— — — — — — —
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!!"
The next instant, Madara conjured another terrifying fire-based attack, a massive flame spear burning like an arrow, and hurled it at Renzo's position.
Yet, as the inferno rushed toward him, Renzo simply grinned.
With a single thought, a golden Susanoo armor materialized over his body, wrapping around him like a second skin. Unlike the traditional giant form, his Susanoo manifested as a fitted golden armor, covering him completely.
"Susanoo – Armor Mode!"
Then, he drew his sword.
"One-Sword Style: Ocean Cleaver!!"
"Slash!"
In a single motion, Renzo swung his katana, unleashing a compressed flying slash several meters long.
The slash cleaved through the incoming flames, splitting the sea of fire in two before colliding with Madara's flame spear.
BOOM!!
The moment the two attacks met, a massive explosion erupted, sending shockwaves and searing flames surging outward in all directions.
Both Renzo and Madara immediately retreated dozens of meters to avoid the fiery blast.
And then, the real fight began.
Madara launched a relentless assault, combining ninjutsu, taijutsu, and his Mangekyō Sharingan in an attempt to disrupt Renzo.
But none of it worked.
Renzo saw through him instantly. "Mangekyō? …No, just a three-tomoe Sharingan with partial Mangekyō abilities, huh?"
His razor-sharp instincts allowed him to immediately discern the flaw in Madara's Sharingan.
Meanwhile, Renzo kept swinging his sword effortlessly. Each slash was as natural as breathing.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
No matter what ninjutsu Madara used, Renzo's sword destroyed it all.
There was no flashy trickery—just raw, overwhelming force.
His attacks combined:
Sword Aura, The devastating slashes of a Pirate World Swordmaster and Ninja Kenjutsu techniques
At this moment, it seemed like there was no ninjutsu in the world that Renzo's sword couldn't cut through.
If there was, then he'd just cut it twice.
With his Susanoo armor boosting his defense, Madara simply couldn't land a hit on him.
Madara was shocked beyond words.
"Swordsmanship… can be this powerful?"
Even Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, wasn't even near this kid.
Every one of Renzo's slashes carried a mysterious, razor-sharp force, which was the key to breaking through ninjutsu.
And his Susanoo wasn't just armor—it was denser and tougher than the usual giant form.
Madara clenched his fists.
"This brat… is on a whole different level!"
But before he could do anything else, his shadow clone ran out of chakra.
Instead of fighting until the bitter end, Madara smirked, crossed his arms, and arrogantly looked down at Renzo, who was shorter than him.
Then, he spoke: "You're not bad, brat. I acknowledge you as the greatest genius of this era."
"Hmph! You should be proud!"
And with that, he willingly dispersed his clone.
Renzo: "….."
What the hell?!
Even when leaving, Madara just had to drop an over-the-top, dramatic line.
Truly, the King of Show-Offs—Uchiha Madara.
Wait…
"Hold on. Wasn't Madara supposed to be the Dance King of the Ninja World? The real Show-Off King was Uchiha Sasuke… right?!"
"Man… the Uchiha Clan really breeds show-offs."
Just as Renzo was roasting the Uchihas in his head, he suddenly heard shouting from a distance.
"Renzo!!"
Turning around, he saw Minato and his team running toward him.
"Oh, it's you guys! And Minato-sensei too? When did you get here?" Renzo smiled, waving at them.
He had been so focused on fighting Madara that he hadn't even noticed them approaching.
Minato chuckled. "Right when you started fighting Madara in hand-to-hand combat using that massive puppet."
Then, his smile faded as he looked at Renzo seriously.
"Can you tell me everything you know about Uchiha Madara?"
Surprisingly, Minato didn't ask about Renzo's abilities. He didn't even mention the gigantic mecha.
He had already realized something.
Ever since Renzo had been mysteriously recalled and taken off missions, it was clear—the Third Hokage was wary of him.
Today, Renzo had only revealed himself to save Minato's three students.
Minato didn't want to cause him any more trouble.
In fact, before coming here, Minato had already warned Kakashi, Obito, and Rin—not a single word about what happened today was to be leaked.
Kakashi and Obito understood the gravity of the situation.
In fact, they had already decided on their own to keep it secret.
For once, both master and students were on the same page.
Obito, however, was itching to ask Renzo about that giant puppet, but after remembering Minato's warning, he forcefully held back his curiosity.
For someone like Obito, that level of restraint was pretty rare.
"Of course!" Renzo nodded.
"Minato-sensei, I assume Kakashi and the others already told you about the Sword Aura mark I left on them as a safety measure?"
Minato raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? So that attack is called Sword Aura? Yeah, Kakashi and the others explained it. Speaking of which… we all owe you one!"
"If not for your precaution, they would've died four times already!"
Then, Minato's expression turned serious.
"You had this set up in advance… which means you knew someone was after them, didn't you?"
"Was this all part of Madara's plan?"
As expected, the enemy had targeted Kakashi's team specifically.
Or rather… was the real target Obito?
After all, both Uchiha Madara and "Obito" were from the Uchiha Clan.
Kakashi and Rin had zero connection to them.
There was no way Madara was doing all this just to kill Minato's students.
It wasn't like Minato was that important yet—he seriously doubted he was worth this level of scheming from Uchiha Madara.
"Wait, you knew about this back then?! Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" Obito demanded, confused and a little pissed.
"Idiot!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Obviously, there were concerns involved!"
Rin also chimed in, backing Kakashi up. "Yeah! Watch your attitude, Obito! Renzo literally saved us four times today. Do you think he'd ever mean us harm?"
Obito scratched his head awkwardly.
"Right… my bad."
Then, he looked at Renzo and apologized without hesitation.
"It's true."
Ignoring Obito, Renzo turned to Minato and nodded.
"You guys already know my sensory abilities are ridiculously strong—I can detect anomalies within several kilometers, including deep underground."
"Back then, I sensed something strange underground and inside the nearby trees… there were these white humanoid creatures constantly observing me and Obito."
"That was when I got suspicious."
"But these things were too weird—I couldn't pin them down, and I didn't want to alert the enemy, so I kept quiet."
"Instead, I left precautions on Kakashi, Obito, and Rin."
"When I felt those triggers being activated, I rushed over. That's when I sensed Madara deep underground near Kakashi's group—along with even more of those white creatures."
"That's when I realized Uchiha Madara was behind all of this."
Of course, this was bullshit.
He wasn't "analyzing" anything—he already knew the plot.
He was just reverse-engineering the reasoning to fit what he saw.
"So that's how it is…"
Minato and the others grew tense.
"Do you know why Madara is after you and Obito?" Minato couldn't understand it.
Even if they were all Uchiha, there shouldn't be any special reason for this.
Renzo shrugged.
This was the end of what he was willing to say.
Anything more, and it would start sounding too suspicious.
Minato seemed trustworthy, but Renzo wasn't about to take any unnecessary risks.
This was enough for Minato to stay alert.
Once Minato became the Fourth Hokage, then he'd start paying serious attention to these threats.
And by that time…Renzo would probably be strong enough to do whatever the hell he wanted.
As for why he didn't just take the Fourth Hokage seat himself?
Well…It wasn't that he couldn't.
If he really wanted to, he could stage a coup, crush the Third Hokage, Danzo, Jiraiya, Minato, and anyone else who stood in his way, and take Konoha by force.
But honestly…
Wouldn't it be way more fun to just chill, do research, and flirt with girls?
Why waste time running a whole village when he could be living his best life?
.
.
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