Rei Kaguya enjoyed today's dinner very much.
The main reason was the quality of the dishes themselves and the excellent cooking technique. The fact that a beautiful young girl sat across from him with her face flushed red the entire time added a few extra layers of eye candy to the meal as well.
Although Mei Terumi vanished without a trace the moment dinner ended, it did not stop Rei from gaining an entire day's worth of good mood from it.
And whenever Rei was in a good mood, he had always liked doing things that could bring him joy and improvement.
For example, beginning research on the incomplete Heaven Cursed Seal on Anko Mitarashi's body.
Nominally, this was the deposit Orochimaru had paid him.
But from another angle, this might not necessarily be Orochimaru's attempt to use Rei's knowledge of Ryuchi Cave Sage Arts to speed up his Cursed Seal research after his progress had slowed due to a lack of senjutsu-related knowledge.
The power of the Cursed Seal itself came from Jugo's clan, which had been affected by the natural energy leaking out of Ryuchi Cave.
Rather than spend time and effort conducting human experiments to verify all his guesses about Cursed Seal power, why not simply throw the matter to a collaborator who specialized in this field?
He only needed to provide follow-up research ideas and concepts, while also saving time to manage his own forces.
Such a good deal. Why refuse it?
Rei did not know how close Orochimaru's real thoughts were to this guess.
But even if Orochimaru truly had planned it that way, Rei had nothing to be dissatisfied about.
Partners should be like this. Mutual benefit. Mutual gain.
A relationship based purely on interest, without any emotional contamination, was often easier to turn into a pure and solid alliance.
Although the final product he tinkered out would most likely not match Orochimaru's ideas and requirements.
After returning home and changing into a less eye-catching outfit, Rei hummed a small tune from his homeland that had somehow surfaced in his mind and arrived at the place where the Konoha trio was under soft confinement.
And just in time, he happened to see Hyuga Makoto, whose cheeks had become much thinner, being dragged into a room by a young married woman wearing Kaguya clan clothing while letting out weak, powerless wails.
After silently mourning Hyuga Makoto, who was being ground down like an iron pestle into a needle, Rei turned around a corner and arrived at the dining area.
There, Shisui Uchiha and Anko Mitarashi were calmly eating today's dinner together with expressions that had long since grown used to such sights.
"Heh. You two look like you have completely adapted to life here."
Rei walked to the table filled with sumptuous dishes.
While examining the wide variety of attractive-looking food, he teased the two who had noticed his arrival.
"If I could follow you around Kirigakure every morning like Shisui does, I might really be able to adapt."
Anko's cute little face collapsed as she unhappily stuffed another extra-sweet dango into her mouth with the tableware in her hand.
"That cannot be helped. The positions I arranged for you two are different, and my focus during this period just so happens to be reforming Kirigakure's outdated basic policies."
Rei shrugged and pointed at Shisui, who wore an innocent expression beside her.
"The position I have given Shisui is that of a future transitional administrator responsible for conveying the purpose and implementation logic behind Kirigakure's reforms to Konoha. In other words, I am training him as the next Hokage. That is why I need to take him around to see the various changes in Kirigakure and make sure he can personally understand why I am doing these things."
"As for you, Anko, your position is closer to the role you had beside Orochimaru. You will be responsible for acting as my assistant and recorder in various experiments. After all, you do not look like the kind of person who is good at managing others. Settling down as a researcher and tinkering with beauty Cursed Seals that can control body shape and figure sounds quite suitable."
"What do you mean… beauty Cursed Seals that can control body shape and figure?"
Because Anko had not spent that much time in contact with Rei, she did not have much deep understanding of his strange development ideas for ninjutsu.
So when she heard Rei connect the Heaven Cursed Seal on her body—which had nearly drained all her vitality but had also brought her incomparable combat power—with strange everyday terms like figure control and beauty, a huge question mark could not help appearing over her head.
"…You cannot understand?"
Rei glanced at the confused Anko, then at Shisui, who looked thoughtful but still curious.
He coughed softly and began explaining to them.
"The reason something like a Cursed Seal can let people possess strength beyond their limits lies in how it extracts chakra from the user's body without limit. It ignores the burden on the host's body and forcibly draws out power. Anko, you activated the Heaven Cursed Seal Orochimaru gave you before, so you should be very clear about the fierce side effect of bodily corrosion when it activates."
Anko nodded and touched the side of her neck with lingering fear.
Although the Heaven Cursed Seal there had already been sealed by Rei, the pain of hovering on the edge of death at every moment while using the Cursed Seal still appeared in her nightmares from time to time even now.
"Since activating the Cursed Seal causes a tremendous burden and consumption to the body, then as long as the intensity of the Cursed Seal is reduced and its bodily consumption is controlled at a level that will not harm one's health but can still consume excess nutrition and energy, would that not turn its side effect into a positive effect? Would that not allow a weakened version of the Cursed Seal to be used to control body shape?"
Anko tilted her head.
She stared blankly at Rei's relaxed face, her small head filled with enormous question marks.
She completely could not understand how Rei had suddenly leaped from using Cursed Seals to improve combat power into everyday life.
But Shisui, who had already heard plenty of novel ideas from Rei, quickly understood his thinking.
He nodded slightly and said, "I see. There is also this kind of approach, turning a negative effect around and using it positively… But Fourth Mizukage, even if you really develop a weakened Cursed Seal that can control nutritional intake and help people maintain their body shape, where can it be used?"
"Of course it can be sold to noble ladies and merchant daughters who want to eat and drink freely but are worried about losing their figure. It can also be sold to shinobi who have grown fat day by day because of a lack of exercise."
Rei glanced at Anko, who was still very thin right now, and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
"The early internal reforms in Kirigakure that do not cost much money are more or less finished. Next, we need to establish new economic sources for Kirigakure that do not rely on missions and commissions. At the same time, we can guide part of the younger generation of shinobi into these industries."
"When it comes to making money, the money in women's hands is obviously easier to earn than men's. And when it comes to earning women's money, products that can let them maintain an ageless appearance and graceful figure are the kind that can drive them the craziest."
"In the early stage, we will first tinker out this Cursed Seal that controls body shape, then sell it in grades according to the intensity of energy intake control. We can also use regular after-sales maintenance to cultivate user loyalty."
"After the customer base stabilizes, I will go talk to Princess Tsunade of Konoha and try to obtain that medical ninjutsu of hers that can control her age and appearance. Then, by combining it with the weakened Cursed Seal and adjusting it to the point ordinary people can use it, once this step succeeds, we can sit at home and wait for women from the entire shinobi world to take the initiative to send us money."
"Hm. Perhaps not only women? If peace lasts long enough, there should also be more men who pursue their own appearance."
After saying that, Rei looked at Anko and Shisui, who had both fallen completely into a daze.
He curled his lips.
Then, with one hand each, he picked up the two brats who still had child-sized bodies. After greeting the surrounding Anbu, he brought the two of them toward the laboratory he had just finished building by taking advantage of his position.
"W-Wait a minute? Fourth Mizukage, what are you doing?! Did you not say Anko's position was the one that made her your experimental assistant? Then why are you taking me too…"
After coming back to his senses, Shisui struggled with all his might to escape Rei's arm while asking in complete confusion.
"Shisui, are you not a genius of the Uchiha clan? Since you are a genius and also have the Sharingan, which can copy ninjutsu and perceive chakra flow, then take out your talent and insight in ninjutsu and use them more."
"After all, you will also be responsible for Konoha's transformation work in the future. You will inevitably need to design transformation industries tailored to Konoha's shinobi according to local conditions. If you broaden your horizons now and open up your thinking, your brain will not fail to keep up later."
While secretly feeling happy over Shisui's change in attitude, Rei maliciously buried words in his answer that hinted Shisui was already one of his people.
"Huh? Oh… Is that so?"
Shisui shook his head.
He completely failed to realize that he had already become very used to Rei saying such things about him.
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free. Paid members can read more advanced chapters.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_