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"What do you mean?" the Deva Path asked, his voice laced with confusion.
Midorima didn't answer right away. Instead, he prioritized destroying the Naraka Path's arm, ensuring that it couldn't suddenly summon the King of Hell and resurrect the Preta Path—that would have been an absolute nuisance.
"First of all, the Second Great Ninja War was started by the Hidden Rain Village, wasn't it?" Midorima asked.
"Ha. So it finally comes back to the Hidden Rain... Yes. It was started by the Rain. Both our parents died in that war." The Deva Path fixed Midorima with a cold stare. "Are you satisfied now?"
"No, you're not understanding my point," Midorima said, shaking his head. "What I'm trying to say is that sure, villages like the Hidden Sand or the Hidden Stone have indeed started great ninja wars. But so have the smaller villages. So, the outbreak of war has nothing to do with the size of the village—it's about whether they have the will to start one. So, I want to ask you this: if some ambitious but weaker villages came to you, asking to borrow the power of the Ten-Tails, would you lend it to them, or not?"
"Lend it," the Deva Path replied, still not grasping where Midorima was going with this.
"The small shinobi villages outnumber the large ones. They, too, want to grow more powerful. Once they gain your backing, take a guess—will the number of wars increase, or decrease?"
"So you're trying to use this rhetoric to make me give up?" the Deva Path countered.
"Not at all. The Akatsuki has poured so much effort into this cause, and so many have died. How could I possibly expect you to simply abandon it because of a few words from me? In other words, even if you know this path is wrong, even if you know it leads to a dead end, you'll still walk it. The cost of giving up is simply too high for you to bear."
"As expected... After all that talk, you're really just trying to convince us to give up, all while offering no real solution. I'm all too familiar with the way you great shinobi villages think. It's nothing more than an attempt to persuade us, and then, the moment we let our guard down in surrender, you'll deliver the 'finishing blow.' If I hadn't witnessed the Leaf Village's methods with my own eyes before, you might have actually convinced me. But the very reason I'm still standing here, at its root, is because I don't believe that you great villages have any such goodwill," the Deva Path stated coldly.
Midorima's expression shifted slightly. The event the Deva Path was referring to was, of course, Yahiko's death—how Hanzo, under the pretense of negotiations and in collusion with Danzo, had murdered Yahiko. With that bitter precedent still fresh, the Deva Path's wariness toward the great shinobi villages was indeed well-founded. After being hurt that deeply once, they would forever harbor deep suspicion toward the major villages, especially when the one who died was their most important comrade. Because of that, Nagato would not easily change his stance.
"In fact, the reason wars never truly cease is also connected to the inaction of the great shinobi villages," Midorima said with a sigh.
"Oh? Switching up your strategy now? Planning to verbally attack the great villages to earn my trust, and then follow the same old playbook? Ah, that's right—you're the Six-Tails jinchuriki... No wonder you're trying so hard to persuade me... It's because you're afraid I'll kill you!" It was as if the Deva Path had suddenly seen right through Midorima's intentions. He immediately abandoned any notion of continuing the conversation and simply extended his hand toward Midorima.
Once again, Midorima lost control of his body and was pulled irresistibly toward the Deva Path. The Deva Path swung the black rod, piercing Midorima straight in the abdomen. Blood immediately sprayed out. In the next instant, the Deva Path unleashed Almighty Push, blasting Midorima far away.
Clutching the wound in his stomach, Midorima felt the Cell Laboratory within him accelerate into overdrive, rapidly repairing the damaged tissue. The distance between them had simply been too close. Midorima had been forced right in front of the Deva Path practically via teleportation, giving him no time at all to mount a defense. Now, after being repelled, the distance between the two had once again stretched to several dozen meters, which gave Midorima time to prepare.
'How is it?' the Six-Tails suddenly spoke up.
'A bit tricky,' Midorima replied, his brow furrowed.
'You can't afford to lose to him. I have no desire to become part of the Ten-Tails right now,' the Six-Tails said.
Midorima laughed. 'So you trust me now?'
'Trust... also needs time to cultivate. It can't be achieved overnight,' the Six-Tails replied. 'Compared to when we first came into contact, I'd say there's about a sixty percent probability that I trust you.'
'Tch.' Midorima took a deep breath. 'To beat the Deva Path, you need to bring at least eighty percent trust to the table.'
'Whether we can access eighty percent of the tailed beast chakra depends entirely on your skill,' the Six-Tails said.
'I'm up to it,' Midorima replied, his gaze unwavering.
The moment he saw the Deva Path open his palm, Midorima knew he couldn't afford to give him another opening. He immediately activated the Shadow Clone Jutsu. The clone unleashed a Lightning-Water Dragon Bullet—a water dragon wreathed in lightning chakra erupting from its mouth—while the real body drew out a scroll and executed the Multiple Shadow Clone Shuriken technique.
"Almighty Push!" The Deva Path spread his arms wide, repelling both the Lightning-Water Dragon Bullet and the barrage of shadow shuriken. Before he could even lower his arms, the Deva Path saw Midorima already at his side, a small black sphere forming in his palm.
"Damn it!" The Deva Path was horrified. Almighty Push was undeniably powerful, but the technique had a built-in cooldown of five seconds. In other words, the interval between two uses of Almighty Push was at least five seconds. Midorima had seized precisely that window and teleported directly in front of him. And that black sphere in his hand was... a Tailed Beast Ball!
The Deva Path had barely registered what it was before Midorima slammed the "pocket-sized" Tailed Beast Ball directly into his body. The Tailed Beast Ball was a tailed beast's ultimate killing technique—a full-powered one could level an entire hill. But because the time had been far too short, Midorima hadn't been able to fully form it. He could only deploy a Super Mini Tailed Beast Ball. Even so, after Midorima unleashed that strike, the Deva Path could hardly withstand it. His body was sent hurtling horizontally across several dozen meters before crashing to the ground.
Midorima didn't fare much better than the Deva Path. In that instant, all the chakra in his body felt utterly depleted, a sensation of total emptiness washing over him. But after that brief moment passed, the tailed beast chakra surged through him once again, replenishing his reserves.
'Six-Tails, what was that?!' Midorima fumed with anger. To not be relied upon at a critical moment—that was utterly unacceptable.
'The level of synchronization still isn't enough. It'll get better with time,' the Six-Tails said.
Deep inside, Midorima raised a middle finger at the Six-Tails. "Insufficient synchronization," my foot. It was obvious the beast simply hadn't anticipated him using a Tailed Beast Ball. Still, there was a small kernel of truth—the coordination between him and the Six-Tails had not yet reached absolute perfection.
'Don't let something like that happen again. If it does, we'll both die,' Midorima warned. The Six-Tails fell silent.
The Deva Path climbed back to his feet. Much of his black cloak had been shredded, and the area on his chest where the Super Mini Tailed Beast Ball had struck was now slightly caved in—likely a few ribs had been shattered. Even though it had been a Tailed Beast Ball—albeit a small one—it seemed he had still managed to avoid a fatal blow to the Deva Path. Could it be that he really had to find Nagato himself?
Midorima frowned and rapidly began weighing his next move.