The Six Paths of Pain encircled her—positions locked at her left, right, and rear.
Kakuzu, Kisame, Itachi, Hidan, and Sasori closed in, forming a deadly ring.
Above, Konan's paper wings spread across the airspace, while Deidara hovered on his clay bird, his grin widening.
The encirclement was absolute. Even the Kage of any great village would have been crushed under such a lineup.
"Why run?" Nagato's voice echoed through the rain, his words spoken through the Deva Path. "Stay—and surrender your chakra."
Hinata stood at the center, her hair slick against her skin, her white eyes gleaming with quiet fury. The lion heads formed around her fists as her hair lengthened, flowing to her knees like dark silk under the rain.
"I don't want to die," Hinata said simply.
It was a calm, honest answer—one that none could deny.
If she stayed, death was certain. The fate of those whose tailed beast chakra was extracted was always the same: annihilation.
Hinata wasn't a Jinchūriki, but if the Ten-Tails' chakra were forcibly taken from her—would she really survive?
Escape was her only option. Whether she could or not… she'd only know after trying.
Negotiation was meaningless. Nagato wanted her chakra; Hinata wanted to live.
The only language left between them was battle.
"Go," commanded the Deva Path.
At once, the Akatsuki attacked.
Kisame charged in first, Samehada swinging in a blur of scales and teeth.
Hidan leapt forward with a wild laugh, his massive scythe slicing through the rain.
Kakuzu's hands formed rapid seals, while Sasori unleashed the Third Kazekage Puppet, and Itachi's shuriken spun through the air like silver streaks.
From above, Konan's paper blades descended like rain, mixed with explosive tags.
And far above them all, Deidara prepared his clay birds for detonation.
Hinata's Byakugan flared—her chakra surged violently.
"Ten-Tails Chakra Mode!"
Her golden aura erupted like a sun in the storm, the pressure of her chakra bending the rain itself.
The enhanced Gentle Fist and her sharpened Byakugan gave her just enough power to contend with Kisame and Kakuzu when they weren't fighting seriously. But now—now they were all attacking at once. Using anything less than her full power would be suicide.
She vanished from sight.
Kisame's blade cleaved through air. Hidan's scythe missed by inches. Hinata appeared behind him, driving her heel down onto his head. The impact sent him and his weapon crashing into a building.
Itachi's shuriken whirled toward her—Hinata snatched one midair and threw it back with double the speed, forcing Itachi to block.
She cut through a storm of Konan's paper and Deidara's clay insects, her movements leaving faint afterimages in the rain.
Hinata's wireless puppet control disrupted Kakuzu's hand seals, throwing his timing off. The Asura Path launched a volley of tracking missiles—but Hinata intercepted them mid-flight, seized control, and redirected them back toward their origin.
The resulting explosion tore through the night sky.
"Ha! That's art!" Deidara laughed wildly, hurling more clay spiders downward.
But Hinata's optimized Byakugan, saw through everything. Her dynamic vision could trace even the tiniest movement—each detonating spider seemed to crawl in slow motion before her eyes.
She could even glimpse moments into the immediate future.
Unless an enemy's speed surpassed her reaction time completely, defeating her head-on was almost impossible.
Effortlessly weaving through the explosions, Hinata was suddenly blocked by Sasori's puppet. The Third Kazekage loomed before her, blades and iron sand swirling like a storm. Behind it, Itachi's shuriken rained down again, forcing Hinata to defend as the rest closed in.
Her hands blurred into motion. When her hands were too busy, she used her hair—each strand infused with chakra, sharp as steel needles. The rabbit-hair threads sealed chakra points and hardened into spears, forming four massive fists that struck out in every direction.
The air rippled from the force.
The battle stretched endlessly. Minutes felt like hours under the storm.
Then—an opening.
Kakuzu slipped through her defense and drove his hardened fist into her ribs. The strike hit with brutal precision.
Hinata's eyes widened—she'd seen the attack coming, but she was already surrounded, unable to react in time.
She spat blood as her body was sent flying, crashing through several walls before skidding to a stop on the wet ground.
Wiping the blood from her lips, Hinata forced herself upright with a swift backflip, narrowly avoiding Itachi's follow-up shuriken.
She fell back, retreating just enough to breathe, and released her three puppets to block pursuit.
One puppet darted toward Sasori—to restrain the poison master.
Another intercepted Itachi, keeping his genjutsu at bay; falling under his illusion now would be certain death.
The last puppet confronted Kakuzu, whose five-element techniques would otherwise make him a constant threat.
Hinata exhaled slowly, steadying her heartbeat as her pale eyes refocused.
The battlefield narrowed. Only Kisame, Hidan, Konan, Deidara, and the waiting Pain remained active opponents.
Running away now would only invite disaster.
Even if she escaped, Akatsuki would hunt her relentlessly—or worse, attack Konoha and the Hyūga Clan to draw her out.
No—she had to stand her ground.
She needed to show them her strength. To make Akatsuki fear her.
Kisame lunged again, Samehada slicing through the air.
Hinata twisted at the last moment, letting the blade scrape across a small black sphere attached near her waist.
The instant Samehada made contact, it screamed.
The blade's flesh-like scales shriveled, disintegrating on impact. Kisame recoiled in pain, retreating in horror as his weapon twitched violently.
Realizing the danger, he didn't hesitate—he drew a kunai and amputated the section of Samehada that had touched the sphere.
He grimaced, watching the severed portion crumble away. Whatever that black orb was—it was far deadlier than poison.
Hinata saw the panic through her Byakugan and allowed herself a small, confident smile.
It was worth it—the hours she spent designing that countermeasure had finally paid off. With Samehada crippled, Kisame's threat was greatly reduced.
"Don't touch that thing!" Konan shouted, her paper wings flaring as she launched a rain of explosive tags toward Hinata.
While fending off Deidara's bombs and Hidan's relentless swings, Hinata channeled chakra through her own paper constructs—intercepting Konan's attack.
With precise control, she redirected the explosive tags midair, sending them arcing toward Deidara and Hidan instead. Konan froze, unable to detonate them without harming her own allies.
Deidara snarled, veering his clay bird away as the explosions went off dangerously close.
Meanwhile, Sasori's attention had shifted entirely. The more he observed Hinata's puppets, the more fascinated he became.
He stopped focusing on capturing her and began studying the puppets' movements instead—his eyes glinting with an artist's obsession.
…
Rain poured down endlessly over Amegakure, its dark clouds shrouding the village in gloom. Amid the metallic scent of wet steel, Itachi Uchiha stood unmoving, calmly exchanging blows with one of Hinata's puppets.
He hardly attacked—only spitting small bursts of fire and throwing a few shuriken—but even with such restraint, he managed to fight the puppet to a standstill.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu, ever the mercenary, had his eyes on Hinata's puppet as well. He could already see its immense value and wanted to capture it intact for sale. He fought seriously, his fists hardening with Earth Release, yet each time he tried to form hand seals, Hinata's wireless control interference disrupted him. Deprived of his ninjutsu, he was forced to fight with taijutsu—unfortunately for him, that was exactly what the puppet specialized in.
Hinata analyzed the battlefield carefully. She widened the gap between herself, Konan, and Hidan, then raised one hand toward Deidara, who hovered high above on his clay bird.
Her Byakugan focused. "Gravity Activation!"
"Wha—?!" Deidara cried out as an invisible pull yanked him downward, throwing him off balance.
Hinata leapt into the air, chakra flaring around her right hand as a lion's head formed from her chakra. Her rabbit-hair needles burst outward, forcing Kisame and Hidan back, clearing her path. She drove her fist toward Deidara's chest.
Deidara's eyes widened. He quickly formed hand seals, intending to substitute himself and detonate his clay in a suicidal blast to take Hinata down with him—but his fingers spasmed violently, chakra trembling.
He couldn't move.
Hinata had already disrupted his chakra flow.
"Damn—!"
Before the word left his mouth, her Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists came crashing down.
Just as the strike was about to connect, Sasori intervened. The Third Kazekage Puppet's magnetic field surged, tugging at the iron threads within both Deidara's gear and Hinata's ornaments.
The magnetic pull threw Hinata slightly off course, her chakra lion barely grazing Deidara's face as he tumbled away.
Hinata narrowed her eyes, immediately redirecting one of her puppets. With a single decisive punch, it smashed through the Third Kazekage Puppet's head, shattering one of its arms and scattering gears across the rain-soaked street.
Her sudden, overwhelming counterattack shattered the balance of the fight—and Nagato's plans along with it.