Chapter 88: An Uninvited Guest

Ren moved through the shadow-draped forest like a ghost, his footsteps making no sound on the bed of pine needles. The flicker of firelight guided him to a large, yawning cave mouth. From within, he could hear the faint murmur of voices and the crackle of a campfire.

*They’re inside,* he confirmed, a cold sense of purpose settling over him. *Perfect. I’ll grab the elder, extract the location of the Geller’s Stone vein, and be done with this.*

He was about to make his move when a figure burst from the cave’s entrance. Ren instantly melted back into the deeper shadows, his presence vanishing. The man was tall, with long, unkempt blond hair and wore anachronistic, rust-streaked knight’s armor. He carried an unconscious old man slung over one shoulder like a sack of grain. Without a backward glance, the knight tossed his burden onto a waiting horse, mounted up, and spurred the beast into a gallop, disappearing down a forest path.

*Temujin,* Ren identified, the name surfacing from the depths of his otherworldly knowledge. *The fallen knight. This saves me the trouble of interrogation. He’ll lead me right to it.*

He held his position, patience being the final skill he’d honed in the virtual space. As expected, another figure shot out of the cave moments later—a small, determined ferret, sniffing the air frantically before darting off in the same direction Temujin had gone. And hot on its heels were three all-too-familiar shinobi: Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, and Haruno Sakura.

*Of course. Where there’s trouble, there they are,* Ren thought with a mental sigh. *No matter. Let them clear the path. I’ll simply follow and take the prize once the dust settles. The fisherman’s role suits me just fine.*

He waited until the Konoha trio had vanished into the trees before emerging from his concealment. With a speed that would have left them gaping, he began to follow, a silent predator shadowing its unwitting guides.

Unbeknownst to him, another pair of eyes observed his departure. Kabuto Yakushi slipped from behind a thick oak, adjusting his glasses. A sly, calculating smile played on his lips.

“Hehe~~ How intriguing,” he murmured to the empty forest. “The plot thickens considerably. Let’s see what this ‘Geller’s Stone’ is that has Uchiha Ren so single-mindedly focused.” He had witnessed Ren’s brutal dispatch of the two Sound ninja and had no desire to share their fate. Maintaining a cautious, maximum distance, he began to follow the follower.

—

Ren trailed the group to the outskirts of a vast, crumbling ruin that might have once been a magnificent palace. Temujin, with the elder, disappeared inside. Naruto’s team, led by the ferret, followed shortly after. Ren didn’t enter immediately. Instead, he found a perch high on a broken section of wall, settling in to watch the drama unfold.

*Now for the main event.*

He didn’t have to wait long. A deep, mechanical groaning echoed in the distance, growing steadily louder. The ground began to tremble. Over the horizon lumbered a monstrous machine, a moving fortress of grinding gears, belching smokestacks, and brutalist metal architecture. It was a bizarre sight, utterly out of place in the shinobi world. With a sound like a mountain tearing apart, the machine extended massive drill bits from its front and plowed directly into the side of the palace, ripping a gigantic hole in the ancient stonework before grinding to a halt.

*Now that’s a entrance,* Ren mused, leaping down from his perch. He approached the behemoth, curious. *Incredible engineering. A relic of a lost, more technologically advanced age. A pity it’s so cumbersome. Utterly useless for a shinobi.* Dismissing the machine, he turned and strode calmly through the gaping wound it had torn in the palace wall.

Inside, chaos reigned. He found Naruto and Shikamaru in a standoff with a new group of invaders—men and women clad in sleek, functional combat gear, led by a smirking man with cold eyes named Hyde. Their argument was typical hero-villain banter. But Ren’s attention was on the elder, who, seizing the distraction, activated a hidden mechanism. A section of the floor vanished, and the old man and the knight, Temujin, dropped into a dark shaft before it sealed shut again.

Enraged, Hyde blasted the sealed opening apart and leapt down in pursuit. Naruto, predictably, shouted and jumped in after him.

Left behind, Shikamaru and Sakura faced off against Hyde’s two remaining subordinates. Ren paid their scuffle no mind; it was a foregone conclusion. While they were distracted, he simply walked to the edge of the new hole and dropped silently into the darkness.

He landed with a soft *thud* in a vast, subterranean cavern glittering with strange, embedded crystals. The air hummed with latent energy. Below, the final act was playing out. Naruto was getting pummeled. Hyde had undergone a grotesque transformation; his body was swollen with muscle, his skin a mottled grey, and four black, orb-like protrusions floated behind his back. Dozens of Naruto’s shadow clones were popped in an instant, and the real Naruto was sent crashing into a wall with a sickening crunch.

“Hahaha~~ You should just give up!” Hyde boomed, his voice distorted.

Naruto, stubborn to a fault, pushed himself up, blood trickling from his lip. “Let me give up? Stop joking…!”

Hyde sneered and kicked him across the cavern like a ragdoll. “What are you muttering about over there? I think it’s about time you departed for oblivion! Hehehe~~”

Just as Hyde prepared to deliver a final blow, a slow, deliberate clapping sound echoed through the cavern.

*Clap. Clap. Clap.*

Every head turned. Hyde froze, his fist cocked. Naruto blinked, confused. The injured Temujin and the elder looked up, their faces etched with new fear.

Leaning casually against a glowing crystal pillar was a figure they had not seen enter. A young man with dark, spiky hair and cold, observing eyes.

“I said,” Ren began, a faint, mocking smile on his lips as he addressed the stunned room, “why is everyone looking at me? Don’t mind me. Please, continue your fight.”

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