"Forget it."
Faced with Obito's enthusiastic challenge, Ren didn't even bother standing. He remained beneath the tree, calmly eating the lunch Rin had prepared for him.
"If you want to challenge me, defeat Might Guy first."
Obito froze.
His mouth opened, but no words emerged.
Although Obito had always acted as though Guy was beneath him—claiming that someone who only knew Taijutsu lacked the technical ability of a real ninja—there was one unfortunate fact he could never escape.
Since their graduation exam at the Ninja Academy, Obito had never defeated Guy.
Not once.
Their most recent battle had been particularly painful.
Obito had prepared carefully for that match. He had trained his Fire Release, devised several strategies, and even awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan during the fight. He had been completely convinced that the battle would become the first step toward establishing his reputation as an elite Uchiha.
Instead, Guy had opened the Eight Gates.
Obito's glorious debut had ended with him flat on the ground, staring helplessly at the sky while Guy celebrated another victory.
Now that Ren had mentioned it, all those humiliating memories returned at once.
"That battle doesn't count!"
Obito's face reddened as he desperately searched for an excuse.
"Losing in Taijutsu isn't really losing! Winning with Taijutsu is only a small victory, but winning with Ninjutsu is a true victory. Besides, I was careless. I could have dodged that final attack if I had taken him seriously!"
Ren continued eating without responding.
Obito became even more agitated.
"You don't understand! There are four different ways to use the Sharingan. I had only awakened mine, so I didn't have time to master all of them. Once I fully develop these eyes, Guy won't even be able to touch me!"
The more Obito explained, the less convincing he sounded.
His desperate excuses filled the training ground, adding a cheerful energy to the quiet afternoon.
Ren and Rin exchanged a glance. Both of them struggled to keep their expressions under control.
They still cared about Obito's pride, so neither laughed openly.
Rin was the first to rescue him.
"Obito, why don't you spar with me this afternoon?"
Obito immediately fell silent.
Rin smiled encouragingly. "You can show us how much your Fire Release has improved, and I can practice the Water Formation Wall Ren taught me this morning. If you defeat me, then you can challenge Ren afterward."
The frustration on Obito's face vanished almost instantly.
"You want to spar with me?"
"Yes."
Obito hurriedly adjusted his goggles and straightened his back.
"In that case, I accept! Don't worry, Rin. I'll control my strength. I would never hurt a teammate."
Ren glanced at him.
"You should worry about yourself first. Water Release naturally counters Fire Release."
"T-That's only when the two techniques are equally powerful!"
Obito jabbed a thumb toward his chest. "My Fire Release has become much stronger. Rin's Water Formation Wall won't be able to stop it!"
Ren didn't object to the proposed match.
He was genuinely curious about Obito's progress. Obito had claimed that his Fire Release had improved considerably, and although he often exaggerated, the confidence in his voice didn't seem entirely empty.
More importantly, Ren wanted to examine the development of Obito's Two-Tomoe Sharingan.
In theory, Obito might already possess an undeveloped trace of Kamui's power.
In the original timeline, that power may have been the reason he survived being crushed beneath the boulder. Even before awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, his body might have instinctively accessed a small portion of its spatial ability at the moment of death.
If that theory was correct, Obito could already be carrying one of the most absurd abilities in the entire shinobi world.
The boy himself simply didn't know it yet.
Ren was about to say something when a muffled explosion rolled through the forest.
Boom!
The ground trembled faintly beneath them.
A flock of startled birds erupted from the distant canopy, their wings beating frantically as they circled into the sky.
Obito sprang to his feet.
"What was that?"
His earlier playfulness vanished. He pulled his goggles up and activated his Sharingan, two tomoe spinning around each crimson iris as he stared into the dense forest.
Rin quickly packed away the lunchboxes and reached for her ninja pouch.
Ren remained seated for another moment, leisurely finishing the last bite of his rice ball as he listened.
The sound resembled the detonation of an Explosive Tag.
It had come from one or two kilometers away, which explained why the forest distorted its echo. Yet instead of fading, the disturbance began moving closer.
Branches snapped.
Tree trunks cracked beneath heavy impacts.
The whistle of ninja tools slicing through the air followed seconds later.
Someone was being pursued.
Ren placed the lunchbox aside and rose.
A bloody figure stumbled through the trees.
The man wore a Konoha flak jacket, but his uniform had been torn in several places. Blood covered one side of his body, and his breathing was ragged. He ran with the desperate, uneven movements of someone forcing an exhausted body beyond its limit.
Two masked shinobi followed close behind.
Their animal masks and dark uniforms suggested Anbu, but their equipment wasn't entirely standard.
Ren's eyes narrowed.
"Someone from Konoha!"
Obito's expression changed when he saw the injured man being hunted.
"How dare they attack one of our people inside the village!"
Before anyone could stop him, Obito launched himself forward.
"Obito, wait!" Rin shouted.
He didn't listen.
His eyes locked onto the masked shinobi closest to the wounded man. Chakra surged through his legs as he charged, intending to place himself between them.
The masked shinobi immediately changed targets.
His gaze turned cold behind the eyeholes of his mask, and the kunai in his hand swept toward Obito's throat in a sharp, deceptive arc.
"You're courting death!"
The attack was fast enough to kill an ordinary Chunin before they could react.
Obito's Sharingan captured every movement.
The rotation of the shoulder.
The tension in the attacker's wrist.
The angle of the blade.
Obito twisted aside at the last possible moment. The edge of the kunai passed so close to his neck that it sliced several strands of hair.
He retaliated before regaining his balance.
Three shuriken flashed from his fingers, forcing the masked shinobi to abandon his follow-up attack and leap backward.
Obito landed in a crouch.
A triumphant grin appeared on his face.
He had read the attack perfectly.
But Ren wasn't looking at the masked shinobi.
His attention had shifted to the wounded Konoha ninja.
Something was wrong.
The man had stopped running.
Instead of displaying relief at Obito's intervention, a savage gleam entered his eyes. He turned abruptly, and his hands blurred through a sequence of seals.
Ren recognized the technique immediately.
"Obito!"
The wounded ninja's chest expanded.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Flames erupted from his mouth.
The enormous fireball didn't merely engulf the two masked pursuers.
It also swallowed Obito from behind.
Obito's Sharingan widened. He had focused so completely on the masked opponent that he had never expected an attack from the Konoha ninja he had tried to save.
There was no time to evade.
Rin's face went pale.
"Obito!"
Ren moved.
His hand closed around the hilt of his blade, and the weapon left its sheath with a crystalline ring.
Clang—!
A brilliant arc of steel descended through the center of the Great Fireball.
The mass of flames split apart.
It was as if an invisible giant had seized the fireball and torn it into two halves. Waves of scorching fire swept past either side of Ren, whipping his short white hair and illuminating his calm face.
The separated flames crashed into the trees behind him, setting several branches ablaze.
Obito stood frozen only a few steps away.
Ren appeared between him and the attacker, his blade extended toward the ground. Heat curled from its edge, but the steel remained unmarked.
He had cut through a Fire Release technique with a single strike.
The wounded ninja stared at him in horror.
Ren vanished.
Before the man could form another hand seal, Ren appeared at his side. Two fingers struck the back of his neck with carefully controlled force.
The man's eyes rolled upward.
His body crumpled, unconscious before he touched the ground.
For several heartbeats, no one moved.
Obito retreated toward Rin, while the masked shinobi he had attacked also created distance.
Ren lowered his sword and studied the two pursuers.
"Are you Anbu," he asked, "or Root?"
Neither answered immediately.
Ren gestured toward the unconscious man at his feet.
"What is happening here?"
One of the masked shinobi stepped forward. His voice was cold and stripped of emotion.
"Our mission does not concern you. Hand that man over."
The shinobi reached toward the unconscious target.
Swish!
Ren's sword moved again.
The masked man reacted the instant he heard steel cutting through the air. He drew his own blade and raised it horizontally, intending to block while creating enough distance to use Ninjutsu.
He never completed the movement.
A cold line flashed in front of his face.
Clang!
His sword snapped in two.
The upper half spun through the air before embedding itself in a nearby tree.
The masked shinobi remained motionless, holding nothing but a broken hilt.
A moment later, a thin crack appeared down the center of his animal mask. The two halves separated and fell to the ground.
His white chest protector split open at the same time.
A narrow line of blood emerged across his chest—not deep enough to endanger his life, but precise enough to demonstrate how easily Ren could have killed him.
An ordinary-looking face was revealed beneath the mask. The shinobi appeared to be in his early twenties, but his eyes were now filled with disbelief.
He hadn't seen Ren's strike.
He had only heard the sword leave its sheath, and by then, everything was already over.
"You…"
Recognition suddenly flashed across his face.
"You're Ren—the boy recently promoted to Special Jonin!"
Ren spun the sword once and smoothly returned it to its sheath.
"So even Root has heard my name."
The unmasked operative gritted his teeth.
His companion remained several steps away, one hand resting near his weapon. Neither attempted another attack.
The result was obvious.
If Ren had aimed slightly deeper, the first operative would already be dead.
"We are members of an independent Anbu division," the man said after a tense silence. "The target is a traitorous spy who has been leaking classified information to foreign villages. We were ordered to capture him and carry out a cleanup operation."
"An independent Anbu division?"
Ren's expression remained calm.
"So you're Root."
The operative didn't confirm it, but his silence was answer enough.
Once, Ren would have treated any encounter with Root extremely cautiously.
Danzo Shimura's reputation was infamous even among Konoha's higher-ranking shinobi. He operated from the darkness, employed methods that ignored morality, and viewed talented children as resources waiting to be claimed.
If Orochimaru hadn't taken an interest in Ren first, Root might already have "invited" him to meet the man known as the Darkness of the Shinobi.
Now, however, the situation was different.
Ren had Tsunade standing behind him. He had established close relationships with Minato and Orochimaru, while Hiruzen himself had personally guided his training.
He was no longer an isolated Academy student whom Danzo could quietly remove.
Even if Danzo came personally, Ren was confident enough to confront him.
Still, confidence wasn't the same as recklessness.
Root was a nest filled with hidden blades. There was no benefit in kicking it open without a reason.
Ren stepped away from the unconscious spy.
"If he betrayed Konoha, take him."
The two Root operatives relaxed slightly.
"But keep the disturbance under control," Ren continued. "This is still inside the village. If your operation harms civilians—or my companions—the next sword strike won't stop at the surface."
His voice wasn't loud.
That only made the warning feel more dangerous.
The unmasked operative stared at him for several seconds before giving a restrained nod. He signaled to his companion, and the pair swiftly lifted the unconscious spy between them.
Within moments, all three figures vanished into the forest.
Silence returned to the training ground.
Only the crackle of burning branches remained.
Rin released the breath she had been holding and immediately approached Obito.
"Are you injured?"
"I'm fine."
Obito touched the shallow cut on his neck. A trace of blood stained his fingers, and his expression became awkward as he remembered how close he had come to being burned from behind.
"I would've avoided that fireball," he insisted. "I already noticed it."
Ren gave him a flat look.
Obito's confidence weakened.
"Well… I was about to notice it."
Rin sighed as she began treating the cut.
Ren, meanwhile, stared into the forest where the Root operatives had disappeared.
Something about the encounter bothered him.
A spy pursued by Root had fled toward a training ground commonly used by Minato's students. More strangely, the man had attacked both his pursuers and Obito without hesitation.
Had he simply been desperate?
Or had he deliberately come this way?
Far beneath Konoha, the unmasked operative carried the unconscious spy through a hidden passage while his companion moved beside him.
Neither spoke until the entrance sealed behind them.
Then the second operative finally broke the silence.
"What do we report about Ren?"
The unmasked shinobi touched the thin wound across his chest. His fingers trembled despite his attempts to control them.
After a long pause, he answered quietly.
"Report everything."
He looked down at the cleanly severed remains of his sword.
"Tell Lord Danzo that Ren's strength has exceeded our previous estimates."
In the darkness ahead, a cane struck stone.
Once.
Then again.
A single visible eye opened beneath layers of bandages.
"Ren…" Danzo murmured. "So the boy has finally grown sharp enough to bare his fangs at Root."
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