"Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama?"
Their names carried weight like shadows cast by great trees.
If Hanzo the Salamander was considered a legendary ninja of Amegakure, then Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama were legends of the entire ninja world—legends among legends.
Yet Nagato wasn't intimidated by their names.
Wasn't Hanzo once called a demi-god too? And didn't he still fall by his hand?
The Shura of the Ninja World?
The God of Shinobi?
Heh. With the Rinnegan in his eyes, Nagato believed he was the true god.
"Wait... why do you two have the Rinnegan too?"
Nagato, who had just been full of confidence, suddenly noticed—these two figures who had appeared out of nowhere both had Rinnegan eyes.
That confused him.
The Rinnegan, a legendary dojutsu said to appear once in a thousand years, was now seemingly being handed out in bulk?
"Isn't it completely normal for us to have the Rinnegan?"
Six Paths Madara shrugged, his gaze toward Deva Path filled with amusement.
Nagato didn't like the way Six Paths Madara looked at him.
He shook his head, forcing himself to stay calm.
The current situation wasn't in his favor.
He had only one pair of Rinnegan.
But his enemies had two.
And on top of that, they had the Fourth Hokage on their side.
If a fight really broke out, Nagato believed he could protect himself—
But what about Konan?
What about Amegakure?
The Six Paths of Pain remained silent for a long time.
Six Paths Hashirama understood—Nagato was weighing the pros and cons.
Seeing this, he immediately stepped forward to persuade him.
"Nagato, we're being very sincere. Otherwise, the moment we heard what the Fourth Hokage said, your puppets would've already been destroyed by me and Madara."
As soon as he said that, Minato Namikaze silently raised a hand to his forehead in disbelief. Even Madara gave Hashirama a shocked look.
Was that supposed to be persuasion or provocation?
Both Madara and Minato knew that Hashirama was speaking from the heart. With just Nagato's Six Paths of Pain, he really didn't pose much of a threat to them.
But Nagato didn't know that. He took Hashirama's words as a challenge.
Originally, he was still debating whether to start negotiating or have a fight first. But now, all hesitation was gone.
"Oh? In that case, let's do this."
"Hey~ wait, Nagato, you misunder–"
Pain's Six Paths didn't give Hashirama a chance to explain and launched a direct attack.
Deva Path used Universal Pull (Banshō Ten'in). Ashura Path fired a rocket fist—literally launching his own arm to attack.
The Human Path, Naraka Path, and Preta Path also charged toward the Six Paths Hashirama.
Meanwhile, the Animal Path summoned several giant beasts to keep Madara and Minato occupied.
Looking at the nearby Animal Path, Six Paths Madara chuckled and said, "Seems you've misunderstood one thing."
Animal Path: "What is it?"
"Maybe to others, the Six Paths of Pain are an insurmountable threat. But to me and Hashirama... they're just six corpses."
"Just corpses?"
"That's right. At best, you could say they're corpses with a bit of combat ability. Nothing more."
Madara's words made Nagato, who was controlling the Six Paths of Pain, extremely angry.
With a loud shout, he began increasing the chakra being sent into the Six Paths of Pain.
"I'll show you how Hashirama Senju was defeated by corpses."
"Shinra Tensei!"
Six Paths Hashirama was tangled up by the puppets like Naraka Path, and in a moment of carelessness, was struck by the repulsive force of Shinra Tensei.
But this level of force wasn't enough to injure him.
Instead, it actually gave him a chance to break free from the entanglement.
After landing, Six Paths Hashirama quickly spoke. "Those few rounds should have been enough for you to vent your anger, right? Look, you attacked me, and I didn't even fight back. That alone shows that we came with sincere intentions."
"Hashirama, this is the first time I've seen you talk like this."
Six Paths Hashirama looked at Six Paths Madara in confusion and asked, "Madara, what do you mean by that?"
"Nothing much."
Madara pointed at Deva Path and continued, "Looks like you've really pissed off Nagato."
"Huh?"
Hashirama let out a surprised sound, but before he could turn to look at Deva Path, Naraka Path's artillery fire came flying at him.
Even Animal Path stopped guarding against Six Paths Madara and Minato Namikaze, and joined the attack against Six Paths Hashirama.
All at once, the battle intensity jumped to a whole new level.
If it had been any ordinary shinobi facing this kind of assault— even someone like the Third Raikage, known for his physical toughness— they probably wouldn't have lasted.
But Six Paths Hashirama was different.
At this level, just standing there without moving, even the Six Paths of Pain found it difficult to pose a threat to him.
Even Human Path's soul extraction was useless.
However, in order to consider Nagato's pride and emotions, Hashirama didn't just stand still.
Instead, he dodged every attack by brushing just past the edge of each strike.
Hashirama thought, after doing all this, surely Nagato would realize his sincerity by now, right?
Well… the reality was just the opposite.
Nagato believed that Senju Hashirama was mocking him.
He could clearly avoid the attacks perfectly, but instead, he chose to dodge at the very last moment, making it seem like if Nagato just tried a little harder, he could actually land a hit.
If that's not an insult, then what is?
"Fine, fine, First Hokage, so this is how you want to play it?"
Clearly, Nagato was truly angry now.
He continued controlling the Six Paths of Pain to attack the six wood clones of Hashirama, but at the same time, he said, "Konan, help move me closer to them."
Konan was startled and replied, "Nagato, you want to—?"
"That's right. Since they look down on me like this, I'll make sure they pay the price."
"But your body—"
"It's fine. I can still hold on."
Konan was silent for a moment, but under Nagato's insistence, she finally began to move him toward the battlefield.
"Heh, so what if the real body shows up?"
The arrival of Konan and Nagato naturally didn't escape the notice of the Six Paths Madara.
But he didn't make any moves.
He simply stood there quietly, watching Hashirama perform.
"First Hokage, I'll show you the price of underestimating me—Chibaku Tensei."
"Hm?"
Six Paths Hashirama, who was still dodging attacks, suddenly sensed the chakra within the Chibaku Tensei and instantly became serious.
"This technique is a bit dangerous."
He pressed his palms together, and the Truth-Seeking Orb floating behind him instantly expanded. It looked somewhat like Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's Expanding Truth-Seeking Ball, though not quite as massive.
The Human Path, Preta Path, and Naraka Path, who were still attacking Six Paths Hashirama, didn't have time to dodge and were touched by the enlarged orb.
In just a blink, the three Paths began to crumble and vanish.
Seeing this, Nagato was stunned.
Although the strength of these six Paths varied—with the Deva Path being the strongest—the remaining five weren't weak enough to be destroyed so easily. Let alone being wiped out just like that.
"What the hell is that thing?"
No one answered him.
In front of him, Six Paths Hashirama was now controlling a smaller orb, aiming it directly at the core of the Chibaku Tensei. Nagato immediately increased his chakra output.
Draining so much chakra in such a short time caused blood to drip from Nagato's nose.
Under Konan's worried gaze, Nagato took a deep breath and said, "Don't worry, Konan. I can still hold on."
Nagato could indeed still hold on—but his Chibaku Tensei couldn't.
The moment Six Paths Hashirama decided to fight back, the outcome of the battle was already sealed.
Nagato's Chibaku Tensei stood no chance against a Truth-Seeking Orb imbued with the complete power of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements.
Before it could even pull in much stone or debris, the Chibaku Tensei was cleanly and completely destroyed under the orb's assault—right before Nagato's shocked eyes.
****
Support me on my ko-fi account and read upto 15 early chapters,
https://ko-fi.com/aayume