Naruto: The Last Harbinger of Storm
NTLHOS BOOK 2: Chapter 39: Destruction.
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"Pain forces us to grow. You think you're the only one who matters — you think you can skip to peace without suffering. But true understanding is born only through pain." — Pain.
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Previously on NTLHOS-2:
"Perhaps," the clone conceded, voice starting to distort. "But I suspect I won't need to lift a finger. If pain doesn't kill you, the aftermath will. Either way, the mighty Sarutobi will suffer." Its eyes flashed with malice. "I look forward to watching you struggle against the Akatsuki's 'god'. I owe Pain no loyalty, only a debt of entertainment. Consider this my contribution to the show."
"Until next time… old friend." And with that, it splashed into the rain-soaked earth, gone.
Hiruzen stood there for a moment, rain running down his face, mixing with the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. He took a shuddering breath and forced himself to move. He could mourn the betrayal of old friends and the folly of war another time. Right now, he had a village to save.
As he bounded forward, Hiruzen's thoughts burned. Hold on…
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Now:
A calm fell over Konohagakure. The sky, overcast and weeping with cold drizzle. Atop the tallest surviving pagoda at the village's centre, the Deva Path, hovered in the air, arms spread wide. His head was bowed, eyes closed. All across the ruined streets below, people cowered behind crumbled walls and upturned chunks of earth. They watched in dread, high-pitched ringing grew in the air.
Moments ago, Konoha had been whole. Now it was a broken tableau of rubble. Nagato's other Paths of Pain had already torn through the village's defences. Shattered rooftops and splintered wood littered the ground. In the distance, the colossal crustacean summon spewed foam that dissolved chunks of the Academy's proud stone facade, while a giant multi-headed hound rampaged through the marketplace. Those Konoha shinobi still able to fight had thrown themselves at the invaders, buying precious seconds for civilians to flee, yet it had not been enough. Corpses and wounded alike now lay strewn about the streets amid flickering embers and pooling rainwater.
Near the village's old training field, the body of a young ANBU captain slumped against a smashed water main, eyes blank. He had been the latest to face Pain's Human Path, which now knelt over him. The Human Path's pale hand was pressed to the fallen ANBU's forehead, a ghastly glow connecting them. With a wet shluck, the shinobi's soul was ripped free, his final scream dying in his throat as life left his body. The Human Path rifled dispassionately through his memories for any hint of the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. Nothing. The corpse thudded to the mud, empty-eyed. Nearby, two villagers clutched each other behind a collapsed fence, stifling cries at what they had just witnessed.
Across the road, Pain's Naraka Path stood impassive beside the looming statue of the King of Hell. One by one, it had interrogated captives pulled from hiding, feeding their souls to that grotesque maw, then resurrecting a few only to demand: Where is the Nine-Tails? But every trembling reply had been the same: They didn't know. Now a trembling chunin knelt before the Naraka Path, face streaked with dirt and tears. "I-I told you, I don't know!" he stammered, half-delirious with fear. Indeed, Konohamaru Sarutobi's absence seems no accident, Hiruzen Saratobi's work it seems but Nagato did not know the truth and cared little for them. The Path's hand tightened on the chunin's hair. "Lies," it pronounced flatly. The King of Hell's jaws yawned open once more, ready to consume another unavailing soul.
High above, the Deva Path's eyes snapped open. The time for probing had passed. Through Yahiko's body, Nagato surveyed the village one last time: a dozen plumes of smoke, rising like funeral incense; shinobi and civilians huddled in debris; the proud Hokage Monument cracked and defaced. He did not see the jinchūriki's chakra anywhere. Konohamaru Sarutobi was not here. So be it. If the Nine-Tails' vessel would not show himself, Nagato would force his hand with pain.
"Shinra Tensei," the Deva Path intoned with quiet finality.
An instant of absolute silence followed, then hell itself was unleashed. A colossal gravitational wave exploded outward from the Deva Path's body, an invisible sphere of force that expanded at blinding speed. The tower beneath Pain disintegrated at once, everthing pulverized into dust. The shockwave blasted across the village. Streets peeled upward like paper in a strom. Buildings were swept off their foundations and shorn into shrapnel. Those few structures still standing were crushed.
Panicked screams rose as people were picked up and hurled away by the irresistible force. A squad of medics aiding the wounded had only a moment to look up in horror; the next, they were flung aside. A mother clutching her child shielded him desperately with her body, they were blown through a collapsing wall, vanishing in a cloud of splinters. Everywhere, dust and wind raged, drowning out cries in a monstrous roar.
By the time the pressure subsided, Konohagakure was unrecognizable. The once proud Hidden Leaf lay in ruins. The Deva Path, standing at ground zero of destruction. Nagato's anger had been made manifest; this was real Pain.
Hyūga Hinata groaned softly as consciousness returned. She had been at the hospital site helping carry patients when the world turned upside-down. Now she found herself lying in a shallow crater. Her white jacket was torn, but she was miraculously unharmed save for cuts and bruises, one of the late Lady Katsuyu's slug clones, summoned earlier by Shizune's foresight, had protected Hinata and a handful of others from the brunt of the blast. The slug was gone now, spent, but it had done its duty. Coughing on dust, Hinata pushed herself up and activated her Byakugan with trembling hands. Through the haze, her all-seeing eyes picked out villagers pinned under wreckage nearby. Ignoring the pain in her ribs, Hinata staggered off to pull a trapped old man from under a heavy beam.
Atop a heap of rubble near what had been the village plaza, Pain's Deva Path surveyed the aftermath with cold, dispassionate eyes. The other five Paths of Pain were converging toward him across the flattened terrain. Behind Deva Path, the massive multi-headed hound summon bounded over the ruins and came to its master's side. Through the fading drizzle, far off on the horizon, he could sense it at last, a flicker of the Nine-Tails' chakra, approaching rapidly. The corners of the Deva Path's lips curved into a thin, satisfied smile. Come, he urged silently. Come see the price of defying God.
Almost on cue, a thundering croak echoed overhead. In a swirl of summoning smoke, three colossal toads blinked into existence in the center of the wreckage. On the largest toad, back stood a lone shinobi: Konohamaru Sarutobi.
Konohamaru's breath caught in his throat as his boots hit the toad's rough skin. He had arrived expecting to see his friends and family, what he found was a nightmare. His dark eyes went wide at the sight that greeted him: Konoha, his home, reduced to a crater. Familiar streets and rooftops were gone, replaced into dust. "N-No…" he whispered, stomach lurching. Though the air was cold, a heat pricked behind his eyes. This senseless destruction, it was unlike anything he'd ever imagined. Only fragments of landmarks remained: here, the proud red gate of the Academy lay twisted and torn from its hinges; there, the stone head of the Second Hokage from the cliffside monument had broken off and tumbled into the plaza, now split in two. The village he loved was virtually erased.
A surge of guilt and horror washed over Konohamaru. He knew this was meant to happen—he had been warned by Jiraiya-sensei and Grandpa that Pain might attack in search of the Nine-Tails, but none of their precautions had prevented this carnage. This is because of me… because I wasn't here. Teeth gritted, Konohamaru scanned frantically for any sign of life. His sage senses were on over drive, there! Amid the rubble he sensed life: survivors digging themselves out, injured being tended by other injured. A spark of relief: the village was down, but not wholly lost. There were people to save yet. And if Nagato was here… I can still stop this from getting worse.
His gaze lifted, fixing on a lone figure standing upon a mound of rubble directly ahead. A gaunt man with orange-tinted hair and impassive expression, arrayed around him were five other figures, each with the same cold purple eyes. Those eyes, the legendary Rinnegan. Konohamaru had never seen them in person, but he had heard the descriptions from his grandfathers. This had to be Pain, the leader of Akatsuki. And judging by the devastation all around, his power was every bit as terrifying as the intelligence claimed.
An abrupt fury ignited in Konohamaru's chest. Konoha's destruction, the screams of the wounded, this "man" was responsible for all of it. Konohamaru's hands curled into fists so tight his nails bit into his palms. He leapt down from Gamabunta's back in a blur, landing lightly on the cracked earth of what used to be the main street. Beside him, the other summoned toads—Gamahiro and Gamaken, took up flanking positions.
The Deva Path's gaze tracked the young Sarutobi as he approached. "So," Nagato's voice echoed. "You finally appear… Nine-Tails." The other Paths moved into an outward facing formation, encircling Konohamaru at a distance atop various heaps of debris. The gigantic dog summon growled.
Konohamaru stopped a short distance away, feet planted on broken stone. The rain had all but ceased. Slowly, he drew up to his full height and fixed the Deva Path with a fiery stare. At early 20s, Konohamaru was still in his prime, shorter like most Saratobis. His hitai-ate glinted atop his spiky brown hair, and three faint whisker-like markings stood on each tanned cheek. Those marks only made him look more grim.
"I'm here now," Konohamaru said. "And you… you're going to pay for this." He swept an arm out, gesturing at the ruin. "All of it. Every life you took today, every drop of blood you spilled, I swear you'll answer for it!"
In response, the Deva Path merely tilted its head slightly. Nagato regarded the boy through Yahiko's eyes, evaluating. This was the Nine-Tails' host? A teenager, still practically a child. How familiar that felt… Nagato's gaze narrowed. "Pain," he said quietly, "is the only teacher the world listens to. Your village has been a harbinger of suffering for too long, today, it learned the lesson of Pain." He raised one hand and slowly closed it into a fist. "Justice, retribution… call it what you will. This is divine punishment for all of Konoha's sins."
Konohamaru's blood boiled at the sheer callousness of those words. "Divine punishment?" he echoed bitterly. "You murdered innocents, families, children, the people who had nothing to do with your so-called 'sins'! Don't you daredress that up as justice!" His voice cracked with outrage. "No one has the right to play god with people's lives!"
A flicker of emotion, irritation, passed over the Deva Path's face. "And yet your Hokage plays at godhood often," Nagato replied, a low edge in his tone. "Deciding who lives, who dies, for the 'greater good' of this cursed village or even for his person satisfaction. Tell me, boy, are those lives he snuffs out any less real? Any less innocent?" The Path's lips curled. "Konoha was built on such blood. The blood of my people… my family."
Konohamaru faltered, momentarily taken aback. This wasn't what he expected. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "What happened to you?"
The Deva Path's ringed eyes bore into him. "Your elders never told you?" Nagato's anger seeped into a hollow, bitter chuckle. "Of course they wouldn't. Then allow me to enlighten you, Konohamaru Sarutobi." He spat the name like a curse. "Years ago, Danzō Shimura and his Root agents conspired against my homeland, the Village Hidden in the Rain. They engineered a betrayal that cost me my dearest friend, Yahiko, and plunged my country into chaos."
Nagato's voice softened, he recounted his past of the delusional yet kind man that was Jiraiya, his promise of peace, Yahiko's fate, and the ruin that followed, each memory fueling his pain against Konoha's that root of rot.
{A/N: When Nagato shares his story, he never names individuals like Yahiko or Konan. It's Konohamaru who pieces the details together from Jiraiya's account.}
Konohamaru's eyes went wide in disbelief. Danzo? He knew the man was ruthless, but this… And the way Pain spoke of Yahiko, grief and fury still raw in his voice. Jiraiya-sensei's story tumbled back to him: the three war orphans from the Rain Village, one named Nagato with the legendary Rinnegan, another named Yahiko, whose tragic death had shattered them all. Jiraiya had always said Nagato was a kind child, dreaming of peace even amid war's horrors. But that boy had become the man called Pain.
Now Konohamaru understood at least one reason why. His stomach twisted. Danzo… Danzo had helped create this monster.
Unbeknownst to Nagato, one of the few Katsuyu clones, which attached itself within a Konohamaru clone meditating to draw in natural energy, replayed every fragment of battlefield intelligence it had gathered, the shared visions, the Paths' abilities. As the clone dispersed, those memories flooded into Konohamaru, sharpening his resolve—and his next move.
The Deva Path continued relentlessly, voice rising. "Hanzo of the Salamander may have struck the killing blow, but it was Konoha's Danzo whispering in his ear, offering him ANBU support to eliminate us, the one hope Amegakure had for real peace! Your village's schemers lit the spark that turned my home into a living hell. And when I, in my agony, cried out for help, when I begged the world for an answer, world turned its back! Jiraiya-sensei turned his back!" Pain's accusatory gaze pinned Konohamaru. "So tell me, little jinchūriki… who's truly the villain here? The 'god' who delivers retribution? Or the hidden village that sowed the seeds of hatred and pretends its hands are clean?"
Konohamaru's heart pounded. He struggled to digest Nagato's words. Jiraiya-sensei had never known Danzo was involved in Yahiko's death, that much Konohamaru was sure of. If Jiraiya had known, he'd have been… he might have finished Danzo long ago. Grandpa would have too. Konohamaru clenched his jaw. "If… if what you say is true," he said, voice tight, "then Danzo Shimura will answer for it. I promise you that. But Konoha isn't Danzo! And it isn't Hanzo either. Those men don't stand for what this village believes in." He looked around at the destruction. "We've all suffered from people like them. You're not the only one who's known pain."
"Spare me your platitudes," the Deva Path snapped, eyes cold as steel. "Your village's beliefs? Tell that to the settlements burned in the name of the Fire Country's 'will.' Tell that to my parents, Uzumaki refugees, slain by Leaf shinobi. Three times your wars ravaged my land. Three times my people bled and died while your noble Konoha prospered!"
He swept his arm over the smouldering ruins. "Now you taste a fraction of that pain. Only through such suffering will the world grasp the futility of war and only then can true peace be achieved. I hail from Uzushio, where the stories of your so-called 'benevolent grandfather' still haunt every household. Naruto Uzumaki himself has ensured the truth is known to the world. How do you justify your grandfather's actions and those of this village, to the son of one of your greatest heroes, or to the last child of Konoha's sister village? While I have many ideological differences with that man, he was the first to show the world that this cursed village is not infallible, for that, he has this god's respect."
Konohamaru's fists trembled at his sides. This was man is twisted by grief and hatred into something unrecognizable. How dare he bring that man to justify his action. "You're wrong, this isn't peace. This is just revenge." He took a step forward. "Jiraiya-sensei taught me that peace can't be forced by terror. It has to be worked for, understood. The cycle of hatred can be broken, Nagato!"
That name, the true name…hanging in the air gave Nagato pause. Through the Deva Path, his eyes narrowed. It seemed the jinchūriki knew more than expected. Perhaps Jiraiya had spoken of him. "Jiraiya's dream was a fantasy. I learned that the day someone died in my arms. The only way to true peace now is through absolute power… through making the world feel the pain I felt."
Konohamaru shook his head, sorrow and anger mingling on his face. "Jiraiya-sensei still believes in you, Nagato. I know he does. If he were here…"
"Jiraiya isn't here!" the Deva Path thundered, his voice reverberating across the ruins. The ground beneath Nagato's central Path cracked with the residual force of his rage. "He abandoned us to this cruel reality long ago. He's off chasing new answers in his spirituality, always running from the real problems. And you stand here in his stead, child, presuming to lecture me on pain?!"
He thrust out an arm, and an invisible force blasted outward in a short burst, shoving Konohamaru back half a step and kicking up dust. Gamabunta dug his webbed feet in behind Konohamaru with a grunt, steadying his summoner against the brief wave. It wasn't a full-powered Shinra Tensei, just a warning—but even that glancing blow sent stinging sparks through Konohamaru's body. The toads bellowed, ready to leap to his defense, but Konohamaru signaled them to hold.
Nagato's voice lowered to an icy hiss. "Enough talk. If you will not see reason, Konohamaru Sarutobi, then you will know pain." With that, the six Paths of Pain moved as one.
"Scatter!" Konohamaru barked. In a flash he leaped high, and the massive toads sprang into action. At Nagato's mental command, the giant dog summon howled and split into two, then four, then six identical beasts, their multiplied forms fanning out to chase Gamahiro and Gamaken across the rubble-strewn field. With a mighty bound, Gamabunta drew his tantō blade and intercepted one pair of the hounds mid-pounce, cleaving through them; yet even their bisected halves kept writhing and snapping, refusing to die. As Gamabunta wrestled the regenerating monster, Konohamaru flipped off the toad chief's head, landing on a ruined chunk of wall just as the Asura Path's missile barrage whistled in.
BOOM! Explosive rockets slammed into the spot a split-second after Konohamaru left it, blasting the stone to dust. The concussive blast flung him forward, but he tucked into a roll and came up running. He's got a whole arsenal built in, Konohamaru recalled from Lady Katsuyu's intel. The Asura launched itself at him, extending a segmented metallic arm tipped with a whirring drill. "Die," it rasped.
Konohamaru's eyes flashed bright amber. In the beat of a hummingbird's wing, he gathered nature chakra into his limbs. His skin prickled as senjutsu energy flooded his tenketsu, enhancing his strength and reflexes immeasurably. Toad-like orange markings bloomed around his eyes. Sage Mode. He hadn't planned to unleash it so soon, but with multiple Pains attacking at once, he had no choice but to tap into his Sage power.
The air whistled as the drill-blade sped toward him. At the very last moment, Konohamaru sidestepped with sage-enhanced speed. Whoosh, the drill bit plunged past him, missing by mere inches and boring a deep hole into the ground. In the same fluid motion, Konohamaru cocked his right arm back. Senjutsu chakra coiled like a spring in his muscles. Fist of the Sage! He drove his fist forward into the Asura Path's chest with colossal force.
There was a thunderous crack as Konohamaru's punch connected. Augmented by natural energy, the blow didn't even need to physically touch the target, an invisible shockwave of chakra blasted out ahead of his knuckles, amplifying the strike. The Asura Path's entire torso imploded from the impact, metal and ceramic armor crumpling inward. One down, at least for now.
Konohamaru exhaled, a fierce satisfaction flaring in his chest. The "Fist of the Sage" technique he'd honed worked to perfection; the Path never even saw it coming. But he could celebrate only for a heartbeat. A flicker of movement in his peripheral vision made him spin, just in time to see the Human Path rushing him from the left. Its face was eerily impassive for a man in mid-leap, hand outstretched in a claw shape aimed at Konohamaru's forehead. If that hand touched him, it could rip out his soul in an instant.
Konohamaru reacted on instinct. He ducked low and swept his leg around in a fierce roundhouse. His heel caught the Human Path's ankle mid-leap, throwing the attacker off balance. Before the Path could recover, Konohamaru twisted and drove an elbow upwards into its gut, hard. Sage-enhanced strength sent the Human Path rocketing skyward. It flew a dozen meters, limbs flailing, and might have crashed down hard… if not for the waiting Naraka Path. That Path, lingering behind, had been forming hand seals since the battle began. Now its jutsu completed. The ruined earth split open and a spectral, demonic visage, the King of Hell, rose up behind the Naraka Path in a burst of purple flame. With a yawn, the ghastly mouth gaped wide.
"Sōtō: Gyaku Fūjin no Jutsu!" incanted the Naraka Path. The injured Asura Path's broken body began to levitate and slide back towards the statue's mouth, as though drawn by invisible threads. At the same time, the Human Path's hurtling form was likewise snatched from the air and dragged toward the King of Hell's maw. Konohamaru's eyes narrowed. That one… it can restore the others. He couldn't let them recover or he'd be fighting all six endlessly. Summoning one of his shadow clone techniques crossed his mind, he could split up and take on multiple Paths at once, but he remembered Katsuyu's warning: each Path had one specialty, and Naraka's was restoration. If he didn't eliminate Naraka first, the others would keep coming back no matter how many he defeated.
Gritting his teeth, Konohamaru launched himself forward, sprinting toward the Naraka Path and its hellish summon. He gathered wind-natured chakra to his right palm as he ran, forming a familiar spiraling sphere: Rasengan. The orb shrieked hungrily, wind blades shrilling at its core. He infused more chakra, expanding it with an extra shuddering layer of cutting force. "Fūton: Rasenrengan!" Konohamaru roared. In his left palm, an identical Wind Style Rasengan coalesced, two whirling spheres of destruction at once, one in each hand.
The Naraka Path's eyes widened slightly, perhaps in surprise that one so young could handle dual Rasengan, and nature transformations on top. But Nagato wasted no time in countering. The Preta Path, lurking until now, suddenly moved in a flash to intercept Konohamaru's charge. The Preta Path skid to a halt directly between Konohamaru and Naraka, arms spread. A faint aura flickered over its pudgy form as it activated the Rinnegan's chakra absorption ability. If Konohamaru slammed those Rasengans into Preta, the Path would suck away the chakra and leave his jutsu deflated.
Konohamaru saw his path blocked and knew exactly what was coming; Katsuyu had briefed him well on the Preta Path's capabilities. A head-on strike would indeed be nullified. But… a faint smile tugged at Konohamaru's lips. Sage Mode wasn't only good for physical strength, his enhanced senses caught the faint hitch in Preta's stance, the slight overconfidence in those empty eyes. There was a way to turn the absorber's greed against it.
He didn't break stride. Feinting a direct rush, Konohamaru pivoted at the last second. With fluid grace, he leapt up and over the Preta Path, like a stag vaulting a fence. In mid-air he twisted, bringing his Rasengan-laden palms together above his head. The twin spheres merged and expanded, fusing into a single large orb of raging wind chakra. "Take this!" he yelled, and hurled the combined Wind Rasengan straight down at Preta Path's back.
Preta Path spun to absorb the incoming mass of chakra. But Konohamaru's true target was already in sight beyond it, the King of Hell statue and the Naraka Path controlling it. At his mental command, the spinning orb split apart again, wind chakra shrieking as it divided into a scattershot of smaller Rasengan shards. This was one of Konohamaru's own inventions: Wind Style: Rasen Shigure (Rasengan Squall). A dozen miniature wind-Rasengan, like razor-edged spinning shuriken, sprayed past the startled Preta Path on either side. Preta managed to grab one or two with its absorption field, but the rest zipped by harmlessly out of its reach.
Naraka Path had only a heartbeat to realize the danger before the Rasen Shigure projectiles converged upon it. Two tore into its legs, shredding flesh and snapping bone; another drilled into its torso, exploding out through its back. The remaining blasts chewed the King of Hell statue's face with a thunderous crack, shattering teeth and sending chunks of demonic stone flying. The spectral entity gave a warbling moan and began to disintegrate, purple flames flickering out. Instantly, the half-mended Asura and Human Paths, which had been levitating toward the statue's mouth, dropped to the ground like marionettes with cut strings. The Naraka Path itself collapsed to its knees, three smoking craters punched through its body. With a final, defiant glare, it toppled face-first and moved no more.
Konohamaru landed lightly behind the Preta Path. Three of the six bodies were now out of commission: Asura crushed, Human flung aside, Naraka destroyed. That left just Preta, Animal, and Deva, the most dangerous one of all. Not a bad start, but Konohamaru didn't dare grow complacent. Across the ruins, Gamabunta and the toads were still grappling with the multiplying dog summon. They wouldn't last long unless he dispelled the summoner controlling it. His eyes darted, finding the Animal Path perched atop an upended section of roof about twenty yards away. The female-bodied Path was already in the midst of forming another summoning seal, likely preparing to conjure something even worse.
Konohamaru sprinted toward her without hesitation. Spotting him, the Animal Path slammed a palm to the ground. "Kuchiyose: Giant Rhino!" In a poof of smoke, a gargantuan rhino with blade-like horns materialized directly between Konohamaru and the Animal Path. It bellowed and charged at once, horn lowered to skewer. The earth shook under its thundering gait. At the same time, the six-headed dog, now grown to an unwieldy pack of a dozen by fission, finally overpowered the toads and broke past them, barreling straight for Konohamaru from his left flank. Dust and debris sprayed from its many clawed feet. In seconds, he would be pincered by monstrous summons on two sides.
But Konohamaru did not slow, he pumped extra chakra into a hand seal mid-stride. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" In pops of smoke, two clones appeared running alongside him. At once, one clone veered off toward the incoming hound pack. The other matched Konohamaru's pace toward the rhino. Wordlessly, the original Konohamaru and his clone exchanged a plan in their mirrored gaze.
Together, they leapt directly into the charging rhino's path. The colossal beast snorted, lowering its twin horns to impale them both. At the last split-second, Konohamaru launched himself higher with a burst of chakra to his feet, while his clone kicked off him in mid-air, shooting even further up. The original narrowly twisted past the rhino's first horn, its jagged tip grazed his flak jacket, tearing the fabric. The second horn came up fast, but Konohamaru slammed a palm down onto it, vaulting himself clean over the beast's massive head. He landed on its broad back. The enraged rhino didn't stop; momentum carried it forward, hellbent on plowing through anything in its way, including the Animal Path that had summoned it. That Path's eyes widened as her own summon bore down on her, uncontrolled. With an acrobatic flip, she managed to evade at the last moment, the rhino's horn just missing her. The creature barreled onward behind her, crashing into a heap of broken stone with a tremendous crunch, momentarily dazed.
Atop the beast's back, Konohamaru made a rapid series of hand seals. High above, his shadow clone had not been idle, it finished its own sequence and sucked in a deep breath. In unison, both yelled: "Fire Style: Ash Cloud Jutsu!" and "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
From Konohamaru's mouth spewed a thick cloud of smoldering ash that engulfed the Animal Path's position; simultaneously, from the clone's mouth high overhead came a powerful gale of wind that fanned the ash forward in a howling gust. The Animal Path found herself caught in a sudden blinding storm of searing embers and cinders. She sprang backward, trying to escape the ash cloud, but in that instant Konohamaru clapped his hands, igniting the jutsu. BOOM! The suspended ash detonated in a sweeping fireblast. A pillar of flame and black smoke roared upward from the point of ignition, consuming the Animal Path within it. The shockwave of heat rolled across the ruins. When the explosion subsided, blackened timbers and charred earth marked where the Animal Path had been. Of the summoner herself, only a scorched, motionless figure remained, half-buried in debris.
The rampaging hound pack vanished with a collective puff the moment the Animal Path went down. Freed from their brawl, an exhausted Gamabunta and his kin slumped against the fragments of a shattered water tower to catch their breath. "Whew… nicely done, kid," the old toad wheezed, wiping blood and drool off his blade.
The original Konohamaru stood panting atop the stunned rhino's back, taking stock. Only two Paths of Pain were still active now: the Preta Path, which had turned and begun lumbering toward him on the ground below, and the Deva Path, which…
Konohamaru's senses screamed a warning. He whirled around to see the Deva Path suddenly right behind him on the rhino's back, somehow it had closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Those Rinnegan eyes glared at him with deadly intent. "Enough," Nagato's voice said coldly. Konohamaru had only a split second to react, but he was still in Sage Mode, reflexes honed by countless sparring sessions with toads. He flung himself backward off the rhino just as the Deva Path's arm lashed out. A black steel chakra rod swiped through the space where his neck had been a heartbeat before. That would have been a killing stroke, had he been any slower.
He fell toward the ground, landing in a three-point crouch amidst broken stones as the Deva Path floated down opposite him. The rhino beneath them finally had enough; with a panicked snort, the injured beast poofed out of existence in a recall of summoning, leaving a void between Konohamaru and his last two foes.
Konohamaru's chest heaved. Even with Sage Mode augmenting him, the flurry of battle and heavy jutsu use was taking a toll. The natural energy in his system was beginning to wane, the toad-like pigmentation around his eyes flickering. Across from him, the Preta Path lumbered to its master's side and then… unexpectedly… dropped to one knee. Konohamaru watched in confusion as the Preta pressed a hand to the Deva Path's back. A visible glow of chakra began transferring between them, the stored energy Preta had absorbed earlier, now being funneled to Deva. Nagato was recharging his primary body for a decisive move. How could he absorb natural chakra without turning to stone? Is he a…?
Wiping sweat and grime from his face, Konohamaru rose to his feet warily. Deva Path was the one that leveled the village; he knew firsthand now what it could do. With the other Paths gone, Nagato could focus all his power through this single avatar. Konohamaru felt a trickle of unease, but he forced it down. He had come too far to falter now. A few more good hits and he could finish this fight, for his village, for everyone who suffered today. He still had one shadow clone left alive (the one he'd sent toward the dogs was somewhere behind him, awaiting orders), and the toads remained nearby as backup. And beyond all that… he had one trump card left to play, if necessary, something even Jiraiya-sensei had never attempted.
The Preta Path finished its chakra transfer and, its purpose served, suddenly charged at Konohamaru with a guttural grunt. Likely Nagato intended for Preta to engage him hand-to-hand and keep him still while Deva prepared another gravity attack. Konohamaru gauged the distance. He could try another Rasengan variant to blast Preta away, but if he got too close and Preta laid hands on him, it would drain his remaining chakra dry. Instead, he welcomed the Path's rush. "Come on then," Konohamaru muttered, raising his own hands into a defensive stance reminiscent of the Gentle Fist and Monkey style, an homage to what Neji and Hinata had taught him.
Preta lunged, grasping hungrily. Konohamaru ducked under the grab and planted a palm strike squarely into Preta's sternum. The Path skidded back, not heavily damaged, it had absorbed most of the chakra behind the blow, but momentum had been halted. Before it could recover, Konohamaru was already weaving new hand seals. Lightning chakra crackled around his hands now. "Lightning Style: Thunderclap Arrow!" He clapped his hands together, unleashing a blinding bolt of electricity that speared toward Preta Path.
Blue-white lightning arced and forked around the Path as the Preta Path threw up its absorption technique just in time. The Path greedily devoured the lightning chakra, its body glowing an eerie blue. It advanced a step, still sucking in the torrent of electricity.
Konohamaru grinned despite the strain of maintaining the jutsu. "Eat all you want," he growled. "I've got plenty!"
With a fierce yell, he poured even more chakra into the continuous lightning blast. The tendrils of electricity thickened to the width of tree trunks as they slammed into the Path. Preta's gluttonous ability dutifully absorbed it all, but the overcharged, chakra-drunk Path began to tremble, its body struggling to contain the immense energy flooding it. Yet it wasn't the chakra that truly plagued it, it was the nature chakra. It could only control that to a limited extent. Hairline cracks appeared along its arms and cheeks, glowing with over-saturated light.
Nagato realized the danger a moment too late: the jinchūriki was pumping senjutsu chakra into that lightning! The Preta Path's Rinnegan ability could absorb ninjutsu, but natural energy to that extent was another matter; too much of it would turn the absorber to stone from within. Nagato had experienced this once before when he recently heard of the sage abilities. He tried to command Preta to cut off the absorption, to move, but Konohamaru's onslaught pinned the Path like an insect in amber. With one final surge of senjutsu-charged voltage, the Thunderclap Arrow overfilled the Preta Path's capacity. The glow reached a blinding peak, then abruptly dissipated. Smoke curled from the Path's open mouth. Its skin had taken on a dull, grey pallor. Slowly, the Preta Path toppled backwards, its limbs stiff and stone. Before it even hit the ground, Konohamaru's remaining shadow clone blurred in and delivered a spinning heel kick that shattered the statue-like body into chunks of stone.
Konohamaru dropped to one knee, gasping. That last maneuver had cost him most of his chakra and nearly all of his Sage energy, drawing out natural chakra for the lightning trick was dangerous, but it had paid off. As his Sage Mode finally flickered out, the golden toad-like glow in his eyes faded back to dark brown. He was now running on his own chakra reserves, which were running low. Yet, a thrill of hope coursed through him: he had eliminated five of the six Paths of Pain. Only the Deva Path remained, standing solitary amidst the rubble. I can do this.
On cue, his shadow clone dropped down at his side, panting but grinning triumphantly. Konohamaru nodded at his double, and the two shared a quick fist-bump. Nearby, Gamabunta and the other toads watched with amazement and pride; the kid had taken apart the Paths one by one, with a skill and determination reminiscent of another young shinobi they had once known.
Konohamaru pushed himself back to his feet and turned to face the final opponent. The Deva Path stood unmoving, its expression unreadable. Dust swirled between them in the eerie quiet that followed the battle's crescendo. For the first time, Nagato felt a tinge of respect. This boy, no, this young man had singlehandedly done what entire platoons of Konoha's shinobi could not. He had decimated the Six Paths of Pain. There was more to Konohamaru Sarutobi than met the eye. Perhaps… even more than Nagato had prepared for.
"You fight well… for a child," the Deva Path acknowledged, voice echoing over the ruin. There was no more mockery in it, only a cold, simmering intensity. "I see Hiruzen Saratobi's grandson has some of the old Professor's rumoured powers after all."
Konohamaru glared across the distance, adopting a ready stance again despite the fatigue weighing on his limbs. "And I see the self-proclaimed god can bleed," he shot back. "It's over, Pain. You have no more puppets to hide behind. Surrender, or I'll be forced to destroy you."
A ghost of a smile crossed the Deva Path's face at that ultimatum, whether born of amusement or anger, it was hard to tell. "Destroy me?" Nagato said softly. "Child… you have only slain bodies that were already dead. You have proved yourself strong, yes, but do not deceive yourself into thinking you've harmed the true Pain." The Deva Path spread its arms slowly. "Look around you. Your village lies in pieces. Your people crawl on their bellies, broken. And here you stand, alone, your strength nearly spent." The Rinnegan eyes hardened. "Tell me… where is your vaunted Hokage now? Where is the 'God of Shinobi' to save you?"
Konohamaru felt his heart sink despite himself. He had noticed, in flashes during the fight, that Grandpa was nowhere to be seen among the defenders. The Third Hokage, Kakashi-sensei, or heck even that creep Danzo, none of the titans of Konoha were here. Only him. And he was nearly spent; Nagato had accurately read his condition. But Konohamaru refused to let doubt weaken his resolve. He firmed his stance. "The Hokage will be here," he answered, voice braver than he felt. "You went to a lot of trouble to keep Jiji away, didn't you? That means you fear what he can do." He managed a tight, defiant smile. "You should. He'll come. And if he doesn't… I'm still enough to finish this."
The Deva Path's expression soured, Yahiko's features tightening at the jab to Nagato's pride. "Hiruzen Sarutobi is occupied by now," Pain said flatly. "He cannot help you. No one can." Slowly, the Path raised one hand toward the sky. "But you are correct about one thing, Konohamaru. I will no longer hide behind puppets. If you truly think you know pain, then face God's full wrath."
The air pressure abruptly plummeted. Konohamaru's ears popped. Above the Deva Path's upraised palm, a swirling black vortex of chakra began to condense, tiny at first, then rapidly growing denser and larger. A palpable aura of menace radiated from that singularity. Konohamaru's blood ran cold; his sensory training screamed that this attack was something far beyond anything thrown at him yet. It reminded him of descriptions he'd read of the Second Hokage's forbidden space-time ninjutsu, or worse, of tales of Uchiha Madara Susanoo. "W-what is that?!" his shadow clone gasped, shielding its eyes from the gathering winds.
Nagato's answer came in a voice like a funeral bell: "Chibaku Tensei."
With deliberate care, the Deva Path lifted the crackling black orb high, then hurled it straight upward into the heavens. Konohamaru watched in dread as the orb sailed up and up, then halted hundreds of meters above, hanging in the sky like a new malevolent star. A deep rumble sounded from the earth. Suddenly, rocks, debris, and even giant chunks of earth all around began to tremble and lift off as if drawn by an invisible magnet. Pieces of shattered house, splintered trees, and loose earth flew upward toward the orb. It was forming a gravitational core. Konohamaru realized with horror that Nagato intended to rip the entire area (and him with it) into the sky and entomb them in a floating death-prison of rubble.
Gamabunta gave a frightened croak, jostling Gamahiro. "We… we gotta retreat!" the toad boss cried. Already the massive bulk of Gamaken was sliding, being tugged along the ground toward the growing orb. "That thing'll suck us all up!"
Konohamaru staggered as the ground at his feet lurched and began to rise. He set his jaw. No… he had to stop this, here and now. Summoning the last dregs of his chakra, Konohamaru forced himself to stand straight even as the pull intensified, pebbles whipping past him upward. "Gamabunta-sama!" he shouted over the gale. "Take everyone and get clear! Use all your strength to resist it. I'll handle Pain!"
The toads balked, but they knew a jinchūriki's resolve when they heard it. "Damn… blasted stubborn kid," Gamabunta growled, though not without a hint of pride. With considerable effort, the giant toad drove his tantō into the ground like an anchor and grabbed Gamaken's arm. Gamahiro did likewise. Together, straining mightily, the three toads managed to hold their ground against the relentless pull, inching back by brute force. They would escape or be released from summoning soon enough. That left only Konohamaru (and his clone) in the zone of destruction.
Above, the Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation) core had grown into a small moon of debris. The entire center of Konoha—the crater that had been Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)'d moments earlier—was now being excavated further, lifted skyward chunk by chunk. Konohamaru's legs left the ground as the rock slab he stood on tore free and began rising. Rubble pelted his body from all sides as smaller fragments flew past. His clone latched onto him to avoid being separated, both of them now hovering upward along with innumerable pieces of what was once their home. The gravitational drag was immense; Konohamaru felt as though a giant hand was squeezing every inch of him.
Down below, the Deva Path stood at the epicenter, arm still raised and trembling with concentration as it fed chakra to the technique. Nagato poured everything into this final gambit. His real body, hidden at the distant Uchiha outpost the masked shinobi had told him about, was safe. If it had been his older, crippled self, it would have been far harder, but having absorbed the Tailed Beasts and recovered, this was child's play for him. A Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation) of this size was hardly an effort.
This ends now.
Konohamaru grimaced, arms trembling as he struggled to form a hand seal. In his exhausted state, he had only one option that might rival that scale of power. It was an absurd, reckless idea, but absurd, reckless ideas were the specialty of those trained by Jiraiya and his grandfather. He caught his clone's eye and gave a single nod. The clone returned a determined smile, understanding immediately. They had trained for this: the ultimate fusion of the two Senjutsu arts he had mastered. Normally, Pain's surprise attack had forced him not to use Monkey Sage Mode as none of his clone in the reserve had absorbed that and also nullified much of his elemental mastery thanks to the Preta Path's absorption. But this…
Konohamaru closed his eyes, drawing on an inner reservoir of calm. He felt two wells of power within him: one, the lingering embers of Toad Sage chakra he had already expended; and two, a wild, feral pool of Monkey Sage chakra he had not yet tapped today, the latter granted by the Sarutobi clan's ancient pact with the apes, taught to him by the Monkey King Enma and his grandfather.
Normally, merging different Sage Modes is impossible: each taps into its own unique rhythm of nature, and attempting to hold two simultaneously can shred even a powerful sage's chakra network. It's akin to playing two different melodies in one heart. But Konohamaru possessed something no other sage in history has ever wielded: as a Jinchūriki, the overwhelming chakra of the Nine-Tails, imperfectly controlled though it was, could serve as a stabilizing base.
Now or never. Konohamaru grit his teeth and began the delicate work of balancing both energies simultaneously. He formed the ape hand seal, crossing two fingers and also opened his senses to the faint traces of toad senjutsu still present in his clone (who was clone-sage empowered as well). The clone began gathering what natural energy it could, funneling it to the original. Konohamaru drew that in, mixing it with the primal a tail worth of nine tails chakra, hence grounding earth-flavored chakra of the ape sage mode. His muscles burned, veins bulging at the strain of not one but two floods of wild nature chakra surging through him. The frequencies clashed within, one feeling slick and fluid like oil (toad), the other dense and heavy like mountain stone (ape). For an instant, his vision blurred and he thought he might lose control completely…
A sudden calm descended over him as a new wave of Kyūbi chakra washed through his body. His eyes snapped open, blazing with an uncanny radiance: irises a deep, feral gold rimmed with orange pigmentation, pupils rectangular like toad slits but edged with a ring of grey reminiscent of monkey fur patterns. On his cheeks, the faint whisker marks darkened and extended, intermixing with subtle, smoky, fur-like streaks along his cheekbones.
The natural energy around him roared in approval. Tiny motes of dust and rock orbiting him transformed into sparkling motes of chakra. His clone shuddered and dispersed involuntarily, its remaining sage chakra fully absorbed by Konohamaru to stabilize the new form.
The Combined Sage Mode, an unprecedented fusion of Toad and Monkey arts, had been achieved for the first time in known history.
Konohamaru's body felt like it might explode from the sheer potency coursing through it… yet he held together. The gravitational pull of Chibaku Tensei that had him caught mid-air suddenly felt trivial; with a single flex of his legs he halted his ascent, hovering momentarily of his own volition on a platform of air and chakra. Far below, the Deva Path jerked in surprise. Through the link, Nagato sensed a monumental spike in the boy's chakra, an overwhelming signature that felt at once familiar and entirely alien. How…? What was this new power? He had never seen or heard of anything like it. Could the Nine-Tails itself be surfacing? No… this was something different, something natural and yet beyond nature's norm. For the first time, a sliver of doubt wormed into Nagato's iron resolve.
Up in the sky of swirling debris, Konohamaru planted his feet on a large chunk of wall that floated nearby and crouched, gathering every ounce of energy into a final attack. The toad-acquired side of his nature energy howled for jutsu and creativity; the ape-acquired side urged focus and brute force. He chose both. With a primal yell, he began to form the Rasengan, his grandfather's adamantine staff Enma, still clutched in one hand, helping him channel and stabilize the chakra. The sphere that coalesced was enormous, as big as Gamabunta's body, and crackling not just with wind nature, but with all five elemental natures at once. Flames danced along one side, lightning arced along another; water and wind swirled within, encapsulating jagged chunks of rock that formed at the core. It was as if every raw element of creation had been distilled into a single, volatile orb. Konohamaru roared as he compressed it further, leaping off like a ape, his foothold directly toward the Chibaku Tensei core that loomed above, still dragging more earth upward.
"Sage Art: Primal Rasengan—All-Creation Burst!!" Konohamaru bellowed. He slammed the titanic multi-element Rasengan directly into the black gravitational sphere. This was attempt at recreating one of his grandfather infamous jutsu.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. The Rasengan ground against the dense core of the Chibaku Tensei, straining to break its compacted gravity. Nagato's eyes widened as he felt a tremendous feedback threaten to tear his technique apart. "No… NO!" he hissed, pouring more chakra into Deva to reinforce the core. The sphere held, then suddenly imploded inward under the overwhelming pressure of Konohamaru's godlike jutsu. An ear-splitting CRACK resounded through the heavens. Light erupted from the point of contact, blinding white threaded with all colours of the elemental spectrum. The huge orb of debris around the core shattered into millions of fragments. Boulders and beams that had been pulled up were blasted outwards in all directions, sent flying like meteors across the forests and hills surrounding Konoha. The nightmarish gravity well was gone, disintegrated by the All-Creation Burst. For an instant, dawn-like brightness illuminated the entire sky above the ruined village, and a shockwave rippled the clouds.
Nagato's Deva Path staggered, nearly falling to one knee from the backlash of his jutsu's destruction. He coughed, spitting blood on the ground as his real body endured intense recoil. Pain lanced through his emaciated limbs far away. Inside his hidden bunker, Nagato's Rinnegan flickered open. That… that power defied belief. How could a mere…? The smoke cleared above, revealing Konohamaru dropping lightly down amidst a gentle rain of gravel and dust. The young sage alighted back on solid ground, his combined mode still active but flickering now, the strain was catching up. He had one last chance to finish this.
Konohamaru lifted his eyes to the Deva Path, chest heaving. That titanic clash had obliterated Nagato's ultimate jutsu and freed what remained of Konoha from being yanked into the sky. The area around them was an even greater mess, deep gouges in the earth where the ground had been torn up, random chunks of terrain strewn everywhere. Yet, unbelievably, life clung on. Konohamaru could hear cries of relief from some survivors who had nearly been pulled to their doom and now found themselves dropped back to safety. I did it… I stopped it. The thought gave him strength. It was time to end this fight, once and for all.
Nagato seemed to sense it too, the flicker of triumph in the jinchūriki's stance. Wiping his mouth, he forced the Deva Path to straighten back to full height. Though his vision blurred and dark spots danced at the edges from overexertion, he channeled the last vestiges of his chakra into his most lethal technique. If he could not crush the boy with the heavens, he would simply snuff him out at close range. In the Deva Path's right hand, a long black rod slid out of the sleeve, a spear of concentrated chakra receiver, humming with killing intent.
Konohamaru advanced cautiously, Enma-staff in hand, twirling it once. Both combatants knew this was the final exchange. Rainwater hissed on stray embers around them as they stared each other down amidst utter devastation. "Nagato!" Konohamaru called out, voice echoing. "It's over! Don't make me kill you. Call off whatever's left of this attack… please!" Despite everything, he gave the man one last chance. Perhaps it was the influence of Jiraiya's foolish hopes in him, or Konohamaru's own unwillingness to senselessly kill even an enemy when victory could be achieved without it.
For a moment, the Deva Path's face showed a flicker of conflict, Yahiko's visage almost reflecting a hint of the doubt stirring in Nagato's own soul. But then it hardened once more. "Mercy… is not yours to give," Pain replied, each word labored but unyielding. "As long as I live, I will never stop." He raised the black spear to a mid-guard, bent slightly like a fencer preparing a lunge. "Your ideals die here, Konohamaru Sarutobi."
Konohamaru's heart sank. There would be no reasoning. With a resigned nod to himself, he summoned every ounce of chakra and natural energy he had left into his limbs. The combined sage aura around him flared once more, cracks of golden light coursing over his skin as the incompatible energies threatened to unravel him. He could feel the monkey and toad at war inside his body, neither meant to be sustained together for long. But he only needed a few seconds. Just a few seconds… to finish this.
They moved in the same instant, a blur of god and demon host clashing in the rain. The Deva Path thrust forward, black lance aimed at Konohamaru's heart with blinding speed. Konohamaru parried with Enma's adamantine staff, the unbreakable monkey-king-turned-weapon ringing like a bell as it deflected the chakra rod. Pain twisted, slashing the spear sideways faster than any human could see. Konohamaru bent backward in a nearly impossible contortion, the spear's tip shaving a few hairs off his fringe. He retaliated with a fierce upward swing of the staff at Pain's midsection. The Deva Path spun away, the staff whistling past his cloak by a hair's breadth. Almost casually, Pain flicked a finger mid-spin—hurling a small chakra rod like a dart. Konohamaru swatted it aside with the staff, but that split-second deflection allowed the Deva Path to close in.
Yahiko's face was inches from Konohamaru's now, those Rinnegan eyes filled with grim determination. "Yield to Pain," Nagato snarled through his puppet. At that range Konohamaru had no room to swing Enma properly; he brought up an arm to block just as the Deva Path drove its black spear straight through…
A loud crack echoed. Konohamaru gasped. Searing agony lanced through his forearm. The black rod had been stopped just short of skewering his heart, because it was impaling his raised left forearm instead, which he'd sacrificed to intercept the blow. The chakra receiver punched clean through flesh and out the other side of his arm, pinning it. Blood poured from the wound, steaming against the rod's searing heat. Konohamaru's vision swam from the sudden pain. With a cry, he swung Enma desperately with his good arm, catching the Deva Path on the shoulder. The staff connected solidly, cracking bone and eliciting a grunt from Nagato's puppet, but it wasn't a fatal hit.
Pain retaliated without mercy. He tore the spear from Konohamaru's arm, eliciting a choked scream from the boy, and in the same motion slashed diagonally across his torso. Konohamaru managed to twist enough to avoid being bisected, barely, but the rod's tip carved a bloody gash across his chest. He fell backward, collapsing to one knee. The combined Sage Mode chakra around him fizzled and died at last, unable to maintain itself now that concentration was shattered and his body critically injured. His eyes returned to normal; exhaustion and pain hit him like a wave. Enma reverted from staff form back into the white-furred monkey and scurried to Konohamaru's side. "Konohamaru! Hang on!" Enma growled, one hand pressed to the gushing wound on Konohamaru's forearm as if he could hold in the blood by will alone.
Konohamaru's mind whirled. No… no, I can't lose… not now… But his body wouldn't obey. His left arm hung limp and useless, crimson leaking through Enma's fingers. The slash across his chest burned, robbing him of breath. He struggled to stand but only managed to stay on one knee. Across from him, the Deva Path stood panting, its left shoulder visibly dislocated from Enma's hit and part of its cloak torn away, but still very much in fighting shape. The black spear in its hand dripped with Konohamaru's blood.
"So ends the champion of Konoha," Nagato said quietly, almost sorrowfully, through the Deva Path. "You fought better than I anticipated. I'll give you that. Jiraiya trained you well… Perhaps in another life, Konohamaru Saratobi, we might even have been allies." The Deva Path leveled its spear, for the coup de grâce. "But in this life, peace will be paid for in blood. Your blood, and the beast within you."
Konohamaru bared his teeth, more in frustration than defiance. So close… he had come so close. Was this really it? Would he die here, in front of the villagers he failed to protect? Would Nagato rip the Nine-Tails from him and snuff out the Will of Fire that Grandpa and Jiraya had entrusted to him?
His vision blurred with tears of rage and helplessness. Grandpa… I'm sorry.
A soft crunch of rubble sounded to Konohamaru's right. He barely registered it, expecting perhaps that his clone had somehow reformed or that a villager was fleeing nearby. But what happened next made both him and Nagato pause in surprise. A slim figure sprinted into view from behind a partially collapsed water tower: Hinata Hyūga. Her dark-blue hair was disheveled, her jacket torn and bloodstained, but her pale lavender Byakugan eyes blazed with resolve.
"Konohamaru!" she cried out, voice breaking as she took in his state, on one knee, bleeding, about to be executed. She didn't hesitate. Channeling chakra to her feet, Hinata launched herself forward with sudden ferocity, interposing her own body between Konohamaru and the Deva Path. Her arms spread protectively. "Stop!" she shouted at Nagato's Path. "I won't let you touch him or continue with this senseless destruction!"
Konohamaru's good eye widened. "Hinata? Hinata, no, get out of here!" he croaked. Fear spiked through him. She had been supposed to evacuate with the others, or at least stay in safety, not… not this. Not stand in front of him as a human shield.
The Deva Path regarded the young Hyūga with mild annoyance, as one might a fly alighting on one's food. Hinata's trembled a bit; the pressure Nagato could exude even without an active jutsu was suffocating, like standing at the edge of a bottomless abyss. Every instinct screamed at her to run. But she stood firm, sliding into the stance of the Gentle Fist. She knew she was outmatched, she could barely remain upright after the earlier blast, but none of that mattered, she was the student of Uzumaki Naruto. Konoha needs me. The thought alone gave her courage...
"Hinata, please… you have to get away," Konohamaru pleaded, trying to struggle to his feet again. Enma held him down gently. "You can't win against him, he'll…"
"I know," Hinata said, sparing Konohamaru a soft glance over her shoulder. In those pale eyes he saw not fear, but a kind of serene resolve that left him breathless. "I know I can't win. But I'm not going to just stand by and watch you die, Konohamaru-kun." She gave him a wobbly, brave smile. "You… you once told me to have faith in myself. That I was stronger than I thought." Her gaze hardened as it snapped back to Pain. "It's my turn to return the favor. I believe in you. And I'll protect you… at any cost."
Konohamaru's throat tightened. Memories flickered, Hinata shyly offering him a salve for training bruises; Hinata cheering quietly at the exams; Hinata visiting him in the hospital after a tough mission. He'd been so caught up in his own path, he'd failed to see how far she'd walked with him. "Hinata, you don't have to…" he began, voice cracking.
But she had already moved. With a sharp thoom, Hinata launched herself straight at the Deva Path, palms drawn back. "Eight Trigrams: Twin Lion Fists!" she cried. Chakra shrouded her hands in the form of roaring blue ethereal lions. With all her speed, she thrust both palms toward Pain's chest.
The Deva Path caught one of her wrists in a vice grip, halting her attack just short. The second lion palm glanced off the Path's shoulder, tearing the already damaged cloak but failing to penetrate further. Nagato looked almost bemused at the girl's audacity. "Foolish," he muttered. With a flick of his other hand, he produced a short black rod and drove it into Hinata's abdomen.
Hinata gasped, a strangled, soft sound of shock and pain. The chakra-augmented lions around her hands dissipated into fading wisps. She staggered, blood spreading like a crimson flower across the front of her lavender jacket. The black rod jutted out from her stomach at an angle, having run her clean through.
"N-no…" Konohamaru breathed, horror washing over him. Time seemed to slow as he saw Hinata's body sag in Pain's grasp, the light in her pearlescent eyes dimming. Something in him, something deep and primal, snapped. An anguished roar tore from his throat. "HINATA!!"
He didn't remember rising, one moment he was on his knees, the next he was striding forward, ripping free of Enma's supporting arms. A heat unlike anything he'd felt before flooded his veins. It burned away the exhaustion, the despair, replacing it with pure, incandescent rage. Konohamaru's vision blazed red around the edges, and a bubbling crimson aura exploded outward from him. The rubble at his feet cracked under the sudden pressure of malignant chakra. The Nine-Tails' yōki had burst its bonds, summoned by his fury. "You'll pay… you'll PAY!" Konohamaru snarled, voice distorted and overlapping with a deeper, beastly growl. Blood-red chakra cloaked his form in the shape of a snarling fox, one tail lashing behind him. His wounds sizzled, flesh starting to knit under the influence of the fox's vitality.
The Deva Path unceremoniously dropped Hinata's limp form and leapt back, wary. Nagato had expected this, indeed, he'd counted on the jinchūriki's anger unleashing the Nine-Tails. His Rinnegan widened slightly at the raw hatred and killing intent pouring off the boy now; it was like staring into the wrath of the demon fox itself. This chakra… it felt as vast and deep as the ocean, with corrosive malice. Despite the distance, he could feel the hairs on his borrowed body stand on end, as if warning of an apex predator in their midst.
Konohamaru's fingers curved into clawed shapes, the bubbling shroud of chakra around him twisting into the shape of gnarled fox claws much larger than his own hands. He was losing himself; somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it, but he no longer cared. All he wanted was to rip him apart, to shred him for what he'd done. A second tail sprouted from the aura, then a third. "RRRAAARGH!" Konohamaru, or the creature that was Konohamaru roared. With an animalistic lunge, he sprang at the Deva Path, swiping a claw of condensed chakra that carved trenches in the ground as it passed.
The Deva Path barely evaded, jumping high. Before it could land, Konohamaru was on it again, faster than thought. He caught the Path by the ankle and smashed it down into the earth with savage force. The ground cratered on impact. Nagato felt several of Yahiko's bones shatter from the blow transmitted to the body. The Deva Path attempted to unleash a Shinra Tensei to blast the boy away, but Konohamaru in this state was too quick. A chakra-fox fist slammed into the Path's face, breaking the concentration needed for the technique. The Path flew back, tumbling head over heels before skidding to a stop against a half-buried chunk of Hokage Monument rock.
Konohamaru bounded on all fours towards his fallen enemy, menacing chakra whipping into a frenzy around him. His humanity was rapidly being submerged under the Nine-Tails' influence, orange furand bones was even beginning to sprout on his cheeks, and his eyes had gone solid red with slitted pupils. He opened his mouth, and a bubbling ball of malevolent black-red chakra began forming, sucking in air and energy: the beginnings of a Tailed Beast Bomb. He'd annihilate Nagato, blow him to atoms, villagers nearby be damned. The fox's bloodlust demanded nothing less.
Between the crackling, unholy Tailed Beast Bomb (Bijūdama) and the moment of its detonation, the world seemed to hold its breath. A sudden, violent wall of warped summoning smoke billowed forth between the attacker and his target. At its heart, Nagato stood, summoned by the Deva Path in one final, desperate gambit. The bomb's core, a swirling vortex of positive and negative chakra, glowed brighter than the sun, threatening to obliterate them both in a silent, searing flash.
And then, nothing.
A profound, unnatural silence fell over the cratered battlefield. The roaring chakra, the screaming wind, the very sound of reality itself seemed to be inhaled by a single point in space.
From the edge of the clearing, stepping through the battered, splintered trees parting, came the true Nagato. This was no avatar. This was his real flesh-and-blood form, radiating a presence so immense it felt like a gravitational distortion. The combined might of all Six Paths resided within him. His Rinnegan eyes burned.
Without a word, without a single wasted motion, he raised both arms before the swirling, condensed apocalypse of the Tailed Beast Bomb. The sphere, moments from annihilating a mountain range, faltered. The light warped, bent, and then collapsed inward, drawn into Nagato's outstretched palms as though devoured. The sheer violation of physics was more terrifying than any explosion.
Konohamaru, wreathed in the Nine-Tails' crimson cloak, skidded to a halt, his claws scraping deep gouges into the cracked stone. A guttural, bestial growl of pure, unadulterated fury ripped from his throat. The chakra storm around him roared, eight shimmering tails lashing the air with violent intent. He was on the very brink of unleashing Kurama's full, unrestrained power.
Those EYES! The Nine-Tails' voice roared. How dare YOU!
Yet Nagato did not step back. He did not even flinch. Instead, as the Jinchūriki's power threatened to tear the world asunder, he advanced.
His hand was in motion. First, the ground beneath Konohamaru's feet turned to liquid. Earth Style: Earth Flow River (Doton: Doryū Taiga) gushed forth, transforming the solid earth into a churning, unstable torrent designed to shatter his footing.
Before he could regain his balance, twin torrents crashed down from either side. Water Style: Water Colliding Wave (Suiton: Suishōha)! The massive waves didn't just strike him; they turned the liquified earth into a thick, inescapable mire, sucking him down and forcing the enraged Jinchūriki onto one knee, his movements suddenly sluggish and heavy.
The trap was set. Blistering orbs of fire erupted from Nagato's mouth—Fire Style: Flame Dragon Bullet (Katon: Karyūdan), streaking like meteors toward Konohamaru's now-restricted flank. As the flames met the mud, a massive cloud of steam and smoke instantly enveloped the battlefield, obscuring all vision.
But Nagato's assault was not finished. A razor-sharp gust sliced silently through the thick steam. Wind Style: Vacuum Blade (Fūton: Shinkūjin)! The blade hidden, was aimed perfectly, slicing across the clearing to strike where his senses told him the Jinchūriki was. Finally, as a crimson form tried to rise from the steam, a crackling vortex of divine lightning descended from the heavens. Lightning Style: Thunderbolt (Raiton: Sanda)! The bolt struck the ground at Konohamaru's feet, the concussive force and electrical discharge meant to paralyze and incapacitate.
Still, Konohamaru roared, the orange chakra cloak deepening to a bloody crimson. The Nine-Tails' sheer life force was shrugging off the layered assault. With a final, explosive burst of power, he broke free from the mire, his claws striking at Nagato's chest with enough force to cleave a mountain.
But Nagato merely cracked a faint. He parried the cataclysmic strike with a single, outstretched finger, the nail coated in a thin layer of disruptive chakra. The impact was immense, yet Nagato slid back only a few feet, his finger having met the force with perfect, divine timing. He countered instantly, his other hand open. Universal Pull (Banshō Ten'in)!
The irresistible force seized Konohamaru mid-lunge, yanking him forward off-balance and slamming him face-first into the scorched earth with contemptuous ease.
Villagers and shinobi alike, watching from the shattered borders of Konoha, stood frozen in absolute awe. This was no puppet show. This was the true power of their enemy, a single man, master of the Six Paths and all five elemental nature transformations, standing toe-to-toe with the unrestrained power of the Nine-Tails. A thin sheen of sweat was only just beginning to bead on his brow.
Konohamaru staggered upright, his body a raging inferno of chakra, his mind lost to the beast's fury. He roared again, claws digging into the earth, coiling for yet another rampage.
But Nagato's smile widened. This raw, primal power was an affront to everything he believed in, and yet he couldn't help but admire it. Had it not been for the conflict between the beast and its jinchūriki's mind, this display would have been a thousand times more terrifying, an unbridled force even he would hesitate to face. And should the Kyūbi fully manifest, even Nagato wasn't certain he could prevail.
Now he understood why the Nine-Tails is revered as the strongest of the tailed beasts, why Hiruzen Sarutobi himself could not defeat it, and why the Yellow Flash had to sacrifice his life to contain its full fury… for the Yellow Flash to have triumphed over the full-powered beast. His respect for that shinobi rose several notches.
But this aberration would not stand. It was time to silence the beast. This was the moment he had been preparing for.
With a mental command, he triggered the failsafe seal he'd planted earlier in the fight. With a wordless thought, a surge of imperceptible chakra, he activated the hidden contingency. Sage's Final Seal (Seijin no Saigo Fūin).
Konohamaru's body seized up. Without warning, searing pain exploded from the place hwere once chakra rods was embedded in his flesh, the one in his arm and another small one that had lodged in his thigh during their taijutsu exchange. An intricate network of black seal-script spread from those points across Konohamaru's skin, suppressing and binding. The gathering Tailed Beast Bomb sputtered and dissipated from his maw, unfinished. "W-what…?!" Konohamaru snarled, furious and confused. He tried to lash out with a tail but found his limbs locked in place, chakra flow suddenly erratic. The red shroud flickered.
Nagato's voice rang out, clear and implacable. "Did you truly think I hadn't prepared for the Nine-Tails?" he called. Nagato moved a bit unsteadily, his form stiff, a testament to his body nearing its limit in containing the Nine-Tails.
"Those chakra rods piercing you are not mere weapons," Pain continued, one hand forming a seal. "They're receivers…and sealing tags. You're my prisoner now. You forget I'm an Uzumaki, the very clan that once contained the beast. Cheap knock-offs like your own Surugi clan will never match the true genius of the Uzumaki."
With that, he slammed his palm to the ground. "Summoning: Gedō Mazō!"
The earth split open in a jagged line, and from the depths rose a nightmare given form. A gargantuan, emaciated humanoid statue erupted from the ground with a deafening groan—the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Its blind eyes and bandaged mouth gave it a mummified, corpse-like visage, and it loomed over what remained of Konoha like death itself. This was Nagato's weapon: the husk of the Ten-Tails, the container used to extract and hold the Bijū.
Konohamaru's eyes widened with animal terror at the sight of the colossal statue. He struggled harder against the sealing paralysis, veins bulging on his neck, fangs bared. The Nine-Tails' chakra howled within him, but the more it surged, the tighter the formula constricted around his coils. Blue-white energy crackled from the statue's gaping mouth as it began siphoning that chakra into Nagato's own life force to power its jutsu.
Nagato's real body began to heal, and his chakra replenished itself, this level of summoning and control was immense. Rather than sealing the beast first, he had restored his own strength before commencing the sealing ritual. His Deva Path was fully healed, and the other Paths stirred to life as he employed the king of Hell's ability to restore his fallen puppet.
"Gedō Mazō… feast," he commanded.
The statue opened its maw, and from within a phantom dragon of chakra burst forth. The spectral dragon let out a hollow roar as it spiraled down toward Konohamaru. In an instant it coiled around him, intangible yet impossibly strong. Konohamaru screamed as he felt something being tugged from deep inside him, like hooks sunk into his very soul, pulling. The Nine-Tails sensed it too and thrashed in panic. But the sealing mark on Konohamaru's body glowed fiercely, locking the beast's power in place even as the dragon-drain began.
A torrent of blazing red-orange chakra erupted from Konohamaru's stomach, through his jacket, into the phantom dragon's maw. It was the Nine-Tails' chakra, being forcibly siphoned. But the seal made by the death god fought back. Konohamaru's scream turned to an agonized gasp as wave after wave of unimaginable pain wracked him. He could feel Kurama's claws scrabbling within, unwilling to be torn out, feel his own life being dragged along with it. His vision blurred red and white. This is it, he thought dimly, despairing. He was going to die, Nagato was ripping the Nine-Tails from him here and now, and no Jinchūriki could survive that. Konoha would be avenged by Grandpa perhaps, but Konohamaru would not live to see it. At least… at least Hinata wouldn't have to see him like this…
The Deva Path strode forward, standing over Konohamaru's prone form as the extraction continued. "It's useless," Nagato said, almost gently, through his puppet. Victory was at hand, but strangely he felt no joy, only a bleak satisfaction. Konoha would finally know true despair. "Your struggle ends here, Konohamaru Sarutobi. Rest. Your village will soon join you in…"
Suddenly, a swishing noise cut through the air. Nagato sensed a surge of chakra from behind, fast as lightning and filled with murderous intent. The Deva Path tried to pivot, but a fraction too slow in its weakened state. CRACK! An adamantine staff, gleaming gold, came hurtling out of nowhere and smashed into the side of the Deva Path's head with catastrophic force. The head caved in, neck snapping; Yahiko's body was flung like a ragdoll, bouncing once, twice, then skidding limply to a stop against a pile of stones. The Rinnegan's light dimmed from its eyes. The Deva Path moved no more.
Konohamaru, half-conscious, felt the crushing weight binding him abruptly vanish. The phantom dragon faded into wisps, its meal interrupted and unsustainable without Nagato's direct control. The massive Gedō Mazō statue remained, but inert now, as if awaiting further orders. Konohamaru sucked in air, coughing violently. The sudden reprieve was shocking, one moment he was sure death had him, the next the extraction simply… stopped. His blurred vision registered a familiar figure landing in front of him.
"That's quite enough," came a deep, commanding voice that made Konohamaru's heart nearly burst with relief. The newcomer's chakra eclipsed the entire battlefield, radiating an anger capable of consuming everything. The man's eyes narrowed, barely constraining his fury. Through tear-filled vision, Konohamaru beheld a tall figure cloaked in battle armor, long greying hair swept into a ponytail. An ornate, helmet-like forehead protector crowned his head, and in his right hand he wielded a golden staff—the very one that had pulverized the Deva Path. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, had arrived.
Konohamaru's eyes drifted shut as unconsciousness claimed him. He had done all he could. Now the Third Hokage, his grandfather, would finish what he started. As the world went dark, Konohamaru felt Enma's firm hand replace Hiruzen's on his shoulder, pulling him gently away from the battlefield. And he allowed himself one final thought: I'm sorry, Grandad… and thank you.
Hiruzen Sarutobi faced Nagato, the last enemy, amidst the ruins of Konoha. The two legendary shinobi locked eyes across the wreckage and falling rain. "Nagato Uzumaki," Hiruzen called out, voice echoing, "your fight is with me now."
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To Be Continued in Chapter 40…
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🖋️ Author's Note:
As promised and right on schedule, here's the new chapter! 📖🔥
This one's a massive 12k-word instalment, and yes, it focuses primarily on just one fight. Some of you might feel the pace is slow or that the story is being prolonged, but trust me, every beat matters.
This chapter is crucial because it delves into Konohamaru in depth. His growth, and Pain, it all will begin to make sense from here.
I truly enjoyed writing this chapter. It lays the foundation for Konohamaru's new ability, which will become a pivotal force in the arcs to come. What might seem like buildup now will be seen heavily in the future.
My work will not be available in the archive for now. It was removed for violating one of their policies. I will try uploading it again, but until then it will remain unavailable there.
Ans on P... (a) tr....(eon) up to Chapter 62 is out....
Thank you for reading, and don't forget to like ❤️ and comment 💬, your support means the world!