"Summoning Technique!"
An enormous summoning beast appeared atop the cliff and let out a deafening roar that echoed throughout Iwagakure.
The Akatsuki members fighting inside Iwagakure stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes toward the cliff.
That was the signal of success, and also the signal to retreat.
It meant that the Five-Tails Jinchuriki had fallen into Akatsuki's hands.
Having witnessed the entire battle, Zou Hyuga stepped out of the shadows and gazed thoughtfully in the direction Orochimaru had disappeared.
Orochimaru and Shinnō had defected, and even Oyashiro En had come to help them escape.
Having received advance notice of their defection, Zou Hyuga was not surprised. What surprised him was that they had targeted Obito rather than Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan.
It seemed Orochimaru still wasn't thinking big enough.
Still, even if a surprise attack on those Pains succeeded, they would only get corpses. An ambush on Obito, on the other hand, had a fairly good chance of success.
They had nearly succeeded. If not for Zetsu's secret assistance underground, Obito really would have lost his Kamui Sharingan.
As Kaguya Otsutsuki's third son, Black Zetsu clearly possessed some special ability. Perhaps it was the power of kekkei mōra.
Reining in his wandering thoughts, Zou Hyuga headed toward the cliff.
No matter how deep the hidden currents of the Shinobi World ran, Nagato was its strongest publicly acknowledged shinobi.
Inside Iwagakure.
Ōnoki, who had just lost his son, fought with grief and hatred burning inside him. The number of Pains facing him had grown from two to four.
During that time, Ōnoki had taken down one or two of the Pains, but before long, the ones he had defeated reappeared, good as new.
Ōnoki grew increasingly certain of his theory: the Pains were not living people, but