"Hey, Kyosuke, what are we training today?"
"Trap creation."
"Aw, why do we have to learn something so boring?"
"None of your business."
The bickering of two children echoed through the Uchiha Clan Grounds.
They were Kyosuke and Uchiha Nagisa, who had been constantly tagging along after him.
Ever since they had formally met at Second Elder's house, she had clung to Kyosuke for several days straight. Even when he went to train with the Military Police Force, she followed along.
Not only him—even Fugaku had to patiently cater to this little ancestor. Kyosuke simply let her do as she pleased.
After all, there was no downside to building a good relationship with Second Elder's granddaughter.
After spending some time with her, he learned that aside from a few people she got along with relatively well, the girl had almost no friends her own age in the clan.
And because of her status, even those few people were extremely cautious around her. Who would dare tease her like Kyosuke did whenever he felt like it?
So it was no surprise that she had become so attached to him.
Sure enough, she had blocked Kyosuke's path early that morning, insisting on following him to the Military Police Force.
Even while Kyosuke trained, she stayed glued to his side, as if to say, Don't even think about getting rid of me.
Second Elder was happy enough with the arrangement. If nothing else, she was willing to work hard at her training while Kyosuke trained, and that benefit alone made it worthwhile.
As for everything else, Second Elder decided to let nature take its course.
After a busy day of training, the two returned to the clan grounds, still bickering and squabbling.
To be honest, Kyosuke's daily life had been rather stifling. But ever since he had gained this little tagalong, things were sometimes troublesome, yet still much more comfortable.
So by now, Kyosuke was no longer quite so resistant to her presence. He just treated it as though he had acquired a disobedient little sister.
That night, Kyosuke once again lay in his bed behind its hanging curtain.
After working hard for so long, his strength had improved considerably. It was time to challenge another Instance Dungeon.
After some consideration, he ultimately chose a low-level Instance Dungeon called "Emergency Rescue."
The content of this Instance Dungeon was simple: rescue a transport team in a mountain valley.
Judging by the system's evaluation, its difficulty was about the same as the previous "cargo transport" Instance Dungeon. Both were beginner tutorial dungeons.
Of course, "beginner tutorial" was a name Kyosuke had come up with himself.
That was because he could name nearly every Instance Dungeon beyond these lowest-difficulty ones.
For example, "Sasuke Retrieval Mission," "Valley of the End Series," "Chunin Exams," and so on were all classic scenes from the original story.
But even the easiest among them, "Naruto Uzumaki Arrives!", was not something he could clear at his current level.
So he could only continue with his own "beginner tutorial battles."
He opened the System Menu and selected the Instance Dungeon. In an instant, he appeared within an enormous valley.
Before Kyosuke could carefully observe his surroundings, waves of shouting reached his ears.
"Move! Hurry up! They aren't even ninja! Is killing five civilians really that difficult?" A scar-faced man with a roguish air shouted at a group of people.
"But, Boss, there are so many traps ahead." A rat-faced lackey stared at the mountain path ahead and spoke timidly.
Bang. The scar-faced man kicked the subordinate who had spoken, sending him flying. Then he grabbed a shield forged from refined steel and roared, "Charge with me!" before taking the lead and rushing forward.
Kyosuke stood on higher ground and watched the whole scene unfold. Looking at the dark mass of people below, he frowned. So this time, they're ordinary bandits?
Though that was what he called them, these bandits had both ranged and close-combat fighters, and there were a great many of them. In a head-on clash, five-year-old Kyosuke might not necessarily be able to defeat them.
If he wanted to wipe them all out, he would need to think of another way.
After thinking for a while, he suddenly noticed that the lackey who had been kicked away was still standing where he had landed. His eyes immediately lit up.
"Good! The enemy is right ahead! Charge with me!" The scar-faced man shouted loudly, but as the casualties mounted, the bandits' morale steadily fell.
Just as he was hesitating over what to do, the subordinate he had kicked away earlier suddenly ran over.
As he ran, he shouted, "This is bad, Boss! Those five people have escaped through the small path in the valley!"
Hearing that, the scar-faced man stepped forward, grabbed him by the collar, and said furiously, "Is that true?"
"Y-Yes, it's true. I took the wrong path earlier and saw it with my own eyes," the lackey replied nervously.
"Hmph, useless trash." The scar-faced man threw him to the ground, then turned to his men and shouted, "You heard him! Follow me!"
Then he viciously kicked the pitiful lackey, signaling for him to stop playing dead and get up to lead the way.
Thus, under the guidance of their "companion," the group charged onto a mountain path already filled with traps.
After running wildly for more than ten minutes, they finally reached the mountain path the lackey had mentioned.
But the place was peaceful, with no sign that anyone had passed through.
Just as the scar-faced man began to feel puzzled, a kunai suddenly stabbed into his heart.
"Did you enjoy kicking me earlier?" The lackey's gloomy face looked especially sinister at that moment.
"Urgh." The scar-faced man's eyes bulged, but he could not say a word. A few seconds later, he collapsed and died.
Only then did his many subordinates finally react.
Before they could swarm forward and tear the traitor apart, something unexpected happened.
Countless kunai, shuriken, and even large stones came crashing down upon them.
And in the most densely packed part of their formation, an Exploding Tag was quietly burning.
Boom!
The results of the Exploding Tag were even better than Kyosuke had expected.
He also used the Transformation Jutsu to continue slaughtering them amid the thick smoke. Though this consumed some Chakra, it preserved his stamina well.
After all, there were still many enemies left.
After a long battle, the bandits, now reduced to less than a tenth of their original number, finally collapsed completely and fled for their lives.
Just like that, Kyosuke successfully cleared his second Instance Dungeon.
After returning to reality, he immediately checked this time's rewards.
Pharmacology Knowledge Trap Creation Technique Basic Poison Theory
For the moment, none of the three skills were particularly useful to him.
His Trap Creation Technique had already reached Level 2. A single skill scroll was not enough to level it up again, so he could only toss it into storage for now.
However, Pharmacology Knowledge and Basic Poison Theory would be very useful for his future research.
So he chose to learn them immediately.
The instant he confirmed his choice, a tremendous amount of knowledge flooded uncontrollably into his mind. It took him quite some time to recover.
Then he closed his eyes and focused for a while, only to find that the knowledge seemed engraved in his mind. He probably would not be able to forget it even if he wanted to.
The corners of Kyosuke's lips curled upward slightly, and then he fell asleep at once.
For the next stretch of time, aside from training with the Military Police Force every day and occasionally attending classes at the academy, he kept pondering how to clear more Instance Dungeons.
After many attempts and countless failures and deaths, he finally cleared two more Instance Dungeons.
Kunai Throwing Technique ×5 Chakra Refinement Technique ×2 Trap Creation Technique ×2 Shuriken Throwing Technique ×1
These were all the rewards he had obtained so far.
Before you continue