As said before: smashing however many of the Six Paths doesn't count—smashing Nagato does.
And Nagato's real body is a scrawny, crippled stick of a kid.
If you can close to melee, never mind a fresh, roaring taijutsu brawler like Uchiha Yorin—any random jōnin could pancake him with one punch.
Of course—if you can get close.
He gave Yorin no chance to speak further.
The instant he realized he'd been exposed, he snapped.
"—Chibaku Tensei!!"
Not Deva Path—Nagato himself cast it. A black sphere with the pull of a black hole drifted skyward, dragging rock, trees, rain—and people—into its gravity well.
An S-rank sealing technique. Worthy of S-rank—it can seal even Tailed Beasts. Ridiculously strong.
But that's fine. Chibaku Tensei is "invincible," but the Weasel Who Loves To Spawn already showed the flaw—the core!
Before the super-meteor fully forms, destroy the chakra singularity. Then you're o-k—
easier said than done. Do we have something that can blow a chakra black hole apart?
Yes, brother, yes—Sage Art: Super Big Ball Rasengan!
Jiraiya: "Ohhh!!"
A blue sphere slammed the black sphere. Today, light-ball will not help light-ball. If there were an MVP vote after this fight, aside from Yorin, Jiraiya would be runner-up for sure!
At the same time, Tsunade and Orochimaru fired as well—A-rank heavy hitters hammered the singularity. Vintage Kage—they're not known for ranged nukes, but their power didn't lose to Yorin's Chidori Sharp Spear.
Almost simultaneously, the barrage hit the still "winding-up" core and shattered it.
With the pull gone, the trees, soil, rocks, and rain that had been yanked up crashed back down, turning the battlefield into a soggy mess.
"Nani?!"
Nagato had lost count of how many times he'd been surprised today.
He knew intel had leaked—but this much?
If Chibaku Tensei won't do it, is his only play Super Shinra Tensei?
This Nagato wasn't yet the near-final-boss of ten years hence—his experience and technique weren't overwhelming. Faced with this absurdity, he actually froze for a beat.
While he froze, Team Yorin moved.
"Hold them!"
At the shout, the three Sannin and their summons threw themselves into the gap—walling off the charging Pain corps and the menagerie spewed by Animal Path.
Giant crab, giant dog, giant chameleon—everything slammed into Manda, Katsuyu, and (now) Gamabunta. The field became a sand-and-stone cyclone—
jutsu colliding with giant summons—laced with Asura Path's rockets and lasers, making it feel like time and genre were glitching.
Previously Mr. Light-Contribution, Orochimaru finally leaned into his true role: top-tier tank and control.
Substitution through serpents, Hidden Shadow Many Snakes, soft-body mod—couldn't beat him down, couldn't smash him flat. Focused fire? Summon a giant snake as a fall guy or drop Triple Rashōmon. Hack off two arms and three legs? They'll grow back in minutes.
And if they don't? There's a Tsunade right there. One slug tossed over, and she tops him off—declaring all that enemy effort "wasted." The Pains fumed—
but Tsunade was well screen-represented; they couldn't reach her fast. Meanwhile Jiraiya could still jam a Goemon or Super Big Ball Rasengan through to "pop a seam."
This is the Legendary Sannin at work:
Orochimaru holds the line, Jiraiya breaks it, Tsunade restores it. Together they output far more than solo.
Even with Five Paths against three, they couldn't gain the edge—and Yorin broke through to Nagato's front.
Nagato: "!"
He'd prepared himself, but still felt a jolt. No matter—he believed victory was ordained by his eyes.
Yorin saw him clearly now—red-haired, thin, in a wheelchair—Uzumaki Nagato.
Not the skeleton-on-strings he'd be a decade later; for now he just looked a bit frail, none of that "delete it from my hard drive" uncanny wrongness.
More striking than that were the chakra black rods behind him.
They let Nagato drive the Pain corpses—but they also gave off a deep uncanny-valley chill.
Yorin couldn't help thinking those rods were drinking Nagato's scant life.
Like this? Forget "godhood"—hitting forty would be hard. And that… equipment… was probably already out of service. Poor guy—virgin to the end.
Yorin's pitying look stabbed Nagato's heart—he almost fired a Banshō Ten'in to yank Yorin in and skewer him.
But before that, Yorin spoke: "Have you found your answer?"
Nagato froze.
Yorin continued, "The answer to what I asked you before."
Of course—no.
So Yorin cut him off before he could kill him:
"Then surrender—because I have."
"I know how to satisfy the people; how to steward barren land; how to keep peace without relying on one man's terror—how to make sure that after I die, the world still stays at peace.
"So, Nagato—if you truly want to change the world, to create a peace that would comfort Yahiko—then you should swear fealty to me.
"You are not a god.
I am."
~~~
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