Outside Konoha Village.
When Uehara Naraku teleported here, a gleam flashed in Yakushi Kabuto's eyes, as if he had found his backbone, and he immediately adjusted his glasses.
"Lord Naraku!"
After respectfully greeting, Yakushi Kabuto began to praise Uehara Naraku's jutsu: "As expected of Lord Naraku, being able to use such a Space-Time Jutsu for instant movement between The Hidden Cloud Village and Konoha Village!"
"No need for compliments, it's basic operation."
After waving his hand, Uehara Naraku looked towards the distant battlefield. Upon activating his Hunting Perception, his brow furrowed instinctively: "Has the battle just begun?"
"That's right, it should be less than half a minute!"
Yakushi Kabuto's face gradually turned grave, and he spoke in a deep voice: "Lord Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto's Sage Mode erupted, each of them took out a Pain in an instant, and Might Guy also defeated the Preta Path that could absorb chakra!"
In just half a minute...
Even an outside spectator like Yakushi Kabuto couldn't react before the Human Path, Naraka Path, and Preta Path of Pain were already dealt with.
The Preta Path of Pain had already been taken down once before, only for Nagato to use the Naraka Path's abilities to repair and revive it, yet within half a minute of coming back into action, it was defeated again...
It was taken down by that Taijutsu-specialist, Might Guy.
The strength of his bowl-cut Taijutsu was just absurd!
"I had already suspected it."
Uehara Naraku shook his head, watching the burst of blue chakra steam in the distance, his voice growing deeper: "That Might Guy, he's nowhere near his limit yet. Once he truly erupts, he has the potential to defeat Lord Nagato..."
If Might Guy truly erupts.
The power of the Eighth Gate: Death Gate is not something Nagato can withstand.
On the battlefield.
Only the Deva Path, Asura Path, and Animal Path of the Six Paths of Pain were still holding on.
However, they faced the siege of Jiraiya, Uzumaki Naruto, Might Guy, Rock Lee, Gaara, and Terumi Mei, with ninja squads hovering nearby, ready to support at any moment.
Even if the remaining three Pains were strong, facing the siege of Jiraiya and the others, they could only temporarily hold their ground, but with time, defeat was almost inevitable.
Jiraiya abruptly clasped his hands together, and the sages on his shoulders, Shima and Fukasaku, simultaneously joined theirs, uniting to unleash a combination jutsu!
"Sage Art: Goemon!"
A fierce glint flashed in Jiraiya's eyes!
With the death of Preta Path, there was no Pain left to absorb chakra, allowing Jiraiya to finally unleash his full firepower!
With the enhancement of Wind Release Jutsu, flames burned the oil and swept towards the remaining three Pains, the overwhelming blaze nearly blotting out the sky!
"Almighty Push!"
The Deva Path of Pain extended his palm, deflecting the incoming Fire Release Ninjutsu, and leaped behind the Animal Path.
"Jiraiya-sensei."
The Deva Path of Pain slowly raised his head, scrutinizing those present, and spoke softly: "Your power truly cannot be underestimated!"
"Surrender, Nagato!"
Jiraiya slowly stepped forward, advising in a deep voice: "Now that your location has been discovered by our people, with only three of the Six Paths of Pain left, you must know you have no chance of winning..."
"Jiraiya-sensei!"
The Deva Path coldly interrupted Jiraiya, his voice still remarkably calm: "For a mortal to demand a god to surrender, isn't that too naive? That Byakugan female ninja who detected our location, her name is Hinata, right?"
"Hmm?"
Uzumaki Naruto nodded and was about to say something, but suddenly realized something: "Wait, how do you know her name is Hinata!"
"Because she's in my hands."
The Deva Path of Pain spoke slowly: "After a mortal spies on a god, once discovered by the god, what do you think her fate would be?"
The Deva Path of Pain's voice was coldly indifferent: "Just as you killed the Preta Path, Human Path, and Naraka Path, that female ninja exposed us. I must say, she fought valiantly."
"Let Hinata go!"
Uzumaki Naruto glared at the Deva Path with a grim face, as if trying to see his location through those Rinnegan eyes!
"Uzumaki Naruto, don't always be so naive."
The Deva Path of Pain looked at Uzumaki Naruto, speaking coldly: "If you want to rescue her, then defeat Pain and stand before me!"
"Alright!"
Uzumaki Naruto agreed immediately, clenching his fist tightly: "Anyway, I was going to take down these guys!"
"You're quite spirited..."
After the Deva Path of Pain coldly observed Uzumaki Naruto, he glanced around at everyone present, and in the next second, the three Paths of Pain suddenly scattered in different directions!
This scene caused everyone present to frown involuntarily. Initially, they wanted the Six Paths of Pain to split up to avoid their coordinated combat.
However, now only three Pains are left, so there's no need to further divide Pain, as the remaining three are all very strong, and even in a two-to-one situation, there's a possibility of being killed.
Since they currently have the advantage, they definitely want to avoid any casualties because Hatake Kakashi's death is already a great loss for Konoha.
Now that the three Pains have actually split up, how to allocate the pursuit has become a major issue, as each Pain's abilities are extremely powerful. Even the weakest, the Animal Path, can immediately summon the other two Pains together!
"Naruto, let's go after the strongest Deva Path!"
After thinking for a second, Jiraiya immediately selected the strongest Deva Path and then continued, "Mizukage, Kazekage, you go after the Animal Path; Guy, Lee, you go after the Asura Path!"
After speaking, Jiraiya's voice turned somewhat serious, "If anything unexpected happens, seek support immediately; if the pursued Pain uses summoning to escape, also send a signal immediately and support your companions…"
"Understood!"
In an instant, the six people split into three teams and left.
It must be said, their allocation was quite reasonable.
Among them, the individual with the weakest strength was undoubtedly the Animal Path; however, he could immediately summon the Deva Path and Asura Path, making the Animal Path particularly dangerous. But at least when encountering the Animal Path's summoning seal, one can prepare to flee early.
If going after the Deva Path and Asura Path, it was basically a life-and-death struggle.
Hence, Jiraiya entrusted the most dangerous task of pursuing the Deva Path to himself and Uzumaki Naruto; the pursuit of the Asura Path, which was Hatake Kakashi's target, to Might Guy; and the task, straddling danger and safety, of the Animal Path to Gaara and Terumi Mei.
Just as they had just split apart.
Nagato sat wearily inside another tree hole created by Konan, as their location had been discovered by the Konoha Ninja, and they had to relocate.
At this moment, there was an additional person in this tree hole.
That was Hyuga Hinata, just caught by Nagato and Konan.
Speaking of which, the misunderstanding of the Perception Squad's thinking, when they finally discovered Pain's trace, they should have left. Unfortunately, they decided to stay for the greater good to monitor Nagato and Konan's location.
As a result, unfortunately, Konan sensed something unusual, and a group of Perception Ninjas was easily killed by Nagato, with only the female ninja Hyuga Hinata being brought back.
Nagato's Rinnegan flashed with a gleam of light.
The next moment, Nagato's expression became somewhat serious, "The plan succeeded; they have split into three teams, each hunting one of the Pains."
"Do I need to take action?"
Konan frowned and spoke.
"Hmm."
Nagato nodded and continued deeply, "Use the Asura Path to deal with those two strange Taijutsu ninjas! Then summon you with the Animal Path to deal with those two shadows... Finally, finish with Jiraiya-sensei and capture Uzumaki Naruto!"
"...Alright."
Konan nodded.
Nagato looked at Konan's not-so-pleased expression, reached out to touch the ring on his finger, and softly said, "Oh, that's right, Uehara and Sasori have already captured the Eight-tailed Jinchuriki and are returning to the organization's base…"
"Is that so? Naraku has become a reliable ninja too!"
Konan sighed with wonder on her face, then this surprise slowly turned into a subtle smile.
Nagato couldn't help but show a trace of a smile as well, and whispered, "I didn't expect to be outdone by the juniors... We can't keep Uehara waiting too long!"
In the forest outside Konoha Village.
Might Guy and Rock Lee, the master and disciple, accelerated wildly, pursuing the Asura Path Pain in front of them competitively, not knowing that a trap awaited them.
Strictly speaking, no one would expect that the Asura Path Pain possessed a terrifying self-destruct function, for the Asura Path Pain was a puppet that could demonstrate unparalleled advantage in conventional battles!
"Lee, let's have a competition!"
Might Guy suddenly burst out at a faster speed, loudly motivating his disciple, "Whoever kicks Pain first has to carry the other on their back and run a hundred laps in the forest!"
"Yes, Guy-sensei!"
Rock Lee gritted his teeth and nodded, his speed suddenly increasing as well.
Rock Lee felt no sense of anything strange about his wager with Might Guy.
Perhaps, this is the world of the strong!
Strong in Taijutsu!
Exchanging it with wits.
This sentence is a joke, for Rock Lee is purely relying on his own effort.
In this world, besides those genius ninjas, many who silently strived behind have now surpassed them.
Such as in this facing of Pain.
Might Guy recommended to Tsunade, not the genius Hyuga Neji from the squad, but Rock Lee, who could easily open the Sixth Gate and barely open the Seventh Gate.
The Asura Path Pain halted in a canyon gorge.
The Asura Path's eye sockets, imbued with the Rinnegan, gazed at the rapidly approaching two figures, its voice mechanical-sounding, "Here they come?"