"What kind of jutsu is that? It actually knocked away the power of a Susanoo?"
Standing on the shoulder of the Susanoo, Uchiha Izumi stared at Pain in the distance, who had casually repelled a strike from Uchiha Chizumi's Susanoo, her eyes full of disbelief.
Izumi wasn't ignorant anymore, especially after seeing Chizumi fight the Fourth Mizukage. She knew very well that a single blow from Chizumi's Susanoo was practically on par with a Tailed Beast Bomb.
And yet that level of power had just been deflected by some guy she'd never even heard of?
"Look at his eyes. That's the Rinnegan—the legendary eyes of the Sage of Six Paths!"
Kitsujiro fixed his gaze on the Rinnegan in Pain's eyes, and even his expression turned unusually serious.
Chizumi had mentioned the Akatsuki to him a few times, and the single most important piece of information was that the Akatsuki's leader possessed the same kind of eyes as the Sage of Six Paths.
"The Sage of Six Paths?"
Izumi repeated the name. It sounded both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. But once she remembered who the Sage of Six Paths was and looked at Pain again, her eyes widened in shock.
"The legendary Sage of Six Paths…"
Izumi kept a straight face, but her voice couldn't hide the worry in it.
"Kitsujiro, take Izumi farther away. If this turns into a real fight, I probably won't be able to protect you."
Uchiha Chizumi spoke slowly.
For Izumi, this was the first time she had ever heard him use such a grave tone. That meant that even Chizumi himself wasn't fully confident he could handle this suddenly appearing enemy?
"So you know you're no match for a god, and you're sending your underlings away first?"
"What a shame. Weaklings like them will only drag you down."
"Uchiha Chizumi, I'll give you a chance. Join the Akatsuki!"
"As long as you join us, God will help you carry out your Absolute Justice!"
Pain looked at the gigantic Susanoo in the distance, as massive as a mountain, and actually tried to recruit Uchiha Chizumi.
But the only answer he got was a second flying slash of light.
The huge surge of energy made the air itself scream. Once the sword light shot out, it looked as if it might blast the distant mountains into dust—but just like the first slash, this one veered off the instant it reached Pain.
The massive sword light exploded against another mountain, sending giant trees crashing down and clouds of dust into the sky.
"You want to carry out Absolute Justice?"
"Fine."
"Kill the Akatsuki members standing beside you."
"If you can kill them, I'll join the Akatsuki."
Uchiha Chizumi looked toward Pain.
Pain's sins weren't yet so overwhelming that Chizumi absolutely had to kill him on sight. And besides, Nagato was a pitiful man in his own way. If he was willing to kill the Akatsuki members himself, then Chizumi wasn't unwilling to save him.
To put it in Senju Hashirama's terms—Nagato was simply too dangerous, so Chizumi wanted to keep him under his own watch.
"Hey, hey, I didn't do anything to you, did I?"
"Why do you want to kill me?"
"And boss, our organization isn't really about to start killing its own members first, is it?"
Hidan grumbled unhappily after hearing Chizumi's words.
This stupid organization really had been a mistake. The enemy had only said a few lines, and their own leader already looked like he was actually considering it.
The truth was, Nagato really was considering it.
Chizumi's strength spoke for itself. Nagato understood his own body better than anyone. If he could save even a little energy in battle, he would.
But if he could recruit Uchiha Chizumi into the Akatsuki, that would change everything. Whenever Nagato wasn't in a position to act, Chizumi could act in his place. Even collecting the Tailed Beasts—Chizumi probably had the strength to handle that by himself.
And on top of that, there was also the so-called Uchiha Madara in the Akatsuki, who was suspected to actually be Uchiha Obito. If Chizumi joined, then the Uchiha could deal with the Uchiha.
If the circumstances were better, and Kakuzu and the others weren't all watching right now, Pain really would have wanted to sit down and properly discuss the possibility of Chizumi joining the Akatsuki.
After all, they were all striving for peace in the shinobi world. Their methods differed, but they should have had plenty to talk about.
"Obito, Nagato actually seems tempted!"
On the other side of the battlefield, Obito and White Zetsu were hiding there, watching the fight from afar.
Obito told himself this wasn't cowardice. He just wanted more intel on Uchiha Chizumi. Because with the way Chizumi treated him, Obito felt that sooner or later, the two of them were bound to clash.
"Obito… let me out!"
Inside the Kamui dimension, Black Zetsu—still struggling in the Flames of Judgment—suddenly called out to Obito himself.
"You're already in that state, and you still want out?"
Obito couldn't understand what Black Zetsu was thinking.
"I need to confirm something."
Black Zetsu's tone was firm. Since a battle between Uchiha Chizumi and the Akatsuki was now unavoidable, he had to confirm one thing first, even if under normal circumstances it should have been impossible.
But what if?
After all, nothing about Uchiha Chizumi looked "normal" anymore.
As a mass of black flesh twisted in pain and covered in the Flames of Judgment appeared out of thin air, Obito instinctively shifted away a bit. He was honestly just worried the judgment fire on Black Zetsu might somehow spread to him.
"A Complete Body Susanoo…"
The moment Black Zetsu saw that massive Susanoo standing between heaven and earth in the distance, the horror in his eyes was unmistakable.
After spending a thousand years watching the Uchiha clan, there was almost no one in existence who understood Susanoo better than Black Zetsu.
Once an Uchiha awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, they could generally manifest part of a Susanoo. Only after growing more and more familiar with the power of their eyes could the Susanoo be fully formed.
At the second stage, Susanoo took on an armored form. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Fugaku had basically reached this level.
But a third-stage Susanoo required enormously powerful ocular chakra to sustain, and could reach a height of over a thousand meters.
The Susanoo Uchiha Madara used to bring the Warring States era to an end was a third-stage Susanoo. Sasuke's Susanoo when he blocked the Infinite Tsukuyomi was also third-stage. Kakashi's Susanoo, too, was at that same level.
"Is it an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan? Or did he implant Hashirama's cells, like Obito did?"
"Uchiha Chizumi has used Wood Release, so by all logic he should have implanted Hashirama's cells, but…"
Black Zetsu's mind raced.
He was starting to suspect that Uchiha Chizumi had some connection to Asura and Indra—but he had no solid proof. After all, Uchiha Madara had only been dead a few years. No matter how you looked at it, he shouldn't have been able to reincarnate into Uchiha Chizumi so soon.
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Thank you for reading!