Time and space changed like drifting sand, gone in an instant. The vast starry sea remained the vast starry sea. Konan was still Konan, yet this time, those clear eyes no longer held focus. Konan smiled faintly, as if in comfort, as if in relief.
"So that's how it is... I was still given a choice, huh."
With a flick of her sleeve, flowers bloomed across the ground. Fragrance filled the air, birdsong echoed, and in the next breath, there was no trace left at all.
The water realm stretched across the sea and ridge. Shibai stood silently as a figure approached, Konan, long hair drifting, cloaked in ominous clouds. He had been waiting here for a long time. Behind him stood others dressed in the same ominous cloud pattern. Each of them was sealed within pale green liquid, suspended in this watery domain.
"...You succeeded?"
Konan smiled and nodded. "Yes." Her voice was light, almost cheerful.
Shibai's expression softened as he looked at her. In that moment, her white eyes no longer felt like something distant or unreachable. Konan must have thought the same, because her expression turned visibly brighter. That quiet joy reflected in Shibai's eyes, softening his face even further.
Slowly, the water realm began to change. What once resembled stone and sea fragments turned to dust. The water thinned, fading away bit by bit, until only a small region remained. Beyond it, hundreds of meters of endless darkness could be seen. The collapsing space finally came to a halt.
The first to fall from the water sphere was Nagato. His hair had returned to its red color, the symbol of the Uzumaki clan. He could feel it immediately. Changes within his body. A continuous surge of power. The increasingly pure Six Paths energy. And those eyes that were never truly his now felt as if they belonged to him completely, without any sense of mismatch. Nagato froze for several seconds, overwhelmed.
Then he saw Konan. "Konan!!!" Relief, joy, the emotion of surviving disaster, or perhaps the feeling of losing something and getting it back.
Then he noticed Otsutsuki Shibai. His palm gathered power instantly. He raised his hand to strike.
"Shibai-sensei has no hostility." Konan's voice interrupted him calmly.
Shibai, sensei? Nagato froze. Then he saw Konan's closed eyes.
"Konan, what happened to your eyes?!" Panic came instantly. Concern followed naturally.
Konan shook her head gently. She reached out hesitantly toward Nagato. Nagato stepped forward and caught her empty reaching hand.
"Konan, what's going on?"
"It's nothing serious." Her answer was directed at him, but not entirely at him. "Sensei... do you regret it?"
Konan's voice shifted slightly as she spoke toward Shibai. At that moment, Shibai's body was already fading, dispersing like dust, just like the ruins of this collapsing world. He smiled, a warm, gentle smile.
"Do you regret it?"
Konan shook her head. No regret. Losing her sight meant nothing in comparison to what she still had, love for Kita, her bond with Nagato, memories of Yahiko, her companions, her village. All of it together formed the person called Konan.
"I won't regret it. This is already the best outcome."
Shibai nodded. "Neither do I."
Konan then knelt. Her forehead touched the ground in a deep bow. "Sensei, may your journey be peaceful."
Shibai smiled without answering. And then he vanished. No trace remained. Across countless worlds, there was no Shibai. And no Otsutsuki either.
The water realm was strange. There was no oxygen, yet no one felt suffocated. Nagato had awakened first. Then Kisame. After dozens of hours passed, only Kita and one other remained unconscious within the floating water spheres. Konan had enough time to explain everything clearly.
The God Tree had always existed. Shibai was its incarnation. And many other Otsutsuki were also incarnations of the God Tree. But Shibai was the first, so he possessed power no other incarnation had. The power of foresight.
Originally, Shibai followed the God Tree's will, plundering worlds, harvesting fruits, feeding the tree so it could create more incarnations. Endless repetition. World after world destroyed. Until eventually, he grew tired.
Then, millions of years later, he saw it. The destruction of the God Tree itself. For the first time in endless monotony, something interesting appeared. The existence of Akatsuki. He saw Konan giving away her eye of foresight to a woman. He saw that woman's final moment, using foresight to locate the God Tree and passing that information to her companions. He saw those companions invading the God Tree's world, destroying it through mutual destruction. That was everything he saw.
And from that moment on, Shibai began to wait. Wait for humans who could change the endless cycle. Then Akatsuki appeared. He observed them. Weak beings, yet they defeated Otsutsuki one after another. That alone fascinated him. In Shibai's understanding, strong was strong, weak was weak. That was all.
Then he approached the woman who would inherit his foresight. A human. A very interesting human. For the first time in millions of years, Shibai began to feel something close to anticipation, drawn toward what she described as human emotion.
To ensure the prophecy would occur, Shibai only met her in the Void Realm. Outside of it, she would remember nothing. He taught her what it meant to feel human. She taught him what it meant to think as an eternal being.
But over time, something changed. What was once interesting became dull. He still could not understand human emotion. And she slowly stopped feeling human at all. He watched her fade, from turbulent waves into a dead sea. Without emotion, she could no longer make the choice foretold. The choice to sacrifice herself for companions and love.
Shibai understood something then. The Otsutsuki meant nothing. But life itself was vibrant. So the one who made that decision was Konan, the woman who carried love for Zaraki Kita, friendship with Nagato, and bonds with her companions. Not the emotionless girl who could bear the eye of foresight in the Void Realm. One was yesterday. One was tomorrow. Tomorrow Konan exchanged part of her humanity for foresight. Yesterday Konan exchanged her sight for it.
"I only seemed to be sleeping all the time," Konan explained calmly, seated with everyone around a hot pot. The group was still in the water realm. Water surrounded them, yet there was no sense of suffocation. Instead, it felt strangely comfortable, like air itself. In truth, as Konan explained, it was air here. It only looked like water. "It's like home's atmosphere," she said.
Everyone stared at her in confusion. Deidara swallowed. "This... this feels like I'm listening to a divine lecture. Is Shibai even good or bad?"
"That's not the point," Obito muttered. "What happened in between? We only remember the battle with that thing called God Tree."
Itachi frowned. "My vision was overused, but now my eyes feel fine, even my body feels lighter."
Kisame blinked. "I can finally see what I look like."
Obito added, "I feel like I woke up and my kid can already call me dad."
Nagato, however, only cared about Konan's eyes. "Can they be healed? Can you get another pair of eyes?"
Konan smiled and shook her head. "I exchanged my sight. Even if I get new eyes, I still won't be able to see."
Nagato's worry deepened. His chest tightened with guilt. He remembered her sacrifice.
Then, crack. His chopsticks snapped in his hand. The entire table went silent. Konan remained calm, as if she truly could not see anything at all.
Nagato slowly set the broken pieces down. "...Konan."
"Yes?"
"You can't do things like this again. You can't just decide everything on your own. At least talk to me." It was almost pleading.
Konan thought for a moment. So this is how it feels for him. Then she sighed inwardly. "Okay. I was wrong. There won't be a next time." Her tone was sincere. Her attitude, not particularly.
Nagato still felt a tight knot in his chest. And it wouldn't loosen easily.