"What kind of power is this...?"

Standing atop the ruins, Orochimaru stared into the distance, his face faintly frozen in disbelief.

It was not as though he had never seen destruction on this scale before. In war, when large numbers of shinobi combined their techniques, the devastation they unleashed could be beyond imagination.

Even he himself, if he truly intended it, was more than capable of causing widespread destruction.

But this—

This was different.

This was not an army.

This was not a battlefield formation.

This was merely two people fighting.

And yet the destruction they produced had reached such a monstrous level that even Orochimaru, for all his experience, had never truly witnessed anything like it.

At first, it had only been a clash of taijutsu.

But even that had already gone far beyond the limits of ordinary ninjutsu.

And now that they had begun colliding head-on with techniques of this scale, the pressure had only grown more suffocating. The air itself seemed saturated with death.

"That Rinnegan user is in a terrifying state now as well... Better to get farther away."

Gazing at the battlefield, sensing the terrifying fluctuations in the distance, Orochimaru made his decision at once.

He was not especially worried for himself.

His means of survival were more than enough.

But the child beside him would not be able to endure what was coming next.

"Mm?"

In the very next second, a vast force erupted outward.

That power slammed directly into Hikaru's Wood Release, and in an instant the world seemed to change color.

Then, an indescribable shockwave exploded in every direction.

The impact defied description.

The devastation surpassed all reason.

At the speed that destructive force was spreading, even Orochimaru's current position would not remain safe for long.

"These two monsters..."

From a forest on the other side, Sasori watched from afar, his face equally grim.

The moment those two made their move, he had already realized that the destructive force they were generating was beyond anything he could contend with.

Because of that, he had never even considered getting closer.

He had not even bothered going after Orochimaru.

But what truly caught him off guard was that even after retreating this far, the aftershocks of their battle still seemed capable of affecting him.

Perhaps it was because of Hikaru's other identity, but Sasori had already once experienced what it felt like to be smothered by death itself.

Even as a shinobi who had endured countless brushes with death, that absolute helplessness was something he never wanted to experience again.

And yet—

Even after putting so much distance between himself and the battlefield, the area covered by the clash of those two was still absurdly vast.

"This is bad... far too bad!"

Sasori shook his head sharply, then immediately summoned the Third Kazekage puppet.

He had only one priority now.

Protect himself.

The last time he had brushed too close to death, he had paid dearly for it.

He had no desire to repeat the experience.

"Rumble... Rumble...!"

The brilliant white radiance spread across the battlefield, and the moment it collided fully with the Wood Release, an ear-splitting roar became the only sound left in the world.

Cracks spread wildly across the earth.

One after another, deep fissures like bottomless abysses tore across the ground, stretching outward as though they might run all the way to the horizon.

Hikaru stood silently within the layers of Wood Release surrounding him, but even he could not help clicking his tongue at the terrifying force before him.

Especially when that world-destroying impact struck his Wood Release head-on, even he felt a dull pressure in his chest.

This was true power.

This was the kind of devastation the Rinnegan should have been capable of.

Bang!

Under that endless impact, the outermost layer of Hikaru's Tree World descended into dust.

The sight made his brows draw together slightly.

"This level of power really is beyond expectation."

He muttered to himself softly.

The Wood Release he was using this time was not ordinary Wood Release.

It was a combination of Sage Mode and the chakra of his Jōgan.

That was the only reason it had reached this level.

And yet even so, he could still feel his Wood Release beginning to falter under Nagato's assault.

But after thinking about it again, he did not find it all that strange.

To begin with, he had not even used a tenth of his total chakra for this technique.

Strictly speaking, that was already a considerable amount of chakra to mobilize.

But compared to Nagato, who had practically gathered every scrap of his chakra together and was even burning through his own life to maintain the attack, it seemed almost insignificant.

Besides, for someone with Hikaru's monstrous recovery ability, spending a tenth of his chakra was hardly worth mentioning.

The other side was going all out—even gambling with his life to reach this level.

In that case, results like this were only natural.

"Looks like I'll have to get a little more serious as well."

With that thought, Hikaru silently began drawing more and more chakra from within himself.

The enormous trees that had already towered over the battlefield swelled once more, becoming truly colossal.

The earth rumbled endlessly.

His trees thrust upward into the sky itself, completely sealing off everything in front of him.

At that moment, Hikaru clearly felt the pressure from Pain's attack beginning to weaken.

Even though his trees were still being eroded away—and some were snapping apart outright—the earlier, skin-prickling sense of danger was no longer there.

"And this impact... or rather, this repulsive force... is giving me a strange feeling."

Faced with such a Shinra Tensei, Hikaru felt something stirring within him.

In truth, the moment he had first obtained these eyes, he had already sensed that they should possess certain special abilities.

If nothing else, he had always felt that he ought to be able to wield attraction and repulsion.

He could sense something like that sleeping within his eyes.

He simply had not been able to awaken it.

But now, facing Nagato's attack once more, Hikaru could clearly feel certain abilities inside his eyes beginning to stir.

And as the repulsive force of Nagato's Shinra Tensei grew stronger and stronger, that stirring became more active.

At the same time, a growing understanding began to surface in his mind.

"So... that's how it works."

As the pressure of Shinra Tensei intensified, Hikaru's understanding deepened.

The brilliant light in his eyes grew ever more radiant.

At that moment, his control over his eyes seemed to strengthen.

More importantly, he realized he had grasped hold of a new power.

A power that had always existed within those eyes from the very beginning—

It was simply that his control had not been strong enough to bring it forth.

But now, under Nagato's pressure, he had gradually comprehended it.

And now...

He had mastered it.

"As expected, Nagato really is a good man."

Hikaru muttered to himself.

And at that exact moment, the world-destroying force of Shinra Tensei finally began to subside.

...

Tendō Pain slowly lowered the hand he had held out.

His face remained expressionless as ever, but within his ripple-patterned eyes there was, for once, a trace of unmistakable weariness.

Under the devastating force he had just unleashed, everything around Nagato had been reduced to nothing.

The thick dust cloud swallowed the surroundings whole, leaving him unable to see what lay ahead.

But he believed in the power he had just released.

No matter how fearsome that Wood Release had looked, under such force it should have been meaningless.

He had absolute confidence in that.

After all, these eyes were the Rinnegan—the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths.

"Hah..."

So faint it was nearly inaudible, Tendō Pain let out a quiet breath.

He was tired.

Or rather—

Nagato was tired.

The Shinra Tensei he had just unleashed, gathering nearly all his chakra into a single blow, had pushed his real body far beyond what it could bear.

But he still believed it.

No one should have been able to withstand that attack.

Even if that man also possessed a pair of extraordinary eyes.

Within the smoke-choked ruins, shattered stone shifted.

Orochimaru kicked aside a slab of broken rock and climbed out from underground, bringing Kabuto with him.

Both of them looked a mess.

And at this moment, whether it was the young Kabuto or Orochimaru himself, both wore expressions of utter disbelief.

They stared blankly at the scene before them.

It was hard to believe that this dust-shrouded wasteland had once been a dense forest.

That enormous stretch of woodland had been erased completely, leaving behind nothing but a gigantic, barren crater devoid of life.

Within that crater, every trace of living existence seemed to have been wiped away.

And all of it had happened in an instant.

"Can humans truly do something like this?"

Orochimaru murmured softly, then fell into silence.

But unlike the calm look on his face, his thoughts were anything but still.

His mind was blazing with agitation and desire.

He could not even say for certain whether this still counted as human power.

But in the face of such strength, alongside the fear in his heart, there was also a powerful longing.

"Wood Release is already enough to make one yearn for it... but Senju Hikaru's power is even more intoxicating. Those eyes are likely not the result of Senju blood alone. They are Hikaru's own special exception."

Orochimaru licked his lips.

A feverish hunger lit his eyes.

Beside him, Kabuto trembled uncontrollably.

He knew the Minister was powerful.

He knew he was terrifying.

After all, he had lived through the Nine-Tails incident. He had seen those towering trees lock the Nine-Tails in place, preventing it from taking even a single step.

At the time, he had not known who had done it.

But after being brought into the ANBU, he had learned exactly who that person had been.

To be precise, Kabuto had once resented Hikaru deeply.

After all, Hikaru had practically dragged him out of the orphanage by force.

Because of Hikaru, he had left behind the village, his friends, his family, and everything familiar to him.

And now he had been thrust to Orochimaru's side—a man who had experimented on Konoha's own people and was being hunted by the village.

He had thought about resisting.

He simply knew he had no way to do so right now.

Still, somewhere inside, he had clung to a faint hope for the future.

But now—

At this moment—

Every rebellious thought inside him vanished under the pressure of that overwhelming clash.

He knew it now.

He had no chance.

Not now.

Not in the future.

Not in this life.

He would never be able to resist that man.

That Minister.

That silver-haired Senju, who looked so much like him—

That devil.

Silent terror spread through Kabuto like cold water.

He lowered his head instinctively, no longer daring to look toward the battlefield.

"Damn it..."

Sasori crawled out from another heap of rubble, his expression ugly beyond words.

Compared to his own miserable appearance, the Third Kazekage puppet—which had shielded him moments ago—looked even worse.

After being struck by the aftermath of the clash, it had been reduced to a mangled wreck.

The sight made Sasori's scalp prickle.

The Third Kazekage puppet was one of his greatest masterpieces.

And now it had suffered such damage in a battle it had barely even entered.

Worst of all, he had only just finished repairing it not long ago.

The last time, that man who wielded the Nine-Tails' power had shattered it with a single Tailed Beast Bomb, forcing Sasori to put almost everything else aside just to focus on restoring it.

To him, puppets were everything.

His faith.

His strength.

His very self.

He had spent nearly half a year restoring that puppet to working order.

And now, without even fully engaging in combat, it had been ruined again.

The frustration and bitterness were nearly enough to make him cough blood.

Yet even amid that bitterness, he had to admit something.

The strength of those two was absurd.

Even from this distance, the aftershocks of their battle had left him in such a state.

What would happen if someone actually faced them head-on?

He could hardly imagine it.

"Still... that Konoha Nightingale doesn't seem quite right."

Sasori frowned.

He remembered fighting that man before.

But compared to the power Hikaru had displayed now, the difference was like heaven and earth.

Back then, that man did not even seem capable of Flying Thunder God.

Other than summoning that monstrous lizard, he had not posed much of a threat at all.

But now?

The strength he displayed now left Sasori with only one real option.

Retreat.

And retreat as far as possible.

Because Sasori knew perfectly well that if he had to face this current Hikaru alone, death would be his only ending.

Taking a deep breath, Sasori forced himself to calm down.

There was no point dwelling on any of this now.

Even if the battle in the distance was not fully over yet, he no longer had any intention of watching it.

He had to withdraw.

His puppet was ruined.

There was nothing to gain by staying.

His priority now was to leave, repair his puppet as soon as possible, and restore his fighting strength.

That, and only that, was what truly mattered.

He turned and cast one final look toward the battlefield.

The smoke was beginning to thin.

And through it, those terrifying giant trees began to reveal their savage silhouettes.

The moment he saw that, Sasori no longer dared hesitate in the slightest.

Because that sight alone told him more than enough.

...

"This... this is impossible!"

As the smoke was swept away by the wind, row after row of monstrous, intertwined trees came into view before Pain.

Though battered and scarred, they still stood tall.

At that moment, no matter how cold and emotionless he appeared, even he felt a wave of disbelief.

He could not accept this reality.

He had pushed himself to the brink to unleash that Shinra Tensei.

That attack was powerful enough, in his mind, to wipe out any of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

And yet the cruel truth now lay right in front of him.

Everything he had done...

had amounted to nothing against Konoha's Nightingale.

How could that be?

Why had it turned out like this?

He could neither understand it nor accept it.

Why could that Wood Release block his strongest attack?

Buzz!

He had no time to think further.

A sharp sound tore through the air, and in the next instant his body was sent flying once more.

Even he had no idea how far he had been launched this time, nor how many things he had smashed through before finally coming to a stop.

His mind was a blank haze.

Worse still, because of the reckless chakra expenditure just now, he could barely control the power of the Rinnegan anymore.

"You really disappoint me."

The moment Pain's body finally came to a halt, that calm, indifferent voice echoed beside him once more.

Pain turned his head with difficulty.

There, not far away, stood that drifting, ghostlike figure wreathed in blue chakra.

Konoha's Nightingale.

Nagato could see him clearly through Pain's eyes.

Even if he could not, he would have known it was him.

That cursed voice.

That phantom-like speed.

That divine figure.

For a brief, irrational moment, Nagato actually felt that this man was the true god.

He was the one fit to stand in the Sage of Six Paths' place.

He was the true envoy of the Sage walking the world.

Not Nagato.

"I refuse to accept it! I refuse!"

At that moment, both the real Nagato hidden inside the tree hollow and the Pain body under his control let out a furious roar.

His chakra had not recovered.

But he no longer cared.

He still had life left to burn.

And he could force the Rinnegan to move with that life if he had to.

Unfortunately for him, Hikaru was faster.

Within the gaze of his Jōgan, he had already seen Pain's chakra shifting once again.

More importantly, this time, the power being drawn out already contained Nagato's life force.

That meant Nagato had truly gone mad.

So Hikaru moved first.

He had only just acquired a fascinating new power, and now he meant to test exactly how it performed.

He raised his hand.

Sage chakra and Jōgan chakra stirred together.

A powerful attractive force gathered in his palm without the slightest hesitation.

In an instant, the laws of the world seemed to change.

Broken stones and snapped branches from every direction answered the call, hurtling wildly toward Hikaru.

Pain's body was no different.

He lost control of it completely.

He did not even have time to react before his body shot toward Hikaru's outstretched hand like a cannonball.

Even Hikaru himself was startled.

This truly was the first time he had used his Jōgan in this way.

Or rather—

This kind of manipulation over attraction and repulsion seemed to be a common ability shared by all truly high-level dōjutsu.

A universal skill, one could say.

But even so, the force Hikaru had produced was far stronger than he had expected.

It was not only Hikaru who was caught off guard.

Far away, hidden in the tree hollow, Nagato's already pale face turned even uglier.

Why could this man use Banshō Ten'in as well?

But this was hardly the time to dwell on that question.

He had to break free of that accursed control immediately.

"Shinra Tensei!"

Gritting his teeth, Nagato forced a shift in his chakra flow.

Both of Pain's hands spread outward.

A surge of chakra burst forth.

Repulsive force expanded in all directions.

Shinra Tensei exploded outward once again.

In truth, he had originally meant to use Banshō Ten'in.

But Hikaru had beaten him to it, leaving him no choice but to change techniques at the last second.

That kind of abrupt shift was extremely dangerous.

At this very moment, blood was already starting to spill uncontrollably from Nagato's mouth and nose.

"Nagato..."

Seeing that, Konan was stricken with alarm.

But Nagato paid her no attention.

He remained focused on controlling Tendō Pain.

Under the invisible wall of repulsive force, Pain's body finally stopped hurtling toward Hikaru.

A transparent ripple formed around him, and the ground beneath his feet sank slightly under the pressure.

But Hikaru had no intention of stopping.

Because he had already realized something—

Controlling these forces consumed almost none of his chakra.

More than that, these powers were docile in his hands.

Like sheep beneath a shepherd's staff.

Completely obedient.

"In that case..."

A smile appeared on Hikaru's face.

His body blurred.

Before Nagato could react, Hikaru began altering the trajectory of the attractive force under his control.

Gravity was not limited to up or down.

If one could truly command it, then its vectors could be altered however one wished.

Of course, that sort of manipulation should have been incredibly difficult.

But at this moment, Hikaru felt that with the aid of his eyes and his control, he could absolutely do it.

Without the slightest hesitation, the blue glow in his eyes intensified.

The chakra within him surged violently.

And as the power within those eyes shifted, the rules governing that field of attraction seemed to be rewritten outright.

Up. Down. Left. Right.

Every direction of force changed at once.

For a single dreadful moment, the world itself seemed to descend into chaos.

Pain's body jerked violently.

Far away, Nagato felt the entire world twist.

Even though his Rinnegan could tell that this was Hikaru's doing, and that the bizarre inversion was merely the result of gravitational vectors being altered—

Pain's body still reacted to it as though it were real.

That warped attraction twisted Pain's limbs.

The repulsive force he was sustaining instantly became disordered.

Those changing vectors tore at his body from all directions.

His head was dragged upward.

His limbs twisted in conflicting directions.

The world itself seemed to be turning inside out.

"AHHH!"

Nagato roared once more.

His chakra and life force surged violently together.

He had to stop this.

He had to seize control back.

Otherwise, the body of his best friend would be destroyed right here.

Blood now streamed from his eyes.

His body grew even more shriveled.

He looked like a candle at the very end of its burn.

But he still refused to stop.

He had never once considered giving up.

And then—

The warped, twisted attraction abruptly vanished.

Everything returned to normal as though nothing had happened.

...

"Damn it..."

Hikaru leapt back at once, clutching his eyes.

Between his fingers, a streak of red quietly trickled down.

Clearly, his eyes had suffered some backlash.

"I got ahead of myself."

He sighed inwardly.

He knew perfectly well what state he was in.

His body was fine.

His eyes had not truly been injured.

The real issue was that the chakra within them had begun to run wild.

He had felt that he could manipulate attraction with greater precision.

And he had.

He had used his imagination to make gravity become bizarre, unpredictable, and deadly.

But that level of manipulation had clearly exceeded what he could sustain.

He had only comprehended and grasped that power less than a minute ago.

Even if he could force it into action, the current level of his eyes simply could not support it.

This was his dōjutsu rebelling against him.

Or rather, protecting him.

If he kept pushing, bloodshot eyes would be the least of his problems.

"Looks like I was too naive about this power. Even weakened to this degree, gravity is still one of the fundamental forces that shape entire worlds."

Gravity might seem plain and unremarkable on the surface.

But without it, a planet would be torn apart by the chaos of the universe long before life could ever form.

On a larger scale, without gravity, celestial systems themselves would never come into being.

And with that, life as a phenomenon would never even exist.

To fully master such a force—

To truly command it—

That difficulty was on an entirely different level.

"If I want to bring that power even further under control, then these eyes will have to evolve again."

Wiping the blood from the corner of his eye, Hikaru looked up toward Pain in the distance.

Pain had climbed back to his feet.

But his condition had plainly fallen to rock bottom.

The chakra links running through the black receivers on his body had become thin as threads.

As a result, even his movements looked slightly stiff now.

A fitting example of what one might call poor signal reception in the ninja world.

Hikaru shook his head.

This test had already given him all the results he wanted.

There was no need to continue playing around.

Overall, he was deeply satisfied.

More than anything, his battle with Nagato had unexpectedly opened the switch for attraction and repulsion within his Jōgan.

That alone made everything worthwhile.

Even the brief backlash at the end could be accepted as part of a near-perfect result.

"I've tested attraction. Then I should test repulsion too. Hopefully this time there won't be any complications."

With that thought, Hikaru focused once more.

A powerful repulsive force began forming around him.

And this time, he could feel clearly that the repulsion also obeyed him completely.

"In that case..."

Satisfied, he stopped hesitating.

He had no intention of using repulsion in exactly the same way Nagato did.

But neither would he recklessly experiment with it like he had done with attraction.

He simply gathered the entire repulsive force beneath himself.

The next moment—

His body began to rise lightly into the air.

Flight.

He had long looked forward to that power.

But he had never expected to master it in such a manner.

"All right. This little game is over."

Floating in the air, Hikaru did not rise too high.

Even if he now could, there was no reason to get careless.

He looked calmly at the battered, exhausted Pain below.

Then a suffocating chakra pressure burst from him once more.

Even after fighting to this point, Hikaru's chakra reserves still remained absurdly full.

His Jōgan Chakra Mode was nearing its limit, certainly—

but that did not stop him from using plenty of other interesting techniques.

"All I can say is that I'm disappointed."

He spoke slowly, raising one hand.

His index and middle fingers aligned in a simple seal.

"The wielder of the Rinnegan amounts to no more than this? Or perhaps the Rinnegan itself amounts to no more than this? I've suddenly lost all interest in you."

"What... are your eyes...?"

The moment Hikaru's words fell, Pain slowly lifted his head.

He looked up at Hikaru floating in the sky.

His voice was still cold enough to freeze the air, but now it was also weak to the point of collapse.

He truly wanted to know.

He wanted to know what those eyes were.

He wanted to know what kind of dōjutsu he had lost to.

And more than that—

He wanted to know Hikaru himself.

He had never imagined that in this world, especially in Konoha, someone like this could exist.

"I'll give you the answer before you die."

A smile touched Hikaru's lips.

The earth began roaring once more beneath them as he spoke.

"These eyes are called the Jōgan. Farewell."

"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"

Chakra surged.

A hundred-meter-long wooden dragon burst from the earth and lunged straight at Pain!

"Jōgan..."

Inside the hidden tree hollow, Nagato slowly closed his eyes.

He had lost all connection to Tendō Pain.

This time, he had lost.

Not barely.

Not narrowly.

But utterly and completely.

Even so, he remembered now.

He remembered Konoha's ANBU Minister.

That Senju shinobi known as Konoha's Nightingale.

And above all—

He remembered those brilliant blue eyes known as the Jōgan.

"Jōgan..."

Far away, Orochimaru stood beside Kabuto, his tongue sliding lightly across his lips.

His expression was unreadable.

But in his mind, all he could see was that dazzling pair of eyes.

And the heat burning in his gaze only grew stronger.

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