After finally shaking off the entanglement of Pain's three Paths, Jigen was just about to act when his whole body suddenly tightened. Several white centipedes, each as long as a man, wrapped themselves tightly around his waist.
At the same time, the ground was already crawling with countless white clay spiders and grasshoppers, forming a dense army.
"Finally caught you." Deidara's cheerful voice rang out.
He raised his index and middle fingers.
"Heh!"
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
With a chain of explosions, towering flames engulfed Jigen completely.
"I told you to be careful, Deidara! We're underground here—I don't want to get buried alive eating dirt!" Hidan's loud, nagging voice echoed as he appeared, brandishing his scythe, worried the ceiling might collapse and bury them below.
"That's still better than someone who hasn't managed to land a single effective hit." Deidara shot back mockingly, leaving Hidan screeching in outrage.
"That guy isn't dead. Stay alert." Nagato reminded the bickering pair. Even after Deidara's clay bomb ambush, Jigen's chakra signature hadn't weakened in the slightest.
"Hahaha, see? You didn't kill him either!" Hidan burst into wild laughter.
"Tch, so even my improved C1 wasn't enough to finish him? Looks like I'll need even more art! Hm!"
As he spoke, Deidara thrust both hands into the pouches on his waist, where he kept the clay needed for his bombs.
When the smoke cleared, Jigen stood in place unharmed.
Well, not entirely unharmed—burns and abrasions marred his body, and his clothes were tattered. But apart from his somewhat bedraggled appearance, he hadn't suffered any real damage.
"He really survived that? What a troublesome opponent." Sasori muttered, controlling the Third Kazekage puppet.
As Deidara's partner, he knew full well how destructive those clay bombs were. Even a tiny clay spider could obliterate solid rock with ease. And Deidara had used an improved version, even more powerful.
"Dance of the Shikigami!"
Before Jigen could catch his breath, the Akatsuki's moral overseer launched her attack. Countless sheets of paper whirled into a tornado that enveloped his entire body.
But hidden within those sheets of paper were countless explosive tags.
This wasn't just a paper tornado—it was a tornado of explosive tags.
The moment the paper covered Jigen, the tags all lit up at once, unleashing explosions even more devastating than Deidara's clay bombs, the blast swallowing half of the underground complex.
The entire subterranean world trembled. Soil rained down from the ceiling above.
"Help! It's collapsing!" Hidan flailed about in mock terror, but in his eyes gleamed a sharp light—his erratic escape path was in fact leading him closer and closer to Jigen.
"COOL!!! Now this is art! Hm!" Deidara was overjoyed, shouting in excitement:
"Looks like Konan-senpai really understands my artistic vision! Hm!"
"Mere mortals… you insects have truly enraged me."
From within the roaring flames came Jigen's furious bellow.
The towering fire was being drawn into the black void forming in his palm.
When Jigen reappeared before them, his appearance had changed drastically. The black markings across his face had deepened and spread, and a curved horn now jutted from his forehead.
But it wasn't just his appearance that changed. His chakra swelled several times over, a suffocating pressure radiating from him that made the very air tremble.
Sensing Jigen's rising chakra, Nagato's expression darkened.
"Everyone… prepare to go all out."
Yet before Jigen even moved, a terrified shriek rang out.
It came from Zetsu. His beady yellow eyes were fixed on the horn sprouting from Jigen's head, filled with horror as though he had seen something unspeakably dreadful.
Pointing at him, Black Zetsu screamed like a madman:
"It's them—it's really them!"
"Hey, what's wrong with you, Black Zetsu?"
White Zetsu looked at his partner in confusion, completely clueless as to what was going on.
If even White Zetsu didn't understand, the other Akatsuki members certainly didn't.
They all had the same thought: What the hell is he freaking out about?
"Mother… they're here!"
Ignoring White Zetsu's cries, Black Zetsu suddenly tore himself free from his other half. Without a word, he dove into the earth and disappeared.
"What the hell was that about?" Deidara said in astonishment. "Why'd he run away halfway?"
It was the first time he'd ever seen Zetsu split apart.
Even Kakuzu, who rarely wasted words, cursed: "Useless trash."
"Told you we couldn't rely on that guy."
Nobody ever expected Zetsu to fight, but to literally abandon them and flee—what a disgrace.
Even Naruto, if he had been there, would've spat out a line:
'And you call yourself "the embodiment of the earth itself"? Just quit the group already, you're a disgrace.'
The Akatsuki members were left stunned by Zetsu's behavior, but Jigen wasn't about to waste the chance.
In one stride, he was before White Zetsu. Before his foe could react, Jigen's palm pierced clean through his chest.
"I don't know what your ability is, but it's better to deal with you first."
Then his gaze shifted toward the Six Paths of Pain.
"I've already found your weakness."
The instant he finished speaking, Jigen appeared before the Six Paths. With a push of both hands, countless black rods materialized around him and rained down like a storm of arrows.
The earth was blanketed in those rods.
Nagato controlled the Six Paths through those very same black rods—they served as the "antennae" of his jutsu. But when an enemy used rods in the same way, the Paths' movements were disrupted.
That was the weakness of the Six Paths puppets.
"As long as I take you down, the rest will be easy."
With one sweep, Jigen destroyed the Six Paths of Pain. Most importantly, the Naraka Path was eliminated. If Nagato wanted to use the Six Paths again, it would take tremendous effort.
Without the interference of the Six Paths, none of the other Akatsuki stood a chance against him.
Against Jigen in his second transformation, the Akatsuki's defeat was inevitable.
"It's finally time for me to shine!"
Perhaps because he had relaxed after defeating the Six Paths, or perhaps because fortune was on his side, Jigen failed to notice a shadow slipping up behind him at that crucial moment.
A crimson scythe flashed.
With a sudden swing, Hidan's weapon cleaved toward Jigen's back.
Jigen felt the wind shift behind him and turned quickly to dodge, but he was half a beat too late. The blade grazed his back, leaving a thin wound.
A single drop of blood clung to the tip of Hidan's scythe.