Chapter 559: Dense Fog
On the other side of the battlefield.
Although essentially the same person, Pain's Deva Path, as a divided body, was much calmer than Nagato.
Perhaps because he was already a corpse, a corpse whose heart would not beat and blood would not flow, so he would not get agitated, and it was difficult to have emotional fluctuations.
What he displayed was only an iceberg-like coldness and hardness.
Pain was equally surprised, but those indifferent Rinnegan remained calm without ripples, like a ten-thousand-year glacier, hiding all emotions beneath the cold ice.
"Even knowing this..."
After a long silence, Pain lowered his eyelids and finally said slowly. "Akatsuki's secrets seem to have been pretty much completely exposed."
He no longer asked who had exposed Akatsuki's roots, because Nagato already had the answer.
As they spoke, the sea fog grew thicker.
Between the sea and sky, everything became blurry and indistinct.
This was not a naturally formed ordinary fog, but the Hidden Mist Jutsu, where chakra was mixed into the water vapor. Both Pain and Haruno Sakura simultaneously injected chakra into the fog.
The fog gradually obscured their figures.
Pain had been looking at Haruno Sakura from afar. Even with the visual prowess of the Rinnegan, he slowly began to lose sight of the girl's figure. Those bright emerald eyes, as clear and clean as green beryls, gradually disappeared behind the dense fog.
"So to speak, I know too much?"
The girl's slightly teasing voice transmitted through the thick fog.
Pain didn't understand the meme from her previous life in Haruno Sakura's words, but he could hear her meaning.
Teasing, essentially, is a kind of contempt.
The Deva Path narrowed his eyes slightly, a faint surge of anger rising in his heart.
"Am I being underestimated..." Pain's voice was still unhurried, his anger hidden in his more forceful enunciation. "Haruno Sakura, do you think that by grasping my intelligence, you can defeat me? The power of God is not something you can easily fathom...!"
Responding to him was ethereal laughter in the water mist.
"Hehe..." The girl's voice came from all directions, making it impossible to tell the direction. "Speaking so conceitedly, if you have the guts, don't use the water mist to block the line of sight. Stand obediently in place and let me slash you a few more times with the Water Blade!"
Pain furrowed his brows.
Haruno Sakura had hit upon his concerns. That girl's Water Release... was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations. He originally thought the Naraka Path could perfectly take that Water Blade attack, but unexpectedly, after the chakra was absorbed, that jutsu still possessed formidable power. Among the Six Paths of Pain, the only one capable of resisting this move was actually the Deva Path alone.
And the Deva Path's Shinra Tensei, as it happened, still had a five-second cooldown time...
He couldn't take it head-on.
But if he were chased around fleeing everywhere by the Water Blade like a chased rabbit, it would also not fit the image of "God." Therefore, he had no choice but to use the Hidden Mist Jutsu to cut off the line of sight.
Unable to see the figure and unable to sense the position meant she couldn't lock on. The power of the Water Blade was entirely concentrated on a small point; although its power was strong, its attack surface was too small, making it impossible to carry out a covering attack. So once she couldn't lock onto the enemy, launching the move would be meaningless.
But similarly, Haruno Sakura also vigilantly and forcefully injected her own chakra into the water mist, cutting off Pain's detection, making him unable to sense Sakura's location either.
The sea fog simultaneously blocked the sight of both people, signifying that this would be an unprecedented battle.
"Battle is originally about resorting to all conceivable means." Pain said slowly. "If this can make you feel helpless, it proves that you are nothing more than this. Admittedly, your power is extraordinary, and coupled with my intelligence being leaked, this battle is indeed unexpectedly tricky... but in the end, you will still be defeated by the hands of God, dying despairingly in pain."
Haruno Sakura did not answer.
Deep purple intricate runes extended from the girl's forehead. Those were the patterns formed by the mixture of the Yin Seal and Sage Mode, making her face look mysterious and luxurious. An astonishingly massive amount of senjutsu chakra was generated from the girl's body, stirring the seawater and air, whipping up the sea breeze, and creating sea waves. Yet Haruno Sakura just stood quietly on the sea surface, graceful as a lotus flower, standing tall like a goddess, elegant and confident, powerful and beautiful.
The sea breeze subsequently grew stronger.
The wind teasingly stroked her hair, the strands lightly brushing across her face with a tickle. The girl tucked that restless lock of beautiful hair behind her ear and looked towards the direction where Pain had been---the man's figure was long gone from there, leaving only a vast expanse of whiteness. He might have long since left his original spot.
The wind howled and stirred the dense fog, as if stirring a thick soup, turning everything into a chaotic and unknowable form.
Haruno Sakura looked into the distance, as if able to see through the sea fog and see Pain who had disappeared behind the dense fog, her bright eyes shining brilliantly. "You call yourself a god," she chuckled softly, saying faintly, "Just right, what I like doing the most is..."
The girl's voice was ethereal and fleeting, like a whispered murmur, yet it traveled far and wide.
"---God slaying."
Haruno Sakura calmly spoke the last two words.
While speaking, the flowing seawater quietly solidified, the sea waves took shape in the air, and the vast sea surface turned into a crystal-clear ice surface.
And as the girl's voice fell, it was exactly the instant when the killing intent boiled to its peak; Haruno Sakura was seen gently lifting her right foot, and then slamming it down---
"Boom---!!!"
In an instant, the sea ice transformed into a hugely powerful bomb, violently blowing up the entire sea area!
And at that very same moment, Pain also launched his attack: hundreds and thousands of missiles and rockets flew out one by one from the device in the hands of the muscular man named the Asura Path. Hovering in mid-air, following Pain's command, they fiercely plunged towards the sea surface. [Note]
As if having a tacit understanding, the two simultaneously launched large-scale AOE attacks!
Pain's missiles looked extremely like the technological creations Haruno Sakura had seen in her previous life; whether it was the cylindrical shell rich with a metallic luster, or the way they flew and attacked, all hinted at this point. But Haruno Sakura knew very well that although these shells looked very un-ninja-like on the surface, in reality, their flight propulsion and explosive power both originated from chakra energy, belonging to orthodox ninjutsu attacks.
After being infused with a massive amount of chakra by Pain, the power of these missiles was actually not inferior in the slightest to the weapons on Earth; what Trinitrotoluene [Note 2] could do, chakra could do just the same!
Thousands of missiles carpet-bombed the entire sea area, exerting their power concurrently in tacit coordination with Haruno Sakura's Ice Crystal Detonation at this moment. In a split second, the shrieks of missiles, rumbling noises, the sounds of ice layers fracturing, and the sounds of explosions all erupted together. The overlapping sound waves seemed just like tens of thousands of lightning bolts striking and exploding in unison!
Rumble rumble rumble!
The detonation sounds were earth-shattering, resounding through the clouds.
For a time, the ocean boiled.
Amidst the fierce explosions, only the water areas where the two were located remained calm: on one side, the girl stood with her hands in front of her chest, her slender fingers forming a few seals like picking flowers, and a thick water wall stood holding up the sky, firmly blocking the missiles outside the wall; on the other side, the Six Paths of Pain stood proudly. The Preta Path hovered his palms over the ice surface, and the restless chakra within the ice layer was instantly sucked empty by him, leaving the Ice Crystal Detonation ninjutsu to return without any achievement.
Like taking a stroll in a courtyard, the two of them casually blocked the other's massive strike!
However, neither Haruno Sakura nor Pain cared that their attacks were easily blocked by the other. They were just casting sidelong glances and sensing.
Sensing the abnormal chakra fluctuations where the sea fog covered---
The surging of ninjutsu chakra releasing the Water Encampment Wall;
The unheralded disappearance of chakra somewhere on the ice surface.
"Found you!"
From the two places separated by the sea fog, Haruno Sakura and Pain spoke simultaneously!