Chapter 22: Pain Enters the Battle
"ROOOAAAAR..."
Upon emerging, the Nine-Tails immediately threw its head back in a sky-shaking howl that resonated across the wilderness. The sonic waves rippled through the air like substance, turning everyone's faces pale.
The Konoha ninja who'd been protecting the Nine-Tails jinchuriki suffered the worst fate. Several ninja closest to the beast immediately bled from ears and nose, collapsing to their knees in agony. Bearing the brunt of the Nine-Tails' venting fury, they died in waves within moments.
The Nine-Tails' nine tails swept about like heaven-reaching pillars. Trees and boulders alike proved as fragile as thin paper, easily torn to shreds.
Amid flying stones, everything within a hundred-meter radius was utterly destroyed.
Having been repeatedly tormented by the Sharingan, what the Nine-Tails hated most was the Uchiha. Upon emerging and scanning its surroundings, spotting the familiar Susanoo immediately sent it into towering rage. Its crimson beast eyes burned with overwhelming fury. Its massive jaws opened, and a black sphere began rapidly condensing.
Suffocating energy fluctuations radiated from around the sphere. The surrounding space distorted slightly from energy overload, making anyone who saw it feel dread.
But before it could fire the Tailed Beast Ball, tens of thousands of explosive tags descended like a blizzard, each glinting with dangerous cold light. In moments, they completely covered and wrapped the Nine-Tails' massive form.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
Violent explosions erupted. Explosive tags detonated continuously across the Nine-Tails' body, shaking the earth. Firelight shot skyward, thick smoke obscuring half the sky.
The shockwaves from the explosions blasted the still-forming Tailed Beast Ball back.
"ROOOOAR..."
Enraged to the extreme, the Nine-Tails raised its head. It saw Konan standing suspended in the air, hovering high above its head. Paper wings spread behind her, gleaming with cold light in the sunlight like a judgment angel descending to the mortal world. Feather-like white paper continued falling from her body.
"This is the Land of Rain. No one can run wild here—not even tailed beasts!"
Konan's cool voice carried unquestionable authority. As her words fell, more explosive tags surged from her sleeves, once again pressing down overwhelmingly.
She didn't know the Tailed Beast Ball the Nine-Tails had been condensing was aimed at Yasushi, but she didn't dare gamble. If the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball shot toward the Rain Village, stopping it would prove far more difficult.
Though her bombardment interrupted the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball, it also attracted the beast's hatred.
It immediately abandoned Yasushi beside it, raising its head to target Konan. Its massive body crouched slightly, hind leg muscles tensing before it suddenly leaped, pouncing toward Konan in the sky.
But Konan simply shot upward in a burst, evading the Nine-Tails' attack.
After brandishing claws and teeth for a moment, the Nine-Tails discovered its short reach couldn't touch the airborne Konan. Gravity dragged its body heavily back to earth, smashing a deep crater into the ground. Upon landing, it immediately opened its mouth again. A new Tailed Beast Ball rapidly condensed once more.
Konan's expression turned cold. She released even more explosive tags, drifting down like snowflakes, intending to bury the Nine-Tails completely.
The firelight and smoke from the explosions obscured even the Nine-Tails' red coloration.
But amid the continuous flames, that pitch-black sphere still slowly solidified and expanded.
Though explosive tags possessed strong power, that only applied to fragile ninja. Against the Nine-Tails, their power amounted to firecrackers.
Though they caused some pain, it barely qualified as a real problem.
After the smoke cleared, though the Nine-Tails' chakra surface showed damage, it recovered at visible speed.
The Nine-Tails shook its head, completely ignoring this level of attack. It simply continued condensing the Tailed Beast Ball and fired it at Konan.
The instant the Tailed Beast Ball left its mouth, the air tore with piercing sonic booms. The black energy sphere dragged a long tail flame straight toward the skies. In moments, it crossed the brief distance between them, arriving before Konan.
But the Akatsuki organization had been trying to capture tailed beasts for years, possessing extensive intelligence on them. The moment the Nine-Tails opened its mouth, Konan already knew what it intended.
Exploiting flight's convenience, she could easily dodge this attack.
But she immediately realized—once she evaded the Tailed Beast Ball's attack, the missed shot's final landing point would be uncertain.
Even with Pain's Six Paths in the village preventing the Tailed Beast Ball from hitting the Rain Village itself, it might still land in some nearby forest or farmland.
And the Tailed Beast Ball's power was truly enormous. Once it landed, it would completely level everything nearby.
Left with no choice, Konan brought both arms together, condensing massive quantities of explosive tags into a paper whip. As the Tailed Beast Ball came at her, she met it with the paper whip, striking upward from below across the Tailed Beast Ball while simultaneously detonating the whip.
As a series of thunderous booms erupted, exploiting the shockwave produced by the massive explosive tag detonations, she finally adjusted the Tailed Beast Ball's trajectory, sending it straight up into the sky.
With a whoosh, the pitch-black Tailed Beast Ball shot upward, boring a massive hole through the clouds above, revealing the azure sky hidden beyond.
Moments later, the Tailed Beast Ball exploded thunderously in the distant skies.
Even separated by thousands of meters, the explosion's brilliance remained blinding, like a second sun blooming in the sky.
A violent shockwave swept down from above, devastating as it scattered the clouds throughout the sky.
Even on the ground, everyone was blown about by this hurricane, unable to stand steady.
"ROOOAAAAR..."
Seeing one attack fail, the Nine-Tails roared again in fury and began condensing a second Tailed Beast Ball.
As a pure energy being possessing endless chakra, the Nine-Tails could continuously fire these Tailed Beast Balls for an entire day. But Konan couldn't possibly endure such prolonged combat.
Her form descended slightly, intending to switch tactics for dealing with the Nine-Tails.
But the moment she moved, a figure flashed beside her. Pain appeared at her side. His orange hair remained motionless in the fierce wind, his Rinnegan gleaming with cold light.
"That's enough, Konan. Let me handle this!"
"Though we're not fully prepared, since the tailed beast has delivered itself, we absolutely have no reason to let it pass."
"Those people are watching from behind. Perfect—let them witness what true divine power really means."
After hearing this, Konan looked back and down. Sure enough, she saw a group wearing black cloaks with red clouds standing in the distance, silently observing. Each person's expression carried subtle intrigue.
The previous battle had already alerted everyone in the Akatsuki organization, though it hadn't drawn much attention.
As ninja, what day didn't involve combat?
Moreover, having just accepted Konoha's rogue ninja Uchiha Itachi, being tracked down by Konoha forces was perfectly normal.
But after the Nine-Tails jinchuriki appeared, everything changed.
One of Akatsuki's objectives was collecting tailed beasts. Now that a tailed beast had delivered itself, how could their leader possibly pass up this opportunity?
When originally recruited, they'd all witnessed Pain's overwhelming martial power and knew they weren't his match. But taking this opportunity to observe their leader's upper limits and collect related intelligence wasn't a bad thing.
So the group immediately emerged from the village, hiding in the distance to watch the spectacle. Not one stepped forward to help.
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