gaara in the desert is king. he and itachi fly up and gaara uses the multitude of sand to start restraining and crushing the paths. he used this strategy to restrain the edo kages almost as soon as he arrived on his sand platform with a freaking sand ocean. sand hands grab preta paths and crushes them. no more absorbing. besides gaaras chakra sand is kept on him for defence purposes. regular sands for the first wave of attack. if its too slow he uses the chakra sand. all the while hes raining down clumps of sand hail. cerberus is a threat until hes either buried or sealed. itachi does amaterasu on asura and human, instantly taking them out. devas ST may save them but sand just reforms. if CST fails, then pain is ****ed because deva will be out of commision.