Eight-Tails and Rinnegan

Because of White Zetsu's appearance, Uchiha Shūichi quickly shook off the tail behind him and broke away from the battlefield.

Following the signals left by the others, Shūichi soon found a cave in the Land of Rain, where the Konoha ninja were hiding.

"Lord Shūichi! Are you alright!"

Seeing Shūichi return, the three of them showed joy on their faces. Shūichi nodded slightly:

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

"There were some other forces on that battlefield at the time. The Fourth Raikage went after them, and I managed to escape by luck."

This wasn't a lie, though Shūichi concealed the fact that he could detect White Zetsu.

"Other forces got involved? And they could fool the Byakugan? That's no ordinary character. The ninja world really is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers."

Hyuga Homura was somewhat surprised. Compared to other Sensory Abilities, the Byakugan was top-tier in precision and insight. A concealment ability that could fool it was truly terrifying.

But on second thought, since even the Fourth Raikage had shown up in the Land of Rain, it wasn't strange for any kind of figure to appear here.

"Sigh, Konoha sent too few ninja. The Hokage took this mission seriously, but he clearly didn't expect Kumogakure to send the Fourth Raikage himself."

Yūhi Kurenai frowned, analyzing the current intel. The A and B combination's strength was too overwhelming. At least the four of them had no chance of winning, and even escaping was extremely difficult.

"Alright, maybe Konoha will send other strong reinforcements. Don't worry too much."

Shūichi smiled and said. He wasn't just talking nonsense—at least Jiraiya, once he received the intel, would definitely come to Amegakure to check things out.

He just didn't know if Jiraiya would seek them out. But if they ran into him, the guy would definitely lend a hand.

"Too bad the Mount Myōboku toads are so cryptic. I don't know what their trump card is, or I'd just control Jiraiya directly."

As they were discussing, a thunderous boom came from afar. A massive tailed beast shot into the sky, letting out a terrifying roar.

"That's... the Eight-Tails Gyūki!? Did Sunagakure do that? They actually forced Killer B into his Full Tailed Beast Transformation!"

Hyuga Homura said in surprise. The A and B combination was famous across the world. Even without counting his power as the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer B was still a top-tier Kage-level fighter. His Lightning Release Chakra Mode was only slightly inferior to the Fourth Raikage's.

Forcing someone like that into a full jinchuriki state wasn't something ordinary people could do. The Sunagakure ninja didn't seem to have that kind of ability.

Boom!! With a violent tremor, the roaring Eight-Tails was sent flying backward like a soccer ball kicked away.

The Konoha ninja were stunned by the sheer scale of the battle, but Shūichi raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Is that Shinra Tensei? Looks like Nagato Uzumaki made his move."

"Come to think of it, the Land of Rain is the Akatsuki Organization's home base, and Nagato's obsession. There's no way he'd just flee in disgrace."

"So, showing overwhelming strength to deter the other nations from acting rashly is his only choice."

Before his intel was leaked, Nagato Uzumaki was practically invincible in the ninja world. With the Six Paths of Pain working together, neither Kage-level fighters nor jinchuriki stood a chance.

In the original story, if not for the intel leak and the massive chakra drain from destroying Konoha, even the Full Nine-Tails wouldn't have been a match for the Six Paths of Pain.

And indeed, in just a short time, the Eight-Tails Gyūki couldn't hold out against the combined assault of the Six Paths. It was soon caught by the Preta Path, its chakra nearly drained by half.

At the critical moment, a flash of lightning knocked the Preta Path away, saving Killer B's life. Shūichi guessed it was the Fourth Raikage making the save.

The distance was too great. Once the massive target of the Eight-Tails Gyūki disappeared, the Konoha group could no longer observe the battle's outcome.

But with the Eight-Tails losing eighty percent of its chakra and unable to maintain its Full Tailed Beast state, Shūichi didn't have high hopes for the A and B combination.

Of course, the Six Paths of Pain probably couldn't finish them off either. Unlike Jiraiya, those two weren't stubborn. Once they realized they couldn't win, they'd cut and run.

As Lightning Speed Ninja with the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, the A and B combination might not beat Jiraiya in Sage Mode, but they could definitely outrun him. With their responsibilities, they wouldn't be foolish enough to fight to the death.

Still, since Pain had made a move this time, he wouldn't let it go easily. He'd have to show enough power and terror to deter other ninja, likely chasing the A and B combination hard.

Night slowly fell. Shūichi and the others left the cave. The mission had hit plenty of snags, but they had to continue. For now, they decided to act within their limits, only gathering intel on the periphery.

Aside from Root ninja, most wouldn't knowingly walk into death to complete a mission. Konoha's culture meant failure didn't automatically lead to execution.

And the stronger the ninja, the more freedom they had in this regard, because strong ninja were a village's precious assets.

In the original story, other villages had issued orders to abandon missions when facing Namikaze Minato.

Similarly, though unspoken, ordinary ninja who ran into a village's Kage or a jinchuriki could flee without punishment. That was an unspoken rule of the ninja world.

Among the four Konoha ninja, only Yamanaka Fū, a Root ninja, was the type to throw away his life for orders. But since Shūichi was leading this mission, Fū wouldn't disobey his commands.

Shūichi led his three subordinates, captured some ordinary Land of Rain ninja, and used genjutsu to extract plenty of intel.

For example, Hanzo of the Salamander had been dead for a while, and Amegakure was now ruled by the god with the Rinnegan and the Angel skilled in Paper Release Secret Technique.

This intel wasn't particularly useful, but it was enough to report back to Konoha. At least they had put in the effort and proven that the Rinnegan really existed in the Land of Rain.