Chương 86: Chapter 86: Borrowed Instinct 

Yahiko was dead. The thought entered Nagato's mind without argument or defense. Every ambition that followed appeared hollow beside it. Conquering nations would not restore the friend who had believed in him. Punishing the world would not create a single morning in which Yahiko lived again. 

Why continue? The Rinnegan dimmed. Nagato's control weakened, and the Six Paths stood motionless across the ruined forest. 

Konan saw the change in his breathing. "Nagato?" 

"There is no reason to remain," he said. "Let me go where Yahiko went." 

She froze. Grief belonged to both of them, but Nagato had never surrendered to it like this. The despair in his voice was absolute and foreign. 

Konan stared at him. What had happened? 

On the battlefield, Tonbo watched deathly stillness settle over every Path. Melancholy had reached the mind behind the shared senses. Tonbo rated its learning difficulty at A+, and its power justified the effort. It drove a person's emotions so low that even moving seemed pointless, let alone trying to break a genjutsu. 

Pain or anger might provoke resistance. Despair removed the desire to resist. 

That persistence made the technique dangerous even after release. A target without exceptional will or outside help could continue accepting the imposed conclusion as his own. Hiruzen had forbidden Tonbo from testing it on allies for precisely that reason. 

Tonbo did not waste the opening. 

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough." 

The gale tore across the battlefield. Earth split, trees uprooted, and broken trunks became projectiles within the moving wall. The red-cloud cloaks shredded first. The Asura Path lost exposed mechanisms piece by piece; skin cracked across the other bodies as debris hammered them backward. 

The Deva Path endured longer than the rest, but it did not raise a hand. 

Tonbo let out a breath. He had only half his chakra left. A short battle against six bodies had consumed more chakra than many full missions. 

At the edge of the clearing, a face divided into pale and dark halves emerged from a tree. 

Zetsu watched the helpless Paths with unusual focus. Pain's strength was central to plans that extended far beyond Amegakure. A genjutsu capable of disabling all six through their shared connection threatened Nagato himself. 

Tobitake Tonbo required investigation. 

Several kilometers away, steel filled the air. 

Togekei and Murakumo attacked the masked man from opposing branches while Iwao forced him away from the border route. Shuriken passed through his torso without resistance. A Fūma blade entered one side of his neck and emerged from the other without drawing blood. 

"Space-time ninjutsu," Iwao warned. "And a Sharingan." 

An Uchiha connected to Amegakure raised more questions than they could survive long enough to answer. 

The masked man formed seals and expelled a wide fireball. Heat rolled ahead of it, igniting the wet canopy despite the rain. All three retreated before the flames enclosed their positions. 

His visible eye turned. 

"Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes." 

Togekei felt enormous spikes drive through his limbs and lock him inside a dark, depthless space. Murakumo and Iwao hung beside him, equally helpless. 

The masked man approached Iwao first. Wood extended from his palm into a sharpened stake. 

It pierced Iwao's chest and destroyed his heart. 

The genjutsu released him only into death. His body fell between the branches and struck the ground below. 

"One," the masked man said. 

He turned the stake toward Togekei. 

Tonbo had taught him that ordinary chakra disruption could fail against the Sharingan or a genjutsu expert. He had also taught him a way to break such illusions. 

Togekei's eyes snapped open. 

Togekei summoned a narrow blade and cut for the masked man's throat while the wooden stake entered his chest. 

Both weapons passed harmlessly through their targets. 

Togekei retreated at once. Two Fūma shuriken appeared in his hands and forced the enemy to remain intangible while he reached Murakumo. A pulse of foreign chakra broke the second genjutsu. 

"Iwao is dead," Togekei said. "Where are the reinforcements?" 

Murakumo's expression remained controlled. "Minutes away." 

"We may not have one minute." 

The masked man studied Togekei. "Your teacher prepared you well. Few shinobi without a dōjutsu break that illusion." 

"He is Konoha's best genjutsu specialist," Togekei replied. Conversation bought time, even if the enemy knew it. "His students would embarrass him if we failed immediately." 

The masked man ended the exchange with another sequence of seals. Wooden stakes erupted toward both survivors in a dense wave. 

Togekei and Murakumo answered together. Dozens of specialized shuriken filled the air. 

"Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance." 

Wind accelerated the weapons and bent their paths into intersecting curves. Steel and wood collided above the branches, fragments raining through the canopy. 

Togekei reached inside his flak jacket and removed a five-sided seal no larger than his palm. Tonbo had made it during the long months in Amegakure, when loud experiments would have betrayed them. 

The inscription read: **Borrowed Instinct — Tobitake Tonbo**.