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Chapter 39 - Strategic Resource!
🕑 Added 2023-07-24 08:15:55 +0000 UTC{Hokage's Office, Administrative building, Konohagakure}
{01:21 PM, 29th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Hiruzen watched as Hayate and Ren left his office, after the door closed once again he sensed the protective bubble of isolation snapping into place.
"Hokage-sama," Dragon spoke, "is it really wise to let him continue being on the field, his ability is a strategic resource that needs to be secured in any way possible. Allowing him to go into the field just makes the chances of him dying on a mission higher..."
Shikaku nodded agreeing with Dragon's assessment, although he didn't like to admit it Ren with his ability is infinitely more valuable to the village than another chunin or Jonin.
"How do you evaluate Hayate's strength," Hiruzen asked, on the other hand, he was leaning against his desk, his eyes focused on the ANBU commander.
"Solid Jonin level in combat, his kenjutsu is one of the most advanced in Konoha besides cat," Dragon replied.
Hiruzen nodded and then he pulled up a file and gave it to Shikaku and Dragon who both stepped forward and read through it.
'''...Name: Ren (Orphan)
Ninja Registration Number: 012624
Assigned under: Gekko Hayate (tokubetsu jōnin) {2-man cell}
Potential Evaluation done by: Asuma Sarutobi & Hayate Gekko.
Elemental Affinity: Wind (Strong)
Potential Evaluation: Elite Jonin
Remarks: ...'''
"Elite Jonin?" Shikaku asked, he was surprised as he was an Elite Jonin himself, the elite Jonin position wasn't given to anyone. Currently, Konoha just had 5 Elite Jonin in active service.
"Yes, according to Hayate Ren-kun has immense potential in Kenjutsu, his physical development is already on par with most elite chunin and according to Hayate, he has already grasped the basics of The Dance of the Crescent Moon. Although that alone would not increase his potential to Elite Jonin, his elemental affinity does. Asuma talked to me about Ren a couple of days ago, according to his observations he has a very pure wind chakra affinity, although that could mean he won't have a natural secondary element, but since he was still able to throw a Gokakyu around without panting means he has decent talent in Ninjutsu."
'The Dance of the Crescent Moon combined with wind chakra flow...' Shikaku thought and realized he forgot about Asuma's joke about him owing Asuma more than 3 bottles of sake.
"I see," the ANBU commander nodded, "but still he could be inducted into the ANBU where his security would be monitored by one of the bests, and at the same time we could train him up to his potential." Dragon still thought letting Ren go out in the field as a green genin was extremely dangerous.
"It would have worked on most people but Ren is an orphan," Hiruzen reminded them again, "I could order him right now to join the ANBU and although he would comply it would still drive a wedge between him and the village. Especially since he has so few connections with the village, the only two being Ino Yamanaka and now his sensei Hayate Gekko who he is beginning to build a bond."
"His future career path would still be ANBU as his introverted personality and his preference for hard work fit well with it, but he would need to select this path by himself, which would be surprisingly easy considering Hayate sensei was in ANBU. I'll instruct him to retell vague stories about ANBU missions which are more exciting and testing than the monotonous D-rank missions he had to go through now..." Hiruzen laid out his plan getting a nod from both Shikaku and Dragon.
Shikaku hesitated but then he asked, "Should we include Inoichi, he would have more psychological insight into Ren and his daughter is Ren's only solid link to the village."
...
'Forcing a relationship won't work and could probably backfire, there is no reason to include more people in the know.'
"No, let them connect naturally forcing a bond would end up harming Ren's trust more than anything else. What we need is to keep a tight hold on this information, I have already told Ren to not use his ability in the open..." Hiruzen spoke, their plan of action was final and now Hiruzen was interested in the Shikaku and Dragon's final evaluation.
"So what do you think about his ability," Hiruzen asked.
"It is remarkable, even if Ren doesn't grow strong or improve, he is still tactically almost as important as a Jinchuriki. While his impact on the battlefield won't be as visual as a Jinchuriki rampaging through the front lines, according to my calculations we won't need to focus so much on maintaining a supply line like we did in the last war. And in that regard, his effectiveness is even better than the Yondaime." Shikaku spoke and Dragon nodded with his assessment.
"Although it would take 4 people, the three kids who were taught a different form of Hiraishin by Minato could transport him anywhere in the front lines and he could take a lot more resources than Minato himself could without wasting as much chakra as he did," Dragon spoke, this approach was what had given Konoha an advantage in the last war as scrambling to fight in three fronts would have stretched their reserve squads too thin if they had to also maintain a secure supply line to three different battlefields.
"So even in the worst-case scenario we would at least be able to maintain our strategies from the last war," Hiruzen sighed, the amount of relief that went through him was enough for him to visibly sigh. Konoha had taken countless hits even after the last war, first, there was the Kyuubi attack which led to Konoha losing its greatest pillar, Minato Namikaze. Then Orochimaru deserted the village which led to Konoha being targeted by Kumo in the Hyuga incident.
'We somehow managed to prevail and it was surprising that Kumo didn't make a move after the genocide of the Uchiha Clan, but still, we lost around 200 capable shinobi and it had taken almost 6 years for Konoha to recover.'
At the back of Hiruzen's mind, he still knew that another hit was coming. Konoha belonged to the Land of Fire, they were the hidden village located in the most fertile land in the world so the rest of the 3 villages would not let us build our strength peacefully.
'Kumo has recovered from the last war and is growing stronger every day, Iwa has been dormant for far more than the past decade. Suna's economy is being suppressed by us and Kiri is still recovering from its civil war.'
"If we can employ the strategies of the last war then I'm sure we can deal with a weakened Suna and Kumo, Iwa is still the farthest away from us, and Iwa and Kumo had to be aware of each other's backstabbing," Hiruzen concluded as both Shikaku and the ANBU commander nodded.
"Good, give me an exact estimate of Ren's ability Shikaku I need to create a black scroll just in case," Hiruzen asked as he pulled out a scroll from his drawer.
While Shikaku didn't like the possibility of Hokage-sama dying, he still summarized Ren's ability, "Ren has 50 portable spaces where he can store a variable amount of each stuff, although the best use of his ability is to first store the item in a storage scroll and then stacking the storage scrolls with same items in his portable spaces. According to the tests done, he could stack exactly 100 stacks of storage scrolls in his storage slot, his own term for his ability, and then he can transport 50 of these different items at a time. The best storage scroll we have was able to store 500 kunai at a time and Ren was able to stack 100 of these stacks into his one slot."
Shikaku paused and then he continued, "If an estimate regarding the best way to equip a garrison has to be done, Ren can carry 100,000 kunai, 200,000 shurikens, at a time which would only use 4 of his 50 available slots. The food and grain have a slight problem as any kind of mixed materials would not be stacked so we might need to stack up on pure materials which would make it a bit harder to transport food but is still doable with the remaining slots. Exploding tags and other medical necessities could be variable depending on the requirements."
Hiruzen listened to Shikaku's explanation and recorded everything after he was done he sealed up the scroll and placed it back into his desk. Later he would store this scroll along with the other black scrolls in the secret compartment in his office.
Hiruzen sighed again and asked, "What about Genma, Raidō, and Iwashi?"
Dragon stepped forward and spoke, "They need to be inducted into ANBU, their strength is okay but they still are not strong enough to be able to hold their own against Jonins with experience. Plus their use of Flying Thunder Formation Technique is slower than the Yondaime making it hard for them to use it as a means of escape."
Hiruzen nodded and ordered, "All right, I'll talk to them in the next couple of days, regarding Ren, his ability is marked as an S-Rank secret."
Shikaku, the ANBU commander, and the Hokage then started a discussion about various other missions that they needed to watch out for that could effectively make use of Ren's ability without exposing it to the world.
...
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{Training Ground #21, Konohagakure}
{01:33 PM, 29th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Hayate watched Ren walking in front of him with a complicated look on his face, while he may not be able to fully understand how important Ren's ability was for the village, he still realized that Ren's importance to Konoha has grown beyond that o a simple shinobi from Shikaku's tests.
'I need to make sure he is strong enough to carry out higher-rank missions before the end of next month...'
"Ren, let's continue with our spar, this time we will multitask you told me that you mastered tree walking didn't you?" Hayate spoke and upon seeing Rens nod he walked up to a nearby tree and unsheathed a training sword. He jumped onto the tree and started walking up the tree.
"Are you ready?" He asked and Ren immediately went on guard, his stance was a lot less rigid now as the basics were already starting to get engraved in his muscle memory. Hayate smiled as Ren dashed at him without replying.
'...he's learning this far faster than I imagined.'
~Clang~
...
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AN- I don't know a whole lot about the 3rd shinobi war but I thought it makes sense that Minato didn't use Hiraishin from the very beginning because he had a more important job that wasn't entirely combat-related and he wasn't as proficient in this jutsu then he was by the end of the war!
