A faint ripple of Chakra spread silently across the training ground.
The air trembled.
The next instant, Ren's short white hair suddenly lifted as though an invisible hand had grabbed every strand at once. The previously soft hair stiffened instantly, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen. Every strand sharpened into something resembling countless steel needles, each one reflecting the morning sunlight with an intimidating glow.
Ren calmly continued circulating Chakra.
The hardened strands rapidly intertwined, twisting together in front of his body before spreading across his shoulders and chest. Layer upon layer of razor-sharp hair wrapped around him like living armor, covering his head, neck, face, shoulders, and upper torso.
Within moments, he looked less like a shinobi and more like a warrior wearing an organic suit of steel.
He raised a finger and flicked the armor.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring echoed through the clearing.
He struck it again.
Clang! Clang!
The sound was identical to striking forged steel.
Ren nodded with satisfaction.
"Looks promising."
Without saying a word, he signaled the two Water Clones he had prepared beforehand.
The clones immediately understood.
Each picked up several kunai and shuriken before throwing them toward Ren with steadily increasing force.
The first few projectiles struck the armor.
Clang! Clang!
Bright sparks burst into the air.
Most of the kunai bounced away immediately, unable to penetrate the dense forest of hardened hair.
The few thrown with greater strength managed to embed themselves briefly before sliding harmlessly off the armor's surface, their momentum completely dispersed by the countless reinforced strands.
Only a slight sting reached Ren beneath the armor.
Nothing more.
"Very good."
A satisfied smile finally appeared on his face.
"It should be more than enough against ordinary ninja tools and most close-range Ninjutsu."
The defense exceeded his expectations.
Of course...
There was still one extremely important concern.
"...This technique isn't going to make me bald, is it?"
Ren rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
The Nerve Activation Technique fundamentally stimulated the body's cells, forcing them into an abnormally active state.
The human body in this world possessed astonishing vitality compared to ordinary humans back on Earth, but that certainly didn't mean every shinobi had limitless regenerative ability.
Not everyone was Hashirama Senju.
If repeated stimulation damaged his hair follicles...
Would he eventually end up completely bald?
The horrifying possibility flashed through his mind.
A second later, he remembered someone.
"...Wait."
"Jiraiya still had a magnificent head of hair well into his fifties."
"If he can keep that ridiculous lion's mane after using this technique for decades..."
"My worries are probably unnecessary."
Instead...
Another idea surfaced.
"If I grow my hair longer like Lord Jiraiya's..."
"...Needle Jizo should activate even faster."
The thought was strangely tempting.
...
Not far away, Obito and Rin had already noticed the unusual commotion.
Obito's eyes widened.
"Whoa!"
"Ren! Is that the technique Lord Jiraiya taught you?"
"You actually learned it already?"
"That was ridiculously fast!"
Rin covered her mouth before bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
"Ren..."
"You look just like an angry hedgehog whose fur exploded!"
"...It's actually kind of adorable."
Ren stared at her silently.
Cute?
Why did everyone insist on calling him cute?
Shouldn't words like powerful, cool, or handsome be more appropriate?
He sighed.
Since they had already discovered him, there was no point continuing to practice in secret.
He dismissed the armor and stood up.
"Perfect timing."
He looked toward the pair.
"Help me test a new technique."
"You can use whatever attacks you want."
"Ninjutsu."
"Taijutsu."
"Hidden weapons."
"I'll only defend."
"I won't attack."
Obito's eyes immediately lit up.
"Seriously?"
He cracked his knuckles excitedly.
Opportunities like this were incredibly rare.
Usually, he was the one getting beaten during training.
Especially by Kakashi.
Since Kakashi had unofficially become Team Minato's "assistant instructor," Obito spent most sparring sessions lying flat on the ground afterward.
As for Ren...
The two rarely sparred.
Their combat styles had become so different that exchanging techniques no longer benefited either of them very much.
Now, however...
Obito finally had a legitimate excuse to attack him.
He certainly wasn't about to refuse.
...
Several minutes later...
The three of them stood inside the training ground behind the Ryūgetsu Outpost.
Obito inhaled deeply.
"I'm coming!"
The next twenty minutes became an intense barrage of attacks.
Kunai flew like rain.
Shuriken sliced through the air from every direction.
Obito rushed forward with Taijutsu before immediately retreating to launch a Great Fireball Technique.
Flames exploded across the field.
Moments later...
A Wild Water Wave crashed toward Ren.
Before the water had completely dispersed, another stream of fire erupted.
Dragon Fire Technique!
The attacks continued one after another without pause.
Throughout the entire exchange, Ren honored his promise.
He never attacked.
He merely defended.
Occasionally, he shifted slightly to avoid taking a direct hit to the face, but otherwise he allowed every attack to land against Needle Jizo.
After another exchange, he finally nodded.
"So..."
"The strongest aspect of Needle Jizo is clearly its defense against physical attacks."
"Taijutsu."
"Bladed weapons."
"Thrown ninja tools."
"It performs excellently against all of them."
"But..."
He brushed away several burnt strands of hair.
"The resistance against elemental Ninjutsu is noticeably weaker."
"Especially Fire Release."
That wasn't surprising.
Hair naturally feared fire.
Even when strengthened by Chakra, prolonged exposure to flames softened the hardened strands, reducing both rigidity and defensive capability.
Water Release, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as troublesome.
Wet hair remained surprisingly durable.
Ren quietly committed every observation to memory.
Then—
A heavy impact struck his chest.
Boom!
He slid backward several meters before finally stopping.
The attacker...
Was Rin.
Obito's jaw nearly hit the ground.
"R-Rin?!"
"What was that punch?!"
Rin looked down at her fist awkwardly.
"...Lady Tsunade has been teaching me the Super Strength Technique."
"I've been secretly practicing it recently."
"I finally managed to understand some of the basics."
"I wanted to surprise everyone."
She looked apologetically toward Ren.
"Sorry..."
"Did I hit you too hard?"
Ren casually brushed the dust from his armor.
"I'm fine."
The punch hadn't actually injured him.
Needle Jizo had absorbed the overwhelming majority of the impact.
Only a dull ache remained.
Compared to Tsunade casually breaking several of Jiraiya's ribs in her younger days...
Rin's punch wasn't even close.
Still...
Ren couldn't hide the surprise in his eyes.
He had mastered the basics of Super Strength so quickly because of the system assisting his growth.
Rin possessed no such advantage.
Everything she achieved came entirely through relentless practice.
She really does have talent.
If she continued improving...
Her weakness in close combat would gradually disappear.
And if she somehow learned the Yin Seal and eventually mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique...
She would essentially become a younger, weaker version of Tsunade.
Strong enough to protect herself against the vast majority of enemies.
Unfortunately...
One thought inevitably surfaced.
Rin's future.
Her death had never been an accident.
It had been orchestrated personally by Madara Uchiha.
Changing that fate...
Would be extraordinarily difficult.
Ren slowly exhaled.
Thinking about distant tragedies wouldn't solve anything today.
What mattered now...
Was becoming stronger.
"I'll continue practicing Needle Jizo."
"I also need to study whether its activation principles can further improve the Nerve Activation Technique."
"And..."
He suddenly remembered something else.
"If I remember correctly..."
"Needle Jizo also has an offensive variation."
Instead of merely defending...
The hardened hair could be launched outward like thousands of senbon.
A deadly technique.
Needle Hell.
If time allowed...
He intended to master that as well.
---
Night quietly descended upon Ryūgetsu Outpost.
One by one, the lights inside the buildings went dark.
Silence gradually replaced the bustle of the day.
Only the steady breathing of resting shinobi remained inside the barracks.
Outside...
Patrol teams continued walking along the walls.
Their footsteps echoed softly through the darkness.
Beyond the outpost...
The endless mountain forest lay hidden beneath the night sky.
The darkness there seemed unusually deep.
And within that darkness...
Invisible currents were beginning to stir.
---
Several peaceful days passed.
News finally arrived from Wildfire Outpost.
After discussing the matter, Lord Jiraiya and Shikaku Nara had finalized a replacement force.
An elite detachment of approximately sixty shinobi would soon arrive to relieve the current garrison.
However...
The entire battlefield remained desperately short on manpower.
Every available squad was already committed elsewhere.
Gathering sixty experienced shinobi required time.
Until they arrived...
Ren and the others would continue defending Ryūgetsu Outpost.
No one objected.
Compared to their previous missions inside Sector Seven through Ten...
Life here felt almost luxurious.
Their patrol routes were fixed.
They no longer needed to crawl through muddy forests every day.
Meals were fresher.
Sometimes they even received fruit.
Most importantly...
There were hot baths every evening.
Even Kakashi, who rarely cared about such comforts, admitted this assignment wasn't bad.
Of course...
That comfort existed for one simple reason.
The previous defenders had almost all died.
Sunagakure had paid an enormous price taking the town.
Now that Konoha had reclaimed it...
The enemy wouldn't recklessly launch another full assault so soon.
Instead...
They sent spies.
Ren's squad dealt with those infiltrators using one straightforward principle.
Kill first. Ask questions later.
During those few days...
They eliminated two separate Sand reconnaissance teams.
Another escaped after sensing danger early.
No battle occurred.
...
During this period, Kakashi finally demonstrated the technique he had been secretly developing.
Chidori.
Lightning screamed violently around his hand.
The deafening chirping sound echoed across the training ground.
Obito and Rin stared in complete shock.
Even Ren deliberately widened his eyes, pretending to be equally surprised.
Minato smiled proudly after watching the demonstration.
Then...
His expression gradually became serious.
"Kakashi."
"The power is extraordinary."
"But..."
He paused thoughtfully.
"The technique relies completely on high-speed charging."
"The faster you move..."
"The narrower your field of vision becomes."
"If an enemy attacks from the side..."
"You'll have almost no time to react."
"You need to solve that weakness."
Kakashi lowered his head.
"Do you have any suggestions, Sensei?"
Minato thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"Nothing immediate."
"For now..."
"Train your dynamic vision."
Kakashi silently accepted the advice.
Without the Sharingan...
The flaw truly existed.
Nearby...
Obito secretly grinned.
Fortunately...
He hadn't awakened the Sharingan yet.
No one was planning to steal his eyes anytime soon.
...
Meanwhile...
Ren continued focusing on his own training.
Needle Jizo.
Shadow Clone.
Both belonged to techniques related to body manipulation.
Since his Transformation Technique and Clone Technique had already reached maximum compatibility through the system, learning these advanced techniques progressed remarkably smoothly.
After mastering Shadow Clone, Ren immediately began experimenting with Naruto's future training method.
Multiple Shadow Clones.
Multiple training directions.
Swordsmanship.
Ninjutsu.
Sealing Techniques.
Each clone specialized separately before returning all experience to the original body.
His accumulated Physique had already increased by nearly thirty points through the system.
Based on his own estimates...
His Chakra reserves ranked second within Team Minato.
First place naturally belonged to Obito.
The Uchiha clan possessed unusually abundant Chakra by default.
Even before awakening the Sharingan...
Obito's reserves exceeded Ren's.
Running out of Chakra simply wasn't something he experienced.
Rin possessed considerably less.
Probably around one-third of theirs.
As for Minato...
He completely defied comparison.
Remembering the future battle against the Nine Tails...
Repeated Flying Thunder God.
Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder.
Multiple Rasengan.
Finally...
The Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
Anyone capable of performing all of that consecutively clearly possessed monstrous Chakra reserves.
Five or six times Ren's amount...
Perhaps even more.
After repeated testing...
Ren concluded that creating two Shadow Clones represented his current limit.
It balanced efficiency without excessively weakening either clone.
Three minds.
Three training directions.
One body growing at triple speed.
The only downside...
Came when the clones dispersed.
Their memories flooded back simultaneously.
The information overload placed tremendous strain on his brain.
Digesting hours of multiple experiences at once wasn't pleasant.
Still...
The benefits far outweighed the discomfort.
His swordsmanship steadily improved.
His Fire Release became more refined.
And finally...
As the month came to an end...
The system rewarded his persistent effort.
A familiar notification appeared.
---
Nerve Activation Technique
Current Favorability: 25/36 (Friendly)
Stage Reward Obtained
Physique +1
New Trait Unlocked: Overload Pulse
Effect: By stimulating specific nerve clusters and muscle fibers, the user's body enters an overloaded state.
For 45 seconds:
- Nerve transmission speed increases by 200%.
- Dynamic vision improves dramatically.
- Reaction speed increases significantly.
- Muscle strength rises sharply.
Side Effects: Severe muscle soreness, mental fatigue, and minor physical damage after use.
Cooldown: 8–10 hours.
---
Ren slowly smiled.
"Finally..."
"It's unlocked."
Although the technique remained incomplete...
This trait alone was already extraordinary.
Two hundred percent faster nerve transmission.
Enhanced reactions.
Sharper vision.
Greater strength.
The improvement was almost comprehensive.
It reminded him strongly of the Hidden Cloud's famous Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
The only drawback...
Forty-five seconds.
And only once or twice per day.
Still...
Forty-five seconds could completely decide a battle.
Especially...
If combined correctly.
He began calculating immediately.
Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation.
Desperate Troops Win.
Then—
Overload Pulse.
Finally...
A decisive strike empowered by Super Strength Technique: Gamble.
Just imagining that combination made him curious about its destructive potential.
Of course...
Before relying on it in real combat...
He needed to personally test one thing.
Exactly how painful would the post-battle muscle soreness become?
That answer would determine whether Overload Pulse became a trump card...
Or a technique reserved for absolute desperation.
---
About a week later...
Early that morning...
Minato gathered everyone together once more.
He clapped his hands lightly before smiling.
"Good news."
"The reinforcement unit from Wildfire Outpost has already departed."
"The sixty-man relief force is expected to arrive around noon."
"We'll head out shortly to meet them."
"Once they arrive..."
"Our mission here will officially end."
Obito practically jumped into the air.
"Finally!"
"No more patrolling those endless rocks every single day!"
Nearby...
Kakashi quietly closed his book and tucked it back into his ninja pouch.
Minato looked around at his students.
"Go back."
"Pack everything."
"Bring whatever you need."
"We leave the outpost in one hour."
None of them realized...
That while they were happily preparing for departure...
A deadly storm had already begun moving silently toward Ryūgetsu Outpost.
And before the sun set... their peaceful days would come to a bloody end.
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