Ren's mouth twitched.
What kind of line was that supposed to be?
"Is this gift only for me, or does everyone get one?"
That sounded less like a ninjutsu speaking and more like a jealous heroine out of some melodramatic romance novel. At this point, Ren was honestly starting to suspect that the Clone Technique had somehow read too many tragic love stories behind his back.
Before he could respond, the ever-reliable Transformation Technique stepped in once more like the calm eldest sister of the household.
[Transformation Technique: Little Clone, stop making things difficult. Ren prepared this gift for you so carefully, and you're still acting picky. If you really don't want it, then Substitution Jutsu and I can take it instead.]
The response came immediately.
[Clone Technique: Who said I don't want it?! Hmph! Gift? What gift? Just treat it as compensation for leaving me out when you were dealing with that cataract-eyed guy yesterday!]
A system notification popped up right after.
[Clone Technique Favorability +2]
["Give Gift" option temporarily unlocked]
Ren exhaled slowly and couldn't help smiling.
After spending this much time with the system, he had to admit it—Transformation Technique was by far the most considerate of all his ninjutsu. She always knew exactly when to calm things down, when to comfort others, and when to subtly help him out.
As for Clone Technique…
She was exactly what he had expected.
A complete tsundere.
Not as explosive as Great Fireball Technique, but definitely cut from the same cloth. Sharp tongue, soft heart, impossible to deal with directly.
Still, no matter how much attitude she put on, Ren could tell she was actually thrilled by the gift. Even through the system interface, her pleased but awkward response was painfully obvious.
Ren didn't tease her.
Right now, he was much more interested in one thing:
How exactly did the "Give Gift" function work?
If he really gave the scroll away, what would happen to Clone Technique? Would she change? Would her favorability reset? Would the original technique disappear? Would he lose the scroll entirely?
Too many questions.
Only one way to find out.
Ren steadied himself, focused on the interface, and clicked on [Give Gift].
A white light flashed.
The Water Clone Technique scroll lying on the table suddenly vanished without a trace.
At the same time, the system interface changed.
---
[Current Capturable Targets: Transformation Technique, Water Clone Technique (Clone Technique), Substitution Jutsu, Great Fireball Technique, Healing Technique]
[Potential Capturable Targets: Water Release: Rampaging Water Waves Technique, Gentle Fist (Conditions not met)]
[Water Clone Technique (Clone Technique): A Clone Technique wearing the limited skin "Water Clone Technique." Possesses the same properties as a Water Clone, capable of producing Water Clones with 10% of the original's power. When in water, clone performance is enhanced, but the clone cannot move too far from the original body.]
[Clone Technique Favorability +8]
[Current Favorability: 52/100 (Intimate)]
[Stage Reward Obtained: Physique +1]
[Trait Acquired: Shared Vision]
[Shared Vision: Your Clone Technique has developed partial visual linkage. Under focused concentration, you may connect your own vision with up to two clones and share their field of view simultaneously.]
[Note: This trait can be used under the "Water Clone" skin.]
---
Ren's eyes widened.
Then he clenched his fist so tightly his knuckles turned pale.
"Hah…"
A grin spread slowly across his face.
This was huge.
Absolutely huge.
It wasn't that he looked down on the ordinary Clone Technique, but the truth was the truth: an E-rank illusion clone had extremely limited usefulness. It could still create distractions in academy-level sparring or fool inexperienced opponents for a moment, but against a real Chunin or anyone with decent perception, it was nearly worthless.
In most practical situations, it wasn't even as useful as a smoke bomb.
But Water Clone Technique was different.
Very different.
This thing was already bordering on true combat utility.
It was much closer to a Shadow Clone than to the flimsy illusionary Clone Technique. The clones were weaker, yes—only a fraction of the original body's power—but they were real physical entities, capable of acting independently.
And unlike the Shadow Clone Technique, which was normally a B-rank technique far beyond what a normal academy student should be touching, Water Clone was something Ren had managed to get his hands on right now.
At this stage of his life, this was more than enough.
Even more importantly…
The appearance of Water Clone gave the newly acquired trait Shared Vision an actual battlefield use.
Ren leaned back in his chair, excitement racing through him.
"Wait a second…"
If Water Clone Technique could count as a skin for Clone Technique, then what about other techniques?
Could Great Dragon Fire Technique count as a skin for Great Fireball Technique?
What about Great Fire Annihilation?
Or Great Fire Destruction?
And if elemental clone techniques counted too, then maybe one day he could get:
Lightning Clone
Earth Clone
Shadow Clone
Even Multiple Shadow Clone
The thought alone made Ren's heart pound.
Of course, most of those techniques were B-rank or higher. Obtaining them wouldn't be easy, especially for someone from a civilian family with no clan inheritance.
But now he had direction.
A real direction.
That mattered more than anything.
Ren stared once more at the interface and let out a long breath.
"What a harvest…"
Then his gaze moved to another name still listed under potential targets.
Water Release: Rampaging Water Waves Technique.
His eyes lit up again.
"Right. There's also that."
He glanced toward the moonlight spilling through his bedroom window.
The night was already deep.
His body was still tired from the previous day's sparring and training, and even excitement couldn't erase the heaviness settling into his muscles.
"I'll practice that tomorrow," he muttered. "It's too late tonight."
With that, Ren forced himself to calm down, washed up quickly, and climbed into bed.
Even then, sleep didn't come immediately.
He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling in the dark, mind buzzing with possibilities.
A new skin. A new trait. A new direction for growth.
For the first time in a while, he felt that his future in this world was becoming a little clearer.
---
The next day, Ren followed his usual routine.
In the morning, he went to Konoha Hospital with Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha to listen to lectures and observe basic medical instruction for half the day.
The three of them had gradually settled into an odd rhythm.
Rin was attentive and serious, taking notes with remarkable focus.
Obito looked enthusiastic at first, but his attention drifted whenever the lessons grew too technical.
Ren, meanwhile, listened carefully while also keeping an ear out for stray bits of useful information from the hospital staff. In times like these, even overheard conversations could be valuable.
By noon, the lectures were over.
That afternoon, Ren headed to one of the main roads in Konoha and stood waiting beneath the bright sun.
He wasn't there aimlessly.
He was waiting for a very specific pair.
And soon enough—
They appeared.
From a distance, two figures came sprinting down the road in a way that made every passerby instinctively stare.
Or avoid staring.
Or pretend not to see them at all.
Because the pair was moving forward on their hands.
Upside down.
At full speed.
Wearing matching, aggressively green jumpsuits that somehow made the whole scene even more absurd.
It was the Might father and son duo.
Might Duy and Might Guy.
"Yo! Guy!" Duy shouted in a booming voice while handstand-running like some kind of human beast. "Your youth still isn't burning brightly enough! You've only run five laps around Konoha on your hands, and you're already tired?!"
Beside him, Guy shouted back with equal passion, though he was clearly drenched in sweat.
"I'm sorry, Father! It's my lack of effort!"
"If I can't complete one more lap around Konoha, then I'll do one thousand push-ups!"
"GOOD!" Duy roared. "That's the spirit of youth!"
"YES, FATHER!"
Ren stood by the roadside in silence.
No matter how many times he saw this, it remained deeply surreal.
These two really did exist on a completely different wavelength than normal humans.
Suddenly, Duy noticed him.
Without breaking his handstand stride, the man freed one hand and gave Ren a shining thumbs-up, his teeth flashing with enough brilliance to blind someone.
"Ren! Good afternoon! Are you here to burn your youth with us too?"
Ren's mouth twitched.
"…I guess you could say that."
Then he looked at the upside-down sprinting posture and added carefully,
"Can I not do the handstand part?"
Compared to Might Duy, Ren felt like a socially anxious wreck.
He usually thought of himself as fairly adaptable.
But this man—
This man truly did not care about the eyes of others.
At all.
Running laps around the village in a handstand while shouting about youth with complete sincerity… that was not something an average person could casually join in on.
Still, Ren hadn't come here just for fun.
He had a purpose.
So without wasting any more words, he began running alongside them in the normal way, matching their route as best he could.
---
One lap.
Then two.
Then three.
Konoha Village was much larger than it looked from within the residential district. Once you included the training grounds and surrounding areas, a full loop around the village was no joke at all.
Even cutting some corners, a single lap was exhausting.
And these maniacs were treating it like warm-up exercise.
Ren had assumed that after gaining multiple boosts to his Physique, his endurance would be enough to handle this training comfortably.
He had been wrong.
Very wrong.
By the fourth and fifth laps, his breathing had already begun to grow heavy.
By the sixth, his lungs felt like they were packed with burning sand.
Every breath scraped through his chest with searing pain. Sweat soaked his clothes, streamed down his skin, and evaporated under the fierce afternoon sun almost as quickly as it appeared.
Ahead of him, Duy's coarse voice exploded again.
"SEVENTH LAP! THIS IS WHAT YOUTH SHOULD FEEL LIKE! BURN, REN! BURN, GUY!"
"Yes, Father!"
Guy shouted back immediately.
And somehow, impossibly, the two of them kept moving in those ridiculous handstand sprints.
Duy, in particular, showed almost no sign of slowing down. Supported by those monstrous arms, he surged forward with speed that wasn't much slower than Ren's regular running pace.
Guy was slower, but he still endured.
His face was red, sweat dripping constantly, teeth gritted—but he refused to stop.
This was clearly not his first time going through this sort of madness.
He had probably been forged by it since childhood.
Ren kept going.
One step after another.
His vision blurred at the edges.
His thighs felt heavy.
His calves trembled.
The eighth lap felt like torture.
The ninth felt like a death march.
By then, for the Might father and son, it was already their fourteenth lap.
Ren honestly didn't know what kind of monsters they were.
At some point during the ninth lap, his vision began darkening in waves. The world swayed. His steps faltered more than once, and he nearly crashed face-first into the road.
That was when he finally gave in.
Stopping in place, he bent forward and gasped for breath.
"Whew… whew…"
"Uncle Duy… Guy… I need… a minute…"
Thump!
Duy flipped forward and landed neatly in front of him, transitioning from a handstand into a standing posture with surprising grace.
Then the man grabbed Ren by the shoulders, eyes wide with genuine surprise and joy.
"Ren!"
"Your improvement is incredible!"
Ren blinked up at him, still trying to breathe.
Duy continued loudly,
"I remember a month ago, you could barely finish two laps with us!"
"But now you've endured nine whole laps!"
"That kind of progress is magnificent!"
Ren forced himself to straighten up slightly, wiping the sweat from his face.
"Hah… I can't stay dead last forever…"
"I've been training extra on my own lately…"
Even with exhaustion pulling at every muscle, he still managed to squeeze out a bright smile.
And he meant it.
Because despite the suffering—
Despite the scorching lungs, the shaking legs, the dizziness and sweat—
There was something undeniably real about this kind of training.
Painful.
Ridiculous.
But real.
And if he wanted to survive what was coming in this world…
He would need far more of it.
--------------------------------
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