Chapter 63: The God Retreats, The Trap is Set
Nagato clung to the back of the eight-foot crow, Yasakagami, as it beat its wings desperately toward the distant flashes of yellow and orange that marked Obito and Minato's duel. Behind him, the Six Paths of Pain remained, a rearguard to hold off the pursuing Hiruzen and Jiraiya. He knew he was too vulnerable in his current state; a single decisive strike from either Konoha elder could end him.
"The Eight Gates… such power, from a man who was a genin…" Nagato rasped, each word a painful effort as he clutched his caved-in chest. The vitality from Hashirama's cells was the only thing keeping his heart beating.
On the ground, the battle was furious but one-sided. Without Nagato's direct, full-power control, the Pains were formidable but lacking their usual flawless coordination.
"Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan!" Jiraiya roared, thrusting the massive, churning sphere at the Deva Path.
The Preta Path—the Hungry Ghost—leapt in front, hands raised to absorb the devastating jutsu. The Rasengan visibly shrank in Jiraiya's grip.
Seeing this, Hiruzen didn't hesitate. He swung the Adamantine Staff with the force of a landslide, the pole extending instantly.
The Deva Path stepped forward, placing itself before the absorbing path. "Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive wave slammed out.
BAM! Jiraiya was blown backwards, skidding across the rubble. But Hiruzen's staff, driven by his immense physical strength and chakra, did not falter. It met the invisible barrier and pushed, a titan resisting a typhoon.
So strong! The thought echoed in Nagato's mind, even at a distance. Hiruzen's raw power was beyond his estimates.
"Is that all you have?!" Hiruzen bellowed. The muscles in his aged frame corded, his chakra flared like a bonfire, and he put his entire weight into a final, monumental push.
CRACK-SHOVE!
The staff punched through the weakening repulsive field and connected solidly with the Deva Path's torso. The Pain was launched like a ragdoll, crashing through a mound of shattered stone.
Hiruzen didn't pause. The staff, now free, swept sideways in a blur, catching the off-balance Preta Path across its middle. There was a sickening crunch. The body twisted unnaturally and fell, motionless.
"Summoning Technique!" The Animal Path's monotone voice rang out. Smoke plumed, and four massive creatures appeared: the three-headed hellhound, a charging rhino, a giant crab, and a flickering chameleon. They bought a precious few seconds for the remaining Pains to regroup.
But it was a fleeting respite. Working in seamless tandem, Hiruzen and Jiraiya dismantled the summons with brutal efficiency. The hellhound was pinned and dispersed by the staff, the rhino tripped by toad oil and shattered by a Rasengan, the crab crushed, the chameleon revealed and struck down.
Watching Nagato on the crow get closer to Obito's battlefield, Hiruzen knew they had to end this distraction. He took a deep, centering breath. "Hmph! Without the one that absorbs ninjutsu, let's see you handle this!"
Four shadow clones materialized around him. All five—Hiruzen and his copies—began weaving hand seals in perfect, blinding synchronicity. "Five Elements: Unrivalled Combination!"
A torrential wave of five distinct elemental natures—wind, fire, earth, lightning, water—merged into a roaring, prismatic tsunami of pure destruction, sweeping toward the five remaining Paths.
Jiraiya added his own signature blow. "Sage Art: Five Barriers Fire Bullet!" The combined oil-fire-wind inferno roared alongside Hiruzen's elemental flood, creating a wall of annihilation.
The Deva Path stepped forward once more, hands raised. "Shinra Tensei!"
The omnidirectional repulsion exploded outward, creating a hemispherical barrier that divided and deflected the oncoming cataclysm. The ninjutsu splashed harmlessly to either side, carving fresh canyons in the earth but leaving the Paths untouched.
But the defense left them scattered. The Asura, Animal, Human, and Naraka Paths were now separated, unable to support each other.
It was the opening Jiraiya needed. "Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan!" He dropped from above, the massive sphere aimed squarely at the isolated Animal Path.
At the same time, Hiruzen lunged, his staff a black streak aimed not at the Deva Path, but at the Asura Path, preventing it from intercepting.
The Animal Path had no defense. Jiraiya's Rasengan connected with a ground-shaking BOOM, leaving the Path a broken, still form in a fresh crater.
Hiruzen's real target, however, had been a feint. The moment his staff forced the Asura Path to block, he pivoted. The true strike, a whipping, overhead arc, was aimed at the Deva Path, who was still in the five-second cooldown period after Shinra Tensei.
The staff descended, unstoppable.
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
Five clouds of smoke erupted simultaneously. Not just the Deva Path, but all the remaining Paths of Pain vanished before the staff could land.
"Tch," Hiruzen spat, lowering his weapon. "Released the summoning." With Nagato critically injured and fleeing, he couldn't afford to lose all his precious Paths in a futile stand. He had cut his losses.
In the air, the eight-foot crow carrying Nagato flickered and vanished as its summoner, the Animal Path, was dispelled. Nagato began to fall.
But he was not helpless. Even as he dropped, his bloodied hands formed a seal. "Summoning Technique!"
POOF! Yasakagami reappeared in mid-air, swooping underneath him. Nagato landed roughly on its back, and it banked hard, beginning to circle the periphery of Minato and Obito's high-speed battlefield like a vulture.
Minato's sharp eyes tracked the new arrival instantly. The Rinnegan user, severely wounded. A priority target. His tactical mind recalibrated in a nanosecond.
Shwip-shwip-shwip! Three Flying Thunder God kunai shot from his hand, not at Obito, but arcing toward the circling crow.
Nagato saw them coming. He took a pained breath. "Shinra Tensei!"
A weak but wide repulsive pulse spread out from him. Ding-ding-ding! The kunai were deflected, sent spinning away into the darkness.
A flash of yellow. Minato appeared nearby, having teleported to one of the deflected kunai, effortlessly dodging a spray of wooden spikes from Obito. His right hand moved again, a blur of motion. This time, a fan of five kunai, their edges humming with wind-nature chakra for extra speed and penetration, shot toward Nagato in a wider, harder-to-avoid pattern.
He's switching targets. He's decided to eliminate Nagato first. Obito analyzed, his mind racing. Nagato is crucial to the plan… but his arrival is also a new variable. Perhaps… this is the opportunity. I can use Nagato as bait, and Minato-sensei's own mark as the trap. I can remove my greatest obstacle and fully secure Nagato's allegiance in one move.
"Trouble…" Nagato gritted his teeth, urging Yasakagami into evasive maneuvers. But with Minato now solely focused on him, the distance was closing. The five-second cooldown of Shinra Tensei yawned before him like a chasm.
Five seconds. An eternity for the Yellow Flash.
The cooldown ended. Another wave of kunai came. Nagato forced out another "Shinra Tensei!", batting them aside, but he was tiring, his chakra draining with each use.
The next cooldown began. Minato vanished from his previous location.
A whisper of wind, the faintest shink of metal. Nagato's Rinnegan swiveled. A single Flying Thunder God kunai was embedded in the crow's feathers, just behind his head. It had been among the first volley, deflected but not gone.
Before he could react, a golden blur materialized in the air behind him, on the crow itself.
Minato Namikaze stood on the summon's back, a Rasengan already spiraling to life in his palm, aimed point-blank at Nagato's spine.
A cold, absolute sense of death flooded Nagato's entire being.
(End of Chapter)
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