Two hours later, the battlefield fell silent.
The Hidden Rain soldiers were either dead or had fled. Salamander Hanzo's death had shattered whatever will remained in the Hidden Rain forces when facing three Kage-level fighters tearing through their ranks. The psychological line had broken first.
As the battle had progressed, they had gradually come to understand that killing these three Sand Village fighters was not a realistic possibility. The enemy was simply too powerful. And the Hidden Rain Village's long-stagnant atmosphere, combined with the quiet rot in its internal power structure, meant these soldiers had never developed the kind of resolve that would make them fight to the last.
Their quality was far below that of the other major hidden villages.
The moment Hanzo, who had been the spiritual symbol of the Hidden Rain Village and regarded almost as a god by its people, fell dead, every fighter who could run simply ran. There was no conviction binding them to the village's fate.
On the outer edge of the battlefield, Akatsuki regrouped after the fighting ended. With Konan at the front, they reunited with Yahiko and Nagato. After being brought back from the edge of death from Hanzo's hands this time, none of them would allow their leader to face that kind of mortal threat alone again.
"So this is the Fourth Kazekage," Yahiko said quietly, his expression shaken as he surveyed the battlefield, which resembled something out of a nightmare.
Most of those who had died here were people of the Land of Rain.
The air was thick with the sharp smell of blood. Rain had pooled in the churned earth at their feet, and thin streams of red flowed through the mud, spreading until they reached the edge of Yahiko's boots.
The Fourth Kazekage was more terrifying than anything the rumors had described.
His purpose had been completely clear from the first moment. Strike at the head first. The moment he had moved, killing Hanzo had been the primary objective. Because as long as Hanzo was alive, the Hidden Rain soldiers could sustain a higher level of combat intensity.
Eliminating Hanzo quickly served two purposes simultaneously. It removed the single greatest threat on the field and shattered the morale of every Hidden Rain soldier in the same stroke, breaking through everyone's psychological defense at once. The numerically superior forces that had been operating with cohesion under Hanzo's authority instantly dissolved into disorder.
"Hanzo had not participated in the ninja world's major battlefields for many years and had not experienced serious combat in a long time. But he was still the Salamander Hanzo who had once made the entire ninja world tremble. Even accounting for the decline in his abilities due to various reasons over the years, he was not someone just anyone could kill so easily."
Yahiko said it in a low voice, almost to himself.
The Fourth Kazekage's space-time ninjutsu was simply extraordinary. There was no way to prepare for it. At the level of absolute top-tier fighters, victory and defeat were always decided in a single instant.
Without that particular ability, even the Kazekage could not have resolved Hanzo so cleanly. But for combatants of this caliber, a decisive encounter always concluded at the fastest possible speed. Neither side would hold anything back. The goal was always to kill the opponent before any variables could emerge.
Bodies lay scattered across the central ground of the battlefield. Sasori and Rasa stood shoulder to shoulder. On the high ground above, countless crystallized blood spears stood tall like lances driven into the earth, piercing through the remains of Hidden Rain and Konoha ninja alike.
Viewed from a distance, it looked almost as though blood-colored flowers had bloomed across the elevated terrain.
"We had no chance of winning this," Yahiko said, his expression settling into something quiet and resigned.
Having watched the entire engagement from the outside, he had already assessed it. Even now, after all three of them had clearly been through an exhausting fight with their conditions meaningfully depleted, Akatsuki still could not have matched them.
The main Akatsuki force he had led here numbered barely over a hundred scattered fighters. It bore no comparison to the combined Hidden Rain and Konoha numbers. And the only Akatsuki members who could stand against any of the Sand Village's three individuals in single combat were himself, Nagato, and Konan.
But even with the three of them working together, defeating any one of the Sand Village's group would have been far from easy. The most approachable opponent among them had been Rasa. As for the Fourth Kazekage and Sasori, the probability of success had been close to zero.
On the other side of the battlefield, Yuji opened the system interface and glanced at the auxiliary experience points awarded.
Killing Hanzo had earned five thousand experience points from the system.
Slightly more than the Third Raikage had yielded, but considerably less than he had expected. Still well short of half of what Obito had given him.
But given where his current totals stood, this was an extremely welcome addition.
Going forward, building his reserves seemed increasingly tied to hunting characters of genuine plot significance rather than accumulating through sheer volume of battlefield kills. The era of growing experience points through mass numbers was largely behind him.
Unless he was on a truly large-scale battlefield.
"A little more. Just a little more accumulation and I can configure the final module of the Ope Ope no Mi's skill set," Yuji thought to himself as he closed the system interface.
The next skill module was the Room.
And after that.
The fruit's awakening.
The reason Yuji had brought only Sasori and Rasa was precisely to avoid having experience points diluted across too many participants. Beyond that, the combined force that Hanzo and Danzo had arranged was not large enough to require anything more than three fighters of their level to handle.
If the enemy had fielded ten thousand or more, the calculation would have been different entirely. But given the Hidden Rain Village's current state after years of internal conflict, deploying ten thousand fighters would have been impossible even at the height of its power.
If the Hidden Rain Village had been allied with Akatsuki, the combined fighting force would have been capable of standing against any of the other four great hidden villages. That had been one of the central reasons Danzo had been so determined to prevent that alliance from ever forming.
Yuji turned and looked toward the far side of the battlefield, where Yahiko's group of three stood at the head of the remaining Akatsuki members.
They had not left.
They had been waiting for him.
Yahiko was watching him from across the distance as well.
Yuji dropped down from the high ground. The black pattern markings faded from his face as he landed. His stored chakra had been fully expended.
His current condition was not ideal. But he had no concern whatsoever about Akatsuki attempting anything reckless.
Seeing the Fourth Kazekage approach, all three of Yahiko's group immediately tensed. The Akatsuki members standing behind them were equally serious, their expressions filled with wariness.
Nobody knew what was coming next.
Yuji walked forward until he stood a few meters in front of the three of them.
He looked at Yahiko first, offered a quiet smile, then let his gaze settle on Konan.
"According to our arrangement, the Sand Village has done what we said we would do. We saved your leader and your organization. You also have obligations to fulfill."
Konan remained silent.
"Our Sand Village forces are currently in the process of taking the Hidden Rain Village. With Salamander Hanzo dead, whatever remains of the Hidden Rain's military strength will not be able to mount any serious resistance. This should come as no surprise."
The moment Yuji said this, the expressions across Yahiko's entire group shifted.
They had assumed the Kazekage had simply come to intervene and save them. None of them had considered that the Sand Village had split its forces from the beginning, with one arm moving to seize the Hidden Rain Village simultaneously.
"Our agreement never said you could hand the entire Land of Rain over to yourselves," Konan said, her composure breaking as she pushed back immediately.
"This country has never belonged only to the Hidden Rain Village. Even if the Sand Village takes the village itself, do not think you can simply control the Land of Rain."
Yahiko fixed his gaze on Yuji and spoke in a low, steady voice.
"Hand it to you instead of us? You could barely manage a single Salamander Hanzo." Yuji was entirely unapologetic. "Setting aside Konoha entirely, after Hanzo's death the task of stabilizing the Land of Rain's complicated aftermath would present no particular difficulty for the Sand Village. For Akatsuki, on the other hand, simply holding off the Hidden Rain Village's remnant forces would be more than enough to swallow you whole."
"Danzo's small scheme nearly brought Akatsuki to its complete destruction today. Without the Sand Village's protection, the next time Konoha tried something similar, your leader there would most likely still end up dead."
Yuji looked directly into Yahiko's eyes and spoke without raising his voice.
"Hanzo's assessment of you was not wrong. Your thinking is genuinely naive."
"Peace has never been something perfect and whole. It is a word with two faces. To welcome happiness, one must first learn to accept pain."
He took several steps forward.
"From this day forward, the Land of Rain will be the Land of Wind's territory."
"I am not negotiating this with you. I am informing you of it."
"This is the result of the cooperation we agreed to beforehand. Without the Sand Village, Akatsuki would not have escaped destruction today. When you have received something of value, you should understand the obligation to give something in return."
He spoke each word deliberately, then turned his gaze toward Konan.
"You promised me before, and you said you could speak on Akatsuki's behalf. I was willing to save your lives because I took you at your word."
"Do not forget that there is a mark I planted inside your body. If you dare to resist, it will not only be your life that is the price."
"Everyone here today. Every single one of them will die."
After the last word, Yuji's eyes went cold.
A curse mark.
Upon hearing this, both Yahiko and Nagato turned immediately to look at Konan in shock.
Seeing Konan's expression, something shook in both of them.
The entire scene went completely silent.
Only the sound of rain continued falling.
Yahiko closed his eyes.
A moment passed. When he opened them again, something had settled in them, as though a decision had been made.
He looked at the Fourth Kazekage.
"What exactly do you want from us?"
Yuji heard this and allowed himself a quiet exhale.
"Better. This situation is not beyond salvaging after all."
"Since you are willing to accept this outcome, I am actually genuinely willing to sit down with you, the leader of Akatsuki, and have a real conversation."
...
Stones ??
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