"Something's wrong."
Pain suddenly sensed the danger.
He hurriedly ordered the Preta Path to stop absorbing chakra.
But it was already too late.
The Preta Path's absorption ability was too strong. In an instant, he swallowed a massive amount of Kitazawa's Senjutsu Chakra.
The natural energy inside him went berserk, completely out of control, and began to rapidly erode his body.
In the blink of an eye, his form solidified into stone. He froze in place like a statue.
Losing the Preta Path made Pain's expression tighten.
Now, only he, the Human Path, and the Animal Path remained of the Six Paths of Pain.
"Summoning Technique!"
The Animal Path slammed a hand onto the ground, calling forth three Summoning Beasts.
The Giant Drill-Beaked Bird, the Giant Ram, and the Giant Panda appeared in blasts of smoke, then charged straight at the Wood Dragon, entangling it in battle.
Pain immediately turned his attention back to Kitazawa.
"Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
Kitazawa raised his hand without hesitation.
Vast currents of Wind Release chakra surged out like roaring waves.
Violent streams of air radiated from him as the center, sweeping across the battlefield.
The wind howled.
In an instant, an enormous, shuriken-shaped Rasengan took form above his head.
Kitazawa hurled it with all his strength.
A chill ran through Pain. His instincts screamed danger.
He shot into the air, trying to evade the Rasenshuriken.
At the same time, the Human Path and Animal Path scattered to either side to avoid the attack.
"Amenotejikara."
Kitazawa's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan spun to life.
Seizing the opening, he locked directly onto the human path.
Normally, Nagato, wielding the Rinnegan, could react in time to the Yin Release marking of Amenotejikara; the Rinnegan surpassed even the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
But the Rinnegan's power was currently divided among three bodies, and Nagato had no knowledge of Amenotejikara.
On top of that, the Human Path was focused on dodging the Rasenshuriken.
Kitazawa exploited that instant perfectly.
He flickered behind the Human Path and, without any mercy, drove a Sage Art: Rasengan into his back.
Boom!
The Human Path was blasted apart, his body shattered to pieces.
Watching from mid-air, Pain was both shocked and furious.
Without hesitation, he reclaimed all the remaining chakra from the Animal Path.
With the Six Paths' chakra unified once more, his power climbed to its peak.
"Super Shinra Tensei!"
A cataclysmic repulsive force erupted, crashing downward like a raging storm.
The sky dimmed in an instant.
"Wood Release: Wood Golem!"
Kitazawa flashed through hand seals.
Terrifying chakra erupted from him, soaring toward the heavens.
The entire desert rumbled as though struck by an earthquake.
From the sands, a colossal wooden man over a hundred meters tall rose up.
Its vast body caused the ground to sink, sending waves of sand rolling in all directions.
Kitazawa stood atop the bridge of the wooden man's nose, staring up at the darkened sky.
The invisible repulsive force descended in spreading ripples.
The wooden golem's response was simple.
It lifted its arms and spread its massive hands, shielding Kitazawa beneath them.
"Wood Release: Hobi."
After a brief thought, Kitazawa summoned an additional wooden shield.
A heartbeat later, the overwhelming repulsive force slammed into the wooden shield and the wooden giant.
The collision unleashed terrifying destructive power, and a deafening roar echoed across the world.
A storm exploded outward from the point of impact, sweeping across the desert in all directions.
The sands trembled again.
The wooden golem sank another few meters into the ground—
—but that was it.
"Impossible!"
Pain stared, eyes wide, at the wooden golem that still stood solidly in place.
Kitazawa, however, wasn't surprised.
In the original story, the wooden human that Hashirama summoned with Wood Release: Wood Golem had been able to catch a Nine-Tails Tailed Beast Ball with one hand.
It was a top-tier Wood Release jutsu, perfectly combining offense and defense.
On top of that, Kitazawa had layered Wood Release: Hobi over it.
Pain's face darkened as he began forming hand seals again.
As a god, he would never allow himself to lose to Kitazawa.
"Planetary Devastation!"
If Super Almighty Push was pure ultimate destruction, then Planetary Devastation added a horrifying sealing power to that destruction.
A small black sphere rose slowly above Pain's head.
The moment it stopped, it unleashed an overwhelming gravitational pull.
Everything—sand, debris, even the trees Kitazawa had summoned—was dragged toward it.
The little sphere became like a black hole, devouring earth and sky.
Kitazawa felt his body yanked upward, helplessly drawn into the air.
He immediately pulled out the Dragon Bow.
"World-Ending Arrow!"
He could have escaped with the Flying Thunder God, but there was no need.
Because he knew: the weakness of Planetary Devastation was that tiny core.
He loosed the bowstring, and a Yin Release arrow shot straight toward the black sphere in the sky.
The raging gravity of Planetary Devastation became its fuel; in an instant, the Yin Release arrow was sucked right up to the core.
Boom!
Limitless chakra erupted from the Yin Release arrow.
The resulting explosion was beyond imagination.
The World-Ending Arrow, with power rivaling a Tailed Beast Ball, unleashed a force capable of rending mountains and seas, swallowing Planetary Devastation whole.
In the original story, it had taken the reincarnated Nagato's Planetary Devastation everything Killer Bee's Tailed Beast Ball, Naruto's Rasenshuriken, and Itachi's Yasaka Magatama could muster to break.
But the Nagato of this moment was far weaker than his reincarnated self.
At a distant oasis—
Nagato suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Using Super Almighty Push and Planetary Devastation back to back had pushed his body past its limits; he could no longer endure the massive chakra drain.
Konan's expression twisted in disbelief.
Because she had to remain behind to protect Nagato's real body, she didn't know the exact course of the battle.
But seeing him spit blood, she could tell that Kitazawa had seized the advantage.
This was the first time she had ever seen Nagato in such a miserable state.
Since awakening the Rinnegan, he had been unstoppable—like a god.
"I am a god! I will not lose!"
Nagato ignored Konan, his face contorted as he forced the words out.
In the distance, Pain roared and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Summoning Technique!"
The ground and sky shook. From the churning smoke, a monster even larger than the wooden golem emerged.
It was humanoid, its withered-wood body towering, nine eyes clustered on its face, and ten massive pillar-like protrusions jutting from its back.
This was the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path—the shell of the Ten-Tails.
Only when the Demonic Statue and the nine Tailed Beasts were united could it become the true Ten-Tails.
Right now, with the Seven-Tails and the Nine-Tails still missing, this Gedo Statue could only be considered one-third of the Ten-Tails.
"Chakra Dragon!"
The moment the Gedo Statue emerged, it immediately spat out a massive dragon.
The chakra dragon shot forth like a chain, lashing straight toward its target.
The wooden golem reacted at once, extending its hands to seize the dragon.
An unimaginable force erupted from the contact, dragging the wooden golem forward against its will.
Kitazawa instantly understood the Gedo Statue's intent.
It was trying to swallow the wooden golem.
As the former Ten-Tails, it possessed the power to devour all chakra.
"Do you see? This is the power of a god!"
Pain hovered in the air, arms spread wide as he shouted.
Having his Shinra Tensei and Chibaku Tensei broken by Kitazawa one after another had caused him to lose face.
He desperately needed to regain his dignity, to prove he was still that invincible god.
"The power of a god?"
Kitazawa smiled. "Looks like it's time I showed my full strength."
Pain's expression froze.
What did that mean?
This wasn't his full strength yet?
Impossible.
Pain fixed his gaze on Kitazawa, utterly unwilling to believe it.
Yin Seal: Release!
Senju Chakra Mode!
Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!
Chakra as vast as the ocean erupted from Kitazawa's body.
Centered on him, a violent storm formed out of thin air—
Only to be torn apart in the next instant.
The entire sky dimmed.
Pain instinctively looked up.
It wasn't that the heavens themselves had darkened; a colossal thousand-armed Buddha statue was blotting out the sky.
"This... what is this?"
Pain's pupils trembled as he stared at the thousand-armed Buddha, its size rivaling that of the Gedo Statue.
His worldview shattered in that moment.
The Gedo Statue was the Ten-Tails—how could there be a thousand-armed Buddha on par with the Ten-Tails?
"What's the use of just being big?!"
Pain roared.
He immediately drove the Gedo statue forward.
The thousand-armed Buddha extended its countless arms.
The Gedo statue slammed into its palms, unleashing a deafening boom and overwhelming shockwaves.
To Pain's horror, the thousand-armed Buddha stopped the Gedo statue cold.
No matter how the Gedo statue strained, it couldn't advance even an inch.
"How is this possible?"
Pain was stunned.
Just then, every arm of the thousand-armed Buddha began to move.
Tailed Beast Ball!
Sensing the danger, Pain didn't hesitate to choose the Gedo Statue's strongest attack.
The Gedo statue threw its head back and opened its mouth.
A pitch-black sphere, condensed to the extreme, formed between its jaws.
Wild chakra currents exploded outward, wind and clouds surging as terrifying power gathered.
Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!
Perfect Susanoo!
Kitazawa stared at the Tailed Beast Ball, his expression unchanged.
A heavy, oppressive aura spread over the thousand-armed Buddha.
In the blink of an eye, a suit of armor formed over it.
Then, the thousand-armed Buddha clenched its countless fists and brought them crashing down.
Each fist was the size of a Tailed Beast, and a thousand such fists became an endless barrage.
Pain's field of vision was filled entirely with those descending blows.
Though he was only a controlled corpse, he actually felt a suffocating pressure at that moment.
The Tailed Beast Ball was the first to meet the oncoming fists.
The world seemed to freeze.
Then, a raging torrent of chakra erupted, surging outward like a visible tidal wave.
Before the shockwave could spread, it was swallowed by a storm of fists.
The Tailed Beast Ball shattered, and the Gedo Statue's massive body was pummeled from head to toe. It let out a deafening scream.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Pain raised his hand on reflex.
The repulsive force did nothing. A fist crashed into him head-on, sending him flying.
The Gedo statue crumpled.
Its enormous bulk hitting the ground kicked up a raging sandstorm across the desert.
Sand roared into the sky, countless grains torn loose and swept upward.
For dozens of kilometers, the terrain warped. The desert floor caved in and sank, leaving behind a vast, bottomless pit.
Kitazawa shook his head.
This Nagato still hadn't let him enjoy himself to the fullest.
Far away, by an oasis—
Nagato suddenly coughed up a large mouthful of blood.
His face turned deathly pale. All strength left his body, and he collapsed.
"Nagato?!"
Konan caught him on instinct.
She stared at the utterly drained Nagato, shock twisting in her chest.
The invincible Nagato… lost?
Did Kitazawa actually win?
Kitazawa's figure flashed through her mind, leaving her momentarily stunned.
"I… I am clearly a god…"
Nagato panted, his voice thin and weak.
Resentment twisted his features, but beneath it was raw disbelief.
He, who proclaimed himself a god, had been defeated so completely.
"Can we talk now?"
Kitazawa's figure appeared out of nowhere.
With a Flying Thunder God marker on Konan, he could arrive in an instant.
Nagato's expression changed the moment he saw him.
For the first time since Yahiko's death, a sharp, unfamiliar fear surged in his heart.
Konan looked at Kitazawa, eyes filled with silent pleading.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you."
Kitazawa offered a faint smile and reminded him, "Don't forget the bet we just made."
Nagato's eyes widened as the memory returned.
If he lost, the Akatsuki organization would have to join Konohagakure.
A storm of conflicting emotions churned inside him.
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