Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, the Iwa shinobi made countless attempts to break through Konoha's blockade in the Land of Waterfalls—but every single effort was stopped by the fearless, unyielding Leaf shinobi.
Renjiro's team was sent to the frontlines multiple times by Shikaku, either to carry out critical missions or support key battles. Of course, only for missions that fell under Renjiro's specialty. These tasks would have been extremely dangerous for most rookie teams, but they were well within Team Renjiro's ability.
Shikaku would never send them into danger and simply hope they survived by luck.
Under Renjiro's leadership, Team Renjiro completed every mission with near-perfect success—further boosting their growing reputation and deepening Iwagakure's hatred toward them.
As for that hatred, Renjiro didn't even bother to care. They were on a battlefield. Sooner or later, they would have to kill each other to survive and win. Hatred was only a natural result of that.
There was no right or wrong, no good or evil. In war, only victory and benefits mattered in the end.
Even if Iwagakure was wrong for attacking Konoha—and Konoha killed them in defense—those who survived would still come to hate the Leaf shinobi with all their hearts.
"Their hero is my enemy, and their enemy… is my hero." This was the logic most shinobi followed when fighting in war.
In truth, as Team Renjiro's fame spread like wildfire, Renjiro himself became the center of growing attention—especially because of his background.
A civilian-born shinobi who rose to power through pure grit and skill. His achievements became a symbol of hope for many lowborn ninjas. His name began to spread as "the next civilian genius after Namikaze Minato."
Some even began comparing him to the prodigy Hatake Kakashi, who had just been promoted to Jonin.
Sure, one had become a Jonin at thirteen—a genius of his generation—while the other had only recently reached Chunin. But no one looked down on Renjiro's record.
Yes, Kakashi's achievement was incredible.
But then again—he was the son of Konoha's White Fang, trained by the Fourth Hokage himself, Minato, who had been a disciple of one of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya. With such a powerful lineage and personal guidance, Kakashi's rise was astonishing—but not unexpected.
In contrast, Renjiro's path had been nothing but struggle.
He came from an ordinary family. His parents were low-ranking shinobi who died early, leaving him with no mentor, no wealth, and no guidance. His grandparents were regular civilians. Even during his Academy days, no one thought he would ever succeed as a ninja.
When the war broke out, fate threw him onto the battlefield. Many who knew him had already mourned his fate, thinking he'd become just another forgotten name carved into the memorial stone. After all, during his time at the Academy—he didn't show any special talent. In fact, he was below average.
---
That day, the skies were clear and bright.
For once, Team Renjiro had been granted a full day of rest.
Renjiro, fully embracing the rare moment of peace, slept in until late morning.
In the past ten days, they had barely gotten any rest or proper sleep. They had completed three missions back-to-back—exhausting them both mentally and physically.
After waking, Renjiro couldn't help but think of Inmaru, back in Konoha: "How is he doing now? Not too lonely, I hope…"
In truth, Inmaru had almost completely forgotten about Renjiro. He was living his best life—running around and playing with a gang of other dogs.
Snuggling deeper into the warmth of his bed, Renjiro decided to use this rare downtime to review his progress.
"Arkain, open my status panel." He said inwardly.
[Beep! Opening Status Panel—]
A glowing 3D holographic panel appeared in front of him.
---
[Name: Takane Renjiro
Age: 14
Profession: Shinobi, Novelist
Rank: Elite Chunin
Skills: Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Escape Technique, Basic Kenjutsu
Ninjutsu: Thunder Ball Jutsu, Mind Net
Taijutsu: Basic Taijutsu, Intermediate Taijutsu, Soru, Tekkai
Genjutsu: Multi-Blade Illusion Slash
Chakra Affinity: Lightning
Title: Civilian Genius]
---
Renjiro raised an eyebrow: "Where'd this 'Title' section come from? Arkain, what does this title actually do?"
[Title Effect: None.]
"Then why did you add it to the panel?" Renjiro asked, genuinely curious.
[The Central Intelligence Core is a hyper-personalized biomechanical computer designed to match its host's preferences. Titles are included based on the user's interests.]
"Well, fair enough…" Renjiro muttered under his breath.
He did care a little about titles. Though he trained hard mainly to survive, deep down, he still dreamed of reaching the top of the Shinobi World—and leaving behind a legacy.
When people remembered him, he didn't want them to think of him as some awkward label like "Civilian Genius." It just didn't sound cool—it didn't fit his image.
He preferred epic titles like Minato's "Yellow Flash," Guy's "Blue Beast of Konoha," or the coolest of them all—Hashirama's "God of Shinobi." Renjiro wanted a title like that.
"And what's with the 'Novelist' profession still being there? I haven't written anything in ages." Renjiro said inwardly.
"Wait… could it be that my creative soul still burns beneath the surface? Waiting to be reignited?" Renjiro suddenly thought to himself: "Maybe after the war ends, I'll go back to writing. I'll create a masterpiece that'll shake the entire Shinobi World!"
Renjiro smirked to himself. Imagine adapting One Piece into a novel… or retelling the Marvel and DC universes during Konoha's cultural festival… He'd instantly become the greatest novelist in the history of this world.
[Beep! Beep!]
His daydream was cut short as a sudden prompt from Arkain rang in his head.
"What is it, Arkain?" Renjiro asked, shaking off his thoughts.
[Beep! Task 'Ninjutsu Development: Body Stimulation' has completed simulation. Please review the results.]
[Additionally, based on your long-term objective 'Enhance Strength and Survival Skills,' it is recommended to merge this result with the current 'Taijutsu Development' Task.]
[Permission required to integrate Body Stimulation data into Taijutsu Development Task for deeper synthesis.]
"Approved! Fuse it all! Anything that makes me stronger—I'm in." Renjiro said, almost shouting.
[Beep! Mission Established! Importing Data... Connecting to System Database... Extracting Host Parameters... Launching Virtual Simulation… Simulation Started.]
Renjiro rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "What kind of result will this bring?"
[Beep! Enhancement will primarily affect speed.]
"Speed, huh…" Renjiro's eyes lit up with excitement.
He already had Soru for high-speed movement, but more speed was always welcome. In battle, speed was just as important as power.
"How long until it's done?" He asked.
[Beep! Estimated time: 120 hours.]
"Five days…" Renjiro grinned: "Alright. I hope you bring some surprises, Arkain."
---
Five days later.
In the dense forest near the Konoha encampment, Renjiro knelt on a thick tree branch. His clothes were disheveled, and his face was frozen in disbelief—as if he had just seen a ghost.
In truth, what had just happened did feel like encountering a ghost. He had expected solid results from merging Body Stimulation with Taijutsu, but he never imagined the outcome would be so… shocking.
What surprised him even more was—
Renjiro's expression shifted sharply: "Who's there?!"
Swish!
A masked Anbu appeared silently on a nearby branch behind him: "Lord Shikaku requests your presence."
Renjiro nodded calmly: "Understood."
Swish!
The Anbu vanished just as silently as he had arrived.
"Could it be another mission?" Renjiro frowned. It seemed another assignment was waiting for them.
---
Not long after, Renjiro returned to camp, changed into his combat gear, and headed straight to the command center.
The command center was vast. Along the left wall were dozens of machines resembling desktop monitors. Each displayed real-time projections of the surrounding terrain—without a single blind spot. Two tech-nin, wearing specialized helmets, maintained the system's operation.
At the center stood a massive sand table—a scaled model of the battlefield stretching from the Konoha base across their entire defensive line in the Land of Waterfalls.
Shikaku stood over it, deep in thought.
Renjiro entered, nodded politely to the guards, and walked up to Shikaku: "Lord Shikaku, you called for me?"
"Ah, Renjiro. Yes." Shikaku pulled away from the sand table and walked toward his desk: "There's an important mission I want to assign to your team."
"What kind of mission?" Renjiro asked, curious.
Shikaku picked up a document from his desk and handed it to him: "Take a seat and read this carefully."
"Thank you." Renjiro said calmly, then sat down and began flipping through the file.
A long silence followed.
"Hmmm…"
When he finally closed the file, Renjiro understood why Shikaku had called for him.
This was no ordinary mission.
Roughly half a month ago, an Anbu team tasked with destroying an enemy base discovered a strange clue—something easily overlooked. But Shikaku had sensed its importance right away and sent scouts to investigate further.
After a week of careful tracking, Konoha finally identified the clue's true value: A military deployment map of Iwagakure's forces in the Land of Waterfalls.
It was a critical piece of intelligence.
If Konoha could retrieve the map, they could pinpoint and eliminate all hidden enemy outposts—shifting the tide of war in one decisive move.
Naturally, Iwagakure understood its value too. There would be only one chance to take it, and any mistake would alert the enemy and close the opportunity forever.
Shikaku had even considered going himself. But with his trusted comrades Inoichi and Choza unavailable, and his own skills leaning more strategic than combative, it wasn't realistic.
Ideally, he would have assembled an elite Jonin squad for the task. But most Jonin were already tied to vital roles across the camp.
After weighing all options, only one unit had both the ability and the flexibility to pull this off:
Renjiro and his team.
---
"That's the situation, Renjiro." Shikaku said solemnly.
"You understand the importance. I have only one requirement—retrieve that deployment map at all costs."
"I understand." Renjiro replied in a low, steady voice.
Honestly, if this had been yesterday, he wouldn't have been confident enough to guarantee success—this was easily an A-rank mission, after all.
But today... today was different. Even if the enemy was Jonin -level—he was ready.
---
Author's Note:
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