The full moon was sinking, and a faint light began to bleed from the horizon. The early spring breeze, which should have been gentle, was now churning into violent, turbulent gusts.
As the Earth Grudge Fear tentacles lashed down, the sounds of Thud-Thud-Thud formed a continuous rhythm. Yet, not a single strike hit its mark. Every time a lash was about to connect, Ren Uchiha—as if possessed by a divine instinct—would duck, roll, or flip just in time. Even with zero visibility, he was dodging every attack.
"Tch, this unreasonable intuition..." Kakuzu muttered, his brow furrowing. Watching Ren sprint and weave while fiddling with something in his hands, he realized he couldn't let this drag on.
Kakuzu manipulated his tentacles to slam into the cliff face, gouging out massive craters. He began pulling out giant boulders and hurling them directly at Ren!
Whoosh! Whoosh! The boulders tore through the air, booming as they neared.
Outside the barrier, Mei Terumī's breath hitched in shock. This move was the equivalent of a dozen shinobi consecutively using Earth Style: Rock Gun, sealing off all possible escape routes and forcing the opponent to take the hit head-on.
But this was only the beginning.
While hurling boulders with his tentacles, Kakuzu's hands formed the Snake seal. The next instant, two masks—trailing their pitch-black, thread-composed bodies—crawled out from his back and perched on his shoulders.
It was Kakuzu's Fire and Wind Style masks.
Together, they were about to unleash a disaster: Composite Ninjutsu: Flaming Wind Wave & Strange Mask Exploding Flame!
This technique combined the Fire Style: Intense Pain and Wind Style: Pressure Damage, creating a vast, inescapable sea of fire. With the boulders blocking his path and the fire surging forward, Ren Uchiha had nowhere to run.
"Broke brat, the game is over!" Kakuzu declared coldly, his palm half-closing.
BOOM!
A sea of fire erupted, accompanied by violent, swirling gales. Every inch of space was covered by Kakuzu's assault. Within a second, the view was consumed by dust, boulders, scythe-like wind blades, and tongues of flame licking the ground.
Yet, in the face of this hellish landscape and the crushing despair, Ren Uchiha felt no fear. He stared wide-eyed, as if trying to record every inch of this apocalyptic scene.
A jolt of electricity seemed to pulse from his fingertips to his heart, drilling into his cells and flipping a hidden switch deep within his body. Dopamine and serotonin flooded his brain, pushing him toward a peak of combat euphoria.
[Talent: Combat Intuition (S) development increased. You can now use your body with greater proficiency.]
Ren glanced down at the Earth Grudge Fear threads wrapped around his fingers and grinned. He looked at Kakuzu one last time, his pupils spinning so fast the tomoe nearly formed a solid black line.
"Come on! Come on! COME ON!"
"Fight! If you don't fight, you lose. And at the end of the fight, there is only a dead-end!"
"I, who have staked everything for a destined death... will surely have my wish granted here!"
Ren closed his eyes. At this speed, a single-tomoe Sharingan could no longer keep up. He chose to trust his senses and the battle plan etched in his mind.
Step one—
He pulled out the last four shuriken from his pouch, each trailing a thread, and hurled them with everything he had into a massive boulder flying toward him!
Cing! Cing! Cing! Cing!
The shuriken bit deep into the rock, pulling four black threads taut. Ren yanked his hands back. The threads he had secretly laid out while dodging earlier suddenly snapped tight from the ground, converging directly under his feet.
Like a giant bow pulled to full mast, the thread-tension snapped! POW! The giant bow of wire acted as a catapult, launching Ren forward like a lethal arrow. He dived headfirst into the sea of fire, using the wires of the four shuriken to pivot mid-air. He kicked off the flying boulders for extra momentum, accelerating further!
He slipped through the gap of two colliding rocks, backflipped over a scythe-like wind blade, and before the crossing tongues of flame could scorch him, he formed the signs—
Hare - Ram - Snake! Water Style: Water Fang Blade!
With his right hand wielding the water blade and his left hand controlling his flight path via the wires, Ren began to spin violently in mid-air. He rotated like a blue drill, his water blade shrieking as it reached maximum speed.
He snapped his eyes open!
"Is he dead?" Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. The area before him was entirely consumed by the storm of fire. Between the boulders and the flames, there should have been no escape.
Kakuzu's techniques were derived from the hearts of the strongest experts he had hunted over the decades. Earth, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Water—every jutsu was at its peak. He didn't believe a brat of this age could survive.
He turned his cold gaze toward the three people outside the barrier. He looked past Hidan and Mei, focusing instead on the calm, yellow-coated Shinno.
Why is that man just standing there? Kakuzu wondered. He hasn't even reacted to his disciple's 'death.' He must be a cold, heartless man.
Mei and Hidan were paralyzed with horror.
"This attack... it's even worse than the wind one before," Mei whispered, her eyes frantically searching the flames. But all she could see within the barrier was a raging inferno.
Hidan fell to his knees on the tree branch, staring at the despairing scene. Fire, fire, fire... and Kakuzu. That man was the personification of terror.
The only sounds were the howling wind, the roaring fire, and the screams of the refugees below who were caught in the crossfire. Hidan clenched his fists, tears welling in his eyes. He squeezed them shut and let out a roar that tore through his throat:
"REN UCHIHA! IF YOU'RE STILL ALIVE, YOU BASTARD—GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!!"
As the roar faded, a heavy silence fell. The flames seemed to choke the very air.
Then, the sea of fire suddenly buckled! It was as if a heavy truck were crashing through it from the inside!
Rubble, dirt, and sparks flew in every direction as a blue, swirling blur of blade-light tore through the inferno! A massive hole was carved into the wall of fire.
Ren Uchiha shot out like a bolt of lightning, spinning through the air until he was directly above Kakuzu. He took a deep breath, gripped his blade with both hands, and swung the shrieking, hyper-accelerated water blade directly at Kakuzu's neck!
The blade reflected the fire, and within the light, two cold, merciless crimson eyes stared back.
Kakuzu's eyes widened in pure shock!