Orochimaru Appears, Kekkei Tōta

"Yuki, take Kimimaro and the others and leave, now! Use the secret passage and get out of Otogakure!"

Ao's expression did not relax as he shouted the order.

The battle had only just begun.

Pain had not gotten serious yet.

What came next would likely be all Six Paths of Pain assembled together.

He did not know if he could withstand them.

Unease welled up in Ao's heart.

Upon hearing this, Yuki Yuki immediately sprang into action. She scooped the unconscious Kimimaro into her arms, gave Ao a long look, then turned and fled toward the shrine at the rear.

Seeing this, Sasori of the Red Sands shifted slightly, only to immediately feel a piercing gaze upon him.

He shuddered instinctively and stopped in his tracks.

"How powerful..."

As Sasori of the Red Sands looked at Uchiha Ao's youthful face, a trace of deep wariness flashed across his own.

The Third Kazekage he controlled had been like a toy before Pain.

Yet this Uchiha clansman had actually defeated Pain.

He was probably no match for him either.

And this person... was merely Orochimaru's disciple?

Then just how powerful was Orochimaru?

Sasori of the Red Sands recalled what Pain had said when he arrived.

He was to find him a partner so they could carry out missions as a team.

Sasori of the Red Sands understood that this partner would most likely be Orochimaru. He had gathered plenty of information on Orochimaru in advance and had even arranged for several people to secretly approach him.

They had figured out the general situation in his Otogakure.

But he had never expected that an Uchiha clansman he had not taken seriously would display such overwhelming power.

In an instant, every expectation he had was overturned.

Pain had lost...

Should he join Otogakure, then?

If this guy really made a move, could he withstand it without surrendering?

At this moment, Sasori of the Red Sands was already considering his escape route.

"An excellent attack. I never expected Wood Release to be capable of absorbing Chakra! So this is the Kekkei Genkai once possessed by the God of Shinobi. I never thought an Uchiha clansman like you could wield it so completely."

A familiar voice came from afar.

Sasori of the Red Sands looked toward the sound and saw Deva Path Pain speeding toward them from the horizon.

As he landed, it was clear that he had not suffered any injury at all, as though what had just happened had been nothing but an illusion.

"I acknowledge your strength."

"Join us... or die! Choose."

Deva Path Pain spoke coldly, his expression utterly unchanged, as if the one shredded apart by the Wood Dragon had not been him.

As his words fell, he pressed his palms together, instantly crouched down, and slapped his right palm against the ground.

"Summoning: Six Paths of Pain!"

In an instant, smoke burst forth.

Five unfamiliar figures appeared behind Deva Path Pain.

A soul-stirring pressure radiated from them.

Just one glance

was enough to make someone lose all will to fight.

Before absolute power, there was no thought of resistance.

"S-Six... six pairs of eyes..."

Seeing this for the first time, Sasori of the Red Sands was completely dumbfounded.

Those eyes...

Their pupils differed from those of ordinary people. Anyone could tell they were an extraordinary Kekkei Genkai.

And now, six identical pairs of eyes had appeared all at once.

Hiss!

He sucked in a sharp breath.

That tiny flicker of rebellion in his heart vanished without a trace.

"Leader... Orochimaru still hasn't shown himself. Looks like he has no intention of talking this out properly. Should we let them feel some pain?"

Sasori of the Red Sands raised his voice again, trying to bury his earlier disloyal thoughts beneath his volume.

He understood the leader's mindset perfectly and deliberately said what he wanted to hear.

Deva Path Pain glanced at him and gave a slight nod.

His body slowly floated into the air.

The several Six Paths of Pain who had just appeared instantly scattered.

"Chibaku Tensei!"

Pain brought his hands together, and a terrifying Chakra aura emerged from his palms.

A black sphere of gravity condensed and was instantly hurled into the sky.

In an instant.

A tremendous gravitational force descended from the heavens.

Objects on the ground began to float upward uncontrollably.

This force broke free from the planet's gravitational constraints.

Even the forest formed by the Deep Forest Emergence, its roots deeply embedded in the earth, had no power to resist. It was easily torn apart and turned into enormous floating masses of rock.

Ao leaped between the rising chunks of stone.

His body shifted and darted about.

Yet he continued to rise.

At this rate, he would definitely be sealed in midair by Chibaku Tensei.

"This is just unreasonable! Old Niu's coffin lid can't hold down the people of this world..."

Ao kept muttering. Though he looked somewhat bedraggled, his expression remained unchanged, his eyes filled with curiosity and composure toward the power of the Rinnegan.

Only by experiencing it firsthand could one understand the terror of this power.

Any ninjutsu was helpless before such overwhelming might.

The Body Flicker Technique.

Before this technique, it was nothing more than a joke. No matter how one fled, they would ultimately be drawn in and sealed.

"Sage Art: Fire Release: Extreme Blazing Spear!"

A long spear formed of Fire Release emerged in his palm, its scorching heat sending out waves of blazing air.

He did not understand the creation of ninjutsu.

He simply used the ultimate power of his soul to control Sage Art Chakra, pouring it into Fire Release and compressing it to the extreme to form a flaming spear.

The fiery spear, formed from nearly sixty percent of his Chakra, possessed at least S-rank power. It was his strongest single-target attack.

Its pinpoint destructive power was several times greater than even Wood Release.

While constantly evading, Ao precisely controlled the Chakra gathering in his palm.

This operation placed considerable strain on his mind.

Heat waves swirled around him.

Sweat involuntarily beaded on Ao's forehead.

The instant the fiery spear took shape.

His body shot toward the core of Chibaku Tensei.

He knew very well that before Chibaku Tensei fully took shape on a massive scale, only by destroying the core black sphere could he end the technique.

But Pain understood that as well.

Just as the Extreme Blazing Spear was about to reach the core.

A floating boulder blocked his path.

The moment Ao made contact, the rock suddenly exploded into a cloud of white mist.

A figure dressed in a black robe patterned with red clouds abruptly appeared.

The man spread his arms and grabbed the flaming spear with both hands.

In just a few breaths, the once overwhelmingly powerful Extreme Blazing Spear dissipated completely.

"Damn it!"

Ao's expression shifted slightly, and the calm look on his face finally rippled.

Was he really going to fall here?

A trace of reluctance showed in his eyes. This body was his true body now!

It was a body with both Hashirama Cells and Uchiha bloodline. Once he further analyzed the secrets of the Hashirama Cells' Kekkei Genkai, he would be able to isolate the various Chakra natures that formed the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.

That way, this body would already possess the foundations for affinity with six natures: Yang Release and Water Release from Wood Release, Yin Release from the Sharingan, and the Fire Release, Earth Release, and Lightning Release inherent to the original body.

Only Wind Release remained before he had affinity with every nature.

The body's foundation was simply too exceptional.

He could not bear to abandon it.

But at this moment, with Chibaku Tensei about to seal him away, he had to make a choice.

Abandon his body, leave Chibaku Tensei's seal in the form of a Sage Soul, and burrow into the underground laboratory to cling to life.

At that critical moment, a soft chant rang out.

"Shaking Release: World Collapse Technique!"

Crack!

The enormous meteorite rock that had been continuously expanding suddenly froze in place.

Then, a faint crack appeared.

The fracture gradually spread. Within a few breaths, it turned into shattered chunks of stone that fell to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Who!?"

"Who's there!?"

"What kind of power is this... How is this possible... It directly unraveled Chibaku Tensei's power from within."

Deva Path Pain stared sharply in that direction and noticed a figure emerging from the dust.

What technique was that?

It had actually broken his strongest move.

Pain's heart had remained unruffled throughout the battle, but now, shaken to its core, it showed a trace of panic.

"Oh my, Sensei... If you'd come any later, you'd only have been able to collect my corpse..."

Ao fell from the air with a bitter smile.

After several awkward rolls, he dissipated the impact of falling from a hundred meters up, though his body still suffered some minor injuries.

He lightly dusted himself off and walked toward the smoke.

As the smoke dispersed, a long-haired woman was revealed.

Ao knew her well.

She had fought him before.

Her name was Oto.

"Ao-kun, wasn't I just getting used to this body?"

"This Kekkei Tōta you developed is far too complicated to use."

"Lightning, Earth, and Wind Chakra nature transformations have to be fused at a ratio of 4.3:3.1:2.6. It sounds simple, but it's far too difficult in practice."

"Even I spent several hours before I grasped the trick."

Orochimaru spread his hands, smiling as he spoke helplessly.

Every word was an attempt to show off his talent.

The body he possessed now was an entirely new vessel.

Shaking Release was the result of Ao's research over the past three years.

As for the vessel Orochimaru had reincarnated into, he had still chosen that same girl, Oto.

Over the past three years, to meet Orochimaru's demands, she had completed insane training regimens. No matter what Ao required of her, she fought desperately to achieve it.

In the end, under Ao's guidance, she successfully fused an entirely new Kekkei Tōta—Shaking Release.