The miniature sun crashed into the earthen enclosure.
In an instant, blinding white flames poured downward like a waterfall from the heavens.
The tall, lean man didn't even have time to scream.
Ren's Great Fireball swallowed him along with the circular Earth-Style Wall. The flames possessed enough heat to melt metal, and the defensive barrier lasted only a fraction of a second before glowing red and collapsing inward.
Boom—!
A deafening explosion shook the forest.
The shock wave erupted in every direction, ripping loose branches from the surrounding trees and throwing burning debris through the clearing. Rin and the wounded patrol members were far from the center of the blast, yet they still had to shield their faces.
The heat made it almost impossible to open their eyes.
Their exposed skin stung as the scorching wind rushed past them. Ash, dirt, and splintered wood swirled through the air, carrying the sickening stench of charred flesh across the battlefield.
For twelve full seconds, the white inferno continued burning.
Only then did the flames begin to recede.
As the brilliant light faded, the devastation beneath it became visible.
A charred crater more than ten meters wide had replaced the clearing. Its center sank nearly three meters into the earth, while the soil around its edges had melted into dark, glasslike material.
Thin trails of smoke curled into the night sky.
At the bottom of the crater lay a blackened, curled shape that could no longer be recognized as human.
The Phantom Stage collapsed.
The distorted light covering the battlefield returned to normal, and the remaining clones vanished one after another like bursting bubbles.
Ren descended from above, twisted his body in midair, and landed at the crater's edge. His sandals scraped across the scorched ground as he steadied himself.
His breathing had become heavy.
Sweat covered his forehead, and the enormous expenditure of chakra left a faint tremor in his arms.
By this time, Minato had already eliminated his own opponent and awakened Rin. He had been watching Ren's battle, ready to intervene if necessary.
Even Minato's eyes widened when the white fire descended.
That level of Fire Release was far beyond what an ordinary genin could produce. In terms of scale and destructive force, even most chūnin would struggle to match it.
Before Minato could comment, his expression changed.
He sensed a hidden presence moving beneath the ground.
"Ren, be careful!" Minato shouted. "There's still someone below you!"
The warning came a fraction too late.
Boom!
The scorched ground beneath Ren exploded.
A pale hand burst through the earth behind him and seized his ankle with crushing force. Before Ren could turn, the hidden attacker yanked violently downward.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
The soil churned like a living creature.
Ren's legs disappeared first, followed by his waist. In less than a second, half his body had been dragged underground, leaving only his upper torso exposed above the blackened earth.
"Ren!"
Rin's frightened cry rang through the clearing.
She started forward, but Minato raised one arm to stop her.
He didn't move to rescue Ren.
A strange light flickered through Minato's blue eyes. His gaze shifted toward the back of a tree near the crater, where something had caught his attention.
Without revealing what he had noticed, Minato remained in place and allowed the situation to develop.
A harsh laugh scraped through the night.
"Heh…hehehe!"
It sounded like air passing through a broken bellows.
A scarred shinobi emerged from the disturbed ground beside Ren. He positioned himself behind the trapped boy and pressed a kunai horizontally against Ren's throat.
Although the man had only just revealed himself, fresh burns covered his clothes and skin.
He had apparently been hiding underground for some time, waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Unfortunately for him, Ren's Great Fireball had struck the ground directly above his position.
The thick layer of earth had shielded him from most of the flames, preventing him from sharing the tall leader's fate. Even so, the heat and impact had left him visibly injured.
The scarred man kept the kunai against Ren's neck while watching Minato from the corner of his eye.
"Kid, you're still too inexperienced."
His voice carried a mixture of pain and triumph.
"This mission is already doomed to fail, but if I can take one of Konoha's young geniuses with me, then my death won't be a complete loss."
The man didn't waste time bargaining.
His wrist moved cleanly.
The sharp edge of the kunai sliced across Ren's throat.
Rin's face turned pale.
Then a quiet chuckle entered the silent forest.
"Heh."
The sound didn't come from the boy trapped in the ground.
It came from somewhere beside the crater.
A calm, youthful voice followed, carrying the faint weariness of someone disappointed by an obvious mistake.
"When did you get the impression that I wasn't using a clone?"
The scarred shinobi froze.
A chill ran through his body.
He slowly lowered his gaze toward the Ren beside him.
The boy's severed throat didn't bleed.
Instead, the entire body trembled and collapsed into a pool of clear water. It seeped into the burned soil, leaving the scarred man's kunai hanging uselessly in the air.
His triumphant grin vanished.
"Impossible…"
A surge of killing intent struck him from the side.
The man whipped his head around.
A white shadow shot from the darkness beside the crater with terrifying speed.
It was Ren.
His true body held the short sword horizontally at his side. Moonlight flowed along the blade as he accelerated, carving a sharp, unwavering line through the night.
The scarred shinobi tried to raise his kunai.
He was too slow.
Ren's speed had already crossed the boundary of what the man's eyes could follow.
Whoosh!
A pale cone of compressed air formed around Ren's body. Two white shock trails spread beside him as he tore through the final stretch of space.
For the scarred shinobi, time seemed to slow.
The last thing reflected in his eyes was Ren's face—calm, focused, and shockingly bright beneath the moonlight.
"So fast…"
A single blade flashed.
One strike.
One clean severance.
Ren passed him without slowing.
For one suspended moment, nothing happened.
Then a thin red line appeared across the scarred man's neck.
His head separated from his body and flew into the air, the expression of horror still frozen across his face. It turned several times before falling into the scorched crater with a dull thud.
The headless body remained standing at the edge for several seconds.
Then it tipped forward.
It tumbled into the pit and struck the smouldering ground, sending a cloud of ash drifting upward.
The hidden attacker had been killed before he could even react.
With that, the battle was over.
Ren stood more than ten meters away with his back toward the crater. He rotated his short sword through a smooth, unnecessarily stylish flourish before returning it to its sheath.
Click.
Only after the blade was secured did he release a long breath.
The battle had allowed him to test three separate abilities under genuine combat conditions: the Death Mark, his enhanced Great Fireball Technique, and a Victory Over Death enhancement created from sixty percent of his total chakra.
Through earlier experiments, Ren had discovered that the strength provided by Victory Over Death depended on how much chakra the defeated clones contained.
Ordinary Phantom Clones offered only a minimal enhancement because they possessed almost no physical substance or independent chakra.
Water Clones provided considerably more.
The greater the amount of chakra Ren invested in a Water Clone, the more strength he received when that clone was destroyed.
After releasing the Great Fireball, Ren had transferred thirty percent of his total chakra into one final Water Clone. That clone remained at the crater's edge while his true body used the Transformation Technique to disguise itself and hide nearby.
The scarred attacker believed he had captured Ren.
In reality, he had seized the most valuable remaining Water Clone.
When the man sliced its throat, the clone was destroyed.
Combined with the other clones that the tall leader had eliminated during the earlier battle, the total chakra invested in the defeated clones reached roughly sixty percent of Ren's reserves.
Victory Over Death converted those losses into a temporary physical enhancement.
That unprecedented accumulation of power had produced the final, astonishing slash.
The scarred man had possessed chūnin-level strength, yet he had been decapitated before his body could respond.
Ren silently reviewed the sequence.
First, he could sacrifice a large portion of his available "health" by creating chakra-rich clones. Once the enemy destroyed them, Victory Over Death would convert their defeat into a massive temporary enhancement.
He could then apply that enhancement to Hatake Swordsmanship and combine it with the instantaneous movement of the Substitution Technique.
The result was a single attack with overwhelming speed and destructive power.
It was a viable strategy.
It was also extremely dangerous.
The more chakra Ren allocated to his clones, the greater the resulting enhancement became. However, that same process weakened his true body by reducing its remaining stamina, chakra, and defensive capacity.
If Ren encountered an opponent who survived the empowered attack, he would be left in a severely weakened state.
Against a truly powerful enemy, the strategy could become suicide.
He had dared to test it tonight only because Minato was present. If anything went wrong, the Yellow Flash could rescue him before the enemy delivered a fatal blow.
Without that protection, Ren would never have risked committing so much chakra to one experiment.
He needed more tests.
Only after gathering enough information could he establish a safe limit—one that provided a meaningful enhancement without leaving his main body helpless.
Ren released another slow breath.
The temporary power began fading from his body.
As the Victory Over Death enhancement disappeared, an intense wave of exhaustion replaced it. His muscles weakened, his limbs became heavy, and a hollow sensation spread through his chakra network.
Sweat mixed with dust and blood as it rolled down his face. Within moments, his clothes were soaked through.
Ren swayed slightly.
Before he could sit down, another familiar voice appeared inside his mind.
The Mystical Palm Technique sounded both affectionate and deeply exasperated.
Mystical Palm Technique: This child… I look away for one moment, and you cover yourself in wounds again. Come here. Come to Mommy and let me take proper care of you.
Pale green light welled up from within Ren's body.
Warm medical chakra flowed through his exhausted muscles and strained chakra network, easing the pain and repairing the damage caused by overexertion.
The recovery had only just begun when Rin rushed toward him.
"Ren! Are you all right?"
Her hands were already covered in soft green chakra.
She reached him, pressed both palms against his chest, and immediately began examining his condition. Fear remained visible in her eyes, even though she now understood that the Ren whose throat had been cut was only a clone.
"I'm fine," Ren said, though his unsteady voice wasn't particularly convincing.
Minato arrived beside them using the Body Flicker Technique.
His expression was calm, but concern sharpened his gaze as he examined Ren's pale face and trembling hands.
"Are you certain you're all right?" Minato asked. "You appear to have exhausted an enormous amount of chakra."
Ren opened his mouth to answer, but Minato had already turned toward Rin.
"Rin, I remember that Tsunade developed a small pill capable of temporarily restoring chakra without causing as many side effects as a military ration pill."
His voice became urgent.
"Do you have one with you?"