Chapter 63: Easy Mode or Hell Mode?
'Naruto?'
Makoto's eyes lit up almost instantly. Naruto was still an extremely dangerous world, with its strongest beings possessing planetary-level combat power, but spatial abilities ranked among its highest forms of power and had very few reliable counters.
'With my current strength, staying alive shouldn't be a problem, right?'
'No. I can't get careless.'
Besides Space-Time Ninjutsu, the Naruto world was also famous for its countless forms of genjutsu. Makoto still had no real defense against mental attacks, which meant he had to be careful around any shinobi specializing in illusions.
As Makoto considered the danger, the Main God Space continued delivering information.
[Mission Time: Beginning of the third round of the Chunin Exams.]
[Mission Location: Konoha.]
[Mission Type: Main Mission.]
[Mission Objective: Ensure Konoha's victory during the Konoha Crush.]
[Mission Difficulty: Easy.]
[Mission Reward: C-rank Main Mission Token x1. Mission Points x10,000.]
[Failure Penalty: Erasure.]
[Additional Reward: Explore this world and gain the recognition of important characters to receive hidden mission rewards.]
After reading everything, Makoto's initial excitement immediately faded. Something about this mission felt wrong.
His first mission had thrown him directly into a Hell-rank survival scenario. Without the SSS-rank Talent Making Fake Become Real, Makoto would've died long ago.
Yet now, after teaming up with Yukinoshita Yukino, who was already only one step away from becoming a Professional, the Main God Space had given them an absurdly easy mission.
In the original story, Konoha ultimately won the Konoha Crush anyway. The village paid a heavy price, but with Jiraiya and Might Guy present, Sunagakure never had enough strength to truly overturn the situation.
'So what's wrong here?'
'Don't tell me the Main God Space just chooses mission difficulty randomly depending on its mood.'
"Kitano-kun, something isn't right."
Yukinoshita was frowning as well. Looking closely, Makoto could even see a faint tremble in her eyelashes.
"Normally, every Main God mission includes at least seven Players. Teams don't change that rule, but right now there are only two of us here."
Makoto immediately straightened and lowered his voice near her ear. "You mean the other five Players were sent somewhere else?"
Yukinoshita nodded, her expression turning serious.
"As far as I know, there are two possible explanations. The first is that our missions are different, so naturally we weren't placed in the same location."
"That's not the worst possibility, is it?" Makoto asked.
Yukinoshita took a slow breath. "No. The worst possibility is that the five of them were assigned to the opposing faction, with missions directly opposed to ours."
Makoto stared at her in surprise. "Wouldn't that be counted as part of the mission difficulty?"
"Usually, yes. The mission type would also change accordingly. But there's one special situation where that doesn't happen: a group can use special methods to forcibly invade someone else's Mission World."
Yukinoshita clenched her teeth. Painful memories clearly surfaced in her mind, and she needed several seconds to steady herself before continuing.
"My previous team was wiped out because someone intruded into our mission. Everyone was killed. I was the only one who escaped..."
Seeing her expression, Makoto didn't press for details. Yukinoshita couldn't have reached her current level without eventually finding teammates she genuinely got along with.
If Togawa Sakiko were killed in front of him, Makoto suspected he'd be in an even worse state.
Once Yukinoshita calmed down, Makoto said, "I have a C-rank Emergency Escape Card. I can use it to escape if things go badly. What about you?"
A flash of relief appeared in her eyes. "I didn't expect you to prepare something like that. Fortunately, I have one too."
Makoto grinned and patted her shoulder. "Then we don't have to worry about being trapped. Besides, there's no guarantee we'll lose. We're on Konoha's side, after all."
He pointed toward their clothes. Since the Main God Space had assigned them to Konoha's faction, both of them had naturally been given identities as Konoha shinobi.
They wore forehead protectors but no flak jackets, which suggested their assigned identities were genin.
"You're right. Whoever our enemies are, we won't know the outcome until we actually fight them."
Yukinoshita scanned their surroundings. They were inside a massive arena, and the Third Hokage and Fourth Kazekage were already faintly visible on the distant viewing platform.
That meant the Konoha Crush led by Sunagakure was about to begin.
"Do you have a plan? If not, I suggest letting me direct our movements."
Yukinoshita tightened her grip on her sword, battle intent already building inside her.
To her surprise, Makoto didn't immediately agree.
If he simply followed Yukinoshita's commands, they'd fight methodically, earn some Mission Points, then deal with whatever enemy was hiding in the shadows.
Makoto wanted far more than that.
The Scroll of Seals, Sharingan, ninjutsu scrolls, secret clan techniques, inherited arts, and even Sunagakure puppets could all become valuable spoils.
A battlefield was dangerous, but it was also an enormous treasure vault.
Makoto suppressed his unease about Yukinoshita doubting him and asked, "Yukinoshita, are you willing to trust me?"
She looked at him seriously before replying with a single question. "Why?"
Makoto pointed toward his eyes.
"You might not know this yet, but my eyes were created by fusing the S-rank Talent Lattice Eyes with the S-rank Talent Great Sage."
"Lattice Eyes lets me perceive spatial movement and helps me control space, while Great Sage provides information in advance and lets me learn techniques and powers at incredible speed."
"After fusing, they've already become an SS-rank Talent called Sage's Eye."
[Ding! Making Fake Become Real has activated...]
[Yukinoshita Yukino: Fate Value 20. Trust: 100%.]
[Manifestation Points: 20.]
[Your Talent Lattice Eyes has gained 20% upgrade progress. All aspects of its capabilities have increased by 20%.]
Almost instantly, Makoto felt his vision become noticeably clearer.
He blinked and found that both his own storage space and Yukinoshita's were now even easier to perceive. More surprisingly, he could faintly see irregular spatial fluctuations scattered across the distance.
Most were attached to individual shinobi, seemingly originating from the scroll pouches they carried.
'Could those be things like summoning scrolls?'
The remaining fluctuations were mostly underground. They were much larger and roughly spherical, giving Makoto the impression of barriers or sealing techniques.
What surprised him most was a door-like spatial structure near the outer edge of Konoha.
Unfortunately, Makoto could perceive only spatial structures. He lacked the Byakugan's long-distance and penetrating vision, so he couldn't actually see what was happening there.
Still, he memorized its location.
'That might be where the enemies for this mission are hiding.'
At that exact location, five Players wearing black robes and animal masks stood in a row, watching Konoha from afar.
Their leader wore a single-eyed mask. Suddenly, he frowned and turned toward Makoto's direction.
One subordinate noticed immediately. "Captain, is something wrong?"
"There's a spatial fluctuation over there. At this point in the timeline, there shouldn't be anyone besides me who can wield that sort of power."
"Could it be one of the Players assigned to this mission? This scenario should only produce two Veterans at most, so there's nothing to worry about."
The subordinates remained completely relaxed. Their captain's strength had already surpassed the Veteran level long ago.
Their leader sharply rebuked them.
"Don't get careless. We've staked everything we own on this operation. Whether we make a fortune depends on what happens today."
"Once the Konoha Crush begins, the four of you will subdue those two Players. I'll help Orochimaru kill the Third Hokage as quickly as possible."
"Understood!"
All four answered together, but none looked particularly tense. At the current stage of the Chunin Exams, they simply didn't believe there was much in Konoha capable of threatening them.
The only two people worth worrying about were Jiraiya and Might Guy.
Once Orochimaru was freed to move, he could keep Jiraiya occupied. As for Might Guy, their captain's ability happened to counter taijutsu specialists.
From their perspective, victory was already leaning heavily in their favor.
Back with Makoto and Yukinoshita, Makoto already knew her answer before she spoke.
Her Trust remained at 100%.
Unfortunately, Yukinoshita had only 20 Fate Value. Otherwise, Makoto suspected a single statement might have fully manifested whatever ability he claimed to possess.
"I understand. If you already have your own plan, then I'll follow you."
Yukinoshita relaxed her grip slightly. "My role here is to support you anyway. So what do you intend to do?"
Makoto tapped his shoulder.
A fist-sized figure resembling a tiny mirage appeared there. It was his Stand, Silent Echo.
"That's your Stand?" Yukinoshita asked. "What can it do?"
Makoto delivered the explanation he'd prepared in advance.
"I spent one C-rank Side Mission Token upgrading it, and its potential has changed significantly."
"Most of its attributes barely improved, but its Growth Potential jumped straight to A. That means it has enormous room to evolve."
"Its ability improved too. Besides blocking nearby sound, it can now precisely imitate my voice and reproduce environmental sounds."
Makoto smiled. "Pretty useful, right?"
[Ding! Making Fake Become Real has activated...]
[Yukinoshita Yukino: Fate Value 20. Trust: 100%.]
[Manifestation Points: 20.]
[Your Stand Silent Echo has evolved.]
[Its Growth Potential has increased to D, and it has gained the ability of sound mimicry.]
Makoto looked delighted on the outside, but inwardly he felt the progress was painfully slow.
'Couldn't it just jump straight to A?'
Yukinoshita only had 20 Fate Value, though, so there wasn't much he could do about it.
'Should I try telling some absurdly huge lie next? Something like being the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths?'
Yukinoshita curiously extended a finger toward Silent Echo.
The tiny Stand opened its mouth and reproduced the sound of wind, yet she felt no actual breeze against her skin.
Yukinoshita laughed.
She had always liked cute things, and Makoto's tiny Stand looked unexpectedly adorable to her.
"So what can it actually do in battle?"
She still didn't quite understand why Makoto would spend resources upgrading a Stand merely to gain sound mimicry.
'Can something like that really improve his combat ability?'
Makoto had expected that question.
He reached out, and the space beside him distorted under Sky Manipulation.
Makoto could already use his spatial barriers to distort space into a mosaic-like blur. With Uro Takako's Sky Manipulation layered on top, his control over refracted light became considerably more refined.
An identical image of Makoto appeared beside him.
Before Yukinoshita could react, Silent Echo moved to the illusion and spoke in Makoto's voice.
"This is my real body, Yukinoshita. Do you believe me?"
Yukinoshita had even more combat experience than Makoto and immediately understood what he'd done.
Makoto had created a visual clone purely through manipulated light.
The illusion had no offensive power, but against enemies unable to lock onto him through mental perception, it was an excellent form of misdirection.
From Yukinoshita's perspective, spending one C-rank Side Mission Token for a technique like this was perfectly reasonable.
"Very good. At least right now, I can't tell where your real body is."
Her approval meant Makoto's second attempt at Making Fake Become Real had passed successfully.
But this was only the beginning.
There were far too many things Makoto still wanted.
"Let's leave the arena. There's nothing interesting about watching a genin fight."
Makoto paused before adding, "From now on, I'll occasionally have my Stand speak for me. I want to practice controlling the precision of its mimicry."
Yukinoshita saw nothing suspicious about that and stood up with him.
Dressed as ordinary genin, the two attracted almost no attention and left the arena with ease.
Compared with the noise inside, the streets outside were eerily quiet. Almost no pedestrians remained.
"What now?" Yukinoshita asked. "Do you already have a target?"
Makoto didn't open his mouth.
Instead, he silently repeated a sentence inside his mind while ordering Silent Echo to speak in his place.
"Why don't we head to the moon right now and release Otsutsuki Kaguya?"
Yukinoshita looked puzzled. "Otsutsuki Kaguya? Who's that?"
Instead of discouraging Makoto, her confusion made his eyes flash with excitement.
'It worked.'
His hypothesis had been correct.
Having Silent Echo speak on his behalf did not directly trigger Making Fake Become Real.
That meant Makoto no longer needed to constantly worry that a careless remark might suddenly manifest into something even he couldn't understand.
Still, simply reaching this level wasn't enough.
"Otsutsuki Kaguya? All right, let me explain..."
…