Chapter 486: Six Paths Arato
At the moment of impact, the muscle in Arato's right arm shredded entirely, exposing white bone covered in dense cracks that were close to total failure. Only his left arm bridging across to hold the spear in place prevented the attack from collapsing at the first contact.
The armor fragments from the Susanoo's broken sections scattered outward like blades, carving through Arato from multiple directions at once, leaving cuts deep enough to show bone. Blood soaked through everything almost immediately, covering him from head to foot.
The severed energy muscle segments flew as they broke, each one striking him like an oversized whip, adding fractures and ripped joints to what the blade fragments had already done.
If not for the Yang Release chakra continuously working through his body, he would have lost the ability to continue long before now.
But every unit of chakra going into healing was a unit not going into the attack. The two demands could not both be fully met.
And Yasushi had not even touched his Perfect Jinchuriki reserves. The Adamantine Chains under Susanoo augmentation remained available. He had barely started.
Arato's deterioration was visible. Yasushi could see he had already passed his peak output. There was no complex strategic solution needed: he simply continued pouring chakra into the Susanoo, repairing the damage as fast as it came in.
He was going to outlast him.
It did not take long. Within a few breaths, Arato's energy output began its sharp decline, the vital force under his skin thinning visibly. What had been a ceiling-breaking surge found its actual ceiling after all.
The water spear that had driven several meters into the Susanoo's forehead bone was gradually pushed back out, the advance reversing under sustained chakra pressure until the technique finally gave out completely and dissolved into nothing.
Yasushi brought one hand around in a casual backhanded sweep, the Susanoo's arm carrying the motion, and hit Arato with roughly the same attitude as someone dealing with a fly that had landed in an inconvenient place.
Arato dropped. The impact with the ground produced a crater, the earth transmitting the shock outward in a ring. Dust rose in a column. Water from the disrupted underground table welled up rapidly and covered the crater bottom, swallowing him.
Yasushi waited. He watched the surface and felt the fading signature of Arato's chakra.
It was gone.
He dissolved the Susanoo and landed, turned toward the city, and started walking.
Three steps.
He stopped. He turned around sharply.
The presence he had just confirmed as extinguished was back. Not flickering back slowly. Coming back with rapid acceleration, building past where it had been, like a flame in the dark that you think has gone out and then suddenly understand is much larger than you thought.
The crater was shaking. The surface of the water collected in the bottom had gone from still to actively boiling, bubbles erupting in dense clusters from below. The light coming up through the water was intensifying, the chakra signatures reaching up through the liquid as though something very old was becoming awake under there.
"Are you kidding me."
"You're going to do this to my face again?"
"Which one of us is the protagonist here?"
The reflex preceded the thought. His left hand came up and a partial Susanoo arm materialized from nothing, the enormous palm pushing downward through the rising water with a force that was meant to finish the question before it became a longer answer.
The arm broke the sound barrier on the way down, the shockwave splitting the air above the crater. The water in the pit burst outward under the pressure, throwing up sheets that fell back in cascades on all sides.
It revealed Arato, pushing himself upward from the crater floor.
But the Arato pushing himself up was not the same as the one who had dropped.
Purple light moved around him in something that could be called a chakra cloak. Three black spheres hung in the air behind his back, absorbing the light around them, making it look as though a small section of reality had been excised from the world and left there.
Truth-Seeking Orbs.
The symbol of Six Paths level power.
Yasushi's pupils contracted without his permission.
The massive palm was arriving. Arato looked up.
In his eyes: ringed pupils, concentric circles extending outward, a depth that looked less like it was showing you his eyes and more like it was offering to pull you down into them.
Those were Rinnegan eyes.
Before Yasushi could redirect, Arato raised his hand.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive force erupted from Arato as the center point and drove outward in every direction. Formless, weightless in itself, and more absolute than any physical impact.
The Susanoo arm met it directly. The collision produced a pressure ring in the air that swept a full circuit around the impact zone, doing to the already thoroughly destroyed landscape what the original fight had left undone. Even the crushed stones on the ground were ground further.
Both forces were substantial. They held against each other for a moment. Then the energy arm ran out of the chakra behind it and was driven back, the finger joints shattering and trailing light as they came apart.
Yasushi's mind was running fast through possibilities and none of them explained this.
Why had Arato just entered Six Paths mode?
He had no answer and no time to develop one. He shouted once, threw full focus into the Mangekyo rotation, and reactivated the complete Susanoo.
Arato rose. His body floated upward until he was level with Yasushi on the giant's brow, the chakra cloak moving in the air around him.
"Yasushi. Stop."
"This is not only my wish. It is the wish of the entire shinobi world."
His voice was flat water. But under the surface of it was the specific quality of something that has already decided everything.
"The entire shinobi world."
Yasushi looked at him carefully. His gaze traveled the full length of the figure before settling on Arato's hands.
The left palm showed the symbol of the moon. The right palm showed the symbol of the sun.
He had seen those marks before.
The implication arrived in his mind with the unsettling clarity of a conclusion that could not be argued with once it formed.
"You received the Six Paths Sage's power."
"How could he give it to you?"
The image of the two destined heroes was so deeply established in his internal model of the story that he had never considered anyone else for this role. Arato had no reincarnated Indra or Ashura chakra. What entitled him to stand in for the two sons?
"Because you cause too much harm to the shinobi world."
Arato spoke without any particular inflection but with total conviction.
"You drain the planet's life force in pursuit of greater power. The damage done is catastrophic. Mountains fall. Tsunamis. Constant disaster. Dead land. Crops failing. Living things being erased."
"These are the sins of your future self."
"In the world I come from, no one can stop you anymore. Even the Six Paths Sage cannot."
"That is why he sent me back to this era."
"Here, you have not yet become a god. But the Six Paths Sage already exists."
"Through the chakra he left in my body, as a communication channel, Six Paths Sages from different points in time reached each other and found consensus across the boundary between eras."
"They are using my hands to prevent you. To stop the catastrophe the shinobi world is otherwise heading toward."
"Draining the planet's life force. I'm that impressive in the future?"
A small spike of satisfaction ran through Yasushi before the scale of the described consequences suppressed it.
He considered himself a person with functional values. The described behavior was not consistent with the person he understood himself to be.
"Are you sure that was me?"
"I'm a decent Uchiha with fully intact judgment. I have no intention of turning dark and getting ten times more powerful that way."
"I came to this world to make it better. Not worse."
"You have the wrong target."
"The ones who want to destroy the shinobi world are the Otsutsuki."
Yasushi managed to look genuinely wronged.
Arato had spent his formative years traveling with Zabuza, a figure who operated entirely outside the intelligence networks of the major nations. He genuinely did not know anything about the Otsutsuki beyond surface rumor, and Yasushi's counterargument landed in a gap in his knowledge that he had no way to fill immediately.
He hesitated. Then shook his head.
"I might be deceived by intelligence. The Six Paths Sage cannot be."
"If he says you drained the planet's life force and caused this destruction, then you did."
"I don't know what changes you. I don't need to know."
"I have already been too lenient too many times. This is too serious for another mistake."
Yasushi's patience ended.
His expression dropped the effort of reasonable conversation and what replaced it was direct.
"So you want to keep fighting."
"Fine. Nothing left to say then. Let our fists work it out."
"Six Paths level or not, you don't have a clear advantage over me."
Before he finished the sentence he was already running seals. From behind the complete Susanoo, more than a hundred Adamantine Chains unfurled like a peacock's display, rotating triangular tips at the end of each one, and drove toward Arato in rapid consecutive waves.
Arato extended his palm.
"Shinra Tensei!"
He had seen this setup before and so had Yasushi.
The chains went in ordered groups. One wave hit the repulsive field and was blown back and destroyed. The next group was already arriving before the first had finished scattering. And the group after that was already moving.
Like water against a shore: each impact spent, but the next one already landing.
Under the sustained sequential assault, the repulsive field began to show signs of stress, the invisible surface rippling with small distortions.
By breaking the attack into ordered waves rather than one sustained push, Yasushi eroded the Shinra Tensei incrementally. When it arrived at the complete Susanoo's range, he had already been building the counterattack: the staff swung level at full extension, hitting the weakened field head-on.
The sound it produced was a sharp, single crack.
The field shattered.
The spear continued through, driving directly toward Arato.
The scale mismatch was almost comical. The complete Susanoo's mass against one person was like an elephant's tusk aimed at a single ant. But Arato did not dodge.
One hand reached back. A Truth-Seeking Orb came forward, reshaped itself in transit into a flat-surfaced shield, smooth and featureless. He set his feet and raised it between himself and the incoming blow.
The collision produced something that was less like an impact and more like an event: the air turned white, the light consuming everything in the vicinity of the contact point for a full moment. Every person looking toward this area within a hundred-mile radius was briefly blinded. The sound that arrived was not an explosion so much as a statement, large and resonant, arriving in the chest before the ears processed it.
The shockwave that followed cleared every remaining cloud from the sky, leaving a clean blue overhead as a kind of accidental memorial.
The Truth-Seeking Orb shield had held. The technique had been stopped.
But Arato's body could not absorb the redirected force while maintaining only his own gravitational manipulation. He was launched by his own defense, a straight line outward, moving so fast he went from the collision point to the horizon in a few seconds, visible only as a white contrail that hung in the sky long after he was out of sight.
The complete Susanoo moved. Long strides, following the line of Arato's disappearance, building speed.
Then something came back from the direction Arato had gone.
A black sphere, moving without sound, arriving without warning.
"Planetary Devastation!"
The gravitational field expanded from the sphere outward, formless, with no surface to strike or technique to counter, pulling with the certainty of something that does not need to argue. The complete Susanoo's footing shifted. The ground below it cracked. Rocks pulled free of the earth and began their slow rise, joining the growing mass at the sphere's surface.
The air above the impact zone emptied as the rising material accelerated, the darkness of the accumulating sphere cutting off the light in an expanding shadow.
As the sphere grew, the gravitational force scaled with it, pressing down harder with every meter of added mass.
In the shinobi world, the most unreasonable category of technique was sealing.
With enough chakra, even something divine could be sealed.
But this Six Paths Arato was not the Six Paths Sage himself. The power was borrowed rather than native, the loss in transit substantial. The gap between what he held and the full weight of a true Six Paths technique was real, and it was exactly the gap that Yasushi had to work with.
"You're not the only one with sealing."
He let it out in a shout and brought the chains up.
All of them. More than a hundred Adamantine Chains extending upward simultaneously toward the sphere overhead, each one lengthening as it reached, the tips driving into the surface of the accumulating mass and continuing inward.
The tension in the chains came up until they hummed.
The stone surface where the chains embedded began to loosen and fragment, sections pulling free from the sphere as the chains worked deeper. Large sections of the outer shell dropped back toward the ground, raising dust columns on impact.
The internal structure of the sphere, never stable to begin with, began to shake in complex patterns as the penetrating forces worked against each other.
"Break!"
Yasushi's eyes went hard. Everything available came out through those chains simultaneously: the full tailed beast output, the Susanoo's amplification, driving into the sphere through every insertion point at once.
Every chain pulled outward in a different direction.
The sphere came apart.
Stone in all sizes scattered across the sky, each piece following its own arc, the entire mass dissolving from a coherent object into a region of falling debris that stretched from horizon to horizon.
The gravitational core, destabilized by the sudden structural loss, flickered and went out.
Chapter 487: Sealing the Savior
Shattered rocks rained down like hail, only to be pulverized into powder the moment they drifted too close to the Complete Susanoo.
But a figure flashed through the settling mist, and Six Paths Arato came charging back in.
His right arm rose high. The two remaining Truth-Seeking Orbs fused together, condensing into a single razor-edged spear.
He had not come back empty-handed. The Lightning Water Vortex Spear technique he had used before was layered directly onto the Truth-Seeking Orb lance, coiling around the shaft like a living thing.
High-pressure water lines spun at tremendous speed along the spear body. A lightning dragon screamed and tore back and forth along the outer surface of those water lines, multiplying the weapon's destructive potential far beyond what either element could achieve alone.
He had already proven it in the previous exchange. That dual-nature combination of lightning and water compressed into a single killing strike had the power to breach the Complete Susanoo's absolute defense. Last time he had lost because his body could not sustain the output. Now, with the Six Paths power reinforcing him, he had full confidence in the outcome.
"Uchiha Yasushi, it ends here!"
Six Paths Arato bellowed the words with absolute conviction and drove the spear downward.
The lightning dragon lunged ahead of the strike, crashing into the staff that the Complete Susanoo was already swinging up to meet it.
Landing that hit on the Susanoo's body had been easy the first time, because Yasushi had been too confident in his absolute defense to bother moving. That mistake would not be repeated. Getting through again would not be simple.
Yasushi thrust forward, meeting the Truth-Seeking Orb lance head-on and pushing back against it, driving his own staff directly into the weapon's path rather than yielding.
A thunderous crash split the air as the two weapons met point to point.
For one suspended instant, the world went silent. Everything froze. Only the ringing impact of the collision carried, echoing up through the sky and out across the ruined landscape.
Blinding white light swallowed the battlefield. At the single point where the weapons had met, a black void opened. Space itself had been shattered at that contact point, grinding everything into nothing, chewing through the tip of the Truth-Seeking Orb lance as easily as everything else, bleeding away even light.
The detonation rocked both combatants. The assault of each stalled for just a breath.
Then the two shafts, both stripped of their tips, crashed together again.
And again. Dozens of impacts in an instant, then hundreds.
The collisions rang out without pause, as if some god high above the clouds was hammering a great bell at frantic speed.
Invisible shockwaves rolled outward in continuous waves, scattering fragments of spent energy in every direction. They caught the sunlight as they flew, briefly beautiful before they burned out.
In moments, a winner emerged.
The energy lance was solid, but it was not physical. Against a Truth-Seeking Orb, which destroyed all things without exception, and with two chakra natures reinforcing the strike, it could not hold. With each successive collision the lance repaired itself more slowly than the damage accumulated. Finally, after one last violent exchange, the energy lance shattered completely. Its shards became a torrent of blades that swept toward Six Paths Arato in a dense, driving storm.
A black shimmer pulsed around him. The last Truth-Seeking Orb reshaped into a shield, deflecting every fragment.
"It is over," he said. "This is where it ends."
The Truth-Seeking Orb lance drove forward unopposed.
Yasushi did not flinch. His eyes blazed with something that looked less like fear than hunger.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," he roared back, and both massive arms of the Susanoo folded inward, closing around Six Paths Arato and clamping him tight.
"I've finally got you."
"It won't work." Six Paths Arato held Yasushi's gaze from inside the Susanoo's grip, inches away. The Truth-Seeking Orb had already reshaped itself into a sphere around his body. "You can't break through that. Not with raw force."
The enormous energy palms compressed, but they could not crush the small black sphere. Their power was simply turned aside.
Yasushi's expression shifted into something strange and sharp.
"Break through it?" he said. "Who said anything about breaking through it?"
"I am going to seal you."
"Sealing Jutsu: Adamantine Chains."
"Sealing Jutsu: Desert Burial."
At his shout the golden chains erupted from behind the Complete Susanoo, fanning outward and thinning as they went, becoming dozens of quick, thread-like tendrils that raced along the energy arms and poured into the palms. In an instant they had wrapped the Truth-Seeking Orb sphere a hundred times over.
The chains pulled outward, straining to drag Six Paths Arato away, while simultaneously drinking down his chakra in rapid, continuous pulls.
With that opening secured, Yasushi leapt free of the Susanoo's body in a single motion, leaving only the hollow energy giant standing over Six Paths Arato.
Simultaneously, the sand shell coating the Susanoo's exterior seemed to liquefy. It slid downward, pooling around the Truth-Seeking Orb sphere held in place by the Adamantine Chains, and began to reshape. In seconds it had formed a pyramid.
Black tadpole script poured outward from the apex in every direction, blanketing the structure in dense overlapping seal markings. The Susanoo's own energy body began to dissolve into the formation as it spread, feeding it, accelerating its completion.
Within moments the pyramid had swallowed Six Paths Arato entirely.
Yasushi landed on the ground. He looked up.
The newly formed pyramid was falling from the sky. It hit the earth with a concussive impact, sending a tremor rolling outward in all directions.
He thought through the arithmetic of it calmly.
In the original timeline, the Savior role had been split between two people. Naruto had carried one half of the Six Paths Sage's power, and Sasuke the other. Now both halves had been given to a single person. If anything, Six Paths Arato at full output was numerically stronger than either of them had been individually. He had complete twin Rinnegan. He had the full suite of Rinnegan techniques. He had both Yin and Yang Release. By any standard definition, he qualified as Six Paths level.
His one real limitation was the absence of a tailed beast's limitless chakra supply. Three Truth-Seeking Orbs instead of the potential nine.
None of that had surprised Yasushi. He had expected every bit of it.
What had genuinely concerned him from the beginning was not the Rinnegan or any of the ocular techniques. It was the two marks on Arato's palms.
Those marks were a gift from the Six Paths Sage. Prepared for the world's benefit. If they connected with a target, there was no escape. Yasushi had no illusions about his current ability to resist what Kaguya Otsutsuki herself had been sealed by.
So the moment he saw those marks, his decision was made. Keep him at range. No matter what.
From the very opening of the fight, the entire plan had been built around this ending. Turn his own strategy against him. Seal the Savior.
Sealing a Six Paths level fighter carried one fundamental obstacle: how to make the technique actually reach him. Speed made any approach nearly impossible.
The answer was the oldest trick available.
Use bait.
He had offered the Complete Susanoo as the target, drawing Six Paths Arato in close for a direct exchange, into a locked grapple where neither side could disengage. In that locked moment, when evasion was impossible for both of them, Shukaku had struck from the Susanoo's own body, deploying the sealing technique from the inside.
But that was not enough on its own.
Two A-rank seals together were not sufficient to hold a Six Paths level opponent. Holding someone at that tier required something on the order of the Four Symbols Seal or the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, S-rank at minimum. The Six Paths Chibaku Tensei would have been ideal.
So the instant the pyramid hit the ground, Yasushi was already forming seals again. No hesitation.
He was not the sort to wait for an opponent to finish their move before responding. He had to stay ahead.
"Shukaku, once more."
"Leave it to me."
They were barely set before the pyramid's surface erupted with cracks. Lightning-fast fractures raced across every face, covering the entire structure in a web of breaks, and in the next breath the whole thing blew apart.
"Super Shinra Tensei."
Two A-rank seals stacked together still could not hold a Six Paths level fighter indefinitely. Breaking out required effort, but among all the Rinnegan's techniques, only Super Shinra Tensei could do it. A standard Shinra Tensei lacked the instantaneous force needed against a double A-rank seal. It would have done nothing. And a Truth-Seeking Orb, unstoppable against any single object, was like driving a needle into a whale when the target was a pyramid-scaled sealing formation.
Super Shinra Tensei, a genuine Six Paths Rinnegan technique, was the only viable option. And it worked exactly as expected.
The double seal's pyramid held no better than ordinary rock against that output. The moment the sealing effect was overwhelmed, the structure came apart completely. Every fragment of sand and stone was launched outward by the repulsive force, each pebble accelerated to bullet speed, punching small craters into the earth wherever it landed. Smoke and dust boiled upward in a dense curtain.
Six Paths Arato tore free of the ruined seal, breathing hard, eyes lit with fury and alarm.
He moved to launch himself upward.
The ground gave way beneath him.
Sand cables erupted from under his feet and wrapped around his ankles. He looked down, pupils contracting sharply. The earth had already become flowing quicksand, churning and rising, a vast desert tide pulling upward and inward from all directions, reaching to drag him back under.
"Sealing Jutsu: Desert Burial."
Shukaku's seal technique had reset and engaged again.
Yasushi knew the Rinnegan's library better than the person using it.
Super Shinra Tensei was a sphere, yes. Full coverage, no blind spots. But no one standing on solid ground instinctively blasts the earth beneath their own feet. They push outward. They push upward. They push at the walls of the seal and at the sky. The ground was the natural exclusion.
If chakra had already been fed into the earth before the technique fired, it would be waiting there, untouched, when everything else was cleared away.
There was the second consideration. Super Shinra Tensei was a burst technique, not sustained output. The repulsive field detonated outward and then it was gone. The user sat at the center of an expanding ring, and the zone between them and the leading edge of that field was empty. That gap was exactly where the sand had been planted.
Even if Arato's blast had accounted for the ground, it would not have mattered. The counter had been buried deeper than the initial field reached.
Wave after wave of sand roared together from all directions, and in seconds a new pyramid had taken shape, immense and solid, swallowing the Savior whole again beneath its fresh weight of seal markings.
Super Shinra Tensei had the force to shatter walls and scatter armies. Its cost matched that force. One use exhausted the body's chakra reserves completely in a single discharge.
Under normal conditions, even mid-battle, a Six Paths level fighter's recovery rate would refill those reserves quickly. That was not a concern Yasushi would usually need to account for.
But Arato was inside a seal now.
Inside the seal, chakra circulation was cut entirely. There was no recovering. No refilling. The reserves he had just spent were simply gone.
Only at that point did Yasushi finally let himself believe it was finished. Six Paths Arato was sealed, and there would be no third emergence.
The tension that had been pulled through his entire body like a bowstring finally released, just slightly. He breathed out slowly.
In a fight where everything had been on the line from the first exchange, he was the one still standing.
Chapter 488: The Uchiha Clan Fractures Again
The seal was complete, but that left a rather large pyramid sitting in the middle of an open field. That was not something he could simply walk away from.
The battle had been anything but quiet. Yasushi could not begin to estimate how many people had felt the shockwaves from dozens of miles around. Even within the borders of River Country's own capital territory, he could not guarantee that the city held no informants from the major nations. They would have stayed well back while the fighting was happening. The moment it ended, they would come to investigate.
A pyramid the size of a small hill, covered in seal markings, would answer no questions except one: something was inside it.
Seals worked in one direction. Breaking free from the inside was nearly impossible. Breaking them from the outside was a great deal easier.
He had won this round because Arato had only just reached the Six Paths level and had not yet developed a feel for the full scope of his own power. That opening would not exist a second time. If it came to it again, Yasushi had no confidence he could land the same trap.
And there was the broader problem. The shinobi world was full of unpredictable people. Someone curious, or someone simply careless, could stumble across that pyramid and start picking at the seal markings out of nothing more than idle hands. And Black Zetsu was still out there, an old schemer who actively wanted the world in chaos. Leaving this here was not acceptable.
Yasushi thought it through, satisfied himself that no one was close enough yet, and called on Shukaku once more.
"Shukaku. Bury it. As deep as you can push it."
"Understood."
Shukaku swept a great tail across the ground. The earth beneath the pyramid softened and began to flow like sand. Yasushi watched as the enormous structure sank slowly downward, descending inch by inch until it vanished completely below the surface.
"Deeper."
He was not satisfied. Shukaku said nothing and kept pushing, driving the pyramid further down into the dark, into the deepest and most lightless strata it could reach. The churning sand gradually stilled and hardened back into solid ground. Soil and rock compressed in layers above it, sealing every trace beneath the earth, as though the battle and the sealing had never happened on this stretch of land at all.
Yasushi's gaze lingered on that smooth, undisturbed patch of ground for a moment. He shook his head with mild regret.
A pity he did not have Wood Release. Planting a stand of trees over the site would have made the concealment considerably more convincing.
He swept the scene thoroughly and searched the surrounding area for any sign of White Zetsu hiding underground before he was satisfied. Then he turned and walked back toward the city.
The capital was in an uproar.
The people of River Country had never witnessed anything approaching this scale of destruction. The battle had broken their nerve entirely. If the noble class had not already been replaced wholesale by rogue ninja, the streets would have been clogged with aristocratic carriages fleeing in every direction. Even the rogue ninja, who had seen rather more of the shinobi world's violence, had been rattled. None of them had wanted any part of what was happening just outside the city.
After witnessing the Complete Susanoo the first time, most of them had settled down noticeably. But there had still been a lingering thought in the back of some minds that perhaps the technique had limits, that it could not sustain forever. That thought had died today. No one who had felt the tremors and the shockwaves from miles away, who had watched the sky change colors and the ground crack, retained any such comfort.
The opposite had happened instead. Realizing they had an ally capable of this, a number of them found their loyalty sharpening considerably. They knew who was really behind the daimyo's face.
So when word spread that "Uchiha Yasushi" had won, the city's nobles rushed to the estate in a body to present themselves.
Yasushi dissolved his shadow clone, resumed the daimyo's appearance, and walked out to receive them.
"There is nothing to be concerned about," he said. "Today's events were a private matter, a personal conflict between the former head guard Uchiha Yasushi and an old enemy. It has nothing to do with River Country."
"Issue notices throughout the city. All trade and commerce is to continue normally. There is to be no disruption."
Then came the officials, one after another, reporting losses.
The battle had been fought at some distance from the city, but the aftershocks had still reached the walls. Tremors, pressure waves, blinding light, dust storms, the accumulated collateral from two Six Paths level combatants fighting without restraint had not been kind to civilian infrastructure. Buildings had collapsed. Shops and livestock enclosures had been wrecked. Animals had bolted or gone wild from the noise. Casualties among ordinary residents were still being tallied. The full accounting would take time. What they had so far was an estimate, and it was already a number that gave Yasushi a headache.
"This much damage?" he said, looking over the preliminary figures.
It was the first time he had genuinely felt the weight of governing something.
He had a powerful impulse to set the report aside and pretend he had never seen it.
He did not act on it. He signed off on the emergency fund releases from the daimyo's accounts and allocated money for disaster relief. Then he looked over at the assembled nobles sitting very quietly and smiled to himself.
"Gentlemen," he said, "the city has suffered a calamity today. This is precisely the moment to demonstrate your compassion. I trust you will all dig deep and contribute generously to see the affected residents through this."
Every new noble glanced at every other new noble. No one declined. They bowed their heads together.
"As the Lord Daimyo commands. We will give without reservation."
"Good," Yasushi said.
He thought for a moment, then added: "Send word to the other nations. Uchiha Yasushi fought a great battle here and then departed without a word. He is no longer in River Country. If any of his enemies come looking for him in the future, they should look elsewhere."
He let a note of exasperation enter his voice.
"Look at how much chaos that man brought in the few days he was here. These rogue ninja, not a one of them can be trusted. Nothing but trouble."
The new nobles kept their heads carefully down and said nothing.
The ones who did not know the full picture took this at face value and exhaled with visible relief. Several began volunteering the same advice: rogue ninja should never have been brought in at all, and Takumi Village shinobi would make far more trustworthy guards.
Yasushi accepted this with good grace and let the matter close.
The news spread quickly. Within days, the shape and scale of the battle had propagated across the shinobi world, along with a rough description of the fighter who had faced Yasushi. Every major nation's intelligence services converged on River Country like sharks following blood, sifting through every fragment they could find, trying to assemble a coherent picture of what had happened.
Arato's likeness was copied out a hundred times over and placed on the desks of anyone who might find it useful.
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen sat with that same image in his hands, pipe working steadily, his brow deeply furrowed.
"So this is Arato, who was swept into the past alongside Akakaze through the Dragon Vein."
He set the image down.
"First the Third Kazekage received future intelligence and sent people to kill Uchiha Yasushi. Now this new Dragon Vein traveler has come to do the same thing. Akakaze and Arato had nothing in common except that both of them targeted Uchiha Yasushi."
He picked up the pipe again.
"Which means Jiraiya's intelligence is very likely accurate. Uchiha Yasushi probably does turn against humanity in the future."
He looked up sharply at Minato, who was standing across from him.
"The others on that Dragon Vein traveler list. Any trace of them?"
"None so far," Minato said. He bowed with a troubled expression. "I should mention that Arato came to the village before this. He had a conversation with Yasushi directly. Yasushi reported it to Lord Fugaku at the time and said the visitor seemed to have hostile intentions, possibly targeting him, but that he had misdirected him toward Obito."
"Lord Fugaku passed that on to me afterward and asked me to keep an eye on Obito, see if the hidden enemy could be drawn out. I investigated and did find signs of something, some kind of surveillance on Obito. But whoever it was remained careful, and I was never able to flush them out during the attempts I made. Then the war began and I set the matter aside."
He paused.
"If I had known then that Arato was a Dragon Vein traveler, I would not have let it go."
Hiruzen waved the apology off.
"It is a pity we do not have one of our own among the people who traveled back. We would not be this far behind on intelligence if we did." He glanced back at the report. "Your investigation notes say Arato was spotted in Kirigakure on multiple occasions."
"Yes." Minato straightened and passed over several pages. "He was observed in altercations on multiple occasions. His technique specialty appears to be Water Style at a very high level. Our assessment is that he likely came from Kirigakure originally."
"But the intelligence suggests he has not reconnected with the village and has shown no sign of sharing future information with them."
Hiruzen let out a short, dismissive breath of smoke.
"Knowing Kirigakure and that whole Bloody Mist business, Arato was probably a rogue out of that village to begin with. Going back would be the strange choice."
He sat with it for a moment.
"That actually works in our favor. If he has no village affiliation, we can approach him directly and offer him something. He just fought Yasushi and lost. He is probably still somewhere in the River Country area and he is not going anywhere quickly." He tapped the desk. "Post a mission through the bounty station network, not a combat bounty. Make it clear we want contact, not capture. Send more people toward River Country. I want him found before anyone else reaches him."
Minato acknowledged the order, then hesitated before asking the question that had been waiting.
"What is our village's actual position on Yasushi now? Lord Fugaku and Takeshi have both been pressing hard to know."
Hiruzen's expression shifted. The frown came back.
He blew out a slow ring of smoke.
"When word first came through about an Uchiha unifying the shinobi world and establishing an Uchiha Divine Nation, that clan of theirs was thrilled. Excited as children. They were pushing the village for a formal declaration, demanding we call Yasushi home."
He paused.
"Then Jiraiya's intelligence arrived. The entire Uchiha line turns against humanity. Yasushi leads them into the Otsutsuki's service and becomes a traitor to the shinobi world."
He made a quiet, humorless sound.
Minato's expression became a resigned one. He had no strong personal grievance against the Uchiha. But even from a neutral position, watching them celebrate a future where their clan stood above everyone else had left a sour taste.
Hiruzen considered for a moment.
"Jiraiya's intelligence has been passed to the Uchiha, yes?"
"Yes."
"And their reaction?"
Minato scratched the back of his head.
"From what I can determine, roughly half the clan does not believe it. They refuse to accept that Yasushi would betray anyone, or that they themselves would ever turn against the village."
He continued.
"Among those who do believe it, opinion has split in two directions. One group considers Yasushi a disgrace to the Uchiha name, someone who has thrown away the clan's honor. They have developed a strong personal hatred of him."
He paused.
"The other group remains completely behind him. Whatever he does, they will support it. Even betraying the village. Even betraying the shinobi world. If the goal is building that Uchiha Divine Nation, they are willing to follow him there."
He added quickly: "The genuine fanatics are a minority. Most of the clan genuinely does not believe the intelligence is real."
"Mm." Hiruzen nodded without committing to anything. He asked quietly: "And when the evidence becomes undeniable, when there is no longer any room to doubt, how many of those uncertain ones become fanatics, do you think?"
Minato opened his mouth. Closed it again. Opened it once more.
He had nothing.
The Uchiha temperament was not something that lent itself to prediction. Once they moved in a direction, they could move very far and very fast, and the direction could be almost anything.
Hiruzen did not press him on it. He had put the question to Minato as preparation, not as an examination. Training a successor to think about these possibilities was the point.
"Leave it for now," he said, setting down his pipe and tapping its edge against the table. "The Uchiha have their internal tensions. As long as those tensions are pointing at each other rather than at the village, it does not require immediate handling."
"As for our official position on Yasushi, that is no longer a question the village decides on its own."
He looked at Minato squarely.
"The most urgent matter right now is Jiraiya's proposal. Five Great Nations working together, under the Akatsuki's leadership, to prepare against the alien threat. The survival of the shinobi world is the priority. Nothing else compares."
"Nagato is Jiraiya's student. The Great Toad Sage designated him as the Savior. And Black Zetsu's relationship with the First Hokage's bloodline is what it is. Konoha would have no difficulty accepting this framework."
"The other four nations are another question entirely."
But he looked past Minato as he said it, toward the window and whatever distance lay beyond the glass. In his mind, he saw it again. The wall of dense forest rising from nothing, the trees shooting upward into the sky, a sight he had not seen in decades.
A quiet smile settled at the corner of his mouth.
"After all these years, Konoha finally has a Wood Release user again."
He let the thought settle.
"When the other four nations see Wood Release return to the world, I expect they will find it easier to be reasonable."
"Perhaps this time, the peace we have been waiting for will actually come."
Minato felt it too, that current of genuine hope, and found himself smiling without quite deciding to. He let himself believe, just for a moment, in the future Hiruzen was describing.
Chapter 489: The Shinobi Alliance Is Formed
Lightning Country. Kumogakure.
The battle had barely started before it was over.
A vast forest had erupted from the bare mountain rock, covering everything in dense green. Beneath those towering trees, hanging in their dozens and hundreds, were the shinobi of Kumogakure, their chakra being drained steadily away until they would have nothing left to resist with.
The Third Raikage and Killer B lay on the ground, faces pale, thick roots coiled around every limb, pinned completely. The Eight-Tails had manifested in full, its enormous bulk visible above the treeline, but wooden stakes had been driven through it, nailing it in place like an octopus pinned to an iron board. It thrashed and pulled without any result.
The Third Raikage himself had avoided the Wood Release, but he was locked in close combat with Jiraiya, who wore a white mask and carried dark markings around his eyes, and was fully occupied.
A crawled at the wooden restraints. His strength, which had never failed him, found no purchase. Every effort drained more chakra and tightened the roots further. He stared across the field at the enormous wooden Buddha rising from the earth, its palm pressing down on his father, leaving the Third Raikage pinned and helpless, and his eyes went bloodshot with fury.
"This is impossible."
"Can a single human being actually do this?"
"Just one person."
"This is Wood Release." The Eight-Tails' dispirited voice drifted through the air. "Senju Hashirama used this same technique to sweep through the shinobi world and establish the hidden village system. I had thought that after Hashirama, no shinobi would ever appear at this level again."
A pause.
"I did not expect the second Wood Release user to be Jiraiya of all people rather than someone from the Senju line."
"Konoha never runs out of talent."
By the time the Eight-Tails finished speaking, the battle was already done. The Third Raikage alone was no match for Jiraiya as he stood now, and had been brought down without much difficulty. Once the Wood Release had absorbed enough of the Third Raikage's chakra, Jiraiya released the wooden Buddha, let it dissolve, and touched down lightly. He walked forward to face the Third Raikage directly and spoke with complete sincerity.
"Lord Raikage, I trust you can now take seriously what I said before."
"I have found the Savior that the Great Toad Sage's prophecy described. I am asking Kumogakure to stand with him, to join in fighting for the safety and peace of the shinobi world."
The Third Raikage's forehead veins were visible from several feet away. His eyes were fully red with fury. He stared at Jiraiya with unconcealed hatred.
But a fool could not run a village.
Whatever impression the Third Raikage chose to present in ordinary times, on matters of real consequence he was clear-headed about when to yield and when to hold. Kumogakure's position right now did not allow him to refuse.
After a long and deliberate silence, he let out a slow breath and lowered his head.
"Fine."
"Your village has the bigger fist. We will do it your way."
"Senju Hashirama was like this. Now you are like this. Damn it all."
Jiraiya released the Wood Release. He let everyone down from the trees, then turned back to the Third Raikage with a formal and earnest apology.
"I am sorry. I did not want to resort to force. But your people would not stop to hear me out, and I had no other option."
The Third Raikage made a short, dismissive sound, pulled himself off the ground, and walked back toward the village without looking at Jiraiya.
"Come inside. We can discuss the specifics of your alliance."
Jiraiya followed immediately. A and Killer B exchanged a single glance from the ground, then got up and moved quickly to catch up.
The ordinary shinobi who had been injured outside the village were left to the Raikage's aides to deal with.
When Jiraiya walked back through Kumogakure's gates, every set of eyes that found him had changed. Before, he had been one of Konoha's Three Legendary Shinobi, respected but not feared, given courtesy without awe. That was finished. No one in the village looked at him now with anything less than full deference.
After tea had been brought and they were seated again, Jiraiya went through everything he had explained before, this time with the Third Raikage actually listening.
"Please understand, Lord Raikage, we have no intention of absorbing Lightning Country or Kumogakure. Every country and every village remains independent. We are asking only for a level of intelligence sharing and coordinated action under the Akatsuki's leadership to address a threat that none of us can handle alone. This is not directed at any nation in the shinobi world. It is directed at the Otsutsuki clan, who will be coming."
The Third Raikage no longer felt free to dismiss the claim as fiction, but the intelligence itself remained extraordinary.
"Dragon Vein travelers, I can accept, strange as it sounds. But this future intelligence is a great deal to swallow. Is there genuinely an enemy capable of destroying the entire shinobi world alone?"
Jiraiya paused, and when he spoke there was something genuine in his voice.
"I would not have believed it either, not long ago."
"But you just watched me use Wood Release. Does a single person overpowering an entire nation still seem impossible to you after that? If I can reach that level, why is it so difficult to accept that others have surpassed even me, to the point of threatening the whole world on their own? And the Otsutsuki are not ordinary humans. They come from beyond the stars. Their lifespans border on the eternal."
"On that point," Jiraiya continued, "Black Zetsu has mentioned that your Eight-Tails, Gyuki, could confirm this directly. The Six Paths Sage who divided the tailed beasts was himself a member of the Otsutsuki clan, known as Hagoromo Otsutsuki."
"Is that true?" the Third Raikage asked quickly, looking to Killer B.
The Eight-Tails hesitated inside him before responding through Killer B's voice.
"I do know the old man's name was Hagoromo Otsutsuki, yes. But I have not encountered any other Otsutsuki since I was separated from the original beast. I cannot say whether they are extraterrestrial."
Killer B relayed this, and the Third Raikage nodded slowly. Something in his expression had shifted.
"All right then. Until we can locate other Dragon Vein travelers to corroborate, we will proceed as though the intelligence is accurate."
"If this is genuinely about protecting the shinobi world, Kumogakure can contribute its share."
He held up a hand before Jiraiya could respond.
"But I want to be clear about the terms before we go any further. We will accept the Akatsuki's leadership only in matters relating to this external threat. Village affairs are ours to manage. You do not interfere."
Jiraiya agreed without hesitation.
"You have my word. Nagato has no appetite for authority. He is not the kind of man who reaches for power."
"Good." The Third Raikage nodded, then fixed Jiraiya with a steady look. "One more thing. You mentioned that both you and the First Hokage received your Wood Release from Black Zetsu. Is that correct?"
"It is," Jiraiya said, with visible reverence. "Black Zetsu has always preferred to stay out of sight. Most people have never heard of him. If he had not chosen me and awakened this ability in me, we might never have known the connection existed, still trying to awaken Wood Release in Hashirama's descendants."
The Third Raikage wet his lips.
"For the sake of resisting this enemy, we need to raise the overall combat level of the shinobi world. If Black Zetsu can awaken Wood Release, there is no reason he should only do so for Konoha."
"Kumogakure wants one Wood Release user as well."
Jiraiya hesitated.
He was not naive. Kumogakure had not submitted out of any genuine concern for the shinobi world. They had submitted because he had just proved he could take their entire village apart by himself. If Kumogakure received Wood Release too, their willingness to keep following along was no longer guaranteed.
"Is that a problem?"
The Third Raikage watched Jiraiya steadily, probing.
"If our information is correct, Nagato is your student. And Black Zetsu has a close relationship with Konoha. That means the three leading figures of this Akatsuki are all Konoha people. Under those conditions, how do you expect the rest of us to believe this organization will not favor Konoha in practice? If real fighting starts, how do we know you will not send us out as cannon fodder?"
"We would never do that," Jiraiya said quickly. "Never."
"And it is not that I am unwilling to agree. The awakening process is genuinely difficult and extremely dangerous. And even after a successful awakening, the resulting power varies greatly between individuals. Not everyone will reach my level."
"Part of the reason I performed so strongly just now is the Sage Mode I trained at Mount Myoboku. Without that amplification, I would still be very powerful, but taking Kumogakure by myself would not have been so straightforward."
The Third Raikage absorbed this.
Sage Mode was no secret. Hashirama had been known for it. The three great sage training grounds were not hidden. Cloud had always known it existed and had its own limited paths to such training. But in practice it was far beyond most people's reach, the failure rate was brutal, and the process had a tendency to kill those who attempted it without the necessary talent.
Knowing something was valuable was not the same as being able to obtain it.
"Sage Mode can wait. What we want to know right now is whether our shinobi can have Wood Release."
"In principle, yes. But I would need to consult Black Zetsu first. Each awakening requires one of his White Zetsu, which is a limited resource. I cannot make that decision on his behalf."
The Third Raikage could see he had pushed as far as he could for now, and nodded.
"You understand that we answer to our daimyo. If I am going to ask Kumogakure to operate under the Akatsuki's authority, I need to persuade him. Having a Wood Release user to show him makes that argument considerably easier."
And on that basis, the two reached a preliminary agreement. The shinobi alliance had its first foundation.
Jiraiya said his farewells and traveled on to Iwagakure.
Onoki, that old survivor, proved immediately amenable the moment he confirmed Jiraiya's Wood Release was real. Especially upon learning that Kumogakure had already agreed. He had not lived this long by being the last to adapt.
That said, he had spent too many years in politics to walk away from a negotiation without something. After learning exactly what the Third Raikage had requested, he promptly made the same demand: equal treatment, one Wood Release user for Iwagakure as well.
Jiraiya agreed, and the same preliminary terms were reached.
Then came Sunagakure and Kirigakure.
Sunagakure agreed almost immediately. They did not even raise the Wood Release condition. They accepted Jiraiya's terms without significant resistance.
Kirigakure was less cooperative. After verbal persuasion failed to produce results, Jiraiya changed his approach. He deployed Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees directly outside Kirigakure's gates. For anyone who remained unpersuaded after that, he followed it with Sage Art: Wood Release: True Thousands of Hands.
Jiraiya, plus White Zetsu, plus Sage Mode: a smaller-scale Hashirama.
Hashirama had done this to Kirigakure before, a long time ago. The result then had been that Kirigakure discovered a deep and abiding love of peace. Facing the same circumstances again, they found themselves loving the same peace with equal fervor.
By the time Jiraiya completed his circuit, all five major nations had been brought to agreement. With the five major nations in, the smaller countries had no real alternative.
Jiraiya returned to the base in high spirits and delivered his full report to Nagato and Black Zetsu, including the requests from Lightning and Earth Countries.
He also expressed his private concern: once those two villages received Wood Release users, they might decide they no longer needed to cooperate.
Black Zetsu, hearing this, could not have been more pleased.
In the past, getting a White Zetsu into a powerful shinobi's body had required careful maneuvering, secrecy, manufactured circumstances that left someone badly wounded with no other options, or elaborate manipulation over months. Powerful fighters who came forward and asked to be given the procedure were a first.
This was not an opportunity to decline.
"Please set your mind at ease, Lord Jiraiya. I can meet their request."
"As for the concern you mentioned, that will not be an issue."
"The White Zetsu used in each awakening is not the same quality. Different materials produce meaningfully different results. Anyone who undergoes the procedure will indeed develop Wood Release, but the strength gained varies considerably depending on the individual White Zetsu used."
"The one I gave you was the finest available. No one else in the shinobi world who undergoes this awakening will be able to match your level. Not even close."
Jiraiya relaxed completely, reassured.
He moved immediately, issuing a formal announcement in the Akatsuki's name to all nations, inviting their representatives to come together for a summit and formally declaring the establishment of the Shinobi Alliance.
Chapter 490: A Present: The Head of Uchiha Madara
River Country. The capital.
In the aftermath of the battle, intelligence operatives from every major nation had flooded the city to investigate. They came and went in such numbers that the place resembled a sieve. To avoid exposing themselves, Yasushi and all the new nobles stayed quietly in their respective residences and caused no trouble.
Yasushi had cleaned everything up thoroughly. The only trace the investigators found was a handful of details about Arato's movements. Nothing deeper could be uncovered, and after several fruitless days of searching, the operatives left with little to show for their effort.
Their presence had at least been useful in one incidental way. The chaos that had followed the disaster, all the petty disorder that tends to fill a city after a catastrophe, had been largely cleaned up by the investigators going about their business.
On this particular morning, Yasushi was staring at another stack of disaster relief funding requests and feeling the very strong urge to abandon the entire enterprise.
The shinobi world was genuinely better suited to killing people. Running a country was a different kind of problem entirely, and it did not suit him at all.
"My lord." Jun appeared and reported quietly. "A messenger from the Akatsuki has arrived. They are extending invitations to the daimyo of all nations to attend a summit in the Land of Iron. The messenger is one of the White Zetsu."
"White Zetsu?" Yasushi blinked. "They already know I am not the real daimyo. Why are they coming here?"
River Country's intelligence network was limited, covering mostly domestic affairs with little outward reach. But a capital city with heavy merchant traffic absorbed news from the outside world eventually, just more slowly than the major nations. He had heard about Jiraiya's tour through the five nations and the return of Wood Release to the world. The details of the alliance were murkier, and he had not known the specific terms.
If White Zetsu was at the door, there was no reason to turn him away.
"Bring him in."
"Quite polite this time around."
A moment later, White Zetsu walked in looking presentable and bowed with full ceremony.
"Greetings, Lord Daimyo."
Yasushi's expression flattened. He waved off the formality and went straight to the point.
"The five major nations have always run the shinobi world on their own terms. What is the point of a shinobi alliance? What are you people building now?"
This White Zetsu was visibly not the familiar one he had dealt with before, the one with no self-control. This one answered in measured, precise terms.
"The Shinobi Alliance is organized around the Akatsuki as its core, bringing together the strength of every nation in the shinobi world. Through intelligence sharing, resource cooperation, and mutual military support, its purpose is to resist the coming invasion of the Otsutsuki clan."
Yasushi's jaw dropped.
"Black Zetsu is going to lead the shinobi world against Otsutsuki aliens?"
White Zetsu shook his head and corrected him patiently.
"Not Black Zetsu leading the resistance. Lord Nagato is leading the resistance. Lord Nagato is the core of the Akatsuki and the Savior of the shinobi world. Black Zetsu is simply a willing member who was moved by the Savior's cause and joined accordingly."
Yasushi stared at the White Zetsu for a long moment, then started laughing.
"Nagato? How could I not know what Nagato's situation actually is? Those eyes of his belong to Uchiha Madara. What Savior? You have just changed your method. You still intend to use him to resurrect Uchiha Madara in the end."
"That is no longer the plan."
"When we became aware that the Otsutsuki would come for our mother, we abandoned the Moon's Eye Plan entirely."
"As a gesture of good faith, we brought a gift."
White Zetsu reached into his own body and withdrew a sealed scroll. He formed the necessary seals to open it, produced a square box, and presented it with both hands.
Jun stepped forward, examined it carefully, confirmed it was safe, and set it on the table.
Yasushi flipped the lid open.
An old man's head sat neatly on silk brocade inside.
He had never seen this face before, but something about it was immediately recognizable. Even in death, even drained of life, there was an unmistakable quality of arrogance and dominance that clung to the features.
"This is Uchiha Madara."
Yasushi stood up sharply, staring at this unexpected delivery with a mix of surprise and deep suspicion, half-expecting someone to leap out and attack him at any moment.
White Zetsu remained unhurried, voice completely even.
"Uchiha Madara was the central figure of the Moon's Eye Plan. By killing him, we have made it impossible to continue cooperating with him, and by doing so we demonstrate that the Moon's Eye Plan has been abandoned without reservation."
"From this point forward, those Rinnegan belong to Lord Nagato by birth. No one can argue otherwise."
White Zetsu said this with a completely straight face, as though every word were self-evident truth, but Yasushi knew Black Zetsu far too well to believe any of it. He smiled coldly.
"Black Zetsu can abandon the Moon's Eye Plan. But can Black Zetsu abandon rescuing his mother? Killing Madara only tells me Black Zetsu changed the rescue method. It proves nothing else."
White Zetsu had apparently anticipated this.
"Before the threat of the Otsutsuki clan is fully resolved, we will not restart any rescue operation. You should have no reason to doubt that specific point."
Yasushi started to argue, then stopped himself.
Black Zetsu did not actually know what the arriving Otsutsuki were capable of. From Yasushi's own vantage point, knowing everything, Kaguya's Bloodline Encompassing was a completely different category of power from Momoshiki and Kinshiki. But from Black Zetsu's perspective, working from incomplete information, the logical assumption would be that any Otsutsuki hunters capable of pursuing a "rogue member" would have to be stronger than the rogue they were hunting.
If that was Black Zetsu's working model, then the logic held in a very specific way.
Yasushi blinked, thought it through, and let a smile settle on his face.
"So Black Zetsu intends to deal with those Otsutsuki first, and then revive Kaguya?"
"That is correct." White Zetsu nodded. "Time means little to us. We can wait a hundred years if necessary, until after your natural death, and then begin the rescue. We have no interest in creating difficulties for you."
Yasushi's smile widened.
Black Zetsu did not know what Yasushi knew. The future development of the shinobi world would far exceed anyone's current projections. A hundred years was nothing. By the time the Kara Organization rose and biological engineering techniques became widespread, Kaguya Otsutsuki would be just another problem to solve.
"That sounds reasonable enough."
"But what exactly do you need from me by coming here?"
White Zetsu answered directly.
"The Shinobi Alliance exists, but what holds it together is one-sided information management and carefully constructed deception. Those constructions are solid. Under normal conditions they cannot be dismantled."
"The only exception is the Dragon Vein travelers."
"After thorough investigation by the five major nations and our own searches, only three travelers can be accounted for. One is Akakaze from Sunagakure, who is dead. His remaining intelligence is too fragmentary to do significant damage. The second is Arato, who came to kill you and has now been sealed by you. As long as neither of us reveals that, the five nations will never find him."
"That leaves only you as the one person capable of dismantling the alliance we have worked to build."
At the mention of Arato, Yasushi's expression went cold.
He had been careful. But it had not been careful enough to stay out of Black Zetsu and White Zetsu's awareness.
White Zetsu did not appear to register the dangerous quality that had entered Yasushi's gaze, and continued without pausing.
"You are certainly aware of how deeply we fear the coming Otsutsuki invasion. On other matters you may not trust us. But when it comes to resisting the external threat, our interests align with yours completely."
"We are not asking you to do anything on our behalf. We are only asking you to remain silent about certain things and to avoid disrupting the narrative we have established. Nothing more."
"If you agree, there may even be room for further cooperation going forward. We would be glad to support you in realizing the Uchiha Divine Nation."
White Zetsu finished and stood still, letting Yasushi look him over for as long as he wished.
After a long silence, Yasushi spoke.
"The Divine Nation can wait for another time."
"As it happens, I have something I need from you."
"Please say it, Lord Yasushi."
Yasushi laid out his plan in brief. White Zetsu listened, tilted his head slightly as though communicating with someone at a distance, then after a moment smiled and nodded.
"No problem at all. Lord Yasushi's plan also helps consolidate the shinobi world's strength, which serves our own purposes. We will give our full support."
Yasushi was immediately pleased, and had Jun go call the new nobles in for a meeting.
Shortly afterward the new nobles departed and returned to their own residences, shutting their doors to outside visitors.
That night, a large number of shinobi gathered outside the city under cover of darkness and moved out in every direction under White Zetsu's coordination.
Several days later. The border of the Land of Birds.
The heat was oppressive. Even the animals had stopped moving.
A procession of carriages and horses moved slowly along a dirt road, surrounded front and back by a dense formation of guards.
Supply wagons led and followed the column. Only the central carriage, ornately decorated, had voices coming from it.
"What are the five major nations thinking with this alliance business? They want to bring the whole shinobi world under one banner now?"
"And this Akatsuki, wherever it came from, the five nations are actually deferring to it?"
The Land of Birds daimyo lay on his back across silk cushions, frowning and complaining without pause. The attendants around him kept their heads low and moved their fans quietly, too cautious to offer opinions. Only the steward across from him maintained a servile smile and kept the conversation going.
"The five major nations have been fighting one another without stop. They have all taken heavy losses."
"Meanwhile our Land of Birds has been developing steadily under your lordship's wise governance. We have been growing at a remarkable pace."
"If they keep fighting each other the way they have been, in a few years some of them may not even match our national strength."
"I imagine the five nations have recognized this. The alliance is most likely their way of announcing they are done fighting each other."
"And this invitation to the daimyo of all nations is probably meant to make clear where everyone stands."
The daimyo sat up immediately, fully convinced. He smiled with self-satisfaction and was just beginning to comment on his own distinguished leadership when the carriage lurched to a sudden stop. Screaming erupted outside.
"Assassins!"
"Protect the Lord Daimyo!"
The daimyo went white and began to shake. He pressed himself into the far corner of the carriage, grabbed a nearby attendant and pulled her in front of him as a potential shield, and began shouting incoherent orders.
"You, get out there and stop them!"
"Where are the ninja? Where are my guards?"
"Stop them!"
The steward's face drained of color, but refusing the daimyo's orders was not an option. He held up a wooden stool in front of himself as a shield and pushed the carriage door open.
The moment he stepped out, a blade caught the light.
He raised the stool on instinct. It was cut cleanly in half.
He cried out, felt a sharp impact at the back of his neck, and lost consciousness.
When he came around, an indeterminate time later, someone was shaking him awake. Through the fog he could hear the daimyo's voice, loud and full of furious energy.
"Outrageous! Mere mountain bandits daring to strike at a daimyo's person! This will not go unanswered! I will make absolutely certain that"
The steward lurched upright and looked toward the daimyo.
The daimyo was covered in blood and standing over the bodies of several attendants who had not survived. But he himself was completely unharmed.
The steward exhaled in relief. He checked his own neck, then ran his hands quickly over the rest of himself. He was alive. Every limb present. Not even a scratch.
He assumed, naturally enough, that the guard ninja had killed the attackers and protected everyone. But when he looked around, roughly half of those guard ninja were dead on the ground.
He pulled in a sharp breath and stopped looking. He got up and hurried to stand beside the daimyo.
The daimyo vented his fury for a while longer, then climbed back into the carriage still muttering curses.
The steward followed quickly, cleared away everything the blood had spoiled, and sent someone to the supply wagons for replacements. When everything was in order, he cautiously asked:
"My lord, shall we turn back?"
"Turn back?" The daimyo's voice went sharp. "Do you think we can simply decline the five major nations' invitation?"
"Send word home. Have them dispatch more guards immediately. Once reinforcements arrive, we continue."
The steward went out and passed on the orders. The escort captain set up camp on the spot and sent riders back to bring additional forces.
Inside the carriage, with the door shut, the daimyo settled comfortably onto the cushions and began to enjoy the journey.
Over the following days, a number of minor nation daimyo traveling to the summit encountered ambushes along their routes and survived by apparent good fortune.
No one knew that in the confusion of each attack, the person sitting in the center carriage had been quietly replaced.
The real daimyo, each one, had been rolled up in a scroll and carried away.