This is one of the situations that Zoro wants to avoid anytime soon. Pain is one of the enemies he doesn't want to fight yet because just like with Obito, Zoro still doesn't know if he can defeat Pain yet because of Rinnegan's abilities.
"Ninja Hunter Zoro. We've invited you to join us for years. It doesn't matter if you refuse, but why did you need to hunt our members?" As usual, Yahiko the Deva Path is the one talking.
"You said it yourself, I'm the Ninja Hunter Zoro. My job is hunting ninjas who have bounties on their heads. You guys are a bunch of criminals wanted by the countries. I simply help this world cleans the filth that contaminates it while getting money for myself. Don't you think it's a good deal?"
"Cleanse the filth of the world. Does that mean you also seek world peace?"
"Hmm? I won't say I think that far. But surely I prefer a peaceful world. So you can say I am helping the world gain peace by removing those evil people."
"Is that really what you think? Killing some evil people is enough to make world peace?"
Then as Zoro thought, Pain starts to preach about his idea of world peace. Zoro just wanted to see if he could make Pain talk about world peace with some small baits and it really worked.
Now Zoro can be sure that Nagato and Konan are really obsessed with world peace. They're so obsessed that they want to achieve it no matter what, even if it means they need to use extreme methods that are in fact far from the word peace.
Zoro also now knows that once they talk about peace, Nagato will be very focused on it and forget about the fight. So Zoro keeps talking with him about peace through Pain.
He uses this chance to find Nagato's location that shouldn't be very far from here. To control all 6 Paths of Pain to fight him, Nagato needs to be quite close for good control over the 6 corpses.
Zoro keeps talking with Pain about peace. He surely doesn't really care about it because he's actually a selfish guy. It's fine for him as long as he and his loved ones are fine, so Zoro is just talking bullshit now.
"Heh, how funny. So you are recruiting criminals to create world peace? Killing others is peace to you? Making people suffer is peace to you?"
"Those are necessary processes to make a better future."
"Pfft! So you hate war, but you create war. Isn't that what we call hypocrisy?"
"..... You, are you stalling for time?"
"Oops." Zoro smirks while taking out his swords. Pain finally realizes his plan.
Now Zoro knows where Nagato is. It was quite difficult because Nagato is hiding far away, but not too far because he needs to control the corpses well enough to fight Zoro.
However, Zoro won't do anything to Nagato even if he knows where the guy is. He just wants to confirm if Nagato is still within his Observation Haki range to control the corpses just in case he needs it in the future.
Zoro holds his 3 swords as soon as Pain finds out about his plan. Now he can't avoid the fight any longer, so he gets ready to fight immediately.
Suddenly, Zoro jumps far to the left and the spot that he leaves suddenly gets crushed by something big. Pain frowns seeing Zoro avoids that invisible attack that comes from the invisible Chameleon summon that has been hiding from the beginning.
Zoro jumps a few more times to avoid more invisible attacks. Now Pain can confirm that Zoro really can "see" the invisible chameleon and react to its attacks.
But suddenly, Zoro stops dodging and instead, he covers Enma with Armament Haki. He swings Enma over his head, creating a crescent energy blade that shoots to the sky.
The energy blade hits the invisible chameleon and cuts its neck cleanly because he also uses his advanced haki to create a much more lethal energy blade.
Nagato and Konan who watch from their hiding spot widen their eyes in surprise when they see how easily Zoro kills the chameleon. While the chameleon is not a really strong summon, it is still not weak enough to be killed that easily.
That means Zoro is just so strong that a single attack can slice a giant summoned animal's neck. This is something that even high level ninjas can't do easily.
"Has he reached the same level as the Kages from the 5 Great Shinobi Villages?"
"From the information we got, his raw power is insanely high, especially his physical power." Zetsu suddenly comes out of the ground in front of Nagato and answers Konan's question.
"Are you saying that attack was purely made with physical power?"
"Not really. That black stuff he uses on his swords seems to be made out of chakra. But its chakra consumption must be low because he can use that jutsu for a very long time even with his mediocre chakra reserve. That energy blade must've been made with chakra as well and just like the black coat jutsu, its chakra consumption must be low. Though I still don't understand how he could create powerful attacks with such low chakra." Zetsu relays all the confirmed information to Konan and Nagato.
"It must be the Land of Iron's secret technique. There are reasons why they can stand on equal ground with the Shinobi Countries without learning ninjutsu or even having Tailed Beast. They must have had secret swordsmanship skills that can make them equal with powerful shinobi. I once heard that Hanzo once fought a samurai and they were equal." Konan remembers something she heard a long time ago.
"But I didn't find anyone that uses similar skills with him in the Land of Iron." Zetsu has collected information about Zoro since Akatsuki tried to recruit him.
"Then his black coat jutsu must be a Kekkei Genkai. That's why no one else uses it and it doesn't require a lot of chakra to use. It's because that jutsu is an innate ability." Nagato already has a conclusion.
Suddenly, Nagato's focus returns to the battle because Zoro is sending a big slash attack toward the 6 Paths of Pain. Deva Path Yahiko raises his hand to the front as the energy blade approaches them.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A strong pushing force comes out of Deva Path's palm and breaks Zoro's slash attack. It doesn't disappear after breaking Zoro's slash attack and keeps moving toward Zoro.
Zoro grins and crosses his hali-coated swords in front of him. He blocks the incoming powerful pushing force using his swords. That slash attack was actually a weak attack. He used it to make Nagato send Shinra Tensei so he can see and test this jutsu.
Nagato uses a strong Shinra Tensei through Deva Path. Zoro can block it, but the force is really strong, so he gets pushed back. He slides on the ground that gets destroyed like Konoha but on a smaller scale.
It stops after a few meters because it's not as strong as the one used to flatten Konoha in the series. But it's still strong enough to destroy the ground, trees, and rocks that it hits.
Zoro isn't injured by it though because he blocked it using his swords. But Zoro is sure he can take that level of Shinra Tensei without any defense. His body will get injured, but he won't die
'The One Piece Zoro can take Kuma's attack without dying and that was when he hasn't gotten so powerful. So I'm sure I can take this level of attack that doesn't seem to be as strong as that attack.' Zoro uses the original Zoro's pre-time skip feat as his reference.
But because he stops for a while to think, the jutsu's cooldown has come to an end. The Deva Path raises his hand again and now he uses "Bansho Ten'in!"
Zoro gets pulled towards Pain and he can't stop his body. The pulling force is really strong, but he feels like he doesn't move that fast. He doesn't fly like Kakashi or Naruto when they fight Pain.
Instead, Zoro is sliding on the ground. It's quite fast, but he doesn't fly and Pain seems to be struggling a little.
Zoro finds the cause quickly after thinking for a while. It's because he still wears his weight bars that totaled to 10 tons now.
There are 5 weight straps on his body. On his 4 limbs and his chest. Each strap has 2 tons worth of weight bars. The bars are small, but they are very heavy because of the "Added Weight Seals" installed on them.
If he drops them from a building's 2nd floor, then he's sure they will cause a much bigger effect than Rock Lee's show during the chuunin exam when Lee fights Gaara.
Though for now, it seems to be helping him obstruct Pain's jutsu. Nagato must've used a rather weak Bansho Ten'in because he only wants to pull 1 person, but he wouldn't have thought Zoro was this heavy.
Zoro doesn't waste his chance and sends a cross slash attack. The cross slash energy blade flies faster than usual, thanks to the pulling force. It forces all 6 Paths of Pain to jump away, avoiding the energy blade.
"I see. That jutsu really pulls everything, including attacks. That's good to know.
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Chapter 115. Konoha Crush
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