Chương 85: Chapter 85: Just Do It 

The Six Paths vanished from the center of the explosion. Fire rolled through the trees, shredded paper spinning inside it. The Deva Path landed beyond the blast and understood the deception a moment too late. Had Tonbo's speech been intended to distract him? Those three bodies had been an illusion. 

Black receivers carried a disruptive pulse through every Path. The shallow genjutsu broke, but no trace of the fugitives remained within their linked vision. 

Pain turned toward Tonbo. "Where are the others?" 

Tonbo drew a short sword. "Farther away than they were." 

Near the border, Murakumo's ink bird climbed through low clouds with Togekei and Iwao pressed against its broad back. Rain washed black streaks from the painted wings, but the construct held its shape. 

"Those six were monsters," Murakumo said. His hands remained locked in the control seal. "One look was enough." 

Togekei watched the forest behind them. "Who were they? Were those rippled eyes some kind of kekkei genkai?" 

"Probably," Iwao said. "We need to get back to Konoha. I do not know how long the captain can hold off all six." 

Root had taught him that a temporary sacrifice was nothing. He did not expect Tonbo to last long. 

Togekei wanted to help his teacher, but returning would only make him a burden. He touched the hidden pocket inside his vest. If Tonbo could make the thing he carried there, surely he would be all right. 

"I have sent the signal," Murakumo said. "A border unit should meet us soon." 

They flew on. 

Missiles tore through the forest behind Tonbo. He crossed between them with Body Flicker, felt one detonate close enough to burn his sleeve, and met the Preta Path with his blade. The Human Path attacked from the opposite side while the Asura Path opened another weapon compartment along its shoulder. 

The Six Paths denied one another's blind spots. Preta threatened to absorb ninjutsu and chakra-based contact. Human could tear away a soul. Asura carried enough mechanical weapons to saturate the field. The Deva Path waited outside the exchange, ready to distort distance whenever Tonbo found an advantage. 

Knowledge narrowed his choices without making the fight easy. 

Tonbo parried a black receiver and avoided letting it touch skin. The rods disrupted chakra and connected the bodies to Nagato. If one remained inside him, even his own nervous system could become another route for interference. 

Three Paths pressed him at once. 

Ordinary genjutsu lasted less than a tenth of a second before the black receivers disrupted it. With the Preta Path on guard, many of his illusions would be useless altogether. 

The Human Path drove a receiver through Tonbo's chest. Metal struck with a hollow clang. 

Tonbo withdrew, his fingers already completing the next seals. He had cast a visual illusion at the instant the Human Path committed to its attack, before its receivers could correct what it saw. 

The rod had struck the Asura Path in his place. One of its mechanical arms hung shattered, sparks spilling from the broken connection. 

"Earth Release: Earth Spikes." 

Tonbo touched the ground. Stone lances erupted beneath Asura and drove the damaged body upward. Kunai carrying explosive tags followed from both hands. 

"Shinra Tensei." 

Repulsive force swept the weapons away. 

Tonbo had expected it. The moment all six pairs of eyes registered the thrown kunai, he sent Eightfold Flavor through their shared visual connection. 

The eight foul flavors struck Nagato at once. The black receivers disrupted the illusion almost immediately, but taste did not vanish merely because the foreign chakra had been expelled. Every Path slowed by half a beat. 

The Preta Path reached Tonbo from behind and closed one hand over his shoulder. 

A log appeared beneath its fingers. 

Hidden within a distant tree, Nagato gagged. His body carried the sensations his puppets could not feel. 

"What happened?" Konan asked. 

"The Konoha shinobi attacked through the Paths' senses," Nagato said. He forced his breathing steady. "His genjutsu is unusually precise." 

The Naraka Path dragged it to the King of Hell. Jaws closed, worked once, and released the Asura Path intact. 

Tonbo felt personally insulted. Destroying one body meant nothing while Naraka remained protected, yet reaching it required crossing the other five. 

Pain had learned enough as well. 

"Shinra Tensei." 

This repulsion expanded in every direction. Tonbo tried to distort Pain's perception of the range, making himself seem forever beyond reach. The genjutsu failed to stop the force. 

Tonbo's body folded around the impact. Ribs cracked. Skin split across his face and arms, and pressure drove through his organs before hurling him between trees. Asura's missiles followed the line of retreat. 

"Genjutsu: Self-Repair." 

Tonbo turned the illusion inward. His nerves and damaged tissues received the pattern of their condition one minute earlier, driving clotting and cellular repair toward that remembered state. He bit down on a soldier pill to supply what the accelerated process demanded. 

Then he used the remaining force of Shinra Tensei to retreat beyond the missiles' effective pursuit. 

So it could repel genjutsu too. Tonbo had thought throwing ninjutsu back was troublesome enough. What an infuriating ability. 

Tonbo steadied his hands. 

"Then I will attack the one place all six of you share. Psycho Mind Transmission: Melancholy." 

Near the Fire border, a wooden stake shot from empty air. 

Murakumo twisted the ink bird aside, but the stake tore through one wing. The construct dissolved into splashing ink, dropping all three shinobi toward the forest. 

They landed across separate branches and found the white-spiraled masked man waiting below. Chains extended from both wrists. 

"Who are you?" Togekei demanded. 

"Dead men have no use for names." 

The lighter voice within the spiral laughed. "Nagato nearly allowed them to escape because of a simple illusion." 

"That is why I came," the deeper voice replied. 

The chains tightened as the masked man advanced.