Chapter 18: The Dance of God's Paper
The Yamanaka clan's secret techniques were, frankly, somewhat underwhelming.
Whether it was the Mind Body Switch Technique, the Mind Derangement Technique, or the Puppetry Curse Seal, among others—they weren't weak by any means, but their ceiling was disappointingly low.
Under normal circumstances, anyone below Kage level would find themselves helplessly controlled when caught by these techniques, even elite jonin had little chance of escape.
However, against Kage-level or beyond shinobi, these techniques fell drastically short. Anyone with sufficiently powerful chakra could forcibly break free through sheer strength alone.
It was an awkward limitation.
These techniques were godlike against weaker opponents but utterly inadequate in high-level combat.
Among the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Yamanaka Inoichi rarely found opportunities to strike. Aside from critical moments when rescuing his comrades, he remained quietly concealed, searching for that perfect opening.
Though in elite battles these techniques could only control an enemy for a fleeting instant, a well-timed strike could still turn the tide of war.
Just as in the original Fourth War, when facing the false Nine-Tails jinchuriki Kinkaku revived through Impure World Reincarnation, everyone stood helpless. Yet it was Yamanaka Inoichi who seized control of Kinkaku for just one moment, forcing him to respond to the Sealing Corps' call and trapping him within the Crimson Gourd.
During his earlier battle with Uchiha Yasushi, Inoichi had only intervened once to save Nara Shikaku, then made no further moves.
Both sides hailed from Konoha and understood each other's techniques too well. He simply couldn't find an opening.
But fighting Konan was an entirely different matter.
Konan knew nothing about him. The perfect conditions for a first-strike kill.
And it worked beautifully. Yamanaka Inoichi's Mind Derangement Technique hit at precisely the right moment, disrupting Konan's evasion and forcing her to release the Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
Though she broke free after only an instant of paralysis, it was enough for Akimichi Choza to complete the capture.
"Konan!"
Pain roared, charging from his hiding place like a madman.
But his concern clouded his judgment. Though Konan lacked combat experience, her techniques granted extraordinary survival capabilities. She wouldn't die so easily.
When Akimichi Choza opened his hand, Konan's body dissolved into a flurry of white paper, scattering on the wind before drifting earthward. Mid-fall, the sheets converged once more, reforming into Konan's figure.
Konan fixed a penetrating stare at Yamanaka Inoichi, the man who had caught her off guard, before turning to reassure Pain.
"Pain, I'm fine."
"Now isn't the time for you to act."
"Go back. Leave this to me."
Pain's eyes swept across the Konoha shinobi, burning each face into his memory before vanishing with a cold snort.
Though he neither entered nor attacked, his brief appearance drew every eye.
Those strange eyes unsettled Nara Shikaku deeply.
What was happening in the Land of Rain?
How did another bloodline limit user suddenly appear?
When did bloodline limits become so common?
And those eyes... they seemed strangely familiar, as though he'd heard of them somewhere before.
As one of Konoha's great clans, the Nara had maintained their archives for generations, documenting everything. As the most trusted strategic advisor to successive Hokage, Shikaku also had access to Konoha's intelligence network.
He had encountered references to the Rinnegan. That wasn't surprising.
But information about the Rinnegan and the Sage of Six Paths stretched back so far into legend that even documented records were treated as mythology.
He couldn't immediately connect those eyes to the legendary Rinnegan, the same eyes possessed by the Sage of Six Paths himself. He simply assumed they represented some unusual dojutsu bloodline limit.
Without reason, an uncomfortable feeling settled in his chest.
Especially when he suddenly realized their primary target, Uchiha Itachi, was now perched leisurely on a distant tree branch, watching the chaos unfold like entertainment. His feet swung idly beneath him, the picture of carefree amusement.
Even though they had recaptured the Nine-Tails jinchuriki, Uchiha Itachi seemed utterly unconcerned, showing no interest in attempting another seizure.
Damn it!
Something was wrong here.
This entire battle felt inexplicably orchestrated.
But there was no turning back now. Their shinobi had already died. This couldn't end peacefully.
But if they made enemies on two fronts, how would their mission succeed?
Uchiha Itachi alone was troublesome enough. Add two bloodline limit users from the Rain Village, and they'd never hold him. He might actually escape today.
That was unacceptable.
The Nine-Tails jinchuriki—I need that.
Uchiha Itachi—I cannot let him slip away.
Nara Shikaku's brilliant mind accelerated, desperately seeking a solution.
But Konan wouldn't wait.
Having been ambushed and nearly killed, even forcing Pain to reveal those eyes, her frustration burned deep.
Though Pain hadn't attacked and no one seemed to recognize the Rinnegan yet, the Konoha shinobi need only investigate upon returning home for intelligence to leak.
Especially since Jiraiya-sensei was also from Konoha. He knew far too much.
Naturally, Konan resolved to silence everyone present.
Her wings spread wide, and she took flight once more.
Learning from her mistake, she didn't charge skyward in a straight line. Instead, she traced elegant curves through the air, evading Akimichi Choza's grasping palms while avoiding another mental assault from Yamanaka Inoichi.
She circled Choza's massive form, front and back, left and right, before running up his enormous arm until she reached his shoulder. There she raised both arms, transforming them into thousands of razor-edged paper sheets that whirled into a storm, blasting toward Choza's head and targeting vulnerable points like his eyes and ears.
"Paper Rain!"
But the shadow behind Choza suddenly came alive, surging over his shoulder like a python and manifesting before him as dozens of shadow whips. They wove into an impenetrable net, batting away every paper sheet with relentless precision.
The scattered papers flipped in midair, ink-black patterns spreading across their surfaces as they transformed into explosive tags, fluttering and drifting toward Choza's body.
"Ah, so the Dance of the Shikigami finally begins?"
Yasushi quickly retreated further, avoiding the blast radius.
Konan certainly didn't possess six hundred billion explosive tags yet, but she definitely had sixty million. And she didn't need sixty million—just sixty thousand explosive tags would easily reduce Akimichi Choza to ash.
The difficulty with explosive tags was never quantity but delivery. How do you actually hit your target?
Once you did, a single tag could eliminate a jonin.
Choza's enlarged form did increase his defense proportionally, but that had limits. He could only withstand so many explosions.
Uchiha Yasushi retreated to a safe distance, finding another tree to settle on, delighted to watch them kill each other. But he failed to notice the line of purple threading through the grass behind him, advancing silently. Wherever it passed, vegetation withered and stones changed color, leaving a distinct purple-black trail in its wake.