33 After The Battle

A loud shockwave echoed throughout the gym as the two clashed with their fists, with Ren only matching Lee's strength.

"You've become stronger," he said with a smirk, "Good, keep it that way."

Lee said nothing as they exchanged punches after punches, kicks after kicks, yet, seemingly, the two of them were equal. But they were not, and the black-haired teen knew that.

As the fight went on, the two grew faster and faster, with each of their strikes enough to create shockwaves, shocking the other participants.

But then, red-head smirked before blatantly jabbing the teen on his chest, sending him backwards.

He kneeled as he tried to gasp for his breath, yet Ren didn't give him the chance and kneed him to his chin, making him fall to his back.

"Come on! Get up! I'm not finished yet!" Ren shouted as he kicked him on his stomach.

Lee gritted his teeth. He stood up, and tried his best to stay focused but he couldn't. It was due to that strike to his chin earlier. Now, his vision is splitting into two.

"So, in the end, this is all you ever amount to. I'm disappointed," the tone in his voice was more calm but he could feel all of the hair in his body stand up as Ren disappeared from his sight.

Without warning whatsoever, he suddenly felt a deep, aching pain to his stomach, and he was instantly sent flying towards the wall at the other end of the gym.

BOOOM!!

"Gah!"

He crashed to the stone wall, making a deep dent to it as he spat out some blood. And then, he slowly fell to the ground, clearly knocked out.

But before anyone could react, Ren appeared again right on top of him, and as time slowed down, his fist was just about to reach Lee's head, Gai's disciple suddenly disappeared.

Without the teen in the way, his fist connected to the floor, and it didn't shatter, no, his punch was so strong that the entire building shook as the ground below him was broken to debris.

The other genins stared in shock, unable to comprehend what kind of a monster they're seeing right now. Gai immediately jumped from the platform, screaming on the top of his lungs.

"Lee!!" He rushed towards his unconscious student, who's being carried by Minato.

The Hokage stood just meters behind Ren, with a face of solemnity. He handed the teen to his teacher, and he turned to, unbeknownst mostly to everyone in the gym, his son.

Ren merely chuckled as he lifted his fist from the crater that was once a stone floor, and as he did, dust fell from his hand. He turned to his father.

As his demonic features rescinded, he smirked, saying, "You didn't have to do that, Hokage-sama. Lee would've been able to survive that."

Minato narrowed his eyes, "You were going to kill him. If I hadn't stepped in on time, Lee would've died."

"You're exaggerating, Hokage-sama. But in any case, I win, right?" Ren casually avoided the subject.

"We're not finished with this; we'll discuss this in my office later. And yes, you won. You will move to the semi-finals," he replied.

Ren just shrugged and moved to the stands, where he noticed Tenten was glaring at him. Even Neji was giving him the stink eye.

As soon as he returned to his team, Itachi confronted him.

He asked him, "Did you really have to do that? You could've held back or knocked him out instantly."

The red-head raised an eyebrow, saying, "Lee is a warrior. It would've been an insult to him if I held back. However, he was weaker than I expected, so I didn't use everything at my disposal."

"I see… I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now. But next time, hold back against your fellow konoha shinobi," Itachi said to him with a serious expression on his face.

"Alright, I'll do that."

With that all out of the way, he just sat down, and closed his eyes. He started to meditate, ignoring everyone else.

There's really no point in what he did earlier, it was just so that he can have a bit of fun. However, now he needs to think of the consequences of his actions. He showed all of them a demonic form, which Minato will ask him about later. Then, he used Ultimate Heal to Sakura.

While Sakura is smart, he could see that other than that she has nothing going for her. That much, he knows. But in his previous life, he didn't just rise to become the most powerful man in the entire world because he did everything alone. He had allies, some of which were powerful and trusted enough to be close to him.

One of them goes by the name of Cecilia Potumn, a girl he found in the slums when he was around 120 Years Old. At the time, he had already conquered an entire city for himself after he had killed its mayor and his family, and the rest of all of the high-ranking officials.

Cecilia was a smart girl, to the point that she was able to outsmart 5 adults, just to steal some bread for her and her siblings. Right then and there, he knew he had found a talent. He took her and her siblings in, trained them, but he paid attention to Cecilia the most.

Because of that, she bloomed to be the most beautiful and deadliest flower in the entire realm. By the time she was in her 30s, she was already in the Transcended Realm. However… She died at the age of 40, when they were ambushed by a group of Transcended Realm cultivators. He wasn't there at the time, and she was on a mission with her team.

She was overwhelmed by her opponents but at the very least, she managed to kill all of them using an advanced poison spell that kills the user and everything around them.

That spell, Lethal Nightshade, was a Tier 5 spell. She created it herself, and he managed to learn it. Right now, it is still one of the deadliest poison spells in his arsenal, and considering the fact that it has an average range of 50 square meters, it's also one of most destructive Tier 5 spells.

Monster he may be; she was the only person he had close enough to be his child. Still, he is sure that she died with no regrets, as will he.

In any case, the thing that made him like her the most wasn't how powerful she was, it was her loyalty. Loyalty is far more important in an ally. Even if someone is stronger than everyone else, if they don't have any kind of loyalty towards him, they're basically useless.

Sakura has loyalty, whether it be to the village or her friends, it doesn't matter. He'll just have to redirect it towards him.

In a way, the pink-haired girl reminded him of Cecilia. The difference is that by the time Cecilia was 12, she was already capable of killing dozens of non-cultivator adults by herself.

Meanwhile, Sakura is so weak physically that she may as well be a civilian. But if she can become someone trustworthy in the future, he might teach her how to cultivate, just up to the Human Realm. That'll surely help her a lot.

And now, he has to think of other potential allies.

Sasuke, Neji, Hinata, Fuu, and, quite possibly, Gaara.

Out of all of them, Fuu is the easiest to take to his side. That's why he's been manipulating the movements of her teammates, so that she can be slowly convinced that everyone hates her. Even her own sensei, who has been affected by his illusions, has gradually been treating her worse and worse.

Both of her teammates' deaths were his fault. When she finally breaks, only then will he come and swoop her in like a knight in shining armor, giving her the impression that he is saving her.

Well, he is indeed technically saving her. At least from his perspective, the treatment she's been getting from her village is just as bad as his treatment, maybe even worse.

Unlike him, she has no goal in that village of hers. Her only purpose for them is to be a weapon because Takigakure is the only village not in the 5 Major Ones to actually have a tailed beast.

Fuu is their only chance of ever surpassing one of the major villages because as long as the Nanabi is with them, no other small villages would want to attack. Just the destructive capability of a single tailed beast could annihilate armies of thousands!

It's like having nuclear weapons but without the radiation. The only thing is that terrains could forever be changed but other than that, tailed beast bombs are completely harmless to the environment. However, they're not that harmless towards living creatures.

Anyway, most of the major villages have 2 jinchuurikis.

Kiri used to have two, the Rokubi and the Sanbi, however the jinchuuriki of the Rokubi became a missing-nin after he reportedly had enough of the Fourth Mizukage.

Kumo has two, the Nibi and Hachibi. The Jinchuuriki of the Nibi is here in Konoha, and Ren is contemplating whether he should kidnap her and extract the tailed beast from her or just let her be.

And Iwagakure has Gobi and Yonbi. He has heard of how mistreated their Jinchuurikis are, maybe he could recruit them to Konoha. If not, he'll just abduct them and extract their tailed beasts from them.

The only major villages to have 1 tailed beast are Konoha and Sunagakure, and it's quite ironic, really.

While Konoha has only 1 because they have the most powerful tailed beast, Sunagakure has only 1 because their first Kazekage decided they wanted money and land instead when Senju Hashirama asked them if they wanted the two tailed beasts.

Nanabi was stolen by Takigakure a few years after that, and the First Hokage did nothing but laugh, saying that he would've given it anyway.

If Hashirama was still alive today, Helel would've murdered him for such idiocy. He had all that power. He could've ruled the entirety of elemental nations, bring the peace he so wanted to the world, but he didn't. Instead, he decided to give living nuclear bombs to other villages.

That kind of stupidity is way, way, way beyond him.

There is no way a dumbass like that became so powerful that everyone feared him, and yet he did exist. He existed and was killed by the villages he was so generous to.

In fact, he has more respect towards Madara than Hashirama. At least the Uchiha actually wanted to bring peace the smart way, unlike his friend, who wanted peace the stupid way.

He sat on top of the island where a giant metal gate stood as the red, giant glowing eyes of the kyuubi stared at him in contempt.

"So you respect him, huh? Hmph," the Kyuubi snorted.

He raised an eyebrow at that, saying, "I just have more respect towards him than the guy who gave you guys away like Pokemon cards. At least Madara tried to do something rational."

"Hah, rational? That Uchiha was a madman! His plan was to cast genjutsu on the entire world!" The Kyuubi snarled.

"Well, that is debatable. Personally, I've done more crazy things than Madara. For example, I once slaughtered an entire kingdom because their prince's face pissed me off," he casually said to the tailed beast.

The fox took a few moments to register that, then turned to the goddess, Nyx, who's currently sitting in a floating cage.

"Is what he says true, goddess?"

Nyx stayed silent for some time, but replied, "If the things that come out of his mouth are madness, then it's probably true."

For some time, since they're the only ones here, the fox and the goddess have been having small talks from time to time. At first, she wouldn't respond but after some time, she would say a few words.

The giant fox knew that it had destroyed many civilizations in the past but to actually destroy an entire kingdom just because someone's face looked a bit funny is just… unreal.

"Well, interpret my words however you want but the truth remains unchanged," then he stood up, "Welp, gotta go now," and then disappeared from his mindscape.

The fox sighed.

It should've guessed that Helel is crazier than it expected, considering the fact that the kid has a literal goddess sealed inside his head.