Just as the battle reached a tense lull, a blinding beam of light shot through the air, racing straight toward Inoiki. His Observation Haki flared instantly — he could feel the immense concentration of chakra and energy gathering before it even reached him. The beam had been fired from the headpiece of the Asura Path, one of the Six Paths of Pain, and its destructive force was enough to vaporize anything in its path.
Inoiki's expression hardened, though his body remained completely still. With a single focused thought, he conjured a psychokinetic barrier—a flawless, transparent wall of psychic energy that faintly shimmered under the blaze of the incoming beam.
A moment later, the laser struck the barrier with a thunderous explosion. The impact was so violent that it seemed to shatter the very air around them, sending shockwaves rippling across the battlefield. A deafening boom echoed as half of the rooftop in front of Inoiki crumbled away into dust and debris. Thick white smoke engulfed the area, completely obscuring all vision.
Using the explosion as a distraction, Tobi made his move. His body phased through the collapsing roof like a ghost, intangible and silent. Appearing behind Inoiki, he reached out and laid a hand on his back.
"Got you," he muttered coldly, activating his Kamui to drag Inoiki into the swirling void of his personal dimension.
But the next instant, Tobi's eyes widened beneath his mask. Nothing happened. Inoiki's body didn't budge — it was as if space itself had turned solid around him.
Inoiki, with uncanny precision, had hardened the very fabric of space in his immediate surroundings using his psychokinesis, locking himself in place and neutralizing Kamui's pull.
A sharp, cracking sound broke the silence. The hand that Tobi had placed on Inoiki's back began to twist grotesquely, bones snapping and joints turning at impossible angles. A pulse of invisible force surged from Inoiki's body — he was crushing Tobi's arm with his mind.
Tobi barely managed to react in time. His form blurred and flickered as he hastily reactivated Kamui, slipping back into his intangible state. His arm was spared from total destruction, but not without damage — it hung loosely, broken and trembling.
Had he been a second slower, Inoiki's psychokinesis would have ripped his entire arm off, tearing it clean from the socket.
Tobi cried out in pain, clutching his mangled arm as he staggered backward. Before Inoiki could press his advantage, Tobi's body flickered and sank through the ground, phasing away to safety in his intangible state.
Inoiki's eyes followed him coldly, a faint ripple of psychokinetic energy still shimmering around his body. The air itself seemed to tremble in response to his irritation.
(Ai generated image in Comments area.)
Without delay, he rose from the floor, his feet no longer touching the ground. The pressure radiating from his body intensified — a focused surge of telekinetic force that caused the air to ripple like heat waves. With a single flex of his will, Inoiki blew apart the remnants of the roof in front of him. The shock came not from an explosion, but from pure air pressure — a high-velocity burst of invisible force unleashed from his mind.
The resulting blast tore through the structure like a storm. Chunks of debris scattered as the building's upper level collapsed completely, leaving Inoiki hovering amidst the dust and drifting smoke.
He didn't chase after Tobi. Inoiki knew better. From experience, he was well aware that Tobi's intangible state could last for several minutes. During that period, any attempt to attack would be pointless.
And so, as expected, the Paths of Pain stepped forward to engage him instead.
The Deva Path raised one hand, its emotionless face betraying nothing as an immense gravitational force burst forth.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A powerful wave of repulsion slammed into Inoiki. The invisible force sent him reeling backward through the air, his body flung aside like a leaf caught in a violent gust.
But even before the motion could complete, Inoiki's concentration sharpened. His psychokinesis surged outward again, counteracting the push, and his motion halted abruptly in midair. The wind whipped around him as he steadied himself, eyes narrowing toward the Pain bodies below.
"So… gravity control, huh?" he muttered under his breath. A faint smile crossed his face. "Let's see how you handle my version."
Extending his right arm forward, Inoiki unleashed his own repulsive wave — not through gravity, but by manipulating the very air itself.
"Almighty Push."
A devastating surge of compressed air erupted outward. The force struck the Six Paths like a battering ram, flinging them across the rooftops and smashing everything in their wake. The sheer intensity of the air pressure leveled the nearby buildings, their tall frames crumbling and collapsing under the shockwave.
Far away, Nagato — watching through the Rinnegan — winced slightly at the overwhelming backlash. Fortunately, he had already evacuated the civilians from that sector of Amegakure.
Had he not, the destruction would have turned the entire block into a graveyard.
Inoiki could tell that this stalemate with the Paths of Pain would drag on endlessly if he continued to fight at the same pace. Each side countered the other perfectly — and that wasn't going to get him anywhere. It was time to raise the stakes.
Without wasting another second, he reached for his ninja pouch, his movements smooth and deliberate even in midair. From within, he drew out a sealed scroll, unfurling it effortlessly before him. The parchment floated in the air, held perfectly still by his psychokinetic control.
Forming a rapid sequence of hand seals, Inoiki infused chakra into the scroll. A glowing seal lit up across its surface, and in the next instant—
BOOM!
A burst of white smoke erupted, expanding outward in a cloud of chakra mist. From within the smoke, a massive sphere of solid iron emerged, gleaming dully under the pale light filtering through the broken rooftops. The heavy ball hovered beside Inoiki, suspended by his will alone.
From a distant rooftop to the right, Tobi reappeared beside the Deva Path, standing silently with his broken arm still limp at his side. Both he and Nagato, who was controlling the Six Paths from afar, turned their gazes toward the iron sphere.
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