Uchiha Madara's arrogant laughter seemed to linger in the echoes of the rocky walls, but the dark red figure had long since vanished.
Only a mess remained—shattered rocks and the nauseating stench of blood permeating the air.
Nagato lay on the cold, damp ground.
His body was twisted in a bizarre posture, like a skin sack stripped of its skeleton.
The red hair that once symbolized the Uzumaki clan's vigorous vitality was now completely withered and white, scattered in the mud like lifeless grass covered by winter frost.
*Cough...*
A faint cough, almost inaudible, broke the silence.
Nagato's chest rose and fell with extreme difficulty.
Pain.
Boundless, agonizing pain.
This pain didn't come from his torso, drained of its life force, but from his empty eye sockets.
With the Rinnegan gone, only two bloody, mangled pits remained.
The cold mountain wind poured in through the shattered dome, blowing into those two pits and stabbing deep into the nerves of his brain.
'Am I... still alive?'
Nagato's consciousness drifted in a dark abyss.
He should have died.
Using the Gedo: Rinne Rebirth Jutsu to resurrect Uchiha Madara with a mortal body was supposed to be a life-for-a-life technique.
But fate seemed to have played a cruel joke on him.
His heart—the heart that should have stopped beating—was actually pulsing weakly but stubbornly.
Thump.
Thump.
Slow, heavy, yet continuous.
It was the portion of the Eight-Tails' chakra he had devoured earlier.
That massive Yang-style energy belonging to a Tailed Beast had mostly been consumed by the Rinne Rebirth, but the remaining embers, combined with the Uzumaki clan's resilient constitution, had forcibly pulled him back from death's door.
"How... ironic..."
Nagato wanted to laugh, but his dry lips only twitched slightly, leaking a trace of blood.
Once, he had considered himself a god, intending to build a new order upon the ruins.
Now, he was nothing more than a cripple.
Just a piece of trash discarded by the roadside after being used up.
Nagato's fingers clawed unconsciously at the ground, his nails breaking and fingertips bleeding.
All his beliefs collapsed completely in this moment.
The Eye of the Moon Plan, creating a peaceful world—it was all a massive lie woven by that man just to resurrect himself.
He, Nagato, was nothing more than a vessel keeping those eyes safe and nurturing them for someone else.
Even the pain he took pride in was, in that man's eyes, nothing more than fertilizer used to ripen the Rinnegan.
'Is this... the tragedy of a mortal?'
Nagato mocked himself internally.
Just as he wanted to sink into the abyss and wait for death...
A figure appeared in his mind.
Konan!
In the darkness, the image became incredibly clear.
His hand had raised uncontrollably.
A black chakra receiver had pierced through those white paper wings and stabbed into the abdomen of the woman he swore to protect.
Blood stained the sheets of paper red.
"No..."
A whimper like that of a wounded beast escaped Nagato's throat.
The sensation of that moment terrified him more than losing his eyes.
That was his hand.
He had personally harmed Konan.
'Konan... is still there...'
Once this thought arose, it burned through his remaining will like a wildfire.
He cannot die here.
He must go back.
Even if he had to crawl, he would crawl back to the tower in Amegakure.
He had to confirm if she was still alive.
If she died...
Nagato's knuckles turned white from the strain, digging deep into the cracks of the hard rock.
If she died, he would die by her side.
This was his final obsession in this world—as Nagato, as Yahiko's best friend, and as Konan's companion.
'Move...'
Nagato roared in his mind.
He tried to prop up his body.
But that withered frame wouldn't move an inch.
His muscles had atrophied; his meridians were exhausted.
Every attempt to exert force was accompanied by the groan of bones under unbearable strain.
'Move for me!!'
Nagato ground his teeth until they cracked.
Blood filled his mouth, the metallic taste stimulating his nerves.
He propped himself up with his elbows, bit by bit, moving toward the cave entrance like a worm with a broken spine.
Everything before him was pitch black.
But he remembered the direction.
The direction of Amegakure.
...
Above the Land of Rain, dark clouds loomed.
The torrential rain washed over this country that was perpetually weeping.
Under the dim canopy of the sky, a paper crane with a broken wing struggled through the storm.
It flew erratically, as if it could be torn apart by the gale at any moment and fall into the mud below.
That was Konan.
The maintenance of the Dance of the Shikigami had reached its limit.
Even the fine raindrops felt heavy as they struck her body.
More shocking was the bright red blood constantly seeping out from the paper.
The wound in her abdomen throbbed with tearing pain under the wash of the rain.
Every flap of her wings felt like she was overdrawing her life.
"Nagato..."
Konan's consciousness was blurry; her vision was obscured by rain and cold sweat.
In Konan's mind, that mysterious man was incredibly powerful; even Nagato had been helpless before him.
But since the other party let her live, then Nagato might also...
After sending many letters to Konoha, she decided to find Nagato first.
Konan stumbled, nearly collapsing again.
She was at the end of her rope.
'No, I can't give up.'
Konan bit her tongue, using the pain to force herself to stay conscious.
Nagato's last struggling look, that black rod that deviated from her vitals.
That was the chance for survival Nagato had fought to give her.
Konan's gaze pierced through the rain, looking toward the distant east.
That was the Land of Fire.
The location of the Hidden Leaf Village.
Once, that was the place they hated most, the source of war and orphans in the Land of Rain.
But now, it was their only hope.
Master Jiraiya.
The man who once taught them survival ninjutsu and gave them brief warmth, yet whom they had viewed as a naive dreamer.
And Minato Namikaze, the Hokage who formed the Five Kage Alliance and even won over Kaguya Otsutsuki.
Only them.
Only by gathering the strength of the entire shinobi world would it be possible to fight back.
'I must... make it...'
Konan squeezed the last trace of chakra from her body.
Her body swayed in mid-air as countless paper sheets peeled off her and scattered in the wind.
She was like a lone bird flying against the storm, carrying a body full of scars and desperate intelligence, flying toward Nagato's direction.
What she didn't know was that on the other side, another person was crawling toward her.
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##Discount##
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