In Dire Straits
The Flying Thunder God is truly a Ninjutsu with extremely high versatility.
Minato was able to master the Flying Thunder God Technique to the point where he could easily leave a mark, and he further expanded the Flying Thunder God Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder into the ability to redirect Tailed Beast Bomb attacks using Talisman Formation.
Taiichi was different; his understanding of the Flying Thunder God Technique was completely different from Minato's.
He did not cultivate the ability of Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder across a large area of space, but after obtaining the divine thought of the Evil God, he greatly expanded the spatial transfer range of the Flying Thunder God Mark through his research.
To put it more clearly, Taiichi's new location is no longer limited to the side of the Flying Thunder God Mark, but rather extends to a 50-meter radius around the Flying Thunder God Mark.
This greatly expands the flexibility of the Flying Thunder God, making Taiichi's battles even more unpredictable.
This is why Taiichi was able to appear above Pain's head and deliver a sudden attack.
Taiichi's figure vanished abruptly in the trajectory of being blasted away by Shinra Tensei, leaving no trace.
Whether it was Pain Deva Path floating in the air, or the Asura Path and Animal Path standing ready, their expressions instantly turned ashen.
The second time! This annoying Space-Time Ninjutsu made them experience for the second time what it meant to feel like they had a thorn in their side and what it meant to be helpless and frustrated!
The space distorted almost imperceptibly, Taiichi's figure materialized out of thin air behind the Animal Path like a ghost!
His appearance was a killing blow! The Short Sword in his hand was already completely enveloped in highly compressed wind-style Chakra, transforming into a sharp blue light that tore through the air, and he swung it down without the slightest hesitation!
Despite having the shared vision of Pain and the Asura Path, which allowed the Animal Path to spot Taiichi's figure behind them immediately, their physical reactions were ultimately a beat too slow.
He only had time to barely twist his body at one angle before the deadly blue blade sliced through his waist and abdomen without any resistance!
"Sizzle!"
There was no splatter of blood as expected, only a piercing sound like tearing rotten wood.
The Animal Path's body was severed in two, the cut as smooth as a mirror, truly a modified humanoid Puppet. It crashed heavily to the ground and remained motionless.
Immediately afterwards----
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four enormous plumes of white smoke exploded almost simultaneously! The four ferocious beasts that had been summoned and had not yet fully revealed their ferocity ended their summoning process instantly with the complete "death" of the Animal Path, leaving only four plumes of white smoke.
In the blink of an eye! Like a rabbit leaping and a cuckoo swooping!
The situation reversed much faster than Pain (Nagato) could have imagined.
With just a moment's shock, the Animal Path was completely destroyed, resulting in a GG!
As Taiichi slowly sheathed his sword, his icy gaze, like a tangible blade, pierced through space and locked firmly onto Pain in the Deva Path.
Even though he knew that this Deva Path Body was just Puppet and would not truly die, Nagato, who was controlling it from afar, still felt a chill run down his spine to the top of his head, and a phantom pain-like coldness seemed to come from his waist and abdomen!
The sense of deadly threat had never been so intense! To counter Taiichi's elusive and unpredictable Flying Thunder God Technique, Pain could no longer maintain his lofty "god-like demeanor."
He had to quickly descend, standing back-to-back with the last remaining Asura Path member. The two of them scanned every inch of the surrounding space with wary eyes, their nerves stretched to the limit, just to guard against the deadly attack that could come from any angle at any time!
Taiichi twirled his sword in a sharp flourish, the blade slicing through the air with a soft "hum".
A mocking and disdainful smile curled at the corner of his lips, his voice piercing the heavy air. "Oh? Weren't you just a moment ago high and mighty, considering yourself Deity, looking down on all living beings from the heavens? What, now you're scared and want to come down and huddle together for warmth?"
This blatant mockery was like a sharp needle, piercing Pain's (Nagato's ) nerves.
In those cold, Rinnegan, a terrifying killing intent and an unprecedented sense of dread surged violently.
Without exchanging words, Pain and the Asura Path acted simultaneously, their counterattack erupting suddenly from the silence!
"Boom! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
The mechanical structure of the Asura Path suddenly unfolded, like a blooming flower of death.
Countless miniature missiles, trailing scorching flames and interspersed with several laser beams powerful enough to melt metal, rained down on Taiichi like a storm!
At the same time, Pain's Deva Path hand pointed at Taiichi, and the Banshō Ten'in activated.
An overwhelming and terrifying gravitational force arose out of nowhere, like an invisible giant hand, fiercely grabbing Taiichi's body and pulling him violently towards the overwhelming and destructive barrage!
The perfect combination of gravity and attack completely shuts out any room for evasion!
"Ha! This is more interesting! That arrogant attitude before was a disgrace to the name of God!"
Faced with this seemingly hopeless situation, Taiichi instead let out a wild, loud laugh!
His Chakra surged instantly from behind, condensing into a pair of enormous, semi-transparent wings of light!
Instead of trying to break free from gravity, he used the momentum to accelerate! His wings flapped suddenly, and he shot forward like an arrow, charging headlong into the destructive hail of bullets!
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The Chakra Wings granted Taiichi ghost-like mobility.
He darted and weaved through a dense web of missiles and laser beams, displaying incredible speed and agility.
His figure blurred into a series of afterimages, narrowly avoiding fatal attacks.
When there is no way to avoid it, the Short Sword in hand transforms into a blue whirlwind, accurately slicing the missile in mid-air to explode, or instantly condensing Chakra light shield to withstand the impact of the laser.
Kakkou and energy fragments enveloped him, but they could not stop his momentum!
Seeing that Taiichi was still able to handle such a fierce attack with ease, and was even getting closer and closer, Pain and the Asura Path instantly changed their strategy.
A flash of black light appeared in their hands as they each gripped a Black Receiver specially made with the Rinnegan. No longer relying on ranged attacks, they transformed into two black shadows, one on the left and one on the right, attacking from both sides like ghosts.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Black Receiver and the Short Sword wrapped in Wind Style clashed fiercely, the ear-piercing metallic clang blending together, sparks flying everywhere.
However, upon contact, Taiichi's heart sank. The Wind Style Chakra attached to the Short Sword became extremely unstable the moment it came into contact with the Black Receiver, as if it had encountered its nemesis, and began to dissipate and disintegrate wildly.
Each parry and collision turned into a head-on clash between the Short Sword and the incredibly hard Black Receiver.
One second! Seven or eight times! In the lightning-fast exchange of offense and defense, every collision is an extreme test of the Short Sword's material.
The crisp cracking sound stood out starkly amidst the fierce clash.
Click!
Taiichi's Short Sword could not withstand the high-frequency violent impacts and the special interference of the Black Receiver, and broke in two!
The Black Receiver that had shattered the Short Sword continued its momentum undiminished. Asura Path's eyes flashed with a cold light as the Black Receiver, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the air, swept fiercely toward Taiichi's head.
If this blow lands, the head will surely explode like a watermelon.
A matter of life and death! A hair's breadth away!
Just as his head was about to be shattered, Taiichi finally displayed his Taijutsu skills, which were no less than his swordsmanship!
He raised his left arm with lightning speed, his muscles bulging, and parried the sweeping Black Receiver at a precise angle.
His right hand, like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, with its five fingers like hooks, aimed straight for the throat joint of the Asura Path with a sharp, tearing sound.
At the same time, a silent and vicious kick landed on his foot, like Poison Scorpion's tail, aimed directly at the back of Pain's knee.
With his bare hands, Taiichi managed to block, seize, and counterattack simultaneously in an instant, managing to withstand the combined onslaught of the two Puppet.
Fists, palms, fingers, legs; elbow strikes and knee strikes.
Taiichi's body seemed to have transformed into the most lethal weapon, with every part of it bursting with astonishing power and speed.
As the extremely dangerous close combat continued, a storm raged within Pain (Nagato).
He was horrified to discover that, after abandoning his Ninja Tool and relying solely on Taijutsu, he and the Asura Path, working together, were actually being pushed back step by step by the opponent's relentless onslaught, gradually falling into a disadvantageous position.
This discovery shook Nagato to his core, and he finally realized with absolute clarity that the current Deva Path and Asura Path (the Animal Path has been abolished) were simply not enough to defeat Taichi Matsushita before him.
To win, at least Six Paths of Pain need to be gathered!
Retreat! We must retreat!
This thought instantly occupied the highest point of Nagato's consciousness!
The Asura Path and the Animal Path can be abandoned, but the Deva Path Pain, the Puppet made from Yahiko's remains, absolutely cannot be lost.
After narrowly deflecting Taiichi's powerful punch once again, the Asura Path suddenly changed its previous fighting style of cooperating with the Deva Path and completely abandoned its own defense.
Like a maddened beast, his entire mechanical structure hummed with overload as he brandished his Black Receiver and lunged at Taiichi recklessly, using his body and weapons to entangle him tightly.
Every move Isshiki is imbued with a mad, suicidal madness!
Pain Deva Path, however, seized this respite gained at the cost of the Asura Path's life.
Chakra suddenly erupted beneath his feet, and his body shot into the sky like a rocket, rapidly ascending into the heavens.
"Want to leave?"
Taiichi flashed with a cold light, instantly discerning the other party's intentions.
But the Asura Path, now completely insane, is like a malignant tumor, completely blocking all attacks and all movement routes!
This Suicide fighting style, which completely disregards his own safety and only seeks to hold him back, prevents Taiichi from finding even the slightest opening to use the Flying Thunder God Technique during the high-speed and intense battle.
To completely get rid of this "stubborn nut," you'll need at least a few seconds of focused attention!
A few seconds!
In a top-level duel where everything changes in an instant, this is a long enough time to determine life or death!
Taiichi could only watch helplessly as Pain's figure flew higher and higher, farther and farther away.
Before us, the Asura Path's frenzied attack had reached its peak, and the energy reaction within its body had become extremely unstable, emitting destructive fluctuations!
"Roar!"
The Asura Path let out a mechanical roar that was not human, and its eyes flashed red light.
The next second----
Rumble rumble rumble!!!!
A blinding white light instantly engulfed the figure of the Asura Path, then expanded into a huge Fireball rolling with flames and thick smoke!
A terrifying energy storm, centered on the explosion point, swept outwards in all directions like a cataclysmic tidal wave.
The earth was torn apart and shattered layer by layer like a fragile biscuit, and scorching air waves mixed with deadly metal fragments and shockwaves swept across hundreds of meters in an instant.
Even the Konoha outpost, a kilometer away, groaned under the immense force of the devastating impact, collapsing and turning to dust!
A small mushroom cloud slowly rose, heralding the final madness of the Asura Path.
As the raging energy storm finally subsided and the billowing flames and smoke gradually dissipated, Taiichi's figure reappeared at the edge of the explosion's core, which had been completely flattened and reduced to scorched earth.
His clothes were torn in many places, and his exposed skin was covered with fine bloodstains and burn marks. There was also a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth. Clearly, even someone as strong as him could not escape unscathed after withstanding the self-destruction of the Asura Path at such close range.
However, if someone were to get closer and take a closer look, they would be shocked to discover that beneath those seemingly gruesome wounds, the muscle tissue is visibly wriggling and healing!
The bleeding stopped quickly, and the charred skin peeled off rapidly, revealing the new, intact skin underneath.
This terrifying regenerative power seemed to mock the devastating explosion just moments before. Within minutes, the injuries were completely healed.
Ignoring his injuries, Taiichi's powerful Chakra Perception like an invisible giant net, instantly expanding to its maximum extent around him.
His mental will followed the direction Pain fled, frantically scanning every inch of space like a radar.
However, after only a brief delay, the Chakra reaction belonging to Pain had completely disappeared from his perception range!
"Snort!"
Taiichi snorted coldly and soared into the sky without hesitation. His Chakra wings unfurled once more, carrying him like a streak of light as he sped toward the approximate location of Nagato's main body, which he had sensed before the battle.
After flying a full thirty kilometers, Taiichi's figure suddenly stopped above a secluded mountain hollow.
There were faint Chakra fluctuations and obvious signs of activity remaining below, but unfortunately...
The place is deserted!
Nagato had clearly prepared an escape route in advance; while detonating the Asura Path, his main body had already fled far away through other means.
"You escaped really fast, Nagato— " Taiichi hovered in the air, his gaze coldly fixed on the direction of the Land of Rain. "Cherish this 'good luck.' Next time, you might not have another chance to escape alive."
After pausing for a few breaths to confirm that there was no possibility of being followed, Taiichi's figure disappeared again.
The next moment, he was back at the battleground, a scene of utter devastation with a crater of intense heat still visible in the center.
He searched the scorched earth with his own light. Soon, he found the mangled corpse of the Animal Path that had been cut in half at the waist. Although it was charred and deformed by the blast wave, its basic shape was still intact.
Taiichi bent down and tidied it up; the Rinnegan projection in his eyes and the Black Receiver on its body were still there.
"Six Paths of Pain — Rinnegan— " he muttered to himself, a hint of seriousness flashing in his eyes, "This thing is perfect to take back and show to Minato and the old men. Let them be more vigilant; the real threat has never been far away."
On the other side, Pain, who had escaped, quickly reunited with Nagato and Konan. However, seeing that only Pain had returned, even Konan, who had been silent during the retreat, finally couldn't help but speak up.
"Nagato, what's going on? Is that Taichi Matsushita really that powerful?"
Now it was Nagato's turn to remain silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, but rather that he was too ashamed to.
They came with great confidence, saying that Taichi Matsushita was nothing special, but after actually facing him, they realized what a difference there was.
He could sense that Taichi Matsushita hadn't gone all out, and that he only managed to escape because he was caught off guard.
If we encounter them again, Six Paths must be present, otherwise----
"Let's go back first, and talk about it together when Madara Uchiha arrives."