Black Zetsu truly couldn't make sense of it. Not at all.
Over the years, he had seen plenty of Uchiha geniuses. But even those so-called geniuses, in Black Zetsu's eyes, had only barely reached the threshold of Uchiha Chizumi.
He simply couldn't understand how an otherwise ordinary Uchiha had grown to this level.
"See anything?"
Obito, of all times, had to poke right where it hurt. What was Black Zetsu supposed to say? That he suspected Uchiha Chizumi was somehow Uchiha Madara, and that this fake "Uchiha Madara" should just wash up and log off?
"I haven't confirmed anything…"
Black Zetsu shook his head, throwing all those messy thoughts out of his mind.
"How about we just use this chance to kill this Uchiha Chizumi guy?"
"Pain and this Uchiha Chizumi are definitely going to fight. When that happens, Obito, you can just ambush him. That should kill him for sure, and then we won't have to worry about all this anymore, right?"
White Zetsu put his grand intellect to work and came up with what he thought was a flawless suggestion.
"And what if the sneak attack doesn't kill him?"
Obito had something to say about that. Him going after Uchiha Chizumi? Seriously?
He was worried that before he managed to ambush Chizumi, Chizumi would ambush him first.
"Isn't Obito really strong?"
White Zetsu said it with a perfectly innocent expression, making Obito wonder for a moment whether he was joking or whether he genuinely believed Obito was that strong.
"Let's just watch for now."
Black Zetsu also leaned toward letting Obito take the risk. Not because he himself was being burned to agony by the Flames of Judgment—purely because, if the opportunity was there, getting Uchiha Chizumi erased from the shinobi world really would be a good thing.
And while Obito and the others were talking, Pain made his move on the other side.
Sure, he had thought about killing off the other Akatsuki members in exchange for Uchiha Chizumi joining—but that was just a thought. He couldn't actually do it.
What if Uchiha Chizumi was exactly what Senju Tobirama had once said—an Uchiha brat born evil?
If Pain killed the rest of the Akatsuki and Chizumi turned around and denied everything he'd said, wouldn't Nagato be taking a massive loss?
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
As Pain formed hand seals, figures burst out in clouds of smoke one after another and appeared beside him.
These were the other five Paths of the Six Paths of Pain, aside from the Deva Path: the Animal Path, Preta Path, Naraka Path, Asura Path, and Human Path.
To someone who didn't understand the Six Paths but did know what the Rinnegan was, just seeing that the Animal Path and the others all had the exact same Rinnegan glowing in their eyes as the Deva Path would probably be enough to make them lose their nerve.
But the Susanoo under Uchiha Chizumi's control simply strode forward. As that colossal Susanoo advanced, the ground shook violently—and what drew even more attention was the path it left behind.
At some point, enormous ancient trees had begun erupting from the ground wherever the giant Susanoo walked.
The trees grew wildly, and in a short time they formed a green dragon. With its head raised high, it lunged straight at Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori on the other side.
"Hey, hey, hey?"
"I already said it earlier, didn't I? I don't think I've done anything to offend him."
"So what exactly is the reason? Why does it feel like that guy really wants to kill us?"
As Hidan retreated alongside Kakuzu and the others, he kept whining. He genuinely hadn't expected that this Uchiha Chizumi guy, while preparing to fight the Akatsuki leader, still hadn't forgotten to try to kill them on the side.
"Shut up!"
"If you get blown into meat paste, I don't believe your Jashin god is bringing you back from that!"
Kakuzu's expression turned especially grim. He had seen this technique before. Back when he faced Senju Hashirama, Hashirama had clapped his hands together and produced a Wood Dragon just like this.
Hashirama had stood on top of it the whole time, sure—but the Wood Dragon Uchiha Chizumi had summoned gave Kakuzu a sense of pressure that was no less than Hashirama's.
"Why does some brat from the Uchiha clan have Hashirama's Wood Release?"
"And this Wood Release…"
Even while the questions churned in his mind, Kakuzu's hands were already flashing through seals.
"Fire Release: Searing Migraine!"
The moment the small fireball left his mouth and hit the ground, the area the Wood Dragon was charging through instantly turned into a sea of flames.
Fire should have been the natural enemy of wood—but that Wood Dragon acted as if it wasn't affected at all, plowing straight through the inferno and continuing its charge toward the three of them.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
Explosions erupted across the Wood Dragon's body one after another. Only then did Kakuzu and the others realize that Konan had at some point landed on top of the dragon. As countless paper bombs went off, she herself dissolved into sheets of paper and escaped.
As for the Wood Dragon, which had been showing off its might just moments earlier, it now looked as though its vital point had been pinned—it thrashed violently in place.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Meanwhile, once all Six Paths were assembled, Pain stopped holding back.
As the Animal Path formed seals, clouds of smoke exploded across the battlefield. When the smoke cleared, a three-headed dog, a grotesque giant bird, and a chameleon had appeared.
For ordinary people, the three summoned beasts were already enormous. But in front of Uchiha Chizumi's Susanoo, they didn't even reach its knees.
"So this is all?"
Uchiha Chizumi's giant sword swept across. The summoned beasts of the Animal Path hadn't even had time to attack before they were instantly cut clean in half at the waist.
Naturally, beasts chosen and contracted by Nagato through the Animal Path couldn't possibly be that weak.
It was just that Uchiha Chizumi was too strong—especially since the battlefield wasn't far from the sea.
And now that he bore the Water Covenant, allowing him to convert twenty percent of surrounding moisture into chakra, it meant Uchiha Chizumi could even make Susanoo use ninjutsu.
With chakra no longer an issue, Uchiha Chizumi's Susanoo truly possessed the power to annihilate a nation in a short span of time.
"Rumble—!"
At the exact moment the Animal Path's summons were cut down, the Naraka Path moved as well.
A gigantic King of Hell statue rose up behind it. Aside from the three-headed dog, the other two beasts that had just been sliced apart were dragged directly into the King of Hell's mouth. Accompanied by a sickening chewing sound, the giant bird and the chameleon were actually being revived.
At the same time, the Deva Path wasn't idle either. Invisible repulsive force spread from his body, and in that instant, the giant Susanoo seemed to be stopped by some unseen power, completely unable to move an inch.
"It's an opening!"
From farther away, White Zetsu shouted excitedly.