What is that ability?
Looking at Ohnoki—whose face was contorted with effort yet remained pinned and motionless—Uchiha Shisui was filled with shock. The scene before him defied every law of shinobi combat he understood.
"It seems this is the end." Aizen glanced around at the gathered, broken forces and spoke softly. "Konan-senpai, please deal with them."
What are you talking about? Konan complained silently. You obviously have no intention of killing anyone here yet. Do you truly enjoy acting this much?
Despite her internal monologue, she gave a sharp, indifferent nod.
Choke.
Her right hand gripped her hilt, drawing the blade from its sheath with a clean hiss.
Swish.
Suddenly, a figure with short, spiky orange hair blurred into motion, blocking her path.
"Pain..." Konan stopped, her expression flickering with a complex web of emotions.
"I know everything now." Pain stared at Konan with his lavender Rinnegan, his voice flat. "Is it true? Have you truly chosen to stand by Aizen's side?"
Konan offered no verbal reply, which in Pain's eyes served as a tacit confession.
"I see. Then I will kill him." His gaze snapped to Aizen, flashing with a murderous intent that was impossible to conceal. Pain was convinced his friend had been bewitched; if he eliminated the source of the corruption—Aizen—Konan would return to the fold.
Click.
Before he could leap, a sudden, piercing chill spread from the soles of his feet. In an instant, a jagged layer of ice surged upward, completely encasing his lower body.
Pain's eyes widened. He turned a dazed look toward Konan. Her Zanpakutō had already shifted into its Shikai state.
"I'm sorry, Pain," Konan said, her expression turning frostier than the ice she commanded. "I won't let you attack him."
She did this, naturally, to protect her friend. She knew that if Pain truly attempted to strike Aizen, he would be lucky to escape with his life, let alone his skin. It was better to subdue him herself.
But Pain misinterpreted her protection as ultimate betrayal. His face contorted with rage as the ice began to spider-web with cracks. However, fueled by Konan's surging spiritual power, the frost mended itself as quickly as it broke. The two were locked in a desperate stalemate of wills.
"Oh? It seems Konan-senpai cannot be relied upon for the moment." Aizen glanced at their struggle with detached amusement. "In that case, I shall end this myself."
His right hand slowly closed around the hilt of the sword at his waist.
Bang!
The moment the words left his lips, a pair of hands erupted from the earth, seizing Aizen's ankles. Simultaneously, two other figures blurred into action, pinning his arms with practiced precision.
"That's enough, Aizen!"
"You have no chance of winning!"
Swish, swish, swish.
Several more figures flickered into the clearing. Might Guy, Kurenai Yuhi, Anko Mitarashi, the Fourth Kazekage, Chiyo, and the remaining members of the Akatsuki appeared one after another, forming a tight perimeter.
"Sosuke-kun... he's truly alive..."
"But why?"
"Did he really orchestrate all of this?"
"Such familiar faces." Aizen relaxed his posture, seemingly unfazed by the ambush. He glanced to his left and right at the men holding him. "As I expected, you've arrived. Jiraiya-sama... Tsunade-sensei."
Sensei? Konan looked at Aizen and Tsunade in surprise. She hadn't known such a connection existed.
Tsunade's brow furrowed, her voice low and dangerous. "How dare you continue to address me as 'teacher,' Aizen!"
"Ah, I shall always remember it," Aizen said with a gentle smile. "If not for Tsunade-sensei's guidance four years ago, I might not have mastered the nature transformation of Yang Release so rapidly. I have always been grateful."
"Grateful enough to destroy the village she cherished?" Jiraiya snorted, his face a mask of sarcasm. "You truly are an 'incredible' student."
"It seems Jiraiya-sama harbors a deep misunderstanding." Aizen remained unruffled. "If my goal were the destruction of Konoha, why would I have left that letter for the Hokage?"
The Konoha ninjas present stiffened, exchanging bewildered glances. The logic was hard to ignore. If Aizen truly wanted Konoha razed, he simply had to stay silent. Without his warning, the village would have crumbled under the initial wave of the Cloud and Sand invasion.
"So, what? We should thank you?" Tsunade sneered.
"That won't be necessary." Aizen's lips curled. He let out a soft chuckle. "If not for the people of Konoha, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to complete my plan so effortlessly."
Plan?
Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned, his gaze shifting to the unconscious Naruto, who had been stripped of his beast. "Do you mean that while we were focused on each other, you used the chaos to secure the Nine-Tails?"
Aizen countered with an unexpected question. "Hokage-sama... is the Nine-Tails truly the only thing you have eyes for?"
The question sent a chill through the assembled ninja. Whether from Konoha, Suna, or Iwa, every veteran present felt a sickening premonition.
Chiyo, looking battered and weary, asked bluntly, "What are you implying?"
Aizen replied calmly, "If the goal were merely to sow chaos in Konoha and seize the Fox, there would be no need to involve every major hidden village, would there?"
"You... could it be!" Ohnoki's eyes bulged as a terrifying thought took root.
"Ah. It is time." Aizen smiled indifferently.
Hum.
A massive, jagged black crack suddenly tore through the sky. Several pillars of golden light penetrated the rift, striking the ground with a rhythmic boom.
Sensing the danger, Jiraiya and Tsunade instinctively leaped back. The golden light—the Negación—enveloped Aizen, Konan, Itachi, and the captured Naruto.
Boom.
The ground beneath them fractured, lifting Aizen and his companions slowly into the air.
"They're flying?"
"Wait, look inside the rift!"
"Monsters... they're all monsters!"
"Is that a... Hollow?" Jiraiya's expression darkened. "It's just as he said—creatures that shouldn't exist in this world."
Through the cracks in the sky, they could see nightmarish creatures with bone-white masks and jagged fangs. Standing before this legion were four figures, also wearing fragments of white bone on their faces. They wore long, flowing white robes, swords at their hips, radiating a cold, suffocating aura.
"Are those... the containers?" Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes locked onto the black cubes held by the four newcomers. Each held a cube identical to the one Itachi carried. "So this was the true purpose!"
"Damn you!"
Chiyo spotted the word "One" on one of the cubes. It meant that while she and the Kazekage were occupied in Konoha, Aizen's subordinates had infiltrated Sunagakure and stolen the Shukaku. The humiliation of being played so perfectly turned her face ashen. She began to manipulate her puppet threads, but someone else acted first.
"Aizen Sosuke, you little bastard!" Ohnoki roared, his hands snapping into a familiar seal.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World!"
The transparent, conical structure shot forward, slamming into the golden barrier. To Ohnoki's utter horror, his Dust Release—an attack that dismantled matter at the molecular level—failed to leave even a scratch on the golden light.
Tsunade, realizing the battle was effectively over, asked in a voice thick with emotion, "Tell me, Aizen... why? Why create the Ten-Tails?"
"For a higher realm," Aizen answered simply, his gaze looking down from the rising light.
"Is that why you've resorted to such monstrous means?" Shisui struggled to his feet, his voice cold. "You have truly fallen, Aizen!"
"You are arrogant, Shisui."
Aizen reached up, removed his glasses, and crushed them in his palm. He slicked his hair back, his gentle demeanor vanishing to reveal a sharp, cold majesty.
"From the very beginning, no one has stood in the sky. Not you, not me... not even the gods. But that unbearable vacancy on the throne of the heavens is over. From this moment on... I will stand in the sky."