The sound returned all at once, a tidal wave of grinding stone, shattering wood, and the distant, rising screams of the terrified and the wounded.

  The air was thick with pulverized earth, a choking gray fog that blanketed the newly formed crater where Konoha’s bustling heart had once been.

  From his vantage point atop the black-violet dome of chakra, Ryuu surveyed the devastation. He felt a cold, sharp fury rise within him, but his analytical mind instantly suppressed it. Emotion was a luxury. Survival was a necessity.

  The force of the Chō Shinra Tensei had been astronomical. His dome, powered by the boundless well of the Zero-Tails, had held, but the strain had been immense. He felt the phantom pain of a thousand needles against his chakra network, a sensation that was already fading as the Ryūmyaku’s energy surged, replenishing him near-instantly.

  He let the defensive dome dissolve into glittering particles. He stood alone in a wasteland, the six black-cloaked figures of Pain arrayed before him like specters of judgment.

  “You have withstood divine punishment.”

  The Deva Path’s voice echoed, devoid of emotion.

  “An impressive defense. But it has cost you. Your chakra must be nearly depleted.”

  ‘He’s probing’

  Ryuu thought, recognizing that he was an unknown variable who had appeared without notice.

  “You talk too much.”

  Ryuu’s voice was a low growl that carried across the desolation. He didn’t need to shout. He raised a hand, and five thick, obsidian-hued bone spears erupted from his palm.

  “Are you here for the Jinchuriki? Or just to make noise?”

  There was no negotiation. The answer came in the form of a coordinated, multi-pronged assault designed to overwhelm any single defender.

  The Asura Path’s body cracked open, revealing a horrifying arsenal of cannons and missile pods that immediately locked onto Ryuu.

  The Animal Path slammed its hand on the ground, and a giant, multi-headed dog, a monstrous rhinoceros, and a massive, swooping bird erupted from summoning seals, charging from three different angles.

  Simultaneously, the Human Path blurred forward, his movements inhumanly fast, his hand outstretched, aiming to tear Ryuu’s soul from his body.

  It was a perfect kill box.

  But Ryuu was not that simple to deal with.

  “Hyōton: Hissatsu Hyōsō! (Ice Release: Ice Spears!)”

  He didn't aim at the paths. He slammed his palm onto the ruined rooftop, and a wave of intense cold washed outward. The ground in a hundred-meter radius flash-froze into a treacherous sheet of jagged, black ice. The charging rhinoceros lost its footing, sliding uncontrollably, while the multi-headed dog’s paws struggled for purchase.

  This bought him a fraction of a second.

  It was all he needed.

  Ignoring the incoming missiles and the swooping bird, Ryuu met the charging Human Path head-on.

  He didn’t dodge.

  A forest of razor-sharp bone spikes erupted from his entire body.

  The Human Path, unable to halt its momentum, impaled itself on three different bone spurs, its soul-stealing technique failing as its physical form was savaged.

  A missile from the Asura path struck Ryuu’s back. The explosion engulfed him, but the articulated armor of his chakra cloak held, absorbing the brunt of the blast. He was thrown forward but used the momentum, twisting in mid-air.

  “Teshi Sendan! (Ten-finger Drilling Bullets!)”

  He fired a volley of hardened finger bones like bullets, not at the Paths, but at the giant bird diving towards him. The bones punched through its wings, causing it to screech and plummet from the sky.

  He landed, crouching, his eyes with their black slits scanning all six enemies at once.

  The Human Path was already being pulled back by the others, its wounds grievous but not fatal. The shared vision of the Rinnegan was a nightmare to fight against. There were no blind spots. An attack on one was seen by all.

  ‘I can’t fight them all at once.’

  Their shared senses are their greatest strength and their greatest weakness.

  ‘If I can overwhelm one sense, I can overwhelm all of them.’

  The ground shook as the multi-headed dog, finally regaining its footing, charged again, its multiple jaws snapping. Ryuu met its charge. With a roar of his own, he unleashed the Dance of the Clematis: Vine.

  His own spine ripped from his back, a flexible, serrated bone-whip that he used to entangle the beast's legs, sending it crashing to the ground. Before it could recover, he followed with the Dance of the Clematis: Flower, encasing his arm in a massive, spiraling drill of bone.

  He plunged it deep into the creature's chest, prompting the summon to dissipate into smoke.

  “An impressive display of taijutsu,” the Deva Path commented coolly from afar. “But futile.”

  “Banshō Ten'in.”

  Ryuu felt an irresistible pull. The world lurched as the Deva Path’s gravity jutsu latched onto him, pulling him helplessly through the air toward Pain's waiting formation.

  Gritting his teeth, Ryuu jammed his feet into the ground, and massive bone spikes erupted, anchoring him to the ruined earth. The pull was immense, threatening to tear his legs from their sockets, but his anchors held.

  With a surge of chakra, he flexed his arm. The bone drill was still attached to the ground where the dog had been. He used it as a pivot, resisting the pull and using its own force to slingshot himself sideways, out of the direct line of attack.

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  Just as he landed, a shadow fell over him.

  The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, landed beside him in full battle armor, his face grim. Behind him, dozens of Konoha jōnin and ANBU began to appear on the surrounding rooftops, a desperate line of defense forming.

  "You've done well to hold them, Ryuu."

  Hiruzen said, his experienced eyes cataloging the six enemies.

  "But you will not face this alone."

  “Kuchiyose no Jutsu! (Summoning Technique!)”

  He slammed his palm down, and with a puff of smoke, Monkey King Enma appeared, transforming instantly into the nigh-indestructible Adamantine Staff.

  "Focus your attacks on the main one!"

  Hiruzen barked, pointing the staff at the Deva Path.

  "The rest are puppets!"

  But even as he gave the order, the Preta Path flickered, appearing directly in front of Hiruzen to absorb an incoming fire jutsu from a Konoha shinobi. The Naraka Path summoned the grotesque King of Hell, and the damaged Human Path was consumed by it, emerging seconds later, completely healed.

  "It's no good, Sandaime-sama!"

  Ryuu called out, his eyes never leaving the enemy.

  "They can repair their damage! We need to take them all out at once, or focus fire on the one that revives them!"

  “Then we shall!”

  Hiruzen roared, extending his staff to slam into the Naraka Path. But his attack, aimed from the side, was intercepted perfectly by the Asura Path, whose mechanical arm blocked the blow with a screech of stressed metal.

  The battle devolved into a chaotic melee.

  Konoha shinobi threw themselves at the Paths, only to be systematically dismantled. Fireballs were absorbed, genjutsu was ineffective against the Rinnegan, and taijutsu was countered by overwhelming numbers and perfect coordination.

  The shinobi of Konoha, for all their strength, couldn't even get close. This was a battle on an entirely different level.

  Hiruzen fought valiantly, his mastery of all five elements a dazzling display, but he was forced constantly on the defensive, unable to land a decisive blow. He narrowly dodged a laser from the Asura Path, only to see the attack would have hit a group of ANBU behind him. He was being herded.

  Ryuu saw it all. He saw his comrades dying. He saw the Sandaime being overwhelmed. The cold calculation gave way to a surge of cold rage.

  Enough.

  He planted his feet, the ground cracking beneath him. He channeled the Zero-Tails, drawing upon a torrent of power that made the very air warp around him. The black-violet cloak erupted, more intense than ever, the seven masks behind his head glowing with an intense light.

  The Deva Path paused, sensing the immense surge of power. The other Paths disengaged from the Konoha shinobi, turning their full attention to Ryuu.

  "The time for games is over, boy."

  The Deva Path said, floating slowly into the air.

  "Know Pain."

  Ryuu ignored him. He was focusing every ounce of his will, every drop of his chakra.

  He plunged his hands into the ground.

  “Shikotsumyaku ōgi: Jigoku Koutsu no Mori!! - (Bone Pulse Ultimate Art: Forest of Hell’s Bones!)”

  The earth for half a kilometer in every direction exploded upward with a forest of colossal, razor-sharp bones. They erupted like jagged trees, spears the size of towers, blades that formed a canopy of death. It was a technique designed not to attack, but to reshape the battlefield into his personal weapon, a terrain where every surface was a lethal spike.

  The remaining Paths were instantly separated, forced to navigate a labyrinth of death.

  Hiruzen stared in absolute awe, his staff held tight. The sheer scale of it… it was a jutsu worthy of a God of Shinobi.

  But even as his forest erupted, the Deva Path reached the apex of his ascent. His hands came together, a tiny black sphere forming between them.

  “Chibaku Tensei.”

  The ground groaned, and a force even greater than his own began to pull at the world. The newly formed bone forest began to creak, to splinter, as the heavens themselves started to fall.

  Above them, the tiny black sphere expanded, dragging everything into its orbit, stone, earth, shattered buildings, broken trees, and even the larger bones from Ryuu’s jutsu.

  Ryuu’s jaw clenched. He knew the nature of the technique, it would end this battlefield, swallowing them whole.

  He moved.

  His hands weaved through seals, fingers sharp and sure despite the trembling that had begun to settle into his limbs.

  “Hyōton: Daihyōketsu Retsujin! (Ice Release: Grand Glacier Rend!)”

  He slammed both palms down, and the air temperature plummeted. A massive geyser of glacial ice erupted upward beneath the forming black sphere. It speared into the gravitational core, slowing its accretion as the extreme cold caused a layer of frost to spread over the growing mass.

  Then he shifted again.

  “Hyōton: Kōri Kōsen no Yaiba! (Ice Beam Saber!)”

  He generated a solid blade of super-compressed ice from his forearm and launched himself toward the Asura Path, weaving through the bone forest with pinpoint control. He moved like a phantom, the air freezing in his wake.

  The blade cleaved through one of the Asura Path’s mechanical arms before Ryuu ducked low and delivered a rising uppercut laced with sharpened femur bones. The Path staggered.

  But Ryuu was already gone.

  He appeared beside the Naraka Path next. He moved faster than thought, faster than the Paths could coordinate. The drill-bone of Dance of the Clematis: Flower erupted again, this time reinforced with ice, jagged and crackling.

  He drove it through the Naraka Path’s back, pinning it to one of his bone trees. The grotesque mouth of the King of Hell screamed as the Path’s chakra waned.

  The strain hit him then.

  His breath hitched. His body, unused to channeling this volume of chakra, felt like it was on fire. The bones beneath his skin throbbed painfully. His vision wavered, just slightly, but enough to notice.

  ‘Not yet.’

  His teeth bared. He pushed forward.

  The Preta Path lunged, aiming to absorb his chakra. But Ryuu had baited him.

  “Bijūdama.”

  The Tailed Beast Bomb swirled to life, condensed into a small sphere of writhing dark energy, unnatural and furious. Too close for the Preta Path to react, Ryuu slammed it directly into the Path’s gut.

  The detonation consumed them both.

  The blast hurled Ryuu through the forest. He crashed through his own bone constructs, leaving a crater as he skidded to a stop.

  His chakra cloak flickered.

  Blood dripped from his nose.

  He pushed up with a growl. His hands trembled now, not from fear, but from the tremor of burning muscle, overstimulated nerves. He couldn’t feel his fingertips.

  And still he rose.

  Above, the Chibaku Tensei continued pulling. The sphere was growing again. His ice had slowed it, but not stopped it.

  ‘Enough.’

  He forced the Zero-Tails to compress.

  “Bijūdama: Renpatsu. (Tailed Beast Bomb: Volley.)”

  Seven miniature bombs launched from the seven demonic masks that floated behind him. They arced upward and detonated against the growing sphere.

  It cracked.

  A spiderweb of fractures split across its surface as the combined concussive force and freezing energy destabilized its center.

  Still, it was not enough.

  He dug deep.

  His muscles screamed in protest. His left arm spasmed uncontrollably. But he gathered more chakra.

  Too much chakra.

  It threatened to tear him apart from the inside.

  He layered it with Bone Pulse, shaped it through Hyōton.

  “Shikotsumyaku x Hyōton: Zekkyō no Hanabira! (Dead Bone Pulse x Ice Release: Petals of the Final Scream!)”

  Thousands of crystalline, razor-edged bone shards bloomed from his skin, each one flash-frozen to a diamond-hard sheen. They exploded outward in a storm of slashing wind and glittering death, each shard a weapon that cut through summonings, shredded the remaining Paths, and pierced the cracks of the Chibaku sphere like a hail of needles.

  The sphere shattered.

  The sky rained stone.

  Silence followed. A broken silence, heavy with smoke, ash, and the smell of blood.

  Ryuu stood in the center of a graveyard.

  His cloak flickered again. Then again.

  He fell to one knee, breath ragged, blood trickling from his lips. His muscles were locking up, his chakra still roared within him, too vast for his frame.

  His eyes narrowed as he scanned the battlefield.

  Three of the Paths had fallen.

  But the Deva Path remained. It stood at the edge of the shattered plain, its robes burned, but its expression unchanged.

  “You would make a fine pawn, were you not so flawed.”

  Ryuu spat blood.

  “I’m no one’s pawn.”

  He surged forward again, slower now.

  Weaker.

  But burning with defiance.

  The Deva Path raised a hand.

  “Shinra Tensei.”

  Ryuu braced, bone plates burst from his arms to shield him, but he was thrown back like a ragdoll, crashing through three bone trees before rolling to a stop.

  His bones cracked.

  He didn’t rise immediately.

  His breath came in gasps. His chakra cloak was all but gone. He felt the Zero-Tails’ energy churning, but his body had reached its limit.

  He could feel his muscles tearing just from existing.

  But he forced himself up again.

  Slowly.

  Because he was not finished.