Renji looks at the five and says, "You five continue training. I will come tomorrow."
He follows the ANBU silently to the Tsukikage's office.
The ANBU opens the door and lets him enter.
Inside, he finds his teacher sitting behind his desk and three others in the room.
Two of them are familiar—Kitsuchi, his teacher's son, and Kurotsuchi, his teacher's granddaughter.
The third is a burly boy, standing stiffly.
Renji bows to his teacher.
Onoki nods.
"Renji, you will follow Kitsuchi's team for a mission," Onoki says.
Kitsuchi and Renji nod at each other in understanding.
Kitsuchi turns to the others. "You three, return home and gather at the village gate in an hour."
Renji, Kurotsuchi, and Daito leave the room, Kitsuchi and Onoki remaining behind.
"Father, is it too soon to take them on a C-rank mission?" Kitsuchi asks quietly.
Onoki snorts. "Renji and Kurotsuchi are geniuses, and Daito is not far behind them. They have learned what they could learn here. To increase their strength now, they need to face real enemies and see blood."
Kitsuchi nods, understanding.
Before the hour passes, Renji appears near the village gate and finds Kurotsuchi and Daito already waiting.
"Do you know what the mission is?" Renji asks.
They shake their heads.
Renji looks at the boy. "Hi, I'm Renji."
The boy nods shortly. "Daito."
Renji stares at Daito for a moment, then turns to look at the village, waiting for Kitsuchi.
A few minutes later, Kitsuchi arrives. "Let's go," he says, and starts running out of the village.
The three exchange glances and follow, moving swiftly after him.
Renji scans the land as they run, noting the earth beneath their feet, the rugged hills stretching toward the horizon, and the thick forests that blanket the valleys.
By the time the sun dips below the mountains, they reach the foot of a rocky outcrop, its jagged silhouette cutting the twilight sky.
Kitsuchi stops, hands each of them a chakra pill. "Recover your chakra," he says, then vanishes without another word.
Renji swallows the pill, sitting on the rocky ground and refining it with practised ease, feeling his energy slowly mend and expand.
Once the refinement completes, he stands, joined by Kurotsuchi and Daito.
Kurotsuchi frowns. "Father, what is the mission?"
Kitsuchi's voice echoes faintly in the wind as if carried from afar. "Behind this mountain is a bandit den. You three, on your own, must clear the den—kill all the bandits inside."
Silence hangs as the words sink in. Kitsuchi vanished completely, leaving the three staring at one another, the weight of the mission pressing down.
Kurotsuchi breaks the quiet. "Let's spy on the bandit camp and discuss what to do next?"
Renji shakes his head. "Let me spy. You two wait here."
He performs the hand signs of the D-rank Earth Escape Technique—the Earth Mole jutsu, the second technique he learned—and dives into the soil without waiting for their reply.
Burrowing through the mountain, he navigates unseen, emerging on the other side to observe the bandit camp perched on a plateau.
The camp is enclosed by a wooden wall, four watchtowers marking its corners, each lit with torches to alert the bandits of any intruders attempting to climb or breach the towers.
After surveying the defences, Renji returns to Kurotsuchi and Daito, recounting every detail.
Kurotsuchi nods thoughtfully. "Among us, only you know the Earth Mole jutsu. You enter the camp and stay hidden. Daito and I will approach from opposite sides, take out the bandits in the towers, and draw their attention. That's your cue to strike."
Renji acknowledges with a firm nod and vanishes from sight, performing the Earth Mole jutsu once more.
Moments later, he surfaces inside the camp, melting into the shadows near a tent, waiting silently.
Suddenly, a crash shatters the calm—the northern tower collapses, followed almost immediately by the southern tower.
The camp bursts into chaos, bandits shouting and scrambling, and Renji's eyes gleam in the shadow as the operation begins.
Renji slips from the shadows, moving like a shadow himself, taking down each bandit one by one with precise strikes, relying solely on his physical skill, fists, and footwork.
By the time the noise of the collapsing towers dies down, the three regroup at the centre of the camp.
Daito steps forward, facing the bandit leader—a samurai with notable swordsmanship.
Steel clashes against skill, but Daito remains calm, analysing each move, and finally strikes with the Stone Fist jutsu, shattering the leader's defence and ending the fight.
Breathing heavily, they glance around as the camp falls silent.
At that moment, Kitsuchi appears, calm and composed, offering advice and pointers on their coordination, tactics, and what could have been improved.
After a brief discussion, the trio begins their journey back to Iwagakure, walking through the darkened paths as the stars emerge.
Back in his own reality, Merin withdraws his consciousness from the illusion space, returning fully to his body.
"I have to give souls to the named characters in the ninja world, otherwise the nameless ones with souls will surpass them in strength," he mutters, refocusing on the Tao techniques he purchased and refining them with diligence.
Two years pass, and he finally leaves Jinji City, drawn toward a recently discovered ruin—a cave mansion of a Tao King Realm cultivator from the Fantasy Butterfly race.
Merin's interest piques; the Fantasy Butterfly race specialises in the Rule of Fantasy, which bears a striking resemblance to the Rule of Illusion and the Rule of Dream, potentially offering him insights to advance his illusion space.
He pauses his formation around the city, then sets off toward the ruin.
A week later, he finds himself in a vast desert, a single hill rising at its centre, swarming with people.
While blending into the crowd, he overhears that the formation guarding the ruin is still active, and they are waiting for enough people to gather before attempting to break it.
Merin glances at the formation, a hidden smirk crossing his face as he deduces its structure and identifies a weak spot for entry.
Hiding from the crowd, he slips through the weakness in the formation and enters the ruin.
Inside, he finds himself in a cavern, tunnels branching along the walls, each twisting and disappearing into darkness.
He pauses, considering which tunnel might lead to the main chamber, and begins his careful exploration, intent on claiming the inheritance before the formation is broken.
Merin moves cautiously through the winding tunnels, each step measured, his senses stretched to catch the faintest trace of traps or illusions.
The walls are lined with faint runes that hum with suppressed energy, remnants of the Tao King cultivator's defences, and Merin studies them carefully, noting how the energy flows and dissipates into the surrounding rock.
He steps over a shallow pit filled with faintly glowing crystals, feeling the latent magic pulse beneath his feet, and continues, the cavern narrowing and opening into larger chambers filled with dust and the remnants of previous explorers.
In one chamber, a series of floating glyph blocks a passage, each pulsating with the power of the Fantasy Butterfly's Tao, and Merin channels his own energy to carefully nullify the weakest glyph, allowing him to pass.
Time stretches as he moves deeper, the air growing cooler and heavier, carrying the faint scent of ancient incense and the residue of Tao techniques long dormant.
Finally, as he rounds a corner into a wider chamber lined with crystalline stalagmites, he senses a sudden disturbance behind him, a spike of malicious intent.
Before he can spin fully, a powerful attack slams toward him, and instinctively, he weaves a shield with the Five Element Law, the energies coalescing into a barrier of earth, fire, water, wind, and lightning.
The attack collides with the shield, shattering into harmless fragments, and Merin's eyes narrow as he pivots to face the source.
In the dim light, he sees a woman in the lead, poised and alert, with two men standing closely behind her, their expressions unreadable.
The female steps forward slightly, her gaze sharp, and demands, "Who are you? How are you able to enter the ruin?"
Merin studies the three carefully, sensing the swirl of Fantasy Law around them, and thinks, "Oh! They are of the Fantasy Butterfly race, able to enter the ruin before the formation is broken."
He straightens, voice calm but firm, "None of your concern," and shifts his stance, readying for battle.
The female steps forward, her aura radiating power at the initial Great Tao Lord realm, while the two men beside her hover at late and peak Tao Lord realms, slightly stronger than him.
The three strike in unison, forcing Merin to immediately defend, the force of their combined attack pushing him back as the cavern quakes slightly beneath their might.
The female summons a horde of illusory beasts, snarling and lunging toward him, their forms twisted and fantastical, each strike carrying the weight of her Tao power.
The male with mastery over illusion launches intricate, spirit-based attacks, mirages and false images meant to confuse and ensnare him, while the third charges with a gleaming sword, slicing the air with precision and lethal intent.
Merin braces, weaving his own energy into a subtle shield, the illusion space subtly wrapped around him, nullifying the spirit and illusion attacks aimed at him.
He focuses on the two he can effectively counter: the female's conjured beasts and the sword-wielding male, evading, parrying, and redirecting their strikes with controlled bursts of destruction fist techniques.
The female's beasts clash against his defensive strikes, their forms shattering mid-attack, while the male with the sword presses relentlessly, each swing forcing Merin to weave space and elemental energy defensively.
Despite the overwhelming pressure, Merin's illusion space grants him immunity to all spirit-type attacks below the saint rank, letting him focus on the tangible threats without faltering.
The fight becomes a dance of shadows, elemental strikes, and precision counters, Merin striking at openings in the beasts and sword attacks, each move measured, calculated, and executed with the patience of a predator sizing up stronger prey.
The third attacker—the illusion master—focuses on misdirection, but every attempt fades uselessly against Merin's controlled aura and perception, leaving only the two he must contend with in full.
He keeps moving, striking and defending, each second a test of stamina and strategy, knowing that without the full power of his illusion space released, he cannot defeat all three at once.
The cavern trembles with another heavy rumble, dust raining from above as Merin holds his stance against the two attackers.
His eyes narrow. "The formation is being attacked," he thinks inwardly, sensing the pressure from outside.
The clash halts abruptly, the four combatants standing in tense silence as the ground shakes beneath their feet.
Merin lowers his guard slightly and says, "Let's stop. They'll be entering any moment. I only want the Tao techniques."
The female glares, her sharp gaze like a blade, then snorts coldly. "Fine. But don't let us find you outside."
Merin inclines his head, calm and steady. "Ok. You will not find me."
The two men exchange hard looks before snorting as well, their killing intent not fading, only suppressed for now.
The cavern shakes again, louder, echoing with cracks as the formation weakens under the assault from outside.
Without wasting another breath, the four figures rush deeper, slipping through one of the tunnels until they emerge into the vast main chamber.
Ancient walls glow faintly with inscriptions, the air thick with residual Tao intent left behind by the Fantasy Butterfly King.
The four spread out quickly, searching for jade slips and fragments of Tao inheritance scattered around the chamber.
Merin moves with calm efficiency, his illusion space subtly cloaking his actions as he copies each Tao technique he finds, imprinting them into his own mind while leaving no trace behind.
The others focus on gathering, unaware of his method, too intent on claiming whatever treasures they can before the outer formation collapses completely.
The cavern shakes again, urgent and louder, dust cascading from the ceiling as voices faintly echo from beyond the formation barrier.
Merin finishes his copying in silence, then turns without a sound, slipping away through another tunnel, vanishing before the others notice.
He moves quickly and carefully, avoiding contact, as he has no desire to be discovered by the wave of cultivators about to flood the ruin.
By the time the barrier shatters with a thunderous crack, Merin is already gone, carrying the Fantasy Butterfly Tao techniques with him, unseen and unfollowed.