With the Six Paths of Pain completely wiped out, Chiba's battle against Pain finally came to a close. Yet the war's thread hadn't been cut at the root - not while the real Nagato still existed somewhere out of sight, still anchoring everything from the shadows. The decisive clash on Turtle Island could be declared finished, but Chiba still had one last task: find Nagato's true body and end this at the source.
Still, the moment Pain fell, the Five Great Nations' Allied Shinobi Forces erupted. Cheers surged across the battlefield, relief and exhilaration crashing together in a single tide. On the other side, Akatsuki's members stood frozen, faces drained, eyes wide with disbelief. Pain wasn't merely their leader - he was Akatsuki's undeniable pinnacle. If even he had been killed by Chiba, then the rest of them had no remaining illusion to cling to.
Morale shattered in an instant. Some of them were already calculating escape routes.
Kabuto Yakushi, still directing the Edo Tensei army, wore a grim expression that tightened by the second. His forces had been gutted: many of his reanimated troops were already frozen and sealed by Chiba's earlier large-scale ice-sealing technique, while others had been defeated when Might Guy overcame Might Duy and Sakumo Hatake, only for the sealing team to lock them away. On top of that, the sudden arrival of the Hachibi's jinchūriki, Killer B, and the crushing sealing power he unleashed had even suppressed several powerful Uchiha. The Edo Tensei army was Kabuto's leverage - his shield, his bargaining chip, his entire foundation - and now it was being ground down into nothing. He couldn't hide the fury in his eyes.
Across the battlefield, Akatsuki's situation collapsed in sequence. Konan had been defeated and captured by Jiraiya. Deidara was surrounded by Kitsuchi and the Iwagakure forces. Sasori of the Red Sand was being pressed hard by Gaara, Kankurō, and the Sunagakure shinobi. Danzō Shimura was locked in a violent exchange against Darui of Kumogakure. Uchiha Itachi and Kakuzu were trading lethal blows with Gari - wielder of Explosion Release - and C, among others. And the mysterious masked man, caught in a relentless two-pronged assault from Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya, was gradually being forced onto the defensive.
Then word - no, reality - settled across all of them: Pain's Six Paths were gone.
Every Akatsuki member still standing understood the same thing at once.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
They moved to retreat immediately.
In that moment, Akatsuki's coordination was almost unnerving. The masked man threw his head back and roared, forcing out his strongest technique as a curtain to cover their withdrawal.
Katon: Bakufū Ranbu ("Blazing Wind Chaos Dance")!!!
A storm twisted space itself - warped by Kamui - then fused with raging fire, forming a tornado of violent flame that screamed toward Jiraiya and Kakashi.
Jiraiya's response was immediate, sharp, and practiced, as if his body had already decided before his mind finished the thought.
Katon: Gama Abura Endan ("Flame Bullet of Toad Oil")!!!
Burning oil and fire surged forward in a vast, overwhelming torrent, swallowing the masked man's inferno in sheer breadth and force. At the same time, Kakashi stepped in, lightning snapping through the air as he reinforced the counter with his own technique.
Raiton: Raijū Tsuiga ("Lightning Beast Tracking Fang")!!!
The lightning hound tore through the heat and smoke and layered into Jiraiya's assault, their combined power grinding the incoming firestorm down and holding it in place. But the masked man never intended to win that exchange - he only needed a moment.
And the instant it appeared, he vanished.
It was obvious: he had activated his space-time ninjutsu - Kamui - and escaped.
Kabuto snarled and forced his remaining Edo Tensei troops to burn whatever chakra and strength they had left, turning the battlefield into a final, frantic crescendo. Taijutsu clashes shook the ground. Ninjutsu detonations ripped open the air. Shinobi tools whistled through smoke and debris. For a brief window, Turtle Island looked as if it might tear itself apart under the weight of desperation. Kabuto used that chaos as cover - and fled.
Elsewhere, Kakuzu, Itachi, Danzō, Deidara, and Sasori each unleashed their own trump cards, forcing their opponents back just long enough to break away. One after another, they were pulled out by Kamui, disappearing before the allied forces could close the net. With his retreat secured, Kabuto released the summoning technique entirely. Across the warzone, the Edo Tensei army dissolved as the souls were dismissed and rose away once more.
At last, Turtle Island fell quiet.
The battle was over.
When the Yondaime Raikage arrived with Kumogakure reinforcements, he had already missed the war's decisive moment. He had moved the instant he received the news - fast enough that few could match him - but even that speed hadn't been enough. By the time he set foot on the island, Pain was already dead, and Chiba had already ended the decisive fight.
The Yondaime Raikage's gaze snapped to Killer B, and fury flared immediately.
"B! Didn't I order you to stay hidden in the underground base and not come out?!"
Killer B tried to answer - tried to justify himself - but the Yondaime Raikage's reply came first, delivered with a fist that sent him flying. Strangely, it didn't even feel like malice so much as the brutal familiarity of brothers who had always spoken with their bodies as much as their voices.
Still, seeing B ultimately unharmed loosened something tight in the Raikage's chest. He exhaled, then turned to Chiba, his tone rough but genuine.
"Mizukage-sama… thank you."
His eyes swept toward B, Yugito, and the remaining jinchūriki - still alive, still standing.
"B, Yugito, and everyone else… it's because of Mizukage-sama."
Chiba's smile was calm, almost indifferent, yet not dismissive. "It's nothing. I did it for Kirigakure… and, while I was at it, for the shinobi world."
The Yondaime Raikage studied him for a beat, then nodded - his view of Chiba shifting in a way he didn't bother to hide.
With a single order from Chiba, the Allied Shinobi Forces began clearing the battlefield. The Edo Tensei souls had been dismissed, but the sacrifices remained behind as corpses, and those who had been sealed so thoroughly they could never be summoned again were handled and removed. The alliance had taken losses as well - mostly ordinary shinobi - and Chiba immediately deployed medical-nin teams to stabilize the wounded and keep deaths from climbing.
Chiba left the post-battle organization to the Yondaime Raikage: cleanup, casualty counts, and the grim accounting that always followed victory.
Then he departed.
Because the true end of this conflict wasn't on Turtle Island anymore.
…
After the field was secured, the Yondaime Raikage oversaw the tally of losses. On Akatsuki's side, Pain's Six Paths had been killed by Chiba, and Konan had been captured. Among Kabuto's Edo Tensei forces, key figures - including Might Duy, Sakumo Hatake, Uchiha Tajima, Uchiha Kagami, and Hyūga Hizashi - had been sealed, making their return impossible. Other Akatsuki members had escaped with injuries of varying severity.
On the alliance's side, most casualties were among the rank-and-file. Thanks to Chiba's Ryūchidō serpents and his Sage Art ice forces leading the front, those losses were far lower than they might have been. More importantly, Akatsuki's plan to capture the tailed beasts had completely collapsed, and Pain's death marked something even more damning: Akatsuki itself had begun to fracture.
While the battlefield settled into aftermath, Chiba rode an ice bird across the sky, leaving Turtle Island behind. He crossed the sea and headed toward a barren, uninhabited islet nearby, guided by chakra feedback carried through the black receiver rod. He had already pinpointed the location of Nagato's true body.
But when he arrived, someone else was already there.
A man stood before Nagato.
Zetsu.
And though the shinobi world still misunderstood him, Chiba did not. He knew Zetsu's presence was never accidental - and never harmless.
Nagato coughed hard, repeatedly, until blood stained his lips. His body was skeletal, gaunt to the point of looking unreal, like a dying ember trembling in the wind. He stared at the intruder with an expression that suggested he already felt the shape of what was coming.
"Zetsu… why are you here?"
Zetsu chuckled. "Pain? No… I should call you by your real name - Nagato."
Nagato's expression tightened. "You…"
Zetsu's smile sharpened into something cold. "You didn't really think you were the one controlling Akatsuki, did you? In the end, you were nothing more than a piece on the board."
"And now that piece has been crushed by Chiba. The tailed beast plan has failed completely. You've lost your value."
Nagato coughed again, brow furrowing. "Who… what are you?"
Zetsu spread his hands slightly, amused by the question. "Me? I represent Uchiha Madara's will."
At those words, the image of the masked man rose in Nagato's mind like a shadow.
"That man… is he really Uchiha Madara?"
For years, Nagato's doubts had never fully faded.
Zetsu grinned. "Yes… and no."
Then his voice cooled. "But it doesn't matter. You're dying, Nagato. You're finished. And now, I'm here to reclaim what belongs to Madara-sama."
Nagato's eyes widened. "Reclaim… what?"
Zetsu's gaze turned cutting. "Did you really believe you awakened the Sage of Six Paths' divine eye - the Rinnegan - with your own power?"
"This was never yours."
"It was Madara-sama's - temporarily entrusted to you, so you could be used."
Nagato's breath caught. "You mean… my Rinnegan is…"
"Correct." Zetsu's smile held no mercy. "Madara-sama's eyes. Your only worth was your Uzumaki bloodline - it let you wield them better than most. But now? Even with the Rinnegan, you lost to Chiba."
He stepped closer, voice tightening into command.
"So hand them over."
Nagato's chest rose and fell unevenly. He had always known his partnership with "Madara" was mutual exploitation, yet he'd still believed he could leverage that relationship on equal footing. Losing to Chiba shattered that illusion, but it didn't break his pride into surrender. Even now, he refused to let the Rinnegan fall into anyone's hands.
"No matter what your connection is to the masked man… I won't give the Rinnegan to you."
He forced a thin breath through clenched teeth. "Zetsu… I know what you are. You don't seem like a combat type."
"Even dying… I'm still not someone you can handle."
Zetsu laughed softly. "Is that so?"
His eyes narrowed. "Then you truly are at the end - so far gone you can't even maintain your Rinnegan's power."
Nagato's brow creased. Zetsu's tone remained almost casual as he continued.
"Did you not notice? While we were talking, I already used my spore technique. It's taken root in you."
"And now your chakra has been devoured."
A chill ran through Nagato. He tried to draw on his power - only to find it collapsing into emptiness. His limbs grew heavy, his body suddenly weaker, as if the very concept of strength was being eaten away from the inside. The spore growth expanded, tightening around him, wrapping him like a cocoon as it consumed the last of his chakra and began biting into his life.
Zetsu surged forward.
His hand shot out.
A wet, brutal sound followed.
In a single motion, Zetsu tore one Rinnegan free.
Nagato's body jerked. Blood spilled. Pain flashed across his face - sharp, immediate, and then strangely distant, like something happening to someone else. Zetsu raised the eye without reverence, only possession, and reached for the other.
But right then -
Nagato's remaining chakra flared, violent and desperate, like a dying flame refusing to go out quietly.
Shinra Tensei ("Almighty Push")!!!!
The force detonated outward. The cocooning spores were blasted apart, and Zetsu was hurled back like a ragdoll, smashing into the wall with a heavy impact. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he hit and slumped.
Nagato sagged immediately afterward, breath ragged, body trembling. That single burst had cost him everything.
He gasped, voice hoarse. "I don't know what you're planning… but peace will never come to the shinobi world in your hands."
His blood-drenched eye socket trembled as he continued. "Trusting you… or Uchiha Madara… is worse than trusting Chiba."
Zetsu spat blood and snarled, fury twisting his face. "You don't get to decide that anymore!"
And then the air above the island shifted.
A figure appeared in the sky, cutting through the distance with terrifying speed.
Chiba.
In that instant, both Nagato and Zetsu froze. Zetsu's shock was sharper - almost panicked. He had never imagined Chiba would find this place, and certainly not this quickly. Instinct overwhelmed everything else. Zetsu activated his escape technique and sank into the earth, fleeing through the ground at full speed, not even daring to go for Nagato's remaining Rinnegan.
Because Zetsu understood with absolute clarity:
If Chiba arrived, it wouldn't just be the second eye he'd fail to claim.
He would lose his life.
Zetsu's decision was correct.
Chiba landed a heartbeat later, stepping into the ruin and finding Nagato half-collapsed, bleeding, one eye torn from his face. Chiba looked at him for a moment, then shook his head.
"Because of what you just said… I could spare your life."
Nagato gave a weak, bitter smile. "There's nothing to spare. I'm beyond saving."
He coughed again, then forced the words out with a clarity that felt heavier than confession.
"Chiba… I wasn't lying."
"All I wanted… was peace for the shinobi world."
"Even Uchiha Madara claims the same."
His gaze - empty and exhausted - lifted toward Chiba as if searching for an answer he no longer had the strength to reach on his own.
"And you… you have your own path to peace."
"In the end, we were only different in method."
Nagato's breath shook, and his voice hardened with something like grim certainty. "But Madara's method will be even more extreme than mine. Believing in him… is worse than believing in you."
Then, quieter - almost like a final plea dressed as reason - he added, "At the very least, you can oppose him. You can give the future… another option."
Chiba nodded, expression steady. "I can."
Nagato smiled faintly. Blood tears slid from the empty socket where one Rinnegan had been. He didn't flinch - didn't waste what little time he had left on fear or hesitation. Instead, with sudden brutal resolve, he reached up and dug into his remaining eye.
He tore out the second Rinnegan himself.
He held it out, palm trembling.
"Then… I entrust this Rinnegan to you."
"I hope you can lead the shinobi world toward true peace."
Chiba had come here to take Nagato's Rinnegan, but he hadn't expected Nagato to offer it willingly, nor to do so with that kind of quiet, resolute finality. Perhaps that was all Nagato had left: not certainty, not a perfect answer - only the desperate need for the world to have more than one possible ending.
Chiba accepted the eye and nodded.
"Peace… might be nothing more than a distant illusion."
"An end we can never truly reach."
His voice softened - not warm, but human. "Still… I can promise I'll do everything I can."
Nagato's lips curved faintly. He nodded once, slowly. Then his head lowered. The empty sockets of his eyes stared into nothing as the last of his life slipped away.
Nagato died.
Chiba exhaled quietly. He looked down at the Rinnegan resting in his palm, then - without hesitation - merged it into his body.
In an instant, the Rinnegan's dōjutsu power surged -
and its might erupted with a terror unlike anything before.
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