"Going out on another mission again, Ren?"
"Yeah. A simple one. I should be back in a few days."
In the simply furnished living room, Ren tightened the straps on his spare equipment pouch—looking every bit like someone about to travel.
His older sister, Kaguya Kazumi—five years older than him—held her infant, barely six months old, and frowned.
"Hah? A simple mission? Ren, aren't you already one of the Third's直属 ANBU? Why are you still doing errands anyone could finish? Shouldn't the Third be assigning you high-difficulty missions so you can build your reputation and get promoted to jōnin faster?"
Oh, you're absolutely right.
This mission is only slightly simpler than tossing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen at something and watching seven people get reverse-killed by one—
Ren rolled his eyes and didn't bother looking back.
"That's something the important people upstairs have to think about. I just need to finish whatever gets handed to me without mistakes."
"Hmph! If you miss the perfect chance to build your name during the war, do you know how much longer it'll take to qualify for jōnin promotion? After wasting that time, when will you ever take the next step?"
Kazumi stomped hard enough that the baby in her arms stirred awake.
"Ren, the clan's expectations for you are not limited to being an ordinary jōnin. You understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, yes, everyone knows the elders want me to become one of the next generation Seven Ninja Swordsmen…"
"Then try harder, Ren!"
Kazumi slapped his shoulder, annoyed.
"If you become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, you can influence the Mizukage's thinking. Then, in ten or so years when the Third has to step down because his strength isn't enough anymore, you might even have a chance to run for Fourth Mizukage. If that happens, why would we ever have to worry about not having war commissions again?"
Ren let out a long sigh.
Small-minded.
So small-minded it hurt.
A whole Great Ninja War, and you'd be satisfied with a Seven Ninja Swordsmen seat? And you still need to wait over a decade until the Third is old enough to dare think about the Fourth's position?
If I told you I'm planning to use this war to push the Third down and sit in the Mizukage's chair myself, you'd probably faint on the spot.
Hopeless.
"I'm leaving," Ren said, already moving. "Kazumi, remember to eat properly. Don't starve Kimimaro until he cries all day. It sounds miserable."
Kazumi blinked once—
—and Ren vanished, the Body Flicker so fast he seemed to disappear from her sight entirely.
In the wide living room, only Kazumi remained, cheeks red with rage, holding her now-awake baby: Kaguya Kimimaro.
"J-just because you're talented, you have to use a Body Flicker so fast I can't even see it, just to provoke me!?"
"Uwa… wa…" Baby Kimimaro tilted his head, confused, tiny fingers clutching at his mother's clothing.
"…Kimimaro, why are you hungry again?" Kazumi's face went pale. "Please, have mercy on your mother… there's really not a single drop left…"
…
One day later, in the Land of Fire.
Four ghostlike shadows swept through the moonlit forest. They moved at terrifying speed, yet behind them the leaves and dust barely stirred—as if they were no more than an ordinary breeze that happened to pass through at the perfect time.
"We've found the markings from the others, Ren-sama," a slender masked figure reported as she paused lightly on a towering tree. She brushed her fingers over a coded contact mark carved into an inconspicuous part of the branch and turned to Ren and the other teammate behind her. "Looks like everyone's infiltration has been going smoothly."
"Hah. So smooth it doesn't even feel like an infiltration," a tall man said, landing on another tree. A massive long blade was strapped to his back, and his voice carried irritation laced with bloodlust.
He turned toward Ren, who had landed on the same tree as him.
"Ren-sama, why don't we just kill our way into Konohagakure? If they're so generous as to leave the gates wide open, then refusing the invitation and ramming straight into their vitals would be… pretty bad manners, wouldn't it?"
"Oh," Ren said mildly. "Then you can handle Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchūriki, Yoshida. Sure, it might be just a tiny bit hard for me to take the Third Hokage and a few Hokage Advisors at the same time… but to pave the way for your promotion to jōnin, I'm not unwilling to try."
"…I sincerely apologize. I let arrogance get the better of me, Ren-sama."
Yoshida's heated brain instantly cooled. He straightened, bowed deeply, and made it clear he wouldn't say something so stupid again.
Ren didn't pursue it. He had the team's sensor, Mikazuki Eri, follow the markings left by the other Mist ANBU, and the直属 squad continued forward.
Before long, Ren's unit linked up with a Mist jōnin squad carrying the vessel sealed with Isobu.
After exchanging intelligence as an ANBU captain, Ren discovered a problem he wasn't sure he should even call a problem.
Among the ANBU and jōnin participating in this secret mission…
Not a single one was a "named character."
That, in itself, wasn't strange. In the original history, the battle that led to the rise of Uchiha Obito as a shadowy mastermind didn't leave many Mist shinobi with recorded identities.
What made Ren uneasy was this:
The two jōnin leading the operation—Ringo Mirai and Matsuda Takuya—felt… weak.
Not fraudulent. Not unqualified.
Just… unremarkable.
No glaring flaws, but no standout strengths either—roughly the same tier as Konoha's Kurenai Yūhi.
And if you factored in the fact that Kurenai had rare and formidable genjutsu as a specialty, then these two veteran Mist jōnin's biggest advantage was probably the word "veteran" itself.
Ren even suspected that even working together—with the advantage of an ambush—they might not have a sure chance of taking down Hatake Kakashi.
Worse: if Ren didn't insert himself into that fight, then with the strength Kakashi had displayed at Kannabi Bridge, a one-versus-two reversal kill wasn't even that hard to imagine.
And if the two jōnin—who held higher official rank than Ren—died on the battlefield…
Then as a直属 ANBU captain, Ren would be forced to take over their command and continue executing a mission personally issued by the Third Mizukage.
Which meant—
The responsibility for failure, which should've been theirs, would naturally fall onto Ren's head instead.
"How interesting," Ren thought, eyes narrowed. "Did Uchiha Madara notice me, and decide to kill two birds with one stone while calculating Obito? Or…"
…Or had those short-sighted, spineless old worms in the clan engineered things so the Third Mizukage handed him an 'opportunity to become famous in one battle'?"
Either was possible.
But no matter which side had arranged it, they likely didn't want to see Ren slack off, do the bare minimum, and retreat cleanly.
Tch.
So he'd have to put in more effort.
At minimum, he had to ensure those two jōnin stayed alive long enough to take the blame if things went south—and he had to keep enough witnesses alive to prove it.
Otherwise, if the failure landed on him…
It would ruin the plans that came after.
Ren lifted his gaze toward the figures racing ahead through the forest and made his decision in silence
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