Eternal World · Susanoo Realm!

"Huff, huff..."

Pain was panting heavily, and even the majestic light in his Rinnegan showed signs of waning.

The Shinra Tensei he had just unleashed with all his might to destroy all nine Susanoo Azure Dragon Shinra Tensei had taken a toll on him far more than he had anticipated!

"Pain!!"

Konan quickly rushed to Pain's side and couldn't help but whisper a word of advice:

"You've used up too much Chakra. The Jinchuriki has already been taken away by Jiraiya and the Teacher. Our plan... has failed!"

"Retreat, Pain. We'll have plenty of opportunities later—"

"... No, Konan."

Pain didn't turn to look at Konan's earnest eyes, but said firmly in a low voice:

"Continue the mission."

"Pain!!"

"... Calm down, Konan."

I am not acting impulsively.

Pain raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the Susanoo in front of him.

Konan looked in the direction he pointed, and her anxious expression suddenly turned serious.

The half-body Susanoo, originally covered in emerald armor and resembling a descending tengu, is undergoing a tremendous transformation!

The imposing armor gradually faded, revealing a robust body formed from the power of his eyes.

After the nine Azure Dragon detached from Susanoo's body, the colossal giant regressed from the third stage, the Crow Tengu form, back to the second stage, which consisted only of skeleton and muscles but lacked armor.

"The technique that Kou just used to change the shape of Susanoo is very likely a unique Dōjutsu awakened by his Mangekyō Sharingan."

Pain fixed his gaze on Kinoko within Susanoo and said in Konan voice to Konan beside him:

"The eye power Susanoo to maintain that Susanoo was already enormous, and on top of that, the intense consumption caused by using that strange Dōjutsu just now..."

It seems that the current force of the attack is no longer Susanoo at the same size as before.

Now is the perfect time for our counterattack!

With that, Pain shifted his gaze from Konan and gave instructions to the Akatsuki members behind him:

"Konan, Hidan, Sasori, Raiga —the four of you, go immediately to retrieve the Jinchuriki that Jiraiya took away."

Deidara, Kakuzu, Itachi—the three of you will stay here with me and do your best to hold off Kokoro, buying enough time for Konan.

At the same time, use all the most destructive Ninjutsu you know to break through Susanoo's defenses!

Hearing that he would have to stay here and confront that monster head-on, Kakuzu frowned with extreme reluctance.

But when he felt Pain's unyielding and authoritative gaze, he finally nodded reluctantly and said nothing more.

Seeing that everyone had no objections to this temporary arrangement, Pain gave the order in a deep voice:

"Alright everyone, get ready to go!"

However, before Pain could finish speaking, an unexpected and unpredictable event suddenly occurred!

The Susanoo that had just been clearly weak and Susanoo to maintain its second stage suddenly expanded in an almost frenzied manner!

The layer of emerald Crow Tengu armor that had just faded grew back from his body in the blink of an eye, and once again stood majestically in the arena!

Susanoo's third stage— the Crow Tengu Armor Form —descended once more in its full glory before everyone's eyes!!

Before the Akatsuki members could even breathe a sigh of relief, their expressions turned grim again.

"Are you kidding me? This kid's Chakra... is it infinite?!"

Scorpion turned to look at Itachi not far away and said in a deep voice:

"Itachi! Aren't you a genius of the Uchiha Clan?! Is this what you just said about being extremely exhausted?"

You wouldn't be deliberately misleading us with false information, would you?!

Itachi was taken aback for a moment, but after confirming that Sasori was just saying it out of anger, he instantly regained his ever-present composure.

He looked coldly at Scorpion and said in a low, indifferent voice:

Are you... doubting me?

Scorpion remained silent, but his chilling gaze revealed his true attitude.

"Enough! Now is not the time for you to fight amongst yourselves!"

Pain's voice carried a rare hint of anger, instantly suppressing the tense atmosphere between Sasori and Itachi.

Sasori and Itachi simultaneously turned their heads away, averting their cold and wary gazes from each other.

Pain looked again at Susanoo, whose aura had once again reached its peak, and a strange unease rose in his heart.

This was the first time he had found himself in such a passive predicament since fully mastering the power of the Rinnegan.

If his true form were still at its peak, he would naturally be confident of fighting head-on against someone of such strength.

But now, relying solely on the Deva Path and the Naraka Path, and behind them a Akatsuki members with differing intentions and questionable loyalty (excluding Konan)...

It seems there are no other options left.

"Is 'that' the only option...?"

Just as Pain was making his decision in his heart, he suddenly seemed to sense something unusual and abruptly raised his head.

The towering Crow Tengu giant, in that brief moment of distraction, transformed into a pillar of emerald light that shot into the sky...

"And what is that?"

Pain gazed up at the towering pillar of light, muttering with apprehension:

"Uchiha Kuro, just how many more trump cards are you hiding?!"

Meanwhile, Kō, located at the core of Susanoo, watched as the surrounding Susanoo gradually transformed into pure blue light and its outline became increasingly blurred at a visible speed, Susanoo in satisfaction.

"Eternal World, ah, what a useful technique."

[Tokoyo], the Mangekyou Sharingan awakened by Kou Otsutsuki, the reincarnation of Indra a thousand years ago.

Its core ability is to precisely materialize anything the caster wants to construct in their mind into the real world using pure eye power.

Through Orochimaru's vast knowledge base, which is comparable to an encyclopedia of the Ninja World, and after five years of long research and analysis, Kotori finally completed the complete analysis of this Dōjutsu that did not originally belong to him!

Although he had fully understood the principles and mechanisms of the materialization of pupil power, his progress in practical application was not as smooth as he had imagined.

After all, the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan is too mysterious. For Kokoro, who is of average talent and also busy with various other research and miscellaneous matters, the difficulty of completely mastering and freely using Dōjutsu that does not belong to him is self-evident.

"Tsk tsk, it really took me a lot of effort to thoroughly understand this technique back then, I even lost a lot of hair..."

He raised his hand, touching his still-thick hair with lingering fear, then looked at the verdant halo rapidly expanding from the sky to the surroundings, his expression immediately lightening:

Fortunately, the final result... was still quite considerable.

The sky full of emerald green light instantly transformed into four pillars of light, Susanoo patterns, standing in the four directions of the arena.

The four beams of light echoed and connected with each other in the void, instantly enveloping the arena and a large area around it in a massive barrier constructed by Susanoo!

"Eternal World Susanoo Realm!"

As for [Eternal World]'s ability to materialize ideas in his mind into physical form using his eye power, Kou has indeed not yet fully mastered it.

However, Kou had already mastered the eye power transformation, which was the core foundation of the technique, and had skillfully extended it to the application of Susanoo.

After all, Susanoo itself is, in essence, nothing more than a product of the materialization of ocular power.

With the extended application of the "knock" technique, [Eternal World] can not only be used to alter the external form of Susanoo, but can even go further, using it as "paper" for casting Sealing Jutsu, transforming it into an extremely effective... barrier!!

"From now on, there's no need to worry about anyone taking advantage of the chaos to escape."

Kou slowly swept his gaze over the Akatsuki members in front of him, who had already sensed something amiss and were rapidly scattering to surround him. A triumphant smile slowly bloomed on his handsome face:

Don't even think about escaping, my old colleagues.

All of you, you all have to stay here obediently!

--

Making up for yesterday's losses, the battle with Akatsuki will end today. After that, it will be a standoff with Rakshasa...