Chapter 625: Three-Tomoe Rinnegan
The five great villages had originally agreed to dispatch forces to protect the Seven, Eight, and Nine-Tails Jinchūriki.
Konoha and Kumo had personal stakes—one to protect a son, the other a brother. Suna and Kiri, however, had lost so much strength they were barely holding onto their "Great Village" status. They were willing, but lacked the power.
This left Fū, the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki, in an awkward position. Who would protect her?
The old-but-tough Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, believing his village's military strength was on par with Konoha's and Kumo's, naturally took on the task.
The old man wasn't stupid. He didn't keep Fū in the village. He hid her in a secret underground base in the remote mountains of the Land of Earth.
"...Madara and the Ten-Tails are flying west. He must have sensed Fū's location." Ino didn't even take a second to rest, immediately contacting Inoichi.
Inoichi hesitated. "Understood. I'll send a messenger hawk to them immediately."
"A hawk?"
"Sigh. Iwagakure's sensory-nin refuse to join our communications network. A hawk is the only way."
Ino: "..."
Unlucky Iwagakure. This must be fate.
One less obstacle for her "Five Great Village Alliance" plan, she supposed.
She decided to let Madara fly for a while. She had been fighting from the morning of October 7th to the dawn of October 8th. She was practically dead on her feet.
She dismissed the souls she had summoned from the Bridge of Helplessness. With a flick of her finger, a vine snaked into a chasm, retrieving Killer B's body and laying it next to the Fourth Raikage.
She couldn't spare a thought for the other bodies.
The Fourth Raikage lay on the ground beside his sworn brother.
His entire front was a crisscross of gruesome wounds. One, just a centimeter above his heart, was so deep his breastbone was visible. Madara's long-handled scythe was still embedded in his shoulder, the blade stuck in the bone.
The powerhouse had bled dry. One eye was gouged out, his left Achilles tendon was severed, and more than half the bones in his body were shattered. Only his back was untouched.
His voice, however, was still strong. "Do you see that small peak, to the northwest?"
Ino glanced over. The side of the mountain had been scarred by Izuna's Susanoo, but it was still standing. "I see it. Why?"
"B... cough... he was planning some stupid concert there. He kept pestering me to go... all that screaming... that idiot had no talent... cough... Just bury us both there."
Ino's gaze lingered on the peak. "...Alright. I promise. But... what name should I carve on the tombstone? I still don't even know your real name."
The Fourth Raikage's voice suddenly boomed. "Unnecessary! I am the Raikage! Just find a rock and write, 'Tomb of the Fourth Raikage'!"
His roar echoed through the mountains, powerful and clear. But when Ino turned back to him, his life-force was already gone.
Ino never offered to save him with Yin-Yang Release, and he never asked. The Fourth Raikage was resolved to die. With so many of his subordinates and civilians dead in their own village, he had never intended to leave. He, too, would die here.
Yin-Yang Release could not save a man who had lost the will to live.
As a shinobi, Ino respected his wish. Allowing him to die in peace was the ultimate sign of that respect.
In the vast, ruined land of Kumogakure, she was now the only living person.
Back in Konoha...
The wounded, elderly, and children from Kumo, Suna, and Kiri were arriving in waves.
Shizune was running around frantically. There were too many wounded; the hospital was out of beds. Many patients could only be laid in the hallways, awaiting treatment.
Kakashi, believing he and Sasuke could handle the Box of Ultimate Bliss, had sent the main army back. Sakura was now working in the hospital. They were so short-staffed that even Tenten, who had only learned the basics of medical ninjutsu, was called in to help.
Tonton was snorting and puffing, hauling supplies, doing the work of five people.
Naruto was not at the hospital.
After the Nine-Tails was extracted, Koharu Utatane had expended nearly ten years of her own life force to reignite his. Fukasaku and Shima had then taken the comatose Naruto back to Mount Myoboku to seek the Great Toad Sage's help.
Minato had no time to think about his son.
An army of over 80,000 White Zetsu had broken the defensive line held by Darui and Asuma. They were about to enter the Land of Fire.
Jiraiya, who had been en route to help Ino, found he couldn't summon the toads. After a relayed message from the sensory-nin, he learned what had happened to Naruto. When he heard Madara was heading to Iwa, he changed course, intercepted the Zetsu army, saved Karui and Asuma, and was now leading a desperate fighting retreat.
Ino, in turn, reported the Fourth Raikage's death. She knew she had to go to Iwagakure to help, but had no way of knowing Fū's exact location. She would have to open her Waning Moon Bridge to Iwagakure itself and fight from there. The Zetsu army would have to be Konoha's problem.
But she paused first, recovering her chakra and contemplating the Sage of Six Paths' attitude.
Naruto should have woken up by now. I've been fighting for a solid day, and the 'Child of Prophecy' is sleeping through the crisis? Does that mean he isn't the Child of Prophecy anymore? Or does the prophecy, manipulated by the Sage and the Great Toad, no longer exist?
Does the old man not care about Naruto and Sasuke's lives anymore? Is it because Indra and Asura reconciled ahead of schedule? In the Sage's eyes, are they just... passersby now?
She couldn't exactly ask him directly. How would that even work?
For a moment, she was at a loss.
Her current strength was just barely enough to handle Madara, but it was useless against a Six Paths Madara.
If she wanted to maintain the upper hand, she, too, had to adapt. In other words, she had to deepen her Ōtsutsuki-fication and evolve her Rinnegan to a higher level.
Evolution was easy. De-evolution... not so much.
(The wound to Hinata would, in turn, be a greater wound to her. Not even her Sage body or Kekkei Mōra could completely negate that cost.)
"You're forcing my hand," she muttered.
She couldn't just transform in front of the enemy. That was another reason she hadn't immediately chased Madara.
Madara had the foundation to instantly adapt to the Ten-Tails' power. Ino, however, would need time.
Pouring massive amounts of Six Paths chakra into her eyes, she converted it to dōjutsu. Her Two-Tomoe Rinnegan, paired with her basic Kekkei Mōra, had been a perfect balance. But now, she had no choice. Enduring a sensation like her eyes were being torn apart, she forced the evolution.
"Three-Tomoe Rinnegan, open!"
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