"Land of Waves" Instance Dungeon

That evening, in the Great Elder's residence.

When Kyosuke had just returned home, a Secret Ninja informed him that the Great Elder wished to see him.

Mulling it over in his mind, Kyosuke followed this Secret Ninja to the Great Elder's home.

As soon as he entered, he saw the four elders, including Fugaku, already seated upright in the living room, waiting for his arrival.

Before he could even sit down, the Great Elder asked urgently, "Did you go to the Root base with Orochimaru today? What for?"

"They found out after all," Kyosuke thought to himself, and said aloud, "Because of his duties, Orochimaru handed me over to Danzo."

"Handed you over? You mean—" The Great Elder hesitated at his words, then pressed further.

Kyosuke knew what he was getting at, so he nodded firmly in confirmation.

"You really joined the Anbu?" The Great Elder's voice couldn't help but rise several pitches.

Kyosuke nodded again to confirm.

"Hahaha, good, this is truly excellent." The elders exchanged glances with one another, then burst into laughter simultaneously.

After laughing for a while, they looked back at Kyosuke and said, "You've done well, but remember one thing: if the Anbu makes any moves, big or small, in the future, you must report to us promptly. Understood?"

"I understand," Kyosuke replied.

"Good, go back and rest now." The Second Elder said to him with a smile.

Just as Kyosuke turned to leave, the Great Elder suddenly spoke again, "Remember, no matter when, you are still a member of the Uchiha Clan. Don't forget that."

Kyosuke paused mid-step, turned around and bowed, then departed.

Behind him, the four elders and the ever-silent Fugaku began murmuring among themselves once more.

"Phew," Kyosuke sighed in relief as he lay down on his bed.

At this point, his joining the Anbu was a done deal, and no one could stop it anymore.

This meant he could start harvesting experience points again.

But before that, there was one thing he needed to do: re-enter the Instance Dungeon he hadn't touched in a long time.

The reason for this decision was simple—after all, he was about to begin his career in the Anbu.

He didn't need to think hard to know that, as a child, there would be a huge gap in strength between him and his teammates.

To avoid being looked down upon, Kyosuke had no choice but to rely on the "Instance Dungeon" route to see if he could further enhance his strength.

He couldn't take on the "Strongest Challenger" Instance Dungeon yet, because aside from Youth Itachi, the other characters were at least elite Chunin level. Kyosuke had no desire to be humiliated.

After all, anyone qualified to be listed as a "Strongest" by the system couldn't be measured by mere surface-level "ranks"—just think back to Itachi.

So, unless his strength improved further, Kyosuke wouldn't go looking for a beating in the "Strongest Challenger" Instance Dungeon.

However, the normal "storyline" Instance Dungeons had similar issues, because at the lower-level ones, Kyosuke could barely gain anything worthwhile anymore.

To get high-quality loot, he had to choose a higher difficulty.

Thus, Kyosuke skipped the D-rank Instance Dungeons entirely and set his sights on the "cover" of the C-rank ones.

After browsing through his options, he ultimately chose an Instance Dungeon called "Land of Waves."

He knew this Instance Dungeon well, as it was the first high-difficulty mission carried out by Kakashi's team.

There, they encountered the rogue ninja of Kirigakure, Momochi Zabuza, and the boy he had taken in, Yuki Haku.

After a fierce battle, they each defeated their opponents, and the bridge in the Land of Waves was successfully completed.

As one of the first exciting battles in the original story, several of its characters were quite popular. Kyosuke himself also liked those two villains with their humanizing traits.

But that didn't stop Kyosuke from thinking about how to take them down.

Having decided to enter this Instance Dungeon, Kyosuke first got up to wash his hands thoroughly with water.

Because in a little while, he would need to engage in a crucial "gamble."

Starting from D-rank, there were no longer any "original" Instance Dungeons; all of them were recreations of "scenes" that had actually occurred.

This created a problem.

In many Instance Dungeons, regardless of whether Kyosuke existed or not, as long as the original course of events was followed, victory would ultimately be achieved.

If that were the case, Kyosuke could just jump straight into the "Kaguya's Release" battle right now.

So, the system added another restriction on top of the original framework.

This restriction was that when Kyosuke entered an Instance Dungeon, he needed to replace a key character from the "original story."

In other words, in the upcoming Land of Waves Instance Dungeon, one of the four—Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura—would be replaced by him.

That was why Kyosuke had washed his hands earlier, hoping this act would help him successfully replace Sakura.

He even thought that if he chose to replace Sasuke, the chances of completing the mission wouldn't be too low either.

Although the twelve-year-old Sasuke at that time far surpassed Kyosuke in physical fitness, Chakra, and mastery of several Fire Release techniques, All of those abilities were at a disadvantage against Haku.

So, if he had to fight Haku, having an ability that could counter her speed was the key to ultimate victory.

Otherwise, even the most powerful Ninjutsu is useless if it can't hit the opponent.

Soon, Kyosuke, who had already prepared himself, pulled up the system menu, ready to begin his long-awaited Instance Dungeon journey.

"Instance Dungeon Introduction: The Land of Waves is a nation without ninjas, occupied by a man named Gato. Tazuna came to Konoha to place a request in order to build a bridge and revitalize his country."

"Completion Conditions: Defeat Zabuza and Haku, and ensure Tazuna's safety."

"Remaining Attempts: 3/3"

"Prompt: Enter Instance Dungeon?"

Kyosuke glanced at the completion conditions and chose to enter without hesitation.

Instantly, a series of System Prompts rang out abruptly in his mind.

"Prompt: Now screening list of replaceable personnel. Please wait."

"Screening complete. List of replaceable personnel: Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno."

"Now randomly replacing one personnel member. Please wait."

"Prompt: The personnel replaced for this Instance Dungeon is Naruto Uzumaki."

Feeling rather speechless inside, Kyosuke vanished from his bed.