Land of Rain.
A figure safely passed through a suddenly appearing glowing portal.
It was Uchiha Ryōsuke, dressed in black and wearing a white mask, looking up at the sky.
The sky was densely covered with dark clouds, dropping thick, endless rain.
He took out a prepared umbrella and opened it.
He felt a bit nostalgic; just as the rumors said, it rained year-round in the Land of Rain.
Perhaps settling down here with Konan for a while in the future wouldn't be a bad choice.
But right now, getting down to business was the priority.
Looking around, he saw only grasslands and forests.
It seemed he hadn't accurately pinpointed the location of the Rain Village.
Having never been here before, his coordinates weren't perfectly precise.
He directly activated his Rinnegan and flew into the sky. Reaching a high altitude, he surveyed his surroundings.
The entire landscape unfolded beneath his eyes.
On the horizon, he could spot a tiny cluster of buildings.
Such a large architectural complex was incredibly rare in the Land of Rain; it was likely the place he was looking for.
He roughly calculated the distance.
Activating the Teleportation Technique once more high in the air, a glowing portal appeared before him.
He leaped right through it, instantly arriving above the buildings.
He saw numerous old-fashioned structures and many tall towers.
It looked almost exactly like the Rain Village from his memories. There was an eighty percent chance he was in the right place.
Meanwhile, inside a hidden room.
An emaciated, red-haired man sitting in a mechanical walker with multiple black rods pierced into his back suddenly lifted his lowered head, his eyes sharp.
"Another intruder?"
Through his jutsu, he mixed his chakra into the rain to monitor the Rain Village.
He could detect anyone entering the borders immediately.
As the Rain Village was sandwiched between three great nations, its geographical location was extremely important. Foreign ninja had always tried to spy on them, but relying on this jutsu, he had eliminated every single intruder.
However, the presence he felt right now was incredibly formidable.
He didn't know which nation this person belonged to.
But regardless of their origin, they had to be eliminated.
Under his control, six figures in the adjacent room rose from their incubation pods and darted out to hunt down the intruder. With the power of his Six Paths avatars, even a powerful enemy would be slain.
Ryōsuke naturally activated his sensory abilities as well, wanting to find Nagato quickly and gouge out the Rinnegan as soon as possible.
Suddenly sensing something, he looked in a specific direction.
Six figures were rapidly rushing toward his location. They were likely the so-called Six Paths of Pain.
Nagato also possessed a sensory jutsu that covered the entire Rain Village.
The Six Paths, led by Pain, immediately spotted the White-Masked Man in Black upon arrival.
Inside the hidden chamber, Nagato's expression instantly froze. This was the man suspected to be Uchiha Madara, the one who had been collecting the Akatsuki's Tailed Beasts.
Konan had previously sent back a message warning him to be on high alert against another man claiming to be Uchiha Madara.
Although he had already abandoned the plan to collect the Tailed Beasts, since the other party had delivered himself right to their doorstep, he naturally wouldn't let him go.
Capturing this man would also allow him to seize the Tailed Beasts in his possession.
But suddenly, Nagato was overwhelmed with shock.
Those eyes were actually the Rinnegan. He couldn't believe that someone other than himself possessed the Rinnegan.
The leading Pain demanded, "Who exactly are you? How do you possess the Rinnegan?"
"Who I am is not important." Ryōsuke had no intention of revealing his identity. "What matters is that you hand over that pair of Rinnegan. Those are not your eyes."
Inside the hidden chamber, Nagato instantly flew into a rage. This guy actually wanted to steal his eyes?
Without these eyes, he could never fulfill his dream, nor Yahiko's dream.
As for the claim that the Rinnegan weren't his own eyes, Nagato thought the man was joking.
Pain shouted coldly, "Come and take them if you have the skill."
The six members of the Six Paths of Pain charged straight at him.
Seeing the six figures rushing over, Ryōsuke felt a bit speechless.
It seemed Konan hadn't told him the truth about the Rinnegan.
But whatever. Even if he explained everything clearly, Nagato wouldn't willingly hand over his eyeballs anyway, so he would just have to take them himself.
When facing the Rinnegan, he wasn't in the habit of fighting with his own Rinnegan.
It had been a long time since he last used the Eight Inner Gates; it was about time he put them to good use.
In an instant, a massive amount of chakra was refined, immediately bursting open the first six gates. Blue steam erupted from his body, and a formidable aura surged outward.
The attacking Six Paths of Pain all skidded to a halt, a bad premonition rising in their hearts. What a terrifying aura.
This was taijutsu, not a Rinnegan ability.
Nagato had carefully studied the Rinnegan for a long time and developed several abilities, but none of them looked like this.
Ryōsuke felt his current physical state. Powerful. Incomparably powerful.
This surging sensation felt absolutely exhilarating.
With his incredibly robust body, opening the Sixth Gate should put him close to, or even on par with, Might Guy with all Eight Inner Gates fully opened.
Now, it was time to get to work.
Leaning his body forward and bending his knees, he arrived right in front of the Naraka Path with lightning speed.
He delivered a direct punch to its stomach, instantly blasting the Naraka Path into smithereens.
Inside the hidden chamber, Nagato, who was controlling the Six Paths, stared blankly. *'How is this possible?'*
Although internally shocked by the power and terrifying speed of that punch, his hands didn't stop moving. He immediately manipulated the Asura Path to throw a punch, its fist instantly transforming into a terrifying array of spinning mechanical blades that slashed toward the mysterious man.
At the same time, the Preta Path reached out its palms.
As long as it made contact, it could absorb all of his chakra.
The opponent's terrifying state should instantly collapse.
Every jutsu relied on chakra; without chakra, one was useless.
Even this fearsome taijutsu was no exception.
Such a taijutsu was clearly a special state, not his normal condition, and it relied on chakra to be maintained.
Facing those terrifying spinning blades, Ryōsuke had no intention of clashing head-on with his bare fists; that would definitely injure his hands.
Instead, he pulled his clenched right fist back and then violently thrust it forward.
"Air Cannon."
A terrifying projectile of compressed air instantly obliterated the Asura Path's torso, leaving only its severed head and legs to collapse onto the ground.
At that moment, the Preta Path made contact and began absorbing Ryōsuke's chakra.
Ryōsuke naturally knew this guy's ability, so he didn't throw a punch to stop it. Instead, he began absorbing the opponent's chakra in return.
Because he could absorb much more than the other party.
Currently, with the Eight Inner Gates opened and combined with his Rinnegan, his absorption ability was even stronger.
In a flash, he drained the Preta Path dry of all its chakra, tracing the flow back through the black rods pierced into its body.
He increased his suction power even further.
These black rods were both chakra transmitters and information transmitters.
In the hidden space, Nagato's face instantly filled with horror. The opponent was actually starting to absorb chakra directly from his main body! He hurriedly severed his connection with the Preta Path.
Only then did the terrifying suction stop, leaving him gasping heavily for air.
It had almost damaged his main body.
This guy's Rinnegan abilities were superior to his own.
He had even discovered his main body.
A deep sense of unease began to well up in his heart. This guy was truly difficult to deal with. He felt Ryōsuke's terrifying power, feeling as helpless as he did when his parents were killed during his childhood.
No, he couldn't accept this. He was a god now.
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