Chapter 283: One Fist Stills Wind and Rain, No Gods in the Four Seas
"I don't like the rain."
The Hokage looked up at the dark, overcast sky, and, for no clear reason, let the strange remark slip out.
"It's like the snow back in the Land of Frost. Gray. Cold."
The Deva Path looked up at the figure ahead of him.
Lost.
Completely, utterly lost.
Even Super Shinra Tensei hadn't landed a single scratch on her.
Which meant Chibaku Tensei probably wouldn't do much better. At best, it might hold her in place briefly. Nothing more.
And having just used Super Shinra Tensei, his chakra had run completely dry.
Even if he wanted to attempt Chibaku Tensei now, he had nothing left to power it with.
So this is it, then.
Even a god can lose?
At that moment, the Hokage seemed to have written him off entirely. Her body lifted off the water and rose, climbing toward the sky.
What is she—
The Deva Path stared, uncomprehending.
His chakra was gone, for the moment. By any reasonable logic, this should have been the perfect opportunity to finish him off.
Instead, she was flying up into the sky.
The gold flame wrapped around her body drew back inward, and she climbed straight up through the gloom over the dark ocean, higher and higher.
Recalling the words she'd just spoken, the Deva Path's eyes narrowed slightly.
Could it be...
He didn't even notice his own hand had begun trembling faintly.
Sage markings glowed faintly gold across her face; her green eyes turned a pure, unmixed gold.
Endless chakra seemed to gather in her hands.
By now, to Pain's eyes, the Hokage had shrunk to a single black point in the sky.
Climbing straight up, further and further.
Is she trying to—
Is she trying to—
Disperse the storm itself!
That's... possible?
Toad Rain — Free Motion required existing weather conditions to work with. Over Amegakure, or here on the open sea, with water vapor this abundant, the technique functioned easily.
But somewhere with a climate like the Land of Fire's, like Konoha's — forcing that same technique to work would be flatly impossible.
It was a jutsu that drew on the power of nature itself.
For one person, alone, to disperse an entire storm through sheer will — that should have been out of the question entirely.
The Deva Path stared at the black point that had by now vanished completely from his sight, his body trembling, some inexplicable feeling rising alongside the shock.
A mere mortal...
Can a mortal actually do something like this?
But in the next moment, his confusion answered itself.
A wave of golden pressure erupted outward, radiating from the now nearly-invisible figure at its center, spreading in every direction.
A violent surge of wind exploded across the sky.
By the time that current of air reached the Deva Path, it had gentled into nothing more than a light breeze against his face.
Carried on that breeze, he thought he heard, faintly, the roar of a tiger.
Clouds follow the dragon. Wind follows the tiger.
That wind scattered the heavy, oppressive clouds above.
The sky churned, broke apart, dispersed, and finally—
The rain stopped.
A single ray of sunlight pierced through the thick cloud cover, falling across the ocean's surface, falling across the Deva Path himself.
That warm shaft of light spread outward, radiating from him in every direction...
And as if summoned by that same light, the raging, storm-tossed sea began, slowly, to settle into calm.
The dark clouds overhead continued to scatter, to thin, to vanish.
More and more sunlight fell across the now-still water.
A single figure stood, silent, suspended in the sky.
Backlit by the sun, her calm golden eyes looked down at the Deva Path below.
Behind her, the sun blazed, warm enough that the Deva Path found himself almost unable to look directly at it.
Her long pink hair drifted gently in the high wind, and around her, the last of the dark clouds continued to dissolve away.
Warm sunlight spilled out across the entire surface of the sea.
One fist stills wind and rain. Not a single god remains in all the seas.
The Deva Path stared up at that figure in the sky, unmoving, for a long, long moment.
Then, quietly—
"Is this... a god?"
...
The Pain body built from Yahiko's corpse left. Alone.
The Hokage never finished off this particular vessel of Pain.
She simply let him go.
There was no point in it, after all.
...
Land of Fire — Turtle Island
Standing at the edge of the Truth-Seeking Waterfall, watching it standing there, untouched and unharmed, Sakura let out a breath of relief.
Thinking of the Pain who'd just left, she couldn't help the faint smile that curled at the corner of her mouth.
I think that whetstone did its job well enough, don't you?
She wandered over to a nearby lounging chair, bathed in the sunlight filtering through the trees, and settled into it, closing her eyes.
Inside her mind, the vast trove of Yin-Yang Release knowledge had already begun turning over, unraveling itself.
Dense, layered text — the accumulated wisdom of countless generations before her, woven together — flowed quietly through her consciousness.
Time slipped by, minute by minute, and her breathing gradually evened out into sleep.
When Sasuke and Karin — summoned back from Konoha and finally arriving on Turtle Island — found her, this was exactly the scene that greeted them.
Sunlight fell in dappled patches through the trees, over the young woman resting there, and in that moment, she seemed to be—
Glowing, faintly, from within.
—
Konoha — Hokage Building
Standing in as acting Hokage, Tobirama Senju handled the small stack of pending administrative matters with brisk efficiency.
Just as he was about to head over to inspect the Research Bureau's progress on chakra armor and the scientific ninja tools program, a staff member knocked at the Hokage's office door.
"Come in."
A petite woman appeared in Tobirama's field of view.
Tobirama recognized her — Anzu, gentle in temperament, and by all appearances something of an admirer of the Fifth.
"Lord Tobirama."
Anzu bowed slightly toward him, then spoke quickly:
"Several nobles have entered Konoha."
"They're requesting an audience with the Daimyō."
Tobirama considered this briefly.
Nobles arriving at a time like this — he couldn't help but connect it immediately to what Sakura had mentioned before leaving.
Has Akatsuki already made their move?
"Which noble house?"
Tobirama asked.
"Um... they're nobility from the Land of Water. They identify themselves as the Kasumiōji family."
"The one leading the group is a twelve-year-old noble girl named Ryūzawa Kasumiōji."
"Also present is Himura, the one who's visited Konoha regularly."
Anzu answered.
That made Tobirama's eyes narrow, faintly.
A sharp, subtle gleam flickered behind those crimson eyes of his.
Nobility from the Land of Water...
Tobirama already understood.
Akatsuki's made their move.
There was no other reasonable explanation for a visit like this, at this particular moment.
"Show them to the receiving hall."
"Yes, my lord."
Anzu withdrew.
Before long, two figures — one tall, one considerably shorter — appeared in the receiving hall of the Hokage Building.
The tall one was, of course, Himura, in his twenties. The shorter one was the young noble girl who'd arrived so suddenly.
There, Tobirama got his first look at the young Land of Water noblewoman named Ryūzawa Kasumiōji.
She wore sky-blue brocade robes emblazoned with a blue wave-pattern family crest.
The Kasumiōji family name, of course, belonged to none other than the Land of Water's own ruling Daimyō line.
Delicate, elegant features, and long dark hair, carefully arranged.
"Ryūzawa Kasumiōji, greeting the Second Hokage."
The girl bowed slightly to Tobirama, her voice soft and sweet.
Even at twelve, it was already clear she'd grow into a remarkably beautiful woman.
"Lady Ryūzawa. You've traveled a great distance to reach Konoha. May I ask what brings you here?"
Tobirama had tea brought in, then spoke, unhurried.
That she knew who he was came as no surprise — word of his resurrection had already spread across the entire shinobi world by now. And given she was a relative of the Daimyō, there'd been little effort made to conceal his existence in the first place.
"I was deeply saddened to hear of my uncle Yōta's passing."
"I regret that I've had no opportunity until now to come and pay my respects. Having finally found the time to make the journey, I naturally wished to see him off, however belatedly."
"And of course, I also hoped to meet the current Daimyō — Lord Musashi."
Ryūzawa Kasumiōji answered Tobirama unhurried, her voice soft, without a single point anyone could reasonably object to.
The very picture of a well-bred noble young lady.
"After all, in a certain sense, Lord Musashi is my future husband."
Ryūzawa looked at the man before her — the Second Hokage, whose name had carried weight across the shinobi world for decades already — and spoke without a trace of deference or unease.
She was the Land of Fire's Daimyō's betrothed. There was no reason for her to treat the Hokage with the same anxious reverence Himura did.
"That's naturally no trouble at all."
"Though given the previous Daimyō's assassination, the current Daimyō is now under the protection of some hundred shinobi. So..."
Before Tobirama could finish, Ryūzawa parted her lips gently and spoke first.
"That's entirely understandable. These are different times, after all."
"Guarding against anyone who might harbor ill intent toward the Daimyō — of course I understand that."
Her voice remained soft and even.
"Very well. In that case, Lord Musashi is currently residing at the newly constructed Daimyō's residence. Would you like an escort there?"
Tobirama's expression stayed level.
"There's no need to trouble Lord Hokage for that. Himura and I can manage the trip ourselves."
"Though I would appreciate it if Lord Hokage could see to my attendants in the meantime."
Her tone remained calm and even, but there was already something in it — a young woman already treating herself, quietly, as the future mistress of the Land of Fire. Even something as small as looking after her attendants, she assigned to the Hokage himself, without hesitation.
"Of course."
Tobirama had no reason to take offense at something so trivial.
But just as Ryūzawa was leaving, she suddenly turned back to look at the Second Hokage and asked:
"I understand the current Hokage of Konoha is the Fifth — a woman named Sakura Haruno."
"Why is it I haven't seen her today?"
Not a flicker crossed Tobirama's eyes as he answered, calm:
"The Fifth is currently occupied with important matters elsewhere, and is not in Konoha at present."
Ryūzawa: "May I ask when Lady Fifth is expected to return to Konoha?"
Tobirama: "It sounds as though Lady Ryūzawa is quite eager to meet the Fifth."
At that, a flicker of something like admiration crossed Ryūzawa's dark, bright eyes, and her words came a little faster than before.
"Naturally. I've heard she's the first Hokage in history to cut down three Kage in a single battle."
"And she's a woman, just as I am. Of course I'd like to meet her."
Tobirama considered this for a moment before answering.
"If Lady Ryūzawa truly wishes to meet the Fifth, I'm afraid you may need to wait a while."
"How long is that?" Ryūzawa asked, a note of curiosity in her voice.
"Roughly five days, I'd expect."
"Very well. I'll wait five days for Lord Hokage, then."
...
Watching the young noblewoman disappear around the corner, a sharp, dangerous glint flickered through Tobirama's eyes.
This one didn't come with good intentions.
Naming the Fifth Hokage specifically, at this exact moment — the intent behind it couldn't have been more transparent.
Ryūzawa Kasumiōji had some ideas of her own, certainly, but she was young. In front of Tobirama, there was nothing about her that stayed hidden for long.
Akatsuki's plan had already worked.
All that remained now was time — time for it to ferment, and build, into a storm aimed squarely at Konoha, and squarely at the Fifth Hokage.
With that settled in his mind, Tobirama summoned a ninja hawk and wrote out a brief report on parchment. The hawk took off, flying hard toward the distance.
Whatever Sakura decided to do about this noble girl was, ultimately, her business.
What Tobirama needed to focus on right now was keeping Konoha stable in her absence, and positioning forces at key points across the Land of Fire, ready for the moment war actually arrived.
"Someone, come."
With that thought settled, his expression shifted slightly, and he called out.
Yūgao Uzuki appeared beside him at once.
"Pass word to the shinobi guarding the Daimyō: seal off every entrance to the residence."
"Say the Daimyō is unwell and unable to receive guests."
"Turn away all visitors."
"Everything else waits until the Fifth returns."
At Tobirama's words, Yūgao nodded and vanished from where she stood.
With that handled, Tobirama strode off toward the Hokage's office.
Now that the nobility had already grown suspicious about the circumstances of the previous Daimyō's death, the priority was simple: stall.
Buy time, for Konoha's sake — and for Naruto's.
Once Naruto completed Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Konoha would have one more powerhouse in its ranks. And with that in hand, facing pressure from every direction would become considerably more manageable.
Still, one thing continued to nag at Tobirama.
What exactly did Sakura mean, that time, about needing to help a seed grow?
—
Land of Rain — Amegakure
A full day had passed since the confrontation between Pain and the Hokage.
After the battle ended, Nagato had returned to Amegakure without incident, entirely unharmed.
But his condition left Konan deeply worried.
He'd always been quiet by nature, but this had gone on for a full day now.
Nagato hadn't spoken a single word. He hadn't taken so much as a sip of water.
There was nothing Konan could do about it.
Even she hadn't imagined the world could hold power like that.
A single fist, scattering a storm outright. One person, alone, reshaping heaven and earth with sheer will.
Even Pain — even Nagato — couldn't do that.
"Nagato."
"Are you all right?"
Konan stood outside his door, a tray of food balanced in her hands, calling out, worried.
But from inside, aside from the steady sound of his breathing — confirmation, at least, that he was alive — nothing else came through the door.
If it had simply been a loss, the blow to Nagato might not have cut this deep.
But being crushed so completely, so effortlessly—
And then, watching that woman scatter the clouds themselves, stilling the storm, bringing the sun back to the world with her own hands—
Next to that, Pain looked less like a god and more like... the genuine article had just walked past him.
Everything Nagato had believed in, everything he'd built himself around, had shattered against that single beam of sunlight tearing through the clouds.
He carried the Rinnegan — the eyes that belonged, by rights, only to the Sage of the Six Paths himself. He was supposed to be the true god here.
And yet Nagato had spent an entire day turning over one single question in his mind.
The Sage of the Six Paths...
Was he actually a god?
(End of chapter.)
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