{This fight might feel weird, but keep reading, and everything will become clear.}
~~~
The system's observe function lit up with four flickers in the distance.
[SHIBAYAMA] [LEVEL 76]
[RAKU] [LEVEL 77]
[GENJI] [LEVEL 78]
[SAIHA] [LEVEL 75]
Ren didn't blink as his breathing slowed becoming more controlled and narrow, heart rhythm already syncing with his perception. Hyperfocus wasn't just active, it was running deep, each frame of motion feeding directly into his muscles. His steps were silent on broken concrete, one hand held low and loose while the other hovered near his thigh.
The four signatures vanished. Visuals gone. Chakra signature gone. Nothing but those glowing names hovering in his field of awareness.
"Good," Ren muttered. "Let's get Hyperfocus done with this fight."
He didn't need them to talk. They were already doing what they were best at.
Vanishing.
There was a ripple. A blur near the puddle two meters ahead. He pivoted. The heel of his foot slammed down in a low turning sweep. Something cracked as a grunt was heard.
RAKU flickered into partial visibility, tumbling back. The puddle he'd emerged from lost shape.
Ren shot forward.
A single step carried him into a dash, fist pulled back. Raku vanished again before the strike landed.
The air behind Ren shifted but he dropped just in time as a blade slid through where his neck had been.
SAIHA visible for a flash, cloaked in heat mirage and shimmered distortion. Fire-based camouflage.
Ren twisted. His palm slammed against his hip as he tried to retreat. The hit didn't land clean, but it pushed him back.
They were fast. Not faster than him, but better hidden. More angles. More unknowns.
There was another shift but he moved instantly. A roundhouse kick intercepted SHIBAYAMA as he erupted from the shadow under a tilted wall. The assassin's kunai skittered off Ren's bracer.
Ren struck again with a straight punch to the chest. Shibayama bent with the hit and vanished into the shadow before Ren could finish.
Something burned along Ren's flank.
GENJI was above him, dropping from a flickering invisibility with a blade dragging sparks as it carved down.
Ren blocked with his forearm. The blade caught and left a shallow cut through his sleeve. He countered with a knee but Genji vanished before it connected.
All four.
They were cycling in and out, never staying long, never engaging fully. One at a time with quick strikes and no wasted motion.
Hyperfocus was active, but something was off. His body moved right, but the sensory edge wasn't catching them in time. Their suppression techniques were more refined than expected. Even his sensory pulses only told him what he already knew. They were near. Everywhere.
The observe function kept updating, showing names blinking in and out as they attacked and disappeared.
Ren stayed still.
He rotated his neck. Cracked his knuckles.
"You guys move like you're scared of trading real blows, even the rouges were better than you."
There was no reply of course.
He crouched and then shot forward, directly toward a cluster of low concrete walls.
Mid-movement, he kicked a loose rock to the side. The motion masked a feint. He spun off the false momentum and struck upward.
Raku had been preparing to intercept him mid-motion but Ren's uppercut landed with a solid hit. Raku's head snapped back, his camouflage breaking for a heartbeat.
Ren followed up.
But the strike was blocked. Genji dropped in, intercepting mid-motion with an elbow against Ren's wrist. The blow didn't hurt, but it diverted his force.
Then the puddle behind him hissed. Saiha launched a chain of fire needles.
Ren dodged right. One grazed his arm. The burn bit deep.
He grit his teeth.
Hyperfocus read their motions, but something was too subtle. Timing. His mind predicted, but not perfectly. There was delay. Just a brief moment of hesitation.
His thoughts were clear. His reactions were fast. But they weren't complete.
He stepped forward and engaged again.
This time, he pushed offense. He moved unpredictably. Wide strides, sudden dips, forward pressure. He swept low at the wall, baited another attack from Shibayama, then twisted and caught the shinobi by the ankle as he emerged.
A hammer-fist to the gut and Shibayama crumpled.
Ren didn't stop. He rolled him across the floor and turned, only to take a fire javelin to the ribs.
Saiha's aim was sharp. Ren tumbled back, smoking from the wound, coughing once.
He dropped and recovered in the same breath. Hyperfocus kicked in as he moved again.
Another flicker and Genji's blade came for the back of his knee.
He raised a foot and stomped. The blade skimmed under.
He twisted and caught Genji's arm but Genji let go of the weapon and turned fluidly, slamming his shoulder into Ren's chest.
Ren absorbed it, pivoted, and punched the side of Genji's head. The man stumbled back, visible just long enough to disappear again.
Ren muttered to himself. "You bastards really are good at this."
His left arm was bleeding. Right rib burned. Minor damage. Not enough to change the outcome.
Yet something in the back of his mind itched.
This wasn't flow.
He was reacting fast, yes. Predicting well, yes. But there was a margin. A space. A sliver between prediction and action. The perfect Hyperfocus had no sliver.
Another shift. He ducked, turned, and struck, nothing.
A feint.
Raku appeared behind and stabbed.
The blade scraped his side. Blood sprayed.
Ren turned and elbowed. Raku vanished again.
He needed to push. Harder.
Another attack. Shibayama came through the broken door, a flicker of shadow splitting across the frame.
Ren spun and tackled him through the opening and they hit a wall. Shibayama vanished on impact, shadow scattering.
The moment Ren turned, fire burst from the left.
He blocked with crossed arms but it still burned.
Genji came from above again.
Ren met him in midair. Fist to fist.
Genji's chakra burst flared, throwing Ren back.
He skidded across stone. His knuckles bled. Breathing heavier now.
Ren narrowed his eyes.
He was on the backfoot.
He was fighting with Hyperfocus but not perfectly. He was limiting himself. Still following safe rhythm. Still thinking in rules.
They weren't.
They used angles. Delay. Layered attacks. His sensory was blocked. His reactions weren't enough.
He crouched, wiped blood off his jaw.
This wasn't working.
[RAKU] [LEVEL 77]
[GENJI] [LEVEL 78]
[SAIHA] [LEVEL 75]
[SHIBAYAMA] [LEVEL 76]
All still up. only a bit slowed.
He was bleeding more than he'd like.
One more strike to the spine or thigh would reduce movement.
He looked up and exhaled. 'I need to push further.'
Not faster. Not harder.
Deeper.
'Let's try something.'
He pulled his breath in and stilled.
He suppressed his sensory field. He narrowed his perception. Less noise.
No analysis. No planning.
Just flow.
He stood. His eyes half-lidded.
The next attack came from the shadow of a window.
He moved before it began.
Pivoted on the ball of his foot and slammed his palm into the emerging wrist.
Shibayama gasped and fell backward. Ren followed and drove a knee into the man's chest.
Then twisted as Saiha's fire slash cut past his side. Missed.
He stepped into him space and punched straight into his sternum.
He flew back.
A cut appeared across his thigh. Raku.
Ren grabbed the man's sleeve before he could vanish.
Threw him overhead but Genji intercepted and the two collided midair.
Ren blurred forward.
One foot up. Then down.
He Crushed both of them into the wall with a reinforced stomp then turned.
All four were regrouping now.
Ren cracked his neck. "I thought you guys were supposed to be stealth masters. You fight like those guys I fought in the Academy." He then shook his head, "Nah, he was way better than you."
The words didn't get a reply. But he saw it.
All four went still. There was a brief delay. Then motion again.
Harder.
Faster.
They began to circle again. Their movements sharper. Less retreat. More power.
Raku's blade stabbed out of a column. Ren blocked.
But the delay caught him.
Saiha's next fire shot burned his shoulder.
He grunted.
Shibayama emerged low. Kunai aimed for his Achilles.
He jumped. But Genji tackled him midair. They rolled. Dust scattered.
Ren came up first. Blood trailing his arm.
Now it started.
He couldn't keep the edge anymore.
They weren't winning, but they were drawing blood faster.
Ren crouched, panting slightly.
He wasn't broken.
But he saw it.
The flaw.
The sliver.
He looked at his hands. Blood mixed with dust.
His vision locked in. Hyperfocus was holding but not peaking.
The peak would hurt.
He would need to burn something away.
Maybe more than pain.
His fingers tightened. 'Then I'll burn it.'
Ren stood and around him, the four approached again, weapons out, illusions primed, stealth systems running.
He tilted his neck. "Alright... One more round. Let's raise the stakes."
He pressed his hand to his own chest.
With a deep breath he opened the gates.
[GATE OF OPENING]
[GATE OF HEALING]
[GATE OF LIFE]
[GATE OF PAIN]
Hyperfocus was not supposed to work with the 8 gates as it disturbed the body internal system too much, however he forcefully kept his Hyperfocus active, as, the greater the pressure, the sharper the blade shall be.
As soon as the gates opened his mind once again overloaded with information, right now he was not just getting feedback from the outside but from inside his body too. Usually his body was in a normal state while he used Hyperfocus so he didn't focus on it too deeply, but right now he felt all the changes, inside out.
It was at this moment he understood something.
The Hyperfocus tackled the flow, and that flow comprised of two things.
The external factor and his own body.
Without understanding the flow of his own body he wouldn't be able to able to use his body to the greatest extent.
His body was his greatest asset and if he didn't utilize his body to the full extent, everything, reflexes, intelligence, experience, every single thing would be useless.
His eyes opened wide and everything became visible to him, even the airflow felt visible, he didn't know if it was an illusion but he knew, if he utilized his body to the extreme, he could follow the flow.
He could manipulate the flow.
He could own it.
~~~
In the open compound just outside the ruined building, Kimura stood silently, arms crossed, watching Ren clash with the four remaining Nokizaru members. His face was shadowed by concern, brows furrowed deeply as he observed Ren's erratic yet relentless movements.
'This isn't his usual style,' Kimura thought, his gaze narrowing. 'Even when he puts himself in danger to push his limits, he always has the fight under control. And he always heals himself but now.'
Ren wasn't healing.
Despite the clear damage accumulating from burns, cuts, stab wounds, he simply kept fighting. No seals, no green chakra glow, not even a pause. Just motion. Constant, brutal motion.
Kimura clenched his fists.
From his vantage point, it was obvious. Ren's condition was critical. His clothes were torn and soaked in blood, his own blood. Usually, Ren came out of fights painted in his enemy's blood, clean and efficient. This was the first time Kimura had seen the opposite. Ren looked like a demon clawing forward on sheer will alone.
His thoughts were broken by a voice low, shaken, but familiar. "What's going on?"
He turned quickly.
Tsunade stood beside him, blood smeared faintly across her cheek. Her stance was off, there were subtle tremors in her arms, and her expression strained. Kimura frowned slightly. 'What's with her?'
Still, he answered. "Ren is fighting the Nokizaru group."
Tsunade's eyes widened. "WHAT? Why is he fighting them? Does he not know how dangerous they are for him?!"
She looked toward Ren again. Her gaze locked on the bloodied figure now darting between flickering shadows and streaks of fire. The shivering in her arms intensified as she stared, not blinking, until her pupils shrank slightly.
Then she understood.
'He's trying to catch the flow!'
A jolt ran through her spine.
Tsunade knew about Hyperfocus, nearly every high level shinobi knew about it. But this, this was different. It wasn't just reflexive awareness. He was pushing deeper. She'd read about it once, years ago in the classified scrolls. Beyond Hyperfocus lay something even rarer, barely documented:
The Flow.
A technique so precise and demanding that only three names in shinobi history had mastered it:
The First Raikage.
The Second Hokage.
The Fourth Hokage.
Everyone else, even the most elite warriors, stopped at Hyperfocus. Tsunade herself, despite her legendary understanding of the human body, had never been able to go beyond it.
And now, Ren was attempting it in the middle of a four-on-one fight while using the Fourth Gate.
She stared harder and what she saw made her heart sink.
His body was breaking down.
With her knowledge, she could see the signs instantly. The clash of the Fourth Gate and Hyperfocus was overloading his internal systems. Muscles tearing, organs straining, veins dilating, his body was eating itself. The blood loss wasn't just from enemy attacks. It was internal damage, creeping toward collapse. Ren who was trying to catch the flow couldn't be unaware about his situation but he kept on moving.
She gasped sharply. "We have to stop him. He'll die at this rate!"
She took a step forward but Kimura's figure appeared in front of her, calm and silent.
"You can't, Lady Tsunade. Ren made it clear, no one is to disturb him."
Her eyes turned cold, voice frigid. "You think you can stop me?"
Kimura's hand moved. A kunai was already in his reverse grip, his posture lowering. His expression was unreadable, but resolute.
"I was ordered to not let anyone disturb him and I will stand by that order until I die."
~~~~~
{Kimura is the real bro.}
{Also, the flow is not new, as I said before, just keep reading and everything will become clear eventually.}
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{Thanks Nyxon, Dylan, Luis and Corbin for becoming members on pat-reon.}
{ h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n }
{You know what else}
{200 Stones = Extra chapter}
{STONES!!!!}