The barrier crackled with a thunderous hum that shook the air itself. Golden arcs of lightning crawled through the air like veins of molten metal, spreading across the shattered terrain in a perfect square. Every inch of the field crackled with power as the Lightning Style: Cross Seal fully deployed, trapping both Ren and Kakuzu inside.
Kakuzu stopped mid-step as the arcs circled above him and joined together from all sides. His instincts screamed at him, he was caged. The realization struck instantly. The air was so dense with electricity that each breath burned the lungs. He could feel his chakra circulation tugged at by the barrier's pull. Escape wasn't possible. Not anymore.
He turned his head toward Ren, voice gravelly and sharp. "When did you set this up?"
Ren tilted his head, his eyes lit up in mild excitement. "Oh, are you finally behaving like a villain now?" he mused. Then he sighed as if disappointed. "No, but asking that question? That's my line. If I explained, I'd be the one acting like a villain, not you."
He smiled faintly, almost playful. "Trade secrets."
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed. He'd realized he wouldn't get an answer. With a grunt, he spread his arms wide, and the threads burst from his body like a tidal wave.
Then a grotesque transformation began.
Each tendril thickened, twisting over his body until they formed overlapping layers of hardened thread. The stitched lines across his limbs tore open and released even more of them, fusing and stretching until his form swelled to triple its original size. The ground cracked under his expanding weight. His body turned into a hulking, dark silhouette with a dozen glowing green eyes glaring through the crevices in his thread armor.
Even his face was lost under the weaving strands, leaving behind only a guttural, resonant and almost inhuman sound.
Ren just waited as Kakuzu was undergoing his transformation, it wasn't that he couldn't stop him midway but rather, he didn't want to. He actually wanted to see this through because he didn't remember Kakuzu doing something like this in the original.
Even if he was letting Kakuzu go all out, he wasn't worried, not because he had become overconfident but for another reason.
The moment the formation sealed, this battlefield became Kakuzu's grave. This whole formation was based on Roku's lightning barrier style jutsu but much more refines. This whole formation combined held the power comparable to atleast two Rasenshuriken, though it would be in the lightning version and not in the wind version, however the power was still imaginable.
This meant that even if by some miracle Kakuzu was able to defeat him or make him still for sometime, there was absolutely no hope for him to escape from here. He had waited till now, till Kakuzu was at less hearts because he wasn't sure if Kakuzu could blast them to break through the barrier, this was the only weakness, it wasn't very durable and could be destroyed with enough strength.
However, he had added a threatening function which would make the people inside feel dread which is why they would distance themselves from the barrier and not try to do anything else.
Ren exhaled, the static from the barrier brushing his skin like a storm waiting to happen. He adjusted his stance, letting his breathing settle into a slow, even rhythm.
"Alright," he murmured, cracking his neck once, "show me what a hundred years of greed buys you."
As soon as Ren's words fell the monster styled Kakuzu moved. Despite his enormous frame, Kakuzu shot forward with surprising speed, each footfall shattering stone. His massive fist came down like a hammer, gouging a crater several meters deep.
But Ren was already gone.
He moved like a flicker of light, sliding past the descending blow with no wasted motion. The shockwave that followed split the earth behind him, uprooting trees and flinging dust in all directions.
Kakuzu roared, slamming both arms down and releasing a thousand threads that spread like a storm of black spears. They whipped across the air, skewering boulders, slicing trees clean in half. The battlefield turned into a writhing forest of death.
Ren slipped between them, feet barely brushing the ground. Hyperfocus was fully active so every thread, every shift in air pressure, every arc of motion was tracked in layered clarity. He pivoted, ducked, leaned, just centimeters away from being torn apart at every turn.
He wasn't rushing to end it. He was studying. The strength, the thread density, the gaps between Kakuzu's patterns all logged in split-second analysis.
After a few more exchanges, Ren's eyes flicked once, by now he had figured it all out. Despite this thing being new it wasn't very strong, this was probably what Kakuzu had made for contingencies where his hearts were destroyed and he couldn't escape. However this type of titan like form was most useless against speed type ninjas like Ren.
He blurred forward, weaving through the tendrils, leaving afterimages in his wake. Clones burst out beside him, two, then four racing toward Kakuzu from different directions.
The monster's arm lashed out, sweeping through the clones and shredding them instantly, the chakra explosions lighting up the air as Kakuzu's laughter rumbled through the threads.
By now Ren was already behind him.
A heel strike slammed into Kakuzu's armored spine and the impact rang out like steel striking steel. The threads dented but didn't break. Ren landed lightly, sliding back with a faint hiss of friction across the dirt. He flexed his hand once.
"Alright," he said under his breath, "time to end this."
He raised his right hand and chakra flared, coiling tightly as a spinning orb of pure energy materialized. The familiar hum of a Rasengan filled the air, but it didn't stop there. Ren's chakra shifted, splitting into precise microcurrents, shaping, slicing, sharpening.
The orb screamed as wind chakra poured over it like a living storm, forming thousands of tiny blades rotating at impossible speed. The Rasengan's edges elongated, the sphere distorting into a bladed disk. Within seconds, the Rasenshuriken was complete, a perfect fusion of control and destruction.
The entire battlefield seemed to hold its breath. Even the barrier's lightning dimmed slightly, as if submitting to the greater force forming in Ren's hand.
He stared at the spinning weapon, its shriek echoing through his bones as he remembered the last time he had used this was against Hiruzen, however that time it was testing so this would be the first time he would be using it against an actual opponent.
As soon as the Rasenshuriken appeared in Ren's hand Kakuzu's instincts went haywire.
Every fiber of his being screamed danger. He didn't even know what that jutsu was, but the pressure alone was suffocating. The monster raised both arms, threads swarming around him in a cocoon-like defense. He anchored threads into the ground and trees, then flung others into the air, suspending himself like a grotesque spider.
Ren's eyes tracked him, unbothered.
Kakuzu roared and released a storm of threads, a barrage that blackened the sky. Hundreds of them launched simultaneously, slicing through the air at supersonic speed. They crashed toward Ren like a rain of spears.
Ren didn't move, not yet. He just raised his head slightly, eyes reflecting the storm of threads converging on him.
Then he released and insane amount of wind chakra through his tenketsu points and the ground exploded under him.
Ren shot upward, propelled by pure wind pressure and then he stopped, suspended midair, perfectly still, hovering in defiance of gravity. Wind coiled around his legs like invisible wings keeping him afloat.
Kakuzu's eyes widened, disbelief flashing through the monstrous mask.
"He's flying?"
Ren exhaled.
"Correct. Here's your reward."
He cocked his arm back, the Rasenshuriken wailing like a thousand blades screaming for blood. The lightning from the barrier bent toward it, drawn to the condensed storm in his palm.
"Catch."
Then, he threw it.
The Rasenshuriken tore through the air, spinning faster than the eye could follow. Every rotation screamed with compressed destruction.
Kakuzu moved instantly, releasing everything he had. Thousands of threads twisted into shields, barriers, overlapping nets — layers upon layers of defense. He roared, pumping chakra into them until they glowed.
But then the Rasenshuriken hit.
The world turned white.
For a heartbeat, there was silence then everything detonated at once.
Wind and lightning combined into a single overwhelming roar. The barrier reflected the explosion inward, amplifying it. The ground fractured like glass, the entire kilometer of terrain illuminated in blinding gold and silver.
The shockwave carved through the land, and for a brief instant, the dome glowed brighter than the sun.
Ren shielded his eyes as the blast washed over him. Even from his distance, the force shook his bones. When the light finally dimmed, all that remained inside the barrier was ruin.
The air buzzed with residual chakra as dust, smoke, and the faint hiss of lightning filled the silence. Slowly, Ren descended, landing lightly among the scorched rubble.
Kakuzu was still there or what was left of him.
His body was a heap of burnt, tangled threads, his armor gone, hearts shattered. His form twitched weakly once, then collapsed completely, turning into a lifeless pile of whatever his body was made of. There was no regeneration this time, no threads moving to stitch the body back together.
Ren stared at the remains quietly for a moment. The static from the fading barrier danced along his skin.
"Five of five," he muttered.
The barrier flickered once, then dissipated, the lightning melting back into the sky.
Then silence returned to the field.
Ren stood in the center of the devastation, breathing evenly. His body bore cuts and bruises, blood crusting along his arm and cheek, but his posture remained straight, unshaken. Most of his injury from the fight had already healed, however at last he was injured again, all due to his own jutsu, which meant that he still underestimated the power of the Rasenshuriken.
He rolled his shoulders once, the fatigue beginning to catch up to him, but his tone stayed indifferent. "Thanks for letting me go wild in such a long time, " he muttered, glancing at the blackened ground. "Too bad you died so soon."
A gust of wind passed through the destroyed landscape, scattering ash into the distance.
Ren turned, walking away as the last sparks of lightning faded from the soil. His shadow stretched long behind him as the sun shone on him.
Now, he could finally heal in peace, for none other than one reason.
The hunt was over.
~~~
A little distance away from the smoking crater where the battle between Ren and Kakuzu had just ended, two figures stood completely still in the shadows of a broken ridge. The air around them was unnaturally calm, even though the scent of scorched earth and ozone still lingered heavily from the battle.
One of the figures, a strange, plant-like being that looked as though a human had been swallowed by a Venus flytrap, half its body white and the other half black tilted its head slightly while gazing toward the battlefield.
"Well," the creature said softly, its voice split, one side smooth and mocking, the other low and measured. "Kakuzu died earlier than expected."
The other figure didn't respond immediately. He stood tall, wrapped in a black cloak patterned with red clouds, his presence radiating cold detachment. The orange mask he wore caught the faint flicker of lightning still lingering in the distance. One eyehole of the mask reflected Ren's back as he slowly walked away from the destruction.
For a long moment, there was silence and finally, the masked man spoke, his tone calm but sharp enough to cut through the quiet.
"This kid…" He paused, his voice turning colder with each word. "He's become a huge variable in the great plan."
He tilted his head slightly, the single visible eye narrowing. "He cannot be allowed to live any longer."
The masked man's gaze stayed fixed on Ren's back, the faint silhouette disappearing into the charred haze.
After a moment, he finally broke the quiet again. "How was the response from the Cloud and the Stone village?"
Zetsu's white half, the more cheerful one spoke first, sounding almost proud. "Oh, that part went just fine! Even though I had to pose as one of their elders, the Cloud was pretty quick to jump on board. They didn't even hesitate when I hinted that there was a chance to strike the Leaf indirectly. You know how they are, all that pride and ambition. They were more than enthusiastic."
Then the black half took over, his tone dry and grim. "The Stone, on the other hand, was cautious as expected. Onoki asked too many questions. For a moment, I thought he'd see through the disguise. The old man's still sharp despite his age." He sighed, his voice dropping lower. "I had to twist the story more than I wanted to. Almost couldn't keep it consistent."
The white half interjected again, grinning. "But lucky for us, the situation we described was too tempting to ignore. Even Onoki realized that opportunities like this don't come twice. So after a lot of suspicion and posturing, he agreed."
The masked man didn't react much, but a faint glint passed through his visible eye. He raised his right hand slowly and extended it toward the distant figure of Ren, his fingers curling slightly as if grasping something invisible.
"So the bait's been taken," he murmured.
The orange-masked man clenched his hand tighter, the motion deliberate, his chakra pulsing faintly in rhythm with it. His voice dropped lower, almost to a whisper but carrying unmistakable malice.
"Let's see how much longer he can live."
~~~~~
{Now then, another twist has been added, what do you would happen next? Will Ren be able to reach the village in time, or would he be delayed? Guess you'll see what happens next soon.}
{Also, Ren would collect the body I just wanted to give him a cool exit so don't complain.}
{Only 1 chapter today since it's the last chapter of the arc and tomorrow we'll begin with what you all have been waiting for a long time or not idk, but anyway from tomorrow onwards it's show time.}
{If you want, you can support me on pat-reon}
{ h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n }
{You know what else}
{STONES!!!!}