More than ten kilometers from the Akatsuki headquarters, Jiraiya and the others skidded to a halt. Kakuzu hit the ground with a heavy thud, dropped unceremoniously like a sack of grain.
No one paid him any attention. All eyes focused on the devastation unfolding in the distance.
The world was ending over there.
Buildings didn't just collapse. They disintegrated, stone fragmenting into progressively smaller pieces as dual forces tore them apart from within. The ground itself lifted in massive sheets, bedrock screaming as it fractured. Trees that had stood for decades became splinters, then sawdust, then atomized entirely.
The repulsive force from Super Almighty Push created a visible sphere of destruction, expanding outward like a transparent wall that erased everything it touched. Nothing escaped. Nothing survived.
It was like watching a god reach down and delete a portion of reality.
"Can anyone see Naruto?" Jiraiya's voice cracked slightly. His hands unconsciously formed defensive seals, old instincts screaming at him to do something, even though they were safely beyond the blast radius.
Tsunade squinted, medical training allowing her to track details others might miss. But the chaos was too complete, the destruction too absolute. "I can't see anything in there except... destruction."
The implications settled like lead in everyone's stomachs.
They'd all witnessed Naruto tank Hidan's scythe without a scratch. They'd seen him punch through space itself. But this wasn't a weapon or a technique—this was a natural disaster. The kind of force that reshaped landscapes and ended civilizations.
Could even Naruto survive that?
"He'll be fine," Sasuke said, not looking away from Naruto's discarded Hokage robes folded carefully over his arm. His voice carried absolute certainty. "If you're going to worry about anyone, worry about Nagato."
Kakashi nodded agreement, his visible eye tracking the distant devastation with his Sharingan. "Naruto's dealt with worse."
"Worse than that?" Jiraiya gestured at the expanding sphere of annihilation. "Nagato just destroyed his own headquarters! The technique that could level a village, and you think—"
"I think," Sasuke interrupted calmly, "that if you understood even a fraction of what Naruto's truly capable of, you wouldn't waste time worrying." His Sharingan spun lazily. "Now, are we going to finish what we started, or stand here gawking?"
Tsunade blinked, then refocused. Right. They had a job to do.
She turned toward where Kakuzu lay sprawled on the ground, his face a canvas of bruises, several masks cracked or missing entirely. The immortal bounty hunter looked like he'd been through a meat grinder.
"Everyone," Kakuzu said weakly, raising one trembling hand, "I surrender. Seriously. I give up. Just... just stop."
"Surrendering is for people with dignity left to preserve," Tsunade replied, cracking her knuckles. "You lost that about fifty punches ago."
"But I said I surrender!"
"Complaint noted and denied." Jiraiya's hands blurred through seals. "Naruto gave us one job—handle Kakuzu while he deals with Nagato. If we can't manage that with five people..."
"Six!" Nine-Tails protested, still in his miniaturized form but bristling with indignation. "I'm helping too!"
"Fine, six of us," Jiraiya amended, "then we don't deserve to call ourselves his backup."
The group converged on Kakuzu's position.
"No, no, NO—" The immortal's protests cut off as Tsunade's foot connected with his ribs.
CRACK.
"That's for all the people you've killed for money," she said coldly.
Sasuke's Lightning Style technique crackled across Kakuzu's exposed earth-element heart. "That's for being in an organization that threatened Konoha."
Orochimaru's snakes constricted around the immortal's limbs. "That's for... well, I don't particularly need a reason."
Kakuzu's face had gone completely numb, accepting his fate with the resignation of a man who'd lived too long and seen too much. His eyes tracked Sasuke, Kakashi, and Nine-Tails with particular focus—the three who seemed to take special pleasure in striking his face specifically.
Why do they keep hitting my face? he thought muzzily. We've never even met before today. What did I do to them?
He didn't realize that all three had been victims of Naruto's occasional "training accidents" over the years, and were working out some lingering frustration on a convenient target.
Nine-Tails landed on Kakuzu's chest again, tiny paws patting the immortal's cheeks. "This is fun! Can we keep doing this?"
Kakuzu stared at the ceiling of clouds above, his existence reduced to a punching bag for Team Naruto's stress relief.
Deidara, Hidan, Sasori, he thought, you lucky bastards. At least your defeats were quick.
At the center of the devastation, Naruto stood unmoved.
The dual forces of Universal Pull and Push crashed against his body from opposing directions simultaneously. Gravitational force tried to compress him into a singularity. Repulsive force tried to tear him apart atom by atom. The contradiction should have been impossible for matter to withstand.
Naruto felt it. Actually felt something for the first time in this fight.
Not pain. Not damage. But... pressure. Real, genuine pressure against his skin. The fine hairs on his bare arms bent under the force, straining away from his body as if trying to escape.
Interesting.
A smile crossed his face. "Good, Nagato. If you're getting serious, then I should too."
His chakra surged.
The Indestructible Body Form activated, and Naruto's body began to grow. Not the gradual expansion of a transformation technique, but rapid, explosive growth. Ten meters. Fifty meters. One hundred meters. Two hundred meters.
His form towered over the devastation, a titan among ruins, muscles perfectly proportioned despite the scale increase. The technique didn't just enlarge him—it enhanced every aspect of his physical form to maintain peak efficiency.
Deva Path, still channeling the devastating combination attack, stared up at the giant with something approaching despair flickering through its dead eyes.
But Nagato wasn't finished.
Yahiko's hands rose, chakra condensing between the palms. The air itself seemed to scream as gravitational force concentrated into a single point—a black sphere no larger than a marble, yet containing enough pull to reshape landscapes.
"Planetary Devastation."
Deva Path's hands came together forcefully.
The black sphere shot upward, positioning itself above Naruto's giant form. Then it pulled.
Gravitational force erupted outward, thousands of times stronger than the Almighty Pull. Every fragment of building debris that had been repelled by the previous technique reversed direction, flying toward the sphere like iron to a magnet. The ground itself tore apart, layers of earth peeling away as stone and soil answered the sphere's call.
Rock fragments plastered against Naruto's body, sticking despite his size. More layers accumulated, building up faster than he could shed them. Within seconds, his giant form was being buried under tons of compressed stone and earth.
The prison grew, layer upon layer, until a small moon hung in the air above the wasteland that had been the Akatsuki headquarters.
Nagato allowed himself a moment of hope. The Planetary Devastation is the Rinnegan's ultimate sealing technique. It imprisoned the Ten-Tails itself. Surely...
Inside the stone prison, Naruto frowned. The pressure was real now—not dangerous, but genuinely constraining. He didn't like being wrapped up like this. No room to move. No space to breathe properly.
Time to fix that.
His muscles coiled. Every fiber of his enhanced body aligned perfectly, two hundred meters of optimized physical power focusing into a single action.
"THOUSAND BUDDHAS ASCEND TO HEAVEN!"
The technique's name echoed across the wasteland, but the sound came after the fist moved.
Naruto's punch shattered reality itself.
The stone prison didn't crack. It didn't fragment. It annihilated, reduced to particles finer than dust in the microsecond the shockwave passed through it. The black gravitational sphere at the center simply ceased, unable to maintain cohesion against the physics-defying force.
The shockwave continued outward, a visible ripple in space that made Deva Path stumble mid-technique, chakra flow disrupted by the interference.
Planetary Devastation, broken.
Stone fragments fell from Naruto's body like rain, muscles vibrating at frequencies that prevented anything from adhering. He stepped forward, the ground cracking under his immense weight.
One step carried him to Deva Path's position.
Without hesitation, without ceremony, he swung.
His fist, the size of a building, came down like divine judgment.
Deva Path tried to activate Almighty Push. Too slow. The technique required a split-second of charge time.
It didn't have a split-second.
WHAM.
The impact drove Yahiko's corpse into the ground, creating a crater twenty meters deep.
The Planetary Devastation's chakra dispersed completely, technique collapsed.
Naruto's other hand snapped out, fingers closing around Hell Path and Preta Path simultaneously. Both bodies struggled, techniques activating uselessly against his grip.
He squeezed.
The corpses crumpled like paper, chakra receivers shattering, reanimation disrupted beyond recovery. They slipped from his palm, lifeless husks once more.
Naruto shrank back to normal size, the Indestructible Body Form deactivating as he bent down and picked up Deva Path's broken body like someone retrieving a dropped doll. Yahiko's face, frozen in that eternal peaceful expression, stared sightlessly at the sky.
He found Nagato quickly—the only living person remaining in the devastation, seated in his wheelchair amid the ruins of the central tower. The emaciated man looked even smaller surrounded by such destruction, thin frame draped in the black and red Akatsuki cloak.
Black receivers protruded from his body at grotesque angles, the price of controlling the Rinnegan's power. His red hair hung limp and wet. His face had gone the color of old parchment.
Naruto stopped in front of him, holding Deva Path's corpse casually in one hand.
"You lost," he said simply.
Nagato stared up at him. The Rinnegan tracked every detail—Naruto's relaxed posture, his barely elevated breathing, the complete absence of injury. Then his gaze fell to Yahiko's body, dangling like a broken puppet.
The connection between them was severed. Nagato had cut the chakra flow himself, unable to maintain control while processing his defeat.
I used everything, he thought numbly. Every Path. Every technique. The Super Almighty Push that leveled the Rain Village once before. The Planetary Devastation that could seal gods.
And he defeated it all without using a single ninjutsu. Just taijutsu. Just his body.
The implications crashed over him like an avalanche.
If his physical power alone can do this, what would happen if he used ninjutsu? Those twenty thousand shadow clones—each one would have chakra reserves that dwarf mine. He could cast dozens of Planetary Devastations simultaneously. Could probably level the entire Land of Rain in minutes.
His strength isn't human. It's a natural disaster wearing human skin.
Despair settled in Nagato's chest, cold and final. The dream he'd carried since Yahiko's death—world peace through overwhelming power—crumbled like the headquarters around them.
I'm not invincible. I never was. Just another person clinging to delusions.
Yahiko... our dream is over.
But even drowning in defeat, Nagato retained enough pride not to make excuses. He raised his eyes to meet Naruto's gaze directly.
"You win," he said, voice hoarse but steady.
Naruto's face split into a genuine smile. Good. He's rational enough to admit defeat. That means he's rational enough to listen now.
"Your strength is impressive, Nagato," Naruto said generously, setting Deva Path's body down with surprising gentleness. "If you hadn't run into me, you'd be one of the strongest people in the world. You're just unlucky."
Nagato nodded slowly. "Yes. Very unlucky to meet you."
Naruto blinked. Wait, was that sarcasm? I was trying to be nice...
He shook it off. Social nuance could wait. "Alright, Nagato. First order of business—disband the Akatsuki. Agreed?"
"Does it matter?" Nagato gestured vaguely at the wasteland surrounding them. "Look around. The organization is already disbanded. Everyone's defeated or scattered. The headquarters is destroyed. And you've made it very clear you won't let it continue existing." His lips twisted bitterly. "So yes. I agree. The Akatsuki is over."
"Excellent!" Naruto's enthusiasm seemed disproportionate to the situation. "Now, second order of business—join my farm."
Nagato's eye twitched. The farm. Again. He can't possibly be serious about this.
But Naruto's expression held no mockery, no hidden cruelty. Just genuine, earnest invitation.
He's... actually serious. The Fifth Hokage of Konoha, who just defeated the entire Akatsuki organization single-handedly, genuinely wants me to work on a farm.
The absurdity was almost enough to make Nagato laugh. Almost.
"Are you serious?" he asked carefully.
Naruto didn't answer verbally. Just maintained that steady, expectant gaze.
The silence stretched.
Nagato's mind raced through options, calculating angles. I'm defeated. Completely. He could kill me right now and there's nothing I could do to stop him. His thoughts turned to Konan, still somewhere in the village, probably watching from above. If I refuse, if I anger him... he might go after her next. And I can't protect her. Can't protect anyone anymore.
Yahiko died because I wasn't strong enough. I won't let Konan die too.
The dream of world peace seemed impossibly distant now, a child's fantasy that had led only to more pain. But keeping Konan alive—that was something concrete, something achievable.
Even if it meant swallowing his pride completely.
"Do I have a second choice?" Nagato asked, though he already knew the answer.
Naruto shook his head.
Nagato closed his eyes, took a slow breath, and felt something inside him break. Not violently. Just... a quiet fracture, like ice cracking under spring sun.
"I'll join."
The words tasted like ash, but he forced them out. "I'll join your farm."
Something vital seemed to leave him with those words—the driving force that had sustained him through years of pain and loss. The dream he'd shared with Yahiko, the purpose that had kept him going despite his body's deterioration.
All of it, dissolving like mist.
"Excellent choice, Senior Brother Nagato!" Naruto's entire demeanor brightened. He reached out one hand, offering a handshake. "One day, you'll realize this was the best decision you ever made."
Senior Brother. The casual familial address stung more than any insult could have.
Nagato stared at the offered hand, too exhausted to muster proper resentment.
Then paper butterflies filled the air.
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!"
Konan descended like an avenging angel, her body fragmenting into thousands of paper pieces that reassembled into explosive tags. The detonation tags covered every surface—each butterfly carrying enough explosive force to obliterate a building.
And all of them converged on Naruto's extended hand.
"No!" Nagato's shout came too late, body lurching forward in the wheelchair. "Konan, stop—"
She didn't stop. From her perspective, the scene was damning—Nagato slumped in his wheelchair, barely breathing, surrounded by destruction. The enormous blonde boy looming over him, holding Yahiko's corpse in one hand while reaching toward Nagato with the other.
It looked like an execution in progress.
Every protective instinct Konan possessed screamed at her to intervene, consequences be damned.
The explosive tags detonated.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Fire engulfed Naruto's hand, the rapid-fire explosions creating a sustained blast that lit the wasteland like a second sun. Heat washed over Nagato's face, making his eyes water.
Konan wasn't finished. More paper butterflies emerged from her clothing, from her hair, from what seemed like thin air. Each one transformed into explosive tags mid-flight, creating a continuous chain of detonations.
Fifteen billion explosive tags, Konan had prepared over the years. She'd use every single one if necessary.
The fire intensified, smoke billowing upward in thick columns.
Through the flames, Naruto's hand kept moving. Not fast, not desperate—just steady, inevitable, like a mountain slowly toppling.
It emerged from the fire completely unharmed, continuing toward Konan's position without slowing.
Her eyes widened. Impossible. Those were direct hits. Concentrated explosive force that could level a district. And there's not even a burn mark.
The hand accelerated suddenly, crossing the remaining distance in a heartbeat.
It was right in front of her face.
"NARUTO, DON'T HURT KONAN!" Nagato's desperate shout cracked across the wasteland.
The wheelchair tipped forward as he tried to rise, emaciated legs unable to support his weight. He crashed to the ground, reaching out uselessly toward them.
Naruto glanced down at him, expression unreadable.