Chapter 70: The Mangekyo's Might
The brief but intense exchange had laid bare the gap in their combat experience. Ren knew that without tapping into the true power of his eyes, he stood no chance against a veteran like Kakashi. He ceased holding back. The intricate, six-pointed star pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan swirled ominously in his gaze.
The moment the Mangekyo was revealed, Kakashi's reaction was instantaneous. He snapped his own Sharingan eye shut, relying solely on his right eye. He deliberately averted his gaze, focusing on Ren's torso and limbs, refusing to meet the hypnotic power of the advanced dojutsu head-on.
"So?" Ren's voice was a cold taunt. "Kakashi. Still confident you can take me in?"
"The Mangekyo is indeed formidable," Kakashi admitted, his voice carefully neutral. "If it were Uchiha Itachi, I might already be defeated. But you... I doubt your mastery of it is on his level. It doesn't frighten me."
"Heh. You think I'm inferior to Itachi? Is that what you believe?" Ren's voice dripped with icy venom. The comparison was a raw nerve. "Then why won't you look me in the eye? Go on, I dare you."
"That's not the point. While I may not believe you've mastered it as Itachi has, the Mangekyo's abilities are too unpredictable. Caution is simply prudent."
"Enough talk," Ren stated, his playful demeanor vanishing, replaced by a deadly seriousness. "I'll prove just how foolish your assumptions are with action."
"Will you?" Kakashi's posture tightened, every muscle coiling for the fight he knew was coming. His feigned nonchalance was gone, replaced by the focused intensity of a hunter facing a truly dangerous beast.
Ren didn't waste another breath. His hands flew through seals. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The massive orb of flame wasn't meant to hit Kakashi; it was a declaration, a opening move to force a reaction. As expected, Kakashi blurred into a Body Flicker, effortlessly evading the inferno that cratered the ground where he'd been standing.
*Impressive power, but how long can his chakra last sustaining that and the Mangekyo?* Kakashi thought, even as his own hands were moving. *Time to change the battlefield.*
"Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
A thick, chakra-infused fog erupted from Kakashi, billowing out to engulf the entire earthen arena in seconds. Visibility dropped to near zero, the dense white vapor clinging to everything.
"The Hidden Mist Jutsu?" Ren's scoff echoed faintly in the muffled silence. "You're relying on a low-level technique like this to counter me?"
"A technique's rank is irrelevant. Its suitability is what matters," Kakashi's voice replied, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once within the fog. "This mist is formed from chakra. Not even wind can easily disperse it. It will hinder even your Sharingan. It saves me the trouble of avoiding your gaze."
"Is that so?" Ren's voice was laced with mocking amusement. "If you can't see me either, what's your next move?"
"You'll see..." Kakashi's voice faded, swallowed by the oppressive silence of the fog.
*What is he planning?* Ren's mind raced. *The same tactic he used against Zabuza? The Tracking Fang Technique?*
He was right. Hidden within the mist, Kakashi unsealed a scroll, smearing his blood across it before slamming it onto the ground.
"Earth Style: Tracking Fang Technique!"
Several dark shapes shot from the scroll, diving into the earth and speeding silently toward Ren's last known position.
In the heart of the fog, Ren heard the faintest scrabble of claws against soil. His alertness spiked.
*He really is using the same trick. But... I'm not Zabuza.* His hands moved in a familiar, rapid sequence.
The ground around Ren erupted as eight ninja hounds burst forth, fangs bared, lunging for his limbs to immobilize him. They never reached their target.
"Lightning Style: Chidori Current!"
The seals Ren had formed were for the Chidori's variant. As the dogs leaped, a torrent of electricity exploded outwards from his body, a crackling dome of pure lightning. The hounds were caught mid-pounce, their bodies seizing as the high-voltage current coursed through them. With pained yelps, they vanished in puffs of smoke, forcibly returned to their summoning realm.
On the other side of the fog, Kakashi flinched as the psychic feedback hit him. *The Tracking Fangs failed? And that technique... it's the one that mysterious ANBU used! Channeling the Chidori through his own body to create an area-of-effect defense. He used it to perfectly counter my attack. But how did he know the fangs were coming? And how does he know this jutsu? Could he be... the same boy who impersonated an ANBU that night? It's possible...*
Though the attack failed, it had served its purpose: it had revealed Ren's exact location within the mist.
*This fog is a nuisance,* Ren thought, his Mangekyo scanning the impenetrable white wall around him. *I need to find Kakashi. No, first I need to clear this.*
Seeing his first plan foiled, Kakashi immediately shifted tactics. His hands formed another series of seals, lightning chakra coalescing before him not into one, but two bestial shapes.
"If the hounds won't work, then try this! Lightning Style: Lightning Hounds!" he muttered, sending the two crackling canines racing through the fog on diverging paths, their furious snarls echoing weirdly in the thick air.
Ren heard the distinct crackle and roar approaching from two different directions. *Again? He wouldn't use the same trick twice. He's not that foolish.*
Despite his reasoning, he didn't drop his guard. His hands instinctively began forming the seals for the Chidori Current again.
The two Lightning Hounds burst from the fog simultaneously, one from the left, one from the right. They closed the distance in an instant. Ren's Chidori Current flared to life around himβ
But it was the wrong defense.
The Lightning Hounds weren't physical summons to be shocked. They were pure, concentrated bolts of shaped chakra. They passed through his electrical field unimpeded and slammed into him from both sides.
***BOOM!***
The dual impact was deafening, a concussive blast of light and sound that shook the earthen walls.
"Did it work?" Kakashi whispered, straining to hear any sound of movement over the ringing in his ears. The fog was still too thick to see.
*If those two didn't work, then this mist has outlived its usefulness.* He released the chakra maintaining the technique.
The thick white vapor began to slowly dissipate, thinning out until the ravaged arena became visible once more. Kakashi's gaze zeroed in on the spot where the Lightning Hounds had detonated.
His visible eye widened in sheer, utter disbelief.
"What... is that?" he breathed, the words barely a whisper.
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