"Red Sun? That's quite an arrogant name."
"Try taking a punch from me!"
A didn't flinch at Uchiha Jin's reputation or his battle record. On the contrary, it only fueled his fighting spirit. His body blurred as he launched a powerful punch toward Jin!
Jin's expression remained unchanged. His pupils turned crimson, revealing three black tomoe, clearly locking onto A's every move.
The Sharingan—Uchiha clan's Kekkei Genkai—one of the three great eye techniques of this world.
With Jin's powerful ocular ability, the dynamic vision of his Sharingan was pushed to its limits.
Even A, with his current speed, couldn't escape Jin's sight.
Jin stepped back with one foot, lowering his center of gravity. He raised his fist and met A's punch head-on.
"Head-on collision? Just the way I like it!"
Though A's Lightning Release Chakra Mode wasn't as balanced or complete as his father, the Third Raikage's, it greatly enhanced his speed. Even so, in this mode, his strength and defense far surpassed those of ordinary shinobi.
In a contest of brute force, A had never feared anyone!
With a sneer in his heart, A added more power to his punch.
The two fists closed in. Compared to A's thunderclap-like punch, Jin's appeared delicate and smaller in size.
But just as their fists were about to collide, flames suddenly burst to life around Jin's hand with a roar.
"Fire Fist!" *BOOM!*
Jin shouted softly. The ground beneath him cracked open. A blazing flame exploded from his fist, instantly engulfing A in a wave of heat.
A massive flame-formed fist surged forward, launching A several dozen meters through the air. Trees toppled in its wake as his body carved a blackened trench into the ground.
"Big Bro!"
"Lord A!"
Killer Bee and the nearby Cloud ninja cried out in alarm, shocked to see A forced back in a direct clash.
"No need to be surprised. The nature of fire is all about explosive power and heat!"
Jin shook his stinging hand. Though he spoke harshly, deep down he gained a new level of respect for A, the famously headstrong warrior of the shinobi world.
Uchiha Jin wasn't originally from this world. Due to an unexpected accident, he transmigrated here and became an ordinary Jonin of the Uchiha clan, orphaned at a young age.
No need to dwell on the past.
Following the original plot of Naruto, being reborn into the Uchiha clan was practically a nightmare start.
Externally, there was pressure from the Hokage faction led by Hiruzen and Danzo. Internally, the clan was filled with rebellious, short-sighted hotheads digging their own graves.
Worse yet, there were several latent lunatics with unstable minds ready to go off at any moment.
To say Jin's circumstances were "difficult" would be a gross understatement.
Fortunately, he arrived in this world early—long before the Uchiha Clan Massacre. That meant he still had a chance to change the clan's fate.
On top of that, as a transmigrator, Jin also possessed a cheat-like advantage: a Devil Fruit from another world—specifically, the Flame-Flame Fruit.
Yes, the same Logia-type fruit mocked by fans as "so useless not even a dog would eat it."
But Jin was quite satisfied with it.
The Flame-Flame Fruit granted the user control over fire.
To wield fire. To become fire.
The fruit's previous user, Portgas D. Ace, had failed to demonstrate its true potential and ultimately died at the hands of Akainu, the user of the Magma-Magma Fruit.
In the world of One Piece, many characters could create fire attacks. It was almost a common trait. That's why the Flame-Flame Fruit got the reputation of being weak.
But was it truly weak? Or was the ability to control fire itself weak?
Jin didn't think so.
While One Piece portrayed the Magma Fruit as superior, Jin believed that wasn't necessarily the case.
Both magma and fire shared similar explosive and heat traits. True, magma had the upper hand in explosive impact due to being a physical substance.
But when it came to temperature, fire overwhelmingly surpassed magma.
Magma maxed out at about 1,400 degrees Celsius, while fire could continuously accumulate heat through energy concentration.
There was virtually no upper limit to this buildup.
In Jin's previous world, humans had already found ways to heat fire up to over 500 million degrees—thirty times hotter than the sun's surface.
The difference was astronomical.
The Flame-Flame Fruit held boundless potential.
Fire was never weak.
Take that old man next door, for example—also a wielder of fire. He was known as the strongest Shinigami in two thousand years. In every fight, his fire-based zanpakuto was specifically sealed to limit his power.
So the weakness never lay in the Flame-Flame Fruit—it was in Ace.
Having absorbed countless knowledge from his previous life, Jin believed he understood the fruit far better than Ace ever did.
Combined with the powers of this world, Jin was determined not to disgrace the name of the Flame-Flame Fruit.
This fruit gave him the confidence to rewrite fate.
For years, Jin had hidden in the shadows, strengthening himself, building influence, and forming connections—all to prepare for the day he would reshape the world.
Now that the Third Great Ninja War was drawing to a close, Jin's preparations were complete.
He could no longer wait to end the war and make his move.
"Minato, I'll leave the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki to you. Try to take him alive."
Jin exhaled deeply and turned to Namikaze Minato.
Minato wasn't just fast—thanks to his girlfriend Kushina Uzumaki, he was also highly skilled in sealing techniques. That made him the perfect person to face Killer Bee.
In the original timeline, Minato died sealing the Nine-Tails—but the Eight-Tails was not the Nine-Tails.
If they truly fought, the Eight-Tails wouldn't even be a match for half of the Nine-Tails' power.
Besides, Minato's death had likely been more about emotional sacrifice.
At the time, the couple had basically already subdued the Nine-Tails, and reinforcements were close. Every other ninja village managed to deal with berserk Tailed Beasts. Could Konoha, which inherited Uzushio's sealing legacy, be any worse?
Could they really not handle a sealed Nine-Tails?
In the end, it was Minato choosing to bear the burden alone.
"Got it! Leave that guy to me!"
Minato gave a bright, confident smile.
"Then let's wrap this up quickly."
As Jin spoke, his entire body ignited in flames once more. He leapt toward the spot where A had fallen.