The forty corpse ninjas rushed forward like a black tide, launching a full-scale assault!
Jiraiya's expression shifted instantly—though these undead figures lacked chakra of their own, they moved as coordinated as an elite unit, each mimicking ninja techniques as if still alive.
Konan flared her paper wings, launching a storm of razor-thin paper blades from above, tearing through the air toward the horde.
Shhhhhh—!
The barrage shredded the first row of corpse ninjas, limbs flying, flesh splitting—but...
They kept coming.
"They don't feel pain," she muttered grimly. "And they don't react to injuries."
"How do you kill something that's already dead?" Yahiko gritted his teeth and threw an explosive tag forward. "Let's find out."
Boom!!
The explosion threw several corpses off their feet, but three others instantly leapt over the smoke, their claws glinting with metallic tips.
"Move!"
Jiraiya landed between them and the kids, his arms forming hand seals at blinding speed.
"Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"
Boom!!!
A massive stream of oil spewed from his mouth, immediately ignited by fire release—turning into a roaring inferno that engulfed a swath of charging undead.
This time, they burned.
Limbs blackened. Skin cracked.
They fell—but not all stayed down.
From the side, another ten corpse ninjas flanked, sprinting low and silent like wolves in formation.
"These things..." Jiraiya's face darkened, "they're... intelligent?"
Nagato didn't speak. His Rinnegan had been scanning the battlefield the entire time.
He saw it now.
There were threads of chakra—thin and nearly invisible—connected to all the corpses.
"Sensei!" he shouted. "They're not moving on instinct—someone's controlling them all manually!"
Jiraiya turned sharply and looked up.
Kaede Kanshi stood alone on a high branch, his cloak fluttering slightly, face calm as a storm.
"You."
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.
A chill ran through his gut. This wasn't just some hidden experimenter or rogue medical-ninjas. The precision and scale of this technique…
This was something else entirely.
"You're the one behind this?"
Kaede responded calmly, "I am."
"What's your purpose?"
"Nothing in particular. Just here to verify something."
Kaede's fingers twitched slightly.
Suddenly—six corpse ninjas broke formation and charged directly at Nagato.
The boy didn't even blink.
"Banshō Ten'in"
A huge gravitational force yanked all six into a single point in midair.
"Shinra Tensei!"
BOOM!
They exploded outward in pieces.
Their limbs twisted as they fell—but even then, the heads were still intact, twitching on the ground.
Kaede watched with mild interest.
"Very interesting."
So this was the real power of the Rinnegan.
Even if this was just a fraction of its future strength, it was already strong enough to easily crush his basic corpse soldiers.
Behind the mask, Kaede licked his lips slightly.
"But how far can you go... if I push you?"
The three Root ninjas watching from a distance were stunned speechless.
They had seen Kaede summon and control the zombie army before—but never like this.
He was actively engaging one of the Legendary Sannin.
And it wasn't going badly.
"Sir Komatsufuji..." one of them whispered, "do we assist?"
"No."
Komatsufuji's eyes flickered with a complicated expression. "We observe. For now."
Because if Kaede Kanshi really could suppress a force like Jiraiya's—even partially—then he might have already surpassed the threshold Danzō had originally hoped for.
In the battlefield below, Konan and Yahiko fought to keep the second wave of undead at bay. But they were getting overwhelmed.
No matter how many they cut down, more kept coming. Some were burnt. Others were just torsos crawling on the ground.
Even when sliced in half, they still tried to bite with their jaws.
"These things aren't just chakra puppets... they're made of real corpses," Konan said grimly. "He's using actual dead people... and stitching them with chakra control."
"How sick can one person get?" Yahiko spat as he kicked away a crawling head.
Meanwhile, Nagato stepped forward.
His chakra surged—swirling violently in the rain.
"Don't get too close," he warned. "I'll end this wave now."
Boom.
The Rinnegan pulsed.
"Almighty Push!"
BAAAAMMMMM—!!!
A massive ripple of energy expanded in all directions, flattening the trees around them, flinging the entire battlefield back in a thirty-meter radius.
All remaining corpses shattered, masks cracked, bodies tumbling like trash in a windstorm.
Even Kaede had to leap backward, cloak flapping, to avoid the shockwave.
The rain stopped for a moment—caught in the suspended force—before crashing back down again.
Nagato stood alone in the epicenter, his hair and robe soaked, eyes glowing faint purple.
Jiraiya exhaled.
Even he was shaken.
This level of power—at such a young age...
He really might be the Child of Prophecy.
Kaede slowly clapped.
Not sarcastically.
"I see now. The rumors about the Rain Trio weren't exaggerated."
He looked at Nagato.
"The Rinnegan... is truly extraordinary."