Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

"Ngh." Ren groaned as he woke up and hugged his pillow closer to his chest, lying in a comfortable bed in pure bliss. It had been a week since the ambush and he was finally back in Konoha.

After the ambush, nothing interesting really happened, and Ren had to grit his teeth through the inspection of the remaining detection seals because they did not have a proper medic ninja on staff in the border base. The medic there was barely an apprentice and didn't know that green glowy handjob technique Sakura was so proud of.

Thinking of it like that made Ren grin and press his face into his pillow, enjoying its softness. He truly missed it during that blasted mission.

But then he had to wince as he put a bit too much pressure on his chest and a flare of pain briefly assaulted him. The medic at the border base just ensured his ribs were set right so they could heal properly on their own.

When Ren finally arrived back in Konoha yesterday, the hospital was the first place he visited but the medics there saw that his ribs were already half-healed and decided not to waste their chakra on him since his injury was not urgent.

Ren had received a month of paid medical leave and was told to let his ribs heal naturally. On the one hand, it was great and he evaded a lot of busy work for the next month. On the other, living with broken ribs was not a fun experience.

Then again, Ren had kind of gotten used to it during the past week. His excuse for arriving in Konoha yesterday when he actually left the border base five days ago was that he opted to walk instead of running due to his injury.

But that wasn't the truth.

Ren took a detour to the capital of the Land of Fire and splurged his savings by buying a small house there. It hurt his wallet somewhat fiercely but fortunately, ninjas earned a lot of money and Ren didn't need many ninja supplies for his combat style.

The highest expense for seal users would be the chakra ink... but ever since Ren figured out how to etch seals with his chakra alone, he hadn't used chakra ink, saving thousands of ryo every week.

That shit was crazy expensive.

Other than that, Ren bought a set of kunai here and there but that was it. Most of his money for missions and supplying the village with the exploding tags on a weekly basis was saved, plus he still had some of the money the Akimichi clan paid him for the new recipes.

By now, he had enough for a house in the capital.

The reason why Ren bothered with this was Danzo. Ren didn't truly think the old bastard would attack him inside Konoha. That would be a bit too much even for him.

Public order and safety were a big thing in Konoha. In the village full of killers, the higher-ups can't have ninjas sneaking into each other's houses and assassinating people. The village had to remain a safe oasis from the violence in their life. It had to remain a place where ninjas serving it could feel safe and wouldn't need to be constantly on guard.

Their whole system was built on that principle. So, no, Ren didn't think Danzo would go far enough to break this unwritten rule.

That said... Uchiha massacre.

Ren would rather err on the side of caution. He also didn't fancy having to fear an assassin sneaking into his house while he was sleeping.

So, he simply put a transportation seal into his house in the capital city and when he arrived at his apartment in Konoha, Ren spent four hours putting up numerous seals all around it for security and surveillance purposes, connecting them to a master seal that he could use to access the seals no matter how far away he was from them.

Then, he used the transportation seal and hopped into his house in the capital for a good night's sleep. The best way to avoid assassins in Konoha and sleep without needing to be on guard was naturally to not be in Konoha at all.

Even if the supposed assassin did get through Ren's security seals, he would not find him at home during the night and it only took twenty seconds for Ren to use his transportation seal to pop in and out of Konoha anyway.

Of course, this was technically a treason.

Ninjas were forbidden to leave their village without permission. That was a major rule. Doing so was tantamount to desertion and if a ninja did that, it would instantly earn him the rank of rogue ninja and hunter ninjas would be sent to either retrieve or kill him depending on his value to the village.

Izumo and Kotetsu, who always guard the gate, are not there for its protection. They are basically clerks who are supposed to check if every ninja leaving the village has the proper permission. If not, the ANBU team on the 'real' gate guard duty would deal with it.

That always irked Ren. In his past life, he was used to a bit more freedom of movement. In the end, Ren decided that what the Konoha higher-ups don't know won't bother them.

Konoha was big and there was no rule that a ninja had to spend their night in their house. Plus, ninjas popped in and out of places constantly.

There was no way to prove that Ren was not inside the village even if they had seen him disappear via his transportation seal. Most low-end ninjas would just write it off as shunshin anyway and Ren was not going to use that seal in front of jonins anytime soon.

The only ninja capable of teleportation in the recent past was the Fourth Hokage anyway. There was no way the other ninjas would believe some unknown, fresh chunin could achieve the same feat. Their very own preconceived notions would prevent them from seeing it.

Suddenly, an alarm seal rang, fully waking Ren from his sleep and making him grumble as he sluggishly put his hand on the paper tag with the master seal to his home security that was lying on the bedside table.

The master seal connected with the detection seal Ren shamelessly plagiarized and improved upon, working in tandem with other surveillance seals of his, and Ren's mind was abruptly filled with a vague mental map of his apartment in Konoha.

There was somebody in front of his door... and the alarm rang not because they tried to get in but because they knocked on the door. From their chakra levels, Ren could say they were about high genin. 

He didn't have a surveillance seal outside his home in fear that somebody would recognize it so he didn't see who was in front of his door. But he didn't need a seal to deduce that it was Hinata.

Ruefully sighing and getting out of his bed, Ren put a loose shirt on himself and used the transportation seal to pop back into his apartment in Konoha.

Opening the door wearing only the shirt and shorts while having his right hand under his shirt and absent-mindedly rubbing his stomach, Ren saw the wide-eyed Hyuga girl holding a basket while staring at him in open-mouthed wonder.

Ren owlishly blinked and then almost let out a petulant whine when he noticed the veins around her eyes bulging out.

"You just appeared in your house out of nowhere! Did you teleport!?" She excitedly asked, clutching the basket to her chest while her creepy eyes almost sparkled in curiosity.

Hearing her, Ren facepalmed with a groan.

'Of course, my Hyuga student was obviously going to abuse her Byakugan as I taught her and my secret would be out before the first day ended. Lately, my luck is just superb, isn't it?' He wryly complained in his mind as he ushered Hinata in.