"Boom!!!"
Fire blossomed across the heavens.
A rolling heatwave swept through the sky, searing flames all but illuminating the entirety of Amegakure. It was as if the whole village were thrown into a crucible of fire.
All around, pirates and shinobi alike halted mid-battle and craned their necks, staring up in disbelief at the inferno overhead.
"The storm clouds were torn open!?"
"No—those clouds got vaporized!"
"Wrong again—space itself was ripped apart…"
Shocked voices rose and overlapped. Countless onlookers saw that gash of black in the firmament. The rain-soaked canopy that had blanketed Amegakure for years was being devoured by flame at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into a red-burning sea of clouds.
The blaze seemed to smother the entire sky.
Kakuzu's eyelids twitched madly as he ground out, "Impossible… What level of Katon (Fire Release) is this—are you kidding me!?"
He'd lived over ninety years, survived three Great Ninja Wars, and even crossed blades with the First Hokage. And yet, with all that experience, he had never seen a fire technique this monstrous.
"How much chakra does that take…?" Kisame's voice had gone dry. "This guy's the real walking Tailed Beast, isn't he?"
The might of Katon (Fire Release) scales with chakra—the more chakra, the hotter and stronger the flames. But this sky-blotting inferno… it was hard to believe a human had wrought it. Even a Tailed Beast would struggle to match this.
"Heh-heh-heh… don't tell me Zero just got wiped out?" Orochimaru's tongue snaked out to wet his lips.
At that, a chill pricked the hearts of the Akatsuki. A bad premonition flashed across their minds as they hurried to search the roaring flames for any sign of Tendō Pain.
If Tendō really had been erased, what reason did they have to keep fighting here?
Fortunately, after a desperate search, they finally spotted him—Tendō Pain, clothes charred through and through, a picture of ruin amidst the firestorm.
"Pain, are you okay!?" Konan flew to his side, worry etched between her brows.
At the instant the flames had descended, she had used Shikigami no Mai (Dance of the Shikigami) to lighten her body and slip out of the sky, avoiding the searing tide.
Breathing hard, Tendō Pain fixed his icy gaze on the blond youth below and grated, "That Katon (Fire Release)—it actually shattered my Chō Shinra Tensei (Super Almighty Push). A little more… and I'd have melted…"
"What…?" Konan's eyes tightened as she stared at Naruto in shock. "He's already grown that strong?"
She knew very well what Chō Shinra Tensei (Super Almighty Push) meant—an apocalyptic calamity. And yet that disaster had been blown apart by an unknown fire technique, with the shockwave nearly engulfing Tendō Pain himself.
"This is bad…"
Tendō's face shifted as his gaze swept to the only two remaining Paths at his command.
The Asura Path had been ignited by the blond youth's godlike pillar of flame and melted down; even steel had run like liquid. The Human Path had been snared by that golden hair and finished off with a flurry of fists and feet.
In short—the Six Paths of Pain had been annihilated save for Tendō; the other five were gone and could not be restored in the short term.
"You're next, Tendō." Naruto lifted his head toward him, then turned his eyes toward the village. "Actually… maybe I should deal with Gedō Nagato (Outer Path Nagato) first."
Tendō Pain and Konan blanched again. Naruto not only knew the truth—he even knew the location of the true body behind Pain.
"Damn it…" Obito could no longer sit still. His figure flickered as he struck, hands flashing through seals. "Katon: Bōfū Ranbu (Fire Release: Tempest Rampage)!"
He spewed a raging torrent of flame. Twined with spatial distortion, the fire stormed forth in a whirling vortex, surging at Naruto like a tornado of heat.
"Using Katon (Fire Release) on me? That's hilarious…" Naruto snorted, raising his right hand.
Before the flames could even approach, they wrenched around mid-flight—as if commanded—and surged back toward Obito, swallowing him in an instant.
"I am the sovereign of flame."
Naruto lowered his hand with a cold smile—just as he sensed a subtle warping of space behind him.
Behind his back, space swirled like a vortex. From that spiral slipped the Obito who had just been consumed by fire, reappearing with eerie ease.
...…0求鲜花.....
A silent hand reached for Naruto's throat.
Naruto didn't resist. He let Obito's fingers close around his neck.
In the next heartbeat, the rotating space engulfed them both. Naruto and Obito vanished from Amegakure at the same time.
Konan exhaled, then hesitated. "Pain… is it over?"
The shock Naruto had dealt her was simply too great. Even watching him get seized and taken away with her own eyes, she couldn't shake a lingering unease.
"More or less." Tendō Pain finally let out a breath. "Anyone taken by Madara's hand—none have ever escaped."
Elsewhere—
Space unfurled in a spiral.
What entered Naruto's sight was a dim world, filled with countless rectangular pillars standing in ranks that stretched out of sight. Empty and lifeless, it felt like some desolate dead end.
"So this is the Kamui (Divine Authority) space?" Naruto stepped forward in curiosity.
He drove a fist into one of the stone pillars.
Boom!
The pillar collapsed with a thunderous crash.
"They really are stone pillars…" Naruto glanced around again, unable to help a bemused comment. "What is this place supposed to be?"
With the Mangekyō Sharingan alone, this sort of pocket-dimension shouldn't be possible… should it?
But he soon set the question aside and chuckled, looking around. "He still isn't here?"
He'd assumed Obito would chase him in an instant.
"If he doesn't finish me off here, what is he planning to do with me?" Naruto tilted his head and laughed. "Lock me up and let me starve to death in here?"
Outside—
Obito let his form ripple back into view. "I've already dealt with the son of the Yellow Flash. Next are those 'monsters.' Pain—"
As Tendō Pain listened closely, his pupils suddenly flared. "Madara—behind you!"
"Behind me—?"
Obito turned in confusion—only to meet Naruto's heel driving straight toward him.
"Boom!!"
(End of Chapter)
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