Deva Path's Ability Restored

The situation on the battlefield had become clear.

Naruto's side was aggressive and held a slight advantage in strength. But their key figure, the Hokage of Konoha, had fallen into Nagato's hands.

Seeing this, the Summoning Beasts that had been fighting had no choice but to stop and return to their respective sides.

The toads from Mount Myoboku stood behind Naruto, while Pain and his Summoning Beasts regrouped beside Deva Path.

"Looks like you've experienced the same pain I once did!"

Deva Path shot Naruto a cold glance, then sat right down on Tsunade. A Black Receiver appeared in his right hand, and he pressed it against her throat.

"Back in my homeland, people from your Konoha Village did the same thing to me."

A flicker of recollection passed through Deva Path's eyes. "Shimura Danzō, one of Konoha's leaders. I wonder if you've heard that name."

"Shimura Danzō? I think I've heard that name before. So what?"

Although Tsunade's eyes had grown dimmer at the mention of Danzō, Naruto clearly wasn't thinking hard enough to remember who he was.

"Then let's do this." Deva Path sneered and prodded Tsunade's neck with the Black Receiver. Blood soon began to trickle from the wound. "Naruto, kill that little toad who summoned you here. Otherwise, I'll kill Tsunade."

Deva Path's words stunned every toad present. The toads of Mount Myoboku stared blankly at Naruto, while Gamakichi, the toad Deva Path had singled out, was sweating profusely.

Tsunade, sprawled on the ground, immediately struggled to move her neck and kill herself, but Deva Path noticed in time and planted a foot on her head, pinning her in place.

"Back then, Konoha's Danzō and Hanzo did the same thing. They captured my companion and made my most important friend die by my own hand."

Deva Path casually glanced at Naruto and the toads, then drew a bloody gash across Tsunade's neck with the Black Receiver. "So I thought someone from Konoha Village would find this kind of choice very easy to make, wouldn't you?"

The icy words made Naruto take a step back. Suddenly, memories from the past came flooding back.

Back then, he had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and taken part in Team 7's first outdoor exercise.

When Kakashi-sensei had taught them about teamwork, he had sat on Sasuke just like this, with his foot on Sasuke's head, and asked Naruto and Sakura what they should do in such a situation.

But this wasn't an exercise, and the person facing him wasn't Kakashi-sensei. This was Pain, a real enemy. Looking at Tsunade pinned beneath Deva Path's foot, Naruto felt lost.

What should he do? He didn't know, so he thought of Kakashi-sensei. Whenever he didn't know what to do, Kakashi-sensei always knew what to do.

But...

Why, now that he was a sage, couldn't he sense Kakashi-sensei's Chakra?

"Can I ask you something?" In the ensuing silence, Naruto asked Deva Path, his voice trembling slightly. "Do you know Kakashi, the Konoha Ninja?"

He sounded like an old man with a terrible premonition, afraid of hearing some dreadful news.

Tsunade closed her eyes in pain.

"Yeah." Deva Path stared coldly at Naruto. "I know him. I just killed him!"

The blunt, heartless answer pierced Naruto's heart.

His body trembled faintly. He clenched his fists so hard that his nails dug into his flesh. His bloodshot eyes glowed red, and the Six Paths bars on his face grew darker and thicker, stirred by the venomous torrent of negative emotions churning inside him.

Naruto glared at Deva Path, baring teeth that looked as sharp and menacing as a beast's.

In the distance, Konan's Paper Clone had already gouged out Kakashi's Sharingan. Asura Path had also checked Kakashi's corpse and confirmed that he was well and truly dead.

This time, no one would use Samsara of Heavenly Life to bring Kakashi back.

"Finally, my abilities have recovered!"

The battlefield was utterly silent, save for the sound of Naruto grinding his teeth. Deva Path watched Naruto's anguished expression without moving. After a while, when he sensed that his abilities had fully recovered, a glint flashed in his Rinnegan, and he stood up from Tsunade.

He pinned Tsunade's limbs together again with Black Receivers, then tossed the immobilized woman to Animal Path in the air. Animal Path controlled the Yatagarasu beneath it to open its beak and swallow Tsunade.

He had no intention of continuing to stoop so low as to force Naruto into such a choice.

He had only taken Tsunade hostage to buy time for Deva Path to recover his abilities.

Nagato's goal was to become a god, not a despicable villain.

"What are you doing now?!" Naruto shouted. "Are you trying to turn Grandma Tsunade into bird droppings?!"

Seeing Deva Path feed Tsunade to a bird right in front of him, Naruto was beside himself with rage.

The battlefield fell silent once more.

Naruto clearly meant well; he was only worried about Tsunade.

Even so, every human present, along with all the toads, was stunned by what he had said.

The Pains couldn't help blinking in unison.

The toads shared a silent understanding and looked at Naruto as if he were an idiot.

"Ahem, little Naruto," Fukasaku had to remind him. "Lady Tsunade was tossed into a Summoning Beast's mouth. She wasn't eaten..."

Silence followed. Fukasaku was too embarrassed to say what came next: even if Tsunade had been eaten by the giant bird, it would still take a while for her to turn into bird droppings...

"No wonder they call him the most unpredictable ninja." Deva Path was taken aback, at a loss for words.

It wasn't as if Naruto had never seen someone preserve things this way. Orochimaru had done far worse, and Naruto had seen it with his own eyes. To hear him say something like this now made it hard not to wonder if there was something wrong with his brain...

By now, Human Path had also been repaired by Naraka Path and was standing beside Deva Path.

"Huh? Wasn't that Pain the one I just beat?" Seeing Human Path, Naruto had another question, as if he'd entered a state of asking a hundred thousand whys.

Unfortunately, Nagato wasn't going to give them the chance to chat leisurely and analyze the situation.

Deva Path's abilities had recovered, and Human Path had been repaired. It was time to attack Naruto.

"Those Pains are puppets! One of them can bring the others back to life!" Fukasaku hurriedly explained. "Naruto, be careful! They're coming!"

The four Pains charged at Naruto without a word.

Human Path and Preta Path were in front, Deva Path in the middle, and Naraka Path behind them. At the same time, Rhino, Bull, and Cerberus lunged at Gamabunta and the others, and the giant Summoning Beasts clashed once more.

"Four of them? So there's one more hiding somewhere, besides the one in the sky?" The petite Shima crouched on the scroll behind Naruto, anxiously assessing the situation.

Never before had they faced this many Pains at once.

Shima had great faith in Naruto, and Mount Myoboku had sent all its fighters to support him this time. But when she saw the Pains charging toward them, their eyes gleaming with a metallic sheen, she still felt a shiver of fear.

These were the legendary Rinnegan, said to be equal to the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths.

"Enough talk, dear. Time to move!"

Standing on the scroll behind Naruto with Shima, Fukasaku reminded her.

"Universal Pull!"

As Deva Path ran, he suddenly stretched out his right hand toward Fukasaku. Caught off guard while forming Hand Seals, Fukasaku seemed to be seized by an invisible force and flew straight toward Deva Path.

"Grandpa Fukasaku!" Naruto cried out in alarm. He pitched forward and lunged toward Fukasaku, but missed and fell flat on the ground.

"Old man!" Shima cried out, shooting her long tongue toward him in an attempt to pull him back. But after Deva Path used Universal Pull, Fukasaku was flying too fast. In the blink of an eye, he reached the group of Pains, where Human Path caught him by the hand.

"Sound-based attacks are a real nuisance." After saying this coldly, Human Path extracted Fukasaku's soul right in front of Naruto and Shima.

Fukasaku's body twitched feebly in Human Path's grasp, then went limp and still.

"Old man!!"

As Shima cried out in grief, Human Path casually tossed Fukasaku's soul and body toward Naraka Path.

Naraka Path summoned the King of Hell and swallowed Fukasaku's soul and body together.

"He was swallowed..." Naruto, lying on the ground, watched in disbelief.

Another important companion of his had died at Pain's hands, and now even the body was gone.

"Pain!!" Naruto let out an enraged howl.

"Sage Art: Rasenshuriken!"

With an angry expression, Naruto created two Shadow Clones, formed an enormous sphere, and raised the latest version high. After shouting the name of the technique, he threw it at Pain. The moment it left his hand, the Rasenshuriken grew larger and larger in midair.

"If he likes forming spheres so much, why call him Naruto? He should just be called Sphere Boy," Deva Path muttered.

It would have been safer to repel the attack with Shinra Tensei, but there was something he wanted to confirm, so he simply let Preta Path charge to the front and spread its arms to catch Naruto's sphere.

The Rasenshuriken, which had been expanding, began to shrink rapidly and was absorbed into Preta Path's body.

"So this is Senjutsu?"

Nagato focused his attention on Preta Path and murmured, "It doesn't seem like much."

The Chakra Preta Path absorbed couldn't be transferred to the real body, so Nagato could only sense the power of Senjutsu Chakra through Preta Path.

"It actually disappeared?"

Naruto couldn't believe it. He knew exactly how powerful his Sage Art sphere was, yet it hadn't done a thing. Preta Path had absorbed it completely, as if it had vanished into the sea.

"Senjutsu is nothing special after all," Nagato said coldly through Deva Path.

In the original story, Preta Path had absorbed the Rasenshuriken and then grabbed Naruto himself, absorbing an unknown amount of Senjutsu Chakra before turning to stone.

That was completely different from what happened to Naruto and Jiraiya during their Senjutsu training, when they had just touched Natural Energy and immediately started turning into toads. Under the influence of Nagato's Chakra, Preta Path seemed to be absurdly resistant to Senjutsu.

At that thought, Nagato's eyes lit up. He had found a way to grow stronger and decided that he would definitely learn Senjutsu faster than Naruto.

"Kid! That Pain can absorb ninjutsu. Be careful!"

Naruto, who had no brains, stood frozen in place. Shima, who did have brains, wanted to warn him but had no time.

When Naruto saw the four Pains rush up to him, he intended to show off his Frog Kumite as he had in the original story. But Nagato wasn't about to give him that chance. He raised his hand and fired Shinra Tensei.

Naruto and Shima were both flung away by Deva Path and crashed to the ground. Then all four Pains leaped into the air, Black Receivers in hand, and pinned Naruto firmly to the ground.