Power Stone Goals from now on: I always post a minimum of 5 chapters. Henceforth the following are the goals:
Every 150 powerstones, I upload an extra chapter.
If we hit top 30 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we hit top 10 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we are top 5...well lets get to that first. Happy readings!
Chapter 69: Revival
Pain's hands began to move.
Slowly at first, then faster.
Weaving hand seals with fluid precision.
Then, with a final slam of his palm into the stone floor of the dome, the air cracked with force.
The ground beneath the body trembled.
Darkness spread in a wide ring, sealing symbols racing outward like fire in oil.
And from the center of that circle, the ground split open—not violently, but as though answering a command.
The Gedo Mazo emerged.
A towering monstrosity of gnarled stone and ancient, petrified flesh, the Gedo Mazo loomed over the entire chamber. Its body was humanoid in shape but grotesque in proportion, its ten massive fingers stretched outward like the claws of a slumbering titan. Dozens of black rods jutted from its spine and shoulders, suppressing the sheer weight of its presence. Its mouth remained slightly open, as though it were always mid-scream, yet no sound escaped it.
The creature's skin looked like old bark fused with obsidian, its eyes sealed shut and chained.
Pain stood before it, untouched by fear.
He began weaving hand signs again.
Another slam of his palms onto the stone.
This time, the tremor was shorter—more controlled.
In front of the Gedo Mazo, the ground cracked again, but instead of another titan rising, ten stone fingers broke through the surface. These were different—simpler. Less grand.
They were made of hardened earth, structured deliberately lower than the towering hands of the Gedo Mazo.
They pointed upward like jagged teeth from a second mouth.
They represented a different tier.
Inferior.
Seventeen holographic projections flared into life.
Eight appeared standing atop the great fingers of the Gedo Mazo.
Nine appeared atop the new earth-like fingers, flickering with distorted chakra.
Kisame stepped forward and, with one solid leap, landed on one of the earth-like fingers, arms crossed and expression unreadable.
Itachi followed, but he bypassed the lower formation. With practiced silence, he jumped and landed atop one of Gedo Mazo's massive fingers, standing like a shadow among greater shadows.
Pain joined him, ascending without effort, standing at the highest finger, looking down at the gathering.
"I believe everyone has arrived for this gathering," he said, his voice cutting clean through the massive space.
A moment of silence passed.
Then, from below, Deidara's voice rang out, tinged with irritation.
"Why is it that we are helping this group again? Didn't they fail to deliver the Nine-Tails?"
Kisame glanced toward him from another of the lower fingers, his shark-like eyes unreadable.
"That is because they are offering something else in return," Kisame said coolly.
Deidara scowled. "And what is that?"
Kisame didn't answer.
He simply turned his gaze upward to the figure above them.
To Pain.
Pain looked down at them all, the glow of his Rinnegan intensifying.
"That is up for me to know," he said. "And me to know only. For now, all you need to understand is this: what they are offering may not be the Nine-Tails... but it is valuable. It will further our cause."
No one responded.
But because every person present had their own reason for being there. Their own motivations. Their own debts or ambitions.
Pain turned his gaze toward the body still lying below.
"I have not only gathered you all here to explain our new arrangement," he said. "But to inform you that I will be reviving... her."
His eyes lingered on the shrouded corpse.
Then, returning his attention to the gathering, he said in a calm but absolute tone:
"I will need five teams to move immediately toward the Land of Iron."
A ripple of surprise passed through the room.
Someone then spoke.
"Five teams? I thought the plan was only to send three."
Pain's expression didn't change.
Pain stood at the highest point of the Gedo Mazo, eyes sweeping across the projections. His voice echoed calmly through the obsidian chamber.
"As most of you already know, the main leaders of the major villages—with the exception of the Hidden Leaf—are preparing to perform a secret summit in the Land of Iron."
Below, on the jagged earth-like fingers, Deidara scoffed, his expression a twisted smirk of disdain.
"Some secret summit this is, hmph. Everyone knows about it."
Pain didn't so much as glance at him. His voice continued without a break.
"While they gather, we move. Their attention will be divided. The moment is ideal. We need information on what they are planning. And more importantly... we take what is owed."
He turned now—deliberately—his gaze locking on two figures.
Deidara, on the lower platform. Sasori, standing silently atop one of the massive Gedo Mazo fingers.
"I need both of you to head to the Village Hidden in the Sand," Pain commanded. "The One-Tail Jinchuriki is there. Capture him."
Deidara's grin widened.
"Finally. Something worth blowing up."
Sasori gave no reply. He simply nodded once, his face as expressionless as his puppets.
Pain said nothing further.
He stepped off the edge of Gedo Mazo's finger.
Approaching the body that had been placed at the center of the dome, Pain now stood still for a breath.
Then, he began to weave some hand signs.
He stopped.
One hand outstretched, palm hovering just above the covered body.
Just before he casted his Jutsu, this white corpse appeared right beside the corpse.
"Edo Tensei no Jutsu."
The room darkened.
From the space between his palm and the cloaked corpse, a swirling, black-purple chakra spiral formed. It twisted downward like a vortex, piercing into the body beneath.
Dust rose.
The cloaks shifted.
The corpse dissipated as the soul moved towards the white body and animated itself as clothes appeared.
And then slowly—agonizingly slowly—the figure beneath the wraps began to move.
First a breath.
Then fingers curled, twitching.
Then legs flexed.
And the body stood.
It rose without assistance, but not fluidly. The movement was mechanical, almost like a puppet at first, awkward and stiff.
The wrappings around the body fluttered slightly as if reacting to the sudden surge of life—or un-life—within.
A strange silence fell over the Akatsuki.
They watched not with reverence, nor with fear.
But with curiosity.
Pain lowered his hand.
The jutsu was complete.
And the one long dead, now stood once more among the living.
"This is a temporary arrangement." Pain mentions as he looks at the now 'Undead' person.
"If you can uphold your side of the bargain, I will bring you back completely."
…
The soft scratch of brush against paper was the only sound echoing through the room.
I was crouched on the wooden floor of the inn, carefully erasing the web of Fuinjutsu seals I had carved across the walls, floor, and windows. The room was still dimly lit, the fading scent of activated ink and scorched chakra lingering faintly in the air.
The soul was gone.
Danzo had placed too many fail safes on it.
Even with all my preparation, I could only glimpse one memory thread before it disintegrated.
But that one thread was enough.
I paused in my work, my fingers stained in streaks of dissolving ink, and let the weight of it settle again in my mind.
The scroll Danzo had read—the one delivered by Orochimaru's serpent messenger—contained a message from the Raikage.
A declaration.
A call to arms.
The Raikage wanted to destroy Konoha.
And he wasn't acting alone.
The scroll detailed an invitation—a covert call for all major factions and hidden powers to assemble in the Land of Iron, a land known for its neutrality.
The upcoming summit was a trap cloaked in diplomacy. An ambush masquerading as an alliance.
He wanted unity not for peace, but for war.
I stood and pulled the last seal strip from the window frame, watching it curl in my palm before crumbling into ash. All my defensive layers, my triggers, my chakra-binding fields—removed.
The room now looked like any other modest inn chamber.
Nothing left behind.
I had to be careful now. Even more than before.
Every major player in the world was converging on the Land of Iron. Kages. And I was right in the middle of it.
I took a slow breath, letting the cold air of the mountain pass through the barely-cracked window.
This wasn't a battle I could fight with brute force.
Not yet.
But there was another side to this.
If all the strongest forces in the world were here...
Then now was also the perfect time to build connections.
Carefully.
Quietly.
Everyone here would have an agenda.
Best part is if everything went according to plan, no one would even suspect me of being over here…
And that anonymity was a weapon I could sharpen.
I sealed away the remaining ashes of the Fuinjutsu ink in a scroll, tucked it into my inner coat, and pulled the hood over my head.
…
The thick curtain of mist draped across the terrain, softening the edges of everything in sight. Though details faded into gray, the figure of a cloaked shinobi moved with measured confidence through the haze.
A wooden clone of Shikomu.
His chakra was steady but minimal, his body posture mimicking the calm stride of the real one almost perfectly.
At his feet, leading the way with the arrogance only a small, summoned feline could manage, padded Yoru.
She trotted forward just ahead of him. Her voice echoed softly into the fog as she hummed.
"Raindrops are falling on my head..." she sang, off-key but delightfully proud of it.
Shikomu didn't comment.
He was listening.
Then he froze.
The clone's sensory seals flickered to life inside his artificial skin.
Immense chakra—fast, coordinated, high-level—was heading toward them.
In an instant, the clone bent down, scooping up Yoru in one smooth motion.
"Hey!" she yelped, wriggling in his grasp.
The clone body-flickered without a word, vanishing into the mist. The trees of the Mist's outer border flared into view and they reappeared deep within a stretch of heavy canopy.
The moment they arrived, the clone knelt and began weaving a series of tight hand signs.
Camouflage Canopy Cloak Jutsu.
The leaves shifted softly overhead, disturbed only by wind.
He crouched low, body now synchronized with the surrounding branches, eyes fixed forward.
Yoru sat on his shoulder, staring curiously through the mist.
Moments later, they arrived.
Kakashi and Asuma.
Two of Konoha's highest-ranking Jonin stepped through the clearing just beneath his perch, unaware of the watchful clone above.
Kakashi's Sharingan eye scanned lazily, his other eye still half-lidded. He walked with calm readiness, every muscle alert.
Asuma had a cigarette hanging from his lips, smoke curling lazily despite the dampness. His trench blades were already strapped to his arms.
They paused in the clearing.
Yoru peeked down over Shikomu's shoulder.
"Look, it's white-haired man and... smoker?" she whispered, tilting her head.
Shikomu didn't respond.
Instead, his hands moved again.
[Shadow Clone Jutsu.]
With a subtle puff of chakra, another version of Shikomu appeared next to the wooden one.
The original clone nodded once and began to merge completely with the tree.
The Shadow Clone crouched low, still masked in the foliage. He turned to Yoru.
"Tell me everything."
Yoru yawned exaggeratedly but began recounting the entire sequence of events in quiet detail.
Their journey until now and what not.
When she finished, she stretched one paw forward and blinked slowly.
"I'll head back now."
In a flash of smoke, Yoru vanished, her summoning ended.
Shikomu's clone nodded.
Mission complete.
He closed his eyes for a brief second, then dispelled himself.
A surge of information—images, sensory impressions, Yoru's report—all shot through the chakra network back to the original Shikomu.
In the Land of Iron, seated quietly within a small temple compound, Shikomu's eyes snapped open.
He inhaled once, absorbing everything.
"It worked."
The diversion had taken place.
Kakashi and Asuma now believed the target was moving through the Mist.
He had bought himself time.
Authors note: BTW, wanted to ask you guys what you thought about another fanfic. Something where someone awakens a system which allows them to become the worlds greatest entertainer. Acting, singing, writing etc. But his acting talent is so overpowered he gets thrown into the situations...and lives through them. Lives through the horror if its a horror movie and goes through the heartbreak during romance. Where reality and fiction blurs and he doesn't know the difference between his girlfriend and the character they portray. Obviously the fic also focuses on novels, manga, shows, movies. life of an entertainer, even youtubers and footballers. Was just curious, since I had time today and was going through some stuff I binge wrote 15 chapters worth of content for this idea LOL.
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Authors note:
You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator