Ch41. Fighting a mad jinchuuriki

In the anime, it always seemed so slow. The jinchuuriki needed to gather the red and blue bubbles, condense them into a purple ball, and then either eat it and shoot it or shoot it. It took a while on the screen.

In reality? It all happened in a split second. Ren barely managed to put his palm on the ground and push his chakra into a ring he wore on his right hand, causing a seal to rapidly spread on the ground. But by that point, the beam from the bijuudama already engulfed the two blank-masked ANBU, instantly vaporizing them without even slowing down.

The seal finished forming exactly half a second later, just a few milliseconds before Ren's team was drowned in the energy beam that disintegrated everything in its path while carving up a massive crater into the ground.

The beam continued for several miles until it finally stopped and exploded into a fiery orange ball reaching almost a hundred feet in the air and causing a shockwave that devastated the surrounding land. The ground violently shook and the world was drowned in a loud booming noise, but it all lasted only a few seconds before the ball disappeared and both the noise and the earthquake quieted themselves.

Almost hyperventilating, Ren barely resisted the urge to fall down in relief as his legs grew a bit weak. He and his team stood on a solitary small island made of earth within a massive crater stretching into the horizon, completely fine.

"Holy shit. We are alive." Norio whispered in disbelieving joy, staggering in his place and shaking like a leaf as his mind registered how close to death he was.

Hikari fell on her posterior, staring with wide eyes at the devastation around her. She was most definitely still in shock and Ren didn't fault her. Facing average chunin on missions is far different from facing a jinchuuriki. They were called 'monsters' even in this world full of supernatural punch wizards for a reason.

Ren mentally winced a bit as he realized where the bijuudama landed. Well, there went the city they just left.

Kaito, the only jonin in the group, threw Ren a surprised glance before returning his attention back to the jinchuuriki in front of them. He was the only one of his teammates who weren't numb enough from relief that he forgot the fight was not over yet.

"No idea how you saved us, Ren, but any chance you could replicate it again?" He asked, his tone trying to be firm but Ren could plainly hear the undertone of nervousness within it.

Ren wryly smiled, "No. That was a one-time use seal and it was the only one I had." He didn't exactly expect to face off against a bijuudama this early in his life. Jinchuuriki were supposed to be rare. There were only nine of them in the world. What are the odds he would encounter one on a random mission?

He was mostly preparing to face S-rank ninjas. Even the seal that saved them was not made with bijuudama in mind. It was a space-time barrier. Yes, amazing. He was aware of his own genius. Unfortunately, it was also supposed to be a last resort thing as it took a massive amount of chakra. Ren had to spend a week casually charging the seal he just spent to allow for one-time use.

He had felt so smug about it too, when he created it. With the chakra he gathered, he could probably block five S-rank techniques with it in a pinch. But there went all that effort.

Yes, it could block the closest equivalent to an atomic bomb this universe had outside of Deidara's terrorist fuckery. But Ren didn't feel very accomplished right now. Because he was well aware that unlike him, the jinchuuriki were not limited to only one bijuudama.

"I see. Hika-" Kaito spoke only for his eyes to quickly widen alongside Ren's and they threw themselves onto the ground just in time to evade a swipe from Yagura who appeared out of nowhere in a burst of speed.

Sadly, they didn't have the time to warn Norio whose upper body was instantly pulverized on hit, and only his legs kept standing as a shower of his blood and gore fell on Kaito, Hikari, and Ren. 

Ren didn't hesitate and connected a chakra string with Hikari, forcefully pulling her toward him just in time to avoid Yagura smashing her into a bloody smear with a downward strike.

Fortunately, the woman quickly regained her wits because Ren had to stop paying her much attention as a hand made of Yagura's chakra cloak tried to grab him and he had to jump away while throwing an exploding kunai at Yagura. 

If he had been grabbed, he would have been done for.

The exploding kunai hit its mark but the bijuu cloak tanked most of the damage and what little got through was stopped by the corals that now covered Yagura's skin like armor.

The attack seemed to only piss him off more as he released a menacing growl, showing he was not all mentally there anymore. Kaito and Hikari started their offensive too, with Kaito throwing katon ninjutsu at their opponent while Hikari tried to hit him with senbon.

Ren did not let up his attack. He threw an exploding kunai after exploding kunai even if they only managed to stagger Yagura and cause him to focus on defense. After throwing five exploding kunai, Ren had the idea to mix in a kunai charged with wind chakra and was rewarded with an enraged scream from Yagura when the wind chakra allowed the kunai to bypass the coral armor and wound his arm.

'Should have gone for the neck.' Ren admonished himself as he saw Yagura's blood leak out from his wound and start to mix with his bijuu cloak.

Kaito definitely deserved his rank because the second he saw Ren's attack working, he started doing something similar, infusing fire-natured chakra into his thrown weapons, but it had a diminished effect on the jinchuuriki.

Ren threw another wind-charged kunai at Yagura only two seconds after he got wounded but his wound was already quickly closing, making Ren inwardly curse. He aimed for the neck this time but Yagura crouched and crossed his forearms.

Ren's breath hitched and he braced himself for an impact. Naruto blasting Haku and his mirrors was his favorite scene in the anime. He damn well recognized what Yagura was about to do.

A split second later, a shockwave threw all three ninjas back, rattling their bodies as they speedily impacted the ground in a painful roll. They all managed to push themselves on their feet from the roll relatively quickly, though, showing their experience.

After regaining his balance, Ren's eyes snapped back toward Yagura, only to see him touching the ground with his chakra cloak going... 

"JUMP!" He screamed, already mid-jump.

Kaito managed to react in time but Ren could only watch as Hikari was speared straight through her stomach by Yagura's chakra cloak that burst from the ground underneath her, lifting her in the air and making her release a high-pitched scream full of burning pain.

The horror started filling him and deep down, he knew it was futile but he still quickly threw a wind-charged kunai at the place where the cloak came out of the ground in an attempt to cut it off from Yagura to make it dissipate in order to save her.

But just a split second before the kunai cut off the chakra cloak, it expanded, ripping Hikari's torso into pieces from within her stomach, silencing her forever as her legs and head were all thrown in different directions.

Her death hit Ren hard. When Keigo died, he felt bad. He was a cool guy and Ren could have seen himself becoming a good friend with him in time. But he had still only known the man for one day.

But he knew Hikari for a few weeks. He liked her enough to decide to ask her out. The initial spark was there and... Ren's heart clenched.

But this distraction cost him. Yagura had two arms and two tails. But only three chakra cloak appendages have burst from the ground so far.

Ren had just barely landed on the ground again, feeling the inklings of grief hit him hard when he noticed the ground slightly moving under him. Without hesitation, he created a shadow clone a few meters away from him.

The clone barely popped into existence only to be destroyed a second later as Ren substituted with it, causing Yagura's fourth chakra cloak appendage to spear through him and pop him out of existence.

Ren winced both at the memories of burning pain going through his upper body and the wasted chakra. He mentally shook himself. He could grieve later. Now, he had an angry jinchuuriki trying to murder him.

Unfortunately, he didn't get the protagonist's treatment. His opponents did not monologue for half an hour in the middle of the battle.

Ren once again substituted with what was left of Norio and landed in a puddle of the man's blood and gore before weaving a small genjutsu on the surroundings around him to buy himself some time for a breather.

Kaito landed near him in shunshin and seamlessly integrated himself into the genjutsu, tears streaming down his cheeks as he winced at seeing Norio's gore on the ground. It told Ren the man too witnessed Hikari's brutal demise.

But the jonin was fully focused on the enemy in front of them. "Any idea? Because we are not fast enough to run away against a damned monster like that." He asked in a downtrodden voice.

Ren nervously licked his lips, "Don't let him get three tails?"

Kaito resignedly chuckled and Ren grimaced. This was not the time for jokes. He had no idea how much time he had before Yagura again engaged them. Mad jinchuuriki were unpredictable.

He quickly removed a few paper tags with seals from the storage on his wrist and handed them to Kaito.

"Try sticking that on him? It's untested but it's the only thing I have that could work." He said.

They were his Yin Containment Seals and he had no freaking idea if they would do something to Yagura at all. But nothing as convenient as chakra suppression seals that one-hit ko-ed a jinchuuriki existed.

Jiraiya could make a seal with that function for Naruto because he had the key to Naruto's seal. But there was no universal seal you could slap on an enraged jinchuuriki and make him go to sleep.

They wouldn't be the nuclear option for villages if something like that was a thing.

"I guess this will have to do." Kaito nodded, as enthused about the fact they would need to get within arm's reach with Yagura to get the seals on him as Ren was.

But then Yagura suddenly roared and another shockwave rippled through the air as his eyes narrowed in their direction when the genjutsu just shimmered into non-existence under the heavy onslaught of jinchuuriki chakra, revealing their position.

The time for talking was over.

'Ten seconds.' Ren mentally grumbled. That was not nearly enough for him to activate his transportation seal. With a glum heart, he interrupted the activation of that seal. He wouldn't get the remaining ten seconds he needed for it anyway.

Yagura was already charging at them again.