The Failed Reverse Summoning Jutsu

Uchiha Ensei didn't care much about the information.

Rather than let it rot inside him, he'd rather put it to its proper use.

Few people could bring themselves to interrupt Uchiha Ensei when he was talking. They wished he would just keep going. Konan was no different. Whenever something important came up, she would even ask questions herself.

And when asked, Uchiha Ensei patiently explained everything.

"Alright, you now know what you need to know. You should return our people to us now, shouldn't you?"

Having said what he wanted to say, Uchiha Ensei brought up the most important matter of this trip.

But Nagato and Konan were still absorbed in those cruel truths and hadn't come back to their senses.

Only when Uchiha Ensei brought it up again did Nagato reply, "They're not here. Madara Uchiha already took them away."

"No... If we're talking about now, he should be called Obito Uchiha."

"What you've said... I find it hard to believe."

"But whether it's true or not, I have no reason to keep working for him. As for the Rinnegan, if he wants it, he can come and take it."

Nagato's voice came from Pain's mouth, its tone unusually cold and utterly devoid of human warmth.

Nagato had made this decision because of the strength Uchiha Ensei had just displayed. That kind of power wasn't something they could easily deal with.

If he used that move again, the entire Amegakure would probably be razed to the ground.

To be honest, because of Nagato's physical condition, he couldn't bring the Rinnegan's power to its full potential.

In the original story, the Nine-Tails alone had been enough to match the Six Paths of Pain Nagato had now.

Compared to the power Madara Uchiha wielded, it was like night and day.

Should he take this opportunity to collect the Rinnegan?

If he came in person, it seemed like there might be a chance.

If anything went wrong, he could always use up one Sharingan. He had just recovered Kagami Uchiha's Sharingan, after all.

Uchiha Ensei knew that Madara Uchiha had left a failsafe in the Rinnegan, but he didn't intend to implant it in himself.

If he only used it as research material, it seemed worth giving it a try.

"A trade! I'll heal your injuries, and you'll give me one of your Rinnegan."

Faced with Uchiha Ensei's sudden offer, Nagato refused without hesitation. His tone left no room for negotiation.

Unfortunately, when Uchiha Ensei decided to do something, he was going to do it.

"I see. What a shame."

"If a gentle approach won't work, then I'll just have to force you to make the trade."

As soon as he finished speaking, the three Artificial Humans beside Uchiha Ensei flew off in a certain direction.

Konan looked in the direction they were heading, and her expression changed at once. She knew very well that it was where Nagato was hiding.

She had no time to wonder how he had discovered it. Konan hurried there as fast as she could, hoping to arrive before the enemy.

At the same time, Nagato's real body realized what was happening. He hadn't expected them to find him.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

"Summoning Jutsu!"

First, Nagato used the Summoning Jutsu to call back the Deva Path. Then he summoned the beasts contracted to the Animal Path.

Zero-One, Zero-Two, and Zero-Three were soon intercepted by the Summoned Beasts.

Taking advantage of this opening, Konan returned to Nagato's side.

With Konan protecting him, Nagato finally had a free hand to use Planetary Devastation.

A tiny point, like a black hole, appeared in Nagato's palm. It floated into the air like a flower petal, then drifted toward Uchiha Ensei's location.

At that moment, Uchiha Ensei's Shadow Clone took out some more blood and performed the Summoning Jutsu, calling a giant orange cat the size of a house.

"Hmm? Ensei, weren't you..."

Chachamaru asked curiously.

In just two short years, Chachamaru had grown from an ordinary cat into a creature the size of a house.

The cause wasn't the orange cat getting fat, but Natural Energy.

Although the Ninja Cat Clan could be considered Summoned Beasts, they hadn't mastered Natural Energy like the Three Great Sage Lands, and they had no Sage Mode.

Chachamaru was now the first Ninja Cat capable of absorbing Natural Energy.

But because the Natural Energy in this world was too violent, Chachamaru couldn't control the power inside her body. She was all bark and no bite.

"Use the Reverse Summoning Jutsu to summon my real body here."

"Notify Cat Ninja Village to be ready to use the Reverse Summoning Jutsu to bring me back."

Uchiha Ensei gave his instructions.

The Summoning Jutsu was a type of contract-based technique, but it was also one of the simplest Space-Time Ninjutsu.

Uchiha Ensei had reason to suspect that the Flying Thunder God had been derived from the Summoning Jutsu.

Although Uchiha Ensei hadn't mastered the Flying Thunder God, that didn't mean he couldn't try using the Summoning Jutsu.

The difference was that the Reverse Summoning Jutsu could only bring someone here. It couldn't send them back.

"Does it really need to go that far? I understand."

After speaking, Chachamaru spat out a scroll.

Compared to Chachamaru's enormous body, the scroll looked tiny.

But when it landed beside Uchiha Ensei, it was taller than he was.

As the scroll unfurled, Chachamaru struggled to form the Hand Seals with her paw...

Poof!!!

A huge cloud of white smoke billowed past, but the person who should have appeared there was nowhere to be seen.

"Chachamaru, what happened?"

It had been two years since he had last tried the Reverse Summoning Jutsu, but this shouldn't have happened.

Chachamaru had already exhausted too much Chakra and didn't have the strength to answer Uchiha Ensei.

"Um... The Reverse Summoning Jutsu uses up a huge amount of Chakra."

"And the more Chakra the person being summoned has, the more Chakra it takes."

At that moment, Kakashi Hatake, who had been standing around doing nothing, finally spoke up to explain.

At the same time, Kakashi Hatake was secretly stunned.

Even a monster like him couldn't use the Reverse Summoning Jutsu. Uchiha Ensei, what had you done to your body? That amount of Chakra was almost greater than a Tailed Beast's.

Just then, Uchiha Ensei finally remembered the one hundred thousand Byakugan he had sealed inside his body.

With a helpless sigh, he canceled the Summoning Jutsu. Chachamaru's house-sized body vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"There's nothing for it. We can only give up. We'll try again next time we get the chance."

"What a shame. The Self-Destruct Fly can only be used once. I won't get another chance this good."

Uchiha Ensei looked regretfully at Zero-One, Zero-Two, and Zero-Three, who were fighting in the distance.

The beasts summoned by the Animal Path, along with the Deva Path, had held the three of them off for this long. It seemed the Six Paths of Pain had indeed let their guard down earlier.

Was it because he'd been there?

No, the main reason was that information about these three Artificial Humans had leaked. As expected, information was crucial in a battle between ninja.

"Enough. You can come back now. This thing above my head looks like it's about to start!"