Chapter 417: Negotiation Breakdown
"You're obstructing the path to peace. I have nothing to say to you."
Tendo Pain's voice was ice-cold. His Rinnegan showed not a ripple of emotion, only indifference and judgment.
"Is that so?" Menma maintained his calm demeanor. "Then why haven't you attacked yet?"
Pain fell silent.
Behind the mask, Nagato's thoughts raced—aside from completely burning bridges in a fight to the death, he truly shouldn't attack directly at this moment.
This was Hidden Rain Village, his foundation, the nation he'd promised to bring peace. And since the opponent could appear soundlessly in the tower's core... without knowing their specific methods and arrangements, every villager in Hidden Rain was essentially a hostage in their hands.
Though judging from [Ember]'s past conduct, they didn't seem to be indiscriminate killers, Nagato didn't dare gamble—the peace he bore was too heavy to risk even slightly.
"Are you testing... a god's bottom line?" Tendo Pain slowly spoke. "Do you truly believe... you possess power sufficient to rival mine?"
This was an arrogance and self-importance rooted in absolute power and tragic past—or perhaps it could be called a heavy, lonely "chuunibyou."
Having experienced extreme pain, having seen through war's emptiness, Nagato firmly believed the path to peace wasn't weak diplomacy and negotiation, but absolute deterrence that would make everyone too fearful to wage war again.
On this point, Menma even held a trace of appreciation—if only the opponent's "deterrence" wasn't built on the dangerous fraudulent plan of capturing tailed beasts and creating an ultimate weapon.
"Let me give you some advice." Menma's voice took on earnest weight. "You don't want to be my enemy. Those Rinnegan eyes... aren't truly your power."
BOOM—!!!
Violent chakra currents exploded without warning, centered on Tendo Pain, sweeping through the entire tower interior! Dust and debris were brutally swept aside, pressure humming through the air.
For the first time, Pain's Rinnegan erupted with substantial furious killing intent, locking dead onto Menma.
"Just from gaining a bit of power... you dare presume about gods?" Tendo's voice distorted slightly from suppressed rage. "Relying only on surface-level deterrence, thinking yourself the world's protagonist? Wallowing in brief peaceful illusions... feeling death is far from you?"
RUMBLE—!!!
Responding to him was another even more vast, more profound chakra torrent, explosively erupting from Menma's body! That power wasn't ostentatious yet carried a weight and ancientness sourced from the stars themselves, instantly crushing and annihilating Pain's released pressure completely!
The tower's solid metal walls groaned under unbearable strain. Stone floor tiles cracked inch by inch, fissures spreading like spider webs crazily to the corners.
The entire space trembled under these two silently colliding great powers.
"Don't get so worked up." Menma's voice remained steady. "Looks like saying these things now... you couldn't possibly believe. What a pity... Though I also agree 'mutual deterrence' might be one path to peace, your plan has been nothing but a chess piece manipulated by Uchiha Obito from beginning to end."
"Why should I believe you?" Tendo Pain's low roar echoed through the churning chakra.
"Just capture 'Zetsu,' and the truth will become clear."
"You want me to attack Akatsuki members without any evidence?!"
"I told you, calm down." Menma shook his head lightly. "I don't want to fight here either. If we truly battle... the entire Hidden Rain Village would probably turn to rubble in the aftermath."
Hearing this, Konan's face turned deathly pale. Her gaze toward Menma filled with unprecedented gravity and alarm—she absolutely couldn't allow this "peaceful" land that she and Nagato had painstakingly maintained and treasured to be completely destroyed by an uncontrollable battle.
"...I won't stop." Tendo Pain slowly lowered his hand, killing intent in his Rinnegan undiminished. "The path to peace... there's only this one. On this point, I absolutely won't yield."
Menma sighed silently in his heart.
The current Nagato, it seemed, wouldn't listen to anything.
Obito clearly wasn't here either. Wanting to immediately capture him here and reveal the truth looked impossible to achieve.
"...Fine." Menma finally made his decision. "Then, two days from now... I'll wait for you outside Hidden Rain Village."
At that time, everything would be settled.
He thought this way. If he pushed Nagato too hard now, insisting on blocking his tailed beast capture plan, then even if Hidden Rain Village was destroyed, the opponent would probably choose to attack without hesitation—this wasn't strange.
For the vision of "peace," Nagato could even strike down the teacher who'd carefully instructed him for three years... Compared to that, he himself perhaps truly seemed somewhat indecisive.
But if that kind of decisiveness counted as "resolute"... Menma would rather remain as he was now.
He said no more, turning to face the pitch-black void gate silently manifesting again in the air.
Giving two days had another reason—according to intelligence, the current Akatsuki organization, after its original members were successively intercepted by him, seemed to have filled its roster again. Who would they be?
But it didn't matter. Perfect timing—he'd resolve them all together then.
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at this point the og author is just dragging it, "oh I appear so silently, you didn't even notice" exactly! one shot the mofo! but nooooooo " if we fight " fight ? bruhh? ...just..bruhh.... really now? like actually? with all your abilities, there should be no1 in the ninja world that would be able too FIGHT you! !! AND THERE'S FKING SATSUKI!!!!! MANGEKYO SATSUKI!!!!!!!
I think the og author forgot.... first n second MC's together in a fight is "unstoppable".... even then bro has an organisation with other heavy hitters (Shisui), even then bro has a village as his back up with more heavy hitters...this is just stupid. Anyways sorry for the rant, lol, it's annoying how stupidly unrealistic this situation is, and how stupidly passive Naruto is, let's see what happens next.