Chapter 173: Byakugan vs. Rinnegan
Brake—
The body tore through the air at an incredible speed, producing a sharp slicing sound.
As the strong, fishy scent filled his nose, Ryosuke's bloodstained clothes were soaked in a fresh layer of crimson.
In an instant, the Animal Path puppet exploded under his overwhelming force, shattered like scattered mechanical parts.
"The first one," Ryosuke muttered calmly, unfazed by his successful strike.
This was his opening message to Nagato—a declaration of intent.
The remaining five puppets hesitated, briefly stunned by the sudden burst of speed and strength.
Even Pain, seasoned and battle-hardened from countless fights across the shinobi world, didn't react immediately.
When the Animal Path's vision vanished from their shared field of sight, they instinctively recognized the anomaly—this opponent wasn't ordinary. Their focus on Ryosuke heightened drastically.
The five figures split into two-man teams.
Asura and the Preta Path—both strong in close combat—moved to intercept Ryosuke, expressionless.
Meanwhile, the Deva Path, Human Path, and Naraka Path spread out in support roles.
"This speed in close quarters rivals space-time ninjutsu. In fact, due to the absence of a chakra-prep stage, it may even surpass some of them," Nagato analyzed, his expression grim as he sat within the shadowed chamber of the massive tower.
"A stranger… this unknown man has such power?" he muttered.
As the mastermind, Nagato's heart sank.
He could tell—this intruder had already sensed his presence.
What he hadn't expected, however, was that the man didn't aim directly at him, the controller behind the scenes. Instead, Ryosuke was systematically engaging his six paths.
No doubt about it—this wasn't a random assault. This was a challenge. A direct, calculated attempt to dismantle him from all directions.
He's insane…
A madman with unknown origins who dared challenge God with nothing but mortal flesh!
Through the eyes of the remaining puppets, Nagato observed every detail—every shift in position. With five separate perspectives, he had mapped out every possible movement route Ryosuke could take.
Unless it was space-time jutsu, escape was impossible.
Eyes locked onto the intruder, Nagato waited.
Ryosuke, for his part, felt the pressure mounting in the gazes of the remaining puppets. The wind howled around him.
The drizzle had stopped.
Facing Asura and the Preta closing in, Ryosuke had no intention of retreating.
He had come as a challenger.
If that's the case, then why run? You win where your enemy believes he's strongest.
He spread his arms wide. Earth-nature chakra surged through his body. At that moment, Ryosuke's muscles tensed like steel cables.
With his broad arms raised as shields, he didn't dodge. Instead, he stepped forward—straight toward the Asura puppet.
Buzz—
Like a rampaging bull, he charged with enough power to shake mountains.
Thunder rumbled in the air from the sheer force of impact.
Before the Preta Path could even react, he was blasted backward by the shockwave between the two titans.
The entire tower quaked. Bricks crumbled. Thick stone pillars wobbled as if they had lost their structural integrity from the very first clash.
"Come again!" Ryosuke growled.
Like slamming into a wall, Ryosuke's charge collided with the modified frame of Asura.
Its body—reinforced with special alloys—should have been tougher than any flesh and blood. And yet, they stood evenly matched.
Arms locked together, neither side budged. But Ryosuke had held something in reserve.
In a flash, he leapt.
A lightning-enhanced whip kick came crashing down like a hammer from the heavens.
"Naive! You think you can escape in mid-air?!" Asura sneered, raising his arm to intercept the attack.
Four metallic limbs erupted from beneath his black cloak. Blades gleamed at their ends, edges sharp and unforgiving.
But before those blades could touch him—before even the reinforced palms made contact—Ryosuke's falling kick landed with devastating force.
Snap—
The rooftop cracked like brittle glass. The puppet's upper limbs were crushed instantly.
The crushing force didn't stop there. The puppet's steel legs bent inward under the pressure.
"Hide? This is far from over."
With calm precision, Ryosuke's voice rang out as a second pulse of power flowed through the broken limbs—straight into Nagato's shared senses.
Time seemed to halt.
Then Ryosuke launched upward again, using the shattered rooftop as a foothold.
That kick not only delivered overwhelming power—it also catapulted him beyond Asura's reach.
Bang—
The platform beneath them collapsed completely.
Asura's four blades swiped nothing but air. A moment later, his steel-clad body was driven into the crumbling tower.
Boom—
A heavy thud echoed as he hit the ground.
Boom boom—
And again.
Boom boom boom—
One after another, the sounds marked his descent—floor after floor shattered beneath him.
By the time the tower stabilized, the Asura Path was buried beneath rubble and dust.
"Is that all?" Ryosuke asked coldly, suspended mid-air.
He stared down at the remaining puppets scattered on the ruined tower.
His lofty gaze—chilling, distant—radiated a presence more divine than the god Pain claimed to be.
"Arrogant..." Nagato narrowed his eyes through the Deva Path's vision.
That expression—he hadn't seen it in a long time. Not since the day he awakened the power of the Rinnegan.
Enough restraint.
This was his village, yes, but this challenger had crossed the line.
"The power of a god is not for mortals who spread chaos on a whim!"
"Feel pain. Experience pain. Accept pain. Understand pain. And finally—recognize the weight of your sins!"
"Shinra Tensei!"
Murmuring his creed, the Deva Path raised his hand—and clenched it tightly toward Ryosuke.
"So, you're finally using the Deva Path's power," Ryosuke muttered as he hovered.
He already knew what was coming.
A second later, a tremendous gravitational pull erupted from Tendo Pain's hand.
The force targeted Ryosuke directly—inescapable, irresistible. A black hole tugging at his every cell.
Moving slowly through the air, Ryosuke struggled against an invisible force.
A faint fluorescence flickered in his eyes. Even after injecting his own chakra into his Byakugan, it only offered slight resistance—nowhere near enough to counter the pull of the Universal Pull.
In that case…
Then don't resist.
The thought passed in a flash. Ryosuke stopped fighting the suction and instead accelerated straight toward Tendo Pain.
While rushing forward, he poured all of his chakra into the Byakugan without any regard for consumption.
"You're using Universal Pull just to get closer? Ridiculous!"
From within a dark room, Nagato sneered as he watched through Tendo Pain's eyes.
The intruder was less than a dozen meters away.
But what Nagato didn't anticipate was that, just as he reversed the pull into a powerful repulsion—activating another of the Rinnegan's techniques—
—an invisible force dropped from above like a mountain crashing down on Tendo Pain's body.
Or rather… on everything surrounding Ryosuke.
At that moment, the Byakugan glowing with faint fluorescent light and the Rinnegan's swirling purple patterns—two of the most supreme eye techniques in the ninja world—erupted simultaneously!
Nagato's chakra was drained almost instantly. He had no time to react, no understanding of what had just happened.
Acting purely on instinct, he channeled more chakra into Tendo Pain, using the Rinnegan's power to withstand the overwhelming downward pressure.
Time itself seemed to come to a halt.
Ryosuke's body froze mid-air in a twisted pose, neither drawn closer nor repelled.
Tendo Pain's outstretched palm also stopped, as if the Shinra Tensei had been neutralized.
The two of them appeared frozen in midair, completely separated from the trembling, collapsing buildings below. As if they existed in two separate dimensions.
Whoosh—
The sharp crack of air breaking echoed.
Finally, when Ryosuke's last bit of chakra ran dry, a repulsive force even stronger than before exploded from Tendo Pain's body, launching Ryosuke like a cannonball.
He shot backward, smashing through giant towers dozens of meters tall.
Where Ryosuke had once floated, Tendo Pain suddenly dropped from the sky as if all his power had been cut off.
And along with him, everything—buildings, people, and stone—crashed to the ground.
This was the last sight Ryosuke saw.
---
"What?!"
In the dark chamber, Nagato shot upright.
Gone was the arrogance in his voice—what replaced it was shock, disbelief, and a tinge of fear.
Through the eyes of the remaining Paths of Pain, the scene before him looked like a crater carved by a meteor.
The Hell Realm. The Human Realm. The Preta Realm. Even the Asura Realm, previously half-buried but still functional—every one of them had gone dark.
Massive towers crumbled like children's toys, and Nagato could sense no trace of life in the area.
Which meant...
For some unknown reason, everything near that guy had been annihilated.
If not for the special properties of Tendo Pain's body, even Yahiko's corpse—used as a puppet—might have been destroyed in that instant.
What kind of power is this?
Nagato, a man who had proclaimed himself god after awakening the Rinnegan, felt something equal to—or perhaps above—his own strength.
"I'll go take a look," Konan said, sensing his agitation.
"Wait!"
Nagato grabbed her wrist before she could move.
He didn't explain. His Rinnegan refocused, not on the door in front of them, but through Tendo Pain, cautiously approaching the area where the intruder had landed.
Elsewhere, waves of Rain Ninja began converging on the scene.
At first, they'd waited quietly, confident in the divine strength of Pain.
But now, with the center of the village seemingly erased from existence, panic began to set in.
Was Lord Pain fighting another god?
The thought echoed through many minds.
---
"That guy's dead, Pain."
A playful voice echoed suddenly, making Tendo Pain stiffen.
Turning around, he saw Tobi—another member of Akatsuki—standing nearby with a casual smile.
"Dead…"
Nagato remained on guard, but deep down, a wave of relief washed over him.
Surrounded by eyes full of confusion and disbelief, he controlled Tendo Pain and walked toward the collapsed rubble without hesitation.
Arriving at the site, he raised his hand.
A powerful repulsion blasted from his palm like a giant broom, sweeping away the top layers of debris.
The sky cleared.
With no chakra-based illusions or interference, the Hidden Rain Village basked—if only briefly—in actual sunlight.
Under the harsh rays, a corpse lay buried in the rubble, broken and unmoving.
Nagato recognized the face—yes, it was the same person he had fought just moments ago.
"Phew…"
In the dark room, he exhaled at last. The tension in his shoulders eased.
This was the first time he'd faced someone who wielded a power equal to his own. It had genuinely rattled him.
Maybe… that guy really was another god.
But now, he was dead. That arrogant fool had been destroyed.
---
"Re... Ren?"
A confused voice rang out from the gathered crowd.
A middle-aged ninja with narrow eyes pointed at the corpse, blinking in disbelief.
"Isn't that the weakling?"
His tone was thick with doubt. He couldn't understand why the man he once bossed around—the so-called loser who had to pay him a fixed fee every month for "instruction"—was now lying here, apparently having gone head-to-head with Lord Pain.
His words struck Nagato like lightning.
Wait!
A terrible realization crept in.
The face lying in the rubble… yes, it was familiar.
But this—this was the face before that guy attacked.
His appearance had changed after unleashing his powers!
Nagato's mind reeled.
He had distributed his Rinnegan abilities among six puppet bodies to better channel divine power.
Now, a terrifying thought rose up.
Without hesitation, Nagato turned to Konan, who was still confused.
"Leave now. Head to the Hidden Mist Village and find him."
---
At that very moment, high above the Hidden Rain Village, a new figure silently appeared.
"Next… is the second round."
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