"Come forth—Yiraijin: Furious Thunder Axe!"
A leaped high into the air, bringing down a crushing axe kick with immense force!
With a thunderous boom, the ground beneath him cracked and shattered within dozens of meters, and from the debris, Jin's figure burst out!
"Lightning Style: Thunderclap!"
A pushed his Lightning Release Chakra Mode to the limit. His figure vanished in a flash, not giving Jin even a moment to react. In the blink of an eye, he was upon him, launching a powerful punch!
"Blink!"
Jin's expression turned serious. Flames erupted beneath his feet as his body rapidly rose into the air!
Now!
A gleam of sharp light flashed through A's eyes. He abruptly retracted his half-thrown punch and changed techniques mid-air.
"Lightning style: Palm of Destruction!"
A sprang up once more. Lightning converged in his hand, forming a blade of pure electricity.
Jin's high-speed movement was limited to linear paths. As long as A caught him between his first step and before his second step landed, he wouldn't be able to change trajectory!
That narrow window—barely a step—was the key to deciding victory!
*BANG!*
A's crackling palm struck Jin at the waist. But there was no expected spray of blood. Instead, Jin's body exploded into a burst of flames once more!
"A fire clone?!" A was stunned, but quickly shook his head. "No—that was definitely the real one!"
Though Jin had exploded into flames again, the feeling this time was completely different from earlier.
This time, even though his body had turned into fire, the flames didn't disperse. Instead, they latched onto A's hand, trapping it within the blaze.
A trusted his instincts.
"Could it be genjutsu?"
He remembered who Jin was.
The Uchiha clan—renowned masters of illusion. Their Sharingan could trap a person in genjutsu with a single glance!
That broken ability had even given rise to a saying in the shinobi world: "If you face an Uchiha one-on-one—run!"
Though not absolute, the warning was a testament to how dangerous the Uchiha were. In battle, it was nearly impossible to avoid eye contact with your opponent.
And one-on-one, the smallest misstep could leave you at their mercy—entrapped in genjutsu.
But in group fights, the Uchiha couldn't trap everyone at once. Comrades could break the illusions. That was their only weakness.
This was one reason Jin had left Killer B to Minato. Though the Uchiha were the bane of tailed beasts, B was a perfect jinchuriki—a two-man team—greatly diminishing the effect of genjutsu.
A had never once dropped his guard against Jin's illusions. From the very beginning of the fight, he avoided looking into Jin's eyes, focusing only on his movements.
So then… when exactly had he fallen into the genjutsu?
And if it wasn't genjutsu—how could he explain what was happening?
"This is elementalization."
While A's thoughts raced, a deep, magnetic voice whispered beside his ear.
Instinctively, A turned his head—right into a pair of scarlet eyes!
Damn it!
He cursed inwardly.
The next moment, his body froze. His consciousness plunged into a black-and-red void, suspended in midair, nailed in place by giant iron stakes—unable to move.
"Genjutsu: Shackles of Torment."
In the real world, Uchiha Jin's body slowly reformed. One hand pressed firmly on A's head, reinforcing the illusion's hold.
As expected—if you want to capture someone alive, genjutsu is the best option.
Jin had realized the moment A began converting his axe's power into speed that his Flame Chakra Mode was starting to be read.
He had no intention of killing A from the start. His plan was always to capture him.
And so, when A believed he had deciphered Jin's abilities and dropped his guard, Jin used elementalization to confuse him—and struck with genjutsu.
Elementalization was the transformation of the body into a natural element, rendering attacks ineffective.
This was the power granted to Jin by the Flame-Flame Fruit.
In the world of pirates, Logia-type Devil Fruits were broken—elementalization made the user nearly untouchable!
Only those who had learned Haki could strike Logia users. Without Haki, you weren't even qualified to face them! (Main character excluded.)
Even against those skilled in Haki, a Logia user could preemptively disperse their body, altering their form to dodge incoming blows.
For reasons Jin suspected involved both Chakra and Haki being manifestations of internal energy, he found that Chakra-based attacks could still harm him even in elemental form.
But when used cleverly, elementalization could still determine the outcome of battle.
Just like now.
Jin let out a slow breath, the three tomoe of his Sharingan fading as he deactivated it. He hoisted the unconscious A over his shoulder.
With a few rapid flickers, he returned to Minato's squad's location.
The battle here was already over.
With A—their speedster—out of the picture, Minato could unleash his full power. Among the Cloud ninja, only Killer B could withstand a few moves against Minato.
The rest were completely outmatched.
Not to mention, the others in Minato's squad—Inuzuka Gaku, Akimichi Doto, and more—were all elite jonin from Konoha.
With their support, Killer B didn't even get a chance to fully transform into the Eight Tails before Minato sealed him.
"Jin!"
Minato and the others immediately spotted Jin as he appeared.
"I've locked him in an illusion for now. But just to be safe, you'd better seal his chakra." Jin dropped A to the ground and looked at Minato.
"Understood."
Minato nodded, forming hand seals rapidly. Flames of chakra ignited on his five fingers.
"Five Elements Seal."
He crouched down and thrust his palm against Ay's abdomen, leaving behind five comma-shaped seals that locked down the chakra inside him.
Wiping sweat from his brow, Minato stood and said, "I used too much chakra sealing the Eight Tails just now. I could only disrupt his chakra flow with the Five Elements Seal for now."
"Though it won't sever his connection to his chakra completely, he won't be able to use any techniques."
"That's good enough," Jin nodded. "Once we're back in the village, we'll restrain him properly."
"That means the war… is finally over."
Jin spoke with a faint smile. The expressions on Minato and the others eased as well.
This war had raged for nearly eight years.
And at long last… it was about to end.