Ren did leave the wide, comfortable lounge chair, and he picked up his sword.
"Sorry, Ren. I didn't know Asuma would follow…" Kurenai apologized carefully, worried he'd think she was being manipulative.
"Why apologize?"
Ren waved it off. "A girl who didn't do anything wrong doesn't need to apologize. Or do you think I'd suspect you?"
Of course not.
Ren knew Kurenai wouldn't set him up, at least not when no other woman was involved, because he'd watched Naruto.
The best thing about watching Naruto isn't knowing the plot; it's understanding how each character thinks.
Kurenai also knew Ren wouldn't suspect her, because she liked him. When a girl falls for a guy, she gets blind; she'll believe whatever he says.
So Kurenai nodded and stepped aside with the others.
The four of them stood by the river, eyes on Ren and Asuma facing off. Kakashi, who wanted to surpass Ren, and Obito, who wanted to challenge Kakashi, were both eager for this fight.
Really, they were eager to see Ren.
Friends, money, and killing: the whole Leaf knows Ren excels at all three. If you want to kill without being killed, you need real strength.
So no one treated him like an ordinary chunin.
Warning. Warning. Challenger is a top-tier master of the age. Host, exercise caution.
Warning. Warning. Challenger is a top-tier master of the age. Host, exercise caution.
Ren hugged his sword and ignored the Martial Mastery system's alert. After years, this janky system still hadn't realized it was in the Naruto world.
The Martial Mastery system grants loadouts inspired by martial-arts classics when you defeat strong foes. In different martial-arts worlds, you cycle, gather different master loadouts, and ultimately ascend in the Martial Path.
His first cycle should have been a classic about twin heroes, starting as the famously handsome "Jade Man" in Twin Heroes. Instead, the system dumped him in the Naruto world and he became Uchiha Ren.
In a ninja academy combat class, his opponent was just an anonymous background student, yet the system insisted the kid was a top master and rewarded Ren with the [Lone Swordsman · Duel Arc] loadout.
On a C-rank mission, they were ambushed by a few nobodies, low-end rogue ninjas. The system declared it a certain-death crisis and rewarded Ren with a [Moon Queen] loadout.
To be fair, Naruto's power scale is high. A regular genin tossed into a low-martial world would be a super master there.
The problem was, those loadouts didn't help much. Ren thought so, until he discovered a bug: different loadouts could stack.
Martial skill, inner power, physical talent, everything stacked.
By now, Ren had farmed over fifty loadouts. He'd mastered more techniques than he could count. With fifty-plus stacks, his raw body stats were twenty to thirty times an ordinary shinobi's, and his inner power from the Bright Jade method had piled up to more than 1,200 years.
In that twin-heroes story, even thirty or forty years of Bright Jade inner power (at the eighth or ninth tier) might still lose to an ordinary Leaf chunin.
Low-martial inner power and Naruto's chakra are different systems. But when Ren can exploit a system bug to stack fifty-plus loadouts and push the numbers into the absurd, who's stronger becomes a real question.
Who says I'm practicing martial arts?
I'm basically cultivating immortality. Can you take a strike backed by 1,200 years of power?
Ren figured his current strength exceeds 99% of jonin. The gap to Kage-class isn't huge.
In the original Naruto plot, there isn't actually a formal "Kage-class", only genin, chunin, and jonin.
Thinking that, Ren shook his head, still hugging his sword.
Across from him, Asuma Sarutobi stood ten-plus meters away, staring at the black, high-collared robe on the refined boy of fifteen or sixteen. His feelings were a mix.
He should hate the guy.
Because the guy's an Uchiha, and Uchiha are practically born to be hated by Leaf villagers.
But he didn't hate him. He even counted him a friend, like almost everyone in the Leaf, who felt Uchiha Ren could be their friend.
He should be jealous.
Ren was more handsome, stronger, more talented. Everyone in the Leaf said no young ninja could take Ren's lightest sword strike; no young woman could resist his slightest smile.
That "everyone" included Asuma's father, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
But Asuma still wasn't jealous, even though Ren had taken his childhood sweetheart. Some people are so exceptional you just don't have it in you to be mad.
Asuma just wanted to beat him once. If he could win, it would prove there was at least something he was better at, and maybe Kurenai would come back to him.
They formed the seal of confrontation. The duel began.
Ren kept his sword hugged to his chest and didn't move.
"Why won't you draw your sword!?" Asuma snapped.
"I'm a few years older. Using my sword would be unfair."
"Draw your sword!
I'm challenging you fair and square. Everyone knows you're best at swordsmanship. Not drawing it is what's unfair!"
Ren switched excuses. "I'm not actually best at the sword. I use a sword because it looks stylish."
With fifty-plus masteries, 1,200 years of inner power, and raw stats dozens of times a normal shinobi's, Ren would honestly hit harder with fists and feet. In Naruto, taijutsu is one of the meta answers.
But Ren shares the same pursuit as certain other protagonists, to be a graceful, otherworldly sword immortal.
Learn from the berserker monk's mistake. Even if you know hundreds of techniques from fifty-plus loadouts, only use the stylish ones.
Not the strongest, just the coolest.
"Hmph."
Asuma needled him. "You won't draw because I'm your friend. Because you once said, if your sword leaves its sheath, it has to taste blood."
Ren sighed. "I said that to show off. Isn't 'the sword must taste blood' a cool persona?"
I don't care what you think. I care what I think.
Asuma, looking like he'd seen through him, pushed on. "Don't you have the confidence to draw blood without killing me?"
"I do."
"Then draw your sword!"
Fine.
Ren drew the long blade with a soft sigh. Unlike the common ninja swords, his was a straight, double-edged long sword, closer to Orochimaru's anime-style Kusanagi.
Good.
Asuma went taut, battle intent surging. He didn't weave hand signs. He stood still and hunted for an opening.
As Ren's teammate, he knew Ren's draw was fast, and his body-flicker even faster. If a ninja is within twenty meters of Ren, the moment they start forming signs is probably the moment they die.
Kakashi and the others held their breath, not wanting to miss a single detail.
A dozen seconds passed. When a wind-tossed leaf drifted between them, Asuma moved, only to freeze an instant later.
A cold, razor edge touched his throat. Caught on the blade was a collar button, his own. On the button, a single bead of blood, from his throat.
Fast. Mind-bendingly fast.
Asuma lifted a hand to his neck by reflex. Even now, he hadn't processed how Ren had drawn or arrived in front of him.
"Is this the legendary Heavenfall Strike?" Asuma whispered.
Everyone in the Leaf knew Ren had created a peerless sword move, shifting at will, formed before the strike was thrown, its spirit lingering after the strike was done.
No one could describe the move's brilliance or speed. It wasn't just a technique, it was the thunder god's wrath, a bolt of lightning.
I really did just throw a casual cut.
Ren sighed. "If you think it is, then it is."
"Good. What a Heavenfall Strike. I, Asuma Sarutobi, concede."
Dropped in one move, Asuma turned away, leaving what he thought was a chic silhouette. "In strength and looks, I lost. Kurenai is yours. Just don't let her down."
"How could a single match decide a girl's fate?
No man decides where a girl belongs. The only thing men can influence is who a girl chooses to like."
System notice: "Congratulations, host! Top-tier master defeated. Reward unlocked: [Sorrowblade · Fury Draw]."
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