"Rrraaah! Rrraaah! Rrraaah—!"
The three-headed hell-hound howled in agony; all three skulls had been hammered into the dirt.
In its pain, the body suddenly split in two—but before it could act again, Naruto snatched both halves back and kept pummeling.
Seeing this, the other four Pains rushed in without hesitation.
Tendō appeared above Naruto, arms spread as if to embrace the sky, and spoke coldly:
"Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)!"
Boom!
An invisible repulsive force crashed across the ground.
At the same time, the other Paths' attacks poured in—some flinging an arsenal of weapons, some spewing hundreds upon thousands of mechanized missiles.
Sitting astride the hell-hound's body, Naruto's lips quirked. He pressed both palms to the earth:
"Katon: Shinka Chū (Fire Release: Divine Fire Pillar)!"
Whoom!
A circular pillar of flame speared into the sky, its brutal shockwave shouldering straight through Tendō's repulsion.
Every attack racing toward him was swallowed by the blaze before it could reach his body—the flames radiating outward burned them all to ash.
Explosions rolled through the air.
Far off, the pirate battalions sucked in a collective breath.
"The Captain's getting serious…"
"Yeah. That's gotta be the Burn-Burn Fruit's ability—it's scorching over here…"
"The enemy's no slouch either—holding their own against the Captain's flames. These ninja really have some tricks…"
"No kidding. Especially that one—he hits like a sea king!"
The pirates dragged their gazes back. However fierce the duel up there got, they knew they were in no shape to join.
The foes right in front of them were trouble enough.
"Still…" a burly pirate muttered, eyeing Hidan getting mob-stomped in the distance, "why's that guy so weak?"
Every other ninja powerhouse could do something insane—conjure surging torrents from nothing, blanket the sky in black iron sand, belch out pitch-black fire…
And the worst was that snake-like freak: slippery, boneless, spamming ninjutsu and vomiting swarms of venomous snakes, making the pirates' lives a living hell.
Only the scythe-toting guy with the blood-red blade…
Before the fight, he'd been unbearably cocky—boasting he'd wipe them all out single-handed. It had put them on edge.
But once fists flew, he was the one getting his guts beaten out.
"Eh, every crew's got dead weight. He's probably the ninja world's dead weight," one pirate mused.
"True!" another agreed—and then gave Hidan a few extra kicks for good measure.
"Arghhh, you bastards—!" Hidan howled, voice cracking with rage. "I'll offer every last one of you to Lord Jashin! I won't let you die easy—"
He didn't finish. A bolt of pain lanced up from his groin so sharp his eyes nearly popped out.
"Quit it, you scum! Stop! Where do you think you're kicking!? Let me stand up if you've got guts—aaagh!"
"My leg's broken…!"
"How are you all so damn strong!? Damn it—Kakuzu, help me—!"
The plea tore out of Hidan against his pride.
He had no choice—the rain of size-52 boots kept coming, like a storm determined to stomp every bone in his body into powder. (For violent, exhilarating novels, go to Faloo!)
Kakuzu was locked in a brawl with the pirates. Hearing the cry, he glanced Hidan's way—his face went dark.
"Useless. I told you to train your taijutsu."
He truly hated iron that refused to turn to steel. With an immortal body, Hidan had a terrifying edge—yet he never trained it.
Every fight, he rushed to use his curse. His hand-to-hand was worse than an average chūnin's.
Thinking this, Kakuzu flashed through seals and slammed both palms to the ground:
"Doton: Daichi Hōkai (Earth Release: Great Earth Rupture)!"
The ground fractured at once. A storm of jagged stone shards pelted the pirates like rain, forcing them to give way.
Seizing the chance, Hidan scrambled upright, licking someone's blood from his lips, eyes going fanatical.
"You lot—be ready. This is gonna hurt!"
He scraped a circle with his right foot, quickly sketching an outer ring and inner triangle sigil.
"Come, Lord Jashin!"
Hidan spread his arms wide, apparently dropping all defense.
Then—
"ROOM!"
A few flashes of blade-light later, Hidan blinked at the pieces of his body floating apart in the air.
"W-what the—!?"
Trafalgar Law twirled the fingers of his right hand. Hidan's pieces jumble-reassembled into a misaligned mess; he couldn't even take a step.
"Too weak." Law's gaze went flat as he turned away.
"Hohoho…" Orochimaru's voice coiled up behind him, greedy and thrilled. "Your ability… truly excites me…"
Sssk—
Law's face changed. In a blink, he shambled to a safer distance.
He touched the nick at his neck, eyes going cold on Orochimaru.
"What did you do to me?"
"..."
—
"Iron Sand doesn't count as sand!?"
Crocodile glared across at the Third Kazekage, and swept an arm—an ocean of golden sand surged like a tsunami.
The Third Kazekage puppet yawned wide, vomiting a torrent of black Satetsu (Iron Sand) no weaker than the desert wave.
The airborne iron mass slammed into the sand head-on and, inch by inch, pressed it down—then swallowed Crocodile whole.
"Here we go again…" Hidden inside the puppet, Sasori watched the Iron Sand with rising excitement.
"So you can become sand… If the real Third had this trick back then, the corpse on the floor might've been mine."
As he spoke, he stepped out of the puppet of his own accord.
A flood of sand gathered at his side, knitting together into Crocodile's form. Face like ice, Crocodile swung his golden hook.
"So you're the real body controlling that thing?"
Sasori didn't hesitate. From each palm, high-pressure jets knifed out with a hiss.
"Don't worry. I'll turn you into a human puppet no inferior to the Third Kazekage—an ultimate art that time itself can't erode."
(End of Chapter)
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