High above the Rain Village—at the central spire of Amegakure—
"The Four-Village Allied Force… was crushed."
Konan—wearing the black cloak embroidered with red clouds—stared at the intelligence scroll in her hand, disbelief tightening her voice.
A heavy pulse of chakra pressure rolled outward.
The Deva Path of Pain opened his eyes—those cold, purple Rinnegan turning like judgment itself.
"Crushed?" he said, disdain clear. "A bunch of worthless trash."
"Yes." Konan's expression hardened. "The Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, Five-Tails, and Eight-Tails were taken. Add the Nine-Tails, and Konoha now holds four tailed beasts."
"Four…" Pain's voice dropped, dangerous. "How much have you gathered on Uchiha Ren?"
"Almost nothing useful," Konan admitted. "Before Konoha's leadership launched the purge, he barely ever left the village. He stayed so low-profile we couldn't build a real profile."
Pain fell silent for a moment.
Konan hesitated, then asked softly, "Then… when do we move?"
"Not yet," Pain said. "The timing isn't ripe."
He raised his chin slightly, as if speaking to the world itself.
"When the moment comes… even if he's a so-called God of Shinobi, I'll suppress him with the Rinnegan—until Konoha understands pain."
Konan gave a single calm nod.
"Understood."
Elsewhere — A Dark Cavern
In a cold, damp cave lit by faint reflections—
"So?" the masked man—Obito—asked, voice heavy. "How did he become this strong? Quiet for years… then one strike shook the world. Now he's being called the God of Shinobi."
Black Zetsu and White Zetsu—fused into one—both frowned.
"We don't know," White Zetsu said, a rare tremor in his tone. "Ren's abilities are… abnormal. Terrifying. The alliance didn't lose because of bad luck."
Black Zetsu paused, then spoke with chilling certainty.
"Don't focus on him. We proceed in the shadows."
"As long as our plan succeeds—once we obtain the ultimate power—then even if Ren is the God of Shinobi…"
"He'll still be crushed."
Obito's visible Sharingan tightened, cold resentment bleeding through the silence.
He had already thrown everything away—embraced darkness, inherited Madara's legacy—
and still, on the night of the massacre, he'd been humiliated like a clown.
He couldn't accept it.
So he could only swallow it… and keep moving step by step.
Waiting for a day he could finally drag Ren down.
Kumogakure — The Raikage's Office
"Damn it—what do we do?!"
Bang!
The Fourth Raikage, A, slammed his fist into the desk, pain and fury twisting his face.
If Killer B lost the Eight-Tails… he'd die.
But against the current Konoha—against Uchiha Ren—the Raikage could do nothing but rage behind closed doors.
"Raikage-sama…"
Mabui walked in, her expression dark.
A's eyes flashed with hope.
"Well?!" he demanded. "Konoha—did they answer?"
Mabui's throat tightened.
"They refused. They won't release Killer B."
She swallowed, voice going even lower.
"Latest intel… Killer B is already dead. The Eight-Tails has been extracted by Uchiha Ren."
"What…?"
A's legs gave out. His massive body lurched—and he collapsed to the floor like a man whose spine had been ripped away.
Dead…
B was dead.
For a long time, the Raikage could only stare into the void, shaking.
He couldn't understand it.
Under Hiruzen, Konoha had always backed down externally—soft words, compromise, retreat.
Now?
This Konoha didn't leave room for negotiation.
Mabui could only let out a helpless breath.
Against a God of Shinobi at the peak of his momentum…
all they could do was accept the loss—and swallow the coming reparations.
Konoha Aftermath — Fear Turns Into Worship
The shinobi world shook.
Every faction reeled at the sheer brutality of Ren's strength.
But as the victor, Konoha didn't collapse into chaos—
it surged with unity, confidence, and explosive momentum.
The ones who regretted it most were the civilians and shinobi who fled before the war.
They'd believed Konoha was doomed.
Instead, Konoha won—and rose higher than ever.
All they had left was envy.
To erase the village's fear of tailed beasts, Ren did something even more shocking:
After extracting the Three-Tails, Five-Tails, and Eight-Tails, he stationed the beasts as living deterrents—guardians posted at Konoha's approaches, kept under strict control.
At first, people trembled.
But once they realized the tailed beasts wouldn't harm them—and would instead protect the village—
fear slowly turned into awe… then pride.
Some villagers even started visiting just to see the legendary beasts up close.
And alongside that shift, Konoha's clans moved to erase Hiruzen's ideological grip:
They jointly abolished the Third's propaganda materials as they existed under his rule, and rewrote the Academy curriculum with new books.
One title, in particular, shot to the top of the best-seller lists:
"The Story the First Hokage and Uchiha 'Dance King' Madara Never Stopped Writing."
Soon, the village was flooded with popular lines and swagger-quotes:
"You want to dance too?"
"Can tailed beasts even kill people?"
"Madara: I acknowledge you as the strongest."
"I'll fight you with two hands—good thing I still have Nine Hundred Ninety-Eight more…"
Konoha wasn't just recovering.
It was transforming.
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