The Deva Path had assumed Vincent only hit hard. Watching black receivers scrape harmlessly across the man's chest and even his throat without drawing blood rattled him.
Looks like I underestimated you again.
He shot skyward and fled.
Vincent felt Jiraiya closing from behind and eased his pace.
Where is Yahiko.
Jiraiya came up alongside him, eyes flicking over Vincent for wounds. Finding none, he exhaled.
That way.
Vincent pointed along Pain's line of retreat.
Sage Mode braided Jiraiya's senses into the land itself. Nothing nearby could hide from him.
There.
Far off, a figure skimmed through the trees. No matter how fast he ran, the Deva Path could not slip past that net of perception.
Rest a bit. I will finish him.
Jiraiya's voice was calm, but there was iron in it. He could not let Pain go. Left alive, Pain would one day plunge the world back into chaos.
No.
Vincent caught his arm. I think someone is behind him.
Jiraiya blinked, surprised that the brutally effective young man thought just as clearly. He nodded and relayed what the Deva Path had told him earlier.
A god.
Vincent's brows drew together. A thin, red-haired face rose in his mind.
Nagato.
The man behind the Six Paths.
Knowledge of the story sharpened every line of Vincent's plan. If Nagato lived, the Six Paths would return. It would be hard work to rebuild, but not impossible. Once his chakra recovered, Nagato needed only six bodies.
Worse, butchering the Paths might inflame Nagato's grief and drive him to annihilate the Leaf in revenge. It had little to do with Vincent personally, but for Konoha it was a live mine underfoot.
Then we tail him. With luck he runs home to his master.
Vincent paused, then added, Listen to what he said. Whoever stands behind them leads. If Yahiko is injured and running, there is only one place he will go.
Makes sense.
Jiraiya's eyes warmed with respect. Then I will track him. If he vanishes, we strike.
He pressed his hands together and reached out through Sage Mode, fixing on the fleeing signature.
Pain wove through the forest for a long while, again and again using Universal Pull to rip trees across the path behind him, laying snares and walls to slow pursuit.
Neither Vincent nor Jiraiya chased.
When he had circled enough to satisfy himself, the Deva Path halted. Sensing no tail, he veered toward a nondescript tree, laid a palm to its bark and slid inside.
Darkness. Then torches flared.
Two figures waited.
In the center stood a gaunt man with long crimson hair, arms sunk into a grotesque machine, spine bristling with black receivers.
Konan stood to the side, silent as a handmaiden.
I know.
Nagato's voice was whisper-thin, yet absolute. The Deva Path said nothing. He did not need to.
Shall I intercept them.
Konan's back shimmered as sheets of paper folded into wings.
No.
Nagato shook his head. You cannot defeat them. I will recover a little, create several new Paths, then erase the Leaf.
He doubled over coughing. Konan's hand steadied his back until the fit passed.
Bring them.
At his gesture she hauled out six corpses from behind the machine.
Vincent would have known every face. The same opportunists who had tried recruiting him at the forbidden zone gates. Now the bodies were torn and bristled with receivers to drink Nagato's chakra. A little time and they would rise as a fresh Six Paths.
Yahiko glanced over them without comment. Nagato had prepared for his loss. It was only fitting. He himself was nothing but a puppet.
He reported in a flat voice. Besides Jiraiya, there was a man I have never seen. He is strong. My attacks could not pierce his body. His strength was great enough to nearly break my Shinra Tensei.
Nagato cut him off with a shake of the head. The Leaf's toughest body is Might Guy. Even he cannot stand against my techniques. Your stranger must be using some trick.
His eyes hardened.
Even if he can endure, I do not believe he can withstand the Gedo Statue. We can seal him away. There are many ways to deal with one body.
The Gedo Statue.
Konan's composure cracked. You cannot. If you use that again, you will die.
Konan.
Yahiko's voice snapped like a blade. Do not interrupt God. Or do not blame me for what follows.
Paper fanned from her shoulders and flew to the walls, layering the passage in white. She stared into the dark with taut, worried eyes.
Someone is coming.
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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