A year later, the war had spilled onto the rocky beaches of the northern coastline.
Ren led a small, four-man Kazeshira unit down the jagged sea cliffs to secure a stranded shipment of iron weapons bound for the hidden valley sanctuary.
The beach was blanketed in a cold sea spray, the waves crashing violently against the black rocks.
“Ren, look,” the senior scout whispered, pointing through the salt mist.
A raiding party of nine rogue Senju retainers had already found the supply boat.
They weren’t main-line Senju, but auxiliary clan warriors trained in basic Earth Style jutsu and heavy frontline combat.
They were methodically smashing the wooden crates, pulling out iron ingots.
“Nine targets,” Ren noted, his sensory skin absorbing the salty sea breeze and mapping the positions of every enemy footstep on the wet gravel.
“They have long-range Earth Jutsu.
If we fight them on the open beach, we’ll get pinned.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I take the beachhead,” Ren said, tightening his arm-guards.
“You three take the high rocks and cut off their escape route.”
Ren didn’t wait for a reply.
He leapt down the forty-foot cliff face, using brief, precise pulses of Wind chakra at his soles to catch the cliff face and decelerate his fall, landing with a soft splash in the shallow tide. Read the latest chapters at NovelPing.
“An ambush!” one of the Senju retainers yelled, instantly weaving hand seals.
Earth Style: Mud Shot!
Dense, high-velocity globs of wet mud spat toward Ren like cannonballs.
Ren didn’t panic or waste chakra on a defensive wall.
His skin read the air pressure around the incoming projectiles.
He darted forward in a tight, zigzagging sprint, weaving between the mud projectiles with razor-thin margins.
He closed the thirty-yard gap in seconds.
The first retainer drew a short-sword, but Ren was already below his guard.
Ren swept his wind-infused trench knife across the man’s thighs, severing the hamstrings, then drove an iron-weighted elbow into his temple as he fell.
“Flank him!” two retainers roared, charging from left and right with heavy iron spears.
Wind Style: Atmospheric Deflection!
A sharp, swirling vortex of compressed air burst outward from his body.
It wasn’t a destructive tornado—it was a precise kinetic shield.
The compressed air caught the tips of both spears, forcibly altering their trajectories and driving the weapons straight into the wet beach sand.
The two retainers stumbled forward, their balance completely broken by their own momentum.
Ren didn’t hesitate.
He stepped between them, driving his kunai into the neck of the left retainer, then spinning and hurling a wind-laced shuriken straight through the eye-slot of the right retainer’s helmet.
Both bodies hit the wet gravel with heavy splashes.
The remaining six retainers backed up toward the ocean, their faces pale under their iron helmets.
They were trained soldiers, but fighting Ren felt like swinging at air—every strike was predicted, every counter was lethal, and his energy seemed completely limitless because he didn’t waste a single drop of power.
“He’s a ghost…” one retainer muttered, his hand trembling on his hilt.
Ren raised his blade, the sea spray washing the blood off his steel as he took a slow, controlled breath.
“Six left,” Ren said, his voice cold and steady against the roar of the crashing waves.
“Let’s finish this.