In the distance, Akatsuki members and the pirate battalions were locked in a fierce melee—two armies clashing, devastation blooming wherever they passed.
But above the gate of Amegakure, the sky was unnaturally silent; the mood had curdled into something eerie.
Tendō Pain opened his mouth several times as if to speak, but each time he shut it again, his feelings too tangled to name.
Uchiha Madara wasn't Uchiha Madara at all, but some nobody—Uchiha Obito.
His aim wasn't peace either, but the Tsuki no Me Keikaku (Eye of the Moon Plan): to cast Mugen Tsukuyomi (Infinite Tsukuyomi) and drag the entire world into hell.
And even that was just another move on the board. He himself had been played; the true hand behind the curtain was Zetsu…
Layer beneath layer… If Bofūn Menma wasn't lying, then he and Konan had been clowned from the start, toyed with like fools.
"Eight… two… three…"
"How do you even know any of this?" Konan ground out between her teeth.
She was starting to believe Menma—just a little.
But the information he was dropping was too explosive. It left her rattled.
"There isn't a thing in this world I don't know." Naruto looked down from above at Tendō Pain and Konan, voice light.
"Following Uchiha Obito leads nowhere. Become my subordinates instead."
This wasn't like the past. He had power now—enough that he didn't need to hide truths that could get people killed.
And if those truths could win Tendō Pain and Konan to his side, so much the better.
"Liar!"
On the distant King of Hell statue, space twisted; a masked figure with a whorled pattern stepped out—Uchiha Obito.
He stared coldly at Naruto. "I am Uchiha Madara. Don't try to shake our resolve with nonsense."
Naruto tilted his head, curious. "You're this stubborn because Madara left a curse seal on your heart, right?"
"Wh—*! #! ¥¢…" Obito almost lost it on the spot.
How the hell do you know everything!?
Had he… really been fooled by Madara—no—by that "Zetsu"?
Feeling his mindset teeter, Obito shot a glance toward Zetsu in the distance, steadying himself only then.
"Impossible…"
"How could Madara—that Madara—be tricked by trash like this?"
Obito drew a long breath.
He'd met many powerful people, but none had ever weighed on him like Madara. The Shura of the shinobi world, the mind that conceived the Eye of the Moon—how could that man be duped by a puppet?
"Stop spouting lies. I am Uchiha Madara, and there's no curse on my heart." Obito's voice sank.
"Pain. Konan. Take him down."
Tendō Pain and Konan exchanged a look. They hesitated—but in the end their eyes hardened as they turned on Naruto.
"Bofūn Menma, we'll capture you first. Then we'll see if these 'truths' of yours hold up."
As he spoke, Tendō Pain raised his right hand and barked:
"Banshō Ten'in (Universal Pull)!"
Naruto sighed and didn't resist the crushing gravity taking hold of his body. He muttered,
"Figures. I really don't have any talk-no-jutsu. I slap the truth right across their faces and they still won't believe me…"
"But whatever."
He clenched his fist and looked at the Gakidō (Hungry Ghost Path) Pain yanked to point-blank range.
"I'll flatten every last one of you, and then you'll know I was telling the truth."
Gakidō's face was impassive. He spread his arms wide, body taking a 大-shape, and rocketed toward Naruto under the flow of gravity and repulsion.
Ningendō (Human Path) flashed in behind Naruto, a hand snatching for the back of his head.
Shuradō (Asura Path) appeared at his flank, arm shifting into machinery and spitting a volley of missiles. (For violent, exhilarating novels, go to Faloo!)
Chikushōdō (Animal Path) slapped both palms to the ground not far away. With a boom, a three-headed hell-hound burst from a summoning sigil.
Jigokudō (Hell Path) prowled even farther back, eyes watchful.
Faced with this, Naruto neither ducked nor dodged—he simply drove a savage punch straight into Gakidō's chest.
"Boom!!"
Gakidō's chest was pierced clean through.
And then the follow-up attacks crashed in—deafening detonations roared, firelight swallowed Naruto's silhouette, and dust boiled through the air.
"How is it, Pain!?" Konan stared tensely at Tendō. "Gakidō's already got him—he should be heavily injured, right?"
As Nagato's partner, Konan knew the Six Paths of Pain inside and out…
Gakidō could devour any and all chakra.
Shuradō could manifest mechanized weaponry—missiles, even laser cannonry.
Ningendō could rip a soul straight out of a body.
Chikushōdō could summon living weapons modified by the Rinnegan.
Jigokudō could revive destroyed Paths and summon the King of Hell.
And once Gakidō got a grip on you, your chakra would be drained to empty in moments, leaving you at your weakest.
"No…" Tendō answered coolly, but his face had gone a shade darker.
"That monster… the chakra inside him is too much…"
The dust peeled away.
Naruto stood in the air without a scratch, arm buried through Gakidō's torso—letting the Path guzzle his chakra at will.
He hoisted Gakidō casually and grinned.
"What, that's it? I thought your appetite was massive. Turns out… pretty mid."
The ruined Gakidō said nothing—just devoured Naruto's chakra all the harder, blue light bleeding over his frame.
But slowly… he stopped.
He lifted his head, voice flat.
"Are you even human…?"
He'd once crossed blades with Kisame—the so-called "tailed beast without a tail." Even then, he'd drained him dry in a blink.
But this blond youth's chakra reserves… "terrifying" barely began to cover it.
To Gakidō, this kid was—if anything—beyond a beast.
"What's that got to do with you?" Flames flared along Naruto's forearm. In an instant, they swallowed Gakidō whole.
The latter made no sound—he simply burned to ash.
"Rrrrroar!!"
The three-headed hell-hound bellowed, heads lifting high as it glared up at the blond in the sky, enraged—but it couldn't fly.
So Naruto simply dropped to the ground, planted one hand, and slammed the beast into the dirt.
"I remember you can split, right?"
He licked his lips and drove his fist down again, and again, and again.
Each blow made the earth shudder like it was about to come apart.
(End of Chapter)
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