"Jackpot! Jackpot!"
"Hahahaha! Faster—faster—faster!"
"Who would've thought a hundred-year-old great clan could be this careless?!"
By the banks of the Naka River, in the restricted outskirts beyond Konoha—
A scar-faced man wearing Kumogakure markings was sprinting through the moonlight.
Every so often, he glanced down at the small blue-haired girl tucked under his arm.
His face was brimming with agitation and excitement.
"Hahaha! The Hyūga clan's young lady!"
"If we can successfully analyze her, then on future battlefields, the Byakugan won't be anything to fear!"
Just imagining what the girl under his arm meant for the frontline made the Kumo ninja even more exhilarated.
His mouth kept twisting into a nasty, giddy snicker.
He could practically see it already—
The Byakugan users getting humiliated on the battlefield.
But in the middle of his wild laughter, a shadow suddenly entered his peripheral vision!
"Who?!"
His expression shifted. He instantly adjusted his stance, turning toward the shadow.
Crackle—
Thin arcs of lightning spread over his body in an instant.
His heart lifted.
This Hyūga clan heir he'd just snatched had enormous strategic value.
He absolutely could not hand her over!
Yet the moment he saw it was only a child, the tension in his chest dropped.
"Whew, you scared me!"
"Just a kid—hm? No, wait! That fan crest is—!!"
"An Uchiha kid?!"
The instant his eyes landed on the Uchiha fan crest, brilliant light exploded in his gaze.
The gleam of a hunter stumbling onto unexpected prey.
Like an angler hauling up a ten-kilogram fish by pure luck.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Today really is my lucky day! The bloodlines of Konoha's two great clans are practically being handed to me!"
"Hahahaha! Kumogakure truly is the real king!"
He couldn't contain it anymore—he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
His manic voice even carried a faint crackle of lightning.
Hyūga Byakugan bloodline—now an Uchiha Sharingan had delivered itself too.
He couldn't even imagine what kind of protagonist script could write luck like this.
As for resistance?
That kid looked barely any bigger than the little girl under his arm—what could he possibly do?
So from the very beginning, the scar-faced Kumo ninja had already claimed Uchiha Ren as his.
As he ran past, he casually reached out with his free arm to snatch the boy as well.
Swish!
His arm swept through—
And grabbed nothing but air.
"Hm? Body Flicker?"
The scar-faced man's expression tightened slightly as he stopped.
He narrowed his eyes, genuinely surprised.
"Didn't expect someone this young to have talent for Shunshin."
"The Uchiha really are favored by Body Flicker, huh?"
His mind immediately conjured an image of that shinobi on the battlefield—
The one who moved like a ghost, the one whose speed was deceptive and absurd:
Shisui the Body Flicker.
Young, yet already carving out a name for himself on the front lines.
Some people in the village even predicted that if he was allowed to grow unchecked, he might become the second Yellow Flash.
The White Fang of Konoha.
The Yellow Flash.
Shisui the Body Flicker.
Thinking of them, the scar-faced man couldn't help sighing.
"Whenever Konoha is on the back foot, some freakishly gifted shinobi always rises up."
"Konoha… really is a place you can't help envying."
"But it's fine—because the more talented you are in Konoha, the shorter you live!"
By the end, he even laughed.
As a ninja assigned to a special mission, he usually didn't laugh.
Unless—
He truly couldn't help it.
If Konoha's geniuses could actually live long enough, would Kumogakure dare threaten them so casually?
Let alone come to their doorstep to abduct their bloodlines?
"Tch. See? I told you Konoha's full of idiots—so they really did get spotted."
Uchiha Ren actually agreed with the man's assessment.
He even nodded along.
A tiny kid. A huge amount of agreement.
After laughing, the scar-faced ninja swept his gaze around.
Confirming no one was chasing yet, he waved his hand.
"Alright. Since I ran into you, you can consider it good luck. I'll take you somewhere else too."
Crack!
The next instant, his body turned into a streak of lightning as he lunged forward!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
His speed was several times faster than before!
But—
He still grabbed nothing.
Ren merely hopped backward half a step and slipped away again.
Whoosh.
A wind passed through.
Moonlight poured down.
It dyed the Forest of Death in silvery-gray tones.
Ren ran his fingers over a tree trunk etched with a Flying Thunder God formula and shook his head softly.
"Uncle, you're a little impatient, aren't you?"
"How about we chat for ten minutes?"
The Kumo ninja: ...
He took a slow breath. When he looked at Ren again, the casual disdain was gone.
All that remained was exhilaration.
"Looks like you're a little genius too. My luck is really incredible today!"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Snake!"
He suddenly set Hinata down and formed hand seals!
Chakra surged through his body at high speed.
Crackle!
In the next instant, a purple lightning python appeared out of nowhere, lunging straight at Uchiha Ren without warning.
Fast. Precise. Ruthless.
"Oh? Lightning Release?"
Ren's eyes shifted slightly. He held back the urge to activate Light's Golden Body.
Instead, he calmly set his Sharingan spinning.
After years in this world, this was his first real fight against an enemy.
Was he nervous?
Maybe a little.
But not much.
The Kumo ninja in front of him was, at best, a special jōnin.
And Ren had an immortal golden body as insurance.
In other words—he couldn't die anyway.
So he could play as recklessly as he wanted.
Whoosh!
In the next instant, his figure flickered between treetops, dodging the lightning snake's strike.
At first glance, it looked like Body Flicker—
But if someone truly proficient in space-time ninjutsu were present, they would notice something else:
With every "blink," the surrounding spatial nodes shifted subtly.
Flying Thunder God Technique!
With chakra reserves well over a million, Ren could practically weave a spiderweb in midair using chakra alone.
"So fast!"
The scar-faced man's expression turned ugly.
He realized he couldn't even keep up with Ren's movements.
A bad feeling began to rise in his chest.
He couldn't drag this out—there were pursuers behind him!
He inhaled deeply and formed the Boar hand sign.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Clone!"
Crack!
In the next instant, an identical figure appeared beside him.
Then the two of them formed seals at the same time.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Snake!"
Two lightning pythons burst forth together, even faster than before—
Hissing like living bolts.
"Good!"
Ren stopped using Flying Thunder God for the moment, his small face bright with anticipation.
Flying Thunder God was too broken—he could test something else.
Slowly, the black in his eyes shifted, stained red.
The Sharingan—three tomoe spinning!
Stacked with Dynamic Vision, he could clearly track the lightning snakes' flickering paths.
Crackle crackle crackle!
In the storm of electricity, the snakes' trajectories broke apart into slow motion across his vision.
Left!
The moment it closed in, Ren twisted his body and leapt to the right.
Thud!
The lightning snake missed and smashed into the rock behind him.
"Three-tomoe Sharingan? When did Konoha produce another monster like this?!"
Seeing the three tomoe in Ren's eyes, the scar-faced man's face turned grim.
On the battlefield, three tomoe meant at least squad-leader caliber.
In other words, this kid—who looked only six or seven—already matched a special jōnin?
No—
He couldn't be allowed to grow!
He took a deep breath. A ruthless glint flashed through his eyes.
In the next moment, chakra in his body spun at full speed!
Crack!
Purple lightning spread outward like a spiderweb, covering the surrounding area.
If the kid was fast, then he'd saturate everything around him with lightning.
He could make countless mistakes—
But Ren only needed to make one.
Just one, and he'd be caught.
"Hm? They're already catching up?"
Ren swept a glance behind him and stopped testing.
Right now, he didn't want to truly expose himself under the eyes of Konoha's "F4."
He flicked his wrist—
Twelve shuriken shot out in a blur!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Each one flew from a bizarre angle. Just as the scar-faced man tried to dodge—
A gust of wind suddenly struck from behind him!
"Eight Trigrams: Air Palm!"
Four years of "hard training," a technique gained by chance, finally came in handy at this moment!
Want More? Get up to +60 Extra Chapters on Patreon!
➤ https://www.patreon.com/NightQuill705
➤ +300 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter Drop!
Thanks for the support!