They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 262 The Rinnegan Changes Hands

hum!

With Nagato's loud shout, Shingetsu Hozuki finally understood why the Konoha ninjas reacted so ridiculously to Pain's attack in the original story.

Even though he had anticipated this and had already activated the chakra of both water and lightning techniques, he was still thrown off by the overwhelming force that came from nowhere.

Click!

Under this immense repulsive force, Hozuki Crescent's backward-flipping body tumbled and rolled in mid-air until it finally snapped a towering tree in half before landing on the ground.

brush!

Just as Hozuki Shingetsu adjusted to the intense feeling of weightlessness and landed firmly, a dark shadow suddenly appeared behind him, and then a hard iron fist slammed down on his head.

boom!

Hozuki Shingetsu blocked the attack by placing his hands together above his head, then transformed his palms into claws, grabbing the attacker's arm tightly and easily detaching it with a skillful move.

To his surprise, there was no blood on the severed arm; all that remained were flickering arcs of electricity and a dense network of wires.

"The Six Paths of Pain?"

A term instantly popped into Hozuki Shingetsu's mind, and he recognized the owner of the arm before him as the Asura Path of Pain's Six Paths.

In the original work, the Shura Path, whose appearance and abilities were extremely similar to a robot, left a deep impression on him. Therefore, when he saw the hand that he had torn off begin to rotate slightly and the palm was aimed at him, Hozuki Shingetsu subconsciously began to dodge.

Then he saw several miniature rockets, emitting white smoke, hurtling towards him.

boom!

Dense smoke and dust rose, and the tiny eyes of the Asura Path flashed rapidly around, alerting the sudden attack of Hozuki Shingetsu.

"Do you think you're the only one who can launch sneak attacks?"

At the same location, Hozuki Shingetsu also appeared above Shura-do's head, throwing a punch at his head as well.

However, unlike Hozuki Shingetsu, Shurado did not have such amazing reaction speed, and was directly hit in the stomach by this sudden attack.

"Summoning Technique: Hell Crab!"

"Spiritual Technique: Chameleon!"

"Summoning Technique: Cerberus!"

"Summoning Jutsu: Yatagarasu!"

"Spiritual Spell - Bullfight!"

……

Just as Hozuki Shingetsu cleaved the Asura Path with a single punch, a series of rapid hand seals suddenly rang out from not far away. Accompanied by these rapid, tongue-twister-like chants, a large number of summoned beasts appeared in the forest.

As soon as these various strange creatures appeared, they howled and charged towards the location of Hozuki Crescent Moon.

Hozuki Shingetsu naturally knew that these creatures summoned by the Animal Path would automatically split once they were killed, so he swiftly summoned "Mirage".

These sticky things are hard to shake off. Since they're spirit beasts, you can just play by yourselves.

The Animal Path on the other side didn't pay attention to what was happening with Hozuki Shingetsu and continued with its summoning.

"Spirit Spell - Human!"

Bang!

Accompanied by wisps of smoke, the remaining four members of the Six Paths of Pain, along with Nagato Uzumaki, all appeared beside the Animal Path.

When the Hell Path appeared among the Six Paths, it saw the illusion of Hozuki Shingetsu and the summoned beasts fighting fiercely in the distance. It immediately came to the side of the Asura Path, which had already become a corpse, and was about to form a hand seal to summon the King of Hell to revive it.

"The King of Hell is reborn..."

But before he could finish speaking, Hozuki Shingetsu appeared again from the same spot behind him and delivered a powerful punch to Hell Path's head.

boom!

Looking at the Hell Path beneath his feet, now a mass of soft flesh, Hozuki Shingetsu nodded in satisfaction.

Knowing a great deal of information, he naturally knew that among the Six Paths of Pain, the Deva Path might have the highest combat power, but the Hell Path held the most important position.

Not only does the Hell Path possess the ability to access other people's memories, but more importantly, this clone can repair the other damaged clones in the Six Paths.

It can be said that as long as the Hell Path is not destroyed, then the Six Paths of Pain will never fail.

From this moment on, it can truly be said that every one of the Six Paths of Pain that is destroyed is one less to be destroyed.

"The Rinnegan's power seems to be nothing special after all! It seems your inability to protect your comrades isn't just my fault; the main reason is your own weakness!"

Looking at Nagato Uzumaki on the other side, Shingetsu Hozuki smiled slightly, constantly provoking him and attracting his attention.

"you……"

Then, just as Nagato's attention was momentarily drawn to Shingetsu, a miniature version of Shingetsu with an extremely exaggerated facial expression rushed towards him from behind him, carrying a sword.

Just as the Steam-Exploding Clone was about to reach Nagato Uzumaki's side, wanting to get up close and personal with "Art is Patrick Star," a large, stout figure appeared behind Nagato, his arms as strong as steel, tightly binding the Steam-Exploding Clone.

Seeing that it was unable to move, the clone was about to self-destruct when it suddenly felt a terrifying suction force coming from the fat man's body, continuously absorbing its chakra.

Although the explosion of the Steam Explosion Clone mainly relies on the combination of water and oil, along with the heat, it still contains a large amount of chakra to maintain the clone's movement and control the timing of the explosion.

The chakra within the clone was absorbed by the Preta Path, abruptly halting the impending explosion. The clone's eyes lost their luster, and its face ceased to smile. It remained suspended in the Preta Path's arms, as if its battery had been removed.

"I never imagined that the ruler of Kirigakure would resort to such petty tricks..."

The Rinnegan share vision, which is why Nagato Uzumaki wasn't afraid of being ambushed and was so openly distracted by Shingetsu Hozuki's words.

Nagato turned his head and noticed the fate of the steam-exploding enemies. Just as he was about to turn around and mock Hozuki Shingetsu, he suddenly saw Hozuki Shingetsu, who had been standing in the distance, appear before him like a ghost.

A golden lotus flower shone brightly on her forehead, and her eyes, adorned with pale gold fairy eyeshadow, revealed a faint sense of indifference.

boom!

"You must defeat this taunt minion first!"

As the Hungry Ghost Path appeared before him again, blocking his attack, this line suddenly came to mind.

"Huh? You dare to absorb my chakra?"

Sensing that his chakra was flowing uncontrollably toward the Preta Path, Hozuki Shingetsu couldn't help but sigh, "Ignorance is bliss," and then helped him by actively channeling a larger dose of his Sage Chakra into the Preta Path's body.

Then, the hungry ghost, who had been expressionless, suddenly had several large pustules appear on his face, as if several rats were scurrying around, constantly moving across his face.

Soon, the abscesses were no longer limited to the face; one after another, abnormal swellings appeared on various parts of the body.

Then, as his movements slowed down, he gradually turned into a stone statue.

After easily eliminating another clone, Hozuki Shingetsu grew tired of Nagato's clones and launched an attack before the remaining clones could even approach.

"Immortal Art: Water Cannon Technique - Sweeping Barrage!"

As Hozuki Shingetsu tapped his index fingers repeatedly, countless water droplets, like a barrage of bullets, shot towards the Human Path, Animal Path, Heaven Path, and Nagato Uzumaki's main body.

Boom!

The Water Gun Technique was originally a secret water-style ninjutsu passed down by the Hozuki clan, renowned for its short casting time, strong penetrating power, and high speed.

With the blessing of immortal magic, the above three characteristics were enhanced in an extraordinary way, so the human realm and the animal realm were quickly riddled with holes along with the boundless trees.

When it came to Tendo and Nagato, the two of them used Shinra Tensei to repel their attacks.

"A five-second activation interval..."

Hozuki Shingetsu recalled information from the original work and, combined with his observations from the recent battle, obtained this intelligence.

"No... Shinra Tensei must have its limits. My body was already able to vaguely contend with the power of Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in before. Now that I've activated Sage Mode, if I were to activate Tailed Beast Transformation as well, I would definitely be able to break through Nagato Uzumaki's pull-repulsion force..."

Just as Hozuki Shingetsu was about to make a move, he saw Tendo and Nagato Uzumaki exchange a glance and then also make a move in unison.

Having witnessed the swift and decisive battle, Nagato Uzumaki was certain that ordinary methods, even with the Rinnegan, were simply no match for Shingetsu Hozuki.

Therefore, remembering Danzo Shimura's instructions, Nagato Uzumaki immediately began his ultimate attack.

Snapped!

Tendou and Nagato simultaneously clasped their hands together in front of their chests.

Then, accompanied by two low shouts, two black dots that appeared and disappeared abruptly appeared in the palms of Tendou and Nagato Uzumaki.

"Planetary Devastation Double Strike... Planetary Twin Star Technique!"

The moment the words left their mouths, the two black dots were simultaneously propelled into the air by the two people.

The moment those two black dots hovered in mid-air, a gravitational force many times stronger than the Universal Gravitation suddenly appeared.

Under this powerful gravitational pull, everything around, including natural scenery such as rocks and trees, as well as the corpses of Pain's clones that had been scattered by Hozuki Shingetsu, all involuntarily flew into the sky and gathered around the two black dots.

With all the surrounding rocks being pulled away by the gravity, Hozuki Shingetsu, having nowhere to rely on, could only helplessly drift with the current, gradually detaching from the ground and heading towards the two small black dots.

Therefore, under these circumstances, Hozuki Shingetsu made up his mind and directly imitated Naruto Uzumaki's actions, giving up resistance and rushing alone towards the two black dots in mid-air.

Then, under Nagato's expectant gaze, six tails swayed in mid-air behind him, the golden lotus between his eyebrows gradually turned blood red, and he directly activated his tailed beast transformation. With the help of the ubiquitous pebbles in mid-air, he ran and jumped towards the two small black dots.

During the leap, he raised his right hand high, and a red full moon appeared in his palm with a spinning sound.

At the same time, his mouth opened wide, and a point of red light suddenly appeared deep in his throat.

"Immortal Technique: Qi Circle Slash!"

"Sage Art: Tailed Beast Ball!"

A moment later, the two attacks shot out of Hozuki Shingetsu's body like cruise missiles, and under Nagato's watchful gaze, they rushed toward the constantly shrinking and expanding black dot.

The moment the two attacks touched the black dot, there was no explosion. Instead, like mud oxen entering the sea, the two attacks slowly merged into the black dot, as if they were digested and absorbed by it.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. Not long after, the two black dots began to contract violently, as if their hearts were being squeezed, and then suddenly expanded.

BOOM!

With a violent explosion, the once ubiquitous and immense gravitational force suddenly vanished. The rocks, trees, birds, and corpses that had been floating in mid-air all crashed to the ground, creating clouds of dust.

Looking at the billowing smoke and dust, Nagato's face was extremely grim.

Even the Double Earth Explosion Star couldn't do anything to Hozuki Shingetsu, so he really didn't know how to defeat him.

Are we just supposed to watch Konoha repeat Yahiko's mistakes and perish right before our eyes?

Nagato clenched his fists involuntarily at the thought of that scene, not even noticing the blood flowing from his palms as his sharp fingernails pierced them.

"The Rinnegan, if possessed by any village leader, could turn the ninja world upside down. It's a real shame it's in your possession..."

Hozuki Shingetsu stood silently behind Nagato Uzumaki, as if knowing what Nagato was thinking, and spoke in a calm tone.

"Shinra Ten..."

Nagato was startled and immediately tried to repel Shingetsu Hozuki, but an arm violently broke through the newly formed repulsive force, pinched Nagato's mouth shut, and lifted him high into the air.

"Your greatest sin is your weakness; if you have someone to blame, blame your own weakness!"

With a slap, Hozuki Shingetsu sent Tendo flying as he tried to approach. Looking at Nagato, who was still struggling, a thought struck him, and he spoke in a low voice:

"How many floors do you have to carry a bag of rice up? (Feel the pain.) How many floors do you have to carry a bag of rice up? (Think about the pain.) How many floors do you have to give out? (Accept the pain.) How many floors do you have to wash? (Understand the pain.)..."

After satisfying his wicked sense of humor, Hozuki Shingetsu contentedly reached out his other hand toward his eyes.

Back during the Second Shinobi World War, he wanted to go to the Land of Rain to obtain the Rinnegan from Nagato Uzumaki, but he was thwarted by Madara Uchiha.

Now, after all these years, it has finally been returned to its rightful owner...

Hozuki Shingetsu stared blankly at the withered arm draped over his hand.

"Hozuki brat, what do you want to do with my eyes?"

(End of this chapter)