"Done and dusted." Naruto clapped his hands.
By then, Itachi had already fallen to the ground. The terrifying force of the Rasengan had completely caved in his chest, leaving behind a ghastly hollow. He looked utterly miserable.
He appeared to be well and truly dead.
"What?!" Kakashi's pupils contracted as he stared at him in disbelief. "Itachi... he's dead just like that?!"
This was Itachi, of all people!
Itachi, who had slaughtered his entire clan single-handedly. Itachi, who had taken Kakashi down with just one Tsukuyomi and left him recovering for ages!
And yet someone this powerful had been killed so easily?!
For a moment, Kakashi stood frozen, unable to accept what he was seeing.
"Sasuke's brother is dead?!" Sakura was equally horrified, her small hands clamped over her mouth.
"Quit making such a fuss. That was only a Shoten Technique clone," Naruto explained helplessly.
The three of them froze.
"A Shoten Technique clone?!"
Kakashi sprang forward, kunai in hand, and cautiously approached Itachi's body.
Once he drew near, Kakashi finally saw clearly: the person lying on the ground wasn't Itachi at all!
Or rather, it had been Itachi, but only as a brief manifestation of his power in someone else's body.
"A clone technique that overlays part of one's power onto another person's body, allowing it to manifest briefly and fight at a distance?" Kakashi put away his kunai, his expression dawning with understanding.
"A technique this bizarre actually exists..." Chiyo had walked over as well. She stared at the corpse's face, then cried out in shock. "That face... It's Yura, one of our village's jōnin!"
"The missing senior jōnin from Sunagakure?" Kakashi asked, bewildered.
"Mm..." Chiyo nodded dejectedly.
Sunagakure was already battered by turmoil, and now it had lost another jōnin...
It was a cruel blow that made the village's situation even more desperate.
Listening to them, Sakura looked at the corpse in an Akatsuki cloak whose face wasn't Itachi's and began to understand what was going on.
Her expression turned grave. "If even Itachi's clone has such terrifying strength, then his real body must be..."
She left the rest unsaid, but the worry in her eyes grew as thick as fog.
For a moment, Sakura felt lost. She had no idea how Sasuke could defeat his older brother...
Just as the three of them fell into hesitation,
Naruto waved them on impatiently. "Come on! It was just a clone, and you're already this shocked. If we run into the real one, won't you all just drop to your knees?!"
"Ah..." Kakashi looked embarrassed, wishing he could disappear.
He really would drop to his knees the moment he saw the real one...
As if he'd noticed Kakashi's discomfort, Naruto chuckled. "Kakashi-sensei, you should spend less time reading Icha Icha Paradise and get more practical experience!"
With that, Naruto flashed away, heading straight for the Land of Rivers.
"Naruto, you..." Kakashi's face was suddenly covered in awkward lines.
"Icha Icha Paradise? Isn't that written by the pervert among the Sannin? Kakashi, your tastes seem quite at odds with your appearance..." Chiyo shot him a scornful glance, then followed Naruto.
Sakura forced down her shock at Itachi and stepped beside Kakashi. She patted his shoulder reassuringly.
"Kakashi-sensei, actually, I agree with what Naruto said..."
Then she vanished as well, hurrying after the other two.
"..." Kakashi stood frozen in place. Now that both his students had said it, his eyes trembled faintly as he wondered in confusion, Should I really read less and get more practical experience?!
A curious little seed had been planted...
Actually, Sakura had still been thinking about Itachi, so she'd only heard the first half of Naruto's comment. That was why she'd agreed...
A cave at Akatsuki's branch base in the Land of Rivers.
At that moment,
"Haaah—" Gaara was forcibly lifted into the air by a mysterious blue chakra. His face twisted in agony, and cracks kept appearing across his forehead.
Before him,
A gigantic demonic figure, like a fiend crawling up from the depths of hell, slowly emerged from the darkness.
Its appearance was hideous and terrifying. Its skin was shriveled like deadwood, its fangs sharp, and nine eye sockets lined its forehead. It looked just like an eldritch god descended upon the world!
It was none other than the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!
Blue chakra poured from its enormous, foul-smelling maw, covering Gaara as it frantically extracted the Tailed Beast's power.
"Gyaahhh!" Gaara's agonized wails echoed through the cave.
The statue's hands were planted on the ground, its palms open toward the sky.
And on each fingertip stood a human-shaped apparition.
There was no doubt: they were members of Akatsuki...
Just then, Itachi's apparition shuddered, then slowly opened his blood-red eyes.
"Hiss—" An eerie crimson gleam cut through the darkness as the Tomoe revolved. Itachi's voice was heavy. "I... failed..."
"Hmm? So soon?" Deva Path Pain exclaimed in surprise.
He knew roughly how strong Itachi was. Even a Shoten Technique clone was more than an ordinary jōnin could handle!
As Deva Path Pain pondered this, the other members of Akatsuki had already started clamoring...
"I told you to let me go! Lord Jashin would've sent them straight to the afterlife!" Hidan's apparition looked disdainful.
"Seems I wasted a chance to visit the bounty office," Kakuzu said regretfully.
"I said from the beginning that I should've gone..." Sasori's voice was as cold as frost.
Itachi seemed not to hear them. He continued, "The intel was right. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, is already far beyond jōnin level! Even in our brief clash, I could clearly feel that ordinary Kage Level shinobi would stand no chance against him!"
"Mm... Itachi's right. My clone watched the entire fight just now," Black White Zetsu added.
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere turned tense.
The fool Hidan, however, remained as carefree as ever and burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! Itachi, if you're weak, train more! Leave it to me..."
But before he could finish,
"Hidan..." Deva Path Pain's apparition shot him a cold glance. His Rinnegan glimmered with an eerie light, and a terrifying force of ocular power surged toward Hidan.
"Ugh..." Hidan let out a muffled groan, his face turning deathly pale.
Even though his real body wasn't there, the apparition was controlled by spiritual power, so the Rinnegan's pressure still took effect.
But Hidan was no one to suffer in silence. As soon as he recovered, he shouted angrily,
"Damn it! So what if you're the leader? Does being the leader mean you can bully the members whenever you want?!"
With that,
Hidan immediately started forming the sign to end the ritual, trying to forcibly interrupt the Nine Dragons Illusionary Seal's extraction of Gaara.
However,
Deva Path merely replied coldly, "If you cause the Tailed Beast extraction to fail, I'll find you, lock you up, and make you watch as I root out everything connected to the Jashin Cult and wipe it from the Shinobi World. I'll make sure Jashin vanishes from the world forever..."
Hearing this, Hidan's body shuddered, and his hand froze in midair.
Then,
Hidan steadied himself again, gripping the hand signs like an iron vise, terrified that the technique might fail. He complained, "I get it... Boss, could you stop saying such terrifying things?"
To Hidan, death wasn't frightening. After all, nobody in this world could take his life...
But being locked up while everything connected to Jashin was destroyed throughout the Shinobi World...
That would be the end of the world!
It'd be worse than being killed!
And with that little rebellious outburst from Hidan over,
Deva Path Pain's terrifying Rinnegan fixed on Itachi like twin beams of icy light. "Itachi... has Uzumaki Naruto already mastered the Nine-Tails?"
"I don't know. He didn't use it when we fought..." Itachi shook his head slightly.
"Is that so? He hasn't mastered the Nine-Tails, yet he's already this formidable." Deva Path Pain's expression darkened. "Then we absolutely can't let him keep growing! We have to speed up the Nine-Tails Capture Plan..."
With that,
Deva Path Pain stared at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's few unopened eyes, his Rinnegan narrowing. "The Tailed Beast hasn't been fully extracted yet. We can't afford any interference, so we'll have to send four more, weaker Shoten Technique clones to intercept Uzumaki Naruto..."
With that,
Deva Path's gaze swept over everyone. "Who among you is willing to go?"
"Me!" Hidan immediately volunteered, excited.
But before he could finish,
The next moment,
Rumble—
The cave suddenly shook violently. Rocks rained down from the ceiling, and cracks spread across the surrounding walls, as if the entire cave were groaning in pain. Clearly, it was under a powerful assault from outside.
"What's happening?" Deva Path Pain was startled.
Right after, everyone heard a mocking voice carry into the cave.
"To everyone in Akatsuki, the Nine-Tails you've been longing for is here!"
Deva Path's Rinnegan contracted sharply, his face filled with disbelief.
"What?! The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki has already come knocking?!"
Before you continue