With the impassioned declaration of the Fifth Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto—
His words echoed throughout the Hidden Leaf Village in an instant.
They ignited a fire in the hearts of every villager, every shinobi, and every soul that called Konoha home.
No one in the village had imagined such a day would ever come.
They were the leaves of the Tree...
And now, led by the Fifth Hokage—Uzumaki Naruto—they stood poised to unify the Five Great Shinobi Nations.
To bring together the five most powerful villages on the continent.
Sunagakure. Kirigakure. Kumogakure. Iwagakure.
The very same Hidden Villages with whom Konoha had clashed time and time again through the chaos of the Shinobi World Wars.
In those battles, Konoha had both triumphed and faltered.
But never—never—had they fully conquered or assimilated even one of those villages.
Even the great founders of Konoha...
Even the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama—the God of Shinobi himself—
Had not accomplished such a feat.
And yet now, under the leadership of the Fifth Hokage—
Uzumaki Naruto had done it.
He had first brought Sunagakure to heel, fully integrating it into the Will of Fire, making it one with Konoha.
And now, at this grand celebratory assembly, Hokage-sama stood before the people once again—
And delivered a revelation that shocked all of Konoha.
The remaining great villages—Kirigakure of the Mist, Kumogakure of the Cloud, Iwagakure of the Rock—
All of them... now fell under Konoha's domain.
It was no longer just about how many villages they had conquered.
It was about what it meant.
That Konoha now held sway over all the powers once capable of challenging it.
That the age of war among the Five Great Nations—was over.
Led by the Fifth Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto...
They were finally stepping into an era of true peace.
After all—
Those four mighty villages that once stood as rivals to Konoha...
Were now part of Konoha itself.
So then—within this entire Shinobi World—
Who could possibly stand against them?
Because the Konoha of today—
Was no longer just the Leaf Village.
It was a united force that now included Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure.
So tell me...
Who would dare oppose them?
Who even could?
Who still has the strength…
To stand against Konoha—a village that had now unified the Five Great Nations?
Yes, this continent held more than just those five hidden villages. Many other nations still existed.
But—
To the villagers of Konoha…
There was only one thing they could honestly say:
No enemies remain.
There truly was no one left who could be considered a threat.
While the majority of Konoha's citizens and shinobi celebrated—cheering for their village, cheering for their Hokage—
Not everyone in the crowd shared the same sentiment.
Hidden within the sea of people stood two shadowed figures.
Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame.
Under the guise of mere spectators, they had infiltrated the celebration as agents of Akatsuki.
And now, watching as Kirigakure, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure knelt before the Will of Fire—
Even they were stunned.
Because if one included Sunagakure, which had already fallen under Konoha's banner…
Then that meant—
Konoha had now subjugated the Four Great Hidden Villages.
With the might of Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure under its command—
Combined with Konoha's own unmatched strength—
There was simply no rival left in the Shinobi World.
Kisame and Itachi both came to the same chilling realization.
The moment this news spread—
When the world learned that Konoha had unified the Five Great Nations—
It would shake the entire shinobi system to its core.
The balance of power would collapse.
From this moment forward—
The Shinobi World would revolve around a single dominant force:
Konohagakure no Sato.
No village, no hidden force, no nation, no clan, no organization—
Could match the sheer scale of what Konoha now commanded.
And Konoha would not stop here.
They would use this momentum…
To seize everything.
To bring all the lands, all the remaining nations, and all the remaining shinobi under one flag—
The flag of the Leaf.
That vision—of a continent draped in Konoha's symbol—unsettled Uchiha Itachi.
And in that moment, he solidified a conviction in his heart.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
Though the current Konoha stood as a paragon of power, a new danger had emerged.
If this path persisted, someone—somewhere—would inevitably rise to resist.
And where there is resistance…
There is war.
And with someone like Uzumaki Naruto—strong-willed, unyielding—at the helm…
He would never back down.
He would confront that resistance head-on, without compromise.
And in doing so…
He would plunge the entire world into a conflict greater than any war before it.
The resulting catastrophe…
Would be apocalyptic.
Countless would lose their homes, their families.
The world would drown in blood and fire.
Peace would give way to annihilation.
As Itachi pictured this devastation…
He—the man who had once chosen the path of betrayal to avoid bloodshed—made a decision.
He could not allow the Fifth Hokage to drag the world into chaos.
And so, without hesitation—
He motioned to Kisame.
Together, they slipped away from the central plaza—
Retreating into the shadows, back to their hidden safehouse within Konoha.
Once secure, the two of them performed the Phantom Projection Technique—
A method unique to Akatsuki—to initiate a covert meeting.
Before long—
The chakra phantoms of Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame materialized in the darkened chamber of Akatsuki's secret base.
And one by one—
The other members of Akatsuki began to appear.
Their forms flickering like wraiths in the gloom—
Summoned to decide how the world would respond to Konoha's terrifying rise.
...
TN:
An Advance Warning: The terrible ending I mentioned before is coming soon… so prepare yourself for it 😬.
Rest assured, even though the Naruto ending isn't handled all that well, the upcoming chapters are still really good. I think the author was probably just burned out when writing the finale 🥲.
...
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