Yamano strode quickly toward the door.
Yuka called after him, “Uncle!
I already started the rice!
Will you teach me how to cook the rest?” He merely waved without answering or looking back.
Ren hurriedly turned to the little girl.
“Stay inside, okay?
Don’t wander off.” By the time he ran outside, Yamano had already reached the end of the street.
The man was moving so quickly that Ren had to sprint after him, panting as he followed him into a nearby park.
Before Ren even reached the entrance, he heard Yamano roaring somewhere inside.
“What good does being well-behaved do?!
What good is being forced to grow up overnight?!
Why couldn’t you have any talent for chakra?
Why…?” The plants in the park were taking the full force of his grief.
Ren watched an entire shrub tear out of the ground and go flying.
He wisely chose not to enter.
Instead, he remained outside and let Yamano vent alone.
[Yamano has suffered severe emotional damage.
Extracting abilities associated with Yamano.
The host may select one of the following three rewards.] [Option One: Proficiency in the Three Basic Techniques.] [Option Two: Shadow Clone Technique.] [Option Three: Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.] Ren decided to focus on the rewards rather than intrude on the man’s breakdown.
Most exceptional shinobi were sent to the front lines, where they completed dangerous missions and built their reputations The instructors who remained at the Ninja Academy were rarely among the village’s strongest.
Most of them were simply shinobi with some talent for teaching.
Prodigies usually made terrible teachers anyway.
Their advice tended to sound like, ‘What do you mean you can’t master a forbidden jutsu at fourteen?
Have you tried not being useless?’ Yamano’s abilities were all practical techniques suited for instruction.
The first option offered mastery of the Three Basic Techniques, which made up most of the Academy’s ninjutsu curriculum.
Of the three, the Body Replacement Technique was the most valuable.
Used properly, it could practically serve as an extra life.
The second option was the Shadow Clone Technique, an advanced form of the ordinary Clone Technique.
Shadow clones possessed physical bodies, and all their memories returned to the original when they dispersed.
As for the third option…
The system clearly was not trying very hard.
Ren only possessed a Fire Release affinity, yet it was offering him a Wind Style jutsu he could not even use.
Was he supposed to save it for later?
Ren hesitated between mastery of the Three Basic Techniques and the Shadow Clone Technique before ultimately choosing the latter.
The Three Basic Techniques became nearly useless in high-level combat.
Skilled shinobi could see through them almost immediately.
Shadow clones were different.
They remained useful from a shinobi’s first real battle all the way to the final war.
In an instant, knowledge and experience flooded Ren’s mind, leaving him with the strange feeling that he had already used the Shadow Clone Technique countless times.
He was debating whether to test it immediately when Yamano emerged from the park.
Green plant sap stained the man’s trousers.
Ren had no idea how many innocent bushes had died in there.
He cautiously spoke up.
“Instructor Yamano, I know people in the Police Force.
Trust me—I could still get Yuka registered as a shinobi candidate.” For a brief moment, Yamano’s eyes lit up.
Then the hope faded, and his expression became calm.
“No.
If she barely qualifies, becoming a shinobi would only turn her into cannon fodder.
She’d probably die in some pointless skirmish no one remembers.” He took a breath.
“If my niece can grow up safely, that might be for the best.” Then he looked at Ren more carefully.
“But you, Ren…” Ren stared back at him in confusion.
‘Wait.
Did he notice that I learned a new jutsu?
Is he suspicious of me?’ “Ren, hearing a six-year-old say he ‘knows people’ sounds deeply wrong.
Are you sure you’re actually six?” ‘Oh, that’s all?’ Ren was not worried in the slightest.
“Instructor, you know how it is.
Orphans grow up fast.
Yuka is only three, and she’s already taking care of herself.” “I suppose you’re right.” Yamano gave a bitter smile.
“When our parents died, my sister suddenly became the adult in the family.
She was eleven and had to raise me when I was eight.
I didn’t understand until much later how hard that must have been for her.” He shook his head.
“Enough of that.
Thank you for finding someone to process Yuka’s registration.
I need to go home and make dinner for her.” Ren watched from a distance as Yamano reached the house.
Before entering, the man rubbed his face several times, then forced a cheerful smile into place.
There was no trace of the breakdown he had suffered only moments earlier.
He opened the door and called brightly, “There’s my favorite niece!
What do you want for dinner tonight?
How about shrimp?” The door closed behind him.
Whatever else happened, the two of them were still the closest family either had left.
When Ren had read the manga, Sakumo’s treatment had seemed monstrously unfair.
The original story only mentioned that his decision to abandon the mission had caused Konoha to suffer severe losses.
Now that Ren had seen what those losses actually looked like—the shattered family Yamano had been left with and a three-year-old girl forced to become independent overnight—he finally understood how easy it was to preach forgiveness when you were not the one paying the price.
No one had the right to tell Yamano to simply let it go.
He had lost the sister who raised him, while Yuka had lost her mother before she was even old enough to understand death.
Readers sympathized with Sakumo and Kakashi because they knew those characters and saw the tragedy through their eyes.
Ordinary shinobi like Yamano’s sister were barely names in a report.
When someone as powerful as Sakumo made one disastrous decision, the consequences might have felt distant to him, but they came crashing down on ordinary families like an avalanche.
Perhaps someone had deliberately fueled the rumors surrounding Sakumo’s death.
Perhaps certain people had twisted the incident for their own purposes and pushed the outrage far beyond what was reasonable.
Even so, Sakumo’s decision to abandon the mission had undeniably destroyed lives.
Ren returned home, intending to train both the Shadow Clone Technique and White Fang–Style Taijutsu.
Taijutsu was the foundation of a shinobi’s combat ability.
Everything else was built on top of it.
…
Once he reached the backyard, Ren formed a single hand seal.
“Shadow Clone Technique!” A second Ren appeared beside him, and half of his chakra vanished instantly.
“Seal of Confrontation!” The clone obediently raised its hand and formed the seal.
When it noticed Ren still staring at it, it rolled its eyes.
“Stop gawking like an idiot.
I’m literally you from three seconds ago.
I already know what you’re planning.” “Try speaking more politely.
You’re a shadow clone, not me.” “You want to beat me up until I explode just to see how much punishment I can take?
I’m about to die, and you’re asking me to be polite?
Screw you!” Ren began to suspect that the Emotional Damage System had permanently corrupted his personality.
His reputation had become so terrible that even he found the version of himself from three seconds ago unbearable.
The two began sparring.
Ren quickly discovered one major difference between himself and the clone: his original body could continue producing chakra, while the clone had only the fixed amount it received at creation.
Before long, Ren landed a clean hit and dispersed it.
The clone’s memories immediately returned to him.
It was an incredible sensation.
Ren could now review all his earlier movements from an outside perspective, as though he had watched the entire fight through someone else’s eyes.
After replaying the exchange several times, he identified a few flaws in his taijutsu that needed correcting.
He formed the seal again and created another shadow clone.
“Seal of Confrontation!” The clone stared at him in disgust.
“Why are we wasting time on this ceremonial crap?
The Academy really has rotted your brain.
Just start the fight!
What’s next, are you going to perform all forty-four hand seals for the Water Dragon Jutsu before punching me?” “Shut up and train!” “What were we doing again?
Oh, right.
Three seconds ago, you decided I should practice White Fang–Style Taijutsu and improve the chakra bursts through the tenketsu.” The clone smirked.
“You’d better hope Kakashi never finds out you stole his family technique, or he’ll split you fifty-fifty.” Ren fell silent.
‘Could I trigger the system by emotionally damaging myself?
And why are my own clones such obnoxious assholes?’ He and the clone began experimenting with White Fang–Style Taijutsu.
Over the next three hours, Ren created more than a dozen shadow clones and endured more than a dozen rounds of abuse from his own mouth.
By the end, he had finally worked out the technique’s approximate limits.
By storing chakra within the tenketsu of key muscle groups, he could prepare several explosive movements for use during close combat.
Chakra stored in his legs could produce sudden lateral movement or dramatically accelerate a kick.
Chakra stored around his waist and back allowed him to twist or turn with startling speed.
Chakra stored in his arms could be released to launch an attack or raise a guard almost instantly.
With a full round of preparation, Ren could perform five explosive taijutsu movements.
Once the stored chakra was exhausted, he would need to wait until the fight ended or create an opening to replenish it during battle.
Refilling every tenketsu took roughly thirty seconds.
Each burst could serve as a hidden trump card in close combat.
That was already extremely useful.
From here, all Ren needed was repetition—hours and hours of practice until White Fang–Style Taijutsu became as natural as breathing.