As the Scarlet Witch's Chaos Magic steadily grew stronger, Tony Stark felt as though his Iron Man armor had turned into soft plastic. It groaned under pressure, creaking nonstop.
Alarms continued to blare throughout the suit.
"Alert... Armor integrity is down to 35%... Energy transmission system malfunction... Flight system offline... Life support circulation system damaged..."
Tony Stark was filled with dread. His power came from the Iron Man armor, without it, he was just a regular man sealed inside a metal coffin.
"What the hell is going on? Am I really going to die here?" Tony thought, baffled and disbelieving. Even now, he didn't understand what grudge these two siblings had with him.
At that moment, Shin reached out and held back Wanda, who was teetering on the edge of losing control in her rage.
"Alright, Wanda. You don't actually want to crush him to death, do you?!"
"No, Mr. Kevin, it's just that between us and Tony Stark, the executioner—"
"Do you really want to kill someone, Wanda?" Shin interrupted. "I'm not doing this for that playboy's sake, but for yours. If you kill someone and cross that line, you'll never go back to being a normal person."
He spoke solemnly, delivering a heartfelt line even he didn't believe in. It was the kind of philosophical bullshit he had only learned to spout after spending a long time with Batman in the DC world.
After all, Shin had killed a bandit at the age of ten without blinking and had been recognized as a full-fledged ninja by his Chunin instructor. Killing bad people had never troubled his conscience.
In truth, if Wanda had crushed a regular villain or criminal, Shin wouldn't have cared. But Tony Stark was a pivotal figure. If the timeline was to be preserved, Stark had to live.
Shin understood why the Ancient One had left the twins in his care. If they went after Stark unchecked, especially Wanda with her amplified powers, Iron Man wouldn't survive.
And if that happened, the entire timeline could spiral into chaos.
After hearing Shin's slightly manipulative "words of wisdom," Wanda's expression faltered. She took several deep breaths.
Cough, cough! At that moment, Pietro, still suspended in midair, seemed to regain a bit of clarity. He opened his eyes and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.
Seeing her brother's miserable state, Wanda, who had just begun to calm down, was filled with fury once more. Her eyes reddened, and Chaos Magic surged from her body again. The limbs of Tony's armor began to twist and knot.
Sensing that things were about to go off the rails and that Tony was barely clinging to consciousness, Shin knew he had to act fast.
"Genjutsu: Tsukoyomi!"
Tsukoyomi had once been a Mangekyō Sharingan-exclusive genjutsu, but in the current Naruto world, it had long since been redeveloped into a high-difficulty technique usable by ordinary people. After all, it formed the foundation of the virtual space and had naturally been among the first to be adapted.
The Scarlet Witch froze slightly and then let out a scream. In her mind, she saw Iron Man's armor shatter into countless shards. Blood, shredded organs, and fragments of bone burst outward, some splashing directly onto her face.
A bead of blood slid down Wanda's cheek and into the corner of her mouth. Tasting the sweet, metallic tang of it, her face went pale. She doubled over and vomited violently. Her overwhelming Chaos Magic instantly dissipated.
The grotesque illusion around her began to fragment, cracks forming throughout the twisted vision. As reality returned, Wanda saw what had actually happened.
Tony's armor was badly damaged, cracked, and warped as if it had been tied into a knot. He was certainly hurt but nowhere near as brutally as in the illusion. As Wanda realized this, her breathing slowed, and her mind began to clear.
In truth, the Scarlet Witch's Chaos Magic gave her a natural resistance to illusions. But in her agitated state, her power surged wildly and paradoxically weakened her mental defenses.
Even so, Shin's Tsukoyomi had only stunned her for a moment. But that brief moment and the illusion's grotesque violence shocked Wanda back to her senses. She had never killed before, and the graphic "death" had jolted her out of her rage.
Just as she withdrew her power, a mechanical hiss came from Tony's armor. The blue light in his arc reactor dimmed. His thrusters cut out, and he began plummeting from the sky.
"Ugh! HELP!"
…
"What the hell just happened? How did it come to this?"
Tony Stark asked himself, bewildered. He dangled in the air, suspended by a thin rope tied to his ankle. Below him, Quicksilver used his speed to push against the air, effectively flying a human kite.
Just before he hit the ground, Shin had saved his life with the Super Light-Weight Rock Technique. He then healed both Pietro and Tony's injuries.
Faced with a now-defenseless Tony Stark, neither Wanda nor Pietro could bring themselves to deliver a finishing blow but they still weren't ready to forgive him either. The compromise? Pietro dragged Tony through the air like a kite.
Shin didn't bother intervening. As long as Tony wasn't killed, it was fine. With Stark's charm and silver tongue, Shin figured he'd eventually talk his way out of this mess.
At most, he'd get beaten black and blue. Just a few scrapes nothing fatal.
Once they had left the vicinity of the military base, Shin brought everyone back to the ground. In the distance, a small town came into view.
"This should be the town closest to Thor's hammer," Shin said to Wanda and Pietro. "Which means the unlucky Thor may have already shown up."
"You're serious? There's really a Thor?" Tony, whose feet had just touched the ground, finally spoke.
"Let's talk about that later," Shin replied, shaking his head. "We'll go into town first and then sort out whatever beef you all have."
"Beef? What beef? I've never even met those two before!" Tony said angrily.
Shin let out a laugh, clearly amused.
"Mr. Stark, you've made more enemies than you know. You'll find out soon enough."
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