Chapter 64: High-Stakes Audit
The sizzling hiss of explosive tags echoed through the damp cave.
In a blinding flash of yellow light, Minato vanished, teleporting newborn Naruto away from the immediate blast radius.
The distraction worked flawlessly. With the Fourth Hokage gone, Kushina Uzumaki was left completely defenseless on the cold stone altar, her breathing ragged and her seal practically unraveling.
Obito didn’t waste a single millisecond. He materialized directly beside the altar, his hand reaching out to grab the sweat-soaked collar of Kushina’s robes.
"Change of plans," Obito growled.
He didn’t get to touch her.
Ren closed the distance in a dark blur, launching a heavy, calculated right hook aimed straight at the masked man’s throat.
Obito didn’t even flinch. He activated Kamui, fully expecting the guy’s fist to pass harmlessly through his neck. But Ren wasn’t aiming for the neck.
Left Eye: Red Ledger.
To Ren, the flow of battle broke down into raw threat data. He watched the spatial distortion ripple across Obito’s body. He knew he couldn’t hit the phantom, so he waited for the exact fraction of a second Obito solidified his hand to grab Kushina.
Ren’s fist suddenly dropped, violently parrying Obito’s wrist.
The heavy impact knocked Obito’s hand away from the Jinchūriki. The masked fanatic spun, his single visible eye widening in surprise, and launched a vicious, sweeping kick at Ren’s ribs.
Ren brought his forearm up, blocking the strike. The force of the blow rattled his bones, but Ren had spent a fortune building his physical foundation. He didn’t budge. He immediately countered, driving a knee toward Obito’s stomach.
Obito phased through it, stepping back to create distance. The cavern filled with the sharp, echoing thuds of high-speed, brutal close-quarters combat. Obito threw a flurry of lethal kunai strikes; Ren slipped past them, dodging by millimeters, his Red Ledger feeding him the exact trajectory of every blade.
Obito quickly realized this wasn’t luck. The boy with the porcelain mask wasn’t just reacting—he was predicting the Kamui windows.
"You’re a persistent nuisance," Obito hissed, weaving a rapid series of hand seals as he leaped backward. "Fire Style: Bomb Blast Dance!"
A massive, spiraling vortex of flame erupted from Obito’s mask, twisting violently through the confined space of the cavern. It wasn’t aimed just at Ren; it was a sweeping attack designed to incinerate Kushina on the altar behind him.
Ren couldn’t dodge. If he moved, the asset burned.
Ren stood his ground in front of Kushina and forced his right eye wide open.
Black Vault.
A jagged spatial tear snapped open in the air. Instead of pulling an item out, Ren used the raw dimensional vacuum of his vault to swallow the incoming flames, forcefully sucking the spiraling fire into his localized pocket dimension before it could reach the altar.
The cavern was plunged back into darkness, the heat instantly vanishing.
But the physical cost of operating both Mangekyō abilities simultaneously was absolute hell.
A blinding, white-hot migraine violently spiked through Ren’s skull. It felt like a hot iron nail had been driven straight through his optic nerves. Ren gasped, stumbling forward as his vision fractured into double images. A heavy stream of dark blood poured from his tear ducts, soaking the inside of his mask and dripping rapidly onto the stone floor.
His body forcibly shut down the ocular pathways to prevent total blindness, leaving him entirely exposed for a single, fatal microsecond.
Obito didn’t miss the opening.
He lunged through the dissipating smoke, entirely bypassing Ren’s faltering guard. The Kamui vortex swirled violently as Obito grabbed Kushina by the waist.
Ren gritted his teeth, forcing himself upright, and swung his hand to grab Obito’s cloak. His fingers brushed the heavy black fabric, but he was a fraction of a second too late.
With a sharp whoosh, the vortex collapsed. Obito and Kushina were gone.
"Damn it," Ren coughed, hitting his knees as the agonizing pain throbbed behind his eyes.
A split second later, a brilliant yellow flash illuminated the cave.
Minato Namikaze reappeared. He was empty-handed—Naruto was safe—but his blue eyes were frantic as they swept over the empty stone altar.
"Kushina!" Minato shouted, pure panic finally breaking his legendary composure. He spun toward Ren, his three-pronged kunai raised, desperate for an answer. "Where did he take her?!"
"Outside the barrier," Ren answered, his voice tight as he forced himself back to his feet. "He’s extracting the Nine-Tails."
Minato went completely pale. As a sealing master, he knew the absolute finality of those words. The moment a Tailed Beast was ripped from a Jinchūriki, their life force would instantly collapse.
"I have to find her," Minato gritted his teeth, closing his eyes to focus on the Flying Raijin marker he had placed on his wife.
"Wait," Ren ordered sharply.
Fighting through the lingering migraine, Ren pulsed his right eye. The Black Vault tore open. He reached into the rift, pulled out a heavy, seal-wrapped stabilization talisman, and threw it directly to Minato.
"The moment the beast is pulled out, her chakra network will shatter," Ren said grimly. "Slap that onto her chest. It won’t heal her, but it will anchor her life force and buy you a few extra minutes. Go!"
Minato caught the heavy talisman. He could feel the dense, life-saving chakra woven into the paper. He didn’t ask questions. He gave Ren a sharp, desperate nod of gratitude, and vanished in a flash of yellow light.
Silence fell over the damp cave, broken only by Ren’s heavy, ragged breathing.
Then, the ground violently shuddered.
An earth-shattering, demonic roar ripped through the night air, vibrating with such apocalyptic malice that the stone walls of the cavern began to crack. The Nine-Tails had manifested in Konoha.
Near the back of the cave, Biwako Sarutobi leaned heavily against the rock wall. She didn’t need a second look to know who was behind that mask; the sheer terror of her earlier realization was already permanently etched into her mind. She stared at the thick, dark blood dripping from his chin.
"Ren Uchiha" she whispered over the rumbling earth.
The cavern ceiling groaned loudly, dust and heavy rocks showering down on them as Kurama’s distant rampage shook the very foundations of the earth. The cave was coming down.
Ren didn’t deny or accept. He stepped forward, firmly wrapping a strong arm around Biwako’s waist and effortlessly hoisting her up.
"Hold on tight," Ren shouted over the deafening roar of the crumbling cave, carrying the Third Hokage’s wife toward the exit. "I’ll invoice the demon fox later."
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