“We fought our way out while retreating and eventually broke into the bandit stronghold…”
Orochimaru stared at Ren in silence.
Something about that sentence felt fundamentally wrong.
Since when was fighting while retreating supposed to end with breaking into the enemy headquarters?
And then there was this:
We only eliminated around fifteen hundred enemies.
The mission still isn’t finished.
Orochimaru felt the beginnings of a headache.
That hadn’t even been the mission.
After listening to the full report, he arrived at a simple conclusion.
Ren had spent the entire day doing one thing.
Killing people.
A lot of people.
An absurd number of people.
Even Orochimaru, who had never been particularly concerned with the value of human life, found the scale excessive.
“…I think I finally understand what Sensei meant when he said you’re reckless.”
His eyelid twitched.
The more details he uncovered, the more ridiculous the story became.
Ren’s description of accidentally being discovered during infiltration turned out to mean that he had walked straight up to the fortress gate.
In broad daylight.
Without disguising himself.
Without hiding.
Without making even the slightest attempt at stealth.
As for gathering intelligence…
That method was disturbingly familiar.
It was exactly what Ren had done during the Academy exercise.
If everyone guarding the information was dead…
Then the information belonged to him.
Simple.
Efficient.
Utterly horrifying.
As for the additional eight bandit camps Ren had destroyed afterward…
Orochimaru had already given up trying to understand.
If Ren was satisfied, then so be it.
Nearby, Kurenai and Rin looked far less composed.
Both girls were bent over, hands braced against their knees as they struggled to catch their breath.
They had truly done everything they could.
Everything.
The problem was that keeping up with Ren was practically impossible.
The mission itself had followed a very simple pattern.
Find enemies.
Attack enemies.
Kill enemies.
Find more enemies.
Repeat.
Combat wasn’t even the exhausting part.
Most of the time, Ren handled entire battlefields by himself.
The girls were usually left intercepting escapees or cleaning up whatever survivors remained.
The real problem was the travel.
Ren had assaulted nine separate strongholds in a single day.
Bandits weren’t stupid.
Neither were the intelligence networks supporting them.
No one conveniently built every base next door to each other.
To accomplish what Ren had done, Team Orochimaru had effectively sprinted across nearly a third of the Land of Fire.
At full speed.
For hours.
Their flushed faces and trembling legs were proof enough.
By the end, neither Kurenai nor Rin had possessed enough strength to continue.
Ren had literally carried them from one location to the next.
Under normal circumstances, being carried by him might have become a cherished memory. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Today?
Neither girl had enough energy left to appreciate it.
All they wanted was a bed.
Meanwhile, Ren looked completely refreshed.
Not a single bead of sweat remained on him.
His monstrous physique had transformed an impossible journey into little more than a leisurely afternoon workout.
Orochimaru slowly lowered the mission report.
“…You did well.”
Even his own voice sounded strange.
“This mission receives full marks.”
What else was he supposed to say?
The assignment had been to eliminate a single enemy outpost.
Ren had somehow turned that into nine.
“Full marks?”
Ren frowned.
“How can it be full marks?”
The instant those words left his mouth, Orochimaru sensed danger.
“There are still nine identified enemy bases remaining.”
Ren looked genuinely puzzled.
“We simply ran out of time.”
“…”
“The mission obviously isn’t finished.”
“…”
“We can complete today’s training first.”
“…”
“Then tomorrow we’ll destroy the remaining nine locations.”
Ren nodded to himself.
“That should count as proper mission completion.”
After all, the enemy wasn’t going anywhere.
The snakes waiting for today’s sparring session seemed far more urgent.
Orochimaru pinched the bridge of his nose.
“No.”
Ren blinked.
“Hm?”
“No.”
This time, the Sannin’s tone left no room for debate.
“If this continues, there won’t be any intelligence networks left.”
Ren stared.
“…Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”
Orochimaru spent the next several minutes explaining how espionage actually worked.
The existence of enemy intelligence networks was rarely a secret.
Konoha already knew many of them existed.
That information had value.
A known spy was often more useful than a dead one.
False intelligence could be fed through them.
Enemy movements could be monitored.
Responses could be measured.
Entire misinformation campaigns could be built around their presence.
Destroying every visible network only encouraged the enemy to create new ones.
And those replacements would be much harder to find.
Eventually, Ren nodded.
“I see.”
Orochimaru felt a flicker of relief.
At last.
Understanding.
Then Ren sighed.
“So I can’t kill them anymore.”
Orochimaru felt another headache forming.
The boy sounded like someone who had just learned his favorite restaurant had gone out of business.
“Correct.”
Ren lowered his gaze.
He looked genuinely regretful.
If he had known earlier…
He would have wiped out all seventeen camps before returning.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room.
Orochimaru pretended not to notice.
“Those targets are off-limits.”
“Understood.”
Ren considered the matter for a few seconds.
Then his eyes suddenly brightened.
“What about normal bandits?”
Orochimaru froze.
“No.”
“They aren’t intelligence assets.”
“No.”
“They’re just bandits.”
“No.”
Ren looked confused.
“Why not?”
Orochimaru stared at him for a long moment before answering.
“Without bandits, merchants wouldn’t need to hire shinobi escorts.”
“…”
“A significant portion of the village’s income comes from protection contracts.”
“…”
“In other words, some things continue to exist because everyone benefits from them continuing to exist.”
Ren fell silent.
The logic was difficult to refute.
A disappointed expression slowly appeared on his face.
“Oh.”
For some reason, Orochimaru felt deeply unsettled.
Very unsettled.
For the first time, he began regretting teaching Ren the Summoning Jutsu.
At the time, it had seemed like a perfectly reasonable decision.
Now?
Not so much.
Eventually, Ren would master both summoning and reverse summoning.
Eventually, he would gain access to Ryuchi Cave.
Eventually…
A horrifying possibility surfaced in Orochimaru’s mind.
What if Ren treated Ryuchi Cave the same way he treated bandit camps?
What if he looked at an entire population of giant snakes and saw nothing but walking experience points?
Orochimaru’s expression gradually stiffened.
A vast portion of his arsenal depended on Ryuchi Cave.
Many of his techniques involved snakes.
Far too many.
The sudden disappearance of those snakes would be disastrous.
And now he couldn’t stop imagining it.
One day, he would arrive at Ryuchi Cave.
Everything would seem normal.
The cave would be quiet.
Peaceful.
Then he would ask where all the snakes had gone.
Someone would lower their head and answer in a small voice:
Ren ate them.
The image was so vivid that Orochimaru actually shivered.
For the first time since taking Ren as his disciple…
Orochimaru felt a trace of fear.