The ruins of the village, ravaged by shinobi combat, lay in chaotic disarray. Inside the towering barrier, the ground was littered with shuriken, scattered wires, broken earth, and charred debris.
As Ren's eerie words echoed, Moroi involuntarily shuddered, a trauma response kicking in. Despite his successful counterattack, Moroi was in a sorry state. His red trench coat was shredded by the wires, and his skin was a map of bleeding, shallow cuts. Each sting made him hiss under his breath.
If he hadn't carried a specialized sealing scroll that required no hand signs—and if that scroll hadn't contained the Seal Binding Array—he might truly have died at the hands of this fledgling Genin.
Moroi narrowed his eyes, refusing to let his guard down. He wove the 'Ram' sign, using a sensory technique to scan Ren's condition. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. He pressed his katana closer to Ren's neck, a sneer forming on his lips.
"Kid, are you still trying to bluff me at this stage?" Moroi's voice was cold and mocking. "I've checked. Your chakra is bottomed out, your stamina is gone, and you're paralyzed by my Thunder Kill Bind. With your current strength, you couldn't even manage a basic Substitution Jutsu."
Moroi smirked, the taste of victory sweet in his mouth. "You've lost! There's no way out but death."
However, Ren's gaze remained calm. It was a terrifying, unnatural stillness. As Moroi said, his situation was dire. He couldn't even perform an E-Rank Escape Technique.
Yet, in this moment, a look of pure relief washed over Ren's face. He whispered to himself:
"Finally... finally... finally..."
"What are you muttering about, brat?" Moroi frowned, his instincts screaming at him to be cautious even now.
Ren stared directly into Moroi's eyes, his lips curling upward into a manic grin. "Do you have any idea," he began, his voice as steady as a narrator telling a story, "how long I've been waiting for this exact moment?"
Ren's eyes flashed with a hint of madness, his excitement reaching a fever pitch. "And now... I have finally arrived!"
"Absolute nonsense! You've lost your mind!" Moroi barked, his patience wearing thin. "Whatever your last wish is, it ends here. DIE!"
He decided to stop talking and end Ren's life with a single thrust to the heart. Moroi gripped his katana with both hands, stepped back, and leveled the blade at Ren's chest. One thrust, and the boy would never speak again.
He lunged!
But in that exact microsecond, Ren—pinned by lightning and facing certain death—threw his head back and let out a deafening, soul-shaking laugh.
"Hehe... Hahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The laughter was layered: starting as a low, mocking chuckle, rising into a boisterous roar, and ending with a frantic, tear-inducing wheeze. Ren looked down at Moroi, his eyes filled with absolute disdain.
"Cloud ninja... did you really think you were the one who won?"
As Ren spoke, Moroi's blade sliced through the high collar of Ren's black Uchiha robe. But the moment Moroi saw what lay beneath the fabric, his smug grin froze. His arm stopped mid-thrust, trembling violently.
"This... this... what is this?!" Moroi gasped in pure horror.
"What is it?" Ren laughed, his tone delirious with joy. "Let me show you exactly what it is!"
Ignoring the agonizing sting of the electricity still coursing through him, Ren grabbed his collar and ripped the black robe open with a single, violent motion. His lean, youthful torso was exposed to the sunlight.
But it wasn't just skin. He was wearing a "vest" made entirely of Explosive Tags.
Dense, black ink patterns crawled over his body. From his shoulders to his waist, every inch was covered in paper charms. The repetition of the kanji for 'Explode' (爆) was a visual nightmare. The sheer quantity was enough to level the entire village.
A wave of numbing terror washed over Moroi, from his toes to his scalp. This kid... is wearing explosive tags as clothes?!
Fucking lunatic! Madman! Psycho! Aren't you afraid of a single spark sending you to the afterlife?!
Suddenly, the lightning chains around Ren slackened. Moroi's shock had caused his chakra flow to stumble, breaking the Thunder Kill Bind. Ren hopped down, stretching his stiff shoulders, and looked at Moroi with an indifferent, chilling gaze.
"The one who truly won... is me."
Ren's hand hovered over the central tag on his chest. One tug, and the entire village—Ren included—would go up in a glorious, blinding light.
The battlefield fell into a tomb-like silence.
Outside the barrier, the three masters watched in stunned silence.
They had seen Moroi turn the tide with his sealing arts, trapping Ren and preparing for the kill.
"Ren!" Setsuna Uchiha had gasped, ready to unleash a high-level jutsu to shatter the barrier and intervene.
In Setsuna's heart, Ren's value had skyrocketed. A boy who mastered the Uchiha Wire-Shuriken Style at such a young age, and who could combine Jutsu he'd only seen once into an A-Rank combo... he wasn't just a waste who couldn't wake the Sharingan.
He was a genius among geniuses.
As a high-ranking elder, Setsuna knew exactly how to trigger the Sharingan. He had already begun mentally drafting a "trauma plan"—a series of heartbreaking losses and tragedies designed to force Ren's eyes to evolve all the way to the Mangekyou.
But now, the prodigy he intended to mold was about to be buried in a foreign land. To the Uchiha, and to his radical faction, this was an unacceptable loss.
Setsuna's gaze turned lethal. He made a decision. He would use Izanagi. He would sacrifice one of his eyes to rewrite reality, kill one of the Cloud ninjas, break the barrier, and drag Ren out of there.
An asset like this cannot be allowed to die here!