Shikkotsu Forest

In Shikkotsu Forest, amidst rolling, dense fog, one could vaguely make out a series of undulating, towering mountains.

The surrounding area was saturated with a massive amount of water vapor, leading Nagato, who had arrived here for the first time, to think he had come to some sort of tropical rainforest.

Before he could even scan his surroundings, Nagato felt his body sinking into the thick fog and immediately began forming hand seals.

"Summoning Jutsu!" The Yatagarasu was the first to be summoned. It appeared beneath Nagato's feet, carrying him as it spread its wings and flew recklessly, piercing through the clouds and mist like a giant arrow.

"Is this Shikkotsu Forest?" As the Yatagarasu fanned away the clouds, Nagato gazed out at the overlapping mountain ranges, steadied his mind, and continued to form seals.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

The Six Paths of Pain also appeared on the bird's back, surrounding Nagato and peering in their respective directions.

However, the impenetrable fog above the mountains closed in once more, rendering the Rinnegan's shared vision capability useless. Nagato frowned, abandoned the idea of observing Shikkotsu Forest from the air, and steered the Yatagarasu to descend slowly.

The mountains beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble, and a massive voice echoed all around, asking in a tone that sounded as if it had just woken up: "Who are you? Why have you appeared here?" After Nagato landed with the Pains, the voice seemed to have discovered something. "Eh? Why do you have my contract?!"

The voice grew louder, as if its owner were suddenly plunged into confusion.

"Boom--!" At that moment, another loud explosion rang out, and Konan, dressed in her red-cloud black robe with her hem fluttering, appeared in mid-air. She blinked and shook her head, which felt slightly uncomfortable after the long-distance reverse summoning. As her body descended, paper wings sprouted from her shoulders. She floated in the air for a moment, and upon seeing the massive body of the Yatagarasu, she landed beside Nagato.

"I am Pain!" Nagato replied to the massive voice.

A large mass of green acid immediately fell from the sky. It was as if a pond had dropped down, engulfing the space for dozens of meters around them.

"I remember now, you are the ones who attacked Konoha," the massive voice roared.

"Almighty Push!" Nagato raised his right hand, repelling the massive glob of acid. It was as if a rain of acid had begun to fall all around them; amidst the sound of viscous liquid hitting the ground, tree trunks and rocks hissed as they were corroded.

"What terrifying acid." Having just landed, Konan, standing beside Nagato, saw the ground around them bubbling with green acid and being corroded into pits, and her expression turned grim.

She found it hard to imagine what kind of horrific effect such potent acid would have on a human body; it was clear that the Katsuyu of Shikkotsu Forest did not welcome them.

"Consider this your naughtiness for now," Nagato said, manipulating the Yatagarasu to open its large beak, revealing Tsunade and Hinata inside. He shouted, "If you do this again, I will let you dissolve them both into a puddle of sludge."

This kind of threat would have been useless against the cold-blooded snakes of Ryūchi Cave, but it had a decent effect on Katsuyu.

The surroundings went quiet for a while. Katsuyu seemed to have done some serious thinking before reaching a conclusion: "You despicable villain."

Clearly, it must have calculated the speed of its acid and evaluated Nagato's strength before being forced to make a compromise.

"I didn't expect you to be such a loyal summoning creature; it seems you and I are fated."

Nagato nodded with satisfaction at Katsuyu's performance. His words were more than a little shameless.

Jiraiya and the toads were the ones who were truly fated; without even signing a contract, he could reach Mount Myoboku just by using a random Summoning Jutsu. Did Nagato not have any self-awareness about the methods he used to reach Shikkotsu Forest?

This time, Katsuyu remained silent for even longer, giving the impression that it was hesitating over whether it should burst into a string of curses.

"Did you come here just to say things like that?"

When it spoke again, Katsuyu's voice sounded like it was suppressing a significant amount of anger.

Considering that Nagato had signed his name on the summoning scroll without Katsuyu's consent, and that he had casually wiped away others' signatures on the scroll after signing his own—a display of extremely poor character—it was quite an achievement that Katsuyu was currently holding back the urge to curse him out.

It had likely lived for so long without ever seeing anyone sign a summoning contract in the way Nagato had.

"Of course not. Where is your main body? I have come to find you." The area was filled with towering trees and lush weeds. Although Nagato could sense a massive amount of Chakra permeating the mountains, this Chakra was so vast and filled the entire space that Nagato could not determine a specific direction.

"Walk in the seven o'clock direction from your position... If you come to me, it will be even easier for me to kill you with acid."

Katsuyu's voice remained as calm as ever, but the content of its words was not so pleasant. Konan looked at Nagato with some concern.

Nagato's expression was very calm; he had long known Katsuyu's personality.

"Thank you." That was Nagato's reply.

The group leaped onto the Yatagarasu. With this large bird as their transport, they moved very quickly.

Flying straight toward the direction Katsuyu had mentioned, the further the Yatagarasu flew, the lower and more swampy the terrain became. The pleasant green was gradually left behind, and the terrain before them turned into a swamp. Bare tree trunks stood in the black mire, and from time to time, one could see white-bodied, blue-patterned Katsuyu crawling slowly on the trunks.

"Are these all your clones?" Nagato asked, looking at the Katsuyu visible everywhere.

Nagato knew that there was actually only one Katsuyu in Shikkotsu Forest. However, Katsuyu clearly had no intention of engaging with Nagato and did not make a sound.

After a while, a gray highland suddenly appeared in front of the low-lying swamp. Its shape was very strange, looking like a giant pillow, and Katsuyu's head, which was as large as a mountain, was resting upon it.

The only two conscious living people were both amazed. Konan was amazed by the size of Katsuyu's head, while Nagato was amazed by Katsuyu's lazy posture at that moment.

"What is this feeling of seeing a shut-in girl lying on her own bed, not wanting to move at all?" Nagato shook his head, cast aside the strange thought in his mind, drove the Yatagarasu to land beside the giant head of Katsuyu, and dispelled the Summoning Jutsu of the Yatagarasu.

The Asura Path carried the unconscious Tsunade and Hinata, standing among the Pains. Nagato looked at the soft, bulging giant slug before him; although he really wanted to reach out and touch the texture of this giant bug, he thought better of it and abandoned the suicidal idea.

The relationship between the two sides was clearly not good enough to allow for such contact.