A few minutes earlier—
As the smoke from the explosion gradually cleared, a crater roughly ten meters across had been blasted open in Akatsuki's formation.
Flames devoured the severed limbs and broken bodies of the Akatsuki members who had failed to escape in time, burying forever those dream-chasers who, only a day before, had still carried hope in their hearts.
Though Jiraiya had shielded several people around him and pulled them back in time, he had still been caught in the blast due to how close he was.
The clothes on his back had been burned to rags. The hair he had used to drag others clear had been scorched black and was now falling out in clumps.
If the situation hadn't been so grave, if this weren't so completely unsuited for jokes, Jiraiya probably would have burst into tears over his hair.
"A-Are you okay, kid?"
"What... are you... saying?"
The girl Jiraiya had saved stared blankly at him, unable to hear his words. Blood slowly trickled from both ears.
With Jiraiya supporting her, she tried to stand, but her body had clearly lost all sense of balance and control.
Seeing that, Jiraiya immediately shouted at the top of his lungs,
"A medic! Is there a medic here!? Is any of the logistics-side medical staff still uninjured!? Someone here needs treatment, now!"
The Akatsuki members, still reeling from the sudden explosion, snapped back to their senses when they heard the cry for help.
They began reaching out to assist the comrades beside them.
Though many among them were spies and infiltrators from the great villages, and though they still carried mutual suspicion and even private grudges, when faced with enemies who had attacked with such naked and decisive killing intent, the only way anyone would survive long enough to report anything back was by helping each other stay alive.
"Konan!? Jiraiya-sensei!? Are you alright!?"
Unable to keep the combat division functioning as meaningful support for Nagato, Yahiko simply pulled everyone back and formed a tight defense around the wounded and dead.
At the same time, Konan spread countless paper clones in every direction to keep watch for the enemy while rushing over to the two people who mattered most right now.
"Just some light wounds. Nothing serious."
Jiraiya dropped the ruined mask he had been using and, enduring the pain in his back, flashed Konan a reassuring hand sign.
"I-I'm sorry, Konan..."
Uzumaki Karin rose shakily from beside the mangled corpse of an Akatsuki member, her face full of guilt.
"I... I clearly sensed that man's chakra was cold and dark, but I thought that since his chakra had already been sealed, he shouldn't have been able to do anything anymore... so I didn't warn everyone around us..."
"This isn't your fault, Karin..."
Konan stepped forward and hugged the older red-haired girl, who was several years senior to her, doing her best to comfort Akatsuki's finest medical ninja.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya slowly rose to his feet and looked grimly toward the figures emerging from the curtain of rain in the distance.
"That number... there's no way they're all Root. Hanzo actually teamed up with Amegakure too!? They really wanted you all dead that badly?"
With several sensory-type members in tow, Yahiko hurried over.
Hearing Jiraiya's words, he instantly recalled the wager Kaguya Rei had made with them when inviting them to attend the Twin Kage summit.
Was I still too naïve? Back then, Hanzo was a man who could even acknowledge and praise enemy shinobi from Konoha, bestowing the name Sannin upon them. So why has he become so small-minded now? Why can't he even tolerate a neutral peace organization like ours?
"Karin, sense the enemy line. Is Hanzo's chakra among them?"
Faced with Yahiko's almost unnaturally calm command, Karin wiped away what might have been tears or rain from her face, closed her eyes, and activated the Kagura Mind's Eye.
A few moments later, she opened them abruptly, alarm written all over her face.
"B-Bad! Hanzo's chakra isn't over there! He's heading toward Nagato and the dozen or so masked men!"
"Damn it! His real target is Nagato—the only one here who can actually threaten him!?"
Yahiko slammed a fist in frustration through the rain. Then he turned toward Jiraiya, whose face had become increasingly conflicted, and stepped up with a look of complete resolve.
"Jiraiya-sensei... please. Go help Nagato."
"But those Rain shinobi coming this way outnumber you by at least three to one!"
Jiraiya stared at his other disciple, one he had never truly had full confidence in, his expression heavy and tormented.
"If I leave, you'll all be surrounded and slaughtered by sheer numbers!"
"That doesn't matter. Nagato is the absolute core that allows Akatsuki's will to spread throughout the world. As long as he survives, the bridge to peace can still be built."
"We can die here as the bridge's foundation stones."
"But Nagato absolutely cannot die."
Those words were not shouted in panic.
They came from Yahiko's mouth with a calm, fierce certainty that stunned Jiraiya.
If Nagato lived, Akatsuki would endure.
If Nagato died, everything ended here.
Just as Yahiko said that, he reached out and grabbed the orange-haired kunoichi who had just joined Akatsuki only a few days earlier, pulling her close as though she were already an old comrade.
"Take the wounded and retreat behind us. All of Akatsuki's combat division will hold the line here!"
"Wh-What about you!?"
"We'll hold until Jiraiya-sensei and Nagato come back. If we can't... then at least we'll buy them time!"
Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned back toward Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya-sensei, if you're really our teacher, then trust us. Trust the Akatsuki we've built."
For a moment, Jiraiya's eyes trembled.
Then he lowered his head and clenched both fists.
I see. So this is what it means to be left behind by the younger generation. They've already come this far... while I'm still hesitating.
"...Understood."
He bit his thumb and formed the summoning seal.
"Summoning Technique!"
A huge cloud of white smoke exploded outward.
When it cleared, the shield-bearing giant toad, Gamaken, stood before them with his fork in hand.
"Yo, Jiraiya. You called?"
"Gamaken, I'm counting on you."
Jiraiya's voice was lower than usual. Much heavier.
"Protect these kids. No matter what."
Gamaken blinked. Then he looked over the rain-soaked battlefield, the wounded Akatsuki members, and the black wave of Rain shinobi pushing toward them.
"I'm clumsy... but I'll do my best."
"Sorry. That's enough."
Yahiko gave Jiraiya a sharp nod.
"Go."
Jiraiya took one last look at his disciples and the young members of Akatsuki around them. Then he leapt high into the air, heading for Nagato's direction without another word.
Only after he left did Konan let out the breath she had been holding.
The Rain shinobi in the distance were getting closer.
Too close.
"Everyone, formation!"
Yahiko shouted, water streaming down his face.
"Protect the wounded! Anyone who can still fight, step forward!"
The Akatsuki combat members, still shaken but no longer in total disorder, gritted their teeth and moved.
They were still trembling.
Still afraid.
Still far from the polished discipline of a true village army.
But in that moment, under Yahiko's voice, they stepped up anyway.
Konan's paper swirled into blades and shields around the line.
Karin knelt among the wounded, forcing herself to calm down and focus on treatment despite the blood and fire and screams around her.
Then she suddenly froze.
"Wait... wait a second, Konan!"
Konan turned sharply.
"What is it!?"
Karin's face had gone pale.
"We... we can still ask for reinforcements!"
"Reinforcements?" Konan stared at her, stunned. "From where?"
"From him!"
Karin grabbed Konan's sleeve with both hands, desperate.
"The Fourth Mizukage! Kaguya Rei!"
Konan's expression changed at once.
"The summoning scroll! The white snake! Didn't he leave you a means of contacting him!?"
Konan's eyes widened.
Karin pressed on, words tumbling out faster and faster.
"He... he's that absurdly strong monster, right!? And he's some kind of sage from Ryuchi Cave too! Maybe—just maybe—he really can do something impossible!"
Konan hesitated only for a breath.
Then she pulled out the summoning scroll Kaguya Rei had left behind.
It had been meant as a channel of contact.
Nothing more.
At least, that was what she had thought.
Now, with no other choice left, she spread it open and quickly wrote the situation on a slip of paper.
The moment her chakra touched the scroll—
Poof.
A burst of white smoke erupted in the rain.
But what appeared was not the small white snake she had expected.
Instead, standing atop the scroll on bare toes was a beautiful woman in white, elegant and eerie, a pale snake coiled around her body.
She bent gracefully, plucked the written plea from Konan's hand, and looked it over with a lazy expression.
"Oh? A request for help addressed to that monster, Kaguya Rei..."
She sighed, almost pityingly.
"You girls are truly brave... to place that kind of trust in him."
"You don't even understand what kind of price you'll have to pay for making that choice..."
Konan instantly moved, pulling Karin behind her while glaring at the woman in white as if facing a mortal enemy.
"Who are you!? Why did using the summoning contract for that snake bring you here!?"
The woman smiled faintly.
"I? I'm Ichikishimahime. Thanks to Kaguya Rei bribing the White Snake Sage with a pathetically small price, I've been dragged out here to do errands for him. Such a miserable life, really."
She gave Gamaken, who had already turned toward her and entered a battle stance, an amused look.
Then she lightly hopped back, took the summoning scroll into her hand, formed a seal with one hand, and pressed the other against the scroll.
"Reverse Summoning Technique."
"You have ten minutes to deal with this, Kaguya Rei."
Join my Patreon to read free public release chapters and stay 1 chapter ahead at no cost. And Paid members can get more advanced chapter.
-
Search this link on Google/internet
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Inkveil_