Chapter 231 231: ~I don't care, I paint the town red ~

After Ren and Tsunade stepped out of the Hokage building, they walked in silence for a good stretch of the road. The air was heavy, but not uncomfortable, more like both of them were just letting the meeting sink in. Finally, Tsunade broke the silence, her voice low but direct. "You felt it too?" Ren didn't even have to pretend to think. He just gave a small nod and replied casually, as if he was talking about the weather. "Yeah, it was a setup. Commander told me earlier that the deed was with the Third, and that he had some old promise with the clan leaders about rent. He also knew I'm not the type to waste time with tedious political steps when I can just call you in. So he must've predicted I'd drag you along, and planned accordingly. His endgame had to be that the Third comes out losing in this meeting too. Every move we made, he probably had them sketched out already. Honestly? It's the perfect plan for him to win without lifting a finger." Tsunade frowned slightly at that, her eyes narrowing. "And you're fine with being read like this?" Ren gave a half-shrug, completely unbothered. "Hm, though I don't really like being controlled and read so thoroughly, it was not really a problem this time. Boss-man's been nothing but good to me ever since I joined ANBU, and even before that since I learned that he repelled Danzo a few times when I was younger. That man literally handed me the entire library of the village's jutsu, S-rank included. So I don't care if he uses me for some little schemes like this. Even if he had told me straight to my face what he was planning, I'd probably still agree. It's not that big of a deal. Whether we like it or not, we're already on his side in the fight that's coming, Danzo and the Third aren't going to just roll over, so sticking close makes sense. And if he ever actually does something that hurts me or anyone close to me? Oh, then he's in for a treat." Ren's lips curved into a wicked grin as he said the last part. "After all, not just anyone can paint the whole damn village, claim it as their own, and get away with it." Tsunade's brow twitched in realization. "Ah right... this thing." She looked to her side, noticing one of the freshly marked roads. Painted clearly for all to see, This road belongs to the Senju clan. She huffed in disbelief. "Everyone just forgot about this stunt by the end of the meeting. No one even concluded what to do about it." Ren let out a small "hehe" under his breath. "That's right. And even though it didn't end up being necessary, I think I'll leave it there for now. It keeps people talking. Plus, half the villagers think Danzo did it, so what problem could we possibly face?" He gave another innocent shrug, though the smirk on his face ruined the act. Tsunade reached out suddenly, grabbing a fistful of his hair and ruffling it roughly. "You have one evil mind, you brat. But tell me, what kind of Fuinjutsu is this? To normal eyes it's just paint, sure, but anyone trained in Fuinjutsu would spot something's off. So, what is it?" Ren didn't even try to hide his pride as he started explaining. "Found it in the house, actually. Right after I heard grandma's message where she insulted the Third and Danzo, she basically dumped these scrolls on me. One of them had this exact seal, the same type the family wing uses. It works like this, you carve the seal onto the object you want to lock in place, then you connect that seal to the foundation of whatever it's attached to. So, for example, in the house, every single piece of furniture is connected to the entire building. Try to move a single chair, and the whole structure feels the strain. Remove enough things, and the whole foundation could collapse. It's good for preservation, but terrible if you ever want to remodel. So yeah, it needs more study before using it for anything major." Tsunade's eyebrow rose higher. "So you're telling me... you carved that seal onto the paint itself and then just used it to draw?" Ren grinned like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Yep. Used the most durable, waterproof paint I could get, too. While carving, I channeled chakra into it so it won't come off unless someone either scrubs off the paint which even for a Jonin would take days, destroys the building or removes it with Fuinjutsu. And the last option isn't exactly easy. Just grasping the basics of the seal would take about a week, and that's for someone with my level of talent. Imagine how long it would take for the average seal user. So yeah, they're stuck with it unless the Third himself comes down to deal with it. And even he would need a full day or two to sort it out. Oh, but, you might wanna tell the pervy sage to keep his nose out of this. If he and the Third team up, they could probably crack it in just a few hours." Tsunade nodded in agreement, but then a strange look crossed her face. She glanced at Ren, her brows knitting together in a mix of suspicion and disbelief before she asked, "How many clones did you even use to complete weeks worth of knowledge, wait, no, scratch that, how many clones did you use to complete what you said was only the 'basic understanding' of that seal? You said it normally takes a week for you, so for the others it must be months worth of work... so?" Ren, completely unbothered, replied like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Probably about a hundred." Tsunade's eye twitched hard. She stared at him as his words sank in. One hundred clones. For a seal. Not even a combat seal, just one that, in the wrong hands, could be used to cause chaos in the village. Normal people struggled to maintain even ten clones without passing out, and here this brat was, casually tossing out "a hundred" like he was talking about how many dumplings he'd eaten for lunch. Sure, she could also make a hundred clones if she really pushed herself, her ridiculous Senju-level chakra reserves allowed it, but she couldn't dedicate them all to something so mind-numbingly exhausting as studying a single damned seal for days on end. And especially not for one that barely had any practical battlefield use. She exhaled slowly, shaking her head. Ren wasn't normal. In fact... nobody in the entire clan was normal, except for her. Her grandfather sure as hell hadn't been normal. And now Ren, the next Senju heir, was shaping up to be yet another in a long line of lunatics with too much chakra and too little concern for what was considered reasonable. Which meant, once again, it was probably going to fall on her shoulders to hold the ropes and keep this circus of a clan from spiraling completely out of control. "So," she asked carefully, "anything in mind regarding the clan shops? Because right now we don't have nearly enough personnel to actually run them. Or..." her eyes narrowed suspiciously, "...don't tell me you plan to put your clones in there too?" She was dead serious. If Ren actually planned to do that, she might have to schedule a medical scan of his brain to see if something inside had finally snapped. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't quite completed his descent into madness just yet. "I'm thinking we rent them out," Ren replied as if the problem was already solved. "Of course, the rent would be double what other shops pay, our shops are in the busiest parts of the village, prime locations, so higher rent is just fair. Anyway, money's not really that useful in a world like this. Even if we earn more from the shops, it's not worth spending too much time managing them. Honestly, it doesn't even compare to bounty hunting. That ten years' worth of missed rent you're talking about? I made about the same amount in just the past few months. If I keep doing what I'm doing now, what do I even need the money for?" He ended with a shrug, like it was the simplest math in the world. Tsunade's eyes widened. Not only at the amount he'd made in such a short time, but at the fact that he apparently didn't think money had much use at all. That... was unacceptable. As the responsible older sister, she decided right there and then that she needed to teach him some very important life lessons. Without warning, she clamped a strong hand down on his shoulder as they walked, her tone shifting into that of a veteran giving the harsh truths to a clueless rookie. "Listen, brat. You're still too young to understand the wondrous use of money. But trust me, once you get older, you'll understand how good it is to have it. Especially when you realize there aren't many ways to earn it once you're a strong adult." She let out a long sigh before continuing. "Once you reach my level, or even with the strength you have now, the number of missions you'll get will drop sharply. No village has an endless list of S-rank missions. If they do have a lot, it's only because their territory is a complete mess. And even then, those missions get divided among all the top shinobi. "Doing A-rank missions? Forget it. They're way too easy for someone like you, and the payout compared to the time you waste on them is pathetic. As for bounty hunting, " she gave him a pointed look, "that's not going to last either. Give it a few days and I guarantee you'll get an order to stop. The higher-ups of the other villages won't like a Leaf S-ranker running around on his own, killing off all the rouge ninja's, even Leaf would try to interfere if some other village was doing the same. It also makes the village look bad. So there goes your two biggest revenue streams." Ren stayed silent, as he listened to Tsunade's explanation. "The only steady thing left is business," Tsunade pressed on. "If we can't run the shops ourselves, renting them out is still solid income. So don't just dismiss it casually. You might think you don't need the money now, but when you can't go on high-paying missions anymore, and you can't hunt bounties, and you've got nothing coming in... you'll wish you'd listened to me." She gave his shoulder one last squeeze before letting go, clearly satisfied with her little lecture. Ren frowned, deep in thought. 'But I need to accumulate missions to earn points', he reminded himself. After a moment, he looked over at Tsunade and asked bluntly, "Then how come you still have money to gamble?" Tsunade leaned back, a faint smile tugging at her lips as if the question amused her. "That's because of all the improvements I brought to the medical field over the years," she said. "Before your mother came along and got all clever about things, I really did just toss money and techniques away whenever I felt like it. But Sayaka was a smart nut, sharp in all the right ways. She understood the bigger picture. It was her idea for me to sell my ideas to the village. And if the village couldn't afford to pay for them all at once, then they'd pay me every single year instead. That way I'd have a stable income as a semi-retired person, without having to run around on missions all the time." She raised a finger before Ren could interrupt. "And that's just one side of it. The other reason is that the village gives stipends to S-rank and Kage-tier shinobi. Even if we don't take a lot of missions anymore, we're still paid a pretty good sum every month. It's not charity either, it's strategy. These kinds of shinobi are the real powerhouses of the world. If you leave them idle for too long and they get some wild ideas in their heads, the entire shinobi world could be thrown into chaos. So the village keeps them tied down, one way or another, think of it as keeping the leash long, but still being there." Ren nodded slowly as he took it all in. It made sense now, her income wasn't just from gambling luck, but from a system designed to keep dangerous people close and cooperative. Still, he asked again, "Then what if I still want to do missions, even after my strength increases even more?" Tsunade looked at him for a second, clearly wondering why he was so obsessed with doing missions. But she still answered, her tone patient. "Then you start developing high-rank jutsu and techniques. You can trade them in for the amount of missions you want. For example, five normal A-rank Fire Style jutsus in the village might be worth one or two A-rank missions. But an A-rank Lightning Style jutsu could go for one or two A-rank missions alone. But this is because Lightning techniques are in short supply here, so the value's higher. Just keep in mind, if you start flooding the market with too many of them, the value will drop, it's the normal law of demand." She gestured with her hand as she went on, "It's not just elemental jutsu, either. Fuinjutsu, Taijutsu, Bukijutsu, anything can be exchanged for missions, as long as its rank is high enough to be valuable." She paused, and her tone shifted slightly. "There's one more method," she said, "but it might take time." Ren tilted his head, curiosity sparking in his eyes. "What method?" "Span your butterflies across the entire ninja world," Tsunade replied without missing a beat. "Take over all of the village's intel-gathering missions. If you corner that market, the missions will never stop coming." ~~~~~ {A bit of the administrative side of the things to explain what Ren might be doing in the future. Some people asked me to delve a bit into this administrative kind of lore early on when I made my intention of Ren becoming a Hokage clear so here it is. I won't go long in this but I'll keep dropping things here and there.} {If you want, you can support me on pat-reon} { h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n } {You know what else} {280 Stones = Extra chapter} {STONES!!!!}