Chapter 485: You Felt It, Didn’t You?

Chapter 485: Chapter 485: You Felt It, Didn’t You?

"We’ve lost contact?!"

Yamanaka Inoichi froze for a long moment, unable to process what he had just heard. He instinctively asked, "What do you mean?"

The Konoha shinobi from the Intelligence Division didn’t know much himself. All he knew was that after a violent tremor that seemed to shake heaven and earth, every means of external communication from the Intelligence Division’s underground base had been severed.

Even contact with the Hokage Building had been lost.

Inoichi hadn’t felt the tremor just now because he had been continuously using the Yamanaka clan’s secret technique, the ’Mind Body Switch Technique’, transferring his consciousness into the body of a hawk to search for traces of the Akatsuki leader.

Just then, a member of the Intelligence Division who had gone outside to investigate stumbled back into the underground base and shouted, "This is bad! The village... the village...!"

Inoichi anxiously demanded, "What happened outside?!"

The Intelligence Division member dropped to his knees, his face filled with grief.

"The village is gone!"

Inoichi stood there in a daze for a moment.

Then his expression hardened, and determination returned to his eyes as he rose to his feet.

The fact that the Intelligence Division’s underground base had survived meant that the ANBU base, the Root base, and the shelters should not have been directly destroyed either.

And as the commander of the Intelligence Division, Inoichi knew that the Raikage, Mizukage, Kazekage, and Tsuchikage—four figures standing at the very summit of the shinobi world—were currently inside the Root base, waiting for the Intelligence Division to locate Akatsuki leader Nagato.

Those four Kage, along with their personal guards, were a force that absolutely could not be underestimated.

As long as they could kill Akatsuki’s leader, the entire situation could be reversed in an instant.

Before long, Inoichi arrived at the Root base.

At this moment, the Root base was also in complete chaos.

The four Kage were locked in a heated argument over whether they should move out.

The Raikage and Mizukage had long since grown impatient and wanted to move out immediately, while the Tsuchikage and Kazekage preferred to gather more intelligence before taking action.

Every one of them was the leader of a Great Shinobi Village, and none was willing to yield to the others. With the Hokage also out of contact, their argument went around in circles without reaching any conclusion.

However, the dispute quickly subsided once Yamanaka Inoichi arrived.

With Akatsuki leader Nagato’s location finally confirmed, everyone soon reached a consensus.

The threat posed by Akatsuki was simply too great. Even Konoha, the foremost of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, had struggled to withstand them, let alone the other villages.

If they failed to take advantage of this rare opportunity, when four Kage were gathered together, to eliminate Akatsuki, they might never get another chance.

At this moment, Mitokado Homura stepped forward and said, "I’ll represent Konoha and accompany you!"

With the Third Hokage out of contact, Mitokado Homura, as one of Konoha’s advisory elders, had no choice but to step up.

A short while later, the group quietly left the village through a secret passage inside the former Root base and headed straight for the high cliff Inoichi had discovered earlier.

Besides the four Kage and Konoha elder Mitokado Homura, the group also included many powerful shinobi from the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

From Kirigakure were Terumi Mei and Ao.

From Sunagakure were Chiyo and Pakura.

From Kumogakure was the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer B.

And from Iwagakure were the Tsuchikage Onoki’s son, Kitsuchi, as well as Akatsuchi, who bore the title of the ’Tsuchikage’s Shield’.

The nearly hundred-strong force was composed entirely of jonin and elite jonin.

It was a terrifyingly powerful force—one capable of influencing the very course of the shinobi world...

......

Konohagakure.

After rushing directly beneath the ’Deva Path’, Jiraiya roared with overwhelming fury,

"Nagato!"

The ’Deva Path’, who had been preparing to unleash a technique upon the shelter, lowered his raised hand and slowly descended to the ground.

Looking at the village, now completely unrecognizable from what it had once been, Jiraiya’s fury burned hotter than ever.

Without wasting a single word, he immediately formed hand seals and shouted at the ’Deva Path’,

"Sage Art: Goemon!"

BOOM!

A massive sea of flames surged forward, engulfing everything in its path as it swept toward the ’Deva Path’!

Whoosh—

At that moment, accompanied by the sound of rushing wind, a figure suddenly appeared in front of the ’Deva Path’ and spread its arms wide!

The enormous sea of flames seemed to crash against a reef, splitting apart around the figure. Amid a faint shimmering glow, every flame that surged toward it was completely absorbed.

"Little Jiraiya, that human puppet seems capable of absorbing or sealing our senjutsu..."

Fukasaku, perched on Jiraiya’s shoulder, immediately warned him.

Shima, on his other shoulder, said, "Then fight him at close range!"

Jiraiya immediately charged across the sea of flames, rushing forward with all his strength before throwing a powerful punch at the figure standing in front of the ’Deva Path’.

Seeing Jiraiya in Sage Mode charging straight toward him, the figure suddenly dodged to the side, revealing the ’Deva Path’ behind him.

At the same moment, the ’Deva Path’ had already raised one arm.

With an utterly indifferent expression, he said,

"Shinra Tensei!"

BOOM!

A tremendous repulsive force erupted without warning, blasting Jiraiya backward along with the entire sea of flames!

But in that very instant, Shima, perched on Jiraiya’s shoulder, shot out her long, slender tongue.

The tongue moved as fast as lightning!

In the blink of an eye, it wrapped around the figure beside the ’Deva Path’—the one that had absorbed the Sage Art: Goemon—and violently dragged him toward them.

After landing, the furious Jiraiya didn’t hesitate for even a moment. He smashed a fist straight into the figure’s head!

BANG!

In Sage Mode, Jiraiya’s physical strength wasn’t much weaker than Tsunade’s.

With just a single punch, accompanied by a muffled thud, he caved in the figure’s head!

Seeing Jiraiya destroy his ’Preta Path’, the ’Deva Path’ actually revealed a faint smile.

"Sensei, you’ve finally felt it, haven’t you?"

Without waiting for Jiraiya to answer, the ’Deva Path’ continued,

"Your village being trampled beneath someone else’s feet... facing a powerful enemy, yet being utterly powerless to do anything about it... Without experiencing that kind of pain yourself, how could anyone ever truly understand it?"

Jiraiya roared, "After committing such monstrous acts, don’t you feel even the slightest bit of remorse?!"

The ’Deva Path’ replied coldly, "Sensei, I never expected your way of thinking to still be so arrogant."

Just then, Kagami descended from the sky and suddenly lunged toward the ’Deva Path’!

The ’Deva Path’ snorted coldly and extended an arm toward Kagami.

"Shinra Tensei!"

BOOM!

A tremendous repulsive force erupted, blasting Kagami away along with all the iron sand surrounding him!

The ’Deva Path’ then said,

"You’re no match for me. Tell ’Yama’ to show himself!"

Whoosh—

Before the ’Deva Path’ had even finished speaking, Kagami—who had just been blown away by ’Shinra Tensei’—suddenly flickered and appeared directly behind him!

"So fast?!"

Startled, the ’Deva Path’ abruptly leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding the slash of the bone blade in Kagami’s hand.

Kagami clicked his tongue when he saw that he had only managed to cut through the ’Deva Path’s’ red-cloud cloak.

Pfft—

Suddenly, Kagami spat out a large mouthful of blood.

Seeing this, the ’Deva Path’ said, "It looks like your body won’t be able to hold out much longer!"

Kagami smiled.

"You have no idea what that means!"

The bloodline disease afflicting the Type-A clone was, in essence, a manifestation of its bloodline continuously reverting toward its ancestral origin.

The more severe the bloodline disease became, the more powerful its ’Shikotsumyaku’ was becoming.

And if the Type-A clone had reached the verge of complete collapse...

Then that meant its ’Shikotsumyaku’ was drawing closer and closer to the ’All-Killing Ash Bones’...