Chương 87: Chapter 87: The Bluff

Togekei remembered his teacher explaining the token. "I made it in Amegakure, when I could not practice anything noisy. Borrowed Instinct is a one-use tool. Making one takes half a month of continuous work—about as difficult as developing an S-rank jutsu." 

"It contains my accumulated combat experience. If you face someone beyond you and still have time to use it, activate it and accept the connection. You will temporarily gain my combat intuition, and your reaction nerves will become more active. Do not waste it." 

Togekei had hardly believed him. A lifetime of combat experience, lent to another shinobi? He looked at the enemy and fed chakra into the token. 

Blue formulae spread across the five-sided token and climbed Togekei's wrist. The seal opened an artificial space inside his mind. Tonbo's recorded experience did not arrive as memories Togekei could examine one by one. It arrived as certainty: the next angle of a wooden stake, the instant the masked man needed to become solid, the safest position from which Murakumo could support him. 

Confidence followed. The enemy remained stronger, faster, and more dangerous. For the first time, Togekei could see a path through the fight anyway. 

The masked man's Sharingan narrowed. "Something changed." 

"Murakumo, support me." 

Murakumo had considered using the distraction to escape alone. Iwao was dead, Tonbo remained behind, and Root reinforcements were still minutes away. Then Togekei stepped between him and the enemy with a steadiness that had not existed moments before. 

Murakumo opened a blank scroll and drew at speed. Ink lions, birds, and a horned beast tore free from the paper and surrounded the masked man without repeating an approach. 

Across the border, more than a dozen Root shinobi moved toward Murakumo's extraction signal. Their leader drove the formation faster. The returning intelligence had priority over every operative involved in obtaining it. 

On Tonbo's battlefield, Great Breakthrough closed around the helpless Paths. The Deva Path raised one hand. Repulsive force struck the gale, broke its center, and hurled Tonbo through the air. The other Paths fell damaged around him, some reduced to little more than torsos, but Nagato's control had returned. 

"You will not catch me with that twice," Tonbo said. 

Tonbo released a woven hawk and landed upon its back. The construct climbed while his perception spread across more than ten kilometers. He found no distant body carrying Nagato's chakra. A barrier around the controller's refuge likely blocked sensors, explaining why even Byakugan users would struggle to identify him from the battlefield. 

Togekei, Murakumo, and Iwao were absent from Tonbo's range as well. He did not yet know Iwao was dead. Their distance suggested that the escape had succeeded. 

He had no reason to continue fighting. Five hundred thousand ryō a month was hardly worth dying for. 

"This has been educational," Tonbo called. "We should stop before either of us learns something expensive." 

The hawk turned toward the Land of Fire. 

"You will accept judgment," Pain said. 

Attraction seized Tonbo and dragged him from the sky. 

Naraka still possessed one arm and enough of its head to call the King of Hell. The enormous jaws gathered every damaged body. Grinding sounds rolled through the clearing. Moments later, all six Paths emerged restored, their cloaks ruined but their borrowed flesh whole. 

"My wife is rich," Tonbo called. "I can afford to drop rocks on you." He opened a storage scroll while falling. A stone block five meters tall appeared beneath him and entered the pull first. Tonbo kicked away from it as the enormous weight accelerated toward Deva. 

Pain changed attraction to repulsion. The block exploded into fragments against the force, buying Tonbo enough time to regain altitude. 

The counter made Pain hesitate. Tonbo had answered Universal Pull with a prepared counter. Throughout the engagement, he had kept Human and Preta from using their decisive abilities and left Animal little room to act. His choices suggested prior knowledge rather than instinct alone. 

The Animal Path summoned a giant bird and a winged hound. Restored Paths climbed onto the creatures and pursued Tonbo into the clouds. 

"You have already lost the others," Tonbo said over his shoulder. "Chasing me only carries you farther from Amegakure." 

"Join Akatsuki," Pain replied. "Your skill deserves a purpose greater than serving Konoha. Accept, and you may live." 

Tonbo looked at the two summons, six repaired bodies, and the ground vanishing beneath them. His chakra had fallen below half. 

"An organization that recruits six against one has an unusual understanding of persuasion. I decline." 

"Then die. Banshō Ten'in." 

The attraction returned. Tonbo released another stone from storage, let it take the center of the pull, and used Wind Release to throw himself sideways. Asura fired missiles. He raised a compressed wall of air that diverted their noses just enough for the explosions to pass behind him. 

Pain continued closing the distance. 

He turned the construct around. 

"Enough. Follow me farther and neither of us returns." 

Tonbo balanced on one leg, tipped his head back, pointed one hand at the sky and the other at the ground. 

"Watch closely, then." 

The absurd pose and incessant chatter made Pain hesitate. Could this really be a technique meant to kill them both? 

He saw an opponent who had anticipated hidden abilities, disabled all Six Paths through their controller, healed shattered tissue, and carried an unknown number of prepared seals. Konan had helped him break Melancholy, yet its despair still lingered. That genjutsu could reach his real body. 

The Deva Path lowered its hand by a fraction.