VS Pain II

Needing to end the battle with Chino immediately, before Gakido fell against Anko, Nagato was forced to take a risk he did not wish to take.

His only choice as he saw it, was to put Jigokudo at risk, a dangerous move considering it was his way of reviving the other paths mid battle and bet on Ningendo's ability to extract soul to instantly kill Chino in the opening that he would create with his most valuable path.

In an instant, Jigokudo flashed with body flicker and appeared in front of Ningendo blocking the attacks of the blood dragons aimed at him while his own barreled in their direction.

Taking advantage of this opening, Ningendo rushed at Chino.

'If I attack with enough ferocity, that girl will shift to defense thus reducing the burden on Jigokudo, this is my chance to turn things around.' Nagato predicted.

In his bid for a turnaround, he had forgotten something very important however. He was not only fighting two people.

Unlike Nagato's prevision, Chino did not shift to defense at all. Instead, the sent all four dragons into a frenzy, using all of her power to strike at the now isolated Jigokudo.

Just as Nagato was beginning to question what she was doing however, the answer became clear.

As Ningendo's hand reached towards Chino, it collided with an invisible crystal barrier and, at the same instant, Guren unleashed her mightiest jutsu which also happened to her fastest attack.

'Crystal Style: String of Glory!' She shouted in her mind as a beam of destructive light flashed at undodgeable speeds towards Ningendo.

And so, realizing his mistake far to late, Nagato's connection to the Human Path was cut off as it was vaporised by Guren's perfect ambush.

The shock caused a momentary lack of focus from Nagato's part, not merely due to a paths destruction but also due to how well he had been manipulated into playing right into their hand.

This opening did not endanger Jigokudo anymore than he was already but Anko managed to exploit this opening to finally finish off Gakido and return.

A small snake burst from the ground at high speed behind Jigokudo and ejected Anko from its mouth who took the path from behind and snapped its neck at breaking speeds.

"Kill steal!" Chino shouted in displeasure.

"Should have taken care of him faster!" Anko taunted but their bickering immediately stopped as a massive impact assaulted Guren's barrier.

"They're here. And not a moment to soon." Guren warned.

"Recover while you can, the barrier won't last long." She advised.

The two nodded and took out special food pills that were practically poison for your standard due to their high energy content but perfect for them and soon, the were nearly back to full strength, enough to fight another battle without issue as Guren's barrier shattered.

Back in Nagato's hiding place, Konan could feel the rage in her expressionless friend's face.

"Nagato, what happened?" She asked.

This time, he responded honestly but with anger seeping into his voice.

"Ningendo, Gakido and Jigokudo were taken out, the other three have just arrived at the site of the attack and broke the enemy's barrier but it was too late." He said.

Hearing this, Konan made a suggestion.

"Should we retreat?"

Nagato answered with silence which she understood as unwillingness to do it so she made another suggestion.

"Why don't you try and probe them in conversation before attacking?" She said.

"Hmm . . . Yes it may yield unexpected results . . ." Nagato replied in agreement and decided to follow his second in command's second suggestion.

With the two groups of three standing face to face, Tendo who was at the center of the remaining three paths broke the silence.

"Your response was much faster than I anticipated." He said.

"We noticed by how the previous three got caught utterly unprepared and were thus trashed." Chino replied in a mocking tone.

Seemingly unbothered, Nagato continued to speak through Tendo.

"From your ambush and the way the fight took place, you must have already arrived quite a bit before we were done with this country." He said.

"To sacrifice all of these lives of your people to get a read on my abilities . . . Quite cruel." Nagato probed.

"Ha! The one that actually did the killing should be spouting words about our cruelty. As for scouting your abilities, the was just a bonus. Everyone here know that's not the real reason we did not chose to stop you." Anko retorted.

Nagato fell into thought.

'At least our prediction on their reaction and the reasons behind it were correct. It was only the timing that we missed. A costly mistake . . .' He considered.

"Well then, let's get this over with shall we?" Guren was getting bored.

"Hmph! You won by targeting the three that were weakest in direct combat in an ambush." Tendo pointed out.

"Do you think a frontal combat against us will go that well?" He taunted.

"The ambush was just to prevent you from swarming us with numbers. Fighting the notorious Pain in a six vs three would be a bit too much after all, too many variables." Anko rcountered.

"As for you three . . . It might take longer but the result will be the same." Chino added and made the first move.

'Ketsuryugan: Blood World'

The four blood dragons that Chino hadn't recalled suddenly moved. Two began circling in the sky above the six people while the other two dove and seeped into the ground, tinging it red.

Soon after, the two in the sky also dispersed, forming a bloody barrier around all of them while its inside began to be filled with a blood mist that restrained one's vision and had other long term effects.

Chino also turned into a mass of blood and seeped into the ground. In this battle she would take over Guren's role in the previous one. Restraining their targets.

Chino's barrier was far different from Guren's. While the latter's was a physical barrier that blocked everything within from going out and vice versa, the former's had other properties.

Physical objects and even chakra based attacks would have no problem going through the barrier without any sort of interference but, for beings of flesh and blood, crossing the boundary was a death sentence.

This was Mugetsu's trump card to hold the three pains with the most destructive potential. Guren's barrier would be shattered quite easily but Chino's would just ignore these attacks and only prevent their physical selves from leaving, thus preventing them from breaking the barrier.

They deduced the even Tendo's mysterious repulsion abilities would have no effect on the barrier so they were confident they had their enemies trapped.

To get over the reduced visibility, Guren activated Her Curse Mark slightly, just to enable her to access a sage's sensory abilities while Anko who was fully transformed already had them at her disposal.

'Crystal Style Armor.'

Covering herself in crystal that made her look like a dazzling sculpture, Guren dashed with the body flicker jutsu and struc at Tendo.

The result was not surprising to anyone.

"Almighty Push!"

After nearly reaching her target, Guren was blasted back with immense force, tearing a deep and long trench into the ground but remaining otherwise unharmed other than some disorientation, all thanks to her armor.

However, right as Guren was being blasted off, Anko was already reaching Tendo with a flap of her wings.

Still in his recharge period of five seconds, even though the girls had yet to accurately measure it, Tendo stepped back as Shurado stepped it to clash with Anko, revealing his six armed and three faced mechanical body from the get go.

Chikushodo stepped even further backwards, behind Tendo and began weaving the hand seals for her summoning jutsu.

Even with his juiced up mechanical body though, Shurad could not handle a fully charged attack from Anko with the added impact from her blinding speed and was thus knocked away.

'That bought enough time for Tendo's ability to recharge." Nagato though as his counted down in his mind.

However, blood snakes emerged from the reddish dirt beneath them and struck at Tendo, Chikushodo and even the downed Shurado.

Metal whitps emerged from openings in the latter's body and destroyed the attacking snakes. They soon reformed bu he was already free.

Tendo and Chikushodo jumped up as the latter completed his hand seals and summons a giant monster bird, flying up on its back to avoid the dangers of the ground that had become clear.

With another almighty push,Tendo sent Ank flying with significant injuries since she did not have Guren's armor but her enhanced healing abilities boosted by her transformation near instantly healed the moderately serious damage that might have crippled another shinobi.

Seeing that the situation was not progressing very well, Nagato decided to have the paths regroup as Shurado and Tendo were being harassed on the ground by all kinds of small blood creatures.

As such, Chikushodo weaved his hand seals and summoded the other two to his side on top of the big bird.

'I might have bit more than I can chew.' Nagato thought to himself as he finally started regretting his belligerent actions, even if just slightly.

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