Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 149 Xia Zuo's Show of Power (Updated 2/3)

Nagato was an extremely important figure in the ninja world. Xia Zuo had a very deep understanding of him and also knew about the abilities of the Six Paths of Pain.

However, his understanding of the Six Paths of Pain mainly comes from the textual descriptions in fan fiction.

Apart from the Deva Path created from Yahiko's corpse, the other five paths could not be identified by their appearance, and the Hell Path, which was the most vulnerable, could not be directly attacked.

Now, after a round of battle, the Deva Path, Hell Path, and Preta Path of Pain have each demonstrated their abilities, and Xia Zuo has been able to identify their identities.

There are still three Pain whose identities have not been confirmed: the Human Path is good at stealing souls, the Animal Path is good at summoning spirits, and the Asura Path is good at materializing modern weapons.

Among them, the Human Path's [Soul Absorption Technique] poses the greatest threat to Xia Zuo. If his identity cannot be determined, he must be careful in battle to prevent being controlled by Pain or attacked at close range.

This puts us at a significant disadvantage in combat.

Xia Zuo's mind raced, and he decided to launch another strong attack to continue pressuring the Six Paths of Pain and confirm their identities.

He raised his hands high, then grinned maliciously and pulled them down hard.

Within a radius of several kilometers, the thick rain clouds instantly transformed into thunderclouds, flashing with dazzling lightning.

These hundreds of thousands of bolts of lightning traveled through the ionization channel created by [Storm Release: Light Fang] and instantly struck the ground, exploding into countless purple flares.

The lightning evaporated the soil, then triggered a massive explosion that swept across the entire battlefield.

Because of the prior preparations made by the Storm Release technique, no one was able to react when the thunderstorm struck.

Including the instigator, Shazo, no one can be faster than lightning.

All members of the Akatsuki were struck by lightning, and this moment tested each person's physical strength and power level.

At the same time as the thunderstorm erupted, the flare also burst forth with a blinding flash, as if tens of thousands of suns had appeared simultaneously, and the battlefield was instantly reduced to blazing white.

On the battlefield, everyone's eyes are temporarily blinded, making it even more difficult to judge the environment.

However, the Six Paths of Pain were indeed powerful. They reacted promptly when struck by the first lightning strike, each using their own methods to resist, defend, dodge, or guide the lightning, thus safely surviving the attack.

However, the lightning strikes still left some scars on each of Pain's, with varying degrees of forked lightning wounds appearing on their skin.

After being shot down by Koga, Konan flew back into the air at top speed, which allowed her to escape the dense area of ​​lightning strikes and avoid the direct hit of the first lightning bolt.

However, she reacted poorly after being blinded and was unable to respond in time, resulting in subsequent lightning strikes. Moreover, because she was in the air, she naturally attracted the most lightning.

Fortunately, paper itself is the best insulating material. For example, in China's ultra-high voltage system, paper is used instead of porcelain as the insulating material for transformers.

Xiao Nan withstood several rounds of intense attacks at the cost of losing a large amount of specially made paper.

Kisame Hoshigaki can be considered the most honest person in the ninja world. He doesn't know any fancy hand seals, he can't perform jutsu without hand seals, and he hasn't mastered any bloodline limits.

Faced with the sudden thunderstorm attack and blinding flare, Kisame Hoshigaki obediently took all the damage, his whole body trembling from the lightning.

But for Kisame, who was born in Kirigakure and had undergone the most brutal training since childhood, none of this mattered.

One of Kirigakure's archenemies is Kumogakure, the village most skilled in Lightning Release. Kisame Hoshigaki underwent the most brutal Lightning Release endurance training and endured countless Lightning Release attacks.

He had long since adapted to electric shocks and was able to circulate chakra, form hand seals, and perform ninjutsu normally while under electric shocks.

Kisame Hoshigaki, relying on his thick skin and tough flesh, withstood the bombardment of the thunderstorm, accurately completed the hand seals, and cast the [Water Release: Water Prison Technique].

With his enormous, inhuman amount of chakra, Kisame Hoshigaki continuously replenished the water prison's depletion, managing to withstand the thunderstorm.

But when the thunderstorm ended, he was filled with the distinctive aroma of roasted fish.

However, the Akatsuki ninja who was most severely damaged by the lightning storm was not Kisame Hoshigaki, but Kakuzu, who was known as immortal.

The advantages and disadvantages of the Earth Grudge Fear were too obvious. Before he could react, Kakuzu was completely defenseless against the lightning.

Before he could use Earth Release to burrow underground, he endured two rounds of thunderstorms, instantly losing both of his hearts and his Water Release and Fire Release chakra.

If Kakuzu suffered the greatest loss, then the Akatsuki member who suffered the earliest loss and was also the luckiest was definitely Itachi Uchiha, the chosen one.

Just before the lightning strike, he was at a disadvantage in the battle between his pupil power and illusion magic.

In a very irrational decision, Itachi Uchiha activated Susanoo, attempting to use raw power to fight against Shisui Uchiha, who was four years older than him.

It's not fair to say he was completely irrational; rather, he has indeed made tremendous progress in the past three years.

Itachi Uchiha benefited greatly from Obito, who called himself Madara Uchiha. Even though his eyesight had deteriorated irreversibly, his overall strength increased several times over.

However, after Itachi Uchiha activated Susanoo, it first helped him withstand the bombardment of the thunderstorm.

It was only when the surface charge of Susanoo was overloaded that a tiny induced current was generated, which made Itachi Uchiha feel a slight tingling sensation.

In the first round of instruction, Xia Zuo gave the Akatsuki a rude awakening, leaving everyone humiliated.

The Konoha ninjas were also caught off guard, but after the lightning struck, they all found themselves in a spherical cage around their bodies.

Eight gleaming silver pillars of lightning intercepted all the lightning bolts and then conducted them to the ground beneath their feet.

This is the famous Faraday cage, which uses magnetic escape to highly ionize the air and then solidify it, resulting in superconducting properties with zero resistance.

Xia Zuo placed eight bolts around the body of each Konoha ninja to ensure that even the strongest lightning could not penetrate them.

Uchiha Shisui, who trusted Xia Zuo the most, was the first to react. Taking advantage of being protected by Faraday Cage, he rushed directly in front of Uchiha Itachi's Susanoo.

Masami pushed his Mangekyou Sharingan to its limit and unleashed the most powerful genjutsu, "Genjutsu: Binding Technique," successfully locking down Itachi's chakra while Itachi's eye power was being restrained by Susanoo.

Then Uchiha Shisui retreated, watching Susanoo being weakened by the thunderstorm, waiting for it to end.

Shisui hadn't expected that Itachi Uchiha's Susanoo would be able to hold out until the thunderstorm ended without the replenishment of chakra and ocular power.

Uchiha Shisui sighed, "Itachi, your strength has improved so much. You are truly a genius."

"Unfortunately, you went down the wrong path and went so far that there's no turning back."

"Itachi, it's my fault for not teaching you how to protect the village and the clan properly. I'm going to change that mistake today."

With a sorrowful expression, Uchiha Shisui unleashed powerful chakra and ocular power, causing his green Susanoo to rise from the ground. His hands came together like a giant axe, aimed at the red Susanoo that had been shattered by the lightning storm.

At that moment, Itachi Uchiha's eyes once again shed tears of blood. At the cost of his damaged eyes, he forcibly broke free from the genjutsu's restraints.

But faced with Uchiha Shisui's close-range palm thrust, Itachi had no time to repair Susanoo.

But he showed no panic, looking expressionlessly at Uchiha Shisui: "Brother Shisui, I'm 16 years old now. I'm all grown up. I don't need you to lecture me on how to behave anymore!"

The surface of the red Susanoo trembled, and a seemingly ethereal circular shield suddenly appeared, blocking the green Susanoo's palms.

Uchiha Shisui felt as if his all-out attack was sinking into a quagmire, with no real response, and it bounced off the shield in an instant.

A flash of green light appeared, and Shisui was struck by the rebounding power of his Susanoo, causing him to tumble backward with a thud, landing in a very disheveled state.

Uchiha Shisui recalled the records in the clan's ancient texts and couldn't help but exclaim, "The Yata Mirror!! You've found the divine artifact, the Yata Mirror!!"

Uchiha Itachi took a deep breath, put away the half-real artifact, extracted chakra and eye power, repaired the damaged Susanoo, and raised its level to the fourth stage in one go.

For this reason, he did not hesitate to damage his eyes, and once again, streams of deep red, almost black, bloody tears welled up.

Uchiha Shisui was not to be outdone, and he also pushed Susanoo to the fourth stage, but he did not shed blood tears.

This small detail deeply shocked Itachi Uchiha.

Through Obito Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha learned the Uchiha knowledge that Madara Uchiha had taken away, and through the secret techniques within, he determined that Shisui Uchiha had not obtained the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

But what he couldn't understand even more was how an ordinary Mangekyou Sharingan could activate Susanoo to the fourth stage and still remain unharmed.

Uchiha Itachi had no time to think any further, as Uchiha Shisui charged forward, using chakra as a sword.

The two Susanoo collided, and a battle between the god-giants began.

Xia Zuo glanced at the scene and immediately determined that Uchiha Shisui was stronger than Uchiha Itachi, so he stopped paying attention to their battle.

He then reviewed the battle between Kakashi Hatake and Kakuzu, as well as the chase between Jiraiya and Konan.

Under the impact of the thunderstorm, all the Konoha ninjas had the upper hand in the battle and had nothing to worry about.

Xia Zuo finally looked at the expressionless Pain Tendo and noticed that he had his arms crossed and a huge amount of chakra was gathering inside him.

Xia Zuo shook his head and said, "This is—this is [Super Shinra Tensei]!!"

"Holy crap, has Nagato gone mad? He actually used a technique of this level?"

"Hmm? The other Paynes haven't fallen; he didn't concentrate all his power—"

"Thank goodness, maybe we can still hold them off."

He clapped his hands together, unimaginable chakra surging from his body, like a tsunami crashing down, like the sun soaring overhead. The heavy pressure left all the Akatsuki members stunned.

Even Pain, who was gathering chakra, raised his head in surprise. This was the first time Nagato had ever seen a ninja display chakra that was no less than his own.

Although the Akatsuki organization had Itachi Uchiha who could activate Susanoo, and Kisame Hoshigaki, known as the tailless tailed beast, who was famous for his large amount of chakra.

However, Nagato, the boss of Akatsuki, is the one with the largest amount of chakra.

It should be noted that Nagato was burdened by the Gedo Mazo, and his body was so weak that he was like a disabled person. He could suppress everyone by maintaining his Rinnegan with his own chakra.

His chakra reserves are unimaginable, possibly exceeding the combined reserves of Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Ogaki by several times.

Today, the Fifth Hokage, Natsume, also displayed an equally powerful amount of chakra. Nagato couldn't help but put aside his pride and acknowledge that Natsume was on the same level as him.

Xia Zuo preemptively used his most familiar and proficient Wood Release technique before Tian Dao could react.

[Wood Release: Advent of the Tree World]

The earth, charred and even melted by the thunderstorm, trembled again, and saplings sprouted from the soil, cracks in the rocks, and even from the dark red lava.

In the blink of an eye, the sapling grew into a towering tree, and the trunk continued to thicken visibly until it became a monstrous giant tree that would never appear in nature.

The giant tree grew at an astonishing speed, with enormous, dragon-like vines wrapping around it and rapidly filling the gaps between its branches.

Huge tree roots grow wildly beneath the earth, leaving behind mounds on the ground like small mountain ranges.

The Akatsuki members, chasing them with tree branches and roots, were quickly separated into different places and found themselves in a disadvantageous situation of fighting alone.

Even the shared vision of the Six Paths of Pain was blocked by the dense branches, trunks, and leaves, making it impossible for them to support each other.

Pain was still accumulating and compressing his chakra, preparing for his strongest ninjutsu.

Among the Six Paths of Pain, the bald Pain Asura Path, who has the fastest attack speed, was the first to launch a counterattack.

He opened his mouth wide, broke his arm, opened his stomach, and his chakra materialized into countless guns, cannons, and rockets, which he fired out indiscriminately.

However, these trees emitted blue arcs of light and burst forth with electromagnetic waves so intense that they could generate electric arcs out of thin air.

As the electromagnetic waves swept past, the high-tech weapon materialized from chakra instantly lost its power and even its ability to explode, falling to the ground like scrap metal.

Before the Asura Path could retrieve the weapons, tree roots emerged from the ground, engulfing and entangled them, quickly dragging them underground.

Although Magnet Release destroyed the Asura Path's ability to materialize technological weapons, the first Pain to be killed was not from the Asura Path, but from the Human Path, which specializes in extracting souls.

His greatest weakness is puppeteers, followed by the unaware Wood Release.

Faced with the endless creations of wood, the Human Path's resistance lasted only 5 seconds before the tree roots entangled his ankles.

Then the tree roots wrapped around his entire right foot. As Renjiandao lost the ability to dodge, the branches and vines wrapped around his hands, feet and neck, and then the tree forcefully tore Renjiandao apart.

Blood-red thorns that grew from the ground pierced the five corpses, draining them of all their blood, leaving only five pieces of dried flesh resembling thousand-year-old mummies, which were carelessly discarded on the ground.

Only when the corpse of the Human Path was completely desiccated did the Rinnegan in his eyes slowly dissipate, as if the illusion had been dispelled.

Before the Rinnegan dissipated, Nagato saw everything that happened in the human realm.

Thus, Payne Hell Path began to act.