Their expressions, though hidden behind masks and emotionless faces, revealed the same unspoken thought.
What is he planning?
They both knew that Inoiki wasn't the kind of shinobi to waste chakra or movement. If he had brought out something of that size, then it had a purpose — and whatever it was, it wouldn't be simple.
Their suspicion was confirmed moments later.
The enormous ball began to shudder and shift, its surface rippling unnaturally as if alive. Under Inoiki's precise mental control, the iron sphere began to divide, breaking apart into countless fragments that reshaped themselves midair.
In the blink of an eye, the fragments formed into hundreds of slender, kunai-shaped blades, each sharp enough to pierce steel. They surrounded Inoiki completely, orbiting him at blinding speed.
(Ai generated image in Comments area.)
The air around him screamed as the blades moved faster and faster, their rotation forming a roaring tornado of steel — a whirling barrier of death.
And then, with a mere flick of Inoiki's fingers, the tornado unleashed itself.
The blades shot outward like a rainstorm of razors, a relentless storm of cutting edges that filled the sky.
Inoiki's strategy was clear. The Paths of Pain could predict his attacks through the shared vision granted by the Rinnegan's network. Normally, that would allow them to evade him with ease — but only when the attacks were few.
This time, Inoiki had changed the game.
By multiplying the number of strikes to the point that the sky itself seemed to shimmer with flying blades, he was forcing them into a position where dodging was no longer possible.
Even with shared vision, the Paths of Pain couldn't defend against a storm that came from every direction at once.
The battle had shifted — and this time, Inoiki was the one pressing the attack.
…
The tornado of blades whirled with breathtaking speed, its metallic shrieks cutting through the air as it tore toward its target — the Paths of Pain. The sky around Inoiki shimmered with the glint of steel, each blade moving so fast that they blurred into streaks of silver light.
The Deva Path, calm and unwavering, raised his hand once more. His Rinnegan eyes pulsed with power.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A sudden, massive shockwave of repulsion burst outward, colliding directly with the torrent of blades. Yet what happened next left even Nagato momentarily stunned.
Instead of being blown away, the swirling blades halted midair and began to twist and merge together, shifting shape with unnatural precision. Within seconds, they had reformed into a massive iron shield, dense and unyielding, floating effortlessly before Inoiki.
The Deva Path's Almighty Push slammed into the shield with a resounding BOOM — the force distorted the air, shattering pieces of rubble nearby. But the shield didn't move. It stood firm, unmoved even under the full pressure of Shinra Tensei.
As the repulsive wave faded, Inoiki's eyes glowed faintly.
"Now… my turn."
With another focused thought, the iron shield broke apart into countless smaller pieces once again, scattering into a thousand razor-edged kunai that immediately rushed toward the Paths of Pain like a coordinated swarm.
From his distant hideout, Nagato's expression hardened. He could sense the intensity behind those attacks — each blade was being guided individually, directed by Inoiki's precise mental control.
This is bad, he thought grimly.
Without hesitation, he commanded all six bodies of Pain to disperse, spreading out across the rooftops of Amegakure to avoid the deadly storm. But even as they moved, Inoiki's blades shifted direction in perfect synchronization, pursuing each target with uncanny accuracy.
The Paths of Pain dodged swiftly, their movements guided by the shared vision granted by the Rinnegan. Somewhere in the shadows, an unknown observer — the seventh pair of eyes — continued to relay every angle, every incoming trajectory. Through that shared perception, Nagato predicted the blades' paths and moved his bodies just in time, narrowly avoiding the rain of death.
For a few moments, it worked. The Paths of Pain managed to slip past the onslaught, leaping between the rooftops and evading strike after strike.
Then, suddenly, the motion of the blades ceased.
The countless iron kunai froze midair, suspended like a constellation of metal stars. Nagato frowned.
Why did he stop?
But the answer came to him instantly.
Inoiki, hovering silently above the battlefield, had stopped the attack on purpose. His psychokinetic range was immense, but in current situation his Observation Haki is limited. He could no longer clearly sense all the Paths once they had scattered far enough from his immediate radius.
Those that had escaped his sight — the bodies beyond his psychic reach — were now safe, at least for the moment.
However, one target had remained within his field of awareness — the Naraka Path, the body responsible for restoration and revival. Inoiki's focus locked onto it like a predator's gaze.
The countless blades hanging in the air shifted direction as one, pointing sharply toward the Naraka Path.
From the very beginning, that had been his true target.
Away from the main cluster of the Paths of Pain, the Naraka Path was fleeing through the shattered rooftops of Amegakure — unaware that it was already doomed.
Inoiki's eyes glimmered with sharp focus as he sensed its faint chakra signature at the very edge of his awareness. Without wasting a second, his body flickered with a surge of psychic energy — and in the blink of an eye, he teleported.
He reappeared at the last known location of the Naraka Path. The instant he materialized, his gaze locked onto the target: the Naraka Path was sprinting across a crumbling rooftop, desperately trying to escape the radius of his psychokinetic control.
A cold smile formed on Inoiki's lips.
"All your running ends here."
At his mental command, the kunai-like blades surrounding him whirled into motion again. The air crackled as hundreds of steel projectiles aligned with ruthless precision and surged toward the Naraka Path like a swarm of guided missiles.
The Path barely had time to turn its head before the storm struck.
Within seconds, the blades tore through its body, shredding it into countless fragments. Flesh, metal, and chakra receivers burst apart as the Naraka Path was completely annihilated, leaving nothing but a cloud of debris and dissipating energy.
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