The pendulum of fate slowly etched its final pause.
Once the spring was wound again, everything would change.
Black Zetsu's will, Black Zetsu's control.
Ye Zi's will, Ye Zi's future.
And the destinies of countless others…
The trickling of gravel falling to the ground suddenly quickened for some reason, and the surface of the floating sphere shuddered.
Nagato's gaze was sharp as a blade, locked intently on the celestial body in the sky. His future was drawing near.
Inside the sphere, the dragon-spirit wove its way closer and closer to where Kushina and Minato were sealed.
Just as it was about to reach them, a sudden surge of chakra erupted from Kushina's body.
The sphere, which had only trembled faintly before, now shook violently. At the same time, Nagato's whole body jolted, his expression collapsing, and his Rinnegan shone with disbelief.
The dragon-spirit had been sealed.
Boom!
A deafening crash. A massive claw tore through the rocky shell of the sphere, followed by a huge head bursting out, it was the Nine-Tails.
Nagato stared blankly at the sight of the Nine-Tails ripping apart Chibaku Tensei, despair flooding into him in a wave he had never imagined.
He was already burnt out. His only chance to reverse the battle was to absorb the Nine-Tails' chakra into the Gedo Statue. But this scene mercilessly shattered that final hope.
What greeted him was not the world he had always sought, but a cruel whisper echoing in his ear:
You failed.
It was like the devil's murmur. After the long road, the end turned out to be crumbling walls, his years of persistence weathered down to drifting sand.
Boom! Boom!
The Nine-Tails' massive body rampaged within the sphere. Cracks spread all over its surface. It would break free within moments.
As Ye Zi and White Zetsu strolled closer, they watched coldly as the Nine-Tails tore apart the sphere. In Sage Mode, Ye Zi could clearly sense the beast's tranquil chakra.
This was not Kushina losing control and becoming the rampaging Nine-Tails, it was the perfect Tailed Beast form born from true harmony between jinchūriki and beast. Only those who had achieved perfect control could do this.
Kushina had now become an exceptional jinchūriki, far surpassing Killer B in capability.
"So, it won't be that easy after all."
Ye Zi glanced at the perfectly transformed Nine-Tails, then in a flash of lightning sped toward Nagato.
The course of the future had been set. The pendulum of fate swung once more.
Nagato had failed. That meant Ye Zi could not allow his corpse to fall into Konoha's hands.
Before the eyes of countless Konoha shinobi, the sphere shattered into a rain of massive boulders plummeting to the ground. Each crash thundered like rolling drums, one after another, shaking the earth and drowning the battlefield in dust.
The Nine-Tails stepped down upon the tumbling debris and landed firmly, a hundred meters before Nagato.
With a sweep of its nine tails, a gale scattered the lingering dust. Then its enormous body dissolved into white smoke, leaving behind Kushina cloaked in a golden chakra shroud and Minato, unharmed.
Seeing the two, Nagato's face turned ashen. The moment Kushina had broken free of Chibaku Tensei, he had lost every chance.
"You gathered all the Tailed Beasts, what for?" Minato demanded gravely.
Nagato's eyes were lifeless. At Minato's words, he suddenly let out a hoarse, bitter laugh. Then he only stared in silence, saying nothing.
His life force had been wrung dry. He couldn't even muster the strength to throw his life away.
Without the Nine-Tails' chakra, the Gedo Statue couldn't save him. All that was left was to wait for death.
Seeing him silent, Minato frowned, ready to press again, but then stopped short, closing his mouth.
A dark figure had slipped between them, black as eternal night, arcs of inky lightning dancing across his body.
Neither Minato nor Kushina were surprised, before Nagato's final attack, they had already sensed Ye Zi's arrival.
But Nagato hadn't known he was in Konoha. When he saw Ye Zi, he froze, then showed only rage and unwillingness.
"You've been waiting for this moment all along?" His rasping voice dripped with bitterness.
"Yes," Ye Zi answered coldly, his back to Nagato, his gaze fixed on Minato and Kushina.
"Your goal… what is it?" Nagato's body trembled.
When Minato had asked, Nagato had refused to answer. But now, facing Ye Zi, he couldn't suppress his need to know. Yet Ye Zi gave him nothing.
Instead, Ye Zi silently studied Kushina in her golden cloak. He had two choices: strike her now, or take Nagato and the Gedo Statue away.
The first was faster, but dangerous, seizing the Rinnegan immediately would leave him unable to adapt in time risking failure.
The second was steadier, retreat with Nagato and the Gedo Statue, adjust, then launch a full assault on Konoha. With his clone army and Edo Tensei forces, he could easily crush them and take the Nine-Tails.
Ye Zi quickly leaned toward the second choice.
"Ye Zi…" Minato's voice was taut with resolve.
Kushina, too, looked at him with complicated eyes, placing her hand on Minato's back to transfer chakra.
In their earlier battle, Minato had spent every drop of chakra. With Ye Zi present, Kushina had no choice but to restore his strength at once.
Minato quietly accepted the stream of energy, then fixed Ye Zi with a hard stare.
One powerful enemy had just been overcome, only for another, one just as familiar and dangerous, to appear.
But this time, with Kushina at his side, her Nine-Tails' power fully unleashed, he felt confident he wouldn't fall as before.
Their eyes clashed in midair. Then Ye Zi moved.
Kushina and Minato tensed instantly, instinctively bracing for an attack. But Ye Zi didn't strike them, instead, he flashed to the side of the powerless Nagato.
Nagato's expression was blank, as if he had already accepted death.
Ye Zi stood over him, coldly watching, then gripped his throat.
Kushina and Minato's eyes widened slightly, though their faces remained steady. Why would Ye Zi attack Nagato? Weren't they allies in the same organization?
Nagato gasped for breath, life slipping from his hands, his fate held by another.
Ye Zi gazed down at him with quiet fury. All it would take was the smallest squeeze.
The thought became action.
Crack.
With ruthless finality, Ye Zi snapped his neck.
The last of Nagato's vitality drained swiftly away. His eyes, sharp with fury and doom, fixed on Ye Zi as if to curse him: You will not end well.
But Ye Zi's face remained utterly cold, unmoved.
Kushina and Minato flinched inwardly. They had no idea what truly bound Ye Zi and Nagato, or why Ye Zi had chosen to kill him.
Blood bubbled from Nagato's lips. His fierce gaze dimmed. His head slumped lifelessly to the side.
"So he killed him, huh," White Zetsu suddenly emerged from the ground at Ye Zi's feet. Using spores to infiltrate the Gedo Statue's body, he had come just as Nagato died.
Seeing the decisiveness, White Zetsu grinned reflexively.
Ye Zi ignored him. Releasing Nagato's corpse, he looked down at Kushina and Minato. His plan now was to carry away Nagato's body and the Gedo Statue. He couldn't yet implant the Rinnegan and immediately wield the statue, but he had his own means.
"Ye Zi!"
She shouted his name, fists clenched, her voice calm but her trembling eyes betraying unrest.
"What are you thinking? What's your purpose?"
She truly couldn't understand him.
"You'll know soon enough," Ye Zi replied flatly. At the final step toward his goal, staring at a face that resembled his sister's, his hesitation had long since vanished.
Kushina looked like what Rui might have grown into…
From eight or nine parts alike in youth, to only four or five now, it didn't matter.
To achieve his aim, Kushina's fate had only one end…
Then Minato spoke in a low voice: "You and that other man, you both seek to gather the Tailed Beasts, don't you?"
He didn't know why. But if Ye Zi's aim was the same, then Kushina was inevitably his target.
Ye Zi did not deny it, nor confirm. It was already self-evident.
"I don't know why you're doing this, but I will never allow you to hurt Kushina."
Minato's expression was solemn, his tone as cold as a winter gale, so different from his usual gentle voice.
"Maybe the village treated you unfairly, but Kushina has always stood up for you. She's suffered so much, cried so many times because of you. You know very well how she feels about you, yet you've deliberately ignored it. Not only have you trampled on her feelings, you've kept hurting her again and again... You really are a complete bastard. Even if it costs me my life, I won't let you succeed."
Hearing Minato's words, Ye Zi's lips curved into a mocking smile.
Off to the side, White Zetsu's gaze flicked with interest between the three of them.
In Kushina's eyes flickered a faint trace of sorrow, almost invisible. Her feelings for Ye Zi, she had conveyed them long ago. And from that moment, she fully realized Ye Zi stood on the opposite side, a true enemy with whom she would have to fight to the death.
But even though she had accepted her own resolve and regarded Ye Zi as an enemy, her intent had always been to stop him, not to take his life.
That thought had never changed. Firm as a mountain. No matter what, it would not waver.
Even if… Ye Zi wanted her dead.
"Ye Zi, do you… want to kill me?" Kushina tilted her head slightly, hiding her sorrow so deep that no one could see it. Her face was calm, as though she were casually asking if he had eaten.
Ye Zi was silent for a moment, then said coldly: "Do you want to know the words I left unsaid that day, when we parted on the hospital rooftop?"
"Tell me," Kushina's eyes trembled.
Ye Zi spoke evenly: "Someday, you will know. And when that day comes, maybe… I'll kill you."
The tone was calm but the words, linking back to that unfinished conversation, were utterly ice-cold.
"Do you understand now?"
"…So that's it," Kushina's calm expression finally changed, clouded with grief.
So that's the real reason.
No matter what, I can't reach your heart?
Just because… I'm a jinchūriki?
Though she still didn't know why Ye Zi wanted to gather the Tailed Beasts, one of her long-standing questions had finally been answered, at least halfway.
The Nine-Tails, who had witnessed everything from within, clearly sensed Kushina's turmoil. He knew all too well the tangled feelings between her and Ye Zi, and how much of her joy and sorrow stemmed from him.
And in the end, Ye Zi treated her this way only because the fox was inside her.
"…." The Nine-Tails stayed silent. He had agreed to work with Kushina only to avoid danger. If only…
As time ticked by, the beast thought she would come to resent her identity, and him. But she didn't.
What he felt from her was nothing but deep, overwhelming sadness.
"Hmph." The fox snorted quietly to himself, hidden away where Kushina couldn't notice.
With words spent, Ye Zi placed his right hand on Nagato's body. In his palm, unseen by anyone else, a seam split open into a mouth, and with a strange ability, like Kamui pulling objects into another space, Nagato's body was sucked inside.
White Zetsu and Black Zetsu both froze upon seeing this ability for the first time.
This was Shokui's ability. Back at the Cloud-Lightning Gorge, Ye Zi had used it to carry away the unconscious Killer B. The inner space was vast enough to store even the Gedo Statue.
Such was Ye Zi's method. Even without it, he would never have handed Nagato's body over to White Zetsu. Perhaps it was nothing more than an unconscious trace of precaution.
After sealing Nagato's corpse into the space of his right hand, Ye Zi crouched and pressed that same hand against the top of the Gedo Statue's head.
Next, he only had to draw the Gedo Statue into the space as well, then he could leave this place and plan the next move.
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Currently on Chapter 602 - The Standoff