Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-36528625-20180810001142/@comment-34194151-20180813001155

@LegionZero@killman

Good points. Wow I'm genuinely impressed, my headcanon wasn't good XD. But, some clarification points.

The thing is are we going with no limits for preta path? It supposedly can block all ninjutsu, but it struggled with the wood dragon. I know wood dragon absorbs chakra, but clearly there can be situations where preta path fails. Are we also saying that the preta path can absorb the full tailed beast transformations too? because they are technically a ninjutsu too. At least that would explain why Bee didn't bother going full bijuu mode after being captured by nagato. Preta path should be able to absorb shadow clones, but that seems kinda funky. Also, he seems to be limited to standing in one place when using preta path, most evident in the fight against Jiraiya when he didn't just keep his barrier on and help the other 2 pains blitz jiraiya. If he could move while absorbing the fireball then the pains could have stomped jiraiya before his frog song went off, animal path and human path wouldn't have been caught in frog swamp nor would they have to have dodged the second fire ball jiraiya fired. But if there is no limits, '''then Nagato is alot more OP than i thought, and all other rinnegan users have suffered from insane PIS. ''' Ok, so maybe that iteration of naruto that edo nagato couldn't pull it off. But even so, there are a few verifable weaknesses nagato has displayed. Preta path isn't 24/7. If he doesn't react in time he gets tagged by ninjutsu, itachi's susano'o hand is a good example. Two, he has continously struggled with smokescreens.

Against kakashi and co, they put large smoke screens to stall him while they planned their traps. Totsuka blade speed blitz was also faciliated by the huge smokescreen caused from explosion of chibaku tensei, and he couldn't even use shinra tensei in time either. Naruto can do something similiar and has already been shown to take advantage of smoke bombs, and other debris clouding nagato's vision, such as when he transformed tons of clones into rubble to disguse them with the rubble from chibaku tensei, etc. the clone that fought the raikage seemed to go into sage mode rather quickly if i'm not mistaken. Well clone durability is a bit inconsistent, so I'll have to look into that more.

But some more headcanon incoming: the ashura path stuff isn't a lock-out, even kakashi evaded those missiles, but they will definitely be a big problem and will no doubt be effective. Shinra Tensei makes it complicated. Naruto doesn't have to use all kcm clones. His clones can make clones in base and he can use lots of those together like he did before to help the relevant narutos withstand the shinra tensei. kcm ones can deflect shinratensei back at nagato using chakra arms as kurama already did in canon. As for attacks that can force nagato to use his shinra tensei: food cart destroyers, frog kata.

If preta path proves to be troublesome, the real naruto himself can transform into a rasenshuriken and lop himself in with the other rasenshurikens. and use sage mode frog kata. Theoretically, after the transformation jutsu is absorbed he will be able to land a hit before nagato can react due to both surprise factor and his speed advantage/reflex advantage. Factor in my theory that he can't move while absorbing, and nagato might be in trouble. IF he uses the nature energy ghost punch to the face, it should be able to do significant damage to nagato, as I dont think the ashura path defense applies to face. IF the first shot doesn't kill him, naruto can follow up. The break in nagato's concentration may also be enough to shut off the preta path, allowing for more lethal finishers. There is still the problem of shinra tensei, but naruto would have to have calculated this manuever to the tee to strike during the cool down.

But yeah, This all depends on how naruto's creativity is used by kishimoto which has shown to be pretty good when he tries, maintains focus, or isn't restricted by plot, I think that if the one that faced edo nagato couldn't pull it off due to restrictions of KCM, later ones can potentially. But yeah, Nagato is a beast and probably still wins, he deserved to be second strongest.