The faint shimmer of dawn lit the sky. Alongside the rising sun, which revealed half of its silhouette, the drifting clouds across the heavens were stained a brilliant crimson.
As the emissaries of the Five Great Nations stepped through the gates, the atmosphere atop the walls shifted instantly. No one spoke; even breathing seemed to become hurried and anxious. Everyone present knew exactly what kind of figure was arriving—the only question was from which direction the madman who issued the assassination declaration would appear.
Shinobi and samurai alike held their breath, their eyes scanning every corner of the deserted, pre-cleared streets below.
Until—
A rhythmic sound of footsteps, unmasked and bold, echoed from the main gate.
Tap, tap, tap...
Shinobi boots crushed the dust, stepping onto the bluestone road with a steady pace.
"Captain! Over there!"
Atop the wall, Motoi, the deputy guard, whipped his head around, pointing toward the gate. "Coming toward us... a massive chakra signature..."
Motoi's face was taut. Upon sensing that aura, his fingers forming the 'Ram' seal trembled so violently he could barely maintain it. That chakra volume was comparable to a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki!
The veteran guard captain, Ramii, focused his gaze on the corner at the end of the street and took a deep breath.
"Hoo..."
As the figure emerged from the corner and came to a halt fifty meters from the gate, Ramii saw a youth who seemed to have stopped out of curiosity. He wore a grey inner lining, a black short-sleeved shirt with a standing collar, and a purple shimenawa rope—identical to Orochimaru's—tying his loose trousers and black boots.
"No mistake... that's Ren Uchiha!"
Ramii sucked in a breath of cold air. Beside him, Motoi continued to report urgently.
"The Regeneration Barrier! He's noticed it!"
"He didn't trigger the alarm... wait, what is he doing?" Motoi was bewildered. If Ren took one more step, the Barrier Corps would sense him and summon the army. But Ren simply stood there, palm raised toward the barrier, unmoving.
"Regardless, Motoi, report Ren Uchiha's presence to the higher-ups immediately! Now!"
Motoi complied, summoning his contract owl, Fukuroemon, to deliver the intel to the Tenshu Pavilion at the heart of the inner city.
Standing before the barrier, Ren naturally saw this move, but he didn't stop them. He simply rotated his palm against the barrier's surface. In less than a minute, dense rune symbols spread from his heart across the barrier.
In the blink of an eye, the sphere enveloping the city turned the crimson of the Uchiha Flame Formation.
Then—
CRACK!
With the sound of shattering glass, the semi-spherical barrier manifested for a split second, trembled, and then collapsed into nothingness!
Through the silent, instinctive cooperation between Minato Namikaze and Ren Uchiha, the core control of the barrier had been seized and the Cloud's first line of defense dismantled in an instant.
At that moment, Ren looked up, his crimson eyes locking onto the Cloud shinobi arrayed atop the wall.
"Cloud Village... are you prepared to welcome me?"
The shattering of the barrier caused an uproar among the ninjas on the wall. Under Ren's cold gaze, many instinctively flinched. But the veteran Ramii roared:
"Calm down! According to the plan—release the ninjutsu!"
In the next instant, both sides moved! Ren lowered his body and charged, his eyes locked onto Ramii. He had no complex plan. He only needed to punch through the defense, break the wall, and charge straight to the Tenshu Pavilion.
To Ren, "assassination" simply meant moving forward. Moving forward, and never stopping! Use absolute power to crush all resistance, sweep away the defiant, and clear every obstacle. If he could beat the city into a state where no one dared speak his name, victory would belong to the Uchiha!
Suddenly, a chorus of roars erupted from the wall:
"Lightning Style: Lightning Signal Pillar!" x50!
Light arrived faster than sound. Fifty beams, each as bright as a ship's searchlight, ignited simultaneously, drowning the area in a blinding, stark white domain.
In such an environment, both sides would usually lose their sight. But those prepared could act.
Atop the cliff in the center of the city, young A snarled. He roared toward the steel cannon on the adjacent peak:
"Bee! FIRE!!"
Standing near the cannon, a Hyuga shinobi with active Byakugan frowned, seemingly annoyed by A's disrespectful tone, but he kept his eyes forward. "Baseline zero. Live round correction. North, 11 o'clock. Calibrate three units left."
Killer Bee complied instantly, funneling a massive amount of Tailed Beast chakra into the barrel.
BOOM!!
Flames erupted from the muzzle as a solid projectile was propelled outward. A tail of red flame trailed behind the "meteor" as it shrieked toward the main gate at three times the speed of sound!
Down at the gate, both sides were blinded by the multiple Lightning Signal Pillars. Even a Sharingan would find it hard to see.
However, the Cloud had overlooked one thing: Ren's Mind's Eye.
Using his five senses to weave a real-time image in his mind, Ren "saw" the incoming projectile perfectly.
Tsk tsk... so this is the Chakra Cannon that blew apart Orochimaru's Yamata-no-Orochi?
Ren mused that Orochimaru had been much humbler since the Cloud Collapse mission. He wondered if it was the knowledge from the White Snake Sage or if he'd simply been humbled by a hit from this thing.
Under normal circumstances, Ren could dodge this using his Sage Mode. But he needed to save that for the Third Raikage. His "Sage Heart" currently only held enough natural energy for five minutes of the form; exceeding that would cause consumption to grow exponentially.
"Then... let's use this!"
Ren's lips curled into an excited smile. The black tomoe in his crimson eyes spun.
In the next instant, twenty-six ribs of a color between bright yellow and deep crimson erupted from Ren's back!
A skeletal, half-body Susanoo materialized amidst the white lightning. It raised its massive arm, fingers splayed wide.
The skeletal palm of the Susanoo reached out to catch the cannonball bare-handed!
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