Within Kiri, battle after fierce battle broke out.
On the battlefield east of the village, Heiyan—now infused with Sage Chakra—faced off against Onoki and Gengetsu Hozuki. Right from the start, Heiyan displayed overwhelming power, and after a brief clash, successfully sealed away Onoki.
At that moment, the giant clam summoned by Gengetsu Hozuki conjured up a wide-range mirage, hiding him within it.
Whoosh! Fwoosh!
Inside the illusion, Gengetsu suddenly appeared. He raised his right hand like a gun, firing a series of liquid bullets straight toward Heiyan from his fingertip.
[Water Release: Water Gun Technique]
This secret technique passed down through the Hozuki Clan possessed tremendous power, capable of easily piercing through enemies' bodies.
Plop!
Facing the incoming liquid projectiles, Heiyan neither dodged nor avoided them. He simply snapped his fingers. A massive ice mirror instantly formed in front of him.
Crack!
The water bullets struck the mirror with force, deeply embedding themselves and creating numerous cracks across its surface—but ultimately failed to penetrate.
"If that's how it is, then how about this?"
Unfazed by his first failed attack, Gengetsu immediately launched more large bubbles from his palms. Seemingly light and floating, they actually moved extremely fast.
[Water Release: Suika no Jutsu]
Although these spheres were made of water, they actually contained oil inside. Upon hitting the ice mirror, they exploded violently.
Boom!
The ice mirror directly in front of Heiyan shattered into pieces. Under the impact's immense force, he himself took several steps backward.
"Hah! Now let's see how you'll block this!"
Seeing his attack succeed, Gengetsu grinned. He quickly formed hand seals again, gathering chakra to launch even more water spheres.
But the next second, his sealing stopped abruptly. His expression froze completely.
Because—
Snap.
Heiyan clapped his hands together. A massive amount of Ice Release chakra mixed with natural energy surged outward from his body, enveloping the entire area.
[Sage Art: Demonic Mirroring Thin Ice no Jutsu]
One of the most devastating Ice Release techniques ever devised, when fused with Sage Chakra in Heiyan's grasp, its power surged tenfold—if not more.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Within just a few seconds, over a hundred colossal ice mirrors materialized midair. Each mirror stood seven or eight meters tall, arranged circularly, filling every corner of the mirage.
As if turned invisible, Heiyan swiftly darted among the mirrors like a shadow, making it impossible for anyone to catch sight of him—let alone target him.
Yet Heiyan didn't strike back at Gengetsu.
He knew it was merely an illusory clone, impervious to any attack. The real one was hidden somewhere within the mirage.
Found you.
With the omnipresent ice mirrors, Heiyan quickly pinpointed the real location of the giant clam. Instantly, several nearby mirrors converged, merging into one enormous super-sized mirror standing thirty meters high.
Fwoosh!
Manipulated by Heiyan, an extremely sharp and massive ice spike shot out from the mirror's surface, impaling the clam's hardened shell in an instant.
Crash!
As the clam was injured, the summoning technique was forcibly canceled, and the mirage vanished instantly, exposing Gengetsu Hozuki's true form.
[Boiling Oil Explosion]!
Realizing the dire situation, he immediately activated [Boiling Oil Explosion]—using the oil and water within his body to create a ten-meter-tall clone resembling a massive child brandishing a greatsword.
This creation had an outer layer of oil and an inner cavity filled with water. Its unique feature was its reactive nature to temperature changes. Once it moved, the surface oil would rapidly heat up, causing the internal water to evaporate and trigger a massive steam explosion.
However, Heiyan was already prepared and left Gengetsu with no opening at all.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
[Ice Spike Jutsu] struck again as several massive ice spikes rained down, piercing through the giant child creation from all directions—front, back, left, and right—and pinning it firmly to the ground, rendering it immobile.
As long as it couldn't move, there was no way for the surface oil to be heated up, meaning it naturally could not explode.
Then, without missing a beat, Heiyan completed his move by summoning multiple ice mirrors embedded with sealing formulas, which fell around Gengetsu Hozuki and trapped him in exactly the same way Onoki had been sealed.
"He completely outclassed me. My strongest move didn't even stand a chance."
Before being sealed away, Gengetsu sighed softly to himself.
He had lost—and he accepted it wholeheartedly.
After decisively defeating both Ōnoki and Gengetsu Hozuki,
the sky full of ice mirrors gradually disappeared. However, strangely enough, Heiyan's figure also vanished along with them.
That was because he sensed a powerful chakra approaching quickly. Most likely, Madara's Elephant Path had detected the worsening situation and decided to personally come deal with him.
Therefore, Heiyan summoned Guagua the Stealth Frog and entered into its body for concealment.
"Kero."
Under the drizzling rain, Guagua jumped into an open manhole on the street, slipping into the sewers and heading toward the Mizukage building.
In front of the Mizukage building—
after a fierce confrontation between the Six Paths of Pain and the Senju brothers Hashirama and Tobirama, the Animal Path and Naraka Path had been successively eliminated.
However, during the earlier battle, Tobirama Senju had been swallowed and sealed away by the King of Hell summoned by the Naraka Path while trying to save Hashirama.
The battle was heating up fast.
"Shinra Tensei, Universal Pull, and many other techniques—his abilities are practically identical to those granted by my Rinnegan. Could it be that all Rinnegans have the same abilities? Is his ultimate move also Outer Path – Edo Tensei?"
Madara Uchiha frowned, having observed the entire fight by Pain, musing silently.
Of course, he could never know that Pain's Rinnegan originally belonged to him — just from another world altogether.
Hmm?
Suddenly, Madara sensed the chakra of Ōnoki and Gengetsu Hozuki disappear in quick succession. It looked like they had been defeated by that old immortal sage.
How strong is this old man exactly? Including the previous Second Kazekage and Third Kazekage, he has already sealed four of Madara's Impure World Reincarnation Puppets.
Realizing this, Madara decided to intervene personally and eliminate that immortal sage.
Yet, just as he set off toward the battlefield in the east, the enemy's chakra presence suddenly vanished completely from the sensing range of Rain Tiger at Will Jutsu.
Something wasn't right.
Madara's frown deepened as an ominous feeling grew stronger. Wanting to investigate further, something unexpected occurred once again on this battlefield.
[Planetary Devastation!]
Deva Path clasped his hands together, releasing a fierce shout as he activated Planetary Devastation and hurled it into the air. At the same time, Asura Path and Human Path moved in perfect coordination, rushing left and right to engage Hashirama Senju in close combat, pinning him down tightly.
[Vrrrroooom—]
A massive gravitational pull erupted from the black sphere of Planetary Devastation, lifting the three locked in combat—the Asura Path, Human Path, and Hashirama—upward into the air, merging them with flying chunks of rubble and debris to form one enormous spherical mass.
At the cost of sacrificing two Pain bodies, Nagato successfully sealed Hashirama Senju.
So far, five of the Six Paths of Pain had fallen one after another, leaving only Deva Path remaining.
Beside Madara Uchiha, there were no more Impure World Reincarnation Puppets left either.
[Swoosh—]
The Deva Path in Yahiko's form blocked Madara's escape route, preventing him from leaving.
Madara glanced at the torn clothing and wounds on Deva Path's body and sneered, "You're practically falling apart and out of options. Still think you can fight me like this?"
"More than enough."
Without hesitation, Deva Path lunged straight at Madara again, reigniting the battle.
The clash reignited with violent intensity between the two titans.
Meanwhile, deep inside the basement of the Mizukage building—
Madara's original body sat leaning against a stone chair, eyes closed, fully focused on controlling his Elephant Path clone outside. Beside him, Zetsu and young Nagato watched the ongoing battle through the crystal ball resting on the table.
Where exactly did that Rinnegan come from?
Black Zetsu, the shadowy manipulator behind the entire shinobi world, was equally baffled, unable to figure out the origins of the Six Paths of Pain. Fortunately, for now, the opponent didn't seem to be any match for Madara.
So absorbed were they in watching the fight that none noticed a lone figure emerging from the sewers, using the indoor shadows to silently creep up behind the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
This was indeed a classic case of 'darkness under the lamp.'
Not even Madara noticed the new presence lurking inside the basement. He believed the Demonic Statue could automatically sense approaching enemies, never expecting that the statue had already defected.
Heiyan formed a hand seal. Immediately, countless white spores erupted from the back of the statue, splitting it open and revealing a gaping mouth that swallowed him whole…
Man and statue seamlessly fused together beneath Madara's very nose, quietly initiating some shocking transformation.
After a while,
[Boom!]
As the battle above between Deva Path and Madara intensified further, causing increasingly greater destruction, the entire Mizukage building was reduced to rubble.
Rumbling sounds echoed through the basement ceiling, accompanied by falling dust, threatening to bury everyone—including the Demonic Statue—beneath the ruins.
"It's time we leave Mist."
At this moment, an elderly-looking Madara with snow-white hair slowly opened his eyes and muttered to himself.
Then, he instructed Zetsu and Nagato (boy) to prepare themselves before forming a hand seal. Activating the large-scale transportation array pre-established within the basement, brilliant space-time jutsu markings instantly illuminated the floor beneath their feet, engulfing them in radiant light.
[Vrrrroooom—]
With a violent ripple in the space-time continuum, Madara Uchiha and his two companions, along with everything else in the underground basement, instantly pierced through space and were teleported to a remote cave on a deserted island far out at sea, thousands of miles away.
This was the escape route Madara had carefully prepared beforehand in case Konoha ninja launched a full-scale invasion.
Inside the cave,
Madara glanced around. He saw Zetsu and Nagato were both present, and all the supplies had also been transported safely.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief and began preparing to continue remotely controlling his Elephant Path, to eliminate Deva Path Pain, Madara shifted his gaze behind him, only to be stunned by what he saw—nothing at all.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was gone.
It hadn't been transported here with them.
"Was there not enough energy in the teleportation array?"
Madara analyzed the possible cause logically. Rather than panic, he composed himself and immediately formed hand seals to perform the Summoning Jutsu, planning to simply summon the statue over.
However, after ten seconds passed, nothing happened.
No... was it really that...
Only then did Madara's pupils suddenly constrict in alarm. He realized with horror that the connection between him and the Demonic Statue had somehow been severed by an unseen force!
"Lord Madara, is something wrong?"
Zetsu noticed Madara's strange expression and quickly asked.
Madara didn't reply. His face darkened further as he hastily controlled his Elephant Path from thousands of miles away, rushing back into the basement to investigate.
"You want to escape?"
Seeing Madara attempting to flee from battle, Deva Path Pain unleashed Universal Pull once more, dragging him back into combat without mercy.
Back in the basement,
The teleportation formation on the ground had automatically collapsed after activating once—this was deliberately set by Madara to prevent enemy pursuit.
Amongst the wreckage of the ruined floor, the towering Demonic Statue of the Outer Path still sat stably upon its lotus throne, hands raised in a solemn, prayer-like pose, eyes wide open.
The air twisted in a vortex-like ripple—and then, Obito materialized.
"I finally got rid of those three brutes," he let out a sigh of relief and muttered to himself.
Moments ago, after successfully escaping Cloud's joint attack, Obito had rushed straight to the Mizukage building to witness the conclusion of the battle between Six Paths of Pain and Madara.
Using his deep familiarity with temporal-spatial powers, he keenly sensed the unusual space-time fluctuations coming from underground during the fierce fight, and took advantage of the chaos to sneak in unnoticed.
"What... the Demonic Statue? And it's opened four eyes already! That means it has absorbed four Tailed Beasts."
Obito immediately noticed the statue and the broken remains of the teleportation formation on the floor.
His mind raced as he speculated that Madara must have made a mistake while casting the technique, failing to take this statue with him and leaving it stranded behind.
Staring at the statue before him, inspiration struck Obito's mind with sudden excitement—
What if he dragged this thing into Kamui's space and brought it back to his original world?
This bold, wild idea thrilled him deeply, and he couldn't wait to give it a try, itching to get started.
Just as Obito reached out and placed his hand on the statue, ready to begin his plan…
The seemingly lifeless Demonic Statue of the Outer Path appeared to sense Obito's intentions. Its four eyes suddenly rotated in unison, fixing their gaze upon him.
Hmm?
Obito was so startled that he immediately leaped backward, staring wide-eyed at the statue.
Next, an even more terrifying scene unfolded before him.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
On the face of the Demonic Statue, the remaining five eyes gradually opened one after another. At last, all nine eyes were wide open.
"This… this shouldn't be happening!"
Obito's eyes widened in shock as he completely lost his composure. According to what he knew, the statue would only open all its eyes when it had absorbed all nine Tailed Beasts and transformed back into the Ten-Tails.
After all, in his own world — over 60 years since Konoha's founding — the Akatsuki had been working tirelessly for so long and still hadn't captured the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails.
Yet here, he was witnessing the revival of the Ten-Tails with his own eyes.
The moment it revived, the Ten-Tails turned its gaze straight at Obito and let out a thunderous roar. The roar contained violent Chakra, forming powerful shockwaves that devastated everything in front of it.
Swoosh!
Obito was so frightened that he instantly retreated into [Kamui] space.
Boom!
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