"What happened to Rengoku? Why didn't anyone come and tell me?", Ryuri said angrily.
The two people who came in were none other than Rengoku's younger sister, Ryuri, and his childhood friend Kaori.
Originally, no one had told them about Rengoku being injured, but after several days of Rengoku remaining unconscious without waking up, since he hadn't returned, Ryuri and Kaori naturally went to Orochimaru's laboratory to look for him.
Orochimaru had directly told them that Rengoku was injured, but that he would wake up by this afternoon at the latest, so the two of them hurried over.
Karin's face was flushed red, and she stammered, "I… I didn't know."
Kaori patted Ryuri's shoulder, "All right, how could Karin have known to inform us…"
Then she leaned in close to Ryuri's ear and whispered, "Karin is only ten years old."
Ryuri immediately realized it and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Karin, I didn't mean to blame you. I just meant no one told us anything. Do you know what kind of injury my brother suffered?"
Since Karin's figure was already that of an adult woman, Ryuri subconsciously overlooked her age and forgot that she was still just a child.
Karin, a little embarrassed, said, "No, actually I don't know what kind of injury Shishou suffered either. But Orochimaru-sama said he'd be unconscious for a while and would wake up soon. You don't have to worry too much."
Of course Karin knew, she had been directly involved in the rescue.
But careless didn't mean stupid; Karin quickly pretended to act clueless.
Besides, whenever she saw Ryuri, she always felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.
"You came at the right time. I'm a little hungry, so I'll go eat first and come back later."
Karin made up a perfect excuse for herself. It was noon anyway, lunchtime.
Saying that, she bolted out like the wind.
"Hey… Karin… Karin…", Ryuri called after her twice, but Karin pretended not to hear and soon disappeared.
"Kaori-nee, doesn't Karin seem a bit strange?"
Ryuri felt something was off, though she couldn't quite tell what.
Kaori looked confused as well, "No idea. Maybe she was just hungry?"
Ryuri knew Karin was a huge glutton, so feeling jittery when hungry made sense.
The two of them walked over to Rengoku's bedside. He was sleeping quietly, and they couldn't tell how bad his injury actually was.
With Karin's healing ability, there wasn't even a single visible wound left on him, it was as if he was simply sleeping.
"Brother is already the Hokage of Konoha now. How could he get injured?", Ryuri said, confused.
Kaori glanced around the room and noticed there was hardly any monitoring equipment, proving that Rengoku's injury wasn't serious.
"In the shinobi world, this kind of thing can't be avoided. Rengoku used to get injured often, you've forgotten, haven't you?"
Three years ago, Rengoku was injured frequently. It was only in the past few years, after his strength skyrocketed, that almost no one could break through Susanoo's defense.
And when he wasn't personally fighting, there was naturally no chance for him to be hurt.
This time, even for Rengoku, it had been a complete accident.
Ryuri leaned on the bed, propping her chin up with one hand as she looked at him.
"Brother said once I got better, I wouldn't have to work so hard anymore."
"Now that I'm all recovered, Brother's only getting busier and busier."
She reached out and poked Rengoku's cheek, "I don't want Brother to be so busy."
'Huh? Why is there a greasy fingerprint here?'
Suddenly, a hand caught her finger. A gentle voice followed.
"The greater the power, the greater the ambition. You're still young, you don't understand that yet."
"Brother, you're awake!", Ryuri said happily, seeing that Rengoku had opened his eyes.
Rengoku nodded slightly, pressed a hand to his upper abdomen, then sat up.
"How come you two are here?"
Kaori gave him a reproachful look, "Why didn't anyone tell us you were hurt?"
"You hadn't come home for so long, so we went to ask Orochimaru and only then found out you'd been injured."
"Mm…", Rengoku replied casually. The reason no one had told his family was because he had given orders not to.
After all, it would only make them worry, and there was no real point.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed no one had mentioned he'd almost crossed the gates of death. Otherwise, they wouldn't be this calm.
"I wasn't seriously injured. I just needed some rest. See, I'm fine now," Saying that, Rengoku got out of bed, walked a few steps on the floor, and spread his arms to show he was perfectly fine.
Although Ryuri saw that his condition seemed normal, she still wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction.
"Hmph! Anyway, next time you have to tell me first!"
Rengoku laughed and rubbed her head.
"I still have important matters to deal with. You two should head home first, I'll come back for dinner tonight."
"Brother, you just woke up, and you're already going back to work?", Ryuri said unhappily.
Rengoku shot Kaori a look, and Kaori quickly stepped in to comfort her.
"Rengoku's the Hokage now, so of course his work is important."
Ryuri gave Rengoku one more look up and down. After confirming he really was fine, she reluctantly followed Kaori out.
"Come home early tonight, okay, Brother?"
"Got it."
"Hehe~"
Family really can't be replaced.
Feeling content, Rengoku went into the washroom.
'Hmm?'
He touched his face. There was a greasy fingerprint.
He wiped it, then sniffed lightly.
'The smell of takoyaki?'
'Who left this here?'
He didn't think much of it. After quickly washing up, he sat back down on the bed.
This injury had sounded an alarm in his heart. Luckily, Minato had been there to teleport him straight onto the operating table in an instant.
Otherwise, he would've really died.
He'd learned his lesson this time. Although he had already destroyed Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan and Kaguya would not appear again, there were still other Otsutsuki-level powers in existence.
He didn't know when Kinshiki and Momoshiki would arrive in the shinobi world, but Isshiki was still out there.
If Isshiki made a move, he probably couldn't win.
In this world, strength was still the most important thing.
But at Rengoku's current level, further improvement was extremely difficult.
It would take huge amounts of time to train, and he might even hit a bottleneck.
That was exactly why Rengoku had originally established the Uchiha Kindergarten, to prepare for his future growth.
At this moment, Rengoku opened the "Bond Star" interface.
He wanted to think about how to continue getting stronger.
"Huh?", Rengoku was surprised to find that Karin's bond levels from one to four had all been unlocked.
'Is it because of her early physical maturity?'
He pondered for a moment, then continued checking the others' bonds.
Although many people had reached level four bonds, the body could only handle so much, he couldn't fit in any more no matter what.
Scrolling further down, he saw both Yin Nine-Tails and Yang Nine-Tails had reached level three bonds.
"Tsk! Those two foxes are much easier to deal with than I expected. As I thought, they're just tsundere types, cold outside, warm inside."
"No wonder they could be partners with Naruto and Minato."
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