"That's already fast, you know."
Ren Takashi rolled his eyes at Fugaku's complaint. "If it weren't for my constant guidance, your strong physical foundation, and my enhanced medicinal bath formula, it would've taken you even longer."
"But compared to the benefits that come with reaching the Bright Force stage, this little delay is nothing."
"Once you achieve Bright Force, your control over every inch of muscle and internal strength will transform. Your blood vitality will begin to evolve."
"That means a huge boost to your taijutsu efficiency, your physical resilience, and even your chakra reserves."
"So stop complaining."
If Fugaku weren't his actual brother, Ren wouldn't even bother.
He hadn't even started teaching Minato and the others the deeper layers yet.
"Right, right… that makes sense! Hehe, then I'd better get back to training—gotta reach Bright Force as soon as I can."
Fugaku laughed awkwardly, then dashed back toward his section of the courtyard with renewed motivation.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Nobuyuki chuckled and looked at Ren. "So the surprise you mentioned… is it what I think it is? You've already developed the next stage after Bright Force, haven't you?"
He knew his son well.
He'd been stunned too many times to count, and by now, no matter how unbelievable something seemed, if Ren did it, it just felt… normal.
"Oh? You guessed it?"
Ren was mildly surprised. "Impressive! Yeah, I've already created the post-Bright Force progression. I call it Dark Force."
"This stage focuses on developing willpower and conditioning the skin and fascia. You've got to harmonize bone, muscle, and outer membrane to awaken hidden power."
"But no need to go into the details now. Once you've broken into Bright Force, I'll teach it to you properly."
Anything more at this point would just be noise.
"Understood. Then I'd better hurry up and catch up. You focus on stabilizing your new realm."
With a nod, Nobuyuki returned to his training.
Ren turned and resumed his own routine.
———
After breakfast.
"Mom, I won't need lunch or dinner today—it's the weekend, and I'm going to do some outdoor cooking with my friends."
"Oh?"
Uchiha Shinmi raised a brow. "Camping? I assume it's with Minato and the others?"
Ren had already told his parents about Minato, Shikaku, and the others, and they'd taken notice of the ones he'd chosen to invest in.
All of them, indeed, were solid kids.
"In that case, do you have enough money for groceries?"
"More than enough—I've still got a few dozen thousand ryo. I'm heading out!"
Grabbing his ninja pouch, Ren summoned a Shadow Clone.
"You go to the hospital and continue studying medical texts."
The clone nodded and set off while Ren made his way toward the commercial district.
Before long, he spotted Minato, Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza waiting near the main intersection.
"Took you long enough!" Shikaku waved. "We've been here over ten minutes. Come on already!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Ren jogged over, looking slightly sheepish. "Had a breakthrough in my morning training and ran a little over."
"Let's grab our ingredients."
With that, the group headed toward the main produce market.
"You had another breakthrough? Seriously?" Shikaku shook his head in disbelief. "You're ridiculous. With your pace, you're practically a monster."
"Even with your guidance, we feel like we're progressing fast, but compared to you…"
People really weren't built the same.
Still, they were lucky. Being acknowledged—and trained—by Ren was already an honor.
Five days ago, they had finally mastered the Shadow Clone technique. Since then, they'd been using it to attend class while their real selves trained with Ren full-time.
Their progress had been staggering.
Even peers like Tsume Inuzuka and Shibi Aburame—who used to be on par—had already fallen behind.
And if they kept this pace for years until graduation… the gap would only widen further.
Shikaku was quietly looking forward to that future.
After about thirty minutes at the market, they'd gathered everything they needed—meats, vegetables, spices—and started heading toward their secret training base.
On the way, Choza stopped by his house and returned with a full outdoor cooking kit: pans, pots, utensils, and tableware.
Once reassembled at the base, Ren clapped his hands.
"Alright. Let's get our morning training started!"
Despite the camping setup, they didn't dive into cooking right away.
Training came first.
Earlier that week, Ren had passed on his personal version of the Body Tempering Technique to the group. They were now proficient in it.
Still, Ren assigned a clone to supervise and instruct them.
His real self headed off to the side to focus on ninjutsu.
Currently, Ren had solid mastery over Fire Style, Lightning Style, and some Wind techniques.
Of these, Fire Style was his strongest suit—no surprise, given the Uchiha clan's legacy.
He had access to a wide range of fire jutsu, from Great Fireball and Dragon Flame to Phoenix Sage Fire, along with years' worth of notes and theory from clan scrolls.
His proficiency in fire nature transformation had grown sharply, dramatically increasing the power of his fire techniques.
As for Lightning, he'd learned Lightning Ball and Running Ground—basic, but effective.
When it came to swordsmanship, he'd gone far beyond just the basics.
Ren had studied multiple kenjutsu styles archived by the Uchiha, as well as traditional shinobi swordplay and a specialty style known as Flame Leap Blade.
His toolkit had grown wide and deadly.
"What a shame I haven't had a chance to connect with Sakumo Hatake yet…"
"If I could learn the White Fang's sword style and his approach to shinobi kenjutsu, my growth would skyrocket."
To Ren, mastering a strong weapon-based combat method was critical.
Compared to ninjutsu, it consumed far less chakra while offering devastating close-range offense.
And as his martial arts training continued to evolve, so too would his physical strength—and by extension, the lethality of his swordplay.
Fortunately, his past-life experience with swords gave him a solid foundation.
Combined with the Uchiha archives, he was already quite advanced.
Two hours passed in intense training.
By late morning, Ren looked up and called to the group.
"Minato, Shikaku—come with me. Let's go hunt some fresh meat."
"Inoichi, Choza—you two gather firewood and start prepping the vegetables."
"No problem. Let's go!"
The group split into teams. Choza and Inoichi stayed behind, while Ren led Shikaku and Minato into the nearby forest using Body Flicker, quickly vanishing among the trees in search of wild game.