Ren having that thought wasn't strange at all—because the earth dragon in front of him was simply too huge.
Nearly fifty meters long…
That was already brushing the scale of certain tailed beasts—or the early, lower stages of Susanoo.
Susanoo's size and durability varied depending on the Sharingan's evolution. In its earliest forms, it could be only a little over ten meters tall.
Wood Release was even more absurd. Otherwise Hashirama Senju would never have been able to overpower Madara Uchiha with it.
"T-This… what is this?" one of the Sand shinobi stammered, lips trembling.
They'd been charging at Ren a moment ago. Now, fear pinned their feet to the desert.
"That size… is that really Earth Release?"
Since when did Earth Release reach this kind of level?
"Damn it…" Pakura's expression darkened in the distance.
Her squad had just finished dealing with a wave of Kirigakure attackers. No time to breathe, no time to reset formation—another enemy group appeared immediately, and these newcomers were worse.
Even putting Ren aside—his speed was absurd, his killing efficiency too clean—she couldn't afford a single mistake. One slip and she could lose.
And the one who summoned that massive dragon…?
It was incomprehensible.
Who are these people?
Pakura clenched her teeth. "Who are you?"
"Iwagakure?" Her eyes narrowed. "Or Konoha…? Or—"
So you never trusted us at all.
Shisui almost laughed from sheer irritation.
He'd felt a twinge of guilt earlier—attacking an ally wasn't something he enjoyed, even if Sunagakure had done worse and even if he was the one calling the shots.
But now?
Fine. No more hesitation.
We capture her first. We ask questions later.
"Ren is absurdly strong…" Shisui thought, watching the battlefield shift.
Then he forced the thought down with a simple, comforting logic.
He fought Orochimaru and lived. Of course he's like this.
Even Yugao—locked in her own fierce exchange nearby—could accept Ren's "impossible" feats for the same reason.
Orochimaru was a living legend. Anyone who could clash with him and escape was automatically placed into a different category.
"Don't let him intimidate you!" a Sand shinobi shouted, voice shaking despite the bravado.
"We move—together!"
The Sand ninja facing the dragon were trembling, but they didn't break.
This was the Land of Wind. If they could stall long enough for reinforcements…
They could survive.
"You still want a meaningless struggle?" Ren murmured, eyebrow lifting.
No one answered.
Instead, they scattered—fanning out to avoid being swallowed by the dragon in one sweep.
Some began weaving signs mid-sprint. Others drew kunai wrapped in explosive tags.
Their actions said everything.
"Then fine."
Ren didn't hesitate.
The earth dragon roared, a brutal sound that seemed to shake the sky itself, and lunged straight toward one of them.
"Damn you—Wind Release: Wind Blade!"
The targeted Sand ninja tried to resist.
He didn't get the chance.
Boom!
The dragon slammed into him like a moving cliff.
The ground trembled—hard.
The man vanished so completely that there wasn't even a body to find.
Ren watched, already calculating.
Impact is excellent. Destructive power is high. The size advantage is real.
But the weaknesses are obvious too.
Heavy consumption.
Poor resilience.
And no "recovery" mechanic.
That single charge didn't just erase the enemy—it shattered the dragon itself into cracked, collapsing chunks.
Compared to a true Wood Dragon, it was nowhere close.
A Wood Dragon could drain chakra, self-repair, and keep fighting.
This one?
Powerful, but inefficient.
Still, Ren didn't mind.
He knew exactly what he was right now.
And Sage Arts plus Yin Release didn't end with just one technique.
But the drain is brutal, he thought.
If I want to keep doing this, I need more base stamina—body and chakra.
His analysis ended as the attacks arrived.
"Die!"
Wind techniques tore across the sand.
Explosive-tag kunai rained toward him from multiple angles.
Ren lifted one hand calmly.
"Earth Release: Earth Encampment Wall."
A towering ring of earth surged up around him.
A heartbeat later—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A dense chain of explosions hammered the walls. Shockwaves rippled outward. Cracks webbed across the earthen barrier.
But with Ren's cursed-seal-enhanced chakra feeding the structure, it didn't collapse.
He even had time to glance at the wall and briefly consider whether he should carve a face into it like Kakashi supposedly once did.
…Later.
"Still," Ren murmured, "this ends now."
He formed seals again.
Outside the wall, the broken remnants of the earth dragon twitched—
Then it roared.
"What?!"
"It's moving again—?!"
"Damn it!"
The Sand ninja went cold.
They'd just watched it break apart. And now it was getting back up.
Then—
A voice drifted down from above.
They looked up.
At some point, Ren had already climbed atop the earthen wall. He stood there, mask on, looking down at them like they were insects.
"Alright," he said lightly.
"…Goodbye."
Under his control, the shattered earth dragon surged into the air, then dove with unstoppable momentum—
The desert shook again.
Some time later, Sand reinforcements arrived.
What greeted them was devastation.
A battlefield torn open into massive craters. Scorched patches of sand. Deep gouges where something enormous had slammed into the earth.
No matter how the wind tried to bury it, the evidence remained.
Their faces were pale. Their expressions grim.
"This…" one of them whispered. "What kind of battle happened here?"
"And who was fighting?" another asked, voice low.
"Yeah," a calm voice said behind them.
"I'm curious too."
Every Sand shinobi snapped into a combat stance.
They spun around—
A young man stood there in a black cloak patterned with red clouds, short red hair catching the light.
"W-Who are you?" someone demanded, but the fear in his voice betrayed him.
For reasons he couldn't explain, looking at this boy made his spine go cold.
The red-haired youth tilted his head, unimpressed.
"So you've forgotten me." His tone was casual. "That's fine. It makes things easier."
"I came back to retrieve a few things I needed," he continued slowly.
"But running into something like this… was unexpected."
He smiled faintly.
"Oh, right."
"My name is Sasori."
"In the past… you called me Sasori of the Red Sand."
The Sand ninja froze.
"…!"
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