In Naruto: Reborn with Talent

The Chunin Exam finals were almost upon Konoha and it could be seen from how much the traffic inside the village increased.

One could meet all sorts of people in the streets of Konoha. Rich, foreigners, nobles, businessmen, craftsmen... they were all here to witness the Chunin Exams. Admittedly, it was not just because of these Exams that Konoha was brimming with people.

If Rei had to pick one thing Tsunade was best at, it would surprisingly not be drinking or even healing. It would be making money.

She quickly used the fact that the Chunin Exam is usually the only time a hidden village opens its gates to foreigners and with her influence as Nadetsu Juusen, she made a co-operation between the Biri-Biri company and Konoha to hold several events during these Exams.

She had set up several auctions, theater plays, invited many renowned craftsmen from both the Land of Fire and countries affiliated with the Biri-Biri company, hired the best chefs to cook food in the best restaurants in Konoha during these events, heck... even brothels were better decorated than usual and prepared for a large influx of customers.

Of course, this was Tsunade and that meant Konoha gained several gambling dens just for this occasion.

There was a lot of preparation and all of it was geared to ensure Konoha would immensely financially profit from the fact many foreigners, of which most were important nobles or merchants, were in the village.

The Chunin Exams were simply the best opportunity for such a thing. It was a wonder why no Kage tried this approach. After all, this one event could bring more money to the village than a year-long effort on missions.

The funny thing was... the deal was signed between Nadetsu Juusen and Tsunade Senju. From an outside perspective, it all seemed good and legit. Two leaders made a deal. right?

But Rei could only facepalm when he was informed about it. The deal was legal and nobody could gain-say it but... sigh. It wouldn't be Tsunade if she didn't find a legal loophole to earn herself some gambling money.

Naturally, the deal was beneficial for both Konoha and the Biri-Biri company but it was even more beneficial for both Nadetsu Juusen and Tsunade Senju.

The person who will get her overinflated share of the profits. Twice.

Once for each of her identities.

On another note, with the Chunin Exams so close, Tsunade was forced to stop her experiments for a moment and come back to Konoha.

After all, she was still Konoha's Daimyo and it would not do for her to not be present. Rei didn't envy her the responsibilities of a Daimyo. She had to greet and welcome every visiting Daimyo, show courtesy to the important foreign nobles, take care of their well-being, set up a good hotel for them...

And so the list went.

Needless to say, Tsunade wasn't very happy about it either but it is what it is.

With her return, the quiet Senju Compound became lively and hectic again. Anko returned from the hospital, fully healed, and being her usual annoying self. Karin and Naruto were having a bonding experience... which meant Karin was nagging Naruto until he decided to run for it and hide.

Unfortunately for the sucker, Karin had the Kagura's Mind Eye and it never took her long to find him.

Rei wondered why Naruto did not think of chakra suppressing seals that would allow him to evade Karin since he was quite gifted in the sealing arts. Now, Rei was in dilemma because of that. On one hand, he could tell Naruto and end his suffering or he could just keep quiet and enjoy his suffering.

Heh, of course, he wouldn't tell him.

After all, it was a great learning experience for the boy!

Temari and Pakura also arrived in Konoha and were housed in the Senju Compound, both staying very close to Rei since their arrival. Not that he would complain about that. He liked their definition of 'close'.

The problem was that Mei wanted to get some Rei-time for herself too and the three women started half-heartedly bickering among themselves to pass the time. It would have been fine if they didn't do something that drove any man caught in the womanly crossfire sparse.

When Mei in the middle of their verbal spat turned to Rei and asked, "What do you think?", he froze.

When he noticed that all three women suddenly directed their full attention towards him and expectantly waited for an answer. Obviously, each wanted to hear a different answer so this was a total dick move from Mei as far as Rei was concerned.

There was really only one correct answer to that.

And so, Rei confusedly asked back, "What are you arguing about again?"

It took a few more times before the three women realized Rei would not participate in their argument but Rei eventually reclaimed his peace back.

Sadly, Konan was not yet in Konoha because she had to deal with the administrative problems regarding the three domesticated Yoma and the Claymores.

If she was present, Rei had no doubt she would have protected him from the emotional bullies! She knew how to smack them just right to get her point across.

Rei sorely missed this ability of hers. Especially when it came to his women. As such, he had to resort to ignoring them until they got bored.

The one difference in the Senju Compound was the presence of Tsunade's newest experiment.

Her name was Teresa and she was the Claymore whose flesh was used to 'mutate' Clare into Claymore.

Honestly, the fact Tsunade managed to revive her in under a week and a half was mind-boggling but here she was. Alive and breathing again.

That said, the woman didn't look good. She was akin to a starved rat.

Her limbs were twig-like and thin, her stomach was as sunken as her cheeks and eyes, and she was always gritting her teeth because of the perpetual pain she was feeling.

Being dead for well over a decade had its consequences and since Tsunade did not 'sacrifice' anything to bring Teresa back, the Claymore was more like a walking corpse at the moment.

It was fine though. Tsunade reassured everyone that Teresa would eventually regain her physical fitness. Her body simply needed time and healing.

Her mind, however, was worse. Her mind was fractured and she didn't remember much from her 'past' life. When Clare first met her, she tried to hug her and that made Teresa freak out because she had no idea who Clare was.

Clare wasn't very happy about that...

The problem with Teresa's mind was that she was dead for too long. Her 'soul' might have been bound to the flesh implanted in Clare... somehow. But according to Tsunade, her mind was preserved as a spiritual essence and after such a long time without a proper anchor... well, Teresa's mind did not take it well.

The fact that Claymores leaned towards physical energy and had extremely underdeveloped spiritual energy did not help her case.

Nobody knew if she would regain all or only some of her memories. The only certainty was that Teresa would eventually remember at least a bit of her past life.

This method of self-revival was firmly labeled as unreliable because of the consequences it had on Teresa. It was also because of these consequences that Teresa was staying with Tsunade and was 'under observation' for the time being.

For all they knew, her body could crumble at any given moment from how weak it was currently. She really needed a doctor to be always near her.

That made Rei wonder when he became a medic-nin since it was him who was playing nanny for Teresa while Tsunade was dealing with her responsibilities as a Daimyo.