The Mist

On the other side of the battlefield.

Although they are essentially the same person, Pain Deva Path, as a separate entity, is much calmer than Nagato.

Perhaps it's because he's already a corpse, a body whose heart doesn't beat and whose blood doesn't flow, so he won't get excited or experience emotional fluctuations.

All he displayed was an icy, unyielding coldness.

Pain was equally surprised, but his cold Rinnegan remained calm, like an ancient glacier, concealing all his emotions beneath its ice.

"You even know that...?"

After a long silence, Pain lowered his eyes and finally spoke slowly, "It seems that Akatsuki's secrets have been almost completely exposed."

He no longer inquired who had exposed Akatsuki's true nature, because Nagato already had the answer.

As they spoke, the sea fog thickened.

Between the sea and the sky, everything became blurry and indistinct.

This was not an ordinary, naturally formed fog, but Hidden Mist Technique mixed Chakra into water vapor. Pain Sakura Haruno simultaneously infused Chakra into the fog.

The fog gradually obscured their figures.

Pain kept gazing at Sakura Haruno. Even with the power of his Rinnegan, he could no longer make out the girl's figure. Her bright, clear blue eyes, as clear as emeralds, gradually disappeared behind the mist.

"So, you know too much?"

The girl's slightly teasing voice carried through the thick fog.

Pain didn't understand the reference to Sakura Haruno's past life in her words, but he could understand what she meant.

Jest is, in essence, a form of contempt.

The Deva Path narrowed its eyes slightly, a faint anger welling up in its heart.

"Underestimating me...?" Pain's voice remained calm, his anger hidden in his more forceful enunciation. "Sakura Haruno, do you think you can defeat me just because you have information about me? The power of a god is not something you can easily fathom...!"

His response was a faint laugh drifting through the mist.

"Heh heh..." The girl's voice came from all directions, its direction indiscernible, "Speaking so arrogantly, if you've got the guts, stop using water mist to obscure your vision and stand still so I can slash you a few more times with my water blade!"

Pain frowned.

Sakura Haruno hit the nail on the head regarding his concerns. The girl's Water Release... was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations. He had originally thought that the Naraka Path would be able to perfectly withstand that Water Blade attack, but unexpectedly, even after the Chakra was absorbed, the technique still possessed formidable power. Among the Six Paths of Pain, only the Deva Path could withstand this attack.

However, the Deva Path Dao's Shinra Tensei has a five-second cooldown...

You can't force it.

However, being chased around like a rabbit by the water blade wouldn't fit the image of a "god." Therefore, he had no choice but to use the Hidden Mist Technique to cut off the line of sight.

If you can't see the figure or sense the location, you can't lock onto it. The power of the water blade is concentrated on a small point. Although it is powerful, its attack area is too small to carry out a comprehensive attack. Therefore, once you can't lock onto the enemy, it is meaningless to make a move.

However, Sakura Haruno also alertly and forcefully injected her Chakra into the mist, cutting off Pain's detection and preventing him from sensing her location.

The sea fog simultaneously obscured their vision, foreshadowing an unprecedented battle.

"Battle is about using any means necessary," Pain said slowly. "If this makes you helpless, then it proves you're nothing special. Admittedly, your strength is extraordinary, and with my information leaked, this battle has indeed become unexpectedly difficult... But in the end, you will still be defeated by the gods and die in agony and despair."

Sakura Haruno did not answer.

Deep purple, intricate runes extended from the girl's forehead—patterns formed by a mixture of Yin Seal and Sage Mode —giving her face a mysterious and noble appearance. An astonishingly vast amount of Senjutsu Chakra emanated from the girl, stirring the seawater and air, creating sea breezes and waves. Sakura Haruno stood quietly on the sea, graceful as a lotus, elegant as a goddess, dignified and confident, powerful and beautiful.

The sea breeze then picked up.

A gentle breeze playfully tousled her hair, strands tickling her face. The girl tucked a restless strand behind her ear and looked in the direction where Pain had once stood—the man was nowhere to be seen, only a vast expanse of white remained; he was probably no longer there.

The wind howled, stirring up the thick fog as if it were churning a viscous soup, turning everything into a chaotic and unpredictable form.

Sakura Haruno gazed into the distance, as if she could see through the sea fog and spot Pain disappearing behind it, her bright eyes shining. "You call yourself a god," she chuckled softly, "Which is just what I love to do most..."

The girl's voice was light and ethereal, like a soft murmur, yet it carried far and wide.

"--Kill God."

Sakura Haruno calmly uttered the last two words.

As they spoke, the flowing seawater silently froze, the waves took shape in the air, and the vast sea surface transformed into a crystal-clear ice surface.

The girl's words fell just as her killing intent reached its peak; Sakura Haruno lightly lifted her right foot, then slammed it down—

"Boom--!!!"

In an instant, the sea ice transformed into a powerful bomb, blasting the entire sea area apart!

At that very instant, Pain launched his attack: hundreds, even thousands, of missiles and rockets flew out from the device in the hand of the burly man known as the Asura Path, hovering in mid-air before plunging into the sea at Pain's command. [Note]

As if by unspoken agreement, the two simultaneously launched a massive area-of-effect (AOE) attack!

Pain's missiles looked remarkably like the technological creations Sakura Haruno had seen in her previous life, from their metallic cylindrical shells to their flight and attack methods. But Sakura Haruno knew very well that while these projectiles appeared un-ninja on the surface, their flight propulsion and explosive power actually came from Chakra energy, making them orthodox Ninjutsu attacks.

After being infused with a large amount of Chakra by Pain, the power of this missile was in no way inferior to that of weapons on Earth; what trinitrotoluene [Note 2] could do, Chakra could do as well!

Thousands of missiles carpeted the entire sea area, unleashing their power simultaneously with Sakura Haruno's ice crystal explosion. In an instant, the whistling of missiles, the roar of explosions, the cracking of ice, and the sound of explosions all erupted together, creating a sound wave that resembled thousands of lightning bolts thundering in unison!

Rumble!

The explosion was deafening, echoing through the sky.

In an instant, the ocean was in an uproar.

Amidst the intense explosion, only the waters where the two stood remained calm: on one side, the girl stood with her hands in front of her chest, her slender fingers forming several hand seals, creating a thick wall of water that stood tall, firmly blocking the missiles; on the other side, Six Paths of Pain stood proudly, the Preta Path placing its palms on the ice, instantly absorbing the restless Chakra within the ice, rendering the ice-crystal-exploding Ninjutsu ineffective.

Strolling leisurely through the courtyard, the two of them blocked the opponent's powerful attack!

However, neither Sakura Haruno nor Pain seemed to care that their attacks had been so easily blocked. They were simply observing from the side.

Sensing the unusual Chakra fluctuations emanating from the area shrouded in sea fog—

The Ninjutsu that releases the Water Formation Wall surges with Chakra;

Chakra disappeared without warning from a certain spot on the ice.

"Found you!"

"At the two points separated by the sea fog, Sakura Haruno and Pain spoke simultaneously!"

[Note: It was mentioned earlier that he was dead, but at this point he has been restored by the Naraka Path.]

[Note 2: A pseudonym for a certain type of mainstream explosive.]

[This book has already been censored on the webpage, embarrassing... I wonder if all variant stories can no longer be written.]