The Outcome of the Battle

It was pouring rain.

Mei Terumi was panting heavily, her outfit soaked through and clinging to her shapely body, making her look extremely disheveled.

The members of the Mizukage Guard had all lost their fighting ability, some were unconscious, and others were seriously injured and unable to get up. They lay scattered on this small battlefield, becoming the background for the battle between the two powerful figures.

"Get out of the way, Uchiha Itachi."

The woman stared intently at the man before her, speaking in a low, menacing voice. A chilling murderous aura emanated from her lips, sending shivers down one's spine.

The man remained unmoved.

He casually tore off his tattered black robe and quietly looked back at the slightly anxious woman.

In the heavy rain, his short, choppy hair was soaked and clung to his forehead, while his eerie Sharingan seemed to gleam.

"I'm sorry, my mission was to stop you from supporting their battle."

Uchiha Itachi said calmly.

Boom!

Suddenly, a thunderclap exploded in the sky, and in an instant, the lightning flashed intensely, illuminating Itachi's face with sharp, defined lines, making him look like a stone statue.

Mei Terumi gritted her teeth.

She knew that the road ahead was probably truly impassable.

Because she couldn't beat the man in front of her! In fact, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't push him to his limit!

He is like the wind, like the rain, elusive and unpredictable, yet omnipresent and all-pervasive.

It was like a huge boulder blocking the mountain path, stubbornly and rigidly preventing her from moving forward!

The battle from a great distance can still be sensed here. The intense Chakra fluctuations and clashes of Ninjutsu are still faintly discernible. Mei Terumi can imagine how fierce and magnificent the battle must be on that side!

That was a far more spectacular battle than the one here!

This made Mei Terumi very uneasy.

If the enemy wins that battle, what price will the village have to pay to stop such a figure's advance?

She desperately wanted to rush over to help Sakura Haruno, but Uchiha Itachi kept her firmly pinned there.

"I'll say it again—" Mei Terumi was really getting impatient. She forced a burst of Chakra and shouted angrily, but a chilling wave of Ninjutsu suddenly came from afar, forcibly interrupting her!

That was Pain's Super Shinra Tensei.

Even Uchiha Itachi frowned slightly and glanced behind him.

The battlefield fell silent.

"That... what kind of Ninjutsu is that?" After a long while, Mei Terumi finally asked in shock.

She was speaking to herself when, unexpectedly, Uchiha Itachi answered her.

"That's the Secret Technique of Pain, the leader of Pain..." He frowned deeply, carefully sensing the battlefield in the distance as he responded in a low voice.

Could one person's strength be this great? Mei Terumi's understanding was completely overturned by Pain.

But what she was more concerned about was the current situation of another fighter. "What about Sakura Haruno?"

Itachi remained silent. Neither he nor the Mizukage were sensory ninjas, so it would be difficult for them to sense Sakura Haruno's presence from such a distance.

Could Sakura Haruno withstand that kind of attack?

The image of that stunningly talented and radiant girl involuntarily surfaced in Uchiha Itachi's mind.

Is she... dead?

In fact, Itachi was more concerned about the answer to this question Mei Terumi.

He slowly shook his head, and after a long pause, said, "It seems the battle is over, and my mission is—"

The man stopped speaking abruptly, his expression changed, and he turned his head away.

Suddenly, the distant horizon brightened up, as if ten thousand suns had risen on that far horizon!

The blinding light forced Itachi and Mei Terumi to close their eyes.

After a while, the white light gradually dimmed, and then the weasel could finally see the scene in the distance. It saw a hemispherical transparent wall of air rising from the horizon, like a giant bowl overturned between heaven and earth. It slowly expanded and gradually dimmed, and after a long time, it disappeared into the horizon.

At the center of that dazzling white light, a thick, grayish-white cloud rose slowly, like a mushroom, standing high in the sky. [Note]

The two held their breath, not daring to utter a sound, silently gazing at the strange celestial phenomenon coming from afar, dumbfounded.

This was the first time Mei Terumi had seen Uchiha Itachi show such a flustered expression, and it was very likely the first time in Itachi's life that he had been so shocked and pale.

This is the first time the power of an atomic bomb has been fully unleashed in the world of ninjas.

That power, which was not Ninjutsu but far surpassed Ninjutsu, made all the ninjas who witnessed its unfolding feel their own insignificance!

When the two came to their senses, they suddenly felt that everything that had happened here had become so meaningless.

Faced with such earth-shattering power, human struggles appear so insignificant and laughable.

"What is that?" Mei Terumi asked.

Uchiha Itachi was speechless.

After a moment of silence, when the air grew still, he calmly spoke, "It seems the mission is over. Well then, I should leave."

After saying that, Itachi gave Mei Terumi a deep look before disappearing into thin air.

Somewhere at sea, closer to the battlefield, on a faintly visible reef.

Cough, cough!

Rondo and Chōjūrō crawled out of the sea looking disheveled.

Compared to Itachi and Mei Terumi, who were only shocked by the explosion from a distance, these two seemed much more unfortunate... or rather, much luckier.

Because they experienced the aftershocks of the nuclear bomb almost directly, they managed to dive into the sea in time, thus avoiding the most severe damage.

It must be said that, as a sensory ninja, Rondo's senses are extremely sharp.

They held their breath until they couldn't breathe anymore before risking their lives to surface.

"S-Senpai!" Chōjūrō wiped the seawater off his face, panting heavily as he asked, "What... what was that just now?"

Rondo shook his head.

"I have no idea!"

He struggled to climb the reef, collapsed onto it, and gasped for breath. After a while, he said in a rough voice, "It's probably a kind of Ninjutsu I've never seen before! But I can't sense Chakra. Where does its energy come from?"

Chōjūrō followed suit, climbing onto the reef and gazing into the distance with lingering fear. "It's probably some kind of energy, like Senjutsu or Natural Energy, that's very difficult to sense! Senior, can you still sense those two's Chakra? Are they dead? Who won?"

Rondo took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He used his senses to survey the battlefield ahead, but found nothing.

"We can't find their Chakra; they've vanished without a trace!" Rondo sighed and said, "As for the truth, who won and who lost, who lived and who died, only they themselves probably know!"

Rondo is right. As the one who manipulated Payne, Nagato knows best how Pain will end up.

So clear was the last few images Nagato saw through Yahiko's corpse that he would likely never forget for the rest of his life.

Sakura Haruno suddenly appeared, holding a strange water ball in her hand;

Then, the girl clenched her fist, and a silvery-white metallic block gathered at the center of the water sphere;

The second to last scene shows Sakura disappearing in Body Flicker Technique, and the water sphere suddenly exploding;

Finally, there is light.

Endless light was born from the void!

It was as if a hundred million suns were hanging in the sky.

No words can describe that intense scene; no paintbrush can capture that all-illuminating light!

The power of Shinra Tensei melted away the moment it encountered that scorching light, like snow under the blazing sun, as if it had never existed at all.

How can a tiny grain of rice dare to shine under the scorching sun?

Before Pain could even form another thought, he was completely melted into that eternal light and heat.

"Ninjutsu - Reverse Summoning Technique!"

Nagato tried using the technique, but failed to summon anything back.

It was as if everything had vanished into that all-destroying radiance.

Only the air stirred slightly, and the wind seemed to stir up a few more wisps of dust.

"It failed..."

Not only was the Deva Path completely engulfed by the fireball, but the other five Daos, which were not in the center of the battlefield, were also instantly burned to ashes by the intense radiation!

Nagato's eyes widened, and suddenly he coughed up a mouthful of dark red blood!

"Nagato!" Konan exclaimed, quickly supporting the man's weak body.

Nagato, his chest heaving heavily like a broken bellows, before finally calming down after a long while.

It was a complete failure. Nagato had to admit it. Sakura Haruno's technique shattered all his illusions!

"Let's go back." As Nagato said this, her eyes dimmed for a moment. "We can't stay here any longer... Konan, let's go back to our secret base..."

His strength was greatly diminished, and he also had to guard against the man who called himself Madara. It was no longer suitable for him to return to Akatsuki's base. After calming down and thinking it over carefully, Nagato had no other choice.

The man sighed, his expression somber, the high spirits he had displayed upon arrival gone.

As for Sakura Haruno...

"I was just having a headache, wondering how I got back to the Land of Water from Shikkotsu Forest," the girl said weakly, panting. "Luckily you were nearby!"

"In your condition..." the man frowned slightly, "Can you really hold on to going over there?"

"We have our own ways, so you don't need to worry about it," the other girl replied. "But you, don't you plan to meet him?"

If it weren't for the difference in their eye color, the man would hardly be able to tell the two girls apart. Did Sakura Haruno have a twin sister? Or some kind of strange clone? He wondered, but remained outwardly calm.

"No, I believe you can handle things over there." The man said slowly as he put the Katsuyu back into the scroll. "As for me... now is not the time to meet with him."

He paused for a moment, then asked again, "Pain is dead?"

"Yes, Six Paths of Pain should be dead. Their mastermind, Nagato, is likely also severely weakened." The girl nodded. "So, you can start moving around a bit now."

The man frowned slightly. "Does this mean five generations or Third?"

"No, none of those... This is just my personal suggestion." She smiled slightly.

After a second's hesitation, the man nodded in agreement.

"I see."

"Well then, see you later!" Another girl smiled sweetly and waved, "Mr. Uchiha Itachi!"

She supported the original body and vanished into the sea in Body Flicker Technique.

Uchiha Itachi put the scroll back into his ninja tool bag, gazed at the empty sea, remained silent for a moment, and then disappeared from the spot.

[Note: Mushroom clouds in general photographic materials are not white because atomic bombs detonated on land would suck up rocks and dust from the ground into the air, making the mushroom cloud appear black. Because the bomb in the book was detonated at sea, the mushroom cloud appears "cleaner."]