Under the curtain of rain, the battle situation changed in an instant.
Konan, hovering higher in the air with wings newly formed from fresh paper, calmly observed the battle below.
The Animal Path Pain formed hand seals and performed the Summoning Technique once more.
Smoke exploded on the wet wall of an alley, and a giant chameleon emerged from the haze.
Its large, Rinnegan-patterned eyes swiveled slowly as it opened its mouth and extended its tongue.
The Animal Path, expressionless, stepped onto the chameleon's mucus-covered, elastic tongue. As the tongue retracted, his figure vanished into the chameleon's gaping maw.
Immediately, the chameleon's massive body began blending with its surroundings. Its colors rapidly assimilated, its outline blurred, and it finally disappeared completely into the pattering rain and the backdrop of ruined buildings, as if it had never existed.
Below, Jiraiya, maintaining a special hand seal with both hands and straining to absorb Natural Energy to convert into Senjutsu Chakra, felt his heart tighten.
'Another one I haven't seen before... and it can turn invisible?!' Jiraiya's mind chilled, sensing trouble.
His hands remained in the seal posture for absorbing Natural Energy and couldn't be released, but he could still perform an auxiliary sensory barrier technique.
Hum-!
An invisible, special sensory barrier centered on Jiraiya rapidly expanded outward, like a transparent bubble.
The moment any entity entered the barrier, he would instantly sense its location.
"A Sensory Ninjutsu..." However, the Animal Path, hidden within the chameleon and possessing the Rinnegan's sensory abilities, immediately detected this barrier force attempting to locate him.
His rippled eyes held no emotion as he simply formed hand seals again.
Summoning Technique!
On the wall of a nearby taller iron tower, the symbols of a summoning array appeared. Accompanied by an ear-splitting roar and exploding smoke, a ferocious-looking, three-headed giant hellhound with fleshy wings sprouting from its back burst forth!
Its six crimson eyes instantly locked onto Jiraiya and Gamaken below. Using all four limbs, it charged down the steep, slippery tower wall!
"Tch, that kid Nagato sure has a lot of tricks up his sleeve!" Jiraiya looked up, saw the behemoth approaching at high speed, and couldn't help but spit in frustration.
Gamaken beneath his feet tightened its grip on its shield and steel fork, standing ready.
"Gamaken, I'm counting on you!"
"Yes, although I am clumsy, I will do my best!" Gamaken responded slowly, but its movements were not slow at all.
Its powerful hind legs exerted force violently, and its massive body leaped up with surprising agility. The huge steel fork in its hand, whistling through the air, was thrown with the precision of a javelin!
Thud!
The steel fork struck true, instantly piercing the neck of the middle dog head. The tremendous force carried the hellhound's massive body, slamming it hard against the tower wall and pinning it there firmly!
The hellhound howled in pain, its other two heads frantically biting at the steel fork, unable to break free for the moment.
"Well done, Gamaken!" Jiraiya couldn't help but praise. "You're definitely not 'useless'!"
"No, it's nothing, just luck," Gamaken remained humble, simultaneously recalling its steel fork.
However, the moment the fork was pulled out, a change occurred!
The hellhound pinned to the wall, its middle pierced head drooped limply, but the other two heads let out even more savage roars!
Its body, like a splitting cell, accompanied by the grating sound of tearing flesh and blood, tore apart from the neck, transforming into two slightly smaller but equally fierce hellhounds!
They broke free from the wall, shook their heads, and charged at Jiraiya and Gamaken once more, roaring!
"What?! They split?!" Jiraiya was appalled at the sight.
Gamaken brandished its shield and fork again, engaging the three hellhounds.
Its fighting style was broad and powerful, blocking with the shield, striking fiercely with the fork. Each collision produced a dull, heavy sound, splashing large sprays of water in the rain.
But something even more alarming happened.
Whether pierced by the fork or smashed by the shield, whenever the hellhounds sustained sufficient serious damage, they would immediately split!
Pierced bodies would split into two; smashed heads would sprout new ones beside them!
In just a few minutes of fighting, the original three hellhounds had multiplied into over a dozen!
They surged from all directions like a black tide, frantically biting at Gamaken's shield and body. Although Gamaken's thick skin provided temporary safety, the situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse!
"This won't do, we can't fight head-on! Gamaken, retreat!" Jiraiya decided promptly.
"Understood!" Gamaken forcefully pushed back several pouncing hellhounds with its shield, its powerful hind legs exerting force. It crashed through a broken wall to the side, bursting into another, narrower alley, and began a desperate run.
Behind them, the dozen-plus multiplying hellhounds gave thunderous roars, chasing closely. Their sharp claws and teeth left deep marks on the wet ground and walls.
High above, a circling giant bird summon saw its chance. Letting out a sharp cry, it dove down like a fighter jet, its massive beak aimed directly at Jiraiya, who stood on Gamaken's head and couldn't dodge flexibly!
"Dodge it!" Jiraiya directed Gamaken to evade, swerving sharply into another, even narrower dead-end alley.
The giant bird and the hellhound pack swarmed in immediately!
However, the moment they charged into the alley, the Gamaken and Jiraiya inside vanished into two puffs of white smoke… they were shadow clones!
"Huh?" The Animal Path Pain hidden within the chameleon was slightly taken aback. "When?"
"Now! Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!"
Jiraiya and Gamaken's real bodies appeared from behind the eaves of a high point nearby. Though his hands still maintained the seal posture, the Fire Attribute Chakra he had long accumulated in his mouth transformed into an immensely hot and vast sea of fire, pouring down into the narrow alley below like a deluge!
Boom!!!
Flames instantly engulfed the entire alley!
Gamaken also spat a stream of toad oil, covering the alley and fueling the flames, making them sticky and hard to extinguish.
The hellhound pack crammed inside the alley had nowhere to escape. Amidst earth-shaking explosions and piercing shrieks, they were utterly incinerated by this terrifying Sage fire!
However, before Jiraiya could catch his breath, the giant bird, relying on its astonishing speed and agility, charged at Jiraiya once more!
"Gamaken!" Jiraiya urgently called.
"Understood!" Gamaken strenuously raised its shield to block!
Boom!!!
A violent impact sound erupted!
The power of the giant bird's suicidal charge was beyond imagination. The shield in Gamaken's hands shattered instantly!
Its massive body was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into the wall of a building, dust billowing.
Jiraiya was also thrown off Gamaken's head by the tremendous force.
"Gamaken! Are you alright?!" Jiraiya shouted anxiously after landing.
From within the dust, Gamaken, leaning on its steel fork, struggled to its feet. Its shield was completely destroyed, and it had multiple abrasions. Though it looked somewhat battered, its eyes remained determined. "Still... still okay. I'm fine. I'll keep fighting."
Just then, a summoning array glow appeared without warning on the wall beside them!
"More?!" Jiraiya's expression changed.
Smoke exploded, and a massive rhinoceros summon, covered in heavy armor with a sharp impact horn on its nose, charged out with a roar. Like an out-of-control heavy tank, it slammed with thunderous force into the just-stabilized Gamaken and Jiraiya beside it!
Boom!!!
This impact was more violent than any before!
Gamaken and Jiraiya had no time to dodge. They, along with the rhino's charging momentum, were brutally smashed into the building wall behind them!
Bricks and stones flew, dust filled the air. The wall was gouged out into a huge, deep pit, swallowing the figures of the man and toad.
The Animal Path, hidden within the chameleon and observing the battle through shared summon vision, coldly watched the ruins, preparing to control the summons for a finishing blow.
However, at that moment, a large number of Amegakure's Anbu finally arrived at the chaotic area.
Seeing the devastation, burning ruins, and the bizarre-looking summons, they immediately launched an attack without hesitation.
"Attack! Eliminate all rebels!" The Anbu Captain screamed hoarsely.
Konan immediately flapped her paper wings, meeting them like a white angel. Countless sharp papers swept towards the Amegakure's Anbu like a blizzard.
The giant bird in the sky also turned, spewing high-pressure wind blades at the Anbu Team below, or attacking directly with its claws and dives.
For a moment, battle cries, explosions, the rustle of flying papers, and the roars of the summons mingled, turning the area into a bloody hell.
Taking advantage of the sudden chaos and the distraction of the summons, a few rubble pieces were gently pushed aside from the ruins created by the rhino's charge.
Jiraiya and the somewhat dust-covered Gamaken silently hid in deeper shadows.
Jiraiya still maintained his seal posture, accelerating his absorption of Natural Energy, while observing the fierce battle outside through cracks in the ruins.
He saw the Amegakure's Anbu being pushed back under the combined assault of Konan and the giant bird, suffering heavy casualties. He couldn't help but recall the Amegakure's Ninja's confession earlier.
Hanzo, allied with Konoha's Ninja, had ambushed the Akatsuki.
'Hanzo... and Danzo, they are indeed the trigger for all this...' Jiraiya thought with hatred.
The Amegakure's Anbu, terrified by the slaughter, finally used a secret technique to relay the most critical information.
"...Target confirmed! Remnants of the Akatsuki! The woman who uses Paper Ninjutsu! The summons with the Rinnegan! Requesting backup! Requesting... Ah!"
At the top of Amegakure's central tower.
Hanzo, having received the confirmed news, his eyes above the gas mask turned extremely gloomy, with a trace of barely perceptible fear.
'The Rinnegan... a woman who uses Paper Ninjutsu...'
'It was indeed them!'
'That Rinnegan boy must be nearby!'
"I can't wait any longer!" Hanzo stood up abruptly. Years of fear now transformed into resolute killing intent.
He had to seize this opportunity to personally take action and eradicate this threat to his core once and for all!
"Everyone, follow me!" Hanzo ordered in a hoarse voice.
"Yes!" Over a dozen Amegakure's Anbu emerged from the surrounding shadows, kneeling on one knee.
Hanzo quickly donned his full equipment and picked up the chain sickle coated with potent poison that had accompanied him in countless battles.
Personally leading the most elite remaining Anbu from the tower, they leaped down from the tower's peak like unsheathed blades, swiftly jumping and navigating between the continuous steel structures, heading straight for the northern district!
Their speed was extreme. Soon, they saw the distant soaring flames, billowing smoke, the circling strange giant bird.
And that woman flying in the air, like an angel!
'It's really them... This time, I won't let you escape again!' Hanzo's eyes blazed with killing intent. He was about to order a full assault, determined to wipe out these Akatsuki remnants.
Suddenly!
"Shinra Tensei!"
A terrifying, suffocating repulsive force erupted from the top of a tall tower to his side!
Hum-!!!
The air groaned under the strain!
Hanzo and the dozen-plus elite Anbu around him didn't even have time to react. As if struck by an invisible giant's hand, they were sent flying scattered with screams!
Many had their bones shattered and internal organs ruptured by the immense force while still in the air!
Immediately after, countless missiles trailing flames whistled from that direction like a swarm, accurately targeting the Anbu who had been repelled and lost their balance!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Violent explosions erupted one after another. Flames engulfed the figures, limbs and body parts mixed with rain and rubble flying everywhere!
Only Hanzo, relying on his rich combat experience and powerful strength, performed the Substitution Technique at the critical moment, transforming into a puddle of water and merging with the accumulated water on the ground, narrowly avoiding the fatal missile bombardment.
When he reformed his body, he was already on the top of another tall tower not far away, breathing rapidly, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
He stared fixedly at the top of the tower opposite.
There, two figures wearing black cloaks with red clouds stood quietly.
One of them had orange short hair, a face studded with black metal rods, and those icy, indifferent eyes looking down upon him like a god's… the Rinnegan!
"Yah... Yahiko?! Impossible! You clearly died!" Hanzo's voice was distorted by extreme shock, his eyes above the gas mask filled with panic.
He had personally witnessed Yahiko being forced to his death by his own scheme, dying on his companion's kunai!
"And... those eyes... the Rinnegan?! Why do you have them too?!" What frightened him even more were these eyes!
Just as Hanzo's mind was in turmoil, a hellhound using its fleshy wings to glide briefly between towers, cooperating tacitly with the giant bird circling in the air, attacked him from above and below simultaneously!
Hanzo, after all, was the battle-hardened [Demigod]. Though startled, he didn't panic. His chain sickle whirled, creating an impenetrable defense.
Clang!
Ssshh-!
The chain wrapped around the hellhound's limbs like a venomous snake, while the sickle, with a piercing sound through the air, accurately and viciously cleaved the hellhound in two from top to bottom!
Hanzo snorted coldly, extremely confident in the potent poison coating his sickle, believing the summon would surely die.
However, the next second, something that made his hair stand on end happened.
The hellhound corpse, split in two, did not fall. Instead, like a splitting slime, it rapidly writhed and expanded, transforming in the blink of an eye into two intact hellhounds, charging at him again, roaring!
And the giant bird in the air showed no effect from the poison gas he occasionally released, still full of vitality!
"How is this possible?! Why aren't they affected by the poison?!" Hanzo finally cried out in astonishment. This completely overturned his previous understanding and combat methods.
His poison was a trump card even Kage-level experts feared!
…
In the shadows, Jiraiya, who had been observing the battle, also witnessed this scene.
'Hanzo the Salamander's most potent poison gas attack... completely ineffective?' His heart was similarly stirred by waves of shock. 'Why aren't those two summons affected by the poison gas?'
Immediately, his gaze was also firmly captured by the orange-haired figure on the opposite tower.
'Is that... Yahiko?!' Jiraiya's pupils contracted sharply, almost unable to believe his eyes. 'But... Nagato and Konan clearly said Yahiko was dead! And... why does Yahiko also have the Rinnegan?! What in the world is going on?!'
He felt his mind was a mess… everything before him was full of contradictions and strangeness.
Just then, Gamaken beneath his feet, in its slow drawl, spoke somewhat hesitantly: "Jiraiya-sama... don't you think those summons... feel a bit off?"
"Off? How?" Jiraiya pressed urgently.
"Their feeling... they don't seem like living creatures," Gamaken struggled to articulate. "More like... like the 'zombie ants' I saw infected by a strange fungus when I traveled the tropical rainforest in my youth."
"Zombie ants?"
"Mm," Gamaken recalled. "Those ants had white fungal hyphae growing all over their joints. They could still move, their habits were the same as ordinary ants, foraging, returning to the nest... But in reality, they were already dead, just empty shells manipulated by the fungus, maintaining their pre-death activities."
"Empty shells?!" Jiraiya felt as if struck by lightning. Details from the previous battle flashed through his mind.
Those summons all had black rods inserted into them… their eyeballs also had the Rinnegan pattern!
And this 'Nagato' who appeared before him, and that 'Yahiko' on the tower… their faces, bodies, also had those bizarre black rods, and also possessed the Rinnegan!
A chilling conjecture cut through the fog in Jiraiya's mind like a bolt of lightning!
'Could it be... that Pain and those summons... are none of them the real bodies?! They are all just... puppets controlled by Nagato's Rinnegan?!'
'So that's why Hanzo's poison was ineffective!'
'Because they were already dead!'
Jiraiya looked at those indifferent Rinnegan gazing down upon all living beings in the rain curtain. A deep chill ran up his spine from the base of his spine to the top of his head.
That's why Yahiko, who 'died a long time ago' in Nagato's words, could 'return from the dead'!
Because that wasn't the living Yahiko at all!
A wave of chill instantly swept through Jiraiya's entire body.
'Is this the power of the Rinnegan...'
'Nagato... what have you become?!'