Chapter 491: A Traitor Among the Daimyo
The Land of Iron.
This place had always been considered neutral ground, which was why it kept getting chosen for negotiations and summits of all kinds. The people of the Land of Iron had more experience hosting these events than anyone else in the shinobi world.
In a wide hall, a round table sat at the center with several dozen seats arranged around it. Normally the inner ring would have held five seats, reserved for the five great daimyo. Today there were six.
Nagato occupied the head position with his back perfectly straight, Jiraiya and Black and White Zetsu standing on either side behind him.
The five great daimyo sat around the table.
In name they were all seated at the same level, but the invisible pressure in the room had drawn an unspoken line straight through the middle. One half of the table belonged to the Savior Nagato. The other half was shared among the five daimyo. That quiet difference in standing left all of them deeply uncomfortable, unable to sit naturally no matter how they shifted in their chairs.
They wore uniformly sour expressions and said nothing.
The five Kage stood behind their respective daimyo as guards.
In the wider seating area beyond the inner ring sat the minor nation daimyo.
Yasushi, dressed in full noble regalia with his tall formal hat, sat among them looking entirely at home, exchanging subtle glances with certain others in the crowd.
With White Zetsu working from the inside, his people had positioned themselves along the travel routes without difficulty. Ambushing unsuspecting targets yielded a high success rate. Of the several dozen minor nation daimyo present, at least a third had been quietly replaced by his operatives.
He had also given White Zetsu his word that he would work quietly to help the summit reach agreement.
For the sake of clearing the path for his mother's eventual resurrection, Black Zetsu was clearly willing to use any method available.
Once everyone had arrived and taken their seats, Nagato gave Jiraiya a slight nod. Jiraiya stood and spoke.
"We invited all of you here today for the sake of the shinobi world's future peace and safety."
He delivered several lines of framing, then laid out the relevant intelligence and concluded:
"To face these powerful invaders, it is essential that we consolidate the shinobi world's full strength, pooling resources, sharing intelligence, and presenting a unified front."
"I propose establishing a Shinobi World Defense Coordination Center here in the Land of Iron, staffed by elite shinobi contributed by each nation, responsible for managing all joint resources."
"Every nation's intelligence network must be integrated into this system to ensure complete awareness of any development anywhere in the shinobi world."
"When hostilities begin, operational orders will be issued from this center. Every nation must comply fully."
"Wartime supplies will be provided first by whichever nation is closest to the active front, with other nations supplementing afterward."
Before Jiraiya finished, the minor nation daimyo section erupted into cross-talk. These terms were a transparent transfer of authority away from the daimyo class, and no daimyo was going to accept that willingly.
One voice cut through the noise quickly, looking to stir the five great daimyo into action.
"The shinobi world has always been governed by daimyo. Who gave the Akatsuki any authority here?"
"This person called Nagato, what noble lineage does he come from? Who are his ancestors?"
"On what basis does he presume to interfere in our nations' internal affairs?"
"Just because a few people called him Savior does not mean he can forget where he came from and start putting himself above us."
"The alliance should be led by the five major nations. Nothing more is needed."
"The great daimyo before us are distinguished and farsighted leaders. Their guidance is sufficient to resist any alien invasion. We have no need for anyone calling themselves a Savior."
These daimyo were committed believers in the primacy of bloodline, and a crowd that agreed with them was easy to find. Within moments, a chorus of small nation daimyo had joined in. Yasushi and his operatives added their voices to the noise with everyone else.
Even the five great daimyo looked somewhat more comfortable hearing it.
But they had all been on the receiving end of a Wood Release demonstration and knew the limits of their position. They were practical enough to adapt, as daimyo often were over the long run. At worst, they could outlast Jiraiya the same way their predecessors had eventually outlasted Hashirama. Shinobi had their decades of dominance, but the world ultimately returned to daimyo and nobility. The five great daimyo sat completely still, closed their eyes, and played dead. They were not going to be the ones to stick their necks out on anyone else's behalf.
The smaller daimyo who had been leading the protest kept shouting, but as the silence from the five great daimyo stretched on, their confidence visibly faltered. The man who had stepped furthest out felt the ground getting uncertain but had no way to retreat without looking worse, so he kept pushing.
"If our opinions mean nothing, then why were we invited here at all? Just to fill the seats?"
"Go ahead and do what the five major nations always do. Decide everything among yourselves and then notify the rest of us to comply. We have no way to refuse the five major nations anyway."
Nagato spoke then, his voice level.
"We do not know when the Otsutsuki will arrive, or where. To prevent individual nations from being picked off separately, consolidating the whole shinobi world's strength is necessary."
"The five major nations are the strongest force in this world, but they do not cover everything. There are large areas outside their reach that no one currently controls."
"The intelligence gaps are even worse. Despite all the effort spent, not one Dragon Vein traveler has been located except for Akakaze, who returned on his own. That is unacceptable."
"Shinobi conflict is ultimately decided by intelligence. Locating the remaining travelers and obtaining complete information about what is coming is the single highest priority. The five major nations cannot accomplish that alone. We need the full shinobi world working together."
He let the last sentence settle before continuing.
"I understand that most of you are proud of your bloodlines and see no reason to accept orders from the Akatsuki. But for the safety of the shinobi world, anyone who opposes the alliance and refuses to comply with the Akatsuki's direction must be removed. Without exception, even if they are a daimyo."
The room erupted.
Multiple daimyo were on their feet at once, pointing at Nagato.
"You insolent creature!"
"Not even the Kage speak to us this way!"
"This world is governed by daimyo. Do not think that a little power gives you the right to raise your hand against us!"
"Do not let a few admirers convince you that you are actually a Savior!"
Jiraiya had been keeping his composure, but watching Nagato get screamed at broke it. His chakra spiked outward with a sharp burst.
"Enough."
"We invited you here to consolidate the shinobi world's strength through peaceful means. But you will treat the Savior with appropriate respect, or I will be glad to demonstrate exactly what it means when a shinobi loses patience."
The pressure of that chakra was enough. Every daimyo in the room lurched, several nearly toppling from their chairs, all of them going pale. The shouting stopped immediately.
But the resentment in their eyes was clear. They had been silenced by force, not convinced. Once they returned home, they would cooperate on paper and find every quiet way available to undermine the Akatsuki's authority in practice.
Jiraiya recognized this and felt the problem weigh on him. He had steeled himself for the difficulty, but his instincts recoiled at opening a precedent of killing daimyo. Once that line was crossed, even a victory over the alien invaders might leave the Akatsuki too compromised to hold the shinobi world together afterward. Without something to coordinate and channel the shinobi world's tendencies, it would slide back toward the same cycle of endless warfare.
While he was working through this, a hand went up among the minor nation daimyo.
"Lord Jiraiya. River Country pledges full and unwavering loyalty to the Akatsuki and will support every directive without exception. Whatever is needed, money or supplies, we will provide it."
Jiraiya's relief was immediate.
"River Country's support is greatly appreciated, Lord Daimyo. Please be assured, our only purpose is to gather resources in service of protecting the world. We have no interest in interfering in any nation's internal affairs."
"I have no doubt of that, Lord Jiraiya," Yasushi said pleasantly, meeting Black Zetsu's gaze across the room. No words were needed.
The other daimyo stared in furious disbelief.
A traitor in their midst. The shock gave way almost immediately to contempt, and their anger, too nervous to land on Jiraiya, found an easier target.
"Outrageous!"
"How dare you betray the daimyo as a class!"
"Surrendering to a commoner, you have no right to call yourself a daimyo!"
"What a disgrace to River Country!"
Yasushi turned to Nagato with an expression of mild helpfulness.
"Lord Nagato. Lectures and moral arguments will not unite the shinobi world, and raw strength alone may not be enough either. Even if you kill these daimyo, their children will be daimyo after them, and they will find just as many ways to be uncooperative."
"But I believe I have a solution that resolves this entirely."
Nagato, who was young and had limited experience with this kind of politics, leaned forward with visible interest.
"What solution?"
Yasushi smiled pleasantly.
"As I see it, the five major nations are now fundamentally aligned with you. They will follow your orders, which means you can direct the minor nations through them."
"A great many countries have disappeared from the shinobi world over the past few hundred years. A few more vanishing would not be remarkable."
"The nations that join the alliance are allies. Those that refuse have no reason to continue existing."
"There are dozens of countries in the shinobi world. Perhaps the number could be reduced. Six might be the right size."
"River Country is prepared to follow behind the five major nations in eliminating any country unwilling to contribute to the shinobi world's peace and safety. We would naturally participate in dividing any absorbed territory and population with the five major nations afterward."
"River Country would welcome the opportunity to become one of the great nations in the process."
"Please be assured, Lord Nagato, that even as a great nation, River Country will remain completely committed to following the Akatsuki's directives."
Before he had finished speaking, the replaced daimyo in the room picked up the signal and began declaring their own positions.
"Lord Nagato, the Land of Birds pledges loyalty to the Akatsuki and asks to be recognized as a new great nation."
"Lord Nagato, the Land of Stone"
"Lord Nagato, the Land of Fields"
The cascade of declarations landed on the remaining daimyo like a physical blow.
"What?"
"How can you do this?"
Shock turned to fury and then, when they looked at the five great daimyo still sitting calmly with their eyes half-closed, to sudden understanding.
"So this was the five major nations' plan all along."
"Shinobi alliance. Nonsense. This was always about the five major nations swallowing everyone else and taking the whole shinobi world."
"And River Country figured it out first, that is why they moved so quickly."
Minor nation daimyo were, as a rule, people who had been kept in a comfortable vacuum for too long. Daimyo as a class enjoyed a kind of structural untouchability that meant almost nothing in the shinobi world threatened them directly. That immunity produced a complete failure to understand power and a consistent inability to respect or fear those who actually wielded it.
They had been willing to snap at a man with the Rinnegan because the threat was abstract. But the five major nations were something they could understand concretely, and the moment they believed those nations intended to erase them, their resistance collapsed completely.
"Lord Nagato, we wish to pledge loyalty to the Akatsuki as well!"
"Lord Nagato, please accept our sincerity!"
"Lord Nagato, the Akatsuki has only to ask. Resources, personnel, whatever is needed. We want to contribute to the shinobi world's safety!"
Nagato and Jiraiya exchanged a glance, both somewhat at a loss. Only Black Zetsu nodded quietly to himself, entirely satisfied, quietly certain that bringing Yasushi into the alliance had been a sound decision.
The method had been undignified, but the outcome was what it needed to be. Every minor nation daimyo in the room had agreed to operate under the Akatsuki's leadership.
Nagato set aside the untidy details and rose with a smile to make the announcement.
"Since we have reached a consensus, we will proceed according to the original proposal."
"Each nation is to have the relevant personnel and resources fully prepared within one month. The Defense Coordination Center will begin operations on schedule."
"The first task is to locate the two remaining Dragon Vein travelers."
He looked out at the assembled room.
"Arato."
A pause.
"And Uchiha Yasushi."
Chapter 492: The Sixth Great Nation Appears
The summit concluded successfully.
There were still plenty of disagreements on the finer points of cooperation between nations, but the overall framework had been established and would not change. After several days of detailed discussion, a formal treaty was produced, signed by every daimyo in attendance, and declared in effect.
With the agreement finalized, the five major nations moved personnel into the Land of Iron's new coordination base as quickly as they could, extending their reach toward the smaller nations. The minor nation daimyo departed with varying degrees of visible resentment. Yasushi and his new daimyo operatives made a show of boarding their carriages and leaving the Land of Iron along with the rest.
They did not travel far.
"A moment, Lord Daimyo of the Land of Rain. My companions and I would like a word with you."
The other daimyo, not being addressed, paid no attention and continued on their way.
Yasushi's group dismounted from their carriages and had someone bring up a small earth-style shelter from the ground. It was plain, but the minimum requirements of noble hospitality still had to be observed. Rugs were laid, cushions arranged, and only then was the Rain Country daimyo invited inside.
The Rain Country daimyo looked over the sparse room with a trace of displeasure.
"If you had something to discuss, Lord of River Country, why not raise it in the Land of Iron? Why bring me all the way out to an empty field?"
Yasushi offered an apologetic smile.
"It was an unavoidable inconvenience. The Land of Iron calls itself neutral, but in practice it serves the five major nations. Anything we say there reaches them within the day. Hardly an ideal setting for a frank conversation."
The Rain Country daimyo, who was carrying considerable resentment of his own from the summit, absorbed this without further objection, walked in, and sat down.
Yasushi and the other new daimyo seated themselves slightly below him.
Tea was prepared. Then Yasushi began.
"My lord, the situation in the shinobi world is becoming clear."
"The five major nations have decided to unify the shinobi world under their control."
"If we do not stand together, the smaller nations will be absorbed one by one."
The Rain Country daimyo's expression soured immediately. His voice held more bravado than substance.
"The Land of Rain is not so easy to threaten," he said, putting a hand on the table. "Anyone who wants to absorb us had better ask first whether Hanzo the Salamander has any objections."
Coming from the country that had once instigated a war against three great nations simultaneously, this was not entirely empty posturing.
Yasushi and the others agreed enthusiastically, spent a few moments complimenting the Land of Rain's distinguished history, then continued.
"But we smaller nations lack a shinobi village of that caliber to protect us. We have no means of resisting the five major nations' quiet encroachment."
"Then what are you proposing?"
"We have been discussing this among ourselves, and we have come to believe that small nations no longer have a viable future in the shinobi world as it stands. Only large nations have any chance of continuing to exist."
"Our proposal is to merge several countries together and form a new great nation."
"The sixth great nation."
"What?"
The Rain Country daimyo sat up sharply.
"Do you understand what you are saying?"
"We understand completely." Yasushi gestured with genuine seriousness to the ring of new daimyo around him. "Consider who is in this room."
"River Country, the Land of Birds, and the others represented here. We are all neighboring nations. We have spent generations caught between larger powers, having our food and resources taken from us whenever the great nations fight, sometimes being forced to send our own shinobi to die in their wars."
"It has been difficult to endure, but we have managed to survive."
"Now the five major nations are no longer content with that arrangement. They have established this coordination center. The next step is almost certainly direct interference in our internal affairs, followed by outright annexation."
"Rather than waiting to be absorbed and losing everything in the process, it makes more sense to act first. If we bring enough smaller nations together, we can merge into something large enough to survive."
"We would no longer be daimyo in the traditional sense, but we would still be nobility. Our families, wealth, and positions would carry forward."
The Rain Country daimyo drew a sharp breath. A thought had just occurred to him that was almost too large to hold.
"If all of these nations merged, then the new daimyo would be"
"You, of course, my lord." Yasushi bowed his head slightly. The others followed.
"Among all our nations, the Land of Rain has the strongest shinobi village, and yours is the most respected name among us. If there is to be a merger, who else could lead it?"
He added smoothly: "And once the merger is complete, the position of the new village's Kage could only belong to Lord Hanzo."
The Rain Country daimyo laughed out loud.
What minor nation daimyo did not envy the five great nations? What minor nation daimyo had not, at some quiet moment, imagined sitting among them? But that had always been nothing more than a thought, impossibly distant from reality.
And now it had simply arrived.
He had done nothing, and others were coming to hand him countries willingly.
His rational mind told him a gift this large had to have a trap somewhere inside it. But the pull of becoming a great nation daimyo was genuinely too strong to resist. His thinking heated, and before he had fully worked through the implications he had already answered.
"Agreed. You are entirely right. We cannot allow the five major nations to swallow us at their leisure. We must stand together."
"You have my word. If I become daimyo of the new nation, your families will retain their status as leading nobility permanently. Your wealth and positions will be secure."
"We are deeply grateful, my lord."
Yasushi and the assembled group performed their gratitude with polished sincerity, sold their own countries without visible hesitation, and accompanied the Rain Country daimyo out to the carriages in cheerful procession toward the Land of Rain.
Once there, Yasushi set the example first. A single letter dispatched to River Country brought Rain Village shinobi over with an escort to formally receive control of the territory.
The nobles inside River Country were all already Yasushi's replacements, who had their own ambitions in other countries and no particular attachment to the River Country title. Upon receiving their daimyo's letter, they handed over authority without resistance and without asking questions.
Within days, River Country had changed its flag and become part of the Land of Rain.
The Rain Country's own people had approached this carefully, preparing contingency plans for conflict, certain something had to go wrong. Not a single one of those plans was needed. River Country had genuinely and apparently freely chosen to merge.
Any remaining hesitation in Rain Country vanished completely after that. In the spirit of good faith, they kept many of River Country's existing administrative officials in place, preserved a significant portion of the local nobility's titles and responsibilities, and only claimed control of the critical positions themselves.
Encouraged by how smoothly River Country had gone, they moved on to the Land of Birds.
And ran into a fight.
Several days later, the Rain Country daimyo held another banquet for Yasushi and the assembled former daimyo. A messenger arrived mid-meal and approached with visible urgency.
"My lords. The personnel we sent to receive the Land of Birds were attacked by local nobles. Significant casualties. Lord Hanzo is uncertain how to proceed and has sent me to ask: do we pause the transfer and negotiate, or push through by force? And how should the instigating noble be dealt with? He did not wish to act without guidance."
The Rain Country daimyo's first reaction was anger, but he turned immediately to the Land of Birds daimyo sitting nearby with a cup of wine.
This had been anticipated. The Land of Birds operative answered without missing a step.
"The merger cannot be stopped. Anyone who interferes is welcome to be cut down. Tell Lord Hanzo not to hesitate."
The Rain Country daimyo raised his cup in thanks on the spot.
With the Land of Birds daimyo's explicit blessing in hand, Hanzo had all the authorization he needed. If he could not take on the five major nations, eliminating a few minor nobles causing domestic trouble was beneath his notice. A handful of jonin dealt with the resistance without requiring Hanzo to involve himself at all.
The Land of Birds erupted in response.
A crowd of nobles made their way to the Land of Rain, demanding an audience with their daimyo.
"My lord, you cannot do this. The Land of Birds has existed for hundreds of years. A merger cannot just be declared."
The group of older men wept and pleaded at considerable length, presenting themselves miserably.
None of it changed anything.
"You fools." The Land of Birds daimyo had no patience for them. "The five major nations are pressing in from every direction. What choice do you think I have?"
"You old men see only what is in front of your faces. You have no thought for what comes next."
"That defense coordination center has already sent people to integrate with our intelligence operations. The next step is control of our food and supply reserves, and after that our shinobi get used as disposable fodder in someone else's wars."
"Rather than waiting for all of that to be taken by force, I would rather sell it while it still has value. Sitting in an empty storehouse crying over what the five major nations took is not a future I am interested in."
He waved a sleeve, had the guards show them out, and returned to his wine.
The nobles filed out and compared notes on the street.
"The daimyo must be under genjutsu."
"There is no way our daimyo is giving the country away voluntarily. He has always been too selfish for that."
"But what can we do about it? Rain Village has serious shinobi."
"We go to the five major nations."
"We signed the alliance. Let us see whether this Akatsuki actually provides any protection to its member states."
They agreed quickly, hurried back, selected representatives, found the coordination center's intelligence liaison, and filed a formal complaint demanding an investigation by the five major nations.
The Akatsuki's response was prompt. A three-person investigation team arrived in Rain Country within days: a Byakugan user from Konoha and two genjutsu specialists from other villages.
The Rain Country daimyo was thoroughly displeased by the investigation but had no grounds to refuse entry. He received them with a stiff expression.
"All the daimyo are right here. Do whatever inspection you need."
The investigators, aware they were not welcome, apologized for the intrusion and went to work. Every daimyo in the room passed genjutsu examination cleanly. The investigators then interviewed the nobles who had filed the complaint, but with White Zetsu's intelligence providing advance preparation, every person's account was seamless and impossible to disprove.
The lead investigator announced the conclusion with visible regret.
"It appears the daimyo involved made these decisions of their own free will. We apologize for the inconvenience."
They departed.
The nobles left behind looked as though the sky had fallen. Every route of appeal had closed. They had nothing left to resist with.
Several days later, the Land of Birds was formally absorbed. A number of nobles died quietly in the process. That was an internal matter. The Akatsuki had reservations, but intervening in another nation's domestic affairs fell outside its stated mandate.
Over the following months, more than a dozen countries merged together one after another, consolidating around the Land of Rain as their core.
The new Land of Rain formally became the sixth great nation of the shinobi world.
Chapter 493: The First Otsutsuki
The merger of multiple nations into a single country sent a shockwave through the shinobi world.
But the assembled former daimyo issued a joint statement endorsing the arrangement, and the five major nations, whatever their private opinions, had no clean grounds to intervene. The Akatsuki's standing prohibition against internal conflict held. So amid considerable undercurrents of tension and resentment, the sixth great nation took shape, stumbling but real.
The moment the new nation was officially established, Yasushi worked with the former daimyo to send letters to smaller nation daimyo across the shinobi world, framing five-nation expansion as an existential threat and encouraging recipients to either join the new Land of Rain or form their own defensive coalitions. The quality of thinking among daimyo varied considerably, and a meaningful number of small nations found themselves tempted.
The Akatsuki's intelligence gathering operations had been expanding steadily across every country, and the increasingly frequent requests for cooperation had generated real resentment among noble classes everywhere. The shinobi world's smaller nations were growing restless.
But restlessness had limits. However much they stirred, none of them could afford to be less than fully cooperative with what was being asked of them. Giving the five major nations grounds to absorb you was an obvious mistake.
A comprehensive intelligence network spanning the entire shinobi world was finally taking shape.
Rogue ninja who had spent years exploiting the gaps between nations suddenly found those gaps closing around them. The network was mapping their movements with increasing precision. Even the Kara Organization, which had operated in concealment for so long, was beginning to leave traces that could be followed.
No one knew that the figure acting under the name Jigen had any connection to the Otsutsuki clan.
No one except Uchiha Yasushi.
After his conversation with Arato, Yasushi had concluded that the Karma Seal on the back of his neck had almost certainly come from his own future self, and that understanding had completely removed his fear of Isshiki Otsutsuki. Where fear had been, appetite stepped in to take its place.
He had been eyeing the miniature Ten-Tails Isshiki had stored away for a long time. Having Shukaku was fine, but if the full Ten-Tails was available, no one would turn it down.
So without any visible hesitation, Yasushi sold out Isshiki's location.
Black Zetsu received the information and was delighted without a moment of suspicion, rushing immediately to act on it.
"Lord Nagato. Lord Jiraiya. I have located one of the Otsutsuki."
Both men looked up from the administrative work that had been consuming their days. When they heard what Black Zetsu had, their tiredness vanished immediately.
Black Zetsu laid out the intelligence from the coordination center's investigation of the Kara Organization, presenting it to both of them.
"This organization calling itself Kara is actually a remnant of the Otsutsuki that has been hiding inside the shinobi world all along. They are the reason the shinobi world has never been able to maintain lasting peace. They have been working to keep it destabilized from within."
"To protect the shinobi world and to prevent them from acting as an advance force when the invasion eventually comes, we need to remove them immediately."
Nagato and Jiraiya read through the intelligence thoroughly. Neither could find a flaw. Black Zetsu's identity served as its own verification, and trust in him carried the rest. Both accepted the report without reservations.
"Excellent."
"The five major nations have been skeptical about our intelligence from the beginning, since neither Arato nor Yasushi has surfaced. If we can produce this Isshiki Otsutsuki and let them see the threat with their own eyes, the credibility of everything we have said rises considerably."
Nagato issued orders for a full meeting. All six Kage were summoned.
Hanzo attended in his new capacity as Amekage, the first time he had sat at this kind of table as an equal. He carried himself with the relaxed confidence of someone who had just received something he had spent decades being denied through force alone. The other five Kage found him somewhat irritating, a person who had arrived at their level through convenience rather than earned standing, but his position and his capability both demanded respect, and they gave it.
Once everyone was assembled, Jiraiya placed the intelligence on the Otsutsuki in front of them.
"The first Otsutsuki enemy has been identified. Now let us combine the shinobi world's strength and remove this embedded threat."
The six Kage read through the material and began frowning in sequence. Several looked instinctively toward Hiruzen.
"Are you certain this is not another Konoha rogue?"
"The Byakugan is a Konoha bloodline."
Hiruzen scanned the intelligence and shook his head firmly.
"Every notable Konoha shinobi is known to you all. This person is not one of them."
"And it is not only the Byakugan. He has a Black Eye as well."
"That eye is considerably more formidable than the Byakugan alone. It is closer in nature to the Uchiha clan's Mangekyo Sharingan. Look at this ocular technique, Sukunahikona. Once the target is reduced to microscopic size, even a visual-type shinobi cannot track them. How do you fight something you cannot see?"
The other Kage worked through the intelligence further and found their unease growing.
"Where did this information even come from? Some of this seems exaggerated."
"Absorbs chakra, standard ninjutsu ineffective, a second transformation state, fine. But what does it mean that his taijutsu is strong enough to kick through a Complete Susanoo?"
"And he has space-time ninjutsu that lets him move freely between locations at will."
"If all of this is accurate, anyone who truly wants to escape is simply going to escape. We cannot catch a target like that."
"Which is why we need to plan carefully before we move. We need to create a situation where he cannot escape. One attempt. If he gets away, we will not get another."
No one was willing to be careless. The best strategic minds from each village were brought in immediately, and the operation planning began.
Whether the intelligence was accurate would be confirmed when they moved. For now, the priority was being ready.
Several days later, a substantial force assembled and departed the Land of Iron: Nagato leading personally with Jiraiya and Black Zetsu, all six Kage present, and a significant escort of elite shinobi traveling with them toward the Kara Organization's base.
Yasushi, who had received advance word from Black Zetsu, followed quietly at a distance. He intended to follow the trail directly to the miniature Ten-Tails once the operation developed.
He kept well back. From his distance he watched the alliance force close on the Kara base, and in the next moment four pillars of violet light erupted from the ground and enclosed the entire area.
"Sealing Jutsu: Four Violet Flames Formation."
Everything inside the base was immediately alerted.
Shinobi poured out of the entrance in a rush, aggressive and loud.
"Who dares come here?"
"Do you have any idea whose territory you are in?"
Nagato floated above them and spoke with absolute authority.
"Isshiki Otsutsuki. Your identity has been compromised. Come out and surrender. Cooperate fully and disclose the whereabouts of other Otsutsuki clan members, and the alliance will grant you clemency."
The people spilling out of the base had no idea who Isshiki Otsutsuki was, but they scanned the crowd and recognized the six Kage. Agitation spread through the formation immediately.
"Who is Isshiki Otsutsuki? Who provoked all of these people?"
"Should we convince the leader to cooperate, hand over whoever they want?"
Before anyone reached a decision, Jigen appeared in the air above them.
He was completely calm. The six Kage and the assembled elite shinobi below were beneath his notice. His gaze was on one thing only: the Rinnegan in Nagato's eyes across from him.
"You identified me. So the Dragon Vein traveler intelligence is genuine."
A pause.
"Can you tell me which vessel I chose twenty years from now?"
Nagato had no interest in answering. He saw his target emerge and acted immediately.
"Universal Pull."
His left hand extended. His right hand drove a black receiver through the palm and held it ready to thrust the moment the target was pulled within range.
Below, the assembled shinobi launched their kunai and shuriken simultaneously, sending a dense web of weapons from every direction through the air around Jigen.
Jigen had not expected them to move so immediately, but a thousand years of combat experience did not produce hesitation. He trusted his own taijutsu completely and did not panic.
He made no effort to resist the pull. He let himself be drawn in.
As he closed the distance to Nagato, he flicked his wrist. Several black receivers launched from his hand, riding the pull's momentum, streaking directly toward Nagato at full speed. The incoming weapons below he dealt with in passing, a few slight adjustments of his body, and every projectile slipped past him without connection.
Nagato had been watching for exactly this. The moment he saw the wrist movement, his Rinnegan narrowed to full focus.
Even with the Rinnegan's visual acuity, he could barely register the projectiles as blurred shapes moving toward him.
Faster than expected.
He swung the black receiver he was holding in a rapid arc, weaving it back and forth to seal the space directly in front of him. The rhythm was tight and complete.
The incoming receivers struck and were deflected, one after another.
A surprised sound from Jigen.
He acknowledged Nagato's reaction with slightly more regard, still without real concern. Once he reached close range, he raised a black receiver and drove it downward in a direct strike.
A flash of yellow light. A figure appeared directly behind him and drove a palm strike toward his back.
"Flying Thunder God."
The collective assessment before the operation had been clear: Isshiki Otsutsuki's most dangerous ability was the size reduction technique, the one that made him invisible. Track him first. If you could not see him, you could not fight him.
Most shinobi had no answer for that problem. Minato did. The Flying Thunder God formula could mark a target and track them regardless of size. Even reduced to a speck of dust, the mark's position remained readable and followable.
Jigen reacted. His pupils contracted sharply. His form vanished from sight in an instant.
"He is moving toward the Raikage."
Minato read the mark's trajectory without hesitation, issued the warning, and flickered to Jigen's position. His blade came down at full speed.
Jigen came back to full size at the exact moment of Minato's arrival and swept a leg across, connecting with the Raikage's midsection.
The kick carried enough force to split stone and flatten mountains. The Third Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode armor crumpled under it as though it had been constructed from paper. No resistance worth measuring.
The Third Raikage went airborne like a launched boulder, his trajectory drawing a line of blood through the air before he hit the ground and bounced twice, cutting a trench through the earth until a large rock stopped him.
Jigen's movement had not ended there. His reverse motion brought up a black receiver to intercept Minato's short blade simultaneously.
The two exchanged positions and blows in rapid sequence. Minato and Jigen traded a dozen exchanges in seconds, neither gaining a decisive opening.
A and Killer B charged in toward the Third Raikage, but the man pulled himself off the ground already, wiped blood from his mouth, and grinned.
"That kick was not as heavy as the intelligence suggested."
Jigen looked at him without warmth.
"I see. I will need to apply more effort."
The moment the words left him, the colored geometric markings on his face spread rapidly downward, covering his body completely. A single curved horn extended from the back of his head and curved forward. His physical form began to change.
He had entered his released state.
"The Flying Thunder God mark is gone."
Minato's alarmed voice cut through the noise. Jigen's form had disappeared again.
"Everyone take care. He is moving."
Hiruzen cried a warning and tightened his grip on his staff, shifting immediately into a defensive posture.
Everyone present went rigid, eyes sweeping the area like hawks, each person very aware they could be the next target. The Third Raikage had just been sent flying, which meant there was no longer anyone acting as a forward shield.
Even the Hyuga and Fugaku with his Sharingan could not read Jigen's movements. Defense was not possible without a target.
Nagato raised a hand sharply.
"Universal Pull."
An enormous gravitational force descended on a point in open air above the battle.
Jigen's form materialized as the force caught him and pulled him toward Nagato. Several black receivers reappeared alongside him, resuming their original size as they flew.
The direction they were aimed made their target obvious: Onoki, who was hovering in the air.
Onoki broke into a cold sweat and dropped immediately, pulling himself back down inside his escort formation.
The interrupted attack enraged Jigen visibly.
He turned a cold stare toward Nagato, pulled his leg back, and drove a kick directly at him.
"Shinra Tensei."
Nagato reversed his hand. The pull became a push.
But the enormous repulsive field met Jigen's kick head-on and failed to drive him back. The two forces collided and compounded each other into an explosion.
Space around the collision point twisted violently, buckling toward the edge of coherence.
The detonation came an instant later. Blinding white light swallowed the field in every direction. The shockwave radiated outward like a physical tide, tearing through everything within dozens of meters, lifting and shredding whatever it touched.
Chapter 494: I Will Be Back
The shockwave hit like a sudden storm. Even the six Kage struggled to keep their footing.
At the critical moment, a figure charged forward and planted himself in front of everyone.
"Susanoo."
Uchiha Fugaku.
The divine construct dropped into a half-crouch, arms spread wide, shielding every shinobi behind it. The enormous pressure wave rolled in carrying fragments of stone and sand, crashing against the energy giant again and again with heavy, rhythmic impacts like muffled thunder. The concussions rolled over the assembled fighters and set their ears ringing.
Twin lines of blood tears ran from Fugaku's eyes and traced down his face, but he did not move. He held.
Watching Fugaku strain under the effort, Hiruzen felt a sharp regret. He should not have let Fugaku's ocular power be worn down so heavily before this engagement. If he fell here, the casualties among Konoha's shinobi afterward would be considerable.
Nagato's body came down from the sky like a thrown stone and hit the ground hard. Against Isshiki in his released state, Nagato's taijutsu, strong as it was, could not compete.
"Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees."
Jiraiya's intervention arrived in time. A dense forest erupted from the earth and surged upward, branches and leaves multiplying across the space between Jiraiya and the pursuing Isshiki, lashing toward him in a mass of tangled growth.
Isshiki smiled coldly. His form vanished.
"Watch yourselves. Defensive formation."
Jiraiya issued the warning and brought both palms together sharply. Two Toad Sages materialized on his shoulders.
Nagato stepped forward immediately to cover him, pushing the Rinnegan to its limit, searching for any trace of Isshiki's position.
Isshiki appeared directly in front of the Susanoo. He looked at Fugaku with the complete indifference of someone examining a piece of discarded material.
"Is that shell of yours supposed to be hard?"
The impact sounded like a lightning strike. Isshiki drove a kick into the Susanoo's body.
In one instant, a defense that had never been broken gave way.
Fractures spread across the energy giant's surface like shattering glass, and the point of impact blew apart in a cascade of dissolving light. Isshiki passed through the opening like a battering ram and sent Fugaku's body out the other side.
Fugaku's frame could not compare to Nagato's for durability. He was still airborne when he began bleeding heavily, bones and tendons giving way in multiple places. His trajectory arced across the field, hit the ground, rolled several times, and came to rest without consciousness.
Without Fugaku's ocular power the Susanoo dissolved immediately, leaving every shinobi it had been sheltering exposed.
But before Isshiki could follow through, Akimichi Choza's body exploded outward in size, swelling like an inflating balloon, muscle and mass expanding in seconds until he was a small mountain of a man positioned squarely in front of everyone.
"Super Multi-Size Technique."
The Ino-Shika-Cho combination followed with almost no gap between them.
"Secret Technique: Mind Body Switch."
"Secret Technique: Shadow Bind."
While Yamanaka Inoichi took the rebound damage and began coughing blood, Choza's enormous shadow launched upward and split into hundreds of lashing dark tendrils reaching for Isshiki. Other shinobi from every village joined in simultaneously with suppression techniques.
"Lightning Illusion: Flash Pillar."
"Wind Style: Binding."
"Genjutsu: Dream World."
Isshiki's ocular ability absorbed standard ninjutsu attacks. But enough pressure from enough angles could overwhelm even that. The Akatsuki's intelligence on Isshiki had been thorough, and every preparation had been made for exactly this moment.
Even Isshiki found himself briefly disoriented as multiple suppression techniques landed on him in sequence.
In that gap, Minato appeared directly behind him. A blade went through his chest.
Arrogance had always been the worst kind of weakness.
"Damn you."
Isshiki erupted. His chakra detonated outward in a burst that threw Minato clear. He spun, and his form vanished again.
"He is not dead. Stay alert."
Everyone tensed immediately. They formed a back-to-back circle, eyes scanning constantly, watching for any sign of movement around them.
Isshiki did not attack immediately. He was likely using the pause to heal.
"Let me try."
Hanzo formed hand seals rapidly and slapped both palms to the ground. A burst of smoke rose, and his giant salamander appeared at his feet. The creature immediately began spewing its toxic mist in every direction, and wherever it reached, the ground itself produced faint sounds of dissolution.
This had been built into the plan from the beginning. Everyone quickly swallowed the antidote they had been carrying and let the poison spread outward freely.
"Even reduced to microscopic size, he cannot avoid being inside the mist."
Hanzo swept his gaze across the area, scythe ready, watching for the sign.
He found it quickly. Inside the pervasive, spreading mist, one point behaved differently from everything around it. The poison fog that came near it simply ceased to exist, as though it were being consumed by a silent vortex.
"There he is."
Hanzo bellowed the direction and brought his scythe down toward the location as a marker for everyone else. Techniques from across the formation converged on that narrow area immediately.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu."
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough."
"Earth Style: Gravity Well."
The techniques overlapped and struck simultaneously. Scattered debris and smoke swallowed the target zone.
Visibility did not matter when the coverage was total. Something would connect regardless.
Under the sustained saturation, Isshiki was forced back into full visibility.
"You are asking for death."
His ocular ability activated and absorbed the techniques bearing down on him. He flung both arms outward and a wave of black receivers erupted from his body, hurtling through the air with a sharp screech, driving through multiple shinobi and pinning them to the earth. His free hand batted Hanzo's scythe aside. The reverse motion blocked Minato's attack from behind.
Before Minato could leave another Flying Thunder God mark on him, Isshiki launched himself directly at Hanzo like a released arrow.
"Come on then."
Hanzo drew a hand across the scythe blade. A blue sheen bloomed along the edge, trailing a faintly sweet smell that made the head swim at the threshold of perception.
Isshiki vanished in the instant before the blade connected, reappeared past it, and drove a kick straight into Hanzo's chest.
The speed left no window to react. The impact hit exactly where intended.
Hanzo felt as though a hammer had found his ribs. The bones across his chest snapped in rapid succession.
He vomited blood. Fragments of something organic came with it.
The shadow of death arrived above Hanzo so suddenly that panic moved through him before thought could.
Before he could do anything with that instinct, something detonated inside his body. Not a metaphor. An actual detonation, as though a charge had been placed in his core.
The explosion tore him apart from the inside. Blood and flesh scattered in every direction. Limbs went one way, the rest went another.
The man who had once been called a demigod died in front of everyone without leaving a single word behind. He had only just been named Amekage.
A rain of him fell on everyone nearby.
"Lord Amekage."
The assembled shinobi froze.
They had gone in with detailed intelligence, with nearly every elite the six great villages could field, and this was the result. Multiple severe casualties, and now a Kage dead on the field. That was not just a failure of planning. It was evidence that the enemy was more dangerous than their best estimates had allowed.
The thought that followed was quiet and unwelcome: more people might die before this day was over.
Then a faint cracking sound came from Isshiki's chest. A single line appeared across his sternum.
His expression changed. The fury drained out of him in one moment.
He looked across the field at the assembled fighters with something more deliberate in his eyes. His form disappeared.
He did not attack.
He moved to the perimeter of the Four Violet Flames Formation and began striking it.
Each blow hit with the same force that had produced a mutual detonation against Nagato's Shinra Tensei. Shockwave after shockwave erupted across the barrier's surface.
Alarm spread immediately through every formation.
"Stop him."
"He cannot be allowed to leave."
"If he escapes now, recapturing him will be nearly impossible."
But by the time they closed the distance, Isshiki's form had already vanished and reappeared at a different point along the barrier's edge to continue the assault.
That level of force, landing continuously and without pause, put unbearable pressure on the four shinobi maintaining the formation from outside. Within a few breaths, all four were bleeding from every opening and could no longer hold.
The Four Violet Flames Formation exploded. It scattered into falling sparks that faded as they drifted.
With the spatial containment gone, there was no remaining method to prevent Isshiki from leaving.
But Isshiki did not leave immediately. He turned back in midair, stared down at the gathered enemies with cold and undisguised killing intent, and spoke.
"A collection of primitives managed to push me to this. That is unforgivable."
"I will remember today."
"Once I have found a suitable vessel, I will visit each of your villages in turn and take them apart in front of you one by one."
"I will kill everything you care about and destroy everything you value. You will understand what it means to have made an enemy of me."
The absolute cold in those eyes sent a chill through everyone who met his gaze. Fear and alarm ran through the assembled fighters without distinction.
Before Isshiki could finish, a voice cut through the tension from somewhere at the edge of the crowd, carrying a note of distinct relief.
"I made it just in time."
"Sage Art: Toad Sing."
A chorus of deep croaking erupted around Isshiki.
He stopped.
His body would not move.
The environment shifted around him, revealing a square barrier. Four enormous toads, each bearing a different character branded into their chest, stood at the barrier's four corners with him enclosed between them.
"Impossible."
"How is a genjutsu affecting me?"
He activated his Black Eye immediately, trying to absorb the technique.
Toad Sing, reinforced with sage art, could affect the Six Paths of Pain with their Rinnegan. Against Isshiki, whose power tier stood well above that, the effect was not as complete. But that was not what Jiraiya was counting on. He was counting on the gap, however brief.
Jiraiya appeared directly in front of Isshiki in the same instant. Blade in motion. Aimed at the neck.
The blade had entered partway when the genjutsu's effect broke.
Isshiki's hand came up and closed around the blade. He held the edge without flinching as blood ran freely down his arm. His eyes were fully bloodshot, fixed on Jiraiya with a hatred that wanted to consume him entirely.
Jiraiya lunged to grab hold of him, but the window was gone.
Only Isshiki's voice remained, hanging in the air above them.
"I have marked you."
"I will be back."
Nagato and the others reacted immediately, cycling through every contingency they had prepared in an attempt to locate Isshiki again. After exhausting all of them, they had to accept the result.
"We brought this many people, and he still got away."
Seeing the mood deteriorate, Hiruzen stepped in quickly.
"The shinobi world is only so large. We found him once and we can find him again. Do not lose heart."
The words helped a little, but when the field was being cleared and they came across Hanzo's remains, and the unconscious, critically wounded Fugaku, and the many others lying injured around them, something heavy settled over everyone that reassurance could not fully lift.
Yasushi had watched the entire engagement from outside the Four Violet Flames Formation without moving. He had been patient throughout, keeping his hands at his sides.
When Isshiki broke through the barrier and began withdrawing, Yasushi moved quietly and closed some of the distance.
He had seen with his own eyes how Isshiki had sustained serious injuries and retreated from Jiraiya's blade. Yasushi began following at a careful distance.
Nagato and the others had no way to track a fleeing Isshiki. Yasushi could not track him directly either.
But White Zetsu could.
White Zetsu's intelligence network covered the entire shinobi world. Unless Isshiki spent every moment inside his dimensional space without ever setting foot in the physical world, the moment he appeared anywhere with people around him, White Zetsu would see it.
As for why White Zetsu would not share that information with Nagato, that was naturally part of the arrangement between Yasushi and Black Zetsu.
Black Zetsu had spent a thousand years operating in the shinobi world without ever detecting Isshiki's presence, yet Yasushi had identified him immediately. That demonstrated clearly that Yasushi's intelligence value was real, and Black Zetsu could not afford to ignore what Yasushi wanted in return.
Black Zetsu wanted the Otsutsuki dead to clear the path for his mother's eventual resurrection. The method did not concern him.
The arrangement worked exactly as intended. Isshiki was badly wounded and could not sustain his ocular technique indefinitely while healing. Before long, Yasushi had Isshiki's location and was quietly closing in behind him.
Chapter 495: The Perfect Vessel
Isshiki was clearly badly hurt, but he had already developed wariness of the Shinobi Alliance. Even with no pursuit behind him, he deliberately avoided towns and kept to empty terrain. Yasushi held back, careful not to come close enough to alert him, and followed from a distance.
Open grassland, flat and wide, clear weather. Even from far back, everything was visible.
The two of them moved in silence for a long time, one behind the other.
Then Isshiki's form flickered and disappeared.
Found his destination.
Yasushi sharpened his focus and started moving carefully toward the area. He had taken only a few steps when something cold passed through him, and he activated the Susanoo on instinct.
The Susanoo had barely begun to take shape when a blur crossed his vision and Isshiki's face appeared directly in front of him. The kick connected before the construct could form.
A heavy thud. The condensing energy giant shattered and scattered into motes of dissolving light.
"So something has been watching me this whole time. A little mouse."
Isshiki made a contemptuous sound and raised one hand. Several black receivers materialized from empty air, grew as they flew, and drove toward Yasushi's four limbs.
Yasushi's Mangekyo spun into full motion immediately. The incoming black receivers seemed to decelerate under his Sharingan's perception.
He leapt backward, rebounding across the terrain in rapid succession to open distance, and slapped both palms together as he moved. More than a dozen golden chains shot out behind him, wheeling forward to form a dense screen of interlocking gold between himself and Isshiki.
The incoming receivers hit the chains and scattered, driving into the rock nearby.
"I let myself get spotted. My concealment technique clearly needs more practice."
Yasushi tilted his head back and looked up at the figure hovering in the air above him, taking a moment to assess what he was looking at.
"Jiraiya did a real number on you. Jigen's body is close to falling apart. Are you actually in any condition to fight right now?"
The name Jiraiya made Isshiki's expression flatten. He swept his gaze over Yasushi, paused on the Mangekyo Sharingan, then looked around carefully, pushing his Byakugan to its maximum range.
Once he confirmed no other shinobi were approaching, he relaxed and looked back at Yasushi with a cold smile.
"Your greatest mistake was coming after me alone."
"Even wounded, dealing with a minor fish like you is not a problem."
"The Uchiha, a great shinobi clan. From where I stand, you are all chickens and roof tiles."
"Is that right. I hope you can still say that in a moment."
Yasushi stopped engaging with him and brought both palms together. The energy giant rose from the earth again.
"You think another Susanoo is going to stop me?"
Isshiki came in with full confidence and hit it.
What happened next surprised him.
The energy giant shuddered under the impact but did not break. Instead of shattering, it continued to grow, climbing higher and expanding outward, ascending to a scale that had not been visible before.
Isshiki watched it rise with visible astonishment.
"Complete Susanoo."
Standard techniques did not affect Isshiki. Yasushi had no Sage Mode. Sealing techniques were useless against something that could absorb chakra and break free at will. As Yasushi had worked through his options, only one remained viable: outlast him with volume. Flood the fight with chakra and Yang Release healing until Isshiki could not keep going.
Without entering his released transformation, Isshiki could not break through a Complete Susanoo. But if he released the seal on Jigen's body to do it, he could not sustain that state for long without the vessel collapsing.
"How is this possible."
Isshiki stared up at the towering construct.
Yasushi laughed. "You did not seriously think my Complete Susanoo was the same thing as Fugaku's, did you? Go ahead and try another kick. See what happens."
The taunt landed. Isshiki's expression went flat and cold, killing intent building steadily.
"You want to die. Fine."
He was not going to resolve this without releasing the seal. He had no time to waste. Rather than allow the fight to drag out, he chose to end it quickly.
The marking patterns spread down from his face in an instant and covered his body completely. The single horn became two. His coloring went pale and his features changed entirely.
Isshiki Otsutsuki activated his full transformation.
"Time is short. Let's finish this."
His form vanished from the air before the words were gone. An explosion detonated against the Complete Susanoo a moment later.
Exactly as Fugaku had been, Yasushi was kicked out of the energy giant's protection entirely. He arced through the air in a strange bent shape, an unknown number of bones broken along the way. The blood spraying from him in the air was copious enough to be alarming even from a distance.
"Done," Isshiki announced with complete confidence, and released the transformation immediately. Jigen's body could not sustain an extended fight after a release; the current state was already beyond what the vessel could tolerate.
He turned to leave.
Yasushi got up.
"Ha. That one had some force behind it."
Yasushi was grimacing, but he was aligning his broken bones himself, and green chakra was moving through him visibly. In moments the damage had been substantially healed.
Isshiki stopped.
"Your body."
He stared for a moment, then the cold calculation in his eyes lit up with something else entirely.
"That is Yang Release."
"No. Even Yang Release cannot repair physical damage at that speed."
"That is the most extreme form of Yang Release I have ever witnessed."
"Your body generates Yang Release chakra of that purity?"
Isshiki activated both his Black Eye and his Byakugan and examined Yasushi with every tool available to him. Then he broke into laughter. Not a controlled sound, but genuinely excited, a kind of jubilation he could not contain.
"This is perfect."
"This is absolutely perfect."
"This body was built for me. It is everything I need in a vessel."
"I am claiming it. This body belongs to me now."
The moment the declaration was made, an enormous surge of chakra flooded out of Isshiki's body, rapidly rising. In seconds it had healed the damage Jigen's form had sustained. Both horns emerged into the two-horn configuration, his complexion went completely pale, and the face changed down to its fundamental structure.
Isshiki Otsutsuki had just reincarnated into Jigen's body.
He had been searching the shinobi world for a thousand years without finding a body that could completely bear his Karma Seal. That was why he had been forced to skulk in the margins all this time, protecting Jigen's form from damage like a rat hiding in the drain. But the effort had finally paid off. He had found the ideal vessel today. There was no reason to delay.
Yasushi was genuinely caught off guard by the speed of it.
"Hold on. Should you not put the Karma Seal on me first, let the vessel mature, and then reincarnate? That is how the process works."
Isshiki laughed with open delight, that perpetually grim face actually wearing something approaching joy.
"You think there is still a way for you to escape once I have set my eyes on you?"
"Be cooperative. Let me mark you with the Karma Seal. Save yourself the suffering."
"If you resist, I will break all four of your limbs first and take my time with the rest."
Yasushi looked at him with a peculiar expression. After a moment, he started laughing.
"Out of curiosity, how many Karma Seals can one vessel carry in your clan?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Something cold moved through Isshiki.
"I mean you are too late."
Yasushi smiled and, for the first time deliberately, activated the Karma Curse Mark on the back of his neck.
The black markings spread from the seal's center in complex, tattoo-like patterns, racing across half his face and every exposed surface of skin in seconds, pulsing with dark violet light.
Six Paths Yasushi's chakra began flowing again, pushing deeper into Yasushi's body, continuing the work of transformation. Each activation brought the carrier one step closer to the original form.
The blood-red Mangekyo in Yasushi's eyes vibrated and shifted. The color became purple. The tomoe patterns dissolved and reformed into concentric circles, coiling inward like mosquito coils.
He had evolved a Rinnegan.
"What."
Watching Yasushi transform in front of him, Isshiki felt something collapse inside his chest.
"That is a Karma Seal."
"How do you have a Karma Seal."
"Who. Who did this before me."
The joy on Isshiki's face was gone. What replaced it was something closer to dread.
The perfect vessel he had just claimed was already occupied.
That was why the body had matched all his requirements so precisely.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you really?"
Isshiki was nearly shouting.
"Me?" Yasushi looked back at him pleasantly, with complete composure. "I am Uchiha Yasushi."
Inside, there was no urgency left at all.
Jigen's body was too fragile to survive Isshiki's reincarnation for any meaningful length of time. Now that the reincarnation had occurred, Isshiki had three days before the vessel failed completely. After that, death was certain.
Unless he could find a new qualifying vessel within those three days, brand it with a Karma Seal, and begin the maturation process from scratch. Given that he had spent a thousand years searching the shinobi world without finding a suitable candidate, that was not a realistic possibility.
"I did not ask your name."
"I asked who put the Karma Seal on you."
"Did the clan send someone to this world?"
Yasushi looked at the expectation on Isshiki's face and shrugged.
"You are reading too much into it. Momoshiki and Kinshiki are decades away from arriving in the shinobi world. Unfortunately, you will not be alive to see them."
"Momoshiki. Kinshiki. Decades."
Isshiki stilled.
"An outsider would not know the names of our clan members. Kaguya was sealed and could not have told you. Which means you are also a Dragon Vein traveler who came back from the future."
"You had the Karma Seal applied to you in the future by one of the clan, and you escaped into the past to avoid being used as a vessel."
"If you want to think about it that way, go ahead."
Yasushi spread his hands and let it rest there. He was not going to explain further. He was not entirely certain himself how the seal had arrived on the back of his neck. He had a strong suspicion it had come from his future self as a deliberate gift, but the Karma Seal was not supposed to be transferable under ordinary circumstances, so the full picture remained unclear to him as well.
Isshiki's expression shifted through several states in rapid succession. The way he looked at Yasushi became something harder to read.
"If you are going to be used as a vessel in the future, that means there is still an opportunity for my own resurrection."
He paused.
"You are the Uchiha Yasushi mentioned in the intelligence reports, are you not?"
"The reports stated that you and your clan would betray the shinobi world, align yourselves with our clan, and use that alliance to build an Uchiha Divine Nation."
"I was skeptical before. But looking at this now, the question of who actually founds the Uchiha Divine Nation in the future is more open than I assumed."
He straightened.
"Here is my offer."
"Let me mark you with the Karma Seal. When you find a suitable vessel in the future, extract my Karma Seal and allow it to complete my reincarnation there."
"In exchange, your clan will be permitted to exist under the Otsutsuki's governance and to build whatever Uchiha Divine Nation you have in mind."