War, Ren Yamanaka had concluded long ago, was rarely about the sudden crack of thunder. The thunder was theatrical; it was the applause after the act. True war was about the barometric pressure dropping in the bones of old men. It was the silence in the marketplace. It was the slow, suffocating accumulation of clouds that blocked out the sun long before the first drop of rain fell.
And for the past six months, the Shinobi World had been suffocating.
Konoha had become a singularity—a dense, high-gravity object in the center of the Elemental Nations that warped the political geometry of everything around it. The Failed Attack by the Akatsuki two years prior, followed by the seamless economic annexation of the Land of Wind, had turned the Hidden Leaf from a village into an Empire.
The borders of the Land of Fire were expanding. Not through bloodshed—not yet—but through the irresistible coercion of infrastructure. The Land of Rivers had petitioned for "protection status" after Konoha Anbu dismantled three major bandit syndicates in a weekend. The Grass Daimyo had "invited" Konoha to manage his border security.
But Empires create friction. And gravity crushes those on the periphery.
Ren sat in the War Room, a bunker deep beneath the Hokage Monument protected by lead and sensory-dampening seals. The holographic map of the continent flickered in the center of the darkness, the blue light reflecting in his mismatched eyes.
Isamu (Intel): The Akatsuki have gone dark. They have withdrawn every spy from the Fire and Wind territories. Tactician (Logistics): It is a classic 'Turtle' strategy. They are consolidating their assets. Ryuichi (Offense): They are afraid. We broke Tobi. We captured Deidara. We humiliated Sasori. They realized they cannot win a skirmish against the Chimera. Goro (Defense): A cornered beast does not surrender. It digs a hole and waits for you to stick your hand in.
Ren traced the border of the Land of Rain on the map. It was a blank spot. His automated sensory drones failed in the heavy, chakra-laden rain of that country. His spies, even the elite Root agents, vanished within miles of Amegakure.
"We need eyes in the storm," Ren whispered. "We know Pain is there. We know he controls the organization. But we don't know the terrain. We don't know the trap."
The door behind him opened. There was no knock. There were only two people in the village who entered Ren's presence without permission: Danzo, and the man currently leaning against the frame with a smirk that didn't quite reach his tired eyes.
Jiraiya.
The Toad Sage looked weathered. His white mane was wilder than usual, his red coat dusty. He had been chasing Orochimaru's shadow for years, only for Ren to have eaten the Snake before Jiraiya could get closure. Now, he wandered the edges of Ren's empire, a relic of a kinder, messier era.
"You're plotting something grim, Lord Fifth," Jiraiya said, stepping into the blue light. "I can smell the ozone."
"The Akatsuki have retreated to Amegakure," Ren stated, not turning around. "They hold the remaining Tailed Beasts. They are preparing a weapon, Jiraiya. A weapon that Tobi called the 'Infinite Tsukuyomi'."
"And you want to invade," Jiraiya deduced, leaning on the map table. "But invading the Rain is a nightmare. Hanzo was paranoid, but this 'Pain' figure? He's a ghost."
"I cannot invade blindly," Ren admitted. "I need a probe. Someone who can infiltrate high-level sensory barriers. Someone who can survive long enough to send a signal."
Jiraiya looked at the map. He looked at the Land of Rain. He had history there. Three orphans. A promise of peace. A failure.
"I'll go," Jiraiya said quietly.
Ren finally turned. His single teal eye bore into the Sannin. "You know the probability of extraction is less than 10%."
"Statistics are for smart people," Jiraiya grinned, though his hand trembled slightly as he rested it on his waist. "I'm a fool. Fools have their own luck." He paused. "Besides… I need to know. The Rinnegan… the boy… I need to know if the Child of Prophecy became a savior or a destroyer."
Ren reached into his desk. He pulled out a small, metallic tag. It was thin, shaped like a leaf, inscribed with microscopic circuitry developed by the Puppet Master persona.
"Take this," Ren said.
Jiraiya picked it up. "A transmitter?"
"A sensory relay," Ren lied. It was a partial truth. "The rain in Ame disturbs chakra transmission. This tag utilizes a hyper-frequency channel based on the Magnet Release. Keep it on your skin. It will allow me to monitor your vitals and location."
Jiraiya pocketed the tag. "You always have a gadget, Ren. You rely too much on machines."
"Machines don't hesitate," Ren said.
Jiraiya walked to the door. He stopped.
"Tsunade is back in the village," Jiraiya said softly. "Look after her, Ren. If I don't come back… don't let her drink herself to death."
"I will ensure she remains functional," Ren said coldily.
Jiraiya sighed. "You really are a piece of work, kid."
He left.
Ren stood in the silence.
Inside the Vault, the Seal Master spoke up.
Seal Master: He is unaware of the secondary function. Ren: Correct. Seal Master: That tag is not just a location beacon. It is a Bio-Data Extraction Anchor. It links his nervous system to yours. It records visual, auditory, and chakra data directly from the host's brain stem. Ryuichi: You bugged him. Like a dog. Ren: I prioritized the Intel. If he lives, excellent. If he dies… the data survives.
Ren sat back down in the dark.
"Go with caution, Sage," Ren whispered to the empty room. "But go deep."
—————
The Death of the Toad
Three days later.
Ren canceled all his appointments. He locked the Hokage office. He activated the privacy seals.
He sat in his meditation chair, wearing the Sensory Helmet—a device that amplified his telepathic range.
CONNECTION ACTIVE.
The feed was choppy at first, distorted by the heavy rain of Amegakure. Then, it snapped into focus.
Ren wasn't seeing the office. He was seeing what Jiraiya saw.
Gray pipes. Rain. A towering, industrial landscape. And a man with orange hair and piercing purple eyes.
The Rinnegan.
Ren felt the shock through the link. It was Jiraiya's shock. Nagato? Is that you?
The battle began.
Ren experienced it vicariously, a silent passenger in the Sannin's doomed vessel.
He felt the power of Sage Mode. The fusion with Ma and Pa Toad. The massive Odama Rasengan.
But he also felt the counter-force. Pain wasn't one man. He was six.
Ren's Tactician persona analyzed the data stream in real-time, frantic and fascinated. Path 1 (Deva): Gravity manipulation. 5-second cooldown.Path 2 (Preta): Chakra absorption. Direct ninjutsu ineffective.Path 3 (Animal): Mass summoning. No blood contract required.
"Six paths of vision," Ren muttered, twitching in his chair as Jiraiya took a hit. "Shared field of view."
Ren felt the blade sever Jiraiya's arm. The phantom pain shot through Ren's shoulder, making him gasp.
Isamu: He's overwhelmed. He needs to retreat. Ren: He can't. He knows he can't.
Ren felt Jiraiya's realization. The real one is not among them.
He felt Jiraiya's throat being crushed. The silence. The fading light.
Code, Ren realized, watching through Jiraiya's blurring vision as the Sannin carved numbers onto the toad's back. 9-12-31-107…
It was a code from Jiraiya's books. A message to Naruto.
Then, the final blast. Jiraiya was blown into the water.
The sensation of drowning filled Ren's mind. Cold. Dark. Pressure building in the ears.
Jiraiya's final thought:The Frog at the bottom of the well drifts off into the great ocean. Heh… not a bad ending…
SIGNAL WEAK.
Ren knew this was the end. He had a choice. Disconnect and spare himself the death rattle, or…
"Initiate Soul Eater Protocol: Remote Siphon."
He couldn't eat the soul from this distance. But he could harvest the burst of spiritual energy released at the moment of death. He could scour the brain for the tactical data on Pain before the synapses fired their last.
Ren pushed his chakra through the link. He scraped the bottom of the Sannin's mind.
He downloaded the visual profiles of all Six Paths. He downloaded the sensation of the black rods disturbing chakra flow. He downloaded the location of the highest tower in Amegakure.
SIGNAL LOST.
The connection severed. The helmet sparked and died.
Ren slumped forward in his chair, ripping the helmet off. He was sweating profusely. His left arm—where Jiraiya had lost his—throbbed with psychosomatic agony.
He sat in the silence of the office, breathing hard.
He had just watched a legend die. He had sent him to die. And while the man was drowning, Ren had picked his pockets for intel.
Efficient, the Tactician noted. We have the enemy's profile.
Cruel, Goro's voice rumbled, sounding distant and sad. He was a comrade.
Ren touched his face. A single tear tracked through the sweat.
"Physiological response," Ren dismissed, wiping it away. "Adrenaline dump."
He stood up. He walked to the window. The rain in Konoha was falling harder now, mimicking the tears of the hidden world.
"Shikaku!" Ren barked into his comms. "Sound the alarm. Level 5 Emergency. Summon the Council. Summon Naruto."
—————
The Declaration
The Jonin Council Assembled.
The room was packed. Hiruzen (Advisor), Tsunade (Head of Medical), Kakashi, Guy, the Clan Heads. Even Danzo was there, looking grave.
Ren stood at the head of the obsidian table. He projected the data retrieved from the tag onto the central holographic map.
"Jiraiya is dead," Ren announced.
The words sucked the oxygen out of the room.
Tsunade shattered the armrest of her chair. She stood up, her face pale, trembling. "Ren… you sent him. You said it was a scout mission!"
"It was," Ren said, his voice flat. "He engaged the enemy leader. He fell."
Naruto Uzumaki, now sixteen and a Chunin, stood in the back. He looked like he had been hit with a hammer.
"Pervy Sage?" Naruto whispered. "No. No way. He's… he's the strongest!"
"He was murdered," Ren continued, ignoring the grief radiating from the room. "By the leader of the Akatsuki. A man who calls himself Pain. A man who wields the Rinnegan."
Ren pointed to the hologram showing the Six Paths.
"This is the enemy. An organization that hunts Jinchuriki. An organization that murders Sannin. An organization that threatens the existence of the Hidden Leaf."
Ren leaned forward, placing both hands on the table.
"For years, we have played defense. We have built walls. We have waited for them to strike."
He looked at Tsunade. He looked at Naruto. He saw their grief turning into rage. Good. Rage was fuel.
"Jiraiya did not die in vain," Ren lied—or told a version of the truth. "He died to give us a target. He mapped their home. He identified their leader."
Ren stood tall. His chakra flared—a cold, imperial purple that made the shadows in the room stretch like claws.
"I declare the Land of Rain a hostile entity. I declare the Akatsuki an existential threat to the Land of Fire. We are done waiting. We are done defending."
"War?" Hiashi Hyuga asked, clutching his robes. "Lord Fifth, an invasion of Rain? That is a neutral territory. The other nations… Kumo… Iwa… they will see this as expansionism."
"Let them look," Ren snarled. "If they stand with the murderers of Jiraiya, they will burn with them."
He turned to the Commanders.
"Shikaku! Mobilize the First and Second Divisions. Move them to the western border." "Danzo! Activate Root. I want sabotage teams destroying Rain supply lines by midnight." "Shisui! The Air Division will establish a no-fly zone over the border. Anything that moves in the rain, dies."
"Lord Fifth!" Naruto stepped forward. His eyes were red, the Kyuubi's chakra leaking slightly. "Let me go! I want to fight! I want to kill him!"
Ren looked at the boy. The Vessel.
Council Vote:Risk: High. Naruto is not ready.Tactician: He is the target. Sending him to Pain is delivering the weapon to the enemy.
"No," Ren said.
"What?!" Naruto yelled.
"You are weak," Ren said. It was brutal, but necessary. "You have power, Uzumaki. But you lack control. Jiraiya died because he couldn't overcome the Rinnegan. Do you think you can do better by screaming?"
Naruto froze, the truth stinging.
"Go to Mount Myoboku," Ren ordered. "Learn the Sage Arts that Jiraiya used. Master them. Surpass him. When you are ready to kill a God, come back to me. Until then, you are benched."
Naruto shook with fury, then looked at the image of Pain. He wiped his eyes. "Fine. I'll get stronger. I'll be unstoppable."
Ren nodded to a Toad summoner. "Take him."
Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.
Ren looked back at the room.
"Konoha mobilizes at dawn. We march on Amegakure."
—————
The War Machine
The mobilization of Konoha under Ren's "Iron Era" was a terrifying display of industrial warfare.
Within 48 hours, the western border was a fortress.
Ren had spent years secretly absorbing the earth-shaping memories of Iwa engineers and the forestry skills of Root's Hashirama-cell experiments. Now, he unleashed them.
He went to the border himself.
Under the cover of darkness, Ren placed his hands on the ground.
"Wood Style: Great Logistics Network."
Trees didn't just grow; they formed barracks. They formed bridges over the raging rivers of the Rain country border. They formed watchtowers camouflaged by foliage.
Simultaneously, he used Earth Style to pave smooth roads for the supply wagons.
Konoha didn't just invade; they terraformed.
The outer villages of the Land of Rain fell within days. They weren't prepared for "Ghost Squads"—Anbu utilizing the Mist Hidden Jutsu (mass produced via training from Ren's manuals) to strike in the fog.
Ren's strategy was specific: Do not strike the tower of Pain yet. Swallow the country around him. Starve the god. Isolate the capital.
—————
The International Fallout
The raven arrived on the fifth day of the invasion.
It carried the seal of the Raikage (A).
Ren sat in his field command tent, reading the scroll.
"Hokage. Your invasion of Rain is a violation of the Treaty of Iron. Withdraw immediately, or Kumo will interpret this as an act of continental aggression. The Fourth Great War will begin on your head."
A second scroll arrived from the Tsuchikage (Ohnoki).
"The Fence Sitter's student has become a Conqueror? You are young, Ren. You have forgotten that stones break glass. Back down."
Ren handed the scrolls to the Diplomat in his mind.
Ren: Draft a response. Diplomat: Polite deflection? Ren: No. Absolute arrogance. Fear is the only currency they accept now.
Ren picked up a brush. He wrote the same message to both Kage.
"The Akatsuki murdered a Sannin. They hunt Jinchuriki. You have hidden in your mountains while I clean the world's filth. The geography of power has changed. I am creating a new geometry. Stay out of the splash zone, or I will redraw your borders too."
He tied the scrolls to the ravens and sent them back.
Tactician: You are provoking a World War. Ryuichi: Good. The world is stagnant. Ren: The world is thirsty for blood. I am just holding the cup.
—————
The Hunger on the Monument
Ren returned to the village briefly to oversee the barrier updates.
It was midnight. The storm from the Land of Rain was creeping across the border, bringing heavy clouds over Konoha.
Ren climbed the Hokage Monument. He stood on top of his own stone head.
The carving captured his stern expression, the eyepatch, the cropped hair. It looked like a general.
Ren looked down at his hands.
Over the years, the consumption had taken its toll.
He felt the physical strain. The ** Sharingan** in his left eye was tingling. The Byakugan in his right was pulsing, demanding more chakra, evolving into something dense and Tenseigan-like due to the constant infusion of Otsutsuki-trace chakra from the Zetsus he hunted underground.
He was in pain. His body was a reactor running at 120% capacity.
"Pain thinks he is God because he knows suffering," Ren murmured to the wind.
Inside the Vault, the Council was quiet. They sensed the endgame approaching. They knew that the fight with Pain would determine if Ren ascended or collapsed.
Hashirama (Advisor Seat): You cannot eat the world, Ren. Eventually, the stomach bursts. Ren: I don't need to eat the world. Just the threats.
Ren removed his VISOR. He removed his eyepatch.
His right eye glowed a brilliant, translucent cyan—the embryonic stage of the Tenseigen. His left eye spun, the Mangekyo pattern shifting, looking for a way to reset the damage.
He needed more power. He needed the Rinnegan.
"Pain is coming," Ren whispered. "He won't wait for us to starve him out. He will come to the leaf."
Ren smiled. His teeth looked sharp in the moonlight.
"Good."
He flared his chakra. It wasn't a defensive signal. It was a massive, violet pillar of energy that pierced the clouds, visible for miles. It was a beacon.
"God is coming," Ren said. "And I am hungry."
He would eat the Rinnegan. He would eat the God. And then, he would finally be full enough to sleep.
End of Chapter 24.