"Why are there only two of you?"
Cangyue rode his Flying Sword into the hall, and his very first words made Konan frown.
He looked around, seemingly still waiting for others to appear.
"I thought I was joining the Akatsuki. Why is this still a one-on-one interview?"
"Aren't the other full members coming to welcome the newcomer?"
The hall fell silent.
Deva Path Pain stood before the stone statue, his Rinnegan impassive.
Konan looked at the Flame Sword beneath Cangyue's feet, momentarily unsure how to answer.
The Akatsuki had always recruited members based solely on strength and value.
Kakuzu had been approached at an underground bounty exchange.
Deidara had joined after being defeated by Itachi.
Sasori, Kisame, and the others had never received any sort of welcoming ceremony either.
Only Cangyue had asked question after question before even officially joining, and now he was actually complaining that too few people had shown up.
Konan suddenly felt that all their previous recruits combined had been less trouble than the boy before her.
[Valor Points +20]
Cangyue felt a little disappointed as well.
Every member of the Akatsuki was formidable.
If everyone had been present, he might have earned a hefty sum of Valor Points just by doing something odd.
Instead, there were only Pain and Konan.
Still, that was fine.
The owner of the Rinnegan had to be worth more than an ordinary ninja.
Since the audience was small, he would just have to make a bigger impact on them.
Cangyue lowered the Flame Sword, sat cross-legged on its blade, and waved at Pain.
"All right."
"You can begin."
The corner of Konan's eye twitched.
Who exactly was recruiting whom here?
Deva Path did not correct Cangyue's attitude.
Hidan and Kakuzu had already proven that this boy was qualified to join the Akatsuki.
What remained was to establish his objectives and allegiance.
"The hidden villages monopolize military power, and they monopolize war."
Pain's voice echoed through the vast hall.
"What they call peace is merely a temporary pause in the great nations' slaughter."
"When their interests clash again, the flames of war descend upon the small nations powerless to resist."
Cangyue looked toward the center of the hall.
A towering stone statue stood there.
It held a spear and wore armor, its solemn face seemingly symbolizing the resolve to safeguard peace in the Land of Rain.
Pain continued, "The Akatsuki will amass money and power to break the great nations' control over war."
"We will make the Shinobi World understand the meaning of peace through true pain."
At this, Cangyue suddenly raised a hand.
"Stop."
Pain's voice cut off.
"Is there a problem?" Konan asked coldly.
"Your company's vision is too outdated. I'm not interested in hearing it."
"Company?"
Confusion appeared in Konan's eyes.
Pain also fell briefly silent.
Cangyue did not explain the word.
He flicked a finger against the sword's hilt.
Hum!
The Thunder Sword hovering beside him abruptly shot forward.
Blue sword light streaked straight toward Pain!
Paper wings instantly unfurled behind Konan.
Pain raised his right hand, ready to unleash an invisible repulsive force.
But when the Thunder Sword came within a few feet of him, it suddenly curved and swept past his side.
Crack!
The spear in the statue's hand was severed at its base.
The stone spear, several meters long, plummeted from above and smashed into the hall's floor, breaking into several pieces.
Stone fragments scattered.
The Thunder Sword circled the statue and returned to hover beside Cangyue.
Cangyue looked at the broken spear on the floor.
"You can't even protect a stone statue."
He looked back at Pain.
"How can you talk about protecting peace?"
The hall abruptly fell silent.
This was more than simply breaking an ornament.
That statue symbolized the very Land of Rain Yahiko had once hoped to protect.
By severing its stone spear before Pain, Cangyue had used the most direct action possible to challenge whether he truly possessed the power to realize his ideals.
Konan's gaze instantly turned cold.
Countless sheets of white paper flew from beneath her Akatsuki cloak, forming sharp paper blades behind her.
[Valor Points +40]
Pain had already raised his right hand.
"Shinra Tensei."
Boom!
An invisible repulsive force swept through the entire hall.
The fragments of the stone spear were the first to fly backward, striking the surrounding walls and exploding into clouds of dust.
The Flame Sword beneath Cangyue's feet dipped.
Rather than retreat with the repulsive force, he flipped onto the ground and gripped the Flame and Thunder Swords with both hands.
Clang!
He drove the two crossed blades into the stone floor.
Purple flames and lightning erupted along their edges, while fierce Sword Intent spread into a semicircular barrier before Cangyue.
The repulsive force slammed into him head-on.
Crack!
The stone slabs beneath his feet shattered inch by inch.
Cangyue slid backward with both swords, their edges plowing two straight furrows through the floor.
After more than ten meters, he came to a firm stop.
His clothes snapped in the rushing air.
His hands had not loosened their grip.
Nor had he fallen.
Cangyue raised his eyes toward Pain, his gaze still calm.
Shinra Tensei was indeed powerful.
Before enhancing his physique, he would probably have struggled to hold this stance.
Now, however, this much force was not enough to injure him.
Konan looked at the two sword furrows in the floor and reassessed Cangyue's strength.
Pain's Shinra Tensei could easily send enormous summoned beasts flying.
Yet Cangyue had taken it head-on and only been pushed back a little over ten meters.
More importantly, he had shown no sign of panic from beginning to end.
[Valor Points +30]
The instant the repulsive force vanished, Cangyue pulled his swords free.
The purple Flame Sword left his hand, skimming across the shattered floor toward Pain's left.
The Thunder Sword pierced the dust from the right.
Cangyue himself shattered the slab beneath his feet and charged straight ahead.
A three-pronged assault!
Konan was about to activate Dance of the Shikigami when Pain raised his hand again.
"Shinra Tensei."
A second wave of repulsive force erupted.
The Flame Sword was hurled away from the left, spinning toward a stone pillar.
The Thunder Sword shot backward, its tip sinking deep into the wall.
Cangyue was likewise thrust into the air.
He flipped in midair and planted his feet on the Flame Sword as it flew back on its own, using the blade to absorb the impact.
At the same time, he beckoned with one hand.
The Thunder Sword embedded in the wall shuddered violently and tore free amid a shower of stone fragments.
It flew back to Cangyue's side.
He descended toward the floor on the Flame Sword and charged again without pausing.
Pain had yet to lower his right hand.
Seeing this, Cangyue began counting down in his mind.
Shinra Tensei's basic interval was about five seconds.
That secret was extremely difficult to notice during a first encounter.
But Cangyue, who knew the original story, had no need to test it.
Since he already knew the answer, all he needed to do was make Pain believe he had deduced it from their two clashes.
Cangyue kicked a piece of rubble with his left foot.
Bang!
The stone hurtled toward Pain's face.
Immediately afterward, the Thunder Sword shot in from the side.
The purple Flame Sword carried Cangyue several feet higher, then plunged toward Pain from the front.
He deliberately staggered the attack into three stages.
Pain swung his black rod and smashed the first stone.
Before the fragments had finished scattering, the Thunder Sword was already closing on his chest.
Clang!
He held the black rod across his body, meeting the Thunder Sword head-on.
Blue arcs of electricity spread along the rod.
Pain's arm jolted, and the Thunder Sword immediately changed direction, circling behind him.
Directly in front of him, Cangyue leaped off the Flame Sword.
Purple flames coiled around its edge as it slashed straight at Pain's neck and shoulder!
Konan immediately swept out her hand.
A dense mass of paper gathered into a shield before Pain.
Boom!
Purple flames burned through the center of the paper shield.
Only by continuously replenishing the paper could Konan divert the Flame Sword slightly.
Pain seized the opportunity to retreat.
A third Shinra Tensei never came.
Cangyue finished his mental countdown.
Five seconds.
No change, just as expected.
He turned his wrist, flicking away the remaining paper with the Flame Sword, while the Thunder Sword thrust at Pain from behind again.
The blades closed in from front and back simultaneously.
Pain's Rinnegan narrowed slightly.
After experiencing Shinra Tensei just twice, Cangyue had immediately staggered his attacks, forcing him to respond repeatedly during the interval.
That speed of judgment far surpassed an ordinary ninja's.
He had no idea that Cangyue had not just discovered the limitation of his ability.
This wasn't a judgment born of combat experience.
It was the overwhelming advantage of someone who had crossed over from another world.
[Valor Points +30]
The Flame Sword swept past Pain's front.
The Thunder Sword was already closing in from behind.
Cangyue suddenly released both swords, stepped on a flying chunk of rubble, and leaped between the two blades.
Pain blocked the Thunder Sword with a black rod, only to find Cangyue closing in from the front.
Only a few feet remained between them.
Cangyue clenched his fist, enhanced strength surging through his arm.
His fist drove straight toward Pain's face.
Just then, Pain spread his fingers.
The rubble around Cangyue suddenly froze in midair.
An instant later, a force utterly opposite to Shinra Tensei enveloped his entire body.
It didn't push him away.
It pulled him in.
Cangyue's feet left the ground, and his body abruptly accelerated, hurtling uncontrollably toward Pain.
"Banshō Ten'in."
Pain raised the black rod in his other hand.
Its tip pointed straight at Cangyue's heart.
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