To hell with answers about peace. To hell with the cycle of hatred. To hell with shared pain. Right now, Naruto only wanted to kill the man in front of him, to avenge everything he had lost!
"Yes... know pain," Pain muttered, staring fixatedly at Naruto.
Suddenly, a terrifying storm erupted, leaving the people of Konoha pale with fright. A pillar of crimson light shot into the high heavens; at that moment, Naruto lost consciousness.
"That's..." Sakura gasped in horror.
Seeing Naruto erupt into the Tailed Beast Version 2 cloak, Nagato felt a surge of dark excitement. He saw in Naruto the same thing he had seen in Kanon, and in his younger self: a soul driven to madness, wanting to destroy everything because of the death of a loved one.
"Do you hate me?!"
Naruto's roar shook the very foundations of Konoha.
"Have you finally come to know pain? Is this the power of the Nine-Tails?!" Nagato's excitement peaked. "It seems his anger has resonated with the Nine-Tails' will."
Infinite amounts of Nine-Tails chakra exploded from Naruto's body. Pain leaped forward, using his repulsive force to counteract the volatile chakra. The scenery around them distorted; through abstract manifestations of chakra, Naruto began hurling colossal boulders at Pain.
"Hah!!" Pain roared, shattering the stones with his pulse of gravity.
But the moment a massive rock splintered, Naruto blurred through the debris, delivering a heavy blow to Pain. In this battle, Pain was the only individual capable of fighting a Four-Tailed Naruto to a standstill using only his physical form.
Hammered into the earth until only his head remained visible, Pain asked indifferently, "Do you hate me?"
He burst forth from the ground, his voice rising in frenzied triumph at the sight of Naruto's monstrous form. "Can someone like you still claim that people can truly understand one another?!"
As Naruto began sprouting an external skeletal structure, Pain remarked coldly, "Good. This will do."
"However..."
"My pain... is far greater than yours!!!"
Pain slammed a fist into the earth with manic strength, gouging a deep crater that sent groundwater surging upward. He moved, a blur of speed charging toward the Six-Tailed Naruto. He dodged the lashing chakra arms and used Almighty Push to deflect the incoming Tailed Beast Bombs.
"Hmph. Only this much?"
The other five paths appeared behind him, but they were destroyed almost instantly by Naruto's rapid-fire Tailed Beast Bombs before they could even react to the summoning.
Watching the other five disappear into dust, the Deva Path remained expressionless. He drew all the chakra from the fallen paths into himself. Let them be destroyed; the Deva Path was the strongest of the Paths of Pain!
He was blown back by the scattering explosions, but thanks to the concentrated chakra of the other five paths, he remained virtually unscathed. Pain tumbled across the water's surface, then hurled a black receiver that pierced Naruto's shoulder.
The strike caused Naruto to stagger. The chakra eruption was driving him further into madness. The First Hokage's necklace around his neck began to glow, emitting a teal chakra intended to suppress the Tailed Beast.
But Naruto, consumed by rage, crushed the necklace with his bare hand. The sixth tail was followed by a seventh—the transformation was nearly complete. A terrifying gale swept through the ruins of Konoha.
"He broke the seal? Here it comes!" Pain narrowed his eyes. In a flash that looked like teleportation, Naruto was already upon him.
Great waves of water surged as Pain desperately parried the lashing chakra arms.
"Almighty Push!"
The repulsive force cleared the surrounding water, but a clawed hand actually forced its way through the barrier. Numerous red tails pierced into the center of the technique. Naruto breached the defense, but Pain sent him flying with a powerful kick.
"Impossible... he withstood the Almighty Push."
Repulsion works both ways; to escape Naruto's terrifying assault, Pain used the force to blast himself backward. His head slammed into the wall at the edge of the village. Naruto began charging a Tailed Beast Bomb, while in the sky, massive slabs of earth began to rise.
"Universal Pull!"
A giant boulder was dragged down directly onto Naruto as he charged his attack. The resulting explosion made the entire ruins of Konoha tremble once more. Pain emerged from the earth again; his Akatsuki cloak was half-shredded, and his forehead protector had fallen away.
"The power of the Nine-Tails is truly remarkable."
"Hmph. It's time to use that jutsu."
Pain began running toward his original body's location, and Naruto, no slower, pursued him into a dense forest.
"He's close enough to the Deva Path now..." Nagato said weakly from within his paper tree.
"Planetary Devastation!"
Hearing those words, Konan said worriedly, "You don't need to go that far. Your body is already—"
"Be quiet, Konan. I need to concentrate."
In Nagato's hands, a black sphere of highly concentrated chakra appeared. It flew out from the tree and soared into the sky. As the black sphere aligned with the sun, the Deva Path clapped his hands together.
"Planetary Devastation!"
On the ground, a terrifying gravitational pull was born. Countless boulders were sucked into the sky. As the Six-Tailed Naruto ran, he was buried under the rising earth, swallowed by the accumulating mass. Entire mountains shattered.
The mountains previously sliced apart by Kanon's Susanoo were all sucked into the giant sphere. The Six-Tailed Naruto was trapped upon it like an ant.
"Kughk!!" The Deva Path's face contorted in a grimace; the strain of the technique was immense.
Yet, Naruto could still fight back, firing Tailed Beast Bombs repeatedly at the core. Inside the tree, blood leaked from Nagato's nostrils as he shouted in fury. Finally, the celestial object in the sky took the shape of a "moon."
"Did you have to make it that large...?" Konan asked, her voice filled with dread.
"The opponent is the Nine-Tails... I cannot be careless..." Nagato gasped, his voice weak. "And compared to the moon created by the legendary Sage of the Six Paths... this is nothing."
"Regardless... the Nine-Tails has been captured."
…
Meanwhile, at the Valley of Clouds and Lightning.
"Lightning Release: Lariat!"
Sasuke was struck instantly. His chest was gouged open, and he was sent flying, only to be caught by Jugo.
"What is this wound?!" Karin's pupils shrank.
"His neck and chest... even his internal organs were blown away!" Jugo shouted in shock. "This wound is already..."
Looking at Sasuke gasping for breath on the brink of death, Jugo thought of Kimimaro. Kimimaro had once smiled and told him that Sasuke was his legacy.
Karin thought of Kanon, how heartbroken she would be to see her only brother die. She began tearing at her clothes, revealing a chest covered in bite marks.
"Karin, no need. I'll handle this!"
"I don't have enough chakra to heal him!"
"What are you going to do?!" Karin asked, confused.
"I will assimilate my body with Sasuke's, giving him my chakra and my flesh. Sasuke's body is compatible with my Cursed Seal. It should work." Jugo began transferring his chakra and mass to Sasuke.
In the distance, cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra, Killer Bee looked on. To break a genjutsu, one needs a partner to disturb their chakra and wake them up.
My partner is the Eight-Tails inside me. Genjutsu is useless against a Jinchuriki who can control their Tailed Beast.
Killer Bee kicked off his shoes as the massive form of the Eight-Tails began to manifest.
"I'm disillusioned with you, so I'll bring the destruction! Witness the true form of this Jinchuriki!"
"I'm a monster, take a good look! Tailed Beast Transformation, yeah!"
The gargantuan image of Gyuki, the Eight-Tails, appeared. Such a massive entity appearing before Team Taka left them all paralyzed with fear.
"Wetting your pants because of the Eight-Tails, you little punks!"
Sensing that overwhelming chakra, Karin collapsed to the ground. It was the first time she had ever sensed something so terrifying.
"That's the Eight-Tails?" Jugo was equally stunned.
"A monster of bull and octopus... is that his true form?" Suigetsu gritted his teeth and began molding his jutsu. "This guy is too much! We'll die if we stay here!"
"Jugo, aren't you done yet?!"
Jugo was gradually regressing into a child's form as he gave his life force to Sasuke. Finally, Sasuke's eyes snapped open.
In this battle, Team Taka had fatally underestimated their opponent's abilities, leading to this life-or-death crisis. Sasuke had once believed he stood at the pinnacle of the shinobi world after defeating Itachi and Orochimaru.
Now, Sasuke gritted his teeth, looking at the battered state of Team Taka. Not everyone would go easy on him like Itachi or Kanon. Killer Bee was teaching him a brutal lesson. The members of Team Taka had given their all, even using their trump cards, only to be crushed by a single man.
"Are you awake? Get up, Sasuke! We have to go!" Karin helped Sasuke up and looked at Jugo.
Jugo had completely turned into a child, his Akatsuki cloak hanging loosely off his small frame.
"How... he turned into a kid!"
"Jugo!" Sasuke's eyes trembled.
"I won't let you die... you are Kimimaro's legacy..."
"You two, get up! We have to run!"
But at that moment, the Eight-Tails charged toward the three of them.
Karin's pupils shrank. In the nick of time, Suigetsu unleashed Water Release: Tate Eboshi Technique.
He used a massive amount of water to cover his body, which had been liquefied by the Hydrification Technique, forming a gargantuan water monster. The monster rose up, intercepting the Eight-Tails' charge and buying them desperate seconds of time.