The sky was dark, like a rag soaked in ink. Endless rain blanketed the land, and the muddy road twisted indistinctly beneath the curtain of water.
Against this dull gray-black backdrop, four figures walked forward in silence.
At the front was the Deva Path Pain, controlled from afar. His orange hair was soaked through, clinging to his young yet lifeless face.
Behind him followed the Human Path and Asura Path, equally expressionless, and Konan, her blue-violet hair drenched by the rain.
As the Rain Village gradually came into view through the downpour, a vague unease stirred within Konan.
"Na… Pain."
Still not used to addressing him directly, she hesitated before correcting herself. "With only the three Paths you've brought… is it really alright to face Hanzo?"
Pain did not answer immediately, nor did he turn back. His steps remained steady, as though inspecting the land whose order he intended to redefine.
Rain hammered everything, the only sound in the world.
"Konan, I once respected him."
Pain's voice, low and emotionless, cut through the rain. "But he is no longer the Hanzo he once was."
The current Hanzo had likely aged to the point where he could no longer even summon that salamander.
His gaze pierced through the dense rain toward the towering spire in the distance, standing like a tombstone.
"Now he colludes with Danzo, hiding in his tower just to cling to life. He is nothing more than a decaying corpse."
"The rain cannot wash away the sins of this world… nor past betrayals."
His tone remained flat, like a statement of absolute truth.
"Only a god can cleanse the filth of the shinobi world and bring peace."
Konan looked at his back, familiar, yet utterly alien. There was no hesitation, no mercy, only cold judgment.
Rain struck her face, icy and sharp.
A fleeting pain flickered in her eyes before settling into the same dead calm. The softness of the "paper butterfly" faded, replaced by clarity and resolve.
"…Mm."
Her response was soft, almost lost in the rain, yet filled with finality, as if casting aside the past to follow a god into an uncertain future.
As they approached the gates of the Rain Village, guards became visible ahead.
"Stop!"
Two Rain shinobi spotted the figures through the mist and immediately raised their guard. "Who are you?!"
Pain had no interest in explaining himself to insects.
He simply raised his hand.
But at that moment, a terrifying presence surged toward him like a tidal wave.
He looked up.
On top of the distant tower, a figure stood.
"Pain!"
Konan's expression changed slightly.
Bzzz
The ground beneath them began to tremble, as if something massive was writhing below, desperate to break free.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A roar echoed from afar, wild and unrestrained.
Crack! Crack!
The earth bulged upward, shattering under unimaginable force, forming jagged layers like rising steps.
Pain's eyes shifted slightly. Almost instinctively, he used repulsive force to lift himself into the air.
At the same time, "ROAR!!"
A deafening explosion shook the heavens.
From within the swirling dust, a massive shadow burst forth, like a leaping carp, lunging toward Pain and Konan.
Konan reacted a split second later, spreading her paper wings with her Dance of the Shikigami.
But in her widening pupils, she saw it,
A cavernous maw from below, its foul breath nearly brushing her face.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Pain raised his hand.
Invisible, overwhelming repulsion surged outward, crushing down on the beast.
Boom!
The massive shadow crashed back to the ground, kicking up another storm of dust and rain.
The three Paths of Pain and Konan reappeared at a distance, her gaze now heavy as she stared into the clearing haze.
"ROAR!"
A shockwave rippled through the rain, scattering the dust.
The creature was revealed,
A massive salamander.
Its brownish-purple body was grotesquely large. Four toes on its forelimbs, five on its hind limbs, and a thick, flattened tail that shook the ground with each movement.
Its skin lacked scales, covered instead in a slick membrane that secreted fluid, corroding the ground into smoking patches.
"Such size… a salamander…"
Konan's voice carried both shock and weight.
Though called a salamander, it was not truly a fish but a unique amphibian of the Rain Country. Most were no more than a few meters long, even a two- or three-meter one was already fit as a summon.
But this one, towered over ten meters tall just lying there.
If it stood upright, it would resemble a collapsing mountain.
There was only one such creature in the shinobi world.
And only one person who could summon it.
"Ibuse, the salamander."
Floating in the air, Pain looked at the figure standing atop its head.
"And…"
"Hanzo-sama!"
The two guards at the gate cried out in unison, their faces filled with disbelief.
Just yesterday, Hanzo had seemed old and frail, how had he suddenly become so young?
The confusion vanished instantly, replaced by shock and exhilaration.
This presence… this aura…
It was him.
The Hanzo of old.
"There's no mistake!"
"Seems the owner of those disgusting white creatures is you."
Standing atop the salamander, arms crossed, Hanzo looked down at the four figures, his gaze settling on Pain and Konan.
"…Wait."
His brows furrowed.
"You two look familiar."
His eyes fixed on Pain's face, cold, expressionless, like a statue carved from stone.
Yet somehow…
That face overlapped with a memory, one filled with passion and hope.
"You are…"
Hanzo's eyes narrowed.
"…Yahiko of the Akatsuki?"
'How could that be?'
'Yahiko should be dead and those eyes…'