Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

It never belonged to this "god" from beginning to end.

Naruto looked up at Pain, who was standing high above him.

His own three-tomoe Sharingan in his right and left eyes stared back at Pain's Rinnegan in the Animal Path.

Naruto and Pain—the two fellow disciples of Jiraiya—met briefly, making them realize that although they were on very similar paths, they could not understand each other.

For the sake of the peace he desired, Pain needed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto, who was now his jinchūriki.

Naruto would never entrust his fate to others, nor would he let go of anyone who coveted his life.

Empty words cannot bring peace.

Hatred must be ended by actual violence.

Naruto and Pain were lost in thought for a moment, but at the same time they both fell silent.

But the silence between the two was brief.

It lasted so briefly that it only lasted for half a breath... or perhaps...

...There was a subtle change in his eyes, not in his movements, but in his feelings—a tremor in his expression.

Spiritual communication!

Animal Path Pain quickly formed the Ninja Hand by interlacing his ten fingers together.

Konan, who was originally lying next to Naruto, was summoned to Pain's side by the Animal Path.

Naruto's motive to kill Konan before Pain could make a move was exposed.

But perhaps Naruto's motive for "killing Konan" was actually a feint?

As Animal Path Pain performed his summoning jutsu, a kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God seal was shot from Naruto's hand, its target being Pain, who was standing high above!

Faced with Naruto's attack, Pain once again used the Summoning Jutsu to counter it.

Like the chameleon before it, the summoning bird, possessing the Rinnegan, appeared out of thin air in front of Pain.

The enormous size of the spirit bird completely blocked Payne's view.

The giant bird flapped its wings, which were covered with black rods, and released a large amount of chakra through its feathers, instantly creating a strong gale.

The gust of wind easily swept up the building debris left behind from Naruto and Konan's previous battle.

But it didn't activate the Flying Thunder God Kunai!

Despite the gale, the Flying Thunder God Kunai's flight path remained unchanged, instead using the gale and the giant bird as obstacles on its way to the target!

And obstacles will only be overcome!

The Flying Thunder God Kunai tore through the gale and pierced through the giant bird's body!

The giant bird let out a long, mournful cry and plummeted from the sky.

"I see. You used Wind Release on the kunai to enhance its penetrating power."

Animal Path Pain raised his eyes, staring intently at Naruto, who had instantly teleported to the location of the kunai using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

The enormous Rasengan, even larger than the Giant Rasengan and with a diameter comparable to half the size of a summoning beast, was held up by Naruto with one hand and hurled at Pain, the Animal Path.

An attack from this distance would be extremely difficult to dodge, given the methods used by Animal Path Pain.

However, the Giant Rasengan did not land on Pain of the Animal Path.

The giant bird that Pain summoned earlier was both to defend against Naruto's Flying Thunder God kunai and to block Naruto's view.

Animal Path Pain used the Summoning Jutsu four times in total when facing Naruto.

The first psychic encounter was with a chameleon;

The second time it was Xiaonan who communicated with the spirit;

The third time the spirit communicated was with the giant bird.

And the fourth psychic encounter...

...that's the second Payne!

The second Pain suddenly appeared in front of the Animal Path Pain!

The second Pain had the same hair color and attire as the Animal Path Pain, but he was overweight and had a slicked-back hairstyle.

In this way, he blocked the Giant Rasengan for the Animal Path Pain—to be more precise, the second Pain actively reached out his hands to touch the massive chakra mass of the Giant Rasengan and began to absorb the ninjutsu.

Sealing Technique Absorption Seal!

This is the Preta Path, one of the Six Paths of Pain, which can absorb chakra!

The Preta Path Pain absorbed Naruto's attack, allowing the Animal Path Pain to intercept it.

However, the Giant Rasengan that Naruto unleashed by gathering a massive amount of chakra was not a ninjutsu that Pain, the Preta Path, could immediately absorb.

Pain was unable to move until he had fully absorbed the ninjutsu.

They noticed this characteristic of Pain absorbing ninjutsu in the Preta Path.

Naruto continued to channel chakra into the Giant Rasengan, extending the time it took for Pain to absorb the ninjutsu.

With his other hand, he formed a hand seal and unleashed the Shadow Clone Technique.

The shadow clone that appeared next to Naruto's main body disappeared instantly as soon as it came into Pain's sight.

Flying Thunder God?!

The Beast Path of Pain, who had been on guard against Naruto's next move, immediately turned his attention to Konan beside him.

Konan is at a disadvantage in her battle with Naruto, and it is very likely that Naruto will mark her with the Flying Thunder God Seal during the fight.

Knowing that Naruto's Flying Thunder God Technique is a teleportation technique within a space-time ninjutsu, Pain's judgment is not unreasonable.

But when Pain's gaze fell on Konan, Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

Payne's judgment was wrong!

"I am here."

Naruto's shadow clone's voice rang out in front of the Animal Path.

Naruto's shadow clones appeared between the Preta Path Pain and the Animal Path Pain.

The way shadow clones appear is simply by moving at high speed to create a "disappearance" effect, which is a common teleportation technique.

Faced with Naruto's counterintuitive attack, the Animal Path, which turned to look at Konan, seemed to have eyes in the back of its head. The moment Naruto's shadow clone appeared in front of it, it had already made a retreating movement to avoid it!

While Naruto was still unleashing the Super Giant Rasengan, he noticed that while Animal Path Pain was turning his head to observe Konan, Preta Path Pain, who was absorbing the Super Giant Rasengan, was also tilting his head to look behind Animal Path Pain, where he had no view!

The shared vision between Rinnegan users allows Pain to have no blind spots in battle.

The beastly Pain, who saw everything in "himself" at first glance, leaned back and jumped off the giant water pipe, completely getting out of Naruto's attack range.

Animal Path Pain deliberately fell into the air and used his summoning technique once again.

This time, the Animal Path Pain summoned Konan and the Preta Path Pain, who were left on the water pipe.

The two of them appeared in mid-air beside the Animal Realm!

On the giant water pipe where Pain had previously stood, only Naruto and Naruto's shadow clone remained!

Without Pain's Preta Path absorbing the Giant Rasengan, Naruto's Giant Rasengan was directly smashed into his own shadow clone.

After a loud bang, a very long section of the huge water pipe disappeared. The stable pressure inside the pipe caused a pressure difference in the high-pressure water inside at the moment of rupture.

Large amounts of rainwater collected and transported by water pipes were violently sprayed from the burst pipes.

It transformed into a waterfall-like curtain of water!

The water spraying upwards from these curtains dispersed into dense droplets in the air, transforming once again into—

--rain.

The rain in Amegakure was stopped by the gods.

At this moment, however, because of Naruto, it became out of God's control and fell again.

Chapter 75 Intelligence Gap [Interlude: The Demise of Akatsuki]

The Paynes who deliberately fell from a great height and landed lightly on the ground—

Both the animal and hungry ghost realms focused their attention on the broken water pipe.

The curtain of water gushing from the crack obscured their vision.

They couldn't see Naruto.

But Pain was certain that Naruto was hiding behind that curtain of water.

Naruto Uzumaki – Hidden behind the water curtain, how will he attack next?

The moment the thought crossed my mind, the answer followed.

A cluster of wind-style chakra, surrounded by a conspicuous vortex, spun rapidly like a shuriken, piercing through the water curtain and appearing in Pain's sight.

Wind Release: Super Giant Rasenshuriken!

It flew at an extremely fast speed, arriving in front of the animal realm in the blink of an eye.

Unable to dodge in time, the Hungry Ghost Realm immediately flashed in front of the Animal Realm and stretched out his hands to use the sealing technique to absorb the seal again.

Should we praise Naruto Uzumaki for being worthy of being a member of the Uzumaki clan, the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki?

His chakra reserves are astonishingly high.

The previous battle with Konan, and the use of the Super Giant Rasengan on the Animal Path—

—Even after consuming so much chakra, the amount of chakra he had left was still enough to support him in using such powerful ninjutsu!

The amount of chakra contained in this wind-style ninjutsu is even greater than the Super Giant Rasengan that Naruto used earlier.

Depending on the amount of chakra in the ninjutsu or the duration of the technique, the time it takes for the Preta Path to absorb the ninjutsu will vary.

If it were anyone else, they would choose to avoid using ninjutsu and instead use taijutsu or genjutsu to restrict the Hungry Ghost Path.

Naruto Uzumaki also discovered the "weakness" of the Preta Path's ability to absorb ninjutsu.

But he chose to confront the Preta Path head-on with a ninjutsu containing an enormous amount of chakra—