The massive seal formulas expanding in the sky solidified in an instant!
Poof!
A colossal cloud of white smoke erupted. As the relentless winds from the valley floor swept past, they revealed the towering, purplish-black figure of a terrifying beast! This was the boss summon of Ryūchi Cave, the beast Ren Uchiha had contracted: Manda!
Manda appeared with a bald-headed rat—larger than a full-grown human—still dangling from its mouth. Before the giant snake could even process its surroundings, it realized it was in a state of free-fall.
"Hiss!"
Shocked, Manda whipped its head around, only to find that the one who had summoned it was that same brat it loathed with every fiber of its being! Manda's pupils constricted as it roared ferociously:
"You brat! This time, I'm definitely going to eat—"
However, before Manda could finish its threat, Ren, standing on the precipice of the cliff, snapped his head up. The moment their eyes met, Ren's Sharingan flared to life. Violent veins bulged around his eye sockets as his pupil narrowed into a magnificent, dreamlike crimson snake-eye!
He shut his right eye and glared with his left!
Dense blood vessels instantly filled the white of his eye, and a trail of bloody tears trickled down his cheek!
"Sage Art: Sharingan: Eye of White Rage!"
A flaming, red dragon lunged from his crimson eye, spiraling and locking onto the massive Manda in the world of Genjutsu. The dragon unhinged its jaw and swallowed the dragon ball!
Within a shuddering flash of white light, Manda's entire soul experienced a level of agony that felt like ascending to heaven! In a single thought, an eternity passed!
By the time Manda managed to shake off the mental exhaustion and the near-total collapse of its sensory systems to break free from the Sage Art ocular jutsu, it saw Ren on the cliffside closing his left eye.
Simultaneously, Ren opened his right eye—the standard Sharingan.
Genjutsu: Sharingan!
"I'll kill you, you little—!?"
Before the curse could even leave its throat, Manda was instantly hypnotized by the Sharingan's power! All of this happened in the blink of an eye! This was Ren Uchiha's version of the Mount Myōboku technique, tailored specifically for Ryūchi Cave—
Ninja Art: Food Cart Destroyer Technique!
BOOM!!
The rapidly falling Manda, trailing a hurricane of force, slammed violently into the Valley of Hell! The giant pit-viper, dozens of meters long, shook the very foundations of the valley floor! Sand, trees, boulders—everything was swept up in a storm even more terrifying than the one the Chinoike clan had stirred up moments ago.
The shockwave caught the hair of the two men on the cliff, blowing it straight upward.
Aburame Ryoma stared at Ren in total shock, unable to comprehend what the boy was playing at. But he had to admit, the effect was spectacular! The rioting Chinoike clan was instantly silenced by the crushing weight.
"You..." Ryoma adjusted his slightly balding hair, but Ren cut him off immediately.
"Don't just stand there. It's just a Ninja Art I came up with." Ren shook his head and waved at Ryoma to follow. "Let's move! Someone else will deal with the Chinoike; they don't need us here!"
Without another word, Ren turned and leaped toward the Uchiha camp built at the base of the cliffs. Ryoma glanced down at the smoking Valley of Hell, speechless, but he knew time was of the essence. He wasn't stupid; combining the intelligence of Kumogakure's recent movements with this sudden riot, it was clear: the Chinoike clan had allied with Kumo!
The Chinoike riot was the signal for Kumo to start their operation. The people in the camp likely didn't know this yet; they had to be warned to prepare for defense.
Still, Ryoma wondered: How did this kid deduce all this in a split second? He usually acts like a complete idiot, so why is he suddenly so sharp? And who did he mean by 'someone else will deal with the Chinoike'?
Is it Minato Namikaze? Ren did plant a Flying Raijin kunai... but even for the Yellow Flash, the journey from Konoha would take time!
Shaking off his thoughts, Ryoma sped up to catch Ren. "In a battle of ocular powers, Manda won't hold out against the Ketsuryūgan for long. And Minato won't get here that fast. Plus, Kumo is likely... Ren, what are you actually thinking?"
As Ren leaped between branches, his hands were already weaving the signs for another Summoning Jutsu. He remained unnervingly calm, fueled by his Combat Intuition.
"It's fine," Ren responded steadily. "I used the Sharingan to hypnotize Manda beforehand. With my ocular power overriding its mind, the Chinoike won't be able to seize control of the snake easily. They'll have to fight it for real."
"That'll give them plenty to handle."
Ren knew Manda was a treacherous beast anyway; if he just dropped it normally, the Chinoike would have just used their Ketsuryūgan to turn it against them. So, Ren struck first.
If I hypnotize the snake first... who do you think it's going to bite?
Ryoma frowned. He wasn't so easily fooled. As a member of a clan that dealt with high-level techniques, he knew that the Sharingan and Ketsuryūgan were roughly on par in terms of Genjutsu power; breaking the hypnosis wouldn't be impossible.
"But—"
Ren interrupted him. "No 'buts'. Trust me, let's just get to the camp!"
Ren wasn't worried about the Chinoike at all. Only he knew that down in the Valley of Hell, there was a lunatic who defied all common sense waiting for exactly this moment! But since he couldn't explain the source of his information, he had to brush Ryoma off.
The only real threat, in Ren's eyes, was Kumogakure. Specifically, the legendary powerhouse they might have brought as their trump card.
He finished his hand signs and pressed his palm to the back of his hand, summoning a small white snake onto his arm. This was Orochimaru's messenger snake.
Ren quickly ripped a strip of cloth from his white undershirt. Using the blood from his finger—bitten for the summoning—he rapidly scribbled the current situation, his deductions, and five large characters: "DISCIPLE IN DANGER, SAVE FAST!"
He pried the little snake's mouth open and stuffed the cloth inside.
"Do not swallow it! If even a shred of this is digested, this time next year will be the anniversary of you being turned into snake soup! Got it?!" Ren threatened ferociously.
The little snake shuddered, glaring at Ren before vanishing in a puff of white smoke.
Please get there in time... Ren thought, staring at the camp now visible in the distance. He only hoped he wouldn't arrive to find a literal hellscape.
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