"Ten o'clock! It's moving behind the trees!"
The instant Obito shouted the warning, Ren's hands became a blur.
Kunai and shuriken flew from his ninja pouch in rapid succession. Nearly every weapon had a thin steel wire attached to its ring, the lines glinting briefly before vanishing into the darkness between the trees.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metal struck bark, stone, and wet earth.
The invisible creature moved with startling agility.
Although it could hide its body from sight, its ability was clearly limited to visual camouflage. It was not true intangibility, nor could it slip into another dimension like Kamui. Physical attacks could still injure it, which meant it had no choice but to dodge every weapon Ren threw.
Branches snapped beneath its weight.
Leaves shook violently.
Mud splashed from the marsh as the unseen beast bounded between trees, searching for an opening to attack.
"Left!"
Obito's Sharingan spun wildly as he tracked the faint disturbances in the creature's chakra.
Ren immediately adjusted his aim.
Three kunai shot toward the indicated position.
The creature twisted aside, but one blade grazed its flank and remained lodged between its scales. The steel wire connected to it pulled taut, revealing a faint line in the air.
"There!"
Ren released another barrage.
For more than ten seconds, the clearing filled with the sharp whistle of flying weapons. Most missed their target and buried themselves in the surrounding trees or ground. A few, however, struck the creature and remained embedded in its thick hide.
To an outside observer, Ren's attack might have looked wasteful.
Nearly every weapon had missed.
But Ren had never intended to defeat the creature with kunai alone.
The invisible beast suddenly stopped.
Steel wires now stretched between the surrounding trees, forming a loose web around its position. Several lines were attached directly to the weapons embedded in its body.
Its camouflage hid its scales.
It could not hide the wires pulling against them.
The beast's enormous outline was finally revealed.
Ren's eyes sharpened.
"Got you."
He closed both hands around the gathered wires.
Chakra surged into his arms.
"Chakra-Enhanced Strength!"
The muscles beneath his sleeves tightened as he pulled with explosive force.
Every steel wire snapped taut at once.
The giant creature stumbled, its limbs dragged out of position as the weapons buried in its flesh were yanked in different directions. The surrounding trees groaned under the sudden pressure.
Ren inhaled deeply.
Fire-natured chakra gathered inside his chest and compressed until it felt like molten metal.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
A dragon of flame erupted from his mouth.
Unlike the broad, explosive Great Fireball Jutsu, the Dragon Fire Jutsu concentrated its power into a narrow, piercing stream. The flames followed the steel wires, racing toward their trapped target with terrifying speed.
The fire dragon roared across the clearing.
Boom!
The entire forest seemed to ignite.
Towering trees several dozen meters tall were struck by the concentrated flames. Their trunks blackened instantly, then split apart with sounds like enormous bones snapping.
Crack!
Crash!
Burning branches collapsed into the marsh.
The explosion illuminated the surrounding forest as brightly as midday, driving back every shadow and revealing the creature hidden within the flames.
It was exactly what Ren had suspected.
A giant lizard.
The beast was nearly ten meters long from its deformed snout to the end of its muscular tail. Its thick limbs ended in hooked claws capable of tearing through tree trunks, and rows of dark green scales covered its body like natural armor.
Even under the light of the flames, its form remained strangely indistinct.
The color and texture of its scales shifted constantly, imitating the surrounding trees, mud, smoke, and fire. It possessed a natural camouflage ability so advanced that it resembled a genuine invisibility technique.
Only its outline could be clearly seen.
At that moment, much of its body had been scorched black. Several scales had cracked open, and pale green blood streamed from the wounds where Ren's weapons remained embedded.
The beast threw back its head.
"HISSSSSS!"
Its roar shook the leaves overhead.
Pain had not frightened it.
It had only made it furious.
The lizard ripped free from the steel wires, taking chunks of its own flesh with them. Then it crouched on the trunk of a massive tree several dozen meters away.
The tree bent beneath its weight.
Ren's expression changed.
"It's coming!"
The giant lizard launched itself forward.
The trunk beneath it shattered.
For a heartbeat, the creature blotted out the sky. Its enormous body descended toward Team Minato and the rescued hostages like a falling mountain.
The pressure of its approach forced the grass flat against the ground.
Rin's face paled.
The disguised hostages behind her could no longer maintain their frightened civilian act. Chakra gathered instinctively within their bodies as they prepared to defend themselves.
Ren had already begun forming hand seals.
His fingers moved so quickly they seemed to overlap.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A violent torrent erupted from the earth.
Water rose around the group in a thick, rotating wall, curving from the front and both sides to form a protective barrier. The spinning current resembled a miniature waterfall wrapped around them.
The giant lizard slammed into it.
Bang!
The collision produced a deep impact that seemed to strike directly against everyone's chests.
The Water Formation Wall buckled.
The enormous creature pushed against the rotating current, its claws sinking into the ground while its jaws snapped only a few meters away from Ren.
Water exploded in every direction.
The defensive wall held for one second.
Then two.
Cracks spread through the ground beneath Ren's feet.
The lizard's overwhelming weight gradually forced the barrier backward.
Ren gritted his teeth.
"Move the hostages!"
Two Water Clones burst out of the wall.
Each clone seized one of the prisoners, while Rin grabbed another and pulled the unconscious Grass captain by the back of his clothes.
"Go!" Ren shouted.
Rin and the clones retreated at full speed.
They leaped across the marsh, landed on a slope several dozen meters away, and placed the hostages behind the cover of several thick trees.
The moment they reached safety, Ren turned toward Obito.
"Your strongest Fire Release!"
Obito's Sharingan locked onto the enormous shadow struggling against the water barrier.
"Understood!"
His hands raced through the seals.
Fire-natured chakra gathered inside him until his chest burned.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
Obito expelled a massive dragon of flame.
It was not quite as dense or controlled as Ren's version, but it was far more powerful than anything an ordinary genin should have been capable of producing.
Several streams of flame twisted together to form a roaring dragon's head. Its jaws opened as it surged toward the lizard.
Ren watched the timing carefully.
Just before the flames reached the barrier, he released the Water Formation Wall.
The water curtain collapsed.
The Great Dragon Fire struck the giant lizard directly in the head.
Boom!
A second explosion tore through the forest.
Flames spread across the creature's scales.
The water from Ren's defensive technique met Obito's extreme heat, instantly transforming into a cloud of scalding steam.
Hissssss!
Thick white mist erupted outward.
In seconds, it swallowed everything within dozens of meters.
The trees vanished.
The marsh disappeared.
Even the enormous lizard became nothing more than a shadow hidden inside the fog.
"Ren! Obito!"
Rin stood on the distant slope, staring into the white mist with growing anxiety.
She could hear the lizard's furious roars.
She could hear trees breaking.
She could hear the metallic clash of weapons.
But she could not see either of her teammates.
Every instinct urged her to rush into the fog and help them.
She forced herself to remain beside the prisoners.
Their mission was to rescue the hostages.
If she abandoned them now, the lizard could circle around and slaughter them while Ren and Obito were distracted.
Rin tightened her grip on her kunai.
"Please be careful…"
Inside the mist, visibility had fallen to nearly nothing.
Even the Sharingan was of little use.
The Sharingan could perceive chakra and predict physical movement, but it still depended heavily on sight. When Kakashi fought Zabuza, his Sharingan had not allowed him to simply ignore the Hidden Mist Jutsu. He had needed the Eight Ninja Hounds to locate his enemy by scent.
Obito now faced the same problem.
The giant lizard's camouflage blended perfectly with the dense steam, leaving only an occasional dark blur when it moved.
Fortunately, the creature had already suffered serious injuries.
Several steel wires remained attached to the weapons lodged in its body. Whenever it moved, those wires cut through the fog and betrayed its position.
More importantly, the beast was enormous.
Ren and Obito were already close enough that even blind attacks had a reasonable chance of striking it.
The lizard roared and swung its tail.
A massive shadow tore through the fog.
"Down!" Ren shouted.
Obito threw himself to the ground.
The tail passed directly over him and smashed into a nearby tree.
The trunk exploded into splinters.
Before the creature could recover, Ren stepped forward.
An invisible domain spread outward from beneath his feet.
The air changed.
"Instant Hell Shadow Kill Formation."
Ren vanished.
Six figures appeared around the lizard.
Then seven.
Each afterimage moved independently, attacking from a different direction as Ren's speed pushed beyond what ordinary vision could follow.
His white short blade flashed through the steam.
The first slash struck the creature's shoulder.
The second tore across its flank.
The third cut deeply into one of its hind legs.
Puchi!
Puchi! Puchi!
The sound of steel slicing through flesh echoed continuously through the fog.
Each strike carried Ren's sharpened blade intent. Even the lizard's armored scales could not completely resist it.
Pale green blood erupted from the wounds like fountains.
The creature screamed.
Its massive body twisted violently as it attempted to crush every Ren surrounding it. Claws tore through the earth. Its head snapped from side to side, and its tail swept blindly through the mist.
Bang!
A young tree as thick as a man's thigh broke in half.
The lizard stamped one foot into the ground.
Mud and water exploded upward, leaving behind a deep crater.
Obito barely saw the dark shadow descending through the fog.
He rolled aside.
The lizard's claw smashed into the place where his head had been a heartbeat earlier.
"Damn it!"
Obito leaped back to his feet.
"How is this thing still moving after taking so many hits?"
He threw several shuriken toward the creature's head.
The first bounced off its scales.
The second struck near its eye.
The third buried itself in the softer flesh beneath its jaw.
The beast jerked its head away and released another shriek.
Obito continued moving around it, using his Sharingan to search for even the smallest opening.
He was trying to blind the creature.
If he could destroy its eyes, Ren could deliver the finishing blow without worrying about another sudden counterattack.
"Ren! Its left eye is exposed!"
Obito's warning reached him through the steam.
Ren appeared above the creature's head.
His blade was already raised.
One clean strike through the eye and into the brain would end the battle.
Yet just before the blade descended, Ren's movements slowed.
The cold killing intent in his eyes changed.
His sword shifted sideways.
Instead of piercing the eye, the blade cut across the thick scales above it, opening another painful but non-lethal wound.
The lizard thrashed wildly.
Ren landed on its back and drove his blade between two scales, deliberately avoiding the spine.
Something had occurred to him.
This creature was valuable.
Its overall strength was not overwhelming. In a direct battle, it would probably lose to a capable jōnin. It lacked refined ninjutsu, tactical intelligence, and the disciplined combat experience of a human shinobi.
But its natural abilities were exceptional.
It could nearly erase its visual presence.
Its scales provided strong protection.
Its tongue could cross dozens of meters in an instant and drag away an adult shinobi.
Most impressive of all was its vitality.
Ren and Obito had struck it with multiple Fire Release techniques, cut it dozens of times, and spilled enough blood to cover the ground.
It was still fighting.
It was still strong enough to smash trees and tear open the earth.
This was not merely a dangerous predator. It was excellent summoning-beast material.
Ren's attacks changed completely.
He no longer aimed for the eyes, throat, heart, or brain.
Instead, he targeted the lizard's limbs, joints, and heavily armored back. Every slash weakened its movement without threatening its life.
Obito immediately noticed.
"Ren!"
He ducked beneath another tail sweep.
"Why did you stop going for its vital points?"
"I changed my mind!"
Ren landed beside him.
"We're taking it alive!"
Obito stared at him as though he had gone insane.
"Alive?! It just ate someone!"
"The Grass ninja was trying to kill you a minute earlier."
"That isn't the point!"
The lizard lunged through the mist.
Ren shoved Obito aside and blocked one of its claws with his blade. The impact drove him several steps backward, carving deep lines through the mud.
"Think about it," Ren said through gritted teeth. "Invisibility, strong defenses, long-range attacks, and enough vitality to survive this beating. Wouldn't it make an excellent summoning beast?"
Obito glanced at the vague, monstrous outline towering over them.
Its mouth opened.
Saliva dripped between rows of jagged teeth.
"You want to sign a contract with that thing?"
"Not necessarily me."
Ren's gaze sharpened as a strange sense of familiarity crept into his mind.
A giant lizard.
Natural camouflage.
A tongue capable of capturing prey from a distance.
Why did this creature feel so familiar?
He had seen something similar before.
Not in the Forest of Death.
Not among Konoha's records.
In the original future.
One of the creatures summoned by the Animal Path of the Six Paths of Pain had been a gigantic chameleon. It possessed a long tongue, extraordinary camouflage, and enough size to carry multiple people inside its mouth.
Ren looked at the beast through the mist.
A cold shiver of excitement ran down his spine.
The resemblance was too strong to ignore.
Could this be the same species?
Perhaps even the same creature before it was captured, modified with chakra receivers, and turned into one of Pain's summons?
The giant lizard roared and charged again.
Ren did not retreat.
Instead, he sheathed his short blade.
Obito's eyes widened.
"Ren, what are you doing?"
Ren formed the hand seals for Summoning Jutsu.
Black markings spread across his palm.
"If this really is the kind of creature I think it is…"
He lowered his body as the invisible monster rushed toward him.
"Then killing it would be a terrible waste."
The lizard opened its jaws.
Ren slammed his hand onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Chains erupted from the spreading seal.
The creature's camouflage failed for an instant as its entire body was dragged into view.
Obito finally saw it clearly.
And when he did, his face changed.
Embedded deep beneath the scales along the creature's neck was a small black object.
A chakra receiver.
Ren saw it too.
His smile disappeared.
Someone had already begun turning this beast into a weapon.
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