Kurenai wasn't in the best mood the last few days. She was recovering from the death of her father, but it has only been a few days since. The only reason she came to the salon was because Anko kept bothering her about it and she couldn't say no to her.
She hasn't expected much from the visit, but everything Renji did today made her curious, especially the massage. Hearing Anko's moans and seeing her so relaxed, she wondered if it really was that comfortable.
Kurenai looked at Anko with a questioning look, and saw her return a cheeky smile with an encouraging look.
Resigned, she nodded to Renji, "Yes Renji-san, I will be in your care." Anko showed a victory sign and went to the seating area, to snack while watching through the glass windows.
Renji smiled happily and invited her to the chair. Moving behind her sitting figure, he took her thick hair in to his hands and asked while playing with it, "So, what would you like to do today?"
"I... don't know. What would you recommend?"
Renji looked and felt her hair thoughtfully. He noticed it hasn't been well taken care of, with some extra growth here and there.
"How about a trim if you'd like to keep this hairstyle? Or I can style it differently if you have something in mind."
Kurenai was used to the current hairstyle, so she decided to go with the trim. Plus the massage, she was curious.
With that Renji got to work. Grabbing two pairs of scissors, one for each hand, he cut through her mane in a storm of snips! He didn't need to use any complicated techniques and products, instead, his instincts guided his actions, cutting off exactly the right length as he envisioned!
All Kurenai could see in the mirror, was the cut hair floating all around her in a vortex!
Within a minute, he was done, and combed her hair back to the original style.
"All done! What do you think?"
Kurenai looked at her hair from the mirror. It didn't look very different from before, but she felt it looked perfect! With her superhuman senses, she could see that the length of each hair is at exactly the appropriate length!
She said with a smile, "That was something else. You really have a talent for this!"
Renji was happy with the complement.
"Thanks, Kurenai-san. Now, shall we go ahead with the massage?"
Once she agreed, he started preparing for it. He didn't need to, but he needed to put on a show after all.
At some point, the waiting room had a few kids and some adults, along with Anko. It seems Ayame brought some of her friends.
His employees were taking care of them, but Ayame and the kids were looking through the glass pane separating the two room, excitedly gesturing, mimicking Renji's technique.
Renji smiled at that. He called one of his employees and told them to show them the prices, and apply 50% off if they have the pamphlet. Also, Ayame's friends can use one service for free.
As for refreshments, they don't have to pay for anything.
With her going off to follow his instructions, he waved at Ayame with a smile and turned back to Kurenai.
Pushing her chair back, he held her head gently.
"I'm going to start, Kurenai-san."
She nodded and closed her eyes.
With that, he started the massage, same as he did with Anko. He saw Kurenai flushing, and her body loosening, becoming more comfortable. She held back her moans, she's quite shy with all the people in next room. Although, Renji made it soundproof, he didn't mention it.
During the massage, he absorbed the energy stored in her hair, around 85 units, out of 93.
"93, very close to 100. It seems in terms of energy, she's quite close to Jonin level."
He then focussed on her emotions. Holding her hair physically, he could sense her emotions much better, compared to from a distance. He could even see some snippets of what looked like memories related to the emotions!
For example, when he focussed on her sadness, he could see the image of a man with sunken cheeks, patting on the head of a little girl, a younger Kurenai. She looked happy.
"That must be her father."
There were several short memories other that that one. Some happy ones, others sad, like hearing the news of his death.
"Direct contact does take [Hair Manipulation ] to another level!"
He thought for a bit, and tweaked her senses a bit. He programmed it so, whenever she remembered her father, the sad memories don't deteriorate her mentality much. But he left the happy ones alone.
'I hope I'm doing right by her. I only toned down how her senses respond to sad memories. I could technically make it so her mentality responds only for the happy ones, but that would be going too far, and violate of her right to grieve. I don't have to consider the feelings of enemies, but this girl saved me before.'
'Hopefully, this would make it easier for her to go through her grieving process.'
He remembered another person, Kakashi. 'I wonder if this would have helped him when he lost his father. Of course, I would need to figure out a way to use the skill on a non-female first.'
He looked at Kurenai's peaceful and ruddy face in the mirror.
'I should observe her for a while, make sure I didn't cause trouble, instead of helping. If this works, my power will be much more useful that I imagined.'
Ones the 10 minutes are up, he put her hair in two side buns and patted them.
"All done! How do you feel?"
Kurenai sighed with a hint of reluctance, and opened her eyes.
"That was very relaxing. Thank you, Renji-san."
Renji accepted her gratitude. He then proceeded to normally wash her hair. As he was about to put her hair in a towel, she stopped him.
She could see more people waiting, so she didn't want to take up more time.
Running her chakra through the hair, it floated as if it was under water, and quickly dried.
Renji admired the scene very much. She looked amazing!
After that, Renji combed and simply styled her hair back to her usual hairstyle.
Kurenai was satisfied with it, it looked perfectly in line with her expectations.
She then asked curiously, "By the way, what was the premium effect of the haircut?"
He smiled, "After the haircut, I used a special product on your hair, to prevent split ends. And another that would make it easy for you to recreate your current hairstyle! It would be as it your hair remembers this hairstyle. Don't worry though, you can use any other hairstyle as you wish, but this one would just be easier to make. This effect should stay for around 2 weeks."
Kurenai looked doubtful, but she was somewhat convinced. After all, his skills were top notch, and it was easy to test.
She twisted her hair in to a bun. It felt same as usual. Then she unwound it and combed it with her fingers, recreating her usual hairstyle. It fell back into place almost perfectly recreating her hairstyle!
Renji looked unsurprised and just looked on with a small smile. He used [Hair Manipulation] to achieve this. It would keep consuming a tiny bit of the Demonic Energy in her hair to maintain this for a couple of weeks.
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A/N:
Hey guys. I've been busier than I expected. Will post more when there's time.