Thump… thump… Thump… thump…
It felt like everyone could only hear the beating of their own hearts—their breaths caught in their throats.
Pain (Tendō) kept rising, higher and higher, as if he meant to shoulder the sun itself. The higher he went, the heavier the dread pressing over everyone below.
And Natsuki had already taken his stance. An unseen power unfurled from him and draped over most of the village—a guardian posture, through and through.
It was like he was bracing for Pain's ultimate move.
That feeling… was very, very bad.
Vmmm—! A sheet of white swallowed the world. A terrifying repulsive force erupted, making every scalp prickle in unison.
The instant that force fell, it slammed into the electromagnetic domain. Normally, an electromagnetic field is abstract—something that doesn't directly shove matter around. But when it met a force just as "abstract" as repulsion, the reaction turned violent.
In a blink, the entire ryōiki was struck—like a giant spring mattress being crushed down by mad hands. The "mattress" fought to hold, while the pressure was monstrous.
There were only two outcomes: either the spring shattered, or the pressure bounced away.
But this domain wasn't a spring. It was a highly plastic, unified construct—tug one part and the whole responds. The totality of repulsion raining down was dispersed across the domain and borne together. As long as Natsuki's chakra didn't run dry, the field would not break—and its rebound would only grow more fearsome.
"Pain! The 'pain' you want to inflict—I! RE! FUSE!"
Natsuki roared. Chakra surged. The Denji Ryōiki (Electromagnetic Domain) howled and, with brute inevitability, reflected the force of Chō Shinra Tensei (Super Almighty Push).
…Maybe a little too well.
The power was so huge Natsuki's "grip" slipped a hair. Instead of hurling it straight back at Pain, the rebound skidded off-axis and shot more than a hundred kilometers away. A heartbeat later, a doomsday bloom flared on the horizon—mushroom cloud clawing the sky, the shock front tearing across a vast swath of land. A gale rolled toward Konoha and ripped the village gates clean off their hinges.
The scale of it was… obscene.
Even without seeing the impact site, everyone could imagine it. Napes went cold. Sweat ran down spines.
No one had expected Pain to hold a move that apocalyptic.
Thank the gods Natsuki had been there. If that strike had hit Konoha, there would be no Konoha. Not a soul would have survived.
Just the thought of it was terror enough. Tendō Pain was that frightening.
And yet… Pain himself was numb. He hadn't believed his Chō Shinra Tensei (Super Almighty Push) could be batted away. Ridiculous!
What kind of monster was Natsuki?
Natsuki, for his part, exhaled. His whole body ached; sweat dripped like he'd just been hauled out of a river. Sustaining a domain that massive had chewed through a lot of chakra.
Even so, he wasn't actually worse off than Pain.
At this point Pain was "floating" by sheer will—and by Nagato burning down his life. He couldn't last.
This wasn't like the original timeline. There, Pain's expenditures weren't crippling; even after that "rice carry," he'd had strength to spare for Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation). Here, after brutal, multi-front combat, the Six Paths were bled nearly dry. Tendō had been mauled by Natsuki over and over. Managing to cast Chō Shinra Tensei had already been the limit.
Which meant this was the perfect moment for Natsuki to finish it.
He popped the chakra battery on his forearm, drew out the bulk of its reserves, and set his hands in a classic Kamehameha stance.
Since the Six Paths had been worn down and Tendō was at his limit, this was the ideal time to end him once and for all!
Natsuki opened the battery on his arm, pulled a huge swell of chakra, and settled deeper into the stance.
"Pain, your 'gift' was awful, so I bounced it back. Now—it's your turn to accept mine. Let's see if your Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) has anything left to deflect this!"
Lightning and magnetism coiled and bound together again, iron sand spiraling into his palms. Power stacked on power, shaping what looked like a condensed sphere—truly the intersection of raging denji and jiton, with iron sand serving as the projectile.
This was a hand-forged Denji Hō (Electromagnetic Cannon)—
And he'd fire it like a Kamehameha to stack his own momentum.
So yes—he called the name for the buff:
"Ka——————me——————ha——————me——————"
"HA!!!"
Natsuki thrust both palms forward. The Denji Hō (Electromagnetic Cannon) cracked the air and vanished—reappearing at Pain's chest in a blink.
Pain, still in cooldown lag, reflexively tried Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)—but the effect was a whisper. The next instant, the roaring lance of electromagnetism punched a smoking hole straight through him.
And kept going—up, as if it meant to pop the sun.
Fortunately, the higher it sped, the more it bled away. At last it fizzled into nothing, only a few flecks of iron sand drifting in the blue.
A gaping cavity yawned across Pain's abdomen. A few broken black receivers tumbled free of his body. With the rods out, the puppet was beyond control.
That was the end.
Natsuki sagged onto his iron-sand platform and guided it down toward the village.
Tendō Pain's body also began to fall—sure to smash to pulp on impact—
A white-scaled serpent lunged from below, jaws yawning wide to swallow Tendō whole. Then it whipped around and bolted for the horizon at top speed.
Natsuki blinked, stunned. "Kabuto, you opportunistic snake…"
Of course—Kabuto had been lurking for the snipe-and-clam to ruin each other so the fisherman could profit. And he really had snatched the falling prize.
Only he didn't realize this "Pain" was just a puppet. The Rinnegan wasn't in it. For all his scheming, that "fisherman" had nabbed a bait fish.
Ridiculous.
As Natsuki touched down, everyone rushed over.
"Natsuki, just now—was that…?" Shino asked.
"Kabuto," Natsuki said—and couldn't help laughing. "He wanted to steal the Rinnegan, but he probably doesn't know this Pain is just a body."
That set off a round of chuckles. So that was what he'd been hiding for—to snag that? They could already imagine his face cracking when he opened those eyes and found out they weren't the real thing.
Shino, however, frowned. "Kabuto is still dangerous. We should eliminate him."
Asuma chimed in at once. "Shino's right. Kabuto can use Edo Tensei (Impure World Reincarnation). He already stormed the village with a bunch of resurrected shinobi. If we don't take him out, who knows who he'll summon next? If he dredges up the Rikudō Sennin (Sage of Six Paths), then we're done for!"
He was half joking—but not wrong.
Imagine Kabuto actually digging up the Sage's remains and Edo-summoning him. That would be nightmare fuel. Even setting the Sage aside as "legend," there were plenty of other monsters Kabuto could exploit—and that was dangerous enough.
So… priority four—eliminate Kabuto.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 500 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]