Chapter 91: Commoner Genius and Failed Progeny
The spectacle in the grove unfolded with a predictability that was both comedic and tragic. While Naruto attempted to negotiate with the tree and Sasuke systematically cracked its bark with overzealous chakra spikes, Sakura Haruno approached her own trunk with a quiet, focused intensity. She placed a hand against the rough bark, closed her eyes for a moment, and then stepped up.
One foot. Then the other. Her ascent was neither fast nor flashy. It was steady, controlled, each step a perfect application of just enough chakra to adhere, not a joule more. In less than a minute, she was standing among the lower branches, looking down with mild surprise at her own success.
Kakashi, who had flickered to a branch beside Ren, stared. His single visible eye was wide with disbelief.
"Sakura?" he breathed out.
"Sakura," Ren confirmed, not taking his eyes off the distant mist where a colder presence still lurked. "Told you."
"How? She's… a civilian-born. No clan techniques. No notable chakra reserves."
Ren finally glanced at him, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Women are generally more sensitive to subtle energies. Intuition. Patience. Maybe she's just a natural at fine control. Or maybe…" He shrugged, leaving the rest unsaid. Or maybe she's the only one of the three who actually listened to the theory instead of just hearing 'climb tree, get power.'
[Tobirama Senju: Well, well. The commoner girl ascends first. A delightful twist. Fourth Hokage, Uchiha junior… your illustrious bloodlines seem to have produced… slower climbers.]
[Uchiha Shisui: Sakura-chan's parents weren't shinobi. She has no innate advantages. This is purely her own effort and affinity.]
[Tobirama Senju: Exactly! Meanwhile, the Senju-Uzumaki hybrid and the last scion of the Uchiha are currently debating whether to headbutt the tree or set it on fire. It's poetic.]
The ancestral roasting began in earnest.
[Uchiha Madara: To be outperformed by a civilian girl… this 'Sasuke' is an embarrassment to the name. The Uchiha flame gutters in such weak hands.]
[Uchiha Izuna: A complete disgrace. Our clan's legacy, reduced to… this.]
[Uchiha Fugaku: Great-grandfathers, please! He's young! He'll improve!]
[Uchiha Madara: Silence, failure. Your line ends in mediocrity.]
[Minato Namikaze: Hey! Naruto has heart! He's… determined!]
[Tobirama Senju: Determination is what you use when talent fails. Your boy seems to be running a surplus of one and a deficit of the other.]
Ren decided to twist the knife, subtly redirecting the conversation. Speaking of Uchiha potential… their Sharingan awakens through emotional trauma, correct? The greater the trauma, the greater the potential unlock?
[Uchiha Madara: Correct. I awakened mine the moment I learned the truth about Hashirama. The betrayal… it crystallized my vision.]
[Hashirama Senju: Madara… I never meant…]
[Uchiha Madara: Spare me your senile sap. It was the catalyst. That is all.]
[Tobirama Senju: So my brother was your emotional trigger. How… intimate.]
Ren pressed on. And Sasuke… he awakened his during the Uchiha Massacre. He saw his entire clan slaughtered. He saw his brother kill his parents. The ultimate betrayal, the deepest loss.
A heavy silence fell over the Uchiha contingent in the stream.
[Uchiha Fugaku: …Yes. That would be the moment.]
[Uchiha Madara: And? What level did he achieve with such a stimulus? Two tomoe? Three?]
Ren delivered the line with perfect, deadpan timing. One.
The digital silence was deafening.
[Uchiha Madara: …One. Tomoe. His clan exterminated, his parents murdered before his eyes… and he unlocked a single tomoe.]
[Third Raikage: Forgive my ignorance… is that… bad?]
[Uchiha Izuna: 'Bad' is an insult to failure. Let me educate you. Uchiha talent is measured in the speed and depth of the Sharingan's response to trauma. My brother went from zero to three tomoe in one event. Some, with truly profound catalysts, leap directly to the Mangekyō. To experience the annihilation of your entire world and only gain a single, spinning comma… it's not just weak. It's an insult to the trauma itself.]
[Uchiha Shisui: It's… underwhelming. To put it kindly.]
[Tobirama Senju: The key point is, it's been years. And he's still a one-tomoe wonder. That's not underwhelming. That's a statistical anomaly of inadequacy.]
[Uchiha Madara: Fugaku. You spawned this.]
[Uchiha Fugaku: Grandfather! It… it was an accident! A happy, but ultimately flawed, accident! Mikoto and I… that night… the preventative seal malfunctioned…]
[Tobirama Senju: A malfunctioning contraceptive seal? Is that a common Uchiha problem? Do your eyes fail to see the label?]
[Uchiha Fugaku: It's not that! I was… tired! Stressed from clan politics! My chakra control was off! These things happen!]
[Minato Namikaze: You told me you were 'vigorous as ever'!]
[Uchiha Fugaku: I was! After I started taking that special tonic from the Nara apothecary! The one with the refined deer antler and cordyceps! It worked wonders!]
[Tobirama Senju: I am now convinced this stream is being used for illicit herbal supplement advertising. Is there no regulation in the afterlife?]
Back in the grove, the drama was more immediate. Naruto, inspired by Sakura's success (or shamed by it), finally stopped yelling and actually focused. A shadow clone appeared beside him, and together they started a clumsy but sincere attempt, the clone bracing the real Naruto as he concentrated chakra into his feet. It was progress. Slow, noisy, inelegant progress, but progress.
Sasuke watched Sakura descend with effortless grace, his Sharingan spinning angrily. His failure wasn't due to lack of understanding; it was an excess of force, of Uchiha pride demanding immediate, perfect mastery. He saw her calm control as a personal affront.
Kakashi watched it all, his mind a whirlwind. Ren's casual prediction. Sakura's latent precision. The deep, unsettling revelations in the private chat only he and Ren seemed partially aware of. And the ever-present, chilling awareness that they were being observed from the mist.
He looked at Ren, who was now idly tracing a pattern in the moss with a kunai tip. The boy's demeanor was a mask of casual boredom, but Kakashi's instincts, sharpened by decades in Anbu, screamed that every move, every word, was part of a larger, unseen calculation.
"You're not even remotely surprised by any of this, are you?" Kakashi asked quietly.
Ren looked up, his grey eyes reflecting the faint moonlight filtering through the mist. "About what? Sakura? She's always been good at the boring, meticulous stuff. She just needed a reason to apply it. Naruto's a powerhouse with no finesse. Sasuke's all finesse with no emotional control. They are exactly what they appear to be."
He paused, his gaze drifting back to the dense, white-grey wall of mist beyond the trees. "It's the things we can't see that are worth being surprised about."
As if on cue, the cold, observational presence at the edge of Ren's senses shifted. Not moving closer. Just… adjusting its angle. Taking in the new dynamic. The pink-haired girl's success. The orange one's struggle. The Uchiha's frustration.
And the one who didn't need to train at all, sitting apart, already looking back.
The game of observation was mutual. And Ren had just made his first, silent move, marking the board. The next move belonged to the hunter in the mist.