White Coat Ren understood everything Ninja Ren had cautioned him about. If his "brother" in his world ever showed signs of straying, he would be the first to step in and stop him.
After chatting for a while longer, the two said their goodbyes.
Returning to his own world, White Coat Ren felt the explosive power still coursing through his veins. Only then did he truly relax; it wasn't a hallucination. He had actually awakened a Golden Finger.
But this thing only activates after I come into contact with supernatural forces? If I had never developed internal energy, would I have been locked out of the Brotherhood Space forever?
After a brief internal grumble, Ren stepped out of his room to grab a bottle of water and soothe his nerves.
As he was drinking, Mu Tiancai emerged from the adjacent room. Seeing Ren, the genius youth asked with a smile, "How is your cultivation coming along?"
When Ren had unexpectedly obtained the cultivation manual, he hadn't kept it for himself. He had shared it with his best friend, and both had been practicing the technique.
"I've not only developed internal energy, but I've also had an unexpected windfall!" Ren said brightly.
"Oh? Tell me everything!" Mu Tiancai's eyes sparkled with immediate interest.
Ren gave a slight smile. He gathered the small amount of internal energy he had cultivated into his hand and gave a light squeeze. The glass bottle in his grip shattered into fine shards instantly.
His palm, however, was completely unscathed.
"This! That's impossible!" Mu Tiancai's eyes widened. He grabbed Ren's hand, checking the palm for even a scratch. Finding none, he muttered in disbelief, "Damn... why can't I manifest it yet?"
Ren frowned. "You haven't developed any internal energy at all?"
Mu Tiancai shook his head bitterly. "Nothing. I can't even sense the 'qi'."
"I see..." Ren stroked his chin. He decided it was time to share some of his secrets with his friend. For a peerless genius like Mu Tiancai, it was only a matter of time before he noticed something was different. If Ren kept him in the dark, it might eventually cause a rift in their friendship.
To prevent that, Ren decided to give Mu Tiancai a version of the truth—though, certainly not the whole truth.
"By the way, what was that 'unexpected windfall' you mentioned?" Mu Tiancai asked.
"Hehe! This! The Rasengan!"
Ren grinned and extended his hand. A sphere of swirling, azure chakra manifested in his palm!
"Uh... what is that?"
The straight-A student, who never watched anime, asked a soul-searching question.
"Right, I forgot you don't watch anime..." Ren let the Rasengan dissipate and explained, "After I developed internal energy just now, I was chosen by a multi-world organization. I've joined them, and from now on, I can learn miraculous powers from countless different worlds!"
"Oh—Wait, what?!"
As a scientist, Mu Tiancai's first thought wasn't of the "conquering the world" tropes found in novels; he didn't read those, either. His first thought was that the multiverse actually existed.
"Alright, alright, don't be too shocked. I told you that you should read more novels in your spare time," Ren teased. "If you can't cultivate this specific energy, I'll find a different system from another world for you to try. In the vast multiverse, there's bound to be one that fits you!"
"Old Ren!" Mu Tiancai looked genuinely moved. He stepped forward to give Ren a brotherly hug.
But as he approached, Ren pushed him back.
Mu Tiancai currently had a somewhat delicate, slender build and wore his hair long. Being hugged by him felt... a bit awkward for Ren.
"Forget it. We're brothers; no need for the emotional stuff. Just treat me to dinner sometime!"
The two looked at each other and laughed.
The Naruto World.
Ninja Ren emerged from his tent. The sky was still overcast, and a light drizzle had begun to fall.
"Today, I'm taking you to the battlefield. Remember, show no mercy. Even if you see someone wearing a Konoha forehead protector, stay vigilant—it could be an enemy using a Transformation Jutsu! Understood?!" Cheng Aoyama spoke to the three of them with grave seriousness.
"Understood. But if we have to be that careful, how are we supposed to collect the bodies?" Ren asked.
"Sigh. You won't actually be the first ones to touch them. You'll wait for the advance teams to confirm the status of the corpses before you move in to retrieve them. Generally, the bodies you handle will have already been verified as our own," Cheng explained. "But there's always a chance for a 'what if.' I'm just giving you a fair warning."
The three nodded and followed Cheng Aoyama toward the front lines where the Konoha and Rain ninja had clashed.
By now, Jiraiya and the other two had already departed. All that remained were fields of corpses.
The bodies on the ground were the "easy" ones; even if they were scattered in pieces, there were still traces to follow. But the corpses that had fallen into the water were tragic; often, nothing remained of them at all, leaving their families with nothing but a hollow grave and a set of clothes.
When Team 5 arrived, several Chunin were already at work.
Once the identities were confirmed by the lead teams, members of the Sealing Corps would seal the bodies into scrolls. When a scroll was full, it was handed over to Ren and his team.
Essentially, they were there as manual labor—though it wasn't particularly grueling. They simply had to follow the Sealing Corps and carry the scrolls.
The rain poured down, washing away the blood on the ground but blurring the vision of everyone present.
Ren stood at the back of the group, watching silently.
After several days of work, the cleanup was finally finished. Ren was finally able to leave the Land of Rain and return to Konoha.
But this wasn't exactly good news.
War had broken out between Konoha and the Hidden Stone, and the battlefield against the Hidden Sand was heating up as well. He had even heard that the Stone and Mist were at each other's throats, though the fighting there wasn't as intense.
The Hidden Cloud, the instigators of the First Great Ninja War, seemed to be staying out of the second one, maintaining a stance of isolation.
Ren knew that once they returned to Konoha, they would likely face the Chunin Exams. And once they passed, they would be sent directly to the front lines to fight.
For Ren, this was far from an ideal situation.
On the way back, while Ren was debating whether he should even try to become a Chunin, Aya Okita suddenly spoke up.
"Ren, Masakata... do you both still want to be ninjas?"
The two boys blinked. Then, Masakata shouted, "Of course! I'm going to be a ninja and crush anyone who tries to invade us! I'm going to protect our village!"
The horrors of the battlefield had been a massive shock to Masakata's young soul, but now that he had processed it, a seed of "protection" had taken root in his heart. He was determined to drive back all invaders so his friends and family would never have to know the chaos of war.