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"Lady Mizukage, please stop," Jiraiya interrupted, cutting off Mei Terumi's continued attempts to reason with Pain. "He will never believe a single word you say."
Mei Terumi's heart was a tangled knot of conflicting emotions. She had genuinely, desperately wanted to halt this battle before it escalated any further. Not merely because doing so would significantly reduce the catastrophic losses the Hidden Mist Village would inevitably suffer, but also because, if by some miracle she could persuade Pain to stand down, Midorima's position would become infinitely safer. When Jiraiya stopped her, she turned to him with a look of profound confusion.
"Yahiko—the very person whose body you see before you as Pain—once placed his trust in Hanzo and agreed to enter into negotiations with him. In the end, he was ambushed by Hanzo and Danzo. He has long since lost any faith he might have had in the Five Great Shinobi Villages," Jiraiya explained.
"What...?" Mei Terumi's mouth fell open slightly, and she found herself utterly at a loss for words.
The proposal Midorima had once put forward certainly had its imperfections. For instance, questions remained regarding who would ultimately hold authority over such an organization, and how the interests of the smaller shinobi villages could be adequately protected. But these were all issues that could, in theory, be resolved through open, honest communication.
Trust, however, was an entirely different matter. Once shattered, trust was nearly impossible to rebuild. The next time a similar situation arose, the first instinct would always be to question whether the other party could truly be relied upon. And without trust, there could be no genuine dialogue, and certainly no meaningful cooperation.
"How could it have come to this..." Mei Terumi felt a wave of profound, crushing helplessness wash over her. Since Pain could not be persuaded, their only remaining option was to fight the Akatsuki head-on. And the grand vision Midorima had laid out during the Five Kage Summit was now destined to remain nothing more than empty words.
Once Jiraiya had confirmed that reasoning with Pain was futile, he did not hesitate for even a second. He immediately entered Sage Mode, with Fukasaku and Shima once again taking their positions atop his shoulders.
Mei Terumi was not capable of utilizing Sage Mode herself. But her Boil Release and Lava Release were her ultimate, trump-card techniques. She, too, steeled herself for the coming confrontation and prepared to fight with everything she had.
Watching Jiraiya and Mei Terumi move into action, Might Guy's anxiety became almost unbearable.
"Lady Tsunade, is there truly no other way?!" he demanded desperately.
Tsunade did not respond. Sweat slid down her cheeks as she worked with frantic precision, her Chakra Scalpel meticulously treating Hiruzen's grievous wounds.
Might Guy's thick, bushy eyebrows knitted into a tight, tormented knot of frustration. His gaze flicked repeatedly towards the battlefield, where Jiraiya and Mei Terumi had already engaged the Six Paths of Pain in direct, desperate combat. He had just made the grim, resolute decision to throw himself back into the fight using only his legs, if necessary, when Tsunade finally let out a long, ragged breath and called out to stop him.
"Let me examine your arms first... I could, in theory, delegate the treatment to Katsuyu and have her heal you remotely. But if you've sustained multiple fractures, you may require surgery. Katsuyu alone would struggle to treat injuries of that complexity. And even if she did manage to heal you, it might not ultimately be in your best interest," Tsunade explained.
"Why not?" Might Guy asked, utterly baffled.
"Multiple fractures indicate a highly complex, intricate pattern of injury. If the bones are allowed to heal without proper realignment, there is a significant risk of lingering, hidden damage that could plague you for the rest of your life. I certainly don't want to have to re-break improperly healed bones just to treat you again, do I?" As she spoke, Tsunade channeled her chakra into Might Guy's body, conducting a thorough, meticulous examination of his injuries.
"How is Lord Hokage?" Might Guy asked, his voice tight with concern.
"I've done everything within my power... Medical ninjutsu is not a miracle cure," Tsunade admitted, shaking her head wearily.
Might Guy's expression tightened further. His gaze shifted towards Hiruzen, whose eyes were squeezed tightly shut. It was impossible to tell whether he still clung to life. The weight pressing on Guy's heart grew heavier still.
"Even if I manage to heal you, you cannot use your arms for combat in the short term," Tsunade stated, finally lifting her head. "It's not just the bones that are damaged. The muscles have been severely strained as well. This type of injury... requires proper rest and recovery."
"Who has time to rest and recover?!" Might Guy exclaimed, sweat pouring down his forehead. His gaze snapped back towards the raging battle. This time, the Animal Path had not bothered to summon any additional monstrous creatures. Presumably, the sheer number of shinobi now swarming the island demanded that those summons be deployed elsewhere, assisting the other Akatsuki members in holding back the main body of the Allied Forces.
With no summoned beasts reinforcing the enemy's ranks, Mei Terumi and Jiraiya had managed to mount a more coherent resistance. But the Six Paths of Pain clearly had no intention of granting them any reprieve. Their objective was transparently obvious: to crush Jiraiya and Mei Terumi in one swift, decisive stroke.
The Asura Path's head split open, revealing the hidden mechanical apparatus nestled within. After charging a full reservoir of chakra, a searing beam of concentrated chakra erupted from the aperture, streaking directly towards the charging Mei Terumi.
Mei Terumi had just completed her hand seals, the chakra already gathering in her throat in preparation to unleash her technique. The sudden, blazing beam of energy caught her completely off guard. Without a moment's conscious thought, she hurled herself aside. The beam grazed past her shoulder, and in its wake, the very temperature of the surrounding air skyrocketed.
Seeing the Asura Path directly ahead of her, Mei Terumi did not hesitate. She closed the distance with blinding speed, and the instant she was within range, she opened her mouth and expelled a torrent of viscous, orange-red liquid. The Asura Path's eyes flew wide in alarm as the wave of highly corrosive fluid bore down upon him. He scrambled desperately backwards, attempting to escape the incoming attack.
But at that precise moment, a deafening, thunderous crash erupted from directly behind Mei Terumi. She whirled around in alarm. The beam of chakra she had narrowly evaded had continued on its trajectory, hurtling straight towards Tsunade, who was still in the middle of treating Might Guy. And lying right beside Tsunade was Hiruzen. If that chakra laser made direct impact, Tsunade and Might Guy would undoubtedly be gravely wounded. As for Hiruzen Sarutobi, the blast would absolutely, unquestionably kill him.
Jiraiya, who should have been coordinating with Mei Terumi, was forced to spring into action. He unleashed a Fire Release technique that caused the incoming laser to deflect slightly, altering its trajectory just enough to miss Tsunade and the others. But the resulting explosion kicked up an enormous cloud of dust and debris, momentarily swallowing the three of them from view.
Mei Terumi's heart lurched violently. But with her own formidable opponent directly in front of her, she could not afford even a moment of distraction. She cast only the briefest, most fleeting glance backward before refocusing her full, undivided attention on the Asura Path. The Asura Path, in his desperate attempt to evade the oncoming torrent of Lava Release, had retreated as fast as he could. But it had not been fast enough. A full half of his body had been caught in the corrosive deluge. Now, his right side was rapidly, grotesquely dissolving.
Mei Terumi allowed herself a small, ragged breath of relief. With the Asura Path effectively neutralized, the pressure on both her and Jiraiya had diminished considerably. "Five remaining!" she shouted. This was as much to bolster her own flagging spirit as it was to remind Jiraiya that they had not yet lost this fight.
The remaining five Paths, however, did not appear particularly alarmed by this development. They watched impassively as the Asura Path collapsed to the ground, utterly unconcerned by Mei Terumi's defiant display of fighting spirit. The Pain simply raised his open palm and aligned it directly towards her.
"Watch out!" Jiraiya's heart seized with dread the instant he saw this. The Universal Pull! And its target was Mei Terumi!
"Stop him! Now, Jiraiya-boy!" Fukasaku shouted urgently.
"I know!" Jiraiya's hands flew through a rapid series of seals. In perfect, synchronized harmony, Fukasaku and Shima mirrored his movements, lending their own senjutsu chakra to the technique.
"Universal Pull!"
Mei Terumi's body was yanked helplessly off the ground, hurtling through the air directly towards Pain.
"Sage Art: Five Elements Great Flame!" Jiraiya unleashed his most powerful senjutsu with all the speed he could muster. But he was still a fraction of a second too slow. The technique tore through the air, racing after Mei Terumi as she was dragged towards Pain. If the attack were to connect with Pain, there was no question that it would also strike Mei Terumi. The destructive power of a Sage Art could not be compared to that of an ordinary ninjutsu. But Jiraiya had already passed the point of no return.
Just as the Five Elements Great Flame was about to slam into Mei Terumi, a figure suddenly burst forth from the side, interposing himself directly between Mei Terumi and the incoming attack. He took the full, devastating brunt of the Sage Art, absorbing it entirely.
"Who is that?!" The thought blazed through Jiraiya's mind. Before he could even begin to process what had happened, he heard Fukasaku's urgent, disbelieving voice: "Our jutsu... it was absorbed by him!"
"What?!"
Jiraiya immediately released the Sage Art, cutting off the flow of chakra. The figure who had intercepted the attack appeared to have suffered no damage whatsoever. However, Jiraiya had no time to dwell on this shocking development. His attention was instantly, violently seized by a far more horrifying sight. The Pain had driven a long, thin black rod clean through Mei Terumi's abdomen.
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