"Game over."
The black lightning from Darui's hand shot toward Ren's head, intending to end him while Darui dispassionately stared, assured of his victory.
There was no way that, with his injuries, Ren could move in time to evade it.
But just as the black lightning was about to hit, a blue but still translucent chakra barrier formed around Ren and the unconscious body of Samui, causing the lightning to slam into it with a crackling boom before it fizzled out in short order.
Seeing it, the startled Darui tensed, expecting a counterattack, but a moment passed, and Ren was still kneeling while wheezing on the ground, a red puddle of blood forming underneath him at an alarming rate.
Darui's eyebrows furrowed as he stood back and studied the barrier for a moment. Unable to discern anything of note from a glance, he cautiously approached under the tired gaze of his defeated opponent. Raising his sword, he started slashing at it, his sword bouncing off with every strike.
He coated his sword in black lightning and tried to overwhelm the barrier, but it was to no avail as it didn't even flicker despite him delivering over thirty quick slashes within ten seconds.
Inside the barrier, a very small, bloody but self-satisfied smile appeared on Ren's exhausted face.
"Heh. Performance issues?" He slowly rasped out with a hollow amusement in his tone as blood flowed down his chin. "Small dick no go th-, cough, through?"
Well, Darui had to give it to Ren. He was one tenacious bastard. With one foot in the grave, but he still had the gall to taunt him. It was a pity he had refused the offer and killed so many of his comrades. Darui imagined they would have hit it off as friends under different circumstances.
"Haa~" Darui released an annoyed sigh before glancing toward their sensor ninja, "Miki?"
The kunoichi was chewing on her lower lip in frustration, narrowing her eyes while staring into nowhere as if she was trying to find something. Hearing his question, she spoke, "I don't kn-... wait!"
Her gaze suddenly lingered on the bloody puddle underneath Ren, and she pursed her lips before turning around, and her eyes swept through the battlefield.
"The blood?" She mumbled aloud while her eyebrows rose in surprise before she looked at Ren, wondering how he managed to set something like this up. "In many places where he was hit or touched with his hands and feet, there are some sort of... symbols made out of his blood?" She told Darui. "It creates a formation that powers the barrier. Er, somehow?"
Listening to her analysis, it was obvious to Ren that the woman was no Fuinjutsu user. She tracked the chakra, and that's where her expertise ended. She had it wrong. But he wouldn't be telling her that.
It was good for him. It made him feel relieved.
But really, he was just glad that Darui had stopped hitting his barrier. It was pretty tough as it was the same seal that had withstood Yagura's bijuudama previously. Just... a lot more underpowered because he was previously using the chakra he had stored in his Chakra Storage Seal for the seals made out of his blood instead.
These seals were not meant to create a defensive technique. It was supposed to be his finishing move, but he had to improvise, and so, he only had around forty percent of his Chakra Storage Seal left to create the barrier.
As inviolable as it seemed when it didn't even flicker under Darui's onslaught of hits, Ren knew it wasn't as durable as it first appeared. It's why he didn't interrupt Darui and Miki and stayed silent as he observed them trying to find a solution to his unexpected barrier.
It was a much better alternative for him than for them trying to break through it by force. He just needed time.
"How could you miss something like that?" Darui reproachfully asked the woman, who huffed in irritation in return.
"Give me a break. I was on a watch against a seal trap in Kanji. Not whatever this is." She retorted. "I'll need a second to try to figure out what he is trying to do with the blood seals."
"Just tell me where they are, and I can destroy them," Darui offered, but the kunoichi shook her head.
"They have the same chakra barrier around them, just more translucent, so it is not easily visible." She said idly as she focused on her sensing skills.
Taking a deep breath, Darui groaned. He turned toward Ren and crouched on the ground in front of the barrier, "Man~, you are a troublesome fellow." Shaking his head in exasperation, he chuckled, "How dull. But it does not matter. You will still bleed out. It's simple logic. So... would you be up to accepting my previous offer? Obviously, you will probably have to be under a very strict probation and guard for the next decade or three, but at least you will be alive? Come on, dude."
As angry as he felt, the seals he had witnessed could prove to be a game changer in Kumo's hands. He didn't think Ren would accept, but maybe...
"Heh. Fuck your logic." Ren deadpanned before visibly wincing in pain as he wheezed for a breath, "Just-" He gasped, "give me a second. I'll, I'll stand up and kick your ass in a- a moment."
"Right." Darui couldn't help but smile. That threat would probably sound far more menacing if Ren's voice wasn't so weak and he didn't look half-dead.
"You won't even see it coming." Ren mumbled, his voice growing quieter.
And Darui's smile became wry, "I am sure I won't."
The thing he was no longer sure of was if Miki could crack the barrier before Ren actually croaked. The Konoha ninja was trying to press his hand on his still bleeding wound to stave off the bleeding, but Darui could see he got him good.
The stubborn fool did not have much time left.
Sighing, Darui's shoulders slumped. "This gives me mixed feelings, ya know?" He sighed and took out a cigarette and put it into his mouth, "Your counterattack coming yet? I am about to die out of boredom waiting for it over here."
He tried to keep Ren talking. Because a speaking opponent meant an alive opponent. Honestly, Darui was conflicted because a part of him wanted Ren to die while another part wanted to drag him back to Kumo alive and force him to work for them.
Suddenly, Darui's wry smile fell as the slight shaking of Ren's exhausted body stilled. For a moment, he thought that Ren had died right there, still kneeling on the ground, but then Ren raised his head, expending energy he should not possess anymore, and defiantly looked Darui straight in the eyes.
"You are already dead." He told the man somewhat smugly. Well, as smugly as a half-dead, exhausted man could sound.
"You already said that." Darui rolled his eyes at him. "Anything ne-"
But his speech was interrupted when Miki, the sensor kunoichi, suddenly loudly yelled to run as she felt the massive spike in chakra coming from the blood seals on the ground.
Several things happened at once.
Darui's eyes widened in alarm, and he jumped back onto his feet.
Miki and the other two still alive Kumo ninjas who stood further away had turned on their heels before desperately trying to jump away from the area.
Lastly, Ren put his hand on Samui just as he finished charging his transportation seal.
He... wasn't sure if he should have taken her with him or let her die in here. But he had wanted to know who hired Kumo for his assassination. Chances were, she would not have that information. And Ren also doubted the culprit would use his real name for the request.
If Danzo Shimura or some other high-ranked man from Konoha gave an assassination mission to Kumo, it would raise many eyebrows. Kumo would definitely not accept such a mission, thinking it is a trap.
No. Ren was mostly sure that he would get nothing important out of Samui. But he was still curious. So, he took her with him.
Besides, Ino needed a proper target for her new mental techniques. Training it on her unwitting classmates could get her only so far. An enemy jonin kunoichi could help her fine-tune it, willingly or not.
That was a bit harsh, but Ren didn't feel very merciful right now. He was still bleeding out because he couldn't focus both on the time-stop seal, which could stop his injuries from killing him, and charge the transportation seal at the same time.
Darui wouldn't give him an additional twenty seconds if he thought something was wrong. He would try to break the barrier by force. So, Ren had to risk it and go for the transportation seal first.
Teleporting from the battlefield, Ren landed on his couch in his apartment, the same one he landed on after fighting Yagura. Once more, by pure coincidence, Ino was there, staring at him in bewilderment while holding a watering can in her hand and looking at him like a deer into headlights.
Ren found the sight funny, for all of a split second, before Samui's unconscious body came crashing onto him, driving his breath from his lungs as hot searing pain shot through his body.
He wheezed with wide eyes from the agony as Samui's body slid off of him onto the ground, making him bleed even more as her landing aggravated his injuries.
"Oh, hello, darling. Could you get Hinata for me?" Ren breathlessly asked Ino with a pain-filled grimace on his face.
"Again!?" Ino exclaimed as she got out of her momentary shock. She quickly summoned a shadow clone that ran out of the room while the original Ino leaped toward Ren before her hand started glowing green, and she began to give him the medic-ninja-style first aid.
After the last time, Ino learned at least enough medical ninjutsu to give first aid and prevent somebody from dying due to his injuries. But even then, she cursed and moaned all the way through the book learning, much to Hinata's and Ren's joint amusement and annoyance.
They both decided never to even try to have Ino learn more medical ninjutsu ever again. It would be too bothersome.
"And this time you bought another girl home?" Ino huffed, pressing her hand onto the injury on Ren's chest while glancing at Samui, or rather, her notable assets.
She pursed her lips, and Ren could almost read her mind. Samui was another blonde like Ino. So, he reckoned that Ino was probably comparing her size to Samui's and found herself lacking. He couldn't help but chuckle.
Hearing him, Ino quickly realized she was busted. She clicked her tongue and gently patted Ren's forehead with her palm. "Hush, you." She sighed, worry seeping into her voice, "What am I going to do with you?"
Starting to feel a bit better, Ren finally relaxed and gave Ino a weak smile, "Well, if you are offering, I wouldn't say no to a lap pillow."
...
Back in the battlefield, a split second after Ren teleported away, the seals made out of his blood went off.
Miki, the sensor kunoichi, had just barely managed to give a warning to her comrades before leaping headfirst out of the area of effect she could sense. But she was just slightly too late and still in mid-air, she felt her legs be affected before she landed on the ground with a painful shriek.
Sobbing in agony and quietly cursing a storm under her nose, she ignored the flood of pain as she pushed herself up from the ground with her hands, but a spike of fear ran through her head when she realized she couldn't feel her legs.
Bravely chancing a look down, her heart almost stopped when she found out that everything below her knees was... turned into stone.
With a whimper, she realized her career as a kunoichi was officially over.
Suddenly, her eyes widened. "DARUI!" She shouted and looked back, only for her mind to go blank as her eyes landed on a statue of her commanding officer, locked in a running motion and sporting a desperate expression, just a few steps from where she knew was the border of the attack's area of effect.
He was dead.
Taking a shuddering breath, Miki tried to stand up, only to tumble back onto the ground. Due to shock, for a moment, she had forgotten that her legs were no longer functional. Cursing as she almost fell down on her face, she spotted Raki. The medic ninja of their group.
She hadn't known the man well. And now she would never get the chance to rectify that because the left side of his body was turned into stone.
Naturally, that killed him.
Desperately wishing to find somebody alive, Miki frantically looked around until her gaze landed on a body lying on the other side of the clearing.
It was petrified from the half of its stomach down, but the chest was still moving!
"Norio!"
Miki quickly recognized the person and dragged herself toward him on the ground, using only her hands. When she got close, she winced. The man's arms were still ruined. Raki did a good job fixing the most important issues and taking out the metal shrapnel, but the whole fight didn't last very long, so he didn't have the time to fix everything.
Not even ten minutes had passed since the fighting started. And it was already over.
Miki turned Norio's body around so he could lie on his back, causing the man to wake up with a groan. He sluggishly opened his eyes, only to instantly squint them at her.
"Ah, Miki." Norio spoke dispassionately with the tone of somebody who had realized the harsh reality and didn't intend to fight it, "I am dead, aren't I?"
Miki's breath hitched for a moment before she tried to give him an encouraging smile.. "No. Not yet. You will be just fine." Her hands involuntarily clutched at his shirt. "Just hang on. I'll-"
"Bullshit." Norio interrupted her, grasping her right hand in his palms.
"..." They looked at each other for a few silent moments as the soft breeze passed them by.
"Just... give me a hand, lass." Norio eventually said with a shaky, wet voice as he put a kunai in her hand. "Please." He fearfully gulped and closed his eyes.
Miki sniffed and felt a lump forming in her throat as she tightly clutched the kunai.
They both knew his intestines were done for. Even if his injuries were treated and he was kept alive, he would still starve to death. They had no way to reverse the petrification.
Gritting her teeth, Miki angrily yelled as she swung the kunai, stabbing it straight into Norio's brain through his closed left eye. He died instantly and didn't feel a thing.
Falling on her rear, Miki, with a wet whimper, watched in mute horror as blood slowly flowed onto the ground from Norio's eye socket... before she let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Fucking hell."
She looked around the battlefield with a numbing detachment as she realized she was the only survivor.
"The Raikage needs to be informed of this." Miki muttered to herself with yet another shuddering breath. "Yes. I have to do that."
She could mentally fall into pieces later on. For now, she had to do her last duty as Kumo kunoichi. She started to drag herself on the ground by her hands in the direction of the borders of the Land of Lightning.