"It's time to end this farce!" – Having said that, Yama instantly brought down the sword to slash through Nagato.
Whoosh…
The speed of the slash was too fast for Nagato to dodge, and he understood this.
In the brief moment, from the instant, Yama slashed the sword to the instant blood spurted.
Nagato understood that he can not avoid this attack… And there is hardly any Jutsu he can use to save both himself and Konan at the same time. But he had confidence that at least one of them can avoid… although the other will most likely die, however, one can survive, and that was what mattered.
It wasn't an objective or calculated judgment…
It was what he had to do to make it possible, it was his belief and he had to complete it regardless of the consequences…
Therefore, he did what he deemed best…
With all the Chakra he could muster he used Shinra Tensei…
The target of Shinra Tensei was not used on the enemy… nor was it used to resist the enemy's attack… the person Nagato targeted was Konan.
To push her away from him and the range of the enemy's sword.
Nagato understood better than anyone that Konan would try to take the attack upon herself, sacrificing herself in order to save him… but he does not want that…
So he used Shinra Tensei to push Konan as far away as possible…
'Shinra Tensei!'
Boom…
Before Konan could react, all her papers, as well as herself, were subjected to an extremely strong yet gentle repulsive force, repelling her far away from Nagato, thus distancing her out of the range of the enemy's attack…
With Konan's support gone, Nagato started to fall down to the ground.
The moment she realized what exactly has happened, tears spilled out of her eyes and she shouted hoarsely, "Naaagatooooooooooooo!"
Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…
Konan tried to fly back and even used her papers to block the sword but it proved to be futile… The Golden Sword cut through all the papers as if they did not even exist.
It's not that after saving Konan Nagato did not try to resist, he did and even managed to barely deflect the sword from cutting through his neck to cut through his stomach…
Crack…!
Slash…
It was at this moment the sword cut through Nagato.
Puff…
Blood spurted!
Thump… Nagato collapsed on the ground…
"Naagatoooooo!!!!!" – Konan's cry didn't stop and neither did she… regardless of the consequences she rushed towards Nagato.
"Nagato! Nagato… please!" – Konan arrived to see Nagato lying on the ground… a large puddle of blood under him… but there was still breath… he was still breathing… h… he was… he was…
"Alive! Nagato… thank goodness… you are still alive… and… a… and… we can heal that part, right? You have the Rinnegan, you should be able to heal… r… right?" – Konan spoke, reassuring herself more than she was reassuring Nagato… all while her tears did not stop.
"Konan…*cough-cough* leave me here… and… go… I won't be able to live much longer… I can't feel anything below my thighs…at the same time I can feel that my body is disintegrating… as long as you are alive, both Yahiko and I will be happy… I will be going on ahead to meet Yahiko… *cough-cough*"
Konan didn't pay attention to whatever Nagato said, all her attention was on examining Nagato's injury… she could see that both of Nagato's legs were cut apart below the middle section of his thighs.
"The main organs are all still intact… it's possible for Nagato to recover!" – Konan was glad.
Nagato has the Rinnegan, it should be possible for Nagato to heal as long as he is alive…, right?
So to keep Nagato alive, she used her papers to cover the wound. First, she has to stop Nagato's bleeding, else he might die because of Exsanguination.
Nagato sighed at Konan's attempt to save his life and said with a serious tone, "Konan, it's futile… I can already feel my body is starting to slowly disintegrate… besides, even if we somehow manage to stop that, that person is still here… stopping him seems to be impossible for anyone other than me... Just go… I am his target, with me dead, he does not have any need to pursue you… just go…"
Nagato understands this clearly, nobody other than him can fight against Yama, and now that he has lost his legs, and is on the verge of death…it is highly unlikely that anyone else can stop Yama from killing him.
Nagato himself is not afraid of death, but he is afraid that if Konan stays here, she too will perish. If not at the hands of Yama, then definitely at the hands of tri-Alliance. And he does not want that to happen.
However, Konan shook her head. Yahiko is already dead for so many years now. Nagato is the only pillar left in her life, if Nagato were to die too, then she would lose all the reasons to live anymore.
"Konan!"
"Nagato… I won't run away; I would much rather die with you. But don't worry, neither you nor I will die today…"
"What do you mean…?"
"I have a Jutsu, a Jutsu that I have been preparing for a few years now… Although it hasn't been completed yet, it is still more than enough to kill everyone here… after I kill them all, we will leave here and work on to make Yahiko's dream a reality!"
After speaking so, she did not wait for Nagato's reply and turned in the direction of Yama with a murderous expression, "This will be the end of it all!"
The Jutsu Konan is talking about is obviously 'Kami no Shisha no Jutsu!' (Paper Person of God Technique!).
Konan is sure that once it is used, everybody here will die.
…
On Jiraiya's side.
Looking at the resulting damage of that Golden Sword, Jiraiya muttered in a daze, "Just… just what kind of Ninjutsu is that?"
Toad Fukasaku groaned for a while and said, "The body of Yama seems to be gathering more and more Natural Energy… I reckon that he is still far from showing his true capabilities, and has started to use Sennin Mode."
Toad Shima nodded, "Pa is right, such an astounding amount of Natural Energy… but I wonder what Sennin Mode is he using, from the looks of it… it doesn't seem to belong to either of the Ryuchi Cave or the Shikkotsu Forest!"
Listening to the words of Toad Shima and Toad Fukasaku, more and more sweat flowed down Jiraiya's forehead.
The leader of Amatsukami is already akin to a God in the normal state. If he has mastery over Senjutsu too, then it might even be possible that he has already surpassed Shodaime Hokage Senju Hashirama, does that mean he is the new God of Shinobi!
God of Shinobi of this Era?
While Jiraiya was wondering if Yama is the new God of Shinobi, Yama, himself had a helpless expression under his mask.
Crack…!
'Damn it…' – He was frustrated. The reason is also very simple, the moment he had brought down the Golden Chakra Sword, a crack appeared in his petrifying hand, and that crack resulted in a slight deviation of the trajectory of his attack.
The result is that the sword that was supposed to cut through Nagato's neck now cut through his thighs.
The instakill did not happen, although Nagato's body will slowly disintegrate, that isn't the issue here.
The issue here is that after that one strike his Jutsu dispersed completely and the speed at which his body was petrifying also increased.
If anything happens now, it is highly unlikely that he would be able to interfere or do anything to prevent that from happening.
That's because even simple movements have become somewhat difficult for him right now because of petrification.
And what Yama feared happened.
"This will be the end of it all!" – It was at this moment Konan looked at him with a murderous expression and Yama suddenly had a bad feeling.
'Kami no-...' "Konan… give Nagato to me!" – Konan stopped midway and turned to look at Zetsu whose half body has appeared out of the ground.
Looking at Zetsu, she frowned.
Zetsu knew that Konan won't easily trust him, and continued to say, "I have a method to save Nagato… trust me!"
Konan wasn't sure… she looked at Nagato who sighed and nodded towards her.
With Nagato's nod, she agreed although with slight hesitation, while she took it upon herself to guard Nagato and Zetsu against Yama as well as tri-Alliance.
Instantly 'Tobi' as well as two more white creatures appeared next to Zetsu.
Tobi looked at Nagato with a frown, he went forward, crouched next to Nagato (obviously under Konan's watch) then shredded the lower portions of Nagato's thighs with the use of 'Kamui'.
(p.s. If Kakashi can literally shred an arm of Gedo Mazo with his Kamui, then Tobi should be able to do so as well, the only requirement will be that he has to touch the thing that he wants to shred.)
Shred… Puff…
Shred… Puff…
"Aaarggghhhhh!"
"What are you doing?!" – Konan asked vigilantly.
Tobi did not look up and said casually, "Oh relax, I am saving him of course. I don't know what kind of Ninjutsu that guy used, but based on the injury Nagato has suffered that there is some sort of foreign chakra is invading his body through the cut part … because of that chakra, his body would disintegrate regardless of what you or I try to do. Shredding that part seems to be the only possible way to save him for the time being. Or in other words, you can say that it is a temporary countermeasure, till we find a better method"
Nagato nodded, "Perhaps he is right… the disintegration of my cells has slowed down."
Tobi nodded and said, "Zetsu you are up!"
Zetsu nodded and following his nod, one of those white creatures covered Nagato's body like armor, allowing him to stand on his own two legs.
At the same time, an umbilical cord of sort is attached to Nagato's stomach and back providing him with Chakra to resist the invasion of that foreign chakra as well as slowly heal him.
With that done, Nagato could now stand and the first thing he did after standing up was.
'Kuchiyose no Jutsu!'
.
.
Read up to Chapter - 619 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n.. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations