"Go on, little bro. I'll cover you. Remember, if you can't beat him, run. It's fine. There's no shame in it."
Before Naruto set off, Meihui reminded him over and over. To everyone else, it was simply an older brother's concern for his younger brother, but to Pain, it was blatant provocation.
Hey, hey, hey! I'm still standing right here! Don't just ignore me, you bastard! Pain looked perfectly calm, but inside, he was cursing up a storm.
Naruto knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for live combat training, so he entered Sage Mode first.
Seeing that Naruto hadn't charged straight in like a reckless hothead as he used to, Meihui felt deeply gratified.
Not bad, kid. You even know to stack your buffs before a team fight now. Nice, nice. Very nice.
Orange markings appeared around Naruto's eyes as he instantly entered Sage Mode. When he opened them, his golden eyes bore horizontal pupils.
"Sage Mode again? What a pain." Seeing Naruto's Sage Mode gave Pain a headache. Jiraiya had used Sage Mode just a few days earlier.
To be honest, Pain found Sage Mode genuinely difficult to deal with. He couldn't finish its users off in one blow, and ninjutsu used in Sage Mode wasn't easy to absorb. He could still absorb it, but much more slowly than ordinary ninjutsu.
Despite what Pain's Deva Path said, he reacted quickly when Naruto attacked.
"Shadow Clone! Sage Art: Big Ball Rasengan!"
Naruto formed a huge spinning sphere in his hand and charged at Pain.
As expected, however, the Preta Path absorbed it.
"Well, well. It really did get absorbed. That's pretty troublesome." Naruto had refused to believe it without testing it himself, but it turned out to be exactly as Jiraiya had said. This particularly hideous-looking fellow could absorb ninjutsu.