Naruto: Ren the Sealmaster

It was the third day since Ren returned to Konoha and he was currently at his home in the capital of the Land of Fire, standing next to his kitchen table with a shadow clone standing on the other side of the table as they both focused their chakra on a seal spread on a massive scroll on the table.

It was finally the time for him to take a small revenge on Danzo but Ren had a very hard time keeping his focus.

Everything was ready. The seals were in place. The opportunity was here. Danzo had a small meeting with some of his men in one of his underground bunkers. Ren had another shadow clone sitting at the Yakiniku Q restaurant with Hinata for the alibi. He used it to teach her the basics of theory for his exploding seals to not waste time too.

And yet, Ren just couldn't help but mentally come back to the conversation with Inoichi about Ino and giving her the gravity seals that happened yesterday.

He expected Inoichi to go into his overprotective dragon dad mode and start spewing flame left and right in righteous parental fury, chasing Ren out of his house with a broom.

... Or something.

But Inoichi? He was like...

Oh, you need my daughter naked to apply your seal? Who cares, pussy. Get on with it!

Of course, the man didn't say it in these exact words but the look he had given Ren...

It told Ren exactly what Inoichi was thinking at that moment.

Ren had forgotten what the Yamanaka clan's specialty was. Or rather, he just didn't do the obvious mental jump to connect the dots. The Yamanakas were predominantly information gatherers. And it was an awkward topic but seduction missions were a big part of that.

Yamanakas could do seduction missions without the whole 'gotta sleep with the target to get him to spill the secret' thing. With their mind techniques, they just needed to get the target alone in a room and knock him or her out with poison. Their clan jutsu would do the rest.

They still needed to do the 'seducing' part of the mission to get the target alone, though. That's why their clan trained the kids from early on, molding them not to be some quivering shy mess.

Ren realized this was the reason why Ino took the whole explanation about the gravity seals so well. He was all blushy and awkwardly embarrassed when he was explaining it to her while she just sat there, cool as a cucumber, and gave him a smile full of amusement.

Ren's eyes twitched when he remembered all her questions and how awkward they made him feel. She was probably having a blast teasing him. 

Inoichi was grateful too. He realized what a boon the seals would be for Ino and much to Ren's exasperation, the fact he could not give Ren anything in return because the other Yamanaka jutsu were a clan secret made the man actually embarrassed.

Honestly, Ren had a hard time comprehending the clan's mentality. If it wasn't some slavery bullshit and unhealthy focus on traditions, then it was preparing kids for seduction missions from a young age.

Or teaching kids to try to eat their way to an early grave before reaching mid-teens. Or having kids live like dogs to bring out their instincts to the surface. And let's not even start with Aburames. Those are better forgotten because no, their bodies did not naturally contain the space for their bugs. That... was artificially created during their childhood. It was no wonder they all seemed repressed.

And they say Naras are weird. Really, the lazy slackers were actually pretty chill about the training their kids received. They made them play shogi and tend to the deer.

Shaking his head to focus on the current issue, Ren focused on the seal and instantly got a mental image of a dark room with Danzo sitting behind a table.

From the angle, Ren could tell that the seal was placed on one of Danzo's operatives who were currently kneeling in front of him, probably receiving orders.

Unfortunately, Ren hadn't yet figured out how to add audio to his spying seal. Getting visuals was hard enough as it was. But if Gaara could make a functioning eye out of freaking sand, then there was no way Ren could not make a seal transmit vision.

Looking around, Ren didn't see Sai and released a relieved sigh. He didn't want to butterfly Ino's future boyfriend out of existence. But he wouldn't stop his plan for the pale kid if he was here. Having an opportunity like this would be hard to get again.

Danzo had around thirty of his operatives in the room with him. Ren doubted that happened often.

Contrary to popular belief, Danzo did not have an entire army of ninjas. If he did, he wouldn't need to be so sneaky with his moves. The man had around a hundred ninjas under his employ but the number was always fluctuating.

On one hand, training a competent ninja was hard and took years. Many didn't make it to the end of Danzo's training. On the other, with the missions Danzo had his subordinates do, they tended to die pretty often.

The old cripple actually did almost back-breaking work for Konoha's safety. Well, his little slaves did. But that was beside the point. What they were doing wasn't nice. Danzo's methods were appalling and he was a total scum.

But he got results.

Iwa was growing too strong? ROOT sabotaged them. Kumo was testing a new weapon? ROOT sabotaged them. Kiri's civil war was drawing to a conclusion? ROOT...

Well, that's how it went. ROOT was fanning the flames of conflict in other countries, just so that Konoha stayed safe with a spotless reputation.

Of course, there could be an entire debate about the need for ROOT's existence. They didn't do anything different from what the assassination squads of actual ANBU did. Technically, they did not need to exist. After all, their purpose was already being fulfilled by the ANBU.

Then again, maybe Ren was missing something? Oh, well, it's not as if it mattered right now.

With a sad sigh and a smattering of guilt, Ren triggered a specific part of the seal on the table. Instantly, several of the thirty kneeling men started having angrily glowing red seals spread throughout their bodies. Panic suddenly spread through the room and Danzo hastily stood up from his chair with wide eyes...

The visual feed from Ren's seal abruptly cut off as Ren's exploding seals went off.

...

Back in Konoha, the entire village suddenly shook as if hit by a powerful earthquake. Ren's shadow clone had to catch Hinata to prevent her from falling from her seat. It was as if the ground heaved several times.

'Well, that explains where Danzo's bunker is located, I guess.' Ren's clone thought to himself with a small chuckle.

Apparently, it was directly under Konoha, and making the exploding seals use the victims' chakra to overcharge themselves before exploding had an unexpectedly noticeable effect.

...

Back in Ren's house in the capital, Ren took a cup of hot chocolate and took a sip in celebration. The job was done.

He worked at the Barrier Corps. He knew the layout of the seals protecting most secret entrances to Konoha. Doing this wasn't even hard since he was one of the guys usually doing the maintenance on these seals.

All he had to do was have a clone attach a hidden mix of exploding and spying seals to the security seals on the entrances and have his seals latch onto anybody with a certain feature as they put their hand on a security seal on the entrance to pass through.

Thankfully, there was nobody other than Danzo's cronies crazy enough to apply a seal to their tongue.

Ren used that as an identifier. Everybody with that feature passing through the entrances became Ren's eyes thanks to his spying seals and eventually, they would be his instrument of terror by becoming unknowing suicide bombers.

Ren's additions to the secret entrances were only there for two days, and even then, he was already a bit nervous that they would be noticed. Because of that, Ren only managed to infect around twelve root operatives with his seals before he had his clone take them down.

Eight of these operatives were in that room with Danzo.

Ren hated doing this. Cosplaying as a terrorist was not his thing. But he was just one guy. One fresh chunin with near zero influence. Danzo was the village elder with tens of jonin and chunin subordinates wholly loyal to him. He was the guy with connections to the Daimyo court and several nobles. The guy who had many wealthy merchants in his pocket.

Fighting fairly was never an option for Ren.

But still, pissing off a seal master who had almost complete knowledge of the seal network of the village was a very stupid thing to do.

Fortunately, Danzo had no idea Ren was this skilled with seals. He would probably suspect... but there would be nothing pointing at Ren and he kind of hoped Danzo would think this was far beyond the capabilities of a fresh chunin from the Barrier Corps too.

Because he had no delusions. Danzo was not dead. At best, he had wasted one Sharingan for resurrection.

However, several of his high-end subordinates died and that will undoubtedly deal a massive blow to Danzo's organization. He will probably need months, if not years, to recuperate his losses.

It will give Ren precious time to get stronger and make more seals for self-protection. The next time Danzo sent assassins after him, he would be more than ready.

This... was unfortunately just a warning shot.