Chapter 59: Chakra Crystal Stone
Ren walked up to Kakashi, then asked: "Now, can I directly assume the position of Anbu squad captain?"
Kakashi nodded and said: "Of course. In terms of strength, your strength has completely surpassed the position of Anbu squad captain. You are even stronger than the captain of the Second Assassination Unit, Tenzō. There aren't many people in the entire Anbu stronger than you. However, in terms of mission experience, you are still lacking for the time being. So for now, I can only appoint you as an assassination squad leader within the Third Assassination Unit. Are you satisfied with this result?"
Ren nodded indifferently, and said casually: "Can do."
Anyway, as long as he became a captain, he wouldn't have to do boring things like running errands or patrolling. Instead, he could choose to receive missions such as assassination independently, earning mission merits and commissions. Such a right was no different from that of a normal Jōnin.
After Ren was promoted to squad leader of the Third Assassination Unit, he didn't immediately get busy. Anbu still needed some time to schedule and assign suitable Anbu personnel to his subordinates, forming a complete four-person team before starting missions. Ren had no objection to this.
The news that there was a guy named "Echo Feather" in Anbu quickly spread among the major families in Konoha Village. The secret of him defeating Tenzō, the captain of the Second Assassination Unit, spread like wildfire among the major families. Firstly, the battle between Ren and Yamato was not a secret at all, so there was no requirement to keep it confidential. Secondly, the major families wanted their disciples to enter Anbu precisely to gain early access to information and insight into the tense trends in the village. So, in the next few days, Ren received many invitations from major families who wanted to maintain a good relationship with him. They all noticed that another talented boy was about to rise in Konoha Village! Compared to Neji Hyūga, who was the most popular in the previous Genin class, ninja from civilian backgrounds like "Echo Feather" who could join Anbu were the ideal targets for them to align with!
But for these things, Ren was not interested. He threw a lot of invitations into the stove, their burning joy turning into a pile of ashes that danced in the air.
During this time, Ren told his father, Tatsuo, about the weapon order Lord Hokage had given to their family. Tatsuo was naturally overjoyed, his eyes lighting up! This was a big business! If this business was done well, then they wouldn't have to worry about business anymore! Even if they did nothing every day, there would still be a lot of money flowing into the store!
After Tatsuo was overjoyed, he expressed strong support for Ren's ideas of improving his strength or building ninja tools! He even waved his hand and very generously said that if Ren needed any ore or material, he just had to ask, and his father would definitely get it for him. It just so happened that Ren was busy collecting materials recently, and after hearing his father's promise, he instantly became happy.
Soon, Tatsuo regretted the big words he had just spoken. Because his precious eldest son immediately took out a small stack of scrolls full of words from the room and handed them to him. 'Why not a scroll, but a stack of scrolls?' Because one scroll was simply not enough to write on! When Tatsuo opened those scrolls, seeing the densely recorded materials, he almost fainted as his eyes darkened! And when he went out to buy with the list of those materials, he almost cried! In order to gather these materials, he actually spent most of their family's belongings! If it wasn't for Ren's negotiation of the business with Lord Hokage, this purchase of materials would have been enough to bankrupt Ren's family's weapon shop!
However, although with full heartache, he still bought the materials for Ren with tears in his eyes, which was great support for his son.
"Thanks, Dad!" Looking at the materials filling several carts, and his father who looked haggard, Ren walked up to him with a big smile and gave him a big hug.
Tatsuo was moved to tears: 'It's worth it, it's worth it...'
After collecting all the materials, Ren locked himself in the room alone. Every day, he followed Might Guy out of the village to perform tasks. His parents were also busy preparing for the big business they had taken over from Lord Hokage. During this time, no one would bother him. So Ren also closed his eyes and began this stage of his practice. In his system, he had recently obtained several high-quality blueprints, waiting for him to create them!
[Name: Chakra Crystal Stone Forging Blueprint]
[Forging Difficulty: ☆☆☆]
[Skills: Disposable items that can be used to store chakra. After the crystalline stone is crushed, the chakra stored in it will be automatically absorbed.]
This time, when Ren was fighting Yamato, after completing the task of absorbing Wood Release chakra that the system required, the blueprint the system rewarded him with was a crystal stone that could store chakra!
The important role of chakra in combat was self-evident. Most ninja would be unable to release ninjutsu at will due to their own chakra restrictions in battle. That's why the physique of the Uzumaki Clan like Naruto, plus the chakra of the Nine-Tails, would become the protagonist's ultimate weapon. And after Ren had this chakra crystal stone, he wouldn't have to worry about his chakra being heavily consumed by releasing ninjutsu. As long as he had enough of these crystalline stones to constantly replenish his chakra... he would have the ability to fight for a long time in battle! This was a truly good thing!
Although the forging difficulty was not high, only a three-star ninja tool, and the types of materials required were not too many, only about a dozen, this crystalline stone was a one-time consumable. Ren thought: 'I need to make a lot of crystal stones as a backup!' Then he set a small forging target—100 crystal stones!
Of course, with so many crystal stones, Ren didn't need to spend time forging them one by one. At this time, when he upgraded from a junior blacksmith to an intermediate blacksmith, the benefits of the Forging Table rewarded by the system were revealed. He only needed to spend two or three hours to successfully forge a finished chakra crystal stone. The Forging Table could then replicate his previous forging process, and he only needed to put in the corresponding materials afterward, and the Forging Table would complete it automatically!
After a few hours, Ren held a bright blue crystal nucleus in his hand.
"Forging is successful!"
The 3-star difficulty chakra crystal stone forging presented no difficulty for the current Ren, other than the time it took. Looking at the blue sapphire-like crystal nucleus in his hand, Ren tried to inject his chakra into it. The crystalline stone itself had no chakra. It only had a function of storing chakra, similar to the function of a disposable power bank. Before using the crystalline stone, the user had to first fill the crystalline stone with their own chakra before it could be used.
"Sure enough, it can store chakra!" Ren's eyes lit up instantly. Then he increased his chakra input. After the blue chakra was injected into the crystalline stone, it immediately turned into a dark, cotton wool-like shape, filling the inside of the crystalline stone, making its color darker than before.
Ren's current chakra, due to his age, was not very large. His current chakra level was about the same as that of an ordinary Jōnin. If it was a ninjutsu that released A-level lethality, he could only release it three times with reluctance. Therefore, in battle, he used tricks like the Eight Gates Released Formation not entirely to enhance his own skill level, but also to broaden his chakra volume, allowing a large amount of chakra to burst out in extreme time for him to use ninjutsu.
And with this chakra crystal, Ren was confident that if he were to fight Yamato again, he wouldn't even need to open the Eight Gates. Using his own ninja tools would be enough to cut that guy down!