The reason Sasori kept staring at Ōnoki without looking away was simple: his Dust Release was excellent, powerful, and intimidating.
Sasori wanted it.
As for how to get Dust Release…
He was planning to wait until the leader killed Ōnoki, then go collect the old man's corpse and turn him into a human puppet far beyond even the Third Kazekage—
a human puppet that could use Dust Release.
Once Konan gave the order, Kakuzu and Sasori naturally stopped slacking off. Their attention shifted to the Iwagakure ninja who were retreating in an organized line.
The aftershocks from Ōnoki and Pain's battle had already left the ground littered with scorched marks carved out by Dust Release and massive craters blasted open by Shinra Tensei. That was exactly why Ōnoki had been so adamant about making Kitsuchi pull the Iwa ninja back.
As for Deidara, who had joined the battle, he had badly overestimated himself.
All he could do in the clash between Ōnoki and Pain was watch from the sidelines. Every now and then he'd throw out a few clay bombs, hoping to help Ōnoki, but almost all of them were detonated before they could even reach Pain.
During that time, Ōnoki launched Dust Release twice more, but each time the Deva Path cleanly knocked it aside with Shinra Tensei.
Ōnoki's breathing grew heavier and heavier. His body was getting stiffer by the second, and his back was already soaked through with sweat.
"Old man, where the hell did this guy even come from? How is he this strong…"
Deidara had ended up back-to-back with Ōnoki. He wasn't useless, at least. Whenever that weird attractive force locked onto Ōnoki, Deidara's clay bombs forced the Deva Path to dodge.
Pain had considered killing Deidara outright, but every time he shifted his attention toward him, Ōnoki's threat level spiked again.
"They're just a bunch of lunatics!"
Ōnoki glared at Pain.
He truly thought the man was insane.
Sure, maybe some people in Iwagakure had dishonestly skimmed money from the Akatsuki—but that didn't mean the Akatsuki had to declare war the instant things went wrong, did it?
Just looking at the damage Iwagakure had already suffered made Ōnoki's heart ache.
"But it's about time."
"It's time to put an end to this farce."
Ōnoki muttered that to himself.
Throughout the fight, he had been deliberately using the aftermath of his Dust Release to reshape the terrain around them.
On the surface, the pits and cracks torn open by Dust Release just looked like battlefield damage.
In reality, they formed a massive stone formation.
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"
Ōnoki's body instantly lost buoyancy. The moment he hit the ground, he slammed both hands down.
The earth shook violently. Massive slabs of rock rose up from the ground one after another, forming a special kind of cage that trapped Pain right in the middle.
Only when Ōnoki finally activated the technique did Pain realize something was off. But by the time his Rinnegan swept across the area, he saw that the rock pillars raised by Moving Earth Core had been positioned with exact precision, sealing off every possible escape angle.
The old generation of shinobi really did have their tricks.
"But you think this can trap me?"
Pain raised a hand, preparing to blast the whole formation apart with Shinra Tensei.
But the instant his hand rose, Ōnoki moved too.
"Now!"
At Ōnoki's shout, Deidara—who had still been staring in shock from above—snapped into action.
He hurled out lump after lump of clay. Not only did the clay completely seal the gaps in the rock formation, the excess poured inside and detonated in a chain of violent explosions.
At the same time, Ōnoki used Super Light-Weight Rock Technique to push his own speed to the limit. In his hand, what had originally been a cubic Dust Release construct had now been compressed into a single white line.
This was Ōnoki's ultimate finishing move.
After further condensing Dust Release, it lost its large-scale disintegration effect—but in exchange gained speed and piercing power beyond all limits.
Inside the stone formation, the Rinnegan in the Deva Path's eyes trembled.
Ōnoki's long-prepared strike, built on exploiting the battlefield itself, was enough to inflict irreversible damage on this Deva Path body.
If it had been any of the other Paths, Nagato might have been willing to sacrifice them.
But this body—the body of the Deva Path—had once belonged to Yahiko.
How could he possibly allow Ōnoki to destroy it?
Pain released Shinra Tensei almost instantly. The repulsive force blasted away the surrounding rocks, sending chunks of stone flying like cannonballs.
But Ōnoki seemed to have predicted that too. Using those flying fragments as cover, he kept pressing toward Pain.
For a split second, the white line in Ōnoki's hand looked like the scythe of death itself as it shot for Pain's chest.
And just as relief was about to appear on Ōnoki's face—
smack!
A pale hand appeared out of nowhere, clamping hard onto Ōnoki's wrist and yanking him downward at high speed.
Ōnoki twisted his head in disbelief. His Dust Release had been only inches from piercing Pain.
He couldn't understand where this sudden hand had come from.
But the moment he saw who had stopped him, the disbelief in his eyes turned into shock.
"How is that possible…"
The one who stopped Ōnoki wasn't anyone else—
it was the Asura Path, the only one of the Six Paths still remaining.
Its body looked battered and half-ruined, but the instant Ōnoki saw it, he noticed the same Rinnegan shining in its eyes.
"So there's another one… with those same eyes…"
Farther away, the smile on Deidara's face froze too. After fighting alongside Ōnoki and tangling with the Deva Path for this long, Deidara had already guessed that Pain's power came from those strange eyes.
But now a second person with those same eyes had appeared?
As the Asura Path forcibly twisted Ōnoki's wrist open, Ōnoki's face went deathly pale.
It was hard to tell whether the color drained from pain—or from despair at seeing the Asura Path show up.
"Deidara, run!"
Ōnoki no longer had the mental room to think about anything else. He roared the order.
The Akatsuki had hidden their strength too deeply—so deeply it was almost absurd. Ōnoki no longer believed he was going to survive, but Deidara had to.
As long as Deidara lived, Iwagakure's kekkei tōta wouldn't truly die out.
"Run!"
When Ōnoki realized Deidara's chakra still hadn't moved, he made the decision instantly—
and severed his own forearm.
The moment he tore himself free from the Asura Path's grip, he shouted again.
"Old man…"
This time Deidara was genuinely shaken.
He wanted to rush in and fight Pain to the death, but he knew perfectly well he was absolutely no match for him.
"Run?"
"None of you are leaving. Iwagakure will pay the price for its actions."
Floating high above, Pain slowly spread both his arms. From his body, a terrifying force began to gather—
~~~
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