He slammed both hands onto the water's surface, and a ferocious shark, far larger than any before and composed of concentrated Water Nature chakra, roared out from the swirling wall of water!
It opened its massive maw, wide enough to swallow everything, and with the momentum to crush mountains, it slammed violently into that burning blue flame!
"Taste this, Daytime Tiger!!!"
Guy roared, his fists booming forward at a speed that surpassed the limits of vision!
It was no longer a fireball like before, but a white shockwave compressed to the extreme, generated purely by the friction of ultra-high-speed fist pressure against the air!
Countless white shockwaves converged, forming a massive white tiger's head composed of pure kinetic energy!
The blue-white flames propelled the white tiger!
BOOM!!!!
The ferocious shark and the fierce tiger collided violently in the center of the battlefield!
There was no stalemate.
Only total suppression!
The white shockwave, compressed to its limit, instantly tore through the massive Water Release shark!
The chakra waves forming the shark were pierced and evaporated like paper!
The white tiger's momentum didn't slow; carrying world-destroying power, it slammed hard into the final barrier Kisame relied on for survival: "Water Prison Shark Dance"!
Screeech!!!
An incredibly piercing tearing sound rang out!
The high-speed rotating water wall, possessing sharp cutting power, was like snow meeting its nemesis; it disintegrated and collapsed inch by inch under the impact of the white tiger!
It vanished without a trace, like a dream or a bubble!
Kisame's final defensive measure was crushed head-on by the absolute power of the Seventh Gate's ultimate secret technique, "Daytime Tiger"!
"Pfft!"
The backlash from his defense being broken hit Kisame's chest like a sledgehammer. He could no longer suppress his injuries, and a large mouthful of blood mixed with visceral fragments sprayed out.
His body was like a kite with its string cut, sent flying by the terrifying residual impact of the Daytime Tiger!
Bang!!!
He fell heavily onto the scorching sand, smashing out a deep crater.
The Samehada blade flew from his hand, landing powerlessly nearby, its body trembling violently as it let out a low, mournful wail.
The charred wound on his right shoulder split completely open, blood gushing out like a spring, and his left arm was unnaturally twisted, clearly fractured in the impact.
Multiple wounds burned by the Morning Peacock reopened across his body; he looked like a broken, blood-soaked rag doll.
The blue flames slowly receded as Might Guy landed on the ground, white high-temperature steam evaporating from his entire body.
His face took on an abnormal crimson hue due to ruptured capillaries, and his heavy breathing sounded like a bellows.
Clearly, opening the Seventh Gate was also a massive burden on his own body.
But he stood straight, his eyes sharp as knives, locked firmly onto the enemy in the crater who no longer had the strength to fight.
Kakashi appeared beside Guy in a flash, his Sharingan warily observing Kisame's condition, the Kunai in his hand ready for action.
But seeing the other's state, his tense nerves relaxed slightly.
Kisame lay in the sand pit, his vision starting to blur, intense Pain flooding his senses like a tide.
He could feel his life force rapidly draining away with the blood, his body growing colder and colder.
Using the last of his strength, he struggled to turn his head, his clouded gaze laboriously passing over the figures of Kakashi and Guy to look into the distance.
There, the massive figure of the Gedo Statue was rampaging across the battlefield; even though it had been heavily damaged by The Collector, that terrifying aura originating from the source of chakra still existed.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth again, but on his blood-stained and cracked face, there was no fear of death, only a regret so thick it couldn't be dissolved.
"What a pity..."
His raspy voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, yet it clearly conveyed his obsession.
Both Kakashi and Guy heard it and stared at him warily.
Kisame's gaze remained fixed on the direction of the Ten-Tails, as if trying to pierce through the chaotic battlefield to see some unfinished vision.
"In the end... I couldn't... see..." he used his last breath, every word carrying bloody froth.
"...the birth... of that... new world..."
His voice vanished completely, and the last spark of light faded from those shark-like eyes.
Carrying the regret of failing to witness the final realization of the "Eye of the Moon Plan."
Carrying the yearning for that peaceful world created by the "Infinite Tsukuyomi," a world without falsehood or betrayal.
The "Monster of the Hidden Mist," the "Tailed Beast without a Tail," Kisame, finished his life full of slaughter, betrayal, and persistent pursuit.
On the battlefield, only the Samehada blade remained, letting out one last weak and sorrowful whimper after its master's passing, scattering with the wind in the desert filled with smoke and blood.
Raikage Ay's violent Lariat turned into countless blue afterimages that tore through the air, surrounding Kakuzu in a frenzy of hacking!
Every flash was accompanied by a dull, heavy thud like the sound of striking iron!
The remaining Earth Grudge Fear tendrils around Kakuzu's body danced and parried frantically like dying venomous snakes; his Earth Release hardening technique was pushed to its limit, his skin taking on a rocky, grayish-brown hue.
"Bang! Bang!"
However, the Raikage's attacks were simply too fast and too fierce!
Under the terrifying distraction and intimidation brought by Killer Bee's full Tailed Beast Transformation and his eight sky-reaching tails, Kakuzu was exhausted from running and could only endure this storm-like assault.
On his proud hardened skin, cracks spread rapidly like spiderwebs!
The black Tenketsu under the stitches sizzled and popped, scorched by the violent Lightning Nature chakra, emitting clouds of blue smoke.
The tough Earth Grudge Fear tendrils also began to snap and shatter one by one under the continuous heavy strikes, black tissue fragments splashing like tattered cotton!
With every block, Kakuzu felt as if he were being hit head-on by a battering ram!
His chakra bottomed out rapidly under the frantic consumption of repairing his body and maintaining the Earth Grudge Fear; his movements became increasingly sluggish and stiff.
The speed of repair could no longer keep up with the destruction!
"Bee! The final blow!" Raikage Ay keenly captured the breaking point of Kakuzu's defense, the lightning in his eyes surging as he roared!
He stopped his high-speed movement, the light of his Lightning Nature chakra Armor reaching a blinding peak, his right arm raised high, condensing ultimate power capable of splitting mountains!
"Got it! Brother, the final dance! You fool, you idiot!"
Killer Bee, in his full Tailed Beast Transformation, responded with a sky-shaking roar from Gyuki.
One of the thickest octopus tentacles slammed upward, and at its tip, a massive dark-red Tailed Beast Ball instantly condensed, compressed to its limit and emitting destructive fluctuations!
The terrifying energy fluctuation locked onto Kakuzu, creating a vacuum zone for the Raikage's killing blow!
For the first time, true despair appeared on Kakuzu's stitched face.
Those green eyes, flashing with shrewdness and gloom, stared fixedly at Raikage Ay, who was striking again like lightning, and at the Tailed Beast Ball overhead, poised and radiating the breath of death!
He tried to mobilize his last Lightning Release mask monster to spit lightning, tried to use his remaining Earth Release hardening to resist, but all his efforts seemed so pale and powerless in the face of absolute violence!
"Wanting to take down this old man... it won't be that easy!"
A raspy roar squeezed out of Kakuzu's throat, carrying a final bit of ferocity.
However, the blue lightning that was Raikage Ay was already before his eyes!
A hand-sword condensing ten thousand tons of force carried a piercing whistle, ignoring Kakuzu's futile hardening defense and wind-blade barriers, and precisely and ruthlessly hacked toward the core vital point connecting his neck and heart!
"Crack!!! Pfft!"
A tooth-gritting sound of bone shattering mixed with the muffled sound of flesh being torn exploded!
The Raikage's hand-sword was like a hot knife through butter, forcibly tearing through Kakuzu's hardened Earth Release and slashing deep into the side of his neck!
Violent Lightning Nature chakra instantly poured into his body!
"Ugh, ah!"
Kakuzu let out a shrill scream, the stitches representing his last Earth Release heart fluctuated violently, and the mask's symbols instantly dimmed!
The Earth Release mask monster behind him let out a pained hiss and turned into a mass of lifeless black Earth Grudge Fear tissue, slumping to the ground!
Earth Release heart, destroyed!
The intense Pain and the feeling of weakness from the heart's destruction made Kakuzu's body go completely rigid!
In that moment of fatal rigidity—
"Tailed Beast Ball! Fire!! Yo!!"
Killer Bee roared!
BOOM!!!
That dark-red Tailed Beast Ball, condensing the Eight-Tails Gyuki's violent chakra, fell from the sky like a meteor, carrying the power to destroy everything!
It accurately and mercilessly struck Kakuzu, who had lost his balance and was completely exposed due to the Raikage's heavy blow!
Light! A light that swallowed everything erupted instantly!
There was no scream, only annihilation!
The terrifying explosive power of the Tailed Beast Ball instantly swallowed Kakuzu's tattered body along with his only remaining Lightning Release mask monster!
Violent energy rampaged, completely decomposing all matter at the center of the explosion!
The tough Earth Grudge Fear tissue? In the face of the Tailed Beast Ball's absolute power, it was like paper!
The Lightning Release heart? It didn't even have time to let out a wail before turning into ashes!
The massive shockwave from the explosion blasted a deep crater into the ground, and dust rose into the sky!
Raikage Ay had long since flickered away, his Lightning Release Armor withstanding the shockwave's aftermath, his gaze fixed on the center of the explosion.
The dust slowly cleared.
In the deep crater, there was only charred, scorching glass-like ground and a few pitch-black fragments belonging to the Earth Grudge Fear that had completely lost their vitality and were emitting blue smoke.
Kakuzu's stitched body, which had weathered decades of storms, along with his last two hearts that he treated like precious treasures—
The hearts representing wealth and power—had completely vanished without a trace.
"Hmph, cheapskate..."
Raikage Ay snorted coldly, the violent lightning on his body slowly receding as he looked at the charred crater.
"Finally crushed that stubborn rock of yours."
The Eight-Tails Gyuki's form began to shrink, and Killer Bee returned to his Jinchuriki form, landing beside his brother.
"Yo! Brothers working together, invincible! Kakuzu's collection ends here, you fool, you idiot!"
He gave a thumbs up, but his eyes also carried a hint of fatigue from the end of the battle.
The desert wind kicked up smoke and dust, sweeping across the scorched earth that had just buried the immortal monster of the "Akatsuki."
Kakuzu, the "Bounty Hunter" who had lived for nearly a hundred years by plundering others' hearts using the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique.
Under the absolute power of the Raikage brothers, he finally met the true end of his long and twisted life.
He could no longer replenish his hearts, could no longer calculate his losses; carrying his obsession that had long been twisted by money and power, he turned completely to dust.
...
The desert wind, carrying blood and dust, blew across the tattered battlefield.
Tendo Pain floated high in the sky, those cold Rinnegan eyes like the eyes of a god looking down on the mortal world, indifferently scanning the scene below.
To the north, the dust had not yet settled, marking the hideous scar left by Deidara's self-detonation;
In the distance, the crater covered in gold sand buried the eternal dream of Sasori of the Red Sand;
On the flank, where Kisame lay, Samehada's low whimper seemed to linger in the wind;
Further away, the charred crater silently told the final outcome of Kakuzu's long and twisted life.
One after another, powerful chakra signatures were tearing through the chaos of the battlefield, converging like sharp arrows toward this core battlefield.
Boom! Lightning exploded as Raikage Ay, his body wrapped in his violent Lightning Release Armor, landed heavily not far from Minato.
His gaze was locked onto Pain in the sky, his eyes burning with unextinguished anger and a high-spirited will to fight.
Killer Bee followed closely behind, the Eight-Tails' Chakra aura faintly visible.
Waves of sand surged, and Gaara, riding on gold sand, steadily hovered on the other side.
His emerald eyes were as calm as water, yet they contained the Kazekage's resolve.
Behind him were the Sunagakure elites who had just finished their respective hard battles.
Swish!
The figures of Kakashi and Guy appeared near Minato.
Although Guy had deactivated the Eight Gates, his breathing was heavy and his skin was an abnormal red, the fire of his nearly burnt-out youth still burned hot.
Kakashi's Sharingan warily scanned the Six Paths of Pain, looking for any possible openings.
For a moment, this core battlefield, shrouded by The Collector's cold gaze, gathered the top powers of the Shinobi Alliance.
In the air were Tendo Pain and Konan controlling the Ten-Tails; on the ground were Minato, Raikage Ay, Killer Bee, Gaara, Kakashi, and Might Guy!
Aside from Ōnoki and Kitsuchi, who needed to use large-scale Earth Release to resist the Ten-Tails.
The strongest spears of the Alliance had finally gathered here, pointing at the "God's" throat.
Tendo Pain's gaze slowly swept over these familiar faces newly joining the fray, finally settling on the directions from which they had each come.
The crater from Deidara's self-detonation, the gold sand where Sasori was buried, the pool of blood where Kisame fell, the charred earth where Kakuzu turned to ash.
An extremely subtle ripple, nearly imperceptible, passed through the depths of the eternal purple waves of the Rinnegan.
What was... that?
Was it the residual phantom of light and heat from Deidara's desperate, fanatical self-detonation?
Was it the weak sigh emitted when Sasori's exquisite boy puppet completely shattered?
Was it the final hint of regret transmitted by Kisame's Samehada, which no longer hummed?
Or was it the void left when Kakuzu's obsession with "property" and "hearts" finally turned to dust?
Emotion? No, it felt more like a piece of debris not belonging to this cold machine had accidentally jammed into the gears while they were turning.
Nagato's core consciousness was like a cold pool into which a stone had been thrown.
Those were all members of the Akatsuki.
They were "companions" gathered for the same illusory yet grand goal of "peace."
They had once walked together in the rain, executing missions that brought "Pain" and pushing the world toward its predetermined orbit.
Deidara's explosive art, Sasori's pursuit of eternal puppets, Kisame's ruthlessness and loyalty, Kakuzu's greed and immortality...
Their existence, their power, their "personalities"—all had been a part of the Akatsuki, pieces of the puzzle that was the plan.