"Criminals these days have truly run rampant. I haven't even gone looking for trouble with the Akatsuki, yet they actually dare to come and try to kill me!"
Keizumi couldn't help but sigh—evil in the shinobi world had reached the point where it needed to be crushed with an iron fist.
"Tachibana Jirō, take Izumi and leave by another route."
Though Keizumi sighed inwardly, with enemies already right in front of him, he had no intention of avoiding the confrontation.
The reason he hadn't acted against the Akatsuki before was simple—Konan and Nagato didn't actually carry much sin. The people they targeted were mostly shinobi from the Land of Rain, along with Hanzo of the Salamander's subordinates.
As for civilians…
Nagato and Konan themselves came from civilian backgrounds. While it was true they hadn't harmed civilians, under the Akatsuki's rule, the Land of Rain couldn't exactly be called thriving—it was barely scraping by day to day.
As for Kakuzu, the people he killed were mostly those with bounties on their heads… along with a few of his own teammates.
And what kind of people could even join the Akatsuki?
Sasori, on the other hand, was different. He had slaughtered innocents. In order to test the limits of his puppet techniques, he had once used them to crush an entire nation head-on, causing its collapse into chaos.
Keizumi's previous Wood Clone had encountered him, so he knew Sasori carried real sin.
But setting Sasori aside, the Akatsuki as a whole actually bore less sin than some nobles.
Of course, that was only because Keizumi didn't yet know that Hidan had already joined the Akatsuki. Otherwise, he probably would've gone after them first.
Unlike the others, Hidan was pure evil.
To him, whether civilian or shinobi, all were sacrifices to his so-called Jashin.
"Explode!"
At the very moment Keizumi stopped moving, Pain's group made their move.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
A terrifying explosion erupted, so violent that the air itself seemed to wail. A massive fireball shot skyward, and the shockwave caused trees within nearly ten kilometers to collapse. The blast felt as though it could turn the land into a lake.
Blazing heat devoured everything around it, and a gray mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
"Did it work?"
Kakuzu stared fixedly at where Keizumi and the others had been standing, anticipation in his eyes.
An explosion equivalent to three hundred million explosive tags going off at once—he believed it was enough to kill anyone in the shinobi world. Even a Tailed Beast might not survive such a direct hit.
And yet… for some reason, an uneasy doubt lingered in his heart.
"No!"
"What is that?!"
Pain was the first to clearly see the center of the explosion. Though the Rinnegan in his eyes existed through a special technique, it still granted him vision far beyond ordinary people.
At the very heart of the blast, a gigantic Susanoo rose from the ground.
As the smoke cleared, Nagato and the others saw that the enormous construct had completely enveloped Izumi and Tachibana Jirō within it.
"Susanoo!"
"The power possessed only by the Mangekyō Sharingan of the Uchiha!"
Looking at the colossal humanoid figure, even Pain's Rinnegan flickered with rare emotion.
Nagato had seen the Ten-Tails before. In fact, in a moment of extreme rage, he had even summoned it.
In terms of sheer height, Keizumi's Susanoo didn't match the Ten-Tails.
But compared to the Ten-Tails Nagato had summoned, Keizumi's Susanoo was far more complete—its form fully developed, even naturally wielding a sword.
"So this is the ultimate power of the Uchiha clan?"
Inside the Susanoo, Izumi looked around with curiosity.
The explosion had come without warning, but Keizumi's reaction speed was unbelievably fast. By the time she was enveloped within the Susanoo, she could still see the explosion outside continuing to unfold.
"With this level of explosive power… did the Akatsuki bury every explosive tag in the entire shinobi world here…?"
Tachibana Jirō looked at the scene with lingering fear. To be blunt, if Keizumi hadn't reacted instantly, he would've been blown to nothing—no body left behind.
"Hey, hey… are we really supposed to fight something like that?"
"Even if I swing my scythe until it breaks, I doubt I could even scratch that defense!"
Hidan had now seen the Susanoo as well, and he was already starting to regret joining this damn organization. His first mission, and it was already this hell-level nightmare—he couldn't take it!
"Abandon the second plan. I'll act personally."
Pain nodded.
Kakuzu, Sasori, and even Hidan were all quite strong—but asking them to deal with a Susanoo was simply too much. After all, they specialized in traditional shinobi combat.
As for Pain and Keizumi…
Their styles of fighting were anything but "shinobi."
"The leader is going to act himself?"
"The power of God… I'm looking forward to it."
Inside Hiruko, Sasori's eyes gleamed. Truth be told, he was quite interested in Pain's body.
Unfortunately, he had already been thoroughly beaten by Pain before. He knew that Pain's power was something he couldn't contend with.
Rumble—!
Just as the Akatsuki members spoke, Keizumi made his move.
The towering Susanoo, massive enough to rival a mountain, raised its arm.
A colossal sword swung down, carrying force capable of splitting mountains, and came crashing toward the Akatsuki.
The slash carved a massive scar into the earth itself. The air wailed, the atmosphere roared!
"Shinra Tensei!"
Facing the incoming blade of destruction, Pain stepped forward, standing in front of the others.
If that strike had landed directly, Konan could likely escape with her paper techniques. Kakuzu would at most lose one heart, still having four left.
Hidan would probably be chopped into minced meat—whether he'd die or not was another matter.
But Sasori?
He'd be completely destroyed—heart included.
Everyone else had a way to survive… except Sasori, who could only take it head-on—and wouldn't survive it.
Honestly, for that reason alone, Sasori might as well quit the organization.
The power of Shinra Tensei repelled everything that came close.
Before the massive slash could fully reach them, it was abruptly deflected—its trajectory forcibly altered—and it crashed into a distant mountain instead, exploding violently.
"The power of a god… is not something a mere Uchiha can comprehend!"
Seeing his Shinra Tensei deflect the attack, Nagato spoke with arrogant confidence.