After Sailing with the Pirate King, I Returned to Konoha - 192

Chapter 192: Complete Defeat, Nagato's End

The Pains below watched as Naruto abandoned his chance to escape, throwing Jiraiya and the others out. They felt no disappointment. This was fine. As long as they could seal Naruto Uzumaki, the remaining few would be no threat.

Whether Jiraiya, Karin, or Sasuke—none could resist that tremendous throwing force.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Jiraiya-sensei proved reliable. Remembering Naruto's instructions, he deployed Wild Lion's Mane Technique again, wrapping everyone into a massive hair sphere. This structure could cushion a considerable portion of the impact.

Outside the hair sphere, Jiraiya added numerous reinforcing characters. Though honestly, even without doing this, the problem wouldn't be major. At most, only he would be injured. After all, Karin's Garuda transformation was famously tough, and the Misfortune Wolf could rapidly heal through Calamity Fire. As long as they weren't instantly killed, it wouldn't be a big problem.

It might even add an "attack power greatly increased" buff.

Above in the sky, Naruto watched helplessly as he drew closer to the glowing sphere. Then the rocks behind him rapidly closed in, completely obscuring his figure.

What followed was an endless stream of earth and stone, quickly forming a massive rock sphere the size of a mountain peak in midair.

According to Nagato's judgment, this degree was far from over. Based on the chakra he'd invested, this boulder should continue expanding several times over. Unfortunately, his gap with the legendary Sage of Six Paths, who created the moon was too vast. Otherwise, a mere Naruto Uzumaki, how could—

The Deva Path below suddenly widened his eyes, all thoughts interrupted by the scene before him.

Chibaku Tensei's gravitational field had stopped!

This meant Naruto Uzumaki had destroyed that gravitational sphere from inside.

Damn it! Naruto Uzumaki!

Nagato's will instantly transmitted through the black rods to the other Pains' minds. All Pain puppets converged on that massive rock sphere at this moment.

Though Chibaku Tensei had ended, the mountains and stones drawn together by gravity wouldn't easily break free. They needed to strike now before Naruto could escape.

"Ha!!!!"

The Deva Path let out a piercing shout, then slammed his palms on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Not summoning various dimensional beasts like the Animal Path. When the smoke cleared, what appeared was a massive humanoid monster. The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path—its body surface resembled tree bark, hands bound by chains, with over a dozen giant pillars on its back, looking incredibly eerie.

The eyes on its head opened simultaneously, staring fixedly at the massive rock sphere falling downward.

In the tower on the other side, Nagato, having used this move, was nearly completely exhausted. His upper body muscles seemed to shrink further, his ribs were more prominent, and sweat continuously dripped from his pale face.

Watching from beside him, Konan felt heartbroken and wanted to stop him but couldn't speak. She truly didn't want to see her last companion die like this.

Unfortunately, the Demonic Statue had yet to successfully absorb any tailed beast chakra, so this statue was merely a shell, unable to use any techniques before Nagato infused it with his chakra. But Nagato's chakra was now nearly depleted. Even with Uzumaki clan bloodline, he had nothing left.

It was somewhat ironic. The three confirmed Uzumaki clan members remaining in the ninja world were currently battling each other.

Though the Demonic Statue couldn't use chakra-extraction techniques, its body alone was powerful enough.

Jiraiya and the others, having just landed in the distance and barely recovering from their dizziness, saw the Demonic Statue's massive form.

"Not good! They're concentrating forces to attack Naruto-san first!"

After reacting, Karin took the lead, transforming back into full Garuda form. Her massive wings spanning over ten meters spread wide, grabbing Jiraiya and Sasuke and charging toward the distant battlefield.

Meanwhile, Sasuke absorbed all surrounding Calamity Fire to rapidly heal his wounds. As for Jiraiya, he'd already started forming Rasengan.

But faster than them all was Naruto.

A clear sword cry rang across the battlefield.

The Demonic Statue's palm was reaching toward the boulder when, after a breeze swept past, that arm smoothly severed.

"What?!"

Watching through Pain, Nagato couldn't believe it. Before he could react, the massive rock split from the center half a beat later.

What emerged was Naruto, slowly transforming his arm back from blade form.

Though his physical strength didn't match the pirate world, the current Naruto, enhanced by Sage Mode, could execute sword techniques no weaker than in the pirate world. Even stronger. That strike in the pirate world would have required charging up, but now just swinging forcefully achieved the same effect.

He felt increasingly distant from the concept of "human."

Naruto's body, like the Deva Path using Shinra Tensei earlier, was quietly floating in midair. This wasn't stepping on air or creating propulsion jets below.

It was gravity—the gravity he had mastered after devouring Chibaku Tensei's core.

Unfortunately, that gravitational sphere relied on the Rinnegan's existence and had already consumed most of its power during the Chibaku Tensei technique. Therefore, after Naruto devoured it, the gravity within began dissipating.

Even so, Naruto could maintain "floating" briefly.

Pain watched Naruto hovering like a true deity, looking down with emotionless eyes, and felt something snap in his mind.

"You've got to be kidding!"

Nagato directly gathered most chakra from other Pain bodies into the Deva Path, then pointed at Naruto in midair.

"Super Shinra Tensei!"

But just as these words left his mouth, everything in his vision began tilting to one side.

Naruto, who'd appeared behind Pain unnoticed, withdrew his hand and turned toward the tower.

"Unfortunately, I didn't want to destroy your body originally."

These words were for the Deva Path—or for Yahiko.

Naruto had naturally noticed that at the battle's start, Jiraiya-sensei had stared at this puppet. Combined with his own words, it wasn't hard to guess the identity.

Atop the tower, Nagato uncontrollably coughed up copious blood—a side effect of forcibly severed connections.

"Nagato!"

Konan nervously supported Nagato's body, about to leave with him.

"Sigh, so it's come to this? Where will I find another host suitable for the Rinnegan?"

Konan reacted almost instantly, attacking with paper toward that direction, but the sheets matching metal hardness directly passed through the intruder's body.

"It's you!"

Seeing the two figures arriving at the tower, Konan immediately shielded Nagato behind her.