Danzo was truly at his wit's end dealing with the four Paths.
They were nearly impossible to kill in battle, and with the four Paths coordinating so effectively, Danzo and his men stood no chance of defeating them.
Seeing Shukaku neutralized and knowing Rasa had already fled, Danzo realized their entire operation had completely failed.
No matter how bitter it felt, Danzo had to accept the outcome.
As Danzo lost focus for a split second, Human Path abruptly materialized right in front of him, lunging forward to seize him.
During the battle, Danzo knew one touch from this Path would mean instant soul extraction—he could never let it make contact.
[Wind Release: Vacuum Wave]
Danzo expelled countless wind blades from his mouth, attempting to force Human Path backward.
But then came a heavyset figure—the Preta Path—who positioned himself in front of Human Path and absorbed all of Danzo's wind blades instantly.
Taking advantage of the opening, Human Path grabbed Danzo's arm and began pulling at his soul.
Since the speed of soul extraction depended on the target's chakra strength, draining Danzo's soul proved extremely difficult.
Gritting his teeth, Danzo shouted at his remaining subordinates: "Retrieve the bodies of the Uchiha, retreat immediately to Root headquarters!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Asura Path launched several projectiles at Danzo, blowing him to pieces.
Root ninja followed Danzo's orders without question. Hearing the retreat command, they swiftly carried away the bodies of the fallen Uchiha clansmen and withdrew.
Yuto Uchiha was gripped by fear. The moment he heard Danzo's retreat command, he quickly led the surviving Uchiha clansmen away.
The four Paths ignored the others and remained focused solely on searching for Danzo.
Nagato, who controlled the Paths, also noticed that Danzo had survived multiple certain-death situations—he must have been using some special jutsu.
Nagato speculated this technique probably had limitations; otherwise, Danzo wouldn't have become increasingly hesitant during combat.
Asura Path spotted the fleeing Danzo ahead and was just about to launch a projectile attack when Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at the battlefield with reinforcements.
Hiruzen scanned the battlefield but found no sign of Danzo. His eyes landed on the four Paths instead.
Burning with rage, Sarutobi locked his gaze on the four intruders, his eyes seething with fury. "You've destroyed Konoha like this—you're unforgivable! Move out! Eliminate the intruders!"
The ninja behind Hiruzen surged forward as one.
Hidden in the shadows, Nagato gave a cold snort. "Just as I thought—you're not cut out for the spotlight. Even an ambush by combined forces couldn't seriously damage Konoha. Too bad—we didn't manage to kill Danzo."
Human Path called toward Setsuna Uchiha and Hidan standing on the rooftop: "We're retreating!"
Setsuna Uchiha was panting. Hidan was no help at all, and facing both Minato Namikaze and Shisui at the same time, along with enemy puppets draining his strength, made this battle extremely tough for Setsuna Uchiha.
Plus, Minato Namikaze and Shisui were just too sneaky. Since he couldn't teleport outside their field of vision, both of them would constantly ambush him from his blind spots.
Several times, Setsuna Uchiha nearly got hit.
But he couldn't show weakness. Right now, he was pretending to be Madara Uchiha—there was no way he could disgrace his idol's reputation or let Nagato sense something was off. He had no choice but to keep fighting—he'd have run off by now otherwise.
Swinging his ninja sword, Setsuna Uchiha slashed the air, tearing open a rift in space.
Then, using space-time teleportation, Setsuna Uchiha tossed both of Hidan's arms, half his head, and Hidan himself into the spatial rift.
Setsuna Uchiha struck a cool pose and coldly declared, "Minato Namikaze, that was just an appetizer. Next time we meet, we will destroy Konoha!"
However, right after Setsuna Uchiha finished speaking, Shisui suddenly appeared behind him.
[Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!]
Shisui spat out three fire dragons from his mouth toward Setsuna Uchiha. At the same time, Minato Namikaze held a Flying Thunder God Kunai in his left hand and a Rasengan in his right, ready to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to attack Setsuna Uchiha at any moment.
Setsuna Uchiha's face turned pale because he couldn't directly teleport straight into the spatial rift—he could only teleport to the entrance of the rift and then walk inside.
With no other options, Setsuna Uchiha teleported to the entrance of the spatial rift to dodge Shisui's fire dragons.
And there, at the edge of the spatial rift, was Minato's Flying Thunder God Kunai.
[Flying Thunder God — Second Step!]
Minato instantly teleported to where the kunai was, forcefully slamming the Rasengan into Setsuna Uchiha.
Setsuna Uchiha had no choice but to take the full impact. After letting out a painful scream, he fell into the spatial rift.
The spatial rift then closed.
Meanwhile, Deidara and Kakuzu regrouped, working together to destroy the puppets targeting them.
Just as they were preparing to continue damaging Konoha, a retreat order came through.
Deidara molded a giant clay bird, flying away from Konoha while carrying Kakuzu.
Deva Path glanced at Jiraiya. Jiraiya seemed to realize that Deva Path was planning to escape, so he moved to stop it.
[Sage Art: Hair Needle Senbon!]
Jiraiya, having entered Sage Mode, hardened his hair and fired it like needles, blitzing like a storm toward Deva Path.
Outside Konoha Village, Animal Path started forming hand seals.
[Summoning Jutsu!]
The five Paths—Deva, Human, Naraka, Preta, and Asura—appeared before Animal Path.
Jiraiya's attack naturally missed entirely. Cursing under his breath in frustration, he muttered, "Damn it!"
Konan addressed Path, "How is it going?"
Deva Path responded, "Failure. The current Konoha isn't something we can provoke with just Sunagakure. There's also no need for us to confront Konoha head-on right now. Let's withdraw."
The chaos within Konoha finally subsided as the Akatsuki members withdrew.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was leading a team in search of Danzo. Despite how highly Hiruzen valued their friendship, Danzo had committed unforgivable deeds that could not be tolerated.
"Did they head to the Root headquarters? Follow me—let's go there now!"
Upon learning that Danzo and the Root ninja had fled toward their hideout, Hiruzen immediately led his men in pursuit.
Once Hiruzen arrived at the Root headquarters with his team, he began searching the entire facility immediately.
But strangely, there wasn't a single person inside the Root headquarters.
After conducting an investigation, an Anbu ninja reported, "Third, we discovered several rebellious Uchiha clansmen corpses. Their eyes have been removed. We also found an underground passage. It's likely that Danzo and his men escaped through this tunnel!"
Hiruzen shouted furiously, "Follow me into the underground passage! We're going after them!"
Hiruzen personally led the pursuit into the underground tunnel, armed with Enma transformed into a diamond ruyi staff, as he chased after Danzo.
Meanwhile, after flying out of Konoha, Shindai located the escaping Sand ninja, among whom was Rasa—supported by others and having lost all but his right arm.
Shindai grinned sinisterly, "Finally found you!"
A [Supernova Shindai] materialized in Shindai's palm. He hurled it directly into the midst of the [Sand ninja].
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