A/N:- Don't forget to vote with power stones. Also, if you have spare change; then sign up on my pa treon to read up to advance chapters of this series. Also, don't forget to check out my new series, 'The Pride of Favonius'. Also, there is a new early access series called 'The Rogue Demon of the Shinobi World' on my pa treon. It will be available to the rest after mid-december.
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Inside the In-Yō headquarters,
Kushina inspects the position of all beacons.
"The enemy has sentries monitoring the activity of Konoha shinobis. I will activate the anti-reconnaissance ability of the barrier." She writes down some Fuinjutsu seals in the air and infuses them with the sphere.
Bzzt…
Lightning flickers through the sky of the entire outer perimeter of Konoha.
Poof… poof…
The lighting destroys all the surveillance sparrows of Deidara.
Bzzt… Bang…
The device on Deidara's left eye explodes into pieces.
Cough… cough…
"The enemy has noticed our presence." He immediately warns others.
"Things have gone astray from our plan. But our goal remains the same." Pain clutches the forehead of a shinobi and extracts information from him.
"The nine-tails just returned to Konoha. How fortunate!"
Whoosh… whoosh…
The remaining paths gather at Deva Path's position.
"We will stick to our previous plan and infiltrate Konoha with two teams. Our tactics will be diversion and search. The diversion team will be made of Asura Path, Preta Path, and Animal Path. The search team will be made of Human Path, Naraka Path, and Deva Path."
He turns to Konan.
"Konan… you will be part of the Search team with the Deva Path."
"I know…"
Deva's path turns towards Konan.
"Starting now… the world shall know pain!"
The rest of the pain prepares to launch the Animal Path inside the village.
"Wait!"
Zetsu erupts from the ground.
"The entrance to Konoha is blocked by a very powerful barrier. It's impossible to enter Konoha without breaking the barrier."
Hmm…
Deva Path frowns.
"What about Madara? Did he succeed in infiltrating the village?"
"No… there is a space-locking seal in the area. Any sort of space-time not allowed by the seal is useless inside the barrier. The only way to breach it is to break through brute force. Also, Madara is entangled with the Yellow Flash." Zetsu provides the intel.
"Inform others… we need to make changes to our plan."
Pain takes out a dark black orb.
"I need preparation to cast my jutsu. Protect me until then…."
Deva Path clasps his palm with the orb in the center. He starts to infuse chakra into the black orb.
Whoosh…
At the same time, Jiraiya arrives at Pain's position.
"Nagato, Konan… stop what you are doing right now? It isn't too late to turn back."
Jiraiya's presence alerts all pain.
"When did he…"
The eyes of Deva Path widens slightly as he was unable to sense Jiraiya's presence.
"Sensei… a shinobi shouldn't reveal his position to his enemies so easily."
Multiple origami papers float in front of Jiraiya.
"Konan… I never considered you a lot as my enemy. I don't have any intention of battling you if you turn around and leave right now or else…"
"Or else… what sensei?" Konan glares in Jiraiya's eyes.
"You Konoha shinobis will kill us too, like how you killed the innocent civilians of Amegakure."
"Konan… you know about me. It was never Konoha's intention to wage a war. It was Ame who first started it." Jiraiya sighs helplessly.
"Ame… you say… then why do you Konoha shinobis have to slaughter every innocent Ame civilian you came across? Your anbus created a blood of river across the streets of Ame. The walls of Ame were painted red by the cruel hands of your Konoha's civilians. And now, you say that it was never Konoha's intention to start a war." Konan rebukes Jiraiya.
"Konan… it was all Danzo's evil scheme. He had already paid for his sins. What does Konoha's innocent civilians have to do with the sin of a single person?" Jiraiya attempts to appease her.
"Innocent, you say… the peace the people of Konoha enjoy was earned through the blood of Ame's innocent kids. Sensei… do you know that the souls of all those innocent civilians are still suffering in hell… asking for retribution? Sensei… peace was never an option."
Multiple origami paper gathers around her and forms paper spears.
Shiing…
The paper on the spear hardens and launches toward Jiraiya.
Whoosh… whoosh…
Bang… bang…
Jiraiya swiftly dodges the spears aimed at him. The spears impale the ground, creating multiple craters on it.
Konan raises her left hand. Multiple papers gather behind her to form giant Paper Fuma shurikens.
Whoosh… whoosh…
A barrage of spears and shurikens assault Jiraiya.
Tch…
"Why it has to be this way?" Jiraiya clicks his tongue.
He claps his palm and makes some quick hand signs.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet,"
Jiraiya spews out a giant flame bullet from his mouth. The flames overwhelm the paper spears and shurikens and turn them into cinders.
"Nani?!"
BOOM…
A barrage of rocket missiles explodes in Jiraiya's position. Dust and smoke rise at his position.
Whoosh…
A white figure leaps out of the dust and smoke.
'Needle Jizō'
Long white spiky hairs are wrapped around Jiraiya like armor.
Swoosh…
The hairs shorten again to reveal Jiraiya's figure.
"Is this your decision, Nagato?"
Jiraiya stares into Deva Path's eyes.
"So, you knew about us." The Deva Path narrows his eyes.
"Nagato… you were the meekest of the three. But now…"
"People change with time, Sensei. The blood of my friends awakened my eyes to the fickleness of this world where life is even more fragile than glass. Peace is nothing but a pipe dream in this cruel world. This world needs salvation, this world needs pain. Even a foolish child can grow up in the right way when he learns what pain is. Knowing to pain controls one's thoughts and decisions.
The peace bought at the cost of suffering and sacrifices of innocents made the five nations foolish and thoughtless. In their blind arrogance. They forgot the pain of others. But now… I… I want them to feel this pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, and to know pain."
"Anyone who stands in our way will meet his demise, even if it's you, sensei." Deva Path directs his murderous intent toward Jiraiya.
Haah…
Jiraiya takes a deep breath and sighs.
"Things didn't have to turn out this way. But as your Sensei, I will now teach you one last lesson."
Jiraiya and the Animal Path slam their palm on the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu,"
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At the location of the rest of the Akatsuki members,
BOOM…
The Akatsuki members turn towards the location of Pain and Jiraiya.
"That's the direction of our leader. Looks like a battle is underway." Hidan licks his lips.
Swoosh…
A figure pops out in the middle of the group.
"Die!"
Hidan swings his axe, and Deidara sends his explosive birds toward the figure.
"Wait, guys… it's me!"
White Zetsu hurriedly raises his hand. The axe halts a hair's breadth from Zetsu's neck while the explosive bird flies past his head.
"You surprised us, Zetsu. You could have died there!" Deidara withdraws his hands.
"I have a piece of urgent information and order for you all. Konoha has discovered us thus foiling our plan. It's now time for Plan B. All of you take your respective position around the borders of Konoha. The leader is about to use the forbidden jutsu we practiced earlier."
Tch…
"What a goddamn waste of time? I didn't even get a chance to blow things up." Deidara harrumphs and creates a clay wolf. He hops on it and rushes towards his position.
"Another lost opportunity to earn lots of money!" Kakuzu grumbles and walks in another direction.
"At least, I will be able to get some bounty money from the corpses of Konoha shinobis."
Hidan stares in the direction of Konoha and offers his prayers to his God Jashin.
"Your devout believer will now offer you the souls of this entire village."
After everyone's departure, Zetsu silently stares at Konoha as he commits the entire incident to his memory.
'The indestructible barrier of Konoha was a factor we forgot to consider in our plans. However, the unexpected gain from the Otsutsuki clan's ruins is the perfect tool for this situation. The curtain to the show of death is about to fall.'
He enters the ground and disappears from his place.