{Hey Guys!
As some of you might not know I have been diagnosed with dengue which means I have to stop writing and focus on recovery, by the time you guys would be reading this I would already be in the hospital so I might not be able to instantly read and reply to your comments like before but I'll do that sometime as it's good entertainment, so keep commenting in the upcoming chapters and enjoy the mass release before yet another break, though this time it'd be an indefinite one.}
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As soon as Ren's figure vanished from sight, Kitsuchi's heart tightened like a vice. His instincts screamed at him before his mind even caught up.
"Full defense!" he roared, voice echoing across the fractured battlefield.
Dozens of Stone shinobi immediately slammed their hands to the ground, chakra surging as layered barriers and earth walls began to rise but before the defenses could even take full form, a calm, almost teasing voice whispered behind Kitsuchi's ear.
"Wrong guess."
Kitsuchi's pupils constricted. The voice came from directly behind him.
Ren's figure had reappeared, barely a meter away, his stance grounded and focused. The air warped, grass flattened, and the dirt beneath his feet cracked like shattered glass under the sheer pressure of chakra. His entire form radiated terrifying force, veins visible beneath his skin, his expression calm and razor-sharp.
Kitsuchi barely managed to glance over his shoulder before Ren's arm drew back, every muscle in his body coiling like a compressed spring. The surrounding air howled, drawn toward his fist.
[Mountain Breaker.]
Then, Ren threw the punch.
For Kitsuchi, it was as if time stuttered. His instincts screamed louder than ever, and his chakra surged reflexively. His heel tapped the ground once, then again, and again as he kept pouring chakra into the terrain.
[Earth Style: Layered Rampart!]
A series of massive earth walls erupted behind him one after another, each thicker and denser than the last. He didn't even wait for the final one to form before he bolted forward, every muscle tensed, trying to create as much distance as possible.
But it didn't matter.
The instant Ren's fist connected with the first wall, the world erupted.
A deafening boom tore through the battlefield. The impact didn't just destroy the wall, it crushed it, pulverizing stone into a cloud of fine dust and jagged cubes of earth. A violent shockwave burst outward from the point of impact, vaporizing the following layers like they were made of paper.
Each wall shattered into thousands of sharp fragments, which were then carried by the expanding shockwave, turning them into a deadly rain of shrapnel.
Kitsuchi spun around, realizing too late that he couldn't outrun it. His chakra flared, hands flying up in a blur of practiced motion.
[Earth Style: Solid Aegis!]
A dome-like earth shield surged up in front of him, its surface glowing faintly with reinforced chakra. He crossed his arms behind it, bracing for the impact.
Then the storm hit.
The shards struck first, tens of thousands of them, slamming into the shield in a continuous, ear-splitting barrage. The next moment, the shockwave reached him.
The Aegis groaned under the pressure, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. Kitsuchi gritted his teeth, muscles straining as he poured more chakra into the shield but the wave was too strong, too dense, too raw.
A thunderous crack rang out as the shield finally shattered. The impact slammed into his crossed arms and chest, the force of it feeling like a mountain collapsing on him.
It was as if the world spun.
Kitsuchi's body was flung like a ragdoll across the torn battlefield. He smashed through a broken ridge, tumbled across the ground, and finally skidded to a stop amid rubble, dirt, and dust.
He coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips, his body wracked with tremors. His arms and chest were covered in cuts, his armor cracked, and his breathing came in ragged gasps. He pressed a trembling hand to his chest, his vision blurring slightly as he tried to steady his focus.
"Dammit…" he muttered, forcing himself to analyze through the pain. His chakra pulsed weakly in his body as he performed a quick internal scan. What he found made his blood run cold.
His organs, heart, lungs, liver, everything inside him was still vibrating. Not damaged beyond repair, but shaken violently from the inside, as though struck by the echo of Ren's punch. Even his skeleton creaked faintly as he shifted.
He grimaced, realizing the horrifying truth. 'If that hit had connected directly… I'd be dead.'
He spat another mouthful of blood and struggled to his knees, eyes flicking toward Ren in the distance.
The younger shinobi stood at the center of the devastation, body still wreathed in green light, steam rising from his skin. Dust swirled around him like he was the eye of a storm. His posture was relaxed, almost casual, but the faint tremor in the ground around his feet betrayed the monstrous chakra leaking from his body.
Every stone shinobi who had raised defenses a moment ago stared at him in paralyzed silence. Half their protective walls were gone, just gone, erased by the after effects of the shockwave of one single strike.
Ren lowered his arm slowly, exhaling through his nose. His gaze swept across the field, pausing briefly on Kitsuchi's battered form before continuing to Yugito, who stood further away, her cloak flaring as her chakra roared like a wild beast's growl.
Ren smiled faintly. "Still breathing, old man? Not bad."
Kitsuchi grunted, wiping blood from his chin, trying to suppress the tremor in his arms as his thoughts raced.
'That punch… the power behind it wasn't human. I've been hit by one of Tsunade's punch before and even that was not this strong, so this is the latest monster the leaf has produced. I had heard reports of Ren's strength, but seeing it firsthand was something else entirely.'
He exhaled shakily, grounding himself. 'No more close combat. Not with him. That kid's punches carry enough power to split the ground. If I take even one clean hit… I'm finished. It's better to let Yugito take the offensive lead.'
Then before Kitsuchi even had the time to stabilize himself, the ground trembled as Ren turned his head toward the cluster of Stone shinobi assembling their defensive line. His breathing was steady, his pupils razor-thin faintly gleaming with a red tint as Ren's gaze had locked onto the next prey.
The air cracked as he took a single step. The next instant, his figure vanished.
"He's coming!" one of the Stone jonin screamed, but the warning died mid-sentence. Ren appeared inside their ranks like a lightning bolt in flesh.
His first strike, which was just a downward punch shattered the ground and threw half a dozen shinobi into the air. The shockwave tore through their formation, scattering men and dust alike.
The Stone forces reacted quickly, shouting overlapping seals.
[Earth Style: Mud Wall!]
[Earth Style: Earth Dome!]
[Earth Style: Earthen Bulwark!]
Dozens of barriers shot up at once, enclosing Ren in jagged stone.
But he didn't stop.
Ren's fist slammed into the first wall and it exploded into chunks before the impact even finished echoing. The second wall followed, then the third and then Ren tore straight through the dome, shoulder first, blood and dust mixing in a storm around him.
A terrified kunoichi tried to form another wall, but Ren appeared before her mid-seal, grabbed her by the throat, and slammed her into the ground so hard the earth cratered beneath her. He didn't pause. He grabbed her limp body and swung it sideways like a club, smashing two other shinobi off their feet with the crunch of armor and bone.
The air was filled with screams, shouts, and collapsing earth techniques, yet Ren moved through it all like a demon let loose, every motion fluid, merciless, efficient. His skin glowed faintly red from the opened Gate, veins bulging, steam rising from his shoulders as chakra hissed out of him in waves.
One Stone ninja lunged with a blade coated in chakra. Ren caught his wrist mid-strike and twisted until bone snapped, then drove his elbow through the man's face, sending him tumbling lifelessly.
Another came from the side but Ren slammed his heel down on the man's knee and then crushed his skull underfoot. The shockwave split the ground beneath them.
"Keep distance!" someone shouted, "Fall back and use ranged ninjutsu!"
Dozens of hands blurred into seals. The air vibrated as a barrage of earthen bullets and spikes shot toward Ren from all directions.
But he didn't even slow down as his hand swept across the air, chakra flaring through his arm. The projectiles shattered on contact as he burst through the barrage and punched forward, sending a compressed shockwave that threw an entire squad backward like rag dolls.
Ren's eyes gleamed with an unhinged light as he moved.
The battlefield around him was chaos, filled with earth craters, shattered walls, bodies sprawled in bloodied heaps. And still, he moved, faster, heavier, more violent with each breath.
A young Stone kunoichi tried to crawl away, trembling as she muttered while staring at Ren's small frame fearfully, "What kind of monster is this."
Ren heard her but he just caught her by the ankle and flung her into a nearby wall and she hit it with a sickening crack. Another shinobi screamed and charged at him with a spear but Ren snatched the weapon mid-thrust, spun, and impaled its owner through the chest with his own weapon.
Blood sprayed across Ren's face but instead of being repulsed Ren found himself reveling in it.
The Fifth Gate sang in his veins, his every motion was fluid, every heartbeat thunderous. His perception burned sharp and narrow, every enemy movement standing out in perfect clarity. To him, this wasn't chaos, it was a perfect playground to let go of everything.
A group of four tried to flank him, combining jutsu to create a rolling wall of spiked earth from beneath but Ren leapt, flipped mid-air, and came down like a hammer. The impact shattered the spiked formation, splattering the men who made it into dust and blood.
He stood in the middle of it all, breathing heavily but steady, surrounded by broken bodies and falling debris.
Another desperate Stone ninja tried a last-ditch sealing technique, slamming tags into the ground. Ren's gaze flicked down. He stepped forward and kicked the man square in the chest. The body folded around the impact and was sent flying, crashing through two more shinobi before vanishing into the haze.
The Stone line, once organized, was collapsing. Their defensive retreat turned into a rout. Every jutsu they raised, every wall, spike, or dome shattered before Ren's advance.
He slammed two shinobi together like puppets, their skulls breaking with a hollow crunch, then hurled one body into a cluster forming new seals. The explosion of flesh and debris stopped their chant mid-word. Ren pushed forward again, aura flaring hotter.
By now, his expression was wild and insane. The kind of wildness that came only when he stopped thinking entirely and let instinct run free. His fists tore through the next defensive formation, and the shockwave sent a ripple of dust that blotted the sun.
He caught another man by the face, slammed him into the dirt, and then drove his heel into the ground, crushing the head like fruit. There was no difference between man or woman, rank or age. only motion, target, elimination.
"Retreat! Get out of his range!" someone screamed.
Ren heard it and his body blurred forward again, the air splitting behind him from sheer speed. His next strike tore apart a barrier and flattened two more men in the same breath.
And then a shadow crossed above him.
Yugito.
The chakra cloak around her burned bright blue, tails whipping in fury as she descended with both claws extended. Ren raised his arms, catching her attack head-on. The collision threw shockwaves that cracked the already-ruined ground and hurled several corpses into the air.
At the same time, Kitsuchi's chakra spiked somewhere behind.
A massive Earth Spear technique surged toward Ren's back like a cannon blast.
Ren shifted slightly, planting his foot and the entire spear shattered on impact with his back as the chakra-enhanced strength reinforced his body. But the brief distraction gave Yugito the opening to push him back.
Dust and debris swallowed the field as Ren skidded across the ground, sliding to a stop, steam still rising off his arms.
He exhaled slowly but the manic light was still burning in his eyes.
The massacre paused but now Yugito and Kitsuchi were closing in again.
Kitsuchi glanced at the carnage caused by Ren and the numerous dead Stone shinobi and his heart ached, however he steeled himself and spoke to Yugito.
"Looking at him, it seems like he is experiencing the feeling of carnage for the first time, the blood should be filling his mind by now, so now is our chance to attack him."
Yugito who was in the two-tailed cloak form just gave a beastal roar which Kitsuchi took as an agreement, but just then one of the Fuinjutsu masters came shouting.
"Kitsuchi-Sama, Hishiro-Sama said that he could only hold on for five more minutes, if he is not stopped by then, we will lose the formation to him."
Kitsuchi was stunned and turned to Ren who revealed a bloody grin that sent shivers down the spines of every single shinobi gathered.
~~~~~
{Do you think Ren's situation as Kitsuchi said or is Ren just playing with them? Whatever it is, it's gonna be fun.}
{Also, do you want a Ren with Red eyes?}