Chapter 89: Week of Avoidance

A full week had passed since Kushina kissed Ren, stopped herself, and walked out of his study.

She had not stopped coming to the main house. She still handled her sealing duties at the Academy, still brought Naruto over during the day, and still crossed the courtyard without trying to hide from him. The change was smaller and much more deliberate. She never entered a room unless someone else was already inside, and whenever they were accidentally left alone, she quickly found a reason to check on Naruto or return to the Academy.

Ren noticed every time. He did not mention the kiss, and he did not follow her when she left. Whatever Kushina eventually decided, he wanted the decision to be hers.

On the seventh morning, Ren was sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of black coffee, reviewing a supply report. A fresh cup of tea was already steaming on the coaster directly to his left.

Kushina walked into the kitchen carrying Naruto. She wore a simple green dress, her red hair tied back in a practical knot.

"Morning," Kushina said.

"Morning," Ren replied, turning a page in his report.

Instead of taking the seat beside him, Kushina walked around the island and sat on the stool on the far opposite side.

Mikoto sat near the window feeding Sasuke. Her eyes briefly moved toward the untouched cup of tea beside Ren, then toward the stool Kushina had chosen on the opposite side of the island. She did not comment. She simply adjusted the blanket around Sasuke and continued feeding him.

Kushina kept her attention on Naruto, murmuring quietly to him while she adjusted the bottle against his mouth. The one-sided conversation gave her something to concentrate on besides the empty seat beside Ren.

Naruto drank for several seconds before turning his head away from the bottle. A thin line of milk escaped from the corner of his mouth and ran down his cheek.

A folded cloth rested near Ren’s coffee cup. He picked it up and slid it across the island just as Kushina reached for it.

Their hands met over the cloth.

Kushina’s fingers closed over Ren’s knuckles before she realized what she had touched. Her hand remained there for a brief moment, warm against his skin, before she quickly released him and pulled the cloth toward herself.

"Thanks," she murmured, wiping the milk from Naruto’s face.

Ren picked up his coffee again. "You’re welcome."

Kakuzu entered the kitchen carrying a fresh stack of invoices. His gaze moved from Kushina’s lowered face to Ren’s supply report, which had remained open on the same page since he entered.

Naruto made a soft, satisfied noise around the bottle. Another drop of milk landed directly on the imported wood of the island.

Kakuzu immediately pulled a pen from his robes and wrote a small cleaning charge onto the top invoice before placing it beside Ren’s coffee.

Ren glanced down at the amount. "He is not a customer."

"Damage does not require a commercial relationship," Kakuzu replied, calmly returning the pen to his robes.

That afternoon, Ren traded the tension of the main house for the Academy’s accounting office. Numbers were considerably easier to deal with.

Kakuzu stood over a massive desk, separating the week’s income into three distinct piles.

"Tuition from paying households," Kakuzu noted, tapping the first stack. "Merchant-sponsored classroom contracts." He tapped the second.

He pointed to the third, slightly smaller pile. "And the subsidy you provided for the war orphans."

Ren leaned against the doorframe. "The tuition and the sponsorships are legitimate."

"And the subsidy is just you moving your own money from one vault to another," Kakuzu agreed, sliding the third pile away. "It does not count as profit. I have finalized the net revenue after deducting wages, food, repairs, and the free seats."

Thirteen-year-old Itachi, who was quietly reviewing the expense ledgers at a smaller desk in the corner, pulled a sheet of paper from the stack.

"This lunch invoice was submitted twice," Itachi said, holding it up. "Different dates, same serial number."

Kakuzu’s eyes narrowed dangerously beneath his hood. He snatched the paper from the teenager.

"Good catch," Ren said. He pulled another thick stack of unreviewed supplier contracts from his jacket and dropped them onto Itachi’s desk. "Your reward."

Itachi stared at the mountain of paperwork. He looked like he wanted to sigh, but he simply picked up his pen and started reading.

Ren reviewed Kakuzu’s final figures one more time before pressing his signature seal against the bottom of the ledger.

A familiar chime sounded directly inside his mind.

[WEEKLY LEDGER CLOSED.]

[Business: Uchiha Civilian Academy]

[Total Revenue: 96,000 Ryo]

[Operating Costs: 54,000 Ryo]

[Verified Clean Profit: 42,000 Ryo]

[CONVERTING PROFIT TO BUSINESS CAPITAL...]

[Business Capital Gained: 4,200 BC]

[Current Business Capital: 629,200 BC]

Ren watched the balance change for the first time since the Nine-Tails attack. The defense package had reduced his reserves to 625,000 BC, and most of the money he had spent since then had gone toward reconstruction, protection, and subsidies that generated no clean profit.

The Academy was different. The paying households and merchant contracts had covered the free seats, staff wages, meals, and repairs while still leaving legitimate earnings behind.

A second notification appeared beneath the completed ledger.

[PROFIT MILESTONE REACHED.]

[NEW SHOP CATEGORY UNLOCKED: MEDICAL & OCULAR CARE.]

Ren leaned slightly closer to the screen. The irritation that had followed him throughout the week did not disappear, but it finally had something else competing for his attention.

Tsunade commandeered a sealed examination room at Konoha General later that evening.

She held a small glass dropper filled with pale, faintly glowing serum. The mixture contained the purified binding compound recovered from the stolen case, a sample of Ren’s blood, and the smallest concentration of treated Hashirama-cell material Tsunade was willing to place anywhere near his eye.

Kushina stood directly behind Ren’s chair. Her hands rested lightly against his upper back, maintaining a steady, circular Uzumaki seal designed to prevent his chakra rhythm from spiking during the procedure. Her posture remained strictly professional.

"Keep your eye open," Tsunade ordered. "Do not blink."

Ren leaned his head back.

Tsunade carefully released a single measured drop directly onto his clouded right eye.

A sharp, violent spike of pain shot through his optic nerve. Ren’s jaw locked. His hands gripped the armrests hard enough to make the metal creak.

Behind him, Kushina’s hands pressed slightly firmer against his back, her chakra flowing steadily to anchor his own.

The pain stopped.

A cold, numbing sensation washed over the right side of his face. The dull, persistent ache that had been sitting behind his eye for weeks finally receded.

Tsunade leaned in closely, her hands glowing with green medical chakra.

Tsunade continued examining the eye for several seconds. Her glowing fingers moved slowly around his temple, following the damaged chakra pathways before she finally withdrew her hand.

"The new cells aren’t spreading," she said, setting the dropper aside. "Your blood and the binding compound are keeping them contained, so the first test worked."

Ren gradually loosened his grip on the armrests. "Does it stop the degradation?"

"Not by itself." Tsunade picked up her clipboard and recorded the result. "This only proves that I can introduce the treated cells without having them consume the surrounding tissue. I still need to create something that can stabilize the eye while you are actively using it."

Ren glanced toward the covered medical mirror. "So the ban remains."

"Absolutely." Tsunade’s pen stopped moving as she looked directly at him. "If you activate the Mangekyō now, the strain could tear through everything holding those cells in place. You would not merely return to where you started. You could permanently destroy the eye."

Ren was visibly dissatisfied, but the test had still succeeded. He gave Tsunade a reluctant nod before pushing himself out of the chair.

The room tilted as soon as Ren stood. His legs remained under him, but he shifted sharply enough to make the nearby instrument tray rattle.

Kushina caught his forearm before he could stumble into it. Her fingers tightened around his sleeve, holding him steady while the grey haze covering his right eye slowly began to clear.

Ren looked down at her hand before meeting her eyes. "Thanks."

"You’re welcome," Kushina murmured.

She released him and stepped back, placing a careful amount of distance between them. Tsunade glanced up from her clipboard. Her gaze moved briefly from Ren’s forearm to Kushina’s face before she returned to recording the test results without comment.

Back in his study, Ren locked the door before mentally opening the newly unlocked category.

The blue interface unfolded across his vision, displaying a considerably shorter list than the enormous combat and bloodline sections he had ignored for years.

[MEDICAL & OCULAR CARE]

[Ocular Stabilization Formula — 120,000 BC]

[Repairs damaged optic-chakra pathways and reduces Mangekyō strain during controlled activation. Repeated reckless use may still cause permanent damage.]

[Spatial Anchor Tags: Set of Twenty — 35,000 BC]

[Allows marked objects to be stored and retrieved through compatible space-time techniques at substantially reduced chakra cost.]

[Commercial Seal Press — 60,000 BC]

[Produces standardized storage, sanitation, inventory, and security seals for commercial distribution.]

Ren scrolled farther down and found several evolutionary eye upgrades carrying prices large enough to purchase entire countries. He ignored them. The three affordable products were already enough to create an argument between his doctor and his treasurer.

He copied the descriptions and prices onto three separate sheets of paper before closing the System interface.

Twenty minutes later, Tsunade and Kakuzu stood on the opposite side of the mahogany desk. Ren had explained only that one of his private suppliers had recently expanded its medical inventory. Neither of them needed to know that the supplier existed inside his head.

Tsunade picked up the description of the Ocular Stabilization Formula and studied every line before placing it back on the desk.

"Buy this one," she said. "If it performs even half as well as the description claims, I can use it to finish the treatment instead of spending another month testing unstable substitutes."

Kakuzu had already pulled the Commercial Seal Press summary toward himself. He read the projected production rate twice, calculated something in the margin, and ignored Tsunade’s recommendation entirely.

"The seal press begins recovering its purchase cost within the first month," Kakuzu said. "The Academy, warehouses, hospital, and freight division already consume more standardized seals than our current contractors can produce."

Tsunade turned toward him with a dangerous look. "His eyesight is not less important because it lacks a monthly revenue column."

Kakuzu calmly tapped the listed price with one finger. "Everything with a cost belongs in a revenue column."

Ren ignored the argument and looked between the first and third sheets. His updated balance was enough to purchase both products without delaying the Spatial Anchor Tags for long.

"I can afford the stabilizer and the press," he said. "The tags can wait until the Academy closes another ledger."

Kakuzu did not look pleased by the decision, but Tsunade immediately took possession of the stabilization summary and began listing the equipment she would need to test it.

Ren leaned back in his chair and looked once more at the fixed price printed beside the formula.

"Finally," he said. "A doctor who lists the price before beginning the treatment."

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