Renjiro was blissfully unaware of the stir he had caused in the upper echelons of Konoha's leadership.
After a long day filled with socializing, he finally made his way back home at dusk.
Sama had taken him and Hiro to Teuchi's ramen stand, where they shared stories and laughter, enjoying each other's company until the later hours of the day. The camaraderie was comforting, but it had also drained Renjiro's social battery.
Once back in his modest apartment, Renjiro didn't bother with any further activities. The fatigue from the recent missions had accumulated, and the social interactions had left him mentally exhausted.
There was only one thing on his mind: sleep. Without hesitation, he collapsed onto his bed, surrendering to the sweet embrace of slumber.
When Renjiro finally awoke, it was well past noon the next day. The sunlight filtering through the gaps in his curtains told him how high the sun was in the sky.
He groaned as he stretched, feeling the lingering fatigue in his muscles.
"That was a long couple of hours and I'm still tired," he muttered to himself, forcing his body out of bed.
The temptation to crawl back under the covers was strong, but he knew he had too many things to do.
"No rest for the wicked," Renjiro sighed.
After a quick series of light exercises to wake up his body, Renjiro began to plan his day.
"First off, I need to run some errands," he muttered, as he put off his usual training gear.
"I don't know when the whole squad leader thing will start, but I need to fix my Bō staff. I might need it soon. I also need to see if there are any advanced training weights available," he continued, fiddling with the seal on his arm that he usually wore when he wasn't on a mission.
The seal, which added about 900 pounds (approximately 400 kilograms) of weight, was becoming too easy for him to handle, making his physical training less effective.
"But why should I bother buying other seals when I can just modify it?" Renjiro wondered aloud.
He had created resonator components to enhance his seals, but time constraints had prevented him from applying these modifications to all his training equipment.
Balancing his development in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Fuinjutsu was becoming increasingly difficult.
The advanced techniques he was learning demanded more time and effort, not to mention his duties within the force. His only saving grace was his ability to create shadow clones.
"I miss the days when shadow clones were only for spamming my jutsu training. Now I can't even survive without them," Renjiro thought with a wry smile as he created five shadow clones.
He assigned the first clone to get his Bō staff repaired, and the second to search for more advanced training weights, reasoning that modifying the best available weights would be more worthwhile.
The remaining three clones were tasked with working on his stock of seals. He had depleted his personal stash of explosive tags and other seals during the past two weeks and needed to prepare more for future missions.
Additionally, restocking the seals he sold was crucial since the income from his sales supplemented his earnings from the force and his meagre clan allowance.
"Now that everything is sorted, I need to learn a few jutsus," Renjiro said to himself.
"While I'm proud of my speed, especially with the Sharingan helping me hold my own against powerful shinobi, Ige proved that I need to be faster. He was too damn fast!"
Renjiro recalled the encounter with a mix of frustration and determination. He knew that his survival during that exchange was due to Minato's timely intervention and the fact that Ige seemed to prioritize speed over raw attacking power.
"But now the issue is, how do I get faster?" Renjiro mused, racking his brain for solutions.
"Maybe I can try using Fuinjutsu to somehow enhance my speed," he began to think aloud but quickly dismissed the idea.
"That would be too time-consuming and require a lot of trial and error. Maybe I can remove one of my eyes and focus on getting more pairs of Sharingans so that I can unlock my Mangekyo since it improves the base Sharingan capabilities."
Just as quickly as the idea popped into his mind, Renjiro shut it down.
"Last time, my eye took too long to heal, and I don't know if it will be done by the time the squad leader stuff begins. Even if it does heal, this is just a theory, and there's no guarantee it will help me unlock my Mangekyo." Renjiro pondered his options.
"Now that I think about it, Ige was using some lightning release jutsu. Maybe I can go and ask Momo for some guidance since Uno seemed well-versed in lightning release during our fight."
He also remembered a strange conversation he had with Shima back in Mount Myoboku about the different types of Senjutsu.
"I should also ask her about that. She should be able to shed more light on what kind of Senjutsu she practices," Renjiro noted.
The mention of Senjutsu brought another task to mind that he had been postponing.
"I need to do this now, or I might keep forgetting it," Renjiro decided, creating another shadow clone, which quickly left his home.
'That should settle it,' Renjiro thought, feeling slightly more organized.
He had just remembered that he still had Ohashi's corpse stored and had planned to go through his memories to understand how the Kurogane Clan manipulated natural energy.
Hence he sent his clone to the Sensory Corps base, where he had started his path to becoming a sensory nin.
Renjiro had maintained close ties with Sato Yamanaka, the head of the facility, even after leaving the academy. Training there wouldn't be much of an issue, and observing the Yamanaka clan shinobis would help him learn their techniques later, necessary for reading Ohashi's memories.
"Again, I can't go to the floating islands now since I still need to know how much time I have left to prepare for the squad leader contest or whatever it will be.
I really need to get this done as it will impact all my moves in the near future," Renjiro said to himself.
"Back to the jutsu that I need, I also need more destructive jutsus, the-"
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. 'Who could that be now?' Renjiro wondered, slightly annoyed as he went to open the door.
When he opened it, he found a young boy standing there. It was Uchiha Obito, his squad leader's son.
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