Chapter 204: The Calamity of the Beast
The summer night was clear, a canopy of stars over a broken village. A cool breeze whispered through the ruins, rustling the few leaves that still clung to shattered branches. The great ravine carved by the Tailed Beast Bomb gleamed under the moonlight, a deep, bleeding scar that tore through the heart of every Konoha shinobi.
Following Tsunade's command, they had poured their fury and their remaining chakra into a single, concentrated volley. The Rasenshuriken's detonation had been the signal for a storm of ninjutsu to crash against the trapped Nine-Tails. The resulting explosion kicked up a dust cloud that blotted out the sky, the concussive force forcing everyone to shield themselves.
When the wind finally calmed and the dust settled, the Konoha forces lowered their arms, their eyes searching the clearing with a desperate, burgeoning hope. That hope died a swift and brutal death.
The Nine-Tails was not slain. It was not even grievously wounded. It lay on the ground, but its posture was not one of defeat. It was coiled, predatory. Its lips were pulled back from dagger-like fangs, and its eyes burned with a violent, mocking intelligence. It seemed utterly contemptuous of their efforts. The reason for its survival was clear: a shell of malevolent, grey-white chakra now encased its body. It had spread from its head, down its torso, over its limbs, and finally sheathed its nine lashing tails in an armor of pure energy.
From his perch on the fox's head, Uchiha Ren felt a thrill of power. This... this is the Calamity of the Beast! The very technique Madara-sama used against the First Hokage! The combination of the Susano'o's absolute defense with the Nine-Tails' immense power and agility was a nightmare made real. A weapon of mass destruction. And he was its master.
"Hmph! Today, I shall recreate Lord Madara's glory!" he declared, his voice echoing with triumph.
For the Konoha shinobi, the sight was a soul-crushing descent into despair. The brief high of their combined assault shattered against this new, impossible defense. How could they fight this?
"That's... the Calamity of the Beast!" an older jōnin whispered, his face ashen. "The technique from the legends... the one used in the battle at the Valley of the End. To think we'd see it with our own eyes... How did the First Hokage ever break this?!"
Ren paid their terror no mind. His focus was on the red-haired boy standing beside Yamato. "The Rasenshuriken?" he mused aloud, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Heh... Naruto, you've improved. But it seems you haven't fully mastered it. Allow me to show you what a real Rasenshuriken looks like."
He raised his hands, fingers splayed. Chakra swirled into his palms, condensing with terrifying speed into two spinning spheres. But these were not Naruto's white, wind-nature orbs. These were a deep, violent crimson, the chakra within them so unstable it seemed to boil and seethe, threatening to spill over at any moment.
"How... how is that possible?!" a sensor-type ninja stammered, his voice cracking. "He's injecting both Wind and Fire nature chakra into the Rasengan simultaneously! And... he's forming two of them!"
Naruto could only stare, his mind reeling. He recognized the jutsu, of course. He had been breaking his body for days trying to master a single, unstable version. To see Ren create two, and to infuse them with a secondary, volatile nature transformation... it was a level of chakra control and power that was beyond his current comprehension. The friend he had known was gone, replaced by this monster.
"Impossible... Damn it... Everyone, scatter! Fall back, now!" Tsunade's voice was a raw scream of warning, her instincts screaming of the cataclysm about to be unleashed.
Ren's grin widened, a predator toying with its prey. "Hmph! Do you think distance will save you?" He chuckled darkly. "My Rasenshuriken is different from Naruto's." He cocked his arms back. "Because... *mine can be thrown!*"
With a final, contemptuous laugh, he hurled the two seething spheres of annihilation directly into the heart of the Konoha formation.
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