The ninja tool Arata had prepared for himself was best suited for someone with high mastery over Wind Release chakra nature transformation.
The greater the mastery, the sharper the feathers became.
The exceptionally tough black threads of Earth Grudge Fear were as fragile as paper before those white feather blades infused with Wind Release chakra!
The black biomaterial-like threads scattered across the air like rain.
Yet because of that, large numbers of those pure white feathers also drifted down onto the ground.
"..."
A brief silence enveloped the underground palace.
Everyone had been stunned by this sudden and visually overwhelming scene.
Arata hovered in the air, holy wings covered in white radiance.
The walls around him emitted a hazy glow, illuminating that flawless face.
The side of his face hidden in the shadows of the halo was dyed with a cold and profound outline.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu manipulated those twisted black tendrils.
From head to toe, there was no trace of humanity left in him.
He looked like an ugly monster crawling out from hell itself.
Under the dim lighting of the underground palace, the two formed the purest and most shocking contrast possible.
Light and darkness collided and annihilated one another in that instant!
"Brat! You're courting death!"
Hearing the word "filth" spoken by the other party, Kakuzu's ghostly green eyes darkened.
The fury in his gaze looked as though he wanted to devour him alive.
If not for the fear of exposing too much information and still being unable to silence everyone present, he would have already used composite ninjutsu!
Damn it!
Why were all the things these people obtained so powerful?!
"Let's go!"
This body was only a Wood Clone.
Arata had no intention of entangling himself with Kakuzu.
The wings behind him instantly folded together before flapping violently.
WHOOSH!!
His entire body transformed into a streak of white light, instantly tearing through the murky air of the underground palace.
The black tendril tentacles blocking his path were shredded like torn rags.
Casually grabbing the Konoha ninja holding the useless sword, Arata flashed toward the entrance!
Those white wings traced two elegant arcs in the air, leaving behind only faint white glimmers and countless falling fragments of black thread.
At the very instant he flew out of the entrance,
Arata's eyes shifted slightly downward, meeting a scrutinizing pair of Rinnegan eyes.
Without giving Nagato any chance to covetously make a move, his figure vanished in an instant.
He rapidly ascended the thousand-meter abyss.
At the same time, everyone else also rushed out of the underground palace doors toward the "path of survival" outside.
They had expected to face attacks from the people waiting outside.
Yet when they stepped out,
What greeted them was air even thicker than inside the underground palace.
The air was no longer air.
It was stagnant, heavy, and wrapped in the overwhelmingly sweet stench of blood and death itself!
"W-what is this??"
A Cloud ninja subconsciously inhaled.
That scent rushed straight into his brain with icy coldness, causing his stomach to churn violently as his face turned pale.
Beneath their feet was no longer solid ground.
Instead, it was a deep crimson swamp that submerged their soles, warm and slippery.
Each step stirred up sticky blood and bits of flesh mixed within it.
Farther away, countless severed limbs had piled into small hills.
Blood slowly trickled down the "mountains," converging into scarlet pools beneath their feet.
Blood flowed backward into rivers.
In the short time they had spent inside the underground palace, the entire area before the entrance had transformed into a slaughterhouse for grinding flesh.
Like a painting splashed across the canvas by the most deranged artist imaginable using life itself, it told the story of despair and struggle in the face of death.
Yet the thing that truly made one's soul tremble was not the hellish scenery itself.
At the center of that infernal landscape stood two silent figures.
As the madmen who had personally created this scene.
There was no heavy breathing.
No twisted grin of victory.
Only a cold calmness after finishing their task.
The twisted contrast between extreme bloodshed and icy calm sent bone-piercing coldness exploding upward through everyone's spine and into their skulls!
And so, someone attacked.
The first person to move was not Long Zhe, who appeared completely insane.
Instead, it was the figure who had worn black robes the entire time and behaved quietly and normally throughout everything.
This familiar bloody scene seemed to have stimulated him.
His eyes turned crimson, and his pupils transformed into vertical slits.
"That is…"
At this moment, the originally bored "Shadow" suddenly showed a trace of interest in his eyes.
"The Chinoike Clan… the Ketsuryugan?"
A kekkei genkai that appeared in Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise.
Like the Sharingan, it awakened through intense emotional stimulation.
Not only did it possess the reputation of a "Hypnotic Eye," it was also extremely powerful in the field of genjutsu.
It could turn humans into "human bombs" and use blood as a medium to activate various techniques.
However, the Chinoike Clan had already been exterminated.
Just like Itachi Uchiha exterminated his own clan, these bloodline users who required extreme emotions to awaken all tended to be somewhat insane.
At present, there should only be two surviving members of the Chinoike Clan.
The person before him was likely Chinoike En.
"Interesting."
Even Shadow had not expected his setup to reel in an unexpected fish.
"Well?"
He turned toward Nagato beside him and asked with a smile:
"Interested?"
Before Nagato could answer, Chinoike En had already raised the bow in his hand toward the two of them.
His fingers pulled back an invisible bowstring, veins bulging across his arm.
The blood mist permeating the surroundings spun and converged as though drawn by some force.
In an instant, it condensed into a crimson arrow made entirely of blood.
He fired.
SHING!
Before everyone's eyes.
Accompanied by a chilling shriek, the blood arrow shot forth at terrifying speed, becoming a streak of scarlet light impossible to clearly perceive.
"Just a fool who can't understand the gap in strength between enemies."
Nagato said calmly.
The moment his words fell, Shadow hurled a blade formed from darkness itself, slicing apart the blood mist in the air.
Like black ink splashed across crimson parchment, it painted a blood-red full moon.
BOOM!
Midair, the incoming blood arrow was smashed apart by terrifying force, exploding instantly into pure blood that scattered through the sky!
Then, like blood-colored ink splashing outward, the blade light continued forward without slowing, tearing through Chinoike En's body!
RIP!
A gorgeous blossom of blood exploded from his chest as his entire body was sent flying backward.
There wasn't even a moment to mourn Chinoike En.
The next to take over the battlefield were the Hannya Group.
SHING!
A figure wearing a Hannya mask appeared behind Shadow.
From a blind spot outside Shadow's vision, he lowered his stance and drew the blade at his waist toward Shadow's body.
As the blade slid across the sheath, a clear ringing sound echoed.
Wind wrapped around the blade and formed turbulent clouds, as though becoming white blade patterns.
The slash was so fast the blade itself could not even be seen.
Only the arc of light remained.
The shrieking sound of the air splitting resembled wailing death spirits hidden within the wind.
An extremely powerful swordsman and samurai.
Especially after obtaining that chakra blade.
"There are so many places you could have chosen."
Shadow sighed.
"Why insist on standing behind me?"
As his voice fell, the black shadow blade lightly slashed outward.
"..."
The Hannya leader's body remained frozen in the posture of his full-powered sword draw.
Yet the mask suddenly split neatly in half from forehead to chin with a crack.
After the mask halves silently slid apart, a straight line of blood slowly spread across the man's face beneath it…
RIPPP!!
Blood burst forth like a spring breaking past its limit.
The body split into two halves and collapsed to either side.
Nagato never moved from beginning to end.
Because he already possessed a basic understanding of his "partner's" strength.
He merely raised his hand toward the chakra blade.
Universal Pull activated, drawing it into his grasp.
"This is a good blade."
Nagato said softly.
"It's yours."
Shadow smiled.
Nagato, who had never used swords before, now choosing one already spoke volumes about the change within his mentality.
Out of hatred and anger toward "Madara," even these Rinnegan eyes had begun to disgust him somewhat.
In the distance, seeing the two chatting as though no one else existed, Yugito's pupils contracted.
But just as she signaled to the other Cloud ninja and prepared to charge over,
"That's enough. I'm really tired of killing."
Shadow suddenly raised a hand and pointed toward another direction.
With helplessness in his voice, he said:
"The exit is over there. Not on my side."
"Stop coming here just to die."
The moment those words were spoken, everyone, whether trembling in fear or secretly eager to move, froze completely.
For a moment, they could only stare blankly at Shadow.