Bang!!
After snapping Uchiha Itachi's neck, Ren didn't even spare the corpse a second glance. He casually tossed it aside.
"Th-That's it? He just killed Uchiha Itachi?!"
"That's terrifying!!"
"That traitor finally died. Feels good."
In no time, waves of chatters rippled through Konoha. After Itachi's death, many shinobi reacted one after another, voices full of shock. Some of the Uchiha clan shinobi, in particular, finally let out a long-held breath.
They had hated Itachi deeply—no less than they had hated the late Uchiha Shisui.
Now the Fifth Hokage had cleaned house.
It was satisfying beyond words.
"Alright," Ren said, turning his gaze. He looked at Uchiha Fugaku and Hyūga Hiashi and issued a calm order. "You two go rest. Have Nara Shikaku taken to the hospital."
"Yes, Fifth Hokage-sama."
Fugaku and Hiashi nodded quickly.
Fugaku cast one last confined look at Itachi's body. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something—only for Ren to cut him off cleanly.
"I know what you want to say."
Ren looked at Fugaku, drew a slow breath, and said coldly, "From start to finish, Itachi brought this on himself. If you want to blame anyone… blame him."
"…Sigh."
Fugaku's expression dimmed. He let out a breath and nodded. "Understood, Fifth Hokage."
"Don't worry."
Ren's tone shifted slightly, as if implying something."Itachi at least left behind a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. After Uchiha Sasuke awakens his Mangekyō, I'll give them to him."
"Really?!"
Fugaku's eyes widened, emotions surging.
There was no helping it.
With Itachi dead, Sasuke was now Fugaku's precious lifeline.
"Really."
Ren shrugged, unconcerned. "Those eyes were meant for Sasuke from the beginning."
With that, Ren vanished in a flash.
Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, and Jūzō had already been dealt with—
But Kisame Hoshigaki, Deidara, and Sasori were still waiting.
—
Konoha's northern side.
After Itachi's crimson Susanoo was cleaved apart, Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori's expressions shifted again and again.
They all knew what that meant.
Itachi was as good as dead.
"What do we do?"
"Itachi, Jūzō, Hidan, Kakuzu… it looks like they've all been handled."
"If I'd known this was how it would end, I never would've joined this operation… and now, even if we want to leave, we can't."
After forcing themselves to steady their breathing, Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori exchanged a look.
Resentment and despair were written clearly in their eyes.
They were S-rank missing-nin from their villages—people who had always acted arrogant and lawless.
And yet here, in Konoha, they were facing a real survival crisis.
Just thinking about it made their teeth clench.
"Surrender."
"You won't be able to run."
Jiraiya and Tsunade, having finally exhaled a little, kept their guard up as they stared at Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori.
Through that brief exchange earlier, the two of them already had a sense of it—
Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori were all Kage-level opponents.
Even with the two of them working together, dealing with all three would be extremely difficult.
The thought left Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanging a speechless glance, then looking at the Eight-Tails—who still hadn't lifted a finger and was basically just watching the show.
But there was no other choice.
This was Konoha.
If a tailed beast fought carelessly, it could easily destroy the village.
So since the battle began, the Eight-Tails hadn't moved at all—just sat there munching snacks and shouting encouragement.
"Surrender?" Kisame grinned, sharp teeth bared. "Impossible."
He looked at Jiraiya and Tsunade with cold confidence. "You two really are worthy of the title 'Sannin.' But if you want to kill us… you'll pay a heavy price."
"Then let's keep fighting."
From inside his puppet shell, Sasori's voice came out hoarse. "I still have one human puppet I haven't used yet."
Hiss—
A ripple of chakra spread.
Under Jiraiya and Tsunade's stunned gaze, a puppet appeared—blue hair, yellow eyes, dressed in a white Kazekage robe over a blue shinobi outfit.
"Th-This…"
The instant they saw it, both Tsunade and Jiraiya cried out, their hearts shaking so hard they couldn't calm down.
The Third Kazekage.
This human puppet… was the Third Kazekage.
The Third Kazekage, famed for using Magnet Release: Iron Sand and called the strongest Kazekage in the history of the shinobi world—
Of course Jiraiya and Tsunade knew him.
Back then, it was the Third Kazekage's disappearance that helped trigger the Third Great Ninja War.
Now it was clear.
He hadn't vanished mysteriously at all.
He had been turned into a human puppet by Sunagakure's missing-nin—Sasori of the Red Sand.
"Hahaha! Well?" Sasori laughed smugly from within his shell. "Surprised? Art is eternal. The Third Kazekage becoming my human puppet is an honor for him."
"Art isn't eternal—"
Before Jiraiya or Tsunade could respond, Deidara immediately protested, bristling. "The moment of explosion is the most perfect expression of art!"
"You're wrong."
Sasori's voice turned colder. "Explosion is a joke of art."
"Hold on—"
Seeing the two about to start arguing about "art" again, Kisame's expression darkened.
But with their desperate situation pressing down on him, he forcibly swallowed his anger and started to step in as the mediator.
Bang!!
Before Kisame could even speak—
A terrifying wave of pale-white tremor-force slammed into the Third Kazekage human puppet at extreme speed.
The puppet shattered instantly, collapsing into dust.
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