Ren, a seventeen-year-old young man with blond hair framing his face and falling on his back in a short tail, watched with his blue eyes as a man entered his booth in a restaurant.

Standing up, Ren smiled, “Hello. You are Ebisu, right? It is nice to meet you.” He politely greeted him with a small bow.

Honestly, as a reincarnated person, Ren disliked all these cultural customs of this world. But when in Rome… Sigh, it was quite troublesome.

Why did it have to be Narutoverse of all places? He would have really preferred a more easygoing setting.

“Greetings, chunin Ren. I heard about your request and graciously decided to fulfill it!” Ebisu dramatically exclaimed while moving his head in just the right way to make his glasses glint from the reflected light, “But under one condition.” He spoke in a deeper tone.

“Right.” Ren’s smile froze and his lips awkwardly twitched as he motioned for Ebisu to sit. The man acted a bit too self-important for Ren’s tastes but he let it pass because this was his very first chance in a long time to get what he wanted.

For two months now, ever since he became a chunin, really, Ren has been looking for a way to learn the Shadow Clone Technique. Unfortunately, Konoha did not have a ninja library like it did in all the fanfiction he had read in his previous life.

There was a civilian library with books on perfectly civilian things. But a convenient place where a ninja could access ninja techniques of various ranks for free? If that existed, everyone would be using it. Including the many spies from other villages that are no doubt in the village.

Konoha’s higher-ups were not stupid. Such a place did not exist.

Ninjas could buy techniques at Konoha’s Armory from a catalog of some village-owned techniques. But it wasn’t a simple process and it depended on a person’s rank and ‘merit’. There was an entire system to gauge one’s merit based on his missions and stuff.

Shadow Clones was a Jonin-level technique and while everybody who became a jonin could learn it, not many people did. Unless you were Naruto, there wasn’t much of a point in learning it. Halving your chakra pool in a battle is tantamount to suicide. Clones that dispel with one hit are not worth the massive cost. It really only worked for Naruto because he could make hundreds of them and not even be winded. For everybody else, it was a reconnaissance technique that should not be used in battle. Not when there were other, much cheaper, and much more durable elemental clone variants.

Ren, however, was just a chunin and could not get the technique from Konoha’s Armory. So, he paid for a mission, requesting someone to teach it to him.

When he did it, he felt smug. He felt as if he had found a loophole and was surprised this was allowed. But he quickly realized the problem.

Ninjas were a secretive bunch.

In the fanfictions in Ren’s previous life, a dude could just come to Guy and tell him he is interested in taijutsu and Guy would buy him weights, train with him every day, and even teach him his signature technique, the Eight Inner Gates.

That… was not how this thing worked in reality.

Ninjas prided themselves on their techniques. They did not teach them willy-nilly. Ren’s mission was registered for two months and absolutely nobody came forward, willing to teach him.

Part of it was that accepting Ren’s mission meant becoming responsible for his health during his tutelage and Shadow Clones were genuinely dangerous to perform. The technique was in the Jonin level section for a reason. And Ren was still just a chunin. Nobody wanted to take the responsibility of teaching a fresh chunin a dangerous jonin-ranked technique that could kill the user if it was performed wrongly.

Another part of it was that jonins who knew the technique had better things to do. It might not have appeared like it in the anime but Jonins were very busy.

But Ren felt the biggest part was that ninjas simply did not like sharing their techniques. They worked really hard for them. They had to climb the ranks and possibly buy their techniques unless they had a jonin instructor or were from a clan. They did not want to just give them to somebody for ‘free’.

Even jonin instructors did not teach their techniques to all their pupils. Usually, they taught them to be competent ninjas for a chunin rank and maybe they picked one of the three to impart some of their techniques but even then they would not teach them everything.

It was just how this world worked. Techniques were the life-saving secrets of their trade. They were the stuff that earned ninjas their livelihood.

Not even in Ren’s previous world would masters teach their apprentices everything they knew about their profession. They usually kept the valuable knowledge, the stuff that truly makes good money, to themselves. It was the same thing in this world.

“Mhm. What condition?” Ren asked as he sat down. He tried to play it off but he was quite nervous. After two whole months of nothing, finally, somebody was willing to entertain his request. But it seemed there was more to it.

‘Of course, there would be strings attached. Silly me.’ Ren inwardly sighed, his eyes not leaving Ebisu as he wondered what the man could want from him.

Ebisu didn’t instantly answer. He just took out the mission scroll and two other scrolls from his vest and put them on the table, making Ren curiously raise an eyebrow.

“I will not teach you the technique. Instead, I will provide you with a scroll on it.” Ebisu started and Ren had to admit, for a comedy relief character from the anime, the real-life Ebisu was one smart motherfucker.

This way, he would pocket the money from the mission and completely avoid the responsibility of teaching a dangerous technique to a chunin. And if Ren got killed learning it? It wouldn’t be Ebisu’s fault. Ren was recognized as an adult in this world ever since he graduated from the academy. He was responsible for his actions. If he decided to try learning a dangerous technique from a scroll, that was on him.

Ren was starting to see that Ebisu’s rank of Jonin was not exactly unearned.

“On top of that, I want you to take over an assignment from me.” Ebisu continued, making Ren inwardly frown.

Now this part of these talks was the truly important one. Ren was starting to get desperate after two months but he wouldn’t just accept some sort of suicide mission meant for a jonin just to learn the Shadow Clones. He was not that dumb.

“I recently received a very generous offer from the Hyuga clan. They want me to teach Hinata Hyuga. Alas, I am far too preoccupied with the Honored Grandson and don’t have the time.” Ebisu shook his head in feigned regret, almost causing Ren to groan when he realized where this was going. And he didn’t like it one bit.

The problem was that this world seemed to be an alternate universe. Ren remembered his past life on the night the Kyuubi attacked Konoha. Everything seemed to be the same as in canon from his meager information gathering when he was a child. But after the Uchiha massacre, something probably flipped in Sarutobi’s head because he did not just ban early graduation from the academy. He also made the graduation age sixteen instead of thirteen.

And since then? Canon was fucked! Yeeted outta the window.

Worse yet… The village had small problems for three years afterward due to the decrease of genins in the field. But Konoha was strong and it withstood it. Then, when the first batch of sixteen-year-old and more proficient genins came out, Konoha kinda dominated. And it was quickly noticed.

So, while the other villages low-key laughed at Konoha for three years, it didn’t take long for them to realize that Konoha’s new policy was working. They also promptly implemented it, increasing the graduation age of their own academy equivalents and fucking up the future even further.

Needless to say, Ren was still sometimes having a panic attack when he thought about the future. It was one thing to know that by the time he turned twenty, a vengeful and murderous chakra goddess capable of blowing up cities with her pinky would come back to the world and he would be on the opposite side on the battlefield. Well, if he survived Madara, Kabuto, hordes of immortal resurrected Kage level ninjas with infinite chakra… and didn’t get caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi on top of that.

Yup. He was fucked. It sounded quite hopeless if he was honest.

But it was a completely different thing to know that but also have his foreknowledge compromised because Sarutobi decided to fuck it all up with one decree.

Would Pain show up at Konoha’s doorsteps when Naruto graduates? Since he will be sixteen then? Wouldn’t that be an automatic game over? Or would Akatsuki’s plan be pushed back since it seemed the Fourth Mizukage was still alive?

Naruto and his classmates were fourteen now but the Sand/Sound invasion didn’t happen. Even the chunin exams that were supposed to be in Konoha happened in Suna instead. So far, it seems the Chunin Exams in Konoha will happen half a year after Naruto’s class graduation. This part was the same as in canon. So, would Orochimaru attack then? Would it change?

How was Ren supposed to know?! He was going sparse just thinking about it!

The only thing he reasonably could do was to keep his ears open for any sort of info on jinchuuriki while trying to get stronger to survive whatever bullshit this world was going to throw at him, hoping that Naruto and Sasuke could save the day.

Ren didn’t like feeling like that. Knowing that his life depended on somebody like Naruto? Don’t get him wrong, watching Naruto’s antics was funny. When it was anime. But Ren knew just how many situations Naruto survived due to sheer dumb luck. All it would take is one slip up and Naruto would be no more.

What if Zabuza decided to swing his sword at the kiddies instead of just appearing in the middle of their formation during his first attack?

What if Naruto didn’t manage to summon Gamabunta when Gaara was trying to Sabaku Kyu his ass into a paste?

What if Pein actually did the smart thing and brought some bijuu chakra-suppressing seals with him when he fought Naruto?

What if Sasuke made it in time to Orochimaru to have his body snatched after his defection?

Literally, anything could go wrong. And that’s if the world was still going the canon route. Now though?

Sheer spite was probably a big part of the reason why Ren didn’t just give up and decided to put his all into becoming powerful in his own way. He decided he would either get there or, hopefully not, die trying.

Because what else could he do than try and hope for the best?

“Naturally, I can’t just refuse. The Hyuga clan is quite influential. And that’s where you come in.” Ebisu beamed, trying to sound as if he was doing Ren a favor.

Ren… was not buying it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep