Pain's calculations were sound enough. In his eyes, Naruto's strength might have carried some weight, but it was nothing compared to his own. On the surface, Deva Path Pain had always used only Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in, leading many to misunderstand his close-combat prowess.
Li had read the Hokage manga. In fact, here, when Naruto was trapped by Pain and Hinata was seriously injured trying to save him, Naruto had directly transformed into the Nine-Tails. And at that time, Pain had actually relied on his own body to grapple with Nine-Tails-transformed Naruto.
He had even remained undefeated under the Nine-Tails' fierce attacks, and in the end, he had used Planetary Devastation to seal Naruto. Throughout that battle, Pain had used far more than just Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in. At the very least, before Naruto evolved into the Seven-Tails, none of his attacks had caused Pain any substantial harm.
Only after reaching the Seven-Tails had he been able to withstand Shinra Tensei head-on.
However, setting taijutsu aside, much of that was likely due to Pain's extraordinarily tough body. Of course, no matter how exquisite the taijutsu was, it was rather laughable in Li's eyes.
Li allowed Pain to pull him over, and the moment the other man's hand landed on him again, Li suddenly lashed a kick at his neck. Pain was startled as well. From their brief exchange just now, Pain had gained a rough understanding of Naruto.
His Ninjutsu was limited to Summoning Jutsu, Clone Technique, and Rasengan, while he also possessed a certain foundation in taijutsu. Although that was enough to deal with most opponents, relying on taijutsu alone was clearly insufficient against an opponent on Pain's level.
Having gained some understanding of Naruto's taijutsu in advance, Pain had been completely unable to react to Li's