Chapter 40: The Peacock's Weakness
After Ren killed two of the Star ninja, he advanced on the third, his hand snapping out to grab the man by the throat and lift him off the ground.
"How about you?" Ren's voice was cold, devoid of emotion. "Will you tell me?"
"I... I don't know!" the ninja gasped, terror in his eyes. He'd seen the fate of his comrades and didn't dare to be outright defiant, but he still refused to answer.
"If that's the case, then you can join your friends."
"Stop!"
Just as Ren's grip was about to tighten, a sharp command rang out from behind him. Ren paused, then casually dropped the choking ninja to the ground. He turned to see a lean, severe-looking man standing a distance away. Behind him were over a dozen more Hoshigakure shinobi. Their chakra levels were mostly low Chunin, but the lean man himself radiated the strength of a Jōnin.
"I am Hoshino, the acting leader of Hoshigakure!" the man declared, his voice tight with anger as he took in the scene of his fallen guards. "Who are you? You dare trespass into our village and harm my people? If you do not provide a satisfactory explanation, you will not be leaving here alive."
"'Leader'?" Ren repeated, his tone dripping with scorn. "A small-village nobody propped up by a handful of weaklings dares to call himself a 'Kage' and make threats?"
"You bastard! What did you say?!"
"How dare you insult our village! I'll teach you a lesson—!"
"Peacock Method—!"
The assembled Star ninja erupted in fury, several beginning to form hand seals. Hoshino, the acting leader, raised a hand, stopping them. "Hold your positions! First, we determine his purpose."
"Hmph!" Hoshino turned his glare back to Ren. "While Hoshigakure may not compare to the villages of the Five Great Nations, we are not to be trifled with! State your business here!"
"Hmph! Isn't it obvious? What else in this pathetic village is worth anything besides *that* thing?"
"Lord Hoshino!" the ninja Ren had dropped gasped from the ground. "He... he came for our sacred Star! He killed Kazama and Sanda! Lord Hoshino, you can't let him get away with this!"
"What? Your target is the Star?!" Hoshino's eyes widened, a dark shadow passing over his features. The ninja behind him could no longer be restrained.
"You monster! You killed our comrades and now you covet our village's holy relic? Your audacity knows no bounds!" With cries of rage, the Star ninja surged forward, kunai and shuriken flashing in their hands.
"Regardless of your reasons," Hoshino snarled, finally giving up on diplomacy, "for killing the shinobi of Hoshigakure, you will not leave here alive!" He did not join the charge himself, instead hanging back to observe.
The Star ninja launched a volley of shuriken, then closed in with kunai.
"Pathetic," Ren scoffed. He drew a single kunai and met their charge. The difference in their skill was a vast chasm. These were not shinobi of the Five Great Nations; their taijutsu was sluggish, their movements predictable. Ren didn't even bother with ninjutsu. He moved among them like a ghost, his Strength of a Hundred-enhanced fists and kunai strikes dispatching them one by one with brutal efficiency.
"Damn it! Peacock Method: Slash!" Two of the Chunin-level ninja, hanging back, finally completed their seals. A peculiar, vibrant chakra erupted from their backs, fanning out like a peacock's tail before morphing into a shape resembling a tailed beast's tail. It slashed through the air toward Ren with surprising speed.
*Huh? So this is the Peacock Method,* Ren thought, effortlessly sidestepping the attack while analyzing it. *A pure chakra construct, shaped by will. This is the power granted by that Star...*
*That Star is just a small meteorite fragment. The Ten-Tails chakra within it must be minuscule. And yet, it can boost these ninja to this level... If a true Ten-Tails Jinchuriki were to appear...* The thought sent an involuntary chill down his spine.
"Bastard! Quit dodging! Fight us!" the ninja using the Peacock Method yelled, frustrated that their attacks kept missing.
"Hmph. Sharingan!" Ren's eyes swirled, morphing into the crimson and black pattern of the Sharingan.
"That's... the Sharingan!" Hoshino, watching from the sidelines, gasped. "The bloodline limit of Konoha's Uchiha clan! Is he an Uchiha?!"
*So the main body can't move while controlling the chakra attack,* Ren analyzed, the Sharingan instantly deciphering the technique's flow and weaknesses. *In that case, the solution is simple. Eliminate the source.*
Dodging another slashing attack with preternatural ease, Ren began closing the distance on one of the users, a ninja named Shibō.
"Damn it, he's seen through the technique's weakness! Don't let him get close!" the other user, Yōtaka, yelled in warning, directing his own Peacock Method slash to intercept Ren and cover his partner.
Shibō tried to leap back, but he was far too slow. Ren was already upon him.
"Damn it!" Shibō could only watch in horror as Ren's fist, glowing faintly with concentrated chakra, shot toward his face. Just before impact, Yōtaka's chakra tail swooped in, taking the brunt of the blow and dissipating in a burst of energy.
"Saved!" Shibō gasped, scrambling backward to put distance between them. "Thanks, Yōtaka!"
"Don't mention it! Stay alert!"
"Humph! Blocked my punch, did you?" Ren's smirk returned. His hands flashed through a sequence of seals. The familiar, piercing screech of a thousand birds filled the air as brilliant blue-white lightning coalesced in his right hand.
*"Chidori!"*
"Let's see if you can block this!" Locking onto Shibō with his Sharingan, Ren became a blur of motion, the Chidori acting like a rocket as he shot forward.
"Stop him!" Yōtaka yelled, frantically directing his Peacock Method attacks to intercept. But with the predictive power of the Sharingan, Ren weaved through them all effortlessly.
"Damn it! Peacock Method: Soaring Wings!" Seeing Ren closing in again, Shibō changed his tactic. The chakra around him morphed, forming a pair of large, ethereal wings. With a powerful beat, he lifted off the ground, soaring into the air out of Ren's reach.
"Haha! See the true power of our Peacock Method now?!" Shibō taunted from his aerial vantage point, brimming with arrogant confidence. In his experience, no ordinary ninja could fly. He believed himself untouchable. "You can't reach me up here!"
"Haha! You can form wings to fly? Impressive," Ren called up, his wicked grin widening. "But that form seems purely for mobility. You can't attack while maintaining it." Whenever Ren wore this expression, it meant someone was about to have a very, very bad day. "Which means... this is checkmate for you."
He reached into his weapons pouch and drew out a single, three-pronged kunai—a Flying Thunder God kunai. He didn't put much force into the throw; it was slow, almost lazy, arcing through the air toward the floating ninja. Any competent shinobi could easily dodge it.
"Haha! You can't reach me, so you resort to throwing a kunai? How pathetic!" Shibō jeered, tilting his head slightly to let the harmless projectile sail past him. "You'll have to do better than—"
His boast was cut short. The kunai was still sailing through the air behind him.
But Ren was gone.
The space where he'd been standing was empty.
Then, the horrific, screeching sound of the Chidori erupted from directly behind Shibō, right in his ear.
*"Shunshin no Jutsu."*
A cold voice, laced with amusement, spoke beside him.
"What's so funny? Care to let me in on the joke?"
𝗚𝗨𝗬𝗦, 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗠 𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗛𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪9