Chapter 555: Summons
Chakra erupted suddenly.
Konan subconsciously closed her eyes, preparing to meet the explosion of the ice pillar.
"Hm?"
The Dance of the Shikigami didn't activate. The Angel of Paper opened her eyes and found that the ice pillar had already been smashed, and she was caught in the arms of a familiar figure.
Pain... has come.
And just not far away, a giant chameleon over a dozen meters long had concealed its figure at some unknown time. The moment the girl raised her hand, it sneaked to Haruno Sakura's side and launched a sneak attack!
The place where chakra erupted was exactly the commotion caused by the battle between one person and one beast.
Bang!!
Amidst the roaring sound, water splashed, filling mid-air and scattering into a hazy mist.
The chameleon's huge body flew backward out of the water mist, its spine bent into an inverted U-shape at an angle exceeding the limit. Blood frantically spewed from a huge gash on the giant beast's head, dyeing the chameleon's translucent shell a dark red.
"Aooo..."
The giant beast's miserable cry faded away in mid-air. It fell heavily onto the sea surface, its heavy body involuntarily sinking downwards. It struggled a few times trying to stand up, but its body was so weak that it lacked the strength to complete even a simple stand-up.
It gave a mournful cry and fell beneath the water surface, thoroughly swallowed by the thick seawater. All that remained on the sea surface was a mass of blood-colored foul water, gradually spreading out and dyeing this sea area red.
The Animal Path stood indifferently on the sea, letting the chameleon fall by his side, unmoved, not even taking a glance.
A piece of trash that falls in one hit is not worth his attention.
However, the instant the giant beast flew backward, the eyebrows on his cold face slightly raised.
That woman... what great strength.
That must be the so-called "Monstrous Strength Punch", right?
The Animal Path looked from afar at the place where the water vapor was dispersing, his gaze seemingly able to penetrate the water mist and see the girl's proudly standing figure.
This man's original body was a ninja of the Fuma clan. After his death, he was made into the Animal Path, one of the Six Paths of Pain, by Nagato. He specialized in Summoning Jutsu and could summon various giant beasts with different abilities and the other five Pains. He was an individual frequently used by the Six Paths of Pain for preemptive probing and main attacks.
His eyes were long and narrow, his gaze cold and detached. At this moment, they narrowed slightly, his gaze instantly becoming sharp, evil aura manifesting itself.
The water surface gradually returned to calm. The bubbles left by the sinking giant beast made a gurgling sound on the sea surface. When this sound disappeared, the tap, tap sound of water faintly came from the distance.
Light and rhythmic footsteps.
In the mist, the girl stepped on the mirror-like water surface, walking slowly forward. Water ripples bloomed like lotus flowers under her feet, her hazy figure gradually becoming clear.
The Animal Path stood indifferently, protecting Konan behind him, looking at the girl and spoke: "As you wished... I have come."
"You are Pain?"
Haruno Sakura stopped and sized up the man in the distance.
He had a long ponytail tied behind his head, his facial expression stiff, his face deathly pale and lifeless, exactly like a resurrected zombie. No... the Six Paths of Pain themselves were made of corpses.
Sakura shook her head: "No, the Six Paths of Pain are six individuals, you are just one of them."
"Where are the other five? You wouldn't think... you alone can deal with me, right?"
The instant she spoke, a high-pitched eagle cry tore through the sky, suddenly sounding behind Haruno Sakura, shrill and sharp.
It was exactly a giant eagle that had circled to the top of the girl's head at some unknown time, thrusting its hard, sharp beak and diving down at her from the sky!
Haruno Sakura seemed to have expected this long ago.
She turned around unhurriedly, the ninjutsu in her hand already completed. With a wave of her left hand, a silvery-white water line shot out along the girl's fingertips formed into a sword gesture.
The slender silver line tore through the air, emitting a sharp whistle even sharper and more piercing than the eagle's cry, making one's scalp tingle, and landed on the giant beast that launched the sneak attack.
Like cutting open a block of blood tofu.
A blood flower bloomed in mid-air, black, white, yellow, and red, a total mess, raining down a shower of flesh and blood.
Haruno Sakura stood in the rain, the chaotically falling corpse pieces pushed away by an invisible repulsive force, scattering around the girl.
"Any more?"
Sakura crossed her arms and sneered.
This was not the end yet.
As the girl spoke, she lifted her foot and lightly tapped the water surface. With a smack, a vast power seeped into the sea.
The next moment, chakra turned into a giant dragon, breaking out of the water. Its ferocious and terrifying mouth impressively bit a three-headed hellhound lurking in the sea.
The hellhound was fully several people high, but bitten in the mouth of the sea dragon, it was as weak and skinny as a puppy. It struggled with "awoo" sounds, its hind legs kicking frantically in mid-air, blood flowing profusely. The Amplification Summoning Jutsu Pain cast on it played a role; the vicious dog was almost bitten into two sections by the giant dragon, yet still hadn't died. Instead, its body swelled up, and more heads proliferated at the wound, impressively becoming a huge multi-headed hellhound.
In the blink of an eye, the hellhound swelled several times over, dozens of heads growing on its neck, and struggled to twist its body to bite and tear at the sea dragon, becoming both ferocious and disgusting.
Infinite proliferation and division, as expected?
The girl frowned slightly.
She raised her toes and lightly tapped the water surface again, producing a crisp patter sound of water.
With this step, new changes occurred to the sea dragon; its originally huge size actually grew a bit larger out of thin air. The sharp teeth mimicking Water Release became abnormally solid and hard, faintly somewhat crystal clear. Only hearing a loud bang, the giant dragon abruptly opened its mouth full of sharp teeth to the limit, then bit down fiercely, impressively biting the vicious dog into two segments in one bite!
The next moment, with a boom, the giant dragon brazenly self-destructed, thoroughly blowing the continuously proliferating hellhound into meat paste!
The booming sound echoing through the clouds carried gusts of fierce wind, blowing layers of ripples on the water surface.
The girl crossed her arms, looking at the hellhound's corpse pieces falling from the sky with great interest, wanting to know if it could still continue to proliferate and grow more heads after being blasted to pieces to this extent?
The answer, of course, was no.
Any ninjutsu has its limits. The so-called infinitely proliferating hellhound couldn't possibly divide into 2 to the power of 64 vicious dogs after being cut 64 times—that is an astronomical figure, the total mass of 18.44 quintillion vicious dogs is more than the mass of the entire biosphere.
It's just that before reaching its limit, this constitution of becoming stronger the more attacks it receives is very capable of bluffing people and making them feel it's very tricky. For ordinary ninja, just dealing with this summon would be very strenuous.
Haruno Sakura obviously didn't belong to the category of "ordinary ninja".
The Animal Path confirmed this point.
"Good skills." He said calmly, "As expected of the ninja who killed members of our Akatsuki, Konoha's genius girl Haruno Sakura."
"For you, it's not surprising that you could easily solve the chameleon and the hellhound. But there's one thing I find very strange: the transparent chameleon, the hellhound hiding on the seabed... how did you discover them?"
Haruno Sakura met him with silence.
But without Sakura's answer, the Animal Path had already found the answer.
"It's the water. You injected chakra into the seawater and water mist!" He looked at the excessively calm sea surface beside the girl's feet and understood in his heart.
Very similar to his Rain Tiger at Will Jutsu. Injecting chakra into water to form a sensory ninjutsu similar to a barrier. This required extremely exquisite chakra control or a massive amount of chakra. No matter how hidden the chameleon and hellhound were, as long as they were still in the sea or on the sea, they would absolutely not escape Haruno Sakura's sensing.
"In this way, sneak attacks are ineffective against you. What an impeccable method." The Animal Path said slowly, "A frontal assault can't do anything to you, and sneak attacks are ineffective. Just me alone... is indeed a bit strenuous. Then..."
"I can only summon them over."
Haruno Sakura was not short; a height of 165cm could already be considered tall in this world. But the gaze the Animal Path used to look at her always carried a faint sense of looking down.
"Before you are killed, I still have one question."