Shinra Tensei!
Inside Konoha, Naruto, in his Six-Tails form, ran on all fours with an extremely unnatural gait. He quickly caught up with Deva Path.
Deva Path had no choice but to use Shinra Tensei to repel Naruto while he was running.
White bones had already begun to grow over Naruto's body. His head, spine, forepaws, and hind legs were covered in dense white bone, encasing the blood-red, solidified Chakra that looked like lumps of flesh. He looked even more terrifying and grotesque.
Before long, Naruto caught up with Deva Path again. Deva Path could only activate Shinra Tensei once more, but this time Naruto resisted it by planting his tails in the ground to hold himself in place.
Instead, the recoil from Shinra Tensei sent Deva Path flying, and he landed right in the middle of a group of Konoha Ninja.
After an indeterminate number of midair spins, Deva Path landed safely, as steady as ever. He glanced at the Konoha Ninja around him and politely greeted them. "Hello, everyone. Are you watching the action live from here?"
The Ninja who had been secretly observing the battle saw Deva Path suddenly blasted in front of them by Naruto. Their faces turned ashen, cold sweat beading on their foreheads, as they drew their weapons and prepared to fight Deva Path to the death.
"See ya!"
Deva Path waved, then happily turned and ran.
"What's going on?" The Ninja were still staring at one another in confusion when Naruto appeared in the blink of an eye, howling as he continued to pursue Deva Path. He swept a tail across the ground as he passed, and the resulting shock wave sent the Konoha Ninja flying, all of them spitting blood in midair.
Luckily, Naruto was in a hurry to chase Deva Path and didn't hit them directly with his tail. Otherwise, spitting blood would have been the least of their worries.
"This... this is bad! Naruto's completely lost control!"
The Hyuga Clan Ninja assigned to narrate the battle kept his Byakugan fixed on the action and loudly reported what he saw. As he spoke, his Byakugan darted around nervously, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat, as if his current assignment were incredibly dangerous.
He was quite clever, steadfastly sticking to his role as a commentator. Even when Hinata charged into the battlefield alone and Pain gouged out her eyes and carried her away, he only roared with all his might, expressing his concern for Hinata, and stubbornly refused to take even one step forward.
"Damn it, he's doing this on purpose!"
Deva Path never fought Naruto head-on. He simply led Naruto toward places where Konoha Ninja were hiding, then let Naruto attack them. There were plenty of sharp-minded Ninja in the crowd, like Shikamaru, who saw through Deva Path's plan at a glance and realized he was using Naruto to do his dirty work.
But even so, all they could do was watch helplessly as Deva Path did whatever he pleased.
Because there was no one who could stop both of those monsters at once.
So Deva Path began running in circles around Konoha, looking like he was having the time of his life. Naruto chased after him like a hunting dog after a bone, running for all he was worth.
Whenever Naruto was about to catch up, Deva Path used Shinra Tensei or Banshō Ten'in to widen the gap again. Naruto, who had lost his reason, grew more and more violent, attacking everything in sight as he ran.
Everywhere they went, people wailed in misery. Countless Konoha Ninja hiding in the shadows were caught up in the carnage, slapped to death by the enraged Naruto or killed by the ground-shattering blows.
"They're coming! They're coming again!"
By then, the Konoha Ninja didn't even wait for Deva Path and Naruto to arrive. One by one, they burst out of their hiding places like groundhogs and scattered in every direction.
They had no choice but to run. To them, Deva Path and Naruto were like two bulldozers, leaving nothing standing in their wake and crushing even the ruins to pieces. Hiding underground was no help either. Deva Path clearly had some way of sensing them. Once he detected a target underground, he would deliberately trade a few blows with Naruto, luring him into attacking and shaking the Ninja below to death.
So they had to run as soon as they could. If they stayed where they were, they were dead.
But could they really get away just by running? Deva Path wasn't as fast as Naruto, but he was much faster than the Konoha Ninja. As soon as he saw them pop up, he sped after them, his legs whirling like wheels. As he passed, he even glanced at them and gave them a peace sign without changing his expression.
"Oh~~ yeah~~"
The poor Konoha Ninja were on the verge of tears. They screamed at Deva Path,
"Stay away from me~~!"
Then Naruto caught up and slapped them into the ground, leaving them clearly beyond saving.
After Deva Path had blasted Konoha into Konoha Square, Naruto renovated it all over again. It looked as though even the foundations would have to be rebuilt.
By now, more and more Ninja were emerging from their hiding places. Up ahead, a pink-haired girl saw Deva Path running toward her. She simply stepped out and glared at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of panic and anger.
Sakura Haruno. She couldn't die.
Recognizing the girl at a glance, Deva Path came to that conclusion.
It wasn't that Deva Path had any particular fondness for Sakura Haruno. It was just that Naruto really liked this ironing board.
At this point, Naruto shouldn't have been able to see what was happening outside, at least in theory. But what if he could?
If Naruto saw Sakura lying injured on the ground, he might break through to the Six-Tails state. Once he reached the Eight Tails, Minato Namikaze would be triggered to restore Naruto's reason. That absolutely could not happen.
Shinra Tensei!
Deva Path sent Sakura flying with a very light force, then stood where he was and watched Naruto draw closer, calculating the timing as he prepared to leave.
If he didn't go now, Bowl Cut might show up and catch him.
In Nagato's view, Deva Path had already completed his mission. Naruto had unknowingly killed quite a few Konoha Ninja.
The seeds of hatred had been planted. Naruto, who should have become a hero at this point in time, had instead turned into a villain because of Pain. The events that followed ought to be even more interesting, shouldn't they?
Thinking this, Nagato used Animal Path to summon Deva Path back.
With a poof, Naruto lost his target and began destroying everything around him.
At this point, Naruto had no way to end the Tailed Beast state through his own power. As the Konoha Ninja watched his rampage, hatred slowly filled their eyes.
Naruto had lost control while fighting Pain. The only things he had destroyed were ruins that Pain had already devastated. Everyone could see that Deva Path had framed Naruto, making him kill his comrades.
But so what?
Were humans the sort of creatures who cared about reason?
Nagato believed that Naruto would soon learn Konoha's "true" attitude toward him. There was nothing more he needed to do. The idiots in Konoha would sort Naruto out just fine.
"Is the mission over?"
When Deva Path appeared inside the Paper Tree, Konan looked as though she understood.
She was reading the names on the Slug Scroll.
Nagato glanced over and thought that women who enjoyed quiet reading really did have a different air about them. Even a list of such boring names could keep them engrossed. It was truly remarkable.
Konan had always been the kind of person who could stand quietly beside Nagato all day, even when no one paid her any attention. She was quiet and graceful, the sort of person it was hard to dislike.
Nagato nodded in reply, then asked Konan, "Did you leave your name on the Contract Scroll?"
According to the information in Tsunade's mind, the Slug Scroll taken from the Hokage Office worked like the scroll Jiraiya used in the original story: a contract that took effect once you wrote your name in blood and pressed your fingerprint onto it.
Nagato had glanced from afar at the neat signature Konan had left on the far left of the scroll. He nodded again.
"I've already signed it." Konan lifted her head from the scroll and looked at Nagato. "How's the Nine Tails? Was the capture successful?"
Nagato gestured for Konan to hand the scroll to Animal Path.
He might have seemed quite at ease, freely using the Summoning Technique to come and go from Konoha, but Nagato was actually disabled. His legs couldn't move.
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