"Co out and face ! Lightning Release: Guillotine Drop!"
A leapt high into the air and brought down another devastating axe kick.
Boom!
The ground within dozens of ters beneath him cracked apart. From the shattered stones, Uchiha Ren's figure burst out.
"Lightning Release: Thunder Oppression Horizontal Chop!"
A pushed his Lightning Release Chakra Mode to its limit. His body flashed forward, giving Ren no ti to react. in an instant, he appeared in front of him and threw a punch.
"Flash!"
Ren's expression turned serious. Flas erupted beneath his feet as his body shot upward.
Now!
A's eyes glead.
The punch he had thrown halfway suddenly stopped as he changed tactics mid-attack.
"Lightning Release: Guillotine Chop—Thousand-Style Dance!"
A also leapt upward, lightning gathering in his hand and forming a blade of crackling electricity.
Ren's high-speed movent only allowed linear motion.
If A could catch him in the instant between one step pushing off and the next landing—Ren would be unable to change direction.
That brief mont would decide the battle.
Bang!
A's lightning-wreathed hand struck Ren's waist—
Yet instead of blood spraying everywhere, Ren's body exploded into flas once again.
"A Fire Clone?!"
A froze for a mont before imdiately rejecting the idea.
"No… impossible! That was definitely his real body!"
Although Ren had once again burst into flas, the feeling of the strike was completely different from the clone earlier.
Moreover, while Ren's body had turned into fire, the flas did not disperse.
Instead, they wrapped around A's arm, trapping it within the blazing mass.
A trusted his instincts.
"Could it be… genjutsu?"
He suddenly rembered Ren's identity.
The Uchiha clan was infamous for its mastery of genjutsu. Their Sharingan could trap opponents in illusions with nothing more than a single glance.
This nearly unfair ability had even given rise to a well-known saying in the shinobi world:
"If you encounter an Uchiha ninja one-on-one—run imdiately."
The statent might not be absolute, but it spoke volus about the clan's reputation.
In battle, eye contact was almost unavoidable.
In a one-on-one fight, a single mont of eye contact could result in falling into a genjutsu and becoming helpless prey.
In group combat, however, teammates could disrupt the illusion and free one another.
That was one of the reasons Ren had assigned the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki, Killer B, to Minato Namikaze earlier.
Although the Sharingan was known as a natural counter to the tailed beasts, Killer B was a perfect jinchūriki.
He effectively fought as a two-person team together with Gyūki, allowing them to break genjutsu easily.
From the very beginning of the fight, A had been careful not to look directly into Ren's eyes.
He tracked Ren's movents only by observing his body.
If that was the case—
When had he been placed under a genjutsu?
But if it wasn't genjutsu…
Then how could this situation be explained?
"It's called elentalization."
Just as A's thoughts raced, Ren's calm, magnetic voice sounded beside his ear.
A instinctively turned his head—
And his eyes t a pair of crimson Sharingan.
Damn it!
A realized the danger instantly.
The next mont, his body stiffened.
His consciousness was dragged into a dark crimson world, where massive iron spikes pinned him in midair, leaving him unable to move.
"Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique!"
Back in the real world, Ren's body slowly reford from flas.
He pressed a hand against A's head, strengthening the genjutsu's hold.
As expected—
When it ca to capturing soone alive, genjutsu was the most effective thod.
When A had first converted the power of Guillotine Drop into explosive speed, Ren had already realized that A had partially seen through the weakness of his Fire Release Chakra Mode.
From the beginning, Ren had never intended to kill A.
His goal had always been to capture him alive.
So when A believed he had deciphered Ren's abilities and lowered his guard, Ren used elentalization to disrupt his thinking—and seized the opportunity to cast genjutsu.
Elentalization allowed Ren to transform his body into fire itself, making attacks pass harmlessly through him.
This was one of the abilities granted by the Fla-Fla Fruit.
In the world of One Piece, the elentalization of Logia-type Devil Fruit users was extrely difficult to counter.
Only those who had mastered Haki could touch the real body of a Logia user.
Without Haki, one wouldn't even be qualified to fight them.
Of course—
Ren was an exception.
However, Ren discovered that chakra-infused attacks could still harm him even when he used elentalization.
Perhaps it was because Haki and chakra both originated from the body's internal energy.
Even so, elentalization was still extrely effective for evading attacks in advance.
Used properly, it could determine the outco of a battle.
Just like now.
Ren exhaled slowly and deactivated the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes.
He slung the unconscious A over his shoulder.
After several swift flashes of movent, Ren returned to where Minato's squad was located.
The battle there had already ended.
Without A's incredible speed to restrain him, Minato Namikaze had been able to unleash his abilities completely.
Among the Kumogakure squad, only Killer B could exchange more than a few moves with Minato.
The other Cloud ninja were defeated almost instantly.
And with the assistance of Minato's teammates—Inuzuka Gaku and Akimichi Dōtō, both Konoha jōnin—Killer B hadn't even had the chance to fully transform into the Eight-Tails before being sealed.
"Ren!"
Minato and the others imdiately noticed Ren approaching.
"I've temporarily restrained him with genjutsu," Ren said as he dropped A onto the ground. "But to be safe, you should seal his chakra."
"Understood."
Minato nodded and rapidly ford hand seals.
Five small flas of chakra appeared on the tips of his fingers.
"Five Elents Seal!"
Minato crouched down and slamd his palm onto A's abdon.
Five tomoe-shaped sealing marks appeared on A's stomach, locking down the flow of chakra within his body.
Minato wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood up.
"I used too much chakra earlier sealing the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki. For now, the Five Elents Seal can only disrupt his chakra flow."
"It can't completely sever his connection to chakra, but he won't be able to use any jutsu."
"That's enough."
Ren nodded.
"Once we return to the village, we can place stronger restraints on him."
A faint smile appeared on Ren's face.
"With this… the war should finally be over."
Minato and the others relaxed slightly as well.
This war had lasted nearly eight long years.
At last—
It was finally coming to an end.
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