Chapter 70: The Oppressive Pressure from the Rogue Ninja Supergroup
The icy rain poured down Nara Shikaku's collar, slithering down his back like a frozen snake.
But he couldn't spare a thought for the cold; he couldn't even feel his own body temperature.
Atop the high platform, the "Hanzou" wearing a gas mask didn't speak. What truly suffocated everyone were the five figures lined up behind him.
They varied in height and build, yet all wore the same black robe with red clouds, radiating an identical aura of deathly silence.
In the dim curtain of rain, six pairs of pale purple ripple-patterned eyes shimmered with a ghostly light, devoid of any human emotion, quietly looking down from above.
"The Rinnegan..."
Shikaku's voice was as dry as if his throat were filled with sand.
That was the legendary trademark of the Six Paths Sage, the ultimate myth of the Ninja World! The appearance of just one pair would be enough to cause an earthquake among the Five Great Nations. What on earth was Amegakure doing now?
Was the Rinnegan being sold wholesale?
"Shikaku! What are you dazing off for?!"
Beside him, his old partner Akimichi Choza let out a thunderous roar. He keenly sensed that their morale was rapidly collapsing under this irrational sense of pressure.
They couldn't back down; if they showed cowardice now, the battle would be lost before it even began!
"Human Bullet Tank!"
Choza didn't waste any words; his body instantly expanded into a massive ball of flesh. Carrying the momentum of a thunderbolt, he rumbled through the mud, charging straight for the high platform.
Simultaneously, Inoichi Yamanaka's hands flew through seals. His spiritual energy transformed into a sharp arrow, locking onto the Animal Path Pain on the platform in an attempt to disrupt their positioning.
Nara Shikaku grit his teeth, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart. His hands formed the 'Rat' seal, and the shadow beneath his feet shot out like a spiritual snake, targeting the bald Pain who looked the most sluggish.
The classic Ino–Shika–Chō combo.
Simple, crude, and effective. They had used this combo countless times on the battlefield and never failed.
However, facing the probe of Konoha's top Jonin, Deva Path Pain, standing at the center, didn't even lift an eyelid.
Behind him, the bald, burly man with strange protrusions on his head—looking like a killing machine—took a step forward.
Facing the whistling, massive meatball, the Asura Path's lips curled into an extremely stiff smile.
Creeak—!
The grating sound of metal friction rang out as his arm actually split open like flower petals, revealing complex metal wiring and the eerie blue glow of Chakra inside.
"Is that... a Puppet Technique?"
Choza's pupils shrank.
No! That wasn't a dead object controlled by Chakra threads; those were heavy firearms growing directly out of flesh and blood!
BOOM—!!!
The Asura Path's wrist detached, and a Flaming Arrow of the Strange Arm, trailing a tail of fire and a long plume of smoke, accurately slammed into the center of the Human Bullet Tank.
A violent explosion tore through the curtain of rain.
The expanded Choza was like a baseball hit for a home run, flying backward even faster than he had come. He smashed heavily into the mud behind them, his chest scorched black.
"Choza!"
Inoichi Yamanaka was horrified. The moment his secret spiritual technique touched the opponent, it felt like slamming into ten-thousand-year-old black ice. The agonizing Pain of the backlash caused blood to spray from his nose on the spot.
"The shadow..."
Nara Shikaku watched as his Shadow Possession Jutsu extended to the feet of the fat Pain (Preta Path).
The fat man merely glanced down, and the black shadow—strong enough to bind a Jonin—was actually absorbed like water into a sponge. With a'slurp,' it was gone.
It was all swallowed!
"Ninjutsu is ineffective? Pure physical strikes are repelled? Spiritual attacks backlash?"
In just three short seconds.
The coordination that Ino–Shika–Chō took pride in was dismantled on the spot like a child's game.
The Konoha Ninja formation instantly fell into a commotion as fear spread like a plague.
Sasori of the Red Sand, who had been lying inside hiruko all along, finally spoke with impatience.
"Since you're in such a hurry to die, I'll let you witness what true 'Eternal Art' looks like."
Sasori raised his right hand, his fingers twitching slightly.
"Come forth, my most perfect masterpiece."
A humanoid puppet draped in a black robe, with hair as black as ink, hovered in mid-air from out of nowhere.
Even as a dead thing, that puppet still radiated the heart-stopping majesty of a superior. Most terrifyingly, pitch-black iron sand was continuously seeping out of its mouth and joints.
Defying the laws of gravity, that iron sand surged around the puppet like a living black cloud, sizzling and crackling.
"That's..."
Nara Shikaku stared fixedly at the puppet's face, and a nerve deep in his brain snapped.
That face—he had seen it countless times in Konoha's highest-level archives!
Hailed as the'Strongest Kazekage in history,' possessor of the strongest Magnet Release Bloodline Limit, and the fuse whose mysterious disappearance several years ago led to the outbreak of the Third Ninja World War—
The Hidden Sand Village's Third Kazekage!
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Order!"
Sasori didn't give the Konoha Ninja any time to process their shock.
With the tug of Chakra threads, the iron sand cloud in the sky suddenly exploded.
Countless pitch-black, thorn-like iron sand spikes crisscrossed, instantly weaving into a web of death covering hundreds of meters, descending upon the Konoha army!
This was an indiscriminate carpet bombing!
"Defend! Earth Release Squad! Don't just stand there!"
Shikaku roared at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking from the strain.
Over a dozen Jonin specializing in Earth Release hurriedly formed seals, raising walls of rock one after another in an attempt to block the attack.
But in the face of absolute quality, quantity was meaningless.
Those iron sand spikes, carrying high-frequency vibrations and deadly poison, pierced through the Earth-Style Walls as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.
Puchi puchi puchi puchi!
Blood bloomed in the rain like tragic red spider lilies.
Dozens of Konoha Chunin in the front row didn't even have time to scream before they were skewered by the iron sand thorns, hanging from the black forest and swaying in the wind.
In this moment, the border line turned into a slaughterhouse.
"That's... the Third Kazekage?!"
Nara Shikaku's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed into the mud.
He wasn't weakened by fear, but crushed by the terrifying truth.
The Third Kazekage didn't disappear.
He was murdered.
And then turned into a puppet!
Shikaku snapped his gaze toward the hunched-over freak. Did he actually possess the strength to solo the strongest Kazekage?
That was the Kage of a village! And he had just become someone else's toy?
"So this is... Akatsuki?"
Shikaku felt his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
How was this some wandering rogue ninja organization?
This was clearly a supergroup of monsters who could hunt 'Kage' as prey!
A madman who could turn a 'Kage' into a puppet, plus six 'gods' possessing the Rinnegan... This was the Amegakure that the Third Hokage-sama called a battlefield?
To hell with 'defensive passage'!
This was simply a suicide mission!
The intelligence was completely wrong!
"Retreat..."
Shikaku squeezed the word out of his throat with all his might, his voice trembling.
He looked at his subordinates who were still trying to chip away at the iron sand forest with Kunai and exploding tags, his eyes full of despair.
It was useless.
In the face of this level of power, numbers were just a meaningless figure; they weren't even worth taking up space as cannon fodder.
Sasori controlled the Third Kazekage puppet, preparing to launch a second round of attacks to completely wipe out these annoying flies.
"Sasori, stop."
An indifferent voice rang out. It wasn't loud, yet it instantly drowned out the thunder and rain.
"Yahiko said it's not the time for war yet."
Deva Path Pain floated forward a short distance.
The rain automatically parted around him, as if even the laws of heaven and earth feared this man.
He didn't look at the tragically killed corpses, nor at the terror-stricken Nara Shikaku. He just calmly gazed into the distance, his Rinnegan reflecting this twisted and absurd world.
Pain slowly raised his right hand, palm facing the Konoha army below.
It was an extremely simple gesture.
But every hair on Nara Shikaku's body stood on end!
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