Konan rushed over and caught Yahiko as he swayed on his feet.
The wound in Yahiko's abdomen was deep. The poisoned blade had nearly pierced straight through him, and black blood was gushing out.
His face rapidly turned ashen, his lips purple.
"Yahiko! Yahiko, hold on! I'll bandage you right away!" Konan frantically tore at her clothes, trying to stop the bleeding.
But the wound was too deep, the poison spreading too quickly. A simple bandage would do nothing.
"I'm... fine..." Yahiko tried to muster a smile, but the excruciating pain twisted his features. "See... I told you... I could protect..."
Before he could finish, his head lolled to one side, and he lost consciousness.
"Yahiko!!!" Konan's sobbing cry echoed across the deserted end of the bridge.
Nagato crawled unsteadily over, staring at the wound in Yahiko's abdomen and his blackening face.
He trembled like a leaf in the wind. "What do we do... Konan... Yahiko, he... This is all my fault... If I'd just acted sooner..."
"Now isn't the time to blame yourself!" Konan shouted through her tears. "Find a way to save him, Nagato! Use your eyes.
"Didn't you say those eyes had miraculous powers?! Save Yahiko!"
Nagato looked blankly at his hands, then at Yahiko's wound.
His Rinnegan were filled with helplessness. "I... I don't know how to use them... I can't control them..."
Despair soaked into their hearts like the cold rain.
Just then, footsteps sounded.
Uchiha Ryūha approached with Tier Harribel and Starrk, who carried Lilynette on his shoulder.
They slowly descended the earthen slope and stepped onto the stone bridge.
Their shoes trod through mud and bloody water, yet strangely, not a single stain clung to them.
A white haori, dark clothes, brown skin, a gray-blue coat...
Amid the brutal wreckage of this battlefield,