Chapter 259: The New God & The False God (3)
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Neji's real body who had found and learned the Lightning Cloak was on the move again. Though not before copying the terrain of Hidden Cloud, as promised. He was currently inside his planet which had taken the beautiful shape of the cloud village. Now he sat on top of a cloud as he gave all his focus to controlling his clones.
He would use clones against Pain because he didn't need his real body for a false god.
Neji's 500 clones had stopped their individual search and were all focusing their attention on searching for Pain. Chances were Pain and his team were roaming the world in his search, so most clones were looking everywhere around, but the higher chance was that Pain had returned to his base in Hidden Rain Village and was rather relying on Zetsu to locate Neji.
So the Neji, who was flying with Tsunade, went to the Hidden Rain.
And immediately found the bastards he was looking for.
[Lord's Eyes]'s newly added-ability of Tenseigan still had the ocular abilities of Byakugan, except it was much more enhanced— allowing him to see 100 kilometres in all directions. With that, as he closed the distance with the Rain Village, he found Hiruko in the furthest corner of his sight, and the closer he went the more people he found. Hidan, Konan and Nagato. They were all in the Rain, and Neji could even hear the latter two's conversation when he focused his attention on them.
Mid-flight, Neji initiated the ‹Tenseigan Mana Mode›, giving his Mana a 10x boost, and used it to empower his flight. Since he planned to give Pain a crushing defeat using just Clones, he needed to go all out from the start. His flight speed increased drastically and he stood in the sky of Hidden Rain a few seconds later.
"...Ah," Tsunade gasped softly on his arms as she almost thought he teleported here. "This place is… the Village Hidden by the Rain?"
"Yes," Neji nodded, making Tsunade turn to him to notice a light blue mana cloak around his body, a horn coming out of his head. "But it won't be that way once I finish."
Tsunade's heart skipped a bit.
Neji then moved to one particular part of the city— the part where Hiruko was. From the air, he pointed his hand below and fired extremely powerful shockwaves. The rings of vibrations hit the buildings below, making them tremble before they cracked and crumbled into bits of debris. People yelled as they all ran, but Neji didn't care to not hurt them and kept firing his shockwaves.
Until about a football field's size of the city crumbled to dust to create a makeshift battlefield, where Neji then descended. Tsunade looked at the scene with a slightly agape mouth while Neji created a ‹Wood Clone› to his side.
The new clone Neji raised his hand in the air and the ground in the distance cracked, under the influence of his telekinesis it broke into a small chunk that rose up in the air. A second later, four figures jumped out of the chunk, dropping metres in front of Neji.
They were Hiruko and his team who had hidden underground to stay safe from Neji's shockwave assault. Three of them glared at Neji, while a short, pale-skinned 'child' calmly stared at him.
That was Hiruko, clad in the typical Akatsuki outfit.
[Hiruko - Chimaera-Human - Low Tier 10]
"So you are Neji Hyuga," the short man with a child-like appearance, Hiruko, said as he looked at Neji's beautiful blue eyes that weren't blindfolded. "Perhaps I should change my goal of obtaining Kakashi's Sharingan since such a fine specimen is ahead of me right now."
"No, sorry," Neji apologised as he disappeared, kicking the ground, and immediately reappeared behind Hiruko's team, "I like my eyes too much to give them up to a malnourished man-child."
Hiruko was surprised at his speed and Neji took the chance to throw a kick at him, but the smaller man managed to utilise one of his four stolen Kekkei-Genkai, ‹Swift Release›, to move out of the kick's way. However, Neji's kick was never meant for Hiruko from the start, as it passed through where Hiruko stood a moment ago and slammed on his three teammates— hitting their heads one after another and making them burst like balloons.
Neji earned 79 from their deaths, making him reach Level 778. He ignored the prompt which said that— he had earned another Voidmancer skill, [Dark Vision], which was just Heat Vision but black, and rather Neji instantly put the just earned Stat-points in his DEX and followed behind Hiruko— who turned around to see if Neji was following him, and that was his mistake as Neji grabbed him by the throat and crushed it with a force of Tremor-mixed Explosion release.
It wasn't enough to kill him though, but that was what Neji had intended.
"How did he hurt you?" Neji, who was carrying Tsunade, asked.
Tsunade looked at Hiruko struggling on the other Neji's hand and thinned her lips. "…He cut my body in two."
Neji nodded at her while his clone used the technique, ‹Lightning Slash›, on Hiruko's stomach. However, it didn't cut through.
"Khgek…" the short man growled. "I am… immune… to Kenjutsu."
Neji looked at where his jutsu had hit— his stomach that had turned to steel.
"No, you are not," Neji Mined out the Kekkei Genkai, Steel Release, along with Swift Release, Dark Release and lastly, Storm Release that Hiruko had. "Not anymore."
Then Neji activated [Dark Vision], releasing a thin wave of void laser that cut through one part of Hiruko's stomach and came out of the other part, passing through Hiruko's intensities like a hot knife through butter.
The man cried out, his blood failing to taint Neji's chakra cloak, and Neji let him drop to the ground as he released one last groan before simply passing away.
Hiruko had a Jutsu, the ‹Chimaera Technique›, that let him merge himself with another person's body to take on their Kekkei Genkais, but Neji didn't need that when he already had the better alternative of «Mine». Also, merging with another person was gross and the technique had lots of drawbacks as well— so Hiruko didn't have any use for him and died.
"Next." Neji muttered as he turned to look in the far where paper butterflies were flying. "Come out, I can see you."
At first there was no response, however soon hundreds of paper butterflies came a few metres ahead of Neji and formed a single person, a goth-girl wearing the same Akatsuki uniform.
[Konan – Low Tier 10]
"How did she hurt you?" Neji asked Tsunade, who looked at the other woman with disdain.
"She… burned the lower half of my body after Hiruko severed me in two. But… although it was severed from my torso back then, due to my Mitotic Regeneration I could still feel the burn. It… hurt."
"I understand," Neji muttered, hugging her closer to him as his clone moved towards Konan.
Neji moved slowly, and Konan's hand shook and failed to weave signs as his blue eyes met hers. She took a step back in instinctive fear, but he was already in front of her as he grabbed her by the throat and leaned closer. "It's a pity that we met like this."
Konan struggled, but as he was about to light her up in a fire, the Asura Path appeared beside them all of a sudden and threw a chakra rod inside his chest, and though this Neji was a wood clone— it wasn't strong enough as it vanished.
"We don't have to fight," the Asura Path said as it looked at Neji carrying Tsunade. Five other Pains joined him soon after. "It will cause unwanted casualties on both parties."
"It's not like you to fall back, Nagato." Neji said, creating seven clones with a mental command, as all the Pains showed a slight surprise in their eyes. "Commendable you want to keep your girl safe, but no, you didn't leave peace as an option."
One of the seven Nejis disappeared, appearing right in front of Konan— using the Flying Thunder God mark that he had left on her neck, grabbing her by the hair as he gave her an ugly grin. "Until next time."
Then he lit her up in [Blackflame].
"No! Konan!"
A painful, ear-piercing, cry filled the air as Konan flapped around, separating her body into a million pieces of paper, but the fire caught up to each and every one of them. Each of them cried in pure agony, and Neji stood with Tsunade in his arms, watching her burn to literal ashes.
No, not even her ashes remained.
The Six Paths of Pain fell silent, all looking at the spot where Konan stood a moment before with their eyes unfocused. However, their focus returned a moment later and they all turned to Neji.
"Konan was a good comrade, it will be hard to replace her." The Devapath said coldly. "But… it would not stop Pain. Now you shall pay."
Neji didn't bother waiting for his monologue to finish and entered his Dragonoid form, causing his physical stats to grow by 2x, while at the same time activating Lightning Cloak which in turn made the 2x and 4x, as it provided a 2x boost to the physical stats as well.
"How did this one hurt you?" Neji asked Tsunade while the Six Pains engaged in a battle against his six wood clones.
"He… destroyed the village," Tsunade said. "That, and his technique pulled my tongue out to interrogate me, and he threw chakra rods to impale me."
"Understood." Neji said and, immediately, Ten Truth Seeking Orbs erupted on his back as he proceeded to transform them into rods, rods that flew and impaled each of the Pains— not once, but repeatedly. Again and again, moving in and out and penetrating another part of its body. The rods broke their joints, impaled their organs, and made them unable to move any longer.
All happened in less than 10 seconds before the Pains could have used any of their fancy techniques.
"We are not done yet, he's not the real one." Neji said when he noticed Tsunade was about to speak. Then, he along with his clones moved to the tallest tower on the west side of the city, and once there one of the Nejis threw an explosion-style Rasengan at one floor of the skyscraper, making an entrance for everyone to enter.
Neji flew in, but the moment he stepped in the building trembled before crumbling on top of them. Neji immediately teleported out of there, along with his clones, and when he reappeared on a spot where he had made a seal for FTG, he saw Nagato's building crumbling like a toy while a grotesque, devilish creature leapt in their direction.
The Gedo Statue, with Nagato on top of it, was rushing towards their location.
[Nagato Uzumaki – Low Tier 11]
[Gedo Statue – Low Tier 9]
Neji's eyes also noticed Hidan rushing to this part of the city from far, and unwilling to be interrupted and knowing Hidan hadn't hurt Tsunade, he just sent a clone to take care of him. Rather, his six clones leapt in the air at the same time and punched the Gedo Statue in its chin, causing its head to simply burst.
A boost of 4-time physical stat, along with his 10-times Mana that empowered himself further, weren't minuscule for Neji, after all.
The Gedo Statue disappeared, though Neji was sure it could be summoned again since he didn't receive any levels. That was good since after all, it would be troublesome if the thing died.
One of the clones grabbed Nagato in midair and led him in front of Neji & Tsunade.
"He pulled your tongue?" Neji asked, and Tsunade nodded. "Let me do worse."
One of the other clones poked his fingers inside the sickly man's eye sockets and yanked out both of the Rinnegans.
"Arrrrgh!"
Nagato cried, his eyes bleeding as he lost all his powers, but that wasn't all— another clone shoved his hands inside Nagato's screaming mouth and yanked out his tongue, tearing it out of his mouth as a barrier appeared around Tsunade to stop the blood from dirtying her.
Nagato didn't die, to his credit, perhaps because of his Uzumaki bloodline. Neji did a Mine-check on him, but it appeared that the Uzumaki's strong body and chakra powers weren't enough to be considered a Kekkei Genkan and thus couldn't be stolen. Sadly.
"Lastly, he destroyed the village, didn't he?" Neji asked as he rose in the air, and so did his clones as they lifted the screaming Nagato with them.
Neji cast the spell [High Heal] on Nagato, focused on his eye sockets, as his eyes— the normal ones that existed before Madara gave him the Rinnegan, reappeared in his sockets.
Nagato groaned, unable to form words and only making disgusting sounds as Neji pointed a finger down.
"Isn't this a precious place to you?" Neji asked, pointing at the Rain Village. "Look how I make it disappear."
Nagato's eyes widened as he yelled in a muffled voice, trying to reach out to stop Neji, but the clones kept him in place.
Tenseigan had the Attraction-Repulsion, and Telekinetic power similar to Rinnegan. So, Neji could do everything that the Deva Path Pain could.
All the other clones disappeared, though Nagato kept floating in the air right beside him, and the Neji who was carrying Tsunade took in a deep breath
Then, he chanted.
"Almighty Push."
And the world withered away.
The world seemed to slow down for a single instant before an otherworldly force erupted from Neji's body. Neji pulled Tsunade closer to him, given he was the center point of the force, as her wide eyes looked down on the city below.
Crack, break, crumble. One by one, with an omnidirectional wave, the city below evaporated. From below Neji, in a circular motion, the wave broke everything and caused them to get erased by the repulsive force of Neji's technique.
Nagato watched, his mouth bleeding as his new eyes saw the destruction of his home, death of all the people who were under his protection— how everyone ran from the incoming force of repulsion, and how everyone yelled for their so-called God to come and save them.
No God came, only pain did as all of them were devoured by the omnidirectional force of devastation. Humans, animals, buildings, and everything— they vanished as the entire rain village became a desert, a desert that was soon filled by the sea water flooding from the sea on the side.
Neji earned a total of 92 levels— including ones from Hidan's death.
He dropped to the ground beside the newly made pond, and let Nagato and Tsunade down.
He let her watch as he grabbed his truth-seeking orbs, making them into rods once more, before impaling the skinny, shivering Uzumaki man. Nagato didn't resist and simply gazed at the pond that was once the village that he protected, as his life withered away with each of Neji's strikes.
Blood painted Neji's face as he turned off the Mana Mode, continuously punching Nagato's face without anyone stopping him, even after the man fell on his back, very much dead.
Only a minute later did Neji stop, breathing sharply as he stood up and turned to Tsunade.
"Are you satisfied?"
Tsunade was silent. Speechless as she looked at him with wide, charmed eyes as if she had seen the most beautiful thing today. Seeing his glistening bloody face and hair, as he asked her if she was pleased or not, two trails of tears ran down her cheeks but she didn't bother wiping them. She walked over to him, pulling him by the collar and… pacing a soft, light kiss on his forehead.
"More than I ever imagined to be." Tsunade replied. "Thank you."
The sun went down on the horizon and Neji pulled her into his arms.
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Master4thWall Note: Well, the goal didn't meet, we didn't reach 600 stones 🙁 but I didn't want to blueball my readers so I posted anyway.
No more chapters this week sadly, but as said before you can check out my new story [Marvel: False God]!
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