Kairen leapt across the branches of the forest, running for about ten minutes, when his attention was suddenly caught by the chakra activity of several people training within the woods.
Looking more carefully, he saw that Yūhi Shinku was instructing his three Genin students in training.
Yūhi Kurenai noticed Kairen and immediately greeted him.
"Kairen!"
Three shuriken swiftly flew in Kairen's direction. Without even looking, he already knew it was Asuma who had thrown them. With a Body Flicker, he easily evaded.
"Asuma, what are you doing?" Yūhi Kurenai tried to stop him.
Asuma gripped his kunai and charged after Kairen.
"Kairen, stop! Now that I've mastered tree climbing with chakra, I'm no longer the same as before. I'll return every single insult you gave me!"
Kairen landed on a branch and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
He had already achieved his purpose of stepping on the Hokage's son's pride. Asuma was of no further value to him.
Kairen formed a quick seal and vanished with Body Flicker, not even leaving a breeze behind for Asuma.
"Argh… come back!" Asuma's rage only grew at Kairen's utter disregard.
Nara Yūji sighed with admiration.
"That Body Flicker… his hand seals are that fast too. What a shame!"
Yūhi Kurenai tilted her head in confusion.
"A shame? What do you mean?"
Nara Yūji looked at Kurenai's puzzled expression and Asuma's furious face, consumed by anger at his own inability to even catch up.
He chuckled.
"Don't you know where he's headed?"
"Where?"
Kurenai's large crimson eyes seemed to speak on their own, making Nara Yūji marvel at the potential charm this girl would wield in the future.
He glanced at Yūhi Shinku, who was still watching the direction Kairen had left, as if lamenting the fall of a genius.
Seeing no attempt to stop him, Nara Yūji continued.
"That's the very frontlines of the war. Assassinations and ambushes happen constantly there. Even the survival rate for elite jōnin is only fifty percent!"
Kurenai covered her mouth in disbelief.
"But Kairen isn't even a Chūnin yet!"
Nara Yūji shot Asuma a sidelong look.
"That's why I said it's a shame… isn't it?"
Kurenai lowered her head.
"Why? Why would the village send him to the most dangerous frontlines?"
No one spoke.
Kurenai suddenly seemed to realize something. She jerked her head up and looked at Asuma.
For the first time, this friend felt so unfamiliar to her. And the once-peaceful Konoha seemed to conceal countless dark whirlpools beneath the surface.
Asuma turned his head away, clenching his fists tightly. Though he hadn't personally participated in the Sarutobi clan's maneuvering of Kairen, he had definitely harbored thoughts of eliminating him.
But that idea had weakened over the past few days as he trained and grew stronger. Slowly, Asuma came to realize his past arrogance.
Kairen's words had made him reflect at night. He had always been too proud, always filtering people's words first through the lens of being the Hokage's son.
Asuma looked at Yūhi Shinku with determination.
"Kairen is someone who's fought on the battlefield. That's why he grew so strong in such a short time. Sensei, I want to go to the battlefield too."
Yūhi Shinku sighed with emotion.
"Asuma, you've finally shown a little growth."
...
On the front, forty kilometers outside Konoha's main camp, lay a strangely quiet forest.
Quiet… but hiding countless killing intents in the shadows.
One could faintly see trees charred to coal by fire, craters left by explosions, the faint metallic scent of blood still in the air, and carrion vultures circling the skies.
Kairen stood on a tree branch, carefully examining the map on the ninja assignment scroll. Only now did he realize—he couldn't make sense of Konoha's coded maps at all.
He didn't even know where he had ended up!
"Forget it. Doesn't matter. Keep moving!"
Kairen stashed the map into the system space and continued running.
While leaping from a branch, he suddenly brushed against something like a wire.
"Boom—!"
The explosion of a paper bomb engulfed Kairen, blowing his body into several pieces.
At last, Kairen realized where he was. He had run straight into the heart of the frontlines!
"Ding!"
"You were killed by the explosion tag of Special Jōnin Kageida Hanpei. Gained +60 experience points!"
I think I just discovered something incredible!
A puff of white smoke later, Kairen felt an intoxicating rush. He licked his lips in twisted excitement. Returning to the battlefield was just like those days of conquering the world in browser games.
He stretched out his body, glancing down at his white shorts. His shirt had been blasted to shreds, but the shorts remained untouched.
Why? Did the system censor out such things?
The system's voice chimed in.
"Please do not concern yourself with such details, Host!"
Kairen shook his head. It was the same as how Saiyans in Dragon Ball never had their pants destroyed, or how the Hulk never tore his.
The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.
"Byakugan—activate!"
Kairen immediately opened his Byakugan, scanning the forest. His surroundings were littered with traps—explosive tags, shuriken, steel wires, poison…
But instead of fear, Kairen threw his head back and howled bare-chested to the sky.
"Hahaha… let me savor the pain of war!"
He lunged forward, dancing through the trap-filled forest.
"Boom—!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by the explosion tag of Special Jōnin Kageida Hanpei. Gained +50 experience points!"
"Ding!"
"You were struck by the poisoned needle of Special Jōnin Kageida Hanpei. Died from poisoning. Gained +50 experience points!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by the shuriken of Chūnin Fukube. Gained +30 experience points!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by the wire trap of Special Jōnin Kageida Hanpei. Gained +50 experience points!"
...
Dying over and over, Kairen eventually remembered this Special Jōnin Kageida Hanpei. His expertise in trap-setting was outstanding—that must have been why he was promoted to Special Jōnin.
His traps were especially well-hidden. Without Byakugan, Kairen would have been caught for sure.
But even with Byakugan, he still got caught—just more often.
Rampaging through the forest, an hour later his experience gains had dropped to only +10 points each.
Kairen stopped immediately. The traps laid by Kageida Hanpei and a few Chūnin had already been exhausted.
He checked his accumulated experience: a total of 2250 points.
Kairen instantly opened the system interface. First, he invested 250 points into his [Sta] attribute on his Chūnin template, raising it by 5 points.
He had long planned to conceal both his Byakugan bloodline and his immortality, which required two Genjutsu.
Since he possessed the Yin attribute of chakra, he had the basics for Genjutsu. And he had already advanced from a versatile Genin template to Chūnin.
Now, with his mental strength raised to mid-Chūnin level, he finally had the qualifications to learn Genjutsu.
Kairen opened the Ninjutsu Development Card interface.
He had exactly 2000 experience points left, enough to exchange for one Advanced Genjutsu Development Card and one Basic Genjutsu Development Card.
"Advanced Genjutsu Development Card—redeemed!"
"Basic Genjutsu Development Card—redeemed!"
Holding the Advanced Genjutsu Development Card, Kairen said at once:
"Develop a Genjutsu that hides my immortality. I want my body to disperse into smoke whenever I'm injured, so no one can tell if I'm truly dead or not."
The secret of immortality couldn't stay hidden forever. He needed to die many times to accumulate experience, so it was best to disguise it. A pseudo-elemental escape wasn't unheard of in the ninja world.
The Hozuki clan's Hydrification Technique was the perfect cover. This would also lessen the greed of those in the village.
"Advanced Genjutsu Development Card activated. Developing Genjutsu per host's request!"
"Development progress 0%..."
"10%..."
"20%..."
"50%..."
"100%!"
"Genjutsu development successful. Please name the technique."
"Call it Smoke Transformation Genjutsu!"
"Name confirmed! A-rank Genjutsu Smoke Transformation Genjutsu recorded into the Ninjutsu Genjutsu Scroll!"
A flood of memories poured into Kairen's mind. He immediately mastered Smoke Transformation Genjutsu.
There are two types of Genjutsu: real Genjutsu and false Genjutsu.
Real Genjutsu is like the Clone Technique—everyone can see it, though it has no substance, like the mirages created by the Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu.
False Genjutsu affects only one person, as if pulling them into a dream.
Kairen's Smoke Transformation Genjutsu was a real Genjutsu. It was like the Infinite Darkness Technique: when you see darkness, it's actually just the manipulation of light.
...
The chapter for the review. Thank you so much