Because Uchiha Andrew had been involved in the battle from start to finish, Ohnoki had almost forgotten—Andrew wasn't actually part of the coalition. He had been invited by Mizukage Terumi Mei to assist, but he wasn't a formal participant in the war effort.
Even though the disastrous situation had largely been caused by a lack of intelligence, that responsibility lay with the coalition leaders—not Andrew.
"That's enough, Tsuchikage," Terumi Mei finally stepped in, her voice steady. "Uchiha Andrew didn't participate as one of us. Instead of wasting time arguing about who's to blame, we should be talking about what to do next. The Akatsuki have just left the Rain Village—and they've barely taken any real losses."
She didn't enjoy this sort of meeting. None of the men in the room seemed interested in actually solving problems—they just wanted to shift blame and throw responsibility onto someone else.
And really, what good would that do? Would it make the Akatsuki disappear? Would it bring back the shinobi who had died? Of course not.
"There's nothing to discuss," the Fourth Raikage growled. "The Five Great Nations will issue a joint wanted order across the entire ninja world. We will hunt down and completely destroy the Akatsuki organization."
The fight had shown him that Akatsuki's power was far beyond what he had imagined. This was no longer just about the Rinnegan's temptation—their real aim was the tailed beasts in each village, and their ultimate goal was to cast a genjutsu over the entire world. Once, Raikage had dismissed that as a mad fantasy. Now, he saw they might actually have the strength to do it.
No matter how powerful the Rinnegan was, it was better destroyed than risked falling into another village's hands. If no one had it, the balance of power could remain as it was.
"That's true," Sarutobi Shinnosuke agreed, "but if we want to kill them next time, we need to understand them better. First of all—the detonating tags. This time, nearly a hundred of our shinobi died, and eighty percent of those deaths came from that serial explosion.
"You saw the Paper Style kunoichi among their members. We need to know if Akatsuki can create such large-scale explosions again."
Shinnosuke had the right to speak in the meeting even if he wasn't Hokage—this was a review of what went wrong. Konoha's forces had been nearly wiped out in the initial blast because Raikage had pulled away most of the support teams for his own protection. Without those support ninja, Konoha's shinobi had no chance to save themselves.
"That woman's jutsu is unusual," Terumi Mei said, remembering her fight with Konan. "But I doubt she could create detonating tags of that scale on her own. Even her Paper Style wouldn't allow every sheet to become a full tag—otherwise she'd just be a walking explosion."
Her meaning was clear—Konan's ability to make tags was real, but such a massive trap must have required resources and preparation.
"In other words," Andrew added, "the Akatsuki are well-funded."
He thought of the duo Orochimaru and Kakuzu, still at large somewhere. Orochimaru had passed along news that after looting both the Stone and the Cloud, Akatsuki's wealth had grown massively. Even though they'd suffered this setback, their resources were still intact.
Iwagakure might be poor, but the Cloud Village was not. And thanks to the trade routes Uchiha had recently opened, both villages had been recovering—until Kakuzu robbed them blind. Andrew half-wondered if Ohnoki and the Raikage would lose their minds when they returned home.
"Then we put pressure on the bounty network," the Raikage said, "make sure they refuse all Akatsuki transactions, and warn every small nation to cut contact with them."
The Kage all knew—without money, even the strongest organization would crumble.
Andrew rolled his eyes. "You can warn the small nations, sure. But the bounty network? Forget it. Their exchange points are hidden, and there are too many across the world. You can't monitor them all. And after word spreads that the Akatsuki beat the coalition, do you think the bounty brokers will stand up to them? More likely, they'll pay out even faster just to avoid trouble."
The Raikage grunted and sat back, frustrated. He knew Andrew was right.
The group moved on. They agreed to limited economic sanctions, then turned to analyzing the Rinnegan's abilities.
Obito, Sasori, and Konan's skills were relatively straightforward—they'd learned a lot from direct combat. But the real problem was the Rinnegan itself. From Andrew's own tests, the six Rinnegan users were all just corpses controlled remotely—the true wielder had never appeared.
And yet, even without the real one present, Raikage and Tsuchikage had been pressured heavily. The Deva Path's ability to repel or attract objects was especially dangerous—Ohnoki's Dust Release had been deflected, and the Raikage had been blasted away multiple times.
Listening to their combined observations, Andrew realized they'd already uncovered more about Pain's Six Paths than Jiraiya had in the original events. This knowledge might mean that when Jiraiya eventually faced Nagato, he wouldn't die in vain—and maybe he'd even have the chance to speak to Nagato and Konan.
---
After some quick field repairs—mostly done by the Mist forces, since the others barely had anyone left—the coalition formally disbanded.
The sight was bleak. Just days ago, three full divisions totaling thousands of shinobi had marched into the Rain Village. Now, only the Mist had a full team returning. The others looked like survivors of a disastrous joint mission, their forces reduced to scattered handfuls.
---
When Sarutobi Shinnosuke returned to Konoha and reported, the Third Hokage's entire council froze in shock.
> "What?! All… all dead?!"
The words hit like a hammer. They had sent out some of their most experienced jōnin and chūnin, many from prominent clans. The loss was devastating.
Shinnosuke swallowed and added weakly, "Well… not everyone. The sensory and medical teams survived."
But everyone knew the truth—except for those few left at the coalition's station, every Konoha shinobi who had entered the Rain Village was gone. Shinnosuke was the only combatant to return alive.
The silence in the Hokage's office was heavy. They didn't need to say it aloud—the defeat had crippled Konoha's strength, and the political fallout would be brutal.
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