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Chapter 11N
🕑 Added 2025-06-22 21:18:41 +0000 UTCChapter 11N
The fire was still burning.
The forest in this area was truly unfortunate—it had run into Rēn.
With the boost from his innate skill, Mana Infusion (Flame), Rēn's Fire Release was powerful enough to claim the title of strongest even within the Uchiha clan. A single Great Fire Annihilation had not only consumed a large portion of the forest and taken two lives but also left flames that continued devouring the surrounding grass and trees. These were not ordinarily trees, they were made from the 1st Hokage! Though without him they have long lost their initial strength.
Rēn gently laid the unconscious Naruto down on the grass.
He chopped out a tree stump with one swing and sat on it without caring if it was clean. He had no intention of standing around waiting for the big shots to arrive. To be honest, even though he had taken out twelve attackers with ease, as if he were casually preparing a meal, not even a scratch on him. The entire battle had kept his nerves fully taut, not relaxing for even a second.
In truth, his chakra levels were still above the danger threshold. It was the mental fatigue that wore him down the most.
“My Mangekyō… why hasn’t it awakened yet? I wouldn’t even mind a useless ability…”
Rēn sat on the stump muttering to himself full of grievance, resting while complaining about the elusive Mangekyō Sharingan.
If he had Mangekyō, even with a weak ability, it wouldn’t matter. Just having Susanoo would already be more than enough.
But the next second—
“Ptui! Ptui!”
Rēn spat several times. He changed his mind.
Better to hope for a strong ability. If he ended up with some garbage technique like that guy with the Izanagi knock-off, he’d be the one crying later.
“They’re slow. Why hasn’t anyone shown up yet?”
Rēn looked down at the sleeping Naruto and considered waking him up for a chat. Just as he was about to move, he sensed someone approaching from behind. He turned and saw Shisui, carrying a short blade, stepping into view.
“Finally.”
“Rēn, what happened here?”
“Shisui, you took too long. The name 'Shunshin no Shisui' must be weeping right now.”
“Cut the nonsense, Rēn. What’s going on here? Why would you use such a large-scale Fire Release inside the village?”
Shisui had rushed over quickly. The sight in front of him left his mind momentarily blank. He quickly came to his senses and shouted in alarm.
“You idiot, what were you thinking? The Nine-Tails Jinchūriki… Wait, is he alright?”
“Hey, that’s rude, Shisui.”
Rēn stopped Shisui from getting closer to Naruto.
“Calling him ‘Nine-Tails Jinchūriki’ over and over… that’s just disrespectful. This kid has a name. It’s the name his parents gave him. He’s not just a container.”
“Uh…”
Shisui’s momentum broke. He opened his mouth, then looked down at Naruto sleeping on the grass. He took a step back.
“Sorry. That was disrespectful of me.”
“Now that’s more like it.”
Rēn nodded with satisfaction.
Shisui frowned slightly, looking at Rēn’s smug expression. Something felt wrong.
Why had he apologized?
No—apologizing was the right thing to do. That title really was impolite. The problem was with Rēn. He accepted the apology so casually, as if it had been directed at him.
It really was frustrating.
“Rēn, quit playing around. What happened here?”
“What happened?”
Rēn let out a cold laugh.
“Shisui, don’t tell me you can’t see it. Don’t lie to yourself. That’d just make me look down on you.”
Shisui didn’t respond.
He scanned the area and saw shuriken and kunai scattered in the grass, traces of ninjutsu damage scorched into the ground, and the headless corpses—distorted and unrecognizable—ruined by sealing techniques.
As the only current Uchiha in the ANBU, He clearly recognized what those strange corpses meant. Only dead soldiers implanted with self-destruction seals would end up like that after death.
“I was escorting Naruto home. We were attacked here—twelve attackers, all top-tier. From what I could tell, four jōnin and eight special jōnin. They hit us all at once, and some of them used secret techniques. I had no choice but to go all-out.”
“Secret techniques?”
Shisui looked up.
“A pig, a rose, a deer, and a nest of bugs.”
“…Are you sure?”
Shisui asked with difficulty.
“Hmph. Do you think I’m blind? Naruto passed out from that rose’s Mind Body Switch. I got caught by the deer’s shadow too. If I hadn’t reacted fast… Shisui, you might’ve arrived too late to even find my body.”
Shisui’s face grew stiff.
He knew Rēn sometimes said ridiculous things, sometimes even lies a child could see through. But as a comrade who had once watched Rēn’s back on the battlefield, he could tell this time, he wasn’t joking.
“Also, there were curse seals on the attacker’s tongues.”
Rēn added one last line. It was as good as directly naming their origin.
“Curse seals… Root’s tongue seal?”
“They were Danzō’s people. Maybe they were here to kill me. Maybe they wanted to use Naruto to challenge the Third. Or maybe it was something else I don’t know. But this whole thing…”
Rēn didn’t finish.
More people had arrived. This time, from the direction of the Uchiha district.
“Rēn!”
“Rēn-nii!”
“You alright, Rēn?”
There weren’t many of them. Six in total—men and women—all wearing the fan crest of the Uchiha, with black hair and black eyes.
All jōnin. Young jōnin, around the same age as Rēn. The oldest among them wasn’t even twenty.
“Ranzan, Futaba, Chihaya, Jun, Akitarō, Hokuto… You guys?”
Rēn’s eyes widened in surprise.
“It was Elder Genshi.”
The one who spoke was Uchiha Ranzan.
He was Rēn’s cousin, three years older, and the eldest of the group. Before Shisui and Rēn had risen to prominence, Ranzan had been the clan’s most outstanding talent. Though later overshadowed, silver didn’t turn to bronze just because gold showed up.
He had become a jōnin at thirteen. That alone proved his strength.
“The clan head wasn’t at the compound tonight. The elders took command. Elder Genshi knew you were here, so he sent us to support you… Though with Shisui here, looks like we’re not needed.”
Ranzan scratched his head and greeted Shisui.
Rēn immediately understood.
No wonder it was Ranzan and the younger generation who came, not the older jōnin.
Compared to those seniors who always had to be addressed as uncle and were hard to command, these were Rēn’s own people—his core team. Every one of them knew about his ambition to take the position of clan head. They were his loyal supporters.
They were the “we” Rēn had once mentioned to Shisui.
Grandfather’s arrangement really was considerate.
