Black Cauldron Space

"Shimura!"

Returning from the Ninja Academy, standing before the clan gate, staring up at the Shimura Clan emblem, Shimura Kentei was filled with a mix of emotion and bitter frustration.

To be honest, as a transmigrator, his starting point wasn't bad, but it was far from good.

Sure, his old man was a big shot in the original Naruto story—second only to one man in Konoha, above ten thousand others—but that was later. Right now, the Shimura Clan wasn't much to speak of.

Even though Sarutobi Hiruzen had become Hokage, the key positions in Konoha were still held by the Senju Clan. Even with the loss of the First and Second Hokage, two top-tier powerhouses, the clan's foundation couldn't be underestimated.

Not to mention Mito Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, who was arguably the strongest of the era—unless you counted that one Shinobi World Dancer hiding in some corner.

On top of that, the new generation of the Senju Clan had already risen. For instance, Senju Tobirama's only son, Senju Tōsu, was no weaker than Sarutobi Hiruzen. And then there were Senju Hashirama's eldest son and daughter—both formidable in their own right. Even the younger generation's Tsunade had grown into a force to be reckoned with. The clan was overflowing with talent.

His own father, the Shadow of Shinobi, only held the nominal title of Hokage's Assistant. It would take a long time before he could develop to the level seen in the original story—at least until he managed to cripple the Senju Clan first.

So yeah, the Shimura Clan wasn't in a good spot right now.

On the contrary, because of the Hokage's position, they were being targeted by other ninja clan factions. Their situation was precarious. In fact, his mother's death might have been connected to this.

The worst part was that, based on his observations over the past few years, conflicts were brewing between the Senju Clan and his father's faction. This was a struggle for power.

He figured the Senju Clan had already noticed that his father and the others were gradually slipping out of their control. They were just waiting for an opportunity to replace them with someone easier to manipulate. In other words, during the upcoming Second Shinobi World War, either the Senju Clan would fall, or the Shimura Clan would be wiped out. The situation was extremely dangerous and urgent.

Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside and stepped through the gate, heading to his own residence.

Although his talent was trash and he wasn't favored by his father, the Shadow of Shinobi—to the point where he hadn't seen the man in years—his status as the Shimura Clan's eldest son was solid. Naturally, his treatment wasn't bad. He hadn't suffered any of those cliché scenarios where servants bullied him, which ruled out any chance of him showing off and slapping faces.

Aside from his father's strict order barring him from accessing the clan's jutsu inheritance, everything else was fine.

Returning to his room, he locked the doors and windows, took a quick bath, and lay down on the bed, staring at the black cauldron-shaped birthmark on his palm.

This was a mark he'd had since childhood after being reborn. He hadn't paid it much attention at first, but after refining his first trace of chakra, he gained access to a mysterious space, which he named the Black Cauldron Space.

"This time, I'm definitely going to become a three-minute man!"

Muttering firmly to himself, Shimura Kentei quickly fell asleep, and his consciousness shifted to the replica body inside the Black Cauldron Space.

"Sister Keiko, begin!"

He nodded to the replica of Shimura Keiko, who stood nearby holding a Bright Silver Spear, signaling her to start.

The moment the words left his mouth, countless spear tips flashed before his eyes, moving at an incredible speed.

Shimura Kentei reacted quickly, raising a large shield to meet the onslaught.

Clang! Clang! Clang!...

The dull sound of impacts echoed through the Black Cauldron Space. Shimura Keiko's replica attacked fiercely with her Bright Silver Spear, while Shimura Kentei's defense with the large shield was flawless.

Their exchange went back and forth for nearly three minutes.

Shiiing!

A sharp spear blade pierced through his left eye, drilling through his brain, marking the end of the battle.

Ignoring the pain of the brain-piercing strike, Shimura Kentei slowly dropped to his knees, covering his lower region with his remaining arm, twitching in agony.

This Sister Keiko replica was ruthless. First, she sliced off his shield-bearing left arm with her spear, then stabbed him dozens of times across his body, targeting every vital point.

The hits elsewhere were bad enough, but when it came to the most vital spot for a man—the pain was simply indescribable.

Facing that strike that had cleared out the entire nest, he really couldn't take it!

"Sister Keiko, that's so unfair! This was supposed to be a pure taijutsu fight, and you used genjutsu again!"

After a long while, he finally recovered, stood up, and looked at the expressionless replica miss with a mix of grievance and resentment. His gaze couldn't help but drift toward her unguarded jq, especially the pair that could easily trigger a blinding Light Illusory Technique.

That's right, this replica miss, like him, was an honest person who preferred to meet face-to-face without barriers. The only external object was the weapon in her hand.

This Black Cauldron Space could replicate others, creating replicas within it.

The replica possessed everything of the original—physical ability, mastered techniques, even memories, and so on.

Of course, that was all. There was no consciousness or will of the original, not even emotional fluctuations. They were like robots, simply following his commands.

Still, it was already incredibly overpowered. Ever since he'd created this replica of Sister Keiko six years ago, he'd been sparring with her every night in the Black Cauldron Space.

From the beginning, when he was helplessly slaughtered in all sorts of creative ways, to now, where he could last nearly three minutes.

If not for her blinding Light Illusory Technique being too dazzling, he could definitely hold out a few more seconds and become a true three-minute man.

Facing Shimura Kentei's shameless accusations, the Keiko replica remained expressionless, her cold eyes utterly still.

"Again!"

After recovering for a bit, Shimura Kentei put down the large shield and picked up a greatsword nearby, engaging the Keiko replica in fierce combat.

This was a key feature of the Black Cauldron Space: the replicas it created were always at their peak state, with no consumption of stamina or chakra. Even if they lost a limb, they would fully recover in an extremely short time.

The wound from the brain-piercing strike just now healed in three seconds, and even the completely destroyed *n*est regenerated. This trait allowed him to fight endlessly without worry, maximizing his combat experience and improving himself.

This time, with the greatsword as his weapon, Shimura Kentei displayed a completely different fighting style from when he held the shield. Since the greatsword weighed only a tenth of the shield, his swing speed was much faster, barely keeping up with Shimura Keiko's attack speed.

Unfortunately, the massive gap in strength between them still prevented him from becoming a true three-minute man.

The main issue was the Keiko replica's Light Illusory Technique—it was simply unstoppable.

There was no helping it. It was a man's nature, and it was damn hard to control.

He was actually quite satisfied with this. If he could truly control that instinct, he'd have to wonder if something was wrong with him—like a twisted sexual orientation, for instance.

The tantalizing yet agonizing sparring lasted a full ten hours. Shimura Kentei once again ended up kneeling in a humiliating Wǔdāng-style surrender, silently vowing to himself.

"Next time, I've got to get Sister Keiko a set of ninja tool clothes to copy along with everything else!"

There was no helping it. Though the Black Cauldron Space could replicate people and objects, it had its limits—not everything could be copied. For humans or other living beings, energy had to exist within their bodies, like a ninja's chakra.

In other words, if the target was an ordinary person, the Black Cauldron Space couldn't replicate them into a clone.

By the same logic, ordinary items couldn't be copied either—unless, like the greatsword and shield in his hands or the Bright Silver Spear in Sister Keiko's clone's hands, they were high-grade ninja tools infused with large amounts of chakra metal.

If it wasn't a ninja tool, replication was impossible. So he was still stuck facing Sister Keiko's clone in the buff, constantly distracted during battle by her shameless use of the Light Illusory Technique.

Estimating the time, Shimura Kentei withdrew his consciousness from the Black Cauldron Space and returned to his body. Opening his eyes, he found morning light streaming through the window into the room.

"Sister Keiko!"

His nose twitched, catching a faint, delicate fragrance. Turning his head, sure enough, a graceful figure knelt by the bedside, engrossed in reading a manuscript.

This was the original of that Keiko clone in the Black Cauldron Space—his fiancée, the child-bride type, who had even already changed her surname to Shimura.

As the eldest young master of the Shimura family and the only son of the Shadow of Shinobi, having a child-bride young miss was perfectly logical.

After all, if someone ever chopped him down, that'd be a real mess. So having a child-bride young miss in advance to preserve the bloodline was necessary. That way, even if he did get killed one day, the main line of the Shimura clan wouldn't die out.

In this regard, his old father, the Pot Kage, was quite self-aware and had already taken precautions.

But those precautions made Shimura Kentei feel utterly miserable—though there was joy mixed in. Compared to his past life, where he died a single dog, this life's arranged marriage was way more satisfying. It was practically "dying under peonies, a ghost with style"!

"If you put all that energy into training, you'd definitely achieve something in the future!"

Glancing sideways at the guy, Shimura Keiko continued flipping through the manuscript titled "Ninpō Sōkyū."

Though her little fiancé's thoughts were dirty and wicked, the book he wrote was indeed captivating and engaging—just a bit heavy on the risqué content.

"If I didn't write these books, where would the money come from to support you?"

Rolling his eyes, Shimura Kentei wasn't embarrassed at all. He got up and dressed without hesitation.

After all, she was his fiancée—what was there to be shy about?

Not to mention, in the Black Cauldron Space, he'd been face-to-face with her clone for six years now. They were practically an old married couple.

As for the money he'd earned over the years, while it wasn't little, compared to that future Akatsuki angel miss's six trillion Explosive Tags, it was nothing.

Even if each of her Explosive Tags sold for just one tael, that'd still be six trillion!

A full six thousand small goals—that was the real richest person in the ninja world!

Of course, don't let those numbers in the billions scare you. The main issue was that currency's purchasing power was really lousy. Setting aside this real otherworld, in the original Naruto, the most ordinary bowl of Ichiraku Ramen cost sixty taels, miso ramen ninety taels. Uzumaki Naruto eating a few bowls could make Iruka, a chūnin, wince in pain. Chōji eating a barbecue could drain Asuma's wallet dry. That showed how low that currency's buying power was.

This real Naruto world had prices similar to the original, and the currency's purchasing power was even lower. One egg cost eighty taels, a serving of white rice thirty taels—that kind of buying power was truly touching.

Beyond that, ninja mission rewards also reflected this currency's purchasing power. D-Rank missions paid between five thousand and fifty thousand taels, which seemed decent, but D-Rank missions were basically things like finding lost cats or dogs, weeding and pest control in fields, cleaning up small river trash, scrubbing toilets—trivial stuff. For such minor tasks to have a minimum reward of five thousand taels, you could infer the currency's buying power from that baseline.

"That's true!"

Gently stroking the Bright Silver Spear resting beside her, Shimura Keiko agreed with her little man's point.

Though those novels were heavy on risqué content, that kind of book had the biggest market—especially for ninjas who lived with killing and were constantly on edge. They were great for relaxation and cultivating the mind.

So over the past six years, her little man's books had sold like crazy. Just in the Land of Fire alone, the money earned was in the billions.

Her spear, weighing one hundred and eight kilograms, cost over ten billion taels just for the materials, including ninety-nine kilograms of seven types of chakra metal.

Chakra metal was incredibly precious—far more valuable than gold, usually sold by the gram, ten thousand taels per gram.

Others only incorporated a tiny bit of chakra metal into their ninja tools. Even tools forged entirely from chakra metal were very small in size.

It wasn't that ninjas couldn't wield heavy weapons—ninja physiques far exceeded ordinary people. With chakra enhancement, they could leap several or even dozens of meters high, kick down trees, and shatter rocks with ease. Yet even so, chakra ninja tools were mostly small.

For example, Hatake Sakumo's White Fang short sword was forged entirely from Lightning Chakra Metal. But given his wealth and the Hatake Clan's resources, they could only make that little blade, weighing less than three kilograms.

That was mainly because chakra metal's density far exceeded steel; otherwise, that little blade would've been even lighter.

"You're really targeting Uncle Hiruzen, aren't you? Aren't you afraid he'll find out and come after you?"

Setting down the manuscript, Shimura Keiko was surprised by her little man's audacity.

He was way too good at courting death!

She wondered if she'd end up a widow because of this.

Finding another man this good at making money wouldn't be easy.

"You can eat your words, but you can't just say them carelessly. When did I ever write about that old man?"

Having finished dressing, Shimura Kentei firmly denied it, refusing to admit that the protagonist of his new book was based on the Third Hokage.

"Do I look like an idiot to you?"

Glancing at the protagonist named Sarutobi Hi no En in the manuscript, then at the little man who wasn't much shorter than her, Shimura Keiko rolled her eyes in exasperation.

This kind of plugging-ears-while-stealing-bells behavior wouldn't fool even an idiot.

"It's just to boost the sense of immersion!"

A bit embarrassed, he adjusted his black-rimmed glasses. Shimura Kentei knew this was risky, but the potential gains were just too big to pass up.

Writing a pure color novel has limited prospects. Only by appropriately adding some real-life celebrity characters can you maximize the sense of immersion.

After all, everyone has a flame for gossip!

"Going at it like this, we can't handle it alone. Since this is Konoha, we need to ask Father-in-law for help!"

Rubbing the manuscript in her hand, Shimura Keiko understood very well that this book would make a huge profit, especially in Konoha where it was bound to be a massive hit.

But since it alluded to that Haku-sama uncle, once he investigated, it couldn't be hidden. She had to ask her own father-in-law to step in.

"I think so too, but don't give up too much profit. After all, we need a lot of money to forge our battle suits."

Nodding, Shimura Kentei agreed with his fiancée's proposal and even had similar thoughts himself.

However, to ask that father of his to step in, he'd have to hand over a portion of the earnings. He wondered how big a cut that father would demand.

Hopefully, he wouldn't really go for a lion's share, because they were really strapped for cash right now. Otherwise, he wouldn't have risked writing this Great Liu Bei starring Sarutobi Hi no En.

Suddenly, Shimura Keiko seemed very tired. She yawned and said, "Just got back from a mission. Exhausting. I'll sleep here for a bit."

She set down the manuscript, didn't bother to be shy, and lay straight down on Shimura Kentei's bed. Before long, she fell into a deep sleep.

"Time to update the data again!"

Rubbing his hands excitedly, Shimura Kentei took out a small medicine bottle, opened it, and placed it beside the beauty to deepen her sleep.

Ten minutes later, he finally reached his hand toward the sleeping Miss Keiko, ready to update the data of her replica inside the Black Cauldron Space.

As for why he used a colorless, odorless secret medicine to put her into deep sleep, completely cutting off her perception of the outside world—it was mainly because the method for updating the data was a bit unsightly.

(For the sake of harmony, this book creates unique Illusory Techniques like the Light Illusory Technique, Canyon Illusory Technique, Abyss Illusory Technique, etc. Those who know, know. Those who don't are all good kids, and there's no need to understand. R!

Per the editor's suggestion, before going on the paid release, updates will be two chapters per day, totaling over six thousand words. This falls short of the ten-thousand-word update promised in the blurb, but rest assured, I'm saving these chapters. After the paid release, I'll make up for it with consecutive bursts of updates.

Also, the update times for this book before the paid release are 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM.

Additionally, new books need everyone's care. If you think this book is well-written, please cast your precious votes. Thank you!)