Chapter 210: Heaven's Space-Locked Chains

Pain and Konan left together, taking with them the bull that Kimimaro had just knocked out. 

A perfectly good summoned beast couldn't go to waste, after all.

"All set."

Watching the two leave, Kimimaro thought to himself.

The cooperation with Nagato was established, meaning his future actions within the Akatsuki would be much freer.

It was a pity, though, that his newly formed partnership with Konan was already being dismantled.

Teaming up with Pain wasn't Kimimaro's own idea—it was Orochimaru's.

Kimimaro thought the suggestion was good and accepted it.

Now that the initial cooperation was in place, he had received two valuable rewards, which put him in a great mood.

**Banshō Ten'in!**

A unique jutsu of the Rinnegan.

Its power might not be the strongest, but it was incredibly useful.

Using Banshō Ten'in, retrieving objects from a distance became an incredibly easy task.

The size of the object being pulled depended on the amount of chakra the user released.

With enough chakra, you could move mountains and fill seas.

Though Kimimaro didn't have the Rinnegan, he could still perform the jutsu on its own.

After confirming there was no one within a kilometer, he extended his right hand and made a slight pull toward the shattered pieces of a black rod on the ground.

**Banshō Ten'in!**

Gravity emerged from his palm, and after a moment of focusing, he captured the black rod fragments, drawing them directly into his hand.

The slightly unrefined control made the movement seem a little slow, but a hint of joy appeared on Kimimaro's face.

This jutsu works.

All that was lacking was practice.

Once fully mastered, with the Byakugan's enhanced field of view, Kimimaro could use Banshō Ten'in even more smoothly than Pain.

Pain's Six Paths shared a connected field of view, but the Byakugan provided a full 360-degree, unobstructed vision.

In that regard, the Byakugan's vision had the upper hand.

If Kimimaro wanted, he could control six puppets from a distance to engage in combat, showing extremely high levels of coordination between them.

Of course, this wasn't Kimimaro's style of fighting, and he wouldn't do it that way.

After a quick trial of Banshō Ten'in, Kimimaro shifted his gaze to the black rod fragments.

Even though these rods were just low-level products of Yin-Yang Release, it was Kimimaro's first time encountering the technique.

He hadn't made much progress with the Yin-Yang Release training method he obtained from the stone tablet, but if he could study these fragments, there might be a breakthrough.

Carefully, he stored the black rod fragments, intending to study them later.

After finishing, he turned his attention to the Explosive Tag engraving technique he had just acquired from Konan.

Engraving explosive tags wasn't anything particularly special.

If someone wanted to learn, they could find it in many places.

However, Konan's ability to engrave explosive tags was far beyond ordinary.

Her technique of unleashing six billion explosive tags was enough to prove how ridiculous her engraving skills were.

Six billion explosive tags—whether bought or drawn by hand—was an insane amount.

To put it into perspective, the entire ninja world had only around one hundred thousand ninjas. If you divided six billion explosive tags among them, each ninja would get six million tags, which was absurd.

There was no way the ninja world had that many explosive tags in stock.

That meant Konan must have drawn most of them herself.

This showed that she had the ability to engrave explosive tags instantly, not one by one, but likely hundreds or thousands at a time.

What Kimimaro had obtained was a similar ability.

However, unlike Konan, he didn't possess Paper Release, nor did he have endless chakra-infused sheets of paper to engrave tags on.

So, this ability would be somewhat weakened.

"I may not have Paper Release, but my Shikotsumyaku bones are constantly nourished by chakra. If I engrave explosive tags onto the bones I release, wouldn't that work too?"

With this thought, Kimimaro immediately began experimenting.

He extended his right index finger, and a white segment of bone emerged from his fingertip. The black explosive tag pattern then crawled up the white bone.

**Whoosh!**

The bone flew out, piercing a nearby tree. A moment later, **Boom!**, the tree exploded into pieces!

Kimimaro's eyes lit up at the sight.

"This is great."

Combining the Finger Bullet Drill with an explosion added even more destructive power.

If he added **White Lightning**, both the speed and power would increase further.

Of course, that kind of combination couldn't be achieved easily. It would require more experimentation.

But for Kimimaro, this wasn't much of a challenge.

After testing both techniques, he smiled in satisfaction.

This battle had been worth it.

Still, the most significant gain for Kimimaro was testing the combat potential of his **Sage-Void Mode**.

For now, the Sage-Void Mode was still a prototype.

Not only was its duration very short, but the power boost it provided also didn't fully satisfy him.

Even so, he was 70% confident he could defeat Pain's Deva Path in this form.

And that's considering if the opponent used **Chibaku Tensei** and **Shinra Tensei**.

If he had wanted to, he could have easily crushed Deva Path just now.

But he had come to discuss cooperation, not to kill, so he held back and didn't go all out.

In a short time, the prototype Sage-Void Mode's power was sufficient.

But before the tailed beast capture plan began, Kimimaro planned to fully perfect the Sage-Void Mode.

He was eagerly looking forward to how strong the complete version would be.

It would definitely far surpass the current prototype.

After gathering everything, Kimimaro left the wide, empty Summoning Forest.

Meanwhile, after Pain and Konan left, they returned to where Nagato's main body was.

"You've been following me the whole time?" Konan asked as soon as she saw Nagato.

Nagato didn't deny it and said, "Yes. I was worried about you. And as it turns out, my worry was justified. Kimimaro's strength is extraordinary. In the Akatsuki, only Tobi and I can match him. Even Uchiha Itachi might not be his equal.

"If he truly had bad intentions, you would have been in serious danger, which is something I cannot allow."

Hearing this, the discomfort in Konan's heart quickly faded.

She wasn't unreasonable.

"Alright. Since you've already agreed to work with Kimimaro and Orochimaru, why not have him treat your legs right away? What are you waiting for? Don't you trust him?"

"You're right; I don't fully trust him yet. Without full preparations, I won't let him come so easily."

"What else needs to be done? Let me help you."

Konan understood Nagato's concerns, so she wanted to help resolve the matter as soon as possible.

"No need. Have him come in a month. I'll make the necessary arrangements. If he can truly heal my legs, my power will rise again. At that point, I'll become a true god."

Nagato's eyes flashed with a gleam as he spoke.

If he had a healthy body, he could fully wield the Six Paths of Pain's abilities. At that point, with offense and defense integrated, he couldn't imagine anyone in the ninja world who could oppose him.

Seeing that Nagato had a plan, Konan stopped worrying about the timing.

"Should we continue monitoring Kimimaro?"

"No need. With his sensory abilities, not even Zetsu could follow him. I didn't expect him to possess the Byakugan.

"This man holds too many secrets. His relationship with Orochimaru isn't just a simple subordinate-superior dynamic. I underestimated him before.

"The power he displayed today was unstable. If he fully masters it, he could indeed be a great asset to us.

"But only if he's on our side. Otherwise, he'll become a problem sooner or later."

Nagato's words revealed how wary he was of Kimimaro.

"I understand," Konan replied.

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