Chapter 193: Ghosts in the Mist (Part-15) [Blue shark goes brrrrr......]

Chapter 193 - Ghosts in the Mist (Part-15) [Blue shark goes brrrrr......] "DAMNED BRAT!" ~ {A few hours earlier} ~~~ By now, Kakashi had already returned to the main island. He was on the move again, darting through the trees at full speed with his mask low and his eyes sharp. The hunter-nin had found him faster than expected. It had to be said, they were really damn good at tracking. Kakashi had barely set foot on the island and they were already closing in. But to be fair, part of it was on him. He was rushing. He didn't have time to be cautious, not with the situation they were in. Their mountain base was his destination, and he needed to reach it fast. Once the manhunt had started, staying in the Mist Village territory for too long became a death sentence. If the standard hunter-nin couldn't catch them quickly, the village would start sending out more dangerous people. That's exactly what happened with him. As he leapt from branch to branch, weaving through thick foliage and narrow forest paths, Kakashi kept his guard up. Every now and then, another hunter-nin would appear from the trees, silent, fast, and deadly. However any hunter-nin who got close enough paid the price with their life. Quick, clean, and efficient were Kakashi's go to style as didn't waste time or chakra. And then came the voice. "It's better if you surrender now, Kakashi Hatake. Your leader will be captured soon too. There's no way any of you are leaving the Mist alive." Kakashi didn't reply. He didn't even look back at first. But he knew that voice. Raiga Kurosuki. The moment Kakashi glanced at him, he confirmed it, the same man who had ambushed them in the swamp. One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and the wielder of the Kiba blades. That was a problem. Raiga on his own wasn't necessarily terrifying, just a strong jonin, not quite elite-level. But the Kiba blades changed everything. With those twin lightning blades, Raiga could perform high-level lightning jutsu without seals, enhance his speed, and basically turn any terrain into a battlefield. His combat level shot up significantly the moment those swords came into play. And Kakashi knew he wasn't in any position to take on someone like that right now. So he did the smart thing, he ran faster. He zigzagged through the terrain, constantly shifting elevation, direction, and pace to make it harder to predict his path. Raiga and the others kept chasing, flanking, trying to trap him, but Kakashi knew how to keep distance. He made sure of it. At one point, he cut through a civilian district, it was an older, crumbling part of a fishing village, he was hoping that the presence of bystanders would slow them down. It didn't. The hunter-nin didn't care. Not even for a second. Their attacks tore through the streets without hesitation, endangering everyone around them but it didn't faze them at all. Kakashi gritted his teeth behind the mask and kept moving. There was no helping it. Slowing down meant death, and fighting now would be suicide. He had to conserve his chakra and stamina. Save it all for the moment that really mattered, the breakout, which would be the final push. Until then, he would run and survive. ~~~ A similar scene was playing out with Ren, except his situation was even more intense because the one chasing him wasn't some jonin or even an S-rank shinobi. It was a goddamn demon. Ren glanced back mid-run, sweat slicking his brow as he shouted over his shoulder, "Damn you, old shark! How the hell are you so fast? Shouldn't your knees have given out by now?!" Kisame didn't answer immediately, mostly because he was laughing. Loud, unhinged, and right behind him. Ren didn't dare slow down. He hadn't had a proper break since closing the Eight Gates, and yet somehow, Kisame had caught up again in the time it took him to breathe. Worse, the shark bastard was even faster than before. Ren had no choice but to amp it up. Wind chakra surged through his legs as he pushed his speed further, combining it with the Four Gates. The strain was ridiculous, but ever since his chakra control broke past 90% and he gained the "chakra stability" ability, managing complex enhancements like this had gotten easier. But "easier" didn't mean he could rest. If he did, that demon would come barreling through with those giant shark-teeth of his, grinning like a lunatic and swinging that oversized blade around like a toy. Kisame's laugh echoed through the trees, closing in like a predator. "I should be the one asking you that, brat! How the hell are you so fast?! Hah! Even that green beast from the Leaf wasn't this fast when he used Four Gates! That's how many you're using, right?" Ren's eye twitched. He didn't stop running, but he still had the energy to scowl over his shoulder. "You're analyzing my technique while chasing me?! Seriously?! Do you guys ever turn your brains off?" he snapped. "It takes so long to make a technique work, so many tests, tweaks, trial and error and then someone like you shows up with a big sword and tries to reverse-engineer it in real-time like it's a damn puzzle!" He didn't wait for a response before ranting further, voice rising with dramatic offense. "Even the old man back in the village does this! I show him something cool I invented, and right in front of me, he starts breaking it down with his eyes. Then, just to act polite, he asks me to explain it, like he didn't already figure it out!" Ren huffed. "I swear, it's like giving candy to a grandpa and watching him throw it in a blender just to tell you what flavor it is." Kisame cackled, clearly entertained. "You've got guts, kid. Most people would've dropped dead from exhaustion by now. You're talking trash and keeping ahead. Not bad, not bad at all." Ren shot him a flat look. "Yeah? Then how about you fall behind for once and let me take a nap?" "Nope." Of course not. Ren sighed, adjusted his footing, and kept running, face set in a half-scowl, half-frown, while his mind ran twice as fast as his legs. Part of him was still grumbling about Kisame's ridiculous speed, but the more useful part was already turning gears, thinking and calculating what he should do with this demon. Suddenly a thought came to him, 'Shouldn't I be able to use the Fifth Gate normally by now? Even without the modified version?' It wasn't just a passing thought. While his main body was stuck in a high-speed game of "Don't Get Mauled," a few of his clones were still hard at work, trying to finalize the modifications for the Fifth of out of the Eight Gates system. But that version wasn't ready yet, some seals weren't stable, and he wasn't about to test an incomplete prototype while being chased by a monster with a sword the size of a human. Still, the normal Fifth Gate was technically usable. He almost smacked himself mentally. Somewhere along the way, he'd started thinking that chakra stability, one of his biggest ability was only useful for Flying Thunder God. But that wasn't true at all. The ability wasn't tied to space-time techniques specifically. The description was simple, "Chakra remains stable even under intense pressure." And until now, he'd assumed that meant external pressure, like what he faced when teleporting or dealing with high-speed jutsu. But what if it applied inside his body too? The Eight Gates worked by removing the body's natural limiters and releasing dormant chakra. The downside was that this released chakra flowed in violent, chaotic bursts, uncontrolled, damaging, and brutal. That was the price of using raw power. The higher the gate, the more unstable the chakra became, and the more injuries it caused. But if that chakra could be stabilized while flowing through him, wouldn't that solve one of the core problems of the Eight Gates? Wouldn't that make the Fifth Gate not only usable, but even more safer than his enhanced version? As he darted between trees, still using wind chakra and the Four Gates in tandem, he pushed himself into Hyperfocus, eyes narrowing slightly. He could feel every shift of pressure in his legs, the slightest twitch in his muscles, and more importantly, he could sense the current flow of chakra inside his body. Right now, everything felt smooth. Too smooth. But that made sense, his chakra pathways were reinforced by the Fuinjutsu seals that spread across his body, so the Four Gates were running on rails. There was no disruption to track, nothing to test his new idea on. Which meant he couldn't tell for sure whether the chakra stability was working internally or not and testing it right now, mid-sprint with Kisame on his tail? Yeah, no. He wasn't dumb. Opening the normal Fifth Gate while his modified Four Gates were still active could cause internal backlash. The flows weren't meant to overlap, especially not with two different versions of the same technique in play. No, he'd need space first. He'd need a moment, even, just a few seconds would be enough to disengage from Kisame and try activating the Fifth Gate cleanly. That meant pulling some kind of escape move, or maybe dropping a clone to draw attention. But one way or another, if his theory was right, then the Fifth Gate might be on the table and with chakra stability, Hyperfocus and the Eight gates he might just get away from this shark after all. As he sprinted through the dense mist, Ren suddenly formed two basic E-rank wind clones, nothing fancy, but they were packed with a ton of chakra. Then, without slowing down, he started stringing together hand sign after hand sign. His momentum didn't drop for even a second, in fact, it only picked up. Kisame noticed immediately, but at first, didn't care much. "Preparing a big jutsu now?" he muttered, eyes narrowing. "Fine. Let's see it." The two wind clones darted toward him in sync, fast and direct. Kisame got a little more alert. He'd seen firsthand how dangerous Ren's jutsu could be if taken lightly, especially when the brat got creative. Just as the clones got within striking range, Kisame swung Samehada in a wide arc, intending to take them both out in one clean sweep. But before the sword could even connect, both clones dispersed into wind with a quiet whoosh. It wasn't a regular dispel either. The wind from their bodies twisted and curved around his blade avoiding Samehada entirely and rushed straight toward his face. Kisame instinctively hardened his skin with chakra, just in case it was some kind of hidden attack. His instincts were good, especially when it came to chakra-based jutsu. Then, a soft breeze hit his face. Cool and dry. It wiped away what little sweat he had gathered, almost like someone had handed him a cold towel. Kisame froze for half a second. Then shivered. "The hell...?" He blinked, confused, as the wind faded just as quickly as it arrived. That was it. A damn breeze. The realization hit immediately, it had been a distraction. His eyes snapped toward Ren, just in time to see him already halfway down the next stretch of forest. The kid was still running full tilt, but now with an added boost, chakra visibly flaring from his legs with each step, propelling him forward in short bursts. Ren wasn't just using the Eight Gates anymore. He was combining chakra-enhanced strength with the excess power from the Gates. Each step kicked off a compressed blast of chakra, launching him like a human cannonball. It wasn't just speed anymore, he was literally riding the shockwaves of his own strength. And just before disappearing behind the trees, Ren glanced back with a cocky grin and shouted, "You're not just an old shark, you're a dumb old shark!" Then, laughing like he'd just won a bet, he vanished with a booming blast of chakra, leaving only wind and dust in his wake. Kisame's grin dropped. His eye twitched. He slowly lowered Samehada, his face contorting with something between embarrassment and pure rage. He realized, a little too late, that Ren's barrage of hand signs had been complete bait. The clones weren't high-level or dangerous, they were bottom-tier distractions, the kind of thing most jonin wouldn't even waste chakra on, something that only kids would giggle for. And he'd fallen for it. Hard. "...You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered, face darkening. Then he roared at the top of his lungs, voice echoing through the forest. "DAMNED BRAT!" ~~~~~ {From the first time I introduced the wind clones in the earlier Chapters I really wanted to do something dumb and incredibly stupid like this with a strong shinobi who is tense against Ren and somehow Kisame became the best fit for it. So, do you think Ren could survive this enraged shark or could he really run away?} {Also, I'll explain every technique that Ren uses once this arc is finished as I can't really go in much details during a fight, but if you want to understand the chakra enhanced strength and the eight gates propeller then think of it as Bakugo using explosion to fly, it's just Ren needs something to step on for now to move.} {2 days in a row guys. I have Chapters but you'll need to complete the goals if you want additional Chapters} {If you want, you can support me 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} {280 Stones = Extra Chapter} {STONES!!!!}