Once Konoha realized the enemy wasn't acting alone, they immediately adjusted their strategy, redistributing forces and intercepting each invader.
Thanks to the Hyuga Clan, Konoha successfully pinpointed two of the enemies: Human Pain and Naraka Pain, who had been quietly gathering intel on the Nine-Tails' location. The other four were already causing chaos out in the open, so no extra effort was needed to locate them.
All newly gathered intel was passed quickly across different units and regions.
The enemy consisted of six individuals, each with the Rinnegan, and each possessing strange, unique abilities. What had been seen so far was likely only the surface of their power.
Kakashi's squad had cornered Human Pain and Naraka Pain, the weakest among the Six Paths of Pain in terms of combat ability.
When Nagato realized these two were surrounded, he treated them as disposable pieces, slightly diverting his attention from them.
They hadn't gathered any valuable intel on the Jinchūriki's whereabouts, and now that they were cornered, all that remained was to wait patiently for the Nine-Tails' appearance.
In the meantime, resisting Konoha's counterattack was the priority. If necessary, Nagato was willing to destroy half the village. And if the Nine-Tails still didn't show up, he would shift focus to interrogating those likely to know, such as the Hokage.
....
In a narrow alley, Human Pain and Naraka Pain stood silently, their expressions cold and emotionless.
Seeing their icy demeanor, Obito glanced at Kakashi and asked: "Should we take them alive?"
Keeping captives alive for interrogation was standard when facing unknown enemies.
Whoosh, whoosh!
At that moment, more Konoha shinobi arrived, now numbering over a thousand. The overwhelming force made the two Pain bodies seem like solitary leaves in a storm.
"No."
Kakashi answered without hesitation. His icy tone was a death sentence.
This wasn't the time to worry about capturing enemies. Only when a few remained would taking one alive be useful. With six opponents still active, the priority was reducing their numbers before Konoha suffered further damage.
"Rin, fall back a little."
Obito held a special marked kunai, his Sharingan already active. Despite having access to Kamui, the strain was immense. For regular combat, he preferred using Flying Thunder God, saving Kamui for critical moments.
Rin smiled softly, her fist clenched, but didn't move back.
"I don't need your protection anymore," she said gently but firmly.
Both Obito and Kakashi glanced at her in surprise. They had always seen Rin as someone they needed to protect, but now, she had grown into a shinobi capable of holding her own.
Rin stood her ground, raising her chin slightly. On her smooth forehead was a delicate diamond-shaped mark.
Seeing her resolve, Obito and Kakashi didn't press her to fall back. This was battle, no time for unnecessary words.
Kakashi's short sword suddenly flared with wind and lightning chakra, radiating powerful energy.
Suddenly, Human Pain and Naraka Pain moved. But instead of charging at Kakashi head-on, they dashed toward the surrounding Konoha shinobi, targeting the weaker ones first, aiming to kill as many as possible before they were taken down.
The two sides quickly clashed.
....
Meanwhile, as Minato stood face-to-face with Deva Pain , the situation near Asura Pain was growing increasingly tense.
The massive summoned beasts had drawn immense attention, pulling nearly half of Konoha's forces toward Asura Pain's location. It was the right move, Konoha had to stop the beasts from destroying the village.
As a result, this battlefield became the most intense of all three.
Since summoned beasts shared vision through the Rinnegan and Konoha still lacked a full understanding of Pain's powers, the ongoing two-pronged attack allowed the three-headed hellhound to multiply into over ten heads, giving the enemy overwhelming force to maintain their position.
Among all the summoned beasts, the three-headed hellhound was the most troublesome. Once it split into over ten, Konoha shinobi became hesitant, aware that they had to approach carefully.
Nagato didn't let the beasts stay clustered in one spot. Instead, he ordered them to break out of the encirclement and spread across the village.
This forced Konoha to split its forces, making it harder to hold any one position.
The tactic worked. The sudden dispersal caused panic, and while Konoha shinobi scrambled to contain the summons, they suffered a devastating counterattack.
If this battle had taken place outside Konoha, the village wouldn't have needed to go all-out to contain the beasts, and wouldn't have taken such losses.
Terrain advantage was a double-edged sword. While the village could more easily trap invaders, that same determination to protect their home meant Konoha shinobi fought more desperately, exposing themselves in the process.
And this was the opening Nagato wanted.
While on the surface it seemed like Pain was being encircled, once Nagato had the summons spread out, Konoha's forces were pulled thin, and Pain's side gained the upper hand.
The tide began to shift.
With the arrival of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, and Tsunade, the situation began to stabilize slightly for Konoha.
But even with their leadership, the Rinnegan summons, immune to pain and death, were difficult to eliminate, and Konoha had to keep splitting troops to stop the ones that had broken through.
Since the start of the battle, less than fifteen minutes had passed.
Already, hundreds had been injured, and the death toll was… still climbing.
Katsuyu: Immense Network Healing…
Tsunade immediately summoned Katsuyu, and after it split into multiple clones, they scattered to treat the wounded across the battlefield.
Konoha was no longer what it used to be. Even in Kushina's absence, the medical corps personally trained by Tsunade was capable enough to handle half of the healing load, significantly reducing her own burden.
"The effect is showing," Tsunade said calmly.
She didn't personally enter the fight but instead remained in the rear, monitoring the movements of each Katsuyu clone. Anywhere the medical corps was already stationed, she didn't need to send a clone, freeing up her chakra reserves.
With Tsunade and Katsuyu's Immense Network Healing Technique, Konoha's shinobi fought with increasing momentum and morale.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, led a group of elite shinobi, organizing wave after wave of offensives. At an almost imperceptible pace, they were slowly gaining the upper hand.
.....
Southern Konoha, directly in front of the Hokage Rock.
After learning the ability of Pain's Deva Pain, Minato quickly ordered most of the shinobi to withdraw from the battlefield, preventing unnecessary casualties from area-of-effect attacks.
However, he didn't pull everyone back. He kept about thirty elite shinobi with him to assist.
Among them were twenty ANBU assigned to protect the Hokage, and the other ten were high-ranking jonin, including Itachi, Shisui, and Guy.
Deva Pain and Preta Pain refrained from launching another attack. Their attention was fixed on the surroundings, still searching for the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki.
"Nothing in all three areas."
Nagato silently observed through Deva Pain's vision, his eyes falling on Minato.
"Then we'll have to capture the Hokage… and use Human Pain's ability to extract the intel."
The situation was growing more urgent, it was almost time for Nagato's real body to act.
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