Chapter 174: New Abilities to Come
The central region of the Land of Rain.
The sky above the town closest to Amegakure was veiled in dense, dark clouds.
The streets bustled with movement—people coming and going, unfazed by the rain-soaked atmosphere. Rainy days were simply a part of life here.
Yet, despite the lively activity, the town held a subtle serenity.
Busy, but at peace.
These ordinary citizens had no clue what was transpiring in the higher echelons of their nation—let alone the events unfolding in Amegakure, hundreds of kilometers away.
All they knew was to go about their daily lives.
Boom—
A thunderous sound suddenly shattered the calm.
Moments later, the sound of rain ceased.
"Why did the rain stop all of a sudden?"
"Could it be...?"
"Mom, why did the rain stop?"
...
Pedestrians in mid-stride paused instinctively.
In the Land of Rain, the weather was as familiar as breath itself.
These people had lived under this sky for generations. They knew when it would rain, and when it wouldn't.
And if the rain stopped at a time when it shouldn't have—it meant something was wrong.
The last time something like this happened was when Hanzo the Salamander, former leader of Amegakure, fell in battle.
Now, curious gazes lifted toward the clouds, seeking the source of that thunderous noise.
"A dragon! It's a dragon!"
"No way... There's no such thing as dragons. It must be something left behind by Lady Konan from the village."
"But that's not how Konan-sama's wings move..."
A white arc streaked across the sky.
It wound like a soaring dragon through the clouds, dispersing the rainclouds above the town.
The townspeople murmured, trying to make sense of the phenomenon.
No matter how long they speculated, the truth eluded them.
Only a few hidden Rain-nin stationed in the town—scouts in disguise—understood: something had happened in the village.
That arc in the sky… it led straight toward Amegakure.
---
Defeat?
High above, Ryosuke soared through the sky, the rushing air buffeting his muscular frame like sandpaper.
His expression brimmed with anticipation.
He had lost—but he wasn't the kind of man who couldn't accept defeat.
The loss earlier was partially due to his chakra reserves.
Nagato had fought him using puppets—
And while both utilized puppet techniques, Nagato could remotely support his puppets with chakra. Ryosuke, on the other hand, had no such capability.
In the end... it came down to pupil power.
He was still a little behind.
Even if Uchiha Madara himself—the Rinnegan's original owner—were using these eyes, he might have lost even faster.
That thought only fueled Ryosuke to speed up, wind howling in his ears like defiant spirits.
The faster he went, the more resistance he met from the wind—yet it only pushed him harder.
He wasn't running away.
He was returning—to Amegakure.
The moment Ren's puppet lost control and his consciousness snapped back, Ryosuke had rushed toward the village at full throttle.
There were no more foreign enemies in Amegakure.
No need to hide anymore.
And this defeat didn't crush him—it lit a fire within.
It was natural his eyes weren't on par with Nagato's.
After all, Nagato wielded the Rinnegan—a power developed over decades by Uchiha Madara himself. Ryosuke had barely trained for ten years.
But unlike Madara, he didn't depend on fate.
He had a clear path forward.
If he could evolve his eyes into the Rinnegan, he'd be able to transmit chakra over long distances.
He wouldn't suffer the same shortcoming again.
In fact, with the Rinnegan's full power and his precise control, he believed he could destroy Tendo Pain in a single blow—
Even if his opponent also possessed the Rinnegan.
Plop. Plop.
As the Hidden Rain Village came into view, Ryosuke's heart pounded wildly in his chest.
Each beat louder than the last, like a war drum driving him forward.
The closer he got, the more intense his fighting spirit became.
Even the white glow in his Byakugan eyes began to shift—subtly, but noticeably.
Maybe...
Maybe the clash between their two ocular powers had stirred something dormant within his own.
In that short battle, he had glimpsed truths he'd once believed unreachable.
And now, he couldn't wait any longer.
Defeat didn't mean he was incapable of victory.
If it had been his true body instead of a puppet, he wouldn't have died in that last clash.
Now, it was time for the real thing.
"Now… let's start round two!"
His voice echoed ahead of him.
Still a fair distance from Amegakure, Ryosuke released a chakra-infused roar that reverberated across the entire village—
Like a lion announcing its return.
In that moment, he finally understood why warriors like Sakata Gintoki would yell at the top of their lungs before a fight.
Yes, battles required a calm and analytical mind.
And yes, excessive talking could dull one's edge.
But there were times when fighting spirit and raw emotion simply refused to be contained.
When your reason for fighting needed to collide with the world.
Ryosuke could remain calm even in high-intensity combat—
But against a worthy opponent, when every second pushed him beyond his limits—
That kind of battle stirred his soul like a stone cast into a still lake, leaving ripples that wouldn't fade.
"Pain!"
Ryosuke roared once more, waiting for a reply.
He had no interest in ambushing a weakened opponent.
"Stop, intruder!"
A figure rose into the air from the outer edge of Amegakure, floating just like Ryosuke.
It was Tendo Pain.
Their battle hadn't been long ago—yet now, Pain looked far better than before.
The vast amount of chakra he had used earlier in their clash... had somehow recovered already.
"With such strength," Pain's voice rang out, solemn and detached, transmitted through the puppet's cold face,
"why do you stir up conflict so recklessly?"
"Now that you possess the power of a god, why not use it to bring peace to the world?"
After their previous battle, Pain no longer underestimated Ryosuke.
In fact…
After their clash of ocular powers, he recognized it clearly.
Ryosuke was like him—
A man blessed with the divine power of the gods.
As Nagato posed his question, Ryosuke, who had been about to strike, paused. His gaze landed on the man who spoke of peace, and a strange expression crossed his face.
"When you say that... you really sound like a comedian."
He ignored the shinobi evacuating below from the Hidden Rain Village.
In Ryosuke's eyes, there was only Tendo Pain—or rather, Nagato.
"…Are you humiliating me?"
In the dim chamber where Nagato sat alone, his expression twisted slightly.
"…Then let's begin."
Ryosuke didn't bother responding further. Their philosophies were irreconcilable—there was no point in debating ideals. He hadn't come to argue about peace.
He came for a fight.
"You wield the power of a god, yet remain shackled by mortal strife."
Nagato clearly sensed Ryosuke's intent. His heart was unmoved, even filled with a tinge of pity. "In that case, I can only kill you..."
Before he could finish, his outstretched palm clenched.
Bang—
Thunder cracked across the sky—fitting for the stormy, cloud-laden Rain Village.
Above, lightning flashed blue.
Ryosuke had already warned him: he wouldn't waste words. And so, the moment Nagato tried to speak of peace, Ryosuke vanished from his spot and appeared in front of him with a punch.
The iron fist, crackling with thunderous chakra, smashed into an invisible barrier. The same overwhelming force that could crush a Shura Path puppet... was stopped cold.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato's cold gaze met Ryosuke's glowing eyes through Tendo Pain. Those eyes—they held a pupil technique unrecorded in shinobi history.
Ryosuke's brow furrowed as the barrier halted his punch. The repulsive force was immense. It didn't fling him back, but the feedback traveled down his arm, making his bones tremble.
"No ninjutsu or taijutsu can touch me. Give up."
Nagato was surprised that Ryosuke hadn't been repelled by Shinra Tensei, but outwardly, he stayed calm. Tendo Pain, a puppet of the Rinnegan, allowed him to remain stoic no matter the odds.
Yet Ryosuke stood there... smiling. A soft, almost gentle smile.
"Honestly... I didn't expect to resist your repulsion head-on."
Before Nagato could process his words, Ryosuke's hoarse voice continued, excitement lacing his tone. The smile on his face turned wild.
His arm bulged with coiled muscle, stretched tight like steel. Thunder chakra surged, lightning coursing through his meridians.
He punched again.
"Maybe I overestimated you—or underestimated myself!"
The strike was stronger. The recoil shattered his hand bones—but Ryosuke moved like pain meant nothing, as if he were a puppet himself.
Bang—
Bang, bang, bang—
It echoed like a wooden hammer striking a bell.
One punch after another.
If you can block one… can you block two? Three? A hundred?
His arms moved so fast they left afterimages. With every blow, the heat in his blood rose like magma. Steam billowed from his body, and the blend of flesh, spirit, and pupil power drove him forward.
Soft Fist precision. Iron Body toughness. Lightning's speed.
In seconds, Ryosuke had thrown more than a hundred punches into the invisible barrier.
Then—
Crash!
Tendo Pain's body was flung back, hurled hundreds of meters by his own technique's recoil.
What?!
For the first time since mastering the Rinnegan, Nagato's Shinra Tensei had failed.
As he tried to stabilize in the air, a voice appeared at his ear.
"The repulsion of Shinra Tensei isn't absolute. If the opposing force is strong enough, the recoil acts on the caster. You didn't know that?"
A hoarse but eager whisper, dangerously close.
There was no time to ask how Ryosuke knew so much. Desperate, Nagato poured chakra into Tendo Pain.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Again, he unleashed the technique.
Of the Six Paths, Tendo was the strongest—yet also the simplest. His repulsive force surged, stronger than before.
Hovering above the airborne puppet, Ryosuke's eyes caught a flicker—an air distortion.
In that instant, he calculated the strength of the technique. And in the next breath, he dove down and swung again.
Bang—
Fist after fist slammed into the invisible repulsion like raindrops striking a glass lake.
And then—
Crack.
Like a mirror shattering.
Tendo Pain plummeted from the sky, crashing into the earth below and skidding for hundreds of meters, tearing through buildings like paper.
"Again!"
Ryosuke followed, not letting up. Something had clicked in the last exchange—he was close to grasping something deeper.
But before he could reach him—
As he reared back for another punch, a strange force seized him.
His body froze mid-air.
Suddenly, he was yanked backward—toward a black sphere suspended high above.
Not just him—rubble, stone, buildings, livestock—everything nearby was being drawn in.
"Chibaku Tensei..."
Ryosuke recognized it instantly.
A technique born of absolute gravity mastery. More powerful than Banshō Ten'in—uncontrollable and all-consuming.
A technique capable of sealing even the Ten-Tails or Kaguya Ōtsutsuki... if wielded right.
But now—it was Nagato who had used it.
Ryosuke glanced at Pain, still struggling to rise from the rubble below.
And then—he did the unthinkable.
Instead of resisting the suction, he accelerated toward it, rocketing toward the black sphere even faster than gravity could pull him.
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