"ROAR—!!"
While Ōnoki was still reeling, the fully transformed Five-Tails—Han—erupted with another surge of Bijū chakra and charged him again.
Ōnoki felt like he was losing his mind.
But Han was already under Mangekyō control—there was no reasoning with him.
Ōnoki could only grit his teeth and keep the monster pinned down as best he could.
"Yagura… you got controlled again?!"
WHOOSH!
Elder Genji, the cane-bearing power behind Kirigakure, flashed away in a blur of water, barely dodging the Three-Tails' charge.
He was furious and humiliated.
Yagura had been talking about "atonement" a second ago… and the moment he fully transformed, he got snatched by Ren's genjutsu like a child.
That willpower was a joke.
"Bijūdama!"
The Three-Tails ignored everything and fired again.
Genji could only keep blinking away, dodging like his life depended on it—because it did.
Old as he was, he couldn't beat the Three-Tails head-on. He could only stall and pray for an opening… while regretting every decision that led him out of Kirigakure.
If he died here, could Mei Terumī really hold the village together afterward?
"Rasa! What are you standing there for?!"
Genji roared while dodging yet another blast.
"Get in here—now! We're the Allied Four-Village Army!"
"I'm… waiting a moment."
Rasa's voice was steady—too steady.
Then—
WHOOSH!
In Genji's disbelieving stare, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, turned around…
and ran.
Straight up fled.
"RASA! Where the hell are you going?!"
Genji bellowed, nearly choking on rage.
Rasa didn't even look back.
"I'm not an idiot. Uchiha Ren is too strong. I'm leaving."
Fear flickered in his eyes.
That terrifying pressure.
That tremor-like power that shattered air and earth.
And now the Sharingan that could hijack jinchūriki mid-fight…
It was nightmare stacked on nightmare.
And the worst part?
Rasa's heart was bleeding for the dead Sand shinobi.
Sunagakure was already barely holding itself together. He'd come to bite a chunk out of Konoha—
and instead, he'd dragged his village into a disaster that would take years to recover from.
"You think you can leave?"
A calm voice drifted in.
Rasa froze.
Up ahead, not far away, Ren was already standing there, smiling faintly—as if he'd been waiting.
Ren had originally planned to go all-out from the start.
But when three jinchūriki had the nerve to fully transform right in front of him?
He changed his mind.
Because the Eternal Mangekyō against tailed beasts wasn't even a fight.
It was discipline.
"Uchiha Ren—!"
Rasa's face twisted. He started to speak—
and Ren moved.
Fast.
Rasa's hands blurred through seals.
"Magnet Release: Sand Gold Cube!"
A massive cube of sand-gold formed and slammed toward Ren.
Ren's fist tightened. A bright white sheen wrapped around it—tremor-force layered with Armament Haki.
"Air Tremor."
BOOM—CRACK!!
The cube collided with the tremor and shattered into glittering fragments, sand-gold exploding outward like a storm.
Rasa's eyes widened. He tried to form another jutsu—
"Magnet Release—"
A blade punched through him from behind.
Blood sprayed.
Ren stood close, expression flat, and withdrew Murakumogiri cleanly from Rasa's torso.
"You panicked," Ren said.
His tone was almost bored.
"And you were a beat too slow."
The "Ren" in front of Rasa puffed into white smoke.
A clone.
Rasa clutched at the wound, mouth opening and closing—trying to say something.
Only blood came out.
He toppled forward.
Dead.
He never even understood how quickly it ended.
"Rasa… got killed?!"
The moment the Fourth Kazekage fell, the remaining leaders still struggling with the tailed beasts—Raikage A, Ōnoki, and Genji—went pale.
They'd expected brutality.
They hadn't expected zero hesitation.
A Kage wasn't even worth keeping alive as leverage, apparently.
Then the battlefield shifted again.
A strained, painful voice echoed from within the Eight-Tails.
"A… run. I'll hold Gyūki down for a moment…"
Killer B—fighting for control.
At the same time, the Three-Tails and Five-Tails bodies also stuttered and stalled, as if their hosts were resisting from inside.
"Lord Raikage—go!"
"Tsuchikage—run!"
"Genji-sama—run!"
The jinchūriki were buying them a window.
A tiny one.
"GO!"
The three surviving leaders didn't argue.
They snapped one last look at each other and instantly split—
"Separate routes! Don't get wiped in one sweep!"
"This bastard kills without blinking!"
WHOOSH—WHOOSH—WHOOSH!
In front of Konoha's stunned forces, the Fourth Raikage, the Third Tsuchikage, and Elder Genji fled like hunted dogs—abandoning even their jinchūriki.
Ren watched them scatter.
Then he tilted his head slightly, using Observation Haki to track their trajectories.
"Running?"
His gaze slid to Genji's direction.
Ren moved.
Genji felt Ren's killing intent behind him and went ashen.
Inside his head, he was screaming curses.
I'm just an old man with a cane! Go chase the Raikage or Ōnoki—aren't they worth more?!
It didn't matter.
Genji lasted less than a minute.
Ren caught him—
and killed him cleanly.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios