06 - Memory Master
The food at Shushu-ya was even more delicious than Kurenai, Guy, and Genma had imagined.
When they found out that this restaurant actually had shares owned by Kei, not only did they get to eat for free, but they also received a generous dividend every month.
Without hesitation, the three of them decided to indulge themselves. Even Kurenai, who usually ate with the most restraint, ended up eating so much that she could barely sit up straight, sighing internally at the situation.
To think she had once worried that a jonin, who was ruthless enough to use a strong genjutsu combo on his own allies, would be short on money! She had really been too naive.
"Sensei, when are we going to start taking on missions?" Genma asked after finishing his meal, curious about their next steps.
Hearing this, Kurenai and Guy also turned their eager eyes toward Kei. Both Genma and Guy hadn't taken on any missions for a while due to Ebisu's transfer to a different post. Their pockets were practically empty, making their daily lives quite frugal.
Although Kurenai had spent nearly a year in logistics and had some savings, she had barely done any missions before being reassigned. Now, she was just as eager to get back into action.
Seeing the anticipation in their eyes, Kei, who was also looking forward to testing the system's "drop rate" through professional missions, didn't delay.
"We can head over to the mission office in a bit and take a look," he said.
"The flames of youth are about to blaze once again!" Guy suddenly leaped from his seat, bursting with enthusiasm. However, before he could strike his usual passionate pose, he clutched his overstuffed stomach, bending over slightly in discomfort.
Noticing the unimpressed look from Genma, he remained unfazed and quickly added, "Even in the prime of youth, occasional setbacks are inevitable! But don't worry—once we start our mission, I'll give it 200% of my passion and sweat!"
"Sigh..." Genma let out a long breath. Even after being teammates for two years, he still found Guy's personality hard to handle.
Kurenai rested her chin on her hand, watching the lively scene with a smile. She had a feeling that the days ahead were going to be very interesting.
---
Over ten kilometers southwest of Konoha, a massive wild boar, weighing at least a thousand kilograms and resembling a moving fortress, rampaged through the area.
Its body was riddled with over a dozen kunai, though they barely pierced its thick flesh. Its blood-red eyes glowed with fury as it charged around wildly, demolishing fences and simple traps as if they were made of paper.
Guy and Genma launched continuous feints to distract it, creating an opening for Kurenai to cast her genjutsu.
After several attempts, she finally succeeded in trapping the boar's senses with the False Surroundings Technique, luring it into the pre-arranged trap.
As it fell into a deep pit, the steel spikes lining the bottom pierced through its massive body. The boar let out agonized howls for over ten minutes before finally succumbing to its injuries.
Exhausted, the three wiped the sweat from their foreheads and sighed in relief.
Kei carefully took note of their strengths and weaknesses during the operation.
Just as he was about to give feedback, a familiar system prompt echoed in his mind.
---
[D-Rank professional mission completed.]
[Detail: Eliminate the Crop-Destroying Wild Boar]
[Reward: None]
[First-time completion.]
[Reward:
- 2 trait extractions
- 1 gifting opportunity]
---
Kei paused for a moment.
He hadn't expected that the system would consider the mission complete just from slaying the boar, even before they returned to Konoha to submit their report.
Moreover, since this was his first completed professional mission, he had directly received two trait draw chances and one gifting opportunity.
As for the lack of rewards from a standard D-Rank mission, that wasn't surprising to him.
Luck played a huge role in these things, after all.
Besides, the probability of obtaining valuable rewards was likely tied to the difficulty of the mission itself.
If even a simple, time-consuming D-Rank mission, where most of their effort went into traveling, could provide frequent rewards, then that would be far too easy.
His gaze landed on the two available trait draws in his personal panel, and without hesitation, he decided to use them immediately.
---
[Obtained:
- Memory Palace (Blue)
- Fragile Yet Tenacious (White)]
[Memory Palace (Blue):
A combination of innate talent and training allows the brain to develop optimally, granting mastery over the Memory Palace technique. Enhances learning speed, speed-reading ability, and memory retention.]
[Fragile Yet Tenacious (White):
Until your body reaches jonin-level durability, the probability of encountering strong enemies and life-threatening situations increases slightly. However, so does the chance of a last-minute breakthrough and survival.]
---
"One blue, one white—not bad," he mused, reading through the descriptions before decisively activating [Memory Palace].
For both studying and research, memory was an invaluable asset. The stronger it was, the better.
As for [Fragile Yet Tenacious], it seemed rather useless to him now that he had outgrown the rookie phase.
This kind of trait was probably only helpful for chosen protagonists who could somehow endure getting thrown into death traps repeatedly. Otherwise, no matter how high the breakthrough or survival rate, it wouldn't matter if the system kept throwing stronger enemies at him non-stop.
---
[Compatibility detected:
- Memory Palace (Blue)
- Somewhat Skilled (Green)]
[Fusion? Yes/No]
---
... Yes, fuse them. After a brief hesitation, Kei chose to go ahead with it.
This was his first time encountering trait fusion, but both traits were related to knowledge and memory. No matter how they combined, it shouldn't turn out to be a disaster, right?
Suddenly, an overwhelming surge of memories boiled in his mind. Countless images flickered past like a high-speed slideshow.
Even memories he had long forgotten, like those from when he was only four years old in his past life, became crystal clear!
Kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, university… An enormous and intricate archive of memories sorted itself neatly into his newly formed [Memory Palace].
Among them, every detail of the Naruto anime he had once watched, along with all the discussions and theories he had read online, had been isolated and stored separately.
Once his past-life memories settled, his current-life memories unfolded just as vividly. Even the ones he had extracted from other ninjas' minds while working in the interrogation division were now perfectly cataloged.
The storm of memories gradually calmed, and as it did, the system's notification echoed in his mind.
---
[Fusion complete.]
[Obtained:
- Memory Master of the Shinobi World (Blue)]
[Memory Master of the Shinobi World (Blue):
A perfected application of the Memory Palace grants near-limitless memory capacity. Your vast recollection of two lifetimes provides deep insight into various life experiences, hidden secrets of the shinobi world, and a broad understanding of ninjutsu and secret techniques. Enhances learning speed, speed-reading ability, and memory retention.]
---
"Holy shit!"
Feeling the sharp clarity of his memories, Kei's eyes sparkled with excitement.