The battlefield lay in a broken hush. Debris and charred soil painted a grim canvas under the gray light of dusk. Blood, ash, and silence mingled in the air. The storm had passed. Only its consequences remained.
Itachi stepped forward from the ruins, his Akatsuki cloak fluttering softly in the wind, frayed and torn. His expression remained calm, as it always had, but the way his eyes movedl slow, deliberate, watching every step as if it might be his last, betrayed a deeper truth.
Haji stood ahead, motionless. His silver-gray armor glead faintly beneath the shifting sky, his blue-lensed helt obscuring any trace of humanity. He stood like a monunt. Unmoving. Judgnt incarnate.
Itachi stopped a few paces away.
"Will you kill now?" he asked softly, his voice flat. "For the massacre? For treason against the Uchiha?"
The wind did not answer, but Haji's silence thundered louder than any storm. The blue lenses fixed on Itachi, unwavering.
Itachi continued, his eyes narrowing slightly. "I chose Konoha over my clan. I accepted the mission from the Third Hokage. I believed a civil war would open Konoha's walls to every other hidden village. So I killed them all... to protect Konoha. Even so, I'm still a criminal. A traitor."
The pressure that ca from Haji was not rage, nor hatred. It was an aura beyond comprehension, dense and suffocating. Itachi, a man who'd faced death countless tis, felt the sweat bead on his temple. The helted figure was silent, unmoved. Watching.
Finally, Haji stirred.
"No," he said.
Just one word.
Then he stepped forward.
"You're already dying, Itachi. Even if I could heal you... I won't."
Itachi's eyes widened just a fraction.
"Why?"
"Because soone else deserves to face you," Haji said. "Your brother. Sasuke."
He stopped before Itachi, the two n re feet apart.
Inwardly, Haji's thoughts turned, quiet and precise. I've seen glimpses of him. The sa potential that burns in Naruto burns in Sasuke. If I ever leave this world for too long... they will be needed.
A vision passed through his mind. Vast, dark skies of other worlds. Unspeakable threats. Realms where ti twisted and gods made sport of n. In those places, Haji might walk alone. But here, this world needed its own champions.
Soone had to stay behind to defend it.
Itachi closed his eyes. A long breath escaped his lips, tension releasing from his fra.
"That was always the plan," he said. "To die by his hand. Not in vengeance. But so he might grow strong."
Their conversation ended there. Words were no longer needed.
A groan broke the quiet.
Konan was crouched beside Nagato, gently wiping the sweat from his brow. The pain of defeat lingered in his pale eyes. His breathing was shallow, his body still brittle and twisted.
"We lost," she whispered, her voice trembling. "He defeated all the remaining Akatsuki..."
Nagato didn't respond. He rely stared at the broken sky.
Footsteps approached. The quiet crunch of armored boots.
Haji.
He removed his helt.
Konan looked up, startled. The face revealed was striking, silver eyes glowing with faint psychic light, tousled black and silver hair, features carved with grace and purpose. Not just a warrior.
Nagato tried to sit up, failed.
Haji knelt beside him and reached out a gauntlet-covered hand.
Konan's eyes widened. She stepped in the way, shielding Nagato instinctively.
"Don't! Don't take his eyes! He's too weak. You'll kill him!"
Haji looked at her.
"I'm not taking them yet," he said calmly. "I'm healing him first. He won't survive teleportation like this."
Konan blinked. Then flushed in embarrassnt.
"Ah... I see. Sorry."
She stepped aside.
Haji placed a hand on Nagato's shoulder. Golden psychic light blood from his palm, not fiery or radiant, but warm, like the sun behind clouds. Biomancy. A living force that restructured matter, knit nerves, restored what nature had lost.
Nagato gasped.
His hunched fra slowly rose. Muscle returned to atrophied limbs. His back straightened. The black chakra rods embedded in his spine fell to the ground one by one. His hair began to regain its reddish hue. His flesh, once pale and sagging, began to fill out with life.
"How..." he murmured, voice rasping. "How can this be?"
Haji said nothing. Only watched.
Then, with a subtle motion, he lifted a hand. Telekinetic force flared.
Nagato's eyes, the Rinnegan, were gently drawn from their sockets.
Nagato scread in pain.
Konan lunged.
But a hand caught her wrist.
Itachi.
"Wait."
Konan stopped, confused and breathing hard.
Haji focused again. Psychic light poured from his fingers. He placed them over Nagato's eyes. The tissue glowed, reford. Organs rebuilt. When the light faded, Nagato blinked, eyes no longer Rinnegan, but his own. Original. Human.
He looked around, confused, overwheld.
"You... healed them too?"
"You're free now," Haji said. "You've done enough."
He stood. Looked over the broken land.
Konan held Nagato, whose face was unreadable. For the first ti in years, he felt sothing he hadn't since childhood.
Relief.
Haji placed the Rinnegan into a sealed capsule, a miniature containnt pond. A stasis field not capable of freezing ti, but can preserved organic balance. The sa form it entered, unchanged.
He slipped his helt back on.
His thoughts drifted again.
The Ōtsutsuki... they will co in the future, might be decades or years. I don't have patience to search this galaxy or wait for them.
But they will co. And if I'm gone when they do... Naruto. Sasuke. They must be ready.
The wind whispered across the battlefield.
Judgnt had been passed.
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