It had been over three years since Renji Mercer awakened what he now calls his "Naruto Game System "—a supernatural ability bound not by chakra or mutant genes, but by something familiar to any millennial gamer: a Naruto-themed mobile game interface.
Every time he activated this mysterious system, a pop-up greeted him like an unwanted salesman:
"Top-up to VIP10 now to instantly receive: Sandstorm Gaara!"
For any other player, it might have been a tempting offer. But Renji had tried everything imaginable to fulfill that prompt.
He had attempted transactions in US dollars, British pounds, Russian rubles, and even bartered with precious materials—gold, diamonds, you name it. He left no stone unturned in his quest to access VIP features. But every attempt ended the same way:
"Recharge failed."
Three years of failure had crushed any hope he had of ever leveling up his VIP status. In desperation, he even exchanged Chinese Renminbi just to test if it required currency from the game's original host country. But again—nothing.
Every time he opened the system, he was greeted with the same interface: his own avatar, Renji Mercer, standing before an ethereal, dreamlike night view of Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village. It was surreal.
Unlike most players who would begin with Naruto Uzumaki as their starter character, Renji 's starting avatar was himself. The system had created a digitized version of him—his name, his face, his stats. It was bizarre, yet oddly fitting.
Over time, he'd grown used to the system's features, gradually unraveling the mysteries of his Naruto Game System . He discovered the daily login bonus mechanic, which rewarded items like Copper Coins, Reputation Points, Explosive Tags, Soul Jades, Rinnegan Stones, Delicious Ramen, Ninja Recruitment Scrolls, and even Gold Coins—an item supposedly locked behind paywalls.
The Copper Coins and Reputation Points were especially important. They were used to upgrade summoning techniques, enhance gear, and level up secret scrolls. And thankfully, the system allowed an exchange rate of 1:1 between USD and Copper Coins—though Renji had long since stopped trying to obtain dollars from the system. All he ever did was burn currency into copper.
The Soul Jades and Rinnegan Stones were shrouded in mystery, designated as materials for enhancing legendary weapons—though Renji had no clue where to even obtain those weapons.
Then there were the Ninja Recruitment Scrolls, which were incredibly rare. Whether due to poor luck or some twisted sense of dramatic irony, he only managed to earn one or two per month through the login rewards. On lucky months, maybe three. On bad ones? Just one.
As for the promised double rewards for VIP tiers 1 through 12?
Utterly unreachable.
The monthly Gold Coin reward was a paltry 50 coins. One basic Recruitment Scroll cost 168. And don't even dream about the Limited or Privilege Recruitments. They were locked tighter than a Kage's classified documents.
The system had many other features—but all were grayed out:
Squad Raids
Trial Grounds
Duel Arena
Rankings
Points Tournament
Land of Abundance
Ninja World Championship
All of them completely inaccessible. He didn't know if they needed special conditions to unlock, or if they were locked forever in his version of the system. However, one thing had activated after he joined the Continental Hotel Assassins' Guild—the massive, shadowy underworld organization known for its ironclad rules and contract killings.
Once he aligned himself with that faction, the Organization panel lit up.
Along with it, the Mission Hall.
The Mission Hall was synced directly to all the assassination jobs he accepted through the Continental Hotel. But there were limitations. Missions had to be accepted manually by his character, and he could only accept up to three tasks per day.
Mass farming?
Not happening.
Each mission was graded by rank—S, A, B, C, and D—and the rewards scaled accordingly. But the Hall wasn't just for assassinations. It gave Renji access to a wide range of missions: escort duty, protection gigs, delivery runs, and even search-and-recovery ops.
Eventually, Renji had set up his own agency near the hotel—a humble yet professional office called the Renji Agency. Through it, he filtered all the system-recognized missions and chose which ones to take based on time and reward.
The system also included a Training Ground—not just a visual arena or a battle sim, but an actual Naruto-style training space. It felt as real as Training Ground #8 in the Leaf Village.
Here, Renji could practice:
Ninjutsu
Taijutsu
Genjutsu
Kunai Throwing
The only downside?
No sparring partners. No real-time combat training.
Even so, the Training Ground had significantly improved his combat skills over the years. His growing familiarity with chakra manipulation and jutsu owed a lot to this place. Building something similar in real life—especially so close to the Continental Hotel—would've cost millions.
But nothing matched the thrill of unlocking a new ninja.
In three years—thirty-six months—Renji collected a total of 50 Ninja Recruitment Scrolls.
As any seasoned gacha gamer would, he saved them up and used them in batches of ten.
And like any gacha gamer, he experienced disappointment more often than excitement. Not every scroll produced a ninja. Sometimes he got only fragments, copper coins, or gear materials. But over time, he did manage to summon three full ninjas.
Why not more?
Because when you drew a duplicate ninja, the system converted them into fragments.
B-rank duplicates: 15 fragments
C-rank duplicates: 10 fragments
Unobtained C-rank ninjas: Required 10 identical fragments to summon
B and A-rank ninjas: Needed 40 fragments to unlock
S-rank ninjas: A staggering 100 fragments
No clear system. No mercy.
And that wasn't the end of it.
Ninjas could be ranked up by stars, from 1★ to 5★. But it required even more fragments:
1★ → 2★: 30 fragments
2★ → 3★: 60 fragments
3★ → 4★: 100 fragments
4★ → 5★: 200 fragments
Each star level increased their attributes. But at this point, Renji understood that collecting fragments was a painful grind, especially when his system was partially broken and the recharge function was disabled.
Despite all that, the three ninjas he obtained—while all C-rank in the mobile game—were god-tier in early-stage Marvel Earth because they manifested physically and retained their full move sets.
His roster:
1. Sasuke Uchiha (without Sharingan)
Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu
Lion Combo
Chidori
(Yes, he could use Chidori without the Sharingan—an oversight Renji found hilariously tragic.)
2. Iruka Umino
Teaching Tools Shuriken
Barrier Formation
Roar of Love
3. Rock Lee
Endless Combo
Leaf Hurricane
Primary Lotus
Renji could freely use any skills from the ninjas he summoned. He even inherited a standard chakra pool for a C-rank ninja and could train and expand it over time.
But back to Sasuke...
Using Chidori without the Sharingan was like sprinting full speed through a thunderstorm blindfolded. The system wouldn't even let him access the dojutsu unless he summoned the Sharingan version of Sasuke.
Still, despite the technical limitations, having one chunin (Iruka) and two genin (Sasuke and Lee) at his side gave Renji real power—especially in a Marvel world still untouched by large-scale cosmic events.
As long as they didn't take a bullet to the face or catch a grenade, they were lethal.
After all, ninja in the Naruto world were known for insanely high damage output.
(End of Chapter 2)