The massive pillar of flame collapsed slowly, and for a heartbeat the entire world went white.
A blinding light burst outward, followed by flames that rippled in every direction. The roar shook the air itself. Those waiting outside the ruined factory felt their nerves twist.
A sudden pulse—thick and heavy like something physical—swept across the air. The shockwave rolled over them. The radiant glow washed above their heads, and then a storm-force wind slammed into the group.
Even Kisame staggered, nearly losing his footing under the pressure.
Silence followed. All eyes stared forward.
The abandoned factory had been reduced to nothing—flattened, burned, melted into an expanse of bubbling lava.
"L-Lord Shigure… are you… are you okay!?"
Haku blurted out, stunned. Beside him, Ringo tensed, clearly wanting to rush forward.
But the sudden expansion of a ROOM-like space stopped her. Ao—eyes sharp—grabbed Ringo's arm.
"Don't rush. Look! Isn't that Lord Shigure's space-type ninjutsu? If he can still cast it, he's definitely alive!"
His words made sense, but Ringo's worry didn't fade.
Then Kisame's expression changed.
"Something's wrong."
Everyone turned to him. Kisame wasn't staring at the Fourth Raikage, nor at the Kumogakure shinobi nearby.
He was looking past them.
The area where the members of the organization had been standing…
was now completely empty.
No chakra.
No presence.
As if they had been erased.
"Where did the organization's people go?" Kisame muttered.
Ay frowned. "Did they… flee?"
"No." Kisame shook his head grimly. "That's impossible."
If they wanted to run, why leave Nagato to fight Shigure alone?
Why use Impure World Reincarnation to summon the First Hokage as a delay tactic?
This wasn't escape.
It was a stall.
But for what?
The strange feeling only grew.
The blast site was a molten crater. The ground glowed red, the heat so intense it warped the air. The soil itself had melted into magma.
Shigure stepped across the flames, approaching steadily.
Nagato's chakra was gone.
Completely gone.
And the traces of the other members—those who should have been nearby—were also missing. Not even the faintest signature remained.
What… happened?
Then the sky darkened.
Shigure's head snapped up.
His pupils shrank.
[Great Sage: Warning. Warning. The host is being enveloped by an extremely powerful sealing technique. Evacuate immediately.]
Before Shigure could react, the darkness lifted.
But in its place—a massive barrier rose into existence, visible even to the naked eye.
Shigure's face hardened.
So that was it.
Nagato hadn't been fighting him directly.
He had been buying time.
All of this was to activate this massive sealing jutsu.
A sealing technique powerful enough that even the Great Sage was struggling—
[Great Sage: Beginning analytical calculus.]
[…]
[…]
[…]
Nothing.
Not even an estimated timeframe.
Shigure's heart sank slightly. The more the Great Sage hesitated, the more terrifying this barrier must be.
Then—
[Great Sage: Estimated time required—thirty minutes.]
Thirty minutes.
For a single barrier.
Too long. Far too long.
He exhaled slowly. And then—
Footsteps.
Figures began stepping out through the smoke and flame, silhouettes emerging one by one.
A voice came from the front:
"Water Release — Great Waterfall Technique!"
BOOOOM!!
A torrent of water swept across the molten ground, crashing against the flames and filling the air with violent hissing steam.
A thick white mist surged outward, flooding the entire barrier in an instant.
Visibility vanished. Even Shigure's heightened senses struggled to pierce through the fog.
He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the chakra signatures ahead.
The first silhouette to step out was unmistakable—
Senju Hashirama.
Still standing there, still acting as the primary obstacle.
Of course he would be.
His purpose here was obvious:
to prevent Shigure from breaking the barrier too easily.
But more figures began emerging behind him—one by one.
"Kakuzu."
"Kimimaro."
"…Hanzo of the Salamander."
All powerful shinobi, all revived through Impure World Reincarnation, now positioned between him and freedom.
Then Shigure's gaze stopped on the last figure.
"This is…?"
A man he did not recognize.
No memories surfaced, no battles, no stories—not even a faint resemblance to any recorded shinobi.
The face was unfamiliar, softened by age, but the robes—
Shigure's eyes sharpened instantly.
That crest.
That pattern.
The Uzumaki Clan.
A sealing master from the Uzumaki…
Of course.
A sealing technique of this scale—one that even the Great Sage required time to decode—there was no other clan capable of constructing something like this.
Before Shigure could speak, Hashirama turned toward the newcomer, his expression lifting in surprise.
"I didn't expect you of all people to be dragged out as well!"
But the old Uzumaki man didn't smile. His expression was stern, troubled.
"What is happening? Hokage-sama… I should be dead. Yet I stand here again—and these shinobi…"
He looked around at Kimimaro, Kakuzu, and Hanzo.
"These faces are not from my era at all."
"How long… how long has it been since I died?"
Hashirama exhaled softly. "I'm not sure of the exact number of years. But I can tell you this—"
He pointed at Shigure.
"The young man in front of us is the Sixth Mizukage of Kirigakure."
"Sixth…?"
The Uzumaki elder froze.
Even assuming short reigns, for the title to reach the sixth generation meant—
"…over a century," he whispered.
"Perhaps several."
The weight of time seemed to settle onto his shoulders.
"To think I would walk again after so long…"
Hashirama shook his head. "Not resurrection. This is a forbidden technique—Impure World Reincarnation. Someone used it to summon your soul back as a weapon."
"A technique like that truly exists…?" the old man muttered in disbelief.
Shigure finally stepped forward, eyes locked onto the elder.
"Who is he?"
Hashirama answered without hesitation.
"This man is the patriarch of the Uzumaki Clan—Uzumaki Ashina."
Shigure's pupils tightened.
Uzumaki Ashina.
The legendary ancestor once known as the Origin of Sealing Techniques—the man whose knowledge shaped every sealing method used in the shinobi world.
To think that someone had the audacity—and the skill—to revive him…
Shigure finally understood.
No wonder the barrier was so impossibly strong.
No wonder the Great Sage estimated half an hour.
This was not just a sealing technique.
This was the work of the Sealing Ancestor himself.