Boom— …Huh?
Pain's body—just as he was about to release his power—paused slightly.
His indifferent gaze dipped, and he muttered with a faint, puzzled tone:
"A bag of rice can carry how many floors?"
"Why would you… carry floors…?"
The invisible force he'd gathered up…
scattered into nothing, purely because of those two lines.
Konan: "..."
This scene felt… weirdly familiar.
She wanted to remind him.
But after thinking it over, she shut her mouth.
Nagato didn't like being told what to do.
Below, Kai was still spouting nonsense:
"Since we're talking about carrying floors, we have to talk about the legendary floor-carrying war god—A Xing."
War God A Xing?
Just the name sounded insane.
Pain hesitated, then—seeing Kai explain so seriously—actually lowered himself a bit, listening carefully.
He'd developed a little interest in this brat.
At the crater's edge, Jiraiya twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"This guy… at a moment like this, he's still chatting…"
The atmosphere was clearly on the verge of a war—
and Kai just shattered it.
Completely unaware that if it weren't for this "ten minutes of talking," Jiraiya might've been combo'd and buried long ago.
Three minutes later—
[Spoke with Deva Path Pain for three minutes. Analyzing traits…]
[Deva Path Pain: Above the Art Style (Black), Rinnegan·Replication (Gold), Super·Shinra Tensei (Gold), Chibaku Tensei (Gold), Rain Tiger at Will (Purple), Shinra Tensei (Purple), Banshō Ten'in (Purple), Shōten no Jutsu (Purple)…]
Kai lifted his eyes slightly.
Not gonna lie—
this really was the early-series final boss.
And not a "partial build" boss either.
A fully assembled one.
Not like current Obito and Itachi, whose "trait kits" were still missing pieces.
"But what the hell is 'Above the Art Style' supposed to mean…?"
He stared at that first trait.
A scene popped into his head:
Pain getting his model blown apart by Naruto's punch after beating up Hinata.
Combined with the entrance BGM—
"Above the Art Style" was… honestly fair.
With that, Kai glanced toward the other Paths.
If Deva Path's kit was already this ridiculous, the other "single-unit kings" wouldn't be weak either.
And more importantly—
their trait pools were smaller.
Smaller denominator = better odds of pulling gold.
Kai knew his math.
And thank god the Six Paths were one system—he didn't need to chat and analyze each one separately.
He turned to the Path beside Deva—
a big-necked guy, like his thyroid had exploded, with sharp spikes on his head.
[Asura Path: Infinite Firepower (Black), Mechanical Ascension (Gold), Overload Mode (Gold)…]
The mech-covered Asura Path.
"Infinite Firepower" and "Mechanical Ascension" screamed tech-build.
Strong, sure—
but Kai wasn't ready to swap his whole playstyle yet.
So he only glanced twice before turning again.
Next was a thick-faced middle-aged man, ears pierced straight through.
His trait list flashed even more obnoxiously.
[Naraka Path: Revive, My Love… Teammates (Black), Lie-Detecting Judge (Black), Summon·King of Hell (Gold)…]
"Revive—?"
Kai's eyes widened.
"System… are you serious right now?"
"I swear, one day you're gonna get dragged into some 'golden cheat trial' and sentenced."
System: "..."
And combined with "Lie-Detecting Judge," it was basically the incarnation of justice.
Kai could already picture it being mass-produced:
All those classic lines—
"We're just friends."
"He's heartbroken, he needs company."
"We only hugged, nothing went in."
"The kid is yours, why do we need a paternity test?"
—would instantly become non-arguments.
"No, but… this 'King of Hell'…"
Kai's gaze finally locked onto the last trait.
Everyone knew Naruto's world had souls.
It also had weird "rules-of-reality" entities.
Like the Shinigami.
Like the King of Hell.
Even by the end, Kishimoto never fully explained them.
"So… should I try Naraka Path?"
"If I can summon the King of Hell, that'd be hilarious."
He hesitated, eyes still on Naraka.
Revival and the King of Hell were both more immediately useful than Deva Path right now.
BOOM!
But before he could keep chatting—
a crushing pressure slammed down from above!
An invisible weight like a mountain pressing straight onto his skull.
Boom—boom!
The air groaned under it.
Rainwater spiraled upward, forced back by the flow—
while the crater below continued collapsing.
Deva Path had moved.
And he opened with a finisher—
Shinra Tensei.
Target—
Uchiha Kai.
"Bro—why are you throwing hands out of nowhere?!"
Kai shot Deva a look, complaining even as his eyes widened.
The "666" in his pupils spun violently.
That overwhelming repulsive force from above—
was the same kind that could erase an entire village.
Humm.
A small silver moon appeared and began to orbit around him.
Endlessly.
A faint glowing domain expanded—
fully revealed before the shinobi world once again.
Against the Rinnegan, Kai had to be careful.
If he got careless and Human Path ripped out his soul—
that'd be the most humiliating way to die.
"Come on then… three feet around me—repulsion!"
Kai whispered in his heart.
The next second, the silver-white glow around him trembled.
Humm.
Humm-humm.
Humm-humm-humm!
Two invisible forces—
strong enough to warp space itself—
collided head-on.
There was no explosion.
Only the crisp sound of glass cracking.
Crack.
Crack-crack!
Black lines—like fractures—faintly appeared in the air.
Spreading outward.
The rain suspended around Kai—
was torn apart by the opposing repulsions.
It didn't "fall" anymore.
It shattered into countless tiny water molecules, trembling midair.
Whoooosh—
In the end, Kai paid the price for being young.
His "three feet" repulsion canceled Shinra Tensei…
but his whole domain—like a sphere barely half a meter wide—
got blasted away like a ball.
WHOOSH!
Kai was launched downward.
From midair, he smashed into the crater's edge.
BOOOOM!
The tangled repulsions ricocheted from the collision—
and a terrifying shockwave exploded outward.
Centered on Kai, within a hundred meters—
the already waterlogged ground crumbled like soaked biscuits.
Crack!
It shattered, sank, collapsed.
Spiderweb fractures spread outward from him, expanding fast—
deep and bottomless.
They connected with the nearby massive crater.
The pit—already over a hundred meters wide—
grew even larger.
The water's surface got pulverized by the violent airflow, trembling like a sieve.
Splash!
In the distance, Kisame had just staggered up and tried to get closer—
and immediately got caught by the wave.
He flew like trash, slammed back into the mud.
He spat blood. His already-withered aura weakened further.
Swaying like a candle in the wind.
His eyes went completely dead as he stared at the sky.
…Why did I even come over here?
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