The three fled as quickly as they had arrived.
Finn clicked his tongue and gave a sharp wave of his hand.
Behind him, Bete and the Hiryute sisters shot forward at once.
Ryota remained where he stood, making no move to stop them.
To him, Akatsuki had to be eradicated. Loose ends needed tying up.
Kisame was troublesome, yes, but against Bete, victory was far from assured.
As for Deidara—beyond his insane catchphrase "Art is an explosion," the only real threat was his "C0 Self-Destruction."
If it ever came to that, Ryota could sense it the moment it stirred.
And Konan…
Ryota tilted his head up. In his line of sight, only Konan's figure, cutting across the sky, remained.
"Looks like she still hasn't figured out how my ability works. Just hovering there so openly in midair…"
The moment his murmur fell, his eyes hardened.
—Daikokuten!
In an instant, Konan felt her vision blur. A vast, formless force tore her from space itself. There was no resisting, no escape.
Shhh—!
Her figure vanished, erased completely from the world.
She wasn't dead.
She was—sealed.
Within the dimension of Daikokuten, silence reigned. Time itself seemed frozen.
No sound. No breath. No concept of existence.
Konan simply "floated" there, like a divinity-stripped doll shackled in the void.
This was Ryota's ultimate subspace. No one could escape it.
"I'll decide your fate after Akatsuki has been dealt with," Ryota said softly.
"If you refuse to listen…"
He chuckled.
"…killing you will still be an option."
On his previous life's Earth, Konan had been Akatsuki's sole female member.
Once Jiraiya's disciple, she had dreamed of peace with Yahiko and Nagato. She was a faint light in a sorrowful era.
Gentle, rational, calm as still water—yet also the Angel who lost everything to war, who ultimately chose cold indifference and destruction.
"You were never meant to become this sort of person," Ryota murmured.
He knew Konan's strength, her loyalty, her decisiveness.
But she shouldn't have been chained to Pain's ideal, sacrificed and consumed by it.
"I can let Pain die. I don't care about Nagato's life."
"But you… I've decided to save you."
The battle wasn't over. The enemy hadn't been purged.
And on Ryota's "harem" list, a new Angel from the Shinobi World had quietly been added.
Drawing his thoughts back, Ryota turned.
He stood in Kurama's shadow, eyes fixing on the last standing figure before him—Deva Path.
Now, Deva Path no longer struggled.
He didn't attack again. He didn't argue. He only lifted his head to glare at the nine-tailed fox towering proudly amid the ruins.
The very creature Akatsuki had pursued for years, poured endless resources into capturing, their ultimate goal.
And yet…
It stood quietly at the side of that black-haired boy, like the most loyal of guardians.
That single swipe—Kurama's claw that tore apart Asura Path and Preta Path—had not only crushed Nagato's Paths in the clearing, but shredded the last of his faith back in the cave.
"Impossible…"
Deva Path whispered hoarsely.
"This is impossible…"
For years, Akatsuki had gathered intelligence, laid plans, poured everything into hunting the Nine-Tails.
But the Tailed Beast had already submitted to this boy?
The thought was unthinkable. Unbearable.
In the cave, Nagato's skeletal frame shook violently, eyes bloodshot.
Not hatred—collapse.
The Six Paths of Pain, his symbol of divinity.
But this boy had casually summoned something greater than God.
The very Tailed Beast they could never seize… now bowed its head in fealty!
"Who… are you?"
Deva Path's rasp trembled with fear he could no longer hide.
Ryota only shook his head and strode forward.
"Knowing too much isn't good for you."
He lifted his right hand. At his fingertip bloomed a wisp of pure golden chakra.
The power of a Tailed Beast.
Kurama's chakra in its purest form.
Ryota pressed it to Deva Path's brow.
"Take that question—"
"—and ponder it in Hell."
The next instant—
Boom!!!
That faint wisp of chakra surged through Deva Path's body like a flood, ramming violently through every conduit.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints. The ferocious chakra reversed along the receivers embedded in his body—roaring upstream, tearing through space itself, and lancing straight into Nagato's true body within the distant cave!
"Gahhh—!"
Nagato's mouth filled with iron as he vomited blood.
His thin body convulsed, face contorted with disbelief.
"No… this isn't… this can't be the Nine-Tails…!"
"This isn't possible—!!"
But the burning, tearing agony inside him was real.
The chakra felt alive, carrying intent, savage will bent on annihilation. It stormed along his meridians, ripping through the Rinnegan's pathways, shredding his senses.
And just as the pain began to dim—
Another surge, stronger, purer, even more feral, crashed into Nagato's mindscape!
"AAAAH!!!"
Nagato's pupils shrank to needles. Darkness swallowed his sight. He had no time to resist.
His body spasmed once, then collapsed bonelessly into his stone chair. His arms dangled, his head lolled, blood trickling from his lips.
On his paper-white face lingered only shock and unwillingness.
No dramatic final act. No flashback montage. Not even a last word.
The man who, in the original story, terrorized the Shinobi World, razed Konoha, crushed countless heroes—the so-called "Pain" himself—
Died quietly, unseen, on a stone chair in a cave.
Only silence filled the chamber. Only the drip of blood on stone marked the end of an era.
In the clearing, Deva Path's body swayed, then fell.
The Rinnegan—dimmed into lifeless gray.
Ryota glanced down at the fallen Path.
"—Go collect those Rinnegan."
The duplicate Deva Path, more solemn than the original, inclined its head.
With a soft shhh, it vanished.
Finn and the others exchanged looks.
They hadn't fully grasped what just happened, but one thing was certain:
Ryota had ended the crisis once again—alone.
"…So it's over?"
Lefiya patted her chest.
"Damn right it's over," she muttered.
Everyone looked out at the battlefield. Blood still lingered in the air, but their hearts were strangely calm.
From shock, to awe, to acceptance—
"Ryota" had become, in their minds, synonymous with absolute victory.
Finn remained where he was, staring at Ryota's smiling back.
"…Just how high does this man intend to climb?" he whispered.
…
Meanwhile—
On the border of the Land of Fire.
Two figures darted through the forest.
With a rumble, Orochimaru suddenly halted.
He slowly raised his head. Through the trees, his serpentine eyes caught sight of a distant surge of chakra.
"This aura…"
He whispered.
"The Nine-Tails. Without a doubt."
As one of Konoha's former Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru knew nearly all its taboos by heart.
Especially the Nine-Tails.
The beast that had ravaged the village that night. The greatest secret, the greatest disaster.
He should have been more familiar with it than anyone. Yet now—
"This feeling… it's far too strange."
Not just malice. Not the unstable pulse of a Jinchuriki.
It was the weight of a being that towered over all.
The Nine-Tails wasn't a prisoner in Konoha's dungeon anymore. It was a monster—set loose.
Nearby, Sasori's voice rasped from within Hiruko.
"With power on that scale… could it be Pain already succeeded in capturing the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki?"
Orochimaru didn't answer at once. He only licked his lips, a dark laugh slithering from his throat.
"Hehehe… not necessarily."
"Pain's gaze is always set too far ahead."
"I only care about one thing."
He lifted his eyes, gaze piercing the Land of Fire, landing on Konoha's familiar rooftops.
"My dear teacher…"
"Are you still sitting in that seat?"
"If you are… then today will be the last sunset you ever see."
He had no intention of being Akatsuki's errand boy. Tailed Beasts were merely research material.
What truly obsessed Orochimaru, beyond immortality and creation, was settling the past—his grudge against Hiruzen Sarutobi, his hatred for Konoha's chains.
"Come. If we're late, there won't be any scraps left for us."