Chapter 501: The Age of Great Expansion Has Arrived
Land of Iron. Akatsuki base.
The five Kage who had only just separated were sitting around the same table again.
The Land of Grass joining the Land of Rain had been far too sudden for anyone to have anticipated. The shinobi world's structure had long been considered fixed. Five great nations ruling the shinobi world was the established order, not subject to challenge by any party.
Small nation mergers producing a sixth great power simply were not permitted.
The first round of mergers had caught the five major nations flat-footed, aided by the cover of a foreign threat and the Akatsuki's restraining authority, and had managed to establish itself before anyone could effectively respond. That kind of surprise could not happen twice. After that, the five major nations had significantly increased their attention and surveillance of smaller countries to prevent any seventh great nation from emerging.
The Land of Grass, sharing a border with the Land of Rain, had been a natural priority for that heightened scrutiny. The five major nations had sent delegations specifically to ask the Land of Grass's daimyo and nobles about their views on the Land of Rain's rise.
At that time, the daimyo and nobles of the Land of Grass had sworn up and down that they stood with their country. That their nation would survive or fall with them.
Those words were barely cold. Now the Land of Grass had merged anyway, with no visible explanation.
Based on what every Kage knew about how the noble class thought and behaved, this did not add up.
When the original mergers had produced the sixth great nation, the five major nations had sent investigators to each of the countries involved and had come away with nothing. The eventual conclusion had been that Hanzo the Salamander had been quietly orchestrating the whole thing for years, a plausible enough explanation given his reputation as something close to a demigod.
But the plan should have stopped when the sixth great nation appeared. And Hanzo himself was dead now, which meant any plan he had personally constructed should have gone cold with him.
Unless the hand behind it had nothing to do with Hanzo at all.
That was the question this meeting had been called to address.
Nagato had been invited to chair the session, with Jiraiya at his side. Once all five Kage were seated, Onoki opened without waiting.
"I propose sending an investigation team back into the Land of Rain immediately. Comprehensive, not surface-level. I will lead it personally, with one jonin from each of the five major nations attached."
"Agreed." The Kazekage raised his hand first.
The new Land of Rain now pressed against both the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind. Both nations felt the pressure of its rapid expansion most directly. The other three nations were not currently bordering it, but the unexplained pattern made all of them uncomfortable, and they added their endorsements without significant hesitation.
Nagato looked around the room, saw the consensus, and was about to call the vote when a voice from outside the doors cut across him.
"I object."
The five Kage turned.
Black Zetsu was walking in alongside a middle-aged shinobi wearing a distinctive rain-village conical hat and a Kage's robes.
The man's face was unfamiliar to everyone at the table.
The two of them entered the hall. Black Zetsu gestured politely and made the introduction.
"This is Lord Shinnosuke, the former leader of Kusagakure. He has been elected as the new Amekage. He came to the Akatsuki base to register his appointment and, hearing that the six leaders were meeting again, chose to attend."
Shinnosuke wore a broad and genuinely pleased expression, nodded pleasantly to each of the five Kage in turn.
"A pleasure to meet you all. I look forward to working together."
He sat down in the Amekage's chair as though he had been doing it for years.
The five Kage's expressions shifted immediately toward something considerably less welcoming.
They had been discussing an investigation into the Land of Rain, and the Land of Rain's Kage had simply walked in before the vote was called.
If he had arrived a few minutes later, the chair would have been empty and they could have passed the resolution without any procedural obligation to consider his position. With the Amekage now present, that was no longer an option.
The Raikage had the least patience for subtlety in the room and demonstrated it immediately.
"Good timing. I have questions."
He put a fist on the table with a sound that left another crack in the wood.
"What happened in the Land of Grass?"
"When we sent people to ask before, you were absolutely against any kind of merger. You said it with complete conviction. How does a country that opposed this completely just go and merge with you?"
"Do not give me any speech about the greater good of the shinobi world. I have no belief that the nobles and daimyo of the Land of Grass care about anything that large."
Shinnosuke received the blunt hostility without any visible irritation. He took the conical hat from his head, set it on the table in front of him, and spoke without hurry.
"Who says the Land of Grass joining the Land of Rain means it was absorbed by us? Could it not just as easily mean that we absorbed the Land of Rain?"
"What?"
"It should be obvious."
Shinnosuke settled back with an openly satisfied expression.
"When Lord Hanzo was alive, we had no interest in joining. If we had merged then, the Land of Grass would have been consumed entirely by the Land of Rain. Nothing would have been left of us."
"But the situation is different now."
"Hanzo is dead."
"The current so-called Land of Rain is a collection of small nations that merged together. With Hanzo alive, everyone stayed in line. Without him to hold them together, the member nations have started fighting over who gets to pick the next Amekage. Each of them wants their own person in that chair."
"Against a group like that, what does the Land of Grass have to fear?"
"Who in the current Amegakure is a match for our village?"
"We joined at this moment precisely because it gives us the opportunity to absorb the Land of Rain from inside. Why would we refuse? The country gets a new name. From the daimyo down to the nobles down to us shinobi, everyone gains something from this arrangement."
The five Kage sat with that for a moment, and the initial surprise gave way to something like reluctant comprehension.
Shinnosuke's explanation was not internally inconsistent. If a genuine opportunity to absorb a larger entity presented itself, changing the country's name afterward was not much of a price to pay.
In the same situation, any of them might have done the same.
But was this really nothing more than straightforward opportunism? Was there actually no one behind it?
A different problem emerged before they could settle on a conclusion.
"But if the Land of Rain is that easy to absorb from inside, then why would they agree to merge with you? Why would they not just let their own internal competition produce a winner?"
Shinnosuke smiled without warmth.
"Do they have a choice?"
"Whether they welcome us or not, we were prepared to join the Land of Rain regardless."
"Among the nations that make up the Land of Rain now, many of them are too small to compete for leadership. They have no stake in who ends up in charge. They just want the sixth great nation to grow stronger. From their perspective, us joining is entirely desirable."
"Think about it plainly. Without Lord Hanzo, without a demigod anchoring the whole structure, what kind of genuine deterrence does this new Land of Rain present to its neighbors?"
"Right now they need us far more than we need them. Without the support of Kusagakure, even whoever they elect as Amekage would not have meaningful standing at this table."
He let his gaze move around the room with a pointed quality.
"Take this meeting, for example. If I had arrived a few minutes later, you would have already voted to send investigators into our country. Did any of you stop to consider what the Land of Rain's people might think about that?"
"No."
Shinnosuke's hand came down on the table. His voice went level and cold.
"Let me make the Land of Rain's position clear, on behalf of everyone involved."
"Rain Country affairs will be handled by Rain Country. We do not require anyone else's management or concern."
The temperature in the room dropped immediately.
All five Kage wore expressions that had stopped being polite. None of them chose to act on it with Shinnosuke directly in front of them.
Once his figure disappeared through the doorway, the Raikage drove his fist through the table and broke what was left of it.
"The audacity."
"Who does he think he is, coveting tailed beasts in our presence?"
"We cannot allow this to happen. The Land of Waterfall cannot be permitted to merge into the Land of Rain."
Before he could continue, Nagato's voice came from across the table, flat and unhurried.
"With a shared enemy at our doorstep, internal conflict is not permitted. No internal fighting of any kind."
"I am not the one starting internal conflict. The Land of Rain is the one constantly expanding."
The Raikage pointed across the table and shouted his objection. Nagato received the accusation without response and simply held his position.
"National mergers improve the consolidation of collective resources and military strength. Personally, I would prefer to see the shinobi world merge into one nation. If that were not opposed, it would already be done."
"If you have a peaceful means of stopping the Land of Rain's expansion, use it. I will not interfere."
"But if I observe any action that produces internal conflict, I will not be lenient."
"Be confident that I have the ability to make any one of your nations pay an unbearable price."
The Raikage had worked himself into enough of a temper that the threat landed without landing cleanly. Lightning Release chakra crackled across his body.
"Cloud Village has never feared a fight. If you want war, then let's have it."
Nagato's eyes went cold. He rose from his chair. The room's atmosphere became something predatory.
The Cloud Village shinobi standing guard in the back rushed into the hall and positioned behind their Raikage, facing Nagato across the table. The encounter was a breath away from becoming a battle.
Then Black Zetsu spoke, quietly, from the back of the room.
"If a conflict starts, I will go immediately and kill the Lightning Country daimyo and every last noble in the country."
"Please believe me when I say I have that capability."
The words landed on the Raikage like cold water. The overwhelming pressure he had been building bled out of him in a single moment, and he dropped back into his chair with his arms crossed and said nothing further about fighting.
The Cloud Village shinobi behind him released a collective breath and withdrew with polite bows.
Everything returned to its previous state.
When the Raikage had been building toward a confrontation, the other four Kage had stepped back to watch. Now each of them stepped in to smooth things over.
Hiruzen opened with a disarming expression.
"Our concern about the Land of Rain's rapid expansion was simply that it struck us as unusual. We were worried that the Otsutsuki might be interfering quietly from behind the scenes, and we wanted to verify. No hostile intent toward the Land of Rain."
"We are all working toward the same goal of keeping the shinobi world safe. There is no need for any of this."
Onoki and the others added their own conciliatory remarks. The matter was set aside.
Once the table had been replaced, Black Zetsu returned to what had been left unfinished.
"If the five major nations do not want the Seven-Tails Chomei falling into the Land of Rain's possession, I do have a proposal that addresses that."
"If the nations agree to support the revival of the Ten-Tails as we discussed before, then the Seven-Tails Chomei would temporarily cease to exist in the shinobi world as an independent entity."
"With the tailed beast no longer available, the Land of Rain would have no motivation to continue pursuing the absorption of the Land of Waterfall."
"And when the external enemy has been dealt with and the beasts are redistributed, there will be no foreign invasion requiring continued national consolidation."
"What do you think?"
"No."
Four voices at nearly the same moment, the Kazekage excluded.
They were not willing to hand over their tailed beasts simply to prevent the Land of Rain from getting one. Sacrificing seven beasts to prevent a rival from acquiring one was not a calculation anyone except a fool would accept.
After exchanging a look, one of them gave voice to a thought that had been forming in the room.
"If national consolidation is beneficial for pooling resources, there is no reason the Land of Rain should be the only nation doing it."
"Rather than standing by while they absorb the Land of Waterfall, we might as well benefit ourselves."
The desire for territory was something inscribed permanently into every nation's fundamental character. Historically, the five major nations had found it difficult to act openly on that desire due to various constraints.
But now they had a ready-made justification. Protecting the shinobi world against an external threat. Under that cover, the path to legitimately absorbing smaller nations had suddenly opened.
Nagato saw the hunger in their eyes and frowned. He considered for a moment, then did not object, only restated his position once more.
"I will say it again. As long as war is not the method, your nations can pursue whatever course you choose. The Akatsuki will not interfere."
"Excellent. That is exactly what we needed to hear."
The Raikage laughed out loud, stood up, and walked out of the meeting hall at a pace that made clear he was already planning. His entourage moved quickly to match him.
The other four Kage followed without ceremony, each one departing with equally visible purpose.
The age of great expansion had arrived.
Chapter 502: The Shinobi World's New Order
"Hah... hah..."
Sandayu Asama ran with ragged breath, the screaming and clashing behind him rising and falling as the pursuit closed the gap.
He tightened his grip on the small girl pressed against his chest and shouted to the escort ninja at his sides.
"Fall back! Draw the pursuit away!"
The escorts obeyed without hesitation. They stopped, ran through a rapid sequence of hand seals, layered Clone Jutsu over Transformation Jutsu, and scattered in every direction wearing copies of Sandayu carrying the girl on his back.
It worked. The pursuers Doto Kazahana had sent fanned apart and chased the different shapes into the trees.
But there were too many of them. Even with the force split, two full squads stayed on Sandayu's trail and closed steadily. These men were operating under kill-on-sight orders and had no interest in confirming targets. Before they had covered any real ground, they began hurling kunai and shuriken at range.
The crack of projectiles splitting the air came from behind him. Sandayu yanked his short blade free with one hand and batted weapons aside as he ran, but the girl in his arms left too much of him exposed. The attackers were precise, deliberately targeting his calves where his guard was thinnest.
He managed to deflect most of it. Then one shot got through.
A shuriken caught his lower leg in a grazing arc and stripped away a line of flesh. Blood came in a hard pulse. His leg buckled, and he stumbled several steps before going down hard.
The follow-up volley came immediately, a wall of kunai and shuriken descending from above.
"This is it."
"I've failed the daimyo."
Sandayu rolled before impact, covering the princess beneath him and putting his back to the storm.
Then a voice cut through the air.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
A screen of water erupted from the ground around them, solid and immediate, sealing both of them inside its protection. The crack and hiss of projectiles punching into water followed in rapid succession, and then a group of figures appeared between Sandayu and the pursuers.
"This is an internal matter of the Land of Snow!" one of the pursuers called out. "Stand down!"
"Land of Snow's internal matter?" A calm, unhurried voice answered from behind the new arrivals. "But you're well inside Water Country's sphere of influence."
A man stepped forward from the group. The Kirigakure headband on his forehead caught the light.
Sandayu looked up. Relief hit him hard enough to blur his vision.
"Mizukage-sama! I need to commission a mission!"
"There's civil war in the Land of Snow. Doto Kazahana is a traitor who murdered our daimyo! I am Sandayu Asama, the daimyo's minister. The girl with me is Princess Koyuki Kazahana!"
"We will agree to any terms if Kirigakure suppresses this rebellion!"
"Any terms?" The Third Mizukage strolled forward with a mild smile. He reached down to help the princess to her feet first and handed her off to Mei Terumi before turning back to Sandayu.
"Then I want the Land of Snow absorbed into the Land of Water. Does that work for you?"
Sandayu went pale. "Please, Mizukage-sama, that is not something to joke about. Gold, grain, jutsu scrolls, secret techniques, all of that is open for discussion. But a merger is something I must ask you never to raise again."
"I see." The Mizukage gave a noncommittal nod, then looked down at the princess instead. "Your Highness, what is your preference?"
"I... I don't know..." Koyuki sensed the malice beneath the question. Her face tightened and she pressed backward, twisting to look toward Sandayu.
"Not knowing is just fine," the Mizukage said pleasantly. He glanced at Mei Terumi, who raised one hand and struck the princess unconscious without ceremony.
Then the Mizukage raised two fingers toward Yagura, who had already slipped into position behind Sandayu. A blade came down clean. Sandayu's body folded sideways in silence. He died with his arm outstretched toward where the princess had been standing and his eyes fixed open.
The pursuers turned and ran the moment they understood what had happened. But Kirigakure had not come this far to leave witnesses behind. Without needing an order, his men went after them. The screams were brief. When Yagura returned to report, both squads were accounted for.
"Mizukage-sama, there are still pursuit units in the area hunting down the surviving royal retainers. Should we eliminate them?"
"No need." The Mizukage shook his head. "If the countries merge, those people become Kirigakure's comrades eventually. There's no reason to kill them. Our priority is Doto Kazahana."
"Move out. We're going to the Snow Country capital."
The group took to the trees and disappeared. Behind them, Sandayu Asama lay where he had fallen, eyes still open and arms still reaching.
It did not take long to reach the capital.
Doto Kazahana was in the middle of a full eruption when they arrived.
He had seized the throne, and the first thing he had discovered afterward was that the key to the royal treasury had been carried away by the very people he was trying to kill. The failure had been fueling his rage ever since.
"I give you an entire army and you cannot stop one little girl? What exactly am I paying any of you for? Every last one of you is useless!"
He was still raging when the Mizukage's group appeared.
"Doto Kazahana. You murdered your own brother and seized his throne. Your crimes are severe."
"Kirigakure has accepted a commission from Minister Sandayu Asama to suppress this rebellion on behalf of the Land of Snow."
"Stand down and surrender."
Doto's anger folded into alarm in an instant. He was not stupid. One look at the ninja in front of him told him exactly how this ended if it came to blows. Even with his Ice Release bloodline limit and his chakra armor, he could not drive off this quality of force. He would die here.
"Wait, wait a moment!" He raised both hands in a rapid placating gesture.
"Mizukage-sama, I am also of royal blood. The transfer of the daimyo title is an internal Kazahana family matter. Kirigakure has no standing to interfere in it."
"As for Sandayu Asama, he was expelled from the country and classified as a rogue ninja before any of this. He had no authority to commission a mission."
"Is that so? If Sandayu had no authority, what about Princess Koyuki Kazahana?"
At the Mizukage's words, Mei Terumi stepped forward with the unconscious girl in her arms and let Doto see the princess's face clearly.
What held Doto's gaze was not the face. It was the hexagonal crystal hanging at her throat.
The treasury key. The one he had been hunting for since the moment the coup ended.
Doto drew a slow controlled breath and pushed every bit of calculation he had into motion.
"Mizukage-sama, the coup only happened today. There is no way they reached Kirigakure in time to file a mission."
"Whatever your actual purpose in coming here, I invite you to state it plainly. I am the daimyo of the Land of Snow. I will agree to any reasonable request, and whatever Sandayu or the princess promised you, I will double it."
"Will you?" The Mizukage's expression finally relaxed back into a smile. "That is excellent news."
"What they promised me was this: in exchange for my village avenging the previous daimyo, the Land of Snow would be absorbed into the Land of Water."
"So. How exactly do you plan to give double?"
"What?" The composure cracked. "That is impossible! The daimyo title has passed through the Kazahana line for generations! They had absolutely no right to offer something like that!"
"Is that a refusal?"
The Mizukage's face cooled. Doto felt his legs go unsteady beneath him.
He looked at the hexagonal crystal at Koyuki's throat one more time. His jaw set. His voice came out in a tight, shaking breath.
"Selling out one's own country, is it?"
"Then I will sell too."
"Give me Koyuki, and I will agree to absorb the Land of Snow into the Land of Water."
"Ha! Now we are getting somewhere."
The Mizukage's mood turned immediately. Having a sitting daimyo cooperate willingly was far more defensible than installing a puppet child, and considerably less complicated to administer. He crossed to Doto and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"A wise man reads the situation! Cooperate with us and I will give you my personal guarantee, backed by the authority of the Water Country daimyo himself: the Kazahana clan's noble status will never change. Your wealth and lands remain yours. You are simply exchanging one title for another and continuing to live well. There is nothing to lose here."
"No sensible man throws his life away for a name that no longer exists."
Doto stood with his head bowed and his teeth locked together. He made himself a silent promise that once he had the treasury key in his hands, he would find a way to drive every last one of these people out of his country and restore the Land of Snow's independence.
The Mizukage gave no sign of noticing his hatred and moved on in a brisk, administrative tone.
"Then it is settled. Tomorrow we announce this to the shinobi world and invite representatives from all nations to witness the formalities. Once everything is finalized, I will return the princess to you."
With that, the Mizukage and his group withdrew.
Doto had no leverage to object. He ordered his people to assemble, issued announcements to the shinobi world, and sent invitations to the other nations to come and bear witness.
Water Country's speed and efficiency landed on every other major nation with the force of a reminder they had not needed. They had all committed to absorbing their neighbors, but the great nations still had appearances to maintain. Annexation required the look of legitimacy. That meant constructing pretexts or manufacturing opportunities, and it meant studying exactly how Water Country had turned a coup into a voluntary merger in a single afternoon.
Delegations from every nation quietly attended the formalities as witnesses. By the time they left, they had taken careful mental notes.
Those notes were applied almost immediately.
Within a matter of months, the shinobi world shifted dramatically.
After absorbing the Land of Snow, Water Country went on to take the Land of Bears. Lightning Country absorbed the Land of Frost and the Land of Hot Water. Fire Country absorbed the Land of Waves and the Land of Fields. Earth Country overplayed its hand attempting to absorb the Land of Waterfalls and succeeded only in driving that nation straight into Rain Country's arms. Rain Country gained the alliance, and with it the Land of Waterfalls' tailed beast, which completed its claim to genuine great nation status.
Old Onoki caught no end of mockery from his longtime rival the Raikage over that blunder.
Stung, Onoki turned his attention to the Land of Demons instead. That one proved surprisingly straightforward. The ruling priestess Miroku had long feared what would happen if the Moryou seal weakened while her nation stood alone and undefended. When Earth Country offered to permanently station forces there to help defend the seal and contain any demonic outbreak, Miroku accepted without lengthy deliberation and integrated her nation into Earth Country's territory.
It was not a glorious acquisition, but it kept Onoki from walking away empty-handed.
Wind Country was not so fortunate. They walked away with nothing.
The war's attrition had stripped them of too many elite fighters, leaving them without enough credibility to pressure smaller nations. The new Fourth Kazekage Yashiro-maru, a compromise appointment assembled to satisfy competing factions within the village, had no personal authority to push initiatives through quickly. By the time he had spent weeks consulting every stakeholder and finally arrived at a workable plan, every potential target had already followed the Land of Waterfalls' example and joined Rain Country on its own initiative.
The failure left Yashiro-maru exposed to sustained criticism from the Wind Country daimyo, and what little standing he had eroded further with each passing week.
The official explanation from the Land of Waterfalls and the other small nations was that joining a coalition like Rain Country, built from many formerly independent nations, preserved more of their individual character than being absorbed whole by any single great power.
The real explanation was Yasushi.
Working from beneath the surface, he had already replaced the daimyo and nobility of those small nations through the clone operation, just as he had done in the Land of Grass before them. If the replacements decided their nations would join Rain Country, then Rain Country was where those nations went. It was that direct.
Across the nations that had been swallowed by the great powers, the picture was more complicated. A fair number of mid-level and lower nobles had already been quietly replaced by Yasushi's operatives before the annexations took place. The great nations had simply moved faster than expected, absorbing those countries before he could finish replacing the upper tiers of their nobility.
But that created its own kind of advantage.
Within the noble circles of all five great nations, Yasushi now had eyes and ears planted at multiple levels.
In a matter of months, most of the shinobi world's smaller nations had ceased to exist as independent entities, folded one by one into the six great powers. Even the Land of Iron, long committed to permanent neutrality, had begun to feel the walls closing in. Mifune was calling emergency samurai councils to debate whether Iron Country should pursue its own expansion before someone else made the decision for it.
Yasushi paid none of it any particular attention. He was working steadily alongside Black Zetsu, quietly continuing to replace the daimyo and nobility across every country, absorbed or otherwise, with no exceptions.
He was accumulating his pieces and waiting.
Once the daimyo and nobles of all five great nations had been replaced, he would set the final plan in motion. The shinobi world would be unified, not through war, but through the complete and invisible replacement of its entire ruling class.
Chapter 503: An Assist from the Future
Land of Iron, Shinobi Alliance headquarters.
The six shadows had gathered again to debate whether to contribute their tailed beasts toward reviving Ten-Tails.
"There is nothing to debate. The Cloud Village refuses."
"And I imagine every village except the Sand Village refuses as well."
The Raikage had the worst temper in the room, and he was the first to oppose, as usual. Then the person beside him put a knife in his back.
Shinnosuke, the Rain Country Amekage, smiled warmly and spoke up.
"If contributing tailed beasts on a loan basis means receiving the legendary Wood Release in exchange, Rain Village agrees."
"You said what?"
The Raikage turned on him with immediate fury.
Shinnosuke did not move under the weight of it. He sat exactly where he was, perfectly composed, and offered his answer with the serene expression of someone acting entirely in the public interest.
"Everything we do is for the peace and security of the shinobi world. Is it not only natural that we each offer some contribution toward that end?"
The Raikage did not believe a single word of it. He thought through the situation in one beat and recognized the move for what it was.
"You are sitting there acting virtuous with the Land of Waterfalls' tailed beast! Did anyone think to ask the people of Takigakure whether they agreed to this?"
"We are all one family now. There is no longer any meaningful distinction between Rain Village and Takigakure."
Shinnosuke maintained his pleasant expression without apparent effort. The Raikage and the others stewed in their irritation and found they had nothing useful to throw back at him.
Nagato and Jiraiya had received advance notice from Shinnosuke before the session opened, and the meeting had been structured around exactly this setup. They followed his lead and resumed pressing the other four nations.
Black Zetsu added his voice to the room and spelled out the terms clearly: as long as the nations were willing to loan their tailed beasts, all questions of compensation were open for discussion.
Both sides were locked in escalating argument when the air outside the hall shuddered. An oval rift opened in the plaza, and a strangely pale figure stepped out of it.
His eyes were blank white, the same featureless white as the Byakugan. His clothing was old-fashioned and plain. He wore no Konoha headband. Across his back was a red fishing rod, and at his hip hung a wicker creel. Nothing about him read as a Hyuga from the Leaf.
Guards closed in around him at once.
"Who are you? How did you walk into the Shinobi Alliance's headquarters unannounced?"
"The Shinobi Alliance?" The man spoke mostly to himself, as though checking something off a list. "So the World Government hasn't been established yet, which means the new Six Paths Sage hasn't appeared yet either. I came at exactly the right time."
He said it lightly, then stepped forward in a single movement and was inside the main hall.
His gaze settled on Nagato at the head of the table. He looked at his build, confirmed there were no Truth-Seeking Orbs floating at his back, and broke into a wide, openly delighted laugh.
"Yes! Perfect! Nagato, you haven't become the Six Paths Sage yet! Wonderful!"
"Let's see who stops me now, Otsutsuki Urashiki!"
The hall had been loud with argument. The intrusion drew every eye.
When the room heard him claim the Otsutsuki name and noticed his appearance bore some resemblance to Isshiki Otsutsuki, postures stiffened throughout. But when they registered that the eyes were only the Byakugan and not something more threatening, the immediate alarm settled a fraction. They looked at him with a degree less apprehension than they'd had a moment before.
Nagato rose to his feet and raised one hand. Guard units from every village poured in and formed a perimeter around their Kage. At the same time, four jonin sprinted for the four corners of the hall and began working through seals to deploy a barrier.
Urashiki crossed to the nearest barrier ninja, slipped in beside him, and drove the fishing rod through his chest with a casual forward motion.
"I have fought your World Government more times than I can count. Did you really think the Four Violet Flames Formation was going to catch me out? Stop dreaming."
"The future? The World Government?"
Everyone in the room went still. The implication landed simultaneously. Another traveler, from ahead in time, and this one was hostile.
They exchanged looks and decided instinctively that extracting information before engaging was more valuable than moving at once. The Raikage raised his voice.
"How many Otsutsuki have actually come through? Why not call all of them out? We can settle it properly, a real fight, winner takes all. That's considerably better than your people sneaking around like thieves."
"The trash in this Shinobi Headquarters couldn't stop me on your own." Urashiki's expression darkened for one moment before he dismissed the entire room with visible contempt. "No one else needs to come. I can handle all of you by myself."
"Since you haven't revived Ten-Tails yet, I'll handle that part as well."
He swung the red fishing rod. The hook traced a curving arc toward Killer B.
"You want Killer B, you go through me first!"
Raikage A stepped forward with a shout, swung his palm like a blade, and cut for the hook in midair.
The hook bent around him in flight and kept going toward Killer B.
"Gyuki, stop it!"
Killer B called out and let his chakra surge. A tentacle extended from his arm and whipped across the hook's path with full force.
That was exactly what Urashiki wanted. He snapped the rod once, the hook buried itself in the tentacle, and he hauled outward. A mass of tailed beast chakra came with it. Killer B's vision went dark. A sudden and total weakness came over him and he pitched forward, unconscious before he hit the floor.
"A lone tailed beast's chakra is always the easiest to take!"
Urashiki reached out, lifted the hovering blue mass of chakra free from the hook, deposited it into the wicker creel at his hip, and in the same motion swung the hook toward Yagura.
"Stop him!"
The Third Mizukage let out a shout, worked through hand seals, and opened his mouth.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
A solid wall of water erupted from the ground and closed around Yagura. At the same moment, Mei Terumi stepped forward to stand between Yagura and the attacker and opened her own mouth in turn.
"Boiling Release: Skilled Mist Technique!"
Dense, scalding mist poured out and drove toward Urashiki in a rolling wave.
He smiled faintly. His eyes shifted to red as the Rinnegan opened in both sockets. He stepped back, and the space behind him folded over itself like a smeared image, peeling apart into a dimensional rift.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka."
An instant later the space directly behind Yagura rippled and opened. Urashiki stepped back through on that side.
He cast the rod again. The hook passed through Yagura as though there were no resistance at all and drew back out trailing bright tailed beast chakra. Yagura went down. Urashiki slipped back into the rift and was gone.
"Damn him!"
Watching two jinchuriki be picked apart in front of him was more than the Third Mizukage could stand. He dropped all restraint, turned toward Urashiki the next time the man reappeared, and opened his mouth wide.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"
A torrent erupted from his mouth like a burst dam, filling the entire hall within seconds and sweeping everything inside off its feet. Ninja leaped for the ceiling, braced against pillars, or found whatever vertical purchase they could manage.
None of it reached Urashiki. He swung the rod again. The fire-red hook cut through the cascading water as though the technique were open air and buried itself in the Third Mizukage. A mass of vivid blue chakra was pulled free from him. The flood collapsed without chakra to sustain it.
The remaining fighters all attacked at once.
Urashiki's eyes shifted to a different color, a clear blue. They swept rapidly across the room in short arcs, and his body moved through a loose sequence of adjustments that redirected every attack around him without apparent effort.
Seeing the combined assault fail, Nagato stepped in personally.
He snapped a black rod into his right hand and extended his left palm toward Urashiki.
"Universal Pull!"
But before the gravitational field could close, Urashiki's body came apart. It scattered into a swarm of paper cranes that slipped past the pull's reach before it could seal around them, then drew back together into solid form on the far side.
Something in Nagato's presence seemed to register as a genuine warning. Urashiki chose not to press the attack.
"Fair enough. I have the chakra I came for."
"I'll find your remaining jinchuriki in their villages. I have no reason to keep playing around here."
His eyes shifted back to red. He activated Yomotsu Hirasaka, stepped backward, and was gone. He did not reappear.
"Damn it all!"
"He came in here, took what he wanted, and just left!"
Being mocked in the Shinobi Alliance's own headquarters, and then watching the man walk out without consequence, was a humiliation no one in the room felt easy sitting with. But there was something more urgent than wounded dignity.
"Get word to the villages immediately. Protect the jinchuriki. Nothing gets stolen from what we have left."
The room descended into rapid, overlapping dispatches. When the replies came back confirming that the jinchuriki who had been drained were alive and stable, the immediate panic cooled into something harder.
The Third Mizukage and the others who had been knocked unconscious were revived. But the meeting was finished regardless. No one was thinking about tailed beast contributions. Every mind had turned toward their own village and the question of what was walking toward it.
"What was all of that?" someone said. "I thought he was going to pull out the entire Eight-Tails. He only took a fragment of chakra."
"That hook, though. There was no way to block it. That is the genuinely difficult part. Beyond that he didn't seem impossible to deal with."
"Tailed beast chakra is essentially limitless. So he takes a small amount of it. What does he actually do with that?"
"Those eyes were strange. Red one moment, blue the next. Whatever dojutsu abilities they each contain are completely different from Lord Nagato's purple Rinnegan. Nobody has any idea what other colors they might show."
Nagato had no information on this new enemy at all. He went to Black Zetsu with the question.
Black Zetsu knew little about Urashiki specifically, but he knew Ten-Tails in considerable depth. He stood up, drew the room's attention with a single clap, and let his voice carry the weight of the moment.
"Everyone. Do not make the mistake of dismissing this threat because of what you just watched."
"Do not assume that because he only took a fraction of each tailed beast's chakra that you are safe from whatever comes next. The Otsutsuki clan's dojutsu techniques are without limit in their variety. No one in this room knows what each color of his Rinnegan can actually do. He may have methods to use those fragments in ways none of us can predict."
"He did not steal tailed beast chakra out of personal preference. There is a purpose."
"And consider this carefully: reviving Ten-Tails does not require complete tailed beasts."
"If he collects enough fragments of all nine tailed beasts' chakra, he can execute an imperfect revival and reach his goal by that path instead."
The silence that settled over the room was total.
"What? Ten-Tails can be imperfectly revived?"
"A single ordinary Otsutsuki was already this difficult to handle. If he becomes Ten-Tails' jinchuriki in some incomplete form, what exactly are we supposed to do against that?"
"This is precisely why we cannot allow him to reach that point before us. We need Lord Nagato to become the Six Paths Sage as quickly as possible."
Black Zetsu drove the nail in and pressed directly. Every Kage in the room needed to commit their tailed beasts now.
The room went cold again.
They had just watched what Urashiki could do. They knew the threat was real. But the temptation of the favorable outcome remained. What if the jinchuriki were successfully protected and Urashiki ended up with too little chakra to pull off any kind of revival? Then they would have surrendered their tailed beasts for nothing. That possibility held every Kage in place, and none of them would move first.
Seeing it, Black Zetsu pressed harder.
"Has everyone already forgotten what Urashiki said the moment he appeared?"
"He mentioned the World Government. He mentioned the Shinobi Headquarters. He said Lord Nagato had not yet become the Six Paths Sage, that Ten-Tails had not yet been revived."
"What does that tell us?"
"It tells us that in the future, these things are destined to occur. Lord Nagato is destined to become the Six Paths Sage. The future is already written."
"Accomplishing it now makes the shinobi world safer sooner. That is all there is to it."
"Did no one notice that Urashiki was forced to come all the way back from the future specifically to steal tailed beast chakra before Lord Nagato could complete his transformation? That means in a future where the Six Paths Sage already exists, those Otsutsuki invaders cannot threaten the shinobi world at all!"
Despite everything Black Zetsu offered, the Kage remained unmoved and refused to commit.
Nagato had no choices left. He called a recess, sent the other villages home to manage their situations, and waited for developments to build their own pressure before any next session.
Once the others had left, Nagato and Jiraiya turned immediately to accelerated training. Nagato worked on sharpening his synchronization with the Rinnegan and refining his command of Wood Release techniques, all of it preparation for the confrontation ahead.
Meanwhile, Black Zetsu quietly dispatched White Zetsu to contact Yasushi and press for whatever intelligence the man had on the new arrival.
He had not forgotten that Yasushi was a Dragon Vein transmigrator. There was a strong possibility Yasushi had information on Otsutsuki Urashiki. If a comprehensive picture of the man could be obtained, perhaps the same approach used against Isshiki could be turned against this new enemy as well.
Chapter 504: World Government, Member Nations, World Nobles, Shinobi Headquarters, Five Elder Stars
Some people refuse to believe anything until they are staring at the consequences.
Black Zetsu had laid out every detail of the situation with thorough analysis, and the shadows had still clung to their wishful thinking, each quietly confident their own village was strong enough to stop Otsutsuki Urashiki if he came for them.
Reality corrected that confidence in short order.
Within a little more than a month, one piece of bad news arrived after another.
Earth Country's jinchuriki were attacked first. With all of Iwagakure on full alert, Urashiki drew the guards away from the jinchuriki with a diversion, then came in through a Yomotsu Hirasaka rift from the other angle and made off with both the Four-Tails' and Five-Tails' chakra before anyone could respond. The entire village, all of its alerted personnel and resources, had been run in circles by one man and accomplished nothing.
Old Onoki was so enraged that his chronic back injury flared up. He spent the next several days flat in a sickbed, cursing at the ceiling.
Once Earth Country's report reached the other nations, Lightning Country responded with considerably more preparation and managed to intercept Urashiki in the act. It did not help.
Being caught did not make Urashiki retreat. He simply attacked directly instead.
What the shinobi world learned from that encounter was that stolen jinchuriki chakra did not go to waste. Urashiki reached into the red creel at his hip, pulled out stored tailed beast chakra, and started throwing it around with open recklessness: octopus tentacles, lava streams, anything he had collected. Fighting with that kind of borrowed abundance, he punched straight through Lightning Country's prepared defenses and had the Two-Tails' chakra hooked and away before the Raikage could reach the battlefield. He walked out without a scratch.
The remaining villages were genuinely unsettled now.
An Otsutsuki enemy who could draw on multiple tailed beasts' chakra at will and combine them however he chose was a different category of problem entirely. Worse, he never stayed in any engagement long enough to be surrounded, slipping in and out through spatial techniques with no apparent limit. There was no way to prepare a perimeter that accounted for every approach when he could simply open a door behind it.
By this point no one had actually died in any of the attacks. Every victim had lost chakra and lost consciousness, but all of them were alive and recovering. That was the only comfort available, and none of the villages were willing to bet their jinchuriki's lives on the assumption that Urashiki would keep it that way by choice.
The nations gathered again at the Shinobi Alliance's base and sat down to address the problem properly.
This time even Hiruzen Sarutobi took no chances. He brought Kushina with him directly, and arranged for Minato's team and the Ino-Shika-Cho formation to serve as personal escort, leaving no opening Urashiki might exploit during the journey.
By the time they reached the Land of Iron, fresh reports had already arrived confirming that Water Country and Rain Country had both been hit. The Six-Tails and Seven-Tails chakra had fallen into Urashiki's hands.
Which meant that apart from the One-Tail, whose whereabouts were unknown since Yasushi had taken it, only the Nine-Tails' chakra remained untouched. Konoha's side of the table tightened considerably. Their protective measures were doubled on the spot.
Once everyone was assembled, Black Zetsu distributed a fresh intelligence packet around the room.
"This is what I have been able to gather on Otsutsuki Urashiki from multiple sources. Please review it carefully, and then we can address the Ten-Tails."
Everyone assumed it was a simple compilation of the incident reports. When they actually read it, the depth and specificity of the intelligence was nothing like what they expected. The information was far more comprehensive than anything the nations had assembled independently. The room exchanged uncertain looks.
"Black Zetsu-sama, where exactly did this intelligence come from? Why are we only seeing it now?"
Black Zetsu answered with frank simplicity.
"This intelligence comes from another Dragon Vein transmigrator. Uchiha Yasushi. He has fought Otsutsuki Urashiki in the future and knows the enemy in considerable detail. The intelligence we previously received about Otsutsuki Isshiki also came from him."
"He genuinely wants to contribute to the peace and security of the shinobi world. His situation as a rogue ninja simply made direct contact with the other nations uncomfortable for him, which is why he has been providing support through me as an intermediary."
"Uchiha Yasushi?"
Hiruzen felt a sharp pull of unease and immediately thought of the future intelligence about the Uchiha Divine Nation.
"Didn't he surrender to the Otsutsuki in the future? Can we trust anything he provides?"
Black Zetsu was now firmly in Yasushi's corner and had his answer prepared.
"Our assumption that he surrendered to the Otsutsuki clan was pure speculation. There is no evidence supporting that conclusion."
"And even if he had surrendered in the future, the far more likely explanation is that the enemy's strength left him with no visible path to victory, and he made a pragmatic choice to preserve his clan's continuity rather than die fighting a hopeless battle."
"Given the Uchiha clan's pride, the idea that they would bow to a group of aliens out of genuine loyalty is frankly implausible. Submission under those circumstances is entirely different from betrayal."
"The situation in the shinobi world has changed. If we revive Ten-Tails first and allow Lord Nagato to become the new Six Paths Sage, we create a path to victory that did not exist in the future he came from. If people can see a way to win, they will not surrender."
"The Uchiha Divine Nation will simply stop being a possible future."
The argument looped back around to Ten-Tails revival through every angle Black Zetsu tried, and the Kage's expressions grew heavier with each pass. They turned the intelligence papers over in silence, flipping through them with increasing unease.
Black Zetsu added one more push.
"That creel stores and amplifies chakra. What that means is that once Urashiki has collected fragments from all nine tailed beasts, he can carry out an imperfect revival with the stored material even without taking the beasts themselves. The process would be slower than using intact tailed beasts, but there is no obstacle that prevents him from eventually succeeding."
"If Urashiki achieves the Ten-Tails revival before we do and becomes its jinchuriki in some incomplete form, the Shinobi Alliance will have no opportunity left to respond."
The room had no more arguments. One by one, the nations agreed to release their tailed beasts for the revival.
Jiraiya exhaled visibly.
"Finally. Once Lord Nagato becomes the new Six Paths Sage, this crisis can be resolved."
"The one difficulty is that we only have eight tailed beasts accounted for. The One-Tail, Shukaku, is still with Uchiha Yasushi."
He looked over at Black Zetsu.
Black Zetsu had already worked out this part with Yasushi in advance. He smiled without concern.
"Yasushi is easy to deal with. The Third Hokage simply needs to issue a formal public declaration acknowledging Danzo Shimura's crimes and establishing clearly that Yasushi's killing of Danzo was justified. Once that is on record, he can return to Konoha with his standing fully intact."
Hiruzen's eyebrows drew together and stayed there. His reluctance was visible.
"Danzo's conduct was certainly improper in various respects, but the fact that Uchiha Yasushi killed fellow village members in the process is equally on record. That is not something that should be set as a precedent."
"Suppose we handle it this way. I issue a special pardon and clear Yasushi of all charges. Would that not accomplish the same thing?"
"Danzo is dead. The public announcement of his crimes seems like an unnecessary step."
Black Zetsu shook his head.
"That will not work. Yasushi made his position clear to me directly. He did not commit any crime. He refuses to live the rest of his life carrying a charge he did not deserve."
"If he returns to the village, he returns with his name clean, in a way that leaves no one with any grounds to criticize him. If the Hokage cannot meet that condition, he would rather remain a rogue ninja outside the village than come back on those terms. He will not compromise on this."
Hiruzen's pipe rattled against his palm. His jaw was working with the kind of restrained frustration that came from being maneuvered into a corner by someone who knew exactly how the board was laid out.
He understood what he was actually reluctant about. It was not the public announcement itself. He wanted to leave a blemish on Yasushi's record for practical reasons: a man that capable, without any mark against him, would accumulate influence in the village at a rate that could cause complications. And he did not want his old colleague condemned to a lasting reputation as a criminal.
But Yasushi had read both of those motivations perfectly and set his terms to refuse both options simultaneously.
Black Zetsu waited beside him and said nothing. He had already reached the same assessment of Hiruzen that Yasushi had: this was a seasoned political operator, and in the end seasoned political operators always made the rational choice.
Sure enough, after a long pause, Hiruzen let out a slow, deep breath and gave way.
"Very well. For the peace and security of the shinobi world, Danzo will have to bear a somewhat harsher legacy."
The matter was settled. Hiruzen wrote the order out by hand on the spot and dispatched it back to the village for immediate execution.
And so Yasushi's standing was restored. His name cleared. His rogue designation revoked.
He arrived at the Shinobi Alliance base with his record impeccably clean and was immediately pulled into a meeting the moment he walked through the door.
"You're another Dragon Vein transmigrator. Whatever you know about the future, tell us all of it."
Yasushi settled into a seat with a pleasant expression and began to talk.
He was not working alone on the fabrication. Black Zetsu was the more experienced story architect between them, and the two had spent considerable time beforehand constructing an account that held together from every angle. Still, to protect against oversights, Yasushi opened with a preemptive disclaimer.
"The past I have lived through has already diverged significantly from what I remember. The future has certainly shifted as a result. What I can tell you is reliable as a reference, but it should not be taken as a fixed prediction. Applying it too literally will lead to errors."
The Kage nodded their understanding and waited.
Yasushi continued.
"After suffering repeated defeats at the Otsutsuki clan's hands, the shinobi world eventually figured things out."
"In the end, to defend against the threat of Otsutsuki invaders from outside, all nations merged into a single unified state. A World Government was established."
"Every country became a member nation of that World Government."
"The original daimyo and noble families all became World Nobles, hereditary titles passed down through their lines, born into permanent elevated status."
"All ninja villages were consolidated into Fire Country, forming a single Shinobi Headquarters that governed all ninja operations."
"The five Kage of the great villages became the collective administrators of that Shinobi Headquarters. Together they were called the Five Elder Stars."
"Of course, given that the sixth great nation has now formed with Rain Country's emergence, the post-unification structure would presumably become Six Elder Stars instead."
The silence that followed lasted about one full breath.
Then the room came apart.
"That's impossible!"
"How could the five great nations ever merge into a single state?"
"Something is wrong with this intelligence!"
"The daimyo would never agree to anything so absurd!"
"A Shinobi Headquarters in Fire Country? Does that mean Cloud Village would have to relocate?"
"Well, if it's a relocation to Fire Country..." the Sand representative said, almost to himself, "I don't think Sand Village would actually object all that much. We have never particularly enjoyed living in a desert."
"And honestly, if food and supplies were properly provided, Mist Village would not be sorry to leave that isolated backwater behind either."
The outrage that had started the response had already shifted halfway to genuine consideration by the time anyone noticed. The Kage on each side looked at one another, then abruptly recognized that the conversation had gone somewhere it probably should not, and one of them struck the table to bring it under control.
"That is enough. This is not the kind of thing we should be freely debating among ourselves."
"The daimyo of the five great nations will never agree to a merger. Let us not continue down this road."
Yasushi cut in with an easy smile.
"I would not be so certain about that."
"Before Rain Country rose to great nation status, who would have predicted that so many small nations, facing existential threats, would choose to unite and form a new state voluntarily?"
"If small-nation daimyo could show that kind of pragmatic good sense, why would the five great nations' daimyo be any less capable of reading a situation?"
"You are all making assumptions. I have actually lived through the five-nation merger. My read on this is more grounded than yours."
"If you disagree, the simplest path forward is to put together a formal proposal and bring the six daimyo into the same room to discuss it. Let six distinguished daimyo reach their own conclusions. There is no need for any of you to decide this on their behalf."
Yasushi's confidence was not theoretical. The noble replacement operation had been progressing smoothly for some time now and had already extended fingers into all five great nations. It would not be much longer before the daimyo themselves were replaced. Once that happened, the Kage would not need to draft any proposal at all. Whatever he wanted, the six daimyo would applaud it with both hands.
The Kage did not know any of that. They traded uncertain looks around the table and agreed with a degree of reserved skepticism.
"Fine. We leave questions like this to the daimyo. Our responsibility is to handle the ninja side of things."
But the six shadows, rather than taking Yasushi's suggestion at face value and drafting a merger proposal, chose instead to send quiet, informal inquiries through back channels to test their own daimyo's actual positions.
The five real daimyo who had not yet been replaced gave clear refusals without exception.
Their nobles told a completely different story.
Across every great nation, significant portions of the nobility began publicly expressing support for the establishment of a World Government, through official statements, through letters, and through invitations to neighboring noble families to visit their estates and hear them make the case in person.
A striking number of those neighbors were persuaded and changed their stated positions.
Rain Country's daimyo and nobles, for their part, showed enthusiastic support across the board. The Rain Country daimyo personally extended invitations to the other nations' daimyo, requesting direct meetings to, as the letter put it, lay out the relevant interests and considerations face to face.
The Shinobi Alliance, for its part, paid little attention to any of this activity among the nobility. They had a more urgent matter requiring their focus.
Preparations for Ten-Tails revival were already underway, moving faster now with every nation committed. The goal was to complete the process as quickly as possible, absorb Ten-Tails, and give Nagato everything he needed to become the new Six Paths Sage.
Chapter 505: Urashiki, You'll Have to Take the Blame for This One
Yasushi had no particular interest in the Ten-Tails revival that was being planned. He already had a miniature Ten-Tails sitting in storage. The version about to be assembled could be handed to Nagato without any loss on his end.
But the problem was Black Zetsu.
Nagato was now thoroughly wrapped around Black Zetsu's finger, completely without suspicion, completely without guard. If Black Zetsu chose to move at any moment during or after the revival, he could use Nagato to resurrect Kaguya with essentially no resistance. The window was obvious and it was dangerous.
The two of them were in the middle of a cooperative arrangement. They needed each other for the moment and neither could afford open confrontation right now. But a necessary defense was still a necessary defense. If he waited until after the Otsutsuki threat was cleared before moving on Black Zetsu, the opportunity would be gone.
Black Zetsu was surely running the same calculation about him. Who came out ahead came down to who was sharper.
Openly interfering was out of the question. If he pushed Black Zetsu far enough to retaliate, the clone replacement operation would be blown and everything he had built would be destroyed in a single move.
So the blame for what needed to happen would have to land on Otsutsuki Urashiki instead.
As it happened, the Shinobi Alliance had apparently chosen their sealing team without including Yasushi, either out of distrust or because they had decided that a jinchuriki should not be in the room. Either way, the outcome suited him perfectly. He had been looking for an excuse to be elsewhere.
While the barrier specialists were memorizing the Dragon Sealing formation, Yasushi walked back to his room without hurry.
The jinchuriki were now priority targets, and Urashiki's movements were unpredictable enough that six sets of guards had been assigned to watch Yasushi specifically. They framed it as protection. The framing was generous. In practice it amounted to surveillance.
That would create complications. But even the most attentive guard detail could not keep eyes on him inside a closed room. They would post themselves outside the door and no further.
Which left him a gap.
"Jun, I'm tired. I need to rest for a bit. Stand outside and make sure no one disturbs me."
"Understood. Get some rest."
Jun had no idea what he was planning, but she trusted him without qualification. She took her post at the door without another word.
Yasushi closed the door, lay down on the bed, and spent a moment listening carefully to every sound he could pick up from the surrounding area. Then he opened his Rinnegan and swept it across every corner of the room. No one was watching.
He formed a one-handed seal. A shadow clone materialized and took his place on the bed. His real body switched without sound into the Black Eye mode.
Under normal circumstances, this state allowed him to open a spatial portal and step through it cleanly. But there were too many ninja posted outside running protective formation patterns. Any spatial disturbance would register with them.
So he skipped the portal. He reduced his body to near-microscopic scale and slipped out through the gap in the window frame.
Only once he was well clear of the Alliance's base did he return to normal size and open a portal.
That was the advantage of spatial techniques. The distance meant nothing. He could be anywhere in the shinobi world within a moment.
He found a desolate, isolated stretch of terrain well away from any village, landed, and ran through hand seals rapidly before pressing his palm to the ground.
"Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!"
The technique came built into the Rinnegan. Once the eyes awakened, no learning was required. He had simply never had reason to use it before now.
The earth shook in a deep, rolling tremor. The ground split open. A pair of colossal hands thrust upward from below, fingers splayed wide against the edges of the fissure, and began to haul a massive form out of the earth.
Within moments the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path stood before him, towering and immovable.
Yasushi was not interested in admiring it. He was already worried Nagato might attempt to summon it back before he could finish. He vaulted to the top of the statue's head, pressed his palm against it, and let the Black Eye flash.
The towering colossus shrank. In seconds it was small enough to hold in one hand.
He grabbed it. Dozens of golden Adamantine Chains erupted from his palm and wound around it completely, layering seal over seal until the structure was locked down tight. Still not satisfied, he pushed tailed beast chakra into the binding and added a layer of Desert Burial sealing over everything.
When the sequence was complete, the former host body of Ten-Tails looked like a small gold pyramid. Nothing about its outside surface suggested what was inside.
"Done."
Yasushi bounced the pyramid once in his hand with a satisfied grin, then dropped it into Daikokuten.
If Nagato could somehow pull the Demonic Statue back out of that through a summoning technique while it was locked under Adamantine Chain sealing, Desert Burial, and the frozen interior of Daikokuten simultaneously, then Yasushi was prepared to simply acknowledge defeat.
He formed a single seal, opened a portal, and stepped back to the position he had left from. He reduced his size again, floated back through the window gap, and returned to his original form.
By the time he was back in the room, noise was already building outside. He dispelled the shadow clone immediately, switched back to Sharingan mode, and stepped through the door.
A group of guards came rushing toward him with strained expressions. Seeing him standing there in one piece with his escort undisturbed, they exhaled visibly.
"Yasushi-sama, you weren't attacked by Otsutsuki Urashiki just now?"
"No, nothing happened here." He spread his hands with an expression of complete innocence. "What is it? Did something happen?"
They exchanged looks, then sighed.
"There's no point trying to keep this from you. The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that was being stored below the base was summoned away by someone."
"The six shadows believe Otsutsuki Urashiki has now collected all nine tailed beasts' chakra. They sent us to check on you and make sure there was no sign of an attack."
"Summoned away?" Yasushi put on a convincingly alarmed expression. "Can't it be summoned back?"
"Lord Nagato tried. He failed."
"Then what do we do?"
No one had an answer for that. He left them standing there and went directly to the main hall to find Nagato.
The hall was already at full volume.
"If everyone had just shown a little foresight like Sand Village did and contributed their tailed beasts earlier, we would not be sitting here like this!"
"What are you talking about? You only wanted to contribute first because you were trying to get the One-Tail back from Uchiha Yasushi. Stop pretending you were acting out of principle."
"Enough of that, both of you. We have lost the Demonic Statue, but Urashiki still doesn't have the One-Tail or the Nine-Tails chakra. He cannot revive Ten-Tails in the short term. There is no need to panic."
"We could use the One-Tail and Nine-Tails as bait to draw him out. Defeat him, and we recover the statue afterward."
"That isn't necessarily how it works. For an imperfect revival he doesn't have to go through living jinchuriki. He might have something equivalent to Reincarnation Jutsu that lets him pull chakra from dead former hosts. There could be routes we haven't considered."
"Dead former hosts? That works?"
"Then are there any other ways to revive Ten-Tails? Do we have any alternatives to the Demonic Statue?"
"No. Nothing else can hold nine tailed beasts' chakra simultaneously. The Demonic Statue exists because it was Ten-Tails' own shell in the first place. It is the only possible vessel for the revival."
"So the statue is gone and there are no other options. What exactly are we supposed to do? Just sit here and wait to die?"
"I refuse to believe that the entire shinobi world together cannot stop one Otsutsuki."
"Are you telling me that without a Six Paths Sage, the shinobi world simply cannot survive?"
They noticed Yasushi walk in and immediately rounded on him.
"Uchiha Yasushi! You tell us. Can the Shinobi Alliance's combined forces actually not defeat Otsutsuki Urashiki?"
Yasushi came to the table, took a seat, and answered with an easy smile.
"I knew you all had reservations about the Savior idea and never fully trusted it."
"And because of exactly that arrogance, that refusal to accept what was right in front of you, the five great nations ended up picked apart one by one in the future. You were completely routed."
"It was only after losing so much, after so many people died, that the five great nations finally figured it out and formed the World Government out of sheer necessity."
"Once they were actually unified, the Shinobi Headquarters genuinely did hold together against Urashiki's attacks."
The shadows were almost starting to look relieved before Yasushi kept going.
"The problem was that Urashiki was not the only Otsutsuki who came."
"When Otsutsuki Kinshiki and Otsutsuki Momoshiki entered the battlefield, the Shinobi Headquarters suffered a catastrophic blow and the World Government collapsed shortly afterward."
"That is when the Uchiha Divine Nation emerged."
"Under my leadership and the Uchiha clan's direction, the shinobi world was unified once more. The daimyo and the nobles, who had been dragging the shinobi world down at every step, I had them all removed."
"That is precisely why the Dragon Vein travelers who came back hate me so deeply and want me dead. They are survivors of the old order. Servants of the daimyo and nobles."
Jaws dropped around the table. Every head turned toward Black Zetsu.
"You told us he had surrendered to the Otsutsuki and used their power to build his nation. That was your exact position."
Black Zetsu had prepared for exactly this moment and answered with practiced openness, spreading his hands.
"I said at the time that it was an inference based on available information, not confirmed intelligence from a Dragon Vein traveler. I never had a direct account."
"How was I supposed to know that the shinobi world would suffer such heavy losses in the future and end up having to turn to the Uchiha clan? Even Sand Village, with its own Dragon Vein traveler, had no detailed picture of events. How could I?"
The shadows thought back and had to admit Black Zetsu was right. The original conclusion had been inferred, and it had been accepted as fact because the logic seemed solid. The new account was now contradicting it, but the new account had its own internal coherence and they had no tools to disprove it either. So they shelved the old version and provisionally accepted the new one.
What they could not shelve was the obvious discomfort of sitting across from someone who had just openly admitted to eliminating all the daimyo and nobles. That declaration did Yasushi's standing in the room no favors at all.
Yasushi was not interested in their feelings. He had needed to scrub the label of Otsutsuki collaborator from his name, and the secondary cost of making the nobility uncomfortable was irrelevant. Within a short time every daimyo and noble would be his replacement, ready to applaud anything he asked of them.
He looked around the room, took the measure of every expression, and continued through the story he and Black Zetsu had built together.
"When it rains it pours."
"The Uchiha Divine Nation was already struggling to hold the Otsutsuki at bay when additional enemies arrived."
"Otsutsuki Toneri entered the conflict as well. Using the power of the Tenseigan, he turned the moon itself into a weapon and brought it down toward the shinobi world."
The intake of breath was audible across the entire room.
The moon used as a weapon. If it actually struck the surface, it would not simply destroy the five great villages. It would end the shinobi world entirely.
Yasushi let his gaze rest on Nagato for a moment, his tone neither warm nor cold.
"If the Savior, Lord Nagato, had not appeared in time to become the new Six Paths Sage, the Uchiha Divine Nation and the shinobi world would have been destroyed together."
"Once the Six Paths Sage shattered the moon and saved the shinobi world, the Uchiha Divine Nation stood firmly at his side and fought the Otsutsuki clan alongside him."
"But the Otsutsuki enemies kept coming, one after another. The war grew harder with every new arrival."
"After everything that happened, I came to one conclusion. The reason the shinobi world ended up in that situation was simply that the Savior, the Six Paths Sage, appeared too late."
"So I found a way to use the Dragon Vein and came back to the past. My purpose was to make the Savior and Six Paths Sage appear earlier, and spare the shinobi world the suffering that would otherwise come."
"Unfortunately, the remnants of the old order, the small-minded ninja who served the daimyo and nobles, some of them were swept along by the Dragon Vein as well. They came back with me, and it is their interference that has created all of these complications."
Everyone in the room sat with furrowed brows. Something felt slightly off, but no one could locate a specific hole in the account.
That was what information asymmetry did. When one side knows nothing about the future, everything the other side says can only be accepted or rejected by intuition. There is no factual basis for refutation.
The silence stretched for a moment. Then Hiruzen looked at Yasushi with a complicated expression and spoke quietly.
"Yasushi. If you genuinely wanted to save the shinobi world, why not simply tell the village what you knew from the beginning?"
Yasushi rolled his eyes openly and answered without any interest in softening the delivery.
"And then what? Get locked up in Root to be studied by you and Danzo?"
"I don't trust you. I don't trust Konoha. And I have absolutely no patience for the Will of Fire."
"Go explain your Will of Fire to the Otsutsuki clan and see how far it gets you."
He let his gaze move across all six Hokage slowly.
"Every single great nation here is the same. You never believe anything until you are staring at the wreckage it left behind. The shinobi world's survival cannot be left in the hands of people like you."
"Only someone who genuinely cares about the bigger picture has any right to call themselves a Savior and actually save anything."
"And I, Uchiha Yasushi, will put my name forward as exactly that person."
"The Savior of the shinobi world is not about the individual. It is about becoming the Six Paths Sage, so that when the Otsutsuki come, they can each be dealt with before they have the chance to combine their strength."
"I now have the Rinnegan. I only need to become the Ten-Tails jinchuriki to be a genuine Six Paths Sage, a genuine Savior, in every sense that matters."
"A better Savior than Lord Nagato."
"The only tragedy is that my careful planning was obstructed at every turn by petty, small-minded ninja. They blocked me repeatedly, and the outcome of all that obstruction is the situation we are all sitting in right now."
"Even Otsutsuki Urashiki himself came after us through his artifact, the Plow, trying to rewrite history before we could act."
"And now the Demonic Statue has been stolen. The Ten-Tails revival has no clear path forward. As for the shinobi world's future..."
He leaned back and let the pause do its work.
"It hangs by a thread."