Jiraiya responded first, slamming his palms together and summoning Mount Myōboku's two toad sages - Fukasaku and Shima - along with his main battle toads: Gamabunta, Gamaken, and Gamahiro. Their presence brought more than raw power. It brought steadiness, the kind that anchored a battlefield when morale began to crack.
Chiba answered with a pressure that felt even broader. He called forth the serpents of Ryūchidō in force, and the field filled with hissing shadows as they poured across Turtle Island. At the same time, Senpō Hyōton: Hyōsetsu Ryūki ("Sage Art Ice Release: Ice-Snow Dragon Riders") joined the fight, reinforcing the Allied Shinobi Forces as they charged into Kabuto's Edo Tensei ("Impure World Reincarnation") host.
Because that army wasn't made of nameless bodies.
Buried inside its ranks were shinobi whose names still carried weight - Uchiha Izuna, Uchiha Tajima, Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Shisui, Akimichi Torifu, Mitokado Homura, Katō Dan, Sarutobi Asuma, Hyūga Hizashi - powerhouses ripped back into motion and sharpened into weapons.
To meet them, Chiba brought out monsters of his own: the White Snake Sage, Tagitsuhime, Ichikishimahime, Tantsuhime, and the overwhelming presence of Manda, the Second Manda, the Blue Snake, and Sìyá. Power answered power until the island itself seemed to buckle under the strain.
Cries of battle rose and swallowed the sky. The earth shook as if Turtle Island were groaning beneath the collision of armies, summons, and resurrected legends. Its sheer scale - greater than any hidden village of the Five Great Nations - was the only reason this kind of chaos could even unfold without immediately collapsing into total ruin.
Yet deep inside the shell, in the sealed underground barrier, a different tension brewed.
The jinchūriki stood with grim faces and restless hands, each of them fully aware that this war had erupted for one reason: to keep Akatsuki from taking them. Thousands were fighting above, bleeding out on the island's surface, while they were locked away like precious cargo.
That helplessness was suffocating.
Yugito Nii glanced toward Killer B - the perfect jinchūriki of the Hachibi - and her voice sharpened with agitation. "B… are we really going to just sit here and wait?"
Her frustration spilled over before she could stop it. "Everyone out there is fighting to protect us. Are we supposed to hide underground and do nothing?"
Killer B's grin flashed, but it was brittle, forced over anger. "I'm mad too, fool! Dummy! Oh yeah!"
Utakata's tone was quieter, but the strain behind it was clear. "Can this barrier really not be broken?"
Yugito shook her head. "This seal was built for jinchūriki training. It's ridiculously strong. Without the key, forcing it open would take power that's hard to even imagine."
Fū blinked. "Even if all six of us combine our strength… it still won't budge?"
Naruto clenched his fists immediately. "We can break it! If we hit it together, it'll crack - let me out there! I want to fight too!"
Miru hesitated, worry tightening her expression. She wasn't less angry than the others - she was simply looking farther ahead. "Mizukage-sama ordered us to stay here. And if we go out and Akatsuki captures any of us, then everything ends."
Her voice lowered, heavy with the cost. "All the sacrifices made to protect us would become meaningless."
Yugito exhaled, then nodded once, accepting the logic even as it burned. "I understand. But if the war is lost, we'll end up captured anyway."
Her gaze hardened into resolve. "We're jinchūriki - strategic weapons. We represent our villages' greatest power. In a decisive battle like this, shouldn't we be using it?"
Utakata nodded. "Agreed."
He lifted his chin slightly, as if choosing the least terrible option. "I have an idea."
"What is it?" they asked at once.
"We break the barrier with all our strength," Utakata said. "But we don't all go out."
His words fell like stones. "We leave some jinchūriki here. If we win, fine. If we lose, this ensures we don't all get captured at once."
Yugito's eyes narrowed, then she nodded. "That's… smart."
Killer B scratched his chin, then pointed. "Yo! So who goes, who stays, fool, dummy, oh yeah?"
Miru raised her hand immediately. "Me. Utakata. Yugito. B. The four of us go."
She looked at the two youngest. "Fū and Naruto stay."
Naruto and Fū protested at once.
"Why?!" Naruto snapped. "That's not fair!"
Fū puffed her cheeks. "We want to fight too!"
Yugito's gaze softened, but her voice stayed firm. "Because you're still kids. And Naruto - you haven't mastered the Kyuubi's power yet."
Naruto froze. The argument died in his throat as he lowered his head, forced to swallow the truth. Jiraiya had shown him methods, but training took time - and time was a luxury the battlefield never granted.
Utakata nodded once, final. "Then it's decided."
He turned toward the barrier, raising his hand. "All jinchūriki - release everything. We break the barrier first!"
"Alright!" voices overlapped, resolve snapping into place.
They began to gather power.
…Above them, the battlefield had already become a furnace.
Chiba faced Pain's Six Paths without the slightest carelessness. If anything, his focus sharpened further. Pain's Six Paths were one of the living ceilings of this era's strength - and Chiba knew something most people here did not: these bodies weren't Nagato's real form.
They were corpses.
Puppets.
Which meant the real Nagato had to be close - hidden somewhere near Turtle Island, controlling them from the shadows.
Pain, in turn, regarded Chiba with the same extreme caution. Chiba was hailed as the strongest shinobi alive, the supreme commander of the allied forces. If Pain intended to take him lightly, he wouldn't have brought all Six Paths from the very beginning.
Then Pain moved first.
As always, the opening wave came through the Animal Path - a probing strike, but one that could tear most shinobi apart. Pain's summons weren't simple beasts; they were tools that could attack, defend, disrupt, and overwhelm, perfect for forcing an opponent to reveal reactions.
A burst of smoke.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu ("Summoning Jutsu")!!!"
The Animal Path called forth a gigantic rhinoceros, a massive bull, and the infamous multi-headed Hellhound. The rhinoceros and bull were straightforward in their brutality - pure mass and strength meant to trample. The Hellhound was the true threat.
It multiplied.
Cut it and it became more. Tear it apart and it split again - an endlessly reproducing nightmare designed to drown its target under fangs and bodies.
Chiba watched them charge and smiled faintly, as if the answer had already been decided.
For most shinobi, this would have been terror. Even for Jiraiya - one of the Sannin - these summons were notoriously difficult to handle. Before Pain's name shook the world, Jiraiya had already stood near the top of the era, Konohagakure's unquestioned strongest.
But Chiba wasn't Jiraiya.
He didn't hesitate.
His right hand lifted, and extreme frost speared outward in multiple streams, striking all three summons at once.
In an instant, the bull froze solid. The rhinoceros locked mid-stride. The Hellhound - no matter how it could split - was sealed inside absolute ice, immobilized so completely it couldn't even attempt to multiply.
Pain had expected that much.
If the so-called strongest shinobi couldn't handle a few summons, it would be absurd.
While those beasts became frozen sculptures, the other Paths moved in. At the front of that assault, besides the Animal Path, was the Asura Path - the most vicious attacker among the Six Paths after the Deva Path.
The Asura Path's wrist split open. Mechanical seams parted to reveal a cluster of chakra missiles. It raised its arm, then fired.
Shigatsu no Misairu ("Finger Missiles").
Countless missiles screamed toward Chiba. In the original story, this technique had torn through Konohagakure during Pain's invasion, ripping apart streets and buildings with ruthless ease.
Chiba answered calmly. Frost shot from his fingertips in rapid bursts, meeting the missiles midair and freezing them one after another until the entire barrage hung suspended in glittering ice.
Then gravity reclaimed them.
The frozen missiles fell like stones, clattering into the earth without detonation.
Pain's Deva Path spoke, voice cold and assessing. "So your Ice Release really is as strong as the rumors claim."
This was new - truly new. The Animal Path and Asura Path striking together had been dismantled as if it were nothing more than warm-up.
"Then try an attack you can't freeze."
The Asura Path's head shifted, mechanisms opening to reveal a cannon-like apparatus. A harsh hum built -
- and a beam erupted.
A chakra laser: pure energy weaponized into light, not a physical projectile, not something with a body to seize.
It fired toward Chiba at terrifying speed. To most shinobi, it would have been unavoidable - something that couldn't be intercepted or blocked.
But Chiba didn't flinch.
His Mangekyō Sharingan flared, and a partial manifestation formed instantly around his arm: a chakra skeleton shaping into a shield with effortless speed.
Susanoo.
And within it, one of its spiritual tools -
Yata no Kagami ("Yata Mirror").
The beam struck.
And stopped.
Pain's Deva Path's brow tightened. "Susanoo…?"
Chiba's smile widened slightly, almost amused. "Not bad, right?"
Then he counterattacked.
Amaterasu ("Amaterasu") and Kagutsuchi ("Kagutsuchi") fused - Mangekyō power refined into a single, lethal shot.
Kagutsuchi no Ya ("Kagutsuchi Arrow").
A massive bow formed - Ame no Magatama Yumi - and a pitch-black chakra arrow launched, wreathed in inextinguishable black flames as it tore through the air toward the Deva Path.
Pain's Deva Path snorted, Rinnegan power surging.
"Shinra Tensei ("Almighty Push")!!!"
A repulsive wave detonated, blasting the battlefield outward. The earth cratered beneath it, dug open as if struck by a god's palm. Chiba's arrow was thrown aside with everything else.
But Chiba smiled.
Because it was bait.
He knew Shinra Tensei had a cooldown - about five seconds.
The moment Pain used it, Chiba moved.
Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") erupted again - wilder, broader - extreme frost exploding toward Pain's Six Paths like a glacial storm meant to swallow the world.
Pain's expression shifted. The timing was too precise, too sharp, as if Chiba had counted every heartbeat.
There was no time to dwell. Shinra Tensei was still cooling down.
So Pain immediately drove the Preta Path forward.
Fūjutsu Kyūin ("Chakra Absorption Technique")!
The Preta Path thrust both palms out, confident it could devour the incoming technique. It had absorbed everything from monstrous ninjutsu to senjutsu - during the invasion of Konoha, it had even countered attacks like Senpō: Goemon ("Sage Art: Goemon").
Chiba's Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") was larger, but Pain believed it could still be consumed.
Then -
The Preta Path froze.
Ice swallowed its arms, climbed over its chest and face, and sealed it in the span of a breath. It couldn't move. It couldn't react. It couldn't absorb anything at all.
Fūjutsu Kyūin ("Chakra Absorption Technique") had failed completely.
Pain's Deva Path's eyes widened - the first real flash of shock he'd shown.
Chiba only smiled, calm and certain.
Of course it failed.
The Preta Path could absorb chakra - ninjutsu, senjutsu, even sage chakra. But what Chiba unleashed wasn't chakra at all.
It was Devil Fruit power - outside the shinobi system entirely. There was nothing for the Rinnegan to "eat."
And as that truth landed, Hyōga Jidai ("Ice Age") didn't stop.
It sealed the Preta Path completely - and surged onward, crashing toward the remaining five Paths with relentless, glacial domination.
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