The crimson distress seal burned against Renjiro's palm like a brand; its light pulsed with urgent intensity, casting bloody shadows across his face. He stood in the Fire Capital, the Fire Daimyo's entourage still disoriented from the Hiraishin teleportation, and he understood immediately what the signal meant. Kakashi wasn't merely signalling; the delegation was under direct attack. Something had intercepted them during their retreat.
The Fire Daimyo demanded an explanation, his voice carrying the weight of his authority.
"What is happening? Where are you going?"
Renjiro gave him only the essentials, his voice clipped, controlled.
"The delegation has been engaged. They are under attack."
He immediately prepared Hiraishin, his chakra coiling for the teleportation. The Fire Daimyo realized that Renjiro intended to return alone, and brief tension passed between them as Renjiro made clear that the Daimyo was now safe and his priority was the Konoha personnel. He activated the anchor on Kakashi, and space folded around him.
He materialised on a jagged, desolate mountain cliffside. His first sensory impression was chaos; explosions echoed through the narrow pass, screams cut through the air, and collapsing rock added to the devastation. Konoha chakra signatures were scattered across the battlefield, their positions fluid, their movements desperate. Massive foreign chakra signatures emanated from three distinct sources, their power unlike anything normally encountered.
He saw the Konoha delegation pinned against the mountain pass. The retreat route had been transformed into a killing ground. Exhausted Konoha genin were clustered behind a defensive perimeter, their faces pale with fear. Kakashi was directing the defence, his Sharingan active, his commands cutting through the chaos. Asuma was coordinating wounded shinobi and trying to maintain formation. Guy was physically intercepting attacks and protecting the weaker genin, his body a blur of green as he deflected incoming strikes. Kurenai was maintaining sensory coverage despite being under extreme pressure, her chakra extended in a delicate web across the battlefield. Shisui and the other ANBU were fighting around the perimeter, their movements fluid, their attacks precise.
Several Konoha shinobi were already injured, their blood staining the grey stone. Medical personnel were overwhelmed, their supplies depleted, their faces grim with exhaustion. And nobody understood what they were fighting; Konoha was accustomed to enemy shinobi, but these opponents felt fundamentally different.
The Animal Path stood relatively still while summoning enormous creatures. The giant multi-headed dog tore through Konoha's defensive lines, its jaws snapping, its bodies multiplying with each wound. The massive bird circled overhead, attacking from impossible angles, its shadow passing over the battlefield like a death sentence. Every time the dog was damaged, its multiplication and regeneration made the situation worse; Konoha shinobi began realising that ordinary attacks were not working.
The Asura Path was a horror of mechanical transformation; its body visibly opened, arms split apart, hidden weapons deployed, and missile systems locked onto Konoha positions. The battlefield suddenly became saturated with explosive projectiles; each impact sent shrapnel and stone flying, and the defensive perimeter began to crumble under the relentless assault.
The Deva Path initially stood behind the others, almost completely motionless. Its purple Rinnegan watched everything, observing, calculating, directing. It didn't need to move because the other two Paths were doing the destruction. Its presence felt subtly more threatening than the others; a stillness that promised violence beyond comprehension.
Kakashi realised the enemy was deliberately targeting the genin. He ordered everyone into a tighter defensive formation, his voice carrying the weight of his authority. He used his Sharingan to analyse the attackers, noticing the strange coordination between the three enemies. The Paths didn't communicate normally, yet their actions were perfectly synchronised. He began testing them; lightning techniques against summons, clone feints, tactical repositioning. Nothing worked reliably.
He realized they weren't fighting individual enemies; they were fighting one intelligence distributed across multiple bodies.
Guy used overwhelming physical speed to intercept the giant summons. He opened the Third Gate, his body surging with power, and smashed through one attack, only to realise the summon immediately returned. His frustration grew because brute force wasn't solving the problem; the creatures simply regenerated and continued their assault.
Asuma protected the injured genin, using Wind Release-enhanced trench knives to cut through incoming projectiles. He coordinated the retreat rather than trying to win, realising that their objective was no longer to escape Kumo; it was simply to survive long enough to escape the battlefield.
Shisui moved through the battlefield at extreme speed, using the Body Flicker to rescue several genin. He attempted to approach one of the Paths, his Sharingan analysing the enemy. He briefly engaged the Asura Path, realising that the mechanical body wasn't reacting like a normal human. Before he could investigate further, another attack forced him away. He noticed Kakashi's emergency seal had activated; he understood that Renjiro was coming.
The Asura Path identified a vulnerable cluster; multiple missiles launched simultaneously, targeting Kurenai, several exhausted genin, and medical personnel. Kurenai realised there wasn't enough time to move everyone; Kakashi tried to reach them, but he was too far away. Guy was occupied, and Shisui was engaged with another threat. The missiles descended.
Just before impact, a Hiraishin flash appeared. Renjiro materialised directly between the missiles and the Konoha personnel. He immediately formed an enormous Earth Style defensive wall, and the first missile impacted, cracking the stone. He instantly disappeared and reappeared at another angle, redirecting and crushing incoming missiles using a combination of Earth Style, Body Flicker, and Hiraishin positioning. The entire missile salvo was neutralised; dust and smoke engulfed the area.
Kurenai and the genin stared through the smoke. Renjiro stood in front of them, his expression cold, his eyes already scanning the battlefield. Kurenai realised that he had actually come.
Kakashi looked at Renjiro's Hiraishin movement and finally understood that the seal he had received was not theoretical.
Renjiro finally got a clear view of the attackers. He immediately recognised them; the Rinnegan, the mechanical body, the summons. Pain was the attacker. His mind churned in chaos as he wondered why the hell the Akatsuki was attacking Konoha. Had someone put a hit on them? He even wondered if the breach in the village's barrier had been planned so that Minato could quickly head back to the village, leaving the delegation vulnerable.
He immediately shifted from rescue to battlefield command, his voice cutting through the chaos.
"Medical personnel, move toward the rear. Genin, stay inside the defensive perimeter. Kakashi, maintain command of the delegation. Guy, protect the western flank. Asuma, handle wounded. Shisui, assist with enemy reconnaissance."
He made one crucial observation.
"Do not chase them."
Kakashi asked why. Renjiro answered that they didn't understand the enemy's abilities yet; their priority was survival and information.
The Asura Path immediately identified Renjiro as the highest-priority threat. Its body opened, and multiple weapons deployed; missiles, bullets, and mechanical appendages attacked simultaneously. Renjiro didn't retreat; he used Hiraishin to teleport between attacks. The battlefield became a blur; flash, explosion, flash, impact, flash. He appeared behind the Asura Path and landed a devastating physical strike; the mechanical body was smashed through a rock formation.
Konoha shinobi briefly believed Renjiro had won. Then the Asura Path emerged from the rubble, mechanical components reconstructing themselves. Renjiro's expression changed; this was the first moment he realised these bodies weren't normal.
The Animal Path summoned the giant bird directly above Renjiro; he used Hiraishin to escape the dive, and the bird smashed into the mountain instead. The Animal Path immediately summoned the multi-headed dog, and Renjiro tested it with a powerful technique. The dog split and regenerated. He realized that destroying it conventionally was useless and changed tactics; he used sealing techniques to immobilize rather than destroy. The Animal Path recognised the threat and summoned another creature.
Renjiro became increasingly irritated, but he continued adapting.
He activated his EMS and began observing the three Paths simultaneously. Their movements were too coordinated, their reactions occurring almost simultaneously. They never accidentally obstructed one another, and they responded to attacks from angles they shouldn't have been able to see. He began suspecting shared vision, shared sensory perception, or some form of distributed control. He deliberately attacked from multiple directions, and the Paths responded perfectly. He knew the mechanism behind them.
The Asura Path attacked from long range, and the Animal Path flooded the battlefield with summons. The Deva Path finally began moving, and Renjiro realised the other two had been buying time. Deva Path stepped forward, and the atmosphere changed; Kakashi immediately sensed the difference, and even Renjiro noticed that the chakra pressure around the third body was fundamentally different.
Renjiro decided to test the Deva Path. He disappeared with Hiraishin and reappeared directly behind him, throwing a high-speed strike. Shinra Tensei. He was violently repelled; he managed to redirect himself using Hiraishin before being thrown off the cliff. The surrounding mountain was devastated by the force.
Everyone realised that the Deva Path hadn't dodged; he had simply pushed Renjiro away. Renjiro's expression became serious.
He attacked again from another teleportation angle; the Deva Path used Shinra Tensei again. He started counting the intervals, noticing that there was a delay between uses. He attempted to exploit it, teleporting around the Deva Path at extreme speed, with multiple attacks simultaneously targeting different blind spots. The Deva Path anticipated every one. Renjiro managed to land one minor hit, but the Deva Path barely reacted. He realised that speed alone wouldn't win; Hiraishin alone wouldn't win; even his EMS wasn't enough to simply overwhelm this opponent.
While Renjiro was engaged with the Deva Path, the Asura Path targeted the Konoha perimeter. A massive mechanical weapon began charging; its destructive potential was enough to annihilate the entire defensive formation. Kakashi ordered everyone to scatter.
Renjiro noticed it. He had to choose: continue fighting the Deva Path or protect the delegation. He chose Konoha. The decision reinforced his character; he wasn't fighting for pride; he was fighting to keep everyone alive.
He rapidly placed Hiraishin points around the battlefield, creating a teleportation network. He could now instantly reposition between Kakashi, Kurenai, medical teams, genin clusters, and the main enemy positions. This dramatically changed the defensive battle; Konoha's survival rate improved, and Kakashi realised Renjiro was turning the battlefield into his own domain.
The Deva Path watched Renjiro. For the first time, Pain directly acknowledged him as a significant obstacle. The Asura Path began prioritising Renjiro, and the Animal Path began using summons specifically to limit his teleportation points. Pain's strategy shifted from destroying the Konoha delegation to neutralising Renjiro first. Renjiro recognised the shift.
He launched one concentrated assault; his EMS fully active, Hiraishin chains repeated, Earth Style and sealing techniques combined with his teleportation. He destroyed or severely damaged one of the Asura Path's mechanical weapons, briefly forced the Animal Path backwards, and nearly reached the Deva Path.
The Deva Path raised his hand. Shinra Tensei. Massive repulsive force tore through the battlefield. Renjiro was forced to teleport away, and the cliffside itself was devastated.
Dust and smoke covered everything. Renjiro emerged from the destruction, his clothes damaged, blood running from a minor wound, his EMS still spinning. Behind him, the Konoha delegation remained alive because of his intervention.
Kakashi looked at him. Renjiro looked back toward the enemy. Then the smoke separated, and the Deva Path walked forward; the Animal Path and Asura Path flanked him. The Rinnegan became visible through the flames.
Renjiro's expression became completely cold. He finally understood one thing: this wasn't an ordinary invasion.
The Deva Path stopped several metres away. The battlefield fell unnaturally quiet. Yahiko's corpse spoke with the hollow, overlapping voice of Pain:
"Jonin Commander of Konoha… your speed cannot outrun Pain."
Renjiro didn't answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the Rinnegan.
Shit.
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