Renjiro was intently focused as he continued to work on the seal spread out before him. Each symbol he inscribed, showed how experienced in Fuinjutsu he had become in the last three months
It was too quiet for where he was, but the environment afforded him peace that helped him concentrate more on the seal he was working on. But his solitude was interrupted when the door opened and two figures walked in.
The two new entrants were Uchiha Suzune and Uchiha Keigi. They were members of the police force just like him and arrived to begin their shift for the night.
As they entered, Renjiro glanced up from his task, a bit surprised.
'Is it already time?' he thought as he spared a quick glance towards the window, confirming that dusk had already passed.
'It seems I was too busy with the seals to focus on the time.' Renjiro thought as he greeted his colleagues.
"Good evening, Suzune, Keigi,"
"Ooh Renjiro, is Yuki not here?" Keigi inquired. Yuki, Renjiro's partner during this shift in manning the prison, was noticeably absent.
Renjiro replied, "Yuki left earlier. Our shift ended, but since you two were running late, I decided to stay behind and wait for you."
Suzune blushed while Keigi had a sheepish look on his face when Renjiro pointed out their lack of punctuality.
"If that's the case, then it's fine," Suzune said as she walked towards the corridors of the building they were in.
'It's about time.' Renjiro thought as he understood what she was going to do.
'When I was first told that I would be manning the prison, I thought that it would be too tiresome. After I realized that the police force used Genjutsus and seals to keep the prisoners in check, it became my dream job in the force.'
The police force used chakra suppression seals on every prisoner to suppress their chakras as well as Genjutsu to keep them in control. This only worked on petty criminals, the stronger ones were kept at another facility under the Root.
With most of the prisoners having their chakras suppressed, it became light work for any officer manny the prison to have them under their control. Just like a future Kazekage, the prisoners remained in a near-continuous state of Genjutsu.
As Suzune completed her rounds of using the genjutsu on the prisoners, Renjiro knew it was time for him to take his leave. With a final nod, he bid her and Keigi farewell and made his way out of the prison.
Walking through the quiet streets of Konoha, Renjiro reflected on his journey since he joined the police force. It had been three months since he took his first case, and after that life happened on full throttle.
He was no longer an initiate since his superiors recognized his contributions and promoted him to the second rank. His theories on his first case left a lasting impression that his later efforts were greatly appreciated.
Contrary to expectations, climbing the rank came with more responsibilities than benefits. Renjiro was right the reward of good work was more work!
It was like the force was saying that you are now more capable than before, so here's more work. Renjiro was assigned to the prison to man them.
Fortunately for him, the schedule was more flexible for him as he was allowed to discuss with his colleagues when he would manage them. This was a contrast to the village patrols that he would not be given time to alter his working hours.
With the normal operations of the prison, Renjiro decided to focus on his fuinjutsu during that time to hit two birds with one stone. These gave him time to improve his skills to the extent that Renjiro was now working on advanced seals such as the five-element seal.
He also used the time to create extra storage seals and explosive tags that he continued to sell to get more time to study fuinjutsu as it was not cheap at all.
Moreover, his fuinjutsu was not the only thing that changed as his squad in the police force also did. Just like him, Kagami was promoted and became a squad leader.
With Kagami's promotion to squad leader, he had taken Uchiha Hae with him for obvious reason, to start building his squad.
His promotion was more of a ripple effect caused by the retirement of one of the police force commanders. This event set off a chain reaction of promotions and reassignments from the top personnel to those who were bottom of the chain like Kagami.
Regardless, Renjiro couldn't deny that Kagami's promotion to squad leader was well-deserved. Having served alongside him in their squad, he had witnessed firsthand Kagami's natural leadership qualities and his ability to inspire those around him.
However, Kagami's departure had left their squad with only three members, aside from Fujioka. While Fujioka assured them that they would be assigned a new member in the coming months, it was clear that they would have to adapt to working as a smaller team in the meantime.
The other important thing that happened was Renjiro's confirmation of his chakra purification ability he got through the magatama ceremony.
On their way back from chasing the Kumo shinobi, Renjir had asked Fugaku to try and use his genjutsu on him. After numerous failed attempts from him, the chakra seinou ability was confirmed. If even Fugaku, renowned for his prowess in genjutsu, couldn't affect him, then who could?
Yet, as Renjiro observed Fugaku's reaction to his resistance, a pang of regret crept over him.
While the confirmation of his chakra purification ability was undoubtedly good, he couldn't help but feel like he made a mistake. Fugaku was even more alarmed by that even after Renjiro explained how he got it.
'I should have just used a different way to confirm that. Now that Fugaku knows, it is inevitable that Daichi will also know this. If more people know about it, it will lose its effectiveness as a hidden ace.'
That whole interaction opened Renjiro's eyes. While the Uchiha clan was hospitable to him, the incident made him realize how to manage the target he had painted on himself as he would always remain an Outsider to the clan and even to the village.
On a positive note, this drove Renjiro to focus more on his training. He had stopped meditating with the Fire and Wind chakra crystals as it now yielded meagre results. Only Earth, Water and Lightning produced visible results which he meditated with occasionally.
Renjiro also got new training weights that were an upgrade from his previous ones. He bought the one where he had to use a seal on him. It had the ability to accommodate greater weights and target specific areas of the body. This helped him push his physical limits further than ever before.
His ninjutsu did not lag behind. Despite the limited availability of wind jutsus in Konoha, Renjiro had managed to fully master each one within his reach.
While Renjiro had not completely mastered the Wind nature, he was close as he was now thinking of creating his own wind jutsus.
In contrast, the vast array of fire jutsus available in Konoha made him slow down his progress in Fire style. Despite his Sharingan granting him the ability to memorize techniques with ease, mastering each fire jutsu was a whole other issue.
His only frustration was his stagnating taijutsu skills. Despite his determination, he found himself unable to progress further.
In his quest for improvement, Renjiro had sought out sparring partners among his fellow initiates back when he was one hoping to glean new insights and techniques to enhance his taijutsu style. However, t these sessions had yielded little progress.
He also had to learn how to adapt his style due to the physical changes wrought by the magatama process and his natural growth.
He was no longer satisfied by evasive manoeuvres, as switching to a more close-combat style would allow him to leverage his newfound strength and regeneration capabilities to their fullest potential.
But that was for later, Now Renjiro decided to continue to work on his next seal as soon as he reached his home.
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