The night passed uneventfully.
Looking at the vast desert wasteland, now reduced to ruins, Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Though he hadn't witnessed it firsthand, the devastation spoke volumes about the explosion's sheer power.
It was hard to believe that Naruto's subordinate, Deidara, could wield such destructive force. Harder still was the fact that the black-robed figure had emerged completely unscathed.
Sasuke became more and more confident towards the black-robed figure.
'No wonder Naruto regards her as his nemesis...'
…
At the top floor of Akatsuki's base, Pain sat at a desk.
A glowing green portal appeared out of thin air, and Sasuke stepped through with the black-robed figure.
"Oh?"
Path raised an eyebrow, then greeted them with an amicable tone, "Welcome back."
"What are you so curious about?"
Sasuke asked, his brow furrowing.
Pain explained, "Yesterday, Zetsu sent a message that there was an explosion in Sunagakure. I assumed it was you two attempting to capture the Ichibi's Jinchuriki, leading to a battle. It seems that I was overthinking it."
"You weren't mistaken." Sasuke replied calmly, "We did go after him. Unfortunately, the explosion was too powerful, and he managed to escape."
"To survive such a powerful blast…" Pain's eyes narrowed slightly, "It seems I didn't misjudge your capabilities."
"Enough with the small talk." Sasuke cut in, waving dismissively, "I've collected Nibi through Hachibi. Seven Biju in total."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black-robed figure stepped forward, and seven miniature Biju floated in front of her.
Seeing the Biju, Tendo Pain abruptly stood, unable to mask his surprise. Even someone as composed as him couldn't remain indifferent in the presence of such overwhelming power.
"You've accomplished a great feat. Now, hand the Biju over to me."
Pain demanded, extending a hand.
"To you? Why would I do that?" Sasuke smirked, "You're just a puppet, and you think you're entitled to the fruits of our hard work? Besides, we've taken your poison. Aren't we unworthy of meeting your true self?"
"So, you know?"
Pain narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't expect that the other party could see that he was a puppet.
After a moment of silence, Pain snorted coldly, "And what leverage do you have to negotiate? Without my antidote, you're as good as dead. Hand over the Biju, and I'll give you the antidote. Let's not make this a mutual loss."
"A mutual loss?"
Sasuke chuckled darkly, "The poison you gave us has already been neutralized. If you refuse to meet us in person, these Biju will forever remain out of your reach."
Just as Pain was about to say something in respond, the black-robed figure said coldly, "If you act recklessly, with a single thought, I'll annihilate these seven Biju. You'll lose your chance to execute your plans forever."
"You dare threaten me?"
Pain's voice grew colder.
"And what if we do?"
Sasuke was confident of victory and was not worried at all that Pain would dare to play any tricks.
Unless Pain doesn't care about the Biju at all.
But obviously, that's impossible.
After gathering so many Missing-nin and preparing for years, would he throw it all away?
Only a fool would believe that.
Sure enough, just as Sasuke expected, after a long silence, Pain finally spoke, "I'll allow you to see my true form. But how can I trust that you'll hand over the Biju?"
"Whether you trust us or not is your choice. We have no use for the Biju. We just want to see the person hiding behind all this caution. If you don't trust us, the deal's off, and we'll leave right now."
Sasuke made a show of turning to leave.
"Your provocations won't work on me." Pain growled, "But if you truly mean that, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
Pain stretched out his hand.
"What is this?"
Sasuke felt an immense gravitational pull emanating from Pain's palm, a force as inescapable as a black hole.
He had never expected that Pain would suddenly attack, and coupled with the terrifying suction force, Sasuke's body was helplessly drawn toward Pain at an alarming speed, entirely out of his control.
However, Sasuke wasn't alone.
The black-robed figure extended a scaled, clawed hand from beneath her robe, grabbing Sasuke firmly and halting his forced movement.
"Should I just destroy these seven Biju right now?"
Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand, "Not yet. I want to see what the so-called leader of the Akatsuki, Pain, is capable of!"
Turning his head to look at Pain, Sasuke sneered coldly, "You want to fight, right? Fine, come out and fight!"
After saying that, Sasuke leaped out of the tower, followed closely by the black-robed figure.
Inside the tower, Konan frowned, "Do we really have to go this far?"
"There's no other way. Let him truly experience pain!"
As soon as Pain finished speaking, he clasped his hands together. Then, five people with black piercings on their faces appeared.
At last, the Six Paths of Pain were assembled.
The Six Paths of Pain jumped out of the tower, and the Animal Path launched the attack first.
"Summoning Technique!"
Slamming his palm to the ground, a burst of white smoke erupted. A colossal black rhinoceros charged forward, its massive horns aimed straight at Sasuke with lethal intent.
However, Sasuke did not dodge at all and directly summoned Susanoo.
Bang!
Accompanied by a loud sound, a large amount of dust flew everywhere.
As the smoke cleared, Sasuke's partially formed Susano'o was revealed, and its skeletal hands gripped the rhino's horns firmly.
"Hah!"
With a loud cry, Sasuke hurled the massive beast into the air. A glowing purple arrow from Susanoo followed, striking the rhino and reducing it to white smoke as it dissipated.
"Summoning Technique!"
The Animal Path's expression did not change at all.
Pain is originally one body, or in other words, they are all controlled by Nagato, so it is not shocking for him to see Sasuke's amazing performance.
Animal Path's palms slammed onto the ground at the same time, and black summoning symbols spread across the earth, followed by twin bursts of white smoke.
This time, a massive, long-haired ox and a ferocious, maned dog emerged, their towering forms ready to attack.
"Such boring tricks."
Sasuke was too lazy to waste too much Chakra on the same move.
The black-robed figure understood what he meant, and she raised her scaled hand slowly.
Sasuke shifted his attention to her, intrigued. After all, this is the first time he had seen her in action, and he was eager to learn what she could do.
However, what Sasuke didn't expect was that the black-robed figure's action was very simple, very similar to Gaara's Sand Burial. She merely clenched her fist.