The words had barely left his lips, but Kakuzu did not lower his guard for even a second.
Seeing the three shuriken flying straight toward his vital points, Kakuzu assumed the boy had simply struck a vein of "dog's luck." A cold light flashed in his eyes as his long leg slammed against the cliff face, kicking up a few pebbles before delivering a high whip kick.
The stones tore through the night air, clanging against two of the shuriken and knocking them away. Kakuzu shifted his body slightly, dodging the third with ease.
By then, Ren was already closing in.
With a slight twist of his foot, he spun his kunai into a blade-flower and thrust it violently toward the center of Kakuzu's chest—straight for his heart.
Kakuzu adjusted his stance instantly. He pivoted to the side and delivered a savage elbow strike aimed squarely at Ren's face.
The move was so fast that Ren couldn't even track it with his eyes; he only felt the hairs on his neck stand up as a warning bell blared in his mind.
[Talent: Combat Intuition (Entry-Level, S) Activated.]
His body instinctively ducked, narrowly avoiding the explosive elbow strike. This caused even Kakuzu to feel a momentary flicker of surprise. While Kakuzu wasn't a specialized taijutsu master, his seventy years of combat experience and a body enhanced by Earth Grudge Fear made his movements nearly impossible for a single-tomoe Sharingan to perceive.
Seizing a momentary opening, Ren immediately swept his kunai toward Kakuzu's left ankle, while simultaneously launching a side-kick—a move from the Cloud Village's Swastika-style taijutsu.
A double-pronged attack: go for the good leg of the "cripple."
Kakuzu's gaze sharpened. The stitches on his left leg split open, spraying out seven or eight threads of Earth Grudge Fear that tangled around Ren's kunai. Following through with a scorpion kick, his right leg surged upward, aiming to shatter Ren's jaw.
Ren flinched instinctively, crossing his arms to block. At the same time, he gripped his kunai tightly, trying to sever the razor-thin threads wrapped around it.
THWACK!
Ren was kicked high into the air.
Cling! The threads snapped at the same moment.
"It's over!" Kakuzu declared indifferently.
With a brutal open-palm thrust, he grabbed Ren by the face and slammed his head violently into the cliff wall.
BOOM!
The force was so immense that rocks shattered and blood sprayed. Ren's head swam; his face was instantly disfigured. Using his final shred of consciousness, he jammed his kunai back into his tool pouch.
Kakuzu hoisted the slumped Ren up once more. His eyes were icy, filled with derision. "It seems you're nothing special after all. Who gave you the courage to challenge me alone?"
Before the words could even settle, Kakuzu's gaze turned freezing. He delivered a direct gut punch, followed by a knee strike to the face, a mid-air spinning kick that slammed Ren's shoulder into the ground, a scorpion kick to the chest, and a brutal elbow to the temple.
Every strike was ruthless, delivered with the intent to kill! The final kick was like a penalty shot, sending Ren hurtling into the edge of the barrier. He landed in a heap, covered in blood, his face unrecognizable as a human being.
"Whew..." Kakuzu exhaled.
After a combo like that, even a ball of solid iron would have been flattened into a pancake, let alone a human head.
However, Kakuzu glanced toward the corner. He frowned as he watched the silent, slumped form of Ren Uchiha. The barrier hasn't opened yet... is he not dead?
Outside the barrier, Mei Terumī and Hidan could only watch as Ren charged in like a suicidal maniac, only to be pulverized by Kakuzu's merciless combo in under a minute. It was a massacre.
He no longer looked like the handsome youth of a minute ago; he looked like a bowl of shattered tofu.
Mei: "..."
Hidan: "..."
Both were stunned into silence. Big brother, you went in there like a tiger, but you didn't even leave a scratch on him before getting wrecked. What was the point?!
Suddenly, the "pile of pulp" that was Ren Uchiha twitched a finger. He slowly clawed at the barrier and the cliff wall, pulling himself up.
The swelling and open gashes on his mangled head began to shrink and heal at a visible speed. Soon, not a single scar remained. This was the result of a technique Ren had "borrowed" from Shinno—the Forbidden Jutsu: Physical Rebirth.
By consuming vitality and stamina, he could restore his injuries instantly. (Years later, Orochimaru would use this as a foundation to create his miraculous regeneration techniques.)
Ren stood back up, fully restored. Although his clothes were drenched in blood, making him look terrifying, his spirit hadn't wavered in the slightest. Instead of the shame of defeat, he let out a gasping, manic laugh.
"Hahahahaha! I knew it!"
Ren pulled the kunai from his pouch, took the Earth Grudge Fear threads he had snatched earlier, and wrapped them around his fingers, testing their tension.
"The durability is similar to ninja wire... and once it's separated from the main body, Kakuzu can no longer control it. I can use this as a ninja tool!"
Mei and Hidan were flabbergasted. Seeing Ren so happy after such a beating felt like a lump in their throats.
"Are you insane?!" Mei screamed, pounding on the barrier. "You took a brutal beating just to figure out something so trivial? Open the barrier and let me in! You're going to die!"
"Huh?" Ren turned his head, genuinely confused to see them still there. "Why haven't you left yet? I told you to run!"
Even Hidan's face flushed with anger at this. "Stop trying to be a self-righteous hero! If we leave, we leave together!"
Ren fell silent for a moment, not knowing how to respond. Finally, he decided to change the subject, his voice turning serious.
"This isn't trivial. This intel is vital to me!"
He looked at Mei and asked solemnly, "Since you're still here... can you tell me the hand signs for the Water Fang Blade?"
Mei furrowed her brow. The Water Fang Blade was a secret technique of the Terumī family—a precious jutsu that could rival legendary weapons. She hesitated, but then blurted out:
"It's Hare - Ram - Snake. What are you going to do?"
Ren nodded. His single-tomoe Sharingan could see the general flow of chakra, but he was far from being able to copy jutsu perfectly. However, with the hand signs and the chakra flow he'd recorded, the success rate for replication was high.
"Phew... you'll see in a moment."
Ren turned back toward Kakuzu, forming the signs. Hare - Ram - Snake. After only two attempts, a swirling blade of water about two and a half feet long materialized over his kunai. He had observed earlier that this jutsu in Mei's hands could sever Kakuzu's threads.
The previous exchange had proven that in pure taijutsu, even with a Sharingan and Combat Intuition, he was no match for seventy years of experience. If he just played it safe, he would lose!
But in the world of shinobi, Ninjutsu is the existence that creates miracles. With a vast array of forbidden techniques and master-level wire-manipulation, Ren Uchiha believed a miracle was about to be born in his hands.
And the first step... was "borrowing" some tools from Kakuzu!