Inside Konoha Village.
Hokage Office.
After meeting with Tsunade, Hatake Kakashi reported in detail about his encounter with Uchiha Obito at the Memorial Stele. He also informed Tsunade about the intelligence regarding the Akatsuki's invasion of Konoha.
Unfortunately, Uchiha Obito had already left.
Tsunade sighed deeply. Sending people to surround Uchiha Obito now was pointless, especially with the Akatsuki potentially invading at any moment.
"Did Uchiha Obito say only two people were invading Konoha?"
Tsunade clasped her hands, looked up at Hatake Kakashi, and said in a low voice, "Do you think his words are credible?"
"Technically, according to Jiraiya-sama's intelligence, it should be eight people invading, as the power of the Pain Six Paths is also very formidable."
After Hatake Kakashi finished speaking, he furrowed his brow and continued, "Obito's words should have a certain degree of credibility, after all, he needs us to help deal with Nagato, so he shouldn't be lying about this."
"If what he said is accurate enough..."
Tsunade slowly clenched her fist, looking out at Konoha from the window, and said, "After we deal with Nagato and Konan's invasion, do we need to prepare for that brat Uehara Naraku's invasion?"
"Yes."
Hatake Kakashi nodded and said in a low voice, "Hokage-sama, if Uehara Naraku's strength is really as powerful as Uchiha Obito said, we must be prepared in advance to deal with him, especially since we've seen Uehara Naraku's strength firsthand."
"Indeed..."
Tsunade sighed softly, "That brat Uehara Naraku was able to defeat you and Guy and even overcome Jiraiya's Sage Mode. He's a strong ninja, and even so, he still didn't use his full strength?"
"That's right."
Hatake Kakashi slowly adjusted his ninja headband, his voice tinged with a bit of gravity, "Uehara Naraku is the type whose strength increases in the face of powerful ninjas..."
To speak of nothing else.
Just during the commotion at the Chunin Examination, Uehara could easily steal Might Guy's jutsu and defeat Might Guy in the Wonder Gate state.
That kind of power is too great.
If he can steal anyone's jutsu, who knows how strong Uehara Naraku could become? Besides, his own strength is already formidable, and he might be hiding a Kekkeigenkai he developed himself.
"Forget it."
Tsunade furrowed her brow, glanced at Hatake Kakashi, and softly said, "For now, the most important thing is to deal with Nagato and Konan. We'll address the trouble of that brat Uehara Naraku after this war..."
Tsunade slowly gripped her clenched hand tightly, murmuring, "I'm just worried about when the Akatsuki will finally attack..."
Konoha Village's external defense area.
A rustling sound of footsteps approached.
Konoha ninjas pricked up their ears in surprise, each ninja instinctively heightened their vigilance, their gazes gradually shifting to the forest, watching one black figure after another emerge from within the forest.
Sunshine gradually poured down.
Six orange-haired men clad in cloud-patterned black robes, and a similarly dressed light blue-haired woman, appeared step by step in front of this group of Konoha ninjas, standing outside their defense line.
It was the Pain Six Paths and Konan's paper clone.
"That's... Akatsuki!"
The two teams of Konoha ninjas responsible for this area's defense stared in horror at the Pain Six Paths. They immediately split up, one team heading off to intercept, while the other went to report back to the village.
The Asura Path Pain extended his hand, launching missiles from his arm, blasting the group of Konoha ninjas into the air!
This commotion also raised the surrounding alertness!
One Konoha ninja, in particular, managed to fire a signal flare into the sky before the missile arrived. The red warning intrusion signal flare flashed for a few seconds in the air!
Surely someone in Konoha Village would see this red warning signal and would thus be on guard.
Another lucky Konoha ninja quickly rolled and fled into the forest, running towards Konoha!
Pain Six Paths seemed unfazed by all this.
Their original plan was to launch a direct assault on Konoha.
Konan furrowed her brow, glancing at the red signal flare in the sky, and said in a low voice, "With this, Konoha will surely be on the alert."
"It doesn't matter."
Deva Path Pain gently shook his head and said, "When they realize that, despite their full efforts, they cannot defeat me, they will know what true terror is."
"..."
Konan slowly shook her head.
Seeing her expression, Deva Path Pain explained, "Konoha has always been highly vigilant, and their internal defenses have been in a wartime state, very tight.
I'll launch an open attack here, and when their elite forces leave Konoha to intercept us, I'll use the Animal Path to sneak into Konoha, summoning us there and thus leading them away."
This explanation was barely satisfactory.
Konan cast a sidelong glance at Deva Path Pain. Do you actually have this plan and not just making it up on the fly?
Human Path Pain slowly approached, stretched out his hand, and placed it on the head of an injured Konoha ninja, using the Heart Layer Stealth Technique.
After extracting the Konoha ninja's soul, Human Path Pain turned to look at Konan, saying, "The Nine-tailed Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, is currently in Konoha Village. It seems this trip will certainly yield something."
"That's good."
Konan nodded but looked slightly worried, "I wonder how things are going on Uehara's side? They're probably getting close to the Hidden Cloud Village by now, right?"
"Their speed should be faster."
Deva Path Pain spoke softly, "Perhaps they've already taken the Hidden Cloud Village."
As if.
Over in Konoha Village, the leader of the Akatsuki has made a move.
Here in the Land of Lightning, Uehara Naraku's group is still fussing over Deidara's clay giant dragon.
Because after this clay giant dragon crossed the border of the Land of Lightning, one of its massive wings fell to the ground, and the whole dragon began to disintegrate, causing countless pieces of clay to fall from the sky.
If it weren't for Uehara Naraku's quick reflexes in grabbing Sasori of the Red Sand and Uchiha Sasuke, they both might have been buried directly by Deidara's clay giant dragon.
"Hey, are you trying to kill us?"
Uchiha Sasuke looked at Deidara with fury, then glanced at the disintegrated clay giant dragon piled into a white hill on the ground. If they were accidentally buried in it, they might not have survived!
"Don't talk to me..."
Deidara landed his clay giant bird on the ground with a face full of sadness, looking at the completely disintegrated clay giant dragon, with an indescribable sense of grievance on his face.
This was something he painstakingly crafted!
Besides, he had been diligently adding to and patching up the clay giant dragon all the way, so why did it still fall apart just after crossing the border line?
This is really unfair to him!
Uehara Naraku rubbed his temple, according to the information sent by Yakushi Kabuto, the Pain of Six Paths has already started its move in Konoha's outer defense zone, while they're still at the border of the Land of Lightning accompanying a dumb fool mourning his art.
Damn, this is ridiculous!
Uehara Naraku rubbed his forehead, looking at Deidara, who was full of sadness, softly inquiring his opinion: "How about we hear it explode?"
"..."
Uchiha Sasuke and Sasori of the Red Sand shot him puzzled looks.
"Alright!"
Deidara's eyes lit up, and after quickly nodding his head, he raised his fingers to his lips: "Then let's see the true charm of my art bloom! Art... is an explosion!"
"Let's get further away first!"
Sasori of the Red Sand grabbed Deidara by the collar, then turned to Uehara Naraku: "Uehara, summon your Summoning Beast, let's quickly get ready for the mission."
"Hmm!"
Uehara Naraku nodded hurriedly.
The next moment, a massive ancient giant dragon descended beside them, lifting them into the air and casually dropping a huge fireball to detonate the pile of clay mountain.
Sitting atop the ancient giant dragon,
Uehara Naraku finally felt at ease, his fingers slowly forming a seal as his consciousness descended onto Uchiha Obito, observing the war of Pain's invasion on Konoha on the other side.
At this moment in time,
Konoha Village was in perfect order.
The Konoha Ninjas, upon receiving information about the Pain of Six Paths' invasion, immediately began carrying out their pre-planned actions, organizing civilians for evacuation and intercepting enemies as required.
Jiraiya, upon receiving the news, instinctively furrowed his brows and said, "Is it only the Pain of Six Paths and Konan? No sight of Nagato?"
"No."
Tsunade shook her head, speaking softly, "According to the intelligence from the frontlines, there are only six orange-haired Rinnegan Ninjas and a light blue-haired Female Ninja."
"Tsk, hiding, are they?"
Jiraiya adjusted his outfit, speaking lightly, "Let's first go to intercept the Pain of Six Paths and Konan, while the other Ninjas search for Nagato's location, check if he's nearby."
Jiraiya slowly untied his Oil Word Forehead Protector, took a Vortex Headband representing Konoha from Tsunade's hand, and placed it on his forehead.
The ground's Shima Sage and Fukasaku Sage jumped onto Jiraiya's shoulders; they've always stayed in Konoha, ready to join the battle at any moment.
Standing behind Jiraiya was,
everything Konoha currently had in terms of the strongest individual combat strength.
Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Might Guy, Rock Lee, along with the external aids, Fifth Kazekage Gaara, and Fifth Mizukage Terumi Mei.
Their task is to split up and intercept the Pain of Six Paths.
Other Konoha Ninja, Hidden Sand Ninja, and Hidden Mist Ninja were divided into seven combat squads, mainly always ready to assist them in a fight against any one of Pain's puppets.
"Let's go!"
Jiraiya tidied up his long-unworn ninja uniform, and with everyone, leaped out of the Hokage Tower, heading for the area of the Pain invasion.
Jiraiya, leaping by nearby, glanced at Uzumaki Naruto trailing closely behind him, gently asking, "Hey, Naruto, how are the preparations on your side?"
"Hmm, more than a dozen shadow clones are absorbing Natural Energy over at Mount Myoboku."
Uzumaki Naruto nodded slowly, responding loudly, "I guess I can maintain Sage Mode for quite a long time! There shouldn't be any issues!"
"Then let's go!"
Jiraiya leaped onto Konoha's city wall, overlooking the smoke rising in the distance, and the others stood by his side.
Behind them, seven massive combat squads, each comprising at least hundreds of Ninjas, prepared to split up and support them at any moment.
In another area,
the Clan Leader of the Hyuga Clan, Hyuga Hinata, led a perception squad composed of Ninjas from the Hyuga, Inuzuka, and Aburame clans, searching for Nagato's location everywhere.
On the Hokage Rock,
Yakushi Kabuto, leading the reanimated Namikaze Minato and Uchiha Obito, watched the ninja troops, led by Jiraiya and the others, surging like a tide towards outside Konoha Village.
"What a grand scale battle this is!"
Yakushi Kabuto pushed up his glasses, speaking with a light smile, "The united army of Konoha, Hidden Sand, and Hidden Mist, the leader of the Akatsuki, who will win?"