Chapter 1 — A Resolve to Die
In the dense forest under the cover of night, the explosions of detonating tags rang out one after another. Bursts of orange-red flames illuminated the darkness, flashing intermittently alongside arcs of lightning. Fierce winds howled ceaselessly through the trees.
Amid the roar of wind and the sharp whistling of projectiles, a young Konoha ninja carrying four weapon pouches leapt rapidly from tree to tree. The katana in his hand continuously sliced through taut steel wires and ropes hidden in his path. Whenever danger closed in, he would swiftly turn and release a low-level Lightning Release technique or fling several kunai attached with explosive tags, easing the pressure behind him before continuing his escape.
Dozens of meters behind him, Sand shinobi pursued relentlessly—leaping between treetops and sprinting across the forest floor. They chased the fleeing Konoha boy with murderous determination, as if nothing short of killing him would satisfy them.
But as one steel wire after another snapped, arrows and kunai began whistling out from the dense canopy above. Some of the kunai carried already-ignited explosive tags. Others sliced through additional hidden wires and ropes, triggering even more traps. From multiple directions, further arrows and kunai erupted in a deadly cascade.
The pursuing Sand shinobi had no choice but to dodge desperately while maintaining the chase—evading arrows, kunai, falling logs, and trees blasted apart by explosive tags. Some used Earth Release or Wind Release techniques to defend themselves.
The sheer number of traps greatly slowed their pursuit. Massive logs suspended by ropes suddenly swung out from concealment. Trees, blown apart by explosions, collapsed across their path.
Many of those logs and fallen trunks bore ignited explosive tags. Time and again, they blocked the Sand shinobi's jutsu attacks, forcing them to halt and defend against the relentless detonations.
If not for the overwhelming density of traps and the large number of explosive tags mixed within them, they would have long since caught up to the Konoha boy—a mere genin—and slaughtered him. Instead, these traps had not only prevented them from closing the distance but had already cost them seven or eight casualties. And all this—because of a single Konoha genin.
The forest had been meticulously prepared with countless traps, heavily interwoven with explosive tags. This was a battle long premeditated—a lone fighter against thirty.
...
"Damn it! To be pushed this far by a genin brat!"
At the rear of the pursuing group, a middle-aged Sand jōnin who had just finished crudely stopping the bleeding from his severed left arm ground his teeth in fury as he resumed the chase. A thirty-man squad—three jōnin and twelve chūnin among them—reduced to this state by a single genin. Seven or eight dead or injured. Even he had lost an arm to an explosive tag. The traps here were simply too numerous and too dangerous.
If they had not already confirmed that the boy truly possessed critical intelligence about Sunagakure—information that could even tip the balance of the war—why would they risk their lives chasing him into a deathtrap of his own design? Why continue pursuing him at full speed without clearing the traps first, even after witnessing their lethality?
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Finally, beneath a thick, towering tree, the boy stopped and turned to form hand seals.
"Wind Release: Impact Gale!"
With no more logs or fallen trees obstructing them, the Sand shinobi seized the opportunity. A high-pressure wind column blasted from the mouth of a Sand chūnin, striking the boy in the chest before he could finish his seals.
Boom!
The powerful gust hurled him back against the tree behind him. His chest caved inward instantly, flesh mangled. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
"So… this… is… the end… for me…?"
The boy's broken words came in gasps as he stared at the mangled wound on his chest.
The agonizing pain and the collapse of his ribcage told Tsukigami Ren clearly—most of his ribs were shattered. Bone fragments had pierced deep into his organs. His internal organs were ruptured.
He knew he would not survive.
"It's over."
More than twenty Sand shinobi leapt down from the trees ahead, eyes burning with rage as they stared at the gravely wounded boy. Yet they did not immediately kill him.
Ignoring them, Tsukigami Ren's mind drifted back over his life since transmigrating into this world. Amid the searing pain and impending death, memories of both his previous life and this one flickered through his mind like a slideshow. A sincere, satisfied smile curved at his lips.
After dying once, he had been reborn into the Tsukigami clan, the son of two ordinary chūnin. They named him Tsukigami Ren.
Once he realized he was in the world of Naruto, he carried grand ambitions and a keen awareness of future dangers. Relying on the foresight of a transmigrator and the maturity of his previous life, he trained relentlessly every day—swordsmanship, physical conditioning, chakra refinement—often pushing himself to exhaustion, covered in wounds. He constantly hoped for the arrival of a "cheat" like in the novels.
Yet every time he returned home exhausted, his kind father's concern and his gentle mother's worried expression, as she carefully bandaged his wounds, filled him with warmth. They praised his diligence but repeatedly reminded him not to train too hard, to spend time with other children. Even if he didn't become a ninja, it would be fine—many in the clan weren't. Though they held no power or status, it was a happy family.
His talent had been poor. No matter how desperately he trained or refined chakra, at twelve years old he still possessed only genin-level taijutsu strength and chakra reserves. Despite all his effort, he remained ordinary. The "cheat" he had hoped for never appeared. But whenever he was with his parents, he felt all his hardship was worthwhile. Even without a cheat, he could at least be someone who worked hard.
Then the war with Sunagakure shattered everything.
In the 45th year of Konoha, the second year of the war, his kind father and gentle mother both died on the battlefield.
A single casualty notice was all that returned. Their once-happy home was reduced to just him.
Despair consumed him. For the first time since he began training, he stopped. For the first time, he gave up.
After a month of despondency, he resolutely applied to go to the battlefield. He sold everything of value in his home—including the house itself—and used all the money to purchase large quantities of explosive tags, kunai, and even a hunter's iron arrows and longbow. Carrying his katana and a resolve to die, he stepped onto the battlefield and began his meticulous plan.
As a transmigrator who had loved Naruto in his previous life, Tsukigami Ren knew why the Third Kazekage had disappeared. He knew certain critical intelligence about Sunagakure during the Third Shinobi War.
During an escort mission, he quietly slipped away from his squad. After half a month of searching, he selected this location and spent another month laying countless traps. Finally, he succeeded in luring a thirty-man Sand squad into pursuing him to the death. Though they wouldn't easily believe a mere youth, once he revealed certain key information about the Kazekage and Sunagakure—details straight from the "plot"—they had no choice but to believe him. To prevent the intelligence from leaking, they pursued him desperately.
"Hahaha… cough… cough…!"
Thinking of the fruits of his careful preparation, Tsukigami Ren burst into hearty laughter. The laughter triggered violent coughing, and mouthfuls of blood mixed with fragments of organs poured from his lips. Only the tenacity forged by years of brutal training kept him conscious.
"Brat, you're about to die and you can still laugh? We'll pry every secret you know from your mouth."
A Sand shinobi clenched his fists, speaking coldly. Around him, the others glared with gnashing teeth at the dying boy.
If they hadn't wanted to extract how he knew such critical intelligence, they would have already begun torturing and slaughtering him. Even now, though his injuries were fatal.
"Haha… cough…!"
Seeing their hatred, Tsukigami Ren laughed again. The movement tore at his wounds, and he coughed violently, blood and organ fragments spraying out. The Sand shinobi could bear it no longer and began advancing toward him.
"Because… I… never… planned… to… go back… alive! This… is… the grave… I chose… for myself! And I… can still… admire… the despair… on your faces!"
After laughing, he spoke haltingly as they closed in. Though certain of death, he felt no regret. With great effort, he pulled open the front of his clothing.
Beneath it were over a hundred explosive tags plastered across his chest.
A sizzling sound filled the air—the fuses were already lit. At the same time, similar sizzling sounds came from his sleeves and trouser legs. Explosive tags were hidden everywhere on his body.
Simultaneously, the hand he had kept tightly clenched finally released its grip. A steel wire, dyed dark green and black, snapped free. Behind him, a massive boulder dropped from the tree, dragging with it a network of steel wires tied high into the canopy—extending outward to nearly every surrounding tree.
As the boulder fell, wooden boards suspended by those wires dropped from the trees around them. Each board was plastered with several freshly ignited explosive tags.
"Damn it!"
Seeing the hundreds of lit tags on his chest—and the boards descending around them, each burning with explosive seals—the Sand shinobi's eyes went bloodshot. They scattered at top speed or desperately formed defensive jutsu.
"Too late… What a pity… I won't see it."
Watching them scramble in terror, Tsukigami Ren's head drooped weakly. Darkness swallowed his vision.
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