Shit. Shit. Shit.
The agonizing spike behind his eyes was blinding. Of all the options, why did he have to choose the Shadow Clone route? Naruto was really built different, or he was the dumbest of the dumbest, "dattebayo! Motherfucker", it's too much! Even if I want to, I can't switch it off Now!!.
He had spread himself too thin, taken too much onto the board. He could have rested, sorted out his fragmented personality issues, but his own impatience had forced him to jump right in.
"Die, intruder!" A heavily armored Devil launched himself at Jin's blind spot.
Look at this guy. He's trying to jump me?! , anger bubled inside Jin .Jin casually sidestepped the heavy swing, channeling a burst of Touki into his grip. He caught the Devil by the face, the sheer force crushing the man's visor, and violently slammed him into the stone tiles. Straddling the downed guard, Jin began hammering his jagged, hardened fist into the man's face, one sickening crunch after another. "Come on! Jump me now!"
"NOOOOO!!" Akane Naberius's scream ripped through the courtyard.
Jin's Sharingan flared. Calm down, his brooding inner voice commanded, washing over the anger. He scanned the perimeter and caught Akane advancing toward him with lethal intent. He seamlessly dodged her tri-elemental strike and bounded backward into the shadows. As they say, those who don't take care of themselves suffer. Is this the price I have to pay for being led blind by my vengeance?
Jin wove a rapid sequence of seals, generating another batch of clones. They scattered in every direction, the main body perfectly camouflaging among them. The battlefield devolved into absolute chaos, the scales of victory tilting back and forth but surely turning in jin favour.
I can't go full force until all the players are on the board. I have to maintain this state and tough it out. Suddenly, a massive influx of data assaulted his brain as the Cerberus crushed another clone. Even that clone crossed the line... And the Patriarch is here. He isn't joining the fray. He wants to flush out the real body.
Another clone's memories flooded in. If that beast keeps running wild, I'll be cornered. I should approach him as a clone and deal a huge surprise attack... Or...
A jagged, dark scale started to creep across Jin's skin. The excited, manic voice in his head drowned out the brooding logic.
RIOT!! It doesn't matter now! The Patriarch is here. It's ALL IN! Better I jump in on my own conditions!
Jin broke from the pack, sprinting directly toward the towering Cerberus. Across the courtyard, Akane received the telepathic ping of his true location and immediately changed her trajectory to intercept. But Jin was already accelerating, kicking up a massive trail of shattered stone and dust.
'LETS GO!! LETS GOO!! 'Jin hyped himself up, feeling the intoxicating rush of adrenaline. He leaped into the air, aiming directly for the center head of the hellhound. "HULK SMASH!"
The Cerberus planted its paws, its three maws glowing like furnaces before unleashing a concentrated, localized inferno directly at Jin. Mid-air, Jin activated his Haki, coating his entire body in dense, blackened armor. The flames poured over him, scorching the air and melting the stones below, but Jin simply gritted his teeth and pushed through the fire. These flames are going to stop, and I am going to kill a mythical hound.
As he broke through the firestorm, his skin healing the burnt. Jin reared his fist back. "You mutt, your head is MINE!"
Down below, Taito Naberius narrowed his eyes. "Ruri. Now."
Waiting on the periphery, completely unbothered by the clones her team had intercepted, Ruri Naberius unleashed her fully charged hereditary magic.
"Walking Dead."
The psychic strike hit Jin the exact moment before his fist made contact with the beast. The spell bypassed his physical armor entirely, delivering three simultaneous, catastrophic psychic blows directly to his brain. It was a complete mental shutdown. Despite his immense magic resistance, Jin's eyes rolled back. He blacked out instantly.
When his consciousness snapped back awake, his regeneration had barely kickstarted. He was no longer falling. He was pinned inside the Cerberus's middle mouth. Massive, searing fangs were already pierced deep into his torso, and the back of the throat of two heads was glowing with another charging breath attack .
His Sharingan spun frantically. I'm trapped. He tried to instinctively activate his Touki hardening to survive the impending blast, but a terrifying realization hit him. He had subconsciously shifted back into his evasion-focused Itachi mode when the psychic attack hit. He can't use hardening touki or haki now.
Should I use Izanagi? No, not at this stage.
Genjutsu? It wouldn't work fast enough on a hellhound that guarded the gates of the underworld for millennia.
The angry voice returned, sharp and vicious. It isn't the time! Even if I brute-force my way out, Akane and the Patriarch are waiting! Every shadow clone has been dispelled. That leaves only the path of mutual destruction. When they think I'm dead, I'll recover and strike.
Trapped between the crushing fangs, Jin's bloody hands began to weave signs. A terrifying, crazy madness seeped into his clear crimson eyes, and a wide smile stretched across his face. I never thought I'd do something like this.
Jin roared "Great Explosion Jutsu."
He didn't have explosive clay, but he had his own flesh as fuel, his own mana to replace instead of nature transformation.
The Cerberus unleashed its fire just as Jin detonated his own body.
The explosion was Massive!. It shook the very foundations of the estate. First came a blinding flash of white light, followed by a sound that shattered eardrums, and finally a shockwave of wind so violently strong it picked up heavily armored Devils and hurled them across the courtyard like leaves.
As the thick, black smoke began to clear, a charred, broken body fell limply from the sky.
Below, Ruri and Akane watched the corpse plummet. A profound wave of relief washed over them. The monster was dead.
Consciousness flickered in Jin's ruined form as he fell. I only need a little time. Just you wait, I will get the rest of you too, you bit—
His thought was severed.
A blade flashed through the smoke. Taito Naberius had intercepted him mid-air. The Patriarch's sword cleaved cleanly through Jin's unprotected neck.
'SHIT!!.'
Jin's decapitated head tumbled away from his falling body. It hit the bloody stone courtyard, rolling to a stop against the boot of a dead Naberius Knight.
Why? The answer came to him automatically as his vision tilted sideways. 'Oh. I killed too many.'
He tried to feel his regenerative factor kicking in, but the spark was too faint. I'm in Itachi mode. I have to switch to Wolverine to survive this, but shifting templates now will make me black out... and that is signing my death warrant.
Panic finally pierced the madness. 'So what do I do?!'
Through his sideways, blurring vision, he hallucinated a Grim Reaper stepping over the corpses, waiting patiently to collect his soul.
'Is this the end?'
From the depths of his fading mind, a primal, animalistic roar shattered the silence. "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I WILL NOT DIE!!"
'WOLVERINE OR ITACHI, I DON'T CARE! I AM GONNA SURVIVE! NO MATTER HOW MESSED UP I BECOME, I WILL SURVIVE! I NEED REGENERATION NOW, SO I WILL REGENERATE NOW!'
He abandoned logic. He abandoned the templates. He poured his absolute last reserves—every drop of his Touki, his Mana, his Haki, and his sheer willpower—into his healing factor. He willed his cells to knit, so they had to knit. The healing factor violently gulped down his reserves. If anyone had been measuring his template integration, it would have shattered the 100% threshold and kept climbing.
The Patriarch landed gracefully, turning back toward his relieved family, assuming the threat was neutralized.
But a collective gasp choked the air. The clan's instincts screamed in primal terror. Taito turned.
Where Jin's severed head had been resting, a figure was standing up from the bloody stones.
He was fully naked, his body washed clean of ash and grime, rippling with dense, terrifyingly perfect musculature. From the knuckles of both hands, long, wicked bone claws were fully drawn, begging to spill more blood. And his eyes—glowing an angry, luminescent crimson with the three tomoe spinning violently—carried nothing but absolute, unrestrained madness.
====
ruri ability
"Mind Crush (絶対的固定化マインド・クラッシュ, Maindo Kurasshu): also known as the Absolute Immobilization. The signature move of Ruri Naberius. A magic attack that attacks the mind with three separate psychic strikes; one to cause paralysis by attacking the body signals, one to shut off the senses, causing an all informative blackout in the mind, and one final one that causes an unforgivable pain shock throughout the body that feels like its attacking the very soul. It is considered the most powerful form of the spell, but it is considered very difficult to execute perfectly against powerful opponents.
Walking Dead (死試飲運命ウォーキング・デッド, Uōkingu Deddo): also known as the Taste of Fated Death. The evolved technique used exclusively by Ruri Naberius. Much like her original ability, the attack strikes that the targets mind, however the attack strikes at the mind with all three strikes at once, causing a complete mental shutdown, with the possibility of killing the opponent if the effect prolong sustaining bodily functions, such as breathing."