Thank You for Letting Me Keep My Dignity...

Boom! Amid a massive cloud of smoke, Manda appeared, its coiled body towering dozens of meters high!

Manda glanced up at the top of its own head and snarled viciously, "Damn Orochimaru! You dared disturb my sleep!! I'm going to swallow you whole right now!"

Kabuto said in a panic, "Lord Manda! Please calm down! We'll definitely prepare proper tribute afterward!"

Manda roared, "Who asked you, you rude little brat!"

All Orochimaru had to do next was say something nice, and Manda could gracefully back down by demanding a hundred live sacrifices...

But today, someone had no intention of letting it save face.

Pain Rin stepped forward, speaking the cruelest words in the sweetest voice.

"Manda, you only bully Orochimaru because he's so good-tempered. If it were me, I'd turn you into snake wine in minutes!"

"Y-you... what did you say!?" Manda's slit pupils fixed tightly on the tiny figure before it. For a moment, it wondered if it had misheard. It could not imagine a human being so audacious as to challenge it directly, even saying she would use it to make liquor. How dare she? How dare she!?

"I'll tear you to pieces!!" Manda's eyes turned bloodshot as its horned head came crashing down!

Boom!! Prepared for it, Pain Rin leaped to the side at the very limit of her ability, her little hands rapidly forming seals!

—Summoning Technique!

Boom!! A gigantic centipede burst from the ground, its winding body swiftly wrapping around Manda!

"Lord Orochimaru, that's...!"

Amid the violent shaking, Orochimaru stared fixedly at the glowing eye exposed through Pain Rin's cat mask.

"Another pair... of Rinnegan? How is that possible!?"

Kabuto cried out again, "Lord Orochimaru, look!! That other one who hasn't made a move yet has the same eyes too!!!"

"Three people, three pairs of Rinnegan..." The shock in Orochimaru's pupils had instead made him calmer by this point.

Precisely because he pursued supreme truth did he understand deeply what that meant!

It meant... it was absolutely impossible!

"The Rinnegan possesses such exalted ocular power. How could more than two pairs exist at the same time? This must be some kind of illusion!"

Boom!!! Manda's body, bound by the centipede, suddenly shriveled up... Orochimaru and Kabuto, having lost their foothold, landed and immediately leaped back!

"It shed its skin!"

Boom!

Manda's true body burst from underground and, with lightning speed, coiled around the centipede instead. Its terrifying constricting force crushed it apart in a cloud of Haku smoke!

Its slit pupils glanced at the Yata Crow diving from the sky. The next instant, it shot underground with a whoosh, then burst upward from directly beneath the Yata Crow and bit it apart with its sharp Kiba!

In the blink of an eye... it had taken down two of the Animal Path's summoned beasts.

Nagato gained an entirely new understanding of Manda's strength.

"Yarune. As expected of Ryūchi Cave's Snake King..."

Using Shinra Tensei directly probably would not work, since snakes were soft-bodied creatures.

"But a combination attack is another matter entirely!"

Pain Rin formed seals and used the Summoning Technique once more!!

Poof! This time, what emerged through the Haku smoke... was Rhinoceros!

"You've got quite a few tricks, but you're still nothing more than a snack for my Kiba to bite down on. But I won't dance to your tune. This time, I'll swallow you, the caster, in one bite!!!"

Manda opened its bloodied maw and swallowed toward Pain Rin!

Pain Rin hurriedly jumped from Rhinoceros's back, but Manda reacted swiftly and changed the direction of its lunge accordingly...

"Now!"

Deva Path Pain swiftly took position beneath Rhinoceros, raised his hand high, aimed at Manda's lower jaw, and slammed it down!

—Banshō Ten'in!

Manda's head was violently pulled off course by the gravitational force. At the same time... Rhinoceros raised its horn high!

Crack!!

Manda's upper and lower jaws were pierced straight through by Rhinoceros's horn without suspense. The agonizing pain made its slit pupils widen, but with its mouth sealed shut, it could not even scream.

Its slit pupils slowly turned toward Orochimaru.

Unexpectedly, this time it did not vent its anger on him or spit out threats.

That brief exchange had made it all too clear what Orochimaru was facing...

"Orochimaru, this time, no live sacrifices are needed. After all, I won't be asking anything from a dead man... Heh heh, you'd better pray for yourself."

Poof!

Manda vanished into a cloud of Haku smoke.

Yakushi Kabuto said urgently, "Lord Orochimaru, we need to retreat now!"

"We certainly should retreat, but before that, let me send them a parting gift!"

Smiling, Orochimaru took out a Fūma Shuriken and hurled it forward with all his strength, while the fingers of his other hand rapidly crossed before his chest!

—Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!

Poof, poof, poof! That Fūma Shuriken split into hundreds and thousands in midair, blanketing the sky as they flew forward...

Using that as cover, Orochimaru fled at top speed without looking back!

Seeing this, Sasori of the Red Sands shouted toward the forest, "Hey, he's getting ready to escape...!!"

"Don't worry. He can't get away." Nagato walked over with Konan at his side.

Clang...!!

Deva Path Pain used Shinra Tensei, sweeping away every Fūma Shuriken!

At that moment, the Third Kazekage—Pain's Asura Path—who had done nothing but serve as vision until now, finally made his move. He locked his eyes firmly onto Orochimaru's retreating back.

Click! He lifted his sleeve, detached the wrist of his mechanical arm, and pulled out a string of gourd-vine-like missiles from the opening.

Sasori's eyes widened. "What kind of puppet mechanism is that!!"

—Asura Path: Five-Finger Missiles!!

Boom!!!

More than a dozen missiles, trailing fire behind them, shot down from the sky...

At the critical moment, Orochimaru used his snake-like arm to throw Kabuto away with all his strength!!!

"Lord Orochimaru...!!" Amid Kabuto's hoarse roar, Orochimaru was swallowed by the blazing explosion.

Konan hesitated. "Nagato, are you planning to kill Orochimaru?"

Nagato smiled. "No. Don't worry, that won't be enough to kill him."

As the explosive flames dispersed, a massive crater had been blasted into the forest. Orochimaru lay facedown at its bottom, utterly motionless.

Sasori commented with a smile, "That mechanism just now was certainly impressive, but compared to the mechanized armor summoned by your main body, it falls a bit short. And it seems you haven't even used the Magnetic Release: Sand Iron ability I preserved for the Third Kazekage puppet itself. Shall we call this round even?"

Nagato smiled. "Then why do you think Orochimaru can't move at all?"

"Hm?" Sasori looked closely and saw Orochimaru's entire body trembling, as though he were struggling to get up.

Sasori looked at him in surprise. "You mixed Iron Sand into those missiles...?"

"Such a trick... cannot hold me... Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru painfully opened his mouth, attempting to spit out a brand-new version of himself.

Nagato said to Sasori, "More accurately, I mixed in Black Rods controlled in the same manner as Iron Sand!"

The Third Kazekage—Pain's Asura Path—formed hand seals!

Shhk!!

Dust-like particles instantly condensed into Black Rods, piercing out through Orochimaru's body.

Buzz!

Within the backdrop of his mind, the blurry outline of the Rinnegan appeared instantly!

The Substitution Technique was interrupted!

Orochimaru's entire body trembled violently. "Amazing... what terrifying chakra!"

"Is this... the true power of the Rinnegan?"

"I regret to tell you that it isn't." Nagato finally arrived before Orochimaru.

"Oh? H-how so...?" Orochimaru laboriously raised his eyes to meet Nagato's gaze.

"Because the true owner of these eyes is..."

Nagato crouched before him and personally pulled out the Black Rod that had caused Orochimaru so much suffering.

The instant that oppressive force vanished, Orochimaru thrust out his hand and reached for Nagato's eyes without the slightest hesitation!

"Uchiha Madara."

But... the moment that name rang out, Orochimaru's fingers stopped dead an inch before Nagato's eyes!

The information contained within those four short words, and the shadow of truth reflected by that information, was enough to send Orochimaru's brain into overdrive in an instant.

Nagato struck while the iron was hot and cast out another lure. "It's only a Rinnegan. If you want it, take it. But if you throw away the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds, you'll miss the truth entirely."

A person like Orochimaru could never be conquered through force alone.

Only when someone had the resolve to discard everything and offered him an exchange of value could there be a chance that he would truly submit.

But it was only a chance. The human heart was unfathomable—who could claim absolute certainty?

So Nagato admitted that there was an element of gambling in this.

Orochimaru's pupils flickered violently. In the end... he gave up the Rinnegan that had seemed within arm's reach.

Whew.

It looked like Nagato had won the gamble.

Nagato let out a deep breath of relief...

Orochimaru... thank you. Unless I had no other choice, I truly didn't want to use the Human Path to rip out your soul, throw your corpse into the Naraka Path, find a chance to have Kabuto use Impure World Reincarnation on you, then turn Shisui into my Pain and use his Kotoamatsukami to forcibly enslave you!

Thank you for letting me keep my gentility and elegance in front of Konan...