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"Come out, Righteous Lightning, Guillotine Drop."
A leapt high into the air and brought his leg down in a crushing axe kick.
Boom!
The ground within dozens of meters shattered on impact. Cracks raced outward as stone and debris exploded upward. Jin burst from the rubble, launching himself clear of the collapsing terrain.
"Lightning Style, Heavy Fighting Style, Straight Thrust."
A pushed Lightning Release Chakra Mode to its absolute limit. His body vanished in a flash of electricity, leaving Jin no time to react as A appeared directly in front of him and drove a punch forward.
"Flash Step!"
Jin's expression hardened. Flames erupted beneath his feet, propelling him sharply upward.
Now.
A's eyes flared with understanding. He aborted the punch mid strike and changed tactics instantly.
"Lightning Abuse, Thousand Hand Dance."
A vaulted upward as well. Lightning condensed in his hand, forming a razor-sharp blade of electricity.
Jin's movement was limited to straight-line bursts. If he had already taken his first step and his second had not yet landed, he could not alter his trajectory.
That brief gap decided everything.
Crack!
A's lightning wrapped hand chopped into Jin's waist.
There was no spray of blood.
Instead, Jin's body exploded into a mass of flame.
"A fire clone."
A froze for an instant, then rejected the idea immediately.
"No, this is the real body."
The sensation was completely different from the previous clone.
And this time, the flames did not disperse, They wrapped around A's arm, trapping it within the burning mass.
A trusted his instincts.
"Genjutsu."
The realization struck hard.
The Uchiha clan was infamous for illusion techniques. Their Sharingan could trap an enemy in an illusion with a single exchange of eye contact.
This near-unfair ability had given rise to a saying across the shinobi world.
If you encounter a Uchiha alone, run.
It was not an absolute rule, but it existed for a reason.
In combat, eye contact was nearly unavoidable.
In a one-on-one fight, a single mistake meant total control was lost.
Against multiple opponents, illusions could be disrupted by allies. That was the only chance.
This was also why Jin had assigned the Eight-Tails host to Minato earlier.
While the Sharingan was a natural counter to tailed beasts, Killer Bee was a perfect jinchuriki, effectively a two-person unit, with one mind to wake the other.
Genjutsu would lose much of its effectiveness against him.
A had never let down his guard against Jin's illusion techniques, From the very start, he had avoided looking directly into Jin's eyes, tracking only body movement.
So when had he been caught?
If this was not genjutsu, then how could this situation be explained?
"This is an elemental transformation."
Jin's calm, slightly magnetic voice sounded beside A's ear.
A turned instinctively.
His gaze met a pair of crimson eyes.
Too late.
A wave of dread surged through him.
In the next instant, his body stiffened.
His consciousness was dragged into a dark crimson space.
Massive iron spikes pierced through him, pinning his body in midair.
He could not move.
In the real world, Jin's form fully solidified.
One hand pressed down against A's head, reinforcing the genjutsu and tightening its restraints.
As expected, when it came to capturing an enemy alive, nothing was considered more reliable than illusion techniques.
Jin had already realized something the moment A converted the power of his Guillotine Drop into raw speed.
His Fire Release Chakra Mode had been partially figured out.
From the very beginning, Jin had never intended to kill A.
His objective had always been capture.
So when A believed he had seen through Jin's methods and allowed his guard to drop, Jin used elemental transformation to disrupt his judgment and seized the opening to cast genjutsu.
Elemental transformation meant turning the body into a natural element, allowing attacks to pass harmlessly through.
This was the power granted to Jin by the Flame Fruit.
In the pirate world, elemental transformation was notoriously difficult to counter.
Only those who mastered armament energy could touch the true body of a Logia user. Without it, one was not even qualified to challenge them.
Even against such opponents, elemental transformation could still be used preemptively to alter form and evade incoming strikes.
However, Jin discovered that chakra-infused attacks still caused damage.
Perhaps because both chakra and armament originated from physical vitality, elemental transformation could not grant full immunity here.
Still, using it to avoid attacks in advance was more than sufficient.
When applied correctly, this ability alone could decide the outcome of a battle.
Just like now.
Jin exhaled slowly and closed his Sharingan. The three tomoe faded from his eyes.
He lifted the unconscious A and slung him over his shoulder.
With a few rapid movements, Jin returned to Minato's position.
The battle on that side had already ended.
Without A to apply pressure through speed, Minato was finally able to fight at full capacity.
Within the Cloud squad, only Killer Bee could exchange more than a few moves with him. The rest were completely outmatched.
And Minato was not fighting alone.
Inuzuka Gan and Akimichi Dong were both elite Leaf jonin.
With their support, Killer Bee was sealed before he could even fully transform.
"Jin."
Minato and the others noticed his return immediately.
"I have him under genjutsu for now," Jin said calmly. "But to be safe, seal his chakra."
"Understood."
Minato nodded.
His hands moved rapidly through seals. Five flames of chakra ignited on his fingertips.
"Five Elements Seal."
He crouched and pressed his palm against A's abdomen.
Five comma-shaped markings spread across his lower stomach, sealing and disrupting the flow of chakra.
Minato stood and wiped the sweat from his brow.
"I used too much chakra sealing the Eight Tails' host. This seal will only interfere with his output for now."
"It cannot completely sever his chakra, but he will not be able to use jutsu."
"That is enough," Jin said with a nod. "Once we return to the village, proper restraints can be applied."
"With this, the war is over."
A faint smile appeared on Jin's face.
Minato and the others relaxed as well.
This war had dragged on for nearly eight years.
At last, it had reached its conclusion.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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