Demolishing the King of Hell, the Old Dog's Death Knell
At an altitude of 10,000 meters, the blinding golden light suddenly expanded, tearing the thick thundercloud in two.
The violent shockwave swept down, evaporating the continuous torrential rain in mid-air, turning it into scorching water vapor. Deva Path Pain's figure was like a kite with a broken string, thrown back a thousand meters by this extremely Monster Strength, smashing through three layers of residual clouds before barely managing to regain his footing.
Naruto stepped through the air, his fists still radiating intense heat. He didn't immediately pursue. Within Mind's Eye of the Kagura's Eye perception network, an extremely subtle yet nauseating Chakra fluctuation was rapidly forming amidst the ruins of Hidden Leaf's southern district.
"Want to play a revival match?" Naruto scoffed, forming a hand seal with his left hand. A Shadow Clone instantly remained in place, staring intently at the Deva Path, while his main body transformed into a golden lightning bolt, plummeting straight down towards the southern district.
Behind the collapsed Clock Tower in Hidden Leaf's southern district.
Rainwater gathered here, forming ankle-deep puddles. Pain of the Naraka Path stood on a raised stone slab, his hands rapidly Hand Seals in front of his chest, before slamming them into the puddles.
"Summoning Technique: Judgment!"
Dark purple Chakra exploded, and a gigantic monster, over ten meters tall, burst from the water. It had an extremely ferocious face, with eerie green flames burning on its head, its eyes tightly closed, and several thick, purple Chakra tongues protruding from its wide-open mouth. It was none other than Yama, the King of Hell, who could devour souls and repair Pain's mangled body.
Behind Naraka Path lay two mangled corpses, awaiting to be stuffed into the monster's mouth and reshaped.
"Konan, you've gone down the wrong path." Naraka Path slowly raised his head, his pale purple Rinnegan showing not a ripple of emotion, his voice hollow as if two pieces of raw iron were rubbing together.
Thirty paces away, Konan stood on a half-broken wall, her white paper wings fluttering in the wind and rain.
"The ones who are wrong are you who have been dwelling on the past." Konan's voice was extremely cold. As she looked at that mouth of the King of Hell, images flashed through her mind of Nagato dragging his weak body countless times to repair these cold corpses and then sending them back to the battlefield expressionlessly.
He wasn't incapable of feeling pain; he was forcibly projecting his own pain onto the dead, deceiving himself that this was the path to peace.
Today, she will personally smash this self-deceiving machine.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Konan didn't bother with any nonsense. She swung her hands forward sharply, and dozens of Paper Shuriken, compressed to their limit, tore through the air, sealing off all escape routes in the Naraka Path.
Naraka Path neither dodged nor evaded. He suddenly pulled a pitch-black metal rod from his sleeve with his right hand, and with a flick of his wrist, he shattered all the water droplets and Paper Shuriken in front of him. The next instant, a wave of water exploded beneath his feet, and his figure vanished from the spot.
Wow, so fast!
Konan caught a glimpse of the afterimage out of the corner of her eye before the Black Rod, exuding an aura of death, was already piercing her throat.
Retreat? No, if we create distance, the Naraka Path will have the opportunity to throw the mangled remains on the ground into King of Hell's mouth.
A ruthless glint flashed in Konan's eyes. She didn't make any defensive move, but instead took half a step forward, slightly lowering her left shoulder, and rammed into the Black Rod.
"Pfft!"
The sharp metal rod pierced through Konan's left shoulder paper wing, embedding itself deep into her flesh. Bright red blood instantly stained the surrounding white paper.
"Gotcha." Konan grunted, but a cold word escaped her lips.
Naraka Path's wrist was caught in mid-air. Just as he was about to exert force to crush Konan's shoulder, he found that his right hand, which was holding the Black Rod, had lost all feeling.
The blood-stained paper scraps seemed to come alive. Instead of spreading along the wound, they used the Black Rod as a bridge to transform into countless white paper talismans, which frantically climbed upwards along Naraka Path's arm, sealing off all the Chakra meridians in his right half in the blink of an eye.
"Detonate!"
Konan made a hand seal with her right hand. Inside the paper talisman clinging to Naraka Path's body, a red detonation spell suddenly lit up.
A hint of stiffness finally appeared on Naraka Path's perpetually icy face. He decisively abandoned the Black Rod, transformed his left hand into a blade, and intended to slice off his right arm, which was covered by paper talismans.
Just as he raised his left hand, a crisp metallic clanging sound suddenly rang out in the air.
"When!"
A specially made trident Kunai bearing the Flying Thunder God Mark was nailed to the instep of Naraka Path without warning, piercing through the sole of his foot and embedding itself firmly into the bluestone slab.
Naraka Path's movements suddenly stopped, Rinnegan shrank abruptly.
"What are you doing, playing the King of Hell in broad daylight? Did you even ask me, the director of the Hidden Leaf Demolition Office?"
A violent sonic boom exploded in their ears. Naruto appeared out of thin air beside Naraka Path, his entire body enveloped in dazzling golden Chakra, like a ferocious god who had just stepped out of a steel furnace.
Without Hand Seals or Ninjutsu, Naruto raised his right leg and, with overwhelming Monster Strength, delivered a simple, straightforward front kick, slamming it hard into the side of Naraka Path's knee.
"Snap!"
The cracking sound of bones breaking was enough to make your teeth ache. Naraka Path's right leg instantly bent backward at an extremely twisted angle, causing his entire body to lose balance and fall sideways.
Naruto took a step forward, his right hand outstretched, and grabbed Naraka Path's face, the violent Yang Release Chakra in his palm erupting like a volcano.
"Lie down!"
Boom!
Naruto pressed the Naraka Path's head down with one hand, slamming it into the ruins beneath his feet like a meteorite crashing into the ground. The surrounding bluestone slabs cracked inch by inch, and the enormous recoil even shattered the distant broken walls into dust.
The back of Naraka Path's head was completely shattered, and his lifeless Rinnegan stared fixedly at the sky, its light rapidly fading.
Behind him, the enormous phantom of King of Hell, having lost its Chakra supply, let out an extremely unpleasant wail before dissipating completely into a cloud of black smoke.
Naruto stood up, shaking the dust off his hands. He turned to Konan, who was clutching her shoulder, and casually tossed her a medical scroll filled with green liquid. "Can you still move?"
"A minor injury." Konan caught the scroll steadily, offering no thanks, but without hesitation, she pulled the Black Rod from her shoulder and swiftly sealed the blood vessel with her Paper Release. She raised her head, her gaze passing over the towering buildings to the sky at the very center of Hidden Leaf: "Only the Deva Path remains."
"The sky belongs to me." Naruto took out his communication earpiece and put it in his ear. As soon as the earpiece was connected, Shikamaru's extremely fast and solemn voice came through.
"Naruto, Hinata's Byakugan has confirmed it. The black mud formed from the Animal Path's corpse is extremely corrosive and difficult to detect; it's gathering in the underground sewage pipes. And that's not all..." Shikamaru's voice, laced with rage, came through the electrical current, "A large number of un- Anbu ninjas are gathering in the third underground bunker. They're being led by Root."
"Where is the target?" Naruto's eyes instantly turned cold, as if a layer of frost had formed.
"The Hokage Building, the temporary Command Post where Lady Tsunade is located."
"As expected." Naruto sneered. He bent down and pulled a mud-stained token from the Naraka Path's robe. It was a special pass that only the Konoha High Command could issue.
He tossed the token in his hand, then turned to look at Konan, his voice filled with undisguised murderous intent. "Pain outside is demolishing houses under the guise of saving the world, while that old dog in the gutter is stealing chairs under the pretext of protecting the village. Trying to have it both ways, does he think I'm blind?"
Naruto crushed the token into a lump of scrap metal and threw it on the ground. "Konan, I have a mission for you."
"Speak," Konan said without any further ado.
"Go and coordinate with Kakashi and Shikamaru. Those shady rats of Root, anyone who dares to step out of the underground bunker, kill them on the spot, leave no one alive." Naruto pointed in the direction of the Hokage Building, his words dripping with blood. "After today, the word 'Root' will no longer exist in this part of Hidden Leaf."
Konan looked into Naruto's eyes, which burned hotter than magma, and her white paper wings suddenly unfurled. She didn't ask why, nor did she question him; she simply and decisively left with, "Understood."
With a flap of her paper wings, Konan transformed into a sky full of white paper butterflies, hurtling towards the Hokage Building along the low-altitude sky above the street.
After dealing with the underground hazard, Naruto slowly turned around.
At the horizon directly ahead, above the Hokage Rock.
Deva Path Pain no longer paid attention to the Shadow Clone Naruto had left high in the sky. He raised his hands and slowly rose higher into the air.
As he rose, it was as if all the air in the entire Hidden Leaf had been sucked out. The pebbles, broken tiles, and even the puddles on the ground all uncontrollably broke free from gravity and slowly floated into the air.
A suffocating, terrifying pressure, as if it were a tangible force, enveloped the hearts of every Konoha Ninja.
"Naruto..." Deva Path Pain's voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to explode directly in everyone's minds, carrying an undeniable divinity and compassion, "Your foolish insistence will change nothing. Feel the pain, understand the pain, accept the pain. Only then can this world usher in true peace."
The pebbles floating in mid-air began to tremble violently, and an invisible repulsive force, like an ever-expanding black hole, was rapidly converging directly above Hidden Leaf.
"Bullshit!"
Naruto stood in the center of the ruins, his legs suddenly buckling, and the ground beneath his feet let out a mournful cry as it collapsed in large sections.
The golden Chakra Cloak covering his body instantly condensed into a dazzling dark red. The Seventh Gate the Eight Gates, the Gate of Wonder, frantically assaulted his powerful meridians.
"You want to tear down my house? I'll tear down your fake god first!"
Boom!
Naruto transformed into a golden meteor shooting upwards against the heavens, heading straight for the sky against the terrifying repulsive force capable of destroying everything.