"Hey, Leaf ninjas, send someone who can talk!"
Although Bai Cangshu was telling them to find someone with enough prestige, he had already thrown Hiruzen Sarutobi's corpse towards Jiraiya, who had repelled several Pains.
At this time, large numbers of Leaf ninjas, all wounded, gathered behind Jiraiya.
No matter how unreliable Jiraiya was, he was still a top ninja who had earned the title of Sannin during the Third Shinobi World War, and after a series of changes in the Leaf, he was one of the few people they could rely on.
Jiraiya subconsciously caught the flying corpse, then froze in place.
He looked at the charred corpse in his hands, but could still make out his teacher's stern face.
Jiraiya looked up at Orochimaru, who was standing dozens of meters away, dressed in a red cloud black robe, standing with Tao Bai Bai, who had been mentioned in intelligence.
"Orochimaru… Teacher is dead…"
Jiraiya's tone was sorrowful. When Orochimaru defected, he had pursued Orochimaru for a long time, but was eventually wounded by Orochimaru. The two, who had fought side by side since childhood, ultimately parted on bad terms.
He couldn't understand why Orochimaru insisted on doing those things, and Orochimaru couldn't understand why Jiraiya wanted to stay in the village.
Seeing Jiraiya's sorrowful expression, Orochimaru merely showed a cold smile. His voice remained calm and icy.
"Yes, it's truly a pity. The Third Hokage fought to the death to protect the village."
There was no hint of regret in Orochimaru's tone. These words chilled Jiraiya to the bone.
Jiraiya took a deep breath, finally confirming that Orochimaru was now a complete enemy. He stood in front of everyone, looking coldly at Tao Bai Bai and Orochimaru, and said,
"What is there left to say now?!"
Orochimaru stepped back two paces, and Tendō Pain, who had not made much of a move, walked over. However, the greatest damage to the Leaf was undoubtedly caused by Animal Path Pain's summoned beasts and Asura Path Pain's missiles and lasers.
The Pain Six Paths' lethality against ordinary ninjas was overwhelming. However, the gigantic summoned beasts summoned at will had to be dealt with by Jonin-level combatants. Ordinary Chunin, or even Special Jonin, needed to cooperate to defeat one, and even then, casualties were very likely.
Animal Path Pain could summon dozens of them and imbue these summoned beasts with the ability to split, so that after being defeated, they would split into more summoned beasts.
This ability caused immense destruction throughout the Leaf, and was the reason why the Leaf could not concentrate a large number of ninjas to unleash combined Ninjutsu attacks on Orochimaru and Tao Bai Bai.
Furthermore, every Pain, regardless of path, possessed the insight of the Reincarnation Eye. Ordinary Body Flicker Technique, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and thrown attacks were very difficult to make effective.
Although these Pain Six Paths seemed unable to cause effective damage when facing Bai Cangshu, only relying on Tendō Pain's Cosmic Pull, Shinra Tensei, and Earth Explosion Star for offense and defense, in this level of battle, each Pain could easily kill a large number of ninjas with just Taijutsu.
"We do not intend to completely destroy the Leaf."
In fact, Pain's original idea was to completely flatten the Leaf to make the world feel pain.
But Tao Bai Bai told him that the result of doing so would simply be for other Shinobi Villages to unite against the Akatsuki, and then the Cloud Village, Hidden Sand Village, or Iwa Village would take over the Leaf's position.
Pain did not understand this Logic, but he had understood the core content Tao Bai Bai spoke of: these Shinobi Villages were merely pure violent organizations, accepting orders to start wars, initiate plunder, and be supported by the nation.
The core of this cycle of profit was not in the Shinobi Village.
So he was willing to initiate the 'Five Nations Fall' plan. He wanted to see the possibility of 'long-term peace and stability' that Tao Bai Bai spoke of.
Although Nagato clearly understood that Tao Bai Bai could not be a good person at all, that guy was a tyrant who completely craved chaos, but Nagato had been trapped in the ninja hatred spiral for too long. As long as there was any hope, he was willing to try.
If war could truly be ended, even if he personally placed a tyrannical monarch on the throne, someone would eventually assassinate him.
"Next, we will withdraw from the Leaf, and you will not be able to conceal the fact that the Leaf was attacked by us and is now extremely weakened."
Tendō Pain's tone was calm; he was merely stating the facts of what would happen next.
"Leaf ninjas, war will begin soon. I hope you do not let this war end too soon."
After Pain finished speaking, he began to float into the air. He had one last thing to do: he would completely destroy the Leaf's fortifications, leaving the Leaf with no defenses.
Seeing this, Jiraiya felt something was wrong and quickly formed hand signs to gather Sage Chakra.
The blonde woman standing behind Bai Cangshu said,
"I advise you not to do that, Lord Jiraiya. The current situation is already the optimal solution. Whatever you do now will only make the Leaf's situation worse."
She walked out from behind Bai Cangshu and the others. Jiraiya was startled; this woman wearing an Anbu mask had a strong natural energy about her!
That intensity of natural energy, if not harmonized with powerful Chakra, should have corroded her.
But this woman was completely unaffected.
[Heaven's Will]noticed Jiraiya's gaze. She openly spread her hands, natural energy emanating from within her. She even turned around, her figure slightly floating as she spun.
Her power was definitely not as weak as she described it to others.
"Lord Jiraiya, the problem we should be considering now is how to complete the reconstruction of the new Leaf in two days under these circumstances, and successfully defend the village in the upcoming multi-Shinobi Village attack."
"We?!"
Uchiha Fugaku questioned coldly. At one point, he had indeed considered this woman as an option. She had numerous sources of information and was mysterious. Both Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzo trusted her greatly.
Furthermore, this woman expressed affirmation for the Uchiha. If this woman could rise to power, the Uchiha's situation would be alleviated. That was how he thought.
But today's sudden turn of events completely prevented him from understanding this woman's past actions.
Facing the strong enemy's attack, she silently betrayed the Third Hokage's side, providing no intelligence warnings whatsoever.
Heaven's Will chuckled lightly, not explaining. She believed that in the face of the desperate power gap, these ninjas would eventually walk the path she desired.
She acted without any contractual or Logic restrictions; she merely followed the choice of the most perfect timeline, nothing more.
At this moment, a black-haired Uchiha ninja walked from the Uchiha Clan, blood continuously dripping from the blade in his hand.
Uchiha Fugaku saw his eldest son behind him. Mikoto pulled Sasuke tightly, Sasuke's face full of tears, constantly shouting, hoping his brother would turn back.
But Uchiha Itachi only paused for a moment, then walked to Tao Bai Bai's side without looking back.
"Danzo has been killed."
Bai Cangshu raised an eyebrow. He did not see Uchiha Itachi bring Danzo's head, understanding vaguely what had happened. In the distance, on the magic carpet floating in the air, Catherine made a gesture.
Bai Cangshu's lips curled into a smile. He patted Itachi's shoulder and said,
"Very good, I am very satisfied with your share of the slaughter."
"The collapse of the Leaf ends here. Next… it is time for us to spread chaos to every land."
Bai Cangshu looked at Susanoo in the distance, unable to attack Uchiha Obito. It was clear that Uchiha Shisui still hadn't released that Heavenly Hand Power.
He grabbed Uchiha Itachi, turned, and leaped into the air, continuously stepping on the air, quickly leaving the Leaf using Moonwalk.
Then Tendō Pain in the sky unleashed a terrifying impact towards the Leaf's Hokage Rock.
The destructive repulsive force shattered the Hokage Rock and caused the entire mountain to collapse backward, extending into the forest. There was no longer any cover behind the Leaf.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
At this moment, Kakashi, looking somewhat weak, arrived behind Jiraiya with Shibi Aburame, Choza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka, and many other ninja clan leaders.
These individuals had previously dispersed to various locations to intercept the summoned beasts and used the strength of their clans to control the chaos in the Leaf.
And behind these people, Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy, and a group of ninjas from Kakashi's generation, all covered in wounds, gathered.
These people successfully survived today's catastrophic event.
Asuma Sarutobi stared blankly at the charred corpse in front of Jiraiya, collapsing to his knees in despair. He could only watch as that group of people quickly departed into the air, not even having the strength to throw a shuriken.
—
"Where the Leaf dances, fire continues to burn…"
"The shadow of the fire will illuminate the village, and the Leaf will take root and sprout again."