Yagura had originally thought that Konan's clone would be able to help him fight.
The Water Mirror Technique could copy any jutsu that wasn't a bloodline limit, even if the opponent was a Jinchūriki like himself.
But there was one problem—the explosive tags couldn't be copied!
It was certainly a clever trick of Konan's Paper jutsu. What advantage she gained by combining it with explosive tags was now obvious.
Both Konan and her clone had attacked each other with paper fragments, but when Konan suddenly triggered the explosive tags, the clone had none to detonate in return. The explosion had blown the clone to pieces.
Moreover, Pain, who had been standing on the tree trunk until now, jumped down to the ground and stood beside Konan. It seemed that both Pain and Konan were ready to join the battle.
Yagura's expression turned serious. It appeared he would have to show his true power to defeat these three opponents.
Without hesitation, Yagura initiated his half-tailed beast transformation.
His body underwent obvious changes. While still maintaining human form, dark red Tailed Beast chakra flowed visibly around him, and three tails emerged from his back.
After entering his half-tailed beast form, Yagura leapt forward with such force that two craters formed beneath his feet.
He swung his palm at Uchiha Obito. Although Yagura moved incredibly fast, Obito's Kamui was faster. Obito quickly phased through the attack, rendering it useless.
But Yagura had anticipated this outcome.
This attack was merely a feint.
Yagura's real targets were Pain and Konan standing behind Obito.
Without losing momentum, Yagura rushed toward Pain.
Pain expressionlessly raised his hand and pointed it at Yagura.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A powerful repulsive force struck Yagura head-on.
The impact sent Yagura flying backward, crashing through three or four thick trees before coming to a stop.
"Tailed Beast Water Bullet!" Yagura shouted.
He used the Tailed Beast chakra to spit out a massive water sphere from his mouth, directing it at Obito, Pain, and Konan.
Now that Pain and Konan had joined the fight, Obito decided to observe from the sidelines for a while.
He wanted to assess Pain and Konan's fighting abilities.
Obito knew very well that Nagato and Konan didn't trust him.
To protect himself against potential future attacks from them, Obito needed to evaluate their strengths and understand their weaknesses.
So once again, Obito used Kamui, allowing the water bullet to pass harmlessly through his body.
Pain used only one technique—Shinra Tensei—to deflect the water bullet away.
The moment the water bullet was repelled by the gravitational force, Yagura appeared in front of Konan.
He struck out with another powerful palm attack.
Konan created a shield of paper to block Yagura's attack.
When struck by Yagura, the paper shield suddenly sprouted coral.
Weighed down by the coral growth, the paper shield fell to the ground.
Seeing Konan under attack, Pain raised his arm toward Yagura again.
"Banshō Ten'in!"
With Pain as the center, Yagura found himself uncontrollably pulled toward Pain by a powerful gravitational force.
Just as Yagura was about to reach Pain, Pain used Shinra Tensei once more, the repulsive force slamming Yagura deep into the ground.
A black receiver rod appeared in Pain's hand, and he moved to stab Yagura with it.
"Water Style: Water Shockwave!" Yagura shouted.
He instantly released a burst of Three-Tails chakra, creating a powerful wave that expanded outward with him at the center.
Pain jumped back to avoid the massive wave.
Konan, who was hovering in mid-air, formed hand seals and pointed toward Yagura below.
"Paper Shuriken Dance!"
Countless paper pieces floating in the air gathered together to form sharp spears that shot toward Yagura.
The half-transformed Yagura roared, creating a powerful gust that blew away Konan's paper weapons.
Obito called out to Pain, "Hey, Pain, I need to force him to completely transform into a tailed beast so I can control him properly. Don't use your black receivers."
Pain's eyes narrowed as he looked at Obito.
It seemed Obito knew about the effects of his black receiver rods.
These black rods disrupted the chakra flow of anyone they pierced. When inserted into an opponent's body, they could block the chakra points needed for jutsu.
If he successfully inserted them into Yagura's body, Yagura would be unable to fully transform into the Three-Tails.
It appeared Obito knew many of Pain's secrets.
By this time, Yagura had begun concentrating chakra for a Tailed Beast Bomb. The energy spun rapidly in front of his mouth, forming a high-density black sphere.
Yagura swallowed the compressed energy bomb and then fired the Tailed Beast Bomb in a straight line toward the three opponents.
Pain, who had previously used Shinra Tensei with one hand, now raised both hands.
"Shinra Tensei!" Pain shouted.
A much stronger repulsive force than before appeared. The Tailed Beast Bomb was deflected high into the air before landing very far behind them.
First came a powerful tremor through the ground and the blinding light of the explosion, followed by the deafening sound and a powerful shockwave.
While Yagura had been preparing his Tailed Beast Bomb, Konan hadn't been idle.
She had used her "Divine Paper Technique" to disguise a large number of explosive tags as the ground itself.
After Pain deflected the Tailed Beast Bomb, all the tags that were disguised as ground suddenly appeared, with one attaching itself to Yagura's body.
When the explosive tags detonated, another explosion roared through the area, creating a deep crater in the ground.
Seeing this power, Obito's eye twitched.
The explosion could have been disastrous!
But something else caught Obito's attention—Konan's technique.
Although Obito had seen Konan disguising the explosive tags as the ground, once they were concealed, even his Sharingan couldn't detect which parts of the ground contained hidden explosive tags.
Despite being hit by Konan's explosive tags, Yagura survived.
Now Yagura began to change again. A skeletal structure appeared around his body, which started to swell as he gradually lost his human shape.
Obito, Pain, and Konan stopped their attacks.
It was obvious that Yagura was about to completely transform into the Three-Tails. What they were waiting for now was the complete tailed beast transformation.
Yagura no longer resembled a human at all. His body grew enormous, with a hard shell covering it.
Finally, the Three-Tails appeared in its complete form.
Pain looked at Obito and said, "The Three-Tails has appeared. I leave it to you."
Obito nodded. "Leave it to me, but after I use genjutsu to control the Three-Tails, before Yagura can break free of the illusion, use your black receivers to pierce the Three-Tails' body. Work with my genjutsu to forcefully maintain his complete tailed beast transformation."
Using Kamui, Obito disappeared and then reappeared in front of the Three-Tails' head, looking directly into its eyes.
"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"
The newly emerged Three-Tails was immediately affected by Obito's genjutsu, and its eyes took on the pattern of the Sharingan.
Pain also flew in front of the Three-Tails and immediately pierced dozens of black receiver rods into the tailed beast's body.
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