The moment Ren was spat back into the real world, his body simply gave up.
He hit the ground on his back with a dull thud, limbs spread out awkwardly, chest heaving as air tore in and out of his lungs in uneven gasps. For a few seconds, maybe longer, he couldn't even bring himself to move. The night sky above him spun slowly, stars blurring together as his vision swam.
"Ha… hah… damn…"
Each breath felt heavy, like his lungs were dragging iron weights along with them.
That fight had wrung him dry.
Not just physically, but in every way. His mind felt frayed at the edges, thoughts sluggish, senses dulled in a way that made his skin crawl. He had gone into the fight knowing Obito would be dangerous, but actually experiencing it was something else entirely. Every second inside that battle had demanded perfect awareness, perfect timing, perfect control. One lapse, one delayed reaction, and he would have been erased without ceremony.
Slowly, Ren rolled onto his side and then onto his back again, staring up at the sky while forcing his breathing to steady. His heart was still racing, chakra pathways burning with residual strain.
He raised a hand and pressed it against his chest, feeling the uneven rhythm beneath his palm.
That was too close.
For all the casualness he had shown, for all the taunts and mockery, the truth was painfully clear to him alone, he had been pushed to his absolute limit. He had used everything available to him short of Genjutsu, and even then, only because it wouldn't have worked. Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Fuinjutsu, space-time techniques, clones, chakra control, Hyperfocus, every card had been thrown onto the table.
And it still hadn't been easy.
Ren let out a slow breath and lifted his shirt with trembling fingers.
The sight beneath made him wince despite himself.
A deep, ugly gash cut across his abdomen, the edges darkened and angry, chakra still faintly clinging to it like a stubborn residue. It wasn't bleeding freely anymore as he had forcibly suppressed it mid-fight, but the wound was far from healed. It throbbed with every heartbeat, a dull, persistent pain that reminded him just how badly things could have gone.
"…So that's the price," he muttered quietly.
That injury hadn't come from Obito directly.
It had come from Flying Thunder God.
Only now, lying here with his body protesting every movement, did Ren truly understand how monstrous that technique really was. Chakra cost aside, though that alone was ridiculous, the real difficulty lay elsewhere.
The connection.
The link between himself and the anchor seals.
The space tube.
Creating a stable pathway through space wasn't just about knowing where you wanted to go. It was about synchronizing your existence with a point that didn't share the same rules of reality anymore. Even now, Ren could feel the echo of resistance from when he had forced his way into the Kamui dimension.
A different space and a different layer of reality.
In that instant of transition, something had pushed back.
He hadn't even realized what happened at the time. One moment he was moving, the next he was already inside Kamui, pain blooming in his stomach as if space itself had taken a bite out of him. There hadn't been time to process it, he had immediately sent his clones, which were actually the ones he kept in his basement for training, rushing at Obito, overwhelming him before the man could focus on Ren's condition.
Only later, in the chaos of battle, had he realized the truth.
His control wasn't enough, not yet.
He had brute-forced the technique using sheer chakra volume, master-level chakra control, and Hyperfocus to patch over the gaps. It worked but it wasn't clean and Flying Thunder God was not a technique that forgave sloppiness.
Ren closed his eyes and exhaled slowly through his nose. 'This shouldn't be what the Fourth dealt with every day… my proficiency is still not enough.'
Minato had made it look effortless. The man hadn't just mastered the technique, he had become one with it. Ren, on the other hand, was still fighting the current every time he used it. Effective, yes, lethal even, but it was far from perfect.
And that imperfection had nearly killed him.
He shifted slightly and hissed as pain flared from his abdomen. The fact that he hadn't been able to heal the wound properly still irritated him. His Iryojutsu had failed mid-fight, chakra refusing to knit flesh the way it should have. He had been forced to suppress the injury instead, locking it down and continuing the battle on borrowed time.
That limitation alone had dictated the rest of the fight.
It was also the reason he had resorted to… that.
Ren opened his eyes and stared at the sky again, expression unreadable.
Transforming into Rin had never been something he wanted to do. Mocking the dead wasn't his style, and if things were different, if his life hadn't been hanging by a thread, he wouldn't have touched that option at all.
But desperation didn't care about principles.
Obito's mental state had been the crack he needed, and Ren had used it without hesitation and it worked too.
If Obito had stayed focused, if he had pushed through the provocation instead of reacting to it, Ren wasn't sure he would have been able to force that final exchange. Losing an arm had been enough to break Obito's momentum, enough to drive him away before the situation could spiral further.
Ren let out a long breath and finally allowed himself a faint, tired smile.
"At least that part went right…"
One of the greatest threats of the night was gone.
Not dead, but crippled, shaken, and forced into retreat.
That alone shifted the balance heavily in the village's favor.
Slowly, Ren rolled onto his side and pushed himself into a sitting position, pausing when dizziness washed over him. He waited it out, then planted a hand on the ground and stood, ignoring the protest from every muscle in his body.
His gaze drifted toward the village.
There was still work to do.
The Uchiha situation hadn't resolved itself, and Danzo was still breathing for now. Compared to Obito, those problems felt almost… manageable.
Ren straightened, pain flashing briefly across his face before he suppressed it.
"…Alright," he murmured to himself. "Round two."
However, before he could do anything else, Ren knew he had to at least stabilize himself.
Fighting in this condition wasn't just inefficient, it was dangerous.
He lifted his hand weakly and flicked his wrist. A few of the remaining clones dispersed instantly, collapsing into smoke as their chakra surged back into him. The relief was immediate but shallow, like pouring a cup of water into a cracked vessel. His reserves climbed, yes, but not nearly as much as he would've liked.
"…That's it?" he muttered, mildly annoyed.
Only then did it properly register. These weren't full chakra battery clones anymore, most of them were clones of clones, diluted copies created in a hurry earlier. Their chakra content was laughably small compared to what he usually stored away. The only reason they had worked at all during the latter half of the fight was because Obito hadn't inspected them closely.
If he had.
Ren exhaled sharply through his nose.
'Yeah. That would've been bad.'
Only now, with the pressure gone, did he truly appreciate just how effective the Rin transformation had been. It hadn't just disrupted Obito emotionally, it had dulled his tactical sharpness. He hadn't questioned the clones, he hadn't tested them, he hadn't phased through every attack like he normally would have.
If Ren hadn't pulled that card, the fight would've dragged on longer, his injury would've worsened, and the ending wouldn't have been nearly as clean.
He mentally checked his remaining chakra batteries.
The result made his lips twitch awkwardly.
'…Two.'
That was it.
Out of everything he had prepared over the past two days, every safety net, every backup plan only two proper chakra battery clones remained.
Ren stared at the invisible number in his mind for a moment, then sighed.
'Well. No point hoarding.'
He popped one more.
This time, the influx was substantial. Warmth flooded his chakra network, easing the burning strain in his pathways and bringing his reserves back to a level that felt comfortable.
Over the past two days, he had burned through everything.
Kakuzu, Yugito and Kitsuchi, the Cloud–Stone alliance and finally Obito.
Every single one of those fights had been won the same way, by drowning the enemy in overwhelming versatility and refusing to conserve chakra. He had fought like someone who couldn't afford to lose, because he had been able to and this also made him a great winning streak.
Only now did he realize just how much he had relied on those clones.
"They did their job," he murmured quietly. "Can't complain."
With that, he finally focused on healing again.
Or at least, he tried.
The moment his yang chakra flowed toward the wound, resistance met it. Not the usual kind either, this wasn't torn flesh refusing to close or disrupted circulation. This was something else entirely.
Ren frowned.
He slowed his chakra flow, narrowed his focus, and examined the injury more carefully and then he understood.
"…Spatial residue."
A faint, alien presence lingered within the gash, something subtle, fragmented, but undeniably wrong. Tiny remnants of distorted space clung to the wound, interfering with his yang chakra and preventing it from properly restoring the damaged tissue.
So that was it.
He grimaced and attempted to separate the foreign particles manually, guiding his chakra with surgical precision but pain exploded through his abdomen.
Ren sucked in a sharp breath, teeth grinding as white-hot agony tore through his nerves. His vision blurred for a split second before he forcibly cut the chakra flow.
"…Yeah, not happening."
That wasn't happening right now.
This wasn't something brute force could fix. It was a space-related injury, and treating it required someone who had experience with exactly this kind of damage.
Utakata-Sensei.
Ren immediately thought of him, the Fourth Hokage's healer teammate. A man who had undoubtedly dealt with Flying Thunder God backlash, spatial distortions, and injuries that normal Iryojutsu couldn't touch.
'Yeah. Sensei's my best bet.'
But not now.
Right now, there were more important things happening.
Ren straightened slowly, suppressing the pain once more and locking the injury down with chakra. It wasn't healing, but it wasn't getting worse either. That would have to be enough for tonight.
His gaze drifted deeper into The Uchiha compound.
Even from here, he could sense it, the chaotic clash of chakra signatures, the overlapping waves of killing intent, the unmistakable presence of Fugaku and Itachi. The battle there hadn't slowed in the slightest. They hadn't sensed Obito's retreat yet, nor Ren's victory.
That was also good, as he didn't want to interfere.
This wasn't his fight to resolve. It was a reckoning the Uchiha had to face themselves.
Still, he could make an appearance.
Just once.
Ren stepped forward, then paused, glancing down at the ground beside him.
Obito's severed arm lay there, even now, it hadn't begun to lose warmth.
Ren stared at it for a moment, then grinned.
"Can't leave the proof behind, now can I?"
He picked it up casually and sealed it away without ceremony. There would be plenty of time later to study it, Hashirama cells, Mangekyo interaction, regenerative properties, all of it, but now wasn't the moment.
With that, he began walking into the Uchiha compound.
He didn't rush as there was no need.
As he approached, the battlefield slowly came into view, fallen bodies, scorched earth, shattered stone. Fugaku was holding his ground, visibly strained, while Itachi…
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly. 'He really is a fish in water in killing his own clan members.'
Itachi moved through the chaos with terrifying efficiency, his movements clean, precise, emotionless. Clan members fell one after another, cut down without hesitation. It wasn't just skill, it was the detachment with which he moved that made it all the more terrifying.'
The moment Ren stepped fully into view, the effect was immediate.
The fighting stopped.
One by one, the rebel Uchiha turned their heads then froze.
Ren stood there alone. No masked man at his side, no swirling space and no oppressive, intangible presence backing the rebellion.
Just him.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Then understanding spread like poison through the crowd.
The masked man was gone.
Which meant…
Their gazes dropped to Ren's hands.
Empty, their was no head.
But his presence alone was enough.
Horror crept into their expressions as the truth settled in. If Ren was here, unharmed and unhurried, then the outcome was obvious.
They had lost.
Not just the fight.
Everything.
Kyoshiro's face drained of color. His earlier fervor, his rage, his certainty, it all collapsed inward, leaving behind nothing but dread. The realization hit him harder than any jutsu ever could.
The ancestor hadn't saved them.
No divine intervention had come.
And now, the man standing before them was someone who had just defeated that monster and walked away.
Ren let his gaze sweep over them calmly.
"…Well," he said lightly, voice carrying through the sudden silence, "Continue."
With that he vanished from his place.
~~~~~
{I hope this chapter made some things clear about the fight and also why Ren acted the way he did, with transforming into Rin and all, I don't know about you guys but I felt it was necessary to clear things up regarding Ren making fun of Obito through the dead Rin's face, otherwise I'd have felt a bit bad.}
{Also, in about 2 chapters Danzo dies, atleast once, so rejoice.}
{One more thing, tell me if you want Ren to have wood release or not. Now that he has the arm, I could make somethings work, I personally don't want to, but let's see about you guys, I'll also make a poll regarding the same.}