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The Deva Path straightened himself upright once more, as though he had suffered no injury at all. Yahiko was, in truth, already dead. He was merely a corpse being controlled by Nagato through the chakra receiver rods, and therefore could feel no pain.
"You are far stronger than I imagined," the Deva Path said.
"I'm actually even stronger than you think," Midorima replied with a smile.
Though he had unleashed a Tailed Beast Ball, that still didn't represent the full extent of his power. He had yet to use Sage Mode, and he also had Wood Release still in reserve. That said, using Wood Release right in the middle of the Hidden Leaf Village gave him a rather strange feeling—it would likely invite questions from Hiruzen afterward. More importantly, he wasn't entirely sure whether the chakra within his body was sufficient to sustain those large-scale Wood Release techniques.
"I don't want to waste time on meaningless words. Perhaps, in your eyes, I'm just spouting empty boasts or saying things designed to lower your guard. But I still want to say this: peace is precious. It is the battlefield that remains the constant theme of history. What we must do is simply delay the arrival of the day when war erupts for as long as possible. Using war to end war is, at its core, an absolutely unacceptable approach. The only true method to ensure lasting peace has never been the tailed beasts, but rather responsibility. The responsibility of the villagers, the responsibility of the shinobi, the responsibility of the small villages, and the responsibility of the great villages. That is why, from beginning to end, I have always believed that the Five Great Shinobi Villages have failed. The reason the shinobi world has fallen into chaos is deeply connected to the Five Great Shinobi Villages."
Midorima's voice rang out loudly. Hiruzen, who had just finished destroying the Asura Path, couldn't help but turn his head upon hearing those words, though his brow furrowed deeply. Even though the great villages were currently in a state of alliance, that didn't mean he was willing to be lectured by a young shinobi from another village.
"In other words, not a single one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages has ever truly regarded itself as a great village. Three Great Ninja Wars have erupted in less than fifty years. How many people have lost their loved ones in those wars? I dare say it's the result of the inaction of the great villages. They have never once considered what kind of influence their decisions could have on neighboring villages... They have neither set a proper example, nor have they possessed the awareness to 'maintain balance.' That is the most direct reason for my disappointment in them," Midorima stated.
The various baffling operations of the Five Great Shinobi Villages were truly mind-boggling. Whether it was the disappearance of the Kazekage that sparked the Third Great Ninja War, or Hiruzen's inability to properly handle the relationship between the Leaf Village and the Uchiha clan, as well as his indulgence of Danzo and tacit approval of him cultivating his own power base—all of it made Midorima's scalp prickle with disbelief.
"Fine words. But what's the result? You're still just standing here spouting grandiose rhetoric, without a single actionable step," the Deva Path sneered.
"Of course I have a method. All misunderstandings stem from a lack of communication. If effective communication can be established, a vast majority of wars can be prevented. The Five Kage Summit is indeed a very good model, but it has its flaws—namely, the Five Great Shinobi Villages only consider their own interests and do not address the problems faced by the smaller villages. If the smaller villages were also brought into the fold, allowing them to voice their own difficulties, on one hand, they might receive help from the great villages. On the other hand, it would also prevent other villages from undermining the peace. The moment any village tries to stir up trouble, the other villages would jointly suppress it, thus greatly raising the cost of causing trouble," Midorima explained.
Could this model guarantee absolute peace? Impossible. But it could maintain a basic level of dignity among the various villages, preventing the situation from becoming utterly unsightly. More importantly, every village harbored its own selfish motives. Therefore, the great villages would still profit while the small villages would still suffer—only the degree would be better than it was now. Otherwise, at the rate of three great wars in fifty years, all the shinobi villages would sooner or later be completely obliterated on the battlefield.
Initially, when Hiruzen first heard Midorima speak, he felt considerable displeasure inside. But by the end, he no longer looked down on him. First of all, what Midorima had presented was merely a rough outline—truly implementing it would still require a great deal of detail to be hammered out. Moreover, they were on a battlefield, and for Midorima to articulate all of this in such a limited time was already quite remarkable. Furthermore, as Midorima had pointed out, the smaller villages did indeed start wars—the Second Great Ninja War being a prime example. Considering that, bringing the smaller villages into the talks wasn't inherently problematic. So, taken as a whole, Midorima's proposal needed refinement, but it wasn't unworkable.
"Spin your tales. Keep spinning them. I don't have that much time to listen to your nonsense here," the Deva Path said with a cold laugh.
"Deva Path, you're an intelligent man. Whether I'm fabricating a story or whether this actually has feasibility—you know better than anyone. Collecting the Ten-Tails is not the only path," Midorima said.
The Deva Path was just about to respond when Obito suddenly appeared and addressed the Deva Path. "How are things on your end?"
"It will still take some time to secure the Six-Tails jinchuriki," the Deva Path replied.
"The Nine-Tails is already in hand. As for the Six-Tails... as long as the Nine-Tails is with us, I refuse to believe the Six-Tails won't come."
'Naruto had been captured?!' Midorima was horrified. He whipped his head around to look at Hiruzen, only to find that Hiruzen wore an equally bewildered expression, unwilling to believe Obito's words.
"In that case, we'll call it here for now? Next time, it will be your death!" The Deva Path fixed his gaze on Midorima.
Midorima absolutely had no intention of letting the Deva Path escape just like that. The moment they were given a chance to regroup, the Six Paths of Pain would be revived, and all of today's fighting would have been completely meaningless. However, Pain gave neither Midorima nor Hiruzen any opportunity to act. His entire body rose into the air and he spread his arms wide. A colossal repulsive force swept outward, utterly impossible to resist.
Midorima attempted to use the Earth Style Wall to withstand the force of Almighty Push, but the earthen barrier crumbled instantly before the immense repulsion. He had no choice but to rapidly retreat several hundred meters away. In the blink of an eye, everything within a radius of four to five hundred meters had been virtually leveled, leaving a crater roughly two meters deep. The scale of destruction was not on par with the cataclysmic explosion from the original story—or rather, the Deva Path's intent in using this technique was never to deliver a high-intensity, wide-scale area of effect, but to create an opportunity to escape.
Midorima brushed the dust from his body and looked ahead. All of the Paths of Pain, along with the corpses, had vanished without a trace. He understood immediately that Pain and Obito had already withdrawn. Without a moment to lose, Midorima and Hiruzen rushed together to find Samui, drenched in blood, and Karui, who lay collapsed in a pool of blood, completely unconscious. Both of them carried the distinct acrid scent of explosives on their bodies, and the ground around them looked as though it had been bombarded.
"Deidara..." Midorima clenched his fists, seething with fury.
Hiruzen's expression was ghastly. He had once had the chance to kill Deidara, yet in the end, not only had Deidara survived, he had also managed to abduct the Nine-Tails—something Hiruzen found extremely difficult to swallow.
Tsunade was nowhere to be found, so Midorima had no choice but to reluctantly tend to the two women's injuries. Although they were covered in blood and looked horrifying, the wounds were, in truth, all superficial. The one thing that gave Midorima pause was that both of them remained unconscious, and this was not an area in which he specialized.