Rei and Konan watched Yugito swing Samehada at Mei clad in her Steam Armor and cleave through her as if she was made of paper. A bit away, the real Mei cursed at seeing that, gnashing her teeth at smug Ringo who just won the bet of 'who has the better armor'. The Jutsu that previously made Mei invulnerable to any attack from the Yellow Flash, was reduced to just an useless layer of steam in front of Samehada.

"So carefree..." Rei chuckled, looking at the sky of his dimension. ​​

"Isn't it fine? Being carefree, I mean." Konan sighed in contentment and leaned closer to Rei who just lovingly pulled her even closer as they watched Mei trying to attack Yugito who countered almost everything with Samehada or used her nimbleness to dodge.

Mei was naturally not going all out but she was using enough power to take down A-rank ninja without a problem. The improvement rate of Yugito was incredible, especially since she was taught Shadow Clones. That technique was really created for Jinchuuriki...

It has been a while since Yugito was 'recruited', and Rei was really astonished when he one day found himself in front of the kneeling blonde as she swore herself into his service while he was still half-asleep due to just waking up. Rei had no idea how to feel about that. One part of him wanted to reject but the other knew Yugito would be useful so he dazedly nodded in acceptance at the time...

Just like that, he earned himself a devoted kunoichi.

'At least she doesn't have any romantic feelings towards me.' Rei felt immense relief because that would be just awkward since he didn't spend much time with the girl due to the last months being very busy. He saw her more like a cute little kitten living in his house. Mei's pet of a sort.

"So... what about Konoha?" Rei asked Konan, admiring how Yugito kicked Mei's chest and sent her flying back only to reveal it was just a clone.

"Hmm? You mean the nine-tailed fluff that appeared and devastated quite a lot of the village while killing the Fourth Hokage?" Konan tilted her head, "Meh, they will get back up on their feet. It will take years but the peace treaty is still valid. No new war is coming." She shrugged in disinterest.

"And the jinchuuriki?" Rei asked, wincing as Mei brutally slugged Yugito right into her right cheek.

"What jinchuuriki? The fourth supposedly killed the immortal beast, no?" Konan sarcastically exclaimed in a mocking tone while appreciating how Yugito returned the punch by kicking Mei's stomach.

Rei derisively snorted, "Please... I can't believe Konoha higher-ups are stupid and naive enough to hope other villages would believe a make-believe story such as 'our Hokage killed the strongest Bijuu! Cower before us!' The entire thing is the biggest joke the entire Elemental Nation ever heard of." He rolled his eyes. "It's as if the Konoha in their stress and panic completely forgot the other villages have their own Bijuu and know their own fair bit about them."

"Yeah... Konoha is pretty much the laughing stock of the world right now. The only measure of respect they command is due to them winning the last war." Konan nodded just as Mei's experimental sword blocked Samehada which was promptly blown away by the seal incorporated into Mei's sword. "Hooo~, who would have thought the sword would actually work?" Konan added with an interested smile.

"Yeah…" Rei's lips also curled to a small smile, "Ringo and Mei will eventually create incredible swords. To think their repelling sword would work so spectacularly to repel even Samehada..." Rei said before kissing the temple of Konan's head to get her attention. "So? Back to my question... the Jinchuuriki?"

Konan happily hummed, averting her pondering gaze from the sword, and stopping scheming about how easy it would be to steamroll through an army if her ninjas had these repelling swords, before starting to talk, "In an orphanage, supposedly for his own protection. His status is apparently kept as an S-ranked secret... except, Raikage received the report about the boy yesterday and Tsuchikage today. Heck, they even know his parentage. Both could care less whose son the brat is. They are well aware he would not receive proper training the second they heard about the rumors about the demon reincarnation into a small boy. So far, neither is interested since they have bigger problems on their hands due to the war just ending."

"In the end, it is just a simple attempt at manipulating a child by the Third Hokage, huh?" Rei wryly smiled. "Dammit, if only the little brat was not a member of the Uzumaki clan. It would be all so much easier." He exclaimed while watching Yugito clash blades with Mei in a bitter endurance match where neither of them had an advantage.

"You wanna snatch the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Konan turned towards Rei in astonishment, her gaze clearly asking, 'Are you serious?'.

"Maybe later..." Rei dismissed the idea but Konan knew what it meant. Rei could care less about the boy.

"I know our activities in the past year were a bit too concentrated on saving the poor and helpless but we are not a charity, much less an orphanage for the unwanted." Konan shrugged, losing interest in the topic, and looked back towards the fight between Yugito and Mei. Yugito was keeping up only thanks to her status as a Jinchuuriki, the fact she was holding Samehada, and due to Mei not brutally aiming at Yugito's body, instead Mei was only trying to disarm her.

"I have no idea what I am going to do. I can let the little guy suffer. I can help him. I can manipulate him. I can snatch him... Choices, choices and consequences." Rei mirthfully chuckled. He was still tempted to just let nature run its course but... maybe he could give it his own twist? "And what about the case of the villages disappearing? Did the ninja villages finally give up their respective investigations?" He changed the topic just as Mei managed to land a blow on Yugito, injuring her left upper arm.

"Let's see..." Konan became a bit dazed as the information was relayed to her by her clone, "Sunagakure already called it off and just signed it off as some kind of unnatural Sandstorm. The village was in a very remote and desolate area, after all."

"Figures. Rasa has other problems than hundred or so civilians going puff into the air." Rei nodded, already predicting this outcome. "Oh~, would you look at that? Yugito landed a right hook just after dispelling Mei's smoke armor! The girl's instincts really are incredible!" He excitedly smiled.

"Considering both refuse to use large-scale ninjutsu... they are so-so, I would say." Konan commented with brutal honesty in her voice. "Anyway, the Tsuchikage is acting as if nothing happened, not even a bit bothered by a few remote villages disappearing. He probably thinks it is the work of bandits taking the villagers and selling them as slaves. Considering he is not getting any request to rescue them... he firmly believes in no pay, no way policy."

"Good for us, then." Rei just smirked. Slaves were yet another good way to increase the population of his village but he had to be careful and not attract much attention from Onoki. He was a bit afraid that clearing these villages out would somewhat put Onoki on guard and hinder this option but... Now it just seemed as if Onoki was making it easy for Rei on purpose.

"Konoha has no idea since we didn't take anyone from the Land of Fire. Kumogakure is seething and looking for the reason, not that they would be able to figure it out... The problem is Kirigakure." Konan quieted down.

"Yeah..." The corner of Rei's mouth twitched.

Who would have known that taking away three hundred Kagyua clan members would send the hot-blooded morons into a frenzy and cause them to march straight towards Kirigakure where they would attempt to massacre everything that moves! How stupid one had to be to attack a village with tens of thousand strong experienced force of killers with only a few hundreds of combatants head-on?

In short, the Kaguya clan was no more.

At least, that was what the world believed. Alas, it would be a decade at the very least before Rei could prove the world wrong.

Rei smiled and watched Yugito and Mei shake each other's hands with smiles on their exhausted faces. Jinchuuriki were quite capable and compatible with the clone training method. He sighed as he really had no idea what to do about lil' Ruto. Nevertheless...

"And so the plot begins..." Rei reached his hand towards the fake sun in his dimension with determination shining in his eyes as he silently promised to himself, "I... am going to win."