At this moment, Ren stared at the completely different door in front of him, dumbfounded. A very strange idea popped into his mind: 'Did... did my family move in secret, without telling me?.'
'Wouldn't that be too pitiful? I was clearly the son of the family!'
Just as Ren stood at the gate, feeling a little overwhelmed, a "Squeak" sound broke the silence. The door before him opened, and a familiar face poked its head out, its expression radiating excitement.
"Brother, are you back?"
"Little sister!" Seeing this familiar face, Ren's heart finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then, under Tenten's pull, he walked into this completely unfamiliar yard.
"Is this still our home? I even suspected I had gone to the wrong place just now."
Tenten covered her mouth, her laughter as sweet as a silver bell. "Of course this is our house, big brother! Who told you to be out on missions for so long, you can't even find your way home when you come back! If I hadn't heard the commotion outside in the yard, I don't know how long you'd have been standing there foolishly!"
Ren scratched his head, a little helpless. "This... why is it completely different from before?"
"Whee!" A sly smile appeared on Tenten's face. With a quirky expression, she explained, "It's because Father rebuilt our house and yard!" She stretched out her hand and pointed to the distance, indicating the artistically constructed small bridge and flowing water courtyard. There was even a pond covered with water lily leaves, which looked very poetic.
"My father bought a few plots of land next to our house this time. He directly expanded the original area of our home several times, reaching an area of thousands of square meters! What you see now, this is only part of the front yard, and there's still a lot of the backyard at the back of our house!"
Ren nodded. Then he followed Tenten and walked around the house. Now his house was indeed much bigger than before. They had not only rebuilt the original house but also redesigned the courtyard and garden. Of course, the family hadn't forgotten to upgrade the small forging workshop in his original backyard. In a room of about 20 square meters, in addition to the forging table, a lot of ores and materials that Ren often used were neatly listed on the shelves.
Although the current Ren was almost unsuitable for such a forging table – almost all of his ninja tools were forged in his own system space – the family's thoughtful care and careful preparation still made him feel very moved.
"By the way, little sister, when I came back this time, I also brought you a gift." Ren stretched out his hand with a smile, put his arm around Tenten's neck, and laughed loudly, "Go and see, do you have anything you like?"
"Wow!" Suddenly, Tenten's eyes lit up! Gifts... What little girl wouldn't like them?
"So much delicious food! And I like them all! Wow, I can eat enough today!" Tenten immediately picked up a small cake, biting into it hard. A happy expression bloomed on her face. Although she could buy these foods herself every day, this time was different. This was what her brother bought for her. Eating it now felt much better than what she usually bought herself.
'Could it be... this is 'brother complex'?' Tenten giggled. 'Hee hee, it doesn't matter, anyway, my brother is the best brother in the world!'
"By the way, Tenten, in addition to this food, I have one more thing for you." Ren flicked his hand, then took something out of his ring: a wad of white thread.
Puppet Threads! This was something Ren had forged on his way back, following a four-star weapon blueprint rewarded by the system. Although this thing looked a little inconspicuous, like a ball of white fishing line, if it wasn't condensed into a ball, it would be almost impossible to detect with the naked eye. It was made of a special kind of Celestial Silk. It could be infused with chakra, and under the control of chakra, it could be freely transformed into any shape, which could be used to control weapons.
In addition, the biggest advantage of this puppet silk thread was its invulnerability to swords and guns, to water and fire. Even with Ren's swordsmanship, even with his sharp Grasscutter Sword, it was difficult to cut this kind of puppet silk thread! After trying it, Ren, who discovered this, had a look of surprise in his eyes. No wonder it would become a weapon with a four-star forging difficulty; sure enough, its performance was extremely superior!
However, due to the extremely rare Celestial Silk used to forge this weapon, he had only accidentally bought a small ball of it in a small village when he was training outside with Might Guy. Even with Ren's forging technology, which had already achieved a 100% success rate, he had only created two such Puppet Threads.
Now, he gave one of the Puppet Threads to his sister, Tenten. His own strength was already quite good. In the entire ninja world, he could be considered to have a certain self-protection ability. Even against an opponent as powerful as the Five Kage, he still had the power to fight. Even if he lost in the end, he would definitely have enough life-saving means to escape. So this kind of Puppet Thread was the icing on the cake for Ren. But for his sister Tenten, it was like a lifeline in the snow.
After experimenting with the use of the Puppet Thread, a surprised expression immediately appeared on Tenten's face. There was a stream of light in her eyes, and she looked very excited, with undisguised surprise on her face.
"Brother! Brother! Is this something you made too?" Tenten was so happy she was a little incoherent. "Are you really going to give me this ninja tool? I, I really like it! This thing is truly very important to me!"
"Hm?" Ren looked at Tenten curiously. It was just a Puppet Thread; why was it so important to her?
Tenten and Ren always had a good understanding, so she explained directly. "Brother, I recently followed Might Guy-sensei on a mission out of the village, and then I met some wandering ninjas. One of them was strong enough to reach the level of an Elite Chūnin. During the fight against him, I discovered some problems." Ninjutsu encountered some bottlenecks.
"Were you hurt?" Ren asked worriedly. Compared with Tenten's strength, Ren was more worried about his sister's safety.
"No, Guy-sensei protected us very well," Tenten shook her head and explained. "He thought that me, Rock Lee, and Neji, we could now try to challenge ninjas of that strength, so he let us try it out. If we found ourselves in danger, Guy-sensei would step in in time."
Ren nodded. This was Guy-sensei's consistent teaching style. When he had traveled with Guy-sensei before, he had also accepted this kind of experience. However, Guy-sensei would not interfere too much with any opponent he felt Ren could face alone, and he was very confident in leaving Ren to face them alone. It was because of this teaching method that Ren's strength had improved so rapidly in those few years.
Tenten's expression suddenly became a little lonely, then she continued, "But in that battle, whether it was Neji, who uses Gentle Fist and Byakugan, or Rock Lee, who only focuses on physical training, their performance in actual combat was much better than mine. Instead, my manipulation of ninja tools had the least impact on that person, and was the slowest to defeat the opponent."
"The other party was a ninja who was very good at Wind Style ninjutsu, and he was very restrictive to me. It was only because of the blessings you gave me, big brother, that I managed to kill that enemy. If I only used the ninjutsu methods I developed myself, such as Twin Rising Dragons, Equipment, and Bound Meteor, under the interference of the Wind Style ninjutsu, it would have been impossible to hit the enemy at all..."
"Maybe Guy-sensei discovered my weakness. This person with the wind attribute was chosen for me as my opponent. Although after the battle, Guy-sensei also praised my performance in the battle, I wasn't happy."
"Brother... I still want to be stronger, to be as strong as you! I think when someone mentions me, it won't just be the identity of Ren's sister, but it can be said that she is also a powerful female ninja! Like... like Lady Tsunade!"