Ch63. Home, sweet home

After they were done talking, they ate, and soon enough, Ren found himself having to pay for fourteen bowls of ramen when he personally ate only one.

Naruto briefly pestered him to pay for him, too. As a congratulation for passing the academy year, the boy said. But Ren flatly told him to fuck off.

Feeding one Uzumaki made his wallet wince in pain. He wasn't feeding two. Their ramen addiction ought to be stomped out, not encouraged. Damned noodle junkies.

Walking back to his apartment, Ren wondered if the Hokage would refund him the cost of feeding Karin. He would have to check the laws, but if yes? Then he was taking her to the ramen shop for breakfast, too.

He opened the door to his home and walked in with Karin, his shoulder finally slumping in relaxation as he slightly lowered his guard upon feeling the seals protecting his home.

'Home, sweet home.' He thought with a small involuntary smile appearing on his lips before turning toward the awkward redhead and about to speak to her.

Alas, the door of his living room suddenly flew wide open. "Hey! You are finally ba-" The grinning Ino entered the hall of his flat, followed by Hinata who walked much slower and at a calmer pace, but her expression was colder than arctic wind as she tried to freeze Karin with her blank Byakugan stare.

Seeing Karin, Ino's grin instantly fell, and she abruptly stopped talking as Ren looked at them in wide-eyed astonishment. He'd love to say he didn't have a surprised Pikachu face right there and then, but he would be lying.

Karin shuffled in discomfort at the silence that suddenly filled the surroundings while Ren took a deep breath as a headache suddenly assaulted him.

He could already see it on Ino's and Hinata's faces. The misunderstanding was already forming.

'Sarutobi... just fuck you.' Ren inwardly whined, suddenly feeling really tired.

There went his relaxing time after a mission.

...

After the awkward situation in the hall of his apartment, Ren barely managed to herd the three surly girls into his living room, where they sat on the couch before they went through very curt introductions.

His two students glared at Karin, both in their own way. Ino heatedly and Hinata with aloof coldness. Karin instantly noticed their hostility, and for her, this was the first time she saw the girls, so she didn't understand it. She didn't react very well to it. The Uzumaki girl returned the narrowed stares with twice the viciousness.

"What is she doing here?" Ino asked Ren in a scandalized tone. She turned toward him, put her hands on the table, leaned forward, and demanded an explanation in a disapproving tone with a displeased expression etched on her face.

Karin wasn't about to take it lying down, however. She scowled at Ino and fired back a biting and derisive, "What's it to you?"

It only made Ino narrow her eyes at Karin as Hinata silently watched, contently leaving Ino to lead the charge. Knowing that the situation was not going in a good direction, Ren decided to intervene before his living room became a battlefield.

If he had insurance for sudden ninja battles erupting in his house, he would let the girls have their fun, but alas, that wasn't the case.

"The Hokage put her in my care for the time being." He informed his students, shutting down any additional complaining about Karin's presence while trying to resist the urge to show how sour he was about the decision.

Yes. Karin's presence was forced on him, but there was no reason to be rude to the girl.

It worked like a charm. His not-so-little minions were still born and raised in Konoha. It was ingrained in them from a very early age that Hokage's word was law. They might not like the situation. But they were not about to protest against it with anything other than pouty scowls in Ino's case or small frowns in Hinata's.

"The real question is, what are you two doing here?" Ren changed the topic to something he deemed more relevant. The girls should be at their homes, spending time with their families while boring them to death with stories and complaints about their little camping trip.

To be honest, Ren wasn't looking forward to the meetings with Hiashi and Inoichi once they got to know how close their daughters were to the Pedomaru-kun.

"We..." Ino and Hinata started speaking at once before they glanced at each other, and due to some unspoken agreement, only Hinata continued with a small happy smile, "told our fathers that we will be learning how to properly put together an after-mission report. We got permission to stay overnight."

'Ah. They grow so fast. Already lying to their parents.' Ren wryly thought. He got the underlying message. They just wanted to spend the night cuddling.

He might have spoiled them in that regard during their trip. There was not much to do during the chilly evenings, so they usually spent the time in each other's arms for warmth while Ren told the girls a story.

Currently, he was telling them about the adventures of a magnificent pirate called Luffy. He didn't remember everything from One Piece. Putting what he did remember into a coherent and interesting story was quite hard. But then again, the entertainment standards of this world were not exactly sky high.

Ino loved the fantasy of swordsmanship from One Piece, and Hinata found the idea of Haki interesting. Plus, both of the girls loved the vision of freedom and adventure. They were at that age.

And deep down, Ren had to admit it was a tad bit manipulative of him, too. There was no shred of freedom in serving a hidden village. Not unless you are S-rank ninja, and even then, the village's leadership would do everything in their power to restrict you.

Ren wasn't going to spell it out to the girls. But he was certain that with enough experience, they were going to understand this simple truth.

What happened then, he had no idea. He didn't plan that far. 

Maybe nothing would change, maybe everything would be different? Who could say? It was something far in the future. He just thought that raising the girls with the ideals of freedom was better than raising them with the ideals of justifying murdering infants in their cribs as long as it is for the good of the village.

Plus, spending their evenings like that was a good way to bond. He would rather they bonded over a story about freedom and adventure rather than over Konoha propaganda and zealotry. It was his sneaky-sneaky way to chip at the stubborn and narrow shinobi mindset the academy hammered into the kids. Ren fully intended to continue their little story-telling tradition that started during their field trip.

"I guess that's fine." Ren sighed. Naturally, there would be no after-mission report being done today. He smiled at the girls, "You are welcome to stay."

Ino gave him a grin, and Hinata pleasantly smiled before she slowly stood up from the couch. "I'll go prepare some food." She said before retreating to the kitchen.

She knew exactly where things were in Ren's kitchen by now. She used it way more than him, after all.

As Hinata left, Ino and Karin stared at each other, opening their mouths-

"Behave." Ren cut any budding argument short before standing up too and going to help Hinata. It was going to be a long evening. The least he could do was to make it more pleasant by ensuring there would be enough snacks.

Entering the kitchen, Ren beelined toward Hinata, who was already slicing some vegetables, and put his arms around her waist, pressing her back to his chest while burying his face into her hair with a small groan, causing the girl to giggle.

"Thank you for being reasonable." Ren muttered, resting his chin on the top of her head 

"Ino is just lashing out." Hinata hummed, leaning more on Ren's chest. "We had such a nice time together, and suddenly, there is this new girl that came out of nowhere. Before we could even accept that, she is already moving into your flat." She spoke bitterly, and Ren tightened his embrace to reassure her. "It's just... too much, too fast."

They stayed like that, leaning on each other, for several seconds, just enjoying the presence of the other. But then, Ren sighed and pulled away from her, "Okay. Let's prepare the food, and we can hopefully have a nice evening talking about ninjutsu applications like we usually do."

His lips twitched into a smile when he saw how Hinata perked up at that. There wasn't much people could do for fun in their free time in this world. PC and console games might as well not exist since they were available only to the richest of the rich and honestly, they were kinda shit anyway.

The space program wasn't even a word in the dictionary yet. So, no satellites means no TV channels. The only thing TVs could run in this world were video tapes. Every movie was on such a tape. And the industry was just forming, so the current movies were third-rate garbage at best when compared to Ren's previous life.

That left them with board games, cards, or talking to each other if they wanted to have fun together in their free time. And since they were ninjas, the 'talking to each other' thing always turned into the direction of ninjutsu.

Hinata especially loved hearing how she could use the skills she trained to hurt people in a way that would help them instead. And Ren was happy to oblige.

For the next half hour, Ren and Hinata busied themselves in the kitchen, bantering and having fun as they occasionally bumped their hips or shared a quick kiss.

Funnily enough, when they were done and started serving the food to the living room, Ren couldn't help but grin because Ino and Karin were still silently glaring at each other.

Both were fully intent on being stubborn to the bitter end.