Of all the abilities of the Six Paths of Pain, Shinra Tensei is said to be the strongest and most destructive.

This is one of the Rinnegan’s powerful moves. Its strength is demonstrated through the ability to manipulate gravity by creating extremely strong thrust and no impact can counteract it. Depending on the intensity of the force the user exerts, this technique can shatter wood, bone, metal, and even stone walls. When applied in defense, it repels all attacks aimed at the owner regardless of size, power or weight.

This jutsu can even be used on a large scale with the power of mass destruction. The thrust is gathered with extremely strong intensity spread over a wide area. When it hits the target, it will crush everything below in a sky-shattering explosion.

As seen in the “Pain Invasion” storyline, at maximum level, Shinra Tensei is capable of completely destroying Konoha. However, this technique consumes so much chakra that to perform it, Nagato needs to disconnect from all of the Six Paths of Pain except the Heavenly Path in order to focus all of his chakra on it. The aftershock after casting is that Nagato’s lifespan is shortened and he cannot use the Way of Heaven for a few minutes.

However, Nagato’s decision to destroy Konoha stemmed from pride, as his initial mission was only to capture the Nine-Tails. Therefore, when Naruto returned from Mount Myoboku, he initially only fought the Five Paths (no Heavenly Path because he needed time to recover).

So, if we imagine a scenario where Pain doesn’t use Shinra Tensei, consuming too much chakra to destroy Konoha, but uses his full force as Six Paths to fight Naruto, would the result be different?

First we have to remember that when Naruto fought alone against the Path of Heaven, he was easily knocked down, had chakra iron bars stuck in his body and couldn’t move. Naruto was only able to free himself when he let the power of the Nine-Tails control him, after the moment he saw Hinata seriously injured to protect him. Therefore, if the Six Paths of Pain attacked together early, perhaps Naruto’s transformation into the Nine-Tails state would have occurred much earlier in the battle.

However, assuming that the fight follows the same pattern as in the anime, Nagato still needs to use Chibaku Tensei to capture Naruto. But Naruto in his eight-tailed Nine-Tails chakra form was able to escape this confinement.

It should be noted that performing Chibaku Tensei also requires a huge amount of chakra, so other Paths will also be neutralized and the final outcome of the battle remains unchanged.