A month later
The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of bruised purple and burning orange.
Ren stood atop a high cliff on the remote outskirts of Konoha, far away from the prying eyes of the Uchiha Police Force. The wind howled here, but Ren didn't move.
He took a deep breath, but he wasn't pulling oxygen into his lungs. He was pulling the energy of the world itself.
[Quincy Compatibility: 53%]
Ren opened his eyes. The Mangekyō Sharingan spun slowly.
There was no bleeding. No throbbing pain. No exhaustion.
"Better," Ren whispered.
Crossing the 50% threshold hadn't magically fixed the atmosphere. The Reishi in this world was still annoyingly thin. Creating a solid Heilig Pfeil (Sacred Arrow) still felt like trying to freeze water in a desert—it took effort and concentration. He couldn't rain down infinite arrows like a machine gun yet.
But he had found a loophole.
While pure Reishi was scarce, the world was drowning in Natural Energy (Sage Chakra).
Ren raised his hand. He didn't tap into his own internal chakra coils. Instead, he used his Quincy ability to forcefully inhale the surrounding Natural Energy and mold it into shape.
A spinning blue sphere formed instantly in his palm.
Rasengan.
It hummed with a menacing pitch, far louder and more unstable than a normal Rasengan.
"I can't spam arrows," Ren analyzed, letting the sphere dissipate. "But I can use the environment as an external battery for Ninjutsu. I don't need to use my own stamina anymore. As long as I'm breathing, I have infinite ammunition for Ninjutsu."
It was effectively Sage Mode without the risk of turning into a stone frog.
And the eyes...
Ren touched his eyelids. He channeled a thin stream of Reishi into his optic nerves. A cool, soothing sensation washed over them.
"It's repairing," Ren noted. "Slowly."
It wasn't the instant fix of the Eternal Mangekyō. If he overused Amaterasu, he would still go blind faster than he could heal. But this slow regeneration meant that if he paced himself, he wouldn't deteriorate. It was a lifeline.
He decided to test the heavy artillery.
He flared the Natural Energy he had gathered.
Boom.
A spectral, deep azure aura exploded around him. It didn't form a full warrior yet. Instead, a terrifying ribcage of solidified chakra formed around his torso, glowing with a ghostly light. From the ribcage, a skeletal arm materialized, clutching a massive, jagged bow.
Susanoo.
"Ribcage and arm only," Ren assessed. "I need more control to manifest the armor or the legs. But this defense... it holds."
He dispelled the avatar, sitting down on the grass.
It had been a productive month.
His parents were ready too. Satoshi had mastered the Chidori—calling it 'Lightning Cutter'—and was terrifying his subordinates with it. Kaori, lacking the Lightning affinity, had learned the Rasengan. It drained her significantly, but with Ren's tips, she had turned it into a devastating melee finisher.
"We are ready for the Rain Border," Ren sighed, looking toward the village lights in the distance.
Suddenly, his senses spiked.
He didn't use his eyes. He didn't use chakra sensing.
He felt souls.
His perception expanded outward like a radar, ignoring trees, rocks, and distance. He could feel the spiritual pressure of every living thing within a mile.
"Hmm?"
Ren stood up, his gaze locking onto the dense forest to the north, about one kilometer away.
Four souls.
They were moving fast. Incredibly fast. Their spiritual signatures were jagged and heavy—like thunderclouds. They weren't Konoha ninja.
And on the back of one of them, there was a fifth soul.
It was small, but it felt... hot. Angry. Turbulent. It felt like a storm trapped in a bottle.
"Kidnappers," Ren deduced instantly. "Heading toward the border of the Land of Lightning."
Then, he felt a sixth soul.
About 500 meters behind the group, moving desperately fast, was a familiar signature. It was calm, composed, but currently flaring with panic.
"Mikoto?"
Ren's expression hardened.
The situation painted itself in his mind. Cloud Ninja (Kumogakure) had infiltrated the village—likely to steal a bloodline or a jinchūriki candidate—and Mikoto had spotted them and given chase.
"She's going to get herself killed," Ren realized. "Four elites against one Chūnin. She can't catch them, and if she does, she dies."
He didn't hesitate.
He didn't run. Running was for Shinobi.
Ren gathered Reishi under the soles of his feet. He condensed the particles into a solid platform of light, creating a frictionless surface that slid over the air itself.
Hirenkyaku (Flying Step).
ZHOOM.
He vanished.
He didn't push off the ground; he skated through the air. He moved faster than the Body Flicker, surfing on the flow of the wind. The trees blurred into a tunnel of green and brown.
1000 meters became 500. 500 became zero.
He closed the distance in seconds, a streak of blue light cutting through the twilight forest toward the unsuspecting kidnappers.