VS Pain III

Seeing the regrouped Pains on the giant flying bird, the girls discussed the problem with mental communication.

'We have to care care of the summoner, at least keep him busy or we'll never be able to reliably trap the others.' Guren transmitted.

'What do you suggest?' Anko transmitted back.

'They can't leave my barrier, just hold on for a while longer and let the Blood World work its magic, then we can go for a decisive blow on the summoner before laying it on the other two.' Chino suggested.

Finding Chino's plan their best option, the girls redied themselves to restart their offensive lest their enemies become suspicious of their intentions.

'I'll go first. Anko get ready to catch any of them of guard if you get the chance.' Guren communicated.

'Understood.' Anko communicated back.

'Crystal Style: Jade Mirror Beacons'

Guren used one of hermore complex and powerful jutsu to create multiple red, rhombus shaped crystals all over Chino's barrier, one of them being formed around her.

'Crystal Style: String of Glory'

A powerful chakra beam was fired from the crystal that housed Guren and started being refracted by the other crystal beacons, making the insides of Chino's barrier a highly dangerous zone filled with destructive rays.

Thanks to the amplification properties of each crystal, once Guren provided the initial burst to start the process, the upkeep to maintain the beam arrays was negligible and Guren could teleport at lightspeed through the crystal network.

The beam arrays stopped the bird monster being used as a mount by the Pains from flying around freely, thus making it an easy target for long ranged jutsu but Guren's own jutsu was not over quite yet.

By slightly controlling the crystals to move, Guren could perform wide sweeps with her chakra beam and energy was only lost when the bem didn't end up hitting another crystal.

Thus, so long as she moved them with that in mind, Guren could reposition the beams to hit opponents without wasting any more chakra thus making this a powerful battle formation that was not only highly destructive but also efficient and terrific for battles of attrition.

Under Guren's masterful control the beams that covered the insides of the Blood World began moving erratically and, despite Chikushodo's best attempts, the bird monster was vanquished.

Guren's jutsu combination was the bane of large enemies and utterly restrained Chikushodo's summons but in exchange, it could only harass the actual individual Pains but limiting their area of movement as such small targets were extremely hard to hit.

If she was willing to expend large amount of chakra to just fire of beams that would not connect to any crystal beacon, she might be able to damage them but since it was no surprise attack, the Pains would be able to dodge.

As such, it was Anko's time to strike. Flashing around in the field of beams with powerful flaps of her bat like wings, Anko moved rapidly to engage the three paths with hit and run attacks, her retreat being covered by Guren with the repositioning of the beams.

'Chikushodo is useless in this terrain, time to change strategies and prepare for retreat should it be necessary.' Nagato decided.

'The paths are disposable since I can always make new ones but I can't leave Yahiko's body behind.' He thought.

And so, he made his move.

"Almighty Push!"

With a powerful charged version of his signature jutsu, Tendo cleared an area of crystal beacons with him as an epicenter.

'This barrier does not have any physical restraining power so we should be able to pass through it.' Nagato theorized.

And it was this mistaken deduction that would cause him to incur great losses.

Shurado picked up Chikushodo and tossed her in the air through the opening created by Tendo so she could escape the barrier and summon the remaining paths outside if need be.

The result however, was not was Nagato expected.

When Chikushodo crossed the barrier, it apparently gave her no resistance but that was far from true. Chino's kekkei genkai power had completely infected her blood and gave the Mugetsu kunoichi unprecedented control over his entire body.

'Hehehe. They fell for it!' Chino gleefully thought.

'No need to make use of that trump card right away though. The escapee can never rid himself of my grasp now. I can see through his eyes, listen through his ears, smell through his nose and even control his body complete or turn him into a powerful bomb.'

'I shall only use this when I can deliver maximum damage, until then, this can be used to spy of the Akatsuki and Pain's movements and actions.' She thought.

But suddenly a realization hit her.

'This is not a true living being . . .' Chino noticed.

'I see . . . There is another Pain controlling these bodies to fight us. A seventh Pain, the real one! This excursion is proving more and more bountiful.' She realized.

'The destruction of that country was totally worth it. Now then, Our plans will have to change a little.' The little devil started concocting an evil scheme.

First, she communicated her findings to her teammates.

'I assume you have a plan.' Guren communicated back.

'Indeed!' Chino replied.

'Let's hear then!' Anko hurried her.

'Guren abandon the attack. Destroying these puppets will have no real meaning instead, we will increase our little sleeper agents by putting the other two bodies under my thrall as well.' Chino declared.

'The longer they spent within my Blood World, the greater the influence I have over them and if they cross the barrier, I'll instantly get control unless they can resist my influence which the escapee already proved they cannot.' She started to explain her plan.

'Instead of trying to attack to destroy them, Guren will create a barrier to isolate the two inside the barrier and prevent them from being summoned outside. Anko will fight them directly while I will try and use my blood constructs to sneak attack them to increase my take over speed.'

With the new plan explained and Guren and Anko both in agreement, the changed the target of their actions to follow it.

Guren dispelled her remaining crystal beacons and created a thin crystal barrier covering the Blood World to prevent spacetime movement from within to outside and vice versa.

Tendo was still recharging from his great burst so now was the time to strike.

Snakes, golems, birds and felines of all shapes and sizes emerged from the ground to attack Shurado and Tendo under Chino's command.

Anko unleashed long range high power water jutsu from the moths of her snakes summoned with the Hidden Snake Shadow Hand jutsu but using poison rather than water.

Piercing compressed balls of liquid poison, cutting streams of of the same, wide range poison clouds. Anko kept out of range of the Pains, flying in the air while raining destruction from above as Chino attacked from the ground.

Seeing the situation deteriorating fast, Nagato finally made the decision to retreat and controlled the escaped Chikushodo to summon the other two but it failed.

'Damn them!' He internally shouted as he noticed the thin crystal barrier which was most likely preventing summoning, much like the thicker one which had done the same, stopping him from saving the other three paths.

'I must destroy it.' He decided.

But Tendo was still on the recharge and Shurado was busy.

With barrage upon barrage of missiles and chakra beams, Shurado scattered the legions of blood puppets and attacked the flying Anko, the latter part being somewhat unsuccessful.

Tendo on the other hand, could only dodge Anko while dealing with the blood constructs in melee which resulted in speeding up the blood infection with each short contact he had with one them.

Slowly but surely, the infection was proceeding.

'I only have to endure until Tendo's power returns, after that I can scatter their attacks with Tendo's Almighty Push and have Shurado destroy the barrier preventing Chikushodo's summoning.' Nagato planned.

'This whole battle has been a complete disaster. The only thing to be gained was a further understanding of the powers of Mugetsu's top members.' He thought.

Much to Nagato's relief enduring proved to be quite achievable but hard enough not to warrant suspicions, both of these things by design.

By now, Tendo was already fully infected and only Shurado remained about halfway contaminated.

'This is good enough. No need to take further risks.' Chino communicated.

'Now, all we have to do is let them escape without arising their puppeteer's suspicion.' Anko added.

Right at this time, Nagato was ready to make his move.

"Almighty Push!"

With a powerful wave of repulsion, Tendo both destroyed most of Chino's blood construct and knocked Anko away with moderate injuries from which she was already recovering.

Taking this opportunity, Shurado flew up with jet thrusters on his feet as a weapon on the top of his head charged up energy.

'These crystal constructs are quire resilient, better to do it at point blank range.' ngato decided.

Shurado kept going and after arriving near the crystal barrier, destroyed it with a massive chakra explosion.

Mugetsu's three women team could only stare speechless. Not at Shurado's power, but at the fact that he crossed the outer barrier of the Blood World.

'Well then. If Pain wants to give us this gift, we have no reason to refuse.' Chino shrugged with a smirk as the other two conspiratorially smiled at their final unexpected boon.

With the crystal barrier gone, Tendo dispensed a one liner like "We shall meet again, and next time, it will be your end." or something of the sort before Chikushodo summoned both he and Shurado away.

'Pretty cocky for someone who fell hook line and sinker into our trap." Guren mocked, causing the other to to laugh.

'Come on, time to go back and share the good news." Chino said.

And so, the battle officially came to an end.

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