Itachi had only partially prepared for the confrontation between him and his clan. But when he arrived on the battlefield, the psychological impact struck him harder than expected.
He had slaughtered his bloodline to prevent a war, bearing the weight of a traitor to protect the Leaf. To see them breathing, standing in opposition to him, unraveled his composure.
He was even less prepared for their strength. The Bird Country enhancements had pushed both Fugaku and Shisui past their original limits. Shisui was even faster than before, and Fugaku's strength had clearly multiplied.
Because of all that, the fire and water duo of the Akatsuki lost ground.
The two were moments away from a fatal break until one of Arthur's clones materialized between the combatants and extracted the two Uchihas from the field.
Arthur's forces were bleeding, and they were needed elsewhere.
'Pretty crazy Itachi actually fought against Shisui and his pops like that,' Jasper thought to himself.
He was secretly jealous because of how world-breaking a confrontation like that was. Two generations of Uchiha monsters clashing in an open valley while he was stuck on the moon.
The war itself was not just fought with fire and steel in the valleys.
Behind the front lines, a shadow war unfolded. The Bird Country borders were heavily monitored, but one spy managed to slip through the cracks: Kabuto.
Rin, patrolling the perimeter under her white coat, spotted the snake's apprentice. She, knowing his face and capabilities, managed to intercept him.
Yet no fight occurred because what she didn't know was that Orochimaru was already dead by now.
Jasper's victory in their hideout had not yet reached the public channels. That meant Kabuto was now fully rogue—without a Sannin and without a village.
Why he came here was to warn someone from Arthur's forces that Pain was mobilizing the entire Akatsuki for an all-out assault on the Bird Country.
She was shocked to hear this from him, but his response was simply that he wanted the Akatsuki to lose. The exact reasons remained locked in his head.
Rin took the warning straight to Arthur's clones.
The clones therefore understood that they could not afford to wait for Pain to mass his forces at their gates. They needed a preemptive strike to cripple the Akatsuki command structure, so they sent Lars to attack first.
Arthur had recruited the Tekken fighter weeks before the war began. Lars himself had willingly joined the organization after witnessing the sheer scale of Arthur's power: the same thing he envisioned about how Arthur was reshaping the world order.
Armed with the layout of the Rain Village, Lars infiltrated the weeping city. But when he reached the heart, he was met by Pain.
Pain did not hold back as he deployed all six Paths simultaneously.
The fight came to an end with Lars as the loser. What was troubling, however, was that Pain had also used the Human Path to rip Lars's soul out and absorb every memory, every secret, and every tactical plan stored in the fighter's mind.
Just about every trap location and patrol route of the Bird Country was now known to the Akatsuki. The whole ordeal put Arthur's clones in a state of unrest for two reasons: the enemy possessed their playbook, and Lars—arguably the top five strongest fighters in Arthur's army—was dead.
So the clones immediately halted their offensive maneuvers, pulled all the troops back, restructured the barrier codes, and shifted the entire nation onto the defensive.
Pain capitalized on the intelligence as he gathered his army for the all-out assault.
It was a mobilization unlike anything the shinobi world had ever seen: Pain brought every single member of his group, backed by thousands of Rain Village foot soldiers, all marching toward the Bird Country.
Arthur's clones mirrored the escalation thanks to Kabuto's intel. The only asset they held back was Sasuke, who was deemed far too valuable to risk in the war. How they managed to keep him out was by simply not letting the news of things reach his ears.
The clones themselves remained in the throne room as Ashina and Fugaku took the field, leading the army into the fray.
"I'm sure you know what happened next," Sasori finished.
Jasper crossed his arms as rain continued to pour over his cloak. Of course he knew; he had spent days trapped in the lunar crust.
The breathing in there was harsh, hunger tore at his stomach, and he was forced to shave his head to extract poison from a scorpion's sting.
Then his secret triggered: the Kaguya's Legacy trait. It finally activated as his chakra reserves overflowed, restoring his body completely.
Now fully healed, he snuck into Toneri's castle and found the central monitor room. The screens there displayed a live feed of the earth below: the tens of thousands of shinobi clashing in the Bird Country.
Jasper was shocked because the Akatsuki were involved. It was one thing to discover Arthur was alive, but it was another to also see that another shinobi war was happening in this current timeline.
Once he found the castle's portal, he wasted no time entering it. Yet what he did not know was that Toneri was watching him from the shadows.
The blind Ōtsutsuki had allowed Jasper to leave on account of viewing Jasper as a useful pawn. The whole reason for letting him go was so that Jasper could interfere in Arthur's war by drawing Arthur out. Eventually, Toneri would recall Jasper when the time was right to take his eyes.
Now on earth, Jasper rage flew into the war.
But the moment he arrived, Jada appeared like a flash. She had recently returned to the Leaf after her group successfully integrated both Jugo and Karin into the village—of which everyone was completely blind to the conflict unfolding here in the Bird Country.
Only now was she finally able to sense his Flying raijin mark she had secretly placed on him.
Jasper realized instantly what she had done, causing his resentment over his situation to boil over. He remembered the humiliation of being attacked by Toneri, the mortification of being trapped on the moon, and the fact Arthur had played the whole world.
He hated them. He hated the Akatsuki. He hated Arthur.
So he tapped into the absolute peak of Kaguya's power, gathered the ambient chakra of the battlefield, and compressed it all into the terrifying mass above everyone's head: the Final Truthseeker Orb.
"You were planning to kill us," Sasori recounted.
"So what?" Jasper snapped. "I got angry."
"What I wanna know is why…"
Jasper paused as he looked away from his partner. He could not share the truth. He could not tell Sasori about Toneri, the moon, or the Ōtsutsuki clan. Keeping the celestial threat a secret was the main oath he still held with the others from the Leaf.
If the Akatsuki fully knew the Ōtsutsuki were watching from the sky, their goals would shift entirely.
"I had some dealings with my clan," Jasper lied. He kept his voice steady. "Things got carried away. They exiled me, and they're trying to kill me now. I lashed out at whatever was in front of me."
Sasori grunted, not wanting to push the issue. He had heard that Jasper was special because of the powers bestowed on him by his clan. But to Sasori, clan politics were petty and predictable.
So he accepted the lie.
Heavy rain finally slowed to a drizzle before stopping completely. The clouds then broke, letting a pale shaft of sunlight cut through the canopy.
Jasper looked up as a faint rainbow formed against the grey sky.
The colors reminded him of the immediate aftermath of his attack. He remembered being on the battlefield with the massive black orb ready to drop. Then the sky tore open as Arthur appeared. The man had crashed down like a shooting star defying physics.
And he didn't just block the Final Truthseeker Orb, he shattered the attack before it could touch the earth.
"Come on," Sasori said, noticing Jasper staring at the sky. The puppet then started moving again. "Let's go before someone spots us."
Jasper scoffed softly at the memory of his defeat as he pulled his collar up against the damp chill.
"Right behind ya..."