Chapter 83: Still No Mom, But At Least We Have Mastery Points

Chapter 83 - Still No Mom, But At Least We Have Mastery Points Once Yoru appeared, Hiruzen tapped his desk lightly. A soft hum vibrated through the office as the embedded seals activated, shielding the room. He didn't waste time. "Let's start with Juichi," the Hokage said, smoke trailing from the pipe in his hand. "What is his current status?" Homura answered first. "He just needs one more push," he said. "Right now, he's in a passive state, his strength won't decrease, but it won't grow either." Hiruzen nodded, exhaling a stream of smoke. "Keep tabs on his location at all times. Don't monitor him too closely, just enough to have a general idea of where he is." Yoru nodded silently. Hiruzen leaned back slightly, remembering the others he'd seen on the edge of this threshold. "Right now, he's at his weakest and strongest, both. If things go our way, we'll have another S-rank on our side. If not." He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. Homura had seen that path unfold more than once. Yoru had walked it himself. The Hokage tapped his pipe against the ashtray and spoke again. "Also, inform Jiraiya. He'd want to see Juichi." There was a pause, then Hiruzen's expression shifted, becoming sharper. "What about the fake merchant?" Homura frowned as he heard the shift in tone. "Did he betray us?" Hiruzen gave a slow nod. Yoru answered. "Yes. He confessed during interrogation. We eliminated him immediately after." He continued, "All leaks have been contained, though there's an off-chance that General Ryuma may have picked up on something." "I can eliminate him," he offered calmly. Hiruzen tapped the desk again, thinking. "No. Better to keep him alive." He looked directly at Yoru. "Assign someone to keep a quiet eye on him. More importantly," his voice dropped slightly, "I want to know which village he's colluding with." That was the real threat. The ANBU had confirmed that General Ryuma was seeking to reform the Land of Iron with backing from one of the Five Great Nations. But they hadn't been able to identify which one as Ryuma was careful and time would be needed. Yoru nodded. The conversation moved forward, covering the details of the hidden mission, the fallback measures, and the intelligence operations being spun in its aftermath. Once all that was covered, Hiruzen asked, "What of Team 1?" Homura answered before Yoru could. "They were splendid. It was their first covert mission, and they performed far beyond expectations." Yoru agreed. "As you requested, I kept an eye on them." He began with the evaluation. "Hitoshi Aburame. Potential: High-level jōnin. Maximum potential: Elite jōnin." Hiruzen nodded. "If the Aburame clan shares their heir-level techniques with him, that's well within reach." "Yes," Yoru confirmed. "His deduction skills and decision-making were excellent. I would recommend him for the ANBU." Hiruzen made a note and gestured for him to continue. "Yugao Uzuki. Potential: High-level jōnin. However, Juichi Takahashi has made a promise, that, if he's satisfied with her progress, he'll take her on as his personal student." That actually surprised Hiruzen. "Juichi agreed?" He chuckled softly. "I asked him many times if he wanted students. He always refused." Homura shrugged. "Well, you know how he is. Even if he agreed now, who knows what kind of test he'll give her down the line." Yoru continued. "Her intelligence is strong, but her deductive skills are currently lacking. Her personality is also ill-suited for high-pressure missions at this stage." He paused. "If she matures, she could be ANBU material." Hiruzen took a thoughtful puff of his pipe. "Maybe the Kenjutsu exchange will help temper that side of her." Yoru nodded and moved on. "Ren Takahashi. Minimum potential: S-rank." Hiruzen waved it off, "Skip the potential. I know that already. Tell me what you observed during the mission." Yoru's continued, "Excellent deductions. Outstanding political intuition." Homura chimed in. "He deduced immediately why General Ryuma's name should be kept within internal reports only. He made the call on the spot." Yoru added, "I believe he also suspects the entire ploy was orchestrated in part by you." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think so?" Both Yoru and Homura answered at the same time. "Hunch." Hiruzen stared at them for a moment, then leaned back with a small chuckle, "Well, it doesn't matter. If he figured it out, good. If not, he'll learn soon enough." He tapped the desk lightly. "What about his personality?" Yoru paused. "Calm. Rational. In some ways, more like Utakata than Juichi. But he cares deeply about his father." He added, "He told Juichi outright that if something went wrong in the arena, he would jump in, regardless of the consequences. If the village wouldn't back them, they'd go rogue." Homura frowned immediately. "I understand his loyalty to his father, but that puts him at flight risk." But Hiruzen shook his head. "No. You don't need to worry." He turned back to Yoru. "If the same situation had involved a teammate or Utakata, do you think his response would have been the same?" Yoru thought for a moment and answered, "Teammates 10%. Utakata 25%." Hiruzen nodded toward Homura. "You see? He can distinguish. His deepest bond right now is his father. That's his anchor to the village. As long as nothing happens to Juichi from our end, Ren remains loyal." He exhaled slowly. "He lacks bonds with his comrades for now, but that will change as he grows and connects with more people." Homura considered that and gave a nod, "Still, we should observe him closely." "I agree," Hiruzen said. "But we should also start laying the groundwork now." He looked at Yoru. Yoru gave a subtle nod, he understood his assignment. He had done this before, and he would do it again. Hiruzen asked one final question. "Do you want him to join the Numbers?" Even though the ANBU were under the Hokage, The Numbers were a squad formed directly under Yoru's command, a specialized S-rank-tier unit. Hiruzen always took Yoru's word before selecting members. Yoru gave a rare moment of thought. "Yes." Hiruzen nodded. "Then, during the time Yugao is in the Kenjutsu program, I'll assign Team 1 to coordinate more with the ANBU. Let Ren get familiar with the structure. Once he becomes a chūnin, you can induct him." Yoru flickered out without a word. Homura stood, gave a tired sigh, and walked toward the door. Once he left, Hiruzen Sarutobi remained alone, pipe in hand, staring out the window over the village. And just like that, Ren Takahashi's future was planned. ~~~ Once Team 1 was dismissed from the Hokage's office, the three members split up almost immediately. After all, it had been nearly two weeks since they last stepped foot inside the village. Naturally, they wanted to check in with their families. Ren, however, had other plans. Instead of heading straight home, he made his way to the forest behind the Hokage Monument, a place rarely visited, since it was not suited for standard training, but perfect for unrestrained destruction. Once there, he let loose. He activated his chakra-enhanced strength and began pounding the ground, fists shaking the earth with each impact. He darted through the trees, wind-enhanced movement amplifying his speed. Rasengan after Rasengan exploded against tree trunks, sending shards of bark and debris into the air. For a full thirty minutes, Ren tore through the forest like a storm. Finally, he stopped, breathing steadily. He stretched out his arms and shoulders, muscles still twitching from the exertion. 'Damn, that felt good,' he thought, rolling his neck. 'It's been almost two weeks without any real action. My body was starting to go stiff.' He looked around at the wreckage he caused, felled trees, cracked earth, broken stone. 'Good thing no one comes here often. It's not great for technique work, but perfect for blowing off steam.' After a few more stretches, he turned and began walking home. Once inside, he showered, changed, and grabbed something to eat. He didn't bother cooking extra this time. With Juichi not around, there was no reason to wait or double the portions. While eating, he leaned back and let his thoughts wander. 'I don't remember anyone like Dad or even Utakata-sensei appearing in the original Naruto. And definitely not someone like Yoru.' He narrowed his eyes slightly. 'This world, It's not exactly like the anime.' Then again, he thought, maybe his presence was causing changes. Maybe this timeline had always been different. He picked up more rice with his chopsticks and shrugged internally. 'Doesn't matter. By the time these changes affect anything, I'll already be strong enough to deal with them.' His gaze turned to his system notification, finally acknowledging the blinking reward panel. [CONGRATULATIONS USER FOR COMPLETEING YOUR FIRST S-RANK MISSION] [REWARDS: OBSERVE UPGRADE (CLICK FOR DETAILS), +10 JONIN LEVEL POINTS, +20 INT FOR 10 MINUTES] He clicked on the Observe Upgrade, and a new window opened. [Skill Upgrade: Observe: Linked Context] When using Observe, you can now briefly see the name of associated contact from the target's recent interactions (Maximum: 4 people). Ren blinked. 'That's an oddly specific reward for this mission.' He thought back to his previous rewards, usually basic stats or classification upgrades. But this one was clearly tailored to covert intel work. 'Not helpful in combat, but very useful in political and stealth operations.' He smirked slightly. 'If someone like Hiruzen or Danzo sends someone to spy on me, I might just catch them. Assuming they're within the last four people they've met.' He moved on to the third reward: +20 Intelligence for 10 minutes. "System, do I have to claim it now?" [NEGATIVE] 'Good.' He nodded. 'Better to save it until I need to learn something high-level. Maybe a seal or a complex jutsu once I hit higher INT.' He looked at his current Intelligence: 65. 'Stacking this later when I'm closer to the S-rank mark would maximize its value.' He then glanced over to his Jonin Points. Over the last three months of missions and training, he had earned 6 points. With the 10 new points, his total now stood at 16. Now it was time for distribution. Over the 3 months he practiced the chakra-enhanced strength, all his trainable stats (STR, AGI, INT) had increased, however his vitality had stayed the same and his chakra also didn't increase, so these points were good to have. He first added 6 points to Vitality, bringing it from [73 → 79]. That alone pushed his chakra stat up by 1 point. He frowned slightly. Only one point increase for six in Vitality? It's double the cost from before.' Still, he had expected diminishing returns. He then dumped 8 points into Chakra, raising it from [71 → 79]. 'I don't think my chakra and vitality would be growing anytime soon now since they are both at the limits of the Jonin rank and I don't think that even system would just increase them by adding points.' At that time, the system rang again. [INT +1] [INT : 66] 'Looks like I was right, it would require something else too for getting the stats to the S-rank, but oh well this is enough for now. I should let my other stats catch up to the two.' He glanced at the pitiful 52 in strength and decided to just add the 1 point he had left to it, raising it to 53. Once his strength had crossed 50, the system had given him 5 intermediate level mastery points. At that time he thought it was less than expected, but he understood that as his strength grows the system would also decrease the quantity of the rewards, but since he was still getting the rewards for now he didn't mind. Once he was done with the distribution, he opened his stats. [Name]: Ren Takahashi [Level]: 53 [HP (VIT x 100)]: 7900 / 7900 [CP (CHA x 100)]: 7900 / 7900 [Attributes] Strength: 53 (49+3+1) Agility: 60 (58+2) Intelligence: 66 (61+4+1) Vitality: 79 (73+6) Chakra: 79 (70+1+8) [Mastery Panel] Wind Style: 78% (Advanced) Earth Style: 74% (Intermediate) Fire Style: 51% (Intermediate) Lightning Style: 5% (Beginner) Yang Release: 28% (Basic) Space Release: 32% (Basic) Chakra Enhancement: 66% (Intermediate) Chakra Control: 84% (Advanced) Iryojutsu: 39% (Basic) Fuinjutsu: 36% (Basic) [Mastery Points] 8 Intermediate Level Points 10 Advanced Level Points 2 Master Level Points [Ninja Panel] Ninjutsu: 60/100 Taijutsu: 62/100 Genjutsu: 43/100 Fuinjutsu: 36/100 There weren't many changes in the mastery since he didn't use the points. Most of them were already high enough, so the increase in them wasn't much, just a percent or two. The maximum increase was in the chakra enhancement and the chakra control. As his chakra enhancement mastery increased, he felt his control over chakra-enhanced strength also increased. He had thought about using the mastery points, but since he didn't necessarily have any need for them now, he just left them for the future. He just hoped that his decision of hoarding the points would be good, otherwise he would be quite sad that he didn't use his points before. Closing the panel, he washed the dishes and went out to train since it was just noon and he had too much stored energy. ~~~~~ {I kind of just flunked the rewards but I think this is good enough, considering how little time I actually took to think about it.} {Well, today would be last day I would consider the poll about continuing the Chapters in May or not, so, if you hadn't already made your choice, now is your chance.} {Anyway you know what else to do} {STONES!!!!!}