HISSSSSS!
The Great Fireball collided with the Water Fang Bullets.
Flames and compressed water annihilated each other, releasing an enormous cloud of scalding white steam. Within seconds, the waterfall, riverbank, and surrounding forest disappeared behind a dense curtain of mist.
Visibility dropped to less than a meter.
Ren moved immediately.
He pushed chakra into his feet and shot across the river like an arrow released from a bow. The water barely rippled beneath him before he reached the opposite bank and entered the forest.
There was no reason to continue fighting.
The attacker possessed at least two chakra natures, had approached without making a sound, and could use B-rank ninjutsu with ease. Ren had no information about their identity, purpose, or full strength.
Retreating and calling for support was the correct decision.
He had crossed only a few dozen meters when the mist behind him tore apart.
A violent gust swept through the gorge.
The masked shinobi had used another Wind Release technique to clear a path and was already pursuing him.
Ren did not hear footsteps.
He felt killing intent.
It wrapped around his back like an invisible chain, cold and heavy enough to make his skin tighten.
The distance between them vanished rapidly.
"Damn it."
Ren stopped running.
He twisted his body, drew the short sword in a reverse grip, and slashed behind himself in one fluid motion.
The masked attacker appeared at that exact moment.
Kunai met blade.
CLANG!
The sound exploded through the forest like thunder.
A massive force surged through Ren's sword and into his arm. His wrist went numb, and the impact nearly tore the weapon from his grip.
Instead of resisting, Ren pushed off the ground and allowed the force to throw him backward.
He rotated in midair, corrected his balance, and landed more than ten meters away. His bare feet carved two shallow trenches through the wet earth before he finally stopped.
The masked shinobi landed effortlessly ahead of him.
The attacker was tall and slender, dressed in plain grey combat clothing without any identifying insignia. A white animal mask covered their face, revealing only a pair of cold eyes.
They carried nothing more than an ordinary kunai.
Yet Ren's entire arm continued trembling from one collision.
The masked figure slowly straightened.
"As expected of Minato Namikaze's student," they said in a rough, distorted voice. "Your reactions resemble his."
Ren tightened his grip on the sword.
"Who are you?"
No answer came.
At first, he had assumed the attacker belonged to Root.
The animal mask, hidden approach, and willingness to attack a Konoha genin near the village all pointed toward Danzō's secret organization.
However, something did not fit.
This person was too strong.
They had used Wind Release and Water Release with impressive speed and control. Their physical strength was equally terrifying, and their movement had placed pressure on Ren comparable to what he felt when sparring with Minato.
Of course, Minato always held back during training.
But Ren had a disturbing feeling that the masked attacker was also nowhere near serious.
Did Root truly possess a shinobi of this level?
Or was the mask deliberately misleading him?
The figure took one step forward.
"You want to know my identity?"
The distorted voice carried faint amusement.
"Then show me enough strength to deserve the answer."
Ren inhaled slowly.
The attacker's attitude confirmed one thing.
This was not an assassination.
If the masked shinobi genuinely wanted him dead, they would not have begun with a kunai he could avoid or paused to speak after catching him.
They were testing him.
That did not make the situation safe.
A powerful shinobi's "test" could still kill an unprepared genin.
Ren brought his hands together.
"Water Clone Technique!"
The nearby river surged.
More than a dozen streams of water twisted through the forest and took Ren's shape. Within moments, fourteen identical figures surrounded his real body, each carrying a watery copy of his short sword.
Creating so many clones would ordinarily consume a significant amount of chakra.
Beside a river and waterfall, the cost was considerably lower.
The clones spread into a defensive formation.
At the same time, Ren removed an emergency smoke flare from his equipment pouch and ignited it.
A bright column of colored smoke rose through the trees.
Such signals were not normally used inside the village's defensive perimeter, but Ren had a perfectly reasonable excuse.
He had been attacked by an unidentified masked shinobi who might be a foreign spy.
If the attacker truly belonged to Root, they could hardly complain that he had followed standard procedure.
The flare had barely cleared the canopy when the masked figure moved.
Grey lightning flashed between the trees.
The attacker plunged directly into the Water Clone formation.
A kunai thrust forward.
The first clone attempted to block, but the weapon slipped past its sword and pierced its throat.
Splash!
The clone collapsed into water.
The attacker turned without slowing.
A second kunai strike shattered another clone's chest. A kick dispersed a third, while a spinning slash destroyed a fourth before it could attack.
The masked shinobi did not waste a single movement.
Their kunai produced overlapping afterimages as they moved through Ren's formation, each simple thrust striking the exact point needed to destroy a clone.
Ren watched carefully.
The attacker appeared unstoppable.
That was precisely what he wanted.
Every destroyed Water Clone activated the trait tied to his clone techniques.
The Gala System responded.
[Victory Over Death—one layer acquired.]
[Victory Over Death—two layers acquired.]
[Victory Over Death—three layers acquired.]
Strength and speed began accumulating within Ren's body.
He could have waited for the attacker to destroy more clones, but doing so would give them additional time to recognize the trap.
Three layers were enough.
Ren stepped forward.
His remaining clones attacked from different directions, forcing the masked shinobi to deflect three swords at once.
A narrow opening appeared near the attacker's ribs.
Ren seized it.
He burst through the gap, the real short sword in his hand becoming a streak of pale light aimed directly at the exposed side.
The masked shinobi sensed him immediately.
"Oh?"
They abandoned the surrounding clones and turned toward Ren.
"So this is the real body."
The attacker charged to meet him.
Ren did not retreat.
The distance between them fell to three meters.
Two and a half.
Two point two.
Something changed.
Buzz!
An invisible ripple spread from Ren's body.
Within a radius of precisely 2.2 meters, the entire battlefield entered his awareness.
The air did not truly slow, but Ren's perception of it sharpened to an extraordinary degree.
Faint white lines appeared throughout the space around him.
They marked angles.
Distances.
Obstacles.
The path of the enemy's weapon.
The masked shinobi's shoulders shifted.
Before the kunai moved, Ren already knew where it was going.
A system panel flashed through his mind.
[Hatake Swordsmanship Trait—Mind Blade Domain]
[Through your growing comprehension of Hatake Swordsmanship, you may deploy a Mind Blade Domain extending 2.2 meters around your body.]
[Within this domain, your awareness of distance, attack angles, obstacles, muscle movement, and weapon trajectories surpasses ordinary visual perception. You can anticipate most attacks and identify weaknesses along the shortest possible path.]
The first-stage trait of Hatake Swordsmanship had finally revealed its true value.
Mind Blade Domain was not genuine foresight.
It could not show Ren the future.
Instead, it gathered every available detail within 2.2 meters and converted that information into instinctive combat awareness.
The masked shinobi's center of gravity shifted.
Their fingers tightened around the kunai.
Muscles contracted beneath the sleeve.
Ren understood the coming attack before the blade began moving.
He adjusted his sword.
Clang!
The short sword met the kunai at the perfect angle.
Ren redirected the thrust rather than resisting it.
At the same time, one of the pale lines revealed the shortest path to the attacker's wrist.
He countered.
The masked shinobi twisted away and slashed toward Ren's throat.
Ren had already seen the movement forming.
He ducked, stepped inside the attacker's reach, and drove his sword toward the abdomen.
The kunai descended and stopped the blade.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metallic impacts merged into a continuous storm.
The two figures moved through the forest, their weapons creating a web of silver light between them.
Every time the masked shinobi attacked, Mind Blade Domain exposed the trajectory.
Ren parried along the shortest path.
Every time the attacker shifted their stance, pale lines revealed a potential opening.
Ren counterattacked without hesitation.
Dozens of exchanges occurred within seconds.
Kunai struck blade.
Blade scraped against kunai.
Sparks scattered across the wet ground.
Ren's swordsmanship became faster and more precise than ever before. No movement was wasted. Each defense transitioned into an attack, and each attack forced the enemy toward another predicted response.
This was the feeling Hatake Swordsmanship had occasionally shown him during his training with Shisui.
Taking the initiative did not mean attacking first.
It meant understanding the enemy's action before they completed it.
For the first time since the ambush began, Ren was no longer being overwhelmed.
However, he quickly discovered a problem.
The Mind Blade Domain showed pale paths representing weaknesses in an opponent's movement and defense.
Around Kakashi, those lines appeared everywhere.
That did not mean Kakashi was weak. His swordsmanship already approached the level of an elite chūnin.
Yet compared with the masked figure, Kakashi's movements contained countless openings.
The person in front of Ren possessed almost none.
Every stance flowed naturally into the next. Each attack preserved enough balance for immediate defense, and even the smallest flaw disappeared before Ren could exploit it.
The masked attacker's skill was not merely higher than Kakashi's.
It belonged to an entirely different level.
An elite jōnin?
Perhaps something beyond that?
Ren's breathing became heavier.
Mind Blade Domain gave him the information needed to defend, but it did not make his body faster.
It did not automatically move his sword.
Knowing that an attack was coming meant nothing if his muscles could not respond in time.
The Victory Over Death layers allowed him to barely maintain the exchange, but the attacker continued increasing their speed.
Ren's arms began to ache.
A shallow cut appeared along his shoulder.
Another kunai thrust passed close enough to tear his clothes.
The masked shinobi was adapting to the Mind Blade Domain.
Ren needed to end the exchange immediately.
He deliberately allowed his sword to drift slightly out of position.
The attacker noticed.
Their kunai moved toward the opening.
Ren pivoted.
The apparent mistake transformed into a trap.
A pale line flashed through the Mind Blade Domain—the first genuine weakness he had seen.
Ren's chakra surged.
His sword accelerated.
The blade slipped past the kunai and crossed the masked figure's unprotected guard, slicing toward their neck.
Too late to block.
Too close to retreat.
Ren's eyes sharpened.
The blade was about to land.
Then the masked shinobi's neck bent.
It did not turn like a human neck.
It stretched and twisted backward like the body of a snake, moving at an angle that should have shattered bone and torn muscle.
Ren's blade passed through empty air.
His mind went blank for half a second.
That was enough.
The masked shinobi's kunai stabbed toward his chest.
Ren activated the Substitution Technique.
His body vanished.
A nearby Water Clone appeared in his place and exploded into a shower of water as the kunai pierced it.
Ren reappeared several meters away, landing in a crouch.
His breathing was ragged.
Water rolled down his face, and the sword in his hand trembled from the strain of the exchange.
He stared at the masked figure.
Dual Wind and Water Release.
Extraordinary knowledge.
Strength comparable to a top jōnin.
A body capable of bending like a serpent.
There was only one answer.
"Orochimaru."
The name cut through the forest.
The masked figure stopped.
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then a low chuckle emerged from behind the animal mask.
When the attacker spoke again, the false, distorted voice was gone.
In its place was the cold, familiar rasp Ren had heard inside the underground archive.
"Heh…"
One pale hand rose and touched the edge of the mask.
"So you recognized me."
Ren's grip tightened around his sword.
The attack had never come from Root.
It had come from someone far more dangerous.
Orochimaru had not entered the forest to kill him. He had come to see whether Ren was worth claiming.