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Chapter 4 - The Currency Of Belief

Name: Ryuji

Age: 15

Bloodline: Hyuga Clan → Otsutsuki Clan (5%)

Chakra Capacity: D-rank → S-rank

Chakra Nature: Wind → Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Yin, Yang

Ninjutsu: Three Basic Techniques, Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique (B-rank), Chakra Scalpel (A-rank)

Taijutsu: Gentle Fist Style: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms (C-rank), Eight Gates: Opening Gate (Forbidden)

Bloodline Limit: Tenseigan (10%)

Achievements: [Cat Weeping for the Mouse] [Sweet Talk] [Muddling Through] [Baiting with Himself] [Honeyed Words, Hidden Blades] [Making the Fake Real]

Remaining Realization Points: 10187

***

"Sure enough, killing and arson really do pay well. At least it matches what I put in over the years."

Ryuji glanced at the intermittently jumping number of Realization Points, marking the first time he had ever seen it reach five digits. The points continued to rise in small bursts, as if confirming the outcome of his gamble.

As the name implied, Realization Points could create external things born from his imagination, but they could not act directly on himself to raise his strength. He could not simply grant himself Otsutsuki blood, but he could manifest a method to awaken such a bloodline instead.

The way to gain Realization Points was to make more people believe his lies and stir strong emotional reactions in them. How many points he gained depended first on the tricks used, which were recorded under Achievements on the panel.

[Cat Weeping for the Mouse], [Sweet Talk], and [Muddling Through] were methods he had used several times before. [

Baiting with Himself], [Honeyed Words, Hidden Blades], and [Making the Fake Real] were tactics aimed specifically at Orochimaru.

The latter three were clearly on a higher level than the first three, and naturally brought in far more Realization Points. On top of that, the number and strength of the targets mattered, since fooling a Genin and fooling Orochimaru were difficulties of completely different weight.

Finally, there was how deeply the target trusted the lie, and how intense their emotional reaction became. These factors together decided the final amount.

When Ryuji crossed into this world and received the system, the beginner gift contained only a pitiful 100 Realization Points. By his own tests, one point could manifest a refined kunai, a fingernail-sized piece of chakra-conductive metal, or a low-power standard Explosive Tag.

One hundred points was neither much nor little, but it was far from enough to create powerful ninjutsu, and bloodline limits were out of the question. In practical terms, it was barely useful at all.

So after understanding the miserable situation he was in, Ryuji set his sights on Orochimaru. His greatest asset was not those meager points, but the knowledge of this world stored in his mind.

At this point, after two great ninja wars, Orochimaru was driven by a thirst for truth and a fear of death that had turned immortality into an obsession. Even later, when his body was already collapsing and he needed to reincarnate at once, he still waited for Sasuke to return before taking that body.

Back then, Yakushi Kabuto needed only one sentence to make Orochimaru feel fear and choose compromise. "If you do not reincarnate immediately, you will lose everything. Is that acceptable to you?!"

For Orochimaru, losing everything was pain he could never endure, even more unbearable than losing the Sharingan. What he wanted was never just immortality or the Sharingan, but everything, learning every ninjutsu in the world and grasping all truths.

That goal required living on and on, and it required ever stronger bloodlines. With that in mind, Ryuji forged a fake ancient scroll, recording secrets that were two parts false and eight parts true, and added the appearance of a sealing technique.

In truth, there was nothing after that section of the scroll at all. Orochimaru could never unseal it, because Ryuji had not yet decided how to fabricate the rest.

Or rather, he had already planned it, a lie that would surpass the current system of the shinobi world, but he was not ready to let Orochimaru see it yet. Only after Orochimaru truly mastered the Reincarnation technique and the secrets of the soul would he be suitable to carry out that lie, and worthy of becoming a piece for the next stage.

From beginning to end, Orochimaru saw only what Ryuji wanted him to see. Even allowing Orochimaru to take the scroll and the flesh away was deliberate, meant to guide him later with whatever content followed.

The smarter and prouder a person was, the more firmly they believed in their own judgment. All of this cost only 30 Realization Points, most of it spent on the fake sealing technique, while aging the scroll took just 1 point and the so-called secrets were simply made up.

The remaining 70 points were used to manifest an empty shell, a body that looked perfect on the outside but was hollow within. This was the so-called Otsutsuki body described by Orochimaru.

These two items, especially the secrets written in the scroll, struck Orochimaru's worldview with enormous force. In an instant, Ryuji's Realization Points multiplied several times over.

The points gained afterward were all spent filling that empty shell, over ten thousand points in total, replacing it piece by piece with real Otsutsuki organs. However, this Otsutsuki clan was the one on the moon, not the alien Otsutsuki.

A true Otsutsuki body should be at least on the level of the Sage of Six Paths, a completely different species from shinobi humans. "Ten thousand Realization Points really are not enough to manifest a true Otsutsuki body."

Looking at the 5 percent Otsutsuki bloodline, Ryuji's eyes flickered slightly. He thought to himself that the bloodline purity he used as a reference during manifestation was Toneri Otsutsuki.

"Toneri has the purest Otsutsuki blood. Even Otsutsuki Urashiki called him one of the same clan, instead of using the term he applied to Sasuke and Naruto. In the entire shinobi world, aside from Kaguya, there is probably no descendant with purer blood."

"A bloodline on that level is already the limit my body can endure. Combined with the fact that the body was custom-made using me as a template, the organs could merge perfectly with my own, causing a complete transformation."

Still, it was unclear what level this body had actually reached. What needed to be done now was to let his body fully fuse with the Otsutsuki bloodline, find a way to raise its purity, and use that to push the awakening of the Tenseigan.

"There should be two techniques that can do this." With that thought, Ryuji rose from the bed and walked into another room.

Time passed in a blink, the rain gradually stopped, and dawn cut through the darkness of night, casting light on the lawn and reflecting off beads of dew. At daybreak, Konoha was still quiet, especially within the rule-bound grounds of the Hyuga Clan.

But a string of strange, booming laughter shattered the calm of the clan grounds. "Oh ho! Now is the best time for youth to bloom, hahaha!"

The laughter arrived before the person did, making the guard on duty twitch at the corner of his mouth. Then he saw the green figure in the distance.

Bowl-cut hair like a kappa, thick black eyebrows, a red scarf around his neck, and a forehead protector tied at his waist came into view. Both hands were wrapped in bandages, and the man ran upside down in a green, skin-tight outfit, kicking up clouds of dust as he moved.

In all of Konoha, there was only one such person. Konoha chunin, Might Guy.

"It is that crude brute again. He really is a perfect match for that waste," the Hyuga Clan clansman thought, hiding his disgust and contempt. Though he looked down on Might Guy, he did not speak to block him from entering the clan grounds.

Doing so would have been discourteous on the clan's part, and with the main family's young lady's third birthday approaching, he would not cause trouble at such a time. "Good morning!"

Meeting his gaze, Might Guy grinned broadly, his white teeth flashing painfully bright in the sunlight. Without caring about the cold reception, he brushed the dust off himself and walked inside.

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