We met our client at a secured production set just outside the village walls. Sandayū Asama was a frantic, sweating man who looked like he was one minor inconvenience away from a stress-induced heart attack.
Or, that's how he was presenting himself. Underneath the sweating manager façade, the System detected he was actually much stronger than he appeared. He was a samurai loyal to her royal bloodline. A detail even I had briefly forgotten.
We stood off to the side, watching the crew film a scene. In the center of it all was Yukie Fujikaze, dressed in her elaborate Princess Gale costume, delivering her lines with incredible conviction.
I'll give her this, the woman can act, I mused, watching her seamlessly fake a drama-filled monologue.
My eyes drifted from the actress to the production crew. The director, the producers, even the lighting guys were wearing incredibly high-quality fabrics.
I have over twenty-two million Ryo sitting in my inventory, and yet I'm getting flexed on, I thought, glancing at the subtle, nonchalant, high-end civilian drip. I'm pretty sure the director is wearing 1000% ninja world cotton or something. The minute this mission is over, I'm finding a high-end tailor, and updating my swag.
"Just so we're clear," Kakashi murmured, pulling my attention back to Team 7. "This mission has been officially classified as an A-Rank."
Sasuke scoffed, crossing his arms. "An A-Rank? For babysitting an actress? Don't they just deal with overzealous fans?"
"Celebrities of her caliber get targeted all the time, Sasuke," Kakashi replied, his single visible eye scanning the perimeter. "Kidnappers, rival studios, political extremists. It's hard to know exactly who's after them until they make a move. We treat everyone as a hostile."
Oh, the irony, I thought, suppressing a smirk. If they only knew what's about to happen.
"Cut! Print!" the director yelled.
The moment the scene ended, Yukie's regal, tragic persona vanished. She scowled, kicked off her prop shoes, and immediately bolted for the exit, clearly trying to ditch the production.
Sandayū panicked. "Ms. Fujikaze! Please, wait!"
She ignored him, making a beeline for the exit. She spotted us—a group of twelve-year-old Genin standing near the doorway—and clearly assumed we would be easy to brush past. She tried to slip through my blind spot, lowering her shoulder to shove me out of the way.
It probably would have worked if we were just normal children, but we weren't.
I casually stepped into her path.
THUD.
With my current [STR] and [CON] being able to overpower a majority of grown, experienced ninjas, a normal civilian like her without any combat training stood absolutely no chance. Yukie let out a sharp yelp and bounced right off me, landing hard on her backside.
Instead of yelling, she just let out a long, exhausted sigh. She didn't look angry; she looked deeply, suffocatingly apathetic. She reached into her coat, pulled out a small silver flask, and took a long drink right there on the floor.
"Move. Or don't," she muttered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked right through me, her eyes dead. "It's not like your life or this movie actually matters anyway."
She slowly pushed herself up, brushing the dirt off her dress. "Go play ninja somewhere else, kid. Reality is a lot uglier than your little costume."
Goodness gracious, I thought, looking at her with a flat expression.
She wasn't the arrogant diva I thought she'd be; she was just a traumatized brat stuck in her own misery, trying to push the world away.
I didn't yell or raise my hand at her. I simply let out a microscopic, tightly controlled fraction of the commanding essence of my [Presence]. The air around us instantly grew heavier. It wasn't the aura of a child playing dress-up; it was the chilling weight of a monarch.
Yukie froze. The flask slipped slightly in her grip. Her nihilistic shield completely shattered as the color drained from her face, replaced by a sudden, primal spike of genuine fright. Her breath hitched as she realized the boy standing in front of her was far, far uglier than the reality she was running from.
"Sit down," I said, my voice quiet but laced with absolute authority. "We're your little body guards, so let us do our jobs, yea?"
She swallowed hard, nodding frantically as Sandayū rushed over to help her up, apologizing profusely.
Sakura stood a few feet away, her green eyes wide as she unconsciously took a half-step back. Seeing me completely break a grown woman's spirit with just a look was an entirely different kind of terrifying.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me, clearly impressed despite himself. Kakashi just gave me a closed-eye smile.
"Very efficient, Naruto," he praised.
A few hours later, we were officially setting sail toward the Land of Snow.
True to form, Yukie had locked herself in her luxury cabin the moment she boarded, likely sulking and drinking while Sandayū stood guard diligently outside her door. Kakashi was reading his little orange book in the lounge, and Sasuke and Sakura were doing chakra control exercises on the lower deck.
I took the opportunity to find a quiet, secluded spot near the ship's bow, leaning back against a crate and enjoying the cool, salty ocean breeze.
I opened the System interface to do a quick maintenance check on my stasis scroll.
[NOTICE: 4x E-Rank Gates Cleared Autonomously.]
[REWARDS DISTRIBUTED: +20,000 Ryo. XP Gained.]
I swiped the notification away. The auto-farmer was working perfectly, generating a steady stream of passive income. But more importantly, it was grinding kills for my soldiers.
My ultimate goal was complete autonomy and unbothered freedom, but I still had some serious roadblocks I needed to prep for. Namely, Uchiha Genjutsu. If Itachi, Obito, or especially Danzo looked at me wrong, raw physical strength wouldn't save me from reality-warping hacks like the Tsukuyomi or the Kotoamatsukami.
I need to probably dump more points into [WIS] for mental fortitude and [INT] for processing power, I theorized, watching the waves crash against the hull. But honestly, raw stats alone might not be enough to shatter a seasoned Mangekyou domain. I'll need some back-up protocols, and have to see if the store sells any items for mental defense.
Then there was the crafting issue. The [Panacea of the Monarch] had literally saved my life during the Penalty Zone. I needed to get familiar with other high-tier materials required to craft more super-soldier potions and elixirs, along with the [Soul Purge Elixir] for Anko's hidden quest.
As I was organizing my mental to-do list, a massive golden alert suddenly flashed across my vision.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: PROMOTION LEVEL REACHED]:
Entity: Lizardman Commander
Current Rank: Elite
Promotion Evolution Rank: Elite Knight
Condition: Reached Level 10.
Evolution Conditions: 500 Kills
Current Kills: 0/500
Oh shit, he's there already? I thought as I scanned the contents of the prompt. A couple steps closer to hearing him speak.
After dismissing the prompt I rubbed my temples, trying to organize my knowledge of the Clash in the Land of Snow movie. I knew the general plot beats: the iceberg ambush, the train chase, Doto's Chakra Armor, and the hexagonal crystal necklace. But without the exact timestamps, I couldn't prep for any elaborate traps. So, I was just going to have to be reactionary and let the script play out until it was time to break it.
Suddenly, the air temperature plummeted rapidly.
Speak of the devil and he shall deliver, I thought, standing up from the crate.
We sailed toward a massive, towering iceberg that loomed out of the ocean fog ahead of us. The ship's horn blared, echoing across the freezing water.
We had reached the first plot point; the shooting location.
We docked at the edge of the towering iceberg. The crew wasted no time setting up the cameras and lighting equipment on the thick sheet of ice.
Yukie was forced out of her cabin, shivering and visibly irritated, but the moment the director yelled "Action!", her miserable demeanor vanished. She instantly slipped back into the tragic, resilient persona of Princess Gale, delivering her lines flawlessly against the frozen backdrop.
And here we go, I thought, my eyes tracking the ridges of the iceberg above us. My danger sense was already screaming at me before the ice even began to crack.
"Look out!" Kakashi yelled, his lone eye snapping toward the peak.
The iceberg shattered in a violent explosion of frost and jagged debris. Three figures shot out from the icy dust cloud, gliding through the air on metallic wings built into bulky, mechanical suits. They slammed into the ice between the film crew and the ship, cracking the frozen surface.
It was the Snow Ninja: Nadare, Fubuki, and Mizore.
The film crew screamed, scrambling backward as the three mercenaries slowly stood up, their advanced Chakra Armor humming with a low, mechanical whine.
"Well, well," Fubuki chuckled, her voice echoing across the ice. She locked her eyes entirely on the shivering actress. "It's been a long time, Princess Koyuki. Are you still wearing the Hex Crystal?"
Kakashi visibly stiffened. He turned his head sharply, staring at Yukie with a look of surprise and a flash of recognition, like he remembered exactly who she was now.
How odd, I thought analyzing the situation. How did he forget who she was in the first place when he was the one to save her all those years ago? Did she just not look like the same person, or did it just completely slip his mind?
"Everyone, fall back to the ship! Now!" Kakashi ordered, pulling his headband up to reveal his blazing red Sharingan. "Team 7, form a defensive perimeter around the client!"
As Sasuke drew his kunai and Sakura rushed to flank Sandayū and Koyuki, my vision was suddenly flooded with red warning screens.
[ALERT!: Advanced Hexagonal Chakra Armor Detected.]:
Capabilities: Absorbs and nullifies external chakra. Amplifies the user's jutsu potency. Enhances physical strength via chakra saturation.
[SUB-QUEST GENERATED: Data Collection]:
Objective: Destroy or acquire a functional suit of Chakra Armor.
Reward: The System will synthesize the technology, allowing for future armor upgrades for the Player and their shadow army.
Really?! I grinned, dismissing the prompt. Bet! I need that!
Looking at things from an outsider's perspective, that Chakra Armor was a fascinating piece of lore that was absolutely busted. It gave C-Rank mercenaries Jonin-level durability and output. But it had severe, glaring weaknesses.
First: because the armor was designed to absorb and eat ninjutsu, its pure physical defense against blunt force trauma was significantly lower. Second: the power cores were notoriously unstable. If two suits stood too close together, their chakra feeds would literally blow each other up.
Which had to be an unfortunate design flaw that held it back from being produced in bulk, I theorized.
Kakashi instantly engaged Nadare, their blades clashing in a blur of sparks. Sasuke, eager to test himself, aggressively pushed forward to intercept Fubuki.
Mizore, the hulking brute of the trio, locked his eyes on me.
"I'll handle this weak looking Genin," Mizore laughed, cracking his metallic knuckles. The servos in his armor whined as he launched himself at me with terrifying speed.
He threw a massive, chakra-enhanced right hook directly at my face.
BAM!
Mizore's metallic fist slammed squarely into my jaw. The sheer kinetic force cracked the ice beneath my boots, sending a shockwave of snow into the air.
"Ha! Too slow, kid!" Mizore boasted.
But when the snow cleared, I hadn't moved an inch. My head hadn't even snapped back. With my [CON] at 293, his "devastating" enhanced punch felt like being hit by a passing breeze.
Mizore's cocky grin vanished. He stared at his fist, then up at my completely flat expression in absolute disbelief. "What the—how are you..."
"You done?" I questioned. "Then I guess it's my turn."
My hand shot out, moving faster than his eyes could even track. I grabbed his extended wrist and squeezed.
CRUNCH.
The high-tech metal vambrace surrounding his arm crumpled like tin foil. Mizore screamed in agony as the bones in his wrist shattered.
"Let me show you the flaw in your little suit," I whispered, pulling him forward off-balance and pulling my other fist back.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: Critical Strike]
I drove my fist dead-center into his chest plate. I didn't use a single ounce of chakra. Just pure, unadulterated physical strength.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing. My fist punched cleanly through the center of the "indestructible" Chakra Armor, completely shattering the central core in a catastrophic shower of sparks, metal shrapnel, and blood.
Mizore's eyes rolled into the back of his head. I ripped my arm out and kicked away his carcass. His massive, ruined body was launched backward, skipping across the ice before tumbling into a lifeless heap in the ice-cold depths.
The entire battlefield froze.
Sasuke, who had just watched his fire ball jutsu get completely absorbed by Fubuki's armor, stared at me with his mouth slightly open.
Sakura wasn't faring much better. She had both hands clamped over her mouth, her wide eyes darting between my bloodied fist and the sinking corpse in absolute horror. Watching me slaughter nameless thugs in Wave was one thing, but watching me punch a hole completely through a man's torso like wet tissue paper without even the least bit of hesitation was another.
Nadare and Fubuki broke off their engagements, their eyes wide with sheer terror as they looked from Mizore's sinking, caved-in chest to the twelve-year-old boy casually shaking the blood off his knuckles.
"He... he broke the armor..." Fubuki stammered, taking a step back. "With his bare hands?!"
"Retreat!" Nadare barked, absolute panic in his voice.
Fubuki slammed her hands on the ground, erecting a massive wall of ice to block Kakashi's path. The two remaining mercenaries fired their wire-launchers, grappling back up the destroyed iceberg and fleeing into the fog as fast as their suits could carry them.
I wiped my hand on my pants and turned back toward the group.
Sandayū was on his knees, staring at me like I was a literal demon. And Yukie—or rather, Princess Koyuki—was trembling violently. The sudden reappearance of her childhood trauma, combined with watching a child brutally rip into a man's chest, completely short-circuited her brain.
Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into the snow in a dead faint.