Danzo Shimura sat in a private booth in a teashop, watching through the conveniently placed window as Ren left the village for a mission. A small smile appeared on Danzo’s face as a waitress appeared and brought his order.

“Is it done?” He asked without averting his gaze from Ren’s back disappearing in the distance.

“Yes, Lord Danzo.” The waitress said with a small respectful nod before leaving.

“Good. Let’s see if the bait takes, then.” Danzo sighed and took a sip from his tea, finally feeling relaxed after a long time.

Initially, he dismissed the notion that the one to bomb his base and cost him many of his loyal and well-trained soldiers was a new ninja like Ren. But around the time he started to be called ‘the bomber’, Danzo’s suspicions reignited.

Unfortunately, it was not easy to get information about Ren. He was far too slippery. Far too careful.

It only proved to Danzo that the boy had something to hide.

More forceful methods were not used because Danzo was afra-… no. He was not afraid. He was just pragmatic. Another bombing could set his effort back for years. He couldn’t afford that.

So, he opted for a cautious and slow approach, like any experienced ninja in his position would have done.

But now, finally, a chance presented itself to get rid of this thorn in his foot. He just hoped there wouldn’t be any complications.

Konoha’s greater good was at stake.

…

Several months had passed since Ren’s relationship with the girls reached the point of no return from the bedroom, and he realized that for the first time in his reincarnated life, he was actually fully enjoying living again.

It was an invigorating feeling. It pushed him to try harder and motivated him to progress even though it sometimes felt futile. What does it matter if he reached S-rank prowess when Kaguya could unmake him with a simple gesture?

It didn’t feel like an accomplishment to be proud of.

He still remembered that in most stories he had read in his past life, the protagonists started getting arrogant when reaching this stage. They were all like, ‘Notice me, Senpai! I am S-rank! I am spechul!’

But really? S-rank was just a bigger kunai fodder in front of the last boss of the Narutoverse. And let’s not even speak about the Otsutsuki clan. Ren hoped they were not a thing, but he probably wasn’t that lucky.

It felt… hopeless, living in this world. Ignorance was really bliss. Sometimes, he envied all the ninjas around who had no idea how shitty the future was most likely going to be.

They worried about encountering ninjas from other villages on their missions. About another ninja war erupting. About the prosperity of the village.

All reasonable concerns. But they paled in contrast to an alien chakra goddess hell-bent on exterminating the humanity manifesting in the world again.

Shaking his head to chase away these depressing feelings, Ren wryly smiled and realized he was far enough from Konoha. He checked his detection seal, and after confirming nobody was around him, he teleported to his seal in the Land of Hot Water.

The past few months were very nice for him as far as spreading his transportation seal network was concerned. He took several quick C-rank missions that led him to other countries and used his shadow clones to cover as much ground as possible. Now, he had a seal in most countries bordering Konoha.

That was an achievement he was prouder of than becoming an S-rank ninja. If he ever needed to run away from Konoha and its hunter ninjas, this would make it a piece of cake. Plus, secretly returning to Konoha would also be extremely easy for him since he had several hundred transportation seals strewn all around the village.

Not even a rogue ninja status could separate him from Hinata and Ino anymore.

This mission was not very different. Ren took an easy courier mission to the Land of Hot Water and was supposed to deliver some documents to a client. The delivery was expected three days from now and was on the other side of the country, closer to the borders with the Land of Lightning.

Ren still had two free days thanks to his transportation seal massively cutting out the travel time, so he naturally intended to use that time to unwind and enjoy the famed hot springs.

It was just a pity he couldn’t bring his girls. Unfortunately, they had the academy, and… to be frank, that sounded like a cheap excuse because that’s what it was. He just wanted to enjoy his ‘me’ time for two days.

He could have taken them from the village and returned them in the evening. They could have even left clones to curb any suspicion. But no, Ren wanted a few peaceful no-female days.

It was what it was.

The treesomes were awesome. Hinata and Ino trained together so much that there was next to no jealousy between them. Instead, they loved to team up against him. And they always made it very enjoyable for him.

He even made a seal that could store nutrients from food and inject it later on into him in the form of stamina when needed. It was proper magic-like bullshit. But once the pandora’s box was open with the Time-Stop Seal, Ren started experimenting left and right, throwing shit at the wall while hoping something would stick.

It wasn’t working very well, but there were some small highlights. He had a workable direction, and he was slowly making progress.

Chakra could even bring back the dead. What was a little stamina potion in the form of a seal compared to that?

What? Did somebody actually think he would start physically exercising to keep up with his girls instead of cheesing his seals for some cheat solution?

Please.

He was better than that.

Hinata had her medical ninjutsu to boost her physical strengthening process, but Ren had his seals. And he was still physically way ahead of the girls. In fact, despite their brutal training regime, they did not really lessen the gap in physical prowess between them.

And thank the sage for that small mercy. Hail the gravity seals! Glory to the… well, him. As the maker of the seal, he deserved it.

Ren would have had a much harder time dealing with them using Konoha’s secret technique, teamwork, on him in the bedroom if the girls were as physically capable as him.

No. He was good. Cheating his way through with seals worked for him. It did help that he knew how his gravity seals worked to the tiniest detail, and that meant he could use them very efficiently.

There was no way he would go the Saitama route. He’d leave that path to Sasugai Uchiha and his new unwanted but relentless sidekick, Sakugai Haruno.

… His meddling had created abominations. Was it weird that he felt a bit proud of it?

Anyway, his girls were stuck at something around fifty to sixty percent efficiency usage of their gravity seals. That was already jaw-dropping. In a year, they reached the physical prowess of Jonin rank when they started at Genin level of prowess.

The seal was an elite soldier printing machine. Wars were started for way less. Hence why Ren kept its existence secret. He didn’t want all the other ninja villages to gang up on Konoha in a desperate gambit to either steal the seal or delete it from existence.

Unlike his girls, he could use around ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of gravity seals’ efficiency, so he was still improving a little bit faster than them when other factors were considered despite his lack of physical training.

Unfortunately, Ino and Hinata would have to become much better at sealing to get that sweet, sweet ninety-five-plus percentage. Yet, they just didn’t want to spend the next three-plus years focusing only on sealing to get there, and Ren made his peace with that.

Chuckling, Ren decided to give his girls a small apology in his mind for not bringing them to the hot springs and decided he would take them to a festival in the Capital City or something in the future.

Right now, he wanted to have two days of relaxing. No ninja bullshit. No work. No sexy kunoichi trying to tempt him into a sex marathon. No responsibility. Just slacking off, hot springs, and good food.

He checked into a hotel, picking a quite expensive one for his two-day unsanctioned vacation. But he could afford it. His venture in the Capital City went well. The toys he designed sold like hotcakes, and Ren, the merchant from the Capital, was also a hard-working individual, so he had already spread the business to other countries, earning even more money.

Ren, the ninja, however, felt that he screwed the pooch with that opportunity. When he first approached Ren the merchant, he had grand dreams of using his otherworldly knowledge to become the richest man and the economic power who puppets the stage from the shadows… ya know? Like some main characters in fanfics do?

They make it look so easy, too.

But it wasn’t. His progress there was firmly stuck at toy-making. He simply did not have the time to make better products. Between his own training, training the girls, missions, his work at the Barrier Corps, keeping up with his relationships and friendships, and on top of that his seal experimentation, yeah, Ren had no time to spare for something as mundane as figuring out new stuff to sell.

It seemed silly. He could have delegated it to one shadow clone and be done with it by now, no?

Well, yes, but one less shadow clone for seal experimentation was still one less clone working on getting stronger. He could use only so many of them in a day, and it just seemed like a waste of chakra.

Money was not all that important to him.

Entering the most famous hot springs of the town while munching on an apple, Ren curiously looked around…

“Oh, Noriko-chan, you naughty, naughty girl. Who would have thought you could use your tongue in such a way!”

A perverse giggle resounded through the male section of the hot spring, coming from a big naked man with a mane of white hair who was kneeling near the wall that separated the male and female section while pressing his ear on it to eavesdrop as he scribbled into his notebook with almost wild frenzy.

Ren closed his eyes and tried to stave off the headache that had suddenly hit him. Just his luck, from all the bathhouses in this continent, he had to walk into the one Jiraiya decided to use to peep on women today.

With a sigh, Ren turned on his heel, fully intending to get away from the creep. He didn’t want to get mauled by angry females. But as he started to walk out, Jiraiya suddenly spoke again, not even noticing Ren’s presence.

“Hinata-chan~-“

Before Ren knew it, the half-eaten apple in his hand sailed through the room and nailed the back of Jiraya’s hand with enough force to make his body flip in the air before his face crashed into the ground with an audible, “Ugya!”.

Yes, Ren knew that Hinata was a common name.

No, he didn’t care.

There went his vacation…

—

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep