Chapter 358: Each Shows Their Hand

Chapter 358: Chapter 358: Each Shows Their Hand

As the seal on the gourd-shaped artifact was released, the amount of chakra the Dragon Vein poured into Hyuga Kagami’s body instantly increased by more than tenfold.

In just a brief instant, the chakra within Kagami’s body, which had been nearly exhausted, surged back to full capacity.

Only then did Kagami carefully examine the dragon-shaped phantom that was attempting to rip his spirit from his body.

"Some kind of sealing technique from the Gedo Statue?"

Under the penetrating gaze of his Tenseigan, Kagami quickly saw through the true nature of the dragon-shaped phantom.

There was little doubt that this dragon-shaped phantom was most likely a type of sealing technique that used extremely dense chakra as its medium. Its underlying principle should be either extraction or absorption.

In that instant, a certain technique from Kagami’s memories flashed through his mind.

It was the sealing technique Pain had performed through the Gedo Statue in the original timeline—the one Akatsuki used to extract the Tailed Beasts from captured jinchūriki.

"Trying to overpower the Gedo Statue’s sealing technique head-on puts me at too much of a disadvantage!"

With that thought, Kagami gritted his teeth and forcibly moved his arms, slowly beginning to form hand seals.

Across from him, Nagato, still protected within the Gedo Statue’s grasp, was once again stunned by what he saw!

In the past, no matter what kind of enemy Nagato faced, none had ever possessed even the slightest ability to resist the soul-level attack of the "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals." The moment the dragon-shaped phantom touched them, death was inevitable!

Yet the mysterious leader of Kamigami before him was not only able to withstand the soul attack of the "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals" with his own spirit, he could even retain control over his physical body and move his hands to form seals.

To Nagato, this was simply inconceivable.

After all, when a person’s spirit came under attack, almost anyone would lose control over their physical body.

Soon, Kagami completed the hand seals. He pressed both hands against the dragon-shaped phantom that had pierced through his body and shouted in a low voice, "Four Symbols Seal!"

The moment the words left his mouth, streams of black sealing formulas extended from Kagami’s palms like chains, spreading continuously along the dragon-shaped phantom’s body.

It looked as though countless black chains had wrapped themselves around the phantom dragon.

Using his own spirit to directly contend against the opponent’s sealing technique undoubtedly placed Kagami at a disadvantage.

Although the potency of Kagami’s Tenseigan chakra was extremely high, his opponent was no ordinary ninja. Nagato possessed Rinnegan chakra on the same level as Tenseigan chakra.

Therefore, if Kagami used nothing but raw chakra to contend against Nagato’s sealing technique, the chakra exchange between them could easily become two-to-one—or even three-to-one—in Nagato’s favor.

That was why Kagami chose to counter a sealing technique with another sealing technique.

This way, the chakra expenditure between the two sides could at least remain roughly even.

As more and more sealing formulas appeared, the force with which the dragon-shaped phantom was pulling at Kagami’s spirit noticeably weakened.

Little by little, the balance began tipping in Kagami’s favor.

Nagato’s expression stiffened.

Then his face twisted as he roared, "Mortal, you dare oppose a god? Fine! I’ll show you what the power of a god truly is!"

With that, Nagato, seated on his wooden cart, brought his hands together.

The concentric patterns within his Rinnegan suddenly contracted.

Those eyes, filled with ring after ring of circular patterns, seemed to have been completely awakened, releasing an indescribably strange power.

The Gedo Statue seemed to resonate with that strange power, and the might of the "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals" immediately increased severalfold.

The single dragon-shaped phantom suddenly multiplied into nine, each one becoming considerably thicker as they viciously lunged at Hyuga Kagami from different directions.

"A god? Tch. You’re nothing special!"

Kagami clicked his tongue disdainfully.

Beneath his mask, his Tenseigan erupted with dazzling, brilliant light, as though countless stars were contained within those eyes.

As the power of the Tenseigan was pushed to its limit, the "Four Symbols Seal," infused with an enormous amount of Tenseigan chakra, seemed to come alive as well.

One new stream of black sealing formulas after another emerged. At a glance, they resembled countless strands of black hair, wrapping themselves around all nine dragon-shaped phantoms spewing from the Gedo Statue’s mouth.

In an instant, the two sides became locked in a fierce tug-of-war, neither able to overwhelm the other!

"AAAH!"

Nagato let out a furious roar.

The concentric rings of his Rinnegan contracted violently as his ocular power surged outward almost as though it had taken physical form, causing even the space before him to distort slightly.

Kagami gritted his teeth as well.

The radiance of his Tenseigan grew brighter and brighter, faintly piercing through the demon-faced mask covered in sealing formulas.

The mask, which ordinarily isolated all chakra, was illuminated until it became crystal clear, resembling a translucent piece of precious jade!

The contest of ocular power between Kagami and Nagato, waged through their respective sealing technique, quickly reached a fever pitch.

Both were astonished to discover that the other’s ocular power far exceeded their expectations.

But with the battle already deadlocked, neither Kagami nor Nagato dared recklessly withdraw their ocular power.

In a confrontation of this level, the slightest mistake could lead to utter ruin!

Amid the stalemate, Nagato stared fixedly at Kagami.

Yet within his heart, raging waves of shock were already surging.

For a long time, Nagato had firmly believed that his Rinnegan was supreme.

They were the weapons bestowed upon him by the era to change the shinobi world, the supreme treasure that allowed him to transcend ordinary mortals and become the god of the shinobi world.

And those Rinnegan had never disappointed him.

No matter who stood before him—even Hanzo, the man renowned throughout the shinobi world as the "Demigod"—before Nagato’s Rinnegan, they had all been nothing more than insignificant mortal ants.

But today, at this very moment, Nagato discovered that his Rinnegan were not unparalleled.

The eyes possessed by the leader of Kamigami standing opposite him were actually not inferior to his Rinnegan in the slightest!

Kagami was also staring at Nagato.

After this exchange, a question that had troubled him for a long time finally had an answer.

Before this, Kagami had always wondered how, with Nagato’s absurdly resilient Uzumaki constitution and the countless mysterious abilities of the Rinnegan, he could possibly have been unable to heal something as simple as an injury to his legs.

Forget merely having them injured by explosive tags—even if his legs had been completely destroyed, with the various technologies Akatsuki possessed, restoring a pair of lost legs should have been an easy matter.

It would not even have required some kind of forbidden technique. It was entirely within the realm of what medical ninjutsu could solve.

And yet Nagato remained crippled, forced to rely on a wooden cart to move around.

Kagami had always found that incredibly difficult to understand.

But after this battle, Kagami finally realized the truth.

It wasn’t that Nagato was incapable of healing a mere injury to his legs.

Rather, Nagato had been using his own body as nourishment, continuously supplying chakra to the Gedo Statue.

This realization also allowed Kagami to understand why, in the original timeline, Akatsuki had inexplicably waited for more than a decade—until Naruto’s generation had fully grown—before beginning their hunt for the Tailed Beasts.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to begin collecting the Tailed Beasts earlier.

They couldn’t!

"The Gedo Statue still hasn’t fully recovered!"

Clearly, the reason Akatsuki had waited all those years was to allow the Gedo Statue to fully recover—to wait until it regained the ability to absorb all nine Tailed Beasts and revive the Ten-Tails.

And the burden of restoring the Gedo Statue had undoubtedly fallen entirely upon Nagato’s shoulders.

That was why, even after Nagato gradually adapted to the Rinnegan, his Uzumaki constitution still wasn’t enough to allow his body to recover from its injuries.

"This is bad!"

After realizing this, Kagami immediately sensed trouble.

Because Nagato needed to restore the Gedo Statue, he had been supplying it with chakra at all times. This was also why the "Four Symbols Seal" Kagami had previously used had been unable to sever the connection between Nagato and the Gedo Statue.

And precisely because of this, the Gedo Statue contained an enormous amount of chakra that Nagato had poured into it over the years.

In other words, at this moment, the Gedo Statue was essentially a gigantic battery storing a vast quantity of Nagato’s own chakra.

If the situation deteriorated to the point where Nagato’s life was threatened, he would inevitably draw upon the chakra stored within the Gedo Statue.

After all, if he lost his life, then reviving the Ten-Tails would become nothing more than an unattainable dream, utterly meaningless.

"I need to come up with something!"

After sensing the enormous amount of chakra within Kagami, Nagato likewise became unwilling to continue competing with him through brute-force chakra expenditure.

Although Nagato still had a trump card—drawing upon the chakra stored inside the Gedo Statue—that chakra represented the fruits of all his efforts over the years.

If he drew upon it now, all the years he had spent nourishing the Gedo Statue would effectively have gone to waste, greatly delaying the plan to collect the Tailed Beasts and revive the Ten-Tails.

Unless he was truly left with no other choice, Nagato would never take that step.

And so, both men began considering other ways to eliminate the other.

Naturally, the first thing that came to Kagami’s mind was his own trump card—

the Truth-Seeking Balls.

Because he had needed to devote his full strength to resisting Nagato’s "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals," Kagami had already dispersed three of his five Truth-Seeking Balls, keeping only two by his side for emergencies.

Moreover, the dragon-shaped phantoms of the "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals" had already pierced through his body and become completely entangled with his spirit.

Because of this, Kagami didn’t dare use the Truth-Seeking Balls to attack the dragon-shaped phantoms, fearing that doing so might also damage his own spirit.

As a result, the two Truth-Seeking Balls had temporarily been left idle.

Just as Kagami struggled to mobilize the two Truth-Seeking Balls and prepared to send them toward Nagato, he suddenly noticed the black rods embedded in Nagato’s back once again radiating networks of chakra.

On the distant battlefield...

The Six Paths of Pain, buried beneath the rubble, simultaneously regained consciousness.

Among them, the Deva Path raised both hands and shouted, "Shinra Tensei!"

BOOM!

With a deafening explosion, all the rubble covering the Six Paths of Pain was blasted away by the repulsive force of the "Shinra Tensei."

From several nearby towers, both the Konoha–Kumogakure forces and Akatsuki immediately noticed the sudden development.

Kakashi’s expression turned grave.

"They came back to life?!"

With his greater experience, Jiraiya quickly noticed something unusual and said solemnly, "No. Those probably aren’t their real bodies!"

Fukasaku, standing on Jiraiya’s shoulder, nodded in agreement.

"Little Jiraiya is right. They seem more like puppets being controlled by some kind of chakra!"

Standing nearby, Shisui’s face showed a trace of concern.

"Senpai was right after all. These are nothing more than puppets controlled by Akatsuki’s leader.

"But why did these puppets suddenly start moving again?

"Could something have gone wrong with Senpai’s battle?"

Ever since a short while ago, the Gedo Statue had stopped roaring, and that dazzling golden light had ceased appearing as well.

Shisui couldn’t help but worry.

"I’ll deal with them!"

As Jiraiya spoke, he separated his clasped hands.

At this moment, red markings resembling streaks of oil paint had appeared across his face, while numerous uneven bumps resembling the skin on a frog’s back had emerged across his nose.

These slight frog-like transformations were characteristic of those who practiced Mount Myoboku’s senjutsu, and they were also proof that Jiraiya had successfully entered "Sage Mode."

But just as Jiraiya, now in Sage Mode, prepared to confront the Six Paths of Pain, the Six Paths completely ignored him and the others.

The burly Asura Path hoisted the Animal Path onto its shoulder, then violently hurled it toward the distant battlefield where Kagami and Nagato were fighting.

After the Animal Path was sent flying into the distance, it wasn’t long before the remaining five Paths of Pain vanished in bursts of white smoke.

On Kagami’s side, he noticed the Animal Path descending from the sky almost immediately.

Then, right before his eyes, the Animal Path performed the Summoning Technique and summoned the other five Paths of Pain to its location.

Seeing all Six Paths of Pain appear before him at once, Kagami could only smile bitterly.

At that moment, the sleeves of all Six Paths shook simultaneously.

A black rod appeared in each of their hands, and they rapidly charged toward Kagami, who remained restrained by the "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals."

At present, Kagami could only move his hands slightly.

But that was enough.

While controlling one Truth-Seeking Ball and transforming it into a curved black shield to protect himself from the front, he used the fingers he could still move to direct the other Truth-Seeking Ball straight toward the Six Paths of Pain.

Although Nagato could sense that the pitch-black Truth-Seeking Ball was extremely dangerous, aside from the Deva Path, the other five Paths of Pain were all expendable bodies that could be replaced at will.

Furthermore, the Naraka Path’s "King of Hell Restoration" could repair the Six Paths of Pain.

Because of this, Nagato made no attempt to deliberately maneuver the Six Paths around Kagami’s Truth-Seeking Ball.

Instead, he drove all Six Paths forward at full force, ordering them to attack Kagami.

Thus, despite not moving particularly fast, the Truth-Seeking Ball still struck the Animal Path with ease, slicing him cleanly in half at the waist!

Immediately afterward, under Kagami’s control, the attacking Truth-Seeking Ball transformed into a long spear, greatly expanding its attack range.

It spun through the air, sweeping directly across the Asura Path and Human Path and cutting them into pieces.

Nagato’s expression changed.

Although he had already guessed that Kagami’s Truth-Seeking Balls were anything but ordinary, their sheer destructive power—and the fact that anything they touched was immediately damaged—still caught him completely by surprise.

He immediately commanded the Preta Path to move forward, intending to absorb the Truth-Seeking Ball.

However, the Truth-Seeking Ball, still transformed into a long spear, completely ignored the Preta Path’s "Blocking Technique Absorption Seal."

It swept downward from above, splitting the Preta Path cleanly in two from the middle.

Thoroughly taken aback, Nagato immediately ordered the Deva Path and Naraka Path to retreat far into the distance.

Kagami had no intention of revealing the secret that the maximum range at which he could control his Truth-Seeking Balls was less than seventy meters, so he immediately recalled the attacking ball.

Taking advantage of this opening, the Deva Path Pain immediately used "Bansho Ten’in" to draw over the remains of the four Paths that had been destroyed by Kagami’s Truth-Seeking Ball.

One by one, he threw their remains into the mouth of the King of Hell summoned by the Naraka Path, attempting to restore the four destroyed Paths of Pain.

But even after waiting for a long time...

None of the four Paths of Pain emerged from the King of Hell’s mouth.