The carriage halted at the village gate. Renji stepped down and saw the grand elder, his uncle, and several elderly clansmen being helped along. He knew the elders had come to receive his grandfather. After paying respects with his father, the carriage rolled on toward his grandmother's grave.
At the clan cemetery everything had been prepared. Friends and family were waiting: his mother's close friends, his three teachers, his uncle by marriage with his family, his uncle the clan head with his family. Renji also saw his two closest friends standing separately behind the grand elder and the third elder.
The farewell was simple. Renji's family thanked everyone one by one. His mother held the portrait, his father stayed by her side, and Renji drove the carriage home.
The next day, Retsu and Yan showed up. The three had not met for a long time and had plenty to say. After telling his mother, they headed for the Hokage Monument.
At the cliff, Retsu grinned. "You were gone forever. I thought you just needed a breather. Turns out you only got back now. By the way, Yan and I are squad captains now. I have three teams under me."
Yan added, "I have been promoted to chunin. Want to spar and see where we all stand now?"
Renji shrugged and formed the seal of confrontation with him.
Yan's Sharingan snapped open the moment he moved. He saw Renji close his eyes, take a long breath, and settle into a draw stance. Yan shouted, "Fire Style, Dragon Flame Jutsu," then popped two shadow clones. "Wind Style, Great Breakthrough." "Fire Style, Dragon Flame." "Fire Style, Dragon Flame Bullet."
Heat rolled across the rocks. Renji's fingers tightened around the hilt for a single instant.
"Draw Cut, Sky Rend."
"One Blade Style, Fine Snow."
"Uchiha Sword Style, Flash Cut."
Three cuts in one flow scattered the combined jutsu, erased two clones, and brought the sheathed blade back to Yan's chest with the pommel set over his heart.
Yan stared, stunned. Retsu muttered, "He is a monster again."
"You learned that from your grandfather?" Yan asked when he found his voice.
Renji nodded. "Not only swordplay. He taught me what a true powerhouse is."
He glanced toward the trees and waited. No one stepped out. Renji bowed in that direction. "Come with me to the Police Force. I need my uncle."
Retsu slung an arm around him and the three walked off. Hidden in the trees, their old teacher watched in silence, not ready to reveal himself. That Renji sensed him only meant one thing. The little monster had come home stronger.
At headquarters they gave their names to Uchiha Tsuru and were waved through.
The office was unchanged. Renji's uncle stood at the window looking out. Renji stepped forward. "Uncle, I brought back a jutsu I developed. I want to hand it to the clan to enrich our scrolls."
Uchiha Nobunaga turned. "The Rasengan, right? Your father wrote to me. You have worked hard. Your grandfather was remarkable. This technique is valuable. Here is your promotion. Chunin and squad captain." He held out a document. "You can also present the jutsu to the village, but do not say you invented it. Say it was your grandfather's. Choose whatever you like in return from the Hokage."
Renji grinned. "Thank you, Uncle. I will go pick up my uniform. Oh, and father asked me to deliver this letter. He is staying home with mother for a few days."
Nobunaga frowned. "Deliver a letter? He was just here. He said he would eat at your place tonight." He opened it anyway, then chuckled and handed it back.
It was a glowing recommendation. Renji's father claimed his son would surpass him in a few years. Not his words, he wrote, but his father in law's last message. He praised Renji to the heavens and said the boy could one day stand beside the clan founder. He also complained that Renji's brothers had already been promoted while Renji remained a genin, and asked his brother to at least make him a deputy captain over seven or eight squads.
Renji grimaced. "I will take this home. See you tonight."
His uncle waved him off, then looked out the window again and murmured, "Father, little brother is still the same idiot, and I somehow became clan head. Uchiha has lost another powerhouse."
Renji changed into the Police uniform and came out beaming. His two friends looked at him with dark lines on their foreheads. Was this not blatant favoritism? And that jutsu he was handing in, was that not the grandfather's? Worse, he had read the recommendation letter out loud. Who was that for?
Renji clapped his hands. "Comrades, to the Hokage. Time to trade for something."
The other two exchanged a look. He was going to sell the same thing twice. Shameless. But squeezing the Hokage a little sounded fun.
"Lord Hokage, Uchiha Renji requests an audience." A chunin peeked in. Hiruzen nodded.
Renji bowed. "Thank you for seeing me despite your workload. My grandfather gave me a no hand seal technique called Rasengan. I believe it belongs with the village so it can serve its purpose. We are leaves of the same tree. With a nation comes a home. We are all part of Konoha." He spoke at length with smooth rhetoric.
Hiruzen nodded, pleased. "For the leaves to dance, there must be a flame. The fire will light the village. New leaves will grow again." He answered with a full lecture on the Will of Fire.
Retsu and Yan listened to the two of them trading speeches and felt their mouths twitch. A duel in the clouds. Truly a match. Their view of Renji shifted again.
The Hokage signaled ANBU to bring the Scroll of Seals. Renji wrote the entry. Hiruzen tested the technique himself and rated it an A rank no hand seal jutsu. Then he smiled warmly. The village could not take without giving, he said. Pick a technique so it would not look as if the village bullied a child.
Renji bowed. "I have always admired the Second Hokage. He is my ideal. I would like his sword style, Konoha Ryu."
They left the tower and exhaled together. Renji was delighted. A single school from Tobirama was worth a legacy on its own. He copied the scroll, then headed back to the Police.
Retsu finally blurted out his suspicion. "You are not thinking of selling it a third time, are you?"
Yan could only stare.
Renji stopped and said simply, "You see it. Something this good belongs to the clan. Only in our hands can it reach its full potential."
The two felt a herd of horses stampede through their minds.
Back in his uncle's office, Renji bowed again. "Uncle, the Hokage said the village cannot take without giving, so I chose Konoha Ryu. A treasure like this belongs to the clan. Only here can it be used to the fullest."
Nobunaga's mouth twitched. Where had the boy learned business like this. He would turn one thing into dozens if allowed.
Retsu and Yan nearly burst out laughing. They held it in as Nobunaga passed over a bundle. "The clan will not let our own lose out. Here is our Sharingan training compendium and several illusions that require the eye."
He also made sure Renji could not carry those back to the Hokage for a fourth trade.
Renji left happily. "Brothers, help me find Jiraiya and Orochimaru. I want a word with them."
You are a devil, they both thought.
In the end he traded with Orochimaru for the Five Elements Seal and with Jiraiya for the Evil Fire Seal.
By then the whole village had heard about it. People joked that the kid must have gone poor in the mountains.
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What you have witnessed is only the surface of a deeper, blood-soaked history. Renji's fate has already been carved into the Forbidden Scrolls that the village would never reveal. To step into that future, to see the battles of tomorrow today, cross the hidden threshold.
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