Amegakure—the Village Hidden in the Rain—was a monument to engineered sorrow. Its skyscrapers, grotesque fingers of black steel and piping, pierced the low, weeping clouds like hypodermic needles. It was a city designed to drown, to hide tears in the deluge, and today, it was drowning in fire.
Ren Yamanaka stood on the roof of the captured Sector 1 outpost, staring at the central tower. It loomed in the distance, a monolith of black metal where Nagato Uzumaki—the man who called himself Pain—waited.
Ren looked immaculate. His black armor was polished, his white Hokage cloak pristine, unsullied by the mud and blood that coated his soldiers. But beneath the surface, the man was falling apart.
His chakra network felt like a hydroelectric dam holding back a tsunami. The Hashirama cells, usually a stabilizing agent, were overheating as they tried to repair the constant micro-ruptures in his cells. The Council in his mind was no longer a calm debate; it was a riot in a burning prison.
Medic: Core temperature at 40°C. Cellular necrosis in the liver and kidneys advancing. If you engage in Kage-level combat, system failure is certain. You are metabolizing your own organs to fuel the chakra demand. Seal Master: The Vault is full. I mean physically full. The metaphysical space has reached maximum density. The ink on the mental scrolls is bleeding. If you add the Rinnegan's chakra… we burst. Ren (Chairman): I need that eye. It is the key to stabilization. It is the key to the Tenseigen. Tactician: Logic dictates we minimize risk. You are the King. You do not brawl in the mud. You send the Knights. The Knights are expendable. The King is not.
Ren looked down at the courtyard where his elite strike force was assembled. The strongest shinobi in history were waiting for his command, their breath misting in the cold, wet air.
Kakashi Hatake. His visible eye was tired, but his hand rested on the executioner's blade with familiar ease. Might Guy. Bouncing on his toes, burning away the grim reality with sheer kinetic enthusiasm. Shisui Uchiha. Stoic, his Mangekyo deactivated but ready to spin. Itachi Uchiha. Silent, a crow in the rain, observing everything. Hiashi Hyuga. His white robes stained, but his dignity intact. Sasuke Uchiha. Young, arrogant, thirsty for a chance to prove his eyes were superior to the legend. And… defying orders yet again, Naruto Uzumaki. Standing in the front, glowing with the faint, natural energy of a Toad Sage.
"The Council votes," Ren whispered to himself "Survival is Priority One."
He activated his comms.
"This is the Endgame," Ren announced, his voice projected to every headset. "The enemy is cornered in the Central Tower. He has redeployed the Six Paths. He will fight to the death. Expect no quarter. Give none."
"I'm going in!" Naruto shouted, pumping his fist. "I'm gonna punch him for Ero-Sennin! I'm gonna make him see!"
"Stand down, Uzumaki," Ren ordered coldly. "This is not a brawl. It is an execution."
Ren pointed a gloved finger at the tower.
"Team Alpha (Kakashi, Guy, Naruto): Frontal assault. Engage the Deva Path (Gravity) and Asura Path (Weapons). Keep the gravity user busy. If he uses Shinra Tensei, you have a five-second window. Do not miss."
"Team Beta (Shisui, Itachi, Sasuke): Aerial and Genjutsu support. Engage the Animal and Human paths. Break their link. Do not look into the Rinnegan directly."
"Team Gamma (Hiashi, Danzo, Root): Secure the perimeter. Eliminate the Paper Angel. She protects the real body."
"And you, Lord Fifth?" Shisui asked, looking up at his friend's mask.
"I will secure the asset," Ren lied smoothly. "Nagato himself."
Ren didn't care about justice. He cared about the harvest. But he couldn't eat until the meat was tenderized.
"Move out."
—————
The Clash of Titans
The battle for the tower was a symphony of violence played on instruments of flesh and steel.
The Six Paths of Pain stood on the balconies, waiting. They were repaired, fueled by Nagato's desperate, burning life force. They looked like statues of apathy.
The Frontal Assault: Gravity vs. Nature
Naruto led the charge. He was in Sage Mode, his eyes yellow with frog-like pupils. He moved with a heavy, deliberate grace.
"Rasengan!"
He lunged at the Asura Path, the bald cyborg. The Asura Path opened its head, revealing a laser cannon.
BZZT.
A beam of purple light shot at Naruto. Naruto didn't dodge; he sensed it. He twisted in mid-air, the beam singing the orange fabric of his jumpsuit. He slammed the massive sphere of chakra into the robot's chest.
"Frog Kata!"
The shockwave—invisible natural energy—punched through the Asura Path's armor even though the physical fist missed by an inch. The path crumbled into scrap metal.
"One down!" Naruto roared.
From the balcony above, the Deva Path raised a hand. "Shinra Tensei."
The repulsive force hit Naruto like a physical wall. He was blasted back into the wet street, tumbling.
But Might Guy was there. "DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
Guy dropped from the sky, a green comet. His kick intercepted the Deva Path, forcing Pain to focus gravity on blocking the blow rather than crushing Naruto.
Pain skidded back. "This taijutsu… it is heavy."
"It is the weight of Youth!" Guy shouted, opening the Seventh Gate. Blue sweat evaporated into green steam. The rain around him hissed and vanished. "Hirodora (Daytime Tiger)!"
He punched the air. A massive air pressure bomb shaped like a tiger roared toward Pain.
The Uchiha Wing: Fire and Illusion
On the upper levels, the Animal Path slammed its hands down. Smoke exploded. A giant multi-headed dog and a chameleon appeared.
Shisui, Itachi, and Sasuke moved in perfect sync. A triangle of Uchiha genius.
"Chidori Spear!" Sasuke screamed. A lance of lightning extended from his hand, piercing the chameleon's eye, revealing its location.
"Amaterasu!" Itachi whispered. His eye bled. Black flames ignited on the multi-headed dog, burning the unburnable. The beast howled, a sound that shook the glass of the tower.
"Susanoo!" Shisui activated his Mangekyo. A massive green spectral warrior formed around him. It wielded a drill-lance. Shisui flew straight at the Human Path, who was trying to rip the soul out of an injured Konoha Anbu.
The drill slammed into the balcony. The Human Path leaped away, but Shisui was faster.
"Kotoamatsukami: Stutter."
He cast a micro-genjutsu. For one millisecond, the Human Path forgot how to jump.
It was enough. Shisui's Susanoo crushed the Path against the wall, reducing it to paste.
"Our eyes are superior," Sasuke stated arrogantly, his Mangekyo spinning. He felt the rush of power. The ecstasy of being the apex predator.
"Focus, Sasuke," Itachi chided gently, covering his bleeding eye. "Arrogance creates blind spots."
The Angel's Fall: Paper vs. Wind
Outside the tower, Konan hovered on wings of paper. She looked like a divine being.
"You will not pass," she said. Her voice was sad, resigned. She dissolved into thousands of sheets of paper, swirling into a storm.
She faced the darkness of Konoha. Danzo Shimura.
Danzo walked with his cane, flanked by Hiashi Hyuga and twenty Root operatives.
"A paper angel," Danzo rasped. "Fitting. Flammable and fragile."
Konan unleashed a storm of paper spears. They were sharp enough to cut stone.
Hiashi stepped forward. "Rotation!"
A blue sphere of spinning chakra deflected the paper.
Danzo moved. He didn't fight fair. He unwrapped his right arm, revealing the stolen Sharingan embedded in his flesh.
"Izanagi."
Konan detonated a massive swarm of explosive tags right in Danzo's face. BOOM.
The smoke cleared. Danzo was gone.
Danzo materialized behind Konan, rewriting his own death. He exhaled a blade of vacuum-enhanced wind chakra. "Wind Style: Vacuum Blade."
It sliced through Konan's paper wings. She fell from the sky, her chakra disrupted.
"Your devotion is commendable," Danzo whispered as she hit the wet pavement. "But devotion without power is just suicide."
Root agents swarmed her, pinning her with ink seals before she could detonate her final suicide technique.
She looked up at the grey sky. She had failed Nagato. The despair in her eyes was absolute.
—————
The Last Stand of a God
The paths were falling.
The Naraka Path (healer) was destroyed by Kakashi's Lightning Cable, sliced in half before it could revive the others.
The Animal Path was crushed inside a planetary devastation created by a joint Earth Style jutsu from the Konoha Ground forces.
Only the Deva Path remained. And he was fighting Naruto, Guy, and Kakashi simultaneously.
Nagato, in his chair miles above, screamed. He was bleeding from his nose and eyes. He pushed every ounce of his life force into the Deva Path.
"I… am… GOD!"
The Deva Path flew into the sky.
"CHIBAKU TENSEI!"
He threw the black sphere. The earth began to rip upward.
But Ren Yamanaka was watching.
He had phased into the tower's upper infrastructure using Earth Style. He watched through the vents.
Council (Isamu): The guardians are down. The path to the true body is clear. Ren: Then I go.
Ren moved. He didn't run; he flowed through the walls.
—————
The Skeleton in the Chair
Ren kicked the door to the highest chamber open.
It was a dark room, humid and smelling of copper and mold. Cables snaked across the floor, connecting to a massive mechanical walker.
And inside it sat Nagato Uzumaki.
He was a skeleton wrapped in skin. His red hair had turned bone-white from the exertion. His ribs heaved with every rattling breath. But his eyes—the Rinnegan—still glowed with a terrifying, ancient purple light.
He was a god who had burned himself out to light the world.
"You came," Nagato wheezed, his head lolling to the side to look at the intruder. "The False Kage."
Ren walked closer. His boots clicked on the metal grating. He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't need one.
"False?" Ren asked, tilting his head. "My village is standing. Yours is burning. My people are alive. Yours are dying in the mud. Who is false, Nagato?"
Nagato raised a trembling hand. A black chakra receiver rod shot from his palm.
Ren didn't dodge. He swatted it aside with a hand coated in Steel Release (eaten from a swift runner years ago). The rod clattered harmlessly to the floor.
"The world must know pain," Nagato recited his mantra, his voice desperate, clinging to the ideology like a drowning man to driftwood. "Only through shared suffering can they understand peace. You… you Konoha dogs… you only know comfort."
Ren stood over the emaciated man. He loomed like a reaper.
"You talk like a poet," Ren said coldily. "I hate poets. They confuse misery with profundity. You think your pain makes you special?"
Ren leaned down. His mismatched eyes bore into the Rinnegan.
"You know pain? I am pain. I digest the dying moments of soldiers every day. I have eaten the screams of a thousand men. I have memories of burning alive, drowning, betrayal, and starvation spinning in my head every second of every day. I remember the exact feeling of a mother realizing she can't feed her child."
Ren's voice dropped to a terrifying growl.
"And do you know what I did with that pain? I didn't cry. I didn't nuke a city. I built a filing cabinet."
He released Nagato's wrist.
"You let your trauma drive the car, Nagato. I put mine in the trunk. That is why you lost. You are just a child throwing a tantrum because the world hurt you."
Nagato stared at him. He saw the abyss in Ren's eyes. He saw the Legion inside. He realized Ren wasn't a hypocrite; he was a monster who had mastered his own monstrosity.
Nagato's will broke. The god died in that chair.
"Kill me," Nagato whispered, tears streaming down his gaunt face. "Take them. Take the eyes. Finish your collection."
Ren looked at the Rinnegan.
The Council in his mind roared. It was deafening.
Ryuichi: TAKE IT! UNLIMITED POWER! Goro: Stabilize the realm! Isamu: We will see everything! Puppeteer: We can control the moon!
Ren reached out. His hand hovered over Nagato's face. The hunger was unbearable. It felt like starvation. His fingers trembled.
But then, the Medic spoke up in the Vault. The voice of reason.
Medic: WARNING. Core failure imminent. If you absorb the Rinnegan now… the metabolic shock will kill you. Your body cannot handle the density. The cup is full. Ren: I can handle it! I must! Seal Master: No. Physics is absolute. You are leaking chakra already. If you take this eye, you explode. And we all die. Tactician: Logic dictates refusal. If you eat him, you die, and the empire falls. If you spare him…
Ren froze.
"If I spare him?" Ren asked aloud, his voice straining.
Nagato blinked, confused by the hesitation.
Tactician: He is broken. He has no army. The eyes are draining him to death. He is no longer a threat. But the eyes… they can be harvested later. When the body is stronger. Or… we secure them in a jar. We preserve the asset.
Ren pulled his hand back. It took every ounce of his willpower.
He let out a scream of frustration—a raw, animal sound. He punched the steel wall next to Nagato's head, shattering the metal plating.
"I can't," Ren hissed. "I'm full."
He looked at Nagato with pure loathing. Not because Nagato was an enemy, but because he was a meal Ren couldn't finish. A feast he had to walk away from.
"You survive today," Ren spat. "Not because of mercy. But because my pantry is full."
Ren turned around. He adjusted his cloak.
"Take him!" Ren barked into his comms. "Anbu Sealing Team! Secure the target! Place a blindness seal on the eyes! Keep him alive! If he dies, I execute the medical team!"
Anbu phased into the room. They surrounded the bewildered Nagato, slapping seals onto his body, sedating the fallen god.
—————
The Aftermath
Ren walked to the balcony.
The rain had stopped. The clouds were breaking. A single ray of sunlight pierced the gloom, illuminating the ruined city of Amegakure.
Below, the battle was over. The New Generation of Konoha stood victorious. Naruto was helping a wounded Rain civilian. Sakura was healing the injured. Sasuke was staring at his hands, power-drunk but controlled.
They were shining stars. The heroes of the age.
Ren watched them.
The other nations, watching via spies, were terrified. Konoha had crushed a god in an afternoon.
The Rain Village had fallen. Konoha was the undisputed master of the continent.
But Ren felt like he had lost.
He clutched his chest. His heart beat arrhythmically—thump… thump-thump… pause.
"I need to rest," Ren whispered. "I need to stabilize."
The Graveyard was full. No more entries accepted.
Ren Yamanaka, the God of Peace, leaned against the railing and closed his eyes. The ecstatic cheers of his army rose from below, chanting his name.
"Lord Fifth! Lord Fifth! Lord Fifth!"
But Ren didn't hear the cheers. He only heard the quiet whimper of his own dying cells.
For the first time in his life, he wasn't hungry. He was just sick.
End of Chapter 27.