PAT
A soft pat landed against Ren's cheek.
It was gentle and warm, familiar in a way that made his chest tighten before his mind could catch up.
He was still gazing upward when it happened, eyes half-lidded, thoughts drifting somewhere far beyond the clearing, far beyond the village. Slowly, he lowered his head. His eyes opened, unfocused at first, then sharpening as the figure in front of him came into view.
He didn't flinch.
He didn't tense.
He just muttered softly, almost lazily, as if greeting someone he had always known would be there.
"Hello there, Mother."
Standing in front of him was Kagami and yet… not entirely.
The left half of Kagami's face was unchanged, sharp lines, hardened expression, the Mangekyo Sharingan blazing cold and steady, carrying all the weight of years spent in shadows and blood. That half looked like a commander, a shinobi who had lived and survived things most people never should.
But the right half, the right half was different.
The skin was softer, the expression less rigid, almost gentle. The eye on that side was no Sharingan at all, but a clear, light blue, so painfully familiar that Ren felt a faint ache bloom behind his ribs.
Three light blue eyes met in the middle of the compound.
For a moment, the world felt oddly still.
Kagami spoke.
But the voice that came out was not the cold, clipped tone he had used moments ago while confronting Danzo and Hiruzen. This voice was softer, feminine, carrying the faintest edge of concern beneath its composure. It wasn't warm exactly, but it wasn't cruel either.
It was the kind of voice that had once soothed a crying child in the middle of the night.
"You are thinking in the wrong direction," she said calmly.
Ren tilted his head slightly, an almost childlike gesture that didn't match the night he had just survived.
"Am I?"
His gaze slid past her shoulder, drifting back to where Hiruzen still knelt on the ground, shoulders shaking, hands clenched in the dirt as years of regret poured out of him.
"Even when that is the result?" Ren asked quietly.
Before Kagami could answer, another presence stepped closer.
Juichi appeared at Ren's side, his movements unhurried but careful, as if afraid to break something fragile. His eyes locked onto Kagami's face, onto her face, and for a brief moment, all the hardness drained out of him.
"…Sa-Chan," he said softly.
Kagami's expression shifted, no, Sayaka's did.
Her gaze turned to Juichi, and for the first time that night, something unmistakably gentle appeared on her face. It wasn't a full smile, not quite, but it was close enough to make Juichi's throat tighten.
"You raised him well, Ju-kun," Sayaka said lightly.
Her tone held quiet pride, not loud or boastful, just a simple acknowledgment. Then her eyes flicked back to Ren, sharp again but not unkind.
"However," she continued, "I think he should have a lesson from his mother as well. Not just from the commander or the boss-man."
Ren didn't resist when she stepped closer.
Sayaka pulled him into her, one hand resting against the back of his head, the other still cupping his cheek. Her touch was steady, grounding, anchoring him firmly back into his body and the present moment.
She spoke gently, directly into his ear.
"What you are seeing is something that would make you think it would be better not to have emotions," she said softly. "To cut them away, to become perfect. A person without hesitation, without flaws."
Her hand moved, fingers threading briefly through his hair in a familiar, almost instinctive motion.
"That conclusion isn't wrong," Sayaka continued, voice light but firm. "It is a valid answer."
Ren's eyes flickered.
"But," she added, and this time there was a subtle warmth in her voice, "that is only one aspect of things."
She leaned back just enough to look at him properly, her light blue eye searching his face.
She didn't let go of him. Instead, she took Ren's hand, his fingers still faintly tense from battle, from holding Danzo down and guided it inward, pressing his palm flat against his own chest.
Right over his heart.
"Feel that," she said quietly.
Ren did. The steady rhythm of his heart beating, strong, fast and alive.
"Being a human is a complex thing," Sayaka continued, her voice calm, measured, carrying the weight of lived years rather than theory. "We start as one of the weakest species among living beings. Slower than beasts. Frailer than monsters, only a bit longer-lived than most things that crawl or fly."
Her fingers curled slightly around his wrist, grounding him there.
"And yet," she went on, "as we grow, we experience things that forge us. Experiences that shape who we become. Some of them are successes. Some are failures. Some are so painful that we wish we could forget them entirely."
Her gaze softened for a moment.
"But unless we experience all of them," she said, "we never really grow."
Ren listened, silent, his eyes fixed on nothing and everything at once.
"Only by having feelings," Sayaka continued, "can we truly experience life. Only by feeling can we take lessons from it. Only by feeling can we grow."
Her eyes shifted then, drifting toward Danzo, still pinned, still breathing, still radiating that ugly, stubborn will to survive. The warmth in her voice thinned, not vanishing, but sharpening.
"Even this piece of dirt," she said coolly, "became strong because of emotions."
Danzo flinched faintly, though he said nothing.
"Greed," Sayaka said. "Fear, Envy, Obsession. Those emotions forged him. Twisted him, yes, but they forged him. They pushed him, hammered him, forced him to claw his way to the strength he has now."
She exhaled slowly.
"However," she added, tone shifting again, "this is not entirely right either."
Her fingers loosened slightly on Ren's wrist.
"Becoming strong is easy," Sayaka said. "Even if you become a cold, unfeeling rock, you can still become stronger. You can train, you can fight, you can kill, you can survive."
A faint smile tugged at her lips as she looked back at Ren.
"But you want to become the strongest, don't you?"
Ren nodded.
Sayaka's smile widened just a fraction.
"Then answer me this," she said. "What is the most essential thing for a shinobi?"
Ren barely needed to think. "Chakra," he muttered.
Sayaka nodded approvingly. "That's right."
She lifted her free hand, palm up, as if laying out a lesson long prepared.
"Chakra is made of two components," she said. "Physical energy and spiritual energy. Physical energy grows with training, with age, with the strengthening of the body."
Her eyes returned to him, sharp and intent.
"But spiritual energy," she continued, "only grows by living."
"It grows by experience," Sayaka said. "By being forged by life itself. Happiness, sadness, anger, helplessness, desperation, betrayal."
Each word landed like a hammer strike.
"These are the things that continuously temper us," she went on. "They break us down and rebuild us. Again and again. And every time that happens, spiritual energy increases."
She paused, letting the thought settle.
"Now," Sayaka said quietly, "what happens if a person's body grows stronger, but their mind never faces proper growth?"
"…Imbalance," he muttered, this time with more certainty.
Sayaka nodded. "That's right. Imbalance."
Her voice grew firmer.
"That imbalance will inevitably surface," she said. "The person becomes irritable and restless. Desperate for growth. That desperation will force them into new experiences, often far harsher ones."
Her gaze flicked briefly to Danzo again.
"They will still have to feel," she said. "Still have to experience. Still have to suffer."
She looked back at Ren, her expression almost amused now.
"So if the end result is the same," Sayaka asked lightly, "why go through so much trouble?"
Her smile widened, just a little.
"If you can experience happiness from butterscotch ice cream," she said softly, "joy from teasing a strong opponent, satisfaction from protecting someone important to you…"
Her light blue eye sparkled faintly.
"Then why, in the Sage's name," she finished, "would you choose to become a lifeless rock, only to be forced into desperation later, when the end result is still growth?"
She tilted her head, studying him.
"Tell me, Ren," Sayaka asked gently. "Why make the journey harsher than it needs to be?"
For the first time in a long while, Ren didn't immediately have an answer and somehow… that felt right.
Ren closed his eyes, not to shut the world out, but to finally let it in.
Sayaka's words echoed softly in his mind, not as a lecture, not as advice forced onto him, but as something that fit. Something that slid into place the way a missing piece finally does when you stop trying to force the puzzle.
His thoughts began to drift.
To the truly strong people of the shinobi world from past, present, and even those yet to come.
Every single one of them followed the same path.
Talent… or desperation and then life.
Life, in all its cruelty and beauty, would take that raw material and beat it into shape.
The strongest being this world had ever known, the mother of chakra. The rabbit goddess, Kaguya Otsutsuki.
She wasn't weak even before the chakra fruit. Far from it. But she hadn't been complete.
It was only after she experienced Tenji's love, warm, fragile, fleeting. Only after she felt the helplessness of being hunted by the very humans she wanted to protect. Only after fear, betrayal, and despair piled up inside her heart, that she finally found the resolve to eat the chakra fruit.
Only then did she become the strongest.
Madara.
Hashirama.
Two monsters born with absurd talent.
But talent alone wasn't what pushed them beyond everyone else.
It was war, loss, ideals clashing, friendship turning into rivalry and rivalry turning into obsession.
They were forged by life until they became forces of nature.
Obito.
A boy crushed by a boulder, both literally and figuratively.
Love, loss, hopelessness so deep it broke something fundamental inside him.
That despair became fuel. Twisted, yes, but powerful.
Might Guy.
No bloodline, no genius, no shortcuts.
Just relentless effort, humiliation, failure, and stubborn pride.
Every step forward was paid for in sweat and pain, and that was precisely why he could stand beside monsters.
Naruto and Sasuke.
Two sides of the same coin.
One forged by loneliness and rejection. The other by loss and hatred.
Both born with potential, but only after being hammered by life again and again did they become legends.
Even Black Zetsu crossed Ren's mind.
Cold, calculating, inhuman in many ways and yet, even he wasn't empty.
He loved his mother. It was twisted, obsessive and consuming, but that love was real.
It was the battery that powered centuries of manipulation and patience. He didn't become the strongest, but he achieved his goal.
Kaguya was revived.
Ren exhaled slowly.
All of it pointed to one undeniable truth.
To grow, to truly become stronger, to reach the peak, you had to experience life.
Being cold, being indifferent, being detached.
That wasn't strength.
That was stagnation.
If someone was truly indifferent, they wouldn't care about happiness. They wouldn't feel desperation. They wouldn't crave growth.
And if they could feel desperation, then they were not indifferent.
If they were not indifferent, then they were human.
The novels he'd read in his previous life suddenly felt hollow. "Cold and indifferent protagonists" who were somehow desperate to grow stronger.
It didn't make sense.
If you could feel desperation, you weren't indifferent. If you could feel hunger for power, you cared.
True indifference meant nothing touched you.
Not joy, pain or ambition and that… led nowhere.
At that moment, it felt as if something inside Ren shifted. No, it was as if something was unlocked.
Like a weight he hadn't even realized he was carrying had been quietly lifted from his chest.
His chakra stirred, then surged. It wasn't violent or explosive. It was natural. Like a river finally freed from an obstruction, flowing the way it was always meant to.
His aura brightened, subtle at first, then unmistakable.
Not oppressive or murderous. It was warm and steady.
A presence that cut through the darkness blanketing the village, like a lone light refusing to be smothered.
People nearby, shinobi hardened by war, felt it with clear understanding.
Their shoulders loosened and their breathing steadied. For reasons they couldn't explain, the night felt a little less suffocating.
Ren slowly opened his eyes.
The world looked… clearer.
Colors felt sharper, Chakra pathways more vivid. The Flow, something he barely understood, felt smoother, more cooperative, as if acknowledging a decision made deep within him.
And then, quietly, without fanfare, a familiar translucent panel slid into his vision.
A system notification.
Ren glanced at it.
[Chakra (CHA): 93 (89 → 93)]
He blinked once, then snorted softly.
'…Heh.'
It was not from training or combat. Not from some absurdly dangerous breakthrough.
Just… understanding.
Ren leaned back slightly, a faint, almost amused smile tugging at his lips as he looked up at the night sky again.
'Guess I don't need to become a rock after all,' he thought,
And for the first time that night, the path ahead felt lighter.
~~~
{Please read the notes below, and comment whatever you want to say, be it criticism or consensus, or anything else you might want to say.}
{Pat-reon readers felt Sayaka was slightly forced, but don't worry, in the subsequent chapters I gave a clear answer and they were happy with the result.}
~~~~~
{Some of you might really like this chapter, some might think this was forced, however I believe this was a necessary chapter, both for Ren's growth and the story in general.
This fic was never about a cold, emotionless mc, it is about or fun loving Ren, who during all his 12 years of living never really had a setback, which is fine, we get OP MC, we love that and all, however, it is also important to grow, to experience things and if one wasn't even aware that they have to experience things, they would grow, but they wouldn't really, if you understand what I mean to say.
Anyway, this chapter was quite important for the fic as a whole, from this chapter onwards fighting wouldn't be the sole focus, Ren is already among one of the strongest people in the world, and he would continue to grow even stronger till he becomes even stronger, however, from now, atleast until the Shippuden timeline Ren wouldn't really have a great fight like the one with Obito.
That's about 9 years from the present time, during this time, Ren will grow up to be the strongest, atleast till Madara and Hashirama level, however we'll be spending these 9 years in time skips of 3 years.
First time skip, he'll become the Hokage (Ren-15)
Second time skip, the Canon (Ren-18)
Third time skip, Shippuden (Ren-21)
Each of these time skips will have their own storyline, might follow the canon, might not, however I am saying this now, this fic won't be as action focused as it is now, for a few upcoming chapter, there will be a few in between, however not like now where Ren has many exciting battles, because with the strength he has now, he doesn't have many opponents.}
{Also, let me give you a spoiler, before the fic turns down the focus from an action-packed fic, you will get one last fight, hopefully one of my best one till now, this fight will see the return of someone you might have missed dearly for over 200 chapters. The Ball Buster.}
{One more thing, the corny titles will also return soon.}