The cloaked man's instincts screamed.
Every hair on his body stood on end as the shadow above him descended like judgment. He had no time to wonder how Ren had appeared there. No time to question how the boy had escaped the explosion. No time to think at all.
Only survival mattered.
The cloaked man immediately used the Body Flicker Technique, vanishing from his original position in a burst of speed.
His reaction was fast.
His decision was correct.
But against Ren, it was still half a step too slow.
Swish!
A sharp sound tore through the air as Ren fell from above, his short blade drawing a merciless arc through the smoke. Blood sprayed from both sides of the blade like a crimson fountain.
A severed arm, still wrapped in the remains of the tattered cloak, spun into the air.
"Ugh—!"
Several meters away, the cloaked man crashed hard against the ground. Blood poured from the stump of his shoulder, staining the dirt beneath him. His face twisted from the pain, veins bulging across his forehead.
Worse than the wound itself was the strange force now crawling through his chakra pathways.
The Binding Seal attached to Ren's strike had activated.
His chakra flow jammed.
His meridians tightened.
He couldn't even stop the bleeding.
"Koji!"
The bald man's eyes went bloodshot.
"You damn Konoha brat!"
With a furious roar, he charged like a raging bull, kunai clenched tightly in his hand. His killing intent exploded outward as he rushed toward Ren, who had just landed.
Ren's figure became clear through the drifting smoke.
His outer clothing had several burnt holes, the edges charred black from the explosion. There were burns on his exposed skin as well, but they were shallow.
Nothing serious.
Nothing that could slow him down.
Ren glanced briefly toward Kakashi and Rin.
Kakashi was still holding his own against the orange-haired girl, but Rin was in trouble. The black spiky-haired enemy pressed her fiercely, giving her no chance to form seals or create distance.
Three against four was troublesome.
So Ren made the simplest decision.
He would reduce the enemy's numbers first.
The bald man reached him.
Ren turned his short blade and blocked.
Clang!
The impact rang through the forest.
At the same time, the one-armed cloaked man forced himself upright despite the agony. Without even trying to treat his wound, he grabbed kunai and shuriken with his remaining hand and hurled them toward Ren's back.
The weapons whistled through the air, aimed at the spine, neck, and legs.
The timing was perfect.
The bald man attacked from the front.
The cloaked man attacked from behind.
But Ren remained calm.
He stepped back twice, almost casually, as if strolling through a garden instead of fighting for his life. His short blade flashed into a silver arc, knocking aside each incoming weapon with frightening precision.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Kunai scattered into the dirt.
Shuriken spun away into tree trunks.
Ren's eyes remained cold.
Then he exhaled.
"Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation."
His voice lowered.
"Open."
Inside the System, familiar voices stirred.
[Clone Technique: Hehe, is it finally our time to shine?]
[Transformation Technique: Am I late?]
The next instant, the bald man's vision blurred.
The white-haired boy in front of him suddenly became indistinct.
One figure.
Then two.
Then three.
Then more.
Several images of Ren appeared around him at the same time, each holding a blade, each moving with terrifying speed.
The bald man's pupils shrank.
Before he could react, silver light swallowed him.
Four strikes landed in a single second.
Throat.
Heart.
Wrist.
Side.
Blood burst from multiple vital points at once.
The bald man's charge stopped instantly.
His eyes widened in disbelief as a wet sound rattled in his throat.
Then his body collapsed to the ground.
Blood spread beneath him.
For enemies weaker than Ren, the Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation was almost impossible to survive. The moment they saw it, they were already dead.
Ren didn't even look at the corpse.
His heel struck the ground.
His body flickered.
In the next breath, he appeared beside Rin.
The black spiky-haired enemy's expression changed drastically.
Ren's blade came down.
The man barely raised his kunai in time to block the first strike, but another flash cut across his side.
Blood sprayed.
Before he could scream, Ren kicked him hard in the chest and sent him flying backward.
"Rin, now!"
Rin's eyes sharpened.
She immediately formed hand seals.
"Water Release: Raging Waves!"
Water surged forward like a sudden flood, slamming into the injured enemy before he could stand. The rushing current swept him across the ground, tearing at his wounds and mixing with his blood until the water turned red.
Because of Ren's Binding Seal, he couldn't properly control his chakra to stop the bleeding.
His strength drained quickly.
Then Ren moved again.
Without pause, without hesitation, he appeared behind the orange-haired girl fighting Kakashi.
His blade swept horizontally toward her back.
But this time—
She reacted.
The orange-haired girl twisted her body at the last possible moment. Her kunai flashed, barely catching Ren's blade from behind while she simultaneously blocked Kakashi's short sword from the front.
Clang!
Sparks erupted.
Her arms trembled from the pressure, but she held.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly.
Interesting.
This woman was different from the others.
The version of the Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation he was using now was the simplest form. He hadn't stacked large numbers of Water Clones to enhance the technique, and he had deliberately kept his movement distance within forty meters.
That was the range of his Substitution Jutsu he had already revealed to Kakashi.
There was no need to expose more secrets unless necessary.
Even so, the technique had instantly killed the bald man and crippled the spiky-haired attacker.
Yet this girl had blocked it.
Not perfectly.
Not easily.
But she had survived.
The orange-haired girl clearly understood the situation had turned against her.
She clicked her tongue, then suddenly unleashed a burst of wind-nature chakra.
"Wind Cutter Technique!"
A sharp blast of wind forced Kakashi back.
At the same time, she used Body Flicker and appeared beside the wounded cloaked man. Grabbing him by the collar, she threw him toward the injured spiky-haired ninja.
"Go!"
Her voice was cold and decisive.
"I'll hold him off!"
The two wounded shinobi staggered, but they understood immediately.
They turned and fled.
Kakashi moved to chase.
Ren spoke without looking back.
"Kakashi, Rin."
"I'll leave those two to you."
The tip of his short blade angled toward the ground.
His stance shifted into the opening form of the Hatake Sword Style.
"I'll deal with her."
Kakashi felt a strange emotion in his chest.
Technically, when Minato wasn't present, he was the captain.
He should be giving orders.
But at this moment, Ren had naturally taken command.
And somehow, it didn't feel wrong.
Because Ren had been the one who broke the ambush, saved Rin, killed one enemy, crippled two others, and forced the strongest opponent into a duel.
There was no time for pride.
"Understood."
Kakashi turned to Rin.
"Let's go."
Rin nodded firmly.
The two chased after the wounded enemies.
Only Ren and the orange-haired girl remained in the clearing.
Smoke drifted between them.
Burnt leaves fell from the trees.
The orange-haired girl took a slow breath and adjusted her grip on both kunai.
Her eyes were sharp.
Her stance was stable.
She had already done what she could for her teammates. Whether they survived now depended on them.
Her focus returned fully to Ren.
This white-haired Konoha boy was the real threat.
His movement technique was strange, almost like a weaker version of the Yellow Flash described in Sunagakure intelligence reports.
Too fast.
Too unpredictable.
Too dangerous.
Ren studied her as well.
She was young.
Probably not much older than him.
But her combat presence was far beyond an ordinary chunin.
A jonin?
Or close to one.
The orange-haired girl raised both kunai.
"Come."
Her voice carried fierce pride.
"Let me see the genius of Konoha."
Ren smiled faintly.
Then both of them moved.
Clang!
Blade and kunai collided in a shower of sparks.
Ren's Hatake Sword Style was fast, ruthless, and direct. Each strike targeted tendons, joints, throat, ribs, and eyes. He gave her no breathing room.
But the girl endured.
Her movements were agile, compact, and precise. She slipped through gaps that should not have existed, parried attacks that should have killed her, and shifted her balance just enough to avoid fatal wounds.
Again.
Again.
Again.
In the blink of an eye, they exchanged more than a dozen blows.
Metal screamed.
Sparks flew.
Ren's interest grew.
No wonder Kakashi had been suppressed earlier.
This girl's instincts were terrifying.
She didn't just react.
She predicted.
She read the flow of combat and moved before the killing stroke fully formed.
Then Ren felt it.
A sudden sense of danger.
His eyes flicked toward her face.
A fierce light flashed inside her amber eyes.
Although she still held her kunai, a massive surge of scorching chakra suddenly gathered around her body.
No hand seals.
A bloodline technique.
Ren's expression shifted.
At the same moment, water burst upward in front of him.
A thick, spinning wall of pale blue water formed instantly.
Water Release: Water Wall.
It wasn't Ren manually casting it.
It was the automatic defense from Water of Body Fusion activating.
A heartbeat later—
"Scorch Release: Super Steam Kill!"
Several white-hot fireballs appeared around the orange-haired girl like miniature suns.
The air distorted around them.
The grass beneath them withered instantly.
Then they shot forward.
Boom!
The fireballs slammed into the water wall.
A horrific sizzling sound filled the forest.
Extreme heat met spinning water, and white steam exploded outward in a violent cloud.
For a moment, the entire battlefield disappeared into mist.
But the water wall couldn't fully stop them.
The fireballs burned through.
Their size had shrunk, but their heat remained deadly.
Ren instantly used Substitution Jutsu and pulled back dozens of meters.
The white fireballs halted in the air, hovering around the orange-haired girl once again.
And finally, Ren understood.
No wonder she looked familiar.
The orange hair.
The amber eyes.
The fireballs that didn't burn like ordinary Fire Release, but evaporated moisture from the body itself.
This was not an ordinary Sunagakure shinobi.
She was Pakura.
Scorch Release Pakura.
The future Hero of the Hidden Sand.
A shinobi who would one day earn fame through war, only to be betrayed by her own village and sold out as a political sacrifice.
Ren's eyes narrowed.
So she was already this strong?
That meant she was either already a jonin, or close enough to be treated like one.
Across from him, Pakura frowned.
"He dodged it?"
Her pride stung.
She had been promoted unusually young. In Sunagakure, where resources were scarce and only true geniuses received support, Pakura had fought tooth and nail for everything she had.
In her eyes, only a few people in her generation deserved to stand beside her.
Sasori of the Red Sand.
Perhaps Rasa, though even he only counted halfway.
She had entered this war to prove herself.
To earn glory.
To climb higher.
And she had succeeded.
Until now.
Now she was facing a Konoha boy who looked no older than ten.
A boy with refined swordsmanship, an eerie movement technique, and Water Release that activated without visible seals.
Even her Super Steam Kill, a technique that usually guaranteed a kill against first-time opponents, had failed.
Pakura's expression hardened.
Is Konoha full of monsters like this?
Or am I just unlucky?
She raised one hand.
More white-hot orbs formed around her.
Three.
Four.
Then more.
The air screamed beneath their heat.
"Scorch Release: Consecutive Stars!"
The blazing spheres shot forward, trailing tails of distorted air.
Ren completed his hand seals at almost the same time.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"
Dozens of orange-red fireballs burst from his mouth like scattered burning seeds. They curved through the air from different angles, their movement nimble and unpredictable.
The two techniques collided in midair.
Orange flame met white-hot Scorch Release.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions erupted one after another, lighting the forest with violent flashes.
Heat rolled outward.
Trees cracked.
Leaves ignited.
Steam and smoke swallowed the battlefield again.
But through the fire and mist, Ren's eyes remained locked on Pakura.
Pakura's gaze remained fixed on him.
Neither retreated.
Neither blinked.
Both understood the same thing.
This was no longer a simple ambush.
This was a duel between geniuses.
And the first mistake would decide everything.
Ren slowly adjusted his grip on the sword.
Pakura's Scorch Release orbs hovered around her like deadly stars.
The battlefield fell into a brief, suffocating silence.
Then Ren smiled.
"Scorch Release, huh?"
Pakura's eyes narrowed.
Ren lowered his stance.
"Good."
"Let's see which burns hotter."
The next instant, both of them moved again.
Flame, steam, steel, and killing intent tore through the forest—while somewhere in the distance, Kakashi and Rin were still chasing two wounded enemies who might be carrying even more secrets.
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