In midair, Gaara used a cloud of sand to catch himself and gently brought his flight to a halt.
As soon as he landed, he came face-to-face with Mangetsu, Yashamaru, and the others, who had been frantically searching for him.
Mangetsu let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Whew... Talk about a lucky break. Nothing happened to you, right?"
Just moments before, Danzo had made a classic villain speech before making his escape. From the looks of it, Gaara had indeed been in serious danger—but both he and the Tailed Beast were intact.
"Yeah," Gaara murmured, his head hanging low in Yashamaru's embrace. His eyes kept darting discreetly toward Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, unable to find the right words.
That kind of look was far too familiar to seasoned shinobi—those who had long since grown used to partings and death.
And now, the person who had once stood close by Gaara's side—Kitsuchi—was nowhere to be seen.
Kurotsuchi clenched her eyes shut, holding back the tears welling up in their corners. She spun around and slammed her fist hard into Akatsuchi's chest.
"Damn it!"
Akatsuchi said nothing. He gently patted her on the shoulder, subtly shifting to support her weight as she leaned against him.
Both sides quickly exchanged a brief overview of their respective battlefields, consolidating a full picture of the current situation.
On the enemy side, Mifune had been killed along with a significant number of samurai. The Land of Iron was now essentially paralyzed. Hiruzen Sarutobi had fallen, and the Raikage had left with one arm crippled.
As for their side—they'd lost Iwagakure's Jonin, Kitsuchi, and Sunagakure's Sasori.
All things considered, their losses were relatively low compared to the enemy's.
Still, the mood among the younger shinobi was dismal. Even someone as detached as Kisame couldn't bring himself to make a morale-boosting speech.
And let's be honest—most of the damage dealt to the enemy hadn't even been their doing.
Kisame glanced at Mangetsu and, upon seeing the frustration in his eyes, realized they were thinking the same thing.
Victory? More like a total mess.
Yeah—these three guys, handpicked by Yagura himself (Yagura: Slender?! Defamation! I only wanted you kids to come back alive! If things went south, I was gonna handle it myself!), had ended up being less effective than the "mole" on the enemy's side.
Mangetsu sighed. "Ah, man…"
He raised a hand and quickly formed a water pistol. The motion was smooth and practiced—lightning-fast and fluid.
Splash!
The sound of the water bullet hitting something solid immediately set everyone on high alert!
Obito—always elusive and shrouded in mystery—had his space-time technique seen through in an instant by Mangetsu. This time, he was forced to take the Water Gun Jutsu head-on.
Unless he retreated with Hidan into the Kamui space, there was no way to dodge it.
Mangetsu drew his blade and pointed it at Obito, his sharp teeth gleaming as he smiled at the wound now bleeding on Obito's arm.
"Well, well. Long time no see, dear Master-Killer-turned-Virtuous-Pathwalker, Uchiha Obito. Like the little reunion gift?"
He'd fought this guy for over ten minutes before—he was all too familiar with that space-time technique.
Something in his battle instincts had screamed at him to aim there—and sure enough, it hit.
"You rely on that space-time jutsu of yours to spook people, but in a real fight? You can't keep up. So what, called in reinforcements?"
Mangetsu raised his right hand, this time pointing it at Hidan's head. The immortal scoffed in contempt.
"Hmph. Immortal, huh? Hidan?"
Calm and confident, Mangetsu stood tall before a former loser and a religious fanatic who couldn't do anything without his opponent's blood.
As Kurotsuchi stepped forward with vengeance burning in her eyes, Mangetsu stopped her with one hand—giving her a calm, responsible adult's look to help her keep it together.
He took a quick glance behind him at the rest of the squad and scoffed at Obito.
"You brought backup? Please. I brought more."
Obito seemed amused by the notion. The single eye visible beneath his mask gleamed with mockery.
"You think numbers will save you?"
As his words fell, one after another, white creatures—Zetsu clones—began emerging from underground.
It started from Obito's side and quickly spread like a virus.
Layer after layer of White Zetsu surrounded them, forming a dense, suffocating wall of pale monstrosities.
With a look of disgust, Mei Terumi turned to Mangetsu.
"Oi. Are you sure you're not on their payroll?"
"Hey, this wasn't part of my plan either."
Thankfully, they'd already been briefed by Yagura about these white creatures—what they were, what they could do, and just how many of them existed.
The good news: individually, these things weren't that strong—maybe Chunin level.
The bad news: Yagura had warned them—the White Zetsu army was ten thousand strong.
Mangetsu kept up the taunts, throwing more verbal jabs at Obito.
"Guess our lovely Mizukage's been giving you a hard time keeping up your collect-all-nine-tailed-beasts quota, huh?"
Obito's expression darkened. He had no interest in trading meaningless banter. With a mental command, the Zetsu army surged forward under the control of Hashirama cells.
He needed to capture Shukaku now.
And every last one of these annoying Mist shinobi needed to be eliminated on the spot.
...
Sffff~
Sensing the movement of the surrounding creatures, Mangetsu let out a soft whistle and casually slashed two incoming Zetsu in half with a single sweep of his blade.
Lowering his stance, Mangetsu locked his eyes on his target—
That disgusting cockroach of a man, crawling like a sewer rat through the cracks of the world, the one Yagura had personally marked as a threat.
This time, Hozuki Mangetsu would chop off this bastard's damn head and feed it to the dogs.
"Mei! Kisame! These freaks are yours!"
With that, he stomped down hard and rocketed forward, Hiramekarei carving a clean path through the sea of White Zetsu.
One slash after another—Zetsu fell like harvested wheat. Mangetsu carved out a straight line directly to Obito.
In a blink, he was just a step away.
Obito immediately jumped back. Beside him, Hidan swung his blood-scythe and snarled,
"Bastard! You're too full of yourself!"
Mangetsu didn't even flinch as the scythe pierced his body.
Hidan's eyes lit up with malicious joy as he imagined the sacrifice he was about to offer to Lord Jashin—but then froze.
No blood came out of the wound.
Just... water.
It wasn't Mangetsu's real body at all.
A water clone?
Hidan blinked, trying to process it. He'd seen water clones before—this wasn't new.
Fine. All he had to do now was find the real one, draw blood, and finish his sacrifice.
—SHWACK!
In the next instant, while Hidan was still distracted, Mangetsu spun around and delivered a clean, merciless slash.
The blade cut straight through.
Hidan's head flew off.
It hit the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, leaving him staring up at his now-headless body, completely dumbfounded.
"That was almost too easy. I'm starting to feel guilty."
Mangetsu grabbed Hidan's hair and lifted the head up, curiously studying this still-talking corpse.
But only for a second. He wasn't into dead heads—no freaky fetish here.
Especially not when Hidan finally snapped to reality and began shouting at the top of his lungs:
"You bastard! That hurt like hell!"
"You do know that getting your head chopped off hurts, right?!"
"..."
It was a gruesome sight.
Mangetsu spun around and flung Hidan's head high into the air. Then, with a swift kick, he sent Hidan's body flying after it.
"Mei!"
Immortal? Let Mei Terumī melt your entire body into nothing—let's see how immortal you really are.
Gaara's sand cloud moved a beat faster than Mei's acid mist.
Two streams of sand twisted through the air, coiling around Hidan's head and body.
For the first time, Hidan sensed what was coming next—and for the first time, he felt fear.
"Destroying my body won't matter! Lord Jashin's blessing will protect me from death!!"
Kurotsuchi snarled, "Lava Release!"
The slurry of cement surged forward, drowning out Hidan's curses in thick, choking silence.
Kurotsuchi kicked aside several charging White Zetsu clones, tears glinting in the corners of her eyes as she shouted,
"Die already, you piece of trash!"
The sand gathered and sealed Hidan's head and body separately into two sand prisons.
Gaara clenched his fist in fury. "Sand Waterfall Funeral!"
Above them, the air exploded in a rain of blood from the body of the so-called immortal.
...
At the same moment, Mangetsu was closing the distance to Obito at lightning speed, attacking relentlessly with his main body and multiple water clones, each wielding a different blade from the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
He raised four fingers. "Your minions? Dead as dead can be."
Crushed to bits—barely more than a smear of blood and pulverized flesh.
Three fingers. "There really were a lot of those freaks."
In a battlefield built for overwhelming numbers, Mei's Lava Release and Kisame's Water Release were unstoppable. Both of them excelled at solo sweeping tactics.
And neither of them had to worry about chakra depletion. At this intensity, they could fight like this for over a day if needed.
Not that it would take that long.
In fact, White Zetsu's casualties were piling up far faster than Obito had expected.
Two fingers. "Tell me, Uchiha—still got enough monsters in stock?"
Sure, a hundred thousand White Zetsu sounded terrifying. Spread out, they could go toe-to-toe with the entire Allied Shinobi Forces. But the battlefield wasn't that big. Hoping to take down a few elites in the short term? Wishful thinking.
Obito could remain intangible for up to five minutes.
Mangetsu raised just one finger. "Y'know, compared to the last time we fought ten years ago... you haven't improved at all."
Mangetsu had grown from a youth into his physical prime—stronger, faster, deadlier than ever.
Ten years ago, it had been a close fight.
Now? He had Obito completely suppressed. The same jutsu, the same tricks—none of it fazed him anymore.
Only that damned space-time jutsu was keeping the guy alive.
He dropped the last finger. Mangetsu's eyes gleamed murderously as he kicked his speed up another notch.
"Your five minutes are up. You're next!"
Obito's calm finally cracked under Mangetsu's provocations.
"Don't underestimate the power of the Uchiha's eyes!"
"Heard that one already! Ten years ago! Get some new material, old man!"
The instant Hiramekarei made contact with something solid...
Mangetsu and his five clones struck in perfect unison. Six blades pierced, slashed, and hacked across Obito's body from every angle.
Mangetsu exhaled slightly, staring down at the motionless body. He reached toward the mask.
"Let's see that ugly mug you've been hiding from the world. Oh, I have to get a picture of this for the front page of the Konoha Daily. I'll pin it to Rin's grave."
Hozuki! Mangetsu!!
Obito suddenly erupted—"Fire Release: Flaming Spiral Maelstrom!"
Mangetsu turned back with a smirk.
A massive vortex of searing flames surged toward him, so intense it would vaporize any nearby water clones instantly.
His figure vanished into the blaze.
...
BOOM!!
An explosive roar of steam burst from the inferno!
Mangetsu had coated himself in oil beforehand to keep his body's moisture from dispersing.
Using the fire's extreme heat, he flash-boiled the water in his legs and launched forward at breakneck speed!
With a horizontal slash, Hiramekarei carved clean through Obito's waist—severing him in half!
Obito's upper body hung in the air, blood dripping as his Sharingan glared down at Mangetsu with disbelief, fury, and hate.
"Izanagi."
Mangetsu helpfully clarified, "That's the jutsu only those with both Uchiha and Senju DNA can use—reverses death by rewriting fate itself, blah blah bl—"
He trailed off into nonsense. No need to let the enemy have their dramatic monologue.
"Glad I came prepared."
Mangetsu didn't deny how broken the technique was. It was practically a revive token in a video game.
"You've only got two lives, right? Two eyes. Wanna bet that this one"—he pointed at the right eye, the Kamui eye—"gets wasted on another Izanagi gamble?"
He brought his blade down and shattered Obito's mask.
And sliced through the Kamui eye along with it.
But Obito hadn't gambled on Izanagi.
He lost that eye.
Failed to capture Shukaku.
Even with the Five-Tails in his possession, it meant nothing—Mei already had the rest under control, directly or indirectly.
Meaningless.
Sustained only by the life force inherited from the Senju, Obito's mutilated body still clung to life.
"How... how did you know...?"
Even knowledge of Izanagi and White Zetsu—he had never, ever leaked that intel.
He'd meant to use Izanagi to escape once the tide turned.
But Mangetsu had said the name.
And just like that, his composure had cracked.
Too late to regret it now.
"Go say hi to our late Mizukage in hell. He told us everything—probably even the color of your underwear."
Mangetsu gripped his blade in both hands and drove it down, stabbing again and again into Obitoi's spine.
"You owe Yagura, don't you?"
Only Yagura could've answered that question now.
Mangetsu remembered too well how often Yagura worried about the threat Obito posed—so anxious he'd skip meals and tea, just sit and brood.
Die, damn you!
He shattered Obito's spine, pulverized his organs with chakra-empowered strikes, then finally—finally—sliced off Obito's head.
Without the control and commands transmitted through Hashirama cells, the White Zetsu army froze.
A coordinated strike followed—
Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi raised the land beneath them, uprooting hidden enemy squads. Gaara locked every White Zetsu in place with streams of sand, and Mei finished the job with a flood of molten acid.
This was it. Their final move, holding nothing back.
Gaara burned through the last of Shukaku's chakra, falling out of Tailed Beast Mode. He collapsed beside Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, all three of them utterly drained.
Mangetsu waved Kisame over. "Come clean up."
Kisame understood instantly. He grinned, biting his thumb.
"Summoning Technique!"
Five sharks burst from swirling water, summoned into the field.
Smelling blood, the sharks went wild.
Without any need for orders, they tore into Obito's remains, devouring him piece by piece.
Once they were full and the surrounding water dispersed, the sharks vanished.
...
...
It was late. There was no way they could make it back to the hotel near the conference hall in the Land of Iron, so they found a suitable spot nearby to rest for the night.
Yashamaru hadn't contributed much during the battle.
Despite being assigned as a bodyguard, it was Gaara who ended up protecting him.
Now, he was quietly applying his not-so-polished medical ninjutsu—something he'd been practicing on the side—to slowly help the three kids recover their stamina and chakra.
With Obito dead, Gaara was finally safe. And for Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, their vengeance had been fulfilled.
"That guy... he's the one Yagura was always worried about, isn't he?" Kisame asked.
Mangetsu nodded in confirmation.
Kisame chuckled. "Well, I guess this trip wasn't a total waste."
"Yeah," Mangetsu grinned, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. "Can't wait to tell Yagura. He's gonna flip when he hears what we pulled off."
Terumī Mei walked over, her face lighting up as she caught the contagious energy from their laughter.
"Don't celebrate too early. Knowing Yagura, he'll probably scold us first for going rogue."
Kisame smirked. "Wanna bet on it?"
Mangetsu nearly agreed on impulse, but quickly reconsidered and shook his head.
"Nope, nope, not betting on that. You're definitely right—he's gonna say exactly that!"
Mangetsu squatted down, grabbed his face with both hands, and put on a comically stern expression, mimicking their Mizukage:
"You three! Who gave you permission to act without orders?! What if something had gone wrong?! Aren't you supposed to report and withdraw immediately if you run into trouble?!"
It was exaggerated, sure—but hilariously accurate.
Kisame and Mei exchanged a knowing glance.
And just like that, Mangetsu cracked up, unable to keep a straight face. That set off Kisame and Mei too. Before long, the three of them were doubled over with laughter.
...
Meanwhile—
"Come with us."
Gaara turned to Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, his tone calm and sincere.
"I'll protect you. We'll pass through the Land of Wind first. After that, I'll arrange for a team of jōnin to escort you back to the Land of Earth."
Kurotsuchi had no objections to the route.
"Protect us? Really?" she shot back, jabbing a finger at the armor over Gaara's robe. She let out a long ha and smirked. "It's more like we were the ones stuck protecting you. You're the one who had a target on his back."
But Gaara was firm in his stance. And Kurotsuchi wasn't one to back down either. The two kids ended up locking horns, neither willing to let the other have the last word.
...
The next morning.
Two groups set out from the Land of Iron.
One headed west toward the Land of Wind.
The other began the long journey east, back to the Land of Water.
And so, as dawn broke and the weight of the night lifted...
The chaos that had erupted during the so-called Five Kage Summit in the Land of Iron—the explosive confrontation—sent shockwaves through the entire shinobi world.