Deva Path was yanked forward at terrifying speed.
The next instant, the hand gripping his throat suddenly clenched tighter!
Crack!
The sound of bone grinding against bone rang out, sharp enough to make one's teeth ache.
"!!"
Deva Path's pupils contracted. He threw both hands against the arm at his neck, straining with all his might—only to realize he couldn't pry it off at all!
"This strength…"
His Rinnegan spun wildly, shock surging in his mind.
"Who the hell are—"
But the words never finished.
The Deva Path that Ryota had summoned merely snorted coldly and slammed him down into the ground!
Boom!!
Dust exploded skyward, cracks split through the earth.
That body—the one worshiped as the vessel of a god—was smashed into the dirt before everyone's eyes like nothing more than a rag doll.
—That was Deva Path!
—The leader of the Six Paths of Pain!
And now, in the hands of another "Deva Path," he couldn't even fight back!
"You've gotta be kidding me!?"
Deidara instinctively staggered back half a step, his eyes wide, face twisted in disbelief.
"That's… Deva Path? Ours?"
"But the one who got dragged away was Deva Path too!!"
Even Kisame's face had gone pale. He clenched his teeth, staring at that identical figure in the dust. His soul felt like it was leaving his body.
Konan was frozen in place, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing.
Deva Path—the core of the Six Paths, the strongest existence.
Yet he had been dragged away, by someone wielding the exact same posture, the exact same dojutsu—using Universal Pull!
Meanwhile—
Just a few miles away, inside a cave, a gaunt figure was gasping for breath.
Nagato sat on his massive stone chair, crimson hair soaked with sweat and plastered to his forehead. Veins bulged at his temple from the strain of controlling the Six Paths.
"What… was that…?"
He stared at the shared Rinnegan vision before him, his body trembling faintly.
[The same face… the same eyes… the same power…]
That other Deva Path had perfectly reproduced his control of the Rinnegan—down to the force, the timing—more precise than Nagato himself!
"This is impossible…"
His throat tightened. His eyes brimmed with shock, fear, and… a flicker of frustrated rage.
He knew every chakra receiver embedded in the Six Paths, every layout, every tether of control—
"But that guy… he's not one of mine!"
He couldn't sense any receiver frequency within the other body at all!
"That means—it's not a puppet of the Six Paths, but…"
Nagato clenched his arm, realization stabbing through him.
"It's… a living being."
"Yahiko is alive? No… impossible!"
For a heartbeat, his entire belief system cracked apart.
But only for a few breaths—
Nagato's eyes went cold again.
"I understand now… some bastard stole the Rinnegan's power…"
No more hesitation. He forced more chakra through the conduits in his arm, the pressure spiking until the entire cave trembled!
—Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!
Back at the clearing, the five figures behind Kisame and the others moved in unison.
Asura Path, Preta Path, Animal Path, Human Path, Naraka Path.
For the first time, all five remaining Paths of Pain struck at once!
Their target was obvious—every gaze locked onto the black-haired boy who had been smiling from beginning to end: Ryota.
Destroy him, and everything would end.
And at that exact moment—
Kisame suddenly leapt, his hands flashing through seals:
"Water Style: Shark Bomb Jutsu!"
Chakra condensed into a massive shark-shaped water missile and roared toward Ryota.
At the same time, Deidara wasn't idle. His explosive clay had long been ready.
"Brat, let's see how you like my latest masterpiece!"
He cackled as dozens of clay birds swarmed skyward before dive-bombing down.
Konan spread her wings of paper, spiraling in the air.
With a hiss, countless paper blades rained down like a storm of swords.
All at once, three separate attacks combined with the onslaught of the Five Paths.
This wasn't a battle—it was an execution!
The clearing was torn apart by rampaging chakra. The earth shattered, the sky was drowned in explosions and jutsu.
"T-Too much!!"
It was Lefiya's first time seeing something so outrageous.
"They're trying to finish him in one strike?!"
Ais, however, only fixed her golden eyes on the storm ahead. She slowly drew Feather's Echo from her hip, ready to dash forward.
But Finn's calm voice cut through:
"Ais, leave it to Ryota."
Ais froze, her fingers tightening on the hilt. But after a moment, she understood.
Yes—
That man had never needed protection.
Ryota slowly raised his head. A flash of light glinted in his eyes.
His pupils, once black, shifted violently.
The purple ripple-pattern of the Rinnegan surfaced—and layered atop it, a faint triangular pattern shimmered into view.
It was his strongest dōjutsu: the Kokugan.
Just before the countless jutsu struck, Ryota whispered softly:
"Daikokuten."
Vmm—!
Space itself froze.
In that instant, all those earth-shaking techniques—Kisame's Water Style, Deidara's explosive clay, Konan's paper storm—
The moment they neared Ryota, they… collapsed. Dissolved. Vanished.
As though stripped of their very right to exist, each jutsu unraveled into streams of light, sucked into Ryota's eyes.
As if the world's energy itself existed only to serve his gaze.
The three attackers, suspended mid-air, were stunned into silence for several seconds.
But the danger wasn't gone.
The ninjutsu were destroyed—but the charging Paths of Pain were still closing in.
Ryota didn't move. His expression didn't change. He stood calmly, as though those charging Pain bodies were nothing more than ants hopping about.
The next second—
"Raaaaghhhh—!!"
A deafening roar exploded from his flank.
The colossal form of the Nine-Tails lunged out beside Ryota.
"What?! The Nine-Tails?!"
Konan's voice broke off.
BOOM—!!!
The Nine-Tails swiped a single claw.
No Tailed Beast Bomb. No preparation.
Just a casual swing, like brushing away flies.
The charging Paths didn't even have time to raise their hands before they were caught in the gale of that claw.
Bang!
Their bodies burst apart midair, chakra shells shattering like glass.
One swipe—instant annihilation!
Even Finn and the others behind Ryota were stunned.
Battle-hardened as they were, staring at that monstrous figure—the nine-tailed demon fox whose very aura seemed to crush heaven and earth—they fell into stunned silence.
"What… the hell is that…?"
Finn muttered, his thumb aching again.
He had seen mighty warriors. He had seen terrifying beasts.
But this Nine-Tails—just standing there, radiating that mingled divinity and malice—its pressure was more suffocating than even the Black Dragon in the Dungeon's deepest floor.
"Maybe we should… just go back to the Dungeon…"
Finn gave a bitter smile.
The ninja world was far more brutal than he had imagined.
And Ryota—he wasn't someone you could describe with the word "strong" anymore.
Off in the distance, Deidara's face had gone ashen.
"You've gotta be kidding me!!"
"Why the hell is the actual Tailed Beast here?! This is insane, insane, insane!!"
Kisame's expression was equally grim. He glanced at Konan and said, "Retreat. Staying alive is what matters."
Konan looked once at the Deva Path still gripped by the false Deva Path, then gave a silent nod. Her body dissolved into paper and scattered back.
All three of them made the same choice in that moment—run.
Stay, and it wasn't "defeat" they faced. It was extinction.
In less than five minutes—
Akatsuki's grand plan to destroy Konoha, seize the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, and launch their campaign of Tailed Beast hunts…
Collapsed before it even began.
They hadn't even truly fought—yet retreat was already the only option.
They couldn't win. They really couldn't win.