Ren was a bit ashamed to admit he had kind of forgotten about Samui.
But in his defense, too many things had happened since then, and his life was quite hectic, and... okay. That was not an excuse. Especially not with what he was seeing in front of him.
"Master, I am ready to please you in any way you wish!" The usually cool and aloof Samui was eagerly staring at him with her big eyes and a very... thirsty look on her face that eerily didn't belong there.
She was wearing skimpy maid uniform-esque clothing that brought out her curves, especially her big chest. Her cheeks were flushed, and the woman was almost shivering in anticipation while she subtly rubbed her thighs together. Ren doubted she even realized she was doing it.
Disturbingly enough, when he and Ino came in, the woman was turned away from them. She was completely calm, and her posture was almost absent-mindedly rigid.
Only when she turned after hearing them come into the room and noticing Ren did her behavior completely change. Her pupils dilated. Her heartbeat quickened. She started to breathe harder. And unfortunately, due to his ninja training, Ren instantly noticed that the woman was getting very, very horny for him as she sat there, on the bed in his house in the capital city.
But it wasn't natural. Her massive shift in behavior was a big tell.
Needless to say, Ren was instantly freaked out. This disturbed him worse than seeing Orochimaru stick out his long tongue and lick his mouth and everything around it, even reaching his chin with his tongue.
He could still see that scene in his occasional nightmares sometimes.
And this was somewhat worse!
The woman was almost unrecognizable from her previous self. Well, as far as personality went. She still looked the same, but the software was clearly entirely swapped.
With almost a needy look, Samui bit her lower lip and quickly stood up, moving closer to Ren, which made him tense. But his caution turned into bewilderment as the woman dropped to her knees in front of him and her hands instantly went toward his belt as she raised her eyes and looked at him before breathlessly speaking. "Please, use m-!"
Ren's hand blurred, and he hit the side of Samui's neck. She was out cold before her mind even registered the hit, and her body hit the floor with an audible thud, unconscious.
"Ino..." Ren's lips were twitching down in utter disgust as he gave the blonde girl a look full of shame as he groaned. "What the fuck have you done?"
"What? You gave her to me to improve my Yamanaka clan techniques." Ino defended herself with a put-off tone, "I did exactly that!" She exclaimed, and her confidence visibly wavered as she looked at the unconscious Samui on the floor with a conflicted and somewhat uneasy expression. "I thought you would be happier about my tweaks, considering that you were attracted to her. I worked so hard to ensure there would be no problems, too." Ino doubtfully said, sounding like a child who was just reprimanded but didn't know what exactly she did wrong.
Ren looked toward the ceiling, and had to take a very deep breath. It wasn't enough, and he started to rub the bridge of his nose, until a moment later, he was rubbing his entire forehead and trying to push back the headache that threatened to ravage his head.
Glancing at Ino, who was still looking lost, he let out a loud groan and stepped over Samui's body, heading toward the bed. Sitting down on it, Ren beckoned Ino to join him as he used a small amount of his chakra, after turning it into a wind-natured one, to pick Samui's body from the floor and deposited it onto the bed behind him.
Ino slowly approached the bed and sat next to Ren, neither giving Samui a second look.
Silence spread between them. Ren had no idea how to start with this clusterfuck. Morals were very loose in the ninja world. The way kids were raised was a problem in the first place. On the surface, everything looked similar to his previous world. But that was very far from the truth.
Ninja parents raised their kids to be good ninjas. And that meant they, from an early age, tried to instill certain 'values' in their kids. The clans especially did this.
And after the superb education the kids receive in the academy? Most of these kids won't even blink after killing somebody. In his previous life, fanfics usually depicted the main protagonist feeling very bad about his first kill.
It was an entire thing. A proper trope.
But that wasn't what usually happened in reality. The genins simply did not give a fuck. They were raised to kill. Their good night stories were not about heroes, but about good ninjas who killed the village's enemies and saved the day. They did not think in the same way as the people in Ren's previous world.
Killing your enemy was right. It was what was expected. It was what they were supposed to do. Why would they feel bad about it?
Their morality was just a teensy tiny bit different.
Ren knew this. He just... He just never paid it much attention.
And now it bit him in the ass.
Being in this position honestly felt like shit.
Surprisingly, it was Ino who broke the silence first. "Did I do something wrong?" She asked, as if mind-breaking a woman and turning her into an obedient sex toy slave could in any way be considered 'right'.
To Ino, Samui was an enemy. And that was that. Everything was fair play.
Ren considered that point. A bit of despair filled him as he realized that giving her the moralizing 'This is wrong' talk would not have much of a result here.
Why did this have to happen when Hinata was on a mission? His cinnamon roll of a Hyuga would know exactly what to say in this situation. Ren, not so much.
But he needed to say something. So, with a small sigh, he started. "I gave her to you to practice your mind reading. I didn't expect you to do... that." Ren wildly gestured at the unconscious woman.
"I still don't get why you are upset." Ino frowned. "Samui would never willingly betray her village. I can tell you that much after spending so much time in her mind. Kumo pretty much brainwashed her from a very early age to do anything for the village. Kumo and her brother were her whole world. She would rather kill herself than betray them. She was raised in this program that existed to break children and rebuild them into perfectly obedient weapons for Kumo."
Ren opened his mouth, but then he realized he really didn't have anything to say. Because, of course, Kumo had something like that. Why did he expect anything different?
Seriously, what kind of mentally malnourished idiot would want to reincarnate into this world? He'd take Potterverse every time over this.
"So, I just twisted that love for Kumo and her brother in her mind and turned it into love for you." Ino said, almost proudly. "It took me months. She fought it every step of the way."
Ren winced hearing that, not even wanting to imagine what kind of mental torture hell Samui went through under Ino's care.
Giving her to Ino to practice mind-reading was one thing. That already felt scummy to him, and he felt it would have been kinder to kill her. But this was a cruel world.
This? This was another thing entirely.
This is why he did not want to become a Jonin. He simply did not have the stomach for the more hardcore bullshit that went on under the village's oversight.
"... And you never considered I don't want a slave like that?" Ren wryly asked, causing Ino to stop in her tracks as her eyebrows furrowed.
She gave him a nervous look, "You... don't?" She fidgeted a bit. "I-, I was sure you wanted her. In that way."
Ah. Yes. The downside of dating a Yamanaka. They could read body language and guess what you think like nobody's business.
"Have you spoken about this with Hinata?" Ren decided to try that angle, hoping-
"Yes. I wouldn't do... this," Ino waved her hand over Samui's unconscious form, "without having Hinata's permission!?"
Joy.
Never mind, then. That didn't work either. Now he had two morally corrupt teenage girls, instead of one.
"Okay. I will give it to you straight, Ino. No bullshit. No pussy-footing about it. Will you hear me out?" Ren seriously asked, deciding to simply be honest.
Ino blinked and nodded, reaching out to grasp Ren's hand. He let her and intertwined his fingers with hers.
"I don't mind your mind reading. I don't mind your Yamanaka techniques. But I draw the line at any sort of long-term mind alteration and mind-breaking. That's just not cool. And I know for a fact that Yamanakas don't have any technique that can do these things." He gave Ino a very flat, pointed look, making her grimace.
"They do now?" She weakly said, subtly flinching at the disappointment in Ren's eyes.
"No. They don't. This never happened." Ren bluntly stated and shook his head, refuting her statement while blatantly ignoring that the girl most likely invented a technique for it.
Basically, he was telling her to forget it and never use it, without putting it into words.
Ren knew he should not do that. It was overstepping the boundaries as her teacher. He had no business telling her what clan techniques she could and could not use.
But this was important!
"But..." Ino's expression turned mulish, but Ren was not having it and decided to put his foot down. He interrupted the girl before she could utter her second word.
"Ino. Do you truly believe you are the first Yamanaka who tried this kind of bullshit?"
"..." That made the girl properly speechless as her mind caught up, and she considered the question.
"The answer is no, if you are wondering." Ren dryly said.
Since morality would not work here, some hard facts would have to do the job.
"Your clan can not afford to be seen as capable of bending minds, Ino. Not in a permanent way. Not like this." Ren closed his eyes and sighed, feeling the girl's bewilderment through the telepathy seal.
It almost made him dryly chuckle. Almost.
"The Yamanakas are in that sweet spot of being too useful to discard while not being too dangerous to let live." Ren explained. "Anything that could permanently alter the mind, though? That is a one-way instant ticket into the too dangerous to let live category."
"Did it never occur to you? Why does a clan like Yamanakas not have techniques like this? Wouldn't it be great to be able to create perfect sleeper agents from any captured ninja? Wouldn't that pretty much make Konoha untouchable?"
Honestly, it totally would. It was hard to keep track of who was captured on missions. It would have been a child's play for Konoha's ANBU to kidnap one chunin team a month from every village, have some Yamanaka mind-bend them, and send them back to finish their mission with no one the wiser.
Do this for a year? Or five? Konoha would have perfect sleeper agents for sabotage and intel gathering.
Do it for ten? Twenty? They could even take over other villages with their sleeper agents without anybody even realizing it until it is too late, because these chunin? Some of them would go on to become Jonin. Maybe even important personnel in high positions in their village.
"If the Yamanakas showed they can permanently alter somebody's mind in this way? Especially this easily?" Ren chuckled, "All the hidden villages would band together to fight against Konoha." He darkly stated, making Ino's eyes go wide.
Mind fuckery was very feared. Genjutsu specialists were very scary. But genjutsu could be fought. That wasn't the case for the Yamanaka clan techniques.
"And the best part?" He raised his eyebrow at Ino with hollow amusement. "Hokage, the Elders, the other Konoha clans? They would never agree to coexist with a clan that could do this." He sighed. Again. "Your clan would suffer the same fate as the Uchihas. Nobody would be able to trust your clan anymore. Sure, you might have the best intentions. But ninjas are paranoid, Ino." Ren dryly said, looking at the girl who visibly wilted hearing that.
She clearly did not consider all these things. But then again, she was just a fresh genin. It didn't matter how strong she was due to Ren's training. She had her flaws and things she did not know.
Ren was not exaggerating either. The Yamanakas can temporarily take over somebody's body and look into the mind. But both of these have massive restrictions or take a lot of effort.
That already makes them feared and distrusted by many, even within Konoha.
Imagine the absolute chaos if it came out that they could alter somebody's mind permanently. Everybody would wonder if they had done it to somebody.
Their political opponents decided to vote in favor of a law that was good for them? Immediate suspicion.
The Hokage decided to do something that favored them? Immediate suspicion.
They had a good fortune in the business and started making nice money? Immediate suspicion.
The Uchihas before their fall were practically worshipped compared to how the Yamanakas would be treated if Ino's little technique ever became common knowledge.
Realizing the enormity of her fuck-up, Ino ducked her head and balled her hands into fists on her knees, her toes curling from anxiety. She glanced at Ren, "But you trust me, right?" and quietly asked with a vulnerable, worried tone.
Despite feeling aggrieved, Ren started laughing.
The weight of the topic just evaporated for him. He couldn't help but find it funny that the first thing that came into her mind, the first thing she worried about, was his trust.
And he appreciated that.
Putting his arm over Ino's shoulders, he pulled the girls closer to him and gave her an affectionate kiss on her forehead. "I love you, Ino." Ren muttered. "Of course, I trust you." He sighed yet again. "Just... mind control is where I draw the line. Can you please accept that?"
Properly spooked, Ino curtly nodded her head. "... Okay."
And Ren felt relieved. "Good."
Crisis averted.