Sprawled on the scorched debris of the battlefield, Ren Uchiha struggled to lift his paralyzed head, gazing helplessly at the charging Sand Jonin. His face was a mask of sheer terror and shock, as if he had never expected the commander to survive the blast.
Seeing this expression, the Sand Jonin, Ryusa, couldn't help but let out a twisted, triumphant laugh.
"Hahahaha! You wicked Uchiha brat! Today, I will personally end your life!"
Ryusa felt a bitter sense of injustice. To him, this should have been a routine ambush, but it had turned into a near-total wipeout of his three hundred men because of this one anomaly. His future was ruined; returning to the village meant facing endless condemnation. Who would believe that a boy who wasn't even a Jonin had decimated a full Sand division? It was a fairy tale.
Driven by a mix of fury and career-ending despair, Ryusa dived forward, his kunai aimed straight for Ren's throat.
But in that split second, the look of helplessness on Ren's face vanished. He tore away his mask of weakness, revealing a savage, predatory grin. He raised his left hand—the only limb he could still move—and let out a hoarse, guttural roar through his broken throat:
"Hrrgh!!"
Ryusa flinched, expecting some last-ditch secret technique. But for a heartbeat, nothing happened. He simply felt a strange, fleeting sense of mercy toward the boy.
It was just enough time.
Ren had gotten what he needed. In this state, survival was impossible without chakra. He had to squeeze the Zero-Tails, absorbing Ryusa's intense dark emotions and converting them into Dark Chakra.
This surge of energy kickstarted his Forbidden Jutsu: Physical Rebirth for a fraction of a second. He instantly funneled that life force into repairing his snapped neck, restoring a sliver of mobility.
Ren clamped his teeth onto the hilt of the Kusanagi sword, saliva mixing with blood. Using his left hand to push off and his core to vault his body into a handstand-like arc, he swung the blade held in his mouth to parry the incoming kunai!
He couldn't afford another wound. But the strike was too weak; Ryusa simply flicked his wrist, and Ren was sent tumbling backward into the dust.
Ryusa was shaken. How was this kid still fighting?
But that moment of hesitation fed the Zero-Tails again. Using the fresh chakra, Ren manually snapped his broken right leg back into place and forced a repair.
"Nnggh!!!" The sweat poured down his face from the agony.
As Ryusa charged again, Ren spat the sword into his left hand and used it as a crutch to stand. With his right leg now supporting him, he parried with much more ease. But Ren wasn't done "charging." He deliberately acted overwhelmed, letting himself get blown away again to secretly repair his left leg.
Falling, rising, falling, rising.
By the fifth time Ren was kicked away, Ryusa realized something was horribly wrong. Wasn't this kid supposed to be dying? Why was he getting more energetic? From a broken neck and shattered limbs to standing tall—it was unnatural.
Ren even started "acting out" the damage to bait him:
"Ha... you're a worthy foe... I'm almost dead!"
"One more hit... I'm really going to die this time!"
"Whew! Close one, almost got my heart!"
Ryusa snapped out of his trance and leaped back, creating a five-meter gap. He realized Ren's "influence" (the Zero-Tails' emotional drain) weakened with distance.
"No more close combat. I'll finish him with Wind Style!"
Ryusa wove seals rapidly. Ren frowned; his right arm was still a charred hunk of carbon, and he didn't have enough chakra to fully fix it. He couldn't weave seals, and there were no pillars left for his wire-gliding. Against a Wind Style master in an open field, he'd be sliced to ribbons.
It was time for pure calculation.
Ren glanced at his charred right arm. He couldn't afford a full repair, but he could still use it as "waste material." He slammed the hilt of his sword against his heart, igniting his remaining Dark Chakra into Fire Style: Chakra Mode.
The flames gathered entirely in his right arm. The Kirin Arm flared back to life.
Ryusa's scalp crawled. How does he have enough chakra for another high-scale move?! Desperate, Ryusa resorted to a high-risk forbidden jutsu of his own: Wind Style: Infinite Sand Dust Great Breakthrough. He sucked in a massive amount of air, his chest and cheeks bulging like a toad's.
Ren's Sharingan spun. He saw the opening. He didn't draw a giant fire sword. Instead, he gripped the Kusanagi sword in his left hand, reversed the blade toward himself, and hacked downward!
SHING!!
The razor-sharp blade severed his own glowing, flaming right arm at the shoulder. Ren slammed the sword into the ground, caught the exploding limb in his left hand, and laughed maniacally at the gathering storm in front of him.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Sand ninja! Look closely! This move is called—"
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
BOOM!
The Great Breakthrough wind erupted. Ren raised the severed flaming arm and let go. The limb was caught in the massive gale, carried by the very wind meant to kill him, and shot straight toward Ryusa.
After a moment of extreme silence... the entire battlefield shook once more.
BOOM!!!!!!
As the roar of the explosion faded, it seemed something more than just a ninja had been blown apart.