Chapter 342: The family gathering 1

"Is the crystal user still as sullen as the newfound Uzumaki is eager?" Ringo asked Rei as she longingly snuggled to his side on the couch in the living room with an expression of pure bliss.

She just returned back home to their mansion in the Village on the Other Side after a particularly long week spent solely in Kirigakure in preparation for the Chunin Exams in Konoha and the events happening during or after them. It was honestly maddening and choosing teams for the exams was actually the easiest part of it all.

Her only solace was that when her gaze fell on Pakura, who was currently using the other side of highly amused Rei as a teddy bear, the green-haired woman gave her a weak but understanding smile. Sunagakure was in full mobilization too and keeping these things secret, while a lot easier thanks to Rei's village-scale barrier seals, still needed a massive effort.

Spies were routed, the village's forges running all day and night long, troops organized and prepared, defense and offense restructured, assassins fully notified that orders might come any second and they will be required to don their masks, the Seven Swordsmen were having more and more sparring sessions in the last-minute rush for improvement, finances had to be sorted, budget secured, all non-vital projects put on hold and war council was put together, starting to strategize and evaluate the earliest elimination targets for assassins while making first plans for Kirigakure's offensive and fortifications, plans that will have to be no doubt adjusted once Konoha and Sunagakure really tie the proverbial knot with them.

The clan heads were also informed what would happen shortly after the Konoha Chunin Exams to deal with their own problems and make their own war preparations for the village was fully expecting the clan ninjas to pull their weight.

This all meant... paperwork.

Yeah, paperwork. That blasted thing. Ringo would never have guessed that putting the village on war footing would require so much damn paperwork.

Her reaction?

'Fuck my life...'

There was no nicer way to put it when she saw the unending stacks of paper on her table, around her table, all over her damn office...

At least this nightmarish week was finally over. Her wrist hurt more than she ever remembered. Life-long intense practice with sword and it is paperwork that made her wrist kill her with pain. That made the hardened kunoichi in Ringo quite vexed.

It was a time like this that Ringo pitied the Third Mizukage and fully understood why the man was so stressed. It was hard enough to make the village work with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine when everyone listened to commands. Ringo really didn't want to imagine the mess it would be if she had to rule over unruly clan heads with their own agendas.

That simply didn't fly during her reign, much less when the village was on the precipice of war.

A soft snort resounded from the door leading to the kitchen, causing Ringo to slightly turn her head towards it and notice a pale-skinned woman with horns leaving the kitchen, carrying two plates.

"That's putting it mildly. That crystal girl didn't speak a word since Rei made her sign the contract. It has been weeks!" Kaguya chuckled, finally reaching the armchair opposite the sofa on which Rei, Ringo, and Pakura were seated.

"True." Rei distractedly agreed, not taking off his gaze from the seals he was trying to put together. "Guren isn't happy she was left on the moon."

"As if you would let her back onto Earth. It is blatantly obvious she would try to run away and inform Orochimaru." Pakura tiredly sighed, enjoying Rei's warmth.

Ringo tried to reach for the food on the plates Kaguya brought and put on the table but before she could grab herself a bite, Kaguya quickly took both plates again into her hands and pulled them away with a mild glare aimed at the stupefied Ringo.

"And the Uzumaki half-breed fit right into this clan of redheaded bastards." Kaguya spoke, her pointed and warning look not leaving Ringo as she cradled her food in her lap. Her eyes now flickered over Ringo's red hair as a pondering frown appeared on her face.

Ringo... just rolled her eyes and returned to her snuggling with Rei while inwardly cursing white-haired stingy alien bitches with freaky eyes.

Kaguya was not fond of the Uzumaki clan. Her descendants or not, anyone who practiced seals was on her shit list except Rei because he actually offered her help. Despite that, Kaguya did not fully trust Rei until recently. Only when he pulled out his newest product, the contracting seal, did Kaguya finally get the necessary reassurance.

The Contract Seal was something that enforced terms stated on a contract. It worked on the soul rather than the body and while ninjas had sturdy souls, that didn't mean breaking it wouldn't be nasty. In fact, just the attempt to do so would be excruciatingly painful.

Rei used it on both Guren and Tayuya as the unwitting test subjects and Kaguya instantly understood what purpose the contract held.

And unsurprisingly, it was the very same day that Rei came back to her seal to 'seal' the deal. They signed a contract where Rei had to free her and she would become his.

With that, Kaguya was assured Rei would really put effort into fulfilling his part of the deal.

What this 'his' meant... neither Rei nor Kaguya specified. It could be anything from subordinate to lover and both were fine with leaving it so open... for now.

Fortunately for Kaguya, this safeguard of the contract meant Rei decided it was fine to give her more freedom. The current body of Kaguya was but a special shadow clone with a multitude of seals all over it that prevented her from instantly dispelling due to accidental light damage. That's why Kaguya had only as much chakra available to her as the clone, which meant she felt utterly powerless.

Alas, she would rather feel vulnerable but capable of eating the incredible foods found in Rei's fridge than be stuck in the seal. The occasional cuddles with Rei helped too.

But it was not all just a walk in the park. Kaguya was extremely envious of Tsunade freaking Senju who decided it was her job to goad her by visiting Rei's chambers every. Damn. Night. While being extremely loud...

Any attempt to relieve her frustrations was completely useless. In the end, it was just a large concentration of chakra.

She felt cheated...

"Tayuya is a very talented kid." Rei smiled, ignoring the slightly hostile tone of Kaguya, "In the past few weeks, she took to her studies like a fish to water. She is no longer restricted to only doing illusions through her chakra-infused sounds."

"Echolocation?" Ringo raised her eyebrow.

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"Yup. It was the first thing that was taught to her." Rei nodded.

Echolocation was a quite basic 'sensing' technique Rei and Konan invented during their youth. They did not use it much, not after they surpassed a certain limit in their power and devised better ways.

The reason why Ringo was aware of it was that she had to spend two damned months practicing it to perfection when she was genin... only to find out it was mostly useless for her when she was finished.

Sometimes she just had to hate the tough love of her definitely 'not' sadistic senseis.

"And with the girl's affinity for sounds, she learned it in a day." Rei nonchalantly added, eagerly watching Ringo's reaction with the corner of his eye.

He was not left disappointed.

Ringo's face scrunched as if she ate a particularly nasty lemon.

'One day!?' She cursed Tayuya in her head. 'The bitch just earned herself a particularly high position on my shit list.' She disgruntledly decided.

Were her two months of suffering so meaningless?

"Yeah, you should have seen her." A new voice suddenly interjected as Tsunade leisurely walked in, stretching like a cat, "Rei just had to explain certain concepts to the girl and she found out how to create shockwaves via her sound all by herself." She shook her head in disbelieving amusement, "The girl has potential to reach SS-rank."

"SS-rank..." Ringo's jaw dropped.

In the Village on the Other Side, S-ranks were not rare. The village had over thirty of them. After that came SS-ranks and after them SSS-rank which was basically just Rei and his girls. To hear that the weak low-jonin level girl who loved to cuss had the natural talent to reach SS-rank was mind-boggling for Ringo.

To be fair, even Konan and Tsunade reacted in much the same way as Ringo when they first realized this fact. They just had enough time to come to terms with it.

"I can't help but find it funny. Orochimaru has no idea what a gem that girl is." Tsunade derisively snorted. "He made her train in genjutsu when she could possibly use the very same amount of chakra to blast through chakra-reinforced walls as she would for a mid-class illusion. Her shockwaves are just pure bullshit, I tell you." She disgruntledly huffed at the last part, making Ringo extremely curious about the reason for her mild agitation.

"It works on a very similar principle as her enhanced strength." Rei hinted at the reason for Tsunade's displeasure, "And our resident med-nin is still mad that a wet-behind-her-ears girl managed to recreate the effects of her super-strength through soundwaves AND can use it as a ranged attack."

Tsunade rolled her eyes as she arrived behind Rei and eagerly put her hands on his shoulders, starting to massage him. She could instantly feel the surge of his water-natured chakra entering her system and slightly shuddered.

She loved to give her beloved a proper massage. With his long working hours on seals, he always had stiff shoulders. That Rei made it his duty to make the massage as pleasurable for Tsunade as it was for him... that only made it that much sweeter for Tsunade.

"I am not mad the girl's Jutsu is a version of my super-strength that took me years of research, study of the body, and physical training to develop. Nor am I mad she figured out how to use it to a great effect in under three days." Tsunade nonchalantly said but nobody in the room believed the bullshit she just spewed. "I, however, am not sure I liked the way she looked at Rei after he introduced her to these concepts of how sound works. She looked a bit too lovestruck for my tastes."

'Scratch that. The bitch just earned herself the top position on my shit list.' Ringo's eyebrow twitched.

"You are just mildly jealous." Konan also entered the room, and with that, the gathering was finished as Mei was currently too busy being Mei. "I, for one, like the overeager vulgar girl. She is precious."

"And that is why you put her into Izumi's hands? I thought you wanted to traumatize her for life." Kaguya snickered and Konan gave her a pointed look as she flopped into an armchair near the sofa.

'Ouch. Maybe I should lower her ranking on my shit list, after all.' Ringo mentally hummed, feeling a sudden pity for the poor Tayuya.

"Izumi is not that bad." Konan exasperatedly defended with a peeved expression. She trained the girl herself! There was nothing wrong with her!

"Are we speaking of the girl who thinks using Tsukuyomi torture for mental training is a totally acceptable training method?" Pakura decided to butt in.

"You mean the girl whose idea of training our troops is having them fight against her fully formed Susanoo?" Tsunade dryly asked.

"The Uchihas literally avoid her and call her the second coming of Madara because of her sadistic nature." Ringo added her own fifty cents in deadpan.

Kaguya just munched on her cookies, each bite transmitting her utter disbelief at what she just heard Konan say.

Silence momentarily ensued in the room and Konan frowned. She still couldn't understand where the problem was. Izumi was such a gentle and clumsy girl. It wasn't as if she used different training than she put Ringo and Mei through and they turned out just fine.

"Ahem, anyway..." Rei decided to change the topic, "Let's start the meeting. You can bicker about your apprentices' questionable tendencies later on."

He liked the girl but he was not about to discuss Izumi's unreasonable training methods born from Konan's tutelage. He didn't want to be forced to admit into Konan's face that having chunins fight against fully-formed Susanoo was a bit overkill. Nor was sending their mangled bodies for a two-week-long stay at the hospital despite the incredible medical advancements the village had.

Well, at least there was not much his ninjas feared after that experience. Tsukuyomi for the win...

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