"Izumi, someone's coming for us!"
Farther from the battlefield, Kitsujiro stood on Uchiha Izumi's shoulder, watching the fight in the distance.
He knew Uchiha Chizumi extremely well. He could tell Chizumi was still fighting with room to spare, so he wasn't worried about his safety.
But then Kitsujiro's ears twitched, and he sharply sensed a wave of malice settling over both him and Izumi.
"Is it another member of the Akatsuki?"
Izumi's gaze shifted toward the other side of the battlefield, where the Akatsuki were fighting. The woman who could turn into sheets of paper and scatter on the wind at any moment was someone she felt real pressure from.
She knew herself well enough. If she had to face Konan alone, there was a very high chance she wouldn't be a match for her.
"No…"
Before Kitsujiro could finish, his body suddenly expanded.
The giant ninja cat threw himself in front of Izumi and slashed hard at an arm reaching out from empty space.
"Uchiha Obito!"
All the fur on Kitsujiro's body bristled. He had heard some things about Uchiha Obito from Uchiha Chizumi before and knew that Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan possessed a special space-time ability.
"You blocked that?"
Obito's body emerged from the swirling distortion, and he frowned at the giant ninja cat in front of him.
At this point, Uchiha Chizumi's information wasn't much of a secret anywhere in the shinobi world. But as for Kitsujiro, Chizumi's ninja beast, Obito knew almost nothing.
At the very least, he had never imagined that an ordinary ninja cat could actually block a sneak attack from him.
"I blocked your attack. Did you ever block Kakashi?"
Kitsujiro's mind flashed to the information Chizumi had told him about Obito. Thinking of how Chizumi had said that back in the Third Great Ninja War, Obito had stood there helplessly and watched the girl he liked die at Kakashi's hands, Kitsujiro couldn't resist stabbing at the wound.
"You're asking to die!"
Obito had no idea how this ninja cat knew about what happened between him, Kakashi, and Rin.
But at that moment, Obito was completely enraged—the kind of rage where all it would take was sticking a clown nose on him and he'd be ready for the act.
Everyone knew that Rin's feelings for Obito had only ever been the concern of a friend. Compared to Obito, it was obvious she liked Kakashi more. After all, Kakashi was handsome, and he was the lone heir of the Hatake clan. What did Obito have? He was just a dead-last loser.
Lies don't hurt people. The truth is the real knife.
At this point, Obito had completely thrown aside the idea of capturing Kitsujiro and Izumi. All he wanted now was to torture this foul-mouthed ninja cat and kill Uchiha Izumi right in front of it.
You said you blocked me?
Obito didn't believe it.
As his rage boiled over, his combat power started rising sharply. His fighting style might be sneaky, but Kamui really was absurdly useful.
Kitsujiro was not weak at all. Even in Konoha, his strength was solidly jōnin-level.
But against Obito's unpredictable fighting style, darting in and out through Kamui, Kitsujiro still found himself hard-pressed.
On the other side of the battlefield, as Uchiha Chizumi sensed the sudden surge of chakra from several presences at the edge of the fight, his expression began to turn serious.
"Uchiha… Obito!"
"He still dares show himself? And he went after Izumi and Kitsujiro?"
Magma began bubbling and boiling over the surface of Uchiha Chizumi's Susanoo. This was Lava Release—fusing Lava Release with Susanoo, something even Uchiha Madara wouldn't have dared claim he could do.
Of course, it might also simply be because Uchiha Madara never possessed Lava Release in the first place.
Lava dripped down from the enormous Susanoo, towering like a mountain. The moment it hit the ground, it melted the earth into fresh magma. More and more of it spread over the Susanoo's body until the giant construct looked like a god of fire.
"Rumble—!"
A terrifying roar erupted. Lava Release was exploding outward.
In an instant, the entire battlefield became a domain of magma. And this magma didn't just radiate intense heat—it was also building up unimaginable destructive force.
The previously calm earth suddenly erupted. That was the power of the magma.
It all happened too fast—so fast that even the Six Paths, despite all twelve eyes fixed on the battlefield, couldn't react in time.
The three summoned beasts that had been harassing Uchiha Chizumi were all instantly cooked alive.
And the Naraka Path, whose role had been to revive them, didn't even have time to react before it was swallowed by the lava.
The explosion came from directly beneath the Naraka Path. In an instant, the erupting magma blew its body apart and melted it down, leaving only the black receivers—creations of Yin-Yang Release—lying on the ground.
After the Naraka Path was the first to be destroyed, the second was the Animal Path.
Just like the Naraka Path, the Animal Path barely had time to react before the terrifying magma swept over everything. As for the Human Path and the Preta Path, there was naturally no way they could escape it either. Only the mechanically modified Asura Path managed to avoid being completely destroyed.
As for the Deva Path, it had already been floating in midair, which allowed it to avoid the direct lava surge. Even magma blasting upward like a volcanic eruption was repelled before it could reach Pain's body.
And yet, despite the heavy losses the Six Paths had suffered, the Deva Path no longer had the luxury of paying attention to them.
He had also sensed the chakra disturbance from the distant battle. He had also guessed that Obito had moved against Uchiha Izumi and the ninja cat.
But what he hadn't expected was that the pressure from Uchiha Chizumi's sudden eruption would become this overwhelming.
The Susanoo, which he had originally been able to interfere with using Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in, was now clad in a layer of molten armor and resembled a fire god. The heat warped space itself, forcibly twisting repulsive and attractive forces alike.
And the gigantic Susanoo began advancing again, each step heavy enough to crush mountains, as it smashed straight toward the Deva Path!
"No way…"
Farther away, Kakuzu stared at the fire-god-like Susanoo dominating the battlefield, and couldn't keep the shock out of his eyes.
As an old man nearing a century in age, Kakuzu prided himself on having seen a great deal. He had met Senju Hashirama. He had even caught glimpses of Uchiha Madara from afar.
But even Uchiha Madara probably couldn't have combined two bloodline limits the way Uchiha Chizumi just had.
And because Kakuzu himself was an expert in combined elemental techniques, he understood better than anyone how terrifying compounded techniques could be.
What he had never imagined was that it wasn't just ordinary ninjutsu that could be combined—even bloodline limits could be fused together?
"A real monster."
"What a shame I can't offer him to Lord Jashin. Otherwise, Lord Jashin would definitely be thrilled."
Hidan, who had been slacking off more than anyone else, still somehow had the spare brainpower to think about nonsense like that.