Chapter 388: The Battle in the Land of Rain
Of course, the Six Paths of Pain are puppets. Even if swallowed by the giant snake, they wouldn't be harmed and could instead fight their way out from within. In fact, that was Nagato's plan: to attack from both inside and out to destroy the giant snake directly.
However, what caught Nagato off guard was that the giant snake that had swallowed the Naraka Path immediately chose to cancel its summoning.
The result was that by the time the Deva Path's Shinra Tensei attack descended, the Naraka Path had already been sent to Ryūchi Cave, location unknown. Naturally, due to the distance, Nagato had certainly lost control of the Naraka Path, and it had become an immobile puppet.
The process sounds complex, but it happened very quickly. Although Nagato had suspected that Orochimaru might be a problem, he had not expected him to betray them right from the start. Nagato was caught completely off guard, instantly losing his most important Path, the Naraka Path.
On the other end, Nagato, who was controlling the Six Paths of Pain, frowned and said to Yahiko and Konan, "Orochimaru is a traitor. He has intelligence on the Six Paths of Pain and took out the Naraka Path directly."
That's right. The Orochimaru of this life had gathered detailed intelligence on the Six Paths of Pain. Although the Six Paths had not acted many times, when he had first joined, Orochimaru had pretended to be unconvinced and had taken the initiative to challenge them. Then, Orochimaru had used the Impure World Reincarnation to gather detailed information from some of the enemies killed by the Six Paths.
Finally, he had come to a conclusion: the Naraka Path could resurrect the other five Paths and was the most troublesome existence among the Six Paths of Pain.
So, Orochimaru had used his first strike—the hardest to defend against after a betrayal—to take out the Naraka Path directly.
Of course, Orochimaru had paid no small price. Due to his position, his main body was quickly attacked by the other five Paths, as well as Sasori and Kakuzu. If not for his incredibly broken special substitution jutsu, anyone else would have died several times over. In the end, Orochimaru still managed to escape with Hiruzen Sarutobi's help. However, escaping the encirclement had still cost him a massive amount of chakra.
But while the loss of the Naraka Path was very troublesome for the other five Paths, it did not mean Nagato would give up. The great battle that followed would only be more intense.
On the other side, after Ishiro finished his communication with Yahiko's trio, he set out with Kiyoshi Ishizawa and the Gedo Statue fragment.
By the time Ishiro reached the border of the Land of Earth, Kiyoshi had already received news from the Anbu via the sharks: the Konoha army had already entered the Land of Rain.
So, Ishiro did not linger and flew directly towards the location of the Dark Akatsuki's base in the Land of Rain.
When Ishiro arrived above the base, the area below was already a chaotic melee.
On the Konoha side were Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzō Shimura, Orochimaru, and... Chiyo.
On the Dark Akatsuki's side were Pain, Sasori, and Kakuzu.
Sasori and Chiyo were in the distance, discussing their grandmother-grandson relationship. These two would exchange a few moves, chat for a bit; it was estimated that a winner would not be decided in a short while.
Danzō had likely taken the initiative to choose Kakuzu as his opponent. Kakuzu's most troublesome point was the coordination between his five hearts. Five against one was the most unbeatable aspect. With this trick, despite not having any particularly powerful attacks, Kakuzu was still a force to be reckoned with among the Kage-level. But this was nothing to Danzō, because he had shamelessly chosen not to fight one-on-one, but had brought along a group of Root elites.
Kakuzu's expected five-on-one had turned into a five-on-group. When Ishiro looked down from above, Kakuzu was already missing two hearts and was struggling to hold on under the siege of Danzō and the Root elites.
The last battlefield was Nagato against the master-student pair of Hiruzen and Orochimaru, plus, of course, a large number of Konoha elites led by Kakashi.
As for the outer members of the Dark Akatsuki that Jūzō Biwa had recruited, Ishiro did not see them. He had no idea such a group had existed before. Of course, when calculating the Akatsuki's combat strength, Ishiro had never factored in a ninja like Jūzō Biwa.
The Naraka Path's summons were being tied down by Orochimaru's snake-style ninjutsu. Hiruzen himself was entangled with the Deva Path. The ninja army was providing support from the side. Orochimaru's main body was stationed within the army, plugging any gaps. His chakra consumption had been too great, so this was also a way to conserve it.
The current situation was clear: the Dark Akatsuki was at a disadvantage. Kakuzu's defeat was only a matter of time. Sasori could not break the stalemate in the short term. And on Pain's side, after a great battle, only the Deva, Animal, and Preta Paths remained. The Human and Asura Paths had already been destroyed.
Most importantly, Pain's abilities had been completely figured out. With Konoha's well-rounded configuration, it would not take much effort to defeat them one by one. The only trouble was the Deva Path. Its abilities were too broken, and Konoha had not yet thought of a countermeasure.
Ishiro's arrival naturally and quickly attracted the attention of the people below.
Hiruzen's face was very grim. Just as they were about to win, this variable, Ishiro, had suddenly arrived.
Hiruzen wanted to open his mouth to negotiate with Ishiro, to at least get him to remain neutral. But the Deva Path did not give him a chance to speak.
"Shinra Tensei!" The Deva Path once again extended its hand towards the Konoha side.
"Again!" On the Konoha side, everyone complained bitterly but immediately responded.
The Shinra Tensei technique, while troublesome in single combat, was still manageable. But when a ninja army faced this move, it was very troublesome. Because everyone in the army had different levels of strength, not everyone could resist this move on their own. Many ninja needed to rely on their comrades to maintain their formation and not be sent flying. If they didn't defend, the formation would be in chaos. Once the formation was broken, it would be difficult for the army to exert its ability to fight against a Kage.
So, every time the Deva Path used Shinra Tensei, the Konoha side would defend with all their might. Not only did it consume a large amount of chakra, but there were also casualties every time.
This time was no exception. There were still a few unlucky ones who were not protected by a defensive jutsu and were ultimately blasted out of the formation. These few were then easily killed by one of the Animal Path's giant hellhounds.
In the Konoha army, there was no time for grief. A portion of the ninja quickly formed hand seals, used offensive ninjutsu to trap the hellhound that was trying to approach, and then, after a series of combos, directly sealed it.
And every time the Deva Path used Shinra Tensei, Hiruzen would choose to attack proactively, striving to destroy one of the Paths. At the same time, it was also a tactic to relieve the main army, forcing the Deva Path to abandon its attack on them and turn to support the other Paths.
This move had been very effective before. The abilities of the Six Paths of Pain were singular. Once a particular Path was caught by an experienced ninja like Hiruzen, it was easily destroyed. The Human and Asura Paths had been destroyed by Hiruzen in this way.
This time was the same. Hiruzen believed that the Deva Path would give up its attack on the Konoha ninja to rescue the Animal Path that he was attacking.
But this time, Hiruzen had guessed wrong.
Nagato planned to trade blows, no longer caring about the Animal Path, and instead maintained his Shinra Tensei.
"Not good!" When Hiruzen realized his tactic had not worked, he immediately reminded Orochimaru, "Watch out for the Tsuchikage!"
Orochimaru was currently in the Konoha ranks, looking up at Ishiro. He didn't need Hiruzen's reminder; in fact, he had been on guard against Ishiro from the moment he had appeared. So, apart from having his summons entangle the Animal Path's summons, most of Orochimaru's attention was on Ishiro.
Ishiro's gaze met Orochimaru's. He smiled faintly, then shouted, "Orochimaru, you Konoha traitor! You still dare to show your face in public! Today, I will clean house for Konoha!"
"Sage Art: Porcelain Release: Kunai Rain! Shinra Tensei!"
Ishiro knew a battle was inevitable, so he had already entered Sage Mode on his way here. Now, he started with a massive move.
The Porcelain Release, enhanced by Sage Art, revealed its power on the battlefield for the first time.
The Porcelain Release that Ishiro used this time was the maximum power he could unleash in Sage Mode. One round of attacks lasted for a full minute. Considering Orochimaru's agility, Ishiro's Kunai Rain directly covered the entire Konoha army.
Below, in the Konoha army:
"Wind Style: Air Current Dance!" Facing the sky full of kunai, a large number of Wind Release ninja stood up and used a wide-area wind jutsu, blowing away a large batch of the falling kunai.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Many Earth Release ninja used transformed mud walls to protect themselves and their comrades.
Even Orochimaru, under Hiruzen's murderous glare, used a large-scale earth jutsu: "Earth Style: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness," enveloping almost all the Konoha ninja.
But the effect was average. The attack power of Ishiro's Porcelain Kunai Rain itself was not strong, but with the boost from sage chakra, the speed and power of each kunai were greatly increased. In addition, pushed by the repulsive force of Shinra Tensei, and with the downward trajectory already affected by gravity, the attack power was further increased.
So, among Konoha's defenses, Orochimaru's large-scale Earth Prison Dome only slightly delayed the time it took for them to be hit. But this time was not long. It didn't even last 20 seconds before the dome was riddled with holes by the continuous rain of kunai.
Of course, Orochimaru's defensive jutsu was still of some use. It gave the Konoha ninja a second chance to reinforce their defenses, especially giving Kakashi time to use the new S-rank ninjutsu he had learned. Kakashi had learned an S-rank offensive earth jutsu, but at this time, he used it as a defensive jutsu above everyone's heads, providing another dozen or so seconds of protection for the Konoha army.
However, apart from Orochimaru and Kakashi, the defensive jutsu used by most of the Konoha ninja might have had a chance of blocking the Kunai Rain for a few seconds. But Ishiro's Kunai Rain smashed down on their heads for more than 20 seconds. And the continuous attack meant that after their two layers of defense were broken, they had no chance to organize a third round of defense.
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