Also summoned here with Naruto through the Reverse Summoning Technique was Sage Fukasaku, who looked slightly surprised at the chaotic battlefield around them, "Is this Inorganic Reincarnation? And the [Sage Art] of Ryuchi Cave?"
"Ryuchi Cave?" Naruto looked confused.
"Orochimaru's summoned beasts come from Ryuchi Cave!" explained Sage Fukasaku.
"Orochimaru, Ryuchi Cave!" Naruto's eyes lit up, "Does that mean Sasuke is here? Has he also learned the [Sage Art]?"
"Wait a second, where exactly is this place? Wasn't this supposed to teleport us back to Konoha? Why did we end up in the middle of nowhere?"
"This is Konoha!" Sage Fukasaku took a deep breath and pointed toward the Hokage Rock, "Look over there!"
Following the direction Sage Fukasaku pointed, they saw the Hokage Rock standing lonely in place. The surrounding buildings were nothing but ruins, though someone was still standing atop the head of the bald stone sculpture of The Third.
Overhead, a giant Animal Path-controlled Yatagarasu glided down toward that person.
"Watch out..." Naruto barely started shouting when he saw the opponent summon a massive blue serpent that devoured the eight-tailed bird whole.
"Ha! Guess I didn't need to shout after all!" Naruto chuckled, "Gamakichi, Gamabunta, we're going in too!"
"Got it!" Gamabunta grumbled, then leapt toward the Naraka Path following Sage Fukasaku's instructions.
While Deva Path Pain was fleeing, he repelled Gamabunta with a powerful Shinra Tensei. However, Naruto seized the opportunity to leap down, unleashing a [Sage Art: Big Ball Rasengan] that obliterated the Naraka Path!
Seeing Naruto's strong return and one powerful strike instantly eliminating one of the enemies' central forces, the Konoha fighters were all thrilled.
As strong as that mystery guy was, Konoha's still a place that needs to be defended by its own people!
On the Hokage Rock, Mizuki calmly observed the blue serpent below, "Looks like the Blood Summoning Contract works even in a parallel world, but why not Manda?"
"Manda has already died!" Aoda replied warily, eyeing Mizuki, "How can you summon me? Where is young master Sasuke?"
Mizuki jumped from the Hokage Rock onto Aoda's head, "You talk too much!"
With that, Mizuki forcibly took control of Aoda, charging toward the remaining Four Paths outside Deva Path's position.
"I've been underestimated!" Pain snorted coldly, directly summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!
In the next moment, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, its size many times larger than the Bijuu, appeared in the crater.
Even the earth dragons transformed through Inorganic Reincarnation struggled to restrain it.
"The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?" Mizuki raised his eyebrows, rapidly forming hand seals, "[Sage Art: Forest Creation from a Seed]!"
Suddenly, saplings sprouted from the ruined ground. These saplings grew rapidly, within moments transforming into towering trees that tightly bound the Demonic Statue.
Everyone gawked in disbelief at the Demonic Statue's huge size.
"So big... Wait, is this Wood Release?"
"This guy's Wood Release packs way more power than Captain Yamato's ever did!"
It was, after all, Wood Release used under Sage Mode. Although not yet comparable to the original version, it was certainly leagues beyond someone else's amateur-hour Wood Release!
Tsunade paused, deep in thought. "Who is this guy really? And how does he have Wood Release?"
"I might know."
"Sakura glanced at Seiki and, seeing he had no reaction, continued, "He must be Mizuki from a parallel world!"
"Mizuki? Who's that..." Tsunade looked confused but suddenly realized, "Wait—you don't mean that Chunin who escaped from prison years ago and was later abandoned by Orochimaru?"
Ino also caught on, "You mean the same Mizuki who was defeated by a newly-minted Genin Naruto?"
They just couldn't believe the same Chunin who had once brought shame to his rank could be the powerful figure who had just fought Pain head-on!
"Yeah, that's him. But he wasn't this strong half a month ago!" Sakura suddenly realized, "Oh right, senior, how much time has passed in your timeline?"
Seiki gave a light sigh, "Nine years already!"
"Has it really been that long?" Sakura exclaimed in surprise.
Tsunade asked thoughtfully, "So, are you two working together? One handling defense and one healing?"
Seiki gave a faint smile, "We're not a team, not really."
Before Tsunade could ask anything else, her attention was drawn to the sudden change in the battlefield.
Mizuki and Naruto, working together, successively defeated the Human Path and the Animal Path. However, when Naruto attacked the Preta Path, his Rasengan was absorbed.
Even so, it was clear that the balance of victory was gradually tilting toward their side!
Just as everyone felt their spirits lift, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, restrained by the forest, suddenly opened its mouth, and more than ten purple Chakra Dragons flew out.
"What is this?" Naruto asked in confusion.
"Touching them means instant death!" Mizuki actually gave a rare explanation before quickly jumping away.
In Pain's eyes, this mysterious figure posed a far greater threat than Naruto and those few toads.
Therefore, more than half of the Chakra Dragons were aimed directly at Mizuki.
For a moment, even Mizuki looked slightly flustered.
"This is annoying!" Mizuki glanced at Aoda, who was watching from afar with obvious delight. "You come help me hold this off!"
Aoda felt a chill as Mizuki looked at him, "What are you planning?"
Though reluctant, Aoda found himself rushing forward anyway.
The Chakra Dragons entered its body, and Aoda's body stiffened. In the next moment, its massive form collapsed with a loud crash.
Seeing Aoda instantly killed, not only Naruto but even Gamabunta was shocked. He quickly abandoned any thoughts of fighting the Chakra Dragons head-on with his blade and fled for his life.
The surrounding Konoha ninja were horrified—how could a summoned beast that big be killed by just a single touch from those Chakra Dragons, when even dozens of large-scale Ninjutsu attacks wouldn't easily kill it?
Yet here they were—just a single touch, and it was dead!
What frightened them even more was that when Pain saw the Chakra Dragons couldn't catch up with Naruto and the mysterious figure, he allowed the dragons to run rampant, attacking nearby civilians instead, forcing Naruto to return and rescue them.
"Quick, run away!"
"Don't let the Chakra Dragon touch you!"
Naruto's eyes burned with rage, "You bastard! What kind of hero targets civilians?"
As Naruto prepared to rush forward to save the civilians, Sage Fukasaku quickly tried to stop him, "Naruto, calm down! Right now, the most important thing is defeating Pain. If you lose, they will die anyway!"
"If you wanna save 'em, beat Pain — and do it fast!"
Meanwhile, inside a certain cave.
Sasuke Uchiha, severely injured by the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki and currently healing, suddenly widened his eyes. "Aoda... how could this happen... cough, cough!"
Xianglin rushed over. "Sasuke, what's wrong? Did your injury flare up again?"
"I'm fine, but..." Sasuke's eyes turned cold. From the final image Aoda had transmitted, it seemed like it had been pulled out to block an attack.
Wasn't this method of death exactly the same as when he'd pulled out Manda to block Deidara's [Self-Destruction]?
What frustrated him even more was that with both Manda and Aoda having died, would those Ryuchi Cave guys kick him out of their serpent pact?
Just thinking about it made Sasuke's eye twitch. "Damn it... I better find you soon!"
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