"It looks like *sensei* and his team have the upper hand."
Obito Uchiha and Kushina watched events unfold from Hokage Rock as Minato had instructed. This vantage point gave them an unobstructed view of the ongoing battle.
"Yes, but with the village suffering such great damage, we need to start rescue operations quickly."
Kushina stared toward the ruins. Her powerful sensory abilities allowed her to detect weak life signs buried beneath the rubble.
"But the teacher told us to stay here. Others will handle the rest."
Obito glanced toward the hospital area. He had his own thoughts about the situation, but ultimately reason overcame emotion—he decided to obediently remain at their post.
The village was indeed facing its most difficult moment, but that didn't mean everyone needed to be directly involved in every effort.
Rescue missions would naturally be handled by other ninja.
His mission was simple—remain here with Kushina and wait safely until Minato defeated the enemy.
Continuing to wander around recklessly now would only interfere with Minato's group who were already under immense pressure. That kind of behavior would be utterly foolish.
"Please don't worry, Kushina-sama. Although this attack will cause heavy casualties in Konoha, I believe things can still be controlled. Please don't worry and just stay put for now."
Obito noticed the emotions flickering deep within Kushina's eyes and could only offer this reassurance.
Female ninja tended to be more emotionally driven in their decisions.
"Oh! Look—it's Shikaku! They're coming this way!"
Suddenly, Obito spotted a group of ninja swiftly leaping across the ruins toward their location.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Within ten seconds, the group landed before them. Leading was Shikaku, while Choza was being supported by two others.
"Kushina, so you're here."
Seeing Kushina unharmed, Shikaku visibly relaxed.
"I'm fine. What happened to you?"
Kushina frowned slightly. Shikaku and the others looked quite battered. Choza's arms dangled limply at his sides, his face pale.
"Earlier, one of Pain's infiltrated the Hokage Building. We engaged him in battle. Unfortunately, the enemy had extremely bizarre abilities. During the fight, Inoichi was... then the enemy extracted information about you from Inoichi's memories before leaving quickly. So we rushed here to provide support, but encountered another attack along the way. Choza sustained these injuries protecting us."
Shikaku briefly recounted what happened on their end. At mention of Inoichi, sorrow flickered briefly across his face but vanished almost instantly.
He held a special position now—showing unnecessary emotions in front of others could affect troop morale.
"Minato has already returned, so there shouldn't be any major issues, although Konoha's losses this time..."
Seeing Kushina safe finally eased Shikaku's tension somewhat, as he turned his gaze toward the distant battlefield.
"Hmm, how many ninja are still available? Deploy them all for civilian rescue immediately. There's still a chance to save many lives."
"Kushina still deeply cares about the villagers," Shikaku said, making a suggestion.
"I've already arranged people along the way, and we started evacuating civilians as soon as the enemy invasion began, sending them into shelters. So currently, casualty numbers are under control—mostly economic losses."
Shikaku explained.
His expression once again returned to that calm, strategic state—the typical composed tactician mindset.
Before arriving here, his biggest worry had been Kushina falling into enemy hands. Now he discovered not only had Minato returned, but Kushina was also safe. That lifted the biggest weight off his shoulders.
Since Minato and others were keeping Pain occupied, his current role as Kage's aide was to quickly coordinate other aspects—gathering all available ninja for search and rescue operations.
He certainly wouldn't fantasize about engaging in battle, but handling these smaller matters posed no problem whatsoever.
"Let me try treating Choza's injuries—if it's just simple fractures, I should be able to handle it."
Kushina slowly walked over. She'd noticed Choza's injuries earlier.
After casual conversation came time for serious work.
Since they couldn't head down to search for others just yet, they figured they'd start with whatever tasks were right in front of them.
Choza's enlargement ability worked extremely well for search operations—collapsed houses felt like tiny toys in his hands.
If they could treat his injuries first, more people would have a chance to be rescued—indirectly saving countless lives.
"Then I'll leave Choza to you first. I need to go check the shelters and redeploy some ninja here for rescue efforts."
Shikaku agreed with Kushina's suggestion, then vanished with several quick jumps alongside the group of ninjas behind him.
Konoha had several shelters. One was located at the base of Hokage Rock. While coming to meet Kushina, he'd already sent one ninja to investigate that location.
Now he planned to visit several shelters located in the mountains behind Konoha. Rescue missions required a huge number of hands—and what he had right now wasn't nearly enough.
Although enemies hadn't yet left the village, their work could begin immediately, starting from outer areas and gradually expanding inward.
Time waits for no one.
The sooner they started rescuing people, the better chance those buried under the rubble had of surviving.
Yet another major problem suddenly occurred to Shikaku.
The severe lack of medical ninja!
The incident center happened right in front of the hospital courtyard, where Konoha's Medical Division was nearby.
Medical ninja generally lacked combat capability to begin with, and now being so close to the battle zone meant predictable consequences.
Indeed, along the way here he hadn't seen any active medical ninja—a truly headache-inducing situation.
Still, rescue operations must proceed immediately—save people first before considering subsequent problems.
"Bear with this for a moment," Obito heard Minato's wife say as he watched Shikaku lead his team away.
For Kushina's Medical Ninjutsu, he had some understanding. It seemed she'd picked it up out of sheer boredom, developing her own unorthodox techniques that rivaled those from the Medical Division.
"This is troublesome," Choza muttered, frowning as he spoke.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Shikaku's retreating figure disappear into the distance. His eyes turned serious with worry.
Not long afterward, another thought struck him, casting a shadow of sorrow across his face.
Inoichi's death had come completely unexpected.
That Pain's ability was eerily strange — killing silently and invisibly.
Kushina first guided Choza to sit on a flat patch of ground. Then, using her unique technique, she twisted his dislocated arm back into place before swiftly pressing her glowing green palm against him.
Whether it was Kushina's strong chakra or just her natural talent, her Medical Ninjutsu worked remarkably well. Choza's injuries visibly improved.
As for Naruto, he stayed quiet, sitting off to the side with a blade of grass between his fingers. His gaze continuously shifted between Kushina and the distant battlefield.
"More ninja are already mobilizing."
Obito noticed more and more ninja moving about atop the village ruins. Many injured ninja were also crawling from beneath the wreckage before throwing themselves into rescue missions.
...
Jiraiya's [Sage Art: Five Elements Toad Oil Flame (Goryōmaru)] was powerful, but the Rinnegan's abilities were even more monstrous.
Although Minato and Guy had previously cooperated to quickly eliminate Preta Path — the one capable of absorbing chakra — Deva Path still handled the fierce ninjutsu assault effortlessly, just like a seasoned Kage's Aide.
Stretching his hands forward, scorching flames automatically parted to either side of him, as if repelled by the power of the Rinnegan itself.
"Good. There should be at least five seconds during which its defense has a vulnerability."
After releasing his sage art and watching his attack get repelled again, Jiraiya didn't feel discouraged. Instead, he looked quite pleased.
So immediately after casting his technique, he charged straight ahead.
Almost instantly, he closed the distance between them.
Without wasting words, he launched his attack directly.
Deva Path stood at the front, so naturally it became his first target.
He also knew that Nagato, driven by certain emotions, had made Yahiko the core of this set of Pains. Eliminating Yahiko first would make handling the other Paths much easier.
He pushed off the ground with one foot and sprang straight up like a coiled spring.
The wind howled past his ears as he raised his right hand.
[Big Ball Rasengan!]
An impressively large Rasengan formed in his palm, descending along with his leap toward Deva Path.
The Absolute Defense was in cooldown. This moment represented the perfect opening.
[Summoning Jutsu!]
However, Deva Path wasn't fighting alone.
Behind him, Animal Path slammed both palms onto the ground. As white smoke rose, a stone panda appeared to block Deva Path's front line, intercepting Jiraiya's attack at the outermost edge.
The Rasengan possessed tremendous power, but the stone panda's defense proved equally formidable.
Jiraiya's attack left behind a massive crater—but most of its destructive power had been spent in the process.
With a slap, he placed his other hand on the panda summon, then flipped his body upward, rolling backward behind it.
If blocked, he would just keep attacking. As long as he kept pressing the assault, there was a good chance something would land.
The Human Path and Naraka Path were heading toward him now, but Minato and Guy gave chase as well.
Guy moved fast. Having just eliminated one enemy left him slightly excited, so faced with two fleeing targets, he showed no mercy.
In the blink of an eye, he reached behind the Naraka Path.
[Konoha Adamantine Typhoon!]
He sprang from one leg, twisting violently midair before driving his foot into the right side of the Naraka Path's face.
Bang!
A dull sound rang out, and the Naraka Path's figure seemed as though it had been struck sideways by a train. Half its face and head caved inward instantly.
Its feet lifted off the ground, propelled sideways by the sheer force of Guy's kick.
Its head barely connected to the shoulders anymore, skidding along the ground for a distance as if there was little hope of recovery—even though the being had clearly already been dead.
Alongside Guy, Minato also launched his attack.
Hiss!
A kunai zipped past the Human Path's face. Spinning midair, the weapon carved spiraling white rings in the air while lifting strands of its orange hair.
Faced with the kunai strike, the Human Path twisted its body inhumanely midair, dodging Minato's attack. But the next second, it realized its mistake.
Long knowing the opponent included a ninja skilled in space-time ninjutsu, it still failed to maintain adequate caution. Nagato realized his mistake and swiftly adjusted his strategy.
The Human Path flipped its right hand, revealing a Black Rod from within its sleeve, and without hesitation, thrust it at the empty air where the kunai had landed.
According to the previous pattern, the enemy would appear at the kunai's location to launch another attack—just as Nagato had intended.
Sure enough, Minato appeared there.
But the enemy seemed to have predicted the move. The moment he materialized, he twisted sideways.
This twist evaded the Black Rod, letting the weapon slide beneath his armpit.
Effortlessly clamping his arm shut, Minato trapped the incoming weapon.
And following that motion, he slashed his right-hand-held kunai toward the wrist holding the weapon, forcing the opponent to drop it.
Powerless, the Human Path let go and attempted to leap back, hoping to gain some distance from Minato.
But Minato had already prepared for this.
Forcing it to drop the weapon stripped it of its last defense, clearing the way for Minato's final blow.
During the short fight, he'd already decided—these two Pain bodies were never meant for head-on battles. Even if one could resurrect, in a straight fight, Minato knew he could crush both.
So the moment it discarded the weapon, Minato's left hand shot forward—plunging into its chest.
His left hand gripped a blazing Rasengan, the glowing blue orb dazzling but deadly.
BOOM!
The Human Path took Minato's Rasengan head-on, collapsing instantly and flying backward with a violent impact.
Its body tumbled repeatedly, its chest and back torn open with bell-shaped explosive wounds, the internal structure completely exposed to the air.
Two Pains who weren't built for combat went down instantly, while Minato and Guy made it look easy.
Such an outcome was quite normal.
Both Minato and Guy, having unlocked the Eight Inner Gates, were high-burst close-range fighters. Without considering other factors, their strength alone was more than enough to defeat any single Pain except the Deva Path.
Furthermore, Nagato had been fully focused on bringing the Human Path and Naraka Path near the Deva Path for protection, thus underestimating the mobility of Minato and Guy.
He thought losing the Preta Path would buy him some time, but it turned out completely ineffective, costing him an even greater price.
With Jiraiya and Tsunade keeping the enemy busy upfront, Minato and Guy swiftly took down the third Pain.
The powerful auxiliary, the Naraka Path, was among them.
Once the Naraka Path was lost, none of the Six Paths Puppets could regenerate anymore—excluding Nagato's original body—so their combat effectiveness would gradually weaken.
By now, Nagato's goal had already deviated from his original plan.
Originally here for the Nine-Tails, he hadn't even laid a hand on it yet, but already half of the Pains were gone.
Yet he did not regret.
This mission also indirectly demonstrated Akatsuki's power—it wasn't a futile effort.
"Continuing like this won't work either. Then I'll use that technique!"
Nagato clenched one hand across his chest. Within Konoha Village, all the Pains—including the previously killed Preta Path and the other two—were summoned away in puffs of smoke, leaving only the Deva Path behind.
The Deva Path slightly extended its right hand, and a visible blackish-purple speck began rapidly expanding…
[I'll wipe all of you out in one strike!]
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