Nagato had no idea what kind of mindset Kitagawa Gen had when he said, “You look like you’re having fun.”

But as he watched Kitagawa Gen charge forward again with crushing momentum, relentlessly attacking his only remaining Human Path and Naraka Path, he knew he had to react immediately.

'This guy… he’s stronger than last time. How did it come to this?'

Last time, he could blame his defeat on having only the Deva Path present.

But now, with all six Paths together, he was still being beaten down like this—it was hard to accept.

Could it really be like he said… ‘Only concentrated power can break through solid stone’?

He had to admit, those words had shaken him.

Especially after seeing his power scattered, allowing Kitagawa Gen to break through one Path after another while the others failed to provide effective support.

The more he saw it, the more he realized there was truth in it. But… how was he supposed to achieve it?

“Damn it!”

The moment he hesitated, Kitagawa Gen slipped past the Naraka Path’s defense like lightning and shattered the Human Path in an instant.

“Two left.”

His voice was calm, almost casual, yet it rang in the Deva Path Pain’s ears.

“If this is all you’ve got, I can only say… you can’t even make this interesting for me.”

Kitagawa Gen wasn’t joking. The Six Paths might look formidable, each with its own unique ability,

But they weren’t one person.

Against a powerful shinobi who knew their abilities, the right strategy could take them apart.

'Still… I should thank Jiraiya and Naruto. Without them, dealing with the Preta Path’s Sealing Absorption Barrier wouldn’t have been so easy.'

He had the Sealing Absorption technique himself, so he understood exactly how it worked.

'Normal Sage Arts won’t get past it—but if you take in too much pure natural chakra, you lose control and turn to stone.'

Armed with that knowledge, Kitagawa Gen deliberately overloaded his attack, combining Yin Release with a flood of natural chakra.

And with his vast chakra reserves, he had no fear of the Preta Path trying to absorb it.

'Now you’ve paid the price.'

Watching the Preta Path—now petrified—shatter into rubble, Kitagawa Gen smirked with disdain.

That’s the power of having intel.

...

“You—go stall him for a while. I’ve got a technique in the works.”

The Deva Path Pain’s chakra continued to gather, but he still took the time to give an order to Raiga beside him.

“I understand.”

Raiga gave a short nod, knowing that if he didn’t go all out here, he would probably end up dead.

Seeing Kitagawa Gen closing in at high speed, Raiga’s chakra surged wildly, lightning flashing along the blades of his twin swords, Kiba.

A massive lightning dragon roared forth, and the Naraka Path charged in alongside him. Though it was meant for “support,” there was no time to think about roles now.

“Out of ideas already?”

Watching the roaring thunder dragon approach, Kitagawa Gen formed a one-handed seal.

A violent surge of Water Release burst forth instantly, making Raiga freeze for a moment. Using Water Release against Lightning Release?

“No… he’s going to use Ice Release!”

Sure enough, the instant the water collided with the thunder dragon, an intense cold erupted. The raging lightning was instantly sealed within a block of ice.

Kitagawa Gen’s hand seal shifted again, and the frozen dragon shattered with a deafening crack. Countless shards of ice turned into senbon, raining down on them in a merciless storm.

“Move, now!”

Raiga shouted a warning, crossing his twin swords before him as his chakra flared again.

He dodged while using Lightning Release to block the storm, the Naraka Path also retreating quickly. But just moments later, its eyes went wide.

“Farewell.”

At some point, Kitagawa Gen had already appeared right in front of it. His short blade flashed in a swift arc—

And in the moment the Naraka Path’s head flew from its body, it was smiling.

...

“That’s enough… because—”

“Chibaku Tensei!”

Not far away, the Deva Path Pain brought his hands together and roared.

In an instant, a black sphere imbued with strange power shot from his hands and floated into the air.

[Boom—!]

A tremendous gravitational force exploded outward, tearing at everything around.

The ground began to fracture as fragments of rock were pulled skyward, as though drawn by an unseen force.

The pull intensified sharply a heartbeat later, and the earth trembled violently.

“What is that?”

“The ground… it’s being dragged upward?”

“What in the world is going on?”

In the distance, the shinobi of Kusagakure had all evacuated to the outskirts. They stared as the sky itself seemed to warp before their eyes.

Then they saw vast swathes of land shatter. Trees, boulders—even the soil itself—everything in sight was being wrenched into the air.

“What… what is that thing?”

The Kusagakure leader’s face was filled with disbelief, a growing fear gnawing at him. This didn’t feel like a battle between humans at all.

Especially when the debris began to clump together, forming a growing sphere, the unease in his heart only deepened.

“A battle on this scale…”

Karin’s face was pale with shock. She too began to question whether this could even be called a shinobi fight anymore.

“But… the owner of that chakra seems to be in trouble.”

She lifted her gaze to the sky, staring at the slowly forming sphere. She could clearly sense that the chakra’s owner had already been pulled into it.

“Wait… this is—”

Suddenly, an instinctive fear gripped her. It felt as if an even more terrifying power was taking shape.

...

“Chibaku Tensei, huh?”

Kitagawa Gen, however, remained calm. As he continued to rise into the air, seeing the massive sphere forming to seal him inside, he slowly raised his hand.

“In that case… let’s test something I’ve been developing lately.”

As he thought, three orbs gradually emerged in his palm—one black, one white, and one purple.

Clearly, they represented Magnet Release, Ice Release, and his own Violet Lightning. When the three came together, two more distinct forces began to manifest and intertwine.

“Yin Release and Yang Release… still so damn hard to fuse, huh?”

He had never forgotten his original goal. Even as an Ōtsutsuki, he kept experimenting with merging kekkei.

He wasn’t certain whether developing his bloodline would eventually grant him a complete Kekkei Mōra, but he would be prepared for it no matter what.

With the fusion of Yin Release, Yang Release, and even Senjutsu, a translucent Rasengan with the three orbs suspended inside now spun in his hand.

“It’s still hard to stabilize… but this should be enough. Now then—”

Eyeing the swelling mass of the Chibaku Tensei, Kitagawa Gen leapt forward, briefly slipping free from the pull of the debris being drawn in.

...

“Trying to run? Hah!”

From afar, Nagato, through the Deva Path Pain, saw everything and instantly poured more chakra into the technique, sharply increasing the gravitational force.

“Nagato, you’re pushing yourself too hard…”

Konan saw blood drip from Nagato’s nose, her worry plain to see, but Nagato shook his head.

“I have to. This man is even more dangerous, even more terrifying than I imagined. I have to take the risk.”

Nagato knew he was gambling. Deep down, he doubted whether Chibaku Tensei would work, because the Flying Thunder God had given Kitagawa Gen too much mobility.

But he had to test its range, and he had to take this risk. This man had gathered too much intel—he had to be eliminated.

“Even if I can’t kill him, I have to lock down the range, or else next year—hm?”

Nagato froze mid-thought.

He was staring at the chakra sphere forming in Kitagawa Gen’s hand.

It swelled rapidly, becoming enormous in the blink of an eye.

“A Rasengan? He’s going to try and counter Chibaku Tensei?”

Nagato thought Kitagawa Gen was insane. But Kitagawa Gen didn’t care what he thought—after compressing the Rasengan further, he hurled it without hesitation.

The massive sphere plunged downward, and in an instant, a blinding white light flared across the sky.

That light outshone even the sun itself—and as the two forces collided, the entire world fell silent in an instant.

The pressure in the air was suffocating, a dread like the end of days surging into everyone’s hearts.

“What… what kind of power is this…?”

Below, Raiga lifted his head in disbelief toward the sky. He felt as if he were caught in a battle that didn’t belong to him at all.

“What in the world… is happening?”

Farther away, the shinobi of Kusagakure stood frozen, staring blankly at the scene before them.

Even the Kusagakure leader couldn’t move, his heart sinking into numbness.

“We have to get farther away!”

Only Karin had already withdrawn behind the others—she knew better than anyone how dangerous this truly was.

[Boom—!]

In the next moment, a colossal explosion erupted.

The shockwave, visible to the naked eye, tore across the land.

In the blink of an eye, a vast stretch of forest was swept clean, the lush greenery erased in an instant.

Farther still, trees ignited under the roaring force, entire swathes of woodland engulfed in towering flames.

Around Kusagakure, the terrifying blast ripped through the outer buildings, flattening them to bare ground.

The earth itself caved downward as the shockwave pressed on, surging toward the village’s interior and even sweeping up shinobi who had already fled.

In the sky, the massive sphere crumbled apart, countless fragments of rock crashing down, blazing with fire and frost alike.

The sight was nothing short of a natural disaster.

“Impossible…”

Pain’s hand trembled as he stared at the devastation.

From his hidden location, Nagato’s face dripped with sweat, blood streaming steadily from his nose.

Chibaku Tensei—even with everything he poured into it—had exacted a massive toll. He had believed that even Kitagawa Gen would be forced to retreat before it.

Yet this man had shattered it with a single Rasengan.

Nagato had been forced to raise Shinra Tensei just to shield himself, or he too would have been caught in the aftermath.

“Go. You have to go!”

Nagato’s weak voice called out to Konan, who stood beside him, her face filled with worry.

“This place is untouched—that means he’ll have locked onto it. You must leave, now!”

“It seems…”

But before Nagato’s words could even finish, Kitagawa Gen’s voice rang out from outside.

“You’re too late.”

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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. /TitoVillar

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