Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Naruto's attack logic against them was equally illogical.

Both Konan and Nagato arrived at the same answer in the end:

Naruto Uzumaki, exceeding their expectations, knew the most fundamental information Pain had hidden deep within—Nagato.

The anomaly occurs here.

As intelligence operatives, ninjas face countless dangers on missions, often solely for the sake of obtaining the "problem" itself.

Only by identifying the "problem" can we begin to solve it and obtain the correct "answer".

Naruto, however, was different. It seemed that he had the answer from the beginning and was just waiting for the "question" to appear so that he could fill in the "answer".

When the Animal Path appeared in front of Naruto, he had two opportunities to defeat it using the Flying Thunder God Mark on Konan.

However, he deliberately concealed this method, creating the illusion for Pain that Naruto had not intentionally placed the Flying Thunder God mark on Konan.

He gave up two opportunities to defeat the Animal Path... as if he had always known that Pain was not a single title, but a collective term for the Six Paths.

Only those who embody the Six Paths of Pain can be called "gods".

From the very beginning, Naruto clearly set his sights on Pain's Deva Path.

...1 seconds!

At this moment, there is only one second left before the Heavenly Dao unleashes the Divine Luo Heavenly Conquest once again.

The rest of Pain had also gathered towards the Deva Path, surrounding Naruto.

In Pain's view, Naruto couldn't do anything in the last second—what ninjutsu would he use to deal with Pain?

What about those various derivative ninjutsu based on the Rasengan?

Or is it some other kind of transformation technique?

Or perhaps it's the tailed beast transformation?

The intelligence Naruto possessed created a huge information gap between him and Pain, which ultimately gave Naruto the opportunity to defeat Pain.

If this one and only chance fails, Pain, who has already begun to feel something is amiss about Naruto's intelligence sources, will crush this intelligence gap in his next attack.

Payne is an invincible god.

After that final second, with the help of the other Pains, Deva Path will be freed from the Vajra Seal binding him.

But... even though they had developed the most serious suspicions about Naruto's intelligence.

The so-called "common sense" still shackled the mind of Nagato, who controlled Pain and his allies.

Naruto's understanding of Nagato goes beyond the scope of "intelligence gathering".

The Heavenly Path waits one second before the tide turns in the battle between itself and Naruto.

Naruto's plan against Pain was all concentrated in that last second.

"Ninja-"

It was faster than the other Pains who were already very close to the Heavenly Path.

Two more shadow clones of Naruto appeared beside Pain.

They reached out their hands together with Naruto, who had initially appeared behind Pain using the Flying Thunder God Technique he had applied to Konan.

The three Narutos surrounded Pain.

Realizing something was wrong, the remaining Pain members began to attack Naruto and Pain directly.

But in this ninja world, no one's speed can surpass the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Moreover, it's only a fleeting second.

—"The Flying Thunder Formation Technique!"

It ended in the last second.

Payne's attack missed.

The Heavenly Path and the three shadow clones of Naruto disappeared before everyone's eyes.

Payne immediately began to sense the location of the Heavenly Path...

However, no one in the entire Amegakure village could detect the chakra of the Deva Path.

Even the black rods used by Pain's body to transmit and receive chakra could not lock onto the Deva Path.

This indicates that the Dao of Heaven has already moved beyond Nagato's perception range.

Where is the Heavenly Way now?

Outside Amegakure?

Or perhaps somewhere even further away?

As far as...

"As long as the range of perception is far enough and there is enough chakra—in theory, the Flying Thunder God Technique's instantaneous movement has no distance limit."

Naruto's voice rang out from above Pain and his companions.

The remaining Pain members were all drawn to Naruto and looked up.

Naruto stood upside down on a huge concrete beam in the building, his hair hanging down, revealing his forehead that was originally hidden by his hair.

Pain's Rinnegan noticed Naruto, who was high up but looking down at him, with faint eye lines visible on his eyelids.

"And coincidentally, I can turn this theory into reality in terms of both the range of perception and the amount of chakra."

The shadow clone that disappeared along with the Heavenly Dao voluntarily dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique.

The information known by the shadow clone thousands of miles away was instantly synchronized with Naruto's main body.

Pain, the Deva Path, would undoubtedly be the most troublesome enemy for Naruto if he were to confront him head-on.

Just like Naruto's usual approach to dealing with enemies.

He has the intelligence advantage of being a time traveler.

As long as there are enough means to deal with the Heavenly Path before Nagato can react and start using Super Shinra Tensei or Chibaku Tensei.

The remaining five paths include Nagato himself, the Outer Path, who exists as the seventh Pain.

None of them are a threat to Naruto.

Naruto stretched out his hand and began to gather chakra in his palm.

Suddenly, the remaining Pain members sensed a massive surge of chakra that even altered the surrounding natural energy, creating visible air currents that appeared to distort space.

The source of these strange sights is the tiny chakra ball in Naruto's palm.

The rotating, compressed chakra ball is not blue like the Rasengan.

It was not a Wind Release: Rasenshuriken infused with wind-style chakra nature transformation.

But...

black.

The deepest black.

In Naruto's hands, however, it seemed to be transparent, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Then the tiny chakra ball fell from Naruto's hand to the ground.

But just as this pitch-black chakra ball was falling into the air, the originally tiny chakra ball suddenly expanded and bloomed.

"The Great Spiral Wheel of Yu".

……

……

Chapter 76 The Way of the Ninja [Interlude: The Demise of Akatsuki]

The intense chakra surge easily destroyed Amegakure.

Even the tower in Amegakure, which had undergone special reinforcement treatment and housed the gods, was severely affected.

The true form of the Six Paths of Pain, hidden in the tower, the true face of God—the seventh path of Pain, Nagato of the Outer Path, had a look of shock in his purple Rinnegan eyes.

According to legend, the Rinnegan is the eye of the Sage of Six Paths, the progenitor of ninjas. Those who possess this legendary eye can master all ninjutsu in the world.

but……

"That technique... what is it?"

Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, naturally mastered countless ninjutsu, and could even easily revive the dead.

Nagato had no clue about the technique Naruto used to ultimately destroy Pain's forces.

"Was that ninjutsu that guy created himself?"

Nagato recalled the immense, almost tangible, natural energy he sensed within the Great Spiral Wheel before the complete annihilation of the Six Paths of Pain.

The power of that technique can be said to be comparable to Nagato's "Super Shinra Tensei".

However, even with the eyes of a sage, the price Nagato would pay to use Super Shinra Tensei was extremely high.

Nagato needs to concentrate the power of the Six Paths together, and each time he uses it, it consumes a large amount of Nagato's life force.

For Nagato, who was crippled in both legs and had become emaciated from overdrawing his physical and mental energy to maintain the existence and activities of the Gedo Mazo, this was a different story.

Each time Super Shinra Tensei is used, the life support device that provides Nagato with limited mobility makes him resemble a coffin.

Nagato, on the other hand, is the skeletal remains in this "coffin," the lamp about to go out.

This is the price of becoming a god; even a god cannot arbitrarily use this power that only gods possess.

But Naruto's Great Rasengan broke this ironclad rule.

"As expected of the Nine-Tails..."

Even Nagato couldn't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both admiration

As the leader of the tailed beasts, the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki is far superior to that of any other tailed beast jinchūriki.

He's a monster among monsters.