Seeing the three people before him—each from a different camp, each with a different objective, yet all choosing to strike at him in unison the moment they laid eyes on him—Ren Uchiha's gaze turned bone-chillingly cold.
Kakashi's earlier words had become a prophecy.
Currently, both the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Sand were attempting to forge alliances with the Land of Lightning. To that end, they were willing to use any means necessary to achieve their ulterior motives. Compared to Hidan, who had been assassinating the Lightning Daimyo in his name, the head of Ren Uchiha—the true culprit who had caused the Cloud and the Land of Lightning to suffer immense losses in the Third Ninja War—was the only prize that could truly sway the Lightning Daimyo, and even the Third Raikage.
Whether it was out of old grudges, strategic interests, or simply the desire to eliminate a rival nation's prodigy before he became an insurmountable threat...
At this moment, the contradictions between them were utterly irreconcilable! Since there was no retreat, there was only one path remaining:
Battle!
[Kitsuchi, son of the Third Tsuchikage of the Hidden Stone, has developed killing intent toward you!!]
[Mifune, General of the Land of Iron, has developed killing intent toward you!!]
[Lady Chiyo, Elder of the Hidden Sand, has developed killing intent toward you!!]
The three subtitles leaped out, signaling the immediate start of the conflict!
"Now, Mifune! Kill him!" Chiyo's fingers twitched as she pulled the chakra threads tight, binding Ren's skeletal frame and rendering him immobile. She turned her head and barked at Mifune, who had already sliced into the bone. "Pierce his heart to shut down his Fire Release! Move!"
Mifune gave a low, muffled grunt. Grabbing his hilt with both hands, veins bulging on his arms, he lunged forward!
Screeeeee—
The long sword scraped against Ren's katana, throwing up a massive spray of sparks! Ren watched as the blade—about to snap his own chipped sword and plunge into his throat—closed in, while the five tightening wires from Chiyo's puppets bit into his defense. These were specialized wires shot from puppets modeled after Sasori's parents; their binding and cutting power was peerless.
Ren Uchiha's eyes snapped wide. Within those scarlet orbs, three black tomoe spun frantically.
"It seems you trash still don't understand your current situation!" He curled his lips into a cold smirk, surveying the three of them. "This is a battle of vision. Don't look down on an Uchiha!"
The moment his words fell—without a shred of hesitation—Ren summoned the terrifying entity dwelling within his eyes!
In the next instant, accompanied by a flare of crimson light from his pupils, a high-intensity firestorm surged around his body! The skeletal ribs that had previously only protected a ten-centimeter radius around him suddenly erupted with brilliant, incandescent light!
Twenty-six bones, shaded between bright yellow and crimson, tore out of the ground behind him!
The half-bodied skeletal Susanoo took shape in the firelight at a blistering speed, instantly snapping the wires binding Ren. Then, it raised an arm. A skeletal palm manifested above Mifune's head and slammed down with staggering force!
A sudden, intense sense of danger caused Mifune's eyes to bulge. He instinctively kicked off the ground, performing a sideways leap to retreat while parrying with his blade.
Skreeeee—
The back of the skeletal hand brushed the sword, bending the blade into a heart-stopping curve. A shrill shriek of steel echoed before the blade snapped back straight, launching Mifune through the air like a projectile!
BOOM!
Mifune crashed into the ruins. He rolled and pushed himself up with his sword, coughing up a bit of blood. He looked up, his eyes widening as he stared at Ren Uchiha, who hadn't moved an inch, and the terrifying entity surrounding him—a thing that did not belong to this era.
"What... what is that?!"
The same question rose in the hearts of all three. Chiyo and Kitsuchi stared at the burning, half-bodied skeletal giant, a horror standing thirty meters tall! Feeling the cold, oppressive chakra fluctuations radiating from it, their hearts tightened in unison.
"This brat..." Chiyo gritted her teeth, finding the sight hard to accept. Even though she had used every resource to gather intelligence on Ren Uchiha, every single time he fought, he revealed something new. It was impossible to tell how many cards he held, or... just how fast he was progressing!
"No more holding back!" Chiyo's face twisted into a savage mask. she barked at the other two, "I'll restrain him. There will only be one opening! Use every trump card you have! Otherwise, we cannot kill him!"
With that, Chiyo raised her hand, bit her finger, and smeared blood across the purple scroll. Her gaze turned vicious.
"White Secret Technique: The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu!!"
With a poof, white smoke erupted. Ten legendary puppets, the masterpiece of the Second Kazekage, appeared in mid-air. The moment they manifested, they tore through the smoke and charged at Ren!
Clack-clack-clack-clack...
In an instant, the female puppet wielding twin broadswords, the blue-faced puppet swinging a spiked rope, the red and white puppets that combined into a spinning four-bladed chakra saw, the white-haired puppet with extending spiked arms and bombs, and the bull-headed puppet for close-quarters defense... seven puppets unleashed their respective killing moves, swarming the Susanoo!
Unlike Ebizo, who could only master five, Chiyo was a genius who could control all ten. However... these relics of the past were like a pile of scrap metal when faced with a "Gundam" of the new era!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
A continuous barrage of strikes rang out! But whether it was the broadswords that could split stone, the rope that could drill through steel, or the chakra saws and bombs—everything that hit the flaming skeletal demon was futile. Sparks flew, but not a single mark was left behind.
Ren simply watched Chiyo's futile efforts. He waved his hand casually.
The massive skeletal palm swung out! The seven puppets attacking him in mid-air were swatted like flies, smashed into pieces with a single slap! Debris from the puppets rained down from the sky.
But just then, hidden behind the feint of the seven puppets, the real killing move was revealed!
Chiyo's expression was grim. Her arms were crossed, her ten fingers dancing. Under her control, the three "Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha" puppets stood in a tripod formation. They pressed their palms together and opened their mouths wide toward Ren, their wooden eyes vacant and terrifying.
"Puppet Jutsu: Three Buddhist Treasures Vacuum Destruction!"
The moment the elderly shout rang out, a violent tornado engulfed the area where Ren stood! A horrifying suction force was generated around the three puppets—the same move Ebizo had once used that nearly killed Ren!
The suction of this Wind Release was no weaker than Danzo's summon, Baku. Under this force, even the Susanoo began to sway, sliding inch by inch toward the puppets. Unlike with Baku, Ren couldn't simply use Fire Release to interrupt it; regular attacks and ninjutsu would be shredded the moment they hit the eye of the storm.
Back then, Ren had used a composite jutsu—the Hurricane Water Vortex Sword—to cancel it out. But now, he had a much more direct method!
Facing this killing move, his eyes turned cold. He clenched his fist!
Under his control, the Susanoo skeleton pulled its fist back and punched straight forward!
BOOM!
A fist as large as a locomotive engine surged forward, carrying a windstorm even more violent than the vacuum destruction! Against this terror that defied human scale—this raw power generated by a casual strike of a titan—Chiyo's cloudy eyes bulged. She watched her three puppets get pulverized into splinters by a single punch.
Her face froze. "This... this is just unreasonable!"
Given the hardness of the Susanoo's bones, the vacuum destruction couldn't shred it instantly. In that window, one punch was all it took to destroy the puppets and end the jutsu.
In other words, Chiyo's move had succeeded in stalling Ren—it had felt like a fly buzzing in front of his eyes, making him feel a sudden, annoyed impulse to swat it. And in that brief window Chiyo had bought:
"Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!"
Accompanied by a roar: "—BOOM!!"
Ren snapped his head up. He saw Kitsuchi had somehow leaped onto the mountain peak behind the palace, his hands formed in the 'Snake' seal. He spread his fingers and slammed his palm onto the massive mountain!
A deep fissure instantly bloomed across the peak, which was even larger than the palace itself! Dust rose from the black line as the mountain shook. The entire summit, severed by Kitsuchi's power, came crashing down!
The dark sky went pitch black; even the moonlight was blotted out. Like a falling meteor, a piece of the mountain larger than the entire hall crushed downward!
"Holy... what in the world?!"
Seeing this, Ren—who had been delayed by Chiyo—narrowed his eyes. Even the thirty-meter Susanoo looked small beneath the majesty of this natural force. There was no time to use ninjutsu to change the rock's trajectory. He could only pull the Susanoo's arms back, crossing them over his head in a defensive guard!
"—BOOM!!!"
The giant rock hit! Like a steamroller falling from the sky, the skeletal arms attempting to hold the mountain were instantly crushed into shards, vanishing into pure chakra. The massive weight hit the ground, detonating a ring of dust and debris!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Dense spiderweb fractures spread wildly across the Susanoo's surface until the massive rock finally shattered around it. At the cost of a nearly broken Susanoo, Ren had barely endured this "Rock Fall."
The second-stage skeletal Susanoo was still relatively weak in terms of pure defense; conventional high-tier ninjutsu could still damage it. Kitsuchi's "meteor" strike, using the terrain, was a heavy blow to Ren, who could currently only manifest the second stage.
Ren's brow twitched as he looked at the cracks on his defense. Kitsuchi had played a big hand quietly. Truly a man capable of restraining the Gedo Mazo for a few seconds.
Just as Ren breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to repair the Susanoo, another shadow leaped from the sky!
"Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Fist Jutsu!!"
Falling head-first, looking like a massive bear in his red uniform, Kitsuchi roared as he threw a punch from mid-air! This was the combination of the Rock Fist and the Added-Weight jutsu. In the Fourth Ninja War, Ohnoki would use this to shatter a giant shell and, with the Fourth Raikage, even break Madara's Susanoo!
The fist, encased in heavy rock, smashed into the Susanoo!
"SHATTER!!" Kitsuchi screamed.
Under this blow, the already crumbling half-bodied Susanoo finally shattered completely!
At the exact moment the defense broke—
"Secret Sword: Sky-Rending Slash!"
A cold shout erupted from behind Ren! Mifune, who had been waiting for this moment, had a gaze like ice. He concentrated his entire chakra into his blade. One hand on the scabbard, one on the hilt, he leaped forward in a high-speed strike!
In an instant, the sword-light flashed like a falling moon! Mifune pushed the hilt forward with both hands, veins popping on his arms and forehead as he glared at Ren.
"DIE!!"
The moon-like blade swept out, aiming straight for Ren's waist now that the Susanoo was gone. He intended to cut him diagonally from shoulder to heart to hip—a total bisection! Such a strike would instantly destroy Ren's arm, heart, and legs, leaving him powerless.
However, facing this chain of attacks, Ren simply nodded in approval. He didn't move a single step.
Flashy. Very nice.
But attacks that didn't even trigger a response from his battle instincts were simply... uninspiring.
In the next instant, the shoulder and waist Mifune was about to strike seemed to melt into the night, turning into a deep, abyssal black.
The jutsu he had regained through the new heart gifted by Kakuzu—
Earth Release: Earth Spear.
The blade hit!
"—CLANG!!"
A crisp, metallic ring, like a hammer hitting an anvil, echoed through the ruins. At that moment, Mifune felt as if his heavy, mountain-splitting strike had hit a diamond harder than steel.
Then, the long sword crafted from chakra metal let out a clack and snapped in two, the tip flying past Ren's ear.
Mifune stood frozen.
Ren Uchiha tilted his head slightly, glancing at him with a mocking smile. Then, in a voice so sigh-inducing it made one want to grab his neck and slam him against a wall, he asked:
"What's the matter?"
"Didn't you all have dinner?"
Note: Support me and get early access to chapters on Pat reon.com/XareonMTL