CHAPTER 259: THE SIN OF POTENTIAL (PART-4) [AND THEN GOD REMEMBERED HE HAD FAVORITES]

At this moment Ren sat slumped against the rough bark of a tree, his breathing slow and measured. It had been a while since his fight with Kakuzu, it was long enough that his body had repaired most of the damage. Seventy, maybe eighty percent healed now, though it had taken an absurd amount of chakra to get there but it wasn’t a big deal for him.

At least now, if Kakuzu were to crawl back out of whatever hole he came from, the fight would be over a lot faster. His current condition was such that he could push up to the Fourth Gate without much trouble. That much strength would’ve been more than enough to crush that stitched-up monster completely.

He exhaled slowly, eyelids half-lowered, letting the silence of the forest fill in. But before the calm could settle, something snapped.

His senses went haywire, completely and utterly out of rhythm. Every layer of perception, every thread of chakra awareness, twisted in on itself for a split second. It was like the entire world had just blinked out of existence.

"What?"

Before he could even finish the thought, the ground beneath him shifted violently. The earth convulsed, and massive stone pillars burst upward, encircling him in seconds. They rose with brutal precision, slamming together overhead to form a dome-like cage of raw, compacted stone. Dust filled the air, and the sound of splitting rock echoed through the clearing.

’What? How did I not notice them?’

It wasn’t panic, just cold disbelief. His Hyperfocus should’ve caught the chakra build-up, the micro-fluctuations in the air, something. But this... this had come from nowhere.

And before he could analyze it any further, a blinding flash filled his vision.

A giant lightning bolt came crashing down from above, striking the top of the stone dome with a thunderous crack. The sheer force of it should have shattered the entire structure to rubble, but instead, something else happened.

The lightning didn’t destroy the pillars.

It split.

The bolt fractured into dozens of smaller tendrils of lightning that snaked across the dome’s inner surface, bouncing off the stone like liquid light before raining downward inside the enclosed space. The interior became a storm as a blinding, ear-ringing flood of scattered lightning began raining over the enclosed ground.

Outside, every single person present froze for a heartbeat. Even the shinobi who had cast the jutsu stared in confusion.

Kitsuchi’s eyes went wide. He had expected the dome to crumble, not transform into a death trap. But a moment later, his instincts kicked in. This was no time to waste.

"Raise the formation!" he shouted, his deep voice cutting through the chaos. "Everyone else, move in! Tight formation, do not let Ren Senju out of your sight!"

His men reacted instantly, spreading out in a rough circle and preparing for whatever came next. The earth still glowed faintly with residual lightning, the air thick with static.

Across the battlefield, Yugito was already moving. The moment she saw the dome flash, she darted forward, chakra flaring like a wild flame. C followed closely behind her, his expression sharp as he shouted his own orders.

"Advance! The second that dome falls, go straight for Ren Senju, no hesitation!"

His squad echoed the order and began forming hand signs in sequence, readying support jutsu to pin Ren down the instant he emerged.

And in the shadows, far from the noise and the blinding light, two figures watched.

Obito’s single eye glowed faintly behind his mask. His tone was quiet, almost unreadable when he spoke.

"You knew this would happen?"

Beside him, White Zetsu’s face broke into an almost childlike grin.

"YES! This is one of the grand Lightning and Earth combination techniques. Those idiots just didn’t realize it. So... I tweaked the Earth Style a little from below, helped it form those pillars."

Obito’s gaze didn’t move from the dome, but his silence said enough. The faint hum of lightning reflected in his eye hole, and for the first time in a while, his mind drew an unwanted comparison.

Zetsu’s unpredictability, the strange, almost gleeful way he manipulated the field, it made him feel a bit scared.

In his heart, Obito quietly raised Zetsu’s threat level to stand beside the ghost of the Uchiha.

Madara Uchiha.

~

Inside the dome, Ren didn’t get even a second to rest. His senses were still ringing from the sudden spike of chakra earlier, and for the first time in a long while, he was genuinely caught off guard.

’How the hell did I miss such a massive fluctuation?’

The thought flashed through his mind, but there was no time to dwell on it. The air inside the dome was a storm of roaring lightning and searing light, every strike stronger than the last.

Ren pushed his Earth–Yang Hardening to its absolute limit. His body groaned under the weight of the dense chakra flow as a thick layer of earth armor crept across his skin. Every inch of him was sealed under it, from his shoulders down to his fingertips, even his face completely encased in hardened stone. It wasn’t elegant, but it was survival.

Lightning slammed into him from every direction, crawling over his armor and exploding outward in flashes that lit the entire dome like daylight.

He stood unmoving in the center of it all, silent and steady, letting the lightning dance wildly around him. The earth under his feet cracked and hissed from the combined heat and pressure, but he didn’t budge.

The storm raged for a full minute before it began to fade. One by one, the arcs of lightning lost their strength until only faint sparks crawled along the stone pillars. Then, at last, silence.

For ten full seconds, the entire clearing outside the dome was dead quiet with no sound but the faint hum of dissipating energy.

By now, nearly all the shinobi of the Cloud-Stone Alliance had gathered around the formation’s perimeter but none dared to move closer. The aftershock of the lightning network still made the ground crackle with residual charge, and even standing a few meters away was enough to make one’s skin prickle painfully.

At that moment, the Fuinjutsu masters finished their part. The ground flickered faintly with purple light, forming a massive square pattern before it sank back into the soil as if it had never existed.

Then, with a quiet flicker, Elder Hishiro appeared beside Kitsuchi. The old man’s eyes scanned the dome once, his expression calm but focused.

"The formation’s complete," Hishiro said in his raspy voice. "And since we had enough time, I set it up as a grand concealment formation. Now, unless someone of level six mastery comes sniffing around, no one will sense a thing."

Kitsuchi gave a short nod. "Good work, Elder Hishiro. But I’ll need you to add a few containment barriers as well. I don’t want Ren Senju walking out of this place before we’re ready."

Hishiro didn’t waste time with words, he just nodded once and vanished, leaving only a faint shimmer of chakra behind.

For a brief moment, everything seemed still again. Kitsuchi was about to send a squad to check inside the dome when suddenly.

BOOM!

The top of the stone dome exploded outward. A massive boulder shot into the air and landed heavily atop the dome’s shattered edge, sending dust and debris cascading down.

The entire alliance tensed, weapons drawn, chakra flaring. For a second, everyone assumed it was just a fragment blown loose by the lightning storm.

Then the "boulder" moved.

It straightened slowly, rising onto two legs with a heavy rumble. Chunks of rock began to slide off, revealing a humanoid outline beneath. The formation of the dome shimmered faintly from the movement, and murmurs spread through the ranks as the figure took shape which was unmistakably human in proportion, yet still covered in thick stone.

A faint crack appeared where a face should’ve been, running down the front of the stone head. Then, piece by piece, the armor began to crumble away, dust falling in slow streams until a streak of blue hair broke through.

Moments later, the rest of the rock peeled away, and Ren’s face emerged from the hardened shell, eyes sharp, skin faintly marked with yellowish tint to the armor.

He looked around calmly, his gaze sweeping across the entire field of enemy shinobi now staring at him in disbelief. For a moment, silence hung again, there was tension thick enough to choke on.

Then Ren’s lips curved into a bright, almost mocking grin.

"Well..." he said, voice steady but carrying across the field. "Hello there, you incompetent bastards."

As soon as Ren’s words fell, silence spread like wildfire across the entire battlefield. Hundreds of shinobi, elite jonin, seasoned Chunin, all hardened by war froze in place. For just a second, doubt crept into their minds.

They had all seen it, the storm of lightning that could’ve incinerated an army, the earth dome that had been reshaped and shattered by that same power. And yet, the boy standing atop it, wrapped in cracked stone and faint traces of steam, looked perfectly fine. If anything, he looked amused.

The thought sank in, ’Could any of them have survived that?’

For that single heartbeat, many of them weren’t sure. Some felt a strange sense of awe, others a flicker of shame. And then, anger.

Hot, burning anger at being mocked, at being made to feel small by someone years younger than them.

Dozens of them clenched their fists, chakra surging wildly, and nearly half the formation started forward instinctively, their pride forcing their feet to move.

But Kitsuchi’s voice roared through the air like a landslide.

"STOP!" he barked, his tone sharp and commanding enough to break through the haze of rage. "He’s trying to mess with your heads! Don’t fall for it!"

The effect was immediate as the advancing shinobi froze mid-step, their training kicking in as reality settled back into their minds. The more experienced ones felt a chill run down their spines.

They’d almost charged headfirst into the unknown, baited like fresh Genin by a single line and a grin. The realization alone was enough to make even veterans uneasy.

However, not everyone had stopped in time.

A streak of movement shot across the field as a blonde kunoichi from the Cloud side, her chakra flaring bright blue as she sprinted up one of the tilted earth pillars like a flash of lightning. Her name didn’t need to be spoken; everyone recognized her the moment they saw that chakra.

Yugito Nii.

Her arm was wrapped in blazing blue flames, faint black patterns flickering within them, the unmistakable sign of her partial transformation. The temperature spiked instantly as her chakra surged.

She reached Ren in seconds, leaping high above the cracked dome. Her fist drew back, coated in compressed chakra, and she swung forward in a wide, vicious hook and the air whistled sharply as the blow came down.

Ren didn’t move. He stood there, still grinning.

BOOM.

The impact echoed like thunder, shaking the remains of the dome. Yugito’s flaming fist connected squarely with Ren’s torso still encased in his thick earth armor and for a moment, the entire battlefield held its breath. Dust erupted from the strike, a wave of air rippling outward.

Then... nothing happened.

Ren didn’t budge an inch.

The grin on his face only widened slightly, and before anyone could blink, he moved.

His right arm, that same armored limb drew back just a fraction, his body twisting slightly at the waist. Then, in one clean, brutal motion, he launched an uppercut straight into Yugito’s gut.

The sound was like a cannon going off.

"YUGITO!" C shouted from the distance, his voice cracking as he saw the attack land.

Yugito’s body was thrown through the air like a ragdoll, a streak of blue flame marking her path before she managed to regain control midair. She landed hard on all fours, the earth beneath her cracking, her breath ragged.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she wiped it away with the back of her hand, her sharp eyes never leaving Ren. The expression she wore now wasn’t one of anger, it was focus.

C flickered beside her immediately, kneeling as he pressed a glowing hand to her side, beginning to heal the internal bruising. Kitsuchi appeared on her other side, his expression grim.

"How were you injured so quickly?" he demanded, scanning the dome’s top for Ren. "Wasn’t he heavily wounded from his last fight? Could this be a Leaf trap?"

He spoke fast, one question after another. Despite his gruff tone, it wasn’t fear driving him, it was calculation. He could face Ren himself, yes, but he couldn’t protect the hundred shinobi while doing it. If there was even a small chance this was an ambush, he’d rather pull everyone out alive.

Before Yugito could answer, a familiar voice cut through the tension.

"Yo! Kurotsuchi’s old man, long time no see!"

Ren’s voice rang out clearly from atop the shattered dome. He waved lazily, his tone almost cheerful. "How’s your daughter doing these days? Tell her that Yugao missed her."

Kitsuchi’s jaw tightened.

Ren, of course, didn’t stop there. With a grin, he reached behind him and pulled out something heavy, it was the severed head of Kakuzu and he was holding it up for all to see.

"Oh, by the way," he continued casually, "you don’t have to worry about this being a Leaf trap. There really was a fight, here’s my proof of victory."

Gasps rippled across the gathered shinobi. Even the veterans exchanged uneasy looks. Few people had survived fighting Kakuzu, let alone killed him.

Ren tilted his head slightly, voice soft but cutting. "So no need to be so nervous." Then, his grin shifted into something sharper, his tone turning deceptively sweet.

"But... I do have to thank you all. That formation of yours? Brilliant work, really. If you hadn’t set it up, I would’ve had a much harder time keeping you from running later."

The temperature seemed to drop instantly.

Cracks began to form along Ren’s earth armor as it started to crumble, pieces falling away in chunks. He raised his right hand high above his head, chakra flaring intensely.

From his palm, a thin purple thread shot upward, cutting through the air until it connected with something invisible above the dome.

There was a sudden pulse and then the massive purple barrier surrounding the battlefield shimmered into visibility.

Kitsuchi’s expression darkened. C’s eyes widened. None of them fully understood what was happening, only that it wasn’t good.

Before they could move, one of the formation masters flickered next to Kitsuchi, his face pale and drenched in sweat.

"Kitsuchi-sama!" he shouted. "You have to stop him, now! He’s trying to seize control of the grand formation itself!"

~~~~~

{Whatever you say, Zetsu is NOT weak.}

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