02 - The Rewards

A fruit vendor's stall was ahead. In a flash, Shin was at the stand. Before the confused vendor could react, he had grabbed a bunch of bananas and viciously stomped them into the muddy ground.

The vendor and nearby villagers stared in shock as the young man continued his assault on the fruit. As quickly as it began, the moment passed. Shin straightened up, brushed off his clothes, paid for the damage and nodded politely to the stunned onlookers as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

Later, two Akatsuki members whispered as they trailed behind their captain.

"Did you see that? Captain Shin just took a ten-minute detour to avoid the market's fruit section."

"Maybe he's allergic?"

"I'm allergic to death. Now focus on the mission."

Shin's odd behavior made sense to him alone. After all, survival is an instinct engraved in the DNA of all intelligent creatures.

Driven by this instinct, even a homebody who had never killed a chicken before crossing into this new world could unleash a terrifying amount of energy. Or perhaps it was just him. Maybe he had some weird tendencies before the transmigration. Or having a system made everything feel like a game. And killing in games—who didn't do it?

Thanks to this, the newly reborn Shin quickly adapted to life in the ninja world at an astonishing speed.

Soon after the banana incident, he began to plan his own path to survival.

According to the system's simulations, there was a high probability that he would die in the Land of Rain, and his death would be closely related to Akatsuki. Thus, a few months ago, his first thought was, naturally, to leave Akatsuki.

Survival above all.

However, on the very night he left without saying a word, the probability of the outcome "revenge by rogue ninjas from the Land of Rain" on the system's interface shot up to over 70%.

Shin froze in his tracks, barely a mile from the Akatsuki hideout. New death scenarios appeared, such as dying at the hands of Iwa ninjas, Konoha ninjas, and Suna ninjas, among many others.

The peaceful death of dying of old age kept flickering, making him wonder if that option was about to disappear entirely.

Iwa, Konoha, Suna... is there anywhere in this world that doesn't want me dead?

What a painful realization: the organization was his everything.

He quickly understood that leaving Akatsuki would only speed up his death, leaving him with a 0% chance of dying naturally.

Damned if I stay, dead if I leave.

Thus, early the next morning, he returned to the base.

To outsiders, it seemed that from that night onward, Shin began to become radical. Since he couldn't escape, he had no choice but to change. Rather than overthinking and wasting energy on himself, he decided to use that frustration to kill others instead.

"Morning, Captain. Ready for today's mission?" an Akatsuki member greeted him.

Shin nodded.

During the mission briefing, he laid out his aggressive approach. "Our target is a group of rogue ninjas. Yahiko wants prisoners. I say we can't risk leaving threats alive."

A team member shifted uncomfortably. "But Captain, Yahiko-sama's orders..."

"Will get us all killed one day. This is for your village. This is for your family. This is for the greater good. And stay quiet about this."

After successfully convincing an Akatsuki member to go against Yahiko's will for the first time and eliminate a group of rogue ninjas who deserved to die, Shin was surprised to find that his probability of dying from the "revenge by rogue ninjas from the Land of Rain" had dropped by 4%.

The reduced probability was mainly redistributed to several "dying in Konoha" scenarios years later, and the chance of "natural death" increased slightly, reaching 0.2%.

It was a qualitative breakthrough—his chance of survival had doubled.

He also received his first system reward:

[ - minor physical enhancements

 - minor chakra reserve increasement

 - beginner-level ninja tool throwing

 - beginner-level taijutsu

 - beginner-level kenjutsu

 - Transformation Jutsu

 - Substitution Jutsu

 - Clone Jutsu]

In total, he received more than a dozen small boosts. While he didn't leap to the level of a powerhouse like Obito, at least he was no longer a counterfeit. He had now become a legitimate ninja.

In fact, he quickly rose to the position of team leader within the still newly formed Akatsuki.

A senior member even approached him after a particularly successful mission. "Your strategies are... effective."

Shin's reply was cold and matter-of-fact. "In this world, effectiveness is all that matters. Morality is a luxury for those who can afford to die."

Sounds a bit cringe but this is my new life now.

More importantly, this gave him a sense of direction. According to his analysis and simulations, the main reason for Akatsuki's eventual downfall was Yahiko. As the leader of Akatsuki, he was overly kind—so kind that it bordered on naivety.

Moreover, he had a strong sense of attachment to his homeland. His top priority in his dreams was peace in the ninja world and mutual understanding among people. Second on his list, right behind that, was the desire to rebuild his homeland, the Land of Rain.

The original series frequently mentioned his wish to help the Land of Rain escape its suffering. This combination of naivety and attachment to his homeland often made Yahiko too indecisive when handling internal issues within the Land of Rain.

While Akatsuki could remain clear-headed, rational, and cold when dealing with ninjas from other countries, he would always think too highly of people when it came to enemies within the Land of Rain.

In the future, his overly trusting attitude toward Hanzō of the Salamander, as Shin saw it, was a natural extension of his current mindset. Yahiko truly embodied the belief that people from the Land of Rain don't harm each other.

Unfortunately, others had no qualms about harming him.

Can't he see? Trust is a weapon our enemies will use against us. Man, they did use it, and he died, so I will likely die too...

Once Shin figured out the crux of the problem, he naturally had to make his own changes.

If I have to be the villain to die of old age, so be it.

Thus, over the past few months, the ideological clashes between him and Yahiko had intensified, leading to numerous public arguments.

Yahiko always hoped to give the people of the Land of Rain another chance, believing that his ideals could eventually change them. But Shin only wanted to eliminate any future threats that might kill him.

Yahiko scolded him for being too extreme, but Shin thought he wasn't extreme enough. After all, their second-in-command was a madman who believed in the theory of nuclear deterrence—someone who wanted the world to feel pain. A few billion people would have to be killed at least to let them feel his pain.

Compared to Yahiko's successor, Shin thought he was still holding back and could be called a saint.

At least I'm not suggesting we nuke the world. Yet. Let's see how Yahiko interprets 'neutralized threats' this time.

Unfortunately, Yahiko had no idea about any of this.

So, when the mission report scroll was sent to Yahiko this time, it was no surprise that he was furious again.

"Damn it! Not a single prisoner captured, and somehow, on the way back, an entire group of Iwa spies was wiped out, without leaving a single survivor!"

"Threats neutralized?"

"Is he treating me like a fool?"

At that moment, Konan, who had been handling logistics near the base, happened to walk in and gently asked, "What's wrong, Yahiko? Are you upset about Shin again?"

At this time, she was not yet the melancholy beauty from the original series who resembled a lilac. She was only fourteen years old, looking like a budding lily.

Her gentle nature often served as a remedy to heal the rifts within Akatsuki. But this time, even in front of her, Yahiko struggled to control his temper.

"Yes, it's Shin again!"

"This is the fourth time this month that he's found an excuse to kill all the surrendering prisoners! Why is he always so extreme? Why can't he understand our ideals?"

"People can understand one another. Even if those people made mistakes, once they come to understand our beliefs, they could still become our comrades! Isn't that how we all came together in the first place?"

After a long silence, Konan could only offer a soft consolation.

"Maybe he is just being rebellious for a while. Remember, he wasn't like this before. I think, as time goes by, he will eventually come to understand your ideals again."

Yahiko's ideals, and indeed the entire Akatsuki's ideals, were not born out of nowhere. They all came from Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato's shared teacher: Jiraiya.

Unfortunately, Jiraiya had only passed on his ideals to these three children but never taught them how to actually achieve those ideals. During those years, what he taught was rather vague, because even he didn't know how to achieve peace. He could only place his hopes on the Toads' vague prophecy.

Konan continued to persuade him, "Give him a little more time. After all, we still need his intelligence, don't we?"

For Akatsuki, which currently lacked clear methodology and guidance, they really needed a strategist to help plan their direction and offer advice. This was why, despite all the arguments between them, Shin could still comfortably serve as a team leader.

No matter how much collateral damage occurred during his missions, at least in the past few months, none of the tasks given to him had ever failed. He had even supported other teams' missions multiple times, providing several morally questionable but highly effective solutions.

So, even though Yahiko was furious enough to grit his teeth, he had to admit that Konan was right.

"Ugh..."

The room fell silent again for a while.

After a long pause, Konan tentatively suggested, "How about I go on the next mission with him? I could try to persuade him."

Yahiko thought for a moment, then finally nodded. "I'll leave it to you, Konan."