The two dashed toward each other as the final fight began.
The distance collapsed instantly. Pain stepped in first, movement sharp and efficient, a black chakra rod forming in his hand as he drove it forward in a clean, lethal thrust aimed straight for Naruto's chest.
Naruto twisted at the waist just enough for the rod to skim past his ribs.
Ssskhrrt—
Metal sliced through the air where flesh had been a fraction of a second earlier. Naruto stayed inside the range, pivoting hard on his lead foot as his elbow whipped upward toward Pain's temple.
Pain reacted on instinct, unleashing Shinra Tensei at point-blank range.
WHUUM—
The invisible force detonated between them, the air compressing violently before exploding outward. Naruto didn't fight it. He let the force carry him back, boots screeching across the ground as he dropped one hand to the earth, absorbed the recoil, and slingshotted himself forward again.
Pain barely finished resetting his stance. Naruto was already there.
A straight punch snapped toward Pain's face from Naruto's right, the strike tight and fast.
THUDK
Pain caught it with his wrist, redirecting the blow just in time—
KRRAK!
Naruto's other fist surged up from below in the same motion, a savage uppercut that smashed into Pain's chin. The impact lifted Pain clean off the ground, his body snapping backward as he was hurled into the air.
Pain twisted mid-flight, cloak snapping as he forced a backward flip and landed in a crouch, eyes snapping up—
—and Naruto was gone.
"Up here."
Pain barely had time to tilt his head before Naruto came down from above.
WHAMM—!
An axe kick crashed into Pain's shoulder, driving him straight into the earth. The ground buckled. CRRSHH
Dirt and stone erupting outward as a crater formed beneath him. Pain rolled and surged back to his feet immediately, but Naruto was already pressing in.
A left hook tore through the space beside Pain's head. A right straight followed, grazing his cheek. Naruto stepped in and drove a knee toward Pain's ribs.
Pain blocked one strike, parried the next, twisted his torso to deflect the knee—his movements precise, trained, honed through countless battles. Still, Naruto's rhythm never settled. Every blocked blow flowed seamlessly into another, angles shifting too quickly to predict.
Pain snapped his leg upward, a sharp kick slicing toward Naruto's temple. Naruto met it head-on.
The collision hit.
THOOM.
Sage Jutsu-enhanced force blasting through Pain's guard. His footing shattered as he was driven backward, slammed hard into the ground once more.
GRAAAM—
The earth cracked beneath his body, dust surging upward in a thick wave. Naruto stepped through it without slowing, posture relaxed, breath steady, eyes locked on Pain as he lined up the next exchange.
"Alright," Pain said as he pushed himself upright, dust sliding from his cloak, his voice calm but heavier than before. "Fun's over."
He brought his hands together, palms meeting slowly, deliberately. The air around him seemed to tighten, like the world itself was bracing.
"Chibaku Tensei."
A small black sphere formed between his palms—dense, unnaturally dark, swallowing light rather than reflecting it. Pain lifted his arm and hurled it skyward. The sphere shot upward, shrinking into the clouds like a falling star in reverse.
For half a second—
Nothing happened.
Then the world lurched.
The ground beneath Naruto's feet trembled as pebbles began to rattle and skitter across the dirt. Loose stones lifted first, quivering before tearing free from the earth. Chunks of rock followed, ripping themselves loose with grinding cracks as if gravity itself had inverted.
Grrrrrkk—
Trees groaned violently as their roots were wrenched from the soil, trunks snapping as they were dragged upward. Boulders scraped and tumbled, colliding mid-air as they were pulled toward the rising sphere above.
Naruto planted his feet as the force intensified, his clothes snapping wildly as the pull grew stronger. Entire sections of the battlefield began lifting, slabs of earth peeling away and spiraling upward like debris caught in a massive vortex.
The sky darkened as dust and stone filled the air.
Above them, the black sphere expanded, surrounded by a growing mass of earth and rubble as everything below was dragged toward it, layer by layer, forming a massive, rotating core.
Pain stood unmoving beneath it, arms lowered now, watching as the landscape was torn apart by his technique.
"This is the end," he said calmly, his voice carrying even through the roaring pull. "Your strength ends here."
Naruto felt the pull hit him a second later.
His body lifted off the ground as the gravitational force dragged him upward, chunks of earth and stone spiraling past him. He twisted mid-air and planted his feet against a rising slab of rock, stabilizing himself as the debris continued to tear free below. From this height, Pain looked small—still standing calmly at the center of the devastation, cloak fluttering violently in the distorted wind.
Naruto looked down at him, unfazed.
"This technique is just meant to restrain tailed beasts," he called out, his voice steady despite the roaring pull around them. "Honestly, aside from the force, it's not even that powerful."
From above, Naruto's eyes shifted past Pain, scanning the chaos below. Through the swirling debris and torn earth, he spotted it—the tall, unnatural tree standing out from the forest, exactly where he had sensed Nagato earlier.
Hmmm, he thought.
Chakra surged into his palm.
Whirrrrrr—
A Rasenshuriken formed instantly, its blades screaming as compressed wind tore at the air around it. Naruto hurled it downward toward the ground, but the moment it left his hand, the gravity twisted its path, yanking it upward toward the forming satellite instead.
Naruto smiled.
He then reached into his pouch and snapped his wrist, launching a kunai downward with raw Sage-enhanced strength. The blade cut through the air in a straight line, moving faster than the gravitational pull could redirect it.
The kunai struck the ground at Pain's feet.
clang.
A second later, the force caught it and ripped it upward—but that single moment was all Naruto needed.
He vanished.
Naruto reappeared directly in front of Pain, Rasengan already formed in his palm, the sphere churning violently with dense, spiraling chakra. Pain's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened—
BOOOOOOM—
Above them, the Rasenshuriken collided with the growing stone satellite. The explosion tore through the mass violently, wind blades shredding rock as a massive shockwave rippled outward, flattening trees and blasting through the forest with a deafening roar.
At the same instant—
Naruto drove the Rasengan straight into Pain's abdomen.
The impact folded Pain's body inward as he was launched backward, spinning uncontrollably through the air. He tore through branches and trunks in rapid succession—
Crash.
Crash.
Boom.
His body finally slammed into a massive boulder, cracking it down the center as the force dissipated.
Naruto landed lightly, exhaling once as the remnants of Chibaku Tensei collapsed behind him.
"…Alright," he muttered, glancing toward the towering tree in the distance. ' Let's go meet Nagato, shall we.'
Without hesitation, Naruto broke into a sprint, his body blurring as he tore through the forest, heading straight for the source.
TO BE CONTINUED