Single-handedly obliterating Pain, how many bags of rice must one carry?

Just as Su Ye held Konan and prepared to take advantage of the situation—or rather, to slip away before anyone else arrived—he turned around to see a hedgehog-haired man with orange hair standing behind him. The man was staring at him from a distance with dead, swirling, mosquito-coil eyes.

The man was not bad-looking, though his taste was peculiar; he wore nose piercings, three of them strung horizontally across the bridge of his nose. It looked incredibly painful just to see. However, the man felt nothing, for he was a corpse. Not only would he not feel the pain of a few rods stuck into his body, but even if he were sliced in two, he would not flinch.

This was the Deva Path of the Six Paths of Pain. The black rods embedded in his body were the devices that Nagato, the controller behind the scenes, used to transmit chakra. The Six Paths of Pain—consisting of the Deva, Naraka, Human, Asura, Preta, and Animal Paths—were each crafted from a different corpse, acting as puppets for the bedridden Nagato to maneuver through the world.

Su Ye had long sensed the Deva Path's arrival, but since the opponent had shown no immediate hostility, he had ignored it. Now, he turned to greet him while holding Konan.

"Hey, hello there!"

Opposite him, the corpse-like Pain remained expressionless, his purple Rinnegan fixed intently on Su Ye.

"What have you done to her?"

Su Ye shrugged. "As you can see, I just let my aunt take a nap. Don't worry, she's physically fine."

The Deva Path glanced at Konan. With the power of his Rinnegan, he could tell she was indeed unharmed, and he turned his gaze back to Su Ye.

"You know why we are here."

Su Ye nodded. "That's right. The Akatsuki followed me from New York all the way to Los Angeles. If I didn't know what was going on by now, I’d be a fool."

The Deva Path remained silent for a moment before suddenly saying, "If you hand over the Nine-Tails, we can leave immediately. We will not harm you or your friends."

"Harm?" Su Ye chuckled and tilted his head toward the back. "Are you talking about them?"

In the distance, Su Ye’s shadow clone was locked in combat with four other Akatsuki members. With Uchiha Yu acting as a double agent, Su Ye was not falling behind. Meanwhile, several flashes of light streaked across the sky; reinforcements from the Avengers and the Guardians had arrived. With their help, plus the seven or eight others and Uchiha Yu, defeating Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori was only a matter of time.

Down in the water, the Abomination and Kisame Hoshigaki were locked in a fierce struggle. It was clear to the naked eye that Kisame was starting to lose ground. This was likely the most difficult battle of Kisame's career. His water-style attacks were ineffective, his Samehada blade couldn't absorb his opponent's chakra, and he was being ruthlessly pummeled by a former elite soldier with immense physical strength. With no other choice, Kisame had to use the Samehada Fusion form, merging with his blade to become a fish-man, only then barely holding off the Abomination’s assault. And it was *barely* holding on.

The Deva Path glanced at the scene and shook his head slightly. "It seems you have many friends, and their abilities are quite good. However, do not think of the Akatsuki as being so simple."

As the Deva Path finished speaking, several dark shadows appeared behind him. Including himself, all seven were present—the Six Paths of Pain were complete. "Since you will not cooperate, then I have no choice but to..."

Before he could finish, the Six Paths of Pain turned into black shadows and charged toward Su Ye. Each of the Six Paths possessed different abilities, but because they were all controlled by Nagato, they shared a single mind. Combined, they could unleash devastatingly unexpected team attacks.

Su Ye’s expression grew serious. Facing the Six Paths, no one could be certain of victory. Two days ago, Su Ye would have been just as helpless, forced to rely solely on Rasengan and shadow clones to fight them. But as he had told Konan, the current Su Ye was different.

Facing the incoming Six Paths, Su Ye didn't even move his feet. After adjusting Konan in his arms into a secure hold, he reached out his free hand.

Instantly, the seven black shadows froze in mid-air.

Magneto’s ability activated: Magnetic Field Control!

The Six Paths of Pain were embedded with countless black rods used to receive Nagato's chakra for control. The material of these rods was unknown—some said it was a low-level application of Truth-Seeking Balls, a form of Yin-Yang Release, rather than simple metal. But Su Ye’s power wasn't just controlling metal; it was controlling magnetic fields. These rods acted as chakra signal receivers, and the principle of receiving chakra was similar to a signal tower receiving electromagnetic waves—it was akin to a magnetic field.

Therefore, while Nagato was controlling the Six Paths to attack, Su Ye could use magnetic field manipulation to counter-control them. In fact, if Su Ye had been willing from the start, he could have used magnetic control to immobilize all the Akatsuki members. It was just that controlling too many people at once would dilute his power, making it easy for them to break free using their own chakra. Moreover, doing it too early would have alerted Nagato, and the element of surprise would be lost.

Unlike now—as soon as Su Ye reached out, the Six Paths were instantly immobilized. The six leading ones were frozen solid; only the Deva Path at the very back, perhaps because he was slightly further away, seemed to be less severely affected.

Su Ye’s mouth curled into a faint smile. "Master Jiraiya once taught three students: Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. That orange-haired one is Uncle Yahiko, right? So, the one controlling him from behind must be Uncle Nagato?"

"Your junior, Su Ye, pays his respects to Little Uncle!"

Su Ye spoke politely, but his hands were ruthless. *Pop, pop, pop!* The black rods on the six immobilized bodies were suddenly tugged by an unknown force and ripped straight out. The six bodies then collapsed like kites with severed strings, falling to the ground motionless.

It all happened so fast they didn't even have time to unleash their abilities. Nagato, the controller behind the scenes, had barely prepared to make them burst with chakra to break free when the receivers were simply ripped away. He only managed to have the Deva Path, who was slightly further back, take the opportunity to leap into the air and gain some distance.

"A formidable ability. It seems I truly underestimated you. You are worthy of being Brother Su's son." The Deva Path spoke loudly from the air. Though his tone remained flat, one could clearly detect a tremor in his voice. Obviously, Nagato had not expected to lose six of his bodies in an instant, leaving only the Deva Path to escape.

In Su Ye's arms, Konan had regained consciousness, but due to the telepathic control, she could not move her body or perform ninjutsu, forced to remain in his arms.

*I didn't expect that after so much planning, it would all fall apart like this,* Konan sighed inwardly, looking at the bodies of the Six Paths scattered on the ground.

Seeing the other Akatsuki members in the distance locked in a bitter struggle, Nagato finally made a decision. In the air, the Deva Path spoke slowly.

"Almighty Push..."

Hearing this line, Su Ye was overjoyed. Nagato hadn't disappointed him; the moment he had been waiting for had arrived. However, Su Ye put on a grave expression. "This feeling... it doesn't look good. What is he doing?"

Konan’s voice was low. "Run. If you don't run now, it will be too late."

The Deva Path in the sky continued his chant. After Konan’s warning, Su Ye used his magnetic control to lift the corpses from the ground, turned, and ran while shouting into his headset. "Run! Get out of here now!"

It was the same line he had used before the Starro explosion in New York, with no room for hesitation or explanation. In the distance, the Guardians and the Avengers were busy surrounding the remaining Akatsuki members. They were winning and had been on the verge of victory. But upon hearing Su Ye’s shout, they immediately remembered the New York incident and, without question, turned and fled. Iron Man was the first to break the sound barrier, his tail lights vanishing in a massive sonic boom within seconds. His decisiveness was a far cry from his stubbornness back in New York.

The Deva Path in the sky did not rush. He continued his measured incantation, even as Su Ye and the others fled several kilometers away, carrying the corpses of the Six Paths with them.

Nagato wasn't intentionally holding back his ultimate move; he needed time to gather the chakra dispersed across the Six Paths and focus it entirely on the Deva Path to release it at full power.

*Boom!*

A massive surge of energy exploded in the sky. A gargantuan shockwave spread instantly, leveling everything within a radius of over ten kilometers from the Walk of Fame. It truly leveled the area—unlike the ruins left behind in New York, this obliterated everything on the surface, including roads and buildings, causing them to essentially evaporate. Only the dirt beneath the foundations and some underground structures remained.

Everything within a circular area nearly thirty kilometers in diameter centered on the Walk of Fame had vanished. In one strike, a large part of Los Angeles was gone, and Hollywood became a footnote in history—or rather, not even dust remained.

Survivors across Los Angeles were stunned, no one knowing what had happened. Meanwhile, the internet erupted in a frenzy of discussion.

"God, what just happened?"

"New York a few days ago, Los Angeles today. Why is this happening? Have we offended God? Is this divine punishment?"

"Why are there so many disasters? Is this another alien invasion? But I didn't see any alien ships."

"No, it doesn't seem like aliens. Before the explosion, someone captured footage of people in black robes with red cloud patterns appearing in the sky."

"Right, New York wasn't entirely destroyed by aliens either. That later explosion was caused by people wearing those same clothes."

"So, is this an organization? A terrorist group? Who are they, being so arrogant? Destroying New York wasn't enough, they had to hit LA too? What's next, San Francisco or Houston?"

"There were rumors online that it was an organization from the East."

"The East? China?"

"No, it’s the Japanese..."

Although the Akatsuki organization had been spawned by Su Ye as a DLC, once loaded into the world, its background had merged with reality. To the intelligence agencies of various countries, the Akatsuki was not an unknown group that had appeared out of thin air; they had been involved in numerous incidents worldwide. In particular, Kakuzu of the Immortal Duo was a money-grubber who had carried out countless assassination missions for profit, many of which were contracts from the US.

While the world didn't have all the details on the Akatsuki, they knew the organization was founded in Japan, its members mostly had Japanese names, and they looked Japanese. Uchiha Yu was Chinese, but the code name "Itachi" was Japanese, and to Western eyes, all Easterners looked roughly the same.

In short, the public discourse quickly pinned the blame on the Japanese. They even analyzed their motives: "This is clearly revenge for the past. No matter how many years pass, the deeds of the 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy' will never be forgotten!"

"So, what is Japan trying to do? Taking advantage of the aliens visiting the US to stir up trouble and start a war? They’ve only had a few good years, and they think they can do this again?"

Many couldn't understand Japan's motive, including the Japanese government themselves, who were quite confused. The current Prime Minister of Japan had even slammed his desk in his office, pointing at a man in a swirl mask standing before him and screaming.

"What are you thinking? Why go to the US to cause trouble? Do you want to bring total destruction upon the Empire?"

Opposite him, the man in the swirl mask, dressed in the black robe with red cloud patterns, let out a soft hum. "You’d best adjust your tone when speaking to me. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee that your speech tomorrow will be completed safely."

Hearing this, the Prime Minister’s face slumped, and he collapsed into his chair. "Then what should we do now?"

"Heh," the masked man chuckled. "Do nothing. The US is already overwhelmed, and they need you to hold back the Dragon Kingdom, so they won't do anything to you."

"It's 'we,' Mr. Tobi!" the Prime Minister said, looking at the masked man earnestly. "We are one with the Akatsuki. After an incident like this, you cannot simply walk away. There is no place left in this world for you to stand."

The masked man shrugged, noncommittal.