Chapter 309 – The Curtain Falls (Part III)
The battlefield had long since turned into a sea of chaos and blood.
Standing atop the raging Three-Tails, Uchiha Kei rained destruction upon the Mist's main forces without pause.
In just a short span of minutes, his onslaught had inflicted more casualties than everything he had done in the earlier solo battle combined.
Back then, his Susanoo was only at its third stage, and the Mist army hadn't yet fully assembled.
But now…
He wielded the full might of a tailed beast.
And the Three-Tails' chakra — vast and overwhelming — far surpassed his own.
After all, tailed beasts were pure condensations of chakra, living storms of energy that dwarfed even the strongest shinobi.
It wasn't surprising how powerful it was.
What was surprising… was how completely it bent to his will.
The Uchiha clan's curse — their gift — had always been the bane of these creatures.
Under Kei's control, the Three-Tails became a weapon of massacre.
Every swipe of its claws sent dozens of shinobi flying; every flick of its tail tore open the earth.
Mist-nin tried desperately to surround it, but it was useless.
The Water Country itself was its domain — the very mist and sea answered to the beast's rage.
Streams rose from the ground, coiling into crushing waves that obliterated everything in their path.
Those who dared to approach never even reached striking distance before they were swept away, drowned, or crushed under torrents of chakra-infused water.
The slaughter was endless.
Unstoppable.
And above it all, Kei stood like a god of death, calm eyes watching the carnage below.
---
He could already tell: the casualties Kirigakure had suffered this day had surpassed even Konoha's during the Nine-Tails' rampage.
And yet, he wasn't worried that Minato Namikaze would hold him accountable.
Minato was a man of peace — yes.
But under Kei's quiet manipulation, his focus had turned inward, toward Konoha's reforms.
Kei had spent months subtly shaping the man's priorities, guiding his idealism into something more useful.
Change Konoha first, he thought, and the rest of the world will follow.
Still, when he returned, they would have a serious conversation.
Because Minato's dreams were too naïve — too blind to how power truly worked.
Conflict wasn't born from hate alone; it was born from inequality, from the endless imbalance of profit and pain.
And the world, Kei mused, had just received a fresh reminder of what imbalance looked like.
---
"It's been nearly thirty minutes," he murmured, eyes narrowing. "Still no sign of him… perhaps the signal took too long to reach."
He'd sent out his chakra message after the battle had already begun.
From the Land of Water to the Land of Fire, from Kirigakure to Konoha — even with advanced sealing relays, it wasn't instant.
He sighed.
He'd have to hold out a little longer.
And there were two others he was waiting for — Imai Kenta and Hyūga Ayaka.
Hopefully, those two hadn't been careless enough to die in his crossfire.
---
"Hmm?"
A sudden prickle of unease crawled up his spine.
Kei's body tensed instinctively as dark chakra flared to life around him — and in the same heartbeat, three shadows lunged from the mist.
Their blades struck him simultaneously.
The clang of steel against chakra echoed like thunder.
They wore the black garb of Kirigakure's ANBU — though without masks — and wielded strange, brutal weapons that gleamed with deadly familiarity.
Kei's eyes narrowed. One of them, an orange-haired brute, carried a massive, serrated blade that began to drink the chakra of his Susanoo armor.
"Ah," Kei murmured. "The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist… or rather, what's left of you."
His tone was ice-cold, mocking.
Only three remained.
The rest had been slain years ago — annihilated when Might Duy, a mere genin, opened the Eight Gates to protect his son, obliterating nearly the entire group.
The survivors were legends stained by humiliation.
Kei remembered their names easily:
Jūzō Biwa, wielder of the Executioner's Blade.
Fuguki Suikazan, bearer of the chakra-eating sword Samehada.
And their comrade, Raiga Kurosuki, master of the Thunder Swords.
He smiled faintly.
"So the rats finally crawl out of hiding."
---
"Damn you!" growled Fuguki Suikazan, hefting the massive Samehada as it shuddered violently in his grip.
"Whoever you are, you die here! I'll tear that mask from your face myself!"
"Oh?" Kei's voice carried a note of cruel amusement.
"I've heard tales — that the Seven Swordsmen could conquer an entire nation in a single night."
He tilted his head slightly.
"But funny thing… in the Third War, didn't a single Konoha genin wipe out most of you? Seems the stories were exaggerated."
"You—!"
The other two swordsmen — Jūzō and Raiga — gritted their teeth, fury flashing in their eyes.
But deep inside, the memory of that green-clad monster still burned.
---
Kei turned his gaze back to Fuguki.
"Oh, right," he said softly. "How does my chakra taste, I wonder? Haven't you asked your sword if it likes it?"
Fuguki's eyes widened — and then he heard it.
A low, agonized moan emanated from Samehada.
Before he could react, the blade convulsed violently, spewing out the chakra it had absorbed.
The expelled energy ignited midair — into black flames that cascaded down onto Kei's armor.
Amaterasu.
But the flames slid harmlessly across his Susanoo, leaving not a mark.
Kei drew his sword in one smooth motion, allowing the Three-Tails to rampage freely as he advanced toward the swordsmen himself.
---
He struck first.
A blackened blade cleaved toward Raiga, whose twin thunder blades crackled with lightning.
Kei didn't intend to give him the chance to channel the water's conductivity.
He lunged — but Raiga's reflexes saved him, blocking just in time.
Then his vision shattered.
The world spun — and in its place bloomed a massive three-tomoe Sharingan.
Chains burst from the void, wrapping around his limbs and crushing his will.
Raiga screamed — trapped within Kei's genjutsu.
No amount of chakra manipulation could break it. His counterseal failed, his backup flow shattered.
Kei thrust forward — aiming straight for his heart.
But just then, Jūzō Biwa's Executioner's Blade came crashing down.
Kei twisted, his strike veering slightly off course — enough for Raiga to twist away, the sword skewering only his shoulder.
The black flames ignited instantly, crawling up his arm.
Howling in agony, Raiga leapt backward and — without hesitation — severed his own left arm to stop the spread.
---
Kei exhaled softly. "Pity," he muttered.
Even among the Mist, these three were considered elite — and yet, their luck outlasted their worth.
Still, his irritation faded when his eyes caught movement on the far side of the field.
Two chakra signatures — familiar ones.
Kenta and Ayaka.
They were fighting their way closer, openly now, their disguises dropped.
Kei couldn't help but smirk.
"So they decided I wouldn't recognize them and get them killed, huh?"
He laughed quietly. "Fine. The faster I end this, the better."
---
A quick step — and he slipped past Fuguki's massive swing.
His Susanoo materialized an arm of pure chakra, intercepting Jūzō's descending blade.
Kei's sword flared, its color shifting from black to electric blue.
Then he struck.
Jūzō blocked — barely — but lightning burst from the impact, paralyzing him where he stood.
"Raikiri," Kei murmured — the Storm Cut technique.
The same move he hadn't used in years.
As Jūzō froze, the Susanoo's fist slammed into him like a hammer, sending him flying.
But Fuguki seized the moment, darting in low, aiming for Kei's unguarded legs.
Kei frowned.
He didn't intend to take that hit.
In a flash, black chakra surged across his entire body — but then, something unexpected happened.
A strange vibration rippled through him.
His Susanoo's motion faltered — just for an instant.
"What…?" he murmured. "What is this?"
His punch weakened slightly, and Jūzō — half-dead though he was — survived by sheer luck.
Fuguki's blade slammed into his Susanoo, snapping Kei back to focus.
---
He quickly crushed the remaining resistance.
With a low hum, his Susanoo's full second form reared up, its massive fist cocking back.
"You've disappointed me enough," he said flatly.
The punch came down like a meteor.
Jūzō's body flew across the field, smashing into the rocks below.
Kei didn't even look to confirm. His eyes turned to Fuguki.
"Tell me," he said softly. "How did my chakra taste?"
Fuguki's only answer was blood.
The Susanoo's blade cleaved through the air, smashing into him and hurling him backward, broken and beaten.
And just like that, the last of the Seven Swordsmen fell.
---
In less than a minute, Kei had ended them.
To him, it wasn't even a real battle.
At this moment, his power rivaled the fabled strength of Madara Uchiha himself — at least, the version freshly revived from death and testing his limbs.
Though his essence still lacked that ancient's scale of power, the feeling — that unshakable dominance — was unmistakable.
He closed his eyes briefly, reestablishing control over the Three-Tails.
Then he dismissed his Susanoo, letting its light fade into the mist.
---
As he directed the beast forward toward where Kenta and Ayaka were, he found his thoughts drifting.
During that clash, when his Susanoo had touched the Three-Tails, he'd felt something… odd.
The beast's chakra had merged with his.
Seeped into his armor.
He hadn't expected it — and it left him curious.
Could Susanoo absorb chakra like that?
Or was this something else entirely?
He'd once entertained the thought — however faintly — of transcending into something greater, like the Sage of Six Paths himself.
If Hagoromo truly existed beyond life and death, guiding mortals from the afterlife…
then what did that say about chakra's potential?
But Kei wasn't delusional.
He lacked the lineage of Indra or Asura.
He lacked the sentimental insanity of Obito, who could resist the Ten-Tails' will out of love for a dead girl.
And honestly?
If the Ten-Tails ever appeared before him, he suspected he might hesitate too.
Still, perhaps the path to that "Six Paths" level didn't require the beasts themselves.
They were chakra incarnate — but chakra could be reproduced, harvested, manipulated.
All one needed was a source.
A vessel.
He smiled faintly.
If Susanoo could absorb the chakra of one tailed beast… why not test it with another?
And he knew exactly where to find a sample of Nine-Tails chakra in Konoha.
No, not from Minato's family. He wasn't suicidal.
But one of the Fire Daimyō's guards — Kazuma, if he remembered right — possessed residual fragments of the Nine-Tails from a containment mission.
That would do nicely for an experiment.
He shook his head. "Later," he muttered. "One step at a time."
---
He urged the Three-Tails forward, closing in on Kenta and Ayaka's chakra signatures.
But before he reached them, he felt a flicker of energy beside him — a familiar, precise distortion of space-time.
In a burst of light, two figures appeared beside him.
Masks. Black cloaks.
And chakra he knew all too well.
He exhaled. "Finally."
The Flying Thunder God Technique rippled out, and the two men — Minato Namikaze and Fugaku Uchiha — materialized.
They landed hard, instantly sensing something was wrong.
The ground beneath them wasn't ground at all.
It shifted — alive, massive, breathing.
They looked down and froze.
They were standing on the Three-Tails itself.
---
"You're late," Kei said, turning to face them, his mask gleaming faintly in the mist.
"Captain Minato — I sent that distress call ages ago."
Minato blinked, staring at him. "Kei…?"
The masked man tilted his head.
"Use your chakra sense," Kei said quietly. "You'll find someone interesting."
Minato frowned but obeyed, closing his eyes and expanding his perception — and what he felt made him stiffen.
"You've been talking to him, haven't you?" he asked softly.
Kei gave a faint nod. "He's the one who gave me this technique. And honestly, this little act was necessary — it's the only way to stabilize the situation."
Minato opened his eyes again, his expression conflicted, understanding far too much — and saying nothing.
Beside him, Fugaku watched the two in silence, not daring to interrupt.
He didn't understand the full exchange, but he understood enough:
they were speaking of the masked man who had once nearly destroyed Konoha.
A name that carried too many ghosts.
---
When Minato opened his eyes, there was something deeper — heavier — in them.
And as the Three-Tails roared beneath them, the mist of war began to settle…
The curtain, at last, had fallen.
It was obvious from his expression — Minato Namikaze was conflicted.
The thought of seeing Obito again had been eating away at him ever since Kei brought it up.
Obito was his student — once a kindhearted boy who had dreamed of becoming Hokage, now a man consumed by grief and vengeance.
Minato had long since forgiven him in his heart.
He understood, perhaps more than anyone, how pain could twist even the noblest souls.
But forgiveness did not make the reunion easier.
Even now, with that decision hanging before him, Minato felt a deep and complicated hesitation.
---
"Do you want to see him?" Uchiha Kei asked suddenly, breaking the silence.
He turned slightly, his tone calm yet probing.
"An unexpected visit might not be a bad thing. I can even give him a warning — let him know you're coming."
Minato was quiet for a moment, lost in thought. Then he nodded slightly.
"If you can confirm you've made contact — that he's aware — then yes," he said evenly. "Otherwise…"
His eyes sharpened, the warmth fading from his voice.
"…he might die by my hand. No matter who he is, or was, I can't afford to hold back. Even a staged fight must look real — and he's still committed crimes that can't be forgiven."
"I understand."
Kei inclined his head, accepting the words without argument. Then he turned to another figure standing beside him.
"Clan Head Fugaku," he said. "I need you to retrieve my two teammates — Ayaka and Kenta. They're close by."
Fugaku gave a curt nod. "Leave it to me."
In a flash, he leapt from the Three-Tails' shell and vanished into the mist below, heading toward their chakra signatures.
---
Kei closed his eyes.
Within the body of the Three-Tails still lingered traces of Obito's chakra — remnants of the control tether he had once used to manipulate the beast and its host, Yagura.
Whether that chakra could still establish a connection, Kei wasn't sure.
But if the legends of the Sage of Six Paths were true, then chakra always carried resonance — a bond that could never truly be severed.
All he needed to do was release his hold on those fragments, let them flow back to their origin — and wait.
---
Miles away, in the depths of a shadowed cave, both Obito and Black Zetsu froze.
For a brief instant, Obito's eyes widened, and Zetsu's face twisted in disbelief.
"No… it can't be…"
That masked man he had just seen, the one with the cloak — the chakra he felt — it was Minato Namikaze.
Impossible.
The Flying Thunder God shouldn't be able to cross such a distance, not across an ocean.
Only Obito himself could move through space that freely.
So how…?
Had Minato mastered a new level of the jutsu?
Or was he… part Senju after all?
The thought left Zetsu utterly dumbfounded — a rare sight for the ageless schemer.
---
Meanwhile, Obito's mind was reeling for another reason.
The chakra thread he had used to control Yagura — severed by Kei during their battle — had just reconnected to him.
That could only mean one thing: Kei had deliberately reopened the link.
Then, as Obito focused, he sensed it — a subtle pulse, carrying information.
A message.
From Kei.
His heart skipped a beat as he understood.
Minato wanted to see him.
Not to talk, perhaps — but to confront him.
Even so, that meeting… that final reckoning… was something Obito couldn't ignore.
He exhaled slowly, eyes darkening behind his mask.
"Sensei…"
---
He glanced toward Black Zetsu, who was muttering curses under his breath.
Obito hesitated. For a fleeting moment, he considered silencing the creature permanently — snuffing out this ancient parasite that had manipulated so many lives.
But no.
As much as he despised Zetsu, the thing was still useful. Its knowledge of Madara's plan, its understanding of chakra and the Demonic Statue — all of it would be crucial if he intended to turn that plan against its master.
So he let it live. For now.
---
Moments later, Obito pressed his hand to the ground.
Through the reestablished chakra tether, he sent his reply — a wordless pulse encoded with intent, emotion, and warning.
Kei would understand.
Zetsu, however, noticed the movement and narrowed its pale eyes.
"What are you doing?" it asked suspiciously.
"I'm trying to reassert control over Yagura," Obito said calmly, not missing a beat.
"His chakra's unstable. Whoever's controlling the Three-Tails doesn't have proper synchronization — they're forcing it through brute strength. That kind of technique leaves openings. I'm just… taking advantage of them."
Zetsu exhaled irritably. "Hmph. Then be careful. Those two who showed up… they're probably his allies. I felt one of them — the Fourth Hokage."
Its tone grew more agitated. "Damn it, how did that bastard cross the ocean with the Flying Thunder God!? His chakra shouldn't even—"
Zetsu stopped mid-sentence.
Its body stiffened.
Because at that very moment, a shadow flickered behind them.
A glint of steel flashed.
And before Obito could react, a kunai drove straight toward his chest.
---