Chapter 142: The End
"What... exactly happened here?"
Outside the borders of Grass Hidden Village, a group of Grass ninja staggered to their feet.
They stared blankly at the devastation before them, each one appearing lost and helpless.
"This... this has to be a joke, right? Sothing like this can’t possibly be real..."
"Am I dreaming? If I am, please—soone wake up already!"
"Could a ninja really do sothing like this?"
"Damn it... why does such a monster even exist?!"
Their eyes swept across the wreckage—ruins that once were their village—and then back to the enormous crater that had nearly obliterated half of it. The mory of that earth-shattering explosion still echoed in their minds.
They were on the verge of breaking down. If they hadn’t evacuated the villagers in ti, the casualties would’ve been unimaginable.
Even now, the losses were likely devastating.
The group that had been stationed outside the village—ready for combat or support—had suffered particularly severe damage from the blast’s radius.
"...This might actually be... an opportunity."
Most of the Grass shinobi had ntally collapsed, including their village leader.
But Karin, who had sensed danger early and taken precautionary asures, wasn’t nearly as affected. Still, she didn’t dare reveal herself now.
With so many dead and wounded, she couldn’t begin to imagine how they would react if they knew she had survived.
Truth be told, she’d wanted to leave the Grass Village for a long ti. This place had brought her nothing but pain and suffering.
She still rembered exactly how her mother had died. Revenge was never her goal—she just wanted to escape and never return.
With that, Karin quietly slipped away into the shadows.
---
"Everything’s black... this place is scary."
While the Grass shinobi were lost in despair, the ground suddenly rippled—Black Zetsu erged from below.
He surveyed the scene, stunned by the sheer destruction. Even White Zetsu had lost his usual cheeriness and feigned a frightened look.
"If we’re not careful, we could die too. And if I die, I can’t finish my jokes..."
"Shut up."
Black Zetsu cut him off harshly, his expression dark.
"What the hell happened here? Tell . Now’s not the ti for your nonsense."
After wrapping up the situation with Hanzo of the Salamander, Black Zetsu had planned to co imdiately. But he’d had to clean up the aftermath to avoid further complications for Agakure.
Once done, he’d rushed over—only to witness this apocalyptic scene.
"A fight broke out," White Zetsu finally said after scratching his head.
"Obito and Kakashi were fighting, and who knows where they are now. Kitagawa Gen was taking on both Kurosuki Raiga and Nagato by himself. Now they’ve all vanished."
"You don’t know where any of them are?"
"Nagato used so huge technique—ford a massive sphere in the sky. Forced my clones to retreat."
"A massive sphere... Planetary Devastation?"
"I’m not sure. But Kitagawa Gen used a technique too—it shattered Nagato’s jutsu completely. A bunch of my clones lost contact at the sa ti."
"He shattered Planetary Devastation?"
Black Zetsu’s eyes flickered with disbelief.
He knew exactly what Planetary Devastation was—after all, his own mother had been sealed away using that very technique by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother.
Even if Nagato’s version wasn’t as powerful, for soone to destroy it outright? That was insane.
"Yep, shattered it like glass."
White Zetsu nodded, then suddenly paused, as if sensing sothing.
"Huh? I think I’ve found Kitagawa Gen."
"Where is he?"
"His chakra... it’s with Nagato."
"..."
For a mont, Black Zetsu felt like dying wouldn’t be so bad.
But then another thought crossed his mind—if Kitagawa Gen really had seized the Rinnegan, could he possibly be the one capable of stopping Ōtsutsuki Genshiki?
---
Elsewhere, Obito and Kakashi’s battle had beco distracted.
"That was Planetary Devastation. Damn it—Nagato was pushed that far by Kitagawa Gen?"
Obito knew exactly what that technique was. There was no mistaking it—Nagato had been pushed to his limit.
"He even resorted to that jutsu... Is Kitagawa Gen really that dangerous?"
In truth, Obito knew the answer. He’d already fallen victim to Gen’s strength once.
But to think that even Nagato—fighting with all six Paths—ended up like this? That was far from normal.
"I have to get there. Now."
Obito gritted his teeth. But Kakashi was a persistent obstacle. His mastery of the Sharingan was more formidable than Obito had anticipated.
"No... I need to find a way to escape. If Gen reaches Nagato’s real body—"
He hadn’t forgotten. If Kitagawa Gen captured Nagato, the Rinnegan could be lost forever.
And yet, another idea crept into his mind.
"If Kitagawa Gen already has this kind of talent and power at such a young age... maybe he really could stand against Ōtsutsuki Genshiki."
---
"Too late for that thought, don’t you think?"
While Obito and Black Zetsu were lost in their respective thoughts, Kitagawa Gen had already arrived at Nagato’s hideout.
What greeted him was Konan—wings of paper spread out like an angel’s, her paper butterflies swirling around her like a storm.
"Paper Release? Explosive tags? They all look the sa to . Still, are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Gen gently shook his head, a faint smirk of mockery tugging at his lips.
"But go ahead—give it a try. Maybe you’ll even manage to hurt ."
Konan said nothing, but her stance made it clear—she was ready to strike at any mont.
Just then, Nagato’s voice cut through the tension.
"Konan, don’t. Leave him to ."
"So I was right," Gen said softly. "Your real body isn’t much to look at. And... you really do have soone you care about."
Kitagawa Gen looked toward Nagato.
Nagato truly looked like skin and bones—so emaciated it was hard to believe he was still alive.
Yet even so, Kitagawa could sense a powerful life force emanating from him. That contradiction—between his frail form and surging vitality—was almost unsettling.
"Did Uchiha Madara do sothing to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path? Or did they overuse his chakra while cultivating White Zetsu... Is that why Nagato’s body has stayed like this for so long?"
Kitagawa couldn’t be certain. But it seed clear—Nagato had likely been continuously feeding chakra into the Gedo Statue, and even with his exceptional Rinnegan physique, he hadn’t been able to recover.
"Yes. She is... soone incredibly important to ,"
Nagato said quietly, his voice calm despite the sharpness of his gaze.
"You—soone from Konoha—are here to take away the last important person in my life too, aren’t you?"
He gave a bitter laugh.
"But I’m not surprised anymore."
Though Nagato’s Rinnegan bore down with fury, his tone remained eerily composed.
"Years ago, in the war between the Hidden Rain and Konoha, it was your village that invaded my ho and murdered my parents."
"It was your people who allied with Hanzo and killed Yahiko."
"Konoha has always walked this path—dressed in the robes of peace, but dealing only in violence."
"You call it peace, but what we see... is oppression."
Kitagawa tilted his head slightly, a look of amusent spreading across his face.
"Funny. Weren’t you the one who ca looking for trouble? I was just delivering a ssage to the Land of Rain—you attacked , rember?"
That made Nagato falter. He was montarily speechless.
Because now that he thought about it... Gen was right.
"Honestly, I don’t like arguing with people who flunked history class," Gen said, voice calm but disdainful. He was slowly gathering chakra while he spoke—after all, he wasn’t sure if his "Talk no Jutsu" would actually work here.
"You say A and Konoha were at war. But anyone with a functioning brain knows it was the A that launched the first attack. You lost, and now it’s sohow our fault?"
Nagato: "..."
"Tell , has there ever been a war without bloodshed?"
Nagato: "..."
"And to be perfectly frank, I kind of admire Hanzo. He saw the bottleneck in A’s developnt. He knew change required risk."
"His thods were dangerous, sure, but at least he dared to try. You all want to ’change the ninja world’ without even understanding it."
To Gen, Hanzo had been a tyrant—but he’d also risked everything for the future of the Rain Village.
The Land of Rain was a cursed place—small, surrounded, and soaked in blood. The only way to grow was by seizing opportunity and gambling everything.
"Win, and you rise above. Lose, and you disappear beneath the waves."
Clearly, the now-sliced-up "Hanzo with hot sauce" had lost that gamble.
"At least he knew what had to be done. You guys? You don’t even asure up to him."
Kitagawa Gen’s barbed words struck ho.
But rather than calming Nagato down, they did the opposite—they infuriated him.
Nagato’s heart was soft—he needed calm to be rational. But now? He was in no state to think.
"You... you spew such nonsense!"
Nagato growled. Chakra surged violently from his body.
"I know what I’m doing. I know what kind of world I want to create."
"Yes—war brings death and suffering. But you Konoha types—you think you’re the stars of the world."
"You live far from death, and so you beco shallow, wallowing in your illusion of peace. But those who kill will eventually be killed. Hatred links us all together."
His chakra flared again, even more violently this ti.
"And you—what do you know about pain?! What gives you the right to speak about our suffering?! Don’t you dare look down on us like that!"
BOOM—
"Shinra Tensei!"
In an instant, a massive repelling force exploded outward—wild and destructive, threatening to obliterate everything.
At the sa mont—
"Paper Style: Paper Shuriken!"
Konan attacked, her wings unfurling like an angel of death, sheets of paper spiraling out like a swarm of butterflies.
She grabbed Nagato’s frail body and prepared to escape—her wings beating fiercely as she launched them into the sky.
"So I really can’t talk you down, huh? Oh well... at least we’re both trying our best to survive."
As the repulsive force erupted, Kitagawa Gen’s calm voice rang out:
"If I’ve worked this hard just to live..."
"...Then why do you still get to be alive?!"
CRACK—
A bolt of violet lightning flashed—sharp and blinding, like sunlight piercing through storm clouds—aid straight at Nagato!
But just as it was about to strike—
Space twisted.
A figure suddenly appeared. In the next instant, Gen used the Flying Thunder God to teleport.
The lightning tore through the overlapping silhouettes...
And in its aftermath, a pile of chanical parts scattered across the floor.
-
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