Chapter 70: God and Hero (Patreon)

The sky was a murky gray, like a tattered cloth soaked in ink. Relentless rain shrouded the landscape, and the muddy road snaked away into a blurred curtain of water.

Against this monotonous backdrop of gray and black, four figures moved in silence across the sodden earth.

Leading the way was Pain, controlled by Nagato. His orange hair was plastered to his skull by the rain, clinging to a face that was young yet utterly lifeless.

Trailing behind the Deva Path of Pain were the equally expressionless Human Path and Asura Path, followed by Konan, her blue-violet locks darkened and weighed down by the downpour.

As the silhouette of Amegakure grew clearer in the distance, a strange unease tightened in Konan's chest.

"Nag… Pain."

The name still felt foreign on her tongue. She hesitated, catching herself before continuing. "With only the Three Paths we have now… are you sure facing Hanzō will be alright?"

Pain did not answer immediately, nor did he turn to look at her. His steps remained measured, deliberate, as if he were surveying the very land whose order he was about to redefine.

The drumming of rain against the world was the only symphony.

"Konan." Pain's voice, low and devoid of inflection, cut cleanly through the rain to reach her. "I once respected him, too."

"But he is no longer the Hanzō of the past."

He has likely aged to the point where he can't even summon that giant salamander anymore.

Pain's gaze pierced the dense curtain of rain, fixing on the distant tower that stood like a tombstone in the misty gloom. His voice seemed colder than the surrounding air.

"Now he conspires with Konoha's Danzō Shimura, hiding in his lofty tower, clinging to life. He is nothing but a corpse awaiting burial."

"Rain cannot cleanse the world of its sins, nor wash away past betrayals."

His tone held no fluctuation, stating a simple truth. "Only a God can purge the filth from this shinobi world and bring about peace."

Konan's eyes reflected that back—familiar, yet utterly alien. She heard no hesitation, no mercy in his words, only the absolute, icy will of a judgment being passed.

The raindrops striking her face were bitingly cold, stirring a turmoil of emotions within her. A sharp, indescribable pain flashed and was gone, settling into a stillness as dead as the world around them. The lightness of her "Paper Butterflies" was tucked away, her gaze clearing and hardening once more.

"Mm."

Her response was almost lost in the rain, soft and brief. It held the finality of letting go of all that came before, and the resolve for the painful, remade future that was to come—like an apostle following her deity into the unknown.

As they approached the village gate, the figures of two Amegakure shinobi standing guard came into view.

"Halt!" Spotting the blurred shapes in the rain-mist, the guards tensed, their voices sharp with suspicion. "Identify yourselves!"

Pain had no intention of explaining himself to insects. He made no move to conceal their approach. He simply raised his arm toward the two men.

But then.

A sudden, overwhelming presence crashed over Pain like a tidal wave, surging toward him from the distance. He looked up.

There, atop the gaunt, skeletal tower in the distance, a figure had appeared.

"Pain!" Konan sensed it too, her expression shifting.

Rumble...

A tremor began beneath their feet, the ground groaning as if something massive writhed below, straining to shatter its earthly prison.

"Summoning Technique!"

A roar tore through the sky, brimming with arrogant confidence.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

An immense force erupted upward. The flat ground shattered under unbelievable pressure, heaving into a series of arched, stepped fault lines.

Pain's eyes flickered. Instinctively, propelled by repulsive force, he shot into the air.

In the same instant, an ear-splitting explosion ripped across the heavens.

"ROARRR—!!!"

A beast's liberated roar shook the air. Dirt and rubble geysered skyward, a cloud of dust instantly billowing outward.

From within that swirling haze, a colossal shadow surged—like a carp leaping from the depths—lunging straight for Pain and Konan.

Konan reacted only a heartbeat slower than Pain. Her Dance of the Shikigami transformed paper into wings, carrying her aloft. But her widening pupils reflected the abyssal maw rising beneath her, the stench of decay already assaulting her senses.

"Almighty Push!"

The Deva Path raised its arm, aimed downward. Invisible, overwhelming repulsive force manifested within the rain curtain, crashing down upon the beast's snapping jaws.

BOOM!

The massive shadow in the dust cloud was thrown uncontrollably earthward, crashing to the ground and sending up another plume of debris and mist.

The three Paths and Konan reappeared further away. A new gravity settled in Konan's eyes as she stared at the blurred, gigantic form within the settling dust.

"ROAR!"

Another deafening bellow. Ripples of sound pulsed through the rain, finally scattering the lingering haze of dust.

A creature with a stout, mud-purple body was revealed. Its forelimbs ended in four toes, its hind limbs in five. A thick, laterally flattened tail tapped the ground lightly, yet each impact sent fresh tremors through the earth.

Its skin bore no scales or fur, only a mucous membrane that secreted a constant, slick fluid. Drops fell, sizzling as they hit the ground and releasing tendrils of white smoke—clearly a potent toxin.

"A giant salamander… but this size…" Konan whispered, recognition and dread dawning in her eyes as she took in the beast's full, terrifying form.

The giant salamander was a unique amphibian of the Land of Rain and one of the largest of its kind in existence. Most specimens measured between fifty centimeters and two meters. Those reaching two or three meters were already formidable enough to serve as ninja beasts—Hanzō's own subordinate, Shinda, commanded one four meters long.

But the creature before them now was monstrous. Merely crouched, it stood over ten meters tall, its body length stretching to a terrifying degree. If it reared up on its hind legs, it would resemble a collapsing mountain peak, instilling sheer terror and helplessness in any who beheld it.

In the entire shinobi world, there was only one salamander of such colossal size, and only one man capable of summoning it.

"Ibuse, the Giant Salamander," Pain's voice was calm as he hovered in mid-air, his gaze shifting to the figure standing atop the beast's head. "And..."

"Lord Hanzō!"

The two Amegakure guards at the gate cried out in unison, their faces a mix of disbelief and awe.

'Lord Hanzō... just yesterday he seemed weighed down by age. How is he suddenly so... young?'

The confusion vanished in an instant, replaced by elation and fervor.

'It was Lord Hanzō! The Lord Hanzō of old! This presence! This aura! There was no mistake!'

"So, you are the masters of those repulsive white creatures," Hanzō said, arms crossed over his chest as he stood atop Ibuse. His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the Deva Path and Konan among the four figures. "Wait. You two... you seem familiar."

He studied the Deva Path's face—a visage devoid of expression or warmth, like a deity carved from cold stone, radiating only a near-void of lifeless stillness.

Yet, that icy countenance began to overlap in Hanzō's memory with another face, one filled with fervent hope and passion.

"You are..." Hanzō's eyes sharpened, his voice dropping low. "...Yahiko, of the Akatsuki?"

Impossible. Yahiko is dead.

And those eyes...