The people of Konoha looked at the man before them—who was calmly delivering an entire barrage of chūnibyō-grade lines—with mixed feelings. His presence and aura were undeniably imposing, but the things he was saying… were honestly a bit too ridiculous to take seriously.
Jiraiya, still reeling from shock, failed to react imdiately. Even at this point, the man who had once firmly believed Nagato to be the Child of Prophecy refused to give up hope:
"What exactly happened to you? What have you gone through all these years? How did you end up believing sothing so absurd?"
Pain stared intently at Jiraiya. After taking a deep breath, he spoke:
"Do you rember where we first t? The battlefield of Agakure. People died there every single day. Every ounce of suffering that village endured beca nourishnt for my growth.
Even a naïve, ignorant child will mature after experiencing pain. Their speech, their thoughts—everything evolves."
Orochimaru couldn't help but interject:
"And you think that witnessing such pain qualifies you to transcend into a god?"
Pain swept a cold, disdainful glance at Orochimaru.
"The shallow view of a mortal. After enduring endless suffering, I have long since shed my forr shell. These eyes allowed to see things never seen before and granted power beyond the mundane.
I am the one chosen by this world. The world itself has bestowed upon divine authority, and thus I must follow its guidance to accomplish an unprecedented great undertaking."
"Enough!" Jiraiya shouted angrily. "What nonsense are you even talking about?!"
The Deva Path Pain gently closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, his voice had beco firm and rciless:
"I will place a full stop on this war-torn world. That is my mission as a god."
Minato, hearing this, laughed in anger and mocked him:
"You keep talking about ending war, yet you plunder the tailed beasts and invade the great ninja villages. Your actions completely contradict your words."
Pain glanced at him coldly.
"Those are rely unavoidable sacrifices on the road to peace. I am still striving to make this world a better place.
We gather the tailed beasts to correct this world. Once all the tailed beasts are collected, the order of the shinobi world will be reshaped. I will lead humanity, in the form of a god, into a new peaceful world without war—"
"Ridiculous," Minato cut in. "No matter how much you dress it up with words, you can't hide the fact that you're trying to destroy the peace our predecessors worked so hard to build. You're nothing more than a delusional terrorist."
"Heh. As expected—trying to reason with ignorant mortals is nothing but a waste of breath."
The Deva Path Pain sneered, murderous intent filling his eerie Rinnegan.
The terrifying pressure inherent to the Rinnegan spread outward, causing Minato and the others—experiencing it for the first ti—to feel deeply shaken.
Using the repulsive force of Shinra Tensei, Pain slowly rose into the air, looking down at Minato as he spoke each word clearly:
"Do not be so arrogant, Fifth Hokage. This is my final warning. You may choose either Naruto or Konoha. No—rather, if you continue to anger a god, you will lose everything."
Pain's words were still deeply chūnibyō in nature, but combined with the oppressive pressure of the Rinnegan, no one could laugh anymore. Looking up at Pain suspended in the air, everyone present felt as though he truly resembled a god—one they dared not even look at directly.
Just as the battlefield fell into complete silence, an unmistakably loud yawn suddenly rang out.
In such a tense mont, the appearance of that yawn carried an inexplicable sense of cody. Might Guy, with his characteristically thick nerves, was imdiately amused and let out a loud laugh.
Although he quickly covered his mouth, that single laugh was enough to completely shatter the oppressive atmosphere.
Pain had worked hard to build up the atmosphere, so having it shattered so abruptly naturally filled him with rage. He lowered his head, wanting to see exactly who had dared interrupt his performance.
With that glance downward, he saw Hoshiyomi standing there, an impatient expression on his face as he casually picked at his ear.
"Are you done talking yet? If you're finished, can we start fighting already?"
As soon as those words left his mouth, the expressions of everyone present beca rather subtle. Hoshiyomi hadn't said it before, but only then did they realize that the two sides had been glaring at each other in a standoff for quite a long ti already.
Being interrupted like this, the Deva Path Pain was furious. He looked down at Hoshiyomi and let out a cold snort.
"Since you're in such a hurry to die, I'll grant your wish."
"Universal Pull."
As he spoke, the Deva Path extended his left hand. A powerful gravitational force erupted from his palm and swept toward Hoshiyomi. Jiraiya and the others beside Hoshiyomi were affected by the pull and almost lost their footing.
Yet Hoshiyomi, standing at the very center of Universal Pull, did not move an inch. He looked up at Pain in the air, raised his own left hand, and flashed a brilliant smile.
"A head-on pull-off? Co on, then."
At first, Pain found Hoshiyomi's words baffling, but he quickly lost his composure—because from below him ca a terrifying gravitational force no weaker than his own Universal Pull.
What's more, the duration of that pull seed even longer than his.
Universal Pull had a cooldown. Since he hadn't expected Hoshiyomi to have a trick like this, he hadn't increased its strength.
Now that Universal Pull's duration had ended, not only was Hoshiyomi completely unmoved, but Pain himself was starting to feel as if he were being dragged downward.
If he were pulled over by Gekko Hoshiyomi like this, where would the dignity of the "god" of the Akatsuki go?
With that thought in mind, Nagato had no choice but to use Almighty Push to forcibly increase his altitude and pull away again. What he didn't know was that this move—ant purely to save face—had inadvertently saved his life.
Otherwise, with the durability of this Deva Path body, it definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand the final strike of the Soul-Devouring Demon-Sealing Slash.
Seeing Pain choose to use Almighty Push to widen the distance, Hoshiyomi instinctively smacked his lips.
Damn—he didn't take the bait.
anwhile, because of this brief clash between Hoshiyomi and Nagato, the battle between the two sides officially began.
No longer standing still and glaring at each other, both sides scanned the opposing ranks and quickly locked onto their respective targets before charging forward.
With a loud shout from Shikaku, Haku and Shikaku advanced together to face Hidan. Sakumo exchanged a glance with Kakashi and then the two of them moved to engage Mangetsu Hōzuki.
Neji and Kabuto exchanged looks and rushed left and right toward Tobi and Black Zetsu respectively—but to their surprise, the mont their attacks landed, the two targets fell to the ground with looks of sheer terror.
…That's it? Were Akatsuki mbers really this weak?
Neji activated his Byakugan and carefully scanned the surrounding area before saying helplessly:
"They… ran away?"
...
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