Chapter 293: Fighting Pain!
Black Zetsu genuinely couldn't figure it out—he couldn't figure it out at all!
Over these countless years, he had seen plenty of geniuses from the Uchiha clan. Yet even those so-called geniuses, in Black Zetsu's eyes, had merely managed to scratch the absolute baseline of Uchiha Ikeizumi's level!
He truly couldn't comprehend how a completely ordinary Uchiha could possibly grow to such a terrifying height.
"Did you figure anything out?"
Obito was still beside him, deliberately bringing up the one topic he shouldn't. What was Black Zetsu supposed to say? Say that he suspected Uchiha Ikeizumi was actually Uchiha Madara, meaning you—this fake Uchiha Madara—could pack up your things and go offline?
"I haven't confirmed a single thing—"
Black Zetsu shook his head, tossing those baseless and random thoughts out of his mind.
"How about we just use this opportunity to kill this guy named Uchiha Ikeizumi?"
"Pain and this Uchiha Ikeizumi are definitely going to fight to the death. When the time comes, Obito, you can go and launch a sneak attack on UIkeizumi. That will definitely kill him directly, and then we won't have to be so troubled anymore, right?"
White Zetsu activated his brilliant brain, putting forward a suggestion he deemed flawless.
"And what if the sneak attack fails to kill him?"
Uchiha Obito expressed that he had a few choice words to say about that. Him, fighting Uchiha Ikeizumi? For real?
He was terrified that instead of successfully launching a sneak attack on UIkeizumi, he would end up being ambushed by Ikeizumi first.
"Isn't Obito really strong?"
White Zetsu spoke his mind with a completely innocent expression. Catching that look on White Zetsu's face, Obito didn't quite know for a moment whether the fellow was being sarcastic or genuinely believed he was strong!
"Let's watch first!"
Black Zetsu was also inclined to let Obito take the risk. It wasn't that he himself was being burned into agonizing torment by the Flames of Judgment; he simply felt that if an opportunity arose, removing Uchiha Ikeizumi from the ninja world would indeed be a good thing.
Precisely as Obito and the others were talking, Pain on the other side made his move.
Even though he genuinely harbored thoughts of taking out the other members of Akatsuki in exchange for Uchiha Ikeizumi's recruitment, while he could think that way, he couldn't actually do it!
What if Uchiha Ikeizumi was, just as Senju Tobirama used to say, an inherently evil Uchiha brat?
If he ended up killing the other members of Akatsuki and Uchiha Ikeizumi immediately turned around and refused to honor his words, wouldn't Nagato lose out massively?
POOF, POOF, POOF!
Following the formation of hand seals by Pain, one figure after another burst forth from plumes of smoke, manifesting right beside him.
These were the other five paths among the Six Paths: the Animal Path, the Preta Path, the Naraka Path, the Asura Path, and the Human Path, leaving aside the Deva Path Pain!
To anyone who didn't understand the Six Paths but knew of the Rinnegan, merely seeing the identical Rinnegan gleaming within the eyes of the Animal Path and the others would likely cause them to beat a retreat.
Yet, the Susanoo controlled by Uchiha Ikeizumi merely took massive strides forward. Along with the movement of that colossal Susanoo, the entire solid earth trembled violently. However, the thing that drew the most attention was the ground the Susanoo had just walked across.
Without anyone realizing when, towering, ancient green trees actually rose abruptly from the soil where that colossal Susanoo had trodden!
These trees grew wildly and lawlessly, transforming into a massive green dragon within a brief span of time. With its dragon head reared high, it charged directly toward Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori on the other side.
"Hey, hey, hey?"
"I said it just now, I shouldn't have offended him, right?"
"What on earth is the reason for this? Why does it feel like that guy wants to kill us exceptionally badly?"
Hidan complained incessantly as he retreated alongside Kakuzu and Sasori. He truly hadn't expected that the fellow named Uchiha Ikeizumi would not only prepare to fight the leader of Akatsuki, but would also not forget to try and slaughter them in passing!
"Shut up!"
"If you get shredded into minced meat, I don't believe your Jashin can still bring you back to life!"
Kakuzu's gaze became exceptionally grave. He had seen this technique before; back when he faced Senju Hashirama, Hashirama had clapped his hands together and produced an identical wood dragon.
Although Senju Hashirama had stood atop the wood dragon from start to finish, the wood dragon produced by Uchiha Ikeizumi actually gave Kakuzu a feeling that it was not inferior at all to the one from Senju Hashirama in the past!
"How on earth does a brat from the Uchiha clan possess the Wood Release of Senju Hashirama!"
"Furthermore, this Wood Release—"
"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"
Though bewildered in the depths of his heart, Kakuzu was rapidly forming hand seals. As the small fireball he spat from his mouth struck the ground, the area the wood dragon was passing through completely transformed into a sea of fire within a short period of time.
Flames were supposed to be the natural counter to wood, yet that wood dragon acted as if it were completely unaffected, rolling over the sea of fire just like that as it continued to rush toward the trio.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Explosions rang out continuously from the body of the wood dragon. It was only at this moment that Kakuzu and the others discovered Konan had stood atop the wood dragon at some unknown point. Following the detonation of countless paper bombs, Konan dissolved into sheets of paper to escape.
As for the wood dragon that had been displaying its formidable might moments ago, it now seemed as though its vitals had been pinned down, and it was struggling violently!
"Summoning Jutsu!"
On the other side, Pain no longer held back now that the Six Paths were fully assembled.
As the Animal Path formed hand seals, plumes of smoke erupted at the center of the battlefield. As the smoke dissipated, a multi-headed hound, a bizarrely shaped giant bird, and a chameleon manifested upon the battlefield.
The physical size of the three ninja beasts summoned by the Animal Path was already exceptionally massive to normal humans, yet before Uchiha Ikeizumi's Susanoo, they didn't even reach up to its knees!
"Is that... all?"
Uchiha Ikeizumi swept his katana horizontally. Before these three ninja beasts summoned by the Animal Path could even launch an attack, they were all cleanly sliced in half at the waist in the very next instant!
To be selected by Nagato and contracted by the Animal Path, these ninja beasts could naturally not be that weak. It was simply that Uchiha Ikeizumi was far too powerful—especially since the battlefield they occupied was not far from the coastline.
Uchiha Ikeizumi currently possessed the Water Covenant upon his person, allowing him to convert twenty percent of the surrounding moisture into chakra. This meant Uchiha Ikeizumi could release ninjutsu while simultaneously maintaining the Susanoo!
Under conditions where he was completely lacking any shortage of chakra, Uchiha Ikeizumi's Susanoo truly possessed the combat capability to destroy a nation within a short period of time!
RUMBLE!
Precisely at the instant the Animal Path's summoning beasts were severed, the Naraka Path among the Six Paths also initiated its movement.
The colossal King of Hell statue rose from behind the Naraka Path. Aside from the multi-headed hound, the other two summoning beasts that had already been sliced in half fell directly into the mouth of the King of Hell statue. Accompanied by a bone-chilling sound of chewing, the giant bird and chameleon were actually resurrecting!
Meanwhile, the Deva Path Pain was similarly not idling. An invisible repulsive force rippled outward from his body; in this single instant, the colossal Susanoo acted as though it were blocked by some invisible force, unable to move even a single fraction of an inch!
"It's an opening!"
White Zetsu hooted and shouted from a location further away!