"The Crimson Sun? What an arrogant title."
"Try taking one of my punches first!"
A didn't waver in the slightest at Jin Uchiha's reputation. If anything, it only fueled him further. Lightning crackled as he shot forward, fist tearing through the air toward Jin.
Jin's expression didn't change.
His pupils bled into scarlet, three tomoe spinning into place.
The Sharingan—the Uchiha clan's kekkei genkai, one of the Three Great Dōjutsu of the ninja world.
Under Jin's overwhelming ocular power, its dynamic vision was pushed to the absolute limit.
Even at A's terrifying speed, there was nowhere to hide from those crimson eyes.
Jin slid one leg back, lowering his center of gravity. He answered A's incoming strike with a punch of his own.
"A head-on clash? Perfect."
Though A's Lightning Release Chakra Mode wasn't as balanced as that of the Third Raikage, leaning more toward explosive speed, his strength and defense were still far beyond ordinary shinobi.
When it came to brute force—
A had never feared anyone.
His fist surged forward with even greater force.
The two punches closed in.
Against A's lightning-wreathed arm, Jin's fist looked almost delicate by comparison.
But just before they collided—
Fwoosh!
Flames ignited.
"Fire Fist."
The ground beneath Jin's feet fractured outward as blazing fire erupted from his arm. In an instant, A's figure was swallowed by searing orange flames.
The fire condensed into the shape of a massive flaming fist, carrying A's body dozens of meters backward. Trees were flattened in its wake, and a long, charred trench carved itself into the earth.
"Brother!"
"Lord A!"
Killer B and the Kumogakure shinobi cried out in disbelief. A—losing in a direct clash of power?
"There's nothing surprising about it," Jin said calmly, shaking his slightly numbed hand. "Fire's nature has always been explosion and heat."
Though his tone was relaxed, his mind was far more serious.
A deserved his reputation as the ninja world's foremost reckless powerhouse. That collision hadn't been light.
Jin Uchiha had not originally belonged to this world.
A twist of fate had sent him here, reborn as an orphaned jōnin of the Uchiha clan.
The past no longer mattered.
Anyone familiar with the original course of events would know—
Being reborn as an Uchiha was a catastrophic opening.
Externally, suppression from the Hokage faction led by the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and that so-called "half Hokage," Danzō Shimura.
Internally, arrogant clansmen blind to reality.
And among them, several ticking time bombs of obsession and instability.
Jin's situation could not be summed up with the word "difficult."
Fortunately—
He had arrived early.
The night of the Uchiha massacre was still far in the future.
There was time to change fate.
And like all transmigrators worth their salt—
He had a trump card.
Compared to others, it might seem shabby.
Just a single Devil Fruit from another world.
The Flame-Flame Fruit.
Yes.
That same Logia-type Flame-Flame Fruit jokingly labeled "not even a dog would eat it" by certain fans.
But Jin was more than satisfied.
In simple terms, it granted its user the power of fire.
To control fire.
To become fire.
Its previous wielder—Fire Fist Ace—had failed to demonstrate its full potential and ultimately died at the hands of a magma user.
In that world, countless fighters could produce fire attacks anyway, which diminished its perceived uniqueness.
But was the Flame-Flame Fruit truly weak?
Was mastery over fire truly inferior?
Jin didn't think so.
Though magma was considered a superior fruit in that world's hierarchy, both magma and flame shared core traits: eruption and heat.
Magma had mass and physical density, giving it greater raw impact.
But in terms of temperature—
Flame possessed overwhelming potential.
Magma peaked around fourteen hundred degrees Celsius.
Flame, however, could escalate in temperature through energy accumulation—practically without limit.
In his previous life, humanity had already generated flames exceeding hundreds of millions of degrees through specialized methods.
The gap spoke for itself.
The Flame-Flame Fruit held near-infinite possibility.
Fire had never been weak.
The problem had never been the fruit—
Only its wielder.
Armed with knowledge from an age of information, Jin believed his understanding of flame far surpassed Ace's.
Combined with chakra and this world's power system—
He would not disgrace this ability.
For years, Jin had remained low-profile, quietly strengthening himself. Building influence. Expanding connections. Laying groundwork.
Now, as the Third Great Ninja War neared its conclusion, his preparations were complete.
He was ready.
Ready to reshape this world.
"Minato," Jin said evenly, exhaling a slow breath. "The Eight-Tails' jinchūriki is yours. Try to take him alive."
Minato Namikaze was not only the fastest shinobi alive—thanks to his relationship with Kushina Uzumaki, he was exceptionally proficient in sealing techniques.
Against Killer B, he was the ideal counter.
The Eight-Tails was not the Nine-Tails.
Even in raw strength, there was a vast gap between them.
And Minato's death in the original timeline had less to do with inability—
And more with sacrifice.
They had already subdued the Nine-Tails before he sealed it.
Reinforcements were arriving.
If lesser villages could restrain rampaging Tailed Beasts, there was no reason Konoha's sealing corps—heirs to the legacy of Uzushiogakure—couldn't.
In the end, Minato had chosen to shoulder everything alone.
"I understand," Minato replied with his trademark bright smile. "Leave him to me."
"Then let's end this quickly."
Flames erupted across Jin's entire body.
He launched forward—
A blazing comet streaking toward A's position.
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