"Someone's coming!"
Inside the cave, after learning from Aoba that Black Zetsu might make a move on him, Nagato had remained on high alert the entire time.
So the moment Uchiha Madara and his group stepped into the cave, he sensed it immediately.
However, by the time he finished saying that sentence, Uchiha Madara's group had already appeared right in front of him.
"This is… they're all ninjas revived by Edo Tensei?"
Konan saw through Uchiha Madara's group at a glance.
Those distinctive eyes and the strange cracks on their faces were all hallmarks of Edo Tensei.
And sticking to the principle of ending things quickly, the moment he saw them, Uchiha Madara had already begun forming hand seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A vast sea of flames spewed from his mouth, almost covering the entire cave as it rushed straight toward Nagato and Konan.
In a situation like this, there was simply no room to dodge.
Although Konan was surprised by the power of Uchiha Madara's Fire Release, she wasn't particularly afraid.
"Dance of the Shikigami!"
Her body instantly turned into countless sheets of folded paper fluttering through the air, as massive pure-white wings appeared behind her.
Immediately after, endless sheets of paper transformed into shuriken and swept toward Uchiha Madara's Fire Release.
If it were the old Konan, blocking this attack would have been extremely difficult.
Not to mention paper being countered by fire, chakra alone would have been a problem. But she had been receiving massive amounts of chakra from Aoba almost every day.
Just in terms of chakra volume alone, she had already improved by a huge margin compared to before.
On top of that, mixed among the countless paper shuriken were many exploding tags detonating in succession, causing Paper Release and Fire Release to fall into a brief stalemate.
Uchiha Madara was a little surprised, but this had only been a feint.
His target wasn't Konan.
The group of Edo Tensei ninjas behind him charged straight into the clash between Fire Release and Paper Release.
Then, crossing through the fire line, dragging their damaged bodies, each of them unleashed ninjutsu toward Konan and Nagato.
These were all legendary ninjas who had died in battle in various villages, including figures like the Second Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage.
Although they could only exert about thirty percent of their original strength, they were still stronger than most elite jonin.
Nagato didn't dare be careless. He raised his right hand toward them, and after a brief charge—
"Shinra Tensei!"
An incomparably powerful repulsive force erupted.
The ninjas who had been charging toward the two of them were instantly blasted back in the direction they came from, embedded straight into the rock walls.
Konan quickly split off a portion of her paper, sending it toward those Edo Tensei bodies to begin wrapping them up.
She had learned from Aoba that unless the caster released the jutsu, Edo Tensei could only be sealed, not killed.
Uchiha Madara's Fire Release was dispersed as well. But his personal strength was overwhelming. With just his hands crossed in front of him, even as the ground beneath his feet shattered, he wasn't blown away.
Black Zetsu hid behind Uchiha Madara, quietly waiting for the right moment.
There was a reason Madara was so confident letting Black Zetsu stay behind him. The original story didn't have him getting stabbed through the chest for nothing.
But although the offensive had been resolved, a mocking smile appeared at the corner of Uchiha Madara's mouth.
This was exactly what he wanted.
As a former Rinnegan wielder, he naturally understood all of the Rinnegan's abilities.
Although its basic abilities were already extremely powerful, they also had weaknesses.
Take the Shinra Tensei Nagato had just used, for example. It had a five-second cooldown.
Silently counting the time, the instant Nagato's repulsive force ended, Uchiha Madara raised his hand toward him as well.
His originally black eyes instantly transformed into the Rinnegan.
"Rinnegan? How is this possible?"
Nagato never imagined that there could be another person in this world who possessed the Rinnegan.
Even Aoba, though he had abilities similar to his, did not actually have the Rinnegan.
But Uchiha Madara gave him no time to think.
"Bansho Ten'in!"
The familiar pull of gravity snapped Nagato back to his senses, but Shinra Tensei was still on cooldown.
Having not fought personally with his real body for a very long time, and with his legs impaired, he was almost instantly pulled up from his wheelchair and dragged toward Uchiha Madara at extreme speed.
"Bansho Ten'in!"
Nagato didn't resign himself to his fate. He also used Bansho Ten'in.
However, what he was pulling wasn't Madara, but the entire rock wall behind him. He wasn't trying to rip the wall out to attack, but to stabilize his body first.
Once Shinra Tensei's cooldown was over, he planned to blast everyone away in one burst.
But Uchiha Madara's gravitational force was stronger than his.
In less than two seconds, he was once again pulled toward Uchiha Madara.
"Nagato?"
Konan was shocked and wanted to rush over to help, but among the Edo Tensei ninjas that Nagato had just blasted into the wall, several hadn't been sealed in time and charged straight at her.
They delayed her movement.
"Heh! These eyes have stayed with you long enough."
Uchiha Madara sneered as he gripped Nagato by the throat. Even while speaking, he didn't waste a single second.
A black rod appeared in his other hand and stabbed straight into Nagato's chest.
Immediately after, Black Zetsu shot out from behind him, pressing one hand against Nagato's chest.
Then his entire body began to melt like liquid, spreading over and covering Nagato.
"You're the real Uchiha Madara?"
Nagato instantly understood the identity of the man before him.
"Wait… what's going on?"
Nagato's eyes suddenly widened again, his expression filled with terror. He felt someone competing with him for control over his body.
His hands trembled as they slowly rose. This was the result of his resistance.
But that resistance was meaningless.
His hands had already come together.
Nagato instantly understood what the other party intended to do and immediately shouted.
"Konan, run! He's going to use my body to cast the Rinne Rebirth Technique!"
If the other side were to fully revive, there was no telling whether Aoba could handle it, but Konan definitely wouldn't stand a chance.
"Nagato?"
Hearing this, Konan was extremely anxious as well.
But facing the combined assault of several former Kage of the Five Great Nations at the same time, there was no way for her to save Nagato from Uchiha Madara's grasp.
At the moment, Aoba was engaged in battle with other powerful enemies.
In a flash of thought, an unconventional way to break the situation appeared in her mind.
In the next instant, as the other Edo Tensei bodies attacked her together, she directly abandoned all defensive measures.
Immediately after, a streak of blood flowed from the corner of Konan's right eye.
Her originally amber-colored eyes turned completely blood-red, with a strange black pattern embedded within.
A layer of transparent spatial ripples spread out from her body, instantly sealing off a large surrounding area of space.
All attacks froze in midair. Everything came to a standstill.
Even Uchiha Madara's thoughts entered a frozen state in that instant.
Let alone Black Zetsu, who was controlling Nagato to cast the Rinne Rebirth Technique.
Time stopped at that moment.
And outside.
Uchiha Hikari floated on Susanoo's forehead, staring blankly upward as the enormous wooden giant, hundreds of meters tall and covered in countless arms, swung its fists toward her.
If she'd known this thing existed, why would she even bother fighting? She might as well have just handed her life over to him.
Hundreds of fists came crashing down.
The once-intimidating blood-colored Susanoo was smashed apart.
In the end, only Uchiha Hikari remained, battered and disheveled, lying in a massive crater, her eyes lifeless.
It wasn't until Aoba landed in front of her that a bit of light returned to her gaze.
"Guh~ kill me. There's no way I'll become your ninja tool."
"..."
Aoba simply knocked her out with a single blow.
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