Buzz!!
The entirety of Kirigakure trembled violently as chakra surged upward from deep beneath the earth.
High above, Nagato kicked the frenzied Two-Tails away, sending the beast crashing through a collapsing district.
He turned sharply toward the direction where Shigure's overwhelming chakra was erupting.
"Shigure…"
There was no fear in his eyes now—only raw, unrestrained madness.
He needed to find him.
He needed answers.
Yahiko.
Only Shigure knew where Yahiko was, and Nagato wouldn't be denied any longer.
To the side, the Two-Tails had begun to gather chakra, the air compressing as a Tailed Beast Bomb formed between its jaws.
A monstrous wave of chakra condensed—
Nagato raised his hand toward the beast.
"Annoying creature."
His eyes sharpened.
"Be quiet."
BOOM—!
Shinra Tensei exploded outward instantly, blasting the Two-Tails and its half-formed Tailed Beast Bomb away like scraps of paper.
The shockwave consumed the battlefield, leaving the beast helpless before its force.
Nagato didn't even spare it a glance.
His gaze remained fixed on the source of Shigure's chakra.
"Come out… Shigure!"
"Come out and face me!"
His roar echoed across the entire Hidden Mist.
Mist shinobi, battered and scattered, braced themselves, ready to attack if needed.
But before anyone could move—
A blinding pillar of chakra burst from beneath the ground.
It tore through the sky.
Clouds parted.
A churning vortex spiraled in the heavens, twisting the weather itself around Shigure's awakening power.
Nagato stared at the sky and scoffed.
"Trying to intimidate me? Pathetic."
He raised his hand.
"If you won't crawl out on your own… then I'll drag you out."
A tiny black sphere materialized in his palm and shot upward.
Nagato floated into the air, hands closing together.
"Chibaku Tensei!"
The earth immediately cracked like breaking glass.
Entire blocks of Kirigakure wrenched free from their foundations.
Towers, houses, and streets were ripped upward as gravity inverted, drawn toward the black sphere in the sky.
The roar of collapsing stone drowned out every other sound.
Within moments, most of the village was already reduced to floating debris.
Terumi Megumi watched her hard-built village being destroyed before her eyes.
Her vision reddened. Her chakra surged.
"Unforgivable!"
She shot forward toward Nagato—
—but a massive sand torrent surged past her.
A storm of tanuki-shaped chakra.
Shukaku, the One-Tail, hurled itself toward Nagato.
Sand wrapped around Nagato like a cage.
He only sneered.
"So you want to jump around too? Fine. Try this."
The gravity around Nagato twisted.
In an instant, Shukaku was dragged upward, sucked helplessly toward the growing satellite in the sky.
Nagato intended to seal the One-Tail into the forming Chibaku Tensei.
He roared—
And the boulders and buildings flew faster, harder, smashing together as the massive sphere grew in size.
The ground shook violently.
A crater spread outward—like the entire village was being hollowed out.
Nearly two-thirds of Kirigakure was destroyed.
But Nagato didn't stop.
He felt no exhaustion—
because the chakra fueling his Rinnegan was not his own.
It was the chakra of the Eight-Tails.
Endless, potent, intoxicating.
Using the Rinnegan had never felt so exhilarating.
Nagato's laughter echoed through the village as he forced even more power into the technique.
The Chibaku Tensei swelled, expanding to a massive size—
and if it fell now, Kirigakure would be annihilated.
Then—
In the distance—
A section of the ground burst open.
A figure rose slowly, chakra swirling like a storm around him.
Shigure emerged from underground.
Shigure brushed the dust from his clothes and quietly focused on the changes inside his body.
When his Kekkei Genkai were stripped away one after another, he had expected to feel weaker.
But reality was the exact opposite.
Even without those bloodline limits, his chakra reserves surged dramatically, swelling to a level he had never reached before.
There was also a strange, subtle shift—
His mastery over the Five Basic Natures felt smoother, sharper, almost instinctive.
His elemental manipulation had risen to a height he hadn't attained even when he still possessed his Kekkei Genkai.
It felt as though the massive increase in chakra had unlocked a new threshold of elemental precision.
He didn't have time to analyze it further.
Because right now—
Shigure lifted his gaze toward the sky.
A massive Chibaku Tensei hung above the village, a monstrous sphere of stone and debris that threatened to come crashing down at any moment.
"So big," he murmured.
"Nagato… you really went all out."
A shame.
He gently shook his head, raised one hand, and pointed a single finger toward the heavens.
Golden light began gathering at his fingertip.
The beam launched immediately.
Zeee—!
A blinding golden flash split through the sky.
A heartbeat later—
BOOOOM!!!
The Chibaku Tensei ruptured from within, exploding into a storm of burning fragments.
Flames expanded outward.
Magma-bright chunks of stone fell like a meteor shower toward the already battered Kirigakure.
High above, Nagato stared in disbelief, arms spread.
Who had fired that shot?
Had Shigure truly destroyed his Chibaku Tensei with a single attack?
Impossible—
Yet the proof was falling all around him.
Below, Shigure flexed his fingers slowly.
"So this is the Ten-Tails' power when used directly… far stronger, and much easier to control."
Satisfied, he shifted his gaze upward.
Thousands of flaming boulders were plummeting toward the village.
If they hit, Kirigakure would be annihilated.
Shigure lifted his hand.
With a metallic clank, his ninja blade was released from the gluttonous seal and shot into his grasp.
What would swordsmanship look like now, amplified by this new power?
He swung once.
And the world lit up.
A deep blue radiance erupted from the blade—
A spiraling torrent of water surged upward, whipping into the sky like a raging storm.
In an instant—
Every falling stone was shredded, erased midair.
The threat vanished with a single stroke.
Mist shinobi below exhaled in relief.
Then the shock hit them.
"Was that… the Mizukage-sama?"
"I heard the sound of a blade cutting through the air, but the sky was filled with water… did he use the Water Breathing Sword Technique?"
They weren't wrong.
Shigure had woven elements of Water Breathing into the strike—
But he no longer adhered strictly to any set technique.
Sword forms, elemental forms… none of it was fixed anymore.
His chakra and swordsmanship flowed freely.
A single slash could manifest any variation of water.
This was Shigure's refinement—
A rise beyond rigid forms and predetermined moves.
Technique no longer bound him.
He could create his own in every motion.
A true sublimation of his power.