In the next instant, blazing white fire crashed down like a heavenly waterfall.
It did not resemble an ordinary Fire Release technique. It looked more like the wrath of the night itself—violent, incandescent, and absolute.
The tall, thin enemy ninja had no chance to scream.
The moment the flames touched him, his body was swallowed whole by that terrifying inferno, a fire so intense it seemed capable of melting steel and stone alike. For a heartbeat, his silhouette twisted within the white blaze like a shadow trapped inside the sun.
Then—
BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore through the forest.
The shockwave spread in every direction, flattening grass, snapping branches, and hurling burning ash into the air. The heat came in a violent gust, fierce enough to make Rin Nohara and the others in the distance shield their faces. Even with their eyes narrowed, they could barely keep them open. Their skin stung from the scorching wind, and the smell that followed was sickening—a mix of burned wood, scorched earth, and charred flesh.
The hot current screamed past the trees, carrying glowing embers with it.
For more than ten full seconds, the flames raged without mercy.
Only when the fire finally died down did the true aftermath become visible.
Where the enemy had stood, there was now a massive crater more than ten meters wide and several meters deep. The edges of the pit had melted into dark, glass-like lumps, as though the earth itself had been forged and ruined in the same instant. Thin ribbons of blue smoke rose from the blackened ground. At the very center lay a curled, unrecognizable thing—something that had once been human.
Silence followed.
Then the phantom-like battlefield technique vanished.
The clone figures scattered across the area dissolved one by one like bubbles in moonlight, turning into smoke and nothingness.
A white-haired boy descended lightly from above and landed at the edge of the crater.
Ren.
He stood there with a short sword in hand, breathing steadily, though the rise and fall of his chest was a little heavier than usual.
Not far away, Minato Namikaze had already finished dealing with the enemies on his side and woken Rin from her dazed state. He had been watching Ren's battle from the corner of his eye, prepared to step in if necessary.
But when he saw that massive white inferno descend from the sky, even Minato's expression changed.
His eyes widened in genuine surprise.
That kind of Fire Release… that level of destructive power… it was far beyond what any ordinary genin should be capable of. Even many chunin would struggle to produce something so overwhelming.
Then, almost immediately, Minato sensed something else.
His expression sharpened.
"Ren, be careful!" he called out. "There's another one underground!"
The warning had barely left his lips when—
Boom!
The ground beneath Ren exploded.
Dirt and shattered roots flew upward in a spray. A pale hand shot out from the earth behind him and clamped around his ankle with iron force. Before Ren could seem to react, the arm yanked downward.
"Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!"
The soil surged like living mud. In the blink of an eye, Ren's lower body was dragged into the ground, trapping him in place up to the waist.
"Ren-kun!"
Rin's face turned pale as she cried out and rushed forward.
Yet Minato did not move.
He stood still, only the faintest flicker passing through his blue eyes. His gaze shifted briefly toward the shadow of a nearby tree trunk, as if he had already understood something and was waiting for it to unfold.
A rough, rasping laugh echoed through the clearing.
"Heh… hahaha…"
A scar-faced ninja emerged beside the crater, rising from the earth like a ghost from hell. A deep, ugly scar ran across his face, twisting one side of his mouth into a permanent sneer. He pressed a kunai against Ren's throat as soon as he appeared, while the corner of his eye kept watch on Minato.
Only now did the full picture become clear.
Fresh burn marks covered the scarred ninja's arms and shoulders. He must have been hiding underground the entire time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. But Ren's earlier Fire Release had been so devastating that even hidden beneath the soil, he had still taken part of the blast. The earth had saved his life—but only barely.
His grin widened, cruel and ugly.
"Kid, you're still too inexperienced," he said hoarsely. "This mission may already be doomed, but dragging a Konoha genius to hell with me? That's still worth it."
And with that, he moved.
The kunai flashed across Ren's throat in a clean, merciless cut.
Rin froze.
The clearing went still.
Then—
"…Heh."
A faint chuckle sounded in the darkness.
It was soft, almost amused.
The scarred ninja's body stiffened.
That voice… it hadn't come from the trapped boy in front of him.
It came from somewhere else.
Then Ren's calm voice drifted across the battlefield like a whisper in the night.
"Since when," he said quietly, "were you under the illusion that I hadn't used a clone?"
The scarred ninja's expression froze.
In front of him, the "Ren" he had just killed suddenly lost all shape, the body collapsing into a puddle of water that splashed onto the scorched soil and seeped into the ground.
A Water Clone.
His eyes widened.
No—!
Instinct screamed at him. He spun around—
And saw a white figure burst from the shadows beside the crater.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Ren's real body shot forward like a streak of moonlight, his short sword held flat and low. The blade carved a sharp, unstoppable arc through the darkness, so swift that the air itself seemed to split around him. Under the pale light of the moon, his movement left behind a blurred afterimage, and a milky cone of compressed air flared along both sides of his charge.
The scarred ninja only had time to see Ren's eyes.
Bright.
Cold.
Terrifyingly focused.
"So fast…"
That was his last thought.
Slash.
The strike passed cleanly through him.
For the span of a single breath, nothing happened.
Then the scarred ninja's head flew into the air.
His face still wore that stunned, horrified expression, as though even in death he could not understand what had just happened. The severed head spun twice before dropping into the smoldering crater below with a dull thud.
The headless body remained standing at the edge of the pit for several seconds.
Then it toppled forward as well, collapsing into the ash.
At last, the battlefield fell silent.
The fight was over.
Ren continued forward for another ten meters before finally stopping. He stood with his back to the corpse, then casually flicked his short sword in a smooth, elegant flourish and slid it back into its sheath.
The movement was clean.
Controlled.
Almost stylish enough to look rehearsed.
Only after the blade clicked home did he slowly let out a long breath.
The battle had ended, but Ren's thoughts were still racing.
In that clash, he had not only used the Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation and a full-power Great Fireball Technique, he had also tested another possibility—an extreme way of using the buff from Victory Over Death.
He had confirmed it long ago through repeated experiments: the enhancement provided by Victory Over Death depended on how much chakra remained inside the defeated clone. Ordinary Shadow Clones gave very little. Water Clones, however, provided slightly more—and if he deliberately invested additional chakra into them, the effect rose even further.
That was the key.
After unleashing the Great Fireball, Ren had poured nearly all of his remaining chakra—close to thirty percent of his total reserves—into a final Water Clone. While the clone stayed in plain sight, he himself used a Transformation Technique and concealed his real body nearby.
The scarred ninja had never realized it.
When the Water Clone was killed, and when the earlier clones destroyed by the tall enemy were added on top of that, the stacked effect of Victory Over Death reached a level Ren had never tested before.
The result was that final strike.
A burst of speed and power so overwhelming that even a chunin had been unable to react.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought through the result.
So this worked.
If he was willing to "sell" enough of his combat stability at the start of a fight—burning through chakra, sacrificing clones, stacking the buff—then he could boost the Hatake Sword Style to a terrifying level. Combined with a sudden position change through the Substitution Technique or misdirection through clones, it could become an extremely deadly assassination method.
A high-risk fighting style.
But a viable one.
The problem was obvious.
The more he pushed it, the more dangerous it became.
The stronger the buff, the more fragile his real body would become in practice. If he faced an enemy strong enough to survive the burst and drag the battle out, then Ren would be left exhausted, vulnerable, and possibly unable to continue.
This time, he had dared to experiment only because Minato Namikaze was present.
With Minato nearby, even if something went wrong, he would not be allowed to die.
In a real solo fight, this method would need far more caution.
He would have to test it again later—several times—until he could find a safe limit.
"Phew…"
This time, the breath that left Ren was heavier.
Now that the tension of battle had passed, the emptiness inside his body became impossible to ignore. Weakness spread through his limbs. Sweat mixed with dirt and blood ran down the side of his face, soaking into his collar. His muscles ached, and a faint dizziness tugged at the edge of his consciousness.
Then that familiar, almost motherly voice echoed in his mind once more.
[Healing Technique: This child… if I take my eyes off him for one moment, he goes and gets himself covered in wounds again. Come here, come here. Let Mommy take care of you.]
Ren nearly twitched.
The next moment, soft pale-green light rose from his body, flowing through him like warm water. The overstrained muscles in his arms and legs eased a little, and the hollow ache in his chest lessened under the soothing touch of medical chakra.
Before he could relax, Rin rushed to his side.
"Ren-kun! Are you okay?"
Her voice was full of alarm.
She dropped to her knees in front of him, both hands already glowing with gentle green medical chakra. Without hesitation, she pressed them against his chest, checking his breathing and condition with the practiced instinct of a medical ninja in training. Her brows were furrowed tightly, and worry was written all over her face.
Ren blinked at her, then gave a small, tired smile.
"I'm fine," he said. "Just a bit overdrawn."
"That's not 'fine,'" Rin snapped immediately, though the tremor in her voice made it clear she had been badly frightened. "You overused your chakra again. And if your timing had been off by even a second—"
"But it wasn't," Ren replied.
Rin opened her mouth, clearly wanting to argue more, but Minato arrived beside them in a yellow flash before she could continue.
He crouched slightly, studying Ren with a calm but serious gaze.
"Are you alright, Ren?" Minato asked. "You look exhausted."
His tone was gentle, but there was unmistakable concern in it.
Then he turned to Rin.
"Rin, I remember Lady Tsunade developed a special soldier pill substitute—a small pill that can restore chakra temporarily with milder side effects than standard military rations. Do you have one with you?"
Rin nodded at once and began reaching into her pouch.
Ren lowered his eyes for a moment, quietly feeling the last traces of heat rising from the crater behind him and the lingering pulse of battle still echoing in his veins.
This fight had been dangerous.
Messy.
Risky.
But the result had been worth it.
He had learned something important tonight.
And the next time he drew his blade, he would be even stronger.
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