Meanwhile, in another part of the world, deep inside Ryusei's hideout in the southern Land of Hot Water, the air in one of the rooms was heavy with chakra.
Nagato lay unconscious on the bed, his body thin and weak.
His legs had been completely useless for quite a while now, and his muscles long atrophied.
Now his Rinnegan had been forcefully taken, leaving him blind, but that wasn't why he had passed out.
Being ripped from the Gedo Mazō and the web of seals and machinery that his body was recently getting quite used to, sent his body into a state of complete shock.
Tsunade and Kanae worked side by side, one old, one young. The air between them buzzed with chakra and quiet competition.
Tsunade's vast Yang Release and encyclopedic medical knowledge kept his life force stable, while Kanae's precise Byakugan sight and control handled the fine chakra threads running through the most damaged areas, like his back, to fix them.
In the side room, Konan was already stable on another bed.
Just moments earlier, after his condition initially stabilised, at his initiative, Ryusei and Kanae had started erasing the curse seal Madara had placed over Nagato's heart and replaced it with Ryusei's own juinjutsu mark.
Ryusei, now already fifteen years old this year, provided the chakra programming and linked his energy to Kanae's, while she guided it precisely into the core of the mark with her microscopic precision.
To synchronize perfectly, Ryusei had to stand directly behind her, his hands over hers, their chakra flows merging through contact.
It looked almost like an embrace.
Across the bed, Tsunade's eye twitched.
"Really?" she said dryly. "You couldn't think of another way to do that?"
Ryusei didn't look up. "No."
"Of course not," she muttered, crossing her arms.
Her tone wasn't serious, but there was that familiar edge, the kind that came right before she threw something at him.
Kanae stayed focused, pretending not to hear a word, though her ears were definitely pink.
"Keep it steady," Ryusei said calmly, ignoring the tension. "Almost done."
Kanae gave a quiet nod. "Stabilizing."
Tsunade exhaled and stepped closer, giving Ryusei a quick, sharp look. "If you ever pull that trick again, I'll make sure you're the one in the bed next time."
Ryusei smirked slightly. "Duly noted."
She clicked her tongue but couldn't hide the faint curve of a grin. "You're lucky this one's important."
"Exactly why I did it," he said.
Kanae deactivated her Byakugan and stepped back quietly. "It's complete."
The tension broke instantly. Tsunade rolled her shoulders and muttered, "Next time, find a way to teach her this without turning it into a demonstration."
Ryusei didn't answer, but the small grin stayed on his face.
Not only because Tsunade now showed her jealousy so openly, without even trying to hide it, but because Ryusei was right. Madara was no fool.
He would never hand over his own hard-earned godly Rinnegan, the very key to his own resurrection as well, to a complete stranger without layers of control, the same kind of binding seal he'd once placed on Obito.
Obviously, having the White Zetsu network tail him everywhere was still not enough.
So Ryusei checked first. And as expected, the mark was there.
He then simply replaced it with his own.
After all, Madara wasn't stupid, but neither was Ryusei.
He hadn't risked slipping into the very eye of that storm between two monsters, to save Nagato and the woman closest to him, just out of strange sentiment or boredom.
If he was going to drag them out alive, then Nagato would serve a purpose for him for a very long time.
A future potentially great piece on his board.
"When will he wake up?" Ryusei asked suddenly.
Kanae's eyes stayed on Nagato. "A few hours. Maybe sooner if his body keeps responding like this."
Ryusei studied the man's form. He'd seen the state Nagato was in, the crushed spine, the ruined muscles.
It was only his own Yang Palm that had kept the man alive long enough to bring him here.
"To think he's even breathing now, and healed so fast… the two of you work well together," he said.
Tsunade's brow twitched. "The two of us? Don't go lumping me in with her, brat. She's just following my lead."
Kanae didn't even look up. "If by 'lead' you mean your constant yelling, then yes."
Ryusei smiled faintly, sensing the spark between them. "Right… anyway, let's step outside."
Tsunade folded her arms, muttering something under her breath, but followed him out all the same.
As they stepped out, Ryusei's eyes flicked toward the side room where Konan rested.
Her injuries weren't as severe as Nagato's, mostly physical and spiritual strain from the aftershocks of that man's Tenseigan energy.
So, just flooding her with Tsunade's overflowing potent Yang chakra previously, in return, had been enough to stabilize her.
"She'll wake up soon," Ryusei said quietly. "Let's move somewhere else. We need to talk."
Tsunade gave a brief nod, already understanding his tone.
The three of them walked down the dim corridor, slipping out through one of the hideout's concealed exits until they reached a quiet spot outside, far from anyone who might overhear.
As soon as they stepped outside, Tsunade crossed her arms and gave him that look. "Alright, talk."
Kanae's gaze was quieter but no less curious. Neither of them knew who those two patients really were.
Earlier, Ryusei had stormed straight into Kanae's lab, telling her to drop everything and follow him, no explanation, just that tone that meant there was no time to argue.
Then, before Tsunade even knew what was happening, a Katsuyu fragment had reverse-summoned her into that same room, where two unconscious strangers already lay on the medical tables.
He'd only said they were "important pieces" and ordered them to save their lives, fast.
Tsunade had thrown in a sarcastic remark or two, but in the end, she did as he asked.
She trusted his judgment enough now to know he never moved without a reason.
And so, for an hour or two, they worked without questions—until now.
Ryusei exhaled slowly, glancing between them. "This will sound complicated, so listen carefully."
Tsunade arched a brow. "When isn't it with you?"
He ignored that and continued. "That man was the leader of a powerful underground group that's been rising fast recently. The Akatsuki. Mercenaries for hire, active all across the shinobi world now because of the chaos. But they started differently. Once, they were an idealist group from Amegakure… people who wanted peace."
Kanae tilted her head slightly. "Peace, and they ended up like that?"
Ryusei nodded. "Because someone else took control of them. The real power behind the scenes—Uchiha. The redhead was only a tool to carry out their plans. They used him until he outlived his purpose."
Tsunade's expression darkened a little. "Figures. Another Uchiha mess."
Ryusei smirked faintly. "More or less. I've always had a few stealth clones stationed near Amegakure, their base, for a while, recently. Watching. Earlier, they detected a surge of chakra so massive it broke through even the Akatsuki's suppression tech. That alone told me something was off."
Kanae crossed her arms, her tone calm but sharp. "So you went there yourself to investigate?"
"I did," Ryusei said. "One of the clones summoned a Katsuyu fragment, and she reverse-summoned me there. I went closer, stayed hidden, and observed. There was a colossal battle that destroyed the entire village eventually… something far beyond normal comprehension for most shinobi. In that chaos, Nagato was betrayed by his own supposed allies."
He looked at the ground for a moment. "But I saw his potential. I couldn't let him die there. So I pulled him out before the end."
Tsunade studied him, her voice a little softer but edged with curiosity.
"You mean to tell me you jumped into a war of such proportions… to save a man you call a tool?"
Ryusei shrugged slightly. "A broken tool can still be reforged. Especially one like him."
Kanae's eyes lingered on him for a moment longer, quietly analyzing him as she often did, before she finally said, "So now he's your next piece on the board."
Ryusei smiled faintly. "You catch on quick."
Tsunade suddenly blinked, as if something only now clicked. "Hold on… did you just say Amegakure was destroyed?"
Ryusei gave a light nod, almost amused. "Pretty much. Wiped out in an instant. Even the nearby regions—half that small country's just gone."
Her eyes widened. "That shouldn't even be possible… not to that extent."
Kanae stayed silent, her gaze sharp but uneasy.
Tsunade clenched her fists, anger and disbelief flashing in her eyes. "That many people, gone like that…" she muttered.
No matter what she'd learned about the darkness of the world lately, she still couldn't detach from that human part of herself that cared.
Ryusei watched her quietly, then let out a faint sigh in his mind. "Still too soft," he thought. "That kind of heart only slows you down."
Tsunade, meanwhile, frowned deeply, piecing it together some more for a few seconds. "For two people to cause that kind of destruction… I never heard anything like it during my life. Maybe only my grandfather or Madara Uchiha could've managed something that insane."
Her voice then sharpened, laced with both anger and concern. "And you went there? In the middle of that? Are you out of your mind, Ryusei? You could've been killed again!"
Kanae didn't speak, but her silence said enough.
Her eyes softened slightly, a quiet echo of the same worry.
Ryusei chuckled, leaning casually against the railing. "Relax, I'm not that easy to kill. And honestly, after watching them fight, I'd say I'm not that far behind in my own ways. Staying hidden was just a strategy—let them tear each other apart, build enmity between themselves, never realizing I was there in the first place. I walk away with knowledge, leverage, and new opportunities. The usual stuff."
Tsunade exhaled sharply, trying to hold her glare but failing halfway into a reluctant smirk. "You're impossible."
Kanae's lips curved just barely. "Predictable too."
Ryusei grinned. "Predictable, maybe—but alive, and still getting stronger."
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A/N: The story is officially finished for the highest tier on Patreon, there are only 70 written chapters left to upload here.