"So fast!"
Even with the insight of the Rinnegan, a trace of surprise flashed through Pain's mind.
The speed of the Yellow Flash and the eeriness of his spatial leaps indeed lived up to his reputation!
The Asura Path couldn't react in time and was about to be hit by the Kunai.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A powerful repulsive field violently erupted with Tendo Pain as the center!
Boom!!!
An invisible shockwave spread in all directions like a violent tsunami!
The Kunai that had just landed to act as a coordinate, the Kunai shot toward the Asura Path, and even Minato himself, who was just about to use a Kunai to launch another attack, were all violently repelled by this irresistible repulsive force!
Minato felt a massive force slam into his chest, and his body flew backward uncontrollably. He finally stabilized himself after using the Flying Thunder God Technique several times to dissipate the force.
He quickly looked up, his gaze grave as he stared at the six figures standing motionless within the repulsive field, exuding a cold sense of oppression.
Even with his speed, facing the Deva Path's terrifying ability to control attraction and repulsion, along with the eerie and unpredictable coordination of the other five paths, he felt it was unprecedentedly difficult.
The Six Paths of Pain hovered silently in mid-air, six pairs of Rinnegan eyes indifferently watching the slightly disheveled Yellow Flash.
Tendo Pain slowly lowered his arm, his deep voice echoing across the smoke-filled battlefield:
"Your speed is indeed worthy of praise, Minato. But before these eyes that perceive everything in creation..."
"It is meaningless."
The first exchange, like lightning and flint, lasted only an instant, yet it revealed a suffocating danger!
Minato's brow furrowed, his eyes locked onto Nagato like torches. His mind worked rapidly, analyzing every detail of the brief but murderous exchange.
The Flying Thunder God Technique he took such pride in was actually being accurately captured by the opponent every time it was activated!
What alarmed him even more was that some of the gazes from those six bodies were clearly not focused on him, yet they could still perform the most precise defensive counterattacks in an instant.
"The Rinnegan... could it possess an all-around field of vision without blind spots, just like the Byakugan?" A thought flashed through Minato's mind.
This was indeed a possibility, but there was another.
"No, if my guess is correct and there is only one pair of true Rinnegan..." His sharp eyes narrowed slightly.
"The six pairs before me are likely just illusions projected by some unique ability. In that case, the truth is most likely that their vision is shared in real-time and seamlessly connected!"
But regardless, this meant that no matter where his Flying Thunder God shuttled and flashed on the battlefield, he would always be exposed within the invisible net woven by the opponent's six pairs of Rinnegan.
The greatest advantage the Flying Thunder God relied on for victory—'unpredictability'—would be completely stifled by this shared vision!
Not only that, but the invisible repulsive force Tendo Pain had just unleashed caused a massive shock to Minato's heart.
The essence of that power was so similar to what he had endured when facing that mysterious 'Collector'!
Of course, the power Nagato released now was far inferior to The Collector's; otherwise, there was no way he could have easily deflected it using technique.
What exactly was the source of this similar power? Was it some unique Ninjutsu?
But Minato clearly hadn't seen the opponent perform any hand seals.
While seal-less Ninjutsu wasn't non-existent, encountering two such similar and powerful repulsive abilities in succession was too much of a coincidence.
Then... the truth pointed to another terrifying possibility: this was a unique ocular technique of the Rinnegan!
This deduction made Minato's breath hitch.
"If repulsion is truly an ocular technique of the Rinnegan, then doesn't that mean... The Collector might also possess the Rinnegan?"
This thought brought a huge impact, making it difficult for him to settle on a final conclusion for a moment.
However, regardless of the root of the opponent's abilities, it wasn't something to be analyzed right now.
If he wanted to defeat an enemy with the shared vision of six pairs of Rinnegan, the difficulty of this battle would far exceed his imagination!
Nagato wasn't aware of Minato's wariness, but he was also having quite a headache himself.
Tendo Pain's lifeless Rinnegan eyes were currently locked onto Minato.
A heavy atmosphere permeated the air, and an imperceptible ripple passed through Pain's heart.
"The 'Yellow Flash' Minato, famous throughout the Shinobi World... indeed lives up to his reputation."
Nagato had no choice but to admit this fact.
"That strength indeed far exceeds that of an ordinary Shinobi."
In that brief, lightning-fast exchange just now, any other Shinobi would have been crushed a thousand times over by his abilities.
However, Minato was like an elusive bolt of golden lightning!
With speed and precision unimaginable to ordinary people, he skillfully evaded and neutralized all the fierce attacks from the Naraka Path, Asura Path, and even the Preta Path.
The only thing that could barely touch his body was the repulsive shock from Shinra Tensei.
But even then, this Fourth Hokage demonstrated incredible adaptability, managing to shed most of the force in an instant, so that an attack capable of crushing mountain rocks caused only minimal actual damage when it hit him.
Pain's core consciousness worked rapidly, and a cold reality lay before him: the Flying Thunder God Technique.
This Space-Time Ninjutsu that made Minato famous throughout the Shinobi World constituted the greatest obstacle at this moment.
That elusive spatial leaping ability made any physical pursuit or containment appear pale and weak.
If he couldn't find an effective way to restrict or interfere with this heaven-defying spatial movement ability, then he had almost no lethal means in his hands that could truly pin down this 'Yellow Flash'.
What was even more concerning was that Minato was by no means passive.
He was fully capable of using the Flying Thunder God Technique to instantly leave this battlefield and vanish without a trace in a single thought.
Pain understood that the reason he was still here struggling was not because he was unable to escape, but because of the other battlefields.
"Then, the key lies here..."
"Exactly what method should be used to completely constrain this golden flash?"
...
Sasuke and Neji stood beside Mifune and Ōnoki, with their Sharingan and Byakugan activated, focusing intently on the battle below that was intense beyond imagination.
The level of combat in every area far exceeded any confrontation they had previously experienced.
Sasuke's Sharingan was tightly locked onto Minato's miraculous Flying Thunder God and the cold, powerful pressure of the Six Paths of Pain;
Neji's Byakugan pierced through the smoke and the light of chakra, capturing the minute energy flows and movement trajectories of each battlefield.
The palms of both were unconsciously sweating, and their hearts were greatly impacted and shocked.
Ōnoki and Mifune looked solemn, also closely monitoring the rapidly changing battlefield.
Especially the peak duel between Minato and Pain, which would largely determine the final outcome of this encounter.
Atop a distant tall building, Takuno's gaze swept over the several fiercely clashing battle groups below. The evolution of the situation was quite interesting.
On the Five Kage's side, except for Gaara who showed an overwhelming advantage, the battle situations for the other Kage and their supporters were all in jeopardy, with a high probability of defeat.
Gaara's opponent, Hidan, saw his combat power plummet once the bizarre curse technique he was famous for became ineffective; he could only reach the level of a Special Jonin at best, and even that was largely thanks to his nearly immortal body.
In contrast, even though the One-Tail Shukaku within him had been taken away, Gaara's foundation of strength as the Kazekage had not suffered much loss because of it.
As early as the Chunin Exams, he had already surpassed the scope of a normal Special Jonin's strength.
Therefore, dealing with a Hidan whose methods were ineffective and who relied solely on his immortal body to hold on was effortless for Gaara, and he suppressed him easily.
However, the situation on the other battlefields was completely different:
Fourth Raikage Ay himself was slightly inferior in strength to the experienced Kakuzu.
More fatally, his rational mind was completely drowned by violent rage due to Killer Bee's injuries, causing his offensive to be a relentless, non-stop barrage.
If he could still remain calm, although he might not defeat Kakuzu, he could at least use his powerful Taijutsu and Lightning Release Chakra Mode to hold his own for a while, rather than losing rapidly.
But this current style of fighting, pouring out all his strength regardless of consumption, was no different from drinking poison to quench thirst.
Once his violent output of chakra became unsustainable and he could no longer maintain the crucial Lightning Release Chakra Mode, it would be the fatal moment when his defense collapsed and he was utterly defeated.
Mizukage Mei Terumi's situation was even more severe; there was a significant gap in strength between her and the 'Tailed Beast without a Tail,' Hoshigaki Kisame.
Knowing this well, Mei Terumi adopted an extremely cautious tactic, with her entire battle mainly focused on hunkered-down defense.
She used the Lava Release and Boil Release she excelled in to desperately block Kisame's tsunami-like chakra volume and fierce Water Release attacks.
Although this strategy was passive, it effectively delayed the arrival of defeat.
Therefore, the time she could hold out would likely be longer than that of the Raikage, who was rapidly consuming himself due to recklessness.
On the other side, as the future Fifth Raikage, Darui showed excellent ability.
However, his current strength was ultimately inferior to his superior, the Fourth Raikage.
And his opponent, 'Sasori of the Red Sand,' possessed strength that was likely not below that of fellow Akatsuki member Kakuzu.
If it weren't for the 'plot kill' in the original story, Sasori's 'Performance of a Hundred Puppets'—which controlled hundreds of puppets, including the human puppet of the Third Kazekage—was enough to rival or even surpass Kakuzu.
Facing such a despairingly powerful enemy, let alone winning, Darui
would find it exceptionally difficult, an almost impossible task, just to hold out for a long time under Sasori's storm-like puppet offensive.
The battle between Kitsuchi of Iwagakure and Deidara, former fellow villagers, was perhaps the group with the smallest strength gap among all the duels.
Kitsuchi was known for his steady, heavy, and immensely powerful Earth Release, while Deidara maneuvered with the flexibility of flight and his clay explosion art with its startling lethality.
Both sides knew each other well, and it was difficult to tell who had the upper hand in the offense and defense.
However, this relative balance also meant that the battle between them was most likely to fall into a long-lasting war of attrition, making it difficult to decide a clear winner in a short time.
Takuno's gaze finally settled on a corner of the battlefield.
There, Minato and the Six Paths of Pain—or rather, Nagato—these two fellow disciples were engaged in a thrilling struggle.
Their battle presented a unique state of stalemate.
The Six Paths of Pain controlled by Nagato had a fierce offensive. Although they could keep up with Minato's figure with the effect of six pairs of Rinnegan connecting their vision, their attacks were very difficult to cause actual damage to Minato;
conversely, although Minato possessed the top speed in the Shinobi World, it was no easy task to completely defeat or heavily injure Nagato's original body, which possessed the power of the Rinnegan and six bodies to share the damage.
At first glance, both sides seemed unable to do anything to the other.
However, if this battle were limited to the current environment and continued, he could almost certainly say that the final winner would be Minato!
The key to victory lay in the unsolvable Flying Thunder God Technique.
Nagato and his Six Paths of Pain had almost no effective counter-strategies when facing this Body Flicker technique that crossed space.
This gave Minato unparalleled tactical initiative; when he wanted to fight, his sharp edge arrived in an instant;
when he wanted to leave, his figure vanished in a flash.
In terms of controlling the battle rhythm and initiative, Minato held an overwhelming advantage.
Even though Minato currently did not fully understand the eerie abilities of the Six Paths of Pain, making the battle situation appear fraught with danger and step-by-step peril, this was only a temporary mist.
Takuno firmly believed that as long as enough time was given, with Minato's extraordinary combat intelligence and analytical ability, the secrets of the Six Paths of Pain would eventually be solved one by one.
When the disadvantage in intelligence was leveled, the absolute mobility brought by the Flying Thunder God would become the decisive weight, and the scales of victory would irreversibly tilt toward Minato.
But this was ultimately just a theoretical deduction based on the ideal scenario of a 'war of attrition.'
Nagato was by no means a fool; how could he sit by and watch himself fall into such a passive mire of being beaten without making a change?
Takuno knew in his heart that when Nagato was truly pushed to a dead end and had to pour out all his strength, he would never be satisfied with controlling puppets from a distance again.
He himself, Nagato, who possessed the massive chakra of the Uzumaki Clan and the power of the Rinnegan itself, would surely come to Konoha in person!
At that time, the battlefield would shift to the core heart of Konoha, and the situation would undergo a fundamental reversal.
A question would be placed before Minato.
When Konoha itself becomes the battlefield, when the lives of countless civilians and Shinobi hang by a thread, can his ever-victorious Flying Thunder God Technique still be the reliance for him to come and go as he pleases?
He can escape danger in an instant, but can Konoha behind him 'fly away' along with his Kunai?
Therefore, it was an almost impossible task for these two fellow disciples to completely decide a winner in their first exchange.
Their respective advantages and disadvantages restricted each other in the specific battlefield environment, forming a temporary balance.
Takuno's gaze swept across the entire battlefield, and the situation was already clear.
Even if Minato and Nagato were temporarily at a stalemate, according to the current decline shown by the Five Kage camp as a whole, their final comprehensive defeat seemed to be only a matter of time.
However, a key piece of information temporarily ignored by everyone flashed through Takuno's mind, causing a trace of an imperceptible ripple to pass over the corner of his mouth.
Because Minato was actually not alone from the very beginning when he returned!