The massive black warship began its slow rise through the coated tunnel, light shimmering off the bubble that wrapped it like glass.
The Akatsuki stood on the deck—silent, the water around them thinning as they ascended toward the surface.
As the ship drifted upward, Kisame looked down at the glowing city fading beneath them… and a brief memory replayed in his mind.
Flashback — Earlier That Day
Kisame and Jinbei stood outside the palace gates, away from the crowd, speaking to each other.
Jinbei crossed his arms, studying the blue-skinned stranger.
Kisame grinned, revealing his sharp teeth.
"Samehada likes this place."
Jinbei actually chuckled.
"You remind me of some of my more troublesome brothers."
Kisame shrugged.
Jinbei offered a firm handshake—one Kisame met with equal strength.
"Take care of yourself in the world above. And… keep an eye on your crew. They're heading into storms fiercer than the sea."
Kisame nodded once.
"Don't worry. Anyone who tries to sink us…" He tapped Samehada's hilt. "…gets eaten."
Jinbei smiled faintly, watching as Kisame turned to rejoin the Akatsuki.
Jinbei: "Safe travels, friend."
Back to the Present
The flashback faded as the ship continued rising, the ocean around them lightening into a bright, shimmering blue.
Kisame rested his hand on Samehada, quietly satisfied.
Konan: "Something amusing?"
Kisame: "Just thinking… this world's finally getting interesting."
Nagato stood at the helm, rinnegan glowing faintly, watching the shifting colors above.
Nagato: "Prepare yourselves. Once we break the surface, the Marines may already be waiting."
Enel cracked his knuckles, smirking.
Enel: "Let them wait. I'm ready."
The ship ascended higher—
Light flared beyond the thinning water—
And the Akatsuki rose toward the surface, unaware that a certain admiral burned with anticipation above.
The coated ship burst through the surface—sunlight flashing across the water.
They had barely risen when a blazing fist of molten magma tore toward them.
Akainu. He'd been waiting.
Aokiji was a step behind him, hand outstretched as if trying to stop him—but too late.
Nagato raised a single hand.
"Shinra Tensei."
The air warped. The magma fist was blown apart instantly—scattered into steaming fragments.
Akainu landed on a nearby warship, smoke rising from his arm, eyes locked on Nagato with murderous fury.
"You criminals finally show yourselves…"
Kisame didn't wait.
He vaulted over the railing and dove into the sea.
The water erupted. A sphere of ocean rose around every Marine ship—massive, crushing, sealing them inside a drowning prison.
Marines (shouting): "W-we're trapped—!" "Sea water—! Admiral, we're sinking!"
Akainu's knees buckled the instant seawater touched the hull beneath him. His strength vanished—his magma flickered out.
Akainu: "Tch—damn…!"
Kisame grinned within the roiling water.
"Let's see how fish swim when the shark begins hunting."
He fused with Samehada and was ready to start hunting—
But in the blink of an eye—
Aokiji appeared behind him.
A wave of freezing cold surged outward.
"Ice age."
The entire water sphere flash-froze into solid ice—locking Kisame out, sealing the Marines in.
Aokiji acted again before Kisame could respond—an enormous hand of ice scooped Akainu out of the freezing prison and hurled him onto a safer warship.
Aokiji: "That's enough. If you stay in that water any longer, you'll die."
Akainu coughed, glaring furiously at him—but unable to stand.
On the Akatsuki's ship, Nagato watched with calm irritation.
"It seems the Admirals have come prepared."
Enel smirked, electricity crackling along his arms.
"Good. I was getting bored."
The battlefield steadied—Akatsuki on one side, Admirals regrouping on the other—the ocean between them cracked and frozen.
A confrontation inevitable.
Every member of the Akatsuki except Nagato and Itachi leapt forward as the frozen bubble shattered into massive crystalline shards.
Kisame burst from the water, blade drawn.
Kisame: "You two can sit this one out. We'll handle the warm-up."
Itachi nodded calmly, not planning to use his eyes unless completely necessary.
Nagato meanwhile just watched.
Deidara soared into the sky on his bird, clay already molding in his hands.
Deidara: "Perfect place for a fireworks show!"
Sasori's puppet body unfurled its hidden weapons as he stepped calmly across the air using near invisible, enhanced chakra strings he'd set up between the ships, to simulate walking on air.
"Let's make this quick."
Three of Kakazu's masks separated from him, launching beams of flame, wind, and lightning across the battlefield.
"Try not to die too fast."
Enel fired bolts of lightning at the ships further back.
Hidan rushed in, laughing, scythe spinning.
"COME ON MARINES! LET JASHIN-SAMA JUDGE YOU!"
Konan dissolved into paper wings, slicing through cannon fire.
Konan: "They still don't understand the gap between us."
Akainu, barely recovered, gritted his teeth as magma began steaming violently from seawater residue on his body.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT JUSTICE?!"
Aokiji intercepted the Akatsuki's charge, forming a thick wall of ice that stretched across the sea like a barrier.
"Stop. All of you. There's no need—"
The wall exploded instantly as Deidara's clay bird smashed through it.
Deidara: "Nah, nah, nah—there is a need!"
The blasts lit up the sky.
Kisame swung Samehada, cleaving an entire ship in half as the marines panicked.
"You idiots really thought water was the place to fight me?"
Sasori's iron sand surged forward like a tidal wave, ripping through cannons and masts.
Kakuzu's elemental attacks hammered the frozen sea, shattering Aokiji's footholds.
Hidan exchanged blows with vice admirals, laughing as bullets and swords tore holes in him.
Konan's paper spears rained down like a storm on the decks.
Meanwhile, Nagato hovered above the battlefield, arms folded, observing calmly.
Itachi stood nearby, silent, watching the clash with unreadable eyes.
Nagato: "This confrontation is unnecessary… but if they insist on throwing their lives away, so be it."
Akainu roared, finally regaining his bearings.
"ENOUGH! I'LL WIPE OUT EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"
He launched a colossal magma fist skyward.
Kisame grinned savagely and formed handseals, a large shark of chakra burst from the water colliding with the magma, the shark surprisingly instead of steaming and melting, absorbed the magma, growing much larger, and then continuing towards Akainu.
The marine fleet froze for a moment, stunned.
Aokiji: "…That's… new."
The empowered shark surged onward, its molten chakra mass barreling straight toward Akainu.
Akainu snarled, planting his feet on an ice platform Aokiji formed beneath him.
Akainu: "YOU THINK A TRICK LIKE THAT CAN—"
The magma shark struck him head-on.
Even with his magma body, the force sent him flying backward through the air, smashing through a marine battleship's mast and carving a molten trail across its deck.
Vice Admiral: "ADMIRAL AKAINU!!"
Kisame laughed.
Kisame: "What's wrong, Admiral? Can't handle a little seafood?"
Aokiji blurred forward, freezing the air around him to stop the follow-up.
Deidara dropped a clay bomb from above to cut him off.
Deidara: "Ice cubes incoming—boom!"
Konan's paper spears rained through the smoke, Sasori's iron sand spiraled around the battlefield, Kakuzu's elements tore through the remaining ships, and Hidan's manic laughter echoed from the decks below as he chased fleeing marines.
Nagato remained suspended above the battlefield.
Nagato: "This is spiraling out of control…"
But he didn't move—yet.
Itachi's eyes tracked the chaos, calm, calculating.
Itachi: "…They'll force your hand soon."
The molten chakra shark dissipated at last, steam and sparks raining down over the shattered fleet.
And Akainu, battered and furious, pulled himself from the wreckage—magma boiling violently across his body as he roared in rage.
Akainu: "I'LL ERASE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"
Aokiji landed beside him, frost gathering around his arms.
Aokiji: "Sengoku's gonna yell at us for this… but whatever."
The temperature of the battlefield split—one half boiling, the other freezing.
Both admirals charged simultaneously.
Akainu and Aokiji unleashed their combined assault—magma roaring upward, ice cutting the sky apart.
Kisame, Deidara, Kakuzu and the rest tensed—
But Nagato stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
Nagato: "I have been… curious about something."
His Rinnegan shifted. A strange silence rippled across the battlefield.
Nagato raised his hand slightly.
Nagato: "Limbo: Border Jail."
Nothing visibly happened.
No explosion. No flash. No shockwave.
Just a sudden, unsettling stillness.
Akainu froze mid-charge. Aokiji's eyes widened.
Akainu: "What—? My body— something grabbed—!!"
Aokiji: "…I can't see anything. But… something's there."
The admirals flew backward as if struck by invisible giants—one blow each, clean and heavy, cracking the air around them.
Deidara blinked, confused.
Kisame's grin faded into curiosity.
Even Itachi's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Only Nagato could see them, his Limbo clones standing between the Akatsuki and the admirals.
Akainu roared, swinging molten fists at empty space.
Each swing hit nothing—but the counterblows hit him.
He was knocked across a deck, magma splattering.
Aokiji tried to freeze the unseen attackers, raising walls of ice——but the ice formed around nothing, then shattered as if something moved through it.
"…These aren't illusions."
Vice Admirals all around began panicking, clutching their heads.
"Something's there!" "I can't see it— but I— I feel it—!" "Use… Observation Haki!!"
But only the strongest among them could faintly sense the "pressure," distant and blurry.
And even then, they couldn't track it.
Nagato walked calmly on air, watching his unseen shadows dismantle two admirals simultaneously.
Akainu tried to stand, face twisted in rage.
Akainu: "SHOW YOURSELF!!!"
Nagato: "They already have."
Akainu was slammed into the mast by an invisible strike, magma splattering like blood.
Aokiji created a massive frozen dome around himself, hoping to trap the unseen force——but the Limbo clone simply stepped through it.
Aokiji's breath hitched. A perfect hit sent him skidding across the water, ice forming under his boots to stop him.
Nagato exhaled calmly.
Nagato: "Yes… This is far more efficient than expected."
The rest of the Akatsuki stood behind him—watching their leader test a technique so overwhelming that even two admirals couldn't properly fight it.
For the first time, the Marines understood:
This wasn't a fight.
This was the true strength of the Akatsuki.
A leader strong enough to overpower two admirals without effort.
Each member strong enough to defeat vice admirals, and possessing strength near the admiral-candidate level.
And what's worse—Most of them weren't even using haki.
Panic finally erupted across the Marine formation.
"W-We can't win this!" "They're monsters—every one of them!" "Retreat! RETREAT!"
Akainu tried to stand again, magma dripping off his arm, but another invisible strike forced him to one knee.
Aokiji froze the sea beneath him to stay upright, breathing heavily.
Aokiji: "…Sakazuki. We're leaving."
Akainu snarled, but even he couldn't deny the reality.
His fists clenched. His jaw trembled with rage.
But he retreated.
The admirals leapt back onto what remained of their ships, and the Marine fleet scrambled to flee, dragging broken masts and shattered decks behind them.
Nagato didn't pursue. He simply lowered his hand, the Limbo clones fading back into his body.
Kisame stretched.
Deidara scoffed.
Hidan cackled, licking the blood of a vice admiral he'd taken during the chaos, completing his ritual and killing the man from afar.
Kakuzu clicked his tongue, annoyed. "All that wasted money… if only the ships didn't sink."
Itachi stood silently, eyes fixed on the distant shape of the retreating admirals, unreadable.
Nagato turned to the crew.
"Kakuzu. While we're here, transform and go cash in the bounties you've been holding onto."
Kakuzu didn't even try to hide the satisfaction in his voice.
"About damn time."
As promised, Nagato allowed him to claim the bounties upon reaching Sabaody.
The others began preparing to move, the atmosphere calm, despite the battle that had just shaken the sea.
The Akatsuki had business to handle.
And even after defeating two Admirals, they acted as if it were nothing more than the next step in their path.