"This is getting troublesome…"
Hatake Kakashi stared at the markings on Kaguya Ren's face—so reminiscent of Yakushi Kabuto's—and drew in a slow breath. Lightning chakra surged as he stimulated his body's cells, forcing them awake, ensuring that whether this ended in battle or negotiation, he could keep pace and not be pinned down from the start.
Sensing that subtle act, Ren shrugged lightly, tone playful.
"No need to be so tense, Hatake Kakashi… at least for you, Kirigakure shouldn't be an enemy anymore. Right?"
"I don't recall saying that," Kakashi replied, eyes sweeping the area, voice low.
"Oh, spare me." Ren's vertical pupils curved with amusement. "If your future Konoha still treated Kirigakure like a sworn enemy, you wouldn't be able to dig up the fact that 'your' Kaguya Ren died young from illness just from hearing a name."
Kakashi didn't seem shocked. He simply adjusted his stance, murmuring as if to himself—
"Sage Mode perception… so you heard everything pretty clearly."
"Then you already know what I want." Ren held up three fingers. With each question, he lowered one. "What's this 'eternal dream' that swallowed the whole world? In your final war, was your enemy the Uchiha who manipulated the Third Mizukage… or the Uchiha who could phase through attacks and use Wood Release?"
"And if I refuse to answer?" Kakashi's voice sank even deeper.
"Then we fight first." Ren grinned, teeth bared, something feral sparking behind the smile. "Doesn't the shinobi world have a saying? Real experts only need one exchange to read each other. If we go at it with the goal of capturing, not killing… we'll understand each other better."
Snap.
The moment his words fell, Kakashi's body became a streak of violet lightning—vanishing from Ren's sight.
In the heightened danger sense of Sage Mode, threats that could truly harm him surged in from all directions at once.
"Senjutsu: Muki Tensei!"
Hand seals flashed. Massive senjutsu chakra poured out, animating the ground and ruins around them—fusing with the bones of Early Fern Dance until the very town became a living, hungry thing.
A violet flash cut through the spot where Ren had stood, aiming to pierce his right chest—
Ren's body sank downward and disappeared into the awakened rubble.
Then half the ruins rolled like an ocean swell, crashing toward Kakashi.
Jagged bone spears. Collapsing walls. The dizzying tilt of the terrain as the whole battlefield turned against him. And at any moment—Ren could strike from any angle.
Without the Sharingan's vision, Kakashi couldn't find a safe dead angle in that chaos.
But freed from the Sharingan's relentless drain, he could finally afford to spend chakra like a man with room to breathe.
"Purple Lightning: Wild Dance!"
Violet lightning erupted from him, expanding in all directions.
And it was astonishing—this thunder carried not only the piercing inheritance of Chidori, but also the razor-sharp cutting quality of wind chakra, and the invasive seep of water chakra.
Where the violet arcs passed, even senjutsu-animated earth and ruins were pierced and cleaved. Only senjutsu-hardened bone could resist for even a moment.
Worse—its paralysis was vicious. Even with Ren's physique, a direct hit could cause a stiffening pause.
By the standards of ordinary ninjutsu, this was already an S-rank secret art—something that could even brush the edge of Kirin.
Unfortunately…
This was still an era of eyes and bloodlines.
Without the top-tier "cheat" of a supreme eye, Hatake Kakashi's ceiling remained confined to the realm of mortals.
"Senjutsu: Dancū."
The same invisible wall that had once erased a Six-Tails Tailed Beast Ball bloomed again—an unseen barrier that made Kakashi's violet lightning explode into fragments on contact.
"That is—?!" Hanabi activated her Byakugan from behind Jiraiya's protection, trying to see the nature of the technique.
And when she saw what lay within that transparent wall—countless compressed wind blades, activated like the ground under Ren's feet—she finally understood why Ren could become a branching point of history.
"Even this isn't his limit," Jiraiya said grimly as he began gathering natural energy. "Ren's greatest weapon is his body—absurdly tougher than a tailed beast. Kakashi alone won't force out his deeper cards."
"I wouldn't call it a rational decision for you to join," a calm voice spoke.
"Above!" Hanabi warned.
Jiraiya snapped his head up—and his face darkened as Nagato descended astride the Yata Bird.
"Nagato…" Jiraiya's jaw tightened. "Have you fully sided with Kaguya Ren?"
"Not exactly." Nagato stepped down, shaking his head. "Our paths simply point in the same direction right now."
He moved beside Jiraiya, casually used the Preta Path to absorb a portion of the natural energy Jiraiya had just gathered, then turned toward Hanabi, gaze thoughtful.
"Since you're the heir of the Hyuga main family… your Byakugan should be among the purest in the clan, shouldn't it?"
"What are you planning, Nagato?!" Jiraiya yanked Hanabi behind him, eyes sharp.
"Nothing," Nagato said, taking two steps back as if to show he had no intention of grabbing her. His eyes narrowed toward the dust-choked ruins in the distance.
"Your Sixth is going to lose."
Clang.
Lightning sharpened on a kunai, splitting the bone blade aimed at Kakashi's heart into two.
But the next instant, Kakashi's body folded like a shrimp—launched by a heavy, brutal kick.
He tore through multiple ruined structures before crashing to a stop, blood spraying from his mouth.
For a man who lived on analysis, Ren was the kind of opponent Kakashi hated most.
Ninjutsu and taijutsu—flawless. Genjutsu—unskilled, but with terrifying resistance. Sage Mode—boosting perception and overall combat power. And vitality strong enough to ignore most of Kakashi's attacks.
Against an opponent with no blind spots in any direction, even perfect intel only led to one answer: collide head-on.
And that was exactly what Kakashi couldn't win.
He couldn't help but miss the Mangekyō Sharingan that had left him more than ten years ago.
If Kamui still existed, he might have had a chance to steal a victory.
Without it… he could only fall like the former Five Kage had before Edo Tensei Madara—powerless and unwilling.
Ren lacked Madara's massive-scale techniques, but his vitality and regeneration were, if anything, even more unreasonable than Madara's after revival.
Kakashi couldn't find a path to victory alone.
But through that exchange… he did glimpse a little of Ren's thinking.
Not much.
But enough to tell him what could be said—and what could be withheld without immediate disaster.
"You lost. You're not going to default on the wager, are you, Kakashi?" Ren asked, offering him a hand through the settling dust.
Kakashi took it, using Ren's pull to stand, voice ragged.
"Your questions… cough… still the same ones?"
"Those were just appetizers," Ren said, smiling like he was staring into a treasury. "The information I want from you is endless."
"For example…"
"In your era—how did the Land of Water and Kirigakure shed the stain of the Bloody Mist… and transform into a normal country that could be on friendly terms with Konoha?"
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