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A beam of silver-white light tore through the air. Just as it was about to strike Hanataki, a strange ripple pulsed, and his figure vanished.
Heshu's Shinsō retracted. This was the difficulty of fighting someone who also possessed teleportation abilities.
Countless spheres of condensed golden light spun towards Heshu.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"
Flickering crimson light swirled around Heshu's fingertip.
Gold collided with red. A thunderous boom assaulted everyone's eardrums.
Shockwaves rippled outwards, causing the very space to tremble.
Everyone looked up at the clash between the two.
This was, without a doubt, a battle between the strongest in the world.
Hanataki took a slight step back, flicking his wrist to disperse the remaining pressure wave coming at him.
"I've always been curious," Hanataki said, clenching his fist. "If we both went all out, who would actually win?"
"No matter what, I won't lose," Heshu replied calmly, her gaze fixed on Hanataki. "I have reasons I cannot lose."
Countless villagers of Konoha stood behind her.
She could not lose.
If she did, Konoha would be razed to the ground. Naruto would die a meaningless death.
Nagato might be swayed by Naruto's talk-no-jutsu, but Hanataki wouldn't deign to listen to such nonsense.
"Is that so?"
The light around Hanataki grew more blinding, until he was completely enveloped in a gentle, multicolored halo.
"Then let me see it!"
Hanataki's body seemed to freeze mid-air for an instant—then vanished from everyone's sight.
WHOOSH!
A crescent-shaped blade of diamond came slashing down from above Heshu's head. The wind pressure from the swing alone made her white Hokage robe flap violently.
CLANG!
The Shinsō blocked the blow right above Heshu's head. A clear, sharp sound rang out.
The next second.
A flash of prismatic light passed through Heshu's vision.
The diamond blade shattered. Sharp, crystalline shards shot towards Heshu's face.
Anticipation gleamed in Hanataki's eyes.
Yet, every single shard halted a single centimeter from Heshu's face. A subtle pulse of cursed energy repelled them all.
A ten-meter-wide pillar of light suddenly erupted from the ground, connecting earth and sky.
Within that radiant column, Hanataki gathered a torrent of chakra in his palm.
As the multicolored energy focused, Heshu seized her chance. She opened her storage space.
To Hanataki's astonishment, the beam of light seemed to connect to another dimension, getting sucked in like water down a drain.
Trapped inside the storage dimension, the bewildered Deva Path was forced to endure Hanataki's own attack. Its previously lively puppet body quickly grew limp and lifeless.
Controlling the Deva Path from afar, Nagato: "…"
"Imaginary Technique: Purple!"
Heshu's figure flickered, appearing right behind Hanataki.
Hanataki's pupils contracted. Too late to react.
The devastating force born from the combination of Cursed Technique Lapse and Reversal tore right through Hanataki's body.
For a moment, the sheer power of Purple robbed everyone in Konoha of their sight and hearing.
The terrifying, explosive energy centered on Heshu and Hanataki, boring down through the space below them.
The very air was compressed, fleeing in all directions, creating a momentary vacuum.
Ears still ringing, vision slowly returning.
The people of Konoha looked up.
"…Nani?"
"That's impossible!"
"It can't be!"
"This has to be a trick!"
"A genjutsu from the mask-wearer!"
Confusion, shock, and anger swept through the crowd.
But the bewilderment in Heshu's heart, standing at the center of it all, was no less than theirs.
"This…"
"How?"
Under the assault of Purple, the mask on Hanataki's face shattered completely.
Silver hair whipped in the wind. Sky-blue eyes, shimmering with flecks of light like scattered stars, gazed out calmly.
The face of this masked Akatsuki member…
Was identical to that of the Fifth Hokage, Tsukimi Heshu.
"Don't forget! This person has a jutsu to change their appearance!"
Someone in the crowd shouted, breaking the stunned silence.
Right.
They'd almost forgotten.
This mask-wearer could freely alter their height, build, and appearance.
Changing to look like the Hokage now was probably just another tactic to shake her resolve.
"They say I'm just disguising myself as you," Hanataki said, his brilliant smile directed at Heshu. "What do you think?"
Heshu's limbs went cold. With the Six Eyes, she could see more clearly than anyone. This was no disguise. This was Hanataki's true face.
"How…?" Heshu's voice was barely a whisper, her hands trembling slightly.
The minute tremor didn't escape Hanataki. He raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
"A single misstep can lead to a completely different life. It's normal. The world is full of people like that."
"Do you still want to kill me?" Hanataki asked, playing along.
That man posing as Madara Uchiha had said Heshu was also a Konoha mole. It seemed Heshu wasn't planning to drop the act yet. He'd just have to keep up the performance.
"Of course I will kill you!"
"Even if you are my brother…"
Heshu's expression remained stoic, but a tremor laced her words.
"I don't know what happened to you all these years. But I know the path you're on is wrong."
Heshu's words sent a new wave of shock through the crowd. The implications were staggering.
"What?"
"They're… siblings?"
"That masked person is the Hokage-sama's brother?"
"How is that possible?"
"Why not? I remember the Hokage-sama once mentioned a long-lost brother!"
"This is too dramatic!"
"It's a tragedy!"
…A reunion that should have been touching had turned into a fight to the death.
"The wrong path?" Hanataki shook his head. "You're the one who's wrong, sister."
Decades had passed. This was the first time he had spoken that word to his flesh and blood.
"This world has no absolute black or white, no absolute right or wrong."
"You, who so casually define my path as wrong, are the one who is truly mistaken."
Hanataki spoke each word deliberately. He spread his hands, an aura of pity emanating from him.
"This world is terminally ill!"
"We of the Akatsuki are the saviors who will cure it!"
"Collecting Tailed Beasts, killing people—that's your idea of salvation?" Heshu's gaze was pained.
Even finding her long-lost kin didn't grant them time for reunion or reminiscence. Only this.
"The Tailed Beasts are tools for healing the world. Some people deserve to die."
"As I said before, people grow through pain!"
"Only by understanding the agony of war will this world finally know true peace!"
"Only by possessing the Tailed Beasts, power enough to awe the world, will peace be maintained!"
Hanataki's expression turned haughty. "Only our Akatsuki can shoulder the responsibility of bringing peace to this world!"
"Absurd!" Heshu shot back. "Using violence to suppress violence is just an outlet for your own brutal desires! 'Saving the world' and 'maintaining peace' are nothing but lofty excuses to justify your carnage!"
She pointed at the ruins of Konoha below, her voice sharp.
"If your goal was truly peace, why can't you see the peaceful state the ninja world is already in?"
"If it was for peace, which of the great villages—Iwagakure, Konoha, Kumogakure—has not been attacked by you?"
"Your so-called 'peace' has been self-deception from the very start!"
"In your stubborn pursuit, you've brought new war to a world that was already at peace!"
Hanataki remained unmoved. Every word from Heshu sounded like an excuse to his ears.
He stood firm in the Akatsuki's beliefs.
He still believed in the new world yet to come.
"These are all necessary sacrifices for the new world!" Hanataki declared firmly. "If no one is willing to sacrifice, the new world will never arrive!"
"It is precisely because you powerful villages refuse to willingly give up the Tailed Beasts that we are forced to act!"
When someone is utterly convinced of their ideals, even truth laid before them is ignored.
That was Hanataki now.
But Heshu couldn't give up. This was her only family. She believed Hanataki had simply been led astray. With guidance, he could be brought back.
"Capturing Tailed Beasts and slaughtering indiscriminately—that is wrong in itself!"
"Do you understand?"
Heshu looked at him, eyes full of anguish. Every word of Hanataki's rebuttal felt like a sharp blade driven into her heart.
"I don't understand."
"I only know one thing."
"I… am justice."
Hanataki's words fell like stones.
"If anyone stands in my way, they stand in the way of justice!"
"If anyone blocks the path of justice, then don't blame me for being ruthless!"
A multicolored sphere of light coalesced in Hanataki's palm. Compressed energy churned within it. The mere sight was threatening.
"What if I stand in your way today?" Heshu's figure didn't budge an inch.
She stood like an immovable mountain in the sky above Konoha's people, holding up a clear sky for them all.
"Why would you stand against me?"
"I am your family!"
I am the one connected to you by blood!"
Hanataki's brow furrowed, genuine confusion in his eyes. He hurled the questions at Heshu.
"You never looked for me all these years?"
"Now that we've finally found each other, you side with these ants against me?"
"Why?"
Why would you do this?
No matter how indifferent he acted, he couldn't deny the longing in his heart—to stand on the same side as Heshu, to have Heshu choose him, unequivocally.
But no.
Not once.
Heshu always chose strangers.
"They are not ants." Heshu refuted Hanataki's label earnestly.
"They are Konoha's villagers. Konoha's people."
"They are my friends. My family."
"They are my responsibility!"
"And I will never abandon anyone."
"If you insist on destroying Konoha, then I'm sorry."
Heshu leveled her Shinsō, her voice iron-clad. "I will not stand by and watch."
"Hokage-sama!"
"HOKAGE-SAMA!"
The Konoha citizens heard Heshu's heartfelt words. Tears welled in their eyes.
They gazed at the figure in the sky as if looking at the only torch in the darkness.
Their spiritual pillar. The source of their faith.
The one they entrusted their safety to.
"If that's how it is…" Hanataki let out a soft sigh. "Then let's fight."
An overwhelming aura erupted from Hanataki. He cracked his knuckles, tilting his head at Heshu. "Actually, I'm curious too. We both possess great talent. Who has developed theirs to the limit?"
"Who is the strongest?"
"What do you think?"
Hanataki watched Heshu with relaxed anticipation.
Heshu shook her head, her expression sincere and heavy. "I don't want to prove how strong I am. I only hope my strength is enough to protect those I care about."
"Tch." Hanataki scoffed. "Playing the saint."
Heshu: "…"
Damn it.
Getting too into character and saying something genuinely heartfelt. Splitting my focus is dangerous.
Hanataki's aura surged. Heshu moved first.
Her form blurred. The Shinsō pierced through Hanataki's chest.
But a closer look revealed it was only an afterimage.
"Gauss Hyperion Blaster!"
The ultimate technique of Ultraman Gauss's Future Mode. The commotion this single strike created was world-shattering.
A tsunami of chakra flooded out, oppressive enough to suffocate.
Space warped. The air grew searing hot.
This was an attack that couldn't simply be absorbed.
Everyone stared, speechless. Under the immense pressure, their eardrums ruptured. Trickles of blood seeped from ears, noses, and mouths.
Trapped under the weight, they couldn't even control their own bodies.
That was the sheer power of Hanataki's strike.
Heshu faced a dilemma.
She could dodge. But behind her were Konoha's shinobi.
She could block it with a jutsu. But the Konoha ninja were already bleeding from the pressure alone. A direct clash would surely shatter internal organs.
Heshu looked back at her people.
Crimson veins of blood marred their faces.
Yet the look in their eyes as they gazed upwards was still full of hope and faith.
Because Heshu was there. She was their faith.
Heshu gritted her teeth.
A thick layer of ice encased all of Konoha.
Heshu didn't block. She took the Gauss Hyperion Blaster head-on with Infinity.
BOOOOOOM!
The thick clouds in the sky were instantly cleared.
On the ground, all vegetation was uprooted.
The earth was left scarred and desolate.
A gigantic fissure snaked from Heshu's feet all the way to Konoha's icy dome.
The residual energy in the wind instantly shattered the thick ice.
But the people of Konoha, protected within, remained unharmed.
Cough!
High in the air.
Hanataki choked, a mouthful of blood spraying out. He wiped his face with a trembling hand, looking weakly at Heshu. "Why…?"
Why did you have to kill me?
"I'm sorry."
With a shaking hand, Heshu closed Hanataki's reddening eyes.
"Victory!"
"WE WON!"
A massive cheer erupted.
Konoha's people wept with joy and relief.
Konan, watching from below, shuddered as if her soul had been ripped out.
But the blows kept coming.
The next second, she felt it—the Six Paths of Pain had also lost all mobility.
The deep purple Rinnegan eyes dulled, lifeless.
Nagato too…
"Ugh!" Konan covered her mouth. Blood seeped between her fingers.
She took one last look at Hanataki's form in the sky. Her body dissolved into countless paper fragments, vanishing.
Heshu, holding Hanataki's body, plummeted to the ground. She stumbled.
"Hokage-sama!"
A crowd surged forward, but stopped short before her.
"Hokage… sama…"
Their eyes reddened completely.
On Heshu's pristine white Hokage robe, a vibrant, blooming stain of crimson flowered over her chest.
Nara Sōsai shoved his way through the crowd like a madman. When he saw Heshu, he froze completely.
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