Stealing the Byakugan

"Argh!" Naruto let out a miserable scream. Just as he tried to struggle, he felt a surge of powerful Chakra flowing from the Black Receiver embedded in his body, suppressing him and leaving him unable to move.

Shima, who was nearby, wanted to resist but had no strength left. After being drained of her Chakra by the Preta Path, she was casually pinned to the ground not far from Naruto with a small piece of a Black Receiver.

"Naruto... has been defeated!"

In the distance, the Konoha ninjas who had been observing the battle through various means looked at this fact in shock.

Pain, this mysterious enemy, was so powerful in their eyes at this moment that they couldn't even muster the courage to fight back.

In the original story, Pain was only defeated by Naruto because he lacked information about Naruto, while his own intel was fully exposed, and the Deva Path had not yet recovered its abilities. Once the Deva Path's abilities were restored, dealing with Naruto was just a matter of a single Banshō Ten'in followed by a stab with a rod.

If it weren't for being tricked by Sage Mode and his penchant for monologuing about pain, the Pains would never have been defeated by Naruto.

The strength of the two sides was simply not on the same level.

But now, what Naruto was facing was a new Nagato who was "cheating" with perfect intel. He didn't give Naruto a single chance to take advantage of the situation or any time to receive wartime coaching; Naruto was defeated by the Pains without being able to put up any resistance.

"How... could this happen?"

It wasn't just the Konoha ninjas who were stunned; even the giant toads from Mount Myoboku, who were fighting against Pain's summons, found it hard to understand what was happening before their eyes. They couldn't fathom why their leader and Naruto, who had mastered Sage Mode, had been defeated so quickly, wiped out almost in the blink of an eye.

"Almighty Push!"

After finishing off Naruto, the Deva Path had no intention of going easy on the giant toads. He leaped into the fray of the giant summons, and with a single charged Almighty Push, he sent all the giant toads flying. On the battlefield, the only remaining combatants from Konoha and Mount Myoboku were Naruto, who was pinned to the ground.

"Not a single person dares to come and save you, Naruto. You are truly pathetic!"

After dealing with the giant toads, the Deva Path scanned the battlefield, which was now devoid of enemies, and mocked him.

At this moment, the surrounding Konoha ninjas had no intention of intervening at all. The ninjas whom Tsunade had exhausted her Chakra to protect were nothing but a bunch of cowards.

The Animal Path had been circling in the air for so long, yet not a single ninja dared to make a move against it. And now, when even Naruto had lost his ability to fight, even fewer Konoha ninjas dared to join the fray.

These people hadn't dared to intervene in the original story, and now that Naruto had been defeated so quickly, they were even less likely to do so.

"At a time like this, the high-level combatants of the Hokage faction in Konoha must all be analyzing the location of the main body, right?"

Thinking of this, the Animal Path manipulated the Yatagarasu to land on the ground, and the Yatagarasu spat Tsunade out from its mouth. The Human Path then stepped forward and began to read the information in Tsunade's mind.

"Is it there? How convenient."

Soon, the Asura Path, having obtained the information from the Human Path, headed toward the new location with Konan's paper clone.

"Next, it's time to deal with you, Nine Tails!"

As the Deva Path spoke, he walked toward Naruto. At this moment, through the shared vision of the Rinnegan, he saw a figure leaping up behind him.

"Why did you come here? You are no match for him at all! Run away!!"

Pinned to the ground and struggling in despair, Naruto suddenly roared anxiously.

In his wide-open eyes, he saw the young girl leaping gracefully, her black hair fluttering in the air with her movements.

The girl had eyes as pure as pearls and a delicate temperament, yet she looked at the arrogant Pain before her with determination, her tone devoid of any hesitation: "I won't let you lay a hand on Naruto again!"

As she made this declaration, she heard Naruto's shout. The girl, with her back to Naruto, first gave a soft "Mm" as a response. Then, biting her lip with a hint of stubbornness, she stood firmly in front of Naruto, facing Pain head-on, and said, "Standing here is my own choice."

Lifting her left hand, Hinata Hyuga assumed the starting stance of the Gentle Fist toward the Deva Path.

That posture, both graceful and strong, was as eye-catching as a flower blooming in the ruins of this cruel battlefield.

"Ah, this is truly unexpected..." The Deva Path shook his head, a flash of complexity in his eyes.

Indeed, he remembered that there was such a scene in the original story, which had moved him quite a bit when he was just a spectator. However, he was now on the other side of the war, and he would not be soft-hearted toward his enemies.

"Naruto, because I really like you!" Gathering her final courage to say the words she had always wanted to say, Hinata, whose temperament was so gentle it bordered on fragile, activated her Byakugan. She first glanced at the five Pains surrounding her, then, without a second thought, took the initiative to attack the strongest one, the Deva Path.

If she wanted to save Naruto, she had to attack the enemy first to create an opening.

Naruto's pupils constricted sharply.

"Almighty Push!"

A tyrannical repulsive force erupted once again, and Hinata's body was thrown high into the air before crashing down in front of Naruto.

The five Pains walked together toward the fallen girl.

"Stop it! Stop it, all of you!!" Pinned to the ground by the Black Receiver and unable to move, Naruto let out a frantic roar as the Deva Path grabbed Hinata by the throat and lifted her up.

"This is probably the purest Byakugan in this world!"

"I'll take this Byakugan!"

After doing this, the Deva Path tossed Hinata in front of Naruto as if she were trash.

The flower that had just bloomed immediately met its end, and the love that had just been conveyed was twisted by Pain into cruel bloodshed.

The sanity in Naruto's eyes was gradually drowned out by hatred...

"Pervy Sage, Kakashi-sensei, Granny Tsunade, Master Fukasaku, Grandma Shima, and Hinata..."

Looking at Hinata's "dead" face, Naruto muttered to himself. His heart beat violently and uncontrollably, and his eyeballs expanded rapidly and turned red in sync with his heartbeat. An indescribable, bloody Chakra surged from within his body, rushing to his brain and enveloping his entire being.

The corners of Naruto's eyes split open, expanding to a size far beyond that of a human, turning into the bloody, slit pupils of a beast, with no trace of sanity left within them.

Clearly, this kid was about to "cheat."

The Deva Path stepped back, while the Animal Path stepped forward. Nagato's moment had arrived...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Chakra, which was originally just energy, had transformed into the form of boiling magma due to its sheer volume. Accompanied by a sound like a volcanic eruption, it radiated an intense, evil aura as it appeared before the Pains.

"ROOOOAR!"

A ferocious, bestial roar erupted from within Naruto. At first, it sounded like heavy breathing coming from the depths of his body, but as Naruto stood upright uncontrollably, the breathing transformed into a beast's malicious howl that tore through the sky and shook the earth.

The Chakra, blood-red to the point of turning black and exuding an extremely ominous aura, surged into the sky alongside the beast's roar, forming a pillar of black resentment that shot straight into the heavens.

That resentment was not something a mere human could possess; as it surged upward, it felt as if the gates of hell had been flung open, making it impossible to tell whether this place was the world of the living or a demonic purgatory.

Just then, a sound like the heartbeat of an ancient giant beast echoed across the battlefield. Each powerful thud sent shockwaves rippling out from around Naruto, spreading in every direction.

The Chakra of Nine Tails had finally reappeared in the world.

"Summoning Jutsu!" "Summoning Jutsu!"

Having understood the plot, how could Nagato not be prepared for this blonde gigolo, Naruto?

Or rather, Naruto's transformation into his Nine-Tails form after being provoked was exactly what he had hoped to see.

The Animal Path slammed his hands together, using the Summoning Jutsu on Nagato's true body, while at the same time, Nagato's true body used the Summoning Jutsu on the Animal Path.

Thus, both Summoning Jutsus activated simultaneously, and the Animal Path swapped positions with Nagato.