The Six Paths of Pain had reassembled. Looking at the six figures standing in a row, Naruto felt a bad premonition. Was he being forced to go through the whole process again? Fight the boss again?
And after he defeated this boss, would there be another six?
Naruto was tempted to ask, "Will you ever stop?!" These were just the six people on the surface. Who knew how many more there were? Was he supposed to bring out the "iceberg theory"? Or was it like the story of the Foolish Old Man, with generations upon generations endlessly moving mountains?
The key was that Naruto wasn't the Foolish Old Man; he was the villain, the mountain! Was he supposed to fight until the end of the world?
With this thought, Naruto felt his mission was mostly complete. He had tested their strength, and it was about time to show his cards. From the very beginning, he knew these were puppets. But the Deva Path didn't know that he knew they were puppets. Now, he had to let the Deva Path know that he knew they were puppets. He would just be direct about it.
He put on a great performance, first giving a helpless smile, then feigning a sudden realization as he stared intently at the leading figure, the "Abbot" or rather, the Deva Path.
"Just as I suspected, all six of you are puppets, aren't you?"
"You've already figured it out?"
Of course, he had! Others might have difficulty, but for a powerful sensory ninja like him, he knew the moment he made contact.
Naruto suppressed the urge to complain. "I figured it out when I took down the first Pain that could absorb ninjutsu. The second Pain I defeated was completely made of parts."
He paused there. Now that he had mostly tested their strength, he was more curious about the identity of the person behind all this. There were only a handful of people in the ninja world with the Rinnegan. Who could it be?
Uchiha Obito? Impossible! All intelligence indicated that he hadn't acquired the Rinnegan yet.
That left only one possibility. Uchiha Madara?
The moment that thought arose, Naruto's mind flashed with that young face. No, if it were the younger Madara, he wouldn't be hiding behind puppets. He would have jumped out to fight him already.
So, it could only be the old Uchiha Madara? That thought instantly brought to mind the Madara from the fighting tournament, the one with white hair and only a few teeth left. Back in the day, when Naruto was sweeping the tournament, he often "assaulted the nursing home on the southern mountain." And Uchiha Madara was no exception.
The ninja world might have said Madara had died in his battle with the First Hokage, but the intelligence from Danzo and the old Madara from the tournament both confirmed that the old man was not dead. He had even survived to the level of the Six Paths! The Six Paths Madara!
Instantly, Naruto's thoughts became clear. If Uchiha Madara was the one behind these puppets, it was a very real possibility! Furthermore, looking at the two members of the Akatsuki: Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Obito! Besides Sasuke and Naruto's own clones, the only remaining living Uchiha were all here. This was practically an Uchiha den. If Madara wasn't behind this, it would be difficult to explain.
And, combining the information from the fighting tournament with the current state of the Akatsuki, it was clear that in the original story, the Akatsuki's plan, or rather, Madara's plan, was successful. This Uchiha Madara was very good at laying low! He had even succeeded and reached the level of the Six Paths!
Tsk, tsk.
Thinking about it this way, Naruto had no choice but to join the Akatsuki! At the very least, he had to supervise and sabotage their plans!
But first, he had to verify the other party's identity!
With a whirlwind of thoughts in his mind, Naruto's expression remained unreadable. "Why do you control these puppets to walk around while you hide? Is it to conceal your identity?"
"Conceal my identity...?" the Deva Path, or rather, Nagato, who was controlling the Pain, murmured. He suddenly realized he had fallen into a rut. After a month, in his current healthy state, he could completely replace Pain and fight himself. But he also wanted Yahiko to appear in this world in the name of a god. For a moment, he fell into deep thought, unsure how to answer.
Naruto continued to press. "What's the point of hiding? Where is your main body? You want me to join your so-called Akatsuki? Fine, I want to talk directly to the boss." Naruto was direct. He didn't want to go through human resources; he wanted direct hiring from the boss.
"Or..." Naruto glanced at the six puppets. "I could just take down all your puppets and then find your location myself!"
Just in case, Naruto added more weight to his threat. "Your location... is in one of those tall buildings to the west, isn't it?"
Pain remained silent.
"Curious as to how I figured that out? Heh, that powerful chakra is like a lighthouse in the dark, so distinct and outstanding. It's difficult not to notice."
The Deva Path gave Naruto a deep look. Was he also a sensory ninja? He looked to be no more than twenty-three or twenty-four, yet he was already proficient in so many abilities. He was a genius even more outstanding than Uchiha Itachi!
However... he was a god! He would not agree to such a demand!
"With the Six Paths of Pain assembled, I'll show you the insurmountable gap between a human and a god!"
Heh... a god? Naruto didn't remember Uchiha Madara being so melodramatic in the fighting tournament. Was this another one of the stupid AI's faults?
Naruto scoffed at the remark. No matter what, he would see the person behind this, whether they wanted to or not! And to join this Akatsuki, he would throw in another bombshell!
"A pair of Rinnegan is nothing. When it comes to ocular jutsu, the Rinnegan isn't the only one out there!"
As he spoke, Naruto's eyes suddenly changed. A pair of crimson Sharingan replaced his black-and-white eyes, with three tomoe slowly rotating at the center. The tomoe then began to spin faster, connecting to form a strange, four-pointed shuriken pattern.
"The Sharingan?" The Deva Path's unchanging tone was laced with clear surprise. "You're from the Uchiha clan?"
There are still Uchiha? Haven't they all been wiped out?
"If having the Sharingan makes me an Uchiha, then I guess I am." Naruto calmly began to weave a story he had prepared in advance. "I've been wandering the ninja world with my mother for as long as I can remember, and I never knew I had any connection to the famous Uchiha clan. Until..."
He paused, collecting his emotions. "Until those masked people suddenly appeared and killed my mother. That's when I awakened this special ocular jutsu."
"Later, I learned it was called the Sharingan, a special ocular jutsu unique to the Uchiha clan of Konoha. I even considered going to Konoha to find relatives, but alas, the Uchiha clan was easily wiped out by a single person."
He glanced at the stone-faced Deva Path, unable to gauge what Uchiha Madara's attitude was toward Konoha, or even the Uchiha clan itself. It was said that when Madara wanted to lead the Uchiha away, no one followed him. Tsk, tsk.
Naruto couldn't guess if the old man, after that experience, felt hatred for the Uchiha clan or... love.
But one thing was for sure, this person probably had no love for Konoha! And his identity had nothing to do with Konoha, only a small connection to the Uchiha. If Uchiha Madara could take in Konoha's rogue ninja, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Obito, then surely he would be more than willing to take in an Uchiha who didn't belong to Konoha? Even if it was just for the sake of one of the few remaining Uchiha in the world, it should at least earn him some points, right?
And that wasn't all. Revealing these eyes wasn't just for showing his identity and gaining points...
Thinking of this, Naruto's mouth curved into a wicked smile as if he had thought of something fun. "Now, let me, a 'mortal,' show you the power of a 'god'!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Naruto's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan instantly activated. This time, he wasn't using its unique abilities, but a simple genjutsu as a test! The power of the Rinnegan was undeniable! But whether it was the Sharingan, the Mangekyō, or the Rinnegan, they were all just tools. What mattered was the user and the power of their eyes!
The Rinnegan was sold separately in the system store, and it could also be a special evolution from the Eternal Mangekyō. In short, it could be considered an evolution of the Sharingan. Its ocular power appeared to be stronger than the Eternal Mangekyō, and the Rinnegan could generally be immune to genjutsu from the Sharingan.
But Naruto was different. His body was a walking cheat code, with a Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu stats all over 400. The effect of this genjutsu was immediately apparent. Not only did the Deva Path freeze, but the five other Paths surrounding him also fell into a state of absolute stasis!
Hah! It seemed the man behind the scenes had also fallen for the genjutsu.
Clang!
Naruto's sword was unsheathed, ready for the kill!
Just as he was about to swing his blade, the Deva Path's body trembled slightly, and the purple light of the Rinnegan broke free from the binds and forcefully re-lit! It suddenly reached out its hand.
"Almighty Push!"
A powerful repelling force, like an invisible sledgehammer, slammed into Naruto.
"Hmph!"
Naruto's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan swirled with a dark glow. His Mangekyō ability was just as powerful. With a thought, a layer of equally solid, invisible force field spread out with perfect precision.
Push against push!
Buzz!
The two immense repelling forces clashed fiercely in the air. The air at the edge of the stalemate distorted and let out a low hum.
Naruto's gaze swept over the look of lingering fear in the Deva Path's eyes, and a hint of surprise crossed his mind. The genjutsu was actually broken by him? Was the dosage not enough? Or was there a loss of power due to the transmission delay? He couldn't tell, and there was no time to investigate!
The battle had begun, and there was no room for distraction!
"No matter!" Naruto's mouth curved into a cold smirk. "I'll let you, a frog in a well, witness what true creation power is!"
This was the true knowledge he had acquired from the four fundamental forces! The true power of a creator!
Before he could finish his thought, the Deva Path reached out its hand again. "Universal Pull!"
A terrifying gravitational field locked onto Naruto.
The intricate pattern of the Mangekyō in Naruto's eyes swirled. "Repel!"
The pulling force was like hitting an absolutely smooth wall, instantly dissipating into nothingness.
While the Deva Path was still in a state of shock, Naruto's palm also extended. But this time, instead of pulling, he aimed it at the spot where the Six Paths were standing and pressed down as if swatting away dust! As the Six Paths looked on in confusion, a solemn voice rang out.
"Gravity! A hundred times!"
Boom!
As his will was executed, an indescribable sense of weight, as if the earth itself had gained a will, suddenly descended! In that moment, even the air seemed to become solid!
Thud! Thud!
The six figures were clutched by an invisible giant hand. Their spines groaned under the strain. Except for the Deva Path, who was still able to support himself on one knee, the other Pain bodies collapsed, unable to move! Some of their joints were already making a creepy, cracking sound!
"Oh? Not yet defeated?" Naruto murmured, his eyes narrowed. "Then..."
"Gravity! Five hundred times!"
Dong—
The second wave of pressure, like the sky collapsing, slammed down! Under such terrifying gravity, a person's weight suddenly increased by 500 times. Even just the sheer weight was enough to completely crush a person!
Splatter! Squish!
Two of the Pain bodies, with their fragile defensive structures, could no longer bear the weight! They exploded like blood-filled sacks crushed by a ten-ton hydraulic press. The splattered blood and guts instantly stained the shattered steel and concrete below.
Rumble—Crack!
Suddenly, the already pockmarked ground could no longer withstand the immense weight and collapsed completely.
The four remaining Pain bodies, along with countless twisted, broken steel pipes and shattered concrete, fell into the intricate drainage system below as if plummeting into a chasm!
Naruto stood at the edge of the collapse, peering down. Below the massive twenty-meter-wide hole was Amegakure's vast, dense network of giant drainage pipes, like an iron-clad intestine.
"It's over."
Seeing this, Naruto reached out, his hand aimed at the direction where they had fallen. His five fingers slowly closed, as if he was holding a star!
"Ultimate Technique: Annihilation Black Hole, Form One!"
Whoosh!
In the core area where the Pain bodies fell, a fifty-meter-wide sphere of absolute darkness, as if a piece of the universe itself had been carved out, suddenly appeared! The surface of the sphere was as smooth as a mirror, cutting off all light and sound! Only at the very center of the sphere was a single black speck, emitting a devouring will that made the soul tremble.
Then, the space within the sphere exploded. The speck in the center suddenly erupted with a black hole-like gravitational pull, so strong that not even light could escape. All matter inside the black sphere was continuously compressed, compressed, and compressed again by this terrifying gravity.
The molecular structure completely collapsed under the absolute force! Molecular bonds broke, atomic nuclei were crushed, and electrons were forcefully crammed into protons to become neutrons!
Finally, all matter was compressed into a single, less than one-centimeter-wide micro-neutron star core, with a density that surpassed the core of a star!
Pop!
The pitch-black sphere vanished like a phantom.
In the space below, the once-dense jungle of pipes had a perfectly spherical hole, fifty meters in diameter, carved out of it. The edges were as smooth as a mirror. Everything that had been inside the black sphere had been silently annihilated.
The Six Paths of Pain: Instantly wiped out!
Tap.
The dark neutron micro-core, which contained all the matter from the fifty-meter space, lightly landed on the rubble at the bottom of the pit.
Naruto's will shifted. The dark micro-core floated up as if pulled by an invisible thread and finally came to rest in his open palm.
"Wow! This is heavy!"
Naruto conservatively estimated that the tiny sphere weighed at least several hundred tons. He could barely lift it using his repulsion ability.
After toying with it for a bit, he put it into his inventory.
Then, his gaze turned to the west.
"Next, it's time for the master of the Rinnegan!"
"Old man Uchiha Madara, is that you?"