Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

Chapter 319 319: Ch319. Konan onboard

With a gasp, Konan's consciousness came back, only for her to instantly grit her teeth into a grimace when her stab wound flared with pain. Her eyes opened, yet the world blurred in her sight for a second before finally coming into focus.

She stiffened as she realized she was in an unknown place, and her caution spiked. Instantly but subtly, she glanced around to get at least some information about her surroundings until her eyes stopped on Ren, who was lounging on a comfortable armchair next to the bed where she lay. He had a book in his hands, seemingly content reading and ignoring her newly flabbergasted expression.

For a long moment, Konan did nothing but stare incredulously at the infuriating man as she wondered how she even got here. The last thing she remembered was being stabbed by Zetsu, and then...

Wait! Konan's eyes went wide as the last moments before she lost her consciousness flashed through her hazy mind.

Nagato!

Remembering that her friend was in trouble, Konan tried to hastily get up, only for her body to betray her. Her wound drove a sharp sting through her body, and her arms faltered, causing her to tumble back onto her back with a groan.

"Ugh... wha-" She tried to speak, only to choke due to how dry her mouth was.

"There is water on the table." Ren chuckled while casually motioning toward the table next to the bed with his hand without even bothering to lift his gaze from his book.

Konan slowly turned her head, and indeed, there was a glass of water prepared. Letting out a quiet, raspy sigh, she pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed, leaning on its headboard before she reached with her shaky arm for the glass.

Taking several measured sips, Konan's stiff body slightly relaxed. With her throat no longer parched, she looked at Ren with her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"Nagato?" She quietly asked.

Sighing, Ren softly closed the book. He knew this question was coming. But it was still an unpleasant situation. From Konan's half-resigned, half-hopeful expression, she knew the answer. She just hoped she was wrong.

Unfortunately, Ren didn't have good news for her.

He shook his head. "When my seal teleported you on top of me during a council meeting, right after your organisation successfully attacked the village, it took me a considerable time to persuade the trigger-happy Suna ninjas from simply killing you because of your Akatsuki attire."

And thank the Sage that Ebizo was reasonable enough despite Chiyo's death. Without the old guy, Ren didn't think he held enough sway to prevent them from mobbing Konan. At that point, Ren would have needed to either leave her to die or teleport her away, which would sour his relations with many people in Suna.

Temari and her brothers would understand. Others? Probably not so much.

"I could only go do some recon on the situation after that, and by the time I teleported to Amegakure..." A wry smile appeared on Ren's face, "There was no Amegakure anymore. Just a crater." Pretending not to notice how hard that hit the woman, Ren continued, "I am sorry, I didn't find Nagato or his body. He might be alive, or he might be dead, but-"

Ren suddenly stopped speaking, unsure if he should share what he truly thought on the matter. Konan was shaken enough as it was. He didn't want her to have a mental breakdown. Yes, she was a strong woman, but her last friend in the world had just died. Many ninjas crumbled from far less.

That faint hope that her worst fears might not be true was what held her together for now. It might be what she needed to keep going. Giving her more hope, only for her to later realize how empty it is, might be cruel, but there wasn't much else he could do in his position.

He did investigate, and from the stories of a few extremely spooked villagers who lived in villages several dozen kilometers away from Amegakure, they had seen a massive blue giant trampling and destroying everything around him.

That single revelation made Ren very uncomfortable. There was only one man who could 'make' such a giant. And with the Edo Tensei in Akatsuki's hands? Only one conclusion offered itself.

Madara Uchiha was back in this world.

This was exactly what Ren didn't want to happen and why he put in so much effort into exterminating Kabuto and Orochimaru. And now, Akatsuki had Nagato's corpse, too.

Ren didn't count on Nagato being alive. Against anybody else, Ren would have put his money on him, but not against Madara. So, he figured out he might be seeing Edo Tensei Nagato one of these days.

As if the situation wasn't dire enough already.

"I... don't think Nagato survived the battle." After a while, Ren decided to be honest at least this much. It wasn't an outright confirmation, but hopefully, it would temper Konan's expectations.

Otherwise, if she met Edo Tensei Nagato on the battlefield in the future, it might be a problem.

Oh, who was he kidding? It would be a problem anyway! Ren suppressed his urge to groan.

"I see." Konan blandly answered and ducked her head while her expression turned blank as she hid her anguish behind her emotionless facade. Only her hands, which were tightly clutching the blanket, revealed her inner turmoil.

Her stump didn't last long, though. She eventually steeled herself and looked back up at Ren with a resolute gaze, "We were attacked by Uchiha Madara. He took over Akatsuki. I presume you are going to fight them in the future, am I right?"

Ren raised his eyebrow at her in surprise. He expected her to need more coaxing to reveal what happened, but then again, she was an S-rank kunoichi. She probably didn't need the coddling.

"I don't think they are going to give me much of a choice." Ren helplessly shrugged. "At least, Obito wants me dead."

Alright. That last sentence was a bit of misdirection. He would be fighting them anyway because he knew Madara's plans. But he wasn't going to share that with Konan. Not yet, and probably not anytime soon.

Konan nodded in understanding, "In that case, I want in."

Looking at her impassive face, Ren sadly sighed in his mind. Hatred. The thing that moved this world. He couldn't blame the woman. If any of his girls died like that, he would have reacted the same.

"Well then," Ren stood up from his armchair and patted his knees, "welcome on board." He gave the woman a small smile before beckoning her to follow him.

In his mind, he even exclaimed, 'My precious!' in a Gollum voice, chuckling at his own joke.

He didn't save Konan just because she was pretty. Yes, there was that. But more important was what her skillset represented for him. He had always wanted to recruit her, but he was also aware of just how insane the difficulty of such a thing would be. Hence why he decided to take it slow and steady in the past. He wanted to build their relationship up first...

But that no longer mattered. Madara served the woman to him on a silver platter. It was a small mercy in a completely shit situation.

They exited the room, and Konan found herself on an elevated platform, overlooking a... workshop? She threw Ren a bewildered glance before looking back at the dozens of his clones creating countless sealing tags down there on the first floor.

"Tags with time-stopping seals." Ren answered her unasked question. "They might just even the odds if you find yourself against Madara again." A small smile appeared on his face.

It didn't matter how strong the Uchiha was. Once caught in a time-stopping seal, that would be it for him. Edo Tensei or not. And Konan... the woman was Ren's ninja equivalent of a guided automatic turret for those.

Anybody else might be able to throw one, five, maybe ten at most at a time. But her? She could flood her opponent with thousands of paper tags. Pair that with a sealmaster who could do more than simple paper tags, and Ren truly wondered how far his seals would take her.

She was nowhere near Madara's prowess. But she didn't need to be. He just needed her to get lucky once out of a million tries.