"For Sensei's sake, I'll give you some time to say your last words!"
Sakura's figure flickered, instantly stepping onto the machine beneath Nagato. She pulled out a kunai, twirled it in the air a few times, and stuck it in front of Nagato.
"Why don't you approve of our plan?" Nagato, who had already placed life and death aside, asked the question that sparked his greatest curiosity.
"Because this plan was doomed from the start!"
Compassion spilled from the young girl's clear eyes. "The ultimate weapon Ten-Tails you want to create is actually the revival vessel for someone's mother who was once sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother."
"The stone tablet in the Uchiha Clan's grounds, which can only be viewed using the Sharingan, records this history, but the true content has also been intentionally altered by someone."
Listening to Sakura recount stories of the past, Naruto, who couldn't understand what they were talking about, had already begun to daydream.
Beside him, Sasuke strained to maintain the cool expression on his face, but actually, curiosity was scratching at his heart like a cat!!!
'How does this girl know the content on the stone tablet? She even understands that it's been altered? She doesn't have a Sharingan too, does she?'
"Cough, cough, what did you say?" Nagato coughed violently again, a morbid flush appearing on his face.
He instinctively wanted to question Sakura, but couldn't find a reason to refute her. After all, his knowledge of the Ten-Tails was merely that it was the strongest aggregate of Chakra. Besides, as a dying man, what meaning would there be in deceiving him?
"So that's how it is... We've all been used?" Ashen despair colored Nagato's face.
The thing he had persisted in for so long, the only path he believed could achieve the ideals of his deceased best friend, actually had hidden dangers. How could he, about to journey to the Pure Land, face Yahiko, who had sacrificed himself for them?
There is no grief greater than the death of the heart. Nagato's figure became more stooped.
"Haruno Sakura, one last question. After you kill me, what kind of order do you want to create?" Nagato raised his head, a trace of hope in his eyes.
He hoped that this girl, also a disciple of Jiraiya, would uphold the master-disciple lineage's long-held pursuit of peace and eliminating hatred.
However... in the matter of disappointing people, Sakura never disappointed.
"That kind of thing has nothing to do with me. Don't always arrogantly see yourselves as saviors, taking it for granted that you can control everything!"
Sakura shot them a contemptuous look at their conceited ideas. "How the order of this world turns out will be decided by every person living in it. You and I are merely the spokespeople they push to the forefront!"
Finished, Sakura pulled the kunai from the ground and walked towards Nagato.
The footsteps of death slowly approached. After his long dream awoke, Nagato unexpectedly... felt like laughing.
Looking back on his life, full of frustrations and delays. Yet, being stopped just before committing a great wrong... he must have used up all his life's luck at this moment.
"Konan, I now issue my final order as leader."
Nagato turned his head, his low voice softening. "From today, you will be the third leader of the Akatsuki. Protect Amegakure. Do not seek revenge. Do not announce my cause of death to the outside world. And... live well!"
"Nagato..." Tears slipped down the stern face of Konan, who lowered her head to hide her expression at this moment.
Sakura straightened up. The Haki in her hand flowed to the tip of the kunai, forming a sharp shell.
After flicking the kunai in a flourish, she held it in a reverse grip and thrust it towards the eyes of the Rinnegan… the beginning of all tragedies!
"Come!"
Knowing Sakura's intention, Nagato opened his eyes wide, not a trace of evasion in his entire body.
Just as Sakura's kunai was about to pierce Nagato's Rinnegan, his body suddenly surged with a massive amount of Chakra.
A black fluid wrapped his body in an instant, usurping Nagato's will, using his body to form seals and unleash a Jutsu.
[Almighty Push!]
Squeezing out the last of Nagato's vitality, a powerful repulsive force sphere erupted with him at the center!
The surrounding Naruto, Sasuke, and Konan were caught off guard and sent flying by the Almighty Push. Only Sakura, who had attached Chakra to her feet in time, resisted the repulsive force, step by step approaching Nagato within the storm.
'This monster is too troublesome,!'
Black Zetsu, manipulating Nagato using Yin-Yang Release from a thousand miles away, cursed.
Helplessly, he could only insert his arm into the unconscious, body completely charred Obito lying beside him, extracting more Chakra to support Nagato's Jutsu.
"Black Zetsu, you dare to use my body..."
Nagato, half his body covered, raised the hand not under control and choked his own neck hard.
The exposed half of his face looked towards Sakura resisting the repulsive force. "Quick, destroy these eyes!"
"Alright!"
Sakura's reply was concise. She raised her hand, condensing a scorching beam of light on the tip of the kunai using her Devil Fruit ability, then fiercely thrust towards Nagato's eye sockets.
"I won't let you have these eyes!"
Black Zetsu, attached to half of Nagato's body, revealed a ferocious smile. With a vicious effort, he directly dug out Nagato's eyes and melted them into his own black body.
The repulsive force disappeared. Sakura's blade abruptly changed course, chasing the Rinnegan and thrusting into Black Zetsu's Yin-Yang Release body. However, the blade directly passed through his body, causing no effect.
"This Chakra... is it Kamui?!"
Realizing this Dojutsu's power, Sakura wanted to set up a seal, but it was too late.
Black Zetsu's body began to form spiral space folds, and finally vanished amidst the crisp sound of space-time shattering.
Nagato on the large contraption died from Chakra Depletion, blood flowing from his empty eye sockets, his head powerlessly drooping.
One move too late, Black Zetsu escaped with the eyes. Space-Time Ninjutsu was still too unsolvable in this Ninja World.
Sakura lowered her kunai with some regret, shaking her head at the rushing Naruto, Sasuke, and Konan.
After some commotion, they arrived at the ruins of Konoha.
Konan had gathered the bodies of Nagato and Yahiko, using her Paper Release to create a temporary coffin floating behind her.
The Konoha's Ninja nearby, rummaging through the ruins for cleanup, glared at her with hostile eyes, more precisely at the clothes she wore.
But finding Sakura beside her, they didn't make a move.
"Speaking of which, is it really okay to just let her leave like this?" Sasuke, following behind Sakura, leaned in and whispered.
"The Land of Rain has always been a place of constant warfare. Having a reasonable leader, one we've spared, is beneficial to Konoha." Sakura painfully grabbed her head… she had no more energy to deal with Amegakure's matters.
Currently, Konoha was in a state of being without a leader, and all the village's affairs, large and small, were visibly converging on her, the only person who could handle them.
This directly meant that within the short thirty minutes of returning to the village, Sakura had been forced to shoulder the duties of Hokage!
And the most crucial part was... there's no salary!!!
'Day one without Tsunade-nee... I miss her!'
"Then, it's time for us to return to the Land of Rain."
Konan used her Paper Release to form three bunches of flowers and handed them to Team 7. "We will find a way to compensate for the damage caused to Konoha. Please offer these flowers to the dead of Konoha on my behalf... We are sorry."
Sakura and the others accepted the flowers, waving her away.
Konan stood before what was once Konoha's now-shattered main gate, bowed deeply to everyone, then turned and left.
As she spread her wings and flew over the dense forest on Konoha's outskirts, a glint of reflected light caught her attention.
Looking down, she saw a man in a dark brown Ninja outfit, his right sleeve fluttering in the wind, raising a cup of sake towards her with his remaining hand.
For the first time in a long while, a smile appeared on her stern face. She descended, carrying the two paper-wrapped coffins.
Just like many years ago on the outskirts of the Land of Rain, when three boys and girls wearing frog costumes ran towards their teacher... without any barriers between them anymore!