The explosion had barely finished echoing before the entire village erupted into chaos — guards sprinting toward the outer district, civilians doing the opposite, scrambling back into whatever shelter they could find, voices rising into a confused, panicked roar that spread through Amegakure faster than any alarm bell could have managed.
Sukuna walked through the middle of it without particular hurry, Kiyomi, Neji, and Izumi flanking him, and honestly, if anyone had bothered asking, he'd have admitted the whole thing was a little theatrical. But theatrical worked. Theatrical got attention, and attention was exactly what he wanted right now.
He looked left and right, and suddenly felt like a Mafia boss entering another boss's lair to cause trouble. Strangely enough, that made him more excited.
Who doesn't dream of being an underground big shot at least once in his life?
Guards intercepted them, of course they did, within the first hundred meters, three low-level Ame-nin brandishing kunai with more courage than sense. Neji ended that in about two seconds flat, Byakugan already active, Gentle Fist strikes dropping all three before they'd even fully closed the distance. Nobody on Sukuna's side broke stride.
It's handy having a speedster in the group.
"You could at least let them get one hit in," Kiyomi said, mildly amused. "For morale."
"Weaklings like them don't need morale, they need a lesson on hierarchy," Neji scoffed.
They didn't have to wait long for real opposition. Konan arrived first, paper already swirling protectively around her, expression tight with something between alarm and fury. Pain followed a half-step behind — or rather, one of his six bodies did, the Deva Path's rippled eyes settling on the four of them with cold, immediate calculation.
"Konoha," Pain said, the word coming out flat, almost disbelieving upon seeing the Konoha forehead protectors all four intruders wore.
'Maybe, I should have removed the forehead protectors at least.' Sukuna pursed his lips, realising that Tsunade did say something about not bringing any shit he caused back to the village.
'Oh well, as long as even the shit doesn't exist, there is nothing to take back, I guess.' He shrugged.
"Give the man a prize," Sukuna said.
"You attacked Amegakure. Unprovoked." Konan's voice was tight, controlled fury bleeding through despite herself.
"Unprovoked's a strong word," Sukuna said. "Your organization kidnapped a Jinchūriki out of our own hospital ward. Right under our nose, mid-war, no less. Konoha wants him back. Along with the two who took him."
That got Pain's attention properly. "You have no right to demand anything from—"
However, he was interrupted midway.
"Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. I know they are members of Akatsuki. The cloth you wore are exactly like theirs. Don't bother denying it, no, there is no saving grace in this case. I mean, really, what did you expect? To kidnap a Jinchūriki from inside the village and you could get away from it unscratched?" Sukuna said as if he was speaking from the righteous position. Which he was technically; it was just that he wasn't very used to doing that, that's all.
"Hand them over, hand Gaara back, and maybe we won't burn the rest of this village alongside you."
Sukuna could practically see Pain's pale face darkened, its unusually fun to act like an young master, talk arrogant.
It wasn't really an ultimatum meant to be accepted. At least not based on four Konoha shinobi barging inside their home and demanding unconditional surrender.
Even if this wasn't Pain, the self-proclaimed god, who might or might not happen to have enough power to destroy the entire hidden village by one epic monologue, no self-respecting leader of a village, no matter how small the village would be, will be threatened by four shinobi, all in their teens.
He knew that. They knew that too, probably, given how Pain's expression didn't so much as flicker at the demand but still looked like bloody murder, the way his Rinnegan glared at him.
But it gave them a reason, something official-sounding enough to justify all this back home later, assuming any of them survived long enough to care about paperwork.
Itachi arrived a moment later, Kisame and Hidan trailing behind him, and it was Itachi's gaze that caught first — not on Sukuna, the supposed killer of Shisui he was looking for all these years. Hiding his face was a good idea back then. He didn't even look at Neji's still-active Byakugan, but at the two girls standing just behind him.
"Izumi," Itachi said, and for exactly one instant, something genuine slipped past his usual composure. Surprise, maybe even something softer buried beneath it, quickly buried again. "You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you, apparently," Izumi—Yuki, wearing a name and a history that weren't originally hers—said, voice carefully even despite whatever old, secondhand memory stirred faintly at hearing her own name said like that.
His gaze shifted next, landing on Kiyomi, and this time the surprise lasted a fraction longer. "Kiyomi."
"Don't sound so shocked, big brother." Kiyomi's grin came out sharp, all teeth, liquid metal already curling faintly at her fingertips. "I did tell you I had my own reasons to find you eventually."
Itachi didn't answer that, jaw tightening instead, something unreadable passing behind his eyes before his composure slid firmly back into place.
Further back, well outside the gathering conflict, Obito watched all of it unfold with an entirely different kind of attention.
He felt it before he really processed it — that curse energy, vast and heavy and dripping with something that felt distinctly, unmistakably malicious, radiating off the boy standing at the center of all this. Nothing like the faint traces he'd sensed off Izumi's borrowed Mangekyō, nothing like anything chakra-based at all. This was the real thing. Cursed energy, pure and old, on a scale he hadn't encountered since—
And let's be honest, which mother could forget how her son looks?
His remaining eye narrowed sharply.
'Yuji...'
'No, that is Sukuna…'
The curse energy was different, but not so different that he couldn't tell who he was looking at.
He just watched all four of them for a while, not certain how to categorise what he was seeing. He knew other sorcerers could exist in this world; there was, of course, always a possibility that he himself was brought here because of some other sorcerer's deed.
However, to encounter four of them at the same time was not what he was expecting, though that didn't cover even half of the bafflement he was feeling currently. He was most shocked seeing that one person there who he least thought about seeing here.
Sukuna.
That means the King of Curses was killed or at least died back in his world for him to reincarnate here.
Who could have done that?
Only one, surely.
Satoru Gojo.
"This changes things," Obito murmured, mostly to himself, Black Zetsu shifting beside him with obvious confusion at the sudden shift in his tone.
"Changes what?"
Obito didn't answer immediately, too busy running through every fragmented memory of the King of Curses he still carried, weighing it against the boy calmly standing in the middle of a warzone he'd created single-handedly, entirely unbothered by an S-rank organization surrounding him on all sides.
"Nothing," Obito said finally, though the unease in his voice didn't fully fade. Though internally, he was drastically changing his plan.
He couldn't face Sukuna, there was no doubt about that. And showing himself right now would give away his existence, his upper hand.
What really mattered was why Sukuna was here, what he was really after. If he was after Pain, then maybe he didn't have to do anything, just wait until Nagato was cut into pieces and then take his eyes.
However, if Sukuna was here for the Rinnegan, then his chances of getting them would essentially be zero by default.
He just had to wait and watch what happens.
Back at the center of it all, negotiations — if they could even be called that — had clearly run their course.
"Last chance," Sukuna said, tone almost bored. "Hand them over."
"Enough, I have lost my patience with you. You will die here," Pain said, all six paths now visible, gathering into position around Konan, Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan alike.
"Funny." Sukuna's red eyes swept over all of them, unimpressed. "I was about to say the same thing to you."
Hidan barked out a laugh, already swinging his scythe loose from his back. "I like this one. Can I be the one to gut him for Jashin-sama?"
Sukuna just scoffed. He grabbed the incoming scythe by its hand, maintaining a chainmail of small cutting blades around his hand to protect his hand from the blade, making certain Hidan didn't draw blood.
"One would think that you have learned your lesson from last time," Sukuna grumbled, to the point that only Hidan could hear him.
'Last time?'
Hidan looked confused, makes sense since, just like Itachi, when Sukuna faced both Hidan and Kakuzu, he once again was covering his identity.
It mattered very little, though. Sukuna's hand was already on the Jashin's follower's chest, not a punch but a simple tap.
And the next second, the man's entire body was cut open into tiny pieces, enough that it would take no less than a jigsaw puzzle expert to arrange him back into working state.
And all that happened in a matter of seconds.
The rain kept falling, heavy and constant, both sides simply stood there, witnessing this scene, especially the Akatsuki.
Sukuna's mouth grinned at the situation, and then he looked at Pain once again.
"NEXT"
xXx
"Thank you Very Much for All Your Support"
If you want to read up to 20+ Chapters in advance, check my Patreon on
Patreon.com/Kamidemond