The drizzle fell in endless sheets across the Hidden Rain Village, each droplet carrying Nagato's consciousness through his Rain Tiger at Will technique. From his position at the top of the tallest spire, he sensed the disturbance rippling through his detection network—subtle at first, like stones skipping across a pond, then increasingly violent.
Konan stood beside him, her paper butterflies already dispersing into the rain. "I'm mobilizing all forces. Full lockdown."
"Do it." Nagato's voice was barely audible over the constant patter of rain against stone.
She hesitated at the doorway, amber eyes searching his face. "You know who's coming."
It wasn't a question.
"Naruto Uzumaki." Nagato's fingers moved to the ring on his right hand, the metal cool against his skin. The ring connected him to every core member of the Akatsuki organization through faith-wave transmissions. One turn of the band would alert them all.
His finger stopped mid-motion.
A traitor among us. The thought tasted like ash. If he sent the signal now, whoever had betrayed them would know everything. He lowered his hand.
Konan understood immediately. "The lockdown will be enough. The others will know something's wrong."
After she left, Nagato descended from the spire using the mechanical wheelchair, his emaciated legs useless beneath the blanket. The tower's interior echoed with the sound of rain against windows. At the base, five figures waited in the shadows, still and silent as corpses.
Because that's what they were.
Nagato's Rinnegan flared, purple light washing over the chamber as chakra surged through the black receivers embedded in each body. One by one, the Paths of Pain opened their eyes—the same rippled pattern reflected in all of them.
Animal Path. A large man with a shaved head and multiple piercings.
Human Path. A lean figure with shoulder-length hair.
Preta Path. Heavyset, with a mohawk and beard.
Naraka Path. Bald with a goatee, broader than the others.
And Deva Path—Yahiko. Orange hair, gentle features frozen in eternal youth. The body of his best friend, preserved and controlled like a puppet.
Deva Path took its position beside Nagato's wheelchair while the other four formed a protective semicircle behind him.
Asura Path is still destroyed. The sixth body hadn't been resurrected yet by Naraka Path when the intrusion began. The timing was too precise to be coincidence.
"They're trying to catch me off guard," Nagato murmured, mostly to himself. Yahiko's corpse didn't respond.
Outside, the rain intensified as Konan's orders spread through the village. Ninja teams scattered across rooftops, taking defensive positions. Buildings sealed their windows. The perpetual drizzle became their alarm system, and every citizen of the Hidden Rain knew what it meant when that rain began to scream.
Beyond the village borders, Naruto stopped walking.
For the past ten minutes, he'd been experimenting with his vibration technique against Nagato's Rain Tiger at Will, testing different frequencies to see how the detection jutsu adapted. One hundred thousand vibrations per second had disrupted it briefly. Increasing to two hundred thousand caused the rain to vaporize before it touched him.
Fun, but ultimately pointless.
"Let's go." Naruto glanced back at the others. "Time to let the Akatsuki organization feel our power."
He took the first step across the border.
The moment his foot touched Rain Country soil, the drizzle found them. It clung to clothes, ran down faces, soaked into hair—and transmitted every detail directly to Nagato's consciousness.
Jiraiya wiped water from his eyes. "Well, he knows we're here now."
"He knew the moment we crossed," Kakashi said, his mask already plastered to his face. "This rain is his nervous system."
"Good." Tsunade cracked her knuckles. "I hate sneaking around anyway."
Orochimaru said nothing, but his tongue flicked out to taste the rain.
Black Zetsu rode on Naruto's shoulder, safely tucked into the folds of his black hooded robe where the rain couldn't reach him. The small dark figure was invisible to Nagato's technique—just another shadow among Naruto's clothes.
Nine-Tails perched on Naruto's other shoulder, miniaturized and wearing his apron. Raindrops vaporized three inches from his fur.
Sasuke walked beside Naruto, his own chakra keeping the rain at bay through sheer force of will. The three-tomoe Sharingan spun lazily in his eyes, reading the patterns in the falling water.
They hadn't made it fifty meters before the first attack came.
Rain ninja materialized from the downpour itself—Water Style concealment techniques bringing them from puddles, from walls, from the very air. Kunai and shuriken filled the space between heartbeats. Fire Style jutsu roared despite the dampness. Lightning crackled.
Naruto didn't even look at them.
If any of these attacks can hurt me even slightly, he thought, I'll turn around and leave right now.
He didn't move. Didn't need to.
The attacks dissolved three feet from his body, repelled by invisible force.
But the others didn't wait for him to handle it.
"Fire Style: Exploding God Spiral Flywheel!"
Sasuke's hands blurred through seals. Black flames erupted from his palms, spinning and condensing into a massive wheel six feet in diameter. The Amaterasu flames crackled and hissed even in the rain, shedding sparks like falling stars as the wheel began to rotate.
The spiral flywheel shot forward, spinning so fast it screamed.
Three chunin tried to dodge. Too slow. The black wheel carved through them like paper, their bodies falling in pieces before they could scream. A jonin attempted to block with a Water Style barrier.
The flames cut through the water as if it wasn't there.
"FALL BACK!" someone shouted. "Don't engage directly!"
The Rain ninja scattered, creating space, but the flywheel didn't slow. Just as it passed the main group, Sasuke's fingers twitched.
The wheel detonated.
Hundreds of smaller flaming discs exploded outward like shrapnel, each one trailing black fire. They moved with purpose, curving through the air to track their targets. A Rain ninja tried to substitute with a log—the Amaterasu flames transferred to him from the burning wood and consumed him in seconds.
Another attempted a Water Style defense. The black fire burned through the technique and latched onto his arm. He severed the limb himself with a kunai, screaming, but two other flames had already found his chest.
Seven more Rain ninja fell before the flames finally guttered out.
Sasuke lowered his hand, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan spinning in his eyes. The technique was new—a fusion of Amaterasu, Kagutsuchi flame manipulation, and Rasengan rotation principles. He'd only theorized about it before.
Good results, he thought, watching the last of the black flames fade. Though the chakra cost is higher than expected.
Tsunade didn't bother with ninjutsu. She simply moved—one moment standing still, the next appearing beside a Rain jonin with her foot already in motion. The kick connected with his chest.
The man flew backward so fast he broke the sound barrier, creating a visible shockwave in the rain. He crashed through two buildings before embedding himself in a third, unconscious before impact.
She was already moving to the next target. Each kick sent another ninja flying. One. Two. Three. Four. Her movements were economical, precise, devastating. Like watching an earthquake take human form.
Jiraiya watched Sasuke's technique with something close to pride warming his chest. The kid's got talent. Combining advanced chakra nature manipulation with shape transformation... that's elite jonin level work.
He formed his own seals. "Rasengan!"
The sphere of spinning chakra manifested in his palm, and he drove it into an incoming Rain ninja's gut. The man folded around the impact and skipped across the wet ground like a stone on water.
Not as flashy as Sasuke's version, Jiraiya admitted to himself, but sometimes simple is best.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
Orochimaru's sleeves erupted with serpents—dozens of them, each as thick as a man's arm, fangs dripping venom. The snakes struck with inhuman speed, wrapping around Rain ninja and constricting. Bones snapped. Screams cut off as the crushing pressure forced air from lungs.
His face remained expressionless throughout, movements mechanical. Like watching a puppet perform a dance of death.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
Kakashi completed his hand seals and slammed his palms to the ground. A massive barrier of churning water rose up, catching a barrage of explosive kunai and detonating them harmlessly.
The wall collapsed.
Kakashi swayed slightly, face pale.
Damn it. His chakra reserves had always been his weakness. One high-level technique and he was already feeling it. The sharingan didn't help—even covered, it drained him constantly.
"Kakashi-sensei, save some chakra and take a rest."
Naruto's voice carried amusement.
Kakashi glared at him with a visible eye. "I just used one technique. It's nothing. I've got enough chakra for hundreds more jutsu."
Naruto's lips twitched but he didn't argue. They both knew Kakashi was lying. "Hundreds" might be pushing it.
The group continued forward, cutting through Rain ninja resistance like a hot knife through butter. Even without Naruto or Black Zetsu engaging, the combined might of five legendary-class fighters was overwhelming.
Nine-Tails shifted on Naruto's shoulder, tails swishing. A ball of red chakra began forming in front of his mouth—the beginnings of a Tailed Beast Ball.
Naruto placed a finger on the fox's nose. "No."
"Just a small one!" Nine-Tails protested, the partially-formed chakra sphere dissipating.
"Your 'small' Tailed Beast Balls level city blocks. We're here to negotiate, not commit genocide."
"You're no fun."
"I'm plenty of fun. You're just destructive."
The miniaturized fox huffed but settled back down, content to watch the carnage from his perch.
As they pushed deeper into the village, the quality of opposition increased. Elite chunin. Special jonin. The Rain ninja who'd survived this long weren't the cannon fodder from the outer perimeter.
And they were smart enough to recognize who was in charge.
Naruto stood in the center of their formation—tall, composed, untouched by rain or violence. His deep blue eyes scanned the battlefield with an almost bored expression. The golden hair plastered to his back should have made him look bedraggled. Instead, it made him look like some kind of war god descending from the heavens.
His Hokage robes, somehow, remained pristine. Not a drop of rain touched them. Not a speck of mud. An invisible barrier kept everything five inches away from his body, creating a perfect sphere of dryness around him.
That's the leader, the Rain ninja thought as one. Take him out, and the rest will fall.
Every jutsu converged on Naruto. Fire, wind, lightning, earth, water—a rainbow of elemental chakra. Kunai and shuriken by the hundreds, glinting in what little light filtered through the storm. Even some Rain ninja abandoned techniques entirely and simply charged with blades drawn.
All of it focused on one target.
"Hey," Naruto murmured, "do I look that easy?"
He took one small step forward.
Planted his feet.
And threw a punch.
One simple, straightforward punch. No chakra enhancement. No flashy effects. Just a fist moving through air.
But to everyone watching, that punch carried the rhythm of a heartbeat—their heartbeat—as if Naruto's movement had synchronized with the very pulse of their lives.
The sound disappeared.
Not muted. Not quiet. Gone. The rain still fell, the jutsu still roared, but no one could hear it. Their ears felt stuffed with cotton, pressure building behind their eyes as if they'd descended too deep underwater.
Naruto's fist met the leading edge of the attack.
Space rippled.
Like a stone thrown into still water, concentric rings of distortion spread from the point of impact. The air itself became visible—waves of compressed atmosphere racing outward in perfect circles.
Every jutsu touched by those ripples simply... ceased. Fire techniques scattered into sparks. Water dispersed into mist. Lightning grounded harmlessly. Earth crumbled to dust. Wind techniques unraveled into gentle breezes.
Kunai and shuriken struck the ripples and disintegrated, metal flaking away into particles so fine they looked like smoke.
The charging Rain ninja hit the expanding wave and stopped as if they'd run into an invisible wall. Their weapons shattered. Their armor cracked. They fell to their knees, gasping, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Silence.
Absolute, suffocating silence.
Every Rain ninja stood frozen, their minds struggling to process what they'd witnessed. Some had stopped breathing entirely, their autonomous functions temporarily forgotten in the face of such overwhelming wrongness.
He punched space itself, someone thought, but couldn't speak the words.
That's not ninjutsu. That's not taijutsu. That's not even chakra.
What the hell is he?
Orochimaru stared at Naruto's extended fist, eyes wide with scientific hunger. "Naruto-kun has gotten stronger again. Is this even his full power?" His tongue flicked out unconsciously. "If that's pure physical force interfering with space itself, then no jutsu in the ninja world can match it. The applications, the research possibilities..."
He caught himself before he started drooling.
Tsunade's mouth hung slightly open. "I thought my strength was impressive. I thought I'd mastered the pinnacle of taijutsu enhancement." She looked down at her own hands. "But this... this isn't even the same category."
Black Zetsu's mind raced. Could a punch like that break the moon's seal? Could Naruto free Mother with physical force alone?
Jiraiya felt his heart skip. That kick at the hot springs. He was holding back. His ribs ached in remembered pain. If he'd used even a fraction of this...
He looked at Naruto with new eyes.
Minato, your son surpassed both of us before he hit thirteen. I can't wait to brag about this when we meet in the Pure Land.
Then Jiraiya remembered—Naruto was trying to develop resurrection techniques. Maybe I won't have to wait for the Pure Land after all.
Kakashi and Sasuke alone showed no surprise. Their faces remained impassive, almost bored.
They'd seen this level of power so many times it barely registered anymore. Naruto shattering space? That was just Tuesday.
If Jiraiya and the others knew the full extent of what Naruto could do—what he'd done to Obito, to the Shinigami, to entire villages—they'd realize this was Naruto showing restraint.
The Rain ninja finally remembered how to breathe. Their lungs dragged in air, hearts pounding so hard it hurt. Some vomited from the shock. Others simply sat down in the mud, weapons forgotten.
One chunin looked at his companions, then at the devastation, then at Naruto standing calmly in the center of it all.
He dropped his kunai and ran.
Within seconds, half the remaining Rain ninja followed his example. This wasn't a battle. This was suicide.
Those who remained did so out of loyalty to Nagato, or because their legs refused to work.
Naruto lowered his fist and continued walking, stepping over abandoned weapons and fallen bodies. His pace never changed. Steady. Inevitable.
Like watching a tide come in.
The core area of the Akatsuki organization loomed ahead—a cluster of towers surrounding the central spire where Nagato waited.