Kitsuchi ignored Ren's question because the scene in front of him made his throat felt dry as he watched Yugito's massive form lying unconscious, her chakra cloak flickering weakly. The realization hit him like a boulder, the situation had spiraled completely out of control.
The terrain he had so carefully sculpted was torn apart, his formation lines unstable, and the chakra flow from his men growing erratic.
His instincts screamed at him before his mind caught up.
"Everyone, stop supplying chakra and retreat on my signal!" he roared, voice echoing across the broken battlefield. "This is not a fight we can win anymore!"
His command carried the authority of a veteran commander, but underneath it was a raw, sinking dread. He could feel it in his bones, they were already trapped.
Ren stood not far away, relaxed posture, one hand loosely dangling by his side as steam curled from his skin. His eyes were calm, but there was something sharp behind them, like a predator playing with its prey. When he spoke, his tone was light, but the words cut deeper than any kunai.
"Well," Ren said, his voice carrying even through the settling dust. "I would've given you a hundred points for the correct answer, but unfortunately…"
He tilted his head slightly, the faintest smirk forming.
"You found the answer after the exam finished."
Kitsuchi's gut twisted as the worst case thought came to his mind and before he could even issue another command, a faint flicker of chakra appeared beside him.
The commander's eyes widened in recognition. "Hishiro?"
The man didn't answer immediately, his gaze fixed on Ren. Despite his composed posture, his hands trembled slightly. "He's already taken over the formation," Hishiro said quietly, his voice a mix of disbelief, fear and a hint of respect.
"Now we have no hope of escaping unless we destroy it from within."
The words sent a ripple of panic through the nearby Stone shinobi. Kitsuchi's expression hardened. "You're a Level Six formation master," he snapped, trying to keep his tone steady. "Can you not break through it?"
Before Hishiro could respond, the barrier surrounding the battlefield pulsed, a deep, blood-red wave of chakra that rippled across the horizon. The pulse wasn't just visual; it felt heavy, like pressure pressing on their lungs.
Hishiro's face drained of color as he muttered, "He… he layered it with another Level Six array? So soon?"
His voice barely carried over the low hum of the barrier, but Kitsuchi heard every word.
That was the moment he truly lost hope.
Even if he poured all his chakra reserves into it, he knew he couldn't dismantle two overlapping Level Six arrays, not while maintaining defensive control of the terrain and keeping his people alive.
But Kitsuchi wasn't the kind of man to crumble. He exhaled slowly, eyes turning firm again.
"Ren Senju," he called out, his voice calm now, cold with acceptance. "The Stone Village shall apologize for this ambush. We are willing to compensate you, on the condition that you let us, the shinobi of Iwagakure, leave this battlefield alive."
The words hung in the air.
For a second, silence reigned. Then, from the other side of the field, the Cloud shinobi erupted in rage.
"What the hell are you saying, old man!?" one shouted.
"Traitor!" another yelled.
"This is why we never should have allied with the stone bastards?"
Their voices mixed into a furious chorus of curses and disbelief. The tension that had been barely holding their uneasy alliance together finally snapped.
Ren just watched the scene quietly, eyes glinting faintly with amusement. He glanced at the shouting Cloud soldiers, then back at Kitsuchi, and spread his arms slightly in a mock gesture of helplessness.
"Your allies seem to be protesting your decision," he said lightly. "If you can't even come to a unanimous decision, how could I possibly make a fair ruling?"
Then his tone shifted mid-sentence, the playfulness evaporating into something cold, something that made the air itself feel heavier.
"And besides…"
Ren's voice dropped, his gaze sharpening. Kitsuchi opened his mouth to reply, but Ren's next words cut through him before he could.
"Do you think my Land of Fire is a place you can come and go as you please, without any consequences?"
The battlefield fell silent again. Even the Cloud shinobi stopped shouting.
Ren's expression remained neutral, but his tone carried weight.
"It might've been that way in the past," he continued, almost conversationally, "but not anymore." He tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing in mock thought. "After all… unless your old man himself comes here, I can play with any stone shinobi as much as I want."
The implication wasn't lost on anyone. Ren was referring to Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage.
For the first time in a long while, the old commander found himself speechless. His chest rose and fell slowly, the exhaustion of both battle and pride wearing down the last of his resistance. He wanted to refute the statement, to call it arrogance, but deep down he knew, Ren wasn't bluffing.
He sighed, shoulders heavy, eyes dulling with resignation.
But Ren wasn't finished.
The young shinobi tilted his head again, eyes suddenly bright with mock curiosity. "Now, let me ask you again, old man."
Kitsuchi met his gaze warily.
Ren asked, "Do you know what the greatest threat a mountain faces is?"
For a moment, Kitsuchi just stared at him. Then, a faint, weary smile appeared on his lips. His voice came out low but steady.
"A human's desire for victory over nature."
Ren blinked, expression briefly blank.
Then his voice came from right near Kitsuchi, casual, annoyed, and almost childishly offended.
"Damn it, old man, couldn't you have waited for me to answer?"
Before Kitsuchi could even react, the earth around them exploded.
Dozens of massive stone walls that he had raised as defense crumbled into dust, pulverized in an instant by a wave of invisible force. The shockwave carried through the air, scattering debris and tearing apart layers of stone as though they were made of paper.
Ren's voice echoed through the chaos, calm and mocking as ever.
"Oh well," he said, his tone dripping with amusement. "Guess I'll punish you for ruining my aura farming moment."
Kitsuchi still held his position, his broad frame half-caked in the earth, his expression grim. Beside him, Hishiro, the formation master, was already unfurling several scrolls with trembling hands, his fingers moving so quickly that the seals blurred.
"Keep him busy!" Hishiro barked, his voice cracking under pressure. "I'll deploy the binding net, just buy me ten seconds!"
Kitsuchi slammed both palms into the ground without hesitation.
[Multi-Layered Rock Spike Field!]
The ground around Ren erupted, as razor-sharp spikes of stone burst upward like the jaws of a beast. But Ren didn't even move at first. His eyes glowed faintly green, veins rippling around them as Hyperfocus flared to life.
He stepped forward once. The first spike shattered underfoot.
Then another and another.
In the space of a breath, Ren was moving again, his form flickering through the battlefield in controlled bursts. With each step, the sound of crumbling rock followed, his momentum carving clean lines through the forest of spikes as if he were strolling through reeds.
Hishiro's hands were flying through seals now, chakra flaring wildly as multiple sealing tags formed around him.
[Formation of the Sealed Eight Directions!]
He slammed his palm down. The tags scattered, embedding themselves in the ground. Eight glowing runes rose in a circle, humming with golden light.
Ren tilted his head as he came to a stop. "Formation, huh?"
In the next instant, the runes pulsed and beams of light shot outward, converging toward him.
Ren didn't even flinch. His fist came up in a small motion, just enough to distort the air, his fist glowing faintly black and the beams bent away as though swatted aside by invisible hands.
His voice carried faint amusement. "How weak."
Hishiro's expression twisted in disbelief. "That's…impossible.."
"Nothing's impossible," Ren cut him off coldly, moving again. "Just out of your league."
He vanished in a blur of speed, detonating small shockwaves beneath his feet. Kitsuchi reacted instantly, slamming his hands down again.
[Stone Coffin!]
Massive slabs of rock shot up, closing around Ren from all directions. They slammed together with deafening force, only for the entire structure to burst apart a heartbeat later, fragments scattering like shrapnel.
Ren walked through the dust, calm as ever, a faint white glow still trailing from his limbs. "You're slipping old man."
Kitsuchi gritted his teeth and raised both arms, chakra surging around him. The terrain he commanded heaved like a living creature, forming an entire dome of earthen tendrils that tried to crush Ren from every side.
Ren just sighed as he vanished again. The dome collapsed inward on nothing.
Then.
Boom.
A shockwave thundered from above as Ren descended like a hammer, his leg whipping down in a Gale Drive that detonated on contact. The entire battlefield trembled, smoke rising as the earth cratered beneath the impact.
The earth around Kitsuchi cracked slightly under the recoil, but he held his ground. He was a commander for a reason.
"Keep him away from me!" Hishiro shouted desperately, spreading more tags. "I just need, three seconds!"
Ren's head tilted slightly. His tone was almost sympathetic. "You've already had too many seconds."
He flickered behind Hishiro before the man even realized he'd moved.
In a small motion Ren's fingers brushed the edges of the seals mid-air. A flicker of chakra pulsed through them and every single tag blackened and turned to ash before they even activated.
Hishiro's heart dropped.
He tried to leap back, summoning another set of seals, but Ren's casual backhand caught the edge of his last tag, crushing it like paper.
Kitsuchi roared and slammed his hands together.
[Landslide Burial!]
The entire battlefield erupted again, mountains of dirt rising, collapsing, twisting. The earth itself tried to swallow Ren whole.
For a brief second, it seemed to work.
Then the ground burst apart again as Ren shot upward in a column of dust and rock. His aura flared, the air around him distorting from sheer chakra pressure.
The blue-green energy roared off his skin, steam rising in waves. His eyes sharpened, and the faint smile on his face turned razor-thin.
"Alright," he said quietly. "No more games."
He blurred forward again, each step leaving cracks in the ground as micro-explosions from Thunder Step rippled out. Kitsuchi barely saw him before Ren was already in his face, fist drawing back.
Kitsuchi's ball came to his throat as he made a last ditch effort.
[Mountain Armor]
"Sleep well," Ren murmured.
Then came the strike.
[Mountain Crusher]
The punch landed dead-center on Kitsuchi's chest, his mountain armor glowing bright for a single instant, then completely silent.
There was no visible damage on the armor itself. But a heartbeat later, a muffled crack echoed, followed by a violent shockwave that erupted from Kitsuchi's back.
The commander's body lurched. His eyes widened in shock as blood spattered from his mouth. The armor remained intact for another half second then crumbled like sand, disintegrating into chunks that fell away as his massive frame collapsed halfway into the dirt.
Ren lowered his arm slowly, exhaling. The Fifth Gate's steam hissed faintly from his shoulders.
"Tough guy," he muttered. "But still just a harder punching bag."
He turned his gaze toward Hishiro.
The Fuinjutsu master was pale, breathing hard as he tried to form one last set of seals. A massive array began to spread beneath him, a complex spiral of runes and characters that gleamed with golden light.
"Don't you dare underestimate me, you-"
Ren flickered out of sight.
By the time Hishiro sensed him again, Ren was behind him, voice low and almost conversational.
"Your Fuinjutsu is really trash, you know. My sensei's only a Level Five master, and even he's better than you."
Hishiro froze.
Ren's tone didn't change as he continued, "So, in your next life… don't be a Fuinjutsu master. It brings shame to our profession."
The words hit harder than any jutsu. Hishiro's mind went blank, because deep down, he knew Ren was right. Every formation he'd tried, every seal he'd drawn, had been dismantled before completion.
Then a loud sound echoed through the entire field, it was as if a thousand birds had begun chirping together.
A sharp crack of lightning filled Ren's arm was already piercing through Hishiro's chest.
[Chidori]
The sound of birds chirping echoed faintly before fading into silence.
Hishiro's eyes went wide, mouth opening soundlessly. Ren's hand came out clean through his chest, lightning sparking briefly before dying down.
Ren didn't pull his hand out immediately. Instead, he turned his head slightly, eyes shifting toward a distant shadow among the trees, where he could feel Obito's chakra lurking.
Ren grinned faintly, stuck his tongue out in mockery, and then finally yanked his hand free.
Hishiro's body collapsed in a heap.
Ren flicked his wrist once, blood dripping onto the dirt, then molded water chakra and a thin layer of liquid rolled over his hand, cleaning it completely.
He looked up. Across the battlefield, Yugito was stirring again, her massive form rising, two tails flicking like whips as her body began to glow blue once more.
Her breath came out in bursts of azure flame, scorching the ground beneath her paws.
Ren tilted his head and smiled lazily. "Well, don't be angry," he said, tone light and teasing. "You were the one who came to fight me, kitty cat."
He grinned wider, eyes gleaming faintly under the blue light. "What did you think would happen? That I'd give you treats?"
Yugito's growl echoed through the ruined field, deep and furious.
Ren just raised his fists again, calm as ever.
"Let's end this."
And the battlefield shook once more.
~~~~~
{With how Ren was behaving in this entire fight, people would think he was Madara's descendant rather than the Senju's right?}
{Anyway, as I said, Kitsuchi and Yugito have uses that's why they'd be alive, however the rewards would still come in full, just not for their deaths, however the rewards for this and the previous arc would be absolutely great, believe it.}