Off. All of it was off.
Cold sweat beaded Yahiko's brow. The future screamed alarms in his skull.
Among the three, he'd always had the widest view—the feel for currents others missed. That sense had led Akatsuki to him as its first leader.
Now, everything had slipped the leash.
"Yahiko, stop fantasizing! Look at Hanzo—he's gone mad!" Nagato dropped low, signs flashing. "Konan—on me!"
Quiet as he seemed, he was also the quickest to burn hot when his two were threatened. Threaten them, and he'd erase the danger, whatever it cost.
Konan, usually the cool head, was past hearing.
Boom!
Nagato and Hanzo collided. Kunai and scythe clanged, sparks sewing bright arcs in the rain-gray air.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
The clash blew the battleground wide.
One a master without peer in Water Release.
The other—a wielder of the Six Natures through the Rinnegan.
Jutsu rolled off Nagato like breath—no stumble, no pause, as if he'd been born for it.
Hanzo, by contrast, had bled strength twice already—first against Sogetsu, now here. Against the Rinnegan, fatigue showed in every step.
"Poison Mist!"
A purple cloud poured from his mouth and surged outward on the wind.
"Konan—back!" Nagato vaulted away and snapped a seal. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A gale screamed to meet the cloud, blasting it apart before it could swallow them.
Hanzo burst from the flank. "We start with you."
The chain shot like a viper.
Konan, midair, couldn't dodge; the links wrapped and yanked—slamming her to the ground hard enough to crack bone.
"Got you!"
Hanzo leapt, scythe dropping like pale moonlight.
"Konan!" Yahiko's eyes went red. He threw himself in, kunai braced.
Clang!
The full weight of Hanzo's strike drove him to one knee. The blade punched through his shoulder; hot blood sheeted down his arm.
"N–Nagato—!" he choked, teeth pink with it.
"Get off her!"
Nagato's roar tore the air. A wind blade shrieked in—
—and took Hanzo's arm.
Blood sprayed. Hanzo's face twisted with pain, but the cruelty in his eyes never wavered. "An arm for a life? Fine. Pay it."
He'd laid this ground months ago.
"Fire Release: Exploding Flame Array!"
The earth around Yahiko and Konan bloomed with inked seals. At Hanzo's command, the tags writhed like sharks scenting blood, swarming to coil their prey.
A heartbeat from annihilation.
Yahiko didn't think. He chose—and let the scythe fall.
He seized Konan and hurled her at the onrushing Nagato with everything left.
Nagato caught her—just in time to see the rest.
Hanzo kicked Yahiko away and flashed a single seal.
"No—!"
"Yahiko!"
"Detonate."
WRRRAAAM—!
A sun of fire ate the world. Hundreds of tags shouted as one. Stone shattered; shards became bullets in the shockwave.
"Yahiko!" Nagato plunged through fire and smoke—
—and froze.
The body in the crater was blackened beyond recognition. Both legs were simply gone. The swaggering grin that had carried a dozen broken kids through war was nowhere; only faint breath clung to a ruin of a man.
Konan stood struck by lightning, eyes turned to empty glass.
"Cough… hah… pfft—"
The ragged sound clawed out of Yahiko's throat. It stabbed straight through Nagato's chest.
"Nagato…" Yahiko's head slumped onto his friend's shoulder. A slick, burned hand lifted to grope for the red-haired boy's cheek. "Take… care of Konan…"
"Yahiko—Yahiko? YAHIKO!" Nagato shook, white-lipped, cradling him like a child. "Don't—please—don't—!"
The body cooled in his arms.
"…take care of Konan," came the threadbare whisper. "Our dream… it's… yours now…"
His fingers slipped from Nagato's face and fell into ash.
"NO!"
The scream ripped the sky. Pain swallowed thought. It was like a knife had scooped a chunk from his heart and left a hole that wouldn't stop bleeding.
"Hanzo!" Nagato's beast-snarl tore itself raw. Blood traced from the corners of his Rinnegan. "I'll kill you."
He bit his thumb and slammed both hands down. "Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!"
BOOM.
The earth shook. A monstrous, man-shaped husk reared from the torn ground, all jagged ribs and howling emptiness.
Even Hanzo—who'd seen too much—felt his gut turn to ice. "What… is that?"
The statue braced itself with clawed hands and screamed, a noise that felt like it hooked the soul and pulled.
Black receivers snaked from its belly and speared Nagato's spine. He shrieked—but pain was a toy beside the howling in his chest.
"Hanzo!"
He forced the seals through with shaking hands.
The statue's jaw cracked wide—
—and vomited dragons.
Dozens of roaring, violet chakra wyrms dived.
Hanzo's pupils shrank. Every instinct howled run—
—and then a hammer slammed the back of his mind. He stalled for a single heartbeat, uncomprehending.
It was enough.
KRAAAASH—!
The dragons folded over him.
Life bled away. Chakra bled away. His already aged flesh shriveled like bark; in the span of breaths, Hanzo became a dried husk in human shape.
The corpse dropped out of the air and struck the mire with a flat thud.
The rain came down in sheets, hushing the ruin with a grief too heavy for words.
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