Konoha Year 48, autumn.
The Third Shinobi World War, sparked by the movements of Sunagakure of the Land of Wind and eventually dragging almost every nation in the shinobi world into its flames, had gradually reached its final stage.
On the main battlefield, Sunagakure, the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages and the one that had lost its leader, the Third Kazekage, was the first to withdraw from the contest for victory.
Even though Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, had stepped forward in the battle against Kumogakure and led Sunagakure in defending their nation, what remained for him was nothing but a miserable mess—and the cruel reality that the village's high-end combat strength had once again been reduced by nearly half.
Iwagakure of the Land of Earth had relied on numerical superiority in the early stages of the war to successfully surround and kill the Third Raikage of Kumogakure, forcing back Kumogakure's offensive. However, in the later battles against Konohagakure of the Land of Fire, Iwagakure suffered repeated setbacks. Their crushing defeat at Kannabi Bridge completely shattered any thought of further expanding the war.
Although Iwagakure was still maintaining a standoff against Konoha, anyone with eyes could tell that peace negotiations between Iwagakure and Konoha were already set in stone.
As for Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning, the initiators of the war, their performance had been somewhat disappointing.
On the battlefield against Iwagakure, they lost the strongest shinobi in their village, the Third Raikage.
In their clash against Konoha, the newly appointed Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, the so-called A-B Combo, had also failed to gain the results they wanted against the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze.
And so, the Kumogakure shinobi who had arrived with such aggressive momentum could only retreat to the Land of Lightning, quietly lick their wounds, and wait for the situation to change once more.
As for Konohagakure of the Land of Fire, although it had been attacked from all sides and suffered heavy losses, the baptism of war had also allowed a shocking group of elites to emerge among Konoha's new generation of shinobi.
Represented by the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, the newly appointed head of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku Uchiha, and Kakashi of the Sharingan, the younger generation had begun taking over the responsibility of upholding Konoha's title as the strongest village in the shinobi world.
It was easy to imagine that once the war ended, as long as no accidents occurred, Konoha would welcome a brand-new period of rapid development.
Then, while the Shinobi World War was being fought in full swing, what was Kirigakure of the Land of Water, also one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, doing?
Watching from the sidelines.
Waiting for the snipe and clam to exhaust each other so the fisherman could profit.
And now, when Konoha was exhausted, when it could clearly see the dawn of victory yet still had no choice but to spend enormous manpower and resources maintaining vigilance against Kumogakure and Iwagakure, when the entire nation's defensive line had exposed massive gaps due to a shortage of personnel—
The shinobi of Kirigakure had finally decided to enter the field and harvest the fruits of victory.
…
"Rei, a new mission has arrived. Personally signed by Lord Third. He specifically named you as the team leader."
Within the Kaguya clan grounds, a masked girl stood on the roof, conveying the will of the Third Mizukage to the young man lying on the rooftop, quietly admiring the moon.
The boy had sharp brows, heroic features, and black hair.
Upon hearing the news, the black-haired youth named Rei let out a helpless sigh.
"Did you have to tell me something this mood-killing while I was celebrating my fifteenth birthday, Mei Terumi?"
"That is not something I can decide. Since Lord Third has decided to launch an offensive against Konoha, and since I am one of the executors personally chosen by him, I naturally have a duty to deliver this information to you immediately."
The red-brown-haired girl stated her reason in a cold, calm tone.
However, Rei Kaguya had already worked with her in the Anbu for some time. He naturally would not be fooled by her act so easily.
He stood up neatly, stretched his body, and reached out toward Mei Terumi, who, like him, was also a Kekkei Genkai shinobi.
"Fine, fine. I'll pretend you really are just a heartless, terrible woman here to deliver mission intelligence. Give me the scroll, then you can go report back."
"Here."
Mei Terumi took a scroll sealed with fuinjutsu from her waist and handed it to Rei Kaguya.
The instant the scroll changed hands, Rei Kaguya's eyes moved.
He reached out and grabbed toward Mei Terumi's slender white wrist.
But Mei Terumi was not unprepared. Dust scattered beneath her feet, and in the blink of an eye, she had already appeared dozens of meters away with the Body Flicker Technique.
"I'm not some idiot who will get tricked by the same move again and again. Don't look down on me, Rei."
Mei Terumi puffed out her chest confidently at Rei Kaguya, whose hand had caught only air and whose face showed a hint of astonishment.
She proudly declared her victory.
"Oh. Is that so… poke."
"Eek!"
While Mei Terumi clutched her slender waist and cried out in shock, the clone that had silently appeared behind her by following her Body Flicker Technique vanished into smoke.
Rei Kaguya, still standing in his original spot, wiped the expression from his face and gave her a teasing smile.
"If you want to beat me in taijutsu, save that daydream until after you get married, Mei Terumi."
Mei Terumi froze on the spot, unable to immediately understand what Rei Kaguya meant.
But girls matured earlier than boys after all.
Once she realized what he was implying, Mei Terumi grew so angry that even her red hair looked like it was about to catch fire.
If they were not currently in the Kaguya clan grounds, she would have sprayed a mouthful of acid straight at him and given this annoying bastard who loved making strange comments a thorough bath, inside and out.
"Rei Kaguya! Every time I want to be a little nicer to you, you open your mouth! No birthday blessings today! None in the future either! Hmph!"
Watching the furious Mei Terumi leap across the rooftops and quickly disappear into the night, Rei Kaguya, who had already opened the scroll, withdrew the smile from his face.
Between his sharp brows, there was a trace of unsurprised realization.
And a trace of… relief.
"Tch. As expected, it came."
The mission requirements written on the scroll were not complicated.
They only instructed Rei Kaguya to take his direct Anbu squad into the Land of Fire two days later, cooperate with other Kirigakure shinobi who had already infiltrated, launch a surprise attack against a Konoha shinobi squad that had accidentally exposed its tracks, and capture one target among them.
Although that squad's lineup was decent, and it was led by an elite Konoha jonin, with two Kirigakure jonin squads, three Anbu squads, and Rei Kaguya, a Kekkei Genkai shinobi known as a monster, working together, completing the mission was honestly not that difficult.
The real problem was that the jonin leading the enemy squad was named Kakashi Hatake.
And the target the Third Mizukage wanted Rei Kaguya to capture was named Rin Nohara.
In addition, one of the jonin squads that had already infiltrated the Land of Fire was carrying a vessel sealed with one of Kirigakure's two Tailed Beasts, the Three-Tails, Isobu.
Tch, tch, tch.
Family, we are about to personally create the historic moment where Obito Uchiha, a future mastermind of the shinobi world, goes berserk, turns dark, and falls completely.
If he had a choice, Rei Kaguya naturally did not want to participate in such a major historical event with such a Schrödinger-level danger rating.
After all, directly facing a Mangekyo Sharingan awakened through pure emotional eruption was a risk with utterly uncontrollable variables.
But in order to obtain enough power to change everything before Kirigakure fully became the Village of the Bloody Mist, Rei Kaguya had already exposed part of his talent to gain the right to learn higher-level secret techniques and obtain a higher position within Kirigakure.
Now, he had become a direct Anbu subordinate of the Third Mizukage.
Facing a mission personally assigned by the Third Mizukage, he had no possibility of refusing unless he defected.
But in such an era of endless war, defecting from one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages was obviously not a good choice either.
So even though he felt rather unhappy, Rei Kaguya had to prepare himself to infiltrate the Land of Fire with his subordinates two days later and carry out this dangerous plan that would ultimately lead to Obito Uchiha's fall into darkness.
However, since he was called a monster by his clansmen and had become a direct Anbu of the Third Mizukage at such a young age, Rei Kaguya did not have no cards to play.
"Ten, nine, eight… two, one, zero."
The countdown that only Rei Kaguya could hear ended.
Under Kirigakure's perennial mist, the moonlight looked especially cold.
Then, under some mysterious force, that moonlight twisted and slowly condensed into several lines of text before Rei Kaguya.
[Survival Mission 3/3: Survive in Kirigakure as a shinobi for fifteen years. Completed. You have received one chance to draw a Keystone Rune.]
[Growth Mission System has been activated. After the host claims the reward for the Survival Mission, the system's functions will officially open.]
[Please choose one of the following three Keystone Runes that have completed adaptive configuration as your new talent.]
[Dark Harvest: Gain Yin Release chakra. Based on the number of souls harvested, increase your resistance to genjutsu. When you deal damage to an enemy whose vitality is below 50%, you will harvest the enemy's soul, adding one instance of direct soul damage and causing the enemy to experience intense soul pain.
The soul harvest effect has a one-hour cooldown. Killing a unit with chakra will immediately reset this cooldown. Every successful soul harvest will increase the additional damage and soul pain effect.]
[Strength of the Ages: When you kill an enemy of chunin level or higher, increase your maximum vitality limit by 5%. Maximum stacks: 30.
After reaching maximum stacks, all skills that consume vitality will have their cost reduced by 30%. Each time you kill an enemy with chakra, you will recover 3% of your maximum vitality and chakra.]
[Electrocute: You gain Lightning Release chakra. If you already possess Lightning Release chakra, you will master one form of Lightning Release nature transformation. If you have already mastered one Lightning Release nature transformation, you will gain another new nature transformation.
When you hit the same enemy with three independent skills or attacks within three seconds, you will trigger an unavoidable Lightning Release ninjutsu against the target, dealing high damage. This damage effect has a one-minute cooldown against each chakra-bearing target.]