Before the masked attackers could recover from their shock, a golden flash appeared beside Rin.
The man charging toward her saw the world blur.
Minato materialized between them and drove a devastating kick into the attacker's chest. The impact produced a sickening crack and launched the man across the clearing.
Bang!
His body slammed into a nearby tree with enough force to shake its branches. He hung against the trunk for a fraction of a second before sliding to the ground, leaving a smear of blood behind him.
The attacker's chest had visibly collapsed.
Minato was famous for the Flying Thunder God Technique, but his close-combat ability was just as terrifying. He might not possess the monstrous physical power of Hiruzen in his prime or the Third and Fourth Raikage, yet he remained far superior to an ordinary jōnin.
After all, Minato was a man capable of severing one of the Eight-Tails' tentacles with nothing more than a kunai.
At almost the same instant, the tall, lean leader noticed a white flash appearing directly in front of him.
His instincts screamed.
He tensed his entire body and brought his kunai up to block.
Clang—!
A piercing metallic crash tore through the clearing.
Ren had used the Substitution Technique to cross the distance between them. His short sword struck the man's kunai with tremendous force, scattering sparks across both their faces.
The impact sent a numbing shock through their arms.
The masked leader's eyes widened.
This was the same white-haired child who had supposedly collapsed beneath the poison. Not only had Ren remained conscious, but he had crossed the clearing with speed that the man's eyes could barely follow.
"This brat was pretending to be unconscious?"
Another thought immediately followed.
"Was that the Body Flicker Technique? How can a genin move that fast?"
His confusion lasted for only a heartbeat.
Humiliation and fury replaced it.
"You're only a genin brat!" the man snarled. "You're courting death!"
His wrist twisted at an unnatural angle.
The kunai slid along the flat of Ren's short sword, producing a shrill metallic scrape. Once the weapons crossed, the man reversed his grip and drove the kunai toward Ren's ribs like a striking serpent.
Ren bent backward.
The weapon passed above his chest, close enough to slice through the outer layer of his clothing.
The masked man stepped forward immediately.
He gave Ren no opportunity to recover. His kunai transformed into a relentless stream of cold light, thrusting toward Ren's throat, eyes, heart, and abdomen.
Ren's short sword rose to meet it.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The rapid collisions sounded like heavy rain striking broad leaves. Steel flashed between them as both fighters shifted through the clearing, their feet tearing apart the loose soil beneath them.
The leader was strong.
Ren couldn't yet judge his ninjutsu, but the man's close-combat skill was at least comparable to that of an elite chūnin. He was also older and physically developed, giving him an advantage in strength, reach, and endurance.
Even so, the difference wasn't overwhelming.
Ren parried another thrust and watched the man's movements carefully.
An opponent at this level was dangerous enough to test his limits but not so powerful that Ren would die the moment something went wrong.
More importantly, Minato was nearby.
If the Death Mark failed or produced some unexpected weakness, the Yellow Flash could intervene before the situation became disastrous.
This was the perfect opportunity.
Ren drew a controlled breath.
He blocked another sequence of attacks, then borrowed the force of the final impact to leap backward. While still in motion, he activated the Substitution Technique.
His body flashed away.
Ren reappeared twenty meters from the masked leader and stabbed his short sword into the earth to stabilize himself.
His right hand released the hilt.
Both thumbs pressed tightly against his index and middle fingers, forming a unique seal he had designed specifically for this technique.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
Ren's eyes sharpened.
"Death Mark—Activate!"
Hum!
An invisible pulse erupted from his body.
It spread through the forest like a silent shock wave, covering an eighty-meter radius almost instantly. Wherever the ripple passed, the air undulated like disturbed water.
Light twisted.
Distance became uncertain.
For one fleeting instant, the entire clearing seemed to tilt away from reality before settling into a perfect imitation of itself.
The Phantom Stage had descended.
The tall man halted his advance.
The surrounding scenery swayed before his eyes, making him feel as though he had stepped onto an illusory stage. His instincts warned him that something had changed, but he couldn't determine what.
"Genjutsu?"
He immediately raised one hand and formed the release seal.
"Or is it something else?"
The masked man disrupted his chakra flow, but nothing happened.
The clearing remained unchanged. The trees stood in the same positions, the campfire continued burning, and every sound reached his ears exactly as before.
Then Ren's body split apart.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
One Ren became two.
Two became four.
Four became eight.
The multiplication continued until twenty or thirty identical figures occupied the clearing. Some were Water Clones, while others were intangible Phantom Clones created by the transformed environment.
From the outside, they were indistinguishable.
Every clone possessed the same white hair, short sword, posture, and cold expression. Even their breathing and the subtle movement of their clothing appeared identical.
Clone Technique—four consecutive activations.
The leader slowly turned, only to find Ren surrounding him from every direction.
Before he could identify the real body, Ren activated Partial Transformation. His physical structure shifted, strengthening the muscles required for explosive speed and swordsmanship.
All the clones moved at once.
More than twenty identical figures stepped forward and rushed toward the enemy trapped at their center. Short swords flashed from treacherous angles, their movements swift, precise, and merciless.
"Hatake Swordsmanship: Gale Slash!"
The masked leader felt his scalp prickle.
There were too many.
His eyes darted between the incoming figures, desperately searching for a flaw that would reveal the true body. Yet every attacker looked real, and every blade appeared capable of killing him.
Unable to distinguish between them, he trusted his instincts and chose the Ren whose attack appeared most powerful.
The man roared and swung his kunai.
Clang!
He blocked the frontal slash.
Relief had barely entered his eyes when reality changed.
The Ren directly in front of him became translucent, shifting from solid flesh into a hollow phantom. At the same moment, another Ren behind him transformed from illusion to reality.
A short sword swept across his waist.
Slash!
Blood sprayed through the air.
The masked leader grunted and spun around, thrusting his kunai toward the attacker behind him.
His weapon passed through empty light.
That Ren also dissolved into a phantom.
A third figure solidified beside his leg.
The blade slashed across his lower calf before vanishing again.
Substitution Technique—three consecutive activations.
Three attacks in a single second.
The true Ren began flashing between different positions surrounding the enemy.
One moment, he attacked from the front.
The next, he appeared behind the man.
Before the leader could turn, Ren had already materialized at his flank and delivered another cut.
His Water Clones supported the assault from a distance. Several hurled kunai and shuriken, forcing the enemy to divide his attention, while others charged forward carrying Explosive Tags.
The Phantom Clones moved among them, pretending to attack without possessing physical form.
Every response became a gamble.
If the man blocked a Phantom Clone, Ren gained an opportunity to strike. If he ignored a Water Clone, it could stab him or attach an Explosive Tag. If he focused on the real Ren, the Substitution Technique instantly moved that true body somewhere else.
The masked leader pushed his abilities to their limits.
His kunai spun so quickly that it formed a nearly impenetrable curtain of steel around his body. He blocked attacks from the front and parried projectiles from above.
It wasn't enough.
He could defend against the blade he saw, but not the one appearing behind him.
He could stop the attack on his chest, but not the slash racing toward his leg from the side.
Worse still, whenever he successfully shattered two Water Clones, Ren's true body seemed to accelerate. The rhythm of the assault changed without warning, becoming faster and more deceptive.
The masked leader's breathing grew ragged.
Lethal flashes of steel surrounded him in every direction. Phantom figures passed through one another while solid clones attacked between them.
He felt like a fly trapped at the center of a spider's web.
Despite possessing greater physical strength and years of combat experience, he couldn't display even half his true ability. After fighting desperately for what felt like an eternity, he hadn't touched so much as the edge of Ren's clothing.
Less than twenty seconds passed.
The man's combat vest had been reduced to tatters.
Six or seven bloody wounds covered his lower legs, waist, back, and shoulders. None were immediately fatal, but blood flowed freely from every cut.
Pain slowed his movements.
Then the wounds began to itch.
It was a faint, sour sensation at first, but it rapidly became unbearable. Numbness spread through the surrounding muscles, causing the man's control over his limbs to deteriorate.
His eyes widened with renewed alarm.
"The blade is poisoned!"
Strictly speaking, it wasn't poison.
Ren had coated his short sword with a special anesthetic used during surgery at Konoha Hospital. He had discreetly brought some with him after helping the hospital's medical staff.
This was the perfect moment to put it to use.
The tall man didn't know what substance had entered his body. He only understood that remaining trapped inside this strange technique would result in his death.
He had to escape immediately.
With a furious roar, he abandoned defense and charged forward.
Several blades cut into his body, but he forced himself through them. He poured all his strength into a series of wild strikes, destroying every Ren standing directly in his path.
Water exploded.
Phantoms scattered.
The man reached a small gap in the encirclement and swept one hand through his ninja-tool pouch. Kunai and shuriken shot outward in every direction, forcing the surrounding clones to retreat or defend.
He brought both hands together.
His fingers raced through a sequence of seals.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The ground shook violently.
A circular barrier of compacted earth erupted around the masked man like rapidly growing stone pillars. The walls connected, completely enclosing him and separating him from the army of Rens.
Several Phantom Clones passed through the rising earth and dissolved into smoke.
Inside the barrier, the man finally gained a moment to breathe.
Blood dripped from his wounds and struck the dirt beneath him. His arms trembled, while the spreading anesthetic made his fingers increasingly difficult to control.
He forced them through another sequence of hand seals.
His next technique would be Earth Release: Stone Pillars Rising.
He intended to fill the surrounding area with sharpened rock, destroying the Water Clones, dispersing the Phantom Clones, and forcing Ren's true body into the open.
The final seal was almost complete.
Then the air changed.
A hot wind descended from above.
Whoosh—!
The temperature inside the earthen enclosure rose violently.
The masked man stopped forming seals.
Sweat instantly appeared across his face. He slowly lifted his head, and the terrifying scene above was reflected in his constricted pupils.
Ren had somehow leaped high into the air.
His cheeks were swollen with chakra, and fire already shone between his lips.
Then he exhaled.
A sphere of scorching white flame erupted into existence.
It expanded until it was nearly ten meters in diameter, resembling a miniature sun suspended above the forest. The terrifying heat caused the air to crackle and distort.
Grass withered instantly.
Leaves curled into ash.
The canopy above the clearing ignited from the radiating temperature alone.
The masked man looked around at the circular earth wall he had raised to protect himself.
Only now did he understand.
His defensive barrier had become a sealed furnace.
A grave.
A colossal coffin from which there was no escape.
Ren stared down from above as the white fireball began its descent.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
The miniature sun crashed toward the earthen coffin.