Chapter 175 The Utter Defeat of Pain's Six Paths
The Susanoo, nearly a hundred meters tall, rose from the ground, blocking all the attacks unleashed by Pain's Six Paths, and then reached out to catch the two Jinchuriki falling from the sky.
He had originally thought he could watch this coup as a spectator, but Pain's appearance made it impossible for him to remain uninvolved.
"The Fifth Hokage of Konoha... Uchiha Touko." Pain, the Deva Path, hovered in mid-air, facing Uchiha Touko within the head space of the hundred-meter-tall Susanoo.
"You terrorists, are you targeting Kirigakure this time?" Uchiha Touko immediately slapped a heavy accusation on Pain's head. "And from what you've said, it seems you've also set your sights on Konoha's Nine-Tails?"
"Tailed beasts in the hands of your great nations will only bring endless suffering to this world. I collected the tailed beasts so that you great nations would also experience the pain of war, so that you would cherish the hard-won peace," Pain said coldly.
"That sounds nice, but aren't you just planning a terrorist attack?" Uchiha Touko retorted. "Konoha, as a responsible great ninja village, will absolutely not stand idly by while your schemes unfold. Today, all your plans end here."
"You great nations always spout high-sounding words, then inflict the pain of war on our small country," Nagato, secretly provoked by Uchiha Touko, manipulated Pain to raise his hand.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A tremendous repulsive force slammed into Uchiha Touko's Susanoo. The complete Susanoo remained unmoved, but several cracks appeared on its surface. Uchiha Touko raised an eyebrow, and the Susanoo drew its divine weapon, Futsu-no-Mitama, from its waist, swinging it through the air.
With a deafening roar, violent lightning descended from the sky, illuminating the Hidden Mist Village as if it were daytime.
Facing the overwhelming power of the heavens, the few Hidden Mist ninjas still alive not far away recalled the fear that Uchiha Touko had instilled in them during the Third Shinobi World War.
The lightning now was many times more powerful than it had been back then.
However, facing this lightning that was terrifying even to behold, the Preta Path of Pain simply raised his hand, using his chakra-absorbing ability.
The lightning in the sky was guided into his palm, and soon dissipated into the air, and the sky returned to calm.
Seeing this, several Kirigakure ninjas who harbored a deep hatred for Uchiha Touko couldn't help but shout, "Whoever you are! Can't you just kill this demon?!"
However, the next second, a Konoha ninja's baton struck his waist, giving him a set of Konoha's unique bone-setting techniques. It wasn't hard to tell from this method that this elite Jonin had come from the security force.
"Konoha's Touko? Nothing special." Pain, unharmed under the protection of the Preta Path, spoke calmly.
"Is that so?" Uchiha Touko said with a half-smile, "You can absorb chakra, but the power within this naturally formed lightning won't just disappear into thin air."
The next instant, the Preta Path Pain, who had almost absorbed all the lightning in the sky, exploded, shattering into pieces.
"So, a puppet." Uchiha Touko coldly observed this scene. "Then what about the others? Are they puppets too?"
Having suffered a setback in their first encounter, and with Uchiha Touko even guessing some clues about his abilities, Nagato's lips twitched. Controlling Pain's Deva Path, he said, "Very well, daring to offend the majesty of a god, I wonder if you are prepared to bear the wrath of a god."
Pain's Hell Path summoned King Yama, who burst forth from the ground and opened his massive maw, sucking in the scattered parts of the Preta Path. Before long, the Preta Path puppets, resurrected through King Yama's Reincarnation Technique, stood once again beside Pain's Deva Path.
"Any puppets capable of repairing puppets?" Uchiha Touko looked around, using his powerful Sage Mode sensory abilities to search for Nagato's true form. After a while, finding nothing, he raised an eyebrow. "You've hidden your true form quite well. Well then, I'll play with these troublesome little things for a while. I'm not even sure how strong I am right now; that was just a warm-up. I hope you, this self-proclaimed god, can give me some fun."
"After all, my Lightning Bolt hasn't drunk the blood of a god yet!"
The hundred-meter-tall Susanoo suddenly vanished, and Uchiha Touko's figure transformed into lightning, charging towards Pain's Six Paths. His divine robe, embroidered with the Fifth Hokage's name, fluttered wildly, and his Lightning Bolt was already unsheathed. The soft hum of the Lightning Bolt and the thunderous explosions in the air created a deathly symphony from hell.
The lightning descending from the sky and Uchiha Touko seemed to slice through the long night, arriving simultaneously. Pain's Six Paths scattered to dodge this terrifying attack.
Debris and debris flew everywhere as Uchiha Touko stepped over the charred remains, six floating figures reflected in his Mangekyou Sharingan.
Suddenly, the lightning coiled around his right hand surged, a dragon's roar tearing through the frozen air—Lightning Release: Azure Dragon!
The viscous lightning around Uchiha Touko transformed into six roaring lightning dragons, each targeting one of the Six Paths of Pain.
"Shinra Tensei!" Faced with this ferocious attack, the Deva Path of Pain could only raise its hand, intending to force Uchiha Touko back.
However, before the Deva Path of Pain's repulsive field could fully deploy, Touko's figure had already appeared behind the Asura Path. A ninja sword wrapped in lightning chakra sliced through the mechanically modified body, and amidst the exploding sparks, the twelve homing missiles loaded before the Animal Path was severed in two suddenly shot out from the back of the split Asura Path.
Uchiha Touko's pupils spun rapidly. Before being locked onto by the missiles, he leaped to the broken wall at a 45-degree angle to the right, simultaneously opening his maw towards the thunder dragon hurtling towards the Asura Path, swallowing all the missiles in one gulp.
An explosion rang out, and the thunder dragon, having completed its mission, transformed into arcs of electricity that lashed the ground. Uchiha Touko's figure flickered within these arcs, arriving before the Animal Path almost instantly.
His left hand formed the Tiger Seal, and azure lightning wove an electric net across the ruins, enveloping the summoned beasts of the Animal Path. The summoned beasts were instantly stuck upon contact with the net, high-voltage currents coursing through their bodies. Before they could even utter a cry of despair, the roaring thunder dragon devoured them along with their master.
At that moment, the Hell Path's gigantic maw rose from the ground, but Uchiha Touko, as if anticipating this, retreated seven steps. The Hell Path's maw almost grazed Uchiha Touko's nose as it shot upwards, but this attack only ruffled the hair on Uchiha Touko's forehead.
Then, Uchiha Touko clasped his hands together, and the dark night sky suddenly lit up, revealing the solemn image of Fudo Myoo, faintly visible in the thunderclouds.
"Lightning Release: Fudo Myoo!" The demon-subduing pestle descended from the sky, pinning the Yama statue to the spot, before being blasted into rubble by the lightning dragon that arrived shortly after.
"Universal Pull!" Seeing this, Nagato could only convert the repulsive force in his force field into gravity, trying to pull Uchiha Touko closer. At the same time, the Human Path, skilled in close combat, and the Preta Path, which had just been repaired, stood ready, intending to surround and attack Uchiha Touko once he got close, buying time for the Hell Path to repair the two damaged puppets.
The powerful suction began to tug at Uchiha Touko's divine robes, but Uchiha Touko turned back, grinned at the Deva Path, and accelerated forward using the gravity. His Mangekyou Sharingan, shimmering with golden light, clashed with the Deva Path Pain's Rinnegan across the distance, and he twirled the lightning bolt in his hand.
Clang! The sound of metal clashing rang out repeatedly. In just a few breaths, Uchiha Touko exchanged several blows with the Human Path and Preta Path, who were wielding kunai. Each of Uchiha Touko's strikes precisely sliced their kunai in two. The standard kunai on the two puppets were no different from tofu in front of the lightning strike.
However, Uchiha Touko simply cut their kunai and then changed his moves. Uchiha Touko danced gracefully amidst their attacks, like an old man playing with children. The kunai on the two puppets were gradually consumed, but they couldn't even touch the hem of Uchiha Touko's clothes. At the same time, Uchiha Touko was getting closer and closer to Pain.
"You possess the legendary Rinnegan of the Sage of Six Paths, and you call yourself a god, but can the eyes of a god see the future?" In the next instant, Uchiha Touko appeared behind Pain. Pain didn't even have time to turn around before he was cut in half by Uchiha Touko.
After the Heavenly Path collapsed, a sealing technique suddenly enveloped Touko's entire body. The Preta Path fearlessly clung to Touko, beginning to absorb his chakra.
Touko stood still, allowing the Animal Path to devour his chakra. However, before long, the Animal Path's body began to turn into a stone statue.
"You can't just absorb other people's chakra, you little glutton." Touko tightened his grip slightly, and the Animal Path's petrified arms shattered.
Freed, Touko stretched his body, but just then, the last Human Path puppet silently crept up behind him, thrusting a kunai at him. Touko seemed oblivious.
However, just as the Human Path's kunai was about to pierce Touko, three roaring lightning dragons swallowed him whole.
After performing a Blood Vibration with his wrist guard, Uchiha Touko sheathed his Lightning Blade and turned to look at Pain's Hell Path, who was still struggling to repair the Asura Path puppet that had been destroyed the first.
"What a pity, these are just puppets." Uchiha Touko chuckled and slowly walked towards the Hell Path, which was immobilized by the King of Hell's Reincarnation Technique. "Otherwise, I could have verified one thing: whether gods bleed or not."
Uchiha Touko's unhurried footsteps were particularly clear in the night. Nagato, who was staring at him through the Rinnegan in the shadows, trembled slightly as he formed hand seals. Cold sweat had unknowingly covered his forehead on his sunken face.
Uchiha Touko wore a warm smile. The lingering blood mist of Kirigakure had been dispelled by the lightning of the recent battle, and the long-absent moonlight shone upon the land. In Sage Mode, the silver markings on Uchiha Touko's face gleamed in the moonlight. At this moment, in Nagato's eyes, Uchiha Touko resembled a god from the heavens.
"My esteemed god, may I ask you, do you know Jiraiya?" Uchiha Touko approached the Hell Path and asked softly.
"Jiraiya..." Nagato, hidden in the shadows, felt a surge of emotion upon hearing the name.
After all, he had suffered too much in his life; his only happy moments were the time he spent learning ninjutsu from Jiraiya.
"According to the information I have, Jiraiya once taught three children in the Land of Rain. One of them possessed the Rinnegan, a legendary eye possessed only by the Sage of Six Paths. However, the Rinnegan mentioned in the information belongs to a child of the Uzumaki clan. His name seems to be Uzumaki Nagato, right?"
The Hell Path remained silent, focusing solely on repairing the damaged puppet. At the same time, he manipulated the Yama statue to collect the remains of the Deva Path, Human Path, and Preta Path.
However, Uchiha Touko let his opponent continue his petty antics, and after a while, he chuckled and said, "Don't waste your energy. I can dismantle these puppets of yours once, and I can easily dismantle them a second time." "
You always say that we great nations inflict the pain of war on you small countries, but don't forget, no one can escape the brunt of war. Under the shadow of war, even great nations suffer."
Uchiha Touko spoke the same words Tsunade had said during the destruction of Konoha in the original timeline, but the difference was that Tsunade was powerless against Pain's Six Paths, while Uchiha Touko easily suppressed him.
Nagato was furious at Uchiha Touko's words, but in the current situation, he was powerless to do anything.
"There are no happy people in war, but as Hokage, my duty is to ensure that suffering doesn't fall on Konoha. So, don't try to challenge my bottom line," Uchiha Touko said, staring intently at the opponent's Rinnegan, enunciating each word clearly.
The Hell Path remained silent. Uchiha Touko wasn't annoyed. He crossed the Hell Path and arrived before the Yama statue, gently tapping the statue that was diligently repairing the other five puppets.
Uchiha Touko's back was now exposed to the Hell Path, the five gilded characters "Fifth Hokage" on his back particularly conspicuous. Although the Hell Path could easily reach him, Nagato hesitated.
The overwhelming power Uchiha Touko had displayed in the previous battle, where everything was under his control, had instilled a sense of fear in Nagato, who always considered himself a god.
"For Jiraiya's sake, you can leave after you've repaired your puppets," Uchiha Touko said, turning to the Hell Path. Nagato, hidden
in the shadows, showed a hint of surprise.
"However, Jiraiya's favor is only enough for you to use once, understand?"
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(End of Chapter)