.

Konan couldn’t help but feel a bit flabbergasted. She slowly started to understand how Ren kept so many shadow clones working at the same time. Twenty-six was a massive number. She doubted she had enough chakra to create that many of them while also ensuring they could last a few hours. The amount of chakra necessary for it was simply insane.

The paper clones cost way less chakra than shadow clones, and even she could only keep around fifteen of them working on seals all the time without it affecting her day-to-day kunoichi life. And she had chakra reserves befitting her S-rank status.

But this last seal of his removed the energy limitations altogether. Konan inwardly wondered just how many sites like this Ren actually possessed. She didn’t believe even for a second that this workshop of his was his only one.

But for now, it was not important. Konan put all those thoughts behind her. “And the third one?” She asked, eyeing the clones with grudging respect.

“The third one…” Ren wryly smiled, “Let’s just say it removes the trouble of a month-old clone popping and bombing me with its experiences. These clones don’t do anything special, and the third seal regulates the memories they send my way. Most of them are discarded, but if they find out something interesting, the clones can use the third seal to send the experience to me.” He explained with a shrug.

That seal did a whole lot more. It connected his clones in a mental network of sorts. But once again, explaining all that to Konan would take too much time.

Deciding to divert the topic, Ren put his hand on the handle of the door they had finally reached, “Now, I am sure you are wondering where we are.” He looked at Konan with a smile and pushed the door open, revealing a porch beyond which were… clouds?

Konan blinked in surprise, and her eyebrows rose as she slowly walked toward the wooden railing on the porch. When she reached them and looked down, an instinctual chill went up Konan’s spine. She realized that the house was built on the edge of a steep mountain cliff so high that it was indeed surrounded by clouds.

“This is one of my safe houses in the Land of Lightning.” Ren walked next to her. “It’s in a very remote place, so you don’t need to worry about anybody getting lost on the road of life and finding this place. I picked it for you because you can fly. The clouds can provide enough cover for you to train and test fighting with my seals to your heart’s content.”

If he wanted the woman useful against Madara, just arming her with his seals wouldn’t do. She needed to familiarize herself with them. And that meant she needed to use them.

But using them meant she would dish out a large-scale devastation to the surroundings. Something that might be easily noticed. Ren thought long and hard about a suitable place, and in the end, he picked this one.

Konan might not see it through the thick layer of clouds, but below the cliff was the sea. They were in the northernmost part of the Land of Lightning, where not even merchant ships tread. They used rivers to the south to pass, as the sea here was very treacherous.

Nothing was here, and nobody came here. Konan could make a massive racket, and it wouldn’t matter.

Still a bit speechless, Konan turned toward Ren, “Okay. I… I don’t think Akatsuki will find me here.” A boulder fell from her heart at that revelation, making her very relieved. She knew exactly the scope, or rather, the previous scope of the organisation. And they had a lot of resources at their disposal. Hiding from them was always going to be hard.

But this… Konan looked around the cloudy surroundings. This might actually work.

But training? “Do you even have enough seals to sustain my training with them?” She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head toward Ren.

She didn’t train with her exploding seals much, always considering it a massive waste. The amount of exploding seals she would use in one training session could bankrupt a mid-sized clan. And this lunatic wanted her to train with his exotic, most likely much harder to create, seals?

Konan’s lips pursed. He definitely had no idea how fast she could go through paper tags of any kind.

Seeing her doubtful stare, Ren knowingly smiled and put his arm around her shoulders.

“I know that you are an expensive kind of girl.” He started, getting himself an unamused look from Konan, “But let me introduce you to my genius invention called the Secrebo box!”

Leading her back into the house, Ren fully intended to humbly boast by showing her the room full of his seal-printing boxes. He couldn’t have her holding back in her training, now could he?

She needed to understand that he could afford her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep