Uchiha Shisui brought Shibuki, whom he had rescued from the flames, to the Takigakure Leader's side.
Anxious and frantic, Shibuki had no time to thank the Konoha Anbu who saved his life as he rushed to his father's side.
"Father!"
Shibuki rushed forward, looking at his father, whose hair was grey and face was covered in wrinkles.
His eyes were unfocused, with only a sliver of consciousness barely holding on.
The Takigakure Leader was at his limit.
The Hero Water was not some natural treasure rich in chakra; it forced the acceleration of the drinker's cell division and regeneration.
It accelerated cell division at ten times the normal efficiency.
A person's cell division has a limit; once that limit is reached, the person ages rapidly, eventually exhausting their lifespan.
The Hero Water was more like a super stimulant or a catalyst.
Those who drank it were fighting by trading their own lifespan.
"Shi... boku..."
The Takigakure Leader's breath was faint, lacking even the strength to lift his eyelids, his breathing so light it seemed it could stop at any moment.
Yet, he still struggled to call out to his child.
"Father—"
Shibuki cried, tightly clutching the Takigakure Leader's hand.
The Takigakure Leader instructed Shibuki, "...Do... don't... cry... be strong... protect... the villagers..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Takigakure Leader stopped breathing entirely. He was dead!
"Father!!"
Shibuki held the Takigakure Leader's body and wept bitterly.
Witnessing this tragedy, Jiraiya clenched his fists and questioned Nagato and Konan.
"Nagato, Konan, what on earth have you done?"
What Jiraiya feared most had happened; back then, Nagato had already made it clear that he intended to follow Madara to establish a world of Genjutsu.
In the end, he had chosen a path of hostility against the entire Shinobi World.
Konan did not answer Jiraiya; she was confronting Kakuzu.
Nagato said to Jiraiya, "Jiraiya-sensei, these are necessary sacrifices on the path to peace!"
"You see the scars on a single tree, but you fail to see that the entire forest is already riddled with holes. This world needs saving."
"And the method to save this world is the Eye of the Moon Plan!"
Jiraiya shouted, "Invading another's Village and killing a child's father, is this what you call peace?"
"..."
Nagato remained silent. He didn't want to kill anyone; they had only come to Takigakure to take the Seven-Tails.
Takigakure refused and insisted on using such a drastic drug to fight to the death; what could they do?
Actually, the one who caused the most damage to this Village was Kakuzu, whom Jiraiya had brought.
His indiscriminate release of powerful Ninjutsu had even burned Takigakure's ancient tree, and the Takigakure Shinobi were now frantically putting out the fires.
Furthermore, the Seven-Tails above them was assuming a stance to let the world feel pain.
Jiraiya urged, "Nagato, come back! Yahiko is dead; he won't be resurrected. Stop pursuing an unrealistic world."
The name Yahiko completely struck a sensitive nerve in Nagato.
He shouted, "Jiraiya-sensei, have you ever felt my pain? My parents were accidentally killed by Konoha Shinobi when I was a child."
"Yahiko and Konan cast a beam of light into my dark world. Yahiko told me he would become the god of the world and end all the curses of the Shinobi World."
"But he failed. The Akatsuki's ideal of achieving mutual understanding through dialogue also failed, as no one was willing to believe in us."
"Yahiko failed, and the Akatsuki failed. Now Uchiha Madara has given us a way to end the curse, yet you tell me it's an unrealistic world."
"Jiraiya-sensei, let me ask you, how are you going to eliminate the never-ending wars of the Shinobi World?"
Nagato's words left Jiraiya speechless.
He thought for a long while before saying, "Nagato, I can't give you an answer, but the Third Great Shinobi War has already ended under the threat of Uchiha Madara."
"The opposition between the Five Great Shinobi Villages has also dissolved. Now we have a common enemy. Uchiha Madara has brought both war and the hope for reconciliation among the Five Great Nations."
Nagato responded, "So you're saying Uchiha Madara is an ambassador of peace?"
"This—"
Jiraiya scratched his head and realized it was true.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages and the Five Great Nations had all abandoned their past grievances because of Madara's threat, no longer dwelling on yesterday's opposition.
Looking at it this way, Madara's contribution was quite significant; the Five Great Nations should probably award him a peace prize.
Seeing Jiraiya rendered speechless, Nagato became even more convinced of his path.
If the enemy acknowledges us, it proves we are doing the right thing.
If the enemy opposes us, it only proves all the more that we are right.
If enemies, friends, bystanders, and everyone else fall silent, it means what we've done is impeccable, leaving them with nothing to say.
Just then, the Seven-Tails let out a high-pitched insectoid cry, and chakra surged from its body like a boiling wave of ink.
It lowered its head slightly, its mouthparts gaping wide, as a pitch-black, high-density chakra sphere gradually condensed at its mouth, forming a perfectly round, black, high-density orb.
"Oh no, it's a Biju Bomb!"
Seeing this, Jiraiya and Nagato ceased their ideological debate and simultaneously released Ninjutsu to block the Seven-Tails' Biju Bomb.
Jiraiya didn't really have any Ninjutsu to defend against a Biju Bomb; his techniques were mostly large-scale oil and fire attacks.
Against a technique like the Biju Bomb, Jiraiya would typically just dodge it if he could.
But right now, the range of the Seven-Tails' Biju Bomb encompassed all the Shinobi below.
Once the Biju Bomb landed and exploded, the blast radius would send all the Takigakure Shinobi flying.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart!"
Combining his chakra with Gamaken's, Jiraiya released a massive earthen wall over a hundred meters high, shielding the Takigakure Shinobi behind it.
Nagato's Secret Technique was even more miraculous.
He formed hand seals, and ten golden chains made of chakra extended from his back, rushing at high speed toward the Seven-Tails' position.
Jiraiya was shocked. "That's Kushina's technique!"
No, this was the Uzumaki Clan's unique ability, the Adamantine Sealing Chains!
In the original work, Kushina was severely weakened due to childbirth and having the Nine-Tails extracted.
Yet, even in that near-death state, Kushina used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to restrain the full Nine-Tails, assisting Minato in completing the Reaper Death Seal and the Eight Trigrams Seal on it.
Also, in the Fourth Great Shinobi War, facing the True Several Thousand Hands of Tobi possessing Yamato, Karin unleashed the Adamantine Sealing Chains, directly suppressing the low-tier version of the Thousand-Armed Kannon.
The Adamantine Sealing Chains can suppress Tailed Beasts and Wood Release; it is the signature Secret Technique of the Uzumaki Clan.
This move can only be used by those with the Uzumaki Clan bloodline.
The Adamantine Sealing Chains were given to Nagato by Madara.
Once Madara took back Nagato's Rinnegan, he had no trump cards left, so Madara told him to fully develop his own bloodline.
The Uzumaki Clan are descendants of the Senju; their Sealing Jutsu and bloodline are entities capable of contending with the Uchiha Clan.
Nagato had anticipated fighting a Tailed Beast when he came to Takigakure to capture the Seven-Tails, so he had learned the Adamantine Sealing Chains before arriving.
Furthermore, with Ryou's spore inside him, the Adamantine Sealing Chains he released not only carried sealing and suppression buffs but also had the effect of absorbing chakra.
If a severely weakened Kushina could control the full Nine-Tails with the Adamantine Sealing Chains, how much easier would it be for the Seven-Tails?