"Survive... At any cost!"—that single thought thrashed through Jiraiya's fading consciousness as the two shinobi, straining their last strength, dragged his torso beyond the edge of the Cursed Zone. Their duty fulfilled, the ninja collapsed limply onto the frozen ground, their chakra drained to the last drop.
As soon as the toad sages on the Sannin's shoulders left the Zone of Deadly Peace, the summoning technique, having received a fraction of the necessary energy, dissipated of its own accord. Fukasaku and Shima vanished.
"Food..."
His consciousness cleared for a moment, but his body was devastated. A bestial hunger tormented his mind, demanding energy. Without thinking, obeying only instinct, Jiraiya raised his hand to his mouth and bit into it. He needed food. He needed strength. If he didn't move, the Zone of Deadly Stillness would swallow him up again—this time completely. He couldn't let that happen. His comrades hadn't sacrificed themselves so he could lie here, passively awaiting death.
Clutching at the icy ground, he crawled, dragging the dead weight of his numb legs behind him. Slowly. Painfully. Every inch was an inhuman effort. The cold penetrated his bones, his heartbeat slowed, threatening to stop.
"I... will survive!"
A sudden surge of adrenaline made his nearly frozen heart pound wildly. Gritting his teeth until they crunched, Jiraiya lunged forward with the last of his strength, dragging his body a few more feet. Now only his legs remained trapped inside. After this desperate lunge, he collapsed face down.
He was no longer strong.
But he didn't give up. With a trembling hand, he raised the bloody hand to his mouth again. Overcoming the excruciating pain, he sank his teeth into his own flesh again, tore out a chunk, and swallowed, choking...
The Konoha shinobi who arrived found him on the brink. The medics did everything they could, but the verdict was inexorable: necrosis had completely destroyed the tissue in his legs below the knees. To save his life, they had to be amputated. Thus, chasing a slim chance to defeat Uchiha Yue, the legendary sannin became a helpless cripple.
His calculations proved tragically wrong. Activating Hermit Mode, Jiraiya indeed discovered that the Dead Still Zone was absorbing his energy more slowly. He was confident his chakra reserves would be sufficient to reach his destination and return.
But he was wrong. The Zone was insidious: the deeper he delved, the more aggressively it drained his strength. When they were still two-thirds of the way to Yue, his chakra began to melt at a terrifying rate. A chill of terror gripped Jiraiya and he rushed back, but it was too late. He had run out of energy. If not for the rescue team's self-sacrifice, he would already be dead. Any ninjutsu aimed at the zone instantly dissipated, making long-distance rescue impossible. They had to pull him out manually, at the cost of their own lives.
And Uchiha Yue continued to sleep. Perhaps a new, even more powerful jutsu was being born in the depths of his mind. Or perhaps he truly was simply resting.
One thing was clear: as long as he lived, the Zone of Dead Peace would only expand, threatening one day to engulf the entire world, shrouding it in eternal cold and silence.
News of the disaster quickly spread to the other great villages. Behind the glee—"The Leaf itself has raised its own executioner"—came fear and sober calculation. Each village sent scouts to the ruins to assess the threat and, if possible, try to lure this invulnerable monster to their side.
"Cough, cough..."
A dry, hacking cough echoed in the gloom of the Akatsuki hideout. An emaciated figure slowly opened its eyes in the hospital bed.
"Where am I?" Nagato whispered, trying to sit up.
"Thank goodness you're awake!" Konan, who had been by his bedside the entire time, beamed. "Don't get up, you're still very weak."
She had almost given up hope. Nagato's wounds were horrific: the lower half of his body was missing, and the upper half was covered in terrible burns.
"Konan?... I... am alive?" "Nagato leaned back against the pillows. That all-consuming beam of light flashed through his memory like a fiery flash. Damn it... If not for the recent battle that had exhausted him, he wouldn't have found himself in this situation.
He was a hair's breadth from death.
The next moment, Nagato froze. Something alien. He instinctively threw off the blanket. The lower half of his body wasn't his.
"Nagato, you're awake. Good. But there's no time to rest. We have big problems."
Uchiha Obito and Black Zetsu entered the room.
"Madara..." Hearing Obito's voice, Nagato's head snapped up, and fury flared in his eyes. "You! This is all because of your damned plan! You created this monster! You!... How dare you even show up here?!"
Nagato's accusations hit home. Obito was momentarily confused. After all, he knew it himself: without his and Itachi's "help," without the clan's total annihilation, such an invincible monster as Uchiha Yue would never have been born.
"Enough, Nagato," Black Zetsu interjected in his raspy voice. "Finding someone to blame is pointless now."