In hardship, change. In change, a way through.
Facing the Hidden Cloud elites from all sides, pressed and slipping toward defeat, Ren chose to change first. For the first time in this fight, he used Moonstep Grace to leap into the air, turning the field three dimensional.
Against nearly a hundred Cloud ninja, that choice looked foolish.
Dozens of long range ninjutsu casters who had only been able to lock space and threaten from the rim finally had their moment. Like anti air batteries, they did not wait for A's order. The instant Ren rose, they fired.
Lightning Release, Fire Release, Water Release. The Cloud do not only use Lightning Release, though they are famous for it.
Dozens of jutsu arced upward. Some tore straight for Ren. Others sealed his evasion and escape routes, refusing him any path out of the sky.
A dead end. The air was worse than the ground. At least on the ground, the casters would worry about friendly fire and not shell at will.
Tsunade was about to shut her eyes and accept fate when Ren, hanging in air with no foothold, suddenly shifted like he was on solid ground, then shifted again and again, floating and unreal as he slipped past one heavy strike after another.
He still dropped back down. The Cloud's coordination was too tight. They had almost sealed every line in the air. Ren could not find a seam.
He hit the ground and clashed with A and the others again, got pressed again, leapt again, got driven down by the barrage again. Over and over.
A did not rush. He watched Ren's strange footwork.
A ninja in midair has no leverage. It is hard to change form more than once. You jump, you expose a fatal opening. Unless you have a flight trick, like the Stone's Lighten Rock technique.
When Shinku fled earlier, he managed one change midair. Giving the enemy the benefit of the doubt, A assumed Ren had a version of that trick, stronger than Shinku's, faster, with more changes.
The assumption held up.
Ren lifted off again and again. His agility in air surpassed Shinku's. He could chain more midair redirects.
Six changes.
Four.
Five.
Six again.
At his most dazzling, he flitted like a swallow and chained six rapid redirects through the barrage. The Cloud ring could not help but admire the grace.
So the cap was six?
No. As a ninja, as a fighter with very high combat wit, A would never trust anything the enemy displayed. He would not believe Ren's cap was six.
It could be a feint to lull him.
Often, two ninja may fight for a long time with no result. Then in one unlooked for instant, life and death are decided.
Because one side finally shows a flaw.
If he believed six and the true cap was higher, A would show a flaw.
So he set Ren's cap at seven, eight, even nine or ten.
A was building his finisher. It was time to end this and send a young genius he admired and respected to hell.
Again, Ren rose. Again, six redirects under the Cloud barrage.
Die.
Light flashed. Thunder cracked. A's golden hair stood like a super saiyan as he burst speed in an instant and rocketed for Ren as he fell.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
In that state, A's speed, burst, power, defense, and Lightning Release all spike to the limit.
Simple and direct. Pure numbers.
He streaked like a meteor. Even with three tomoe Sharingan, Ren could not track him cleanly, only catch a hint by mixing sight, instinct, and every sense.
Seventh redirect. Eighth.
With beauty in his arms, Ren bumped two more invisible steps in midair, a chain jump that would make Vergil weep, and slipped A's kill.
"I knew you were holding one back."
Ready for that, A did not redirect. He changed the follow up and punched again. The move was as sudden as thunder and as loud as a crack of the sky.
Ninth. Tenth.
Ren slipped him again. His form was still otherworldly, but his face was no longer relaxed. A faint flash of sweat broke on his pale brow.
"Muda."
Two more changes, hidden deep. As expected. But now you are at the limit. I can still change.
Sensing Ren had hit his cap, A roared, changed again, rose higher, and raised one leg. He gathered chakra into the limb and chopped down.
Righteous Thunder Axe.
A peerless chop, like the wrath of a thunder god. Even if Ren awakened a Mangekyo Sharingan this instant and threw up a first stage Susanoo, it would not stop this.
He was dead.
He did not die. He was unscathed. He was even a little higher in the air than A's sudden rise.
A's heart sank into a pit. The certainty of the kill collapsed. Cold wrapped him from the marrow out.
Eleventh redirect. Twelfth.
One move short.
He had overestimated Ren as much as he dared and held back extra for this finish. Still, he was one move short. The Leaf genius had held one more card.
What was coming was Ren's own prepared finisher, hidden behind layers of mind games.
What would it be?
A tipped his head back. He wanted to see the move that would beat him. He wanted to see what a genius he admired and respected would use to win.
The night sky held a round moon. Ren fell with a beauty in his arms. He still did not draw a sword. He joined two fingers as a blade and pointed at A as he dropped.
It was beautiful.
It really was beautiful.
The beauty was not Tsunade. Though she was beautiful, A was a sigma man and not moved by the shallow.
The true beauty was Ren falling from the sky.
His speed was at the limit, yet he was still light and unreal, like a spirit singer descending from the ninth heaven.
Cold poured from his twin fingers, cold to the bone. The strike flashed like a streak of lightning, like a rainbow thrown across the sky, like the Third Raikage's signature Hell Stab, One Finger Thrust, a pure line of unstoppable edge.
A already knew the name of this move.
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