Naruto: The Flame That Reshapes Fate

Aburame Torune leapt onto the treetop. Dressed in a black hooded cloak, his movements were as light as a weightless ghost. In truth, his body did lack much weight.

As the foremost insect-using clan in the shinobi world, the Aburame host insects within their bodies, feeding them with chakra. This left no room for fat accumulation, making them the complete opposite of the Akimichi.

He observed the cordoned-off Shōchikutei for seven or eight seconds. The insects he released brought back little information. Those that infiltrated were nearly wiped out entirely. Even the Aburame's specially bred insects couldn't overcome their natural fear of fire.

And Uchiha were, without a doubt, the foremost fire-style experts in the shinobi world.

However,

No matter what, today's operation had no room for retreat.

Torune was a textbook Aburame: quiet, solitary, with an interest in insect collection, and above all, a textbook shinobi—dutiful, unquestioning, placing orders above personal feelings. Even if faced with fire and blades, he wouldn't blink as he advanced.

"Squads Three, Six, and Seven—take the lead."

The order was issued.

The three elite assembled teams moved immediately. Without disguise or pretense, they vaulted over the walls and charged straight into Shōchikutei, quickly closing in on the target's location in the stone garden.

There was no other option.

The targets were Uchiha and Hyūga.

Under the gaze of the Byakugan and Sharingan, their prized stealth tactics became meaningless. Their assassination skills couldn't be deployed. Doing so would only waste chakra and invite isolated takedowns.

Moreover, as the vanguard, their role wasn't to inflict damage but to locate the targets precisely and exhaust their chakra as much as possible.

At that moment—

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!!!

The sharp sound of weapons slicing through air echoed in the courtyard.

Shuriken tore through the paper screens and shot toward Root's shinobi.

Four short cries of death quickly faded.

The fallen lay on the polished floor—hit in the chest, throat, or liver. Every shuriken had pierced a fatal point. What terrified the survivors even more was the sight of their dead comrades still clutching broken kunai and swords.

Every formal Root operative was an elite.

Not all were jōnin, but their combat experience was rich enough that even facing a jōnin they wouldn't be easily killed. In fact, they did react—raising weapons to block the incoming shuriken.

But,

That seemingly proper countermeasure still failed.

The shuriken sliced through their kunai and swords and claimed their lives. Of six thrown shuriken, four found deadly marks. Among the two survivors, one was a jōnin who used the Body Replacement Jutsu to dodge. The other held a famous sword that wasn't so easily destroyed.

This was expected.

"The Knight Does Not Die Empty-Handed" had granted those otherwise unremarkable shuriken the attributes of a D-rank Noble Phantasm—cutting ordinary weapons was not a surprising feat.

Three squads. Twelve people. One-third dead in an instant.

It made the remaining five realize how dangerous the mission truly was. But this was Root. Whatever one might say about Danzō's methods, his operatives possessed the resolve to complete missions at all costs. Even death did not deter them.

Their comrade's deaths only heightened their caution, but did not halt their advance.

"Uchiha Style: Gale Blade."

"Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

Bursting through the paper screens first was Shisui. The nickname "Body Flicker" wasn't for show. His short sword moved like lightning as he slashed at a mid-level Root ninja.

With one clean motion A gleaming arc of steel flashed through the air, and a head dropped to the floor with a thud and rolled far away, while the decapitated body collapsed, gushing blood.

The second-fastest was not Rēn.

The Gentle Fist wasn't limited to close combat. The Hyūga had long-range techniques as well. While simple—mostly variants of Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm—they were powerful, and combined with the Byakugan, they offered precise mid-range targeting.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm."

Hiashi's palm strike came just a fraction of a second after Shisui's blade. The chakra shockwave, invisible to the naked eye, shattered paper walls and struck another mid-level Root ninja dead on.

Hit by the distant palm, the man flew backward like a kite with cut strings, coughing a mouthful of blood mixed with shredded organs. By the time he landed, he was lifeless.

"Planning to crush the soft ones first?"

With a single glance, Rēn took in the whole battlefield. In his hand was not Samehada, but his usual longsword. Samehada hung on his back—it was a living weapon, and shared the weaknesses of other living beings: fear of fire and heat. His fire-style ninjutsu couldn't be used through it.

So, he left it on his back—for chakra recovery and as a back shield due to its wide blade.

In his hand, his trusted sword flared faintly with heat as he moved.

"Uchiha Style: Great Fire Blade!"

Rēn closed in on the Root ninja who had survived the earlier shuriken strike with a famed blade.

His blazing blade sliced through the air with deadly intent.

The masked ninja had no chance to flee and could only raise his sword to block. He succeeded. Their blades met, sparks flying as metal scraped against metal.

And then—

A torrent of blazing flame erupted like a tsunami from the blade.

"Ah—!"

A brief, almost illusory scream rang out.

The ninja in front of Rēn vanished. Nothing remained—not even bones. Only his half-melted famous sword lay behind, having burned through the floor into the soil below.

Not just the man, but even the walls, screens, and room behind him were incinerated.

That was the Great Fire Blade.

One of Rēn's signature techniques, sealing fire within his sword and releasing it in a single strike. Anything it touched was reduced to ash.

This move had no fixed limit.

The stronger the stored fire, the greater its power. The only constraint was the durability of the sword itself. Even with "The Knight Does Not Die Empty-Handed" granting it D-rank Noble Phantasm status, it couldn't withstand beyond a certain threshold.

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