End of This Volume

"I didn't see him. He was probably swept away by another tributary. If his injuries were about as bad as yours, he may have already drowned." Beneath the torrential rain, Shin spoke calmly.

Uchiha Madara fell silent for a moment before rising without a word. "Let's go. There's nothing left here worth lingering over."

Shin glanced at his back, silently smiled, and shook his head before catching up and leaving with him.

"How are the clan members?"

"They should have evacuated safely."

"Should have?"

"Heh, I got held up by an old man."

Through the curtain of rain, the two figures grew ever more distant until they finally vanished into the downpour.

In Konoha, as the aftereffects from the other side of the battlefield gradually faded, silence returned to the world. Heavy rain poured down upon the village, yet there were no houses left to shelter beneath. Everything had become ruins.

The villagers were lost and bewildered. Quite a few had perished in this disaster, but compared to the incident involving Otsutsuki Hamura, although this destruction had spread farther, the death toll was far lower.

After all, whether it was Madara controlling the Nine-Tails or the slash Shin had unleashed, neither had been aimed at the majority of the villagers. Most of the injured had been caught in the aftermath when their homes collapsed.

With the village ninja calming them down, the villagers' emotions had stabilized. Now, they only waited for the final result. No matter what, they still believed in the Hokage.

Not long afterward, hundreds of black shadows left the devastated village and headed toward the battlefield. They needed to learn the exact state of the battle.

When they saw the land reduced to barren wasteland, every ninja who had come out was shaken. What kind of