Akatsuki's leader - Pain - finally showed himself in the open.
Chiba's Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") was still rolling across the battlefield, its sealing frost swallowing the advance of Kabuto's Edo Tensei ("Impure World Reincarnation") troops, when Pain answered with his first true strike. There was no testing, no hesitation. The moment he moved, he reached for his signature - an infamous Rinnegan dōjutsu that crushed the world beneath a single, absolute impulse.
"Shinra Tensei ("Almighty Push")!!!"
The air split with a thunderous roar.
A colossal repulsive force detonated from Pain's body, blasting outward in every direction like a catastrophe given shape. It felt like a black hole reversed - nothing pulled in, everything was hurled away. Space itself seemed to recoil, as if reality could not endure standing too close to him.
Chiba's Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") met that pressure head-on - and the frozen wave stalled. Glacial slabs shattered violently, exploding into glittering fragments as the technique's relentless advance was forcibly checked. The collision created a shockwave so savage that hundreds of reanimated shinobi were blasted off the ground and flung across Turtle Island's shell like debris in a storm.
For a heartbeat, both sides were stunned into silence.
This wasn't an exchange between elite squads. It was the opening collision between commanders - the two strongest figures on the field. Just the first impact had already rewritten the terrain, and everyone felt it: if they stood too close, they would be swallowed by the aftermath.
Chiba hadn't even been aiming that strike at Pain directly. Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") had been deployed to suppress the Edo Tensei army, and while it carried fuinjutsu, he hadn't poured his full strength into it.
Pain's Deva Path, however, had countered the technique itself - his intent clean and focused, stopping Chiba's advance by force alone.
Even so, the result spoke for itself. In all of Chiba's wars - countless battles across the shinobi world - Pain was the first to halt Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") with nothing but a single man's power.
And in this era, that wasn't exaggeration.
This was a shinobi world without the "God of Shinobi." Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, Senju Tobirama, Namikaze Minato - those names were already history. The age of true Six Paths-level beings had not yet arrived. There was no living figure towering over the rest like a legend made flesh.
In that gap, Pain sat at the ceiling of power.
To call him the strongest of the living wasn't arrogance - it was the simplest description of reality. Among those still breathing, only a handful could even be mentioned in the same breath: Killer B, the perfect jinchūriki of the Hachibi, and the masked man calling himself "Uchiha Madara," among a very small few.
Even then, without the Rinnegan and without a Six Paths jinchūriki enhancement, the masked man's strength wasn't guaranteed to surpass Pain's Six Paths. As for Killer B, his raw power was unmatched, but his battle sense could swing with momentum - when he had the advantage, he often played with it; when things turned against him, reversing the flow wasn't always easy. It had shown in his clash with Uchiha Sasuke's Taka, and in his battle against Hoshigaki Kisame.
That was why this fight - Pain versus Chiba - wasn't merely another major clash.
It was the present era's summit battle.
The allied shinobi felt it at once, awe tightening their throats. Some stared with raw disbelief, others with a grim excitement they didn't dare voice, because even if they were witnessing history, they weren't spectators. No one here could afford to simply watch.
They were part of the war.
Pain's Deva Path hovered above the battlefield, gaze sweeping over his comrades and the Allied Shinobi Forces with the same indifferent calm, as if he were looking down on a conclusion rather than a conflict.
"Mizukage Chiba," he said. "So we finally meet."
Chiba's lips curved faintly. He refused to yield an inch in presence, and as he spoke, the senjutsu of Ryūchidō rose through him like a deep current. His body lifted from the ground, floating upward until he faced Pain at eye level, suspended in open air.
"Pain," Chiba replied evenly, "I didn't expect you to actually have the nerve to come and fight me head-on."
Pain's voice remained flat. "You created the Dawn Alliance, united the Five Great Nations, and gathered all the jinchūriki here. Wasn't that meant to lure me into a direct confrontation?"
His gaze didn't waver. "I'm simply accepting your invitation."
Below them, Jiraiya stared at the man in the sky - at those ripple-patterned eyes.
The Rinnegan.
He had heard about it from Chiba and Orochimaru, had prepared himself for what it represented. But seeing it in front of him - seeing it attached to a man who spoke like the world already belonged to him - hit differently. It dragged old memories to the surface, memories soaked in rain and regret.
Jiraiya's jaw tightened. "Those eyes…" he said hoarsely. "Pain… are you Nagato?!"
Pain's Deva Path glanced down.
"Oh," he said, almost casually. "Jiraiya-sensei…"
A thin thread of familiarity slipped into his voice. "It's been a long time."
That single word - sensei - confirmed what Jiraiya already feared. And yet, something didn't fit. The man with the Rinnegan didn't resemble Nagato at all. If anything, he looked like Yahiko, a ghost wearing the wrong face.
Jiraiya's breath caught. "What are you?" he demanded. "Are you Nagato, or are you Yahiko?! What happened to you?!"
Konan stepped forward - Akatsuki's only kunoichi - her expression calm, her gaze steady as folded paper.
"This has nothing to do with Jiraiya-sensei," she said.
Jiraiya's brows drew together. "Konan…" His voice carried an ache he didn't bother hiding. "So even you…"
His eyes searched her face, as if the students he once knew might still be there. "How did it become like this?"
Pain answered, voice colder than the wind over the island.
"Jiraiya-sensei, you don't understand true pain."
The words were quiet, but the weight behind them was immense. "After you left, we endured too much. Again and again, pain taught me - sharpened me - until I gained wisdom and will beyond ordinary humans."
His gaze was impassive, almost sacred in its conviction.
"It elevated me…"
"…into a true god."
Jiraiya's eyes widened. "You… what did you just say?!"
Pain didn't blink. "Yes. I am the god who will lead this shinobi world onto the path of peace."
His voice remained calm, but his certainty was absolute. "Whether it's you, Jiraiya-sensei, or Mizukage Chiba - no one should obstruct a god's plan."
A ripple of shock ran through the allied ranks. Jiraiya stared at him for a long moment - then threw his head back and laughed, loud enough to cut through the tension.
"Nagato," he said, "you've gotten really fond of jokes."
"Joke?" Pain's tone hardened slightly.
"This isn't a joke, Jiraiya-sensei." He lifted his hand a fraction, as if presenting a lesson to the world. "Let me tell you the road to peace that a god will lay for this era."
And Pain spoke - coldly, clearly, without shame.
He revealed Akatsuki's true purpose: capturing the bijuu, forging a forbidden tailed-beast weapon, and using it in war to create catastrophic casualties. He believed that only overwhelming slaughter could teach humanity what pain truly meant, and that fear and grief would force the world into a brief, fragile peace.
Only then did the Allied Shinobi Forces fully grasp what Akatsuki had been moving toward all along.
Most of them were horrified.
Yes, intimidation might create temporary quiet. But no one wanted to be the thousands who died to purchase that silence. No one wanted their village, their family, their children to be the "lesson" that reshaped the world.
No one accepted peace bought that way.
Jiraiya's laughter faded, replaced by a grim, furious steadiness. "Nagato," he said, "what you're describing is madness - twisted, extreme, and warped."
"Even if that kind of peace could be called peace, it wouldn't last," he continued. "How is it any different from how the shinobi world already cycles through war to create temporary stability?!"
"And worse - your weapon would kill far more people each time! That isn't peace. That's insanity!"
Pain's expression didn't move. "Jiraiya-sensei," he replied, "the shinobi world already achieves peace through repeated great wars. But have you ever asked who pays the cost?"
His voice sharpened, quiet but heavy. "Not the great nations - countries like the Land of Fire, villages like Konohagakure. It's small, innocent nations like Amegakure. We are the battlefield. We are the graves."
Jiraiya fell silent.
Because it was true.
Wars between great countries burned across the soil of smaller ones, turning them into ash and ruin. Amegakure had paid for conflicts it never chose, and no argument could erase that.
Pain's eyes remained cold. "If peace must be purchased with sacrifice," he said, "why can't the sacrifice be yours? Why must it always be ours?"
Jiraiya's voice came out rough. "Yes - great nations have sins they can't wash away. But that doesn't give you the right to slaughter tens of thousands in an instant."
Pain's answer was merciless. "Then it's only a matter of standpoint."
"The people you intend to kill, and the people I intend to kill, stand on opposite sides."
His voice dropped into finality. "Everything else will be decided by battle."
In that instant, Pain's Deva Path descended, landing lightly - and beside him, the other five Paths appeared as if reality had simply accepted them.
Deva Path. Asura Path. Animal Path. Naraka Path. Preta Path. Human Path.
Six figures stood together, and every one of them carried the Rinnegan - the legendary "divine eyes" of the Sage of Six Paths. The allied ranks stared, stunned by the sheer blasphemy of it.
Kakashi exhaled slowly. "So that's the Rinnegan…" he murmured. "No wonder he leads Akatsuki. That power really is… godlike."
Might Guy laughed loudly, forcing courage into the air like a spark. "Sharingan, Rinnegan - whatever! At this point, we've only got one choice, Kakashi!"
Kakashi's visible eye curved slightly. "Yeah."
Not far away, Hatake Sakumo looked at his son and smiled, soft and steady. "Kakashi," he said, "it's been a long time."
Kakashi went rigid. "…Father."
Sakumo's smile didn't waver. "No need to say more. Seeing you alive - seeing you didn't fall into darkness because of the pain I left behind… that alone is enough."
His gaze held quiet warmth. "Do what you believe you must do, Kakashi. I'll always support you."
Kakashi's throat tightened. "Father…"
Across the battlefield, shinobi from different villages spotted familiar faces among the reanimated. Shock came in waves. From Iwagakure, Akatsuchi and Gari saw it clearly: the fallen Four-Tails jinchūriki, Rōshi, and the Five-Tails jinchūriki, Han - once protectors of their village, now dragged back as enemies.
Then Pain moved.
He stood at the center of his Six Paths, commanding them as one, while Akatsuki surged forward: "Tobi," Zetsu, Konan, Shimura Danzō, Kakuzu, Deidara, Sasori of the Red Sand, Uchiha Itachi -
- launching the final, all-out assault.
In that moment, the war truly exploded.
Killing cries fell over Turtle Island like a storm. The lush wilderness that had once seemed like a hidden paradise became a real battlefield - a place where mercy had no space to breathe.
Chiba met Pain's Six Paths directly, taking the core of Akatsuki head-on.
Jiraiya clashed with Konan, teacher and student locked into a fight heavy with history.
Deidara, the Iwagakure traitor, was intercepted by Akatsuchi, who stepped forward without hesitation to settle what his village could not ignore.
Sasori of the Red Sand was surrounded by Gaara and Kankurō. Their attack carried old grief - Chiyo had died saving Gaara, and this was the moment her legacy demanded repayment.
Shimura Danzō charged into the allied ranks. Kakashi watched him briefly, then looked to Sakumo.
Sakumo gave him a small nod - an affirmation, not an order.
Kakashi returned it with a faint smile and turned to Guy. "Guy - leave the two fathers to you."
"I'll handle Shimura Danzō."
Guy didn't question it. "Got it!" he barked, charging toward Might Duy and Hatake Sakumo.
Danzō sneered as he closed on Kakashi. "So the loyal dog of Hiruzen now bows to Tsunade and Chiba, does he, Kakashi?"
Kakashi's voice stayed light, but his gaze was sharp. "Still better than betraying Konoha and joining Akatsuki, Danzō-sama."
They collided at once.
Elsewhere, Kirigakure's two heavy hitters - Hoshigaki Kisame and Hōzuki Mangetsu - met the reanimated Four-Tails jinchūriki Rōshi and Five-Tails jinchūriki Han. Once, Kisame's Suiton had countered Rōshi's Yōton and led to his capture. Now the roles were reversed: Rōshi returned as a weapon under Akatsuki's control, and Kisame fought to defend the Five Great Nations.
Han, a master of Futton with monstrous strength and top-tier speed and defense, pressed forward like a living fortress. Mangetsu answered without holding back, drawing out everything he had.
And as Kakashi and Danzō battled, the man called "Tobi" suddenly stepped in, choosing to personally target Kakashi.
Danzō snorted, accepting the shift, and instead engaged Darui - the shinobi destined to become the future Godaime Raikage.
Kakashi faced "Tobi," the masked man who called himself Uchiha Madara. This was their third encounter: the night of the Uchiha clan massacre, the battle in Takigakure over the Nanabi jinchūriki, and now - Turtle Island.
Kakashi had always felt it: hatred behind the mask, sharp and personal. He had never understood why.
But today, with war burning all around them, it finally felt like the moment the answer would be forced into the open.
Other Akatsuki members were intercepted - Kakuzu, Uchiha Itachi - held back by Kumogakure's C and Iwagakure's Bakuton user, Gari. Zetsu, never meant for direct combat, slipped into the background where information and infiltration were his true work.
Kabuto stayed protected, unable to fight directly while controlling Edo Tensei. He surrounded himself with a portion of the reanimated troops as a living shield, while driving the rest of his resurrected elites into the allied lines like spears.
The Allied Shinobi Forces met them head-on.
They had prepared for this. Sealing squads had been formed specifically to deal with Edo Tensei. Reinforcements arrived through summons as well: Jiraiya called forth Mount Myōboku's toad forces, while Chiba unleashed Ryūchidō's serpents - and his Senpō Hyōton: Hyōsetsu Ryūki ("Sage Art Ice Release: Ice-Snow Dragon Riders") joined the battlefield.
Even so, everyone understood the truth.
The war's core - the pivot everything would turn on - remained the same.
Mizukage Chiba…
…versus Pain's Six Paths.
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