"It's settled."
Ren was about to nod and thank Tsunade when he noticed Rin standing a short distance away. Although she was trying to hide it, the disappointment in her eyes was unmistakable. Her fingers tightened around the edge of her shirt, and her shoulders drooped ever so slightly.
His thoughts shifted at once.
"Lady Tsunade, what about Rin?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. Her amber eyes flicked toward Rin before settling on Ren again, sharp enough to make most genin instinctively lower their heads.
"Places in the Advanced Medical Class are extremely limited," she said. "Her skills may be decent for a genin, but compared to yours, she is still far behind. If you are willing to surrender your place to her, I might consider admitting her instead."
Rin's eyes widened.
"No, Lady Tsunade!" she hurriedly protested. "Ren, you don't have to do that. I'm fine—really!"
"Then that won't be necessary," Ren replied without hesitation.
Rin froze, while Tsunade looked genuinely surprised. A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of the Sannin's lips as she leaned back and folded her arms.
"Oh? Is the bond between you teammates really so shallow?" she asked. "I thought brats your age were supposed to value loyalty above everything else."
Ren didn't take the bait. He lifted his head and met her gaze calmly.
"It has nothing to do with our bond. It's simply the choice that offers the greatest overall benefit."
Tsunade's smile faded slightly.
"My aptitude is better, so I'll be able to understand more advanced knowledge and learn it faster," Ren continued. "Once I've mastered it, I can teach Rin what I've learned. But if Rin takes the place instead, there is no guarantee she'll be able to do the same for me."
Rin stared at him, her initial disappointment slowly giving way to realization.
"So," Ren concluded, "allowing me to enter the class is the most efficient choice. It strengthens both of us and, by extension, improves our entire team."
For a moment, the room fell silent.
Tsunade studied the boy standing before her. Despite the youth still visible in his features, his reasoning was startlingly practical. He hadn't been swayed by guilt, nor had he abandoned his teammate. Instead, he had found a way to preserve his own opportunity while still pulling Rin forward with him.
Ren added, "Students in the Advanced Medical Class are permitted to discuss medical techniques outside class, aren't they? At the very least, there shouldn't be a rule against sharing notes."
Tsunade didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized his face, almost as if she wanted to peel back his expression and examine every thought hidden beneath it. Several seconds passed before she finally spoke.
"You two are Minato's students?"
"Yes, Lady Tsunade."
"Hmph." Tsunade clicked her tongue. "That brat Minato has some history with me. For his sake, I suppose I can reluctantly make an exception."
Rin's head snapped up.
Ren's eyes brightened, but before either of them could celebrate, Tsunade's voice hardened.
"Don't look so pleased. I haven't finished."
The pressure in the room seemed to change instantly.
"In two months, the Medical Corps will conduct an assessment. If this girl cannot keep up with the class by then, she will be expelled immediately." Tsunade's gaze shifted from Rin to Ren. "And since you're the one claiming you can bring her up to the required standard, you'll be expelled with her."
Rin swallowed nervously.
Tsunade had admitted them both—but Ren's own place was now tied to Rin's performance.
"If she falls behind, you both leave," Tsunade repeated. "Do you understand?"
Ren didn't hesitate.
"I understand."
"Me too!" Rin answered, her voice tense but determined.
"Thank you, Lady Tsunade." Ren bowed politely.
Rin bent forward in a much deeper bow. "Thank you very much! I promise I'll work hard!"
Tsunade had already turned away, looking as though their gratitude was more troublesome than the favor itself.
"Spare me. Shizune, take them to the next room. I'll be there shortly."
Shizune, who had remained quietly at Tsunade's side, gave the two genin a gentle smile and gestured toward the door. Rin followed her with visibly lighter steps than before. As Ren walked beside her, she glanced at him several times, clearly wanting to say something.
In the end, she whispered, "I won't drag you down."
Ren looked ahead and answered just as quietly.
"I know."
---
The Advanced Medical Class was far smaller than Ren had expected.
Even after counting him and Rin, there were only eight students in the room. The others appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old, and judging by their chakra control, posture, and equipment, most had already reached chunin level or higher.
The moment Ren and Rin entered, several pairs of curious eyes turned toward them.
Two young genin joining a class intended for Konoha's most promising medical-nin candidates was bound to attract attention. Rin became slightly nervous under their scrutiny, but Ren ignored it and chose a pair of seats near the front.
A short while later, the door opened.
Tsunade entered carrying several books and scrolls beneath one arm. The irritation she had displayed earlier vanished the moment she stepped behind the lectern. Her posture straightened, her expression grew focused, and the atmosphere in the classroom changed with her.
At that moment, she was no longer merely one of the legendary Sannin.
She was Konoha's greatest medical ninja.
"Open your books," Tsunade ordered. "Today, we begin with cellular structure, the preservation of physical vitality, and the principles governing tissue regeneration."
The classroom immediately filled with the rustling of pages.
Tsunade began with the structure of the cell, moving from nuclei and chakra pathways to the strange cellular walls found in the bodies of the people of the ninja world.
Yes—cell walls.
By the standards of Ren's previous understanding, that meant the people sitting in this room were, biologically speaking, vegetables in the truest possible sense.
Naturally, none of the medical books treated this as unusual. The information was presented as an obvious fact that required no further explanation. Ren suspected the answer could be traced back to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and the Divine Tree. After all, the ancestors of modern humanity had once been bound to that monstrous tree. Retaining a few plant-like characteristics didn't seem entirely unreasonable after something like that.
He suppressed the urge to smile and continued listening.
Tsunade quickly moved beyond the basic material. She explained how chakra preserved cellular vitality, how medical ninjutsu stimulated regeneration, and why reckless healing could damage the body instead of repairing it.
"Medical ninjutsu is not magic," she warned, tapping the blackboard with a piece of chalk. "You are accelerating processes that already exist within the body. If you stimulate the wrong tissue, supply too much chakra, or fail to understand the patient's condition, you can kill them faster than the original wound."
Every student in the room became visibly more attentive.
Her lecture gradually shifted toward heredity and the relationship between genetic maps and kekkei genkai. She referenced several prominent clans: the Sharingan of the Uchiha, the Byakugan of the Hyūga, and the unique skeletal structure of the Kaguya clan from the Hidden Mist.
Tsunade then turned to Konoha's secret-technique clans.
Although families such as the Inuzuka and Aburame did not possess true kekkei genkai, generations of inheritance and specialized training had left them physically different from ordinary people. The Inuzuka possessed an extraordinary sense of smell and bodies adapted to their beast-like techniques, while the Aburame had a unique constitution capable of sustaining colonies of kikaichū within their bodies.
The same principle applied, though less visibly, to the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka clans.
Their techniques were not merely collections of hand seals that an outsider could copy after watching once. Each had been developed around the clan's physiology, chakra pathways, inherited traits, and specialized training methods. Attempting to learn them without the appropriate foundation could lead to failure, permanent injury, or death.
The depth of Tsunade's knowledge was staggering.
This was far beyond anything taught in the ordinary medical-training course. In many respects, it represented the cutting edge of the era's biological and medical research. To an average genin—many of whom possessed only a basic education—the lecture would have sounded like an incomprehensible foreign language.
Even Rin was struggling.
She listened with fierce concentration, her pen racing across the paper as she tried to capture every important detail. Yet the tension in her brow grew more pronounced whenever Tsunade introduced another unfamiliar term. More than once, Rin's writing slowed as she attempted to connect the new information to what she had previously learned.
Ren, meanwhile, gave the lecture his complete attention.
The knowledge Tsunade was teaching could become the key to advancing his Transformation Technique far beyond its present limits.
His current Transformation Technique could already alter his body in ways ordinary ninjutsu could not. But if he gained a deeper understanding of bloodlines, cellular structures, chakra pathways, and the unique physiology of the ninja clans, he might eventually reproduce far more than another person's appearance.
Perhaps he could imitate the physical gifts of entire clans.
Perhaps he could recreate bodies specifically designed for different forms of combat.
And if that power were combined with large-scale physical clones and a sufficient supply of chakra…
An army of one.
The thought sent a quiet thrill through him.
Compared to that possibility, his current accomplishments suddenly seemed almost childish. He had been playing with the outermost layer of the technique without recognizing the true depth hidden underneath.
Tsunade's lecture had shown him a door.
Now he needed to force it open.
By the time the class ended, Rin's notes had filled several pages. Her fingers were cramped from writing, and a thin layer of sweat covered her forehead, but her eyes remained bright with determination.
Tsunade set down the chalk and brushed the dust from her hands.
"That concludes today's lecture. If you have questions, ask them now. Don't come crying to me later because you were too embarrassed to speak."
Several students exchanged nervous looks.
Ren raised his hand first.
He asked about the relationship between chakra circulation and accelerated cellular division, followed by a question concerning the extent to which a person's chakra network was determined by heredity. Tsunade initially answered in a curt tone, but as his questions became more precise, her expression slowly changed.
By the third question, her impatience had disappeared.
She answered in greater detail, even drawing an additional diagram on the board to demonstrate how chakra pathways interacted with damaged tissue. Rin listened from beside Ren, hurriedly adding Tsunade's explanation to her notes.
Once Ren was satisfied, he thanked Tsunade and left the classroom with Rin.
They passed through the corridors of Konoha Hospital and stepped outside into the bright midday sun. The glare forced Rin to narrow her eyes after spending so long inside.
They had barely cleared the entrance when a familiar, boisterous voice rang out.
"Rin! Ren! Over here!"
Both of them turned.
Obito stood beneath the shade of a nearby tree, his goggles pushed up onto his forehead. Sweat covered his face, and dust clung to his clothes. He had clearly spent the waiting time training rather than sitting still. Several blackened patches scarred the ground nearby, unmistakable traces left by the Great Fireball Technique.
Obito rushed toward them, his expression brimming with curiosity.
"Well?" he demanded. "Did you meet Lady Tsunade?"
"We did," Rin answered, unable to keep the happiness from her voice.
Ren nodded solemnly. "Lady Tsunade is very kind. She even offered us water."
Rin glanced at him, remembering the cracked wall and Tsunade's terrifying temper, but wisely said nothing.
Obito accepted the statement without suspicion. "I knew it! Everyone says she's amazing."
Ren looked up at the sun and realized how much time had passed.
"It's already noon. Let's find something to eat."
"Great!" Obito slapped his chest with exaggerated confidence. "I'm paying today. Consider it my way of thanking you for saving me last time."
He threw one arm toward the street as though announcing the beginning of an S-rank mission.
"Let's go to Ichiraku Ramen!"
---
Returning to Ichiraku after so long left Ren unexpectedly nostalgic.
As he slipped through the curtain, memories of his earliest days in Konoha surfaced. If the system hadn't appeared back then, his life might have followed an entirely different path. Perhaps he would already be apprenticing under Teuchi, steadily working his way toward becoming Ichiraku's next master chef.
There were certainly worse lives than that.
Still, becoming a ninja had opened his eyes to a much broader world—one filled with danger, opportunity, extraordinary power, and mysteries that could never be found behind a ramen counter.
As he sat down, another thought occurred to him.
He still didn't know whether the empty plot beside Ichiraku had been sold. If it remained available when his father returned from his rotation at the border, Ren might be able to persuade him to open a convenience store there.
The location was excellent, business would likely be steady, and in the future, no place in Konoha would be safer than the property next to Ichiraku.
"Here you are. Enjoy!"
Teuchi smiled warmly as he placed several steaming bowls of ramen on the counter. Rich aromas of broth, spices, and roasted meat immediately filled the narrow shop.
Although Obito was paying, Ren had no intention of taking advantage of him. He simply ordered one large bowl of tonkotsu ramen, which was enough to satisfy his appetite. Rin chose seafood ramen, while Obito confidently requested the spicy ramen.
Ren split his chopsticks and had just reached toward his bowl when the curtain behind them was suddenly lifted.
Three young genin entered while talking among themselves. Their clothes were dusty, and their faces carried the unmistakable exhaustion of people who had only recently returned from a mission outside the village.
Ren glanced over his shoulder—and paused.
It was Team Asuma.
Since graduation and the assignment of their squads, he rarely encountered most of his former classmates. Might Guy was the exception, as Ren occasionally saw him during his early-morning training. Everyone else seemed to be constantly scattered across the village or away on missions.
Strangely, however, he had crossed paths with the three members of Team Asuma several times.
They noticed him almost immediately.
"Oh, it's you guys."
Kurenai's eyes first passed over Obito and Rin before finally settling on Ren. She walked directly toward them and took the open seat beside him, a faint smile appearing on her face.
"What a coincidence, Ren. And Rin, Obito—it's good to see you both." Her voice softened as she turned toward Ren. "How have you been lately? Has Minato-sensei assigned your team any missions?"
It sounded like an ordinary question.
But as Kurenai held his gaze, Ren sensed that their peaceful lunch was about to become far more interesting than he had expected.