Confiscating the Tools of World Destruction

Of the Six Paths of Pain, only the Deva Path remained, flying alone in the sky.

Though the Deva Path was powerful, his strongest technique, Almighty Push, had a five-second cooldown. During that interval, he could only fight with Chakra Black Receivers and Universal Pull. It could be said that his strengths and weaknesses were equally pronounced.

After all, the Deva Path was meant to work with the other Six Paths of Pain to achieve his greatest effect. In a one-on-one fight, his combat strength was inferior even to that of an ordinary Kage-level ninja. Even a regular jonin could easily take him down if they figured out his fighting pattern.

Under these circumstances, the outcome had already been decided. Unless Nagato suddenly lost his mind and unleashed a Super-Almighty Push or Planetary Devastation in his own Rain Ninja Village, he had no moves left.

Even Super-Almighty Push was not particularly effective against a single powerful opponent. Its real value lay in its enormous area of destruction; it was merely a godly move for crushing weaklings.

As for Planetary Devastation, against Yota’s speed, it would basically just be left eating his dust.

Yota looked up at Pain in the sky. The Dark-Dark Fruit possessed only attraction, not true, complete gravity. Unless Yota used the Munch-Munch Fruit to modify his body, he had no ability to fly.

However, with the Eight Gates opened to the Third Gate and his incomparably powerful physique, even without any technique, simply stepping on the air was no difficult feat.

His legs exerted force, and Yota shot upward like a rocket. Deva Path Pain’s expression remained cold as he unleashed Almighty Push once more. With a wave of Yota’s hand, black mist spread through the air, ultimately swallowing not only Almighty Push, but Deva Path Pain as well.

After landing, Yota casually waved his hand, and Deva Path Pain was thrown out.

"All right, Jiraiya, I think you can talk to him now!" Yota said with a smile. "I imagine this time, he won’t still think he’s a god."

Jiraiya could only smile bitterly at those words. Hidden somewhere, Nagato coughed furiously in anger, making Konan hurriedly pat his chest.

Leaving Jiraiya to speak with Deva Path Pain, Yota moved far away. He then narrowed his eyes slightly and continuously released his Observation Haki, sensing the presences within Rain Ninja Village.

Yota’s Observation Haki had first been developed in Drum Kingdom. The Observation Haki he had learned back then had apparently been created by a doctor, so it was exceptionally effective at observing the interior of the human body. It had been of tremendous help when Yota had developed the Munch-Munch Fruit and modified human bodies.

But every gain came with a loss. Because his Observation Haki had been cultivated toward precision and subtlety, toward seeing through flesh and bone, its range had never been particularly great. It was naturally useful in close combat, but its effectiveness in long-range searches was rather poor.

Even now, with Yota’s Haki cultivation no weaker than that of an ordinary Emperor Vice-Captain, the area he could search was only around eight or nine hundred meters. That distance was truly not far. Any Great Elite under one of the Four Emperors had an Observation Haki range of at least two or three kilometers.

Fortunately, while his observation range was limited, its precision was high. Yota could even vaguely sense the Chakra resonance waves emitted by the black receivers on Deva Path Pain’s body.

"It should be in that direction… I just don’t know how far away it is!"

"But no matter how far, it can only be ten-odd kilometers away. Otherwise, Nagato in the original story would not have been found so easily. Although my Observation Haki doesn’t have much range, with a general direction and distance, finding him will still be easy!"

"Now it depends on how Jiraiya and Nagato’s talk goes…"

With a thunderous boom, Jiraiya was blasted over by an Almighty Push. Well, it seemed the conversation had not gone very well.

Then, with a bang, Deva Path Pain vanished. Nagato had clearly summoned him away.

"What happened, Jiraiya? Didn’t your talk break down a little too quickly?" Yota asked curiously.

Jiraiya shook his head with a bitter smile and rolled over to climb to his feet. Clearly, Nagato had not put much force into that Almighty Push.

"I hoped he would give up the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and the Rinnegan… and this was the result…"

Yota rolled his eyes. "The Rinnegan is the foundation of Nagato believing himself to be a god, while the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is the primary tool for carrying out his plan for world peace. You went straight for the roots of everything he has. Of course he wouldn’t agree."

"But those are also Nagato’s death warrants!" Jiraiya’s voice grew somewhat agitated. "Both the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and the Rinnegan can only be driven by consuming Nagato’s life force!"

"If a man does not fear death, what can Heaven do but sigh? I don’t believe Nagato is unaware of these things… but to him, death probably truly means nothing."

Among the nesting-doll-like puppet masters behind Naruto, Nagato was undoubtedly the most idealistic and the one who pursued peace most earnestly.

Black Zetsu and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki went without saying; they were genuine world-destroying demon kings. As for that idiot Obito, rather than wanting world peace, it would be more accurate to say that after losing his love, he wanted to destroy the world.

Madara Uchiha, meanwhile, was truly insane, treating himself as an actual god.

Although Nagato styled himself as a god, it was mostly to preserve his own veil of mystery. Otherwise, all he had to do was look in a mirror and see his real body. No matter what, he would never think that looked like a god.

With his appearance, even if he never fought at all, he would likely live only into his forties at most. If he continued using the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the day his plan succeeded would be the day he died.

Could Nagato truly be unaware of this? Probably not. It could be said that he was genuinely advancing world peace with the resolve to die.

Though his direction might not have been entirely correct, the feasibility of his peace plan was still far greater than Obito’s or Madara Uchiha’s Eye of the Moon.

To put it bluntly, was the original intention behind the so-called God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, distributing the tailed beasts really any different from Nagato creating superweapons?

"Then what do we do?" Jiraiya said anxiously. "Now that they’ve escaped, who knows when we’ll be able to find them again…"

"Leave it to me." Yota smiled. "Escaping from my hands won’t be so easy."

After hearing Yota’s words, Jiraiya’s expression shifted uncertainly. "Once you find Nagato, what do you plan to do?"

Yota glanced at Jiraiya. "Don’t worry. For your sake, at most I’ll confiscate the tools he uses to destroy the world."

"The tools he uses to destroy the world?" Jiraiya was slightly stunned. "You mean the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path? Isn’t that the same as what I wanted?"

Yota’s expression was indifferent. "There’s still a difference… after all, I don’t need his consent."