Returning in Defeat

More than a dozen meteorites in the sky were shattered by the efforts of the ninjas below, especially several Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beasts, but the remaining seven or eight still eventually fell to the ground.

"Boom!!!" A huge cloud of smoke shot into the sky! The entire camp, and even the entire land, was upside down like a ferry sailing in a storm.

The ground seemed to be boiling. Waves of earth, tens of meters high, rose up, transforming into world-destroying earthquake waves that swept outwards in all directions.

All sorts of buildings were smashed to pieces by the earthquake waves, like toys.

The ninjas on the ground were thrown high into the sky in terror. Those who were lucky and strong managed to survive, while the weaker ones had their bones broken and internal organs ruptured by the shock. The unluckiest ones were smashed to pieces by the meteorite.

At that moment Fourth Raikage, who was rapidly approaching and slaughtering the White Zetsu, was startled by the ground tremors. Turning his head, he saw several mushroom clouds rising in the direction of his camp.

"What's going on? Someone's attacked our camp!?" The Fourth Raikage roared in anger, never expecting that their base would be raided!

Ignoring the White Zetsu before him, the Fourth Raikage headed straight for the camp. His speed, Superman imagination, made him disappear in an instant, turning into a bolt of lightning.

However, when he returned to the camp, he saw a scene of devastation. Almost all of the thousands of ninjas who had stayed behind to guard the camp had been killed or wounded. Looking at the craters in the distance, he realized that of the four or five thousand ninjas that the two ninja villages had gathered, more than half of them had probably died.

The Fourth Raikage's forehead veins bulged; he hadn't expected the situation to deteriorate to this extent in such a short time. Just then, a short figure fell from the sky and landed directly in front of him.

"Old man Ōnoki! What's wrong with you?"

The one who fell from the sky was none other than the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki. At this moment, one of his arms was bent outwards, revealing the white bone fragments. His forehead was covered in blood, and the top of his head was even slightly dented.

Although his chest was still rising and falling, it seemed that many of his ribs were broken, and there were even some small pieces of flesh and blood in the blood flowing from his mouth.

Seeing the blood-soaked, short old man, the Fourth Raikage's expression changed. In this great era, although the old man's progress was not as fast as his own under Vegapunk's personal guidance, he was still far ahead of his predecessors. Even the current Fourth Raikage was not confident that he could beat the old man like this in such a short time.

"Cough cough cough, be... careful..." Ōnoki coughed twice, and before he could finish speaking, the Fourth Raikage felt as if his body was being pulled by some kind of gravity.

"This is..." The Fourth Raikage's expression changed slightly as he looked up and saw Nagato, who appeared as a small black Nagato in the sky, extending his hand. "Banshō Ten'in!"

"Damn it! It's gravity again!" As if he had thought of something bad, the Fourth Raikage's face was extremely ugly. However, his body was already floating in the air. Without a place to exert force, no matter how strong he was, he could not resist the gravity falling from the sky.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and the Fourth Raikage immediately Current Drive to its limit, stomping his feet hard on the air. His entire body moved at almost the limit due to gravity, charging towards Nagato instead of retreating.

"How naive..." Nagato sneered, his figure flashed slightly, the gravity turned into repulsion and then back into gravity, and in a few moments he broke the Fourth Raikage's center of gravity.

Then, with a strange smile on his lips, he directly applied an anti-gravity effect to the Fourth Raikage.

The Fourth Raikage fingers were just centimeters away from him before he continued flying into the sky, looking completely bewildered. Nagato, standing below, waved slightly at him. "You should just enjoy being an astronaut for once!"

Of course, with Nagato's strength and the added Chakra, it wouldn't be enough for the Fourth Raikage to actually fly out of the atmosphere, but flying ten or twenty thousand meters would definitely not be difficult. At that time, it is unknown whether the Fourth Raikage will be killed by the crash.

It's unlikely. After all, even in the Ninja World, there are unscientific techniques like stepping on air. Although the strength required is much higher than in the Pirate World, the Fourth Raikage's power shouldn't be so great that he can't even step on air a few times.

As long as this move can cushion and deflect the force, it won't necessarily kill him instantly, but it will definitely be enough to give the Fourth Raikage a hard time.

"Damn bastard! Put me down! You bastard, if you've got the guts, fight me head-on! You son of a bitch! Let me go!"

He picked at his ear. Nagato wasn't the real Nagato, so he naturally didn't care about the Fourth Raikage's incompetent roar. On the contrary, his attention was no longer on the Fourth Raikage, but on the remaining four Tailed Beast Jinchuriki.

In the original story, the Five Great Shinobi Villages hid Killer Bee Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, and Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, in order to prevent Akatsuki's plan from succeeding. However, this was because the Five Great Shinobi Villages already knew about Akatsuki's plan and the existence of the Ten-Tails.

Now, both Iwagakure and Kumogakure only regard Nagato as a madman who wants to steal the Tailed Beasts. Instead, they do not hide their own Tailed Beast Jinchuriki. After all, four Tailed Beast Jinchuriki are definitely a powerful force. In the past, four mature Jinchuriki working together would have been enough to break through a large ninja village.

During the recent meteorite bombardment, several Jinchuriki managed to block a small portion of the meteorites. Given their strength, they wouldn't have been injured by such an attack. However, among these Tailed Beasts, apart from the Seven-Tails, the others lacked the ability to fly and could only watch helplessly from below.

When Nagato's pale purple Rinnegan looked down, all the Jinchūriki of the Tailed Beasts tensed up immediately. The Rinnegan's ability to restrain the Tailed Beasts made their bodies even stiffen.

All the Jinchuriki could feel the tension and fear of the Tailed Beast within them, but now they had no choice but to fight to the death. However, in Nagato's view, the opponent's resistance was ineffective and had no effect whatsoever.

The Tailed Beast Ball that were blasted out were directly absorbed by Nagato. As for the Tailed Beast's sharp teeth and claws, they had no effect on Nagato, who was floating in the sky. They looked like a few large targets.

After all, Tailed Beast are Chakra aggregates, and they are already at a disadvantage when facing Nagato, who has the ability to absorb Chakra. Not to mention that after absorbing the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Nagato is a natural counter to Tailed Beast.

With the Uzumaki Clan, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Rinnegan —three powerful buffs stacked together— Nagato simply used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to lock down the four Tailed Beasts. Then, the chains were retracted, and the four Tailed Beasts were pulled directly out of the Jinchuriki's body and absorbed by Nagato.

Killer B, Yugito, Han, and Roshi, the four Jinchuriki, were unharmed, but after the Tailed Beast were extracted from their bodies, they lost a significant amount of Chakra and could only lie on the ground, watching helplessly as Nagato absorbed the four Tailed Beast into his body.

"Hateful..."

"Has this guy gone mad, sealing all four Tailed Beast inside himself at once?"

"Gyūki said the Rinnegan is special... perhaps that's why he can absorb so many Tailed Beasts at once... wait, could he have sealed and absorbed the other Tailed Beast as well?"

The Jinchuriki glances. They had all spent many years working with and learning from the Tailed Beast before they could truly unleash Tailed Beast power. And this was only one Tailed Beast. If Nine Tailed Beasts were sealed together, then no matter who it was, they would all be doomed. Therefore, they instinctively did not want to believe such a thing.

However, seeing that Nagato, who had absorbed all the Tailed Beast, seemed to have no abnormalities, and on the contrary, his aura had become even more terrifying, the group had no choice but to believe it.

How powerful would the Nine Tailed Beasts be if they joined forces? The Jinchuriki didn't even dare to think about it; they just held their breath and looked up at Nagato floating in the sky.

It was fortunate that Nagato's extraction of the Tailed Beast, though seemingly brutal, was actually different from the usual Adamantine Sealing Chains. After pulling out the Tailed Beast, it did not damage the life force of the group, otherwise these Jinchuriki would have been dead long ago.

After absorbing the Tailed Beast, Nagato floated in the air, his head lowered. His aura fluctuated wildly, sometimes violent, sometimes calm. Some ninjas' probing Ninjutsu attacks dissipated completely before they even reached him, returning to Chakra. Shuriken thrown at Nagato were instantly deflected. Clearly, although Nagato's state was somewhat strange, he still had the ability to protect himself.

A moment later, Nagato raised his head again, glanced indifferently at the area below, and the terrifying aura of Chakra instantly made the remaining ninja below gasp for breath. However, he did not do anything else, but simply turned and flew away.

Seeing Nagato leave, the group of defeated soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, their faces showing a hint of desolation. Just then, a figure flashing with lightning descended rapidly from the sky. As it approached the ground, the figure slowed down slightly by stepping on the air, but still smashed into the ground with a loud bang, creating a huge crater.

"That's— Lord Raikage!"

"Lord Raikage, are you alright?!"

Several cloud people rushed to the edge of the pit and saw a large hand grab onto the edge of the pit. Then, Raikage climbed out of it.

However, judging from the way his legs were bent, they were clearly broken.

"Damn it, where is that Rinnegan brat?!" The Fourth Raikage roared angrily. The Cloud Kumogakure exchanged glances. Their leader's current state truly lived up to the saying, "Stubborn as a mule!"

Of course, that's just the Fourth Raikage's personality. If you're going to say he wasn't a reckless fool, back when the Five Kage Summit was being held in the original story, after Amaterasu unexpectedly cut off one of his arms, he still tried to trade a leg for Sasuke's life.

That wasn't a situation where they absolutely had to risk their lives; it's just that the Raikage was so caught up in the heat of battle that he didn't care about anything else.

"Lord Raikage, that Rinnegan ninja is gone... He even stole Tailed Beast."

Several Kumogakure spoke up helplessly. The Raikage took a few deep breaths, about to say something, when suddenly he seemed to remember something. "The Rinnegan brat's gone? What about those white monsters?"

"A white monster!?" Several Kumogakure exchanged bewildered glances, but the sounds of battle coming from afar quickly brought them back to their senses.

When the Cloud Kumogakure reached the high ground, they saw the White Zetsu charging wildly across the mountains, and their expressions changed drastically.

You have to understand that almost all the ninjas from the two major ninja villages are injured. Facing this vast expanse of White Zetsu, which looks to be at least ten times more numerous than their own, their wounded soldiers are really no match for them!

"Retreat! Everyone retreat!"

The Fourth Raikage, having regained his senses or rather, his initial impetuousness subsided, remembered his duties as a Kage and began organizing a retreat without hesitation.

Fortunately, the Kumogakure were very fast, while the Iwagakure, though slow, were good at creating obstacles, and most of the White Zetsu were blocked.

Some White Zetsu also used the Mayfly Technique to infiltrate underground and then secretly appeared among the Iwagakure and Kumogakure groups, ambushing many ninjas. However, most of the remaining Iwagakure and Kumogakure ninjas eventually managed to withdraw from the Rain Country.

Afterwards, a headcount was taken, and both ninja villages suffered heavy casualties. Only about one-third of the people managed to escape. In addition, not only were the Tailed Beast taken from the Jinchuriki, but the Kage of both villages were also seriously injured.

The Fourth Raikage was alright; even though his leg injury was severe, he was still young and could recover. Ōnoki, on the other hand, was much older and more seriously injured. After this battle, his already weak back was basically ruined, and he could only move around in a wheelchair.

The two ninja villages were naturally unwilling to swallow this insult, not to mention that Nagato had taken so many Tailed Beasts, which was indeed a huge threat to the Ninja World. Therefore, the two ninja villages quickly prepared to jointly convene the Five Kage Summit.

Of course, even though Iwagakure and Kumogakure invited the other three ninja villages, the Tsuchikage and Raikage couldn't guarantee that the other three villages would come. However, after discussing it, they realized that the two villages were no Nagato for Nagato, so they had no choice but to try to unite other forces.

Konoha is in a better position. Nowadays, the Sea Ninja Village and Sunagakure rarely interact with the outside world, and Nagato seems to have some connection with them. At least the Tailed Beast that Nagato obtained were obviously not taken from the other two ninja villages.

Even Tailed Beast can be traded, so it's hard to say that the Rinnegan and the other party are not related. But in the current situation, the Tsuchikage and Raikage obviously don't have any other options.

However, the other ninja villages quickly responded, agreeing to hold the Five Kage Summit. Except for Konoha, which said it would be postponed for a while, the other two ninja villages did not make any excuses, which successfully made the Fourth Raikage and Ōnoki somewhat suspicious.

The reason Konohagakure requested a postponement was because they were holding an election for the Fifth Hokage, not because they were deliberately making excuses.